Terrorists, Aliens, Megacorps, Politicians - A New Campaign Of An Old Classic

[dulux-oz]

18730

The treacherous double agent aimed his needler pistol at me as he prepared to escape. I didn’t think he could kill me with one shot from the small weapon, but I didn’t want to find out. Dalmor was working for the Sathar, that mysterious, evil race of intelligent worms who were trying to conquer and destroy peaceful worlds. I knew he was ruthless. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my Vrusk partner, Ch’ting. The eight-legged insect man had faster reflexes than I, and I knew he was calculating whether he could draw his blaster and fire before Dalmor could shoot.

The thought was still in my mind when one of Ch’ting’s arms flashed in a lightning-swift draw. I dived to the floor as Dalmor fired his pistol, but the needles whizzed harmlessly past Ch’ting and I. Ch’ting’s laser beam only grazed Dalmor as he dashed out the door. We charged after him, but my curse was echoed by Ch’ting as we watched Dalmor leap aboard the monorail.

We jumped into my waiting skimmer and manoeuvred into traffic, gliding smoothly above the road. “It is fortunate Bakchu the Yazirian is guarding the spaceport,” Ch’ting rasped.

“If that big monkey can’t handle Dalmor, no one can,” I replied. “That’s only if Dalmor’s going to the spaceport, though,” I added. “There are two other monorail terminals on the way. Maybe we can get to one of them before his car does.”

The skimmer was running at top speed, but I clenched the controls in frustration at every corner as the magnetic control fields slowed us to a safe speed. We arrived at the terminal just as Dalmor’s car was pulling in.

Leaping from the skimmer, we ran to the exit ramp. Both Ch’ting and I crouched behind the polycrete wall and aimed our weapons at a very surprised Dalmor as he stepped from the car barely 10 meters away. “You are under arrest, Dalmor. Do not move,” clicked Ch’ting.

With a desperate cry, Dalmor drew the needler from his coat. Ch’ting and I fired before he could aim. Both shots hit Dalmor and he sprawled across the platform, unconscious but still alive.

After filing our reports with our contact at the Star Law Rangers, Ch’ting, Bakchu and I drove to the Spacer’s Rest to celebrate over a few mugs of thick Yazirian ale. We were discussing what we would do with the 100 credits each of us had earned for the mission when all three of our communicators signalled incoming calls at once. Bakchu snarled in dismay when the face of Beren Tiu, our contact at Star Law, appeared on the tiny screens. “Ah, I’m glad I’ve got all of you together,” he smiled. “Nice job on Dalmor, though it’s a shame you had to shoot him in public. I called to tell you that while we were interrogating him we got a lead on a little job you might...”

“Hold it, Beren,” I growled. “You promised us we could take a week off after this mission and, by the stars, I’m going to take a week off!”

Ch’ting and Bakchu rumbled in agreement, and Tiu looked disappointed. “All right,” he said. “If you’re not interested in 200 credits I’m not going to force you to...”

Two hundred credits! The three of us looked at each other, and Bakchu curled his lips in a knowing smile. “What’s the job?” I asked.



***

Accompanied by a Stiletto class assault scout ship, the UPFS Frigate Z’Gata cruised toward the orbiting station Doliin Bay. The ship’s commander, Beril Gamache, was nervous. Doliin Bay and its mining colony on the planet Kenzah’ Kit was on the very edge of the Frontier. Reports of unfamiliar ships had been trickling in from this area for the past few months. Gamache hated to carry a valuable cargo into a border system without more information about possible dangers.

Suddenly, the frigate’s sensors lit up; long-range detectors reported two ships emerging from the Void inside the system. Immediately, the commander ordered all hands to their stations. There was no good reason to be suspicious, but he had an odd feeling.

As the intruders closed in, Gamache studied the computer’s report:


OBJECT ONE:
STARSHIP HEAVY CRUISER CLASS
ORIGIN UNKNOWN
BUILDERS UNKNOWN
COURSE DOLIIN BAY
OBJECT TWO:
STARSHIP DESTROYER CLASS
ORIGIN UNKNOWN
BUILDERS UNKNOWN
COURSE DOLIIN BAY
ADVISEMENT:
INTERCEPT AND CONTACT INTRUDERS
PROCEDURE YELLOW ALERT
The UPF ships swung into an intercept course. With weapon crews on alert, Z’Gata’s automatic beacons began radioing friendly messages in all known languages toward the unidentified ships. The intruder’s reply vaporised the Stiletto’s starboard thrusters in a blinding laser flash!

The battle had begun!



The Frontier — a melting pot of alien races near the heart of a galaxy not that dissimilar from our own. A region of stars and planets, corporations and governments, allies and enemies. Here a man can be a REAL man, a woman can be a REAL woman and a small globular alien known as a Dralasite can be a REAL small globular alien known as a Dralasite.

In the Frontier a being can make its fortune as a trader, join the mighty Spacefleet, become a Star Law Ranger, explore the unexplored stars and planets, battle evil aliens, or do any other thing that its heart desires — within the law, of course. And no matter which path a citizen of the Frontier may take, it can rest assured that adventure and excitement are never far away.

[dulux-oz]

Are You The Best Of The Best Of The Best?

18731

If so, then We Want You!

We’re looking for the best and the brightest that the Frontier has to offer - Beings with the skills and the courage to take on whatever the Frontier has to throw at them - and our clients are prepared to pay those Beings handsomely for their time and their efforts.

So if you’ve got the itch to try something new, the desire to be well rewarded for doing a job well done, and the expertise to take on the challenges of a lifetime, then come on in to the Galactic Task Force, Inc. We’ll match you up with the best employer for your unique personality and skill set, and at no cost to you.

Go on, do it today!

The Galactic Task Force, Inc.
“From Secretaries to Mercenaries, we’ve got a place for you!”

[dulux-oz]

Yes, I’m recruiting for a new Campaign, so if the proceeding posts have caught your eye and you’d like to join in on a long-run, fortnightly, gritty Space Opera then check out the following details and drop me an application email (as detailed below).

- Dulux-Oz

18732

Campaign Name: Alpha Hawks

RPG System: Star Frontiers - my version thereof (known as Star Frontiers (Alpha Hawks)). Modified Cannon plus House Rules and Modified setting. A d10-System with Skills & Skill Points.

FG Ruleset: DORCore* - basically the CoreRPG with the DOEs built-in. This will be an advanced beta-test of the DORCore before the new Ruleset is released upon the greater FG Community, so there may be the occasional “glitch” that we’ll have to work around (maybe!). In addition, I’ll be adding Alpha Hawks-specific Effects, Modifiers, etc, as the Campaign progresses, with the aim of actually producing a Star Frontiers Ruleset (eventually).

*The DORCore is designed to be used by other CoreRPG-based Community Rulesets that wish to take advantage of the functionality of the DOEs - they can now base themselves off of the DORCore instead and enjoy all the benefits of the DOEs without extensive modifications or coding.

Campaign Genre: Gritty Space Opera - call it a mix between Star Wars, Serenity/Firefly, Dark Matter and Killjoys.

Campaign Style: I expect the Campaign Style to be about 45% Combat, 30% Role Playing and 25% Problem Solving.

Number Of Players: I’m looking for 5-8 players for this Campaign.

Logistics: This will be a Text and Voice game, facilitated by the FG-Community TeamSpeak Server. I’ll also be including (as we progress) more and more Syrinscape Sounds - you DO NOT need a copy of Syrinscape, nor anything but a Free FG License. There will also be some out-of-FG communication on a One-on-One and sub-Group basis, hence you will need to provide me with a valid, monitored email address.

Time & Day: This will be a 4-5 hour session played once a fortnight. While the actual day and time is open to a mutually agreeable decision of the final Group, my personal preference is Saturday or Sunday, 4:00-14:00 UTC. I can also do most weekdays between 09:00-14:00 UTC.

Gender, Age & Experience Preferences: I have no preference as to Gender and would welcome a mixed group or even a fully female group. I would prefer people at least in their mid-20s, but as long as you are (relatively) mature I don’t really mind. There is no upper-age-limit. While I can handle one or two RPG “newbies” I would prefer it if you had at least some RPG-experience and also some FG-experience. I don’t expect anyone to have any Star Frontiers-experience: if you do, be prepared to do things slightly differently (Modified Cannon & House Rules).

Language: English - actually Australian, which is basically English Pro :p

RPG Rules & Campaign Background: The full Star Frontiers (Alpha Hawks) Rules System is detailed on my website. Unfortunately it is password protected due to copyright issues. The password will be provided to those who are interested (see below).

Expected Commencement Date: Depending upon responses I expect to start sometime around mid- to late-May, but I am prepared to take as long as it does to find the right people. This is one reason for the website mentioned above and also for the extended recruitment process. I’m told I run a very good game, and part of that is making sure that I’ve got the right Players - with over 35 years of GM-experience I should know what I’m doing by now. :)

Expectations: I expect this Campaign to run for 12 months or more (perhaps even for a few years). I have all twelve of the original Star Frontiers Adventure Modules and expect to play them all in a single extended Campaign Story-Arc, so if you’re looking for a one-off or a short series of games then this is NOT the game for you. I expect the Players to commit to the possibility of a multi-year Campaign, hence the detailed recruitment and the fully detailed Rules-website I’m making available - I expect the Players to (eventually) make themselves thoroughly familiar with the Rules & the Campaign Setting. Now, life changes and things happen, so while I expect you to commit to the Campaign I also realise that sometimes unforeseen events occur, so if you need to miss a session or two then we’ll accommodate you by rearranging the schedule or postponing the session, but only when you give some notice or in the case of an emergency. I don’t even mind if you feel the need to drop-out, as long as you let me know in advance and, at the very least, genuinely start the Campaign with the intention to “see it through.” In exchange for all this you can expect a committed GM who will do his very best to provide you with a great Campaign full of intrigue, mystery, heroics and danger. You can also expect a regular game with as few interruptions to the gaming schedule and Group as possible. If you have played the Star Frontiers adventures before then you may not enjoy this Campaign as much as if you have never done so; however, you are still welcome to game provided you do not give away the plot. Similarly, all the adventures are available on the Internet: resist the temptation to “look ahead;” you’ll only spoil things for yourself and your fellow gamers.

How To Apply: Email me at [email protected] listing your relevant details (from the above) and I will reply with the Website password. Once you’ve had a read of the basics email me a Character Concept and confirmation that you’d like to game (don’t do up a full character just yet). From the list of these 2nd emails I’ll select a suitable group of people. From there we’ll negotiate (as a group) a mutually appropriate time and day and also suitable character races, skills, etc. I won’t necessarily work on a “first come, first served” basis, but the sooner you get in contact and submit your character concept the better the chance you’ll have of securing your slot in this exciting Campaign.

Note: The Star Frontiers (Alpha Hawks) website is in the process of being revamped (including being relocated to a new server), so it may contain spelling, formatting and other errors. If you come across such an error please let me know so I can fix it - thankyou.

[LordEntrails]

Exciting news. I know a few people (including myself) have mentioned Star Frontiers a few times on the forums. Best of luck with this and I sent you the initial email.

[goodmanje]

Yes! I still have my Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks boxed sets. I'll send an application!

[bigboom]

This was the very first RPG I was exposed to. Ironically, I never had a chance to play. I'll be sending an email as well!

[jboyd4650]

never played this, but looks very interesting.
sent an e-mail.

James

[dulux-oz]

Just a small update - people are already starting to provide some interesting Character Concepts so if people are even "sitting on the fence" about joining in on this my advice is start the ball rolling and get in touch - its starting to shape up as a very interesting group of characters.

And no, its not too late :)

Cheers

[LordEntrails]

I wanna play now! </whine>

Actually couldn't start yet anyway. But still wanna play!

[dulux-oz]

I wanna play now! </whine>

Actually couldn't start yet anyway. But still wanna play!

All good things come to those who wait - and considering how good this is shaping up to be, I can wait a little longer :)

And I know I said in Post #3 I prefer players with some gaming experienced, but the quality of the crop of applicants so far means that we can afford a few "newbies" in the group - so if anyone hasn't applied yet because they feel they might be "too new", go ahead and get in touch - you'll be glad you did ;)

[dmkevin]

I would be interested in playing also, depending on day and time chosen as I'm in the UK (BST currently).

I own the Star Frontiers rulebooks and many adventures. I last played decades ago.

Edit: I see this may start at 4am UTC or 9am UTC and it's a 5 hour session.
Unfortunately, despite my enthusiasm in this game I may not be able to do this due to the time zone and a wife who may give me a lot of grief.

[dulux-oz]

I see this may start at 4am UTC or 9am UTC and it's a 5 hour session.
Unfortunately, despite my enthusiasm in this game I may not be able to do this due to the time zone and a wife who may give me a lot of grief.

Well, that's a nominal time - although to be honest it seems to be shaping up that way. 5 hours isn't set in stone (I actually said 4 to 5 hours).

But I do understand the grief that "She Who Must Be Obeyed" can give a bloke - if you change your mind and would like to apply them drop me an email, OK?

Cheers

[Asterionaisien]

Mr. Dulux-oz, perchance do you plan to release your ruleset for community use? That would be really appreciated, I could see myself doing an adventure with that someday..

[dulux-oz]

Mr. Dulux-oz, perchance do you plan to release your ruleset for community use? That would be really appreciated, I could see myself doing an adventure with that someday..

Possibly - I've gotto write it first :D

[Ahoggya]

I would be interested if it was 4-9am UTC on Saturday or Sunday. That would be 9pm - 2am Friday or Saturday for me (and my wife loves to play along side or watch me play so no grief obeying rules). Sounds good. I've had 3 years experience on FG with several sets and some of my own Core RPG. Not totally familiar with Star Frontiers races and genre, but I've been roleplaying since Empire of the Petal Throne came out. I've played in Traveller (1st edition), Space Opera and ran Savage Worlds Jump Core. Also Shadowrun, Runequest, Rolemaster Middle Earth... and so on. This sounds like a great adventure. Hope you aren't full yet.

[dulux-oz]

So, its 15:00 UTC on Friday, 12-May-2016 and we'll be finalising the Time and Players for this game within the next day or so, so if you want in then you'd better get in quick.

To all those who have already indicated that they'd like to play: I'll be sending out emails in the next 24-48 hours (or so).

Cheers

[LordEntrails]

Is it time yet? Can we play now!?!?!

[dulux-oz]

Is it time yet? Can we play now!?!?!

This is a joke, right? You have been getting my emails, right? :confused:

[LordEntrails]

This is a joke, right? You have been getting my emails, right? :confused:
June 11th. Last email May 30th.

But I still wanna play now :)

[Full Bleed]

Possibly - I've gotto write it first :D
Would love to see a quality Star Frontiers ruleset. I think it's one of the most underrated TSR games of all time.

[dulux-oz]

Well, for those who are interested, we had our first session (Session 0) today and everyone said they enjoyed it. There were a few comments dealing with the lack of automation and other similar issues around not having a dedicated Ruleset, but all-in-all I think everyone will be happier as we all get used to the game system and running it via FG - when we all get through the "learning curve".

The first half of the session was spent in character creation and team-building, and we came up with some interesting characters to go along with everyone's character-concepts.

The second half was spent in a basic "industrial sabotage" (or so the players think) scenario which was... interesting (and not quite completed) - the team is currently in a running gun battle through the city streets with the "saboteurs", in the process having shot at, cut up with a sword, and crash-tackled the "bad guys" while simultaneously loosing their grip on a nightstick while bashing one of them and having it fly some 4 meters through the air and strike one of their own teammates in the head, and also proving surprisingly adept at dropping (thankfully non-lethal) grenades on themselves, all the while dodging traffic (well, trying to dodge traffic) and providing medical attention to nearby "innocent bystanders".

The team have also proved surprisingly adapt at missing almost every shot (a string of really bad die rolls) which, based on probability alone, they should have hit about three times as often as they have - but some days the Gods of Dice simply play with the universe!

So I call things a pretty-good success and start - not perfect, and with plenty of room for improvement on my part as well as the team. I'm really looking forward to our next session and seeing the campaign plot develop over time. We've got a good group of players and a good mix of characters and skills, so it should prove a very interesting campaign.

And there still may be a spot or two open if people are really interested: 09:00 UTC - 14:00 UTC every 2nd Sunday.

(If any of the players would like to add to, refute or generally comment on the game please feel free to do so.)

Cheers

[dmkevin]

Sounds like you all had a great time! Congratulations on your first session and hope you have many more!

Any Sathar encounters yet?

[LordEntrails]

Sathar? What are those? *JK* Nope, just good ole fashion bad humanoids. One of each race actually; human, yazarian, dralasite, & vrusk.

Brought back a lot of fond memories and very glad I'm playing. Was more than worth waking up at 1:45am to play :)

If you are looking for a game to join, I can highly recommend it. Dulux is easy and fun to game with and the group already get along pretty well.

Just be careful if you need medical attention, I'm not sure our doctor administers drugs in the most efficient manner!

[LordEntrails]

Session One was a fun continuation of what we began last week. Though we continued to miss just about every ranged attack; melee attacks proved to be our strength. One of the more ranged capable PC's did plan ahead and take time to setup the perfect throw of a the doze grenade into the open compartment of a convertible being driven by one of the saboteurs.

Succumbing to the grenade, and with us beating the last remaining bad guy into unconsciousness, we were able to round them all up. Unfortunately, capturing them wasn't the end of the intrigue. As their controllers had planted some sort of hypnotic self-destruct that robbed us of the answers we sought. But, Star Law was able to run down the leads our efforts had revealed to at least uncover one; diabolical, dangerous and just plain disturbing fact - these agents, bent on capturing or destroying data on a new UPF weapons system were no less than the Sathar!

What happens next? We don't know!

Pan-Gal was happy with us. Therefore our employer, GTF was happy and they told us the handful of credits they gave us included a hefty bonus, but it was far from the riches one hears told of in tales in the seedy bars about the life of a mercenary. Good thing we didn't turn in the laser pistols we confiscated from the saboteurs, the value of the pistols far outshined our pay. Though we had to spend a sizable chunk of our bountiful pay just to buy replacement power clips.

Ah well, we're a step or two ahead of where we were, and hopefully are starting to build a reputation of competence. Maybe that will lead us to the adventure and wealth we dream of.

[dulux-oz]

... but it was far from the riches one hears told of in tales in the seedy bars about the life of a mercenary.

What, like the stories of the vast wealth that can be made selling Avon door-to-door :p

[LordEntrails]

What, like the stories of the vast wealth that can be made selling Avon door-to-door :p
It's not a pyramid scheme, it's "Multi-Level Marketing"!

[LordEntrails]

I didn't get around to a write up of session 2, but here's what happened in ALL our sessions since then!

We returned to Pan-Gal's office after a bit to see what Star Law had learned from the suspects we captured. Which really wasn't much since they had all be psychologically programmed to kill themselves when questioned. Ah well, at least we know their is someone, or something powerful and nefarious behind what was going on!

Our little visit was cut short when a civil alert went out warning everyone to stay inside as a giant space slug had just escaped the zoo! Knowing it was just next door, we of course followed the authorities suggestions and immediately headed outside. Did I ever say we were good at following directions? We did learn that the slime on space slugs was a pretty good defense against lasers. One of these days we might actually have enough moola to buy a variety of weapons, but alas not yet. Anyway, we put the slug down without the help of the zoo keepers (who probably ended up pretty pissed we had killed their prized attraction) or the ever absent Star Law. (Ever wonder why law enforcement never seems to be around when you need them?)

Actually starting to make a name for ourselves, our handler reached out with another job opportunity. This one stank from word one though. Maybe life would be easier if we weren't smart enough to know we were the budget "solution" to follow up and investigate why an experienced team went missing? I mean really, if some team with years and years of experience went missing on some exploration trip to some barely charted planet, what the heck are we going to do?

But I guess we ARE the chumps they made us out to be, cuz for us, the money was too good to pass up. Even at our rock bottom rates, ten weeks of pay plus half-rate for days of travel would mean we could actually start to buy some real equipment. You know, like a defensive screen or two and some rifles with enough ammo we could actually use them when needed!

So there we are, the only passengers on an old star liner, having just jumped into the Volturnus system and guess what? Trouble, yep, surprised weren't you? Of course we are just the cargo to these crew and it's their ship. And what would we, not much more than civilians without any tin badges, need with the few measly weapons we do own? Not much, cause they were locked up in the ships weapon locker on the bridge. Anyway, we learned of the Trouble when someone started a fight in the hallway near our cabins. Fortunately, these "entrepreneurs" were less capable chumps than we are.

Apparently we were lucky to have been boarded by a group of the sectors worst, and I mean incompetent, pirates. We beat them down, our Doc healed us back up, and we proceeded to raid the cargo bay where we found our equipment, some spare power clips (which just about quadrupled our net worth), and 2 liters of the ever important Dralasite bathing perfumes. We stopped by the abandoned computer room on our way to the bridge and the weapons locker to find out three things. One, the bridge had been taken. Two, the weapons locker had been destroyed (putting a large dent in our net worth and making most of those spare power clips we 'requisitioned' useless). And three, that the ships systems had been locked down and were now useless.

We came at the bridge through what must have been the Captain's quarters rather than the main entrance. Despite our tactically...questionable entrance, we were fortunate we had. Had we come through the main door we probably would have been cut to pieces. Led by Jazz, our martial expert (ok, more like apprentice), we proceeded into the cramped space. Outclassed and outgunned, we actually managed to land our blows with our captured measly melee weapons more than perhaps we should have. In the end it was a close thing. Jazz probably had more pharmaceuticals in him than blood by the time it was over, and just about everyone had to undergo major surgery before we dared move on. Down, down, down dwindled our medical supplies.

Before we could make it to the port side bridge in the off chance a crew member could be found alive, the ship started to come apart around us. Sabotage? Hard to say, maybe that would explain why the computer systems were locked down, and why one of the lifeboats was missing. Jumping in the last lifeboat, we came under fire from more pirates. So, it would seem like it wasn't the pirates who were responsible for the impending destruction of our transport as we left them to die upon the Serena Dawn.

Our damaged lifeboat kept us alive as we came down on Volturnus, but the resulting fire and crash meant it wasn't going to be salvageable. We managed to drag out our gear and some survival kits before the inferno engulfed what was left.

So here we are, on some forsaken and unexplored planet on the edge of known space. It will be days or weeks before anyone knows the Serena Dawn is missing. Months before any type of rescue mission might be organized. That is if we aren't the bean counter's last effort to recover the previous mission. Undoubtedly there are more pirates in the system. We've got at least one saboteur if not an entire second faction working at cross-purposes to ours. And we have to survive on some strange planet that has gods know what?

Were the Budget Crew, and GTF might think we are expendable, but we're not going down without raising some hell! (And damned it, if any of us survive, we're going to want our back pay and a bonus!)

[dulux-oz]

Nice summary - not quite how I as the GM would have put it, but a nice summary never-the-less. :)

And FTR the slug (actually "space-hydra") wasn't killed, just rendered unconscious and by now would be well on the way to recovery (and with vauge images in its primitive mind about a Vrusk, a Dralasite, two Humans and a Yazirian...)

[LordEntrails]

Maybe we will have to go back and visit the zoo next time we are in town... as long as we go armed!

[dulux-oz]

Just a notice for anybody who's interested - as of 12-Aug-2017 if you are interested in joining our little group for an absolutely smashing good time playing some great science fiction then we do have the opportunity to include one or two of you. We game 09:00-14:00 UTC (approx) every 2nd Sunday, so if you'd like to drop me a line ([email protected]) we'll see what we can do.

Cheers

[dulux-oz]

Part 2 of the previous Post :)

Due to the evolving nature of RPGs the group has decided to shift our game time forward by 5 hours. We will now be gaming every 2nd Sunday from 04:00-09:00 UTC (approx).

So if you think you'd like to join us in our new time-slot than drop me a line ([email protected]).

And now, over to Lord Entrails for his Session Round-Up...

[LordEntrails]

Yeah, err, frickin GTF...

Do you know what a desert is like? Hot! Damn hot! That's what this planet is, one big frickin desert! You ever been to one of them human BBQ joints? Pay the chef a handful a credits and see if he will let you climb into his industrial smoker! Or one of those dralasite steam baths? Even the best wax will turn to liquid and run off your shell. That's what it's like, except it's dry!

Do you know how dry? You know that paper you can buy that if you rub your fingers together on both sides of it it will ignite and burn up in a fraction of a second? You know, the magic trick stuff? That's how dry! Got two sticks? Don't bother to rub them together, they'll just start burning on their own if you set them out in the high sun!

And sand, everywhere. and I MEAN EVERYWHERE!

But hey, it's not so bad, I mean we're getting paid for each day we survive. Maybe our next of kin will get paid for the days when we are dead too? I didn't read the contract that well, I don't know how may days of "dead pay" our next of kin will get. Guess it didn't matter too much to me at the time. Didn't seem like a real possibility...

The Doc didn't make it. Appears he died from internal injuries from our crash landing. I mean I get it, but instead of landing on the relatively nice smooth sand that stretches in every direction for gigameters, the damn escape pod crashed into the only rock outcropping in the hemisphere!

We did see some sort of feature to our east, so that's where we headed the first night. I did tell you it was hot right? It's too hot to do anything during the day except lay in the shade and sweat. So we travel at night. It was about 8km or so from our crash site.

And it's proof that someone lives here. Some sort of artificial stone dome. A big one, and it had a well inside. The outside was scoured smooth by centuries or more of the desert winds and sand. But inside was cool, enough that sticks don't spontaneously ignite! The well even had water in it, but our scientists said it had arsenic. So since we pretty much were full up on water, we didn't try and distill it and fill up. You do know water is heavy right?

Just for fun, tomorrow, pack up all the water you are going to drink for the day and carry it everywhere you go. I mean, there are no waitbots to bring you a nice ice cold glass whenever you sit at some street side cafe. No S'bucks to get an iced cup'o joe or D'Bros for a sweet rebel when you want one. Yeah, we had to leave a bunch of stuff at the crash site. If it wasn't water, then it probably got left behind. Had more days of survival rations than water, so even left a bunch of that behind. Out here, water is life. No water, no point in having a months worth of rations to feed a dead vrusk!

Since we know we are in the northern hemisphere, and we came from the west, we went northeast. No crap except sand in any direction, so one way was as good as the next right?

The pirates are here. And they found us, not hard to do given the our tracks in the sand. Fortunately, maybe? We played dead possums and tried to lure the jet copter down to investigate. What's a possum anyway? And why do they play dead? Might go look that up when, or if! I get back on the gal-net someday.

Oh, yeah, well, my thoughts wonder. When it's this frickin hot and you are always thirsty, the mind wanders.

So, the pirates took so pot shots at our "dead" bodies and dropped us a note, but they didn't land. Oh well, none of us know how to fly a copter anyway.

We met the locals. Land octopi that ride some lizard-like horse things. They are friendly, and will give us food and water if we join their tribe. No, no we did not have a choice. Down to just a couple of days of water, it was sign up or die. They don't pay as poorly as the GTF, they don't pay at all. But room and board is more valuable than credit in the middle of a frickin desert!

So this war party of Ul-mor (that they call their race) is taking us to be tested to join their tribe. It's called the Quick Death or some such thing. I guess that means the desert is Slow Death? I'm all for the pirates having a slow death.

Anyway, the Ul-More have mentioned two other races on the planet. I forget the first one, sounds like they are the butt of the jokes around here and either look like trees or yazarian's, not sure. But they like to call Jazz one of them. Then their is some sort of old ones, that are more at One with the One than any others. But not sure what that means.

We finally got out of the desert. Actually they took us into lava tubes under the burning lands, or some such. But since we're not allowed to camp with them, since we are not yet tribe members, some earthquake separated us from them.

Now we are lost, underground, in a collapsing maze system. But hey, we're wracking up the pay on the GTF ledgers! Lucky us. Sheet, at least we aren't likely to die a slow death in the middle of a frickin pile of sand!

[LordEntrails]

Did you know that just because you're underground does not mean it might not be hot? Okay, I'll give you that most of the time it's pretty nice down here in the dark. That is, unless you want to know where you are going or actually see farther than your light shines.

So I think we only went in a circle once before we started marking our path. Generally we've been trying to head east, given that was the direction the Ul-Mor were generally leading us. But it seemed every time we reached an intersection and took the more easterly route, the path seemed to head north, or loop back to the west, or just merrily lead us about.

We came across a natural cistern. Noticed one of the walls of a cavern we were passing through was cold and damp. Well, anyway we didn't flood anything, but found a thin wall and on the other side water! It was quite a comfort to fill up our water. And to get clean. Someone whined about not getting a steam bath, but that's its problem!

Weird stuff down here, let me tell you. We found a mop and empty bucket. Yep, some fool was mopping the stone floor. And almost succumbed to natural gas from some fissure. Not friendly down here. Nope, the Ul-Mor were right, this is a dangerous place. Can't see what might be coming to kill you.

We also came across some sort of cave quadraped. They travel in packs and like to stampede, but other than raising your antenna a bit, proved easy enough to survive.

I did mention hot right? Found a nice little chasm to cross. Of course it was filled with magma! It had some really cool crystals growing in it. Don't know why we didn't take a sample. For that matter, why didn't we hunt the quadrapeds and stock up on roasted or smoked alien? I bet these mushrooms that seem to be everywhere would burn if we let them dry.

So we used the mushroom stalks to build a couple of portable bridges. Cause I don't know about you, but I didn't want to jump from crystal to crystal and end up swimming in magma. I don't like to swim. Don't like to bath in magma I'm sure. Wonder if someone might consider such close enough to a steam bath? It didn't speak up about it then!

Good thing we were smart enough to rope us together, don't think a single one of us would have made it otherwise. I sure as grok would not have! I will admit (not out loud) that I owe my life to the steam bath whiner. Maybe if we live to collect all this GTF pay I'll buy it one.

So yea, it can be hot when you are underground. Wonder why we didn't just go around the chasm? Surely there must have been another way right? Yea, I wonder the same thing. Would have cost us a day or so backtracking. Don't know. Maybe we're stubborn or maybe we are persistent. Then again, maybe we are just dumb?

We did find something interesting. Sentient boulders. Yep, that's right, living rocks that actually exhibited intelligence. Make all the excuses and justifications you want. But the damn thing was smart enough to spit magma at us when it felt we threatened the little rocks rolling around. Some sort of nursery. We tried, but had no way to communicate with it. So in the end we just ran through the nursery taking a few burns along the way.

We found an Ul-mor down here. Named Thorn, or something like it. Had been banished from his tribe. Was delusional and loosing his memory. Seemed to be due to some white fungus growing on him. He claimed to be communing with the One, and that we should go to the island to find the One.

That's right, island. That means water, lots of it. A massive underground lake, kilometers across. The whole place lit by phosphorescent. We were pretty skeptical, but could see the island. Figured we are explorers right? And maybe the island would hold something useful, just maybe right?

Nope, at least probably not. The whole thing, almost, was covered in the white fungus which registered as a low level toxin. There were more of the mushrooms growing here, and they were not covered with the fungus. Everything else, including perhaps a quadraped or two were. Seemed like the fungus had completely subsumed it though. But they also were not completely dead. They moved, just a bit and very slowly. More strange drak for the scientists to investigate. Also might be some sort of connection between the mushrooms and fungus. Not for me to worry about though.

Used a bunch of sporekill and tried to get rid of the fungus when we left. Didn't completely work though. Jazz hasn't been able to get rid of the infestation from everyone yet. Time will tell.

Found a crazy little maintenance bot trying to clean the floor of one cavern. Shut the thing down and went through it's program. Strange thing had no mission. Some cheap UniHo model. Guessing somehow got away from the pirates. Strange though, and why didn't it have a mission right? Reprogrammed it and named it Marvin. If nothing else, would really help to carry drak.

You know by now I think we were all on pretty short fuses. I know I was ready to get some revenge. Daniel really was. But I got the kill. Some dumbass pirate got himself lost down here and thought he would sing to himself. Gave us plenty of warning.

Sent Marvin in first to distract him. Worked, except instead of shooting the pirate, Kat fried Marvin's core module. Marvin, my new best friend, just became a pile of scrap. Myself, I had cranked up my pistol's power setting. Took a couple of shot to get the range, but then I drilled that fracking pirate. Burned two big holes in his chest and left him dead. Never though that killing someone would feel good. Hmm.

We found our way out then. Wasn't too far from the lake, but the Ul-Mor said they didn't know about it. That's right, our "tribe" was camped outside and was joyous to see us. Yeah us. Now we get to face the challenge of the Quick Death. Yeah us.

You do know sarcasm right? Starvation and thirst are no longer a danger. Neither is magma spit from rocks or flowing free. Whatever the Quick Death is, that's all we have to worry about now.

And pirates.

And getting home.

[LordEntrails]

Only a few more hours and then we get to find out what the Quick Death is. Aren't we lucky?

[LordEntrails]

Quick death, yea. Thing was fast, damn fast! Hit pretty hard too. I can see why the primitive Ul-Mor has such a name for the beast. But when we have to, we can hit pretty hard too. We let it come to us across a nearly open plain, and took only seconds. Just enough time for us to brace for it's attack and take aim.

It gave us a bloody mandible, a couple of them in fact. It got me once too. But our little blob is a tough thing and for the most part we all stood behind Baboo and let him take most of the hits. It got me once too, a single blow threw me off my perch and left me bleeding. But, just like the space hydra, a natural beast just can't stand up for long against the technology of four space fairing races. Even if we are a sad representation of those races and are poorly armed and equipped by such a standard.

I'm no xeno-biologist, but I don't think these Quick Death creatures evolved on this planet. They just don't seem to fit. Octopods with legs, tentacles and an albedo skin? Might not sound too different than the Ul-Mor, but something's just not right. From what I could tell after talking to the Ul-Mor, I think they have been here for generations though.

Now we're are members of the tribe, and can live with them if we want. But we have things to do. Maybe we'll be back one day, but it's time for us to find a way off planet, and the probable way to do that will be to go right through the pirates.

Just the thought of the pirates, and the desire to rip them apart with my mandibles, gives me a small insight into the rage that yazarians are known for. Jazz hasn't submitted to his rage yet. I don't know much about it, maybe he is just holding it back for the pirate captain? I'd joyfully help him with that. Whoever that may be.

So, we're off with an ul-mor guide to find the tree dwellers. They are on the way to the pirates, at least where we think the pirates are. And, blessedly, we are out of the sand and into a savannah, thankful to be leaving the lands of slow death.

[dulux-oz]

Nice :)

[LordEntrails]

You know the Ul-Mor talked about the tree dwellers. I figured they meant some dried sticks two meters tall. I figured this whole planet was a big pile of sand sitting on top of volcanic rock. I mean, if there were trees and open water, and anything but sand, why would you choose to live in the desert?


But nope, fifty and sixty meters, some even taller, and half as wide, easily. That's what these trees are. Friggin big arse trees that take generations to grow. You've seen the dream vids of the Yazirian homeworld right? I have. Maybe even bigger, but certainly grown together and so dense that you don't walk on the dirt underneath, you move from branch to branch thirty or forty meters up. Other than bugs, I don't know what might live down at the dirt level, that's where we found the Kurabanda, in the branches.


Makes me wonder, why did the Ul-Mor evolve in the desert? They don't seem to fight with the Kurabanda, though maybe if they all tried to live in one area they would. But no strife between the races. And evolving in such a harsh environment? The Kurabanda make sense to me, not the Ul-mor.


Back to the Kurabanda, they turned out to be a cautious people. We found them pretty much as we reached the trees. To digress, we're going to have to find a way through the shard grass, and maybe tell you about the rollephants and the acid spitters, but hey, the Kurabanda led us to the pirates.


Or more accurately, like I said, we found them when we got to the trees. the sounds of weapon fire were unmistakable. Seems like a patrol of pirates was mixing it up with a patrol of K-monks. Wasn't tough to decide who's side we were going to fight on. Actually, we chose to fight on our own side, just happened that the K-monks had nothing to fear from us.


Maybe that sounds like we are more cold-hearted than we are. Or that we are completely mercenary. But the friggin devil pirates will get no quarter from us. They are the reason we are here after all. And not just here, but marooned, in the desert, Doc Archie dead, and fighting for our lives.


So, we killed the pirates. At least most of them, at least two ran off, but we were too beaten up to pursue them. Their vehicle, maybe an explorer, would have been nice. Really nice. By killing and chasing off the pirates, we saved the K-monk hunting party. So now we're friends. At least cautious allies. As I said, they are a cautious lot.


That's fine though. They told us about a pirate outpost where we believe the two surviving expedition members are being held. They were hanging with the K-monks when they were captured. So, they led us part of the way there, days away by foot. That vehicle would have been nice huh?


More strange drak on this planet. Some canyon sized canal all dried up now. And I mentioned the rollephants and spitters before right? They were in the plains of shard grass. Grass that grows it's own sheath of silica, cuts you up pretty bad just moving through it day after day. Then the elephants with rollers for mowing down the grass rather than tusks. And the rodents that spit acid to dissolve the silica sheaths. Will leave those to the xeno's when they come. Though Daniel was pretty interested in studying them and we gave him some time before moving on. I mean we're not really here to study flora and fauna.


Strange stuff going down on this planet. Maybe that's why the pirates are here? Anyway now we've reached the outpost, or at least can see lights from it. We're going to figure out how to take the place. Dead pirates are the best type of pirate. And taking their gear will be just a little bit of the payback they are due.

[dulux-oz]

Again, nice.

Although for the record, you ARE supposed to be "discovering" the fauna, flora and geography :)

[LordEntrails]

Again, nice.

Although for the record, you ARE supposed to be "discovering" the fauna, flora and geography :)
Thanks! But don't tell me what my job is!

My job was NOT to be disarmed by my allies, and then to have those allies prove incompetent and allow pirates to take the ship. And then to have those same allies set the ship they are supposed to transport us on to self-destruct!!

Besides, we are discovering the flora and fauna. We may not be studying it as if we were some scientific expedition with a full logistics supply chain on vacation on a some pacified and peaceful planet.

Nope, we have no supply chain. Our logistics are what we can scrounge from a strange planet and carry on our backs. We're being hunted by pirates, who have a fully supported supply chain. They have jet copters, land vehicles, and probably a space ship or two.

And then if we don't get off planet, or at least get a report back to the holy GTF, they will never know about any of the flora or fauna that we have discovered. Or that the group we are supposed to be rescuing discovered.

SO DON'T TELL ME MY JOB!

(Ah, almighty and benevolent GM, you do know that is in character right? Really,its all about role playing, no disrespect or challenge to your merciful and omnipotence intended! Oh please please please don't punish my poor character!)

[dulux-oz]

(Ah, almighty and benevolent GM, you do know that is in character right? Really,its all about role playing, no disrespect or challenge to your merciful and omnipotence intended! Oh please please please don't punish my poor character!)

:ogre: :pirate:

[bigboom]

In character, Jazz is wondering who Cereeze is talking to. He seems to be arguing with himself...and quite vehemently in fact. We've got a psychologist on the team, right? Perhaps Baboo will take a momentary break away from sniffing those steam bath 'perfumes' and analyze Cereeze's mental stability...

[dulux-oz]

Obviously, Cereeze is starting to suffer from the stress of the situation you all find yourselves in - understandable, especially for the "unstable" Vrusk :p

[LordEntrails]

ah hum, maybe if our "military expert" didn't shoot out our own members in the back more often that he shoots the bad guys... My stress level might not be so high! Maybe if our psi-social expert did more than sniff perfume all day? And of course our poor traumatized escapee doesn't do more than stand around and "look" at the bad guys when they show up? And me, the robotics expert. We actually came across a robot out here and what happened? After I subdued and reprogrammed it? You know, something that could have carried tons of food and water for us? Who shot it? In the head? Destroying it's central chip that can not be bypassed or repaired?

Hmm, no, no reason for me to be stressed!

[bigboom]

Oh! Oh! And don't forget that the military expert as the backup-now-primary medic may actually injure you further rather than patch you up when you submit to his surgical (lack of) prowess...

[jboyd4650]

*pops the cap and inhales deeply* aaahh, all is as well as it gets, here.

[LordEntrails]

Oh! Oh! And don't forget that the military expert as the backup-now-primary medic may actually injure you further rather than patch you up when you submit to his surgical (lack of) prowess...
Oh, you need anti-toxin for that bite on your ankle? Let me inject that into your eye!

[dulux-oz]

So, with the tension rising and people starting to snap and level petty accusations at each other, what does this mean for our intrepid team of space-wrecked trouble-shooters? Is it just the stress of the impending attack on the pirate outpost, or do the issues run deeper and will the cracks that are forming actually go so far as to shatter the team - a pointedly dangerous turn of events, stranded here on this unexplored planet surrounded by enemies and dangerous alien creatures - for "united we stand, divided we fall".

[LordEntrails]

Ah, but in a few short hours (days irl) we can take out all our aggression on a few pirates. Killing those scum will be therapeutic and a great team building exercise!

To kill a few of these scum and my stress levels will be so much healthier :)

[jboyd4650]

Baboo grins. At least, I think it's a grin. How can you tell?

[LordEntrails]

I was right. This whole damn time I have felt like a fish already hooked. Nothing I could do but just the next thing. A puppet of fate, a tool.

That changed. Killing those pirates was not cold blooded. It wasn't murder. And that's not some sort of internal justification. They are pirates. They are slavers. By their own admission. They had no interest in repenting. Killing them was just carrying out the sentence that they themselves had judged for themselves.

I was right. Killing pirates is therapeutic. It's not about killing. Not about revenge, well, not completely. It about taking back control of one's own life. Ever since these Star Devils boarded the Serena Dawn, they have controlled our fate. No more. Now we have struck back, we have taken control. Our fate is in our own hands.

We broke into their research facility. We destroyed and disabled their defences, including two combat robots. We killed one and captured two. Two who chose their own sentence, and insisted I carry out their executions. So I did. We found a fourth hiding in a hole. Captured him too. He too has insisted on a sentence of death. And he will die. But we have decided to gift him to the Kurabanda. They can carry out his sentence.

We found that their is a third sentient race on this planet. You know I said I was not a scientist, but I'm not convinced three sentient races can not be coincidental. I'm not sure if this third race is the Old Ones the Ul-Mor spoke of or not. So maybe four races? I don't know. Something is wrong here.

Anyway, the Star Devils, as they name themselves after their leader's name, are using implanted receivers in the brains of this third race to enslave them. Some place they call Slave City One.

Now we got a jetcopter. We got a generator. Combat robots, weapons, and gear. Still limited choices, but we got a full load out now. We have the gear and the desire to make our own decisions now. We can take the fight to the Star Devils when, where and how we want. The future is ours, and we are going decide what the future holds. We will shape it to our will. We will.

[dulux-oz]

Sic 'em, Rex!

[LordEntrails]

Reprogramming the robots was easier than I feared. Decided to wipe them clean and start over. Thought that was better than trying to insert a ‘not’ or another logical switch to give us what we need. Took more time, but I think I got it right. Thing about field programming a robot though, you don’t get a chance to run any real testing on them to make sure they do what you think you programmed them to do. Guess we will find out soon enough if I did it right or not.

So, we cleaned out the place and took the Kurabanda their present. They were quite happy to put the pirate to death and it cemented their good will towards us. Then we geared up, and headed out to Slave City One. Stupid name. Didn’t take a direct route, and landed plenty short and humped it in. Planet tried to kill us again, some sort of floating-flying tree whale thing that attacks with a high energy beam. Too many alpha predators in this place. Something’s off.

Somebody’s ego named this place. Not even a dozen prefabbed buildings and a shuttle pad surrounded by an electrical fence. About 50 pirates keeping a similar number of prisoners. Most of them indigs, but a few frontier races as well. There’s also an indigenous village half a click away. And a farther away a mine that they take a dozen or two slaves to each day. These indigs are like pyramids, tetrahedrons to be precise. If they were a little more stout and equilateral, then you could use them like caltrops as their would always be a pointy part sticking up no matter how they landed. Makes me think about that joke about how you make a vrusk swim!

Everyone else seemed set on trying to figure out how to sneak in and free Jameson and Grod. I still want all the pirates dead. But 5 against 50, not going to happen. Daniel and the others did a kick-*** job with the caltrops. Convinced them that the pirates might not be the emissaries of the gods like they thought. And we took two of them back to the outpost, it hadn’t been visited yet, and showed them the victim. Got them riled up I say!
Took those two back to the village and now the whole village is riled up! Really mad, now it’s something like 105 against 50. Their going with or without us, so we’re going in, full on combat assault. No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. History and Jazz tells me that. But here’s what we scouted;

The place is about 40 by 60 meters. Each corner has a guard tower with a robot sentry, we assume the same as the two we jacked. 3 barracks, in the corners, two on opposite corners have heavy weapons on the roofs which are not manned at night. The fourth corner has the processing building. There is also a large stockade for the prisoners and a couple of block cells nearby. Just inside the gate is a garage, commissary and something else. Then a large administrative building and a smaller one.

So, we got the hundred indigs, we’re going to come at it at the main gate. Marvin and Johnny 5 are set to take out the flanking guard posts if and when they open fire on us. Myself and Jazz are going for the main gate. I’ll see if I can defeat the lock, Jazz will blow it if, and when, I fail, and Daniel will fry it as a last resort. Then we flood in. Baboo and I will head to the gun emplacement near the front. Jazz, Kat and Daniel will go to the one in the back. The indigs will head to the three barracks and the stockade.

After that we will make it up as we go. We’ve told the locals to stay out of the other buildings for now. We don’t want them damaging any computers or the subspace radio. Plus not sure they could handle any automated defenses. Jazz’s team will be near the stockade and cells so maybe they can find Jameson and Grod. I might go for the northern towers to see if I can deactivate and capture those robots. But more likely we will have to destroy them with heavy weapons fire. Eventually we have to get Kat into the admin building and I want to check out the garage for more vehicles.
Seems simple enough to survive contact. But can a hundred and fifty, assuming the slaves are freed, take out fifty armed pirates? Nope, don’t think so. But we have to get those heavy weapons and the guard tower neutralized, then we can help kill pirates.

I’m not a soldier. I should not be so calm. Death will be everywhere tonight. There is no reason to think it won’t claim one of us, or myself, but that is okay. It's acceptable because this is my decision, my choice. Any of us could just choose to go live a full life with the Ul-More or Kurabanda. Or even the Edestekai. But that’s not what I want. I want to purge this strange planet of the Star Devil’s. And if I die trying, well, it is worth trying.

[LordEntrails]

There are stories that go back into the mists of time, perhaps the earliest ones are from the humans, but the Yazarian’s have claims just as long. “Fragging” is what these stories are about. This is the vile and cowardice practice of rolling an explosive under the bunk of some supposed ally you don’t like. It’s how you get rid of some lieutenant or captain that is too stupid for your own good. How you make sure some fellow soldier who does stupid things that might get you killed can’t do those stupid things anymore.

Is it the same when you do it to a declared enemy? Ones that have tried repeatedly to kill you. Ones that will shoot you on sight? Well, pirates, especially the Star Devils are villainous and killing them with vile methods is simply justice. Assaulting a heavily defended outpost, with ten times more armed pirates that your team is no cowardice.

We got their front gate disarmed and unlocked. We started taking fire once we opened the gate though. But we made it to the two heavy weapons emplacements on the roofs mostly unchallenged. The roofs of the barracks. The barracks full of vile pirates who had sentenced themselves to death. So yea, we dropped some fragmentation grenades through the weapons hatch into the middle of the rooms. Just like a dangerous dumb-*** officer, these pirates were done for. They were’ sleeping in their beds, they had half a minute’s notice or so. The sentence was death, we carried it out with the best means possible.

I’d like to claim that the sights were off on the recoiless rifle I manned. Couldn’t hit ****. Fortunately Jazz had the other emplacement, with a heavy laser. Running on facility power he cranked that thing to the max. Simply melting one of the towers before with the help of Johnny 5 and Marvin taking out the other three.
From there we really just had to clean up two roaming combat robots while the indigs took care of the third barracks and those pirates that had been elsewhere. Not as easy as it might sound. But we got it done.

Jameson wasn’t to be found, but he had been there. And we think we found the body of Grod, but no way to know for sure. It looked like another indig, this one a new race, one the Edeskai called the messenger of the gods, was seen carrying off a human body over the horizon. But we weren’t in any shape to pursue. The human would live or die by the abilities of the Messenger, not by our hand, today. Makes one think it was Jameson, but we just don’t know.
Maybe this Messenger was what the Ul-Mor referred to as an Old One? I mean if not then we would be up to five sentient races. Four seems hard enough to believe as it is.

Anyway, this place, Slave City One might as well be the pirate’s hoard from our perspective. Food, weapons, power, an explorer and another jetcopter. Maybe not as good as a military supply depot, but we’re not short on any essentials now. We may still be on a budget, but it’s a mighty fine budget now.

And that’s not the good part. At least not as far as Star Law is going to be concerned. Records of shipments, payoffs, front companies, politicians and bureaucrats on the Star Devils payroll. There is going to be a lot, and I mean a lot, of fallout if we can get all these records in the right hands quiet enough that the wrong people can’t start doing damage control.

And yea, there is a subspace radio. We haven’t made the call yet. Once we do we’re going to have to assume the Star Devil will know his base has fallen so we need to be certain we are ready and have a plan.

We’ve got options and we get to make the next play. Initiative is ours, we need to keep it.

[bigboom]

Nice! Sounds like I missed out on some pretty amazing action. Looking forward to the day when things are a bit more settled down for me so that I can rejoin!

[LordEntrails]

Nice! Sounds like I missed out on some pretty amazing action. Looking forward to the day when things are a bit more settled down for me so that I can rejoin!
We miss you. Though Kat rolled well for Jazz, a 01 for a crit hit on the first tower with the heavy laser set at 25 SEU (25d10). Bye Bye tower!

[dulux-oz]

... a 01 for a crit hit on the first tower with the heavy laser set at 25 SEU (25d10). Bye Bye tower!

Yeah, but you forgot to mention the 99 for a crit fail, sending the 25d10 laser shot into the nearby ore storage shed, igniting about 250,000Cr worth of ore and slagging it down to a worthless pile of molten goo. Bye Bye ore!

And no, that's NOT how you smelt ore :p

[bigboom]

Kat rolled well for Jazz, a 01 for a crit hit on the first tower with the heavy laser set at 25 SEU (25d10). Bye Bye tower!

Wow, that does NOT sound like Jazz!



99 for a crit fail, sending the 25d10 laser shot into the nearby ore storage shed, igniting about 250,000Cr worth of ore and slagging it down to a worthless pile of molten goo

Now THAT sounds like Jazz!


So basically, every time we roll a crit fail, dulux rules that the shot misses and destroys the most expensive piece of equipment/commodity we have within range? Is this why we can't have nice things?
(yes, I can hear my fellow players saying it right now: 'Stop giving dulux ideas!!!')


Good times!!!

[dulux-oz]

Wow, that does NOT sound like Jazz!




Now THAT sounds like Jazz!


So basically, every time we roll a crit fail, dulux rules that the shot misses and destroys the most expensive piece of equipment/commodity we have within range? Is this why we can't have nice things?
(yes, I can hear my fellow players saying it right now: 'Stop giving dulux ideas!!!')


Good times!!!

No, actually, they were firing practically over the top of the Ore Storage Shed, so when the shot missed (critically) then it was (one of) the most likely target(s) - plus there has to be some pain for f*cking-up so badly :p

[LordEntrails]

*lol* I didn't put it in my post because I don't want the GTF to know about it!

I mean really, who's to say one of the pirates didn't sabotage it? It's not like we saw the ore ignite, I mean it's probably that the missed shot caused it, but we don't know for sure! No point is adding fuel to the fire!

[LordEntrails]

Tried to track the Old One, or whatever it was that took Jameson, or at least we think it was him. Would have taken too long to track, but he headed west and the pirate’s map had an old city to the west, so we took the jetcopter and headed to the old city. Seems like the pirates weren’t very interested in the place. Guess there was nothing for them to take and sell.

Place was in pretty good shape, all things. Did find one home that looked lived in, maybe we beat him home. Not sure. But we did find a secret tunnel into some sort of complex. Not really sewers, more like a complex. Started out with apparently natural tunnels, though that seems unlikely. But then we got into artificial construction. With defensive systems, and an insane asylum.

The defensive systems were pretty much sonic based. That sucks, but we can deal with it. The insane asylum, that’s a treat. A bunch of old ones that just aren’t there. I wonder, maybe genetic clones? And isn’t there some sort of degeneration after multiple generations? I’ll have to ask the others about that.

But anyway, we came to meet the Inora, the Old Ones. Indeed they did take Jameson and have been treating him. His recovery will be long, but he is on the mend. They seem to be friendly enough. They clam the other races are their children, and that they helped them along. Sounds like genetic manipulation. I told you something wasn’t right.

[LordEntrails]

So, we got a pretty good lesson on Volturnus history. The elevator pitch is that most of the Inora’s civilization was destroyed by the Sathar. Yep, the THOSE worms that are the nemesis of the civilizations!

Following near extinction, the Inora did not have the numbers to re-populate, hence the genetic clones and their genetic manipulations to bring the other races to intelligence. In hopes that one of the races would develop far enough to be able to defend the planet if the Sathar ever return.

The worms left a monolith signal station behind. Perhaps it was our arrival or the Star Devil’s, but it appears to have now activated. Surely a beacon calling the Sathar to return and once more wipe out all live on this planet. So we went to deactivate and explore it.

So we found a way in and as expected it had internal defenses as well including nasty Sathar cyber-slugs and other Inora cyborgs. But, they were armed with disruptors, and it was too much for us after being so beaten by the slugs. We had to return to the Inora with an unconscious Jazz. A day and half later we returned to the Sathar artifact. After being hit by air-defenses and a hard landing. We are making our way into the artifact again, repairs to the copter will have to wait for later.

[LordEntrails]

Here we are, paid to go to some unexplored planet to rescue the original exploratory team. Well we found them. I think I forgot to tell you that. Jameson’s alive, living with the Inora. The others are all dead. We routed the pirates that were responsible for the loss of the first crew and the marooning of us. We haven’t killed the Star Devil yet, but we will. I don’t care if it is the Governor of Truane’s Star or some UFP Admiral. Whoever the bastard is, he, she, it, will die.

But, right now we have to keep this forsaken planet from being scorched by the worms. They will try to turn this whole planet into a desert. Just like I thought it was when we landed. They will try to burn this place to the core. If they do that, we die too. We die here, that means the Star Devil won’t die at our hands. That’s not acceptable. Not at all.

The Inora have manipulated three races of “their children” and what just might be a sentient race of robots that may have “evolved” from their planetary defense systems. You’re counting right? Five, five sentient races developing on a single planet. You know how many careers are going to be spent on studying this place alone?

To get back to it, you know how we are going to save this planet? Well, we get to be diplomats, alliance makers, leaders. As long as we don’t have to take the title “Politician”! The Ul-Mor were easy, The Kurabanda too. At least in the scheme of things. Sure, we had to prove ourselves, do this or that, but nothing one wouldn’t expect to earn the right to take a people to war against an unknown enemy.

The robots? Well, not so easy, but you know they are logical, and self-preservation is logical. Problem with the robots though is they think they are superior and that organic life, being inferior, should be eliminated. Going to have to be careful that none of them get off-planet. But, not our concern, not yet anyway and way above our pay grade you know?

We’ve got the Edeskai to go. Then the races of this planet will be united. The ancient planetary defenses armed. Wish we had a way to get into space. I want to know what the Star Devil knows. Is he in league with the Sathar? We’re those Sathar agents that were involved in the sabotage we spoiled on our first contract?

Why did that thought occur to me now? They hadn’t crossed my mind since we crashed here. All those records we grabbed from Slave City One. I wonder if you pulled on those threads if it would tie back to those saboteurs? Are they all puppets of the Star Devil?

[LordEntrails]

So we headed back to Slave Village One. Figured if we were going to get the Edeskai in the Crystal City to trust us, we would need one of their own to speak on our behalf. So Bbob came with us. That’s not his name, but that’s ok. He was one of the village priests that we had helped free. Might even have been one of the elders we took to the outpost to show the medical experiments to.

It was pretty straight forward when we got to the Edeskai city. And like the others, it came down to us earning their trust by doing something for them. I suspect it wasn’t that they didn’t believe us and weren’t going to help. I mean I like to think even religious nuts are smart enough to know when their world is in danger and that our plan was the best chance they had to save it.

Quick deaths, they call them the spirit of Justice. It’s how they execute their crimina ls. Whatever.

Well, theirs was dead and they needed another. I suspect they probably knew they would lose dozens of their most promising youth getting another. Something I’m sure they took as part of the cost of doing business, err, cost of being faithful. Anyway, they were smart enough to know we might be able to save the lives of their youth so they claimed the gods demanded we get them a new spirit of justice.

Luckily, I think it was Kat, who remembered that the sathar artifact had two of the beasts trapped in the basement. Well, I came up with the idea to build something like a tower shield to block the corridor. And then we could throw in some tanglers followed by doze grenades to capture one.

It worked, only took a bit of shrapnel to my leg and a bit of improvising, but yea, it worked.So now we had the Edeskai, and all the others willing to fight to save their selfs from the worms.

The mechanons activation of the planetary defense systems worked, for awhile. Eventually the sathar managed to land a force of over thirty thousand.
So now we are engaged in a pitched battle, the Battle of Volturnus. The edeskai are the bulk of the infantry, basically pike units to stick the worms in place. The kurabunda are … well, para gliders I guess? Maybe more like shock troops, they will use their gliders to pass above and drop grenades, and then engage from behind. The ul-mor will be our fast movers, mounted on their beasts they will be mobile and we can bring them to bear when needing to capitalize on some opportunity. The mechanons are our heavies, mobile and with ranged beam weapons they are our only troops that really can match the technology of the sathar units. We won’t be able to afford their defeat.

[LordEntrails]

The first signs of defeat came from the mechanons. You know, the ones I said we couldn’t afford to lose? Well the sathar seemed to know that too.

The sathar had managed to bring down a heavy crewed weapon, projectile artillery that was just eating up our mechanons. Scrambling, we were able to intercept their drive with the heavy weapons the Star Devil had contributed to our cause. It was well armored, and carried more than enough punch to destroy anything it hit. In fact, enough that near misses would knock you on your ***, like it did Kat.

But with our weapons crewed by Jazz, Kat and Baboo and linked to the Inora’s central computer for enhanced targeting, we laid into it while the sathar couldn’t get the right firing solution on us; not that the artilleries misses didn’t utterly destroy a pair of mechanons. With a handful of heavy hits, we destroyed it before it could do the same to us.

While all that was going on, I led the mechanons in to provide multiple targets and keep the sathar bots engaged. One of their warbots moved in to engage Jazz, so hoping it would ignore me and keep on Jazz with our heavy laser that was pounding their artillery, I tried moving in to disable it. That didn’t work, almost got killed for the thought.

With the arty killed, the sathar crew fled and Jazz and Kat turned on their command and control, a brain bot and two cyborgs. Even bots don’t stand up well to concentrated heavy fire, and with the brain killed and a well aimed shot killing a cyborg, the other fled, taking the combat and warbots with it.

Victory! Though I have to say it wasn’t very joyous as I laid behind a hill trying not to bleed out.

[LordEntrails]

Our friendly tripods were the next ones to call for our aid. A problem with religious fanatics though, especially ones that think some creatures are the embodiment of their gods. All you got to do is capture some of those creatures and turn them upon the faithful.

That’s what the sathar did. Turned a bunch of quick deaths upon the edestekai. Our friends didn’t break. I was surprised they even stood their ground. But they held, and our tactics weren’t so good, but grenades make everything better. We used grenades.

Boom! Worms go boom and pieces go flying. I’ve got a strong feeling if we get out of here I’m going to invest in a grenade launcher. And lots of frag grenades you know?

Do the other details matter? I don’t know, maybe late some night after a fifth of distilled worent when the last of the Crew is remembering what we did. Maybe then it will be time for the details.

[LordEntrails]

When one of our native brothers from our Ul-mor clan came to us as we licked our wounds we had to go. Facing the eorna were a line of mechanical demons. Or more accurately once we saw them, inspired by legends, cybo-dragons.

Breathing fire and heavy lasers for eyes, they are just down-right terrifying war machines. These things of the sathar should have broken the Eorna lines. The only thing that brought enough time for us to get there to support them is that the things require huge amounts of power. Power means a supply line. Something we can break.
So that was the plan, interrupt the supply trucks and the technicians that keep the cybo-dragons in fuel cells. And we weren’t able to do that.

We timed it right, rushed in as soon as one of the dragons stopped and a supply truck headed for it. But the range was off, the armorers just too fast for us to kill them before they powered it back up. By then we were engaged, in close combat.

These things are just big warbots you know? And you know how you take out a warbot when you don’t have heavy weapons? You gotta get in close. Really close. So close you can open the access panel and turn it off.

So I did. Meant I had to climb up the back of this thing while everyone else provided targets. But it didn’t have a kill switch, and pulling out the power cells wasn’t enough you know. It still had its’ flames. I think by now you should know how I make frack go boom don’t you?

Grenades, yep, a couple frag, a couple incendiary. Dropped into the open panel, into all those unprotected internals. Stuff that the heavy armor on the outside is made to protect. Stuff that doesn’t do well when exposed to hypersonic energy and plasma!

That was the end of the dragon-bot. Not quite the end of the battle, but the supporting worms knew what was up and fled as they could. Good thing too, not a lot of spare power clips or grenades left among the Crew. Not too mention all that much blood either. We left a lot of blood upon the sand. But we didn’t leave any of the Crew.

Though we did find Jameson’s body upon the sand. The last of the explorer’s we came to rescue. Dead fighting along side those who’s home he was stranded on. I guess in a way that means we failed our mission, at least the rescue part of it. I knew then that this mention wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over, not until the Star Devil was dead. Not until I spit upon the cold dead body of that pirate.

How high a price might that cost? I don’t know, but I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t pay to finish that mission.

[LordEntrails]

Were these victories? Well, we didn’t die, we stopped the sathar, so yea, I guess they were victories. Little ones amongst a huge battle. But, our victories along with the sacrifices and successes of our native allies was enough, at least enough to stall the worm’s advance.

And that’s when the worms turned to their technological superiority once again. It had to be some sort of defensive screen they setup. And behind it they took up a defensive posture. Confident in their technology and maybe waiting for reinforcements or just re-grouping.

But we couldn’t give them the time. It was now our chance to go on the offensive. To capitalize upon the risks we had taken, and the bodies we had left upon the sand. The only way to do that though was for the Budget Crew to take down that screen, or whatever it was.

Supported by ul-mor cavalry we made a plan. We used cover to get as close to one of the devices as we could. We did pretty good, we got pretty close. But the worms were bound to see us coming, eventually. Kat got unlucky, a whole squad of worms got lucky, and one of our own was out. And on her own.

Jazz and I made it to one of the devices. With the cover of a smoke grenade and the protection of albedo screens we were safe, relatively speaking for someone in the middle of a battle field. It was up to Baboo to get to Kat. He stubby little pods swinging too and fro he crossed the open sand to get a slap patch on Kat. Not much of a medic, but he kept one of our own from dying.

I couldn’t figure out the device. Well, I figured it was a generator for an electric field. One that will kill someone so foolish as to try and cross through it. But I couldn’t figure out how to disable it. Too alien, to advanced.

You know something about technology? It still goes boom. While I was trying to figure out how to shut it down, Jazz resorted to the fail-safe, explosives. So when I called it quits, he set the timer on the D-19. And we ran.

Frack goes Boom! Generators go boom. Sparks fly. Screen goes down. We call in the ul-mor. The cavalry charge. Worms die.

All across the battlefield worms died. It wasn’t clean, and the dying wasn’t done. But the battle was over, the worms had lost. We knew it, they knew it. They fled back to their ships in orbit.

And they did not drop asteroids on us from the edge of the solar system. And they didn’t nuke us. For days we waited. And then they left. No reason, no parting ‘frack you!’ They were gone, and maybe we had actually won. Maybe the planet was safe.

And the alliance broke up. The allies going back to their homes, their families, their way of life. But with a knowledge they would never forget, and maybe of community they could build upon. Except the mechanons. They still pose a risk, to everything that lives. Not just the races on this planet, but throughout the stars. Of that I was sure.

Then the UPF arrived. Meaning we had won the great unifying battle of Volturnus and completed our mission. At least the one we were paid for, not the death of the Star Devil, not yet. And we were heroes.

Fracking heroes, real ones. Credited with saving a planet, a handful of sentient races from extinction, and drove off a sathar invasion of all things! Fricking heroes man!

Heroes with enemies. Remember, it’s not just the sathar and the Star Devil. But their were a lot of business men, officials and even military officers that were going to get thrown under the monorail with the computer records we had.

Good thing we were getting paid, we were going to need some good gear to keep ourselves alive if our new enemies decided to come after us with a fraction of the money we had cost them.

[dulux-oz]

Bloody brilliant, mate - I even had a tear in my eye :)

[dulux-oz]

So, if you've been following along with the brilliant job of narration that Lord Entrails has been doing and are wondering to yourself "Hmm, I wonder if I can get in on this game" then the answer is - Yes!.

We have, at the moment, the possibility of expanding our group to take in another player or two, so if you are interested in joining us then feel free to drop me a line at [email protected].

We play every 2nd Sunday, 05:00 UTC to about 09:00 UTC.

Also feel free to drop Lord E or one of the other guys a line and ask them what they think of the game - I'm sure they'll tell you that they are thoroughly enjoying it (that's what they say to me, anyway) - and @my_players: feel free to comment here as well :)

Cheers

[bigboom]

Hi Everyone!

I'm one of the regular players in this campaign and it has been great fun!

The game itself is awesome, in my opinion. It's a sci-fi setting with a ruleset from the 80's, so it's a reflection of what the authors in the 80's thought the future would be like. There's a mix of not-so-developed frontier areas of space waiting to be explored as well as developed planets with megacorps and intrigue. There are laser rifles, alien races, hovercars, robots, starships and more! I'd describe it as high sci-fi adventure with a dash of pulp thrown in.

But the game would be nothing without the people! We've got a group of fun, friendly, easy-going and humorous players spread out across three continents! I'm sure I speak for us all when I say every one of us looks forward to our game sessions and is absolutely bummed when RL intervenes, causing us to miss a session. We all just simply enjoy hanging out with each other playing this campaign and we'd absolutely welcome new players to join in on the fun!

And of course there is our GM, dulux! I'm sure all the other players will agree when I say he's done an absolutely, smashingly beautiful bang up job of bringing Star Frontiers to life. Spend just a bit of time with him and it becomes obvious he has tons of GMing experience. His style keeps the narrative moving, he's prepared, and he's full of humor. And needless to say, he keeps our PCs challenged - the game wouldn't be fun and worth playing if there's no challenge, right?

So if all this sounds interesting to you, let dulux-oz know!! Seeya in game!

[LordEntrails]

Hopefully it's obvious I love this game, that's why I keep these "diary" entries. So much so that this game plays for me in the middle of the night and I do not regret the lack of sleep.

If you've read the stories I've written, then apparently you enjoy them. So come join us, get in on the game. You''l have a blast!

[LordEntrails]

Good gear is expensive. Yea, we got paid a boatload, and a bonus too. Well, at least a boatload for a bunch of kids with just an inkling of skills and a few weeks of training. Of course, that’s what we were when we left on the Serena Dawn, it’s not what we were when we got off of Volturnus. But good gear is expensive, no way we could get everything we wanted though. But enough, we got what we need for most any job that might come our way.

And then the turmoil. You know, heroes are supposed to be welcomed as, you know, heroes. And I guess we were, but then the debriefs, the inquisitions, the questions. How many times you do you have to answer the same questions? I mean two or three times during the debrief makes sense you know? Make sure your story is consistent, that nothing new comes to mind all that. But then each idiot, each politician, each interrogator thinks they have to ask the questions themselves. Like the other beings who asked the question must have done it wrong, or the somehow hearing the answer live is going to tell you something the last ten vids of the same question and answer didn’t. And then we had to pay for our own publicity agents and advisers. You know, mercenaries are not just para-military personnel.

Then came the job offers. One of them seemed promising, but too easy. Even then it sounded too good you know? But it would get us out of the system, away from the circus and somewhere else where we could look for something better you know? All we had to do was play passengers on a refitted luxury liner. A passenger liner that doesn’t need a crew. Run by a robot brain so good it didn’t need a crew, except for service and security bots. And it is, or was. Kat and I don’t have the skills to really get what the ship’s computer is really capable of, but things just didn’t seem to add up you know?

We were still uneasy though. We checked the ship, but until something would go wrong, we were just passengers you know? We ate the food, enjoyed the lounge, poked around. And waited. But for what? Sure, as I write this now it’s easy to say, but at the time, how do you know what’s coming? I mean the unease we felt had no reason. We couldn’t put a claw on it. Nothing was wrong you know? But things weren’t right either.

Just after we jumped in the transit system it happened. No alarms, no warnings. Nothing for the super smart ship’s computer Andi to react to. But fortunately I was on the bridge, trying to figure out how to pilot. You know, all this time with nothing to do, might as well learn something. A red light. A warning light.

“Hey Andi, what’s that red light?”

“Security breach of the outer airlock Cereeze.”

Fracking Hell! Why didn’t the ship do something you know? Not as smart as it’s supposed to be. I sounded the alarm and headed for the weapons locker.

So how do you board a ship that has just come out of jump? Only one way, you had to know when it was coming out, where it would be, and pretty darn close to the velocity and vector it would have at that time.

The Star Devil or his peons would be a good guess as to who had boarded. But you’d be wrong. Fracking Worms! How the frack does a Worm ship get into an inner system and know when, where, and our vector? I mean sure, why are they there is pretty important, but to even have a chance they could pull off any such intercept is a problem the UPF and Star Law should be panicked about. But us? Yea, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Sathar die you know. And we know how to kill them. Grenades help. But they weren’t here to take the ship. They didn’t go for the bridge, they didn’t take engineering, they didn’t go for auxiliary control. They kept moving about, they were searching for something. They wanted something, and it wasn’t the ship.

They died, their boarding shuttle was gone, but their vac suits remained. But they were booby trapped. I didn’t think of that till I started to look at them. I got out in time, but they destroyed themselves. Damned worms.

[LordEntrails]

We found what the worms were looking for. In a bio-hazard cabinet that Alex claimed didn’t exist. Meaning his sub-routines had been tampered with. So Kat dove into the computers, and found planted evidence. Videos that seemed to show us putting the biological into the cabinet, and then like we had tried to erase it. We were setup, by our employers. Maybe it was just someone performing CYA and planting the video in case something went amiss.

Yea, I’m not going to put into writing what the worms were looking for, and I’m also not going to say what that video was about. Cover Your *** you know? So we started doing the same. Scrubbed the computer best we could, dumped the physical evidence into a star. If the deep cold of space and then nuclear fire doesn’t destroy it, well, then nothing will.

We finished out the trip, we turned in our reports about how the trip went smooth and perfect, no hiccups what so ever. And we refused any follow up work. Yea, we lied through our teeth and we vowed to never work for any company related to Streel. No, we didn’t send a letter to Streel declaring them our enemies, we put on a nice face, one or more execs there don’t like us, and we’ll kill them if we ever find out which ones and we get the chance. But until then, we are just dumb and ignorant budget mercenaries that they can pay cheap to take a fall for them, but some how are never available for their jobs.

[LordEntrails]

Now we are onto something else. Not a job technically, a partnership. Maybe this will be more suited to our tastes?

Some vrusk spacer named Max was on a ship that mis-jumped and landed in system with an intelligent species. After they found their way back to Frontier space, he left his ship, bought one of his own, hired a crew and needed some partners to help explore it. That’s where we come in, you know, since we are one of the few who have ever explored a new planet with intelligent life on it. But this is a commercial venture, not some anthropologic science mission. Nope, were’ looking to make money. See, our new partner and captain found a metal artifact, one created with atomic technology, something the local Heliopes who live in grass huts and fish in crude dugout boats could have made.

We also picked up a couple of new partners and lost Scorch. He didn’t show up when it was time to leave. He had been mumbling to himself a lot, I think he was wanting to go home. His time as a prisoner to the Star Devil was pretty harsh on him. Not surprising he might have been looking for some peace, guess we reminded him too much of what he went through.

A bonofide doctor joined us, I can never remember his name, humans all look alike you know? Will be good to have someone who is more than a combat medic. Though despite all the frack we throw at Jazz for his medical skills, he kept all of us alive more than once back on Volturnus. When it got deep, he pulled us through, just like a fellow corporate worker from the same house. We picked up an engineer too, a squishy one like Baboo. Talks a lot, but not about perfume baths like Baboo. Seems to know his stuff, but time will tell. And another bland faced human, a biologist. He got ideas, strange ones. Time will tell.

A strange thought just occurred to me, I wonder if Jazz, Kat and Baboo are now my House? C’lk, I wouldn’t mind that. Maybe…

Now here we are on the planet named Starmist, inhabited by a species called the Heliopes. Most of them are nomadic, but one bunch has settled in a village on a river and seems to be driven by religion and ruled by a bunch of priests. That’s who Max has led us too. Their legends say that they come from the stars, brought here by their gods, that don’t look like us. Maybe the worms, or maybe the Ancients?

And they collect artifacts. technology that they do not have the means to produce, or usually even maintain, and that is not ergonomic for their species. And they have a temple built over something that when someone makes an acceptable sacrifice the priests allow them to “commune” via something suspiciously like an electrical current. Or to put it simply, some advanced race species brought them here generations ago and left behind various items that they collect and protect. You know, alien technology that we can make money with.

Fanatical in their faith while stubbornly and arrogantly ignorant of anything outside their sphere of knowledge, the priests we’re anything but curious or open to talk of pretty much anything. The felt like they were appeasing ignorant children when talking with us. It was tempting to just level the village and pull the answers out of the ashes of what remained. But, instead we chose to figure out another way, to keep trying peaceful means until nothing remained.

In that spirit, we talked with some of the nomads, who attacked us on our way in, but who we appeased with a domesticated animal gift. They were just about what we expected, savage nomads with little knowledge, but they too believe in their gods from the stars. And they had nothing good to share with us either. Just typical tensions between nomads and villagers, between the outsiders and the appointed holies of a religion.

It was during our return to the village that something happened, in the village. We heard it, and saw the smoke, but were much too far away to do anything but hurry back. On our returned we gathered some clues as to what had happened, from evidence and the villager’s stories. Two alien creatures had emerged from the trees to the west, when confronted, the used high energy weapons. Setting one of the village huts on fire and injuring some villagers. It’s doubtful the villager’s spears really threatened them, but they did turn and retreat.

Description were poor. But I was able to find some tracks. Tread tracks, less than a meter apart. Like what a pair of tracked robots would leave. Maybe I’m drawing too much from the descriptions, the tracks and from experience, but no ship landed after us. And they didn’t show up before we landed. Max landed here with his crew, and then again with us. Maybe they came between those two trips. Or, maybe they have been here a long time, maybe their were left by the Heliope’s gods. Or, maybe, just maybe, and almost certainly if you ask me, they were a pair of sathar cyborgs scouts from a fracking worm listening outpost left here to alert the slimy worms if the Heliopes ever became space faring. Just like on Volturnus.

Not being able to track the two intruders, instead we became intruders. The first time we broke into the villager’s temple. Yea, we found an alien artifact. A friggin massive alien hover tank. Bigger than any UPF thing I’ve heard tell of. Four turrets! And protected by a defensive gauss screen. One that knocked our new engineer on his butt, if he had a one. An effective way to keep infantry off, and us out.

It seems that the artifact rod used by the head priest during their rituals is probably the key to the tank. We’re going to need it, and now. I was advocating for patience, knowing we had weeks or months until a UPF mission showed up. But with the sathar scouts having been activated and knowing where the village is. Well, they will be back, in force. And a hover tank is certainly likely to give us a big advantage in a fight. Especially if something like a cybo-dragon shows up.

We really were not left with much choice, we had to raid the priest’s compound out on the river. Not just for the rod, but because Max was out there. The villagers said he had gone to serve the gods, but it sounded more like he got caught trying to sneak in. Not sure why, he didn’t let us in on any plans. But, we want Max back, and we want that rod. So, we’re going in.

[donpaulo]

Indeed, we had been recruited by Max to assist with the "removal" of interesting articles from the native Heliopes. Yet despite some of us preferring a more "direct" approach, we chose the path of lessor resistance. However we were unable to procure enough data from our recon visit with the nomads and so returned right after the aforementioned attack on the village. Knowing the clock was ticking it was decided a personal visit into the temple was in order which yielded the information about the tank which was of alien construction and worth a pretty penny on the open market. The possible payout from the discovery hastened the decision to look for the "key" with the possible benefit of discovering our patron's fate as well.

The party sneaked err snuck? out on to the platform built over the river and started our investigation. What did we discover ?

Violence is an effective tool if used correctly and for the proper reason.

Having said that the doctor is a devoted Quaker and will not harm another individual if possible, however that wasn't an issue as there were a few moments of danger and battle from a native creature who put up quite a good fight. All calls for "medic" were answered and Jazz continued in his medic capacity now enhanced by the good doctor's presence. The poor creature was put down, sadly there really wasn't another option as it was not only dangerous but attacked us first.

1 minor surgery later and the party is about to embark on the 2nd part of this excursion.

What will we find there ? Will we discover the fate of Max ? Will we find the "key" to the tank ? this and more to be determined in our next adventure.

[LordEntrails]

I wanted to go in via two routes, I didn’t like the thought of only one way in and one way out, a kilometer long wooden walkway a meter above the water we know to be filled with some carnivorous predator. But the barrels of purple predator repellent weren’t on the dugouts, and we didn’t have time to look for them. That left us with just the narrow walkway.

The walkway took us to the gate house, or the entry building. The door was barred, but that yielded easily to a vibroknife. The priestly guard on the other side didn’t wait for an explanation and just attacked. Not that I can blame it, but not very friendly you know? We put it down without killing it. After all, they aren’t really our enemies. The single room building held a bunch of decrepit alien tech, maybe a generator or holo receiver or such. Nothing functional, nothing immediately usable. Except for the priest’s weapon, which we confiscated.

Two doors out, both to a pair of symmetric flame towers. The group wanted to stay together, so we did and I stayed nervous with such an idea. You know, putting all your eggs in one clutch and all. Jazz or Baboo, don’t know which one, got curious when we got to the tower and opened some door with some little critter on the other side. Easily dealt with, but I don’t know what they were looking for.

The main building wasn’t so easy to deal with. Three levels, with a ladder and ceiling-floor hatch between them. We kept to non-lethal weapons as long as we could. Our new engineer Voak even tried a tangler for a sniper in one of those hatches, but him and Kat didn’t coordinate too well and she got tangled instead of the priest. And the damned priest shot Kat while she was vulnerable. We resorted to lethal force with that. We had to in order to keep Kat alive.

The head priest, out in his lone hut was tough. Sniping from cover, hidden amongst all sorts of relics and using some sort of gamma ray gun was too deadly for non-lethal weapons. We tried. But in the end we chose to kill him rather than risk our own lives more than needed. That gamma ray is viscous, a couple hits will kill the toughest of us, and it seems to bypass our defenses too. Whoever we sell that tech to we need to make sure we get a couple of the field prototypes in return!

We’ve scrounged the best of the relics, including all the weapons and gathered the hover tank’s key. Now we have to head back to shore, and convince the villagers not to attack us. It seems we should claim to be emissaries from the gods, come to find only that they were not ready as they should be and the head priests refusing to listen to us and therefore those that would not listen were punished by the gods. That the gods left the relics here for all heliopes; priests, villagers and nomads, to learn from. So that the Heliopes could learn to protect themselves from the Devil’s that come from the Stars and one day join the gods amongst the stars.

Yea, that seems like that should work.

[LordEntrails]

We headed back to land. If felt good to get soil beneath my boots. My boots made of sand shark skin, from Volturnus. They are one thing that has served me well from that place. It only took a few minutes to get us all into the pyramid. Voak and I were able to cautiously turn off the defensive system, the rod proved to be a simple on-off key.

Once we were confident the defenses were deactivated, we all began to examine the tank. Pretty sweet thing and we took until almost dawn figuring out its systems. The four turrets can all be operated from inside the tank from their own consoles, or you can crawl inside each turret and operate it from there. A nice variety of rockets, lasers and a gamma gun. Each turret is also on an extensible arm, so it can extend from the surface of the tank and fire in any direction. Not sure I would design a tank that way, but don’t know how vulnerable such a system might be.

The tank’s systems also identified an electro-magnetic signal emanating from the east. I’m guessing the Sathar Artifact. The hover tank also has a missile, looks like a short-range surface to surface affair. Voak says it’s got an EMP warhead. Thing has a dial in the launch compartment, with 5 positions. I thought it might be for range at first, but that doesn’t make sense. I’m guessing its got to be warhead yield. Don’t know if the tank’s systems are hardened against EMP itself. That could really suck if we disabled ourselves!

We were trying to figure out what to do next, just break out with the tank and head east to the signal, or somehow approach the heliopes when Chaos happened. Four sathar cyborgs attacked the village. Once more emerging from the east. I guess I have to admit they may not have been sathar cyborgs, I was busy driving and we didn’t get a chance to examine them. It was a short fight, and the tank took a little damage from a grenade. But the villagers didn’t see us as heroes. Nope, Baboo tried to be political with them, but they didn’t want to listen. When they started throwing rocks at us it was time to leave. So we did. I took us out over the river and headed east. Towards the artifact.

[LordEntrails]

I forgot to tell you about our illustrious leader and captain Maximillian. Back in the village when the fighting started with the robots he didn’t do so well. I mean I understand vrusk sensibilities and all, but what sense does it make to lose all logic when the greater stars roll a grenade under your chair? Theirs’s no money to be made if you can’t keep your antennae focused on the situation in front of you.

Doc Perro had to put him down before he hurt himself or one of us. Don’t know how such a soul thinks he’s going to captain a scamp freighter. I mean he would probably do just fine on some corporate passenger liner where he biggest challenges are navigating bureaucracy or wealthy dralasite poof complaining about the complementary perfumes in the steam bath. I’m sure he would just let ship security deal with any drunk yazarians and not even let himself be caught in the same compartment.

Anyway, we were out over the water, heading to the north of the artifact to approach with what we hoped is cover from heavy vegetation, when we took a hit, a big hit. Laser, like from an installation. I guess maybe it could have been vehicle mounted, but instinct tells me it’s from the installation. Caused spaulding on the inside, some of the guys in back took damage from it.

The answer to incoming fire is to move, and when there is no cover, like in the middle of a lake, move fast and evade. So that was the first thing I did. I wound up the engines and got this thing moving over 8 meters per second and started randomizing my course.

Babs and Bim and Kat and Jazz all tried locating the source of incoming fire, but it was hidden. It seemed to be coming from the east edge of the lake near where the signal had been coming from, but we couldn’t see anything. After the fire kept coming in, but missing us fortunately, we figured it had to be hidden behind an installation sized holo screen.

Hoping to be able to find cover behind an isthmus of trees, we kept going north east along the lake edge while Voak worked out firing the EMP missile and the tried to find the source of the fire. We took a few more light hits, nothing serious while on this course but couldn’t move out of the firing arc like we hoped. So with Voak confident we could fire the EMP at our target to take out the holo shield, I turned towards where the fire was coming from. Continuing to evade as we closed the distance, we thought we had to get under 4 kiloms before firing, the incoming fire kept poking at us and now starting including explosions from a large recoilless rifle.

I don’t remember if it was before or after we fired the missile, but I had forgotten to polarize the driving screen and the glare coming off the water hid some rocks sticking out of the surf. Yea, we hit them. It slowed us down some and I could hear the damage to the lift fans, but this thing was built like a tank and kept on going.

It was a holo screen and the missile took it down, revealing three bunkers. Two where the heavy lasers where firing from, and a third massive one with the protected BFG and what Jazz figured was a massive sonic devastator. He figured we would be safe from it past 500 meters, but I wasn’t so sure. But it was his call.

All the while Babs was trading shots with the emplacements. But with the range still past a couple klicks and me keeping us from being a stable platform he wasn’t hitting anything. When we closed to 2 klicks Bim Bam joined in with the heavy laser, while Kat and Voak had to still wait, the rocket turrets on this thing only had an effective range of a 1000 meters.

It wasn’t until we closed to less than 1,500 meters that Baboo landed a hit. That gamma gun is vicious. Tore right through the screen and armor of the BFG’s turret. Drilled a head-sized hole through the whole thing, including the BFG. Secondary explosions told us all we needed to know, the recoilless rifle was now scrap. We were still taking some hits, but with the BFG out it reduced my pucker factor a great deal!

The exchange of mostly misses kept going as we closed. And then Bim landed a hit with the laser, lots of damage, but didn’t take out the laser turret like the gamma gun did. Then we were in range with the rockets. And Baboo landed another gamma gun destroyer and the fight was almost a foregone conclusion at that point. Maybe it was one of the rockets that took out the sonic devastator before we ever came in range, but I know Babs pinned another one of those gamma shots on the board and took out another emplacement.

As we swung around towards the south side of the emplacements and were looking for more threats, I noticed a warning light. Pucker factor was back. We had found some sort of read out or counter after first powering up the tank. We didn’t know what it was, and still don’t. But a few of us wondered if it was counting down, or counting up to something. And now I could see that whatever the read out was, it was much shorter than it had been. I took the opportunity to bring our nice ancient alien war machine to a halt.

Voak and Kat didn’t waste any time and immediately headed for the exit tunnel. Pretty sure they were convinced it was a self-destruct timer. Not convinced of that myself, Jazz and I tried to figure out how much longer until it might end, or disaapear. When we estimated it was something less than an hour, and maybe only a few more minutes, we figured discretion was the better part of valor and shut down and called to evacuate the tank.

Seemed like everyone had already done that before we bothered to to announce it. Except Doc Peroro. The quiet guy had been going around patching us up as we had taken hits from the laser turrets or otherwise overloaded panels and he hadn’t forgotten about Max. Our Captain was still lying unconscious on the floor. Doc dragged him out and Jazz and I followed. With the machine powered down, Voak activated the security screen again and we headed northeast towards the back side of the encampment.

It was a bunch of buildings, all commercial Frontier pre-fab units. Something you might find on just about any chartered planet. Like stuff you might find at a scientific dig, or an outland farm, or a corporate outpost. It sure as hell wasn’t a Sathar Artifact. Not that the turrets hadn’t told us that. And it was quiet. Too damned quiet. We had just blow **** up and no one was running around. No patrols out to meet us, no survivors looking to flee an alien war tank.

That didn’t last. A human, a damned little soft shelled, two legs, two arms and bulbous head human made a dash for an armed jetcopter sitting outside when we were just under 200 meters from it. I wanted that copter, but obviously he wasn’t going to let us have it. So I wasn’t going to let him keep it. Using my mounted grenade launcher I drop a frag in his direction, but it was too far to get a clean shot in.

Most of the team dove for cover and started to return fire. Bim Bam tossed some rocks into the intake. It ate them up, but you could hear the whine of heartburn the rocks caused. It wasn’t going to last long and would keep the guy from getting to far, but he wasn’t trying to escape. Nope, he spun the nose right at us and tried to mow us down with the inline mounted laser. Flipping on my screen, it didn’t worry me and I kept dropping gyro rounds into the copter.

Baboo kept rushing at it, his force axe out. Brave little blob, but what the hell? Axe versus copter. Who knows what thoughts go through the nervous system of a blob? It was Kat I think who brought it down with a couple bursts from her auto rifle. Unfortunately, it was low and headed right at us. It came apart and left a furrow as it came apart. The debris cut a few of us up pretty good. But not more than a skeinsuit and good ‘ol Doc Perro could deal with.

Unchartered system in Frontier space. Sathar cybots. Corp pre-fab buildings. Humans. Not an artifact, a fracking snake pit is what this place is. Maybe their aren’t any snakes here at the moment, but these are certainly snake lovers. Were going to burn out this hole. If any of the traitors surrender we’ll turn them over to the Federation. If they don’t, we’ll kill them here. And if they happen to be connected to the Star Devil, I’ll burn them twice!

[LordEntrails]

Abandoned, mostly. The chopper pilot proved it and the sathar combat bot that fired at us from between two buildings reassured us this place was going to be a snake pit. The bot was armed with a pair of auto-pistols and rocket launcher. Combine that with a pair of melee tentacles and a defensive shock screen the thing was pretty tough. Throw in our poor tactics and they are dangerous!

After that bot, we proceeded to clear out the other pre-fab buildings. Including a snake-loving Yaz that was still lying in wait for us and a second bot. I was able to get behind that one and disable it and the snake-lover surrendered. Not sure what all the building were, but we could tell they had all had equipment pulled out of them. A bunkroom, an office, maybe a gymnasium.

And a nuclear powerplant, set to destruct. We couldn’t figure out how to shut it down, but our resident egg did figure that it would contaminate the entire rift, given time. Meaning the Heliopes would have to be convinced to evacuate, or they would all die in a few months or perhaps a couple years at most. Well, that was a problem for another time, right now we had 3 hours until the reactor was set to blow and we had found an elevator down in one of the buildings and we all pretty much needed the services of good ol’ Doc Perro.

The elevator dropped down just enough before heading west towards the bunkers. It then rose into the bunker complex that was half buried in the ridge. And opened into hallway protected by another one of those sathar combat bots. Our tactics got better, but still we got to figure out something. Not that we had a lot of options and we did spread out, but we still left ourselves with the possibility of cross-fire. And with the shock field it put Babs and anyone who engaged in melee guaranteed to get hurt in the process.

We found a fourth combat bot in an air defense missile control room. Maybe if another one or two of us knew how to deactivate bots that would allow for better tactics. Maybe. But anyway we destroyed this one too. And then Kat dove into the computer and found it had ten anti-ship missiles and was set to automatically target anything above 30 meters. That meant we probably would have died if we had tried lifting off-planet! Not sure why they let Max’s first ship leave, but they were not going to let us leave. Kat shut it down so now we could leave, with or without the Heliopes.

Just south of the missile control, across the elevator hall we came in, was the command center. Sitting happy as clams were three worm-lovers, and a fracking worm! Jazz and Babs took some shots through the doorway and tossed a grendae, and then Voak dropped three rounds center of mass on the traitorous dralasite. But they didn’t leave a mark. The scum were protected by full inertia screens. Auto-rounds were not going to even scratch them, no wonder why they were content to stay put.

Not able to get in any shots ourselves, Kat and I saw a door on the far side and looked to flank the worms and come in the other side. We moved covering each other around the halls, until as half expected we stumbled onto another one of those damn sathar combat bots. Kat drew it into melee so I could flank it and go for it’s access panel. Those things are vicious, and Kat felt the blunt of the bots attacks as it laid into her, it’s accuracy with auto-pistols and tentacles almost deadly. By the time I got it’s panel off and powered it down, she was barely standing. I think I could have blown on her to knock her over.

A knife’s edge, just getting the job done is balancing on the edge, and one of these days its not going to fall our way. Then again, it didn’t always fall our way on Volturnus did it?

Kat wasn’t in any shape to continue the flanking, but I kept going, and it was too late by the time I got there. Bab’s and Jazz had moved into the room. Bab trying his force ax and turning to pulling the scum out of their chairs while Jazz’s laser was unaffected by the screens. The human poisoned itself after Bab’s had pulled it out of it’s chair and was ready to return to his force ax. And as Jazz moved in on the lone surviving sathar, it blew itself up and started another self-destruct sequence.

Worms are damned poor losers you know? Never forget that. They will happily destroy something before they let you have it. Someday, may just have to return the favor.

The rest of the bunker was empty. The emplacements we had taken out with the hover tank and a sensor control room. But there was nothing here. Nothing of any use. Kat pulled a little bit out of the computers and Voak made visual recordings of what he could, but there just wasn’t much here. But with 2 nuclear reactors set to blow, it was time for us to go. Exiting the bunker we saw the smoke from the tank, it had destroyed itself. The expedition was pretty much a bust. It was time to go, so we did.

Waking up Max, we got him to drive the hover car while Voak and I took the cycles. And we fled west across the lake and set down safe on the other side. Jazz, Voak and I were pretty much set on trying to recover the explorer, but that, and the gear we had left in it, was a bust too. Scoping the Heliopes from out of sight, we could see they had toppled it and were playing with our gear. Dumb sods, one of them was going activate one of those grenades they were playing catch with.

But I guess it didn’t much matter. We couldn’t get more than a handful of them onboard our ship, which would doom them to death in time. And we didn’t have the resources to migrate them to another rift. Even if they had been willing to listen to us. Their only hope was that the Federation had a team inbound and could move or evacuate them. Radiation is a sad way to die, and a tragedy when it wipes out an entire species. Nothing we could do about it. And no way to even give their deaths meaning.

We got back to Max’s ship and waited a few days for a sathar cruiser and it’s escort to leave the system. Gave me time to think. Whoever left the Heliopes here picked this rift. The Sathar picked this rift for their training camp. Max’s first crew stumbled upon the system and picked this rift to land. And as soon as those three things happened, the ignorant savages that had no idea were doomed to death.

There was nothing we could have done. Had we convinced the priests we knew more than them. Had we convinced the villagers of the Sathar threat. It would not have mattered. Had we kept the tank’s self-destruct from activating, the Sathar would have still activated their self-destruct. Had we figured out a way to prevent two reactors from detonating, the heavy cruiser would have probably finished the job, and us along with it.

By a mother’s legs, it didn’t matter. Once the first Frontier ship landed here, the Heliopes were doomed. The bad luck of one crew, which Max thought was fortune, had doomed a race of primitive peoples and nothing in that crew’s power or our own could have stopped it. Once the system was known, the Sathar had only one path; they were going to evacuate, and when they did so they would leave nothing behind. They were going to nuke the rift one way or another. The UPF would have never gotten here in time. Even if we hadn’t come seeking fortune. It didn’t matter, we just got caught up in a storm of events we could only shelter ourselves from.

The Budget crew was lucky, compared to everyone else involved. The Heliopes died. Max got burned, scorned and ridiculed in the media. We got left out. Max never brought us into it. The UPF didn’t leak our involvement. After the genocide of the Heliopes, no one wanted the artifacts, and we didn’t have many anyways. We lost money and gear, but not all of it. We learned a hard lesson, but we came out better than anyone else.

[LordEntrails]

Maybe our reputation wasn’t as fouled as I thought it was. Or maybe it’s just the mutual animosity with Streel that colors my views on all the mega-corps. GTF, our original employers, set us up with a job interview at CDC. What are they, like the number three mega-corp? Bab’s would probably know, but regardless, they are a big player. And getting onto their payroll would be a nice steady job. I figured we would probably end up at some staffing flunky’s desk getting assigned to rotate in at some field base in the middle a drokking desert.

Nope, wrong again. Some executive assistant escorted us from the headquarters’ lobby into a private elevator, with no console or readout. And we went up, way up. Then she left us in a conference room, a nice one. Like top echelon nice. The we met the man himself, the Chairman of the fracking mega-corp. Karl something or another. And it was a private meeting, just him and us. Not in person, no, who knows where he was, but just his full-sized hologram and us. A job offer direct from the Chair himself, and 10 minutes of his time while presenting it to us himself. Can you say opportunity?
A secret mining operation had gone dark on an unreported planet. A relatively new operation on a planet no one else was supposed to know about. One that was full of valuable heavy metals and minerals and one that the CDC wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

OK, the CDC has a leak somewhere, but that’s not surprising, and probably not aimed at us. Just someone with info to sell and willing to make a few creds doing it. Even if it meant the dozen CDC employees onsite were now dead. Double standard GTF rates for us, plus a reasonable load out of equipment. Good guaranteed pay, plus the promise of bonuses if we did well. Looked like we might have just left ‘the Budget Crew’ times behind!
The mission was straight forward. Determine the status of the outpost and the twelve staff. If the outpost has been compromised, learn who did it, and if it was a rival mega-corp, report to CDC and terminate the rivals. Yea, I know, nothing goes as planned. But the simpler the mission, the easier to adapt plans as the situation develops.

Sure, the paranoid side of me might allow that it wasn’t really the Chairman, or that we were being setup. But a little voice inside my heart wants it to be true. You know, finally getting in. Not to a soft and easy life of luxury, no. But to where we can make our stake, make something of ourselves, that with blood and sweet we can build something real, and get recognized for it. Don’t know what that is yet, but something we control, where we call the shots, not like Volturnus where we struggled to survive and every decision was made for us. Not like Starmist where the fates had already decried the sad results. But something, anything that we were the ones making the decisions and our decisions would be the driving factors for the Fates. I have great hopes for Alcazzar.

[dulux-oz]

Just a quick note to say that we've been Twitch-Recording our Star Frontiers games for a while now, and you can find the vids up on YouTube now. The link to my YouTube channel is in my sig, below.

Cheers

[Full Bleed]

With 1e/2e AD&D getting an official ruleset have you ever considered building a Star Frontiers ruleset that could (eventually) make the jump to "official"? I think the adoption of the official "Classic" D&D ruleset may be the roadmap that other "classic" TSR systems might be able to follow... which is to say, if you build it, they could probably be wooed into seeing the upside of allowing more official support.

[dulux-oz]

With 1e/2e AD&D getting an official ruleset have you ever considered building a Star Frontiers ruleset that could (eventually) make the jump to "official"? I think the adoption of the official "Classic" D&D ruleset may be the roadmap that other "classic" TSR systems might be able to follow... which is to say, if you build it, they could probably be wooed into seeing the upside of allowing more official support.

Yeah, I'm building one for this campaign :)

[LordEntrails]

Can you believe it, our ride in-system was uneventful. The crew even let the shell-less ones enjoy their steam bath. Do they know how much they stink when they come out of one those? They say they are getting clean, but it smells more like they have been rolling around in a compost! Why can’t they just use some sodium compound and water to wash off any residues on their skin and then polish with a good long-chain carbon rubbing compound? I know they don’t have a requisite shell, so no need to buff to a good shine, but come on, they stink after they get clean!

Our gear didn’t include any vehicles. The compound was supposed to have multiple we could commandeer when we got there, and we only had to hoof it in a klick, but we still stashed extra ammo at the landing site. Hope that wasn’t a write-off. Then the trouble started, we got word from our ride that it was being chased off by a corvette and they would be back in 50 hours or so. That wasn’t really a surprise, we knew their were bad guys here. Now they knew we were here too.

The site was better off than I expected. The main gate was open, the bots were in the yard, but the damage was light. Some heavy weapons fire, but nothing pure military grade. That was good news. Probably meant pirates, or privateers working for another mega-corp. Either one would hopefully be something we could deal with. I didn’t like the bots in the yard though, they weren’t damaged like they should have been. Maybe another insider?

We knew it was going to be an ambush. How could it not be? But we played it wrong. I figured it was on a timer and if we spread out and went fast enough maybe we could throw the timing off. Didn’t work. It was the robots, makes sense. Not sure what set them off, we really hadn’t done much, but it meant we were spread out all over the yard.

Kat and Jazz did make it to the computer building, and I was hoping all the robots would be run from there and could be shut down in one fell swoop. But with nearly a dozen bots we were getting eaten alive right off the bat. Doc Perro went down, so much for being a pacifist, the security bots that shot him didn’t care. Baboo got swarmed by a bunch of maintenance droids and he decided to drop a couple of grenades on himself (crazy dral!). Voak was deep in the yard and able to hold his own for a bit. Myself I went to disable one of the mining bots, things had way too much structural integrity to take down with anything less than heavy weapons at range. Cracked my shell in a dozen places, a good carnauba rub wasn’t going to be enough, and it left me swaying on all my legs. Jazz and Kat made it to the computer, but she wasn’t able to hack the system. That was my hope for making things easy, and when easy failed it looked like we needed to get out of there.

I figured we had to retreat and leave the compound with the explorers, there were three of them and all looked operational at a glance. Though all that seemed too good to be true. The middle one had been moved after the compound was raided and before we got here. Not a good sign. And, the mining bot I disabled had a slave system in it. Lucky enough when I shut down the slave system, all 3 mining bots shut down. I was too injured though to go tangle with one of each of the security and maintenance bots to hope they too had slave systems. No way I could survive another hit.

Everyone else seemed to be in agreement as well. Baboo picked up Doc Perro before he realized the doc was playing possum. Voak went for the north explorer and I went to the south one. Didn’t have time to check them though. Had to hope we chose right. Our retreat was kind of ugly, and not too organized, but we scrambled into the explorers, Doc being tossed onto Voak’s lap and the others going for the back doors.

The robots didn’t stop attacking, and as I took off heading right through one of the bots the steering jammed so I could only drive in a circle. Voak drove right through 3 of the bots, taking minor damage to his explorer as he went as well and his steering also got locked in a left turn. Fortunate for myself, Kat and Jazz, our arc took us through the fence and I stopped before circling back into the compound. While Voak’s collision with the bots meant his circle kept him inside the compound, though near the gate. Being outside the compound seemed to be outside the bots’ programming and they turned all their attention to Voak, Baboo and Doc.

Baboo was reluctant to leave, and Voak stayed in the safety of the cab, but with Baboo keeping the bots occupied and a smoke grenade for cover, Doc was able to scramble out of the compound. Eventually Bab’s gave up the fight and Voak gave up his cover. We all made it out alive, and once we were outside the fence the bots returned to their previous positions and ignored us.

Then it was Doc’s turn to put us back together. We had all been beat up pretty bad, even Doc. Lots of medical care and new defensive suits needed for all of those who had spares. But with the bots once again playing inert we were safe enough to take all the time we needed. Though something wasn’t right. More than just the ambush laid by the robots. Something else was wrong too. Was it the explorers? Was it the bots? Or maybe the corvette that chased off our ride.

Then we had our second chance to take the compound. Hindsight is 20/20. Suspecting it was our proximity to the computer shed, I moved in to the barracks first, escorted by Bab’s and covered by everyone else. The maintenance bots also had a slave system, and though I wasn’t able to disable them all from the first bot, I was able to shut down all the maint bots from the second one hiding in the barracks. Avoiding the computer shed, the two of us then went into the processing plant.

It was hot though, radioactive hot, and after the two of us took a solid dose, we left, leaving the two security bots in there untouched. That left just one security bot to use to shut down all the security bots, and it was sitting right outside the door to the computer shed. Approaching it slowly, with force axes raised, I tip-clawed up to it, Baboo at my side, both ready to strike if it moved. But it didn’t, and I was able to use the slave system on this one to shut down all three security bots.

I was still paranoid for a while. I think everyone was, but Kat was able to enter the shed and access the computer without the bots stirring. We found that other than the security program, it had been wiped. But Kat once more proved she was no slouch with data forensics. She was able to pull some images from it. Images of the ones who had wiped it. They weren’t Sathar, but they were wearing Streel Corp emblems. I know it wasn’t personal, but Streel was a vile corp, corrupt and greedy through and through. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they were the ones that had murdered the compound crew.

We spent the next few days preparing what we could; repairing the explorers, reprogramming the bots, mounting the heavy weapons from the cache on the explorers. Wasn’t a lot of planning we could do, but all the preparations still took time. Now our missions was retaliation. To strike out at the Streel compound, and kill anyone that doesn’t surrender.

But they struck first. As dawn broke and we were loading up the last things to head out, an aircar came calling. Armed with a recoilless rifle and a skilled pilot, and bearing Streel Corp markings. He tried taking out our explorers. But those things are tough you know? Not like the alien tank from Starmist, but still able to take multiple hits. and provide cover to those of us inside.

I thought about heading out, but we couldn’t outrun an aircar and staying stationary gave Jazz and Kat the best platform to defend us. Baboo kept loading for Kat, while Voak and I grabbed heavies and used them unmounted to fire. The pilot was good, and its hard to hit a speeding aircar at range. But we outgunned him three to one. It took Kat and Jazz time to get the range. But when they did, and with a hit added by Voak, the aircar was doomed. It tried running, but it didn’t make it. A series of engine hits and we saw it go down in flames and an explosion a few clicks out.

Budget Crew one, Streel zero.

[LordEntrails]

They came looking for us again. This time with three combat cars and a jetcopter for air cover. They hit us just as we finished crossing a river, fortunately. They came running and gunning, trying to use their speed to keep from getting hit. But we stopped the two explorers in place where we could protect one another and provide cover for those exiting to engage.

Sure, they were hard to hit, but they couldn’t lock on to us very well and they only managed to take some paint off the explorers. Nothing we wouldn’t be able to fix afterwards. And we put them down. One at a time and when the last one turned tail we got him before he got away.

Budget Crew two, Streel zero. I was beginning to like this.

We found some locals. Or, more accurately, they found us and we didn’t piss them off. We’re not too shabby at that. Seemed like a group of teenagers throwing rotten fruit at us. We just buttoned up and kept going.

Until their parents stood in the path before us. But after a short while things were getting on pretty well. We were near the Streel compound and seems like the locals were getting raided by Streel as slave labor or such. Looked like we might get a repeat of Slave City One. So, we made friends. We scouted the compound with their help and made a plan that they were going to help with.

Most of us would sneak into the back of the compound by a tunnel used for power plant cooling water from a small river. Voak and the Doc would stay out front with an explorer to provide a distraction once things got going and support for the locals who would also attack the front to draw things away from us.

Didn’t work out so easy. We snuck in and blew a hole in the back wall. But the diversion didn’t work well enough. Resistance was heavy, too heavy and Voak had to come save us. We put several of them down, but they were well armed and skilled. And we limped back to the village to a cold reception. Too many of the locals hurt or dead trying to help us. They weren’t going to help us again, but at least we had a warm safe place to recover, and we did.

Ok, Streel one, Budget Crew two. Can’t win them all.

Returning to scout, we found that they had put up surveillance around the cooling access we used before, and so we decided on a new plan. This time we were going to use false alarm fatigue. We set up in protected and camouflaged position across the river. Then Babs stealthed across with a holoscreen to trip the sensor. We did this several times seemingly randomly, but they kept sending out a response team. So we struck.

And it worked. We were taking light fire while inflicting serious casualties to them. Then their response team showed up with heavier weapons. That was ok too, part of our plan. We were ready to withdraw and in a position to do so whenever we needed to. As long as we were getting the better of them we were doing just what we wanted.

****ers got lucky. I was holding the downstream flank when Babs returned. They hit me hard, shredded my suit. Before I could get back to our explorer, they hit me again. Lights out. Everything after that I can only relate what I was told.

Babs carried me back to the explorer and the Crew buttoned up and headed out. Doc and Jazz tried to patch me up, but I was bad. Really bad and they couldn’t stabilize me. I was missing large chunks of chitin, internal organs had not only failed, but were going to need replacing. Without real medical facilities, I wasn’t going to make it. So they dropped me in a stasis field and knew now they had to take the Streel compound, hoping it would have the surgical bay needed to clone my organs and wake me from stasis.

Call that a draw, we accomplished what we set out for, but almost at the cost of my chitin.

They did. They took it by going straight in. The Streel team had been weakened by our constant assaults. But the Budget Crew scraped by, not by much, but more than the other guys, and in the end, that’s all that matters right?

Budget Crew three, game over.

The compound had the medical bay I needed, and before long I was out of the stasis field and conscious once more. The miner’s had surrendered and our extraction was inbound. We gathered what was valuable from the compound and as the shuttle prepared to liftoff, Jazz blew the reactor. Mission Accomplished.

CDC didn’t seem too happy when they paid us though. Maybe they wanted the miners dead? I guess they felt too many folks living who knew what happened. But I thought better of them than that. Who knows, could have been misreading the functionary who paid us, or something else. It was enough though to let us have the down-time and relaxation we all deserved. Lots of hard cider and fresh invertebrates to snack on.

[dulux-oz]

Once again - Well Done!

(Both for the stories and the actual role-play :) )

[LordEntrails]

Thanks. I'll try not to let if go so long next time.

[LordEntrails]

Things were slow and we were getting that itch again when she showed up. You know that old human cliché about a dame walking into a bar? Well, that’s what happened. Some reporter from PGC Holo News, Charlotte something. She checked out, and her story seemed to as well. Wanted us to escort her on a trip so we could help her get an interview with the La’Grange, the recent XXX-McCoy award winner who seemed to be something of a racists rabble rouser claiming racial abuse on his home planet.

The pay was enough, 5k and round trip tickets to Kraatear for working on the outbound trip and 5 days on planet once we got there. We got her the interview while on the ship. Didn’t go her way, not to me, but seemed to make her happy enough. I guess she had to know that he should shut down the interview once she started with questions that were not pre-approved. Maybe she just wanted vid of him refusing to answer reasonable questions. Evidence that would make him look like the intolerant racist he is.

I was content enough. Hung with a pair of vrusk glass salesmen since the reporter’s target hated vrusks, bigoted vertebrate. More importantly, no sathar tried to hijack us, no Star Devil minions showed up. Everything was going well until we were departing the shuttle after reaching Kraatear. The Budget Crew got off first, I guess no one else was anxious to get off. The vrusks were slow and our bigot wasn’t going to wait for them so he followed a short way behind us.

That’s when our reporter dame turned back claiming she had left something on the shuttle. She probably just wanted to get a chance to ask the bigot La’Grange something. That’s when things got dirty. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure the grenades went off first. But they were soon followed by the first laser shot from a waiting ground car.

The grenades went off at the feet of the Bigot, catching him and his two body guards. And our meal ticket. Her timing sucked, and she was probably dead for it. Don’t know who the laser was targeting. We all reacted differently. Myself, I wasn’t going to become a target so I didn’t draw. Instead I found cover in some parked vehicles where the ground techs and customs agent took cover as well. The rest of the Crew came to their conclusions faster than I did. The two vrusk business men were at the top of the ramp, guns drawn and in hindsight, certainly who had thrown the grenades.

Doc headed for our meal ticket to see if she might live. Voak and Kat, maybe Jazz, went non-lethal. But the grenadiers we’re unaffected. Baboo charged the two. More shot came in from the ground car and at this point I didn’t want to show loyalties and stayed put. The two assassins held their own for but a moment, then they went down. We might be the Budget Crew, but you better be prepared for a hard fight if you go up against us. The two vrusk grenadiers were not.

About then is when the sniper’s ground car decided to leave, and I jumped on a cycle that was parked near me and gave chase. It wasn’t a long chase. Just around the first corner I came across an ambulance that had been pushed off the road. Two corners later as I came around the front of the spaceport and found the sniper’s car. It had failed the corner onto the expressway. Looked like it had rolled before smashing itself into a support column.

That’s when the local cops finally got involved. You know, after the dying was over. You know there is a reason they call it Law Enforcement and not Crime Prevention. They were already onsite at the crash and were waving me down to surrender. I figured the cops were probably within moments of doing the same back at the pad, and besides, I hadn’t done anything wrong, or even violent, so I pulled up, turned off the cycles and gave myself over to the authorities.

Of course, the cops pulled in their inspector, seemed like a nice enough shell at first. Nicely waxed, strong mandibles, you know the sort. He was going to let us go when one of his helpers came in with what was obviously background reports on us. Thinking we had lied to him he started going off. He never asked us what our background was, or why we were on planet. He had only asked what happened at the pad so we had told him. Apparently, Charlotte’s applications for our tourist visas wasn’t so good.

Inspector Clack got all huffy. So did I. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but something about his attitude just set me off you know? Anyway, after we worked through our little displays of who’s shell was hardest, he shut up and let us tell him why we were really there. For good or bad, we made ourselves useful to him. So, he coerced us into being his agents. Not that we were really opposed, this planet was in the middle of turmoil. And turmoil means opportunity. And I was kind of curious about shutting down the Bigot’s operation anyway.

With a promise to find out what we could and pass it on to Inspector Click, and in return for new visas and a return promise to help us if he could, we set off for a hotel near the hospital. Doc had the idea that separatists would need medical supplies and we might be able to establish some sort of legitimacy through the hospital. Turned out Doc was going to earn more credibility on that front than we thought.

After using the public terminal to do what background research we could, we hopped on the monorail heading into the city and to our hotel destination. Protests had already started in the streets below us as news of La’Grange’s death had been announced and the separatists were using it to foment unrest. I was glad we were in the monorail above the unrest as we could see the mostly human crowds turn to rioting. That is, until we reached the next terminal and it was announced the monorail was being shut down due to the riots.

I was hoping to shelter in place, but we soon got kicked out as the place was locked up. Driven out, we headed into the city, and away from the rioting we head seen by foot. Knowing the rioters where going to be looking for vrusks to take their anger out on, I put on my holo screen. The camo loop might not have been the best, but hopefully it would keep me from being spotted if we came across any of the unwashed idiots thinking destroying their own homes, businesses, and workplaces was going to do them any good.

It worked too as a large crowd came through and only Kat was seen by them while the rest of us managed to hide. She joined them just long enough to keep them moving before returning to us and we all kept heading away from the mayhem. But only a couple blocks further on we encountered more. This time they didn’t see us, they were too busy ganging up on a couple of vrusk that had been caught in the open. One looked like he might already be dead while the other wasn’t going to last much longer.

I reacted. I figured tear gas would be pretty tame and knowing it would spread quickly they wouldn’t want to stick around to finish their deranged game of crack the shell. They didn’t see me, but they did see where the grenade came from and they rushed us. Well, that did get them away from the innocents at least. Just like any group of street thugs, they were good at giving, but not at receiving. We were good at receiving, thanks to our gear, but we were much better at giving.

Their leader carried a sonic sword, the rest knives and clubs. We all carry sonic swords or better and it didn’t last too long. We let the ones that fled go, but the leader and a couple others weren’t smart enough to leave before we had them on the ground. We stripped their gear and tied up the leader, all while doc tended to two victims in the shelter of a nearby lobby. But one of the victims was critical and needed a hospital quick. I left a message for Inspector Click Clack and Voak and Babs hefted the injured.

Fortunately the hospital wasn’t far off and after a quick triage from the nurse they took our critical victim into surgery. As Doc gave us care, his talents were quickly identified by the staff and he was sucked into service. I told you was going to gain some unexpected credibility. It was almost a full day before he was released, though while we waited for him in the over crowded lobby, we all were eventually treated by the staff there. Myself first since Jazz had cut me with his sword by mistake. Melee is dangerous, and with my holo screen on he lost track of me, until his sword found me. No matter, alls well that ends well.

Our less injured victim had suggested a nearby hotel and given us her contact before heading home earlier, and now with us all back together we made our way to the hotel. Interesting times that’s for sure.