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

[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!