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

[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.