Five Parsecs from Home - Part 2

Battle Turn 1

: Industrial Zone D :
: New Milton Keynes :
: Fringe Sector :

Night has fallen on New Milton Keynes. The two moons shine weakly through the clouds as Dirk Striker and his crew arrive (i.e. are unceremoniously dumped off) at the LZ. Their mission is to hold a section of a ruined industrial district, either chasing off or eliminating the band of space brigands holed up there. Once the zone is secure, the government will send in its team of crack property developers to begin planning work on a new gated community. This wouldn't have been Striker's first choice of a job, but he wasn't in a position to bargain.

Patron: Local government
Danger Pay: +3cr
Time frame: this turn
B/H/C: private transport

[The Patron was rolled with only 1d5 to fit the campaign start I made up. Pay for the mission (1d6+danger pay, as usual) is purely the value of battlefield salvage, since the actual payment is the PCs' freedom. Time frame was not rolled, again to fit the starting conditions. The B/H/C (Benefits/Hazards/Conditions) roll means no Rivals can track down the PCs this turn. Dirk (of course!) picked up Rivals during character creation.]

Setting up the Battle

Conditions: gloomy (9" max. visibility)
Notable sights: Documentation (provides a Rumour)
Objective: Secure
Enemy: Vigilantes

The rank and file are armed with Infantry Lasers -- too bad you can't salvage enemy weapons!

L to R: Hook, Shirtless, Fishy, the Engineer

Pigtails, their Lieutenant, gets a blade & +1 combat score.

The Specialists are Anorak (with a military rifle) and Ripper (ripper sword and
handgun). Specialists get no bonuses, just different weapons.

[Wargame AARs seem to be very light on mechanics, so there will be a lot fewer than in my RPG session posts.

There are a lot more images than usual, so the battle will begin after the cut.]


Round 1

[Reaction (initiative rolls) are 1,1,6,2,5,1 meaning 4 out of 6 characters get to act before the enemy. But all anyone can do this round is move. What a waste!]

Dirk and his crew move forward. They spread out, mostly staying under cover even though none of the enemy have been spotted yet in the dismal light.

Round 2

Dirk's as-yet-unnamed crew and the enemy continue to fan out through the battlefield.

[Post Round 2 Battle Event: "I found something" -- marker (the yellow cylinder) placed 1d6=42 from random character. It would be Loot if picked up, but no one managed]

GBH's sensors detect a sub-surface anomaly nearby. The bot chooses not to share this information with its comrades, and instead engages Stealth-Protocol 987c-F (::hide behind this wall/vehicle/large herbivore::).


Round 3

Dirk moves up and peers through the hole in a crumbling wall. "Dammit, where are they?"

Fishy creeps up -- he can just see Slow Hand peering round a broken wall. Fishy's laser emits a single pulse of green light...

...which blasts right through the gap in the jagged plasteel and catches Slow Hand full in the chest. "Death before disco," sneers the alien.

Shirtless and Hook sprint for cover behind a fallen bit of twisted metal. Muffy rushes up behind a platform and fires on Hook, but her shots go wide.


Round 4

Muffy fires on Hook. They say you never hear the bullet with your name on it. He probably heard the 5 preceding it though.

Wilmer charges up to chunk of fallen masonry. He raises his rifle to his shoulder, lets off a single shot. Ripper falls, hors de combat.

Zllgx had meanwhile climbed up a ladder to a mostly-stable platform. She can't see any enemies in the gloom, so adjusts her position to find a better vantage point -- in vain.

The baddies' Engineer draws a bead on Dirk, but the laser beams flash harmlessly past him. He returns fire with his blast pistol. The plasma bolt slams into the engineer, killing her outright.

[End of the round -- Panic dice are now rolled (1d6 per enemy casualty): 2,3,5. Vigilantes panic on 2+, so a single one (closest to their side of the table) bails.]

Unnerved by the gory death of his comrade, Anorak turns tail and flees.

[Post Round 4 Battle Event: Desperate plan -- random character (the bot) can't act next round, but the player may select one other to act in Quick & Slow action phases (i.e. before & after enemies); I chose Muffy.]


Round 5

Dirk blasts away at Fishy, but the plasma bolts burst against the plasteel wall next to him. Fishy responds with a hail of laser blasts, forcing Dirk back against a wall.

[Fishy's attack would have made Dirk a casualty, but he had a point to Luck to spend, so escaped unscathed as he dove to safety 1d6" away]

Muffy and Shirtless blaze away at one another. The lasers miss Muffy entirely. Her shots ricochet off metal, forcing shirtless back a few paces [she hit, but only Stunned him].

As Wilmer creeps up on her position, Pigtails appears from behind a support column, blasting away at Muffy, ineffectually. Muffy's return fire forces her back behind the column [hit, Stun].

Atop the platform, Zllgx is beginning to doubt that she'll ever see action on this mission.

Round 6

Shirtless and Muffy continue to blast everything but each other. Dirk takes careful aim and looses a plasma bolt at Fishy -- who meets a gory end!

Pigtails' laser bolts send up showers of permacrete, momentarily blinding Muffy and forcing her to keep her head down [hit, Stun]. Wilmer has a clear shot at Pigtails, but the bullet only grazes her [Stun].


Round 7

Wilmer takes another shot. This time Pigtails is down for good.

Shirtless and Muffy continue blazing away at one another. Muffy leaps up onto the platform and goes right up to the edge, giving her a clear shot down over his cover. Her next shot ends the battle.

next post: post battle activities & campaign turn 2