5 Parsecs – Protect the Cargo

The Peachy Queen shuddered as she dropped out of hyperspace amplifying Kat’s nausea. Taemena Jalee, the ship’s navigator, smiled knowing Kat’s distress. As a Precursor, Taemena’s people had traveled hyperspace for millennia and had built up an immunity to its discomforts.

“We have entered the edge of the Allenby system, Captain, with current deceleration, we should reach Allenby 5 in 782 hours and 28 minutes” Taemena reported.

Kat nodded, “Thank you, Taemena. Mary, assist Taemena in scanning the system. We’re on the fringe of the fringe, I don’t want to be surprised by anything, friend or foe. Helene, establish communications with the colony, Parkes’ Hope. Doris, check for any damage. I’m going to check on the cargo with Evelyn.”

During their deceleration towards Allenby 5, the crew adapted to the diurnal or sol cycle of the Parkes’ Hope colony. The radio chatter was for the most part commonplace, except twice a day the colony sent a message to the Unity government requesting ships and troops for protection from an imminent invasion. It wasn’t clear whether the invasion was from an alien species or from immigrants wanting to establish a rival colony on the planet, either way Unity remained silent. An invasion panic, real or imagined, meant it would be hard for Kat to sell the Peachy Queen’s cargo for a profit.

The Allenby 5 space station was a small station with no docking bays or repair facilities. Kat was instructed to moor the Peachy Queen in a geostationary low orbit. It only took a few days for Kat to realize that not a single buyer was interested in flying up to look at the cargo. All but one cited the expected invasion as the reason for not wanting to do business. The one businessman told her the real reason, the colonists were too cheap to go to the Peachy Queen, if Kat wanted to sell her cargo, she would have to shuttle it down to the surface.

After some negotiation with the city council of Stanston, the colony’s largest city, Kat secured a market square in an industrial park large enough to accommodate all of the cargo containers in one place. Once the cargo containers were in place, the crew split up to discover the city. Kat found a gym where she and Taemena could get in some training. As a Precursor, Taemena was invaluable on the ship, but she wasn’t in ideal shape for life on a planet with gravity. Evelyn, who was head and shoulders taller than anyone else on the crew, tagged along and found an instruction guide for a martial arts technique she’d been interested in learning. Evelyn was often teased as being a “muscle mommy,” a title she didn’t seem to mind. Helene and Doris went shopping, while Mary, ever the pragmatist, went looking for contract work for the crew.

The sun was setting when Kat, Evelyn and Taemena arrived back to the shuttle. The two shoppers, Helene and Doris were already there with a third person.

“Who have we here?” Kat asked.

“Captain, this is Edna Hammar, she’s looking for a berth,” said Helene.

Edna smiled and handed Kat a data card. “Yes, Captain Murray, I’ve served on a few long-term missions. Thought I’d try life dirtside, but it’s not working out.”

Kat scanned the card into her phone and gave it a quick glance, “I’ll tell you what we can do, Edna, you can join the crew on a probationary status and if it doesn’t work out, we can part at the next decent star port.”

“As long as it gets me off of this planet and back into space, it’s a deal, Captain,” said Edna.

“Captain, take a look,” said Evelyn pointing beyond Edna’s shoulder. It was Mary approaching with quick purposeful steps, she didn’t look happy.

“Captain,” Mary huffed, “I’ve learned the only security on our cargo is one old geezer with a flashlight who spends most of the night in the diner across the street from the industrial park. In addition, there’s a history of cargo disappearing before being offered for sale.”

Kat immediately knew it was serious, Mary rarely called her “Captain”, she said “Ok, this is what we’re going to do, Doris, Taemena and I will take the shuttle to the ship and get the weapons. Mary, take the rest of the crew to the industrial park and keep watch, use stick and stones if you must. Doris and I will be back with the shuttle sometime around midnight. Taemena will stay with the ship and monitor comm traffic. Let’s go.”

Mervyn Aldritch looked over his crew clustered around the admin building of the industrial park. They were a bunch of low life street punks and bar flies wanting to make a quick buck. All they had to do was to secure a perimeter around the cargo containers and then he would call his contact to come and haul them away. They didn’t have to worry about park security, seventy-year-old Pete Coleman was napping in a booth at the diner, which was good for Aldritch for his punks were making enough noise to wake the dead.

Once in the square, the punks divided into three groups and began moving among the containers.

Kat and her crew hurriedly reached the and began to deploy with the intention of placing a guard around the containers. Mary used a grapple launcher to climb to the top of a three-story building. Doris caught the movement of one of the punks in the shadows and squeezed off a couple of rounds from her auto rifle stunning the punk and forcing him to back away behind cover.

Kat, Helene, Edna and Evelyn advanced, but the punks were either well concealed or out of range. Then one punk stepped out from the corner of a container and fired at Kat. The shot ricocheted off of a crate and passed through Kat’s coat. Startled by the near miss, Kat dove for cover.

The punks made an aggressive advance making sure to remain behind cover. Doris moved up to a position beside Edna where her longer ranged rifle better reach their adversaries. Mary finally got into a position on the rooftop where she could see almost all of the square.

Doris’ shots garnered the attention of a punk who returned fire. The shot missed, keeping Doris and Edna pinned in place. The muzzle flash from the punk’s rifle was seen by Mary who fired a shot from her rooftop perch. Her shot missed.

Meanwhile on the other side of the square, the punk who had narrowly missed Kat, stepped out to take another shot, but this time Kat was ready and fired first dropping the punk to the ground.

Distracted by the spreading pool of blood from his teammate, a punk failed to notice Helene had moved into position. A quick shot from Helene and the punk was sprawled on pavement trying to staunch the blood from his own wound.

One punk, a woman armed with a cheap scrap pistol, advanced on Doris and Edna, firing as she moved. Two blasts from Edna’s shotgun brought a sudden halt to her advance. More shots rang out, all missing their targets, but were enough to panic one punk into fleeing.

Mary fired another shot from her perch. She hadn’t hit anyone, but her commanding view of the square caused the punks to cower in place. The lack of advance angered Aldritch who snarled at his crew, “If any of you scum want to get paid, you better secure these containers.”

Following his lead, the punks advanced behind a hail of gunfire. At first the weight of fire seemed to keep Kat’s crew motionless behind cover. Then Edna fired two blasts from her shotgun. The hesitation in seeing one of their own nearly cut in half, gave Evelyn the opportunity to charge one of the punks.

He was a big man, but Evelyn was just as big. He had a ripper sword, a serrated blade designed to rip tissue as it was withdrawn, she had a combat knife, and her lips curled into a sardonic grin. His eyes showed desperation; her eyes held only death.

His corpse gurgled when Evelyn released their embrace. The sight was enough for Aldritch, no amount of money was worth continuing this fight. He ran and his remaining punks ran with him.

The sound of sirens was growing louder and closer as the waitress and cook shook old Pete awake from his nap. “He had better get over to the park,” they said. There was some kind of trouble they had said.

Indeed, it was the kind of trouble that cost Peter Coleman his job.

Summary

This was the first game of a Five Parsecs from Home campaign. The victory conditions for this campaign are to Play 20 Campaign Turns. If you are unfamiliar with Five Parsecs from Home, it is a solo adventure wargame by Ivan Sorensen published by Modiphus Entertainment.

Each campaign turn builds a narrative story, such as the one above. Below, for those nerdy folk who want a peek at the actual game play mechanics are the character sheets and event table results.

As always, and I mean it, your comments and suggestions are appreciated and most welcome. See you in the next post.

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Crew Log – Start of Turn 1

Travel Time

The Starship Travel Event rolled for this turn arriving in the Allenby system is Travel-time, local conditions have forced the Peachy Queen to jump out of hyperspace at the edge of the system and continue on to Allenby 5 using standard drives.

World Record Sheet

World Steps – Turn 1

• Ship and Crew Upkeep – 1 credit
• Accrued Interest on Ship – 1 credit
• Ship Debt Payment – 1 credit
• Kat trains; gains 1XP
• Mary looks for patron; no luck
• Evelyn trades for an instruction book; gains 1XP
• Taemena trains; gains 1XP
• Doris purchases Scanner Bot – costs 3 credits
• Helene explores Stanston, meets Edna, Edna joins crew
• Edna puts 4 credits in ship’s fund
• No Quest received
• Carry Out an Opportunity Mission

Battle Preparations

• Deployment Conditions: Caught Off Guard
• Notable Sights: Documentation, gain a Quest Rumor
• Objective: Fight Off enemy, Hold the Field
• Enemy Encountered: Criminal Elements – Punks

Post-Battle

• Get paid 5 credits.
• Discover vital information; turn it in; gain Corporate Patron: Calibrated Accounts.
• Found 3 Fraak Grenades.
• Kat, Mary, Helene, Doris, Evelyn, & Edna receive 3XP each.
• Kat inflicts first casualty; gains 1XP.
• No one upgrades.
• Spent 3 credits on gadget table for Repair Bot.
• Campaign Event: Make Local Friends – gain +1 Story Point.
• Crew Event: Mary hurt while working on ship; she spends next campaign turn in sickbay; ship suffers 1 point of Hull Damage.