Pirates of Drinax - GMs thread
- Thread starter Sven2300
- Start date
Bardicheart
Mongoose
Q: Which group of players was it that wanted a secret base, as one of their objectives?
Old School
Mongoose
Mine, although they are kinda busy at the moment.
Old School
Mongoose
Longest post yet. . .
Revolution on Acrid: Let the Carnage Begin
As we last left our heroes, they are in three groups: (1) Rao’s Revenge is acting suspicious and Artemis (yes, the Harrier finally got a name) is hiding in the same general vicinity. (2) The Mendina is approaching the PRQ dock, and is loaded down with most of the team, 15 Vespexers, and a whole bunch of military vehicles, guns, ammo, food, and medicine. (3) Deni and nine Vespexers have inserted in with the mine workers, along with some smuggled body pistols and diplo armor.
In Space, the one operating PRQ SDB approaches Rao. As it gets to Very Long Range (where it should be able to make out what the ship really is), it gets a transmission from Artemis, which has snuck in behind it and is also at Very Long Range in the other direction (between the SDB and Acrid). The transmission is an order to surrender immediately, with the consequences of non-compliance being death by radiation. Those that surrender will be delivered unharmed to the GeDeCo port as soon as possible. The travellers make it clear that they want to minimize bloodshed where possible, but they absolutely will attack if they do not receive immediate compliance. The SDB’s comms are then jammed by the Harrier. It’s a little risky to give it a warning, as a good roll by the SDB’s comm operator could break the jam, as the SDB has good sensors and its own countermeasures suite. The travellers take the risk because they are serious about minimizing the body count. Oh well.
The SDB decides to make a run for it, and immediately races for home, launching a salvo of 24 missiles at the Rao. As promised, three particle beams fire in response. Artemis’s barbette and Rao’s first bay, both aided by software, hit easily, but don’t amount to much radiation damage. Protected by their ship and their suits, the SDB crew only takes 125 rads, 100 of which are absorbed by the pills they just swallowed. The 2nd particle bay on the Rao also hits (high roll), and includes enough radiation to kill several PRQ crewman, and incapacitate all but a couple of the rest. The PRQ vessel, still being jammed, powers down in surrender. (If not for two high rolls at the end, my friends would have gotten a second volley of 24 missiles, which would have been fun. Oh well). Most of the missiles are eventually cut down by the Rao’s countermeasures and a few by lasers, but it still ends up eating five missiles for 40 damage. Both ships close on the SDB to board and provide medical assistance to their prisoners.
Back in Acrid, the Medina approaches the port. The idea was to make a simultaneous strike, but a failed tactics roll means they blew it, and a random die roll determines that Artemis jumped the gun slightly. So what would PRQ Acrid do, having just lost communications with its SDB that is investigating a suspicious ship? They ask for help, of course. Messages go to GeDeCo and to the Mendina, requesting aid. GeDeCo responds that neither of their ships is particularly close, but they will converge with all possible speed. The Mendina responds that it is running with a light crew, and requests that PRQ Acrid assemble a boarding party for immediate pickup on the docks, so the Mendina can immediately turn around to aid the SDB (this was brilliant. Lemons into lemonade). PRQ Acrid agrees and assembles the marines from their other SDB, a few response team members, and medical staff on the dock.
60 seconds out, the Mendina transmits a message to the GeDeCo starport, informing them that what is about to go down is a private affair between the Travellers and PRQ, and informing GeDeCo not to interfere. They also promise to do nothing that will interfere with GeDeCo’s operations or any non-PRQ system traffic. Attached to this message is a copy of the Mercenary contract they have signed with theminers.
As it is about to touch down, the Mendina’s front cargo doors begin to open, its turrets power up, and all hell breaks loose. One pulse turret takes out the security station, killing every person there. The second does the same to the control room. Using the beam laser to attack the PRQ team assembled to board is briefly considered, but instead the Vespexers are ordered to load tranq grenades and hit these people before moving on to their assigned objectives. The moment the ship touches down, three Gecko assault vehicles roar out, each containing four Vespexers and a Traveller. The remaining three Vespexers follow on foot, and many tranq grenades are fired. The PRQ team on the deck is ordered to surrender. Bewildered, outnumbered, surrounded, and facing grenades and heavy weapons, they comply (I decided to reward the travellers for their humanity rather than have an extra shootout).
The Vespexers on foot along with one of the travellers secure the prisoners and the rest of the dock. The PRQ SDB that is down for service is empty. A few shuttle crew and dock workers run for the tunnel, and are ignored as they aren’t armed. The dock secured for the moment, the three Gecko’s take off for the tunnels, one each down the North and South access tunnels that lead to the security ring, and one down the main entrance tunnel towards Grand Central.
As the dock is blown to hell by the Mendina, the Vespexer miners and their friends strike inside their residential complex. At any given time there are two basic security guys patrolling on each level of the miner’s residential complex, and they are quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They are relieved of their autopistols, stun sticks, and ballistic vests. (I ran this part as a boarding action rather than play out ten different scenes, each involving two cops finding 10 guys with guns running at them. The worker forces prevailed very quickly). The Vespexers and some of the workers head towards GCS to meet up with their comrades racing down the tunnel in a Gecko.
Each of the Geckos quickly overruns the three man security stations intended to control traffic in each unnel. They approach under the fire of double autocannons right up to the checkpoint, and hop out to fight at close range if any resistance remains. Six of the security guards manning these checkpoints are killed, two are unconscious, and one seriously injured.
The Gecko’s leave the checkpoints behind, with Hima taking his team North up the ring to fight the next checkpoint. These guards have time to don carapace armor and grab heavier weapons, but the result is much the same, largely due to Hima’s work with a gauss rifle. They continue around the ring and come to the North power station, where the techs surrender immediately. Porter leads his team south, with much the same result, although his group does take a couple of injuries at the 2nd checkpoint. They secure the South water and air utility station.
Junior’s crew heads right up the main entrance tunnel and into grand central station. When the Gecko enters the hall, their fellow freedom fighters in the worker residential quad also enter and provide covering fire as the Gecko rolls through the hall. Grenade and gauss fire cut down the guards at the security station located on the ground level of the hall, and the auto cannons fire on the crow’s nest security booth up top. The security team up top has good armor and good cover, but only 6 guards are in the booth, one of whom takes autocannon round early. Sheer numbers will make the result inevitable before much longer. After a frag grenade hits the crow’s nest, the functioning guards decide to stay down and drag their injured colleagues towards the exit.
As the guards on the ground level fall, the Vespexers from the miner quad charge forward, eager to grab better armor from the fallen guards as well as rifles brought by the Gecko. 6 troops from PRQ’s Rapid Response Team, watching the security camera from just out of sight, use this moment to their advantage, appearing suddenly at the entrance to the citizen quad, armed with laser carbines and boarding suits. The other two members of their team were captured on the docks, and they return the favor by cutting down the exposed Vespexers. Two proud Vespexers fall dead, another unconscious, and one seriously injured man crawls two cover. Two response team troopers hit the Gecko, disabling it but not its pindle mounted gun. Junior, still in the gun mount, drives the response team back behind hard cover with the autocannon, while his four Vespexers, along with Deni and the five of his nine Vespexers who are still upright, huddle behind it for cover.
Junior, a 30 year old former marine recon man, keeps his cool, and yells “smoke” to his troops, signaling them to each load the one smoke Grenade included in their kit. Dozens of mine workers, armed with body pistols, auto pistols, clubs, and makeshift grenades, peak around the corners from their quad but want nothing to do with the big boy guns ripping apart Grand Central. Junior also transmits a message (his neural comm comes in very handy here) to Chad back in the Mendina, advising him of their predicament. Deni yells to the mine workers to move up the ramps to the upper levels of Grand Central, but they ain’t having it. No one wants to expose themselves after witnessing controlled laser fire. Deni does manage to coax some of them to come out to the first place they can find hard cover so they can have a better view of the upper levels, and tells them to shoot anything that moves.
Chad leaves Willie in charge of the hanger, while he, Leroy, and Beni grab the closest cargo cart and head up the main tunnel towards Junior and his crew. Chad knows they can be overrun soon enough, and also knows that thousands of miners are stuck in their residential quad so long as Grand Central is a killing ground. PRQ designed the facility to restrict movement of the workers, and that feature is currently working.
Back in the ring tunnels, Porter and his crew capture the Southside missile turret without a fight. On the Northside, Hima cuts the power from the power plant, leaving the entire citizen quad under emergency power. They then head to the Northside turret, leaving behind the restrained techs from the power plant. The missile crew considers fighting, but a tranq grenade tossed into a small space convinces them otherwise. Their missions accomplished, Hima requests an ETA on when the army of mine workers will arrive to secure their gains.
Not only is getting miners into the ring tunnel to control it behind schedule, PRQ’s forces are more or less awake, equipped, and on the move. (We’re less than 5 minutes into the assault). Hima and his team hear shouts in the tunnel as the restrained guards and techs they left behind call out to the PRQ forces (including response team B) that are entering the ring directly from the worker quad. Time to go! Hima informs Chad and Willie that they have to abandon their position as PRQ forces have cut them off from the front of the base. He then puts a gauss pistol to the head of one of the missile techs and demands to know how much security is on the backside of the tunnel. Just one checkpoint at the westernmost point in the ring (true). He orders his team to set an explosive on 60 seconds in the missile storage. There’s no room for prisoners on the little Gecko, so he tells the missile techs “Be sure they know that we let you live. We will kill anyone we have to, but no one that we don’t.” The techs, freed but well aware of the explosives just placed, sprint back towards their own forces while Hima and his crew take the Gecko deeper into the ring before the missile silo goes boom. Hima thinks “I hope their own guys don’t shoot them in the confusion”.
The three Vespexers still at the docks head into the northern ring access tunnel, hoping to slow down any PRQ forces coming their way.
Hima transmits his intel to Porter, who agrees to take his Southside team around to meet up with Hima. They ignore the 2nd set of utility stations for the moment, converging on the interior security checkpoint from both sides, and quickly negotiate its surrender. Hima sets up his team in a defensive position at this checkpoint, while Porter doubles back to round up the techs in the Southside power station. These are engineers, not soldiers, so they go quietly. Hima wants two of the Vespexers to walk the prisoners back around the Southside, but Porter doesn’t trust the Vespexers, so he goes in place of one of them.
Back at Grand Central, no one from PRQ wants to charge an autocannon any more than the miners want to charge lasers, but Chad, behind cover at the end of the main entrance tunnel, knows that sitting still can’t be their solution at this point. Chad and Leroy use plasma guns against the very high ceiling, dropping large chunks of rock at the entrance to the citizens quad. After a few shots, Junior’s team tosses and launches smoke grenades to provide soft cover, and then sprint for the nearby miner’s residential quad. Reluctantly Junior then orders them to fire on the Gecko’s ammunition rack so that it can’t be captured.
The plasma guns have bought a little time, but they still need a way to get the workers out of their quad and into the ring, or the PRQ forces will have an easy time regaining ground. Benedict (Beni) taps Chad on the shoulder to interrupt his impromptu plasma mining, and points the grubby looking folks with miner’s helmets climbing through the railway opening halfway back down he tunnel. Holy crap, the miners who were actually in the mines when the attack started! Forgot about them! As the miners jog up towards their liberators, the travellers realize that while the miner’s residential quad has to cross Grand Central to get anywhere in the base, anyone already in the mines does not. He tells the miners to grab whatever transportation there is, or to run, and get to the docks where Willie will meet them with weapons. “And somebody get explosives from the mines. Lots of explosives”. With as many miners as possible hanging on the cart, Chad, Leroy, and Beni head back to the dock, drop off the miners, and then race as fast as the cart will go down the northern access tunnel to join the three Vespexers.
Willie supervises the distribution of ACRs and cloth armor, and hurries the miners after Chad and company. Before any miners can get there, PRQ, led by response team B, makes contact with the three Vespexers now manning the 2nd checkpoint. The Vespexers have cover but not much else, so they stay low and fall back against overwhelming numbers. Chad and Leroy see them and fire plasma over their heads and towards the PRQ forces. Plasma will give any advancing force pause, and the PRQ guys in their boarding suits (and the 100 security people behind them with significantly less armor) are no exception. Leroy yells down the tunnel, “When you Ex-Navy wimps are ready to surrender, just let us know”. A grenade bounces down the tunnel in response. Chad tries a softer approach “The bloodshed can stop whenever you guys want. Hold your position and let’s talk. Anyone who wants off this rock will be given safe passage”. He then radios Willie to make contact using the ship’s comm with the PRQ security forces, in attempt to start negotiations. Willie makes contact, explains that they represent the oppressed miners who are claiming this facility, and suggests they cease hostilities long enough to allow a GeDeCo rep to come over and mediate a discussion.
No one at PRQ is particularly interested, but the primary goal to buy a few extra minutes time does work, long enough to get dozens of armed miners to the edge of the ring. They don’t particularly know how to use their ACRs, but its PRQ that needs to advance, not them, so any hail of bullets they can produce in the right general direction will suffice. What they do now how to use is explosives, so chad directs them to rig explosives across the ring tunnel. Ore carts are rolled into the ring tunnel for cover, and several layers of explosives are rigged on the floor and walls. The same is done in the north access tunnel, and then the miners fall back towards the docks and start to build a defensive position.
Chad and company take some of the growing army of miners down the south access tunnel, where a few are given the task of rigging a 2nd line of explosives, and the rest are sent around the south side to collect prisoners and find Hima and his team. PRQ sent a much smaller force West than they did back towards the entrance, and that team stops short when they encounter Hima and his crew. Unlike the travellers, they don’t have an armored vehicle, which means if they come around the bend in the tunnel they are approaching gauss rifles in a secured position, on foot. No, thank you. Once miners finally start to arrive, they start work on collapsing the tunnel, and Hima gets a ride back around to the entrance.
So where are we as we wrap up the opening round?
• A whole bunch of PRQ security are dead, and a lesser number captured. But there are a boatload more of them in the northern side of the ring tunnel and the Citizens Quad.
• The “Citizens” are kinda trapped in their quad, although they do have a backdoor into the northern side of the ring tunnel.
• Two Vespexers are dead, and two more seriously injured.
• The majority of the workers along with Junior, Deni, and some Vespexers, are pinned down in the miners’ quad.
• The miners and travellers control two entrances to GCS, and PRQ holds one. PRQ also has access to the top “crows nest” level. Crossing Grand Central is suicide.
• The travellers and miners control the southside of the ring. The back side is being collapsed with explosives, and the front side is currently a stalemate with both sides having impenetrable defensive positions.
• No one really controls the bio (food production) quad, but PRQ security has backdoor access to it, so they’ll control it soon enough unless something changes.
• The Travellers control the power, water, and air utilities on the South, while PRW holds those on the North. So as of now neither can cut off the other’s supply.
• The travellers hold the south missile turret, and the north turret is destroyed.
• The travellers control the mines, the dock, the skies, and space.
• GeDeCo wants to know WTF?
Revolution on Acrid: Let the Carnage Begin
As we last left our heroes, they are in three groups: (1) Rao’s Revenge is acting suspicious and Artemis (yes, the Harrier finally got a name) is hiding in the same general vicinity. (2) The Mendina is approaching the PRQ dock, and is loaded down with most of the team, 15 Vespexers, and a whole bunch of military vehicles, guns, ammo, food, and medicine. (3) Deni and nine Vespexers have inserted in with the mine workers, along with some smuggled body pistols and diplo armor.
In Space, the one operating PRQ SDB approaches Rao. As it gets to Very Long Range (where it should be able to make out what the ship really is), it gets a transmission from Artemis, which has snuck in behind it and is also at Very Long Range in the other direction (between the SDB and Acrid). The transmission is an order to surrender immediately, with the consequences of non-compliance being death by radiation. Those that surrender will be delivered unharmed to the GeDeCo port as soon as possible. The travellers make it clear that they want to minimize bloodshed where possible, but they absolutely will attack if they do not receive immediate compliance. The SDB’s comms are then jammed by the Harrier. It’s a little risky to give it a warning, as a good roll by the SDB’s comm operator could break the jam, as the SDB has good sensors and its own countermeasures suite. The travellers take the risk because they are serious about minimizing the body count. Oh well.
The SDB decides to make a run for it, and immediately races for home, launching a salvo of 24 missiles at the Rao. As promised, three particle beams fire in response. Artemis’s barbette and Rao’s first bay, both aided by software, hit easily, but don’t amount to much radiation damage. Protected by their ship and their suits, the SDB crew only takes 125 rads, 100 of which are absorbed by the pills they just swallowed. The 2nd particle bay on the Rao also hits (high roll), and includes enough radiation to kill several PRQ crewman, and incapacitate all but a couple of the rest. The PRQ vessel, still being jammed, powers down in surrender. (If not for two high rolls at the end, my friends would have gotten a second volley of 24 missiles, which would have been fun. Oh well). Most of the missiles are eventually cut down by the Rao’s countermeasures and a few by lasers, but it still ends up eating five missiles for 40 damage. Both ships close on the SDB to board and provide medical assistance to their prisoners.
Back in Acrid, the Medina approaches the port. The idea was to make a simultaneous strike, but a failed tactics roll means they blew it, and a random die roll determines that Artemis jumped the gun slightly. So what would PRQ Acrid do, having just lost communications with its SDB that is investigating a suspicious ship? They ask for help, of course. Messages go to GeDeCo and to the Mendina, requesting aid. GeDeCo responds that neither of their ships is particularly close, but they will converge with all possible speed. The Mendina responds that it is running with a light crew, and requests that PRQ Acrid assemble a boarding party for immediate pickup on the docks, so the Mendina can immediately turn around to aid the SDB (this was brilliant. Lemons into lemonade). PRQ Acrid agrees and assembles the marines from their other SDB, a few response team members, and medical staff on the dock.
60 seconds out, the Mendina transmits a message to the GeDeCo starport, informing them that what is about to go down is a private affair between the Travellers and PRQ, and informing GeDeCo not to interfere. They also promise to do nothing that will interfere with GeDeCo’s operations or any non-PRQ system traffic. Attached to this message is a copy of the Mercenary contract they have signed with theminers.
As it is about to touch down, the Mendina’s front cargo doors begin to open, its turrets power up, and all hell breaks loose. One pulse turret takes out the security station, killing every person there. The second does the same to the control room. Using the beam laser to attack the PRQ team assembled to board is briefly considered, but instead the Vespexers are ordered to load tranq grenades and hit these people before moving on to their assigned objectives. The moment the ship touches down, three Gecko assault vehicles roar out, each containing four Vespexers and a Traveller. The remaining three Vespexers follow on foot, and many tranq grenades are fired. The PRQ team on the deck is ordered to surrender. Bewildered, outnumbered, surrounded, and facing grenades and heavy weapons, they comply (I decided to reward the travellers for their humanity rather than have an extra shootout).
The Vespexers on foot along with one of the travellers secure the prisoners and the rest of the dock. The PRQ SDB that is down for service is empty. A few shuttle crew and dock workers run for the tunnel, and are ignored as they aren’t armed. The dock secured for the moment, the three Gecko’s take off for the tunnels, one each down the North and South access tunnels that lead to the security ring, and one down the main entrance tunnel towards Grand Central.
As the dock is blown to hell by the Mendina, the Vespexer miners and their friends strike inside their residential complex. At any given time there are two basic security guys patrolling on each level of the miner’s residential complex, and they are quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They are relieved of their autopistols, stun sticks, and ballistic vests. (I ran this part as a boarding action rather than play out ten different scenes, each involving two cops finding 10 guys with guns running at them. The worker forces prevailed very quickly). The Vespexers and some of the workers head towards GCS to meet up with their comrades racing down the tunnel in a Gecko.
Each of the Geckos quickly overruns the three man security stations intended to control traffic in each unnel. They approach under the fire of double autocannons right up to the checkpoint, and hop out to fight at close range if any resistance remains. Six of the security guards manning these checkpoints are killed, two are unconscious, and one seriously injured.
The Gecko’s leave the checkpoints behind, with Hima taking his team North up the ring to fight the next checkpoint. These guards have time to don carapace armor and grab heavier weapons, but the result is much the same, largely due to Hima’s work with a gauss rifle. They continue around the ring and come to the North power station, where the techs surrender immediately. Porter leads his team south, with much the same result, although his group does take a couple of injuries at the 2nd checkpoint. They secure the South water and air utility station.
Junior’s crew heads right up the main entrance tunnel and into grand central station. When the Gecko enters the hall, their fellow freedom fighters in the worker residential quad also enter and provide covering fire as the Gecko rolls through the hall. Grenade and gauss fire cut down the guards at the security station located on the ground level of the hall, and the auto cannons fire on the crow’s nest security booth up top. The security team up top has good armor and good cover, but only 6 guards are in the booth, one of whom takes autocannon round early. Sheer numbers will make the result inevitable before much longer. After a frag grenade hits the crow’s nest, the functioning guards decide to stay down and drag their injured colleagues towards the exit.
As the guards on the ground level fall, the Vespexers from the miner quad charge forward, eager to grab better armor from the fallen guards as well as rifles brought by the Gecko. 6 troops from PRQ’s Rapid Response Team, watching the security camera from just out of sight, use this moment to their advantage, appearing suddenly at the entrance to the citizen quad, armed with laser carbines and boarding suits. The other two members of their team were captured on the docks, and they return the favor by cutting down the exposed Vespexers. Two proud Vespexers fall dead, another unconscious, and one seriously injured man crawls two cover. Two response team troopers hit the Gecko, disabling it but not its pindle mounted gun. Junior, still in the gun mount, drives the response team back behind hard cover with the autocannon, while his four Vespexers, along with Deni and the five of his nine Vespexers who are still upright, huddle behind it for cover.
Junior, a 30 year old former marine recon man, keeps his cool, and yells “smoke” to his troops, signaling them to each load the one smoke Grenade included in their kit. Dozens of mine workers, armed with body pistols, auto pistols, clubs, and makeshift grenades, peak around the corners from their quad but want nothing to do with the big boy guns ripping apart Grand Central. Junior also transmits a message (his neural comm comes in very handy here) to Chad back in the Mendina, advising him of their predicament. Deni yells to the mine workers to move up the ramps to the upper levels of Grand Central, but they ain’t having it. No one wants to expose themselves after witnessing controlled laser fire. Deni does manage to coax some of them to come out to the first place they can find hard cover so they can have a better view of the upper levels, and tells them to shoot anything that moves.
Chad leaves Willie in charge of the hanger, while he, Leroy, and Beni grab the closest cargo cart and head up the main tunnel towards Junior and his crew. Chad knows they can be overrun soon enough, and also knows that thousands of miners are stuck in their residential quad so long as Grand Central is a killing ground. PRQ designed the facility to restrict movement of the workers, and that feature is currently working.
Back in the ring tunnels, Porter and his crew capture the Southside missile turret without a fight. On the Northside, Hima cuts the power from the power plant, leaving the entire citizen quad under emergency power. They then head to the Northside turret, leaving behind the restrained techs from the power plant. The missile crew considers fighting, but a tranq grenade tossed into a small space convinces them otherwise. Their missions accomplished, Hima requests an ETA on when the army of mine workers will arrive to secure their gains.
Not only is getting miners into the ring tunnel to control it behind schedule, PRQ’s forces are more or less awake, equipped, and on the move. (We’re less than 5 minutes into the assault). Hima and his team hear shouts in the tunnel as the restrained guards and techs they left behind call out to the PRQ forces (including response team B) that are entering the ring directly from the worker quad. Time to go! Hima informs Chad and Willie that they have to abandon their position as PRQ forces have cut them off from the front of the base. He then puts a gauss pistol to the head of one of the missile techs and demands to know how much security is on the backside of the tunnel. Just one checkpoint at the westernmost point in the ring (true). He orders his team to set an explosive on 60 seconds in the missile storage. There’s no room for prisoners on the little Gecko, so he tells the missile techs “Be sure they know that we let you live. We will kill anyone we have to, but no one that we don’t.” The techs, freed but well aware of the explosives just placed, sprint back towards their own forces while Hima and his crew take the Gecko deeper into the ring before the missile silo goes boom. Hima thinks “I hope their own guys don’t shoot them in the confusion”.
The three Vespexers still at the docks head into the northern ring access tunnel, hoping to slow down any PRQ forces coming their way.
Hima transmits his intel to Porter, who agrees to take his Southside team around to meet up with Hima. They ignore the 2nd set of utility stations for the moment, converging on the interior security checkpoint from both sides, and quickly negotiate its surrender. Hima sets up his team in a defensive position at this checkpoint, while Porter doubles back to round up the techs in the Southside power station. These are engineers, not soldiers, so they go quietly. Hima wants two of the Vespexers to walk the prisoners back around the Southside, but Porter doesn’t trust the Vespexers, so he goes in place of one of them.
Back at Grand Central, no one from PRQ wants to charge an autocannon any more than the miners want to charge lasers, but Chad, behind cover at the end of the main entrance tunnel, knows that sitting still can’t be their solution at this point. Chad and Leroy use plasma guns against the very high ceiling, dropping large chunks of rock at the entrance to the citizens quad. After a few shots, Junior’s team tosses and launches smoke grenades to provide soft cover, and then sprint for the nearby miner’s residential quad. Reluctantly Junior then orders them to fire on the Gecko’s ammunition rack so that it can’t be captured.
The plasma guns have bought a little time, but they still need a way to get the workers out of their quad and into the ring, or the PRQ forces will have an easy time regaining ground. Benedict (Beni) taps Chad on the shoulder to interrupt his impromptu plasma mining, and points the grubby looking folks with miner’s helmets climbing through the railway opening halfway back down he tunnel. Holy crap, the miners who were actually in the mines when the attack started! Forgot about them! As the miners jog up towards their liberators, the travellers realize that while the miner’s residential quad has to cross Grand Central to get anywhere in the base, anyone already in the mines does not. He tells the miners to grab whatever transportation there is, or to run, and get to the docks where Willie will meet them with weapons. “And somebody get explosives from the mines. Lots of explosives”. With as many miners as possible hanging on the cart, Chad, Leroy, and Beni head back to the dock, drop off the miners, and then race as fast as the cart will go down the northern access tunnel to join the three Vespexers.
Willie supervises the distribution of ACRs and cloth armor, and hurries the miners after Chad and company. Before any miners can get there, PRQ, led by response team B, makes contact with the three Vespexers now manning the 2nd checkpoint. The Vespexers have cover but not much else, so they stay low and fall back against overwhelming numbers. Chad and Leroy see them and fire plasma over their heads and towards the PRQ forces. Plasma will give any advancing force pause, and the PRQ guys in their boarding suits (and the 100 security people behind them with significantly less armor) are no exception. Leroy yells down the tunnel, “When you Ex-Navy wimps are ready to surrender, just let us know”. A grenade bounces down the tunnel in response. Chad tries a softer approach “The bloodshed can stop whenever you guys want. Hold your position and let’s talk. Anyone who wants off this rock will be given safe passage”. He then radios Willie to make contact using the ship’s comm with the PRQ security forces, in attempt to start negotiations. Willie makes contact, explains that they represent the oppressed miners who are claiming this facility, and suggests they cease hostilities long enough to allow a GeDeCo rep to come over and mediate a discussion.
No one at PRQ is particularly interested, but the primary goal to buy a few extra minutes time does work, long enough to get dozens of armed miners to the edge of the ring. They don’t particularly know how to use their ACRs, but its PRQ that needs to advance, not them, so any hail of bullets they can produce in the right general direction will suffice. What they do now how to use is explosives, so chad directs them to rig explosives across the ring tunnel. Ore carts are rolled into the ring tunnel for cover, and several layers of explosives are rigged on the floor and walls. The same is done in the north access tunnel, and then the miners fall back towards the docks and start to build a defensive position.
Chad and company take some of the growing army of miners down the south access tunnel, where a few are given the task of rigging a 2nd line of explosives, and the rest are sent around the south side to collect prisoners and find Hima and his team. PRQ sent a much smaller force West than they did back towards the entrance, and that team stops short when they encounter Hima and his crew. Unlike the travellers, they don’t have an armored vehicle, which means if they come around the bend in the tunnel they are approaching gauss rifles in a secured position, on foot. No, thank you. Once miners finally start to arrive, they start work on collapsing the tunnel, and Hima gets a ride back around to the entrance.
So where are we as we wrap up the opening round?
• A whole bunch of PRQ security are dead, and a lesser number captured. But there are a boatload more of them in the northern side of the ring tunnel and the Citizens Quad.
• The “Citizens” are kinda trapped in their quad, although they do have a backdoor into the northern side of the ring tunnel.
• Two Vespexers are dead, and two more seriously injured.
• The majority of the workers along with Junior, Deni, and some Vespexers, are pinned down in the miners’ quad.
• The miners and travellers control two entrances to GCS, and PRQ holds one. PRQ also has access to the top “crows nest” level. Crossing Grand Central is suicide.
• The travellers and miners control the southside of the ring. The back side is being collapsed with explosives, and the front side is currently a stalemate with both sides having impenetrable defensive positions.
• No one really controls the bio (food production) quad, but PRQ security has backdoor access to it, so they’ll control it soon enough unless something changes.
• The Travellers control the power, water, and air utilities on the South, while PRW holds those on the North. So as of now neither can cut off the other’s supply.
• The travellers hold the south missile turret, and the north turret is destroyed.
• The travellers control the mines, the dock, the skies, and space.
• GeDeCo wants to know WTF?
Old School
Mongoose
I've got a rough sketch that I should post to help things make sense. Very busy at work, but will try to get it up on the interwebs soon.
Bardicheart
Mongoose
Old School said:
Had a thought, depending on what exactly they want for a "secret base" that Galoot might fit the bill with a bit of refit.
Its J -3 and has a huge cargo bay that has been modified with clam shell doors that can handle up to a 1,000 dT ship.
So, use automation to reduce the crew requirement, get that down to something more manageable.
Have somewhere like Tech World do the refit
Use up to 3,000 dT of that cargo bay to fit a starport docking bay in the front of the cargo hold (right behind those clam shell doors), so now it can dock up to 1,000 dT of sub-craft (including a Harrier, gazelles, etc.) internally with the same utility of a starport for maintenance and moving cargo. If they want to go all out, use up 5k of the 15k cargo and just make it a full on ship yard able to build up to 1,000 dT of ships.
Add in a large compliment of mining drones, maybe re-equip a couple of the included shuttles for mining, include some ore moving equipment in that docking bay.
Again using the starport rules, add in some ore refinery and smelters to refine the mined asteroids into usable raw materials. Then add some basic, advance and specialized manufacturing (probably about 500 dT worth total) and the ship can now produce a small supply of electronics, advanced electronics, etc. using the raw materials from the mined asteroids.
At this point you could make a good case that it can in fact produce all its own spare parts and materials for maintenance, so convert the monthly maintenance cost into a number of dT of produced goods used up for maintenance, anything over that is sellable surplus.
Since some of those asteroids will be iceballs, it shouldn't have trouble cracking its own hydrogen to keep itself fueled, add in some fuel skimming and it can pretty much keep itself refueled indefinitely.
Now add some biosphere and agro space and you've cut life support cost to 0 and possibly added another slow trickle of surplus goods that could be sold.
Use the smaller craft to do system trades (a 400 dT subsidized merchant loaded with surplus goods could turn a nice profit once a month) and you have income to cover crew payroll.
At that point you have a mobile base that can stay at the edge of star systems where few ships generally go, keeping it hidden. Its J-3 capable so it can move around to ensure nobody not part of the crew will ever be sure exactly where it is. It can carry 2-3 jump capable subcraft, allowing it to do trades with nearby systems without ever actually entering that system. It can not only maintain itself indefinitely, but it could repair and refit smaller ships, even building new ships from the keel up (albeit at a VERY slow pace) if necessary which means it could certainly replace destroyed drone fighters.
For defense, a couple or three squadrons of drone fighters that can be replaced makes for a nice expendable defense that keeps the fighting away from the Galoot. If need be, the ship can always jump out and leave the fighters behind. Since they're unmanned drones they're expendable, and you can always build more (given time).
Stealth coating and so forth could be added, to make it harder to find. A J-3 drive rebuilt with TL 15 parts could spend 2 advantages to make it a stealth drive and reduce its jump signature. Combine that with jumping into the edge of a system and its likely nobody would know they were there, the third advantage could be used to reduce fuel usage by 5% giving back more tonnage for other stuff.
It's not the Death Star, but at that point your players would pretty much have their very own mobile, mini starbase which is still pretty darn cool. A mobile base avoids one of the pitfalls of a fixed base, if its discovered it has the option to actually run away.
Just a thought I had the other day. I'll leave it at that.
Enjoyed the read on the latest adventures of your group. An of course you left it at a cliff hanger as to how it will turn out! :lol:
Old School
Mongoose
Ive toyed around with a similar idea with an asteriod space station. Asteriod ships are soooo cheap. Using a megafreighter is a cool idea. Would be massively expensive to refit even if they stole the freighter, but then again, a large, self sufficient, space station ought to be expensive.
Ripping put the entire J drive to replace it with higher tech, wow. You could build a hell of a ship just for the cost of that new drive. By my math a high tech, J-3 drive for 30,000 tons is a Cr5 billion investment. You could build a very large, fully functional asteriod base for that! Maybe Jump-1 would suffice?
I would not allow stealth as a refit.
One issue that bothered me when fiddling with the design was the space station docking bay needing three dtons for every ton of ship it docks. The spaceship full hanger only takes 2 to 1. Are we getting anything for all that extra space in the space station rules, or is that an oversight in the rules? Also, the fuel storage cost seemed very high for a space station. Is that additinal space that doesnt count against the hull size?
Ripping put the entire J drive to replace it with higher tech, wow. You could build a hell of a ship just for the cost of that new drive. By my math a high tech, J-3 drive for 30,000 tons is a Cr5 billion investment. You could build a very large, fully functional asteriod base for that! Maybe Jump-1 would suffice?
I would not allow stealth as a refit.
One issue that bothered me when fiddling with the design was the space station docking bay needing three dtons for every ton of ship it docks. The spaceship full hanger only takes 2 to 1. Are we getting anything for all that extra space in the space station rules, or is that an oversight in the rules? Also, the fuel storage cost seemed very high for a space station. Is that additinal space that doesnt count against the hull size?
Old School
Mongoose
Thanks, paltrysum.
A couple additional thoughts: our first “Traveller killed” was avoided purely by a die roll. I had 4 members of the PRQ response team ambush pick their targets randomly, (2 shot up the Gecko) but with the discipline thst each choose a different target. 10 targets (Deni plus his nine Vespexers). Deni’s number did nnot come up.
Both sides made mistakes: the Travellers could have done more homeowrk and could have made an effort to jam communications inside the base. PRQ could have wiped out the attackers with a more aggresive reponse. The travellers moved with speed through the base, leaving prisoners and captured systems behind in several cases. PRQ security moved deliberatley, securing territory and taking minimal risks. I thought this was appropriate given the Traveller’s background as Army and Marine Officers, vs PRQ’s “facility security” mindset. An experience infantry officer could have ordered a rush on the attackers with superior numbers. Would have been bloody, but almost certainly would have carried the day. Now our travellers have defensive positions estsblished with explosives, and and a whole village full of (very green) troops manning. fortified positions behnd them.
A secure foothold on planet and control above the planet was the goal, which for the moment they have acheived. Now the games can begin. . .
A couple additional thoughts: our first “Traveller killed” was avoided purely by a die roll. I had 4 members of the PRQ response team ambush pick their targets randomly, (2 shot up the Gecko) but with the discipline thst each choose a different target. 10 targets (Deni plus his nine Vespexers). Deni’s number did nnot come up.
Both sides made mistakes: the Travellers could have done more homeowrk and could have made an effort to jam communications inside the base. PRQ could have wiped out the attackers with a more aggresive reponse. The travellers moved with speed through the base, leaving prisoners and captured systems behind in several cases. PRQ security moved deliberatley, securing territory and taking minimal risks. I thought this was appropriate given the Traveller’s background as Army and Marine Officers, vs PRQ’s “facility security” mindset. An experience infantry officer could have ordered a rush on the attackers with superior numbers. Would have been bloody, but almost certainly would have carried the day. Now our travellers have defensive positions estsblished with explosives, and and a whole village full of (very green) troops manning. fortified positions behnd them.
A secure foothold on planet and control above the planet was the goal, which for the moment they have acheived. Now the games can begin. . .
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
Old School said:
It isn't an oversight. The space station bays are generic and meant to fit craft of various dimension, the 100 ton wide but short craft that fits in the starship full hangar might not fit into the 100 ton hangar on another ship that is designed for a 100 ton long but narrower ship. But the space station docking bay should fit either type.
Bardicheart
Mongoose
Yup, asteroids are a good option too, plus visually they blend with planetary belts which is handy while you're doing mining. How many systems monitor NEOs closely enough to notice one more 100m diameter rock in the main belt? But in the case of Drinax the freighter happens to already be there and part of the adventure already involved boarding it so... :wink: Path of least resistance. Also I doubt I'd be the first to refit a Galoot as a large scale miner / refinery ship so someone saw it, they probably wouldn't think it was anything odd (hide in plain sight).Old School said:Ive toyed around with a similar idea with an asteriod space station. Asteriod ships are soooo cheap. Using a megafreighter is a cool idea. Would be massively expensive to refit even if they stole the freighter, but then again, a large, self sufficient, space station ought to be expensive.
Ripping put the entire J drive to replace it with higher tech, wow. You could build a hell of a ship just for the cost of that new drive. By my math a high tech, J-3 drive for 30,000 tons is a Cr5 billion investment. You could build a very large, fully functional asteriod base for that! Maybe Jump-1 would suffice?
I would not allow stealth as a refit.
One issue that bothered me when fiddling with the design was the space station docking bay needing three dtons for every ton of ship it docks. The spaceship full hanger only takes 2 to 1. Are we getting anything for all that extra space in the space station rules, or is that an oversight in the rules? Also, the fuel storage cost seemed very high for a space station. Is that additinal space that doesnt count against the hull size?
I guess it depends on whether upgrading the J drive from TL 12 to TL 15 would require ripping it out and replacing it with a new drive, or simply retrofitting key systems with TL 15 parts. This is overly simplistic, but one way to cut emissions on a car is by replacing an old (lower tech) muffler with a new muffler (higher tech). Now I know that's not nearly the same thing here, but my point being is that the modification isn't to extend the Jump range or anything, just reduce the jump signature, so its kinda like muffling it. Does that require a whole new engine, or just newer parts? If its just newer parts, how many and what do they cost? I dunno, its your game, you're the referee, your call. Just throwing out ideas is all.
Whether you allow stealth or not is again your call, if they stay out at the edge of system its probably not necessary anyway. But given that two options are just a hull coating, that seems a fairly easy retro-fit... the thing needs a new paint job anyway. :lol:
Andrew already answered your last question, that was my take on it as well. The larger bay is more versatile in what it can dock, any ship or combinations of ships up to 1000 dT (or however much space they allocated for). Plus being larger it would make maintenance easier, moving cargo around, loading and unloading and so forth. In other words a ship docked in that bay could un/load cargo, refuel, etc just as if it were docked at a starport; right down to having pallets of crates stacked on the bay floor next to the ship as the crew loads it up (replay any number of dock scenes from Star Wars or Firefly or Battlestar Galactica). I think it would be reasonable to say that they could make any kind of repairs and minor refits to a ship docked in that space. So if they want to swap out a turret, no problem long as they have the parts. Need to fix up a ship that's been heavily damaged, no problem if you've got the spare parts the bay has plenty of room to work. Basically, it boils down to flexible docking space and elbow room to move stuff around which can make a lot of jobs easier.
Old School
Mongoose
That’s fair with the docking bays. I see stealth as more than just a paint job. Not everyone agrees with this, I know.
Regardless, anything that large would make a decent mobile base, and jumping to a place where it wont be noticed is easy enough. Space is a big place.
Regardless, anything that large would make a decent mobile base, and jumping to a place where it wont be noticed is easy enough. Space is a big place.
steve98052
Mongoose
I would think that although the shop might be owned by an Aslan male, it would be run by females.paltrysum said:
Here the division of Aslan gender roles is fuzzy. I might have had females doing the negotiations while the Alley Cat and his toughs stood around looking scary. The Alley Cat might own the operation, but negotiations are Aslan female business. However, if the room is strictly for males, the male has to do some of the negotiating.
Here the gender roles sound more traditionally Aslan; Takhweirl is doing the negotiations. The company name sounds a bit funny to me; I don't think of mist as something that rises, more like just drifting slowly.
Nice storytelling; thanks.
Green adventure, well described. And I am amused by the concluding bullet point.Old School said:
Reading these stories makes me want to round up players as soon as the game I'm in winds down.
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
steve98052 said:
You are of course correct on both counts: the shopkeeper should have been female (we'll assume he was just 'in charge') and Takhweirl was a better fit. I made a concerted effort to keep those gender roles in mind when playing the Aslan NPCs and I still botched it a few times. My players have been in the Hierate for three sessions now. A few things to note:
- It's easier to play Aslan females than males.
- My players now think of Aslan females as shrewd bargainers who are trying to get one up on them. Not sure if that was the desired effect but I'm kind of enjoying that the players are assigning certain stereotypes to them. Kind of lends the interspecies interactions a certain credibility that it lacked before. Sure they're still 'humans in fuzzy suits' but at least the players think of them as alien now.
- Playing the touchy, duel-prone Aslan male is challenging. We actually had a duel occur that a player won with his surgically implanted dewclaws. It was close, but the win earned him some respect among the other Aslan.
- As for The Company Whose Profits Rise Like Mist, that's Mongoose's, not mine. It's in one of the scenarios in the back of the book. And yes, I agree, mist might not be the best metaphor but they're Aslan. Maybe mist means something different to them?
Old School
Mongoose
Company Who's Profits Rise Like Mushroom Clouds from the Lands of our Defeated Enemies?
steve98052
Mongoose
Maybe The Company Whose Profits Rise Like Mist is a mistranslation or a mistake.
More seriously, I find Aslan an interesting role-playing challenge. Conventional Aslan gender roles are pretty clearly defined, and I see what you mean that males would be more difficult to role-play.
But there are Imperial Aslan, who apparently regard their Imperial comrades (military, business, social, etc.) as their clan, in terms of Aslan cultural behavior, or move more fully into their Imperial cultural setting.
There are also Darrian Aslan, who fully adopted Darrian culture generations ago, to the point that the land lust isn't a big deal (or perhaps has been redirected into some other obsession, such as learning or art), and gender roles are muted.
On the other side, there are culturally Aslan humans, some Aslan for generations, and presumably other non-Aslan who adopt Aslan culture. Cultural Aslan of other species don't necessarily have have a cultural gender that matches their biological gender. A culturallyAslan Vargr might be an amusing encounter for players who know the Traveller setting well enough to be thrown off by it.
There are also Aslan whose societal gender is different from their biological gender. Some Aslan societies are probably just fine with that; there are probably Aslan words for "mane-shaver" and "wears-an-artificial-mane" for such Aslan. In other Aslan societies, that might be regarded as deviant, with pejorative words like "mane-shaving-deviant" and "fake-mane-fools-no-one".
Aslan are the main race on thousands of worlds. Although the typical culture may be the most common, there must be variety. Assuming they're all the same is like making all Imperial humans act like Yanks in Space.
More seriously, I find Aslan an interesting role-playing challenge. Conventional Aslan gender roles are pretty clearly defined, and I see what you mean that males would be more difficult to role-play.
But there are Imperial Aslan, who apparently regard their Imperial comrades (military, business, social, etc.) as their clan, in terms of Aslan cultural behavior, or move more fully into their Imperial cultural setting.
There are also Darrian Aslan, who fully adopted Darrian culture generations ago, to the point that the land lust isn't a big deal (or perhaps has been redirected into some other obsession, such as learning or art), and gender roles are muted.
On the other side, there are culturally Aslan humans, some Aslan for generations, and presumably other non-Aslan who adopt Aslan culture. Cultural Aslan of other species don't necessarily have have a cultural gender that matches their biological gender. A culturallyAslan Vargr might be an amusing encounter for players who know the Traveller setting well enough to be thrown off by it.
There are also Aslan whose societal gender is different from their biological gender. Some Aslan societies are probably just fine with that; there are probably Aslan words for "mane-shaver" and "wears-an-artificial-mane" for such Aslan. In other Aslan societies, that might be regarded as deviant, with pejorative words like "mane-shaving-deviant" and "fake-mane-fools-no-one".
Aslan are the main race on thousands of worlds. Although the typical culture may be the most common, there must be variety. Assuming they're all the same is like making all Imperial humans act like Yanks in Space.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
In "Family Business", Ishka is introduced as a Ferengi widow who receives a monthly stipend from her son, Quark (Armin Shimerman). Per Ferengi law, she is forbidden from making profit or wearing clothing, yet she has begun doing both and is found out by the Ferengi Commerce Authority (FCA; an agency essentially equivalent to the United States' Internal Revenue Service).[1] The FCA charges Quark with his mother's misdeeds, about which she is unrepentant, feeling that women should have the same rights and privileges as men. After much arguing with Quark, Iskha agrees to sign a confession and forfeit her earnings for her son's sake, though she confides in Rom (Max Grodénchik) that she only gave up a third of what she had hidden away.
Season five's "Ferengi Love Songs" reveals the romantic relationship between Ishka and Grand Nagus Zek, the leader of the Ferengi Alliance. When Quark is unable to extract nepotistic assistance from the Grand Nagus, he colludes with Liquidator Brunt (Jeffrey Combs) to break up the couple. Quark soon realizes however that Ishka is the real power behind the throne, giving Zek financial advice and suggestions that keep the Ferengi economy afloat. Quark confesses his part, and helps reunite Ishka and Zek.
In "The Magnificent Ferengi" (season six), Ishka is kidnapped by the Dominion. While in captivity at the hands of the Vorta Yelgrun (Iggy Pop), Ishka offers financial advice and tries to empathize with her captor about family. In the same season, "Profit and Lace" finds Ishka leaving the Ferengi homeworld of Ferenginar for the first time to travel to Deep Space Nine in the company of Grand Nagus Zek. She has convinced Zek to amend the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities to allow women to wear clothing, and the result was economic turmoil across the Ferengi Alliance. When Ishka suffers a heart attack, Quark undergoes sex reassignment surgery to take her place at Zek's side and win back the support of an influential Ferengi commissioner. Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) is able to successfully perform a heart transplantation for Ishka, and she is up and about by the end of the episode.
In the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Dogs of War", Quark discovers that Ishka has influenced Grand Nagus Zek to the point where the Ferengi leader has promoted labor rights, enforced environmental protection, and outlawed monopolies.
Season five's "Ferengi Love Songs" reveals the romantic relationship between Ishka and Grand Nagus Zek, the leader of the Ferengi Alliance. When Quark is unable to extract nepotistic assistance from the Grand Nagus, he colludes with Liquidator Brunt (Jeffrey Combs) to break up the couple. Quark soon realizes however that Ishka is the real power behind the throne, giving Zek financial advice and suggestions that keep the Ferengi economy afloat. Quark confesses his part, and helps reunite Ishka and Zek.
In "The Magnificent Ferengi" (season six), Ishka is kidnapped by the Dominion. While in captivity at the hands of the Vorta Yelgrun (Iggy Pop), Ishka offers financial advice and tries to empathize with her captor about family. In the same season, "Profit and Lace" finds Ishka leaving the Ferengi homeworld of Ferenginar for the first time to travel to Deep Space Nine in the company of Grand Nagus Zek. She has convinced Zek to amend the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities to allow women to wear clothing, and the result was economic turmoil across the Ferengi Alliance. When Ishka suffers a heart attack, Quark undergoes sex reassignment surgery to take her place at Zek's side and win back the support of an influential Ferengi commissioner. Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) is able to successfully perform a heart transplantation for Ishka, and she is up and about by the end of the episode.
In the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Dogs of War", Quark discovers that Ishka has influenced Grand Nagus Zek to the point where the Ferengi leader has promoted labor rights, enforced environmental protection, and outlawed monopolies.
