Monday 26 June 2017

Somewhere in the deserts of Vestra II; A Starport Scum adventure AAR


 In the far reaches of human space, colloquially called the fringe. Specificly on the planet Vestra II, a small war is going on. Unlike other places in human space, Unity, the pan-human government, has little interest in interceding unless there are some major strategic or economic concerns for itself.

 The rare elements and valuable crystals on Vestra II is not substantial enough to interest Unity, so several interested parties the hired mercenaries to claim the treasures of the planet.

That is how Pax Korbin, Sergeant in the Corvi Headhunters merc unit, ended up on Vestra II.

 His unit was sent to the deserts around the equator to claim a mine found a few months earlier, ordered to re-take the site from a rival Corp, Warg Industries.

 Warg is of course a big merc company with deep pockets, and the battle was woefully short..


 Pax didn't know how long he'd been walking through the desert. The suit AI had lost comms, and he had rebooted the unit a half-dozen times since he woke up, locked in the coffin-like cradle of the HARD suit.

 Temperature suddenly spiked, and alarms started going off inside the armor. "No,no,no! Don't die on me again!" Pax wheezed hoarsely.

 Wiggiling out of the suit as it triggered another safety shutdown, Pax opened the external storage and got the tools out. Without the suit climate control, He'd be dead in hours in this heat.
  
 Wiping the sweat from his brow with the already dirty cloth in his belt, Pax dove into the guts of the suit. A few minutes of searching and testing located the faulty connection and bypassed it.

  Looking out over the desert streching out infront of him, a nest of swarm xenoforms could be seen amongst the rocks up ahead.

 The rocky outcroppings seem to indicate that he is nearing the edge of the desert. Finally!
 The beasts seems to be unaware of him as of yet. If he was careful, he might be able to sneak past them..
There was also a big crystal deposit in the middle of the rocky outcropings. This might mean that this area could be assigned to a rival company. Pax would have to be careful, he wouldn't want to get shot now that he had gotten so close to civilization again!

 Getting back into the suit, Korbin said a silent prayer before flipping the master switch:
..AI start-up..
..Power plant online..
..Weapons online..
..All secondary systems online..
-Welcome Pax-

It had worked, the patchjob held!

 Feeling that familiar power, Pax started off in a run. With the HARD suits power coursing through him, he decided to smash through the Xenos.
  Lining up the machinegun on his arm, Korbin squeezed his hand inside his armor. The armor-piercing rounds slam into the nests and the closest beast, ripping them apart. 
 Scurring out of the nest to avoid destrution, the second Swarm monster looses a flurry of spikes from it's tail. They all smash into the MK III armor, but break against the dura-steel plate.

 "Alright you giant bug, let's see how you like this!" Pax smirked, happy to be back inside the conditioned atmosphere. Auto-fire smack off the armor of the Xeno, pinning it in place. The shoulder cannon fires, smashing the monster into bits.

 Looking through the outcropings, Pax manage to find a small alcove to set down the suit while he got his survival gear out and set up a small fire. Night was falling, and so was the temperature, so he decided to make camp and wait for morning before continuing.

 As the early rays of the morning sun comes streaming down, the sergeant is woken by a rumbling sound. A truck has just pulled up!

 The truck stops, and a bunch of soldiers disembark.
"Shit" Pax cursed lowly to himself. He needed to try and cold-start the suit. The soldiers hadn't seen him yet, so he sneaked up to the suit and tried to fire it up.
..ERROR.. 
START-UP SEQUENCE SHUT DOWN, PLEASE INITIATE POWER BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANOTHER START-UP.

The suits warning carried in the early morning, alerting the soldiers. One of them fired his rifle at Pax, punching through his armor and causing some bleeding! 

 Crawling in behind the HARD suit, Korbin managed to coax the suit back to life, as bullets and plasma bolts smack into the stone.
..OPERATOR DAMAGE DECTECTED, ADMINISTERING FIRST AID..
"Thats great, at least I won't bleed to death right now." Pax thought as the suit AI stabbed and injected a cocktail of drugs.  

 Throwing him across the open, Pax fire on the truck, attempting to blow it up. At the same time some of the soldiers sneak around the rocks to attempt to flank our hero.
  
 A few bullets ping off the back of the armor as one flanker found a shot, causing Pax to swing his machinegun around. A quick burst silenced the soldier, just as he launched another shot at the truck fron the shoulder cannon. The earlier shot had nicked a fuel line, and the result was explosive!

The fireball blew apart the thug hiding behind it, and sent the remaining running for the hills.

 As the Soldiers move past the burning wreck of their transport, another vehicle came speeding towards the battle.

"Great, now what?" Pax didn't like the look of the armored vehicle that just pulled up.
Especially not the heavy gun on it's roof..

"We are the appointed peacekeepers for the sector. Cease all hostile action and surrender!"

 Wounded and exhausted, Pax saw little reason to refuse. Maybe they had some answers even..

 "I've deactivated my weapons, I'm coming out, don't shoot" The external speakers broadcasted.

A few minutes later they were all ready to be loaded up and transported to New Thebes, the closest hub with capacity for detainees while their interrogations were being prepared.
 Pax's armor couldnt fit inside the transport, so they lashed it to the top, after he obliged them by climbing onto the roof before shutting it down.

 "What outfit do you belong to son?" Asked the captain in charge as he was leading them up the ramp.
 "I'm a sergeant in the Corvi Headhunters sir. Do you have any news about my unit? I've been out of the loop for a while." Korbin replied.
 "I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but that outfit is no more. You lot got taken apart by the Warg, those who lived either signed on with others or left a few weeks back. The dissolution was announced over two weeks ago."
 "As I said, been out of the loop."

Pax was in a bind now. Without officially belonging to a fighting unit he'd technically just committed two murders and some destruction of property. On the bright side, the soldiers were deserters stealing from a claim that didn't belong to them, so he wasn't all doomed just yet.

He'd just have to make his case to the tribunal judge, and hope that it was enough..


Not off to a great start for my latest adventurer, but there is still a chance for him!

Next episode will come as soon as I find time for it, but I have a few projects fighting for my attention at the moment.

Til next time!

4 comments:

  1. All good adventures start with a kick in the teeth for the hero, and this certainly is no change! :-)

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    1. Lots of them do, don't they :)
      I'm afraid Pax's problems have just started..

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  2. Cheers Alexander really enjoyed the AAR, problems are what characters thrive on :-) or its what players thrive on at least :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Yoshimi, glad you like it!

      Conflict is what keeps it interesting, isn't it ;)

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