0 Could Have Happened to Anyone

The entity known as ENLIL has charted a course to a largely uninhabited region of the moon Pyx. He promises safety, a place out of the way and safe from the foes of the divine manifest.

Aboard the stolen mining survey vessel Enemy of Perfection, piloted by Olia Moure, the crew are on their way over there.

Currently manoeuvring in Cruet’s gravity well, the DerBoa jugular-class fast attack ship Bloodlapper is locked on, and ready to begin boarding actions.

Because we didn’t have a downtime before this to prepare, I just gave everyone some blanket useful reserves for the situation - every mech on the squad gets an EVA module and that doesn’t take up a system slot in your build.

Mission Report

Metal On Metal

Yumei on the bridge, staring out at the stars, catches Olia tense up. Something’s coming in fast on radar, and the Enemy of Perfection lurches like it’s been physically grabbed. Ship alarms sound, and the whole interior is washed crimson in emergency lights. Suit up Lancers, we’re under attack.

In the hangar bay the crew scrambles into their mechs just as an appalling howl of grinding metal on metal reverbates through the hull. Two gigantic breach drills rip through the hull, white hot and dripping slag.

The boarding crew of the Bloodlapper pour out, led by Uthgerd Iro in the Crown of Thorns¹. The crew stand their ground, engaging in a quick & bloody combat:

• The Breacher Pleased to Meetcha bursts physically through the boarding drill with a ram, and tries to shotgun Feline Pain (Mi-Tenz) & Cruel World (Gorn). Gorn proceeds to grapple, and then smack the crap out of them.
• Lonnie dashes forward, leaving mirage trails and a mine, which the Crown of Thorns dutifully steps on - dealing pretty cataclysmic damage².
• The Edge of Reason locks onto the Euphrates (William) with a Sniper’s Mark. William plays an uno-reverse - activating Hunter Lock and demolishing them basically instantly.
• Optional Philosophy charges forward, chain axe whirring. Unfortunately the Feline Pain isn’t so easy to pin down.
• Liar’s Dice activates their cloaking field, rendering them and their allies invisible. Lonnie can’t get a bead on any of them with their veil rifle or tech attacks.

But, through the chaos and carnage, the crew emerge victorious.³

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN

Collecting themselves, the crew move back to the bridge of the Enemy of Perfection and Olia fills them in on some details of the situation as she understands them. Their ship is currently under STOP interdiction⁴ from a Jugular-class DerBoa corvette, it’s also under a comms shroud. It looks like there’s another (probably similar size to the Enemy of Perfection) ship in the DerBoa ship’s landing bay, which is most likely another captive.

The crew hatch a plan, they’ll fill the small outrigger vessel in the EoP’s cargo hold with mining explosives, then they’ll launch it on a pre-destined path to the DerBoa ship’s landing bay. They’ll jump off and land on the exterior of the ship, before it explodes, and disable the STOP drive, which is accessible from outside.

Lonnie sets the flight-plan, and the crew launches. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, as Lonnie has put the small outrigger on an aggressive evasive pattern. Lonnie is going to stay behind though.⁵

Through a hail of PDC fire from the Bloodlapper, the crew hold on, inside the cockpits steeling themselves (Gorn is humming a psych-up tune out loud over the comms). On final approach, the crew launch themselves off onto the hull, to let the outrigger sail down into the hold. As they touch down on the outside of the Bloodlapper, they feel an almighty explosion rock the ship. It’s one way to make an entrance.

Landing, they see the STOP drive dish, and head towards it, just as the Bloodlapper’s defence marines move out to meet them. It’s on, again. This time, quite a few grunts surround the crew, along with some heavier hitters:

• Helga Tor (she/her) piloting a tier 2 Archer, the Rain Like Hammers
• Rez Ciao (he/they) piloting a tier 1 Ronin, the Meat Your Maker
• Yev Tourik (they/them) piloting a tier 2 Priest, the Acceptable Loss

Battle begins, Mi-Tenz and Yumai move forward to quickly dispatch a swathe of the grunts, and push further forward. Gorn moves forward, throwing down a cloud of smoke over the STOP drive array, and getting to work beginning hacking in to shut it down. (Gorn’s hacking is sort of percussive hacking really.)

Mi-Tenz hacks into the Meat Your Maker, terrifying them and preventing them moving any closer, but is counter-hacked by the Acceptable Loss, quickly raises the Feline Pain’s heat to pretty dangerous levels, and the Meat Your Maker at a loss for what else to do, finishes them off and forces a stress check, disabling a weapon mount.

Bill moves up behind them to provide covering fire, and keep the grunts at bay.

Gorn is zero-d in on by the Rain Like Hammers, just as the Meat Your Maker shakes off the hunter-logic suite code and moves forward, under the auspicious protection of the Acceptable Loss. The Maker immediately starts causing serious problems, cleaving into Mi-Tenz’s Feline Pain. Gorn steps forward in the Cruel World, only to meet an opportunity attack from the Maker’s sword (2 threat range, yikes). It’s another brutal hit, and forces Gorn to brace.

Bill fires a whole host of the Euphrates’ impressive arsenal down range into the Meat Your Maker and Acceptable Loss, but deals minimal damage to both, with the Meat literally slicing the mimic gun shot in half, and attempting to send it (parried) back to the Euphrates⁶.

Yumai bears down on the Rain Like Hammers, smartly closing in behind cover because otherwise that Archer would be out of here. They lash out in the Cold War, dealing significant damage and sending the Rain crashing to the ground prone.

Back in the smoke, the Meat Your Maker unleashes a horrifying blade whirlwind, catching the Cruel World and Feline Pain, and forcing a structure check from Mi-Tenz - luckily just system damage this time.

Gorn moves in, to fuck up the Meat, and Bill puts another mimic shot into it to finish it off. Yumai cleans up the Rain and moves on to kill off the Acceptable Loss, it’s just grunts left and the crew deals with them in relatively short order.

Whew, that was tougher one.⁷

Snake Strike

Peering down now from the outside of the ship into the hangar bay (it’s got Star-Wars style see through forcefields to keep air in but let ships and mechs through) the lancers can see the carnage their tiny bomb has wrought. Things are decidedly on fire, and the small pirate vessel they can now see in detail is being hastily chained to the ground by work crews.

There’s no heavy defence here it seems like, just chaos.

The pirate vessel in the DerBoa hold appears to be a ship from The Big Dogs, and the crew (still under the Comms Shroud) are being hailed over laser comms⁸. This turns out to be a man named Crier Tally, the captain of this pirate ship Warmest Regards. He says they’d appreciate an assist in getting unchained now that the STOP drive is inactive, and that he’d be happy to help them get out of here.

The crew swings into action. Lonnie moves down to plant explosives on the chains, just as Yumai takes out the guards and Gorn launches caltrops to cover their exit. This goes off without a hitch, and the Warmest Regards launches shakily away as the entire crew piles into the open hangar bay.

Inside, speaking to Captain Tally, they ask to be dropped back at the Enemy of Perfection, and Gorn implies that a favour is owed. Crier agrees, a favour is certainly owed.

Making some repairs in the ship as they travel through the void, as the Warmest Regards navigates a patch of space debris, Crier comes on over the comms, “incoming, suit up and keep us safe from these persistent bastards!”

Octavio Mon and the Bloodlapper command crew have flown out to intercept, to ensure their one prize doesn’t escape and their mission isn’t a total wash. The enemy mechs are:

• Octavio Mon (she/they) piloting a tier 2 Elite Cataphract, Don’t Think Twice, this is a huge centaur-like mech, with a big ram cannon on one arm.
• Kerin Kerin (they/them) piloting a tier 1 Veteran Ace, Sunshine State
• Fabio Nouse (he/him) piloting a tier 1 Veteran Hornet, Dawn Chorus
• Kelly Jaw (she/her) piloting a tier 1 Veteran Pyro, The Anvil of Failure
• Boll (he/him) piloting a tier 1 Veteran Mirage, Lost for Words

I set up a sort of “push the payload” type combat, where the crew had to shepherd and protect the Warmest Regards under attack from the Bloodlapper forces. I think this maybe would have been more effective if I’d planned it out a bit more, conceptually this was fun, but I didn’t think enough about how the enemies could stop the ship or how to make it move. It also would have worked a bit better if I’d had some more reinforcements to make this more challenging, but we still had fun and I’m still learning.

Combat is joined, the enemy forces are deployed behind some asteroids, and well out of cover. The crew moves forward warily, as the Lost for Words teleports themselves, Sunshine State and Dawn Chorus forward quickly.

The skirmish down this flank kicks up, as the Don’t Think Twice bides its time on the other flank. After a trade of blows, Octavio surges into the centre of the fight, and plucks Bill out from his allies and grapples him out of cover and away - dealing massive damage in the process.

The crew identifies the primary target - this massive four legged mech currently trying to tear their sniper into pieces, and swivel to engage. They focus her down and deal with the centaur in relatively short order.

With their leader dealt with, the rest of the Bloodlapper command crew is picked off one by one. Kerin makes a break in the speedy Sunshine State, but it’s too late. The Eye of Horus sees them, and puts a whole in them, leaving them spinning in the cold expanse of space.

The mission comes to a close as the crew return to the Warmest Regards successful, and are reunited with their crew and the Enemy of Perfection. Their destination, as directed by Enlil, was to a small clandestine facility on Pyx, where in the hangar is a long-forgotten military supply runner, a new and better equipped vessel for them to move about the system in.

Outcomes

• DerBoa forces rebuffed.
• New friends made.
• Found a shiny & well equipped ship that can be used as the mobile supply base for the Adherents of Enlil.

Final Thoughts

I think this went really well, but I think these encounters were soft-touch (relatively speaking) - I largely followed the book’s advice, but probably if we started at LL0 I would have had an easier time balancing stuff by this point. That’s the trade-off I guess, but I’m overall happy with the choice to start at LL2 - everyone had (I think) a good time in combat piloting something unique and interesting.

I need to remember to put reinforcements in the bank, it’s pretty much critical to make the combat not just a shoot-out. If there are reinforcements coming you need to play the objective rather than just kill everything. I didn’t put enough in this time round, and the final combat just ended up as a straight fight rather than an objective thing, which I would have preferred.

The uncovered ship I leave in the players hands at this point, I haven’t got a name or any ideas about what it’s like yet, it’s fully up to them!

Mission Setup

Plot Beats/Questions/Goals

• Opens with boarding action from the Bloodlapper boarding crew.
• Escape from the Bloodlapper
• Rendevous or not with the Warmest Regards
• Defeat or escape from Octavio
• Find a way to Pyx

Enemy of Perfection

Medium/small survey vessel. Not really outfitted for combat in any meaningful way (anti-asteroid PDCs). Alzabo would probably like this back - but at this point it seems somewhat unlikely. Loss of company property will be noted.

Who’s Here?

• ENLIL
• The Lancers
• Olia Moure - Pilot (she/her)
• Marie Hon - Mechanic (she/her)
• Autumn Fall - Drone Operator (she/her)

Key Locations

• Hangar bay, currently housing ENLIL, the Lancers’ mechs, and a small transport shuttle (not rated for use in atmosphere), and various survey drones (operable by Autumn).
• Bridge, Olia and Autumn are here.
• Engine room, Marie is here.
• Other normal ship locations.

Bloodlapper

Jugular-class corvette, outfitted for skirmish, armed with various minor guns, a STOP drive, and a comms shroud. Has sustained some not-insignificant battle damage, and is down on crew capacity significantly.

They have captured the Warmest Regards, a small outrigger for The Big Dogs, which is currently sitting in their main hangar. They’d like to get it open, but they don’t really have the cutting tools on hand to open up the hardened vessel, and preferably they’d keep the crew alive. With the Warmest Regards effectively under STOP interdiction, and guns disabled, both sides are sitting tight.

Who’s Here?

• The crew of the Bloodlapper, led by Octavio Mon (she/her). Severely depleted after fighting with the Warmest Regards crew.
• The crew of the Warmest Regards, a pirate vessel flying The Big Dogs colours. The ship is in the Bloodlapper hangar, currently sealed off. It is led by Crier Tally (he/they). They’re basically out of options, apart from sealing the doors.
  • Did have complement of mechs, all destroyed in fighting with Bloodlapper crew.
  • Few small weapons and similar.

Key Locations

• Main hangar, with the Warmest Regards and crew inside.
• Bridge, probably with Octavio on deck.
• STOP drive
• Engine bay

Footnotes

1. The Bloodlapper boarding crew consists of:

   • Uthgerd Iro, pilotting the Crown of Thorns (Veteran Bastion pattern)
   • Keep Lawrence, in the Liar’s Dice (Scout pattern)
   • Mourn Sunset, in the Optional Philosophy (Berserker pattern)
   • Qor Bex, in the Pleased to Meetcha (Breacher pattern)
   • Kour Bao, in the Edge of Reason (Sniper pattern)
   ↩

2. I personally, as the GM, should have played this smarter - but it was the first combat so I just let the Crown of Thorns take the hit. In future, I’ll be playing around mines more carefully. ↩

3. Pretty good first combat, not a real threat, but introduced a lot of concepts. We’re in it! Folks made use of their tools, to good effect, we eventually ironed out how firing weapons works. The aux/main and flex mounts aren’t easy to get on first pass. ↩

4. STOP drives are basically limited tractor beams, they can force other ships to remain stationary in comparison to the STOP-capable ships frame of motion. They’re not effective underneath a certain mass quotient - so they typically work on spaceships, but not on small carriers or mechs. ↩

5. Lonnie’s player was OOA for this session. ↩

6. Which regrettably for me, misses, it would have been so funny to send an 18 roll mimic gun shot just right back. ↩

7. I, as the GM, had so much fun with the Ronin and the Priest, they were a wretched combo. The Archer didn’t get to shine too much, because holy hell the Cold War moves so blisteringly fast. If it had had an opportunity to act a bit more, it probably would have been more of a problem. ↩

8. Laser comms is really fun IMO, it’s a cool sci-fi thing to introduce in space. ↩