Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 22 - Protect the convoy

After regrouping at the nearest large settlement it became clear that the now found colonists would need to get off world. At least until the Nova Cartel could be removed from the system, or dismantled entirely. In the aftermath of the destruction of the hidden facility, Nova Cartel operatives were on the hunt, causing all kinds of problems for all sorts of other organisations. Athena Interplanetary was one such organisation. In response to roving bands of Nova thugs they had started shooting first and asking questions later, especially in and around their facilities and corporate sponsored settlements. 

This is one such settlement. Business was returning back to normal after having to fight off a few Nova thugs. It was still dangerous out there. The Athena security team had placed themselves in a road blocking formation. They could cover all approaches and were doing a great job of deterring anyone else from causing trouble. 

Arriving at the top of the hill, Nolan, Holmes, Phillips and Baratski exited their van to survey the situation. They could see a few guards. Guards who had noticed them. 

The team who were blocking the road, moved into cover to await the oncoming thugs. Probably more Nova crims. Warning shots were fired out and a warning given. Calls to negotiate passage were ignored. The crew were going to have to fight their way past.

The four crew members spread out, with Holmes remaining at long range to provide covering fire. Baratski and Phillips advanced in the cover of the large load bearer. 

Holmes' covering fire opened up and tore through the defenders. The LT fell down in a shower of blood, his body armour doing exactly nothing.

Two security guards flanked around the load bearer to lay down some ineffective fire onto Baratski. 

She and Phillips reached the vehicle and opened up with deadly shotgun fire. One further guard fell down, motionless.

Baratski and Holmes kept up the fire, both taking down another Athena guard each. The remaining guards were holding their nerve though. Probably veterans from various campaigns out in the edge of nowhere.

Both hidden in good cover, Nolan and another guard traded pot shots at eachother. 

This lasted a little while with Nolan jumping out of cover to close the range a little. Hidden behind some crates he became pinned down, but seeing his opportunity he managed to get a decent hit onto one of the guards. 

Better late than never, Mao arrived and opened fire on the two remaining guards. Holmes also opened fire while Brenko and Phillips snuck around the building in an attempt to out flank them.

Phillips rounded the edge of the building and poured more fire onto the remaining guards, keeping one of them pinned down. So much fire was directed at him that he ended up throwing down his rifle and running off.

Mao and Carrick, finally catching up advanced as well, in order to provide covering fire.

Sticking to his guns, the last guard kept firing, until Phillips got near enough to put him down. The threat was now over. These poor guys could have negotiated a some kind of passage if they had listened.

With the way clear, the convoy approached. Full of the surivors from emprisonment by Nova Cartel, they were now one step closer to freedom again. They needed to get off this rock.

It was time to abandon the vehicles and ride the mag train back to the spaceport. 

Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 21 - Nova Cartel Underbelly

I wanted to use my magnetic, modular interior terrain. I feel a little like this quest will end on a whimper. I hope that this battle will result in some missing people being found, but I don't really know.

The entrance was unguarded. The door was easy to bypass. This would prove simple it would seem. 

Holmes led the way with Ulrich bringing up the rear. This underground facility was hopefully going to be a small one. There was, however, no useful map on the wall. 

Close range small arms fire sparked against the walls and floor. Two figures were crouching behind crates. Brenko took some fire and hit the ground while Carrick charged one of the men down, slicing him open. 

The rest of the team opened up, taking the two remaining figures down in a hail of fire.

Upon entering the next chamber two pathways opened up before the team. They decided to separate. More desperate fire came their way, but concentrated returned fire from our heroes killed and pinned down the new gunmen.

A grenade was launched, exploding close behind the crew, Ulrich and Mao dove for cover while the others felt shrapnel bounce off of their vests. 

Recovering, the crew began shooting again, taking out the two Nova Cartel men.

Taking the tab off of a corpse it became clear that there were multiple rooms where people were being kept in containers modified as cells. The team split up.

Carrick and Phillips paired up to cover one side of the complex. They would watch the backs of the others and only explore if they could. Carrick opened fire on another Nova Cartel thug, taking him down.

His fire attracted the attention of another squad who charged out of one cell area gunning Carrick down in a hail of bullets. He fell, behind cover and stayed there for the remainder.

Meanwhile Mao took point when entering another cell area. Poking his head around the corner drew fire from the guards so he ducked back into relative safety.

He and Brenko then laid down fire on the guards, killing one and sending another behind cover.

Phillips, unable to advance further, laid down some heavy defensive fire, knocking down another guard, but she still needed to remain in cover as the other guards were very much active.

Peeking round for another exchange of fire, Mao felt a very heavy hit and was knocked back, unconscious. 

Phillips was keeping her head down, while trying to delay the advance of the other thugs. It was looking dicey at times. Heavily pinned, she was going to get out flanked at some point. 

Desperate to find the missing colonists, Ulrich ran around the corner, pinning down one of the thugs.

He and Holmes then took one of the guards down and kept the other's head down. 

Brenko then stormed up to the other, cutting him in two with some close range fire. 

Breaking the containers open, a couple of bedraggled looking women stepped out. Ulrich shared a look at one and he looked back. They embraced. 

"Took your time, Ulrich" she said. 

"You have been hard to find, Tonia" Ulrich shot back with a grin. Turning to Holmes and Brenko he said "This is Tonia Wildner, we have found them.

Within a few minutes the facility had been cleared of Nova Cartel personnel and all of the missing colonists had been located. 

Mao and Carrick looked like their frag vests had saved them and would wake up with some sore ribs later, but could be carried back to The Pelican. It was time to go and reunite the colonists with Sara at Leyte Logistics, then perhaps get them off world. 

Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 20 - Quest Ambush!

 Campaign Event: Holmes gets AI implants, Mao to stay on Deon B if I don't pay a story point to keep him. I am ignoring these as the narrative works best as this battle directly following the last battle. All gear gained from the tasks this turn will also not be used, and I might even ignore it existing. 

Character event: Mao has a hobby, gain a story point...to spend on him staying in the crew!

Phillips was stowing her pad into her pack when the ringing of molten metalsand out. She threw herself from the platform using her boosted arm. However, exposed on top of the scanning facility EARL was not so fast. Two holes seared through his outer coating. Familiar looking figures approached from the West. Was this whole thing a set up?! Luckily Mao, Holmes, and Carrick had remained in covering positions, just in case. 

Carrick took fire from the rear, some laser blasts and a couple of shots from a hand flamer. All were wildly inaccurate though.

Carrick returned fire, getting close enough to the soldier with the hand flamer to pin him down. Meanwhile Mao, Holmes and Phillips opened fire on the other fire team, killing one of them.

Getting the drop on the enemy again, Carrick charged them down and tore one apart with his shotgun.

This left him exposed, however, and he fell to some accurate laser fire!

The rest of the crew advanced and opened fire on the two remaining figures. They both went down. This must have been some kind of ambush. A trap set again by whoever was behind the disappearance of the colonists. 

EARL was moving, just unable to shoot any weapons. He would need repairs. Carrick picked himself up and admired the new holes in his coat. He was going to be just fine. Gathering themselves together, Carrick noticed the enemy hand flamer laying on the ground. This would do nicely! 

Back at The Pelican Phillips connected her tab to the system. After a thorough search of the ship's databases it became clear that the ships blocking exit from Deon B belonged to the Nova Cartel, a ruthless organisation prone to slave trade and the trafficking of illicit substances. Was it really as simple as a group of settlers being grabbed to be sold as slaves? 

Ulrich Nolan was not convinced. "Their leader was a former slave. I wonder if this was the reclamation of original property." 

Jiang Min interjected "There is a facility to the north where Nova Cartel is known to operate. It is often overlooked because people come and go here so often. We should head over there."

Activities Day 2024 - WW2 homebrew rules.

 Well, it is official. My simple to read and understand, homebrew rules are dreadful. I will have to revisit them ready for next year. They provided a quick game, but it ended up boiling down to one German shooting it out with one Brit, with the German being the last man standing. The whole thing was kind of lame and the rules made no sense. We adapted them as we played. 

I want some kind of objective system in place I think. I feel like I want morale. I also think I want to have it divided into fire teams or something. 

I also forgot to bring my roads. I will have to look for them. Most of my 20mm terrain is boxed away, hidden though. 

My rules reward pouring fire onto one individual figure or gun team. New round, any hit markers are removed so you start again. I will see what I can come up with. Maybe you remove one hit marker at the end of the round. Also, NCOs/officers have literally no impact on the game other than having an SMG which has more firing dice at close range.

Target in cover? Remove one firing die from the firer. That was pretty okay. No impact on saving rolls though. Part way through the game we decided that if you are caught in the open then you have one saving die removed, that started people dying quicker and made us hug cover more. 

I forgot to bring my MG34 team who were already set up. That was kind of lame. The rules with MG teams meant they were hard to work with. I will rework them.

The last man standing. A pyrrhic German victory...

In reality I will put these rules away, then get them out in a year's time and forget every change we made!

Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 19 - Vigilante tussle.

Character event: Estelle Phillips argued with crew and did no task during this campaign turn.

Campaign event: LOCKDOWN! No leaving Deon B for two turns. Crazy that I rolled this again. I can't think of a narrative reason for the UCS and Collective to be fighting over Deon B. The Lockdown will remain in effect, but it is from the unknown enemy. 

The displays aboard The Pelican came to life. A serious looking newsreader announced: "This is now the third civilian craft brought down above the planet. Anyone trying to leave would be advised to remain grounded until further notice. We are not sure what or who is behind this".

Scans from the surface would prove less than useful. There was, however, a deep space scanning outpost in the northern hemisphere. It was worth a try. A number of other now-stranded ship crews pooled some credits as an incentive for anyone to go and get the scan data. Sara from Leyte Logistics knew the place well and warned the crew that a group of vigilantes used it as their base of operations and defended it fiercely. 

The crew advanced from the south, in two teams to cover each other. This place looked like a good place to use as a base of operations. It just needed some agricultural areas and would be great. 

Seizing the initiative the crew took cover around a building at the top of a crest. EARL fired off a grenade, the blast immediately killing one of the vigilantes. 

The remaining vigilantes advanced to cover, firing their military grade lasers, sizzling the sand around Phillips and Holmes. Luckily no shots were close enough to cause damage.

Phillips took cover behind some logs while Holmes fired off some bursts, taking down another vigilante. Mao and the others took cover behind some containers. 

Phillips took more fire, hunkering down behind the logs. 

EARL sent another grenade over, Phillips jumped the logs and opened fire, Mao flanked the vigilantes, firing and Holmes took more long range fire...all of which was effective and accurate. The threat was gone. All in a day's work for some. It was always nice when everything went to plan with neither a close call nor a near miss.

Accessing the scanning information was simple enough to EARL. The craft were clearly non-military, but had been retrofitted for extra-atmospheric combat. There were no markings and the ident-codes were not stored on any of EARL's databases. Perhaps they would be recognised by The Pelican's computer. Phillips ripped the data onto her tab to take back to port. One step closer to knowing the truth.