5PH: Campaign Turn 3 - Corporate Mercenaries

A new world brings new adventures! What contracts and treasures await the Immortal Children on this barren wasteland?

Preface

Before we jump into this Campaign Turn, I want to talk about some changes in the way I write these after action reports for Five Parsecs from Home.

I didn't know what to expect from the game, so I started by writing out every part of the pre- and post-battle sequence. The options were limited during the first few scenarios of the Introductory Campaign, which made it manageable, but we're almost at the full procedure now, and it is a lot more bookkeeping than I anticipated.

I'm still very much enjoying the game and this campaign will continue until it comes to a satisfying end, but I'm going to slim down the posts a bit. The focus will be on the major events of the pre- and post-battle sequence, instead of listing every single roll. I'm also assuming that a highlight reel would be much more entertaining to read for you guys.

Without further ado, let's jump into Campaign Turn number 3.

Before the Battle

As per the Introductory Campaign story blurb, the Immortal Children have finally repaired their ship and are leaving the planet. According to the news, they are heading straight into a battle zone.

New World Trait: (66) Barren | No plant features can be used on the battlefield.
World Name (Trailblazer's Toolkit, p.13): (56) Joffre

After arriving on Joffre, the crew split up and worked on some crew tasks. They sold some cargo, gambled away an Assault Blade, and recruited a young go-getter named Rosco Pulitz.

The New Recruit

I saw him as cannon fodder, so I only gave him the bare minimum paintjob. If he proves himself capable, he might earn a few highlights.

The Setup

One of the local mining guilds has offered a decent paycheck to see off some corporate mercenaries. Let's give this corporation a name with the random table from the Trailblazer's Toolkit on page 15.

Name of the corporation that hired the mercs: (02+60) Interstellar Defenses 

That's a perfect name for a security contractor of some sort. Maybe we'll see more of them in the future.

The planet is a barren battle zone which makes me think of a ruined mining town where the corporate mercenaries are occupying a central building to prevent the mining guild from working.

The objective for this battle is Secure, which basically means that we need to control the central building. As always, killing all the enemies would also count as a victory.

A loot cache was rolled as a notable site and randomly placed on the board.

The Enemies

Mercenaries from Interstellar Defenses. They get paid to defend the building, but they aren't fanatically devoted and wouldn't throw their lives away for no good reason. (Tactical AI)

They only got the bare minimum paintjob because I don't expect them to survive more than a few rounds.

The Battle

Deployment

The Immortal Children approached the building through the ruined city outskirts. The enemy mercs spotted them from a block away and quickly moved to intercept them.

Both sides slowly moved from cover to cover and tried to stay out of sight.

The upgraded speed of Urtz paid off, as he quickly attained a favorable firing position, from which he laid down covering fire with his auto gun. His second shot managed to kill one of the mercs hiding behind sand sacks.

On the other side of the central building, Koah Keot peeked around the corner and hit another fantastic shot with his hunting rifle. The enemy heavy gunner fell without firing a single shot.

Captain Edaro and Urtz continued to lay down covering fire, and they managed to stun two of the remaining mercenaries.

Meanwhile, the enemy leader occupied the central building and took the high ground on the first floor.

On the left flank, Urtz let his auto gun do all the talking as he managed to kill the last merc on that side of the battlefield.

Captain Edaro stunned the last remaining merc grunt, while their leader took revenge by stunning Selek Marfi from above.

XO Janidri executed a fluid flanking maneuver and shot the last remaining merc grunt from behind the blue container.

Only the enemy leader remained.

Koah Keot climbed the outer facade of the building and came face to face with the last mercenary. Keot's frightening appearance was apparently enough to make the enemy reconsider his position.

Throwing down his handcannon, the golden-haired mercenary shouted: "All right, all right, calm down! It's over, you won. I can see when I'm outclassed, and you lot certainly did a number on my boys." He looked down at the lifeless bodies of his former team. "Interstellar Defenses doesn't pay enough for this shit."

After the Battle

The Immortal Children won the day, so it's time to gather the loot.

The mining guild paid out 5cr and the new recruit Rosco found himself a Rattle Gun in the loot cache.
Everyone except Steven Bramlet (melancholy event from last turn) gained a few XP, but no one had enough for any advancement.

As a campaign event, the crew managed to renegotiate some old debts, which reduced the ship debt by 7cr.

Closing Thoughts

Once again, a devastatingly one-sided affair. The amount of 6s Koah Keot has rolled with his hunting rifle is starting to get absurd. He is a Hulker so he doesn't get a bonus for firearms, but who needs that if he always rolls these 6s.

I have a feeling that the difficulty in Five Parsecs from Home comes in extreme spikes. I can totally see myself losing the entire crew in a single scenario, after not suffering a loss for several campaign turns before.

Next campaign turn will finally allow us to fully generate a random battle. Stay tuned for that!

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