5PH: Campaign Turn 4 - Ambushing some Vigilantes

Self-proclaimed vigilantes are sabotaging heavy equipment of the local mining company. The Immortal Children are hired to take them out before they can cause any more damage.

Preface

This is the last Campaign Turn with restrictions from the Introductory Campaign! We're already at the point where we fully generate the battle itself, so get ready for some randomized narrative.

As I explained in the last post, I'm only going to focus on the major events instead of going over every dice roll.

Before the Battle

Now that Rosco is part of the Immortal Children, the upkeep rose to 2cr, but we have more than enough Credits in the stash. Most of the crew went out to trade and explore, while the rest stayed on the ship and trained.

There were a lot of rumors floating around, and Captain Edaro managed to turn these tales into a real opportunity. (Crew gained a Quest)

XO Janidri enjoyed his leisure time so much that he already grew attached to this shithole of a planet (Jaffre). The next time we travel, we have to pay 1 Story Point or Janidri decides to stay behind. No way that the Captain is just going to let him stay.

After all that, it was time to cash in on the patron we got during character creation. The local government had a habit of hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work, and this wasn't the first time that the Immortal Children had worked for them.

Let's find out a bit more about this government. I'm using the 'Citizens/Government' tables from the Ultimate Toolbox. Any fantasy-specific result gets changed into a sci-fi equivalent.

Government Type: Gerontocracy - An oligarchic government where the leaders are older than most of the adult population.

Defining National Moment: Treaty signed with the oldest mining company. - I like the idea that they're more or less a puppet nation that's being controlled by the mining corporation.

Let's give both the government and the mining corp a name. The random tables are from the Trailblazer's Toolkit.

Local Government: Ingram's Sanctuary
Mining Corporation: Unified Acquisitions

The Setup

The oligarchs of Ingram's Sanctuary have tasked the Immortal Children with the assassination of a group of self-proclaimed vigilantes. They already know the location of their hideout, so this should be an easy contract.

Deployment Condition: Surprise Encounter (Enemy can't act during the first turn)
Objective: Kill all the vigilantes
Enemies: 2 aggressive vigilantes (military rifle) and their leader (hunting rifle)

The Enemies

The Immortal Children took position around the enemy hideout, and the enemy walked right into their ambush.

The Battle

The ambush worked perfectly. The vigilantes got caught completely off guard, and the Immortal Children easily swept them away.

They seized the initiative and Urtz laid down some covering fire (stunning one enemy) so the others could gain the high ground and advance along both flanks.

Because the vigilantes couldn't act during the first turn, it was almost over before it even began. They were already flanked, and their leader was gunned down by the advancing killer robot Urtz.

Captain Edaro lands a perfect shot from the high ground and another enemy falls.

The last remaining vigilante was under constant fire that kept him from being a serious threat. He must have seen the inevitable and decided to turn tail and run.

The Immortal Children held the ground without taking even a single shot. Captain Edaro sent Koah Keot after the fleeing enemy, so the patron wouldn't complain about leaving anyone alive.

After the Battle

After what was probably the easiest contract yet, the Immortal Children gathered anything valuable from the battlefield and returned to their patron to get paid. This is what they got:

• 7cr (including danger pay)
• 1 Combat Serum
• 1 Time Distorter (broken)
• 1 Beam Light (broken)
• 3 XP for everyone
• +1XP for Captain Edaro (First non-Bot Kill)

There was plenty of XP to go around, so everyone got an upgrade:

• Koah Keot: +1 Speed (5xp)
• Everyone else (except Rosco): +1 Toughness (6xp)
• Urtz must spend credits instead of XP
  

Somehow, we managed to piss off another group on this planet (+1 Rival from Campaign Event) but at least Steven Bramlet feels great (no injury roll the next time he gets injured).

Closing Thoughts

I was sooo disappointed with the randomly generated enemy for this battle. Only 3 measly civilians up against 6 Immortal Children with better stats and gear. It felt like a foregone conclusion and almost like a waste of time. At least we learned a bit more about the planet Joffre and the local government.

Once again, setup took longer than the actual battle itself. I really hope that the dice will give us some more difficult and interesting scenarios in the future.

The Next Campaign Turn is the end of the Introductory Campaign, and we finally get to use the full rules of the game. We will give a face to all these rivals that have accumulated since character generation, and we also have a quest that we can go on. I hope to see you there!

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