Saturday, September 06, 2014

Classic Traveller, The Real Mercs!

We left the last session with missiles in flight and that's were we picked up the session. Bertrum35 had been given an ultimatum to abandon the planet or the base the PCs had discovered, would be obliterated by the missiles they had already launched. Bertrum35 replied with a simple terse message.

"Bertrum35 will withdraw from the identified base on Stallone"

A little table discussion resulted in a decision that the reply was insufficient as it didn't mention a complete withdrawal from the planet Stallone. The missiles plowed into the base. A huge explosion, vehicles tumbling through the air, dust, flame. A hole in the ground. A line had been crossed, the Marqi's troops had moved away from the usual game of manoeuvring that mercenaries play.

A call from the planetary governor, currently hiding on their ship, advised them that an explosion at the planets largest moss refinery needed to be investigated. If the refinery was put out of action then the industrial profits would be seriously set back. The players set out for the refinery. They split up into three parties, but also made a call to their tax collecting parties on the far side of the refinery to rendevous at the site. This meant they were able to converge from four directions at once. ( It also meant I couldn't blow up half refinery while they looked the other way.)

They found one building a smouldering wreck but coudn't see any cause. They started moving into the complex and soon came into contact with three parties of Bertrum35 troops that were planting explosives. An attempt to cow one group by a display of plasma beams didn't have the hoped for effect as the other PCs were leading their troops on a blood crazed frenzy of death!

Each of the three PC groups maneuvered into the complex using the buildings and terrain for cover and started plinking away at the bad guys. The bad guys for their part returned fire but the rifles they were using were proving ineffective at penetrating the PCs armour. They soon started falling back and converging towards one part of the complex. Sadly for them the PCs kept taking them out one by one.

With a group of police to back him up one PC blasted away at the Bertrums with a grenades but pulled back from that tactic when it set a building on fire.

A ship was seen coming in from the north. It was soon identified as an armed transport. It landed  outside the complex and the Bertrums made a run for the loading ramp. Some made it into the ship only to be mowed down by a PCs FGMP15 which blasted in through the loading ramp causing secondary explosions within. A second shot a few seconds later, again through the open ramp, put the issue to bed. The troops inside started running back out from the smoking ship, it obviously wasn't going anywhere.

With their fellows dropping all around them and their escape craft burning, the enemy mercs gave up the fight and put their arms in the air. They and their wounded were rounded up and put into vehicles for transport back to town. People were requested from the town to ride out to the refinery to put out the fires while the heroes rode back to town with their "guests" who they started treating exceptionally well, even to the point of "storing" them in the town saloon. There was a hope that these men could be turned, that is to abandon Bertrum35 and join them.

A panicked call from the PCs men stationed at the dig soon sent the PCs out that way. They arrived to discover one of their mercs, Sergeant Nina Poldi seriously injured. Oh, and a volcano-like uprushing of dirt and dust from the dig hole.

The story emerged that when the chief archeologist had opened one of the boxes provided by the PCs  the ant-like stone statue of an alien had come to life, walked through the wall bursting the dome, killing many inside and smashing through Nina who stood in its way. It seemed that the ant-like alien had come to life and gone down the hole and woken up its buddies before starting some kind of emergency evacuation/clean-up procedure.

The PCs decided there was nothing they could do here and headed back towards town as darkness fell. As they neared the place, a ship zoomed low and fast over their heads towards town, and seconds later the mercs they had left guarding the Bertrum35 prisoners were heard on the radio. Someone or something was attacking them!

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

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