After a break of a few months we got together again and continue the intrepid adventures of the starship Blingon. This time the mission was Clone Switcheroo from GCW.
The mission briefing begins. The enemy has captured one of our frigates,
the Full of Meaninglessness and is attempting to recommission it. We've managed to smuggle some cloning equipment onto their star-base and your mission is to destroy the frigate. Overwhelming success requires returning with the
the Full of Meaninglessness.
Not mentioned in the briefing is that the characters have to be murdered so their clones can activate. A few gunshots later and the intrepid heroes' clones activate to the welcoming computerised voice saying,
"There is a discrepancy in the clone record verification. Please remain in your pod. A technician is on its way to sort the matter out. Thank you for your patience."Needless to say, the heros didn't hang around. They all got up and quickly split up heading around the base in both directions. The engineer they met died a quick an painless death and none of the enemy crew were alerted.
The other technician sent to sort out the cloning problem discovered a marine on overwatch with an itchy trigger finger. Again, none of the enemy crew heard the disturbance.
The heroes continued exploring, generally heading towards the science bay in the hopes they can hack it and figure out where the frigate is located. They meet a couple more enemy crew, a pilot and a marine this time. The scientist beats a hasty retreat hoping to raise the alarm. The marine closes with his energy blade and attacks Welshie. In a spectacular failure of his impressive combat abilities, he manages to lightly wound the poor engineer, damage the cargo bay he is in and cut himself in half. Oops. Still the heroes' luck holds and the alarm isn't raised.
The heroes enter the missile bay and discover a snoozing marine who they wound but don't kill. The return fire of the plasma cannon toasts
Tktktkbbbrrrr a little but he started a toasty colour brown so it doesn't notice. Finally the alarm is raised -- Intruder alert, intruder alert. All crew repel boarders.
Echton is zipping all over the ship and wears a solid plasma blast and in an attempt to avoid wearing another, it discovers the docked frigate by accident. Everyone else aborts their plans and hastily heads in that direction.
Welshie,
Pambo and
Echton are there very quickly and
Welshie completely fails to open the airlock door.
Badman,
Spold,
Tktktkbbbrrr and
Zealot and caught up between two scientists and a pilot in the science bay and two more marines in the base's cannon bay. A horrible crossfire which they'll be lucky to survive.
Echton easily opens the door and those three beat a hasty retreat into the frigate's tractor bay. A couple of highly trained marines in hot pursuit taking pot shots at them. Then a crazed engineer rounds the corner and opens fire with his plasma - hitting all three of the heros and both enemy marines who immediately start to burn.
Spold drops a grenade and beats a hasty retreat.
Tktktktbbbrrrr makes a dash for the frigate, damn these roaches move fast. The enemy Silicoid marines ignore the heavy frag grenade and continue the pursuit. The grenade goes off,
Badman drops, the marines laugh at the insignificant grenade.
Pambo and
Echton beat a retreat out of the line of fire,
Welshie makes a dash through a power sword wielding marine and manages to avoid much hurt. The marines then turn their attention to
Welshie, who didn't quite make cover, and he drops unconscious. The crazed engineer fires again to no real effect.
Spold and
Xealot make a dash, ignoring the enemies they have to run through.
Tktktkbbbrrrr makes the dash to the frigate and wears a burn but makes it.
Starting to panic,
Spold and
Xealot do a mad dash.
Xealot pausing to drag
Welshie's unconscious body into the frigate's airlock.
Spold falls one short of making the airlock and is taken down by a nearby Silicoid marine.
Echton decides that the proper course of action is to puff down a long corridor, grab
Spold and drag it into the airlock.
Pambo fires up the engines and breaks away from the starbase. Everyone breaths a huge sigh of relief, that was very very close. There is very little luck left in the group, surprisingly few hit points and nearly everyone has been on fire at least once.
Of course, the mission isn't over yet The remaining Silicoids on the starbase, repair the cannon and missile bay and fire both at
the Full of Meaninglessness. Both hit and cause fairly significant damage,
Xealot is knocked unconscious and is dying.
Some hasty repair work and a lot of healing and things are looking up. In warps a Silicoid dreadnaught to spoil the celebrations. It immediately launches lots of missiles and begins pursuit.
Fortunately, the heros are able to get the speed up to eleven fairly quickly and once they're are far enough from the planet, the hyperdrive programming begins in earnest with
Welshie and
Echton taking turns at the console. Out they warp with a horde of missiles in hot pursuit and a few missed cannon shots.
The result, an overwhelming success with a single casualty. Pretty good.
The heros are:
- Badman a rank two Human marine.
- Echton a rank four Whistler scientist.
- Pambo a rank four Human pilot.
- Spold a rank four Fungaloid marine.
- Tktktkbbbrrrr a rank four Zoallan engineer.
- Welshie a rank three Human engineer, really a generalist.
- Xealot a rank two Xeloxian pilot.
Mission difficulty is seven (reduced by one because
Badman was late for the session but it wouldn't have mattered much, the Silicoids pretty much didn't miss). The enemies all had skill seven in their primary and eleven hit points and of course Silicoids have d6 damage reduction.
Things that stand out:
Energy blades aren't good weapons for the enemy. Without luck to avoid those double rolls, you hurt yourself and damage ship modules. They are good for the heroes and
Badman has taken Energy Swordsman so he can have fun with them in the future.
Fungaloid marines are really hard to take down. Lots of hit points and some regeneration.
Missiles aren't a worry for a fast ship with multicannons and a scientist who can ECM and destroy them.
- Pauli
