Core Space: The Perseus Arm Campaign (Mission 4: ‘Retrieval on Canis’)

My current Core Space campaign continues with Mission 4 from the Perseus Arm Campaign (the starter campaign that comes as part of the main rulebook).  Having narrowly escaped the Purge during Mission 3, the crews of the Saucy Sue and the Black Maria are reunited, having been contracted by the arms-dealer Giger’s Emporium to retrieve an antique firearm from the drifting wreck of the derelict cruise ship Canis Major.  Clearly only one crew will be able to claim the prize, but there will still be plenty of loot for both crews to find.

As recounted last time, Jace Dolman, the captain of the Black Maria, had been forced to use the dreaded emergency teleport to escape the Purge.  Instead of landing back on the Black Maria he had instead found himself rescued by the crew of the Priscilla, on their way to the Eroticon VI Pride Festival.  However, he has now finally found his way back to the Black Maria and doesn’t want to talk about it…

Above:  The layout of this section of the Canis Major is far more open-plan than the claustrophobic corridors encountered at the Hive Station last time.  This will allow a fast infiltration and exfiltration, but will give wide lines of sight and few places to hide from the Purge.  The two crews both start in the north-west corner of the map, while the objective is in the south-east corner (I’ve decided to arbitrarily designate compass-directions, as it makes it easier to explain where things are).  The Purge have the usual six potential entry-points, though these are grouped in pairs in the south, east and north.

Above:  The character dashboards for the crews of the Black Maria (top row) and Saucy Sue (bottom row).  Most of the characters have now added quite a few career points and extra skills (the red marker-dots) and even Jace, with his endless run of bad luck, has now managed to add a career-point, thanks to his killing of a Purge Live One during the last mission.  All characters now have pretty decent firearms and melee weapons (or an innate melee skill) and Arianna even has a grenade.  Lars however, with neither a melee weapon or innate melee skill, picks up a cheap combat knife before disembarking from the Black Maria (all characters also add a med-stim to their inventory before disembarking).

Jace, Roykirk and Renton have all equipped themselves with armour that they’ve scavenged or purchased along the way, while Gak has a small shield-projector that he’s keeping in his pockets for now.  If Gak equips it in his armour slot, he’ll lose his innate ‘Kata’ skill (the green fist icon).  He wants to keep himself in top fighting form for the time being, but can always don the shield later if things start to get dicey (he also has Level 1 ‘Kata’ marked on his skills board, but the two can be added together to make a Level 2 ‘Kata’ skill).  Similarly, Arianna has decided to eschew armour, as the additional weight will cause her to lose her innate speed-advantage (the footprint icon).

Both crews have also now upgraded their ships with airlock auto-defences, which might come in handy.

Above:  Mr Giger has cunningly hidden the antique revolver in the cistern of his old shop’s staff toilet.

Above:  The two ships dock with the Canis Major and the crews prepare to board; the Black Maria on the left and the Saucy Sue on the right.  The plan here is straightforward; race to the objective as fast as possible and then get the hell out before the Purge get too active (same as always)!

Above:  Some civilians are still aboard the derelict, but there are also some Purge Harvesters hunting for victims.

Above:  This Harvester has locked onto a civilian girl in Giger’s old shop.

Above:  Jace and Renton quickly sprint across the wide open central space, leaving Lars to search the immediate vicinity of the airlock and defend their exfil route.  However, an armed civilian (a reptilian Pon) suddenly appears and in panic, fires at Jace!  Thankfully, Jace’s armour stops the low-powered round.  As Jace and Renton turn round with weapons levelled, the Pon grins sheepishly and raises his hands.  “Sorry…”

Above:  The crew of the Saucy Sue meanwhile, have raced down the western side-corridor and dive through a small hatch into the main central area.  Roykirk however, takes his time, searching the rooms as he goes [each magnifying glass marker shows that a room has been searched].

Above:  “CONTACT!”  Two Purge Devastators suddenly appear at the northern entry-point, right next to the now extremely-alarmed Pon!  With Jace and Renton out in the open, this represents a massive threat!

[These have appeared as an ‘Event’, as shown on the card above.  To make them even more dangerous, they can make three actions and aren’t limited by the usual action-lock (they can normally move twice or fire twice, but not move and fire)]

Above:  Both crews had hoped to get to the objective without too much gunplay, but there doesn’t now seem to be much option!

[Gunfire increases the Threat-level, which in turn results in increasing numbers of Purge, as well as more dangerous types of Purge.  It also makes the random Events more severe.]

Above:  However, Lars is an extremely capable hacker and quickly uses his innate Level 2 Hacking skill [the green lightning-bolt icon with two dots shown on his character board] to silently take down both Devastators.  However, he won’t be able to do that again…

Above:  Although she needs to get to the objective as fast as possible, there are several Purge Harvesters near the objective and Arianna is in danger of out-running her supporting crewmen.  She therefore pauses to wait for her support to catch up and takes the opportunity to have a peek in a large crate.  Sadly, the loot is disappointingly poor.

Jace and Renton suddenly race through the door.  Renton gives Arianna a friendly grin “Good ‘ere, innit?!”, while Jace pretends not to notice her.  “Oh, hi Jace!” says Arianna brightly, “How were Evangelista and the girls?”.  Jace pretends to studiously observe the approaching Harvesters while Renton stifles a guffaw…

Above:  A couple of Harvesters close in.  However, the crews still want to avoid gunfire if at all possible.  Arianna draws her sword.  “OK lads, you might want to stand back a bit.”

Above:  At the end of the hall, they hear screams as a Harvester finds an unfortunate civilian.

Above:  Arianna springs forward, decapitating the first Harvester with her sword!

Above:  Charging onward, she cuts down the second Harvester with ease.  “Thanks for clearing the way, Arianna!”  With Arianna otherwise occupied, the grinning Jace, immediately sprints for the doorway to Giger’s Emporium.

Above:  More trouble soon arrives in the form of a Devastator at the southern entrance.

Above:  A swarm of Harvesters also appear at the northern entrance.  They quickly overwhelm the Pon and carry him off to a grisly fate (the Pon drops a rather valuable pistol on the floor).

Above:  Gak and Roykirk take cover as the Devastator lays down a blistering wall of fire.

Above:  The local civvies clearly don’t like the look of Jace as another one takes one look at him and immediately opens fire!  This time a round bypasses Jace’s armour, inflicting a wound!

Above:  Having inflicted first blood, the girl immediately flees and hides in the toilet alongside Giger’s hidden pistol.

Above:  Roykirk takes down the nearest Harvester with a well-thrown knife.  However, the Devastator’s fire is proving rather effective and despite his armour and the cover afforded by the machinery, he is starting to accumulate wounds.  Gak decides to return fire, but fails to drop the Devastator.

Above:  Jace runs into the toilet and quickly locates the hidden pistol.  He tries to persuade the terrified girl to come with him, but she just cowers in the corner.  “Well I tried.  It’s your funeral.”  Jace turns and runs back out of the door, shouting into the comm, “Objective secured!  We are leaving!”

Above:  With Jace clearly going to to get to the objective first, Arianna runs back to cover her crewmates as they quickly search the lace for loot before extracting back to the Saucy Sue.  However, Roykirk is still pinned down by the Devastator and the northern group of Harvesters has just appeared at the door.

Above:  Without any immediately obvious threat in Giger’s Emporium, Renton takes the opportunity to loot the place and finds some high-value items, along with a rather nice pistol. “Sweet.”

 

Above:  Renton’s rummaging has attracted the attention of a Harvester in the room next-door, but Renton and Jace will be long-gone by the time it gets there.

Above:  The seemingly-unkillable Devastator continues to provide covering fire for the Harvesters.  To make matters worse for the crew of the Saucy Sue, a second Devastator now appears at the northern entrance, creating a cross-fire!

Above:  Gak has taken the opportunity to search a crate and finds some superb loot; the Paragon Sword (a rare item and just the tool for such a close-combat specialist) and a frag grenade.  In order to make space in his pockets, he drops his med-stim.  Roykirk similarly drops a med-stim in order to make room for his recovered knife and some loot… This might not prove to be their best decision of the day…

Above:  Jace and Renton rapidly exit Giger’s Emporium!  They now need to link up with Lars and get the hell out of here!

Above:  A seemingly endless stream of Harvesters is now bearing down on the crew of the Saucy Sue from all sides!  Gak decides that discretion is the better form of valour and quickly dons his shield-pod.

Above:  Throwing caution to the wind, the crew of the Saucy Sue now lay down a withering hail of fire, but all to no effect!  “What the f@*& is wrong with our guns?!” 

Above:  Roykirk and Arianna are both attacked and wounded by Harvesters, but are still standing.  Gak manages to shoot down another Harvester as it charges toward Roykirk, but his pistol then jams!  As Roykirk attempts to strike back, his knife breaks on his assailant’s armour!  Arianna kills her attacker and then charges in to save Roykirk!

However, as she charges forward, Arianna becomes clearly visible to a Purge Assassin at the southern entrance.  Assassins are programmed to identify and relentlessly hunt down enemy leaders and having quickly identified Arianna, the Assassin opens fire.  The energy-bolts slam into her unarmoured body and she drops to the floor.

Above:  Jace and Renton are making good their escape via the eastern side of the map, where there is no Purge presence.  With the sounds of battle and screams behind them, Renton stops and turns to Jace.  “You’ve still got a med-stim on you, yeah…?”  They look at each other for a moment… “Ah, bollocks to it…”  Against their better judgement, they run back into the fight!

Above:  As they turn the corner, they see Arianna on the floor and Roykirk fighting off two Harvesters.  Roykirk manages to drop one and Gak charges in to rip the second one apart!  Renton runs around the corner and spots a third Harvester, who he quickly drops with a well-aimed shot!  However, the Devastator and the Assassin now takes aim at Roykirk, who goes down in a hail of fire!  Things are starting to look very bad indeed for the crew of the Saucy Sue.

Above:  Gak can’t hope to carry both of his crewmates back to the airlock, so his only hope is to retrieve the dropped med-stims and try to recover them sufficiently for them to get back to the ship under their own steam.  However, the Assassin and another gaggle of Harvesters are charging towards him… Then he remembers the grenade he found earlier…

Above:  The grenade detonates with a satisfying BOOM and cuts down the two Harvesters.  However, the Assassin is still standing and is now rather annoyed.

Above:  The Assassin hasn’t yet spotted Jace.  If it had, the Assassin would have immediately identified Jace as a captain and targeted him for immediate termination.  Instead, the Assassin charges around the corner and launches a furious assault on Gak!

As Jace provides covering fire, Renton runs forward and stabs his med-stim into Arianna’s thigh.  The grateful Arianna groggily staggers to her feet and mutters her thanks.

Above:  Gak is grievously wounded by the Assassin’s attack, being only saved by his shield-pod, but summoning all his reserves of strength, the Gak strikes back with a flurry of blows from his newly-acquired Paragon Sword!  The Assassin is simply cut to pieces, but Gak’s valuable sword is broken in the process.  Gak quickly collects the med-stims as yet more Harvesters appear at the doorway.  A volley of fire from Jace, Renton and Arianna soon deals with the new threats.

Above:  At the northern end of the map, Lars and some civilians have been distracting the Purge.

Above:  However, on the eastern side of the map, another Assassin appears, while at the southern entrance, yet another Devastator appears and a civilian reveals himself to be that most dangerous of enemies; a ‘Live One’!  Thankfully, Gak has now revived Roykirk and the two crews are now running as fast as they can toward the airlocks!

Above:  An unfortunate civilian serves as distraction for the ‘Live One’.  As tragic as this is, the civilians buy time for the crews to put distance between themselves and the Purge.

Above:  Now completely out of sight of the Purge, the badly-wounded crew of the Saucy Sue make good their escape via the western corridor as Jace and Renton provide the rearguard.  Lars has already made it back to the Black Maria, whose newly-installed defences vaporise a curious Harvester.

Above:  With all the civilians hunted down, the Purge wonder where the raiders went…

Above:  The crew of the Saucy Sue are safely back on board by the skin of their teeth, all thanks to the generosity of the crew of the Black Maria!  They most definitely owe Jace, Renton and Lars a drink at Chatsubo’s.

Above:  Suitably smug, having made it back aboard for the first time during this campaign, Jace disengages the docking-clamps and congratulates his crew on a job well done!  Not only have they all got away safely (except for Lars, who has suffered some wounds), they’ve retrieved the antique pistol and a pile of valuable loot.

Above:  The Scores on the Doors at the end of Mission 4:  The crew of the Saucy Sue (bottom row) were hanging on by a thread at the end of that mission, having all suffered wounds and burned through every med-stim that could be found!  Roykirk also finished with a broken energy knife, while Gak had broken or jammed everything he owned (the upside-down pistol token shows that it’s jammed, while the flipped sword and shield pod show that they’re broken and in need of repair)!  The only loot recovered is an ammo magazine found by Roykirk.

Jace and Renton meanwhile, walked away without a scratch, though Lars escaped by the skin of his teeth.  Jace retrieved the antique pistol and could therefore claim the reward from Mr Giger.  Renton had managed to retrieve another valuable pistol, as well as some valuables and some pawnable electronics.  Lars managed to come back with some valuable ship parts (which will be extremely useful for repairing worn ship’s systems after the mission) and a large box of ammo.

On to the next mission!

In the meantime, we spent Ungrateful Colonial Traitors’ and Tax-Dodgers’ Day playing a battle from 1776, so more on that soon… 🙂