"Let's get to Madelon!"
As you move towards the planet trying to hail to colony meets with no success. Checking your sensors it becomes clear there is artificial jamming of communications signals at work here...
You can tell the source of the interference is within the settlement of Madelon’s Landing.
Trosvod 'hmmms' a lot, and almost seems to recall something, but then his cigar burns out and he is distracted with chain-lighting another from the butt of the current one.
As they begin their approach toward the planet, Baedjrak's face twists up as he stares at one of his screens. Typing in a slew of codes, he grunts, then turns to his companions. "It would seem that there is some kind of comms jamming going on planetside, and it is coming from our destination, Madelon's Landing. Perhaps we should put down outside the settlement and sneak forward then take a look?"
"Yeah, sounds good!"
"You had me at sneak." jokes Arika.
Nakondis is a forest planet draped in perpetual fog; you can’t visually see the settlement of Madelon’s Landing as they fly above the landscape. By using your ship’s sensors, you can detect the general layout of the
settlement and determine that it contains just over one hundred humanoid life forms, most of which are human. You find a clearing just large enough for their ship a few miles east of Madelon’s Landing.
You notice on the scans a large, incongruous structure in the middle of the settlement. The structure is a prefabricated building with sweeping curves that resembles a fortress more than a colony dwelling. Two starship-scale heavy laser cannons are mounted on the building’s roof. These weapons are positioned to defend against approaching starships and can’t fire at targets on the ground... the decision to land a little away from the settlement proves wise.
DC 17 Culture or Profession (soldier)
You note that the building’s design has much in common with rumors of similar structures built by the Azlanti Star Empire a largely hostile expansionistic Empire.
Do ye want to take any particular approach such as stealth while heading towards the colony? Ye said sneak already.
As you are sneaking towards the settlement you spot a human male fleeing through the forest away from the settlement.
Just before he makes to leave the ship, Trosvod spots something on a scan screen that catches his eye.
He stops and points a claw at the screen. Specifically, a large structure in the middle of town.
"That looks weird. Definitely military, two starship-scale heavy laser cannons pointed up. Can't hit the ground, but they would have made kibble of us if we flew over."
********
Seeing the man, Trosvod radios from somewhere in the bushes, for once being inconspicuous.
"One and one says he's legging it from trouble. Let's pick him up and find out what kind."
"I hate jungles." says Arika as she assembles her rifle.
As soon as you step out into view the man stops for a moment to process it before running towards you. "Please you've got to help me. My name is Jelik Fullson I'm from the colony. We've been attacked by-"
A snap of a twig draws mans attention and he turns his face going pale "-them." Two armoured figures look begin to raise their rifles but clearly weren't expecting armed opposition and your presence has taken them off guard.
Elthaeron
Trosvod
Arika
Baedjrak
Soldiers
Acting on reflex, Elthaeron hit the ground. From a prone unsupported position he opened fire.
"Now, now, no need for..." Arika is cut off by Elthaeron's attack.
Sighing, she moves for a tree to get cover and separation, then draws up her rifle and fires at one of the two hostiles.
f
Running to get behind a tree near Arika, Baedjrak triggers with computer to project an image of a surging cloud for a brief moment, hoping to distract the soldiers as he moves for cover and takes a shot.
On Trosvod's shoulder, there is mounted an odd squat apparatus.
He grins at the sight of the pair of enemies, and turns so the apparatus is pointed at them.
And then fires it, unleashing a cascade of lethal sonic energies at them!
Acting on reflex, Elthaeron hit the ground. From a prone unsupported position he opened fire.
On Trosvod's shoulder, there is mounted an odd squat apparatus.
He grins at the sight of the pair of enemies, and turns so the apparatus is pointed at them.
And then fires it, unleashing a cascade of lethal sonic energies at them!
"Now, now, no need for..." Arika is cut off by Elthaeron's attack.
Sighing, she moves for a tree to get cover and separation, then draws up her rifle and fires at one of the two hostiles.
One of the soldiers drops from the onslaught of attacks while the other remains standing. They quickly make for cover behind a tree and snap off a shot at Trosvod.
The colonist covers his head and runs for cover.
Elthaeron
Trosvod
Arika
Baedjrak
Soldiers -8
Arika aims and fires again.
f
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The second enemy combatant drops from Arika's well placed shot. Once the brief firefight has come to a close Jellik peers out of cover. "Thanks for saving me. I should be clearer about what's going on since we have some time now you've dealt with those ones I suppose. I don’t know how far back to start. Maybe it’s when we saw the meteor crash-land about ten or twenty miles from here. A group of folks went to scout it out—Cedona, Quorsica, and others—and they came back with some strange news. First, they learned that the meteor was some kind of high-tech probe, but it had been destroyed in the crash. Interestingly, the probe landed near an old crashed starship we hadn’t noticed before. Been there for ages, probably. Cedona went into the crashed ship and came out with a pack full of old tech she was very excited about. She talked to our leader, Madelon, and Aibretta—that’s our best mechanic and my ex-wife— about what she’d found."
“A few days later, a starship sailed in above the town commons, blasted our communications building to slag, and unloaded a bunch of soldiers.
There wasn’t a lot we could do. The soldiers rounded up everyone in town and their leader—a stern woman whose face I never saw—told us that our planet was now annexed as a part of the Azlanti Star Empire. Anyone that protested was shot right there. The soldiers made us bury the bodies, then forced us to unload some prefab building components, which they turned into a garrison in the center of town."
“The woman in charge asked us about the crashed ship; turns out, it’s old Azlanti technology. She was very interested in what Cedona found. They rounded up Madelon, Cedona, and a few others and jailed them in the garrison. The large ship went away, but all the soldiers stayed. They’ve instituted martial law in town; we’re basically prisoners. We try to make do just as before, but anyone stepping out of line gets punished. When I got the chance, I ran. I didn’t know there were soldiers in the forest waiting to catch escapees. Three of them found me. I killed one with a lucky shot, but the other two chased me. And that brings me up to where I met you.”
Armour of unusual Design-Mechanically troop ceremonial plate x2
Imperial pacification rifle (functions as a hunting rifle) x2
22x longarm rounds
survival knife x2
Unusual Badge x1-
LEVEL 3 HYBRID ITEM (WORN) PRICE 1,350 BULK L
This hexagon-shaped adornment can be activated or deactivated as a move action. A motiondetection badge has 4 charges, which refresh daily, and an hour of activation uses 1 charge. While active, as long as you haven’t moved for at least 1 round, the badge emits a quick flash of red light whenever a Small or larger corporeal creature approaches within 60 feet, although creatures undetectable to normal vision (such as an invisible creature) don’t trigger the flash. This flash is sufcient to alert you, but doesn’t otherwise affect your vision or your actions.
Reduce this distance by 20 feet for each interposing closed door or substantial barrier (such as a wall at least 1 inch thick). You can attune the badge to a creature by touching it with the item, which takes a full action; you can attune the badge to up to 10 different creatures. When you are within 60 feet of one of these creatures, regardless of whether you have moved in the past round, the badge emits a yellow flash to let you know an ally is near. Attempting to attune an eleventh creature causes the badge to lose its attunement to the earliest attuned creature. Note that in certain environments, such as a crowded shopping center, the badge flashes so frequently as to be practically useless for detecting approaching threats.
Trosvod has dragged the corpses over and dumped them in front of the others, whereon he begins to search them for loot.
He half-listens to Jelik - until he mentions Cedona.
"Wait, hold on, Cedona's in the slammer? Oh this won't stand!"
He turns to the others.
"How's this for a plan? We march in and blowing up stuff until Cedona's out."
As the others talked to the man, Arika was busy removing and sorting their gear, laid out into neat piles.
As she worked, she asked the man "Can you draw us a map of your town and the surrounding land please, including the new buildings?"
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Jellik "I can yeah, I can do a basic one. Outside town's mainly trees and things but the colony I know like the back of my hand. I'd say you should head to Aibretta's junk shop first. That's my ex wife but I know the building well and our marital disputes are nothing compared to dealing with these jack booted thugs!"
"Madelon’s Landing is a typical AbadarCorp colony, consisting primarily of prefabricated modules dropped onto the planet’s surface, combined and reconfigured according to carefully designed specifications. Each weatherproofed steel module measures twenty feet wide, ten feet high, and one hundred feet long. Although the colony may look like a haphazard scattering of shipping containers strewn about a forest clearing, the layout is designed to maximize settler privacy, comfort, and efficiency. The open space in the center of the community and the paths between modules are just as much a part of the social design as the clustering of private residences near public modules. Most modules in Madelon’s Landing are private dwellings, with an average of six inhabitants per module. Nearly all modules contain work space matched to the talents of the inhabitants; for example, a bioengineer and a mechanic inhabiting a module with their children might include a laboratory at one end of the module, a workshop at the other, and personal rooms in between. Most of the modules are peoples homes. The other modules are distinctive or for specialized public use, let me tell you about them."
1. Madelon’s Module: The administrator of Nakondis Colony, Madelon Kesi's private residence. It contains a Chapel to Abadar where he holds services.
2. Aibretta’s Junk Shop: Two of these three attached modules are the repair bay and engineering workshop of Aibretta Fulson (female human mechanic), the colony’s most talented mechanic and most curmudgeonly member.
3. Communication Module: This module contains all of the high-powered communications equipment that Madelon’s Landing uses to communicate with other settlements on Nakondis and with the Pact Worlds.
4. Glimmerock: The forest clearing in which Madelon’s Landing sits wasn’t empty when the colonists arrived. A curved ridge of crystal-studded rock rises from the center of the clearing, glittering with reflected sunlight even in the planet’s pervasive fog. About two hundred feet long and thirty feet tall at its highest point, the ridge defed conventional geological explanation but didn’t appear to be artificially constructed.
5. Hobgar Trap: To help mitigate the hobgar nuisance, the colonists erected a trap near the open commons in the center of town: a tall metal pole that carries an electrical wire up its center, sparking from a plate in a specially designed cage at the top. The sparking plate attracts hobgars from elsewhere in the settlement; they can enter the cage, but they can’t get back out without bypassing the lock mechanism.
6. Community Storehouse: The largest building in
Madelon’s Landing holds the community’s food, tools, and other sundry possessions. The building is constructed of four modules welded together and is mostly a vast warehouse, although a small office for a clerk named Rendell Tace (male human) contains a thorough set of supply records.
7. Cemetery: For a colony that has been operating for barely a year, its small cemetery is surprisingly full.
8. Commons: This open area to the east of the Glimmerock is used for community gatherings and is a popular place for adults to socialize and for children to play. Jeliks says a fortress was set up there by the invaders.
9. Hospital: One of the first modules erected in Madelon’s Landing was a high-tech medical bay to tend to the colonists’ needs. Fortunately, the hospital hasn’t seen a lot of use, primarily due to the efforts of the colonist’s chief physician, a boisterous human woman named “Doc” Epplendell (female human). Doc insists that each colonist have extensive first-aid training, personally providing such training to each colonist during times when her medical skills aren’t immediately needed.
10. Moisture Collector: Due to the pervasive mist on Nakondis, the colonists never needed to drill a well to supply water. Instead, they erected a large pillar with membranous flanges that draw moisture from the fog.
11. Gold Key School: These two modules are classrooms and laboratories used for training the children who came to Nakondis as colonists and any children who might be born in the future. Many colonists take turns teaching practical lessons, but the primary teacher is Helesk Varden (male human), whose stern discipline and devout Abadaran faith are well known.
12. Greenhouse: Although most scientists in Madelon’s Landing operate out of laboratories integrated into their personal modules, botany and horticulture are such significant areas of study for the colony that these two connected modules are devoted entirely to these sciences. The colonists call the structure the “Greenhouse” because of the large plates of transparent aluminum used in the modules’ construction.
13. The Stable: This open-sided module is a garage where the colonists keep a half-dozen sturdy exploration hovertrikes, along with equipment for maintaining them.
"Cheers for the intel! That glimmerrock, what happens if you put energy to it?"
Baedjrak continues to scratch his head as he listens to the description of the situation. "Since taking over and declaring martial law, what have the soldiers been doing? Does it seem like they are looking for something? Have they sent anyone away? I am trying to understand their intentions, whatever they may be. And, where were you fleeing toward - I trust you had a destination in mind? Also, do you know of any others who are not held within the town, perhaps that could help with a resistance?"
After rattling off his list of questions, he stares at the man intently.
Arika looks at the map and starts looking for sniping positions to provide overwatch for the group, while starting to formulate a plan.
"Right... energy and the Glimmerock. It's made of this odd crystal I guess it defends on the energy. It's quite reflective so photons bounce off it. Kinetic energy might make it crack or shatter... energy is a very broad term and it's a weird crystal so I uh, I'm not sure."
"But they've been keeping us holed up mostly. But I know they've been sending people out into the jungle even before I got out so they're searching for something. Honestly away from them was the first big step. Figure out a way to find help." He gestures at you guys "It's worked out a lot faster than I had hoped. But I don't know anyone else who is free right now. Aibretta might know more about that if we are headed back."
Arika secures the hunting rifle and ammo, then makes a digital copy of the map, adds a few notes and then sends each group member a copy.
"Okay folks, here is what I am thinking. I'll go get into position to cover you as you are in town. When I move, I'll let you know via comms which section I'm going to move to. If you want to let me know to move to a specific section, just say three words that begin with the same letter in a single sentence, and I'll know to move to that area. Next"
says Arika as she produces a spare personal comm and offers it up to the group before continuing
"Keep this comm open and broadcasting at all times, so I can listen into the conversations you are having. I've set it to a different frequency than the comms we'll be using to communicate, so just set it and forget it. Finally, you" she indicates the native man "is there a place that you can tell your people to gather that they would know by name that the Azlanti wouldn't? If so, which direction is it located in?"
"Sweet setup, Arika! Let's hit the stables first."
"Your comms are working? Aren't they jamming them somehow?" Jelik asks in confusion. "I can't think of anywhere everyone would know, not that the invaders wouldn't have figured out by now from being around us."
Arika will test her comms to verify if they are working or not, both the current working set, and the comm unit that she is handing out.
Neither are working. Whatever was blocking the ships comms seems to be affecting your presonal ones as well.
Baedjrak cocks his head slightly, "If WE are heading back? You planning to fight beside us? Always happy to have another set of hands, especially one that knows the settlement."
Turning to Arika, "With comms still down, perhaps you should stay closer. Not only to be able to react to our changing situation, but that way you are not an isolated target, with no hope of reinforcements should you be directly engaged."
"No comms? Damn. We'll just have to uss smoke signals. You know, from burning enemies."
"I still think that it would be best if I stay out of town; not only does it play to my specialty, but that way if things go south for the assault group, I can come and try to rescue you. Baedjrak, can you pinpoint the source of the jamming?"
"Well I can't say I can do as well as ye but if you give me something small like a pistol I could shoot from cover?"
Jelik adds to the conversation about jamming as well. "I'd bet credits to cargohaulers that its in the big building they set up. I mean if I was setting up a piece of tech like that I'd want it somewhere secure."
"We surely looted a pistol at some stage," Trosvod notes nonchalantly.
"That big building is going to be a pyre soon enough!"
"Yes, it is. I highly recommend taking one of the rifles from the dead soldiers. Perhaps some armor to. Dying due to a preventable injury will surely ruin your day."
"I'm not really any good with rifles but the armours not a bad idea at all... ye'll be careful not to mix me up with them right?"
"Of course. Put your shirt over the armor, to be safe. It will make sure that there aren't any accidents."
"Are ye ready to head to the colony?" Jelik asks as he puts on the armour.
"It definitely would be smart for you to don their armor. I don't know that he have a spare pistol lyin' around, but these soldiers had sturdy blades if you want one. And yes, I think it's time we get on our way!"
"Let's go!", Trosvod says, lighting a fresh - yet foul - cigar.
"Okay, I'm headed to area B. Give me about 15 minutes to get into position before starting anything."
As Arika ranges ahead of the rest of the group he notices motion-detection badge flashing. Something is close, the others are well behind him does he set up an ambush by himself confident in his abilities. Hide in hopes of evading them or quietly retreat to get the others? Oh some other far more cunning ploy.
Arika will scout ahead, confident in her abilities.
Arika moves unseen past the patrol and keeps heading towards the colony.
Baedjrak and Elthaeron spot three tiny simians looking at them from the trees as they cross some water. They are covered with short tufts of blue and brown fur, which is thickest on the head, chest, and upper arms. They have long, dexterous fingers and toes, with opposable thumbs on both
hands and feet.
Before you can decide what to do or warn your allies the apes jump forward to attack ye. Baedjrak's armour protects him from the little creatures fangs but Trosvod is less fortunate. The last hangs back jumping up and down on a branch of the tree and points an arm at Elthaeron sending electricity arcing towards him.
Baedjrak
Eltaeron
Trosvod*
Jelik*
Monsters!
*Surprised so not acting this round.
Baedjrak stumbles back as the ape launches itself at him. "Gah, blast it all to hell. Where'd we land, the planet of the apes!?" He takes a quick step back, and drawing his pistol, snaps off a shot at the creature.
"So, any human planet then?" Elthaeron quipped as he fired off a shot.
Baedjrak stumbles back as the ape launches itself at him. "Gah, blast it all to hell. Where'd we land, the planet of the apes!?" He takes a quick step back, and drawing his pistol, snaps off a shot at the creature injuring it.
"So, any human planet then?" Elthaeron quipped as he fired off a shot killing the tiny blue simian.
The blue apes continue their assault unable to harm you in your advanced armour.
Baedjrak
Eltaeron
Trosvod
Jelik
Monsters! Green -4
Trosvod spits out the stub of his latest cigar, flexes his knuckles, and grins.
"My turn!" , he yells as he punches.
Elthaeron dropped down to one knee. He put the rifle's buttstock in the pocket of his shoulder. His cheek touched right behind the charging handle. He looked down the site and lined up his shot. He breathed out, and once his lungs were empty, he squeezed on the trigger until he heard and felt the *click*. Slowly he let his finger release from the trigger.
In a gun fight like this it was all too easy to panic, but sometimes all that was needed was a cool head to end it.