5 Parsecs from Home - First Mission for the Inconceivable Crew

Crew of the Interstellar Yacht 'Inconceivable,' undertaking their first Five Parsecs from Home mission

Captain's Log

Ship's Log, Interstellar Yacht Inconceivable, Capt. Alistair Valentine recording. My crew and I have arrived on the planet Taxore to take possession of our ship. My unending thanks to my friends on the Varxian Ambassador's staff who were so instrumental at arranging the purchase. We are still in debt 17 credits, but my hope is that we can use this ship to ferry passengers and cargo, and perhaps utilize the impressive skills of my crew to pay off that balance quickly.

I immediately gave my crew a week's shore leave, as I had to spend significant simulator time onboard to get familiar with flying my new ship. In the second simulator pod on board, Zorina Valthea is practicing combat skills. She is a Valkeeri, a mostly human race with green skin and the dogged fierceness of a vent crawler. My second in command, Security Officer Gunny McBride is paying a social call to the local HQ of the Galactic Marines, which he recently retired from. Actually, he's hoping to scare up a job for us on this incredibly expensive planet. The prices here are outrageous for a retired captain who was cheated out of his pension by those bastards at Amazonas Galacticus. I think Engineering and Medical Officer, Doc Mecrosus, is doing the same, looking for work. I can't believe how lucky I was to hire this strange and cerebral man. No one I know has ever seen his face, as he always wears his environmental suit to protect his non-existent immune system. His capabilities are amazing, though.

    Table setup for the Inconceivable's first mission - cyborg Infiltrators at top, crew at bottom left

My frequent passenger from my captain days at Amazonas Galacticus, the Varxian ambassador, also arranged for another of my crew members, Cephvarx Hul. These tall, lavender skinned Varx aliens are fierce, proud, and honorable warriors. I'm happy to have one of them in my crew. The last member of my crew, or at least I consider him a crew member, is the security bot SAS B61. I pulled every string I could to have this dependable and humorous (but don't tell him that!) bot discharged from service at Amazonas Galacticus and sold to me as surplus. His programming is superb, and he acts with almost no input once given mission and standard operating procedure parameters. Perhaps his most endearing trait, is his insistence on learning human humor. Every conversation includes a joke of his creation (or repetition?), for which he actively scans for reactions. Alistair Valentine, captain commanding, concluding entry #0001...

Security Officer's Log

Alistair insists, so here it is. Ship's log, supplemental entry SO #0001, on the planet Taxore. I guess, after a career as a senior enlisted man in the Galactic Marines, my old friend has conned me into retiring and becoming an officer. Hmmph! Knowing our crew has a miniscule 17 credits to its name, and that we are on this high-cost planet appropriately named Taxore, I figured I would scare us up some work. 

    Six 'Converted Infiltrators' - cyborgs disguised as humans scouting the planet for invasioin

I don't know if the captain realized it when he was hiring them, but we have some serious muscle aboard this ship! Both the Varxian Hul and that Valkeeri Zorina are nifty shots. I would be proud to have them as grunts in my squad. And Alistair has told me stories about the droid B61's blazing fire with its short range, large caliber burst gun. Doc Mecrosus is an unknown quantity, though. But any "doctor" that brings his own colony rifle, which has obviously been zeroed in and customized, can't be that much of a slacker!

When I sat down in front of Marine Col. Zebrowski's desk, it was an odd feeling being out of uniform. It took every bit of self-control to not salute him. We exchanged some news about mutual friends, bitched about our last few postings, and he shook his head over my retirement. "Gunny, I can't believe you actually left the Corps. I thought you were a lifer," he chuckled. I leveled with him that I was honestly worried about my friend Alistair. When those leeches at Amazonas Galacticus cheated him out of all 40 years of his flight captain's pension, they left him virtually credit less. I thought he was going to take the easy way out and space himself. You know, in space, no one can hear you scream? Imagine - everything you'd worked all your life gone! Bang - like a landmine going off while you were on liberty! If I ever get Chuff Betzos in the sights of my hand cannon, well, the largest starline corporation in the galaxy will be looking for a new CEO. Bastard!

    Gunny, Zorina, and BR61 deployed to left to move forward under cover of the power generator

The colonel nodded and said some politically correct officer style platitudes to my rant. Then he leaned close over the desk. "Gunny, you come at a good time. I need someone I can trust for a mission. Is your squad trustworthy and dependable?" I said yes, in my evaluation, we had six good men who could be counted on to not jack things up too badly. The colonel thought for a moment, then made his decision. "We think we are being scouted by the Converted. An infiltration team has landed on the planet and is in the city, by my Intel. I have a pretty good guess, based on how they operate, where they're going -- the city power station, which is also the auxiliary planetary shield power source. However, those cyborg bastards are disguised as humans, of course. So, I can't send my grunts in there, and if we're wrong, shoot up citizens. P.R. disaster, right?"

How many? I asked. He held up six fingers, and flipped his computer screen around. He punched a button, revealing the face, profile, and full body shot of what looked like an ordinary person. "This," the colonel said, "is what their interplanetary communications cyborg units look like. Blow up this bastard and the other five have no way of getting a signal to their fleet -- wherever it may be hiding!" I felt my com device buzz as he transferred the file to me. "That's all I am asking, Gunny. Kill that one, call in my Marines, and we'll take care of the rest. I don't expect you to go toe-to-toe with Converted Infiltrators. The good news, though, is they won't have any heavy weapons or built-in armaments. They'd never made it past planetary screening if they did. Probably just handguns they've purchased planet-side." I nodded, giving him a thumbs up, showing we were game for the mission. "Good luck, Gunny! If I am wrong and they're civilians, I swear I will get your asses out of this and off-planet pronto! I promise!!" We shook on it, and the crew of the Inconceivable had its first mission.

  'Firing line' of Doc, Alistair, and Cephvarx Hul sheltering along the hedge row to pick off the cyborgs

The Game

After many weeks of painting up miniatures, re-reading the rules, I was finally ready to play my first game of Five Parsecs from Home. This solo or co-op, Sci-Fi skirmish game is known for the intricate and detailed storyline it weaves for your characters. In an earlier post, I gave the basic backstory for my crew members. I was now finally ready to roll everything up. I chose the flexible option which let me roll five backgrounds, motivations, and classes, and then assign them to the figures and characters I'd envisioned. Once I was done rolling everything, Alistair and his crew were ready.

    Zorina, BR61, and Gunny advance past the machinery out of line of fire of the cyborgs

Importantly, we had two Patrons (benevolent organizations, individuals, etc.) on our starting planet of Taxore. One was a government organization, so it made sense it was Gunny's local branch of the Galactic Marines. The other was the Varxian ambassador's office -- an individual who'd flown on Alistairs flights many times and become friends with. Gunny and Doc were sent off to look for work, and both were successful. You will see the friends Doc made in the next mission. They'll be a one shot patron, though, and will be done with us after our first mission. We also rolled up a rival -- a terrorist organization that disapproves of any Varx citizen leaving their home world and mixing with other cultures. Luckily, they had not located us, yet. 

    Seeing the crew with weapons drawn, the Infiltrators spread out and take cover, ready for a fight

Gunny's contacts gave us a mission that had "Danger Pay" of 1 credit, the presence of "Shiny bits" (loot) and an objective to eliminate one enemy character in particular. I rolled up a Converted (think of the Borg from Star Trek) Infiltrator team as our enemies for the mission. They were obviously scouting Taxore prior to invasion. These could be tough opponents. I believe that Converted never check morale (at least that is the way I played the game) and have a Toughness higher than a typical human, making them harder to kill. However, I was very lucky in the combination of enemy A.I. (I rolled 'Aggressive") and weapons (handguns). In other words, they'd come to us. All I really had to do is sit back, snipe and kill their communications cyborg, and we could bug out.

    Alistair shows the crew how its done picking off the communications cyborg at extreme range!

I created a 3'x3' city table using my terrain. The rules give you guidelines, but a lot of this game is taking what the rolls designate and adapting that to the story you are envisioning. Same with terrain. I deployed the Converted Infiltrators 6" away from their board edge and my crew opposite. There were lots of terrain pieces to break up sight lines and give cover, as they recommend. I deployed my crew in two groups of three. Alistair, Cephvarx Hul, and Doc lined up along the hedge in the small park. They would be my covering fire group, as both Doc and Alistair had colony rifles with an 18" range and Cephvarx Hul had a military rifle (24"). On their left, next to the fountain, was Gunny, Zorina, and SAS BR61. All three had shorter range weapons. Gunny had his high caliber pistol "Hand Cannon," Zorina had a beam pistol, and BR61 was fitted with an equivalent of a shotgun (pellets that would not penetrate the spaceship hull, but deadly at close range). As they moved to their position, BR61 called out to the fire group, "Don't worry about my feelings. I won't be upset with you if you kill the cyborgs -- they're only part machine." The other five crew members grinned and shook their heads at the bot's attempt at levity.

    Alistair and Doc move out of the park and to get a better line of sight on the advancing Infiltrators

In Five Parsecs, you roll for initiative each turn, one die for each member. Alistair has a Communicator, so rolls two dice and selects one. If you roll equal to or lower than their Reactions skill (typically a 1 or 2), that figure assigned that die can operate first before the enemy. After the enemy completes its actions, the rest of the crew takes their actions. You may move and fire (not vice versa), and also take a "free action," unless you're stunned. One nice tactical twist is that if you are slated to act in first you can hold your fire and wait till an enemy moves, then fire at them. Even if you miss, this automatically prevents them from moving. So, it allows for true "covering fire." I intended Doc, Alistair, and Cephvarx Hul to use that to keep the Infiltrators at a distance until we picked off their communications cyborg.

    Zorina, blending in automatically in her shimmer suit, spots the loot top right near a domed hut

Combat itself is relatively simple. You're trying to roll a "6" on 1d6 to hit a target in cover. You need a "5" to hit one that is beyond 6" and in the open, or a "3" if within 6" and in the open. You add to this die roll your combat skill, which for starting characters is usually +0 at the start of the game. I was fortunate in that BR61, Cephvarx, Alistair, and Gunny rolled backgrounds that gave them all +1. Still, the dice were not going my way in the beginning. We rolled high enough to get a free turn before the start of the game (Seizing the Initiative, it is called), but Cephvarx missed his free shot against our target. In fact, he also missed the communications cyborg on Turns 1 and 2!

    Under fire, the Infiltrators and down one,  begin to hug the cover even more as they advance

As the battle opened, Gunny led his team forward behind the power generator and out of line of sight of the Infiltrators. The other three hunkered down and started shooting or pre-empting Infiltrator movement. Doc was particularly effective at that, frustrating the cyborgs several times when they attempted to move. A secondary objective in our mission was the "Shiny Bits" (loot) which Zorina dashed towards, keeping the domed huts between her and the cyborgs. After watching the Varx miss three shots in a row, Alistair called over to him. "Breathe, Cephvarx, you're too tense!" The alien looked over, his expression unreadable. "Like...this!" Alistair slowly exhaled, squeezing off a shot. At the edge of his colony rifle's range, the communication cyborg's head exploded in bits of metal and fluid. "Yes!" he pumped his fist, grinning at the alien.

    Two cyborgs sweep right to circle around the power generator outflank Gunny's group of three

With the loss of one of their team, the Infiltrators began to advance more rapidly through cover. They were out of range, armed only with their handguns. Two broke off to the right to circle the power generator and outflank Gunny's team. The cyborg leader and the remaining two move forward, hugging cover while shots ricocheted all around them. Meanwhile, Zorina had snagged a pack full of electronic equipment leaning next to one of the hut doors. "This should fetch some credits!" She froze in mid-step as Alistair voice called through her helmet speakers, "Target eliminated. Retreat back to the hedge line. Repeat - retreat back." One by one, the crew began falling back, with Doc and BR61 provided covering fire.

    Having snagged loot already, Zorina spots more possible goodies next to one of the domed huts

The cyborg leader paused in its dash forward when it caught sight of BR61 at the corner of the power generator. It blasted away with its pistol, missing. The bot whirled to track on the cyborg and the short-barrelled gun barked twice. Metal and fluids sprayed in a cloud behind the leader and it fell, unmoving to the street. Two cyborgs down! Should the crew continue to run away, or take the chance in battle to "hold the battlefield" and get an extra roll on Loot? As Zorina dashed back, stopping and crouching in cover behind each hut, she caught sight of another pack. "Hmm...this looks valuable," she thought, seeing the glint of electronics inside. She risked Alistair's wrath to step forward, grab it, and then hightail it back to the next hut.

    The Infiltrator leader pauses in the open to fire at BR61, who returns fire and eliminates him

Alistair kept glancing over at Cephvarx Hul. He knew the Varx were a warrior race, and his constant missing his targets had to be galling to his pride. "Breathe!" Alistair hissed, again. He was rewarded by a shout of triumph from the alien as another cyborg fell backwards, fluids spilling from the holes punched in its outer shell by Cephvarx's rifle. Three down! Alistair called over the communicator to see how Gunny and his team were doing. 

    The cyborg's outflanking force rounds the corner to find Gunny's crew has already pulled back

"We're good, captain!" the marine answered. I'm in cover behind the fountain. BR61 is beginning his exfil, now. We'll fall back to the hedge next." He laughed. "Haven't fired a damned shot, yet, but have two cyborgs closing in on me and the bot from our left." The Infiltrators fired when they finally moved within range of BR61, but the machinery in the way them kept them from hitting. As they sought cover behind the same machinery, they came into line of sight of Cephvarx Hul. The Varx took careful aim and slowly pulled the trigger. Another cyborg pitched backwards and lay twitching on the pavement. Four down! At this point, I wondered again if I should shoot it out with the Infiltrators, or keep moving backwards? I decided to pull everyone back to the hedge line and see how things went. If things got hairy, we were one dash away from escaping off the back table edge.

    Alistair insists everyone pull back behind the hedgeline, in cover for the final gun battle

From the beginning, the Cyborgs had been outgunned. Their handgun range was only 12", while the three crew in my firing line had either 18" or 24". Once they closed within their range, they also came within BR61's deadly firing range, too. It was the only weapon on the battlefield that fired two shots with each action instead of one. In the final firefight, as the crew of the Inconceivable hunkered down on the hedge line, blazing away. The bot took out yet another cyborg. The final one was taken down by Gunny's high caliber pistol. We had won, totally eliminating an enemy that was not subject to morale or panic.

    Outgunned from the beginning, the remaining Infiltrators are now seriously outnumbered

Once you finish your combat, there are a number of post-combat rolls you make for loot and payment from your patron. I will cover those in my next blog post. In the meantime, Alistair and Gunny met beneath the brightly-colored Taxorian trees and slapped each other's shoulders. Alistair quipped, "I'm getting too old for this, Gunny." The marine laughed, and called over to BR61, asking what it thought of that statement.

    An aerial view of the battlefield shows where each of the six Infiltrators was shot down by the crew

BR61 whirred his head slowly towards the two friends. "Remember, captain, old people are just young people that have been alive for a very, very long time." Alistair and Gunny caught each other's eyes. Gunny's mustache twitched, but Alistair shook his head mouthing, "Don't." BR61 paused, then called again, "Old age is better than the alternative, captain..." The two friends couldn't hold it in any longer and chuckled. BR61 was improving his humor...