I’ve been playing a lot of Five Parsecs from Home recently primarily because, well, I’m taking this week off. This installment we have some Rivals, and the plot beginning to thicken, with one game that was comically short, and one that was longer than I expected it to be, and honestly a little tense.

Previous Installments

Campaign Turn 3: An Interlude

Campaign Turn 3 doesn’t get it’s own post, because from a battle report perspective, it was…dull. But from the development of the actual plot, it was rather critical. On their way back from the previous mission, Alexis idly scanned a number of the ruins they had flown over, and handed off that data to a local analyst who owed her some favors. And importantly, she found something that didn’t belong.

Scattered in one of the ruins was the weathered remains of an ancient Union Terrier-class frigate – a light warship, but in the fringe, something to be reckoned with. And more importantly, there was an active Union beacon still broadcasting from the site. While a distress call would have died out long ago, it’s possible this is a tracking beacon for a particularly important crate, telemetry data from the crash, etc. UnionTech always fetches a high price, so it was worth checking out.

On a whim, Estelle requested the use of a Dragonfly again, fully expecting a polite version of “Look rich girl, we’re not a taxi service.” Instead, she found her request approved with very little resistance.

Flying out to the site, Trouble reported two incoming vehicles with three potential hostiles. The crew came under fire from two desert-garb clad raiders, before they were promptly torn apart by fire from Trouble and Viv. The Soulless reported the other vehicle had not closed, and instead had stayed, observed, and then pulled away, in a tone that suggested it was not at all happy with this idea.

The mysterious mission, which was starting to feel like a setup to Estelle, was however remarkably lucrative, earning the crew a bucket of credits to make up for the lean pickings of the previous mission from a combination of mission rewards and a bounty on the raiders, plus some parts for potential ship upgrades salvaged from the wreckage. Estelle and Alexis also find themselves added to a number of databases for local mercenaries, with a small queue of potential side jobs waiting for them.

Campaign Turn 4: Vikings in the Mist

Flush with capital, Estelle pays down the debt on the Azure Dawn down to just two credits. Being out from under the bank is so close she can taste it, though she is drawing down on her accounts further than she would like to do it. She sends out Felix, Alexis and Viv to trade, while she does some exploring, and Trouble and Garret go to see if they can potentially slim down the number of rivals on the crew’s tail.

The pickings are somewhat slim, though Estelle manages to make a good trade that loses the crew a Scrap Pistol and gains them a set of Combat Armor – she doesn’t ask what the trader wants with it that makes it valuable enough to trade for combat armor. A few more rumors build up – they’re starting to get a decent picture of some elements of Trouble’s past that are worth looking into, though they’re all off-world. And before Trouble and Garret can track some rivals to put this all to bed, some rivals find them!

The Scene

The crew finds themselves back in the dockyards on yet another foggy night – meaning extremely poor visibility. Garrett got a tip that someone around there was looking for him, and not in a way that suggested they owed him money. The crew deploys warily near an office made from a converted shipping container that Estelle and Alexis have been using to coordinate things, with Viv to one far flank, Garret in the office as well, Trouble ranging a little forward, and Felix covering the office – the beam upgrade on his rifle means he has better visibility than the rest of them.

What the crew are facing, though they don’t know it yet, is a group of “Primitives” – basically, fairly experienced warriors who are only melee equipped, using the Aggressive AI profile. For now, we’re calling them Vikings. More on them in a bit. For this, I’m using some of the House Stark troops from the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game, because I own shockingly few fantasy miniatures.

 

Turn One

Completely terrible Reaction rolls means the Vikings will go first, and they Dash up the field, still cloaked by the mist. Trouble moves forward to investigate a cracked data wafter left on the ground that caught his eye, and as he collects it, notices a glint of metal in the light, and blurts out a warning that something is out there. Garret moves into range, lighting up the area in front of Trouble, but misses, while everyone else advances – with Viv oblivious to the two on her flank approaching out of line of sight.

Turn Two

Garret and Trouble can move before their opponents do – Trouble fires his needle rifle and kills the Viking that first caught his attention, while Garret misses as the others shelter behind cover. The two raiders closest to Viv try to close with her, while the other four converge in front of the truck to try and take out the rest of the crew. Viv fires and stuns one of her assailants, as does Felix, while Estelle and Alexis fire from the back field, both missing. One of the databases Estelle is connected to sends her a notification – there’s a particularly large member of the group, carrying a proportionately terrifying sword, who is wanted for the murder of a Union tax assessor – there’s a two credit bounty for his apprehension or, failing that, proof that he has been killed.

The crew starts feeling a little bit of pressure, the poor visibility having let them get boxed in, and with their opponents – still mostly vague figures coming roaring out of the mist with very large, very sharp weapons – likely to be on them in the next turn.

Turn Three

Viv, Garret and Trouble all get to go before their opponents do. Trouble opens fire at a Viking carrying a particularly dangerous looking weapon, and only manages to stun him, which never the less buys the crew some time. Garret shoots the Viking that Felix had stunned, failing to wound but giving him a second stun token. Viv fires her rifle and stuns the second Viking on her – a Lieutenant. During the Viking’s turn, the closest one closes with Trouble, hitting and stunning the Soulless, while the other Vikings take cover behind Terrain to try and lose their stun tokens for another push.

Turn Four

With it seeming like the determined fire from the crew might have stalled the charge a little, Viv holds her fire until the two regrouped Vikings come around the corner. She snap fires, killing one of them, and Felix shifts his fire to that flank, killing the other opponent on Viv. The rest of the turn is somewhat anti-climactic – the Vikings remain behind cover trying to lose their stun tokens knowing they can’t initiate a Brawl with them on, and the crew by and large fires and misses, though Estelle – flush with her success versus the Sand Cats, moves closer to try to plug the gap left by Trouble’s retreat (Narrator: This was not a good idea).

Turn Five

Garret and Alexis both have the drop on the Vikings, but as seems to be their way this combat, both miss – while their charge has stalled, the shipping crates are doing the Lord’s work in keeping the swordsmen alive. The two surviving Vikings close into a Brawl with Estelle, and even her very sophisticated glare-sword can’t beat a lifetime of melee combat training. She’s hit and wounded, burning her point of Luck as she gets tangled in her cape and goes down, a two-handed sword occupying the space her chest had been in a moment before. That also gets her out of the rest of the Brawl. Felix uses the Panic Fire rule and simply holds down the trigger until his Blast Rifle runs dry, needing fives to hit, and getting one – which is enough to kill the closest Viking. Trouble fires as well, hitting the “Big One”, who flees to fight another day – depriving the crew of the bounty for him.

Aftermath

“Fuck – I know these guys. It’s a sect of ‘Return to Our Roots’ type human-supremacist types…” He motions to a intricate tattoo on one of the figures. “Led by a guy named Elias Kirk. I…may have had something to do with deposing him during a coup, which saw him and his followers sidelined and a new government installed. Guess he’s the kind of guy who keeps a grudge.”

In truth, Garret isn’t particularly thrilled with that part of his life coming back around – it had been an ugly time – and he’ll be out of sorts for a bit (mechanically, he has “Melancholy” and won’t earn XP next campaign turn). The rewards from this are also fairly minor – a Hand Cannon that Viv claims for close-in work, a credit stick with two credits on one of the bodies, presumably what was left over after paying for passage here and seeking Garrett out, two credits for a small side job – Viv downloading she shipping manifest from one of the crates and sending it to a rival firm, and some starship parts for an eventual upgrade.

The last few missions are sitting poorly with Estelle. One seemed like a setup – a lucrative setup, to be sure, but the kind of thing where it turns out you owe people later, and this mission barely paid the bills. She decides it’s time for a change of scenery – the Azure Dawn is dusting off, and heading to a new system to follow up on some of those rumors about a Soulless who sounds an awful lot like the one on her crew…

 

This may be it for a bit – the local Crusade league is picking back up now that cases have been dropping locally, my week off is at its midpoint as we speak, and the 3d printer is down, which means I’m somewhat constrained for printing new models.

 

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