Every good outlaw story needs a prison break, and that’s exactly how the Lucky Strikes begin. Led by ex-crime lord Dante Corsaro, this ragtag crew of five humans and one battered security bot has just busted out of a penal colony aboard a stolen ex-mining ship, generously named Old Reliable. It’s a fuel hog, it’s seen better days, and it’s about to become home.
Tinhead and Dante Corsaro
The bot in question is Tinhead, who came bundled with the ship as a sort of unwanted extra. He’s about to become the star of this opening entry for all the wrong reasons.
Starting cash is thin. Ten credits and two rivals already on the books before anyone’s fired a shot. The crew touch down on a world called Frenavos and immediately need a licence to operate, six credits’ worth, thankfully covered by one of Dante’s forged IDs. Then comes the sting: an interdiction means they’ve only got two campaign turns here before they’re forced to move on. Fitting, really, for a gang of fugitives who can’t stay anywhere too long.
Sending the crew off to trade, train and explore throws up a funny situation. Tinhead is sent out to explore and gets lost. Twice. By the time he’s found for the second time, he’s apparently fallen in love with the place and doesn’t want to leave, meaning a story point will be needed just to drag him back onto the ship later.
Then it’s straight into the first proper battle, and it does not go well. The crew are ambushed by Directive Zero, a squad of cyborg bounty hunters sent by the prison company to bring them back. Six tough, shotgun-toting cyborgs against a Lucky Strikes crew that starts the fight with only three members on the table thanks to a brutal deployment roll. Two more arrive late as reinforcements, but by then the damage is already done.
Directive Zero
A promising start, taking out one cyborg early, quickly unravels. Tace and Dust are both shot down in short order, followed by Jaryn and Tinhead. Dante’s left standing alone against five armoured cyborgs and does the only sensible thing: legs it off the table.
A comprehensive defeat, but Five Parsecs rarely lets a loss go unrewarded. Four credits turn up from somewhere (perhaps a sympathetic passerby), plus a lucky cargo crate worth six more. The medical bills tell a rougher story, though. Tinhead needs two turns of repairs, Jaryn picks up crippling wounds and three turns in the sick bay, and Dust’s weapon is wrecked, replaced with a cheap shotgun in the meantime.
The campaign event twists the knife: stay on this world any longer and another rival gets added to the list. As if the crew needed more reasons to get off Frenavos.
Turn one closes with eleven credits, two rivals, five story points, and a crew held together with not much more than sticking plasters and bad luck. Old Reliable is about to earn its keep.