Agents Of Empire/Turns/17/Colony Worlds
Turn 17
House Actions
- Shipping:
- The Mighty Mammoth departs from Arroyo heading for Elvis (trusting that the few remaining Gwyne ships at Arroyo are too busy dealing with combat in space or on the ground to bother going after it). It takes along 4 units of Hyperidot and 1 unit of Native Art.
- Fighting:
- The Fightin' Fighters and the Foreign Legion take cover in the Seveyard, to defend it against any further Gwyne incursions.
- Thunderchild rests up in one of the Seveyard's empty bays while its damage is repaired.
- If the two Gwyne scout ships retreat and leave the system, Rick prepares the Reiglight Revenge for its next encounter against Gwyne forces. Otherwise, Rick leads the Reiglight Revenge in a retributive strike against the Gwyne scout that attacked Thunderchild.
- Dalek Red, Dalek Blue, Dalek Green and Dalek Yellow roll out onto the field of battle using ATTACK FORMATION: INSECTICIDE to eliminate the advantage Gwyne's airborne units would otherwise have against them. Jude leads Dalek Red against Gwyne's rank-2 ground unit and (by spending a fate point) Dalek Blue against Gwyne's rank-2 cruiser. Dalek Green and Dalek Yellow pair off to exterminate Gwyne's rank-3 ground unit.
- If we're lucky, Gwyne won't realize the significance of INSECTICIDE or Jude's leadership until it's too late, in which case the rank-2 ground unit would probably uselessly try to defend itself against Dalek Red, their cruiser would similarly uselessly try to defend itself against Dalek Blue, and their scout might waste its payload alone against Dalek Yellow or Dalek Green (while the rank-3 ground unit would probably still destroy the last remaining dalek, since our luck has to run out some time).
- The reprogrammed Gwyne chemical drones use Dark's plan and the booby traps to take out the rank-2 Gwyne soldiers.
- The Prime Irregulars rest.
- Dark spends a Fate point to become a SUPER FIGHTING MACHINE and in particular uses his Keen Eyesight plus ATTACK FORMATION: INSECTICIDE plus a sniper blaster to precisely hit the Scout ship right where it will be disabled and crash.
- Exploration:
- Receiving instructions on a secure channel from Dark, Raphael Helsing and his Reef Riders surrender to the rank-3 Gwyne unit. "I surrender! I never liked those Prime jerks anyway. Everything has been moved into hiding, I will take you to where the resources are." Rafael then takes the most dangerous route he knows to hike out to the installation at K11 (from Turn 4) and in close proximity to the crab-warriors, intending to arrive Turn 18.
- The Lewison Clarks continue their exploration of the Cavernous Region (making it 10/18 of the way to Explored-III).
- Bram searches for salvage from the space battle two weeks ago. He retrieves 1 unit of Slightly Used Warp Nacelles (a rank-3 refined good) and 1 unit of Assorted Cabling (a rank-2 refined good).
- The Starlight Survey Squad and KANE begin exploring a new region on Vefna (making it 4/6 of the way to Explored-I).
- Industry:
- Bonanza Region: Produces nothing (because they are on temporarily reduced rations).
- Island Region: Produces nothing (because they are fully evacuated).
- Ocean Region: Produces nothing (because they are fully evacuated).
- Pleistocene Region: Produces 3 units of Frozen Gas.
- Bloos Wade Region: Produces 1 unit of Unsorted Crystals (with homesteader help) and 3 units of Food.
- Alshu Cup Region: Produces 3 units of Metal.
- Hau Ndogg Region:
- The Riju Tri-Lateral Industrial Complex processes 3 units of Unsorted Crystals, 3 units of Chemicals and 3 units of Metal into 3 units of Petro-alloy Plating (a rank-3 refined good).
- Research:
- The Farlight Institute of Crystal Biotechnology continues researching.
- The Hau Ndogg Community College astro-polo stadium (and secret underground advanced physics laboratory) continues researching.
- The Boumfadour Institue for Ecology and Planetary Development finish researching their use of local flora/fauna for defense? (I don't know how the rules on Food and the move and so forth affect this.)
- The Boumfadour Institue for History and Archaeology continue researching the city-sub thing they are housed in.
- Building:
- The Seve Ballesteros Memorial Shipyard uses 2 units of Frost Jewels, 1 unit of Slightly Used Warp Nacelles and 1 unit of Assorted Cabling to construct four rank-2 military space units: Tyrannosaur, Utahraptor, Dromiceiomimus and Triceratops.
- Landing:
- The Mighty Mammoth arrives in Elvis' system. If there is still a Gwyne blockade present, it hangs back and doesn't approach the planet yet. Otherwise, it lands and unloads its cargo.
- Trading:
- Elvis' Hau Ndogg Region, Bloos Wade Region and Alshu Cup Region each consume 1 unit of Food.
- Vefna's Pleistocene Region consumes 1/5 unit of Rations.
- Boumfadour's Island Region and Ocean Region are not presently occupied and thus consume no resources.
- Arroyo's Cavernous Region will be inactive in Turn 18 and thus consumes no resources. The Bonanza Region consumes 1/4 unit of Kookie Krysp.
- Politics:
- If the wormhole is open by this point, we send a distress signal to our allies in the Imperial Core, describing the situation and requesting assistance.
Character Actions
Colony
- Dark: Single-handedly shoots down a Gwyne ship! (with a fate point)
- Jude: Dalek-handedly shoots down a Gwyne ship! (with a fate point)
- Rick: Fights a space battle at Arroyo.
- Kyil: Gets bored of sitting in the wormhole tower, and goes and joins the explorers.
Imperial Core
- Reig: Has a Psychic Adventure on Iavo to discover more about space babies.
- Seve:
- Silentus:
- Tesher: Makes a few temporary modifications to the StarFar Reigspress to allow it to function better in combat: nitro canisters in the warp engines, a bit of ablative armor that should absorb one or two hits before being boiled off, a few exploding barrels that can be pushed out of the fore cargo holds by red-shirted crewmen...
- (NPC) Basinbloke:
Results
Aftermath!
The battleships hovering over Boumfadour and Elvis take off for Arroyo, intent on crushing this new sign of resistance.
On Vefna, the colony continues to get back to normal. Kyil assists in the exploration of the Mesozoic region, bring it up to explored-I. In his travels around the area, he discovers a classic "immovable object meets unstoppable force" situation: there was once an ancient tower-like structure constructed at the base of the mountain, made of the same near-invulnerable stone as the other "castles" on the planet. Over time, a new glacier made its way down the mountain, wrapping around the tower and slowly crushing it. The result, now, is devastation to both parties: the collapse of the tower provides a source for obtaining portably-sized quantities of the castle stone, and the process opened up a vast seam into the glacier itself, exposing a tempting series of ice caves. The Starlight Survey Squad finds the experience educational, to say the least, and become rank-3 in the process.
On Elvis, Jude and the daleks (the hot new electronica craze) roll out onto the field of battle. The Gwyne ships swoop down to make short work of the daleks, but are taken aback by their new maneuvers. A melee ensues, in which Jude leads Dalek Red to victory against the rank-2 enemy ground troop (in the face of ineffective fire by the scout), Dalek Blue to victory against the cruiser (which returns fire but Blue dodges the majority of it), and Dalek Green and Yellow pair up against the rank-3 enemy ground troop, destroying it (in the process, Green is destroyed by the fire of the enemy, and Yellow is injured by the rank-2 ground enemy). In any case, this fighting doesn't touch the core regions, so work goes on as normal. The Secret Advanced Physics Laboratory finishes their research on the Vefna batteries, determining that they're high-capacity batteries designed for relatively short-term storage, specifically, the storage of energy sent off by a disrupted wormhole as it fades away, and also then capable of re-emitting that energy to power a transmission system to create a new wormhole.
On Boumfadour, Dark puts his plans into action, causing the chemical drones to do a surprise attack against the rank-2 enemy troops, destroying them (and injuring the drones), while he himself sets up an ambush for the scout ship, sending it crashing to the ground. Raphael surrenders to the rank-3 enemy unit in the Whirlpool Region and attempts to lead them into ambush in the Island Region.
On Arroyo, the Mighty Mammoth takes off freely, with nobody blockading the system. Rick leads the Reiglight Revenge against the Gwyne scouts, destroying one, but the Revenge is injured in the process.
Additional ships from other planets arrive at Arroyo: the battleship from Elvis, the damaged battleship from Boumfadour, the cruiser once from Vefna, and the battleship from Hrobaj.
And finally, as space settles into a convoluted but familiar pattern, the wormhole reopens. The colonies are once again connected. And we all know what that means for next turn -- News from the Empire!
Dark fights. Rick fights. Jude fights. Kyil doesn't have anyone to fight.
And back at the empire, Silentus gathers information from his sources. Reig and Tesher do some investigation and building of their own. Basinbloke prepares some documents. And Seve runs for president! He spends 10 mega-credits which (on the wormhole re-opening) it turns out the colonies also spent, but it's all for a good cause, as the colonies' Fame increases by 10.
