Salvage Run
The following is a solo game
using the Xenoform part of 5150, and various interpretations from earlier Two
Hour Wargames rules.
Planet New Iberia is the scene of sporadic combat
between humans and bugs. All has been
quiet for several months now. The mining
outpost of Wheel Leisure has been abandoned since bugs were found in the lower
mines. Everyone left in very hasty way,
so lots of valuables were left behind.
Bailey Mull had talked to enough
drunken miners at the spaceport bar to realize that there were lots of goods in
Wheel Leisure ripe for the pickings. Her
good looks and free hand with drinks brought some very exact info as to what
she could expect to find for salvage.
Her ship, Grifter, had lain on a
rocky ledge for 3 days as she and her crew scouted out Wheel Leisure for any
signs of bugs. For 3 days, there was
nothing but the wind to disturb the dirt streets.
She had six crew in three
vehicles to head to the warehouses on the far side of town n The crew consists
of :
Bailey Mull: Rep 5, Hard Armor,
Assault Rifle, Stone Cold
Froggy Hunter: Rep 5, Assault Rifle, Slow
Al Scramuzza: Rep 4, Assault Rifle, Hard As Nails.
The Ferret: Rep 4, Flamethrower,
Brawler
Izzy Knot: Rep 4, Grenade Launcher, Medic
Natalie Goodbody: Rep 3, Pistol,
Ambidex- terous
They were in three vehicles.
The lead vehicle was a Teixeira
T35, an armored half-track, with a heavy machine gun in an enclosed turret, and
a flexible mount light machine gun. The
T35 was cobbled together on a mid-tech world, and due to being just good enough
to do the job, and low cost, was as common as a Volkswagen beetle was in the 20th
century. The vehicle was driven by Natalie, with Al riding shotgun, and Bailey
in the turret.
Next was a pickup truck, driven
by Izzy, with The Ferret as co-pilot.
Tail-end Charley was occupied by
Sadie,a Salvage Dog halftrack with a lightly-armored cab and a flexible mount
light machine gun. It’s driven by
Juliette, with Froggy riding shotgun.
Bailey led the parade down the
main (only) street in Wheel Leisure until a bug hole opened up and out poured a
mix of Big Ones and Little Ones to the tune of one dozen.
Bailey immediately let rip with
the HMG and killed one Big One. More
bugs filled the holes in the ranks, and Bailey kept shooting, knocking out a
total of 2 Big Ones and 2 Little Ones.
And then 4 Big Ones jumped on the T35, blocking the driver’s vision, and
too close for the turret gun to bear. As
the T35 came to a halt, Izzy gunned the pickup around the bugs and headed for
the warehouse. Sadie lumbered up, and
Froggy hosed the T35 with LMG fire, taking care of 3 bugs.
Bailey hoses the bugs that didn’t
make it to the T35, and takes out 2, and tells Natalie to run over another
2. She misses. A Big One charges Sadie, but Froggy guns him
down. Meanwhile the last Big One on the
T35 strikes frantically at it, but can’t damage the T35. Since the T35 is impervious to LMG fire, Froggy takes care of the last Big One on
board.
Up the street, Izzy and The
Ferret jump out of the pickup and enter the warehouse.
The T35 takes care of the last
Little One, and heads up the street.
Sadie inexplicably hangs back.
(Juliette’s lousy Rep 2 plays havoc with continuing activation)
While Izzy and The Ferret start
looting the warehouse, the T35 turns around and comes up next to Sadie. Bailey opens the hatch and screams blue
murder at Juliette, who lurches forward.
Natalie keeps the T35 fender to fender with Sadie, as Bailey makes
interesting comments as to the family history of Juliette, while the 2 vehicles
make their way to the warehouse.
Bailey leaps out of the T35, and
jerks Juliette out of Sadie, and continues to chew on her, while everyone else
loads Sadie, glad not to be Juliette.
Natalie goes to check the fuel
tanks across the street, and the pickup starts back to the Grifter.
Sadie is loaded, and Natalie
moves the T35 to the tanks to fuel up.
Suddenly 14 bugs pop up between
the crews and the way out. The pickup is
long gone, and going faster. Only Bailey
sees them. She jumps back into the T35,
and yells at Natalie to get in and drive.
Sadie rounds the back of the abandoned hauler, and Froggy spots the bugs
and takes out 1, and runs out of ammo
Natalie spins the T35 and Bailey
takes out 1 bug. Froggy reloads.
Bailey fires again, and knocks 1
out. Froggy takes out 2.
The T35 and Sadie move slowly
forward and fires. Bailey takes out 1,
and click, click, is out of ammo. Froggy
misses and is out of ammo.
Natalie guns the engine as Bailey
reloads and Sadie lumbers forward as Froggy reloads. But while they are unloaded, a Little One
leaps on the T35, and another jumps on the front of Sadie, and attempts to get
Froggy, who gives him a haymaker on jaw, with no effect.
Both the T35 and Sadie move out,
with bugs clinging to them. Froggy and
the bug spar ineffectively.
As they roll forward, a sudden
lunge from the bug kills Froggy. The bug
continues to slice and dice, and Sadie rolls to a halt, as Juliette grabs for
her machine pistol. The T35 continues
on, unaware of what is going on behind them.
Bailey opens the hatch and kills
the bug on the T35 with her assault rifle.
Only then does she realize that Sadie is halted, and can only watch as
the bug slips into Sadie’s hatch and kills Juliette.
The T35 spins around, with Bailey
firing with her assault rifle, since the HMG is too low to have any chance of shooting
down the hatch, and might damage Sadie.
As they pull alongside, she
finally pink mists the bug. She sends Al
to get Sadie running so they can get out of Dodge with all of the goodies. Al cleans out enough goo in record time, and
Sadie lurches forward.
As they pass the only 2 story
building in town, the second story door swings open and a young voice yells,
“Hey, don’t leave me, you salvage skanks,” and Niki the Twister sprints down
the stairs, onto the T35, and into the co-pilot’s hatch that Al left open.
Bailey screams at her, and
Natalie says they can’t leave her; she’s just a kid.
Bailey groans, “And you thought
the bugs were trouble?”
Even in a vehicle, bugs can give
you trouble. The bugs were very
unfortunate in activation rolls, or the game might have gone differently. There was also a bug activation 45” off the
table, so it was ignored. The humans were
drawn with the ATZ NPC table, with appropriate weapons for the figures I had.
This game was played shortly after 5150 came out, and uses the original All Things Zombie for characters. The buildings are from WorldWorks. The T35 is a modified US WWI M8 that I got from Ed; the salvage vehicle is lead, and the transport is paper.
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