Episode 16: Fleet of the True King

Campaign Date: Royal Orion Year 314, Day 80

Characters:
Sir Bloodblade, Kong, veteran (Marlon Kirton)
Sir Connor O'Reardon, human, seasoned (James Gallagher)
    Angus, Dwarf Engineer (NPC)
Sir Buford Culpepper, human, veteran (Dave Nelson)
Sir Grimnak Sleestack, Saurian, Seasoned (Bob LaForge)

GM: Andrew Smith

Log:

Royal Year 314 – Day 80 Outer Space near Xanadu

The heroes engage a rogue transport ship that is known to have an informant who can provide information on sedition within the ranks of the Royal Navy. The heroes intercept the ship in their pocket battleship built from scraps salvaged from Darbusto's Rock and the Assassin's space-winnebago on New Dublin. Sir Sleestack pilots the pocket battleship and Sirs Buford and Connor man the guns. The transport sends out a wing of fighter craft to try to stop the pocket battleship, but the knights superior shooting and piloting spell an end to that threat. The small but powerful craft pulls up behind the transport and threatens to torpedo her if she doesn't stand down. The freighter stops once they see the text emblazoned on the side reading "Darbusto Industries sucks prawns".

A fellow named Sturgis Exposition on board the transport at first refuses to give the knights the information they need. Only the relentless taunting by Buford Culpepper makes him give up the fact that there is a coup being planned in the Royal Navy and that the code word to join the revolution is the word "eclipse".

Formidable Opponent Royal Year 314 – Day 80

Cast:
Gerardo Mendales (Orion)
Gerardo Mendales (Xanadu IV)
-- Gerardo Mendales and his clone are both newsmen more obsessed with becoming the story then getting the story. Both Gerardo Mendales may ad lib the trademark phrase “shocking” at will.

Captain Garland Kent
-- Captain Kent is doing his best to seem like he is totally behind the king’s quest to end the “True King’s” insurgency, but his true motives remain hidden.

Narrarator
--The GM will play the narrator

All
--All players are encouraged to participate

Narrarator: Formidable Opponent is a galactic news magazine on the Interplanetary News Network in which legendary newsman Gerardo Mendales debates one of his clones from another world in the kingdom. It is broadcast weekly throughout the kingdom and is one of the most popular news holovids in decades. Please welcome Gerardo Mendales…and none other than the one and only Gerardo Mendales!

All: (Cheering from studio audience)

Gerardo (Orion): Good evening galaxy, and welcome to yet another edition of “Formidable Opponent”. My guest tonight comes to us from the border world of Xanadu IV, a beautiful world desperate for protection as the machine activity have been seein in neighboring systems. Please welcome my clone, Gerardo Mendales!

All: (Cheering)

Gerardo (Xanadu): Thank you Gerardo.

Gerardo (Orion): Gerardo, I am just so pleased that you are able to be my guest. Your ruggedly handsome good looks make you a very attractive man. You know there are none others that can match your charm and charisma. Gerardo…I just can’t quit you.

Narrarator: The two Gerardos share a moment and gaze knowingly into one anothers’ eyes.

All: (Nervous Coughing, Crickets Chirping, Shuffling)

Gerardo (Orion): Ahem! Yes, it is good to have you.

Gerardo (Xanadu): It is so good to be here, Gerardo.

Gerardo (Orion): Now Gerardo, let’s get to the heart of the matter. On the neighboring system of New-New Gunea Prime, Knights and marines fought a pitched battle against the dreaded “Skulltrons”. Can we defend against these wicked mechanized beasts? How long do you think you have until the machines commanded by the forces of the so called “True King” Mason the second reaches your planet?

Gerardo (Xanadu): Well Gerardo, as they say on Xanadu “not as long as we have the biggest battlecruiser”. It is true that while the fleet is stretched thin, the armada at Xanadu has drawn a line to prevent the machine menace from attacking the core worlds – including Orion herself!

Gerardo (Orion): Gerardo! Certainly you aren’t suggesting that the only fleet that stands between the machines and the home planet of Orion is stationed above the pleasure planet and weightless casinos and bordellos of Xanadu?

Gerardo (Xanadu): Of course not, Gerardo! There are smaller fleets within the core worlds poised to counterstrike if they need to, but none of them would even approach the power of the Hammer of Zeus battle group! If anyone has a chance to stop these machines, this armada is the one. Here is a clip from an interview I recently had with Captain Garland Kent, commander of the armada and captain of the flagship battlecruiser – the “Hammer of Zeus” itself.

Narrarator: The video cuts to a video of Kent with his eyes shifting nervously as he speaks.

Kent: Uh, yeah. We’ve got more than enough firepower to stop those machines dead. Of course, we’ll have to worry about the machine starships the most. We’ll stop them, though. Particularly since failure means that anyone getting past us has almost a free shot at Orion before the cavalry can arrive. Not that the machines will even attack toward the core planets. Who can say what their true motives are, right? I’m disappointed that the king didn’t send more ships to this armada for protection instead of running “rescue missions” throughout the kingdom. I would love to roll in and vaporize those buckets of bolts where they stand. Why be defensive when we could be offensive, right?

Narrarator: The video cuts back to the two Gerardos absent-mindedly holding hands.

Gerardo (Xanadu): Fear for your lives, citizens! The machines have been engaged! Trust in your king to do what is right for you. The king only asks for your blood and your treasure! Give it to him and all will be fine!

All: (Gasps)

Gerardo (Orion): Point made, Gerardo! You are truly a formidable opponent!

All: (Cheers)

Gerardo (Orion): Tune in next week where we debate issues dealing with romance and genetics! Is it ethical to fall in love with your clone, or is it just a sophisticated form of masturbation? Find out here on “Formidable Opponent”!

Royal Year 314 – Day 81
The Hammer of Zeus Battlecruiser, in orbit above Xanadu IV

The first marine chief Finn arrives with a pair of bodyguards. After a brief discussion in which Finn makes it clear that he detests the knights and all they stand for, Sir Connor takes control of the marine's mind and forces him to answer their questions. They find that in fact all the marines are in on the sedition (in fact, later they discover that the entire *ship* was made up of traitors to the "True King" once they find all the dead loyalists in one cargo bay).

Once the plot is exposed, marine units supported by a heavy blaster machine gun and a laser-axe wielding heavy armor suited wild card attack. Buford and Sleestack teleport forward, disrupting the marines laying in wait while Bloodblade and Connor engage the marines in the corridor and the heavily armored wild card. After a short battle, the marines are routed from the VIP deck when the wild card is finally knocked out by a plasma gun shot from Connor.

The knights move toward the command and control deck where they fight past an ambush laid by the other marine chief, Colon. Buford again teleports forward and fights the marine chief in a pistol duel. Bloodblade rushes forward and hacks marines down, breaking no fewer than two of his weapons in the process. Sleestack and Connor pick forward carefully, choosing their targets carefully.

The marines make it to the command deck where they meet executive officer Fredbob. Fredbob throws himself at the mercy of the knights. He insists that the command deck has lost control to the auxilary control. Angus notices that Fredbob is in fact lying -- the controls are up and working just fine. Sleestack takes the lying personally and hoses the entire deck down with his hand flamer -- killing all the officers sitting in the cockpits below the command deck immediately.

With all the officers dead, the ship begins to list in space. Sleestack takes the controls and Buford sends a transmission to the rest of the ship telling the traitors to surrender. Just then, the rogue elements of the battle group begin to attack the remaing ships. In the Hammer of Zeus, a final group of marines are on their way up to the command deck to retake control of the battlecruiser. Sirs Connor and Bloodblade move to stop the marines while Sleestack, Buford, and Angus do their best to take controls of the battlecruiser and fight off the traitorous ships.

The spaceship battle looks grim at first. Four frigates and two destroyers are clamoring for the destruction of the Hammer of Zeus. However, Sleestack is able to turn the massive battlecruiser on a dime three times to get the main meson cannon battery in line for Buford to destroy the seditious ships. Sleestack actually rams the Hammer of Zeus through several of the ships to destroy them, much to the chagrin of Captain Kent who is fighting with Bloodblade and Sir Connor below.

Meanwhile, Connor and Bloodblade engage the remaining crewmembers fighiting to push into the bridge. Connor cuts down a majority of the marines with his plasma gun including Captain Kent himself. Meanwhile, Bloodblade fights a losing battle against another marine in powered battle armor with paired laser-axes. Just as Bloodblade is about to go down under the tremendous pounding of the traitorous marine, a blast from one of the frigates blows a hole in the side of the battleship and Bloodblade is swept out into space. Many of the remaining marines are also swept out into the vacuum of space and Connor retreats back to the command deck.

Sleestack maneuvers the gigantic Hammer of Zeus battleship to catch Bloodblade before he plumetts to his death on the planet Xanadu below. Sir Buford uses the little remaining psionic power he has left to teleport himself out into space to retrieve his wayward comrade.

With the Hammer of Zeus tamed, the rebel forces step down and the coup attempt is ended.