Talk:Albedo
I ran one session of Albedo: Platinum Catalyst during a lull in another game. *I'd love to return to it but haven't had the opportunity*
The two players choose a recon fox and bear engineer, each with a squad of disposable NPCs they were in charge of. *I probably should have made sure everyone had the same understanding of military positions. But none the less we had our scouts and our heavy infantry with engineering training*
They were in a capital ship traveling to a series of un-colonized planets looking for a possible enemy base in the sector. As backstory I told them that the last few systems had been quiet but within a few minutes of arriving at the current system I had warning sirens filling the ship as sensors had detected multiple launches from a sentry missile platform. *I stressed to them how bad this was. These are like torpedoes to a battleship if one hit doesn't crack the ship in half or take out the energy core vaporizing everything they will likely be to damaged to warp out of the system. And they had a few dozen missiles coming at them.*
They seal their spacesuits and take their battle stations at gunnery positions feeling the slight shake of counter missiles, and data probes back to fleet, being fired. Gravity starts shifting as the ship is taking evasive action; in their scopes they see their missiles taking out some of the inbound ones but not nearly enough. The missiles come into range and they open up, it doesn't matter what you gunnery skill is a lucky hit is better than an unused gun. Fighters finally get launched and join the fight. *Don't miss to badly or you could hit a friendly* A missile is hit, then another; the missiles get into range where even the shrapnel of a destroyed missile was causing minor damage to the haul. A gasket is blown, a corridor looses pressure, power to a section goes out. The engineers jump into action doing emergency repairs to keep the ship alive. And then it happens.
A missile slips through the defensive fire and hits the lower decks. Everyone is knocked off their feet. The engines shut off and without their acceleration gravity disappears. The survivors scramble back to their guns before another missile finishes them off. The engineers squad, which had been on the bridge doing repairs hears the report. Engines out, on maneuvering thrusters only, 1/3 of the ship is in vacuum, 1/2 of the ship is without power, scores of positions aren't reporting in, structural integrity has been compromised warp, which they were 5 minutes from, is no longer an option. *And I rolled low on the damage* The captain goes to telemetry, "I see we have a planet in the system that can support life," he took the helm himself, "Uploading planetary landing telemetry now into all remote vehicle." "Sir," a random officer says, "life pods can't make it that far." The captain nods, "I'm ordering an evacuation in the drop ships." *I explained to them that at this distance that would mean over a weeks journey in cramped space with minimal food, water and air in ships with minimal armor and guns to a likely hostile location.*
The captain sounds abandon ship, and yells for everyone on the bridge to get going. The recon team gets to the hanger *which was nearby* quickly but the engineers have to go a decent way across the ship to get there. More shrapnel hits and a corridor they're passing through, in low G, cracks open to space. The engineers are able to save some but not all of the bridge crew from being sucked through the meter wide opening and eventually make it to the hanger before the last drop ship leaves. *The ship had been held by the recon officer until the bridge crew, furthest from the hanger, showed up.*
Launching they look back through a small window as the sparking hulk of their ship turns into the last missile barrage and is consumed in a fiery ball of silence. The ships form up, the fighters with their smaller reserves of supplies but higher top speed accelerate towards the planet hoping to make it there before they suffocate in a few days. The drop ships are about to leave when they start picking up some SOS signals from a handful of survivors that had been pulled into space during the battle and survived in their spacesuits.
Most drop ships opt to abandon these survivors since the ships do not have airlocks, but not our players. Noting that the cockpits can be sealed off from the main cabin they order everyone into their spacesuits and rescue the survivors by opening up the main doors to bring them in.
This saves a half dozen souls but gives them new problems. First they're dangerously low on oxygen for the trip which they combat by not re-pressurizing the crew bay but having everyone breath through their spacesuits which have been turned to the thinnest oxygen mix (excluding pilots whose cabin is fully pressurized) excluding once session per day to eat, refill their suits water supply and clean the waste compartments. The second problem is that those extra maneuvers have used fuel which means they'll likely have to use maneuvering thrusters for landing which may separate them from the rest of the crew.
But of course this isn't the end of their problems. Half way there they pick up more missiles coming towards them from the planet. They are able to dive into an asteroid belt to evade the missiles but this uses up all of their thrusts getting back on course. They'll make planetfall but will have to land using only gravity and the ships aerodynamics, even if they survive they have no idea where they'll end up or how far away from the other's they'll be.
They take this time to look at their assets. Their squads fully equipped, two pilots with machine pistols, 1.5 squads worth of light infantry with a mix of light assault weapons, an administrative squad with pistols, and a squads worth of other classes (a medic, a couple quartermasters etc).
They land, it's a hard landing and there are a few injuries to a couple NPCs. They end up banking off a ridgeline and landing in the wooded valley below. After securing their immediate surroundings and unable to raise anyone else on the radio (possibly because of their location in a valley and being without any satellites, or ships in orbit to relay the signal). The engineers start cannibalizing the damaged drop ship, the recon team starts doing a larger sweep of the area, and the rest take care of the injured and getting a camp set up (including securing water and food).
That's when I let them know they're still not out of the woods yet. The recon team spots a small armored column, a light tank, two jeeps, and a cargo truck, winding it's way up the valley. They report in. The engineers have turned the ships guns into a turret the next hour is taken to explain the terrain as they set up an ambush.
With everything ready to go for the next games combat we never returned as the main game picked back up.
