Welcome to another exciting installment of Spacemon, the tale of a Pokemon TRPG campaign! This is a spinoff of the sci-fi space epic played using the Pokemon Tabletop United (PTU) system, this time GMed by yours truly. You can get caught up on the entire Spacemon saga here!
Gunfire deflected off Simon Dolohov’s riot shield as he led the charge down the corridor. In the tight corridors, the Paladin Templar and the Knights under his command were almost entirely guarded against the hail of ballistic projectiles Nikola Markovic’s men were sending their way. Reaching the end of the corridor, Simon plowed into the enemy squad with his shield, breaking their formation and knocking a couple of them to the floor.
Quickly turning around, the Templar bashed his shield into a third enemy mercenary, throwing him to the floor as well. Then, looking back at his own squad, Simon ordered them to attack, “Open Fire!”
Without hesitation, the five Paladin Knights that made up Simon’s squad took aim with their rifles and fired upon Markovic’s men while they had the advantage. Several of the Romanov mercenaries dropped before those that had been knocked to the floor could even scramble to their feet. It only took them a matter of minutes to fully neutralize the threat.
“Great work,” Simon addressed the Knights, lowering his shield. “Let’s get these men rounded up. Marchant, make sure none of them are bleeding too badly.”
“Yes, sir,” the squad’s medic replied before checking Markovic’s downed men for wounds while the rest of the Knights got to work securing them. It was proper Paladin procedure to make sure all prisoners were provided medical attention.
“No serious injuries,” Marchant soon reported.
“Very good,” Simon said. “Kandinsky, remain with the prisoners and radio for a squad to come secure them,” he then instructed one of the other knights.
“Da,” the Romanov Paladin nodded. Simon trusted he would be fine on his own. Kandinsky was a veteran Knight and was more than capable of handling himself if more of Markovic’s men showed up.
“The rest of you, on me,” Simon ordered the rest of the squad. “I expect our allies would be happy to receive some backup. Let’s move!”
“Don’t shoot. “This one’s on our side.”
Emil Markovic’s grin widened as he turned his gaze back upon the members of the Maverick’s crew. Given how beat up they all were, it was clear he felt the assassin’s arrival had assured his victory. Gaster was concerned about their chances of survival, but he knew they couldn’t give up just yet. The former smuggler took aim with his rifle while Ace struck up a defiant combat stance with his Aegislash beside him. The android appeared to have plenty of fight left in him.
“You can fight if you want, but you won’t be leaving here alive,” Emil taunted in response as the psychic assassin began to advance.
“We’ll see about that,” Sikari replied before throwing herself at the assassin, blade raised to strike.
Without missing a beat, the assassin raised a hand and caught Sikari with pure psychic energy. Then, with a flick of her rest, she sent her flying backwards into the corner. Sikari grunted in pain as she slammed into the well, then slumped to the floor.
“Shit,” Gaster said. “We need to take the rest of these guys out, then focus on her! Rusty, use Ember on that Aggron!” As his Typhlosion ran out of the Smokescreen to engage Emil’s Pokemon, the former smuggler took aim at the Granbull and fired, finally dropping the canine.
“Good idea,” Cyrus said. After firing off a few shots at the Granbull’s trainer, the captain retreated back, then released his Umbreon.
Meanwhile, Taraka stepped forward and let loose two wisps of psionic flame. The two wisps rapidly flew at Emil and his remaining merc, burning both of them. “Iblis, use Triple Kick on the Aggron!” the monk then commanded his Hitmontop.
As the Handstand Pokemon moved in to help Gaster’s Typhlosion, Sikari picked herself off the ground and sent out her Weavile. Heeding her telepathic command, the Weavile brandished his claws and viciously charged at the enemy assassin. The Weavile leapt at the assassin to strike with an Ice Punch, but she simply teleported away and the Sharp Claw Pokemon went sailing through the space where she had once stood. As the Weavile landed back on the floor, Emil took a few potshots at him with his pistol, but the dodgy Pokemon quickly maneuvered out of the way.
Meanwhile, Ace moved up on Emil’s remaining good and struck with his Aegislash, cutting through the man’s armor to give him a nasty wound. The merc spat something in Romanov as he stumbled backwards.
“Zorro, get in there and hit him with Assurance!” Cyrus followed up with a command to his Umbreon.
The captain’s Pokemon charged at the wounded mercenary and struck hard. The Romanov man swore again as he attempted to kick the Umbreon away and put some distance between them.
“Keep on him, Zorro!” Cyrus ordered the Umbreon. “Feint Attack!” With another strong blow, the mercenary was taken out of commission. Now they just had Emil and the assassin to deal with.
“Bronya, use Giga Impact!” Emil commanded as Gaster focused his aim on the gangster’s Aggron. The hulking Iron Armor Pokemon took a powerful swing at Taraka’s Hitmontop, but the Handstand Pokemon managed to spin away from the attack and the Aggron’s full weight slammed down on the metal floor, creating a massive dent.
“Iblis, hit it with Triple Kick again!” Taraka commanded his Hitmontop in response. Spinning back toward the Aggron, Iblis struck three times with his feet in rapid succession, finally bringing it down.
With the majority of the other targets taken out, Ace moved in to strike the assassin. He slashed his Aegislash at the psychic-powered monstrosity, but she blipped out of existence, allowing the blade to pass through the space she had been occupying. Reappearing in place, she blasted Ace with her psychic power, sending him and his Aegislash flying away in opposite directions.
Turning her attention to Gaster’s Typhlosion, the assassin extended her hand out toward the Volcano Pokemon. Having fought her twice before, Gaster knew exactly what was about to happen. The former smuggler braced himself as his own Pokemon turned upon him. Under the control of the assassin, Rusty let loose a Swift attack, battering Cyrus and Gaster with a barrage of energy stars. Gaster just barely managed to withstand the hit, but the captain, who was already quite beat up, collapsed under the assault.
“Shit,” Gaster grunted as he reached for a new Pokemon to send out.
As the former smuggler released his Volcarona, Sikari’s Weavile lunged at his Typhlosion, landing a direct hit to his back. Sorry, Rusty, Gastser thought as he prepared to command his Volcarona to join in the attack.
“Alcial, use Quiver Dance, then hit Rusty with a Silver Wind!” Gaster shouted. After building up power, the former smuggler’s Volcarona unleashed a powerful blast of wind using his large wings. Unfortunately, his Typhlosion was too fast and avoided the attack.
Keeping up the pressure, Taraka fired off a blast of psionic energy at Rusty. The monk landed a direct hit, but the Typhlosion managed to stay standing.
“Sentinel, Iron Head!” Ace commanded from across the room, following up Taraka’s attack. The android’s Aegislash thrust herself at Rusty, finally taking down the Volcano Pokemon.
Meanwhile, Ace himself ignited his laser sword, then charged at the assassin. This time, the android managed to land his attack, but the assassin remained unfazed. Without taking her gaze off of Ace, she reached out to his Aegislash, exerting her influence over the Royal Sword Pokemon. She then telekinetically pulled the Aegislash into her hand and prepared to strike back at Ace.
Suddenly, Sikari’s Weavile sprang at the assassin, striking Ace’s Aegislash with an icy fist and launching the Royal Sword Pokemon out of her grasp.
“Alcial, use Fire Spin!” Gaster then commanded his Volcarona. The former smuggler’s Pokemon unleashed a rush of flames that formed into a spinning vortex around the Aegislash. When the fire tornado faded away, the Royal Sword Pokemon dropped to the floor, defeated.
Glancing over at Sikari as she made her way back to the rest of the crew, Gaster nodded at her before returning his focus to the other assassin. As Gaster lined up a shot, Ace recalled his fainted Aegislash, then sent out his Cofagrigus before making another attack. The android swung his laser sword with all his might, landing a direct hit on the assassin and leaving a giant gash across her armor.
“Tombstone, Curse!” Ace then commanded his newly sent out Pokemon.
As Tombstone inflicted her curse upon the deadly psychic assassin, Taraka recalled his Hitmontop and sent out his Sharpedo instead. Meanwhile, Cyrus’s Umbreon moved in to attack the assassin. While the captain was no longer conscious to command the Moonlight Pokemon, he had trained him well enough for him to know to attack the enemy.
Suddenly, as he began to fire on the psychic assassin once more, Gaster noticed Emil attempting to escape out of the corner of his eye. While he thought everyone was focused on the assassin, the gangster had recalled his Aggron and now he was trying to slink away. Quickly shifting his aim after firing off a burst of shots at the assassin, Gaster fired another burst at Emil, dropping him just before he reached the exit on the far side of the room.
As Gaster aimed his rifle back at the assassin, she let out another mind-splitting shriek and sent out a powerful pulse of psychic energy in all directions that propelled any person or Pokemon that was too close away from her. The powerful psychic monstrosity then reached out to Gaster’s Volcarona and bent the Sun Pokemon to her will.
“Shit,” Gaster grunted as Alcial moved to attack.
Fortunately, the former smuggler’s crewmates made quick work of his Pokemon. Sikari lunged at the Volcarona and stabbed him with her psionic blade. Then, Taraka commanded his Sharpedo to attack, “Lechew, use Aqua Jet!” Launching himself at Alcial with a powerful jet of water, the Sharpedo flew through the air at the Volcarona and slammed into him with enough force to bring him down.
“Good work, guys! Keep it up!” Gaster encouraged his crewmates as he switched out his fainted Volcarona for his Salazzle. “Sakuya, use Smog!” he commanded his Pokemon as he fired off another volley of shots at the assassin. Moving up alongside Cyrus’s Umbreon, the Salazzle spat out a stream of poisonous smog at the assassin, but she simply deflected it away with her psychic power.
Keeping up the pressure on the assassin, Taraka then sent a wisp of psionic flame flying at the assassin. With his target focused on pushing the smog away, the monk was able to slip the wisp by her and burn a hole into her armor.
“Tombstone, Night Shade!” Ace commanded his Cofagrigus as he charged at the assassin again. The Coffin Pokemon blasted the assassin with ghostly energy, then Ace swung at her with his laser sword, cutting another gouge in her armor.
The assassin shrieked again at the hit, then focused all her power on Ace, blasting the android away from her again. Ace went flying across the room into Cyrus’s Umbreon and the two collapsed in a heap. Then, with immediate threat dealt with, the machine-like assassin zeroed in on Taraka’s Sharpedo and took control of the Brutal Pokemon.
“We’ll deal with this,” Sikari said as she moved to attack the mind-controlled Sharpedo alongside her Weavile.
With Sikari and her Pokemon keeping the Sharpedo busy, Gaster kept his focus on the greater threat that was the enemy assassin. “Sakuya, use Smog again!” the former smuggler commanded his Salazzle as he fired off some more shots at his target. This time, Sakuya was successfully able to hit the assassin with her poisonous attack, but it didn’t appear to affect her much. In response, the assassin unleashed her incredible power on the Salazzle, nearly taking her down in one hit.
“Sakuya, fall back!” Gaster called out to his Pokemon as he took a few steps back himself.
Things weren’t looking good right now, and the situation only got worse when the assassin used Taraka’s Sharpedo to bring Sikari down. With one less combatant to deal with the psychic threat they faced, the odds of the Maverick crew’s survival seemed slim at best.
“Shit,” Gaster grunted. He took several more steps back, then applied a Super Potion to his wounds. The former smuggler knew he had to stay standing or else he and his crewmates would all end up dead.
“We’re not done yet!” Ace shouted as he got back on his feet. Brandishing his laser sword, the android then proceeded to charge the assassin once more. As Ace closed the distance to strike the assassin, Cyrus’s Umbreon hit her with a Confuse Ray and sent her into a daze, which gave Ace the opening he needed to land a devastating blow.
“Tombstone, Hex!” Ace then commanded his Cofagrigus. Unfortunately, as Tombstone made her attack, the assassin managed to calm her mind and snap out of her daze. At the last second, the powerful psychic teleported several feet away, avoiding the ghostly attack entirely.
Seeing that the assassin was now in range of his Salazzle, Gaster ordered the Toxic Lizard Pokemon to attack, “Sakuya, hit her with a Toxic!” The Salazzle spat out a cloud of potent toxic gas at the assassin, completely enveloping her. Surely that did something, Gaster thought as he recalled his injured Salazzle and sent out his Milotic.
Ignoring the toxic cloud, the psychic assassin kept her focus on Ace as the android charged at her to attack again. With her incredible power, she lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the wall before he could even get close enough to attack. Undaunted, Ace charged her again, but, this time, the assassin blipped away and Taraka’s Sharpedo appeared in her place. As Ace’s blade cut into the Brutal Pokemon, the assassin reappeared where the Sharpedo had been moments before.
“Tombstone, Night Shade!” Ace commanded his Cofagrigus as he turned to pursue the assassin. Unleashing another blast of ghostly energy, the Coffin Pokemon landed a powerful hit on the armored psychic, causing her to stumble backwards into Sikari’s Weavile.
Reacting quickly, the Weavile jumped up at the assassin and struck at her with frozen claws, completely encasing her in ice. However, before any of them could take advantage of the situation, the assassin teleported away, leaving behind nothing but a hollow statue of ice.
Gaster quickly scanned the room with his rifle to make sure the assassin was really gone, lowering the weapon only when he was completely satisfied. “Fuck,” the former smuggler groaned as he let out a sigh of relief. “I can’t believe we’re alive.”
“Shit!” Gordon cursed as he ducked back around the corner into cover. He let out a sigh as his eyes fell upon the blast mark on the wall caused by the shot that had just narrowly missed his head.
Hearing the sound of Markovic’s men advancing down the corridor that intersected the one he was taking cover in, Gordon took in a deep breath. Clearing his mind, the bounty hunter stepped out from cover and quickly lined up his shots. With his pinpoint accuracy, Gordon fired off six shots with his heavy pistol and landed them all, dropping three men before moving into cover on the other side of the intersection.
After hastily reloading his weapon, Gordon peeked out of cover again to assess the situation. He was just in time to witness a Rapidash come barrelling down the corridor and plow into the remaining mercs. As the Fire Horse Pokemon dashed past him, the bounty hunter took stock of the situation. It appeared that all of Markovic’s men were down for the count.
“Hey there, friend,” a voice called out to Gordon as he stepped back out into the corridor. On instinct, Gordon turned and pointed his gun toward the source of the voice.
“Oh, it’s you,” Gordon said upon realizing there was no threat. From the far end of the corridor approached the two men Cyrus had introduced as the Red Riders.
“It looked like you were in a bit of trouble so we thought we’d lend a hand,” the one called Lars said.
Gordon nodded. “I appreciate it. I probably could’ve handled it myself, but I’m glad I didn’t need to take any chances. Speakin’ of which, we oughta stick together an’ improve our chances of survival.”
“Makes sense,” Lars agreed. “This place seems to be crawling with Markovic’s men.”
“You said it,” Gordon said. “I bet Cyrus an’ the others are gonna be wantin’ some backup, so we’d better hurry an’ catch up.”
“Right. Let’s get moving.”
Gaster raised his rifle at the sound of incoming footsteps from the various corridors that led into the room. The former smuggler and his crewmates— at least the ones that were still conscious— had barely had a moment to catch their breath after their confrontation with Emil and the psychic assassin, and more trouble, it seemed, was already on the way.
We’re probably gonna die here, Gaster thought, tightening his grip on his weapon as the footsteps drew nearer. We can’t take another fight.
Much to his relief, Gaster was greeted by the sight of friendly faces pouring into the room, Gordon and the Red Riders from the corridor to the right of where the Maverick crew had first entered, and Simon and a squad of Paladins from the opposite corridor on the left. He breathed out a relieved sigh and lowered his weapon. Just like that, their odds of survival had increased dramatically. Even so, the former smuggler couldn’t help but feel a bit angry.
“Where the hell were all of you?!” he shouted at his newly arrived allies.
“Fighting all the bastards between here an’ where we boarded,” Gordon answered. The bounty hunter holstered his pistol as he approached.
“A likely story,” Taraka said, sounding just as annoyed as Gaster himself felt.
“Yeah, well where were you?” Floyd asked, walking up beside Gordon.
“We were busy almost dying,” Gaster replied, motioning to the unconscious Cyrus and Sikari. “We had to fight that psychic … thing all on our own.”
“Damn it, Cyrus,” Gordon cursed, noting his friend’s condition. “Is he gonna be alright?”
“He’s alive,” Taraka said. “And that’s what matters. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Gordon nodded. “Yeah. Cyrus is one tough bastard after all.”
“Marchant, see to their wounds,” Simon ordered, waving one of his men over. “My medic here will take care of your captain and your other crewmate,” the Paladin then addressed the Maverick crew. “In the meantime, I suggest we press on and find Markovic.”
“Good idea,” Ace said. “But what about them?” the android asked, pointing out the unconscious bodies of Emil Markovic and his two mercs.
“You’ve dealt with one of Markovic’s sons, I see,” Simon commented. “You three, secure these men,” he then ordered, turning to the rest of his squad.
“Yes, sir!” the trio replied in unison.
“My men will stay here and keep this area secured,” Simon continued, turning back to the rest of the group. “The seven of us should be able to fight our way through whatever men Markovic has left.”
“You’re damn right,” Lars agreed with a nod.
“Let’s quit wasting time then,” Gaster said. “I just want to get this over with.”
“Opening the door now,” Ace said as he activated the hacked door console.
“Fall in behind me,” Simon said as the door slid open.
Flooding into the room behind the Templar and his mighty shield, the Maverick crew and their allies quickly swept the corners and determined there were no enemies present.
“Looks like a security room of some kind,” Ace observed, taking note of the large array of holoscreens filling one wall of the room. Each screen displayed a different section of the station, most of which appeared to now be locked down by the Paladins Simon had brought with him.
“Let’s see if we can find Markovic on one of these,” Gordon Garth said, scanning the screens.
“There,” Gaster said, pointing out one of the screens. “That’s him and his oldest son, Luka.” Looking at the screen his crewmate was pointing to, Ace saw Markovic standing in a smoke-filled room beside another, much younger man, presumably his son. The pair were surrounded by several of their men, all down and scattered across the floor, and they appeared to be speaking with someone just out of frame. Unfortunately, the security feed had no audio.
“Shit,” Gaster said as a group of four familiar figures stepped into the security camera’s line of sight, weapons trained on Markovic.
“Team Vogue,” Ace said, recognizing the group immediately. “They must have come on that other ship to claim the bounty.”
“We can’t let them take him,” Simon said. “We need to question him.”
“Let’s get moving then,” Lars said. “Where is this room?”
“Here,” Simon said, identifying the location on a map of the station in the room. “A hangar for mining vessels. It’s close.”
While the others were figuring out a route, Ace kept his focus on the security feed. Markovic turned to his son to say something to him only for the young man to point his gun at him.
“Uh, guys,” Ace said, calling the group’s attention back to the feed.
“Well that’s not good,” Gaster said. “We need to get there now!”
Notes: Another exciting chapter! This one covers approximately the last third of session 58. In the session we carried on through the entire encounter, but for the writing things had to get split up for pacing reasons. We left off on a cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter, and I let that suspense build a bit more by opening the chapter with a non-session scene from Simon’s perspective. When I decided to break this session up, I knew I wanted to mix in some scenes from the allies’ perspectives and for the sake of pacing it ended up making the most sense to put them on either end of the battle with the psychic assassin. It was a little tough at first to figure out what to do with the two scenes, but I’m pretty happy with what I ended up coming up with.
Moving onto the battle itself, it was a tough one for the party for sure. They did make the smart move of taking care of the other combatants before focusing all their effort on the assassin, at least. And having two allies to absorb some damage definitely helped them. I purposefully went hard because they had those allies. DragonStorm, who was listening in on the session, kept urging me to kill Cyrus in the battle, but I didn’t want to do that. Sikari was expendable, though, but I wasn’t going out of my way to kill her and she just happened to survive. A funny thing was that there were a ton of crits that got rolled during this encounter, both by me and by the players. I also had fun telekinetically throwing people around with the assassin and I spammed the hell out of her Pokemon mind control power much more than in the previous encounters to ramp up the difficulty. For the writing, I did mix up some details, like flavoring her mind controlling the Aegislash as her actually pulling it into her hand to attack with it. That’s not exactly how it went down in game, but when writing the scene I was just like, “this is a cool idea. I’ma do it.”
After that, it was time for the allies to show up just a little too late for them to help. There was some quick RP here, which I did expand a bit for the writing, then it was onto the end of the session and yet another cliffhanger. Surprise! Team Vogue was on that ship that appeared in the last chapter! And is that a surprise betrayal too? Come back next time to find out what happens next!
That does it for this chapter. As always the Spacemon gang and I will be monitoring the comments to foster discussion and answer any questions. Feel free to give feedback and critiques of the writing so I can improve it for the future, or just leave a comment with what you think about what went down in this chapter or what you think might happen next! You can also revisit past chapters, check out the rest of the Spacemon saga, join the Spacemon Discord server, or like our Facebook page to stay updated on all things Spacemon! Click here for the next exciting installment of Spacemon: Frontier!
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