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!
“Ow.”
Cyrus winced as Erik tightened the bandage around his arm.
“Oh, quit complaining,” Erik said. “I’ve patched you up from worse.”
“That still doesn’t make you a medical expert,” the captain teased.
“You’re lucky you don’t need one,” the Maverick’s engineer retorted. “You’re all in remarkably good shape, all things considered.”
“We’re professionals,” Gaster said.
“But you boys still seem to have left quite the mess behind,” Persephone said as she entered the ship’s medbay.
“Sorry about that,” Cyrus chuckled. “So to what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Greywall’s security force has secured the facility,” the gym leader explained. “I thought you’d like to know.”
“I’m not sure how much there is to secure,” Gaster said. “It seemed like those mercs cleared the place out pretty good.”
“I’ve initiated an official Federation investigation all the same,” Persephone explained. “I plan to get to the bottom of this facility’s sudden appearance. It’s a shame you killed almost everyone.”
Gaster shrugged. “They were shooting at us.”
“Oh, I’m not blaming you,” Persephone said. “I’m just making an observation.”
“They were probably just hired guns anyway,” Gaster said. “I doubt they knew anything useful. It’s Hat Guy who we need to find. Have you had any luck tracking down that ship yet?”
“My contact is still working on it,” Persephone answered.
“That’s unfortunate,” Gaster said.
“I guess we need to hope there’s something in the data we recovered that can help us,” Cyrus said.
“I’ll let you boys get back to it, then,” Persephone said, turning to leave. “I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I hear anything useful.”
Cyrus nodded at the gym leader as she departed. “Much appreciated.”
“How’s it going?” Gaster asked, walking up behind Ace and Anya as they worked on combing through the data the former had pulled from the computers in the underground facility. “Any luck?”
“Not much, I’m afraid,” Ace said. “They definitely seem to have been trying to scrub their network clean once we broke in so there’s not a whole lot here, but from what Anya’s been able to translate, we did get some names and locations.”
Gaster looked over at Anya. The Maverick’s pilot wasn’t the best with computers, but as the only one on the ship fluent in Romanov, she was essential to the process of decoding the data. “Anything useful?” he asked her. “Something that could help us find their main base?”
“I mean most of this reads like word salad,” Anya started to explain. “There are some mentions of other locations, but it’s all out of context. What really stands out, though, is the repeated mention of a Romanov family name.”
Gaster raised an eyebrow. “Is that name Yong?”
“No,” Anya bluntly stated. “It’s Xiannu.” Then, noting the lack of recognition in Gaster’s expression, she added, “You know, the Yongs’ main political rival.”
Gaster nodded as the gears started turning in his head. “Well it might be too obvious,” he started. “But it would make sense that the Yongs’ political rival would steal a Yong assassin and then use it to kill Yongs.”
“That is a good point,” Taraka said as he approached. The monk had been sitting in meditation a short distance away, but this new revelation seemed to have piqued his interest.
“Do you think we should tell Boris that his family’s political rival might be involved?” Ace asked the group. “Or is that a bad idea?”
“I don’t think it would hurt to tip him off,” said Taraka. “He obviously knows someone is gunning for him.”
Gaster stroked his facial scruff as he gave it some thought. After a moment, he said, “I’m not sure we have enough information to say for sure that these Xiannus are behind this.”
Anya pointed at her screen and said, “Well this definitely says that those mercs you guys just fought were working for the Xiannus.”
“Oh, okay then,” Gaster said. “That changes things. In that case, maybe we do have adequate evidence.”
“Agreed,” said Taraka. “We’d better tell the captain, then give Boris a call.”
“Hello again,” Minister Yong greeted the gathered members of the Maverick’s crew as his image appeared on the comms viewscreen. “How goes your investigation?”
Ace was the first to speak. “Mr. Yong, we have some potentially distressing news.”
Boris remained calm, his only noticeable reaction being a slightly raised left eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yes,” the android replied. “We just raided a facility that we believe is linked to the people who robbed your family’s lab and tried to assassinate you … and our evidence suggests that they’re working for the Xiannu family.”
“Hmm,” Boris said, raising his hand to his chin. “This is very disturbing indeed. Such action would be a violation of the understanding between the great families of the Union.”
“So what information can you tell us about these people?” Gaster asked.
“The Xiannu family has been the political adversary of my family for a very long time,” the minister explained. “Throughout our history, there have been cycles of increasing and decreasing hostility between our two families, but this …” He trailed off for a moment, a contemplative expression on his face. “This is a very bold move for them if this is indeed their work.”
“Is this a period of increased or decreased hostility?” Ace inquired.
“Tensions with the Xiannus have been rising as of late,” said Boris. “But not so much to suggest that they would turn to such vile tactics.”
Gaster thought the minister’s words over. There had to be some reason for the changing situation between the families. After a few moments, an idea came to the former smuggler. “Has the head of the Xiannu family changed recently?” he asked. “Could we be seeing someone else’s new ideas of how to deal with the Yongs?”
A light seemed to turn on in the minister’s head. “As a matter of fact, yes,” he said. “About a year and a half ago, Mira Xiannu became the new matriarch of the family. It was around that time that the relationship between our families began to sour.”
“That seems to track then,” Gaster said.
Boris nodded. “So it would seem. However, our recent conflicts have remained within the realms of business and politics.” The minister paused for a moment before saying, “If your evidence is legitimate, then they have turned to the most unsavory and dishonorable of tactics.”
Gaster was well aware that the Yongs were no strangers to unsavory and dishonorable tactics themselves, but he knew better than to bring that up. The Yongs hadn’t left him stranded on an inhospitable desert planets while the Xiannus, though indirectly, had done just that, and that was enough of a reason for him to keep his mouth shut.
“What do you think we should do now that we know the Xiannu family is involved?” Ace soon asked, breaking the silence that had come over the room.
“I— or members of my family— can do some poking around in the political arena and see what the Xiannus are up to,” Boris said. “In the meantime, I would advise that you continue to focus on finding this mysterious man in the hat. Surely apprehending him will help link everything together.”
Gaster nodded. “Yeah, that’d probably help.”
“We do have some new leads from that facility to go on,” Cyrus said. “We should follow up on them while they’re still fresh.”
“I agree,” Boris said. “You should pursue those as soon as possible. Now, gentleman, I have some other business that I must attend to. I will contact you if I find anything new regarding the Xiannu family.”
“Thank you, Minister,” said Ace.
“So what’s our plan, Captain?” Taraka asked as the crew assembled around the navigation computer.
“These are all the locations mentioned in the data we recovered that we suspect are important to Hat Guy’s operation,” Cyrus said as he pulled up the navigation chart. Three blinking red dots appeared, representing the coordinates the captain had marked.
“Of all of these sets of coordinates, which one is the closest?” Gaster asked.
“That would be this one,” Cyrus said, pointing to one of the dots. “It’s in Romanov Sector 17. The other two are in the neighboring Outer Rim sectors, 18 and 19.”
“Well we’ll probably have to go to all of them eventually, but I say we hit the one in Sector 17 first,” Gaster said.
Taraka shrugged. “That’s fine with me,” he said.
“Alright,” Cyrus said. “I’ll tell Anya to plot a course.”
As the captain departed to speak with Anya, Taraka turned to Gaster. “I have a favor to ask,” the monk told his crewmate.
“Sure, pal,” Gaster replied. “What is it?”
“I was wondering if you could teach me how to shoot,” said the monk. “If we’re going to keep doing this kinda stuff, I need a gun.”
“Sure. I can do that,” Gaster said, nodding. “Here, you can use this one,” he added, handing Taraka his tesla coil rifle.
“Are you sure?” Taraka asked.
“Yeah. I’ve still got my laser rifle and that pistol I found on that shipwreck,” Gaster said. “This thing is piss easy to shoot too, so you’ll do fine. Come on, I’ll set up some targets in the cargo hold.”
“Patience, Brother,” Luka calmly said as Emil strained against the restraints securing his hands to the table in the interrogation room the two brothers found themselves in. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Stupid like betraying our father?” Emil spat back. “That’s what got us in this mess—”
“No,” Luka sharply cut his younger brother off. “It was Father’s actions that led us here. If he hadn’t taken that—”
It was soon Luka’s turn to be interrupted as the door slid open. He looked to the door expecting to see their previous interrogators once more. However, instead of the same Yong thugs, in the doorway stood a thin, dark-haired man wearing an expensive looking business suit. He looked to be in his early-to-mid thirties and despite his rather average build, Luka felt his commanding presence as he stepped into the room. This man, Luka could tell, was somebody important.
“Hello,” the man said. His voice was calm, but cold. “My name is Boris Yong.”
Emil was the first to respond. “Never heard of you.”
“You have now,” Boris said, casting a judgmental glance upon Emil.
“You will have to forgive my brother’s rudeness,” Luka said, shooting a cold glare at his brother.
“I may,” Boris said, taking a seat at the table opposite the brothers. He made direct eye contact with Luka as he looked across at them. “According to my associates, I have you to thank for putting a stop to your father’s attacks on my family.”
“It was necessary,” Luka stated. “Challenging your family was his greatest mistake.”
“Hmm, it would seem you display better judgment than your father,” Boris replied. “Perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”
Luka suspected that the offer he was about to receive would not be particularly beneficial, but he and his brother weren’t exactly in an advantageous position. Whatever the case was, accepting it would probably be more favorable than not. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m listening.”
“It is my understanding that your father’s— or perhaps I should say your organization is now in total disarray,” Boris continued. “My family can give you the resources to restore order and keep your enemies in check.”
“And in return?” Luka asked.
“In return, you would work for us,” Boris explained. “For the Yong Family.”
“You must be jo—” Emil started before he was cut off by his older brother once again.
“We accept your gracious offer,” Luka told Boris.
“Very well,” Boris said, rising to his feet. He then turned to the men guarding the door and said, “Release these men. See to it that they are treated as proper guests of the Yong Family.”
“Yes sir,” one of the men replied before moving to release Luka from his restraints.
Boris, meanwhile, began to step toward the exit. He stopped briefly in the doorway and looked back at the brothers. “I will be in touch.”
Notes: This chapter gave me a bit of trouble. The bulk of the chapter covers the rest of the beginning RP of session 64. The opening scene is one I added to make things flow a bit better. It seemed a nice way to set things up and transition things. It does include some details from the session, though. The next few scenes are pretty much unchanged from the session aside from some added descriptions and extra bits of dialogue. All of that was written around the same time as the previous chapter. It was the last scene that gave me trouble. That one is an added scene to wrap up the Markovic brothers’ story arc in this series and I knew for a while that I wanted to include something like it. This was the last place I could possibly fit it in, but I just had issues figuring it out and ended up taking a months-long hiatus from writing. It’s finally done, though, and I’m satisfied with the result. The solution was to simplify things and cut some ideas I had. Perhaps some will come to be in a standalone piece one day.
So this session is where I introduced one of the Yong Family’s political rivals for the first time. Knowing this was coming, I did mention them in an earlier chapter to foreshadow things a bit. But how are the Xiannus involved? We will see as we move into the endgame.
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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