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!
Gaster’s breaths were growing heavy as he and his crewmates continued to run. They hadn’t encountered any further resistance, but that was no reason to slow down and lower their guard. After moving down a corridor and then through another set of bulkhead doors, the sudden movement of a figure in his peripheral vision caused Gaster to turn and raise his rifle.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said when he saw Sikari down the sights.
The assassin smirked as Gaster lowered his weapon. “That was all very exciting.”
“Well we’re not out of the woods yet,” Ace told her.
“You’re doing a pretty good job of it, though,” Sikari replied. “I saw your fight over the security feeds. Not bad.”
“Easy for you to say not being there to help,” Taraka shot back.
“Well excuse me for clearing your path,” Sikari said as she stepped to the side and motioned to the corridor behind her, which was strewn with the bodies of dead mercs. “You probably wouldn’t have made it out if I hadn’t intercepted the reinforcements.”
“Eh, we would have been fine, trust me,” Tarka said dismissively. “We just survived a firing squad.”
“I appreciated the assistance,” Ace chimed in.
“Well thank you, Ace,” Sikari said, flashing a grin. Gaster couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or not. “Anyway,” she continued. “I managed to grab what data I could before they shut me out.”
“Oh, well actually, good job on that,” Taraka said, giving Sikari a rare compliment. “Because we’re bad at keeping data. It’s like every time we go to hack a terminal, they’ve somehow wiped everything.”
“If we want to get the rest of it, though, we’re going to need to get into that central room,” Sikari explained. “That’s where the servers are.”
“Well what are we standing around here for?” Cyrus asked. “Let’s move.”
“Right,” Sikari nodded. “Follow me.”
The Maverick crew arrived at the central room without running into any more mercs. As Sikari had explained on the way over, they were all either dead or they had been redirected to the wrong part of the station.
“Well here we are,” the assassin said, procuring a key card and swiping it at the door console. She then punched in a passcode and the console flashed green as the doors slid open. “The server room.”
“I don’t want to know how you got that password, do I?” Gaster asked as he followed her inside.
“Probably not, no.”
“Figures,” Gaster said as he looked around the room. It was a large, unoccupied room full of computer servers. So many, in fact, that Gaster was sure that all the data for all of Hat Guy’s operations must have been stored here. A main terminal with a large screen stood on the far wall, much like the one in the base on Insipia.
“Now let’s just grab everything and go,” Sikari said as she strolled up to the terminal.
Ace nodded. “I agree.”
“Kind of an impressive setup they’ve got here,” Cyrus commented as Sikari got to work.
“Not really,” Sikari replied. “Just stand guard for a bit, boys; I’ll only be a moment.”
The process was indeed a quick one. Gaster was surprised when Sikari said she was finished. Whatever fancy tech the assassin’s former employer had provided her must have been powerful.
“Let’s get the hell out of here then,” Cyrus said. “No sense wasting time.”
“As long as they haven’t locked the ship down,” Gaster chimed in.
“Good call,” the captain replied before reaching for his commlink. “Anya, what’s the situation on the Maverick?”
“Well they haven’t tried to mess with the ship yet,” the pilot reported. “But they locked the hangar down.”
“Sounds like we need to open that hangar door before we get the heck out of here,” Taraka said.
“So it seems,” Cyrus said. “Let’s come up with a plan.”
“We could ask them nicely,” Gaster wrly commented.
“Or we could just hack them again,” Sikari offered.
“True,” said Taraka.
Gaster smirked. “Hacking is a form of asking nicely.”
“I suppose it is,” Sikari said. “If you think about it the right way. I’ll go ahead and ‘ask’ them to open the door for us.”
The Maverick crew made their way back to the ship, following Sikari as she led them down a safe route. Avoiding any further mercenary entanglements, they arrived a short time later. Once aboard the ship, it only took a moment for Sikari to get the doors open, allowing Anya to fly the ship out.
Just as the Maverick exited the hangar, three frigates dropped out of warp space. One was a sleak, advanced looking ship, while the other two appeared to be pretty standard mercenary heavy frigates. The sensors reported that all three ships were charging their weapons.
“Damn, we can’t catch a break,” Gaster grumbled as the ships moved to engage.
“Anya, take evasive action! Get us out of here!” Cyrus shouted as he jumped into the co-pilot’s seat. “Ace, Gaster, man the guns!”
Gaster didn’t need to be told twice. He quickly ran to one of the gunner seats and strapped himself in. He could see the ships closing in through the targeting viewfinder as he lined up his shot.
“The warp drive needs to finish charging!” Anya called out as a few glancing shots deflected off the Maverick’s shields. “I’ll try to lose them around the far side of the planet.” The pilot fired the engines to maximum, steering the ship into orbit around the desert planet below as Ace and Gaster returned fire.
The Maverick quickly left the two heavy frigates in the dust, but the smaller, more advanced ship kept pace and, in fact, appeared to be gaining on them. Anya rolled the ship to avoid more incoming fire, but the hostile ship was closing fast.
The enemy ship continued to spray the Maverick with its lasers, causing the shields to rupture in some places, but Ace and Gaster were dishing it back too, completely shredding its shields. Unfortunately, the hostile ship’s hull appeared to be extremely reinforced, absorbing the continuous laser fire. The two gunners kept firing until the ship was right on top of them, preventing either of them from getting a good angle.
“I think they just launched something,” Anya said. “The sensors are picking up an object flying at us.”
The pilot rolled the ship to avoid whatever it was, giving those on the bridge a brief glimpse of something out the front viewport before it blipped out of sight. Then, a familiar chilling scream echoed throughout the ship, originating from the living quarters.
“It’s her!” Ace called out.
“You two go!” Cyrus commanded Ace and Gaster as he jumped from his seat. “I’ve got the guns!”
Gaster leapt up, followed by Ace, and the two of them began to run toward the living quarters to engage the assassin that had boarded their ship.
“Zorro, go with them!” the captain called out as he sent out his Umbreon behind them. The Pokemon quickly caught up as the doors to the living quarters slid open.
Taraka and Sikari were in the living quarters when their uninvited guest appeared out of nowhere. Taraka covered his ears as the psychic assassin let out that horrifying scream, but it seemed to echo inside his mind.
Sikari was the first to act, sending out her Weavile and telepathically commanding the Pokemon to sharpen his claws and prepare to attack. Taraka quickly followed suit, releasing his Sharpedo right next to the enemy assassin.
“Lechew, use Crunch!” Taraka immediately commanded his Pokemon to attack. The
Sharpedo clamped his jaws around the assassin’s leg, but she didn’t seem to mind too much. Taraka wasn’t even sure if she actually registered pain.
Just then, Ace and Gaster ran into the room, accompanied by Cyrus’s Umbreon. The pair sent out their own Pokemon as well, leaving the psychic assassin surrounded by Ace’s Dusknoir, Gaster’s Krookodile, and Taraka’s Sharpedo.
“Jimothy, use Torment!” Gaster commanded, prompting his Krookodile to take up an intimidating stance that drew the assassin’s focus. She fired a blast of psychic energy back which still seemed to hurt the Intimidation Pokemon a bit despite the fact that he was a dark type Pokemon.
The Umbreon then shot a disorienting ray of energy at the assassin as she prepared for a follow-up attack. The psychic monster screamed again as she let loose a burst of psychic energy that seemed to implode on itself.
“Cyclops, Night Shade!” Ace commanded his Dusknoir. Ghostly energy soon appeared around the assassin as the Gripper Pokemon made her attack. The assassin stumbled back, but only for a second. She soon fired back with a psychic blast, right as the ship rumbled as it was struck with more laser shots, causing the shot to go wide.
Sikari’s Weavile then leapt at the assassin, frozen fist raised to strike, but she simply teleported away, causing the Sharp Claw Pokemon to slam into the ground in an explosion of tiny shards of ice. The assassin reappeared in front of the door to the main corridor.
“Lechew, use Bite!”
“Jimothy, use Crunch!”
Gaster and Taraka both commanded their Pokemon to attack, each of the two getting a good bite in before Sikari charged in as well and struck with her psionic blade. Gaster, meanwhile, retreated back and took aim with his rifle as Taraka put up a protective barrier.
“Cyclops, Shadow Punch!” Ace then ordered his Dusknoir. Cyclops’s shadowy arm stretched across the room as she punched the assassin for another powerful hit. The captain’s Umbreon ran in as well, striking with a Feint Attack just before the ship rumbled from another hit.
The assassin shrieked again and appeared to be powering herself up. She then extended her hand toward Sikari’s Weavile, bringing the Pokemon under control. The mind-controlled Weavile charged at Gaster’s Krookodile, doing some serious damage with a powerful Ice Punch.
“Jimothy, fall back and use Sand Tomb!” Gaster commanded in response. His Krookodile shot an intimidating glare at the Weavile as he backed off, then turned and fired his attack at the assassin.
As dangerous as the Weavile was, Taraka knew Gaster had the right idea; it was wise to keep their focus on the one controlling the Pokemon. “Lechew, use Crunch!” the monk called out. His Sharpedo slid across the floor at the assassin and took another bite at her as Sikari ran in to stab her as well.
Gaster then fired upon the assassin, but she teleported away, switching places with the Weavile, letting it take the hit for her. Without missing a beat, Gaster shifted his aim and fired again, this time landing his shot on the assassin. She was quick to throw back a psychic blast, but Gaster dove for the floor, narrowly avoiding the attack. Unfortunately, the assassin fired a second, hitting the former smuggler square in the back before he could get up.
Meanwhile, the Umbreon attacked the Weavile now that it had been left vulnerable. Ace then released his Aegislash and charged, brandishing the Royal Sword Pokemon. The android brought the blade down on the Weavile, knocking him out.
Relinquishing control of the downed Pokemon, the assassin turned her focus to Ace, blasting him with psychic energy, knocking him back. “Lechew, use Night Slash!” Taraka commanded his Sharpedo while she was distracted. The Brutal Pokemon slid along the floor, slashing through her with her sharp fins.
Managing to get back on his feet, Gaster commanded his Pokemon to attack as well, “Jimothy, use Crunch!” Moving around behind the assassin, the former smuggler’s Krookodile lunged and snapped his jaws around her, leaving punctures in her armor.
As the two Pokemon kept the deadly assassin busy, Taraka made his way to Gaster’s side. “Are you okay?” the monk asked his crewmate.
“Not really,” Gaster grunted in response.
“Here,” Taraka said, placing his hands on Gaster, channeling healing energy into him.
“Thanks,” Gaster said, his voice sounding less painned.
Taraka nodded. “Of course.”
He then turned back to the fight at hand. The assassin seemed to move as a blur, fending off strikes from Ace and Sikari, and avoiding attacks from Jimothy, Lechew, and Sikari’s Malamar. After driving Ace back with a psychic blast, she extended her hand toward Lechew, taking control of him and using him to take out Jimothy with an Ice Fang attack.
Another volley of ship fire then struck the ship, causing it to rumble again. “Anya, bring the ship down into the atmosphere!” Cyrus’s voice rang out from the cockpit as the impacts started to shake loose some of the ceiling panels. As a large piece fell beside the assassin, Sikari’s Malamar moved in while she was distracted and stabbed through her back with the sharp ends of his tentacles.
The ship began to descend to escape the threats outside, but the threat inside was still very much present. Screeching again, the assassin warped away from the malamar, then fired a psychic barrage at Ace. The android managed to block it with his Aegislash’s shield, though. Sikari then charged. Leaping onto Ace’s back, she sprang off at the other assassin, psionic blade raised to strike, but the enemy was faster, dodging back into the corridor.
As the assassin’s faceless visor gazed upon them, Taraka could tell she was starting to weaken. He knew what he needed to do. Slicing open his palm, the monk inflicted a curse upon her. Meanwhile, Gaster sent out his Galvantula and Sikari’s Malamar put up a protective barrier.
A second past, then the assassin charged. “Nicole, use Thunder Wave!” Gaster barked in response. His Galvantula shot out a dazing jolt of electricity at the assassin, shorting out her cybernetics and freezing her in her tracks. She screamed and fired back several blasts of psychic energy at the Galvantula, breaking through the barrier the Malamar had raised.
Ace then moved in to strike along with Cyrus’s Umbreon, but Taraka’s mind-controlled Sharpedo slid in to intercept. The Umbreon dodged past, but the Sharpdeo shot up at Ace and attacked, smashing into him and his Aegislash, taking both down. The android and his Pokemon fell back onto Gaster’s Galvantula, knocking her out as well.
“Fuck!” Gaster shouted as he recalled his Pokemon. “This is bad.”
Regrettable as it was, Taraka raised his tesla coil rifle at Lechew and fired. “Sorry, pal,” the monk muttered. The Sharpedo moved to attack again, but a Thunder Punch from Ace’s Dusknoir brought him down before he could.
Taraka quickly recalled his Pokemon, then turned his attention to the assassin to blame. Sparks continued to shoot off from her overloaded cybernetics as Sikari and her Malamar moved in to attack her from either side while she was still dazed. Regaining some control, the assassin shrieked again, then shot Sikari across the room with a blast of psychic energy before blipping away from the Malamar, into the center of the room.
As Sikari picked herself back up, Gaster released his Typhlosion. “Rusty, use Flame Charge!” Surrounding himself in fire, the Volcano Pokemon leapt at the enemy assassin, but she dodged past, then teleported back to the door leading to the corridor. “Now, Swift!” Gaster quickly reacted, pointing Rusty at the assassin’s new location.
The Typhlosion roared as he buffeted the assassin with a barrage of energy stars, but the sound was soon drowned out by her scream. The assassin floated up into the air as waves of psychic energy began erupting out from her in all directions. The whole ship started to rumble and the already damaged hull began to fracture. The wind howled through the corridor as a huge crack formed between the two airlocks on either side. Then, as the ship began to split in half, the assassin flew up and away through the opening that appeared above her.
“Get out of there!” Taraka could faintly hear Cyrus shout over the howl of the wind. Springing into action, the crew recalled their Pokemon and began to retreat back toward the front of the ship as it began to fall.
Taraka ran to where Ace had fallen and grabbed the android. “Let’s go,” Taraka grunted as he attempted to drag him to safety. “Gaster, help me!” Gaster ran over to assist, and they each grabbed one of Ace’s arms and pulled. With their combined effort, they managed to drag Ace along the floor to the door to the communications room as chunks of metal and debris fell around them.
Suddenly, with the terrible scraping sound of tearing metal, the two sections of the ship broke apart from each other entirely. A broken piece of a metal beam narrowly passed over Gaster and Taraka as they pulled Ace with them and slammed right into Sikari behind them, sweeping her off her feet. Then she was gone, ripped away by the rushing wind.
There was no time to stop, though. They had to keep going. Taraka slammed his fist against the door console and it opened. He and Gaster quickly pulled Ace through into the communications room and the door closed behind them.
“Emergency flaps deployed! Brace for impact!” Anya called out as she did what she could to slow their rapid descent.
Taraka grabbed onto the nearest seat he could and squeezed his eyes shut. He prayed that they would survive. The next thing the monk knew, there was a deafening crashing sound as he felt himself thrown into the air. Something hit him hard against the back of his head, and he felt everything fade to black.
Notes: Well that happened. I did say it was the endgame. I wanted to give off a vibe of “no going back now” and the best way in my mind to do that was to take away the thing that let the party fly around wherever and do whatever.
So this chapter begins with the end of session 65. For pacing reasons, it felt better to end the previous chapter where I did, right after the fight. The only thing left in the session was getting the data from the server room and it made sense to start this chapter with that since it flowed nicely into the start of the next session. I filled it out with some extra dialogue and interactions and I really like the result.
The remainder of the chapter covers the events of the first two thirds or so of session 66. I planned out a multi-stage encounter where they got attacked as they tried to escape and had to do some ship combat before moving to real combat aboard the ship, and I went into it knowing how it would end. For the first part of the encounter, I let Novi roll Anya’s piloting skill checks since Taraka wasn’t shooting like Ace and Gaster, just so he could be involved. Once combat on ship broke out, though, I moved to just describing the events happening in the ship to ship combat occasionally instead of rolling. For this fight, I went all out with the assassin, but they were strong at this point and did a good job fighting her off without casualties. There were some touch and go moments, such as when I got a scary Night Slash crit with Taraka’s Sharpedo and knocked Ace and two Pokemon out, but they did manage to win the boss fight. Of course, I was always planning on ripping the ship in two. There was a cool coincidence where the music during the fight matched up really nicely during my narration of her breaking the ship in half, completely unplanned, but I accidentally muted my mic somehow and had to repeat it for the players. Even with that blunder, it was still a great session. It did continue a bit after this point, but ending the chapter at the moment of impact was too good of a cliffhanger to pass up. Sorry not sorry!
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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