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!
“Let’s go,” Ace heard Taraka say as felt a tugging at his shoulder. “Gaster, help me!”
Everything was out of focus, but Ace was vaguely aware that he was being dragged. Bits of the ship were falling all around him. The android could only watch as one flew right into Sikari and she was knocked out into the open air. Then, the doors closed.
“Emergency flaps deployed! Brace for impact!” Anya’s voice rang out.
Ace could barely move and, before he could even react, he felt the crash. His vision flickered as his systems shut down.
Everything was dark when Ace came back online. The only light was from the faint glow his own body gave off. The last thing he remembered was being dragged across the floor as the ship crumbled around him. He looked around as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. He was in the Maverick’s communications room, or at least what was left of it. The electronics were smashed and there was a large pile of debris blocking the way out to the living quarters. Through the debris, Ace could see through to the other side, where faint slivers of daylight flitted in through holes in the hull.
More importantly, the android spotted the bodies of Gaster and Taraka lying nearby. He hurried to them and was relieved that both were still alive. Taraka was totally out cold, but Gaster seemed to be stirring. Ace stayed by Gaster’s side as he slowly regained consciousness.
“Are you okay?” Ace asked his crewmate as his eyes flickered open.
“Ugh, I think so,” Gaster grunted, sitting up.
“We crashed,” Ace said, peering around. “I can’t believe we survived that.”
“Yeah …” Gaster sighed. “Unfortunately.”
“If they come for us down here, we’re screwed,” Ace said. “I guess our only hope is that they think we’re already dead.”
“Look, even if they dont come down for us, we’re fucked,” Gaster grimly stated. “I’ve been here before. Well not here specifically, but …”
The former smuggler trailed off as he turned his attention to the unconscious monk beside him. He gave Taraka a nudge, and it seemed to work. Moments later, the monk’s eyes opened.
“What happened,” Taraka asked as he sat up and put his hand to his head, feeling a dried trickle of blood.
“We crashed,” Gaster told him.
“We should look for the captain and the others,” Ace said.
“Yeah,” Gaster nodded. “See how many mouths there are to feed.”
“I’m still trying to catch up to the entirety of the situation,” Taraka said. “But I’m assuming shit’s bad.”
Gaster sighed again. “You’re not wrong.”
“Okay,” Taraka replied. “What about the others?”
“We don’t know,” Ace told the monk. “We should find them.”
The android reached for his Gallade’s Pokeball and sent him out. “Blade, give us a hand,” he commanded, pointing to the ruined heap of the comms holoprojector blocking access to the cockpit. Working together, the two of them managed to move it aside, revealing Cyrus buried in the rubble behind it.
“Captain!” Ace called out as he ran over and began to dig away the rubble.
“Captain?” he asked more calmly as he checked Cyrus over. The Maverick’s captain was unconscious, but he was most certainly alive. However, there was a large, heavy piece of rubble pinning his legs that not even Ace could lift.
“He seems stable,” Taraka observed, checking the captain’s pulse.
“We’ll come back for him then,” Gaster said. “Come on.”
Clearing out some more rubble, the trio managed to uncover the cockpit doors. Moving through, Ace could see a harsh desert landscape out through the cracked front viewport. His gaze then fell upon the pilot’s seat, where Anya’s body lay limply. Ace rushed to her side with Taraka and was relieved to find that she was still alive.
Taraka undid the pilot’s safety harness and gently shook her. Anya groaned softly as she slowly returned to consciousness. “Did we make it?” she asked.
“Mostly, I think so,” Taraka said, helping her to stand.
“Come on, we should get out of here,” Ace said, offering an arm to lean on.
Anya gladly accepted his assistance. “Is everyone else alright?” she asked as she limped away from her seat.
“Well Cyrus is in bad shape, Sikari fell out of the ship before we crashed and is probably dead, and we have no idea what happened to Erik,” Gaster bluntly stated.
“Damn,” Anya responded.
Returning to where they had left Cyrus, Ace knelt back down beside him. Assessing the captain’s condition, he reached an unfortunate conclusion. “I think it’d be bad to move this rubble because he would bleed a lot,” he informed the others.
“Yeah, that’s not a good idea,” Anya agreed.
As the pilot knelt down beside Ace the assess the captain herself, he started to come to. Cyrus took in a sharp breath and let out a pained grunt as his eyes opened and he attempted to move.
“Easy, Captain,” Anya said, placing a comforting hand on his chest. “Try not to move.”
“What happened?” Cyrus asked between breaths.
“We crashed and there’s a giant pile of rubble on your legs,” Anya explained the situation.
“I see …” he trailed off. Several pained breaths followed.
“Where does it hurt?” Ace asked.
“Left leg,” the captain grunted. “There’s … something crushing it.”
“That’s what we feared,” Ace said somberly. “What about the other one?”
“I …” Cyrus paused and let out another grunt of pain. “I think it’s just stuck.”
“That’s something at least,” Ace said. He then waved his Gallade over. “Blade can help numb the pain.” The captain nodded and Ace commanded his Pokemon to focus a Heal Pulse on him.
Turning to the others, Ace said, “We need to find help.”
“Where are we gonna find help on this uninhabited desert planet?” Anya asked. “And those mercs are probably looking for us.”
“Our Pokedexes still have a connection,” Taraka said, holding up his own.
Ace nodded. “Do you think Simon can help us?”
“Of all the people we know, he’s probably the most able to help us,” Gaster said. “And he’s also the most likely to be close enough to actually help us.”
“I will call him,” Ace said. He pulled out his Pokedex and sent out the call.
Ace was more than relieved when Simon picked up a moment later. “Hello, my friend,” the Paladin answered in his usual friendly tone. “What can I do for you?”
“We really, really need your help,” Ace told him frantically.
“What’s the problem?” Simon asked, sounding quite concerned by the desperation in Ace’s voice.
“We crashed,” Ace explained. “We had another altercation with that psychic assassin and she wrecked our ship and she forced us to crash onto the planet we were orbiting.”
“Send me your coordinates,” Simon told him. “I’m coming to help.”
“Thanks, Simon. Here they are,” Ace said as he transmitted their location. “We’re in Sector 17.”
“I will be there as soon as I can,” Simon said. “Stay safe.”
“In the meantime, do you have any quick advice for us regarding legs being pinned under gigantic bits of metal?” Gaster asked.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Simon said. “My medic can help.” He then called out, “Marchant!”
“What is it, sir?” A man Ace recognized from Simon’s squad during the attack on the Lasinov shipyards appeared on the screen.
“Walk them through what they need,” Simon explained before walking off.
“Yes, sir,” Marchant said before turning to look at Ace. “What can I do for you?”
Ace showed the medic Cyrus on the camera and explained the situation. He nodded along, asking questions as needed. When Ace had finished, Marchant broke the news Ace had been dreading.
“You need to amputate.”
“Are you sure?” Ace asked.
“I am,” Marchant replied. “There’s no other way, I’m afraid. You need to tie a tourniquet to prevent blood loss and take it off. What options do you have for cutting implements?”
“I have a laser sword,” Ace said.
“Perfect. It won’t be pretty, but it will cauterize the wound. I would stay on the line to walk you through it, but we’re about to drop into warp space.”
Ace nodded. “I understand.”
“Good luck.”
One the call ended, Ace walked over to Cyrus. “Captain, we need to amputate your leg in order to get you out of here.”
“Damn it,” Cyrus grunted.
“Is that okay?” Ace asked.
“Well no, but …” The captain sighed. “If it’s the only option, then do it,” he reluctantly agreed. “I would rather lose my leg than my life.”
“I will make it as painless as I can,” Ace told him as he began to tie his leg off.
“Here,” Gaster said, releasing his Parasect. “Jaques can knock you out.”
“Do it,” Cyrus said.
“Jaques, use Spore,” Gaster commanded. The Parasect showered the captain in spores that immediately took effect and knocked him out cold.
“Okay,” Ace said, drawing his laser sword. “You may not wanna watch.”
The others cleared out and Ace activated the blade. If he was capable of forming facial expressions, his would have been a grimace.
“Sorry, Captain.”
Pushing his hesitation aside, Ace pressed the blade against Cyrus’s leg and cut into his flesh. The process was quick, and the blade passed through easily, cauterizing the wound as it went. With the deed done, Ace deactivated the sword and set it aside. He proceeded to lift the rubble off the captain’s other leg, then he gently pulled him out. Cyrus was free.
Taraka wandered the crash site with Gaster, hoping to turn up anything that might be useful, but so far all that they could find was a bunch of scrap metal. There wasn’t much that had survived the crash that would help them survive themselves.
“There’s nothing here,” Gaster grumbled as he gazed out into the desert. “What we need to do is find the back half of the ship.”
Taraka agreed with his crewmate’s assessment. Unfortunately, they had no idea where it was.
“Well, hopefully, Sirius finds it,” Taraka said. He had sent out his Togekiss to scout around from the air and find the back half of the ship and their missing crewmates. He hoped that when she returned, it would be with good news.
“Hopefully.”
A moment later, Ace joined the pair. “It’s done,” he informed them. “I got him out.”
“That’s good,” Taraka said.
“Yeah, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Ace said.
“We need to find the other half of the ship,” Gaster said. “The supplies and our other Pokemon will improve our odds of survival.”
“I agree,” Ace nodded. “It would be good to get the captain to the medbay. And maybe Erik will be there too.”
“The problem is locating it,” said Gaster.
“I sent Sirius out to scout,” Taraka informed Ace. “Perhaps she will find it soon.”
Ace shook his head. “I’m not sure we have the luxury of waiting. I think we need to move as soon as possible. The first place they’ll come looking for us is the crash site, so we need to get out of here.”
“I agree, but we can’t move particularly fast at the moment,” Gaster pointed out.
“That’s why we should leave sooner rather than later,” Ace said. “Let’s start getting ready.”
Over the next several minutes, the crew gathered up what supplies they could find for the journey. Ace and Gaster also fashioned a makeshift sled out of a section of the hull and some cables to carry the captain with. Just as they were preparing to depart, Sirius arrived back. Judging from the way the Togekiss started flapping around his head, Taraka could tell that she had found something.
“I think Sirius wants us to follow her somewhere,” he informed the others.
“Anywhere is better than here, probably,” Gaster said.
“Yeah,” Ace agreed. “Let’s go.”
And with that, they set out. Taraka took the lead, following as Sirius flew ahead to show the way. Ace walked behind him, dragging the unconscious Cyrus along on the sled. Anya followed alongside the sled, and Gaster brought up the rear, his rifle at the ready in case they ran into trouble.
The hot desert sun was bearing down on them as they crossed the sands. Taraka could feel the scorching heat wearing down his strength, but he knew they had to keep going.
After a while, Sirius let out a cry and flew further ahead. As they moved to catch up, Taraka saw that she was circling above a black shape on the ground. Getting closer, he realized that the shape was actually a body lying on its side in the sand.
Approaching the body, Taraka recognized it as Sikari’s. He knelt beside her and rolled her onto her back. To his surprise, after checking her pulse, he discovered that she was somehow not dead.
“She’s alive,” Taraka explained to his crewmates in disbelief.
“What?” an equally shocked Gaster asked. “How the hell did she survive the fall?”
“Her augmentations, I would guess,” Ace reasoned. “I don’t know exactly what kind of cybernetics she’s got in her, but if her old boss has the kind of resources she’s implied he does, I wouldn’t be surprised if they helped her survive.”
“That makes sense,” Gaster said. “What do we do with her?”
“Well we can’t just leave her here,” said Anya.
“It will be hard to carry another person in this heat,” Gaster pointed out.
“True,” Taraka agreed. He stood up and took a look around, but all he saw was flat desert in every direction. “And it doesn’t seem like there’s a cave or something where we can take shelter until it cools off at night.
“It’s a desert. Best we can do is dig,” Gaster responded. “There’s a reason I stuck with my ship the last time I crashed on a planet like this, but we don’t have that option this time around.”
“Let’s just keep moving then,” Ace said. “One of you can carry her.”
“Fine,” Taraka said before slinging the unconscious Sikari over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Gaster almost couldn’t believe it, but the evidence was right in front of him. After finding Sikari, Taraka had sent out his Togekiss to scout again, and she had brought them here. Gaster assumed it was a mirage at first, but here amongst the harsh desert was a small oasis with inviting blue waters and lush greenery.
“Finally, some water!” Anya exclaimed as she knelt down and splashed some water on her face.
“Hold on before you drink any,” Gaster warned his crewmates as he peered into the pool. Even though it was a lovely blue, the water looked a bit gross to him. “Yeah, this should be boiled or filtered first at the very least.”
“We should rest here for a bit then,” Taraka said.
“Yeah,” Gaster agreed. “I need some time to rig up a filtration system from the scrap we recovered from the ship.”
Gaster set about his work while the others laid down their loads and made themselves comfortable. It wasn’t pretty, but the former smuggler managed to set up a contraption to evaporate water using the sun and collect the condensation for drinking water. It would take a while to work, so they had time to relax for a bit.
With everything set up, Gaster had just sat down to rest himself when he noticed that Sikari was beginning to stir. “Rise and shine,” he said as he watched her casually sit up as if she hadn’t fallen from the air.
“Where are we?” Sikari asked.
“Hell,” Gaster replied bluntly. He was still quite unhappy to be stranded on another desert planet.
“Well that seems overly dramatic,” Sikari replied.
“Yeah,” Taraka chimed in. “It’s hot, but it’s not that bad. Nothing’s on fire.”
“That’s true,” Sikari agreed, taking a look around. “At least it’s not a lava planet.”
“Yeah, see,” Tarka said. “Positivity. There we go.”
“I’d prefer it,” Gaster grumbled.
Sikari gave him an incredulous stare. “You’d prefer to be stranded on a lava planet?”
Gaster let out a sigh. “I really don’t like the desert anymore,” he told her.
“Yeah, I know,” Taraka said. “That’s where we found you, and that was really bad, but it’s okay. You have friends this time; it’s not just you and a giant Garchomp.”
Gaster paused for a moment to reflect. “That is true,” he conceded. “It is better with friends.”
“And we are at an oasis,” Sikari said, nodding at the water. “So that’s something.
Taraka smiled at Gaster. “See, we’re already doing like fifty times better than you were doing. You made it out, so I’m pretty sure we’ll make it out of this too.”
“Yeah,” Ace said as he sat down with the group. “Plus we already have someone coming for us. Everything will be fine.”
Gaster looked out over the desert landscape. “I hope you’re right.”
The sun was beginning to sink toward the horizon and the temperature was starting to drop a bit when Cyrus awoke. Seeing the captain prop himself up on his elbows, Taraka headed over to check up on him.
“How are you feeling, Captain?” he asked as he took a seat next to the makeshift sled.
Cyrus looked down at his missing leg before answering. “I’ve been better,” he finally said, looking back up at Taraka.
“I bet,” Taraka said. “I’m sorry about your leg.”
“Me too, pal, but nothing to do about it now,” Cyrus told him. “What’s our situation?”
“Well we found Sikari,” Taraka informed the captain. “She’s fine. Erik’s the only one still unaccounted for. We’re looking for the other half of the ship now since we think we’ll find him there, along with more supplies and our other Pokemon.”
Cyrus nodded approvingly. “Good call,” he said. Then, taking a glance around, he asked, “Where are we now?”
“We stopped to rest at an oasis,” Taraka explained. “But we’re probably going to get moving again now that the heat is dying down. Assuming you’re okay to move, that is.”
“I see,” Cyrus said, glancing down at his missing limb again. “It still hurts like hell, but, considering the circumstances, I’m feeling alright. We should definitely get moving and find the rest of our ship.”
“Alright, Captain.”
Taraka nodded and stood up. He knew the supplies in the medbay would help Cyrus a lot, and since the captain felt up to moving, it was time to resume the search.
By the time the crew got moving again, the sun had fallen below the horizon. The dark would make it harder to locate the ship, but Gaster’s Volcarona served as a good light source, and the Pokemon would also help to keep them warm as the temperature continued to drop.
Fortunately for Taraka and his crewmates, the search didn’t take too long. After only a few more hours of walking, they located the rear half of the Maverick. Cresting a ridge, Taraka saw it lying relatively intact between two sand dunes.
“There it is!” the monk called out to his companions.
“Finally,” Gaster sighed in relief. “Let’s get down there.”
The mood amongst the crew seemed to improve quite a bit as they navigated their way down to the crash site. Peering in through the gaping hole that had been ripped into the ship along the corridor between the airlocks, Taraka saw the familiar sight of the main corridor.
“Looks safe,” he informed the others.
“The captain should wait out here for now, just in case it’s not stable,” Ace suggested.
“Good idea,” Anya nodded. “I’ll stay with him.”
With that decided, Taraka led the others into the ship. Aside from some debris and the lack of power, it looked almost the same as it always had.
“Erik?!” Ace called out as they entered. “Are you here?!”
“He was probably in the engine room when the ship went down,” Gaster suggested.
“Right,” said Ace before heading to the door to the cargo hold, where the engine room access was located. He attempted to pull it open, but it didn’t seem to budge. “Jammed,” the android said, sounding annoyed.
“Maybe it needs power?” Taraka offered.
Ace shook his head. “No, it’s definitely stuck.” He walked over to the medbay door and proceeded to pull it open with ease. “See.”
“Oh,” Taraka said.
Ace turned back to the cargo hold door and ignited his laser sword. “I’ll just have to cut my way in.”
As Ace got to work cutting into the cargo hole, Taraka turned to Gaster. “It seems safe,” he said. “Let’s get the captain to the medbay.”
Gaster nodded and followed Taraka back outside where Anya and Cyrus were waiting.
“All good,” Taraka said as they approached the pair.
“About time,” Cyrus said. “It’s starting to get a bit cold out here.”
Gaster and Taraka each grabbed a side and pulled the sled inside as Anya followed behind. They brought him to the medbay and then helped him up into a seat.
“That’s much better,” the captain said as he stretched.
“Good,” Anya said. “Now let’s find you some painkillers.”
“That would be appreciated.”
“We’ll find something to make into a crutch for you in the meantime,” Gaster said. “Come on, Taraka.”
“Alright,” Taraka said, following his crewmate out of the room.
The two of them checked the other doors and had no problem opening them. Aside from Anya and Cyrus’s quarters, which had both been on the front half of the ship, they now had access to everyone’s rooms as well as the workshop.
“These will do,” Gaster said, grabbing some materials from the workshop. “I’ve got this.”
“Alright,” Taraka nodded. “I will keep looking around then.”
The monk headed back to his quarters and began sifting through the mess. He soon located the Pokeballs containing his other Pokemon and switched out the ones on his belt that were too injured to fight, just in case their enemies found them.
After making sure he had all his Pokemon, Taraka looked for his apricorn plants. Miraculously three of his four plants survived. The pink apricorn plant had snapped when the planter fell in the crash, but planting a new one wouldn’t be an issue. There were bigger things to worry about though, so Taraka headed back to the medbay to see how the others were doing.
Bits of melted metal dripped to the floor as Ace cut his way through the cargo hold door. It was slow going, but he had almost cut a hole big enough for him to step through. With just a bit more effort, he was through. The section he cut away clattered to the ground as he entered the cargo hold.
“Erik?!” Ace called out again as he crossed the room.
No response.
Ace walked up to the engine room door and began to force it open. “Hold on, I’m coming!”
He pushed his way inside, and that’s when he saw him. Erik lay face down on the floor, bruised and bloodied.
“No!” Ace cried out as he rushed to Erik’s side. “Please, no …”
He flipped the engineer onto his back and felt a rush of relief. Erik was alive! He was in bad shape, though. He had several nasty wounds, many of which were still bleeding.
Ace scooped Erik up in his arms and rushed him to the medbay. “Help!” he cried. “Erik needs help!” He laid him on the table as the others ran over. They needed to act fast.
The Maverick’s crew sat in the medbay, looking at Erik lying on the table. Taraka had done what he could for the engineer with his psionic healing abilities, and Ace had commanded his Gallade to hit him with a Heal Pulse, but that had only worked to a point. They needed to get him offworld and get him some proper medical treatment, otherwise he probably wasn’t going to make it.
“We just need to survive until Simon gets here,” Ace said. “He’ll get us out of here and get Erik the help he needs.”
“We still have those mercs to worry about though,” said Sikari. “It’s only a matter of time before they find us.”
“Well I think this is as good a place as any to hole up because we have supplies and places to sleep,” said Gaster. “And it is relatively defendable; there’s only one direction we have to guard from.”
Ace nodded. “I agree. I’ll try to rig up some kind of generator for power.”
And with that, Ace stood up and departed for the workshop. It was going to be a long night.
Notes: And here we have the aftermath. This chapter covers the events of the last third of session 66 and a sliver of the beginning of 67. When I originally outlined this chapter while listening to the recordings, I planned to include a bit more of the next session, but when it came time to write, it felt like things would be paced better if I started the next chapter with it instead. Not too much to be said about the contents of the chapter. It was mostly resolving the aftermath of the crash and leaving the party to take stock of their situation. Since destroying the Maverick is practically killing a supporting character, I didn’t want to do too much more, but I felt there did need to be some consequences. Killing a player character outside of combat was obviously a no go, but there were NPCs. I decided that Cyrus losing a limb would work nicely, and I did have the Sikari fake-out to keep them on their toes. The session ended with finding Erik, which left some good tension for them to stew on over the course of the week. As mentioned I did include some details from the following session. Specifically, deciding to hole up in the back half of the ship and attempt to make a makeshift generator. Overall this session and chapter brings a nice bleak mood to things which I feel works really well for this point in the story. Find out next time how our heroes get out of this one!
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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