Welcome to another exciting installment of Spacemon, the tale of a Pokemon TRPG campaign! It is a sci-fi space epic played using the Pokemon Tabletop United (PTU) system and GMed by fellow TAY author DragonStorm247. You can get caught up on the entire Spacemon saga here!
Arlon relaxed in the ship’s cockpit, putting his feet up on the console. “Ah, that’s nice,” he said aloud. It had been quite some time since he had a ship of his own to kick back on with some nice peace and quiet in the cockpit.
The silence was broken when Arlon heard the sound of footsteps walking into the cockpit. He looked over to see Morgan and sighed, relieved that it was her and not one of the other two. “Need something, luv?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t we be going somewhere?” she asked him.
“Like where? We’re on a stolen ship with a presumably stolen warp drive. There’s no way we’re getting through the warp gate just yet.”
“Well then what would you suggest we do?” Morgan asked.
“Well, there is a gym in this system. If we challenge it and earn the badge it would at least improve our chances. We’re gonna need to lie our way through so having a badge will make us seem more … credible.”
“If you say so.”
“Right then,” Arlon said. He took his feet down from the console and set a course for the gym.
After a short trip toward the center of the system, the ship arrived at the gym’s location in orbit around the planet Ragnarök, named for the fact that a large chunk of the planet had been blown away by some long ago disaster. Ragnarök’s surface was far from habitable, with a toxic atmosphere and a massive sea of exposed molten rock on the destroyed hemisphere. The planet was orbited by a massive set of rings composed of asteroids and large chunks of the planet itself.
The gym itself was housed within a station built into the surface of one of the larger chunks. As Arlon brought the ship in, he hailed the station and was granted permission to dock. Once the ship was securely docked, the crew stepped out into the docking bay. Before heading into the arena, they made a brief stop at the small shop on the station to pick up some potions, just in case.
Once they were ready, Arlon, Morgan, Dmitri, and H stepped through the large doors and emerged into the main arena. It was a large, open room, with bright lights shining down on the rocky terrain of the battling arena. A couple of gym trainers stood by the edges while the leader stood atop a raised area in the center. He was a tall, muscular man with long brown hair and an impressive viking-style beard.
The group ignored the trainers for now and headed straight for the leader himself. He stroked his thick beard as he watched them approach, gazing upon them with his piercing blue eyes.
“Welcome to Ragnarök,” he greeted them, unfolding his arms as he spoke. Arlon noted the faint hint of a Swedish accent in his voice. “I am Johan Lindberg, leader of the Rock Gym. I take it you are here to challenge me.”
“Indeed we are, mate,” Arlon replied, cracking his knuckles.
“Very well,” Johan replied. “Two Pokemon each. One at a time. You’ll need them.” He stepped down from the raised area and walked off to the side of the arena, directing the challengers to stand on the side opposite from him.
“#2 can handle this!” H confidently shouted as he sent out his Weedle. Arlon sighed and shook his head when Johan threw out his own Pokeball and a Golem sprang out onto the field. “On second thought,” said H, immediately recalling him.
“Ironhide, let’s do this,” said Arlon as he sent out his Aron.
“Baldr, use Magnitude,” Johan commanded his Golem as the battle commenced. The large, rocky Pokemon stomped its foot down, causing the whole arena to rumble. Ironhide was blasted with dirt and chunks of rock, but the sturdy little Pokemon hung in there.
“Now, use Metal Claw!” Arlon commanded his Pokemon. Ironhide ran at the Golem and clawed its rocky hide with his sharp claws.
“Finish it with Bulldoze,” Johan then ordered his Pokemon. The Golem, unfazed by the hit, charged at Ironhide and slammed full force into him, knocking him out of the fight.
Arlon recalled his fainted Pokemon and pulled out another Pokeball. “Alright, your turn Terra!” Arlon shouted as he released his Geodude.
“Baldr, use Magnitude,” Johan commanded his Golem again.
“Dodge it!” Arlon commanded as the Golem prepared for another attack. As the Pokemon crashed down and kicked off another quake, Terra floated up and out of the way. “Now, use Magnitude!” Terra crashed down to the ground and started a quake of her own, knocking the Golem over. It quickly rolled up and jumped back to its feet, though, ready for another attack.
“Baldr, use Rock Blast!” Johan commanded his Pokemon. It fires a flurry of rocks at Arlon’s Geodude, landing a few hits. Terra didn’t seem that bothered, though, and simply awaited Arlon’s command.
“Terra, use Defense Curl!” The Geodude rolled up in a tight ball to protect herself while she prepared for her next attack.
“Baldr, use Rock Slide!” the Gym leader instructed his Pokemon. It fired a torrent of rocks at Terra, but the defending Pokemon stayed up.
“Time for another Magnitude!” Arlon shouted out. Terra sprang out of her defensive position and launched herself into the air. The Rock Pokemon began glowing as she fell back to the ground. Summoning all of her strength, Terra crashed down in front of the Golem as she evolved into a Graveler and finished the Pokemon off with another powerful quake.
“Impressive,” Johan said to Arlon as he recalled his defeated Pokemon. “But we’re just getting started!” He pulled out another Pokeball and tossed it out, releasing a Magcargo. “Surtr, use Ancient Power!” The Lava Pokemon summoned a massive surge of power and blasted it at Arlon’s Pokemon.
“Use Rock Throw!” Arlon then instructed his Graveler. The freshly evolved Pokemon picked up a large rock and chucked it at the Magcargo.
“Surtr, use Flame Burst!” Johan commanded his Pokemon in response. The Magcargo, not particularly bothered by the previous attack, spit out a burst of flames at its attacker, further whittling the Graveler down.
“Now, use Magnitude!” Arlon commanded Terra. The Graveler summoned another powerful quake, which completely decimated the Magcargo, taking it out of the fight.
“Prepare yourself,” Johan told his challengers as he recalled his fainted Pokemon and pulled out another Pokeball. “Go, Fuckle!” he shouted as he threw the ball into the air. A Shuckle emerged and plopped down to the ground, staring down Arlon’s Graveler.
“Terra, use Rock Throw!” Arlon commanded his Pokemon. The Graveler picked up another rock and lobbed it at the Shuckle, but it just bounced off.
“Use Power Split!” Johan commanded his Pokemon. A light blasted out from the Shuckle and struck Terra, draining some of her power into the Mold Pokemon.
“Use Magnitude!” Arlon commanded his Graveler. Terra hit the Shuckle with a quake, but with her power drained, her attack didn’t do very much.
“Alright, now it’s time for Rollout!” The Shuckle retreated into its rock and started rolling. It struck Terra, then kept going, bouncing off the large boulders in the arena.
The two Pokemon continued trading blows, but the Shuckle just kept bouncing around and striking stronger each time, finally taking Terra down. From here, the tide of the battle began to turn as the Shuckle rolled through H’s Rhyhorn and Morgan’s Solrock with ease. With not many options left, the crew turned to Dmitri’s Beldum. The Iron Ball Pokemon withstood the Shuckle’s attacks, but it was only capable of using the move Take Down.
“Maine, you can do this!” Dmitri encouraged his Pokemon as the fight started to wind down. “One more Take Down!” The Beldum threw itself at the Shuckle, finally knocking it out of the fight, even though it knocked itself out in the process.
“That was quite the intense battle,” Johan complimented the victorious challengers as he recalled his Shuckle. “I’m impressed.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of badges. “You have earned the right to wear the Asteroid Badge.”
After collecting their winnings, the group returned to the ship and Arlon plotted a course to the sector’s warp gate. “Here’s the plan,” Arlon told his crewmates. “I figured out how we’re going to do this during the battle.” He turned to Morgan specifically and asked, “You’re pretty good with computers, right?”
“I suppose,” Morgan answered.
“It’ll have to do then. Right, I need you to hack the Federation ship monitoring the warp gate when we get close. I’ve been with a crew that’s done this before. You can hack into their computers no problem, then slip the ship’s info in and it will get pushed up to the main Federation network.”
“I think I can handle that,” Morgan told him.
They arrived at the gate shortly thereafter and Morgan managed to get into the Federation ship’s system quite easily. Before she was able to put in any information about their ship, however, the Federation ship hailed them. “Your ship is not appearing on our logs.”
“We’re definitely in there,” Arlon lied. “It’s the GCS … uh …” He paused for a moment to think of a name.
“Dunsparce,” H blurted out before Arlon could say anything.
“Right, the GCS Dunsparce,” Arlon said through gritted teeth.
“We have no ship by that name on record,” the Federation officer replied.
“It must be a glitch, mate. Try refreshing or something,” Arlon told him, trying to buy Morgan some time. He looked over at her expectantly and, after a few moments, she nodded and gave him the all clear.
“Hmm, ah, yes. Here it is. The GCS Dunsparce. Sorry about that. You’re clear to go through the gate.”
“No problem, mate,” Arlon told him. “Cheers.” He then ended the call and took the ship into the warp gate on a course for the Romanov Union.
Once they were through, Arlon swiveled his seat around and looked at H. “Of all the bloody names you could have come up with, why would you name the ship Dunsparce?”
“What’s wrong with Dunsparce?” H asked.
“It’s just a bloody stupid name for a ship. Anyway, we need to find a spot to hide that package. Searches are mandatory when entering and leaving the Romanov Union these days.”
Leaving the ship on autopilot, Arlon rose from his seat, then headed back to the cargo hold.
The others followed behind and entered to find Arlon pushing the empty crates around. “I figured this ship would have something like this,” he said as he uncovered a hidden compartment. “Smuggling hatch. These small buckets tend to have them, especially ones out here in the Outer Rim. Help me lower the package in.” He pulled open the hatch, then started moving the package from Hondo into it with the help of the others. Once it was in, they covered the hatch up with the empty crates again.
During the time in warp space, Dmitri started to feel quite bored. As he sat around thinking, he became curious about the effects of warp space on organic matter, so he fetched a bowl from the mess area and filled it from the slop machine. H looked on with curiosity as Dmitri took it to the airlock and sealed it inside. The Romanov then opened the exterior airlock and watched as the bowl was sucked out into warp space.
“Fascinating,” H mumbled as he watched the slop turn into a glowing rainbow mass as if floated out the airlock. “Dmitri, we must make more of this! We must study it!”
“What the bloody hell are you doing opening the airlock in warp space?!” Arlon’s voice suddenly sounded over the comms.
“It is a risk we must take for science!” H said into the nearby intercom.
“Whatever. Just be careful. Don’t get us all killed,” Arlon replied.
“If only I could get a sample,” H said to himself, ignoring Arlon.
“What if you secured it with String Shot or something?” Dmitri suggested.
“That’s brilliant!” H shouted. “Fetch me another bowl!”
Dmitri headed back to the mess area, then filled up another bowl with slop. Joining H once more at the airlock, Dmitri placed it inside.
H then released his newly evolved Beedrill, which had evolved shortly after the gym battle. “#2, coat the bowl with String Shot and then secure it to the floor,” the cyborg commanded the Pokemon. The Beedrill flew into the airlock and coated the bowl in a cocoon, then attached it to the floor with more of the sticky string. H then recalled his Pokemon and sealed the airlock.
H and Dmitri watched through the interior airlock window as the exterior airlock opened and the dangerous particles of deep warp space came flying in. The webbing turned from white to pink to rainbow to glowing black before they sealed the airlock.
“Great, now we’ve got a radioactive blob in our airlock.” Arlon complained, having been monitoring their activity. “Don’t open that airlock until we drop out of warp space and get a chance to vent it out.”
“Ugh, fine,” H replied.
When the newly christened Dunsparce dropped out of warp space in Romanov space, it was immediately hailed by one of the many Romanov ships guarding the gate. “State your business,” the Romanov officer who appeared on the viewscreen demanded.
“We have packages to pick up in Romanov space,” Arlon lied.
“Prepare to be boarded,” the officer told him as he transmitted docking instructions.
Arlon flew toward the Romanov ship and docked as directed, making sure to use the airlock that was not inhabited by a potentially harmful mess. A squad of Romanov soldiers boarded the Dunsparce along with the officer Arlon had talked to.
“Take us to your cargo hold,” The officer instructed the crew.
“Right this way,” Arlon told him confidently. He led them to the cargo hold and they began to search the many empty crates. Arlon looked on, ready with a response in case they discovered the smuggling hatch. Luckily, the soldiers didn’t find it. After finishing in the cargo hold, the Romanovs did a quick sweep through the ship, after which the officer cleared the Dunsparce to enter the Romanov Union.
Once the soldiers left, Arlon returned to the cockpit and detached the ship from the Romanov cruiser. Once clear, he plugged in the coordinates of the Alexi System and made the jump back into warp space.
When the Dunsparce dropped out of warp space in the Alexi System, Arlon spotted a meteor field and decided to check it out. “Just a heads up,” he announced over the ship’s comms. “We’ve arrived, but there’s a meteor field here passing by and I thought we should go check it out.”
“Is that safe?” Morgan asked him.
“It is as long as I’m your pilot, luv,” he assured her.
Arlon flew the Dunsparce between the meteors and spotted a large opening in one of the bigger ones. He steered the ship inside and eventually emerged into a massive cavern. “Holy shit, that’s a lot of bloody Hydreigons,” Arlon said aloud at the sight through the front viewport. The cavern was full of the three-headed dragon Pokemon, flying around a frozen lake. He thought one would make a great addition to his team, but realized the ship’s crew wasn’t properly equipped to capture such a powerful Pokemon yet.
“Ah,” he said when he spotted a lone Deino wandering off away from the Hydreigons. “That little bugger’s mine.”
Arlon landed the ship near the Deino, then got up from his seat. “Meet me at the airlock,” he said into the comms. “I need help with something.” He headed for the airlock himself and released his Graveler when he got there.
“Terra, I need you to head out the airlock and grab the Deino out there and bring it onto the ship,” Arlon instructed his Pokemon. He opened the interior airlock and the Graveler stepped in. A few minutes later, Terra returned with the Deino trapped in her four arms. Arlon sealed the exterior airlock as the rest of the crew arrived.
“Why have we been called here?” H asked.
“To help me catch this, mate,” Arlon told him as he opened the airlock.
“Ah!” H exclaimed. “Very well! #2!” He released his Beedrill, then pointed at the Deino. “Use String Shot!” The beedrill blasted the Deino with string, further trapping it in Terra’s grasp.
“Gigan, keep hitting it with False Swipe!” Dmitri commanded as he released his Scyther. The Mantis Pokemon moved up and repeatedly struck the trapped Pokemon with her blades. Once it looked sufficiently hurt, Dmitri blasted it with psychic energy, sending it into a state of confusion.
“That’ll do,” Arlon told him as he pulled out the last of his Great Balls. He threw it at the Deino and the Pokemon was pulled inside with ease. The ball shook once before falling still, then Arlon reached to pick it up
“Thanks for the assist,” Arlon told his crewmates as he placed his new capture on his belt. He then recalled his Graveler and turned to head back to the cockpit.
“No problem,” Dmitri told him.
Before taking off again, the crew vented out the other airlock, which still housed Dmitri and H’s creation. Warp energy floated out of the open airlock in a brilliant display of color. Once the radiation subsided, they sealed the airlock and H collected the experiment. He and Dmitri took it to the lab to study while Arlon brought the Dunsparce up and out of the meteor.
Before H and Dmitri got a good chance to study the strange warp goo they created, the Dunsparce arrived at the coordinates Hondo had provided the crew with. As the ship approached the coordinates, Arlon could see a space station orbiting a swamp planet out the front viewport. He hailed the station and requested permission to land.
A Romanov scientist appeared on the viewscreen. “What do you want?” he asked.
“We have a package delivery from Aarn Hondo,” Arlon told him.
“Ah, yes,” the man replied. “Here are docking instructions.”
Arlon docked the Dunsparce at the docking tube the scientist instructed. He met the crew in the cargo hold and, together, they brought the package out from the smuggling hatch. They carried it off the ship, where they were greeted by the scientist and a couple of guards.
“I trust the containment seal remains intact?” the scientist asks.
“Indeed. We did not open it,” Arlon assured him.
“Very good. You may leave.”
Morgan and Arlon turned to head back to the ship, but H and Dmitri instead followed the scientist. “I said you could leave,” the scientist told them when he noticed this.
“But I am curious to know what is inside the package,” H replied.
“Oh, really? And why should I show you?”
“We are both very interested in what is inside, comrade,” Dmitri said. “Would you please show us in the name of scientific knowledge?”
“Oh, fellow scientists?” the Romanov man asked, sounded quite charmed by Dmitri. “Very well. I will allow you a look. Follow me.” He turned and began to bring the package into the station with H and Dmitri in tow.
“Stay with the ship,” Arlon told Morgan with a sigh. “I’ll follow and make sure they stay out of trouble.”
Arlon easily slipped past the guards and snuck into the station’s air ducts. He followed the scientist and his crewmates down a few halls until they arrived in some sort of viewing area.
The package was brought behind the containment area where it was carefully opened by mechanical arms. Through the vent and glass, Arlon saw some sort of ancient looking fossil. “Fascinating, isn’t it?” the scientist asked H and Dmitri.
“Truly!” H responded.
Suddenly, another scientist arrived and addressed the other, “Sir, we have collected enough specimens to begin production.”
“Excellent.” the apparent head scientist replied. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave now,” he said as he turned to H and Dmitri. As it was clear they could go no further, the two headed back to the ship. However, Arlon pressed further on into the air ducts, seeing if he could find a way to see what lay within the facility.
He eventually emerged from the air ducts onto a high up maintenance platform overlooking a massive factory that seems to be producing some kind of Pokemon from a ton of fossils that looked similar to the one they delivered. They were moving down an assembly line, where they were being mounted and armed with giant cannons.
“What the bloody hell is this place?” Arlon asked himself, not liking what he was seeing in the slightest. He pulled out his Pokedex and snapped some pictures before heading back to the Dunsparce.
Notes: This was the last chapter before I started taking notes on the sessions so, like the last two rewrites, I had to fudge a lot of the details on this one, specifically with the gym fight. But as opposed to the last two chapters, I remembered what happened in this fight a lot better. Probably because of how my Geodude tanked that Golem and evolved way earlier than it would have normally. I decided to give the gym leader a name and stuff like that too. Since the gym was in orbit around a half destroyed planet, I decided that Ragnarök was the perfect name for it. Based on that, I decided the previously non-descript gym leader was from Geneva (New Sweden specifically) and named him by combining the names of frontmen from two awesome Swedish metal bands (Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth and Tomas Lindberg of At The Gates).
That Shuckle though … It was a hard foe to fight but we had the advantage of numbers so we triumphed in the end! Then it was onto the discovery of the Genesect! That was the first big plot point we had and it was such a great way to end the session.
Update 9/5/21: This was a fun chapter. Looking back at this chapter through the lens of how I approach writing now, I think it would have made more sense to split this into two short chapters, but I’m not changing that now. Aside from changing to past tense and touching up some wording, there wasn’t much in need of changing. Some descriptions could be better, but rewriting everything isn’t something I want to commit to.
The major changes in this chapter are regarding Johan. He appeared in the spinoff campaign I’m currently running and I just straight up used fanart of Johan Hegg as his token art, so I altered his description to be more in line with that, and I also described the arena better. Originally, Johan’s shuckle was the only one of his Pokemon with a name, but in my campaign I gave names to all the gym leaders’ Pokemon, so I added his Pokemon’s names into this chapter. Aside from Shuckle, which was named, I used a Norse mythology naming scheme as a nod to the Amon Amarth inspiration. Other than that, the chapter is basically the same.
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!
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And I guess this answers the question, "Who would be foolish enough to open an airlock in warp space?" The scientific exploits of H and Dmitri are delightfully amusing so far.