This session was almost entirely a starship battle. It's the first time we'd done a full-blown one, and there was some confusion to start off with. Everyone said they enjoyed it, and the combat roles in Mongoose did provide all the PCs with something significant to do, which is excellent.
Technically one gunner can do one thing in a round. The LW has robot gunners, however, which allows Feng and Lyssia - or their players - to operate all 4 turrets rather than sitting around while the GM does too much. I'm good with that.
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The flare of a Jump exit was clearly visible as the Blue Razor corsair emerged 100 diameters from Gatmag; around 45,000 kilometres. The Charybdis and the Long Walk, nicely placed for an ambush, powered up and moved towards each other, the startled pirate in the middle. An earlier council of war had agreed that the PCs would command overall.
Round 1: Nevada, in the pilot's seat, put all the LW's power into an evasive pattern, cautious of what the pirates might be armed with, while Wombat established a sensor lock. Feng and Lyssia launched a three-missile salvo each and the passengers braced themselves.
The corsair likewise launched missiles, two salvoes of two, one at each attacker. She also opened fire with lasers - pulse lasers, like the Long Walk's - but at this range they were unlikely to hit anything, and didn't. The Charybdis likewise launched her six missiles.
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Round 2: Rapidly closing, the corsair also established a sensor lock and launched more missiles. Her laser fire actually scored on the Long Walk, doing some very minor damage to the exterior of the hull and a small hole in a fuel tank. Wombat turned to the sensors and flashed the ECM and jammers, failing to affect the incoming missiles. Lyssia warmed her triple turret and neatly clipped the two missiles on approach out of the sky. The first missiles reached their targets, with the Charybdis taking minor damage and the corsair suffering heavy damage including several critical hits - a turret disabled, computers damaged and fuel spilling out.
It's worth noting that I was DMing like a one-armed paper-hanger through this, trying to keep it moving and interesting, and didn't take many of the actions the corsair should have done. She had 5 boon dice this turn and I forgot to use them... Then again, she took Weapon-1 in round 2 and I had her firing normally. Must have been one of the fusion turrets, ahem.
Round 3: The Long Walk and the corsair acted almost exactly together (72 seconds apart). Nevada, judging that the ship could cope without active evasive flying, took over sensors and fried the next wave of incoming missiles. Freed of defensive duties, Lyssia and Feng hammered laser fire home, seriously weakening the corsair's hull and damaging her M-Drive. More fire from the mercenary cruiser increased the damage. Meanwhile, an engineering bot was wandering around the outside of the Long Walk's hull, trying and failing to find the fuel leak.
More missile and laser fire came from the corsair - for some reason, two of her six turrets had not fired at all - but then the next combined salvo of missiles arrived, battering her badly - and puncturing her fuel tank. Having not refuelled after jump, she had only a very small amount left, and it bloomed out around her hull in a glitter of hydrogen ice crystals. All her lights went out and her power plant signature vanished; she stopped manouvring and began to drift. One-man survival balls began to emerge. The battle was over.
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Nevada punched the codes that would destroy the last salvo of missiles before they arrived; they wanted the ship in one piece after all. Lyssia, aware of the usual approach to pirates, was cheerfully lasering the escape pods; something normally viewed with utter horror by spacemen but not uncommon when fighting pirates in the outer reaches. Then they hove to 50 klicks away to await developments.
Around 30 minutes after the cessation of hostilities, a power plant signature was detected; around the size of a 20-ton launch. It later emerged that the pirates had started the plant on their launch in an attempt to pump fuel into an undamaged tank for the main plant. A missile into the hangar was enough to terminally distract those involved.
The Charybdis was despatched back to Kaldamar, to advise the locals that all was well, and only incidentally to leave the Cats a free run at any loot. No-one was in any hurry to rescue any pirates, however, and it was 5 hours later when the APC drifted across to the great rent in the hull over the power plant.
All power was off, and so was security, so they had to manually crank open iris valves to get in. The first one they opened turned out to have pressure behind it. Wombat, never comfortable in ZG, was blown back against the far bulkhead. He was luckier than the survivor on the other side who went pinwheeling out into space. His vacc suit wasn't going to last him long, so they didn't spare him any concern.
The last survivors were holed up near the bridge, and ready with submachineguns. Lyssia simply walked into their fire, ignoring the 9mm slugs that bounced off her battledress, and mowed them down with her gauss rifle.
In one of the more difficult pieces of piloting he had ever done, Nevada brought the Long Walk down onto Pipsqueak Island, the wreck of the corsair strapped underneath. Several trees paid the ultimate price, but the landing was made. Wombat, Feng and Lyssia all watched from the ground.
Over the next week, the Cats carefully stripped it of anything worth having; sickbay stores, backup computer, two fusion barbettes, an autocannon intended for prisoner control and so on. The government was offered the chance to buy the wreck, but until trade started up again, they simply couldn't afford it.
Lyssia had a fair amount of money to send home, and the rest of the crew were wondering what was happening back in their old stomping grounds. They decided to head back towards home.
The local government implored them to spread the word that Kaldamar was open for business.
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The McKays were pleased to see them as they reached Motmos, though not really interested in buying starship fusion guns or SMGs. They did buy one of the corsair's missile turrets to beef up their planetary defences, however, and treated their visitors to the usual hearty dinner and pleasant evening.
Work was continuing on the Ancient and Shortning tech they'd been handed, but no breakthroughs had yet been made.
Nevada showed off his sword and shield for the Hoplite, and for a moment all Barton could do was stare in disbelief. "Have you got much use out of that?" he managed finally. Nevada laughed.
They took time to land on the mainworld itself, normally not very welcoming to off-worlders, and thawed out the co-operative pirate from the low berths and told him to disembark. His papers declared him to be McClean Gaylord, which may even have been true. He was ushered out of the starport by Lyssia, who, with a bit of a soft spot for the underdog, slipped him some credits to make a new start before telling him that she'd kill him if she saw him again.
As he walked away, he got out a ration bar he'd taken from the ship, opened it, and dropped the wrapper on the ground. The last Lyssia saw of him, he was being bundled away by the local police - Motmosans being obsessive about protecting their ecology. She chuckled and turned away.
The Long Walk jumped to Pavabid - where the government still considered themselves owners of the ship - and skimmed for fuel, remaining in system just long enough to tease the Pavabidians' rather feeble sysdef before jumping on to Tarsus.
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On emergence in the Tarsus system, the nearest vessel was the Star Empress, an Empress class merchant, heading inward like themselves. The Cats hailed her and laid it on thick about the trade coup for the first merchants to reach the newly independent Kaladamar.
Finally, Lyssia was able to assemble an X-Mail home and attach a very healthy credit balance to it. First step towards her objective.