HARPY ACTIVATION
The Verms get some respite. No wounded Harpy manages to recover and
the nearest healthy specimens roll badly. The hordes from the rest of
the ship continue to close in.
No one mentions the possibility of rummaging through the locker near
the Hive Entrance….
TURN X+5
HIGGINS – moves to cover the hole in engineering bulkhead
KONGO – waits in place to cover in any direction
PETTYBONE – backs up holding his weapon ready
YOU – leads SNITMEISTER’s walking corpse away to safety then
tries to operate the RC for the firebomb. Anxiety, fatigue and the
clinging wounded comrade mean he fumbles it…….aarrgh!
TEQUILA decides to lob a grenade where it will block the advance of
fresh Harpies, then backs away with the others.
HARPIES
Wounded harpies recover and approach from behind the gas flasks.
More Harpies approach from the forward port cargo bay. One rushes
towards PETTYBONE who lets fly and explodes it. The useless cases of
precious cartridges litter the floor at his feet. KONGO keeps his
cool as a Harpy gets closer.
TURN X+6
KONGO – saves fuel, he sprays a barrier in front of him and falls
back.
PETTYBONE – backs into the starboard cargo bay and holds ready to
shoot.
TEQUILA – throws well enough to get out of the port cargo bay and
jab the door control.
The best sound in the world is a door-lock sliding into place between
you and a horde of harpies!
 |
| DOORLOCK FINALLY CLOSED. PEACE, FOR A MICROSECOND... |
HIGGINS – squirts off his final HAR burst into a Harpy wriggling
out of the access plate from starboard engineering. The monster is
blasted against the hole but not even wounded. Gulp…
He uses his second action to make for the doorlock to the starboard
forard cargo bay- and safety.
YOU – Still supporting the hysterically babbling SNITMEISTER, tries
to set off the firebomb again. Maybe it has those annnoying squishy
rubber buttons like on the Spectrum ZX but nothing happens! He
presses again, hard as he can. You could not make this up….the
silence is still deafening. Maybe the signal is weakened through the
doorlock? PETTYBONE helpfully suggests that TEQUILA should opened the
door for a second so this theory can be tested. TEQUILA’s useless
drone RC pad flies through the air and hits the centre of PETTYBONE’s
visor. The subject is dropped.
HARPIES
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a horde of vengeful
Harpies is difficult to shake off when they are after something
tasty. Maybe that is a despicable way to speak of the Bennet family
but it does apply here with respect to alien space monsters.
 |
| Which is more scary ? Difficult call... |
HIGGINS watches in terror as his opponent starts to recover from its
blasting. But it remains in place gasping for breath and blocking the
hole to any more entrants.
The hordes move up to besiege the starboard aft cargo bay and its
meaty contents.
TURN X+7 THE ONE WHERE EVERYBODY RUNS FOR IT!
Ammo is now in such short supply that if they were at home on the
sofa the team would be buying shares in Deep Freight’s Explosive
Materials Division on their teletext monitors.
PETTYBONE tries to the doorlock controls for the forard starboard
cargo bay and the boarding bridge! But his fatigue and wounds tell so
much he fails to move off the spot!
TEQUILA is the only one with a reasonable ammo load and turns to pop
a grenade at the team’s local Harpy. His expertise tells and the
grenade smashes the creature in what passes for a mouth in their
universe before smearing its component parts over the bulkhead walls
with a dull explosion.
KONGO – has basically had enough of this trip. He dashes over to
the doorlock control past the staggering PETTYBONE and jabs his palm
on the plate. It glides upward to reveal the welcome sight of the
boarding bridge airlock.
HIGGINS – without so much as a by your leave, legs it.
YOU – decides the combat gloves or the combat stress or a lax
operative at Deep Freight’s Pyrotechnical Cybertronics Division
must be at fault. He decides to jab the button on the RC onto the
only accessible pointy bit of human skin – SNITMEISTER’s nose ! A
tremor ripples through the dechk plates beneath their feet and the
distant sound of screaming Harpies confirms that the bomb has gone
off at last !!!!!!
 |
| "WHEN THE BOMB GOES BABY YOU WILL BE THE LAST TO KNOW!' c. Del Amitri |
THE END OF THE MISSION IS NIGH!
HARPIES
The mob continues to assemble. The firebomb takes a couple but more are
coming!
Two decide to find alternate ways into the starboard cargo bay but
fail to find a way.
TURN X+8
This turn can best be described as an unseemly scramble to escape
alive.
TEQUILA drops all pretence of covering the team and uses both actions
to try and catch up with HIGGINS.
PETTYBONE cannot find any reserves of strength and even using all his
might cannot move off the spot. Maybe he should ditch his weapon next
turn ? But the cost of a new one... and this one has been so
faithful, never a jam and many notches on the blast shield showing
his high kill rate.
KONGO is hot on HIGGINS heels too.
HIGGINS leaps into the boarding bridge airlock before he regains
composure and turns to nurse his empty HAR menacingly to make a show
of covering the slower members of the team’s flight
retreat.
YOU leads SNITMEISTER to safety. This will cost him a lot of Xylarian
Weedsmokes !
 |
| CONGESTION IN THE AIRLOCK: HIGGINS WAVES HIS EMPTY HAR |
With no dead but 2 wounded and the Hive burnt but Harpies still loose
on the ship this was not the best possible outcome. But in a few
months the remaining Harpies will be dead and the ship salvageable.
Moderate bounty money would be due.
And here we end our adventure. PETTYBONE managed to hobble off the
RONALDO still clutching his favourite HEMG. He got the Last man Out
bonus to help with his medical bills. SNITMEISTER lived but declined
to renew his contract with DF Pest Control. YOU was mentioned in DF
Galactic Despatches, promoted and got a fat bonus.
HIGGINS, TEQUILA and KONGO all spent a good month in the fleshpots of
Eridanus 56 where they blew their bounty money on 7 -breasted houris
and betting on Mutonian Worm racing.
All were still relaxing 6 weeks later when the red and yellow phone
chips embedded in their earlobes began to vibrate and a pleasant
female voice intoned, “ As a valued member of Deep Freight Pest
Control we wish to inform you that the department has received a new
Contamination Report...”
 |
| JUST A WORD IN YOUR SHELL-LIKE MY SON! |
LESSONS LEARNT
The AI for the Harpies works well enough. The game aims to be a cross
between D&D and Squad Leader (don’t panic..I do NOT mean a
COMBINATION of the two..). It seems to play well for solitaire as
intended. Some props and markers need adding and more Harpies should
be completed.
The Skinflint-inspired walker drones look good and allowed me to
avoid using my own wheeled versions which look a bit like armed
baby’s prams in comparison. Status charts and the game turn
sequence seem to function well. I was chuffed with the whole mission
!
 |
| The final cat. Cute enough for you guys ? |
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