IMPORTANT ALLIES FOR THE VERMINATORS

 Although, so far, they have not sent any troops, weapons or chemicals......

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17. okt. 2020

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Green Care kommenterede "THE SHIPS"

26. sep. 2020

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31. mar. 2020

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Amany Said kommenterede "DEEP SPACE PEST CONTROL"

7. nov. 2018

شركة الحياه تمثل لك احد افضل البدائل المتاحة امامك فى مجال شركات التنظيف. نحن نمتلك مجموعة من الخبراء والمتخصصين فى شركة تنظيف بالرياض ونحن نستطيع التعامل مع كافة المساحات المختلفة فلا يهم ان كنت تمتلك منزل او فيلا فأن لدينا خبرات كبيرة تمكنا من تقديم خدماتنا على اكمل وجه ولدينا عمال وفنيين محترفين ولهم خبرات مختلفة نقدم ايضآ

RECRUITING POSTER 2

 

NEW CALEDONIA : TURN 3 : THE ONE WHERE 'YOU' MAKES A CRUCIAL SHOT

 Getting sorted out for the turn, it may be commented that Trotsky's binge has dropped to 3 due to the proximity of Harpies. Higgins is also down to 3. The team cannot afford to drag -out the clearing of this module.

TEQUILA : sidesteps left and shoots the Harpy still threatening Snitmeister and Chang. A hasty and rubbish shot, which simply recoils the monster back off the cargo element and out of sight.

YOU : is blocked by the jam of  Verms and is reduced to WAITing where he is.

KONGO's shotgun is rather inappropriate for shooting the Harpy off Trotsky and he also must stand ready awaiting developments.

SNITMEISTER : stands and advances to free-up the logjam a little.

PETTYBONE : decides to help his comrade struggling with the attacking threat. He swaps to his pistol...or at least, he would have.. A 6 indicates he fumbles the operation and thus needs his second action to complete the process. He will not get to help Trotsky this turn!!!!!

FAILURE AT THIS CRUCIAL POINT  TRIGGERS A SEGMENT OF THE CAT TO BE ADDED TO THE CATASTROPHE DISPLAY.

CHANG stood up and lobbed a grenade over the Loader Suit to hopefully damage the Harpies skulking that way. His skill with the launcher ensured a good hit. One Harpy collapsed, shredded by grenade fragments but the other escaped unscathed.

Chang was quietly pleased as he deployed a newly-made grenade marker against the Harpies

Now it was time to see how TROTSKY was faring in his life and death grapple. He was now on 4 dice with +2s against the wounded Harpy's two dice. His blood being up and now armed with his cutlass Trotsky, literally, made mincemeat of the alien. 3 sixes from him and the alien throwing minimum saw the dark shiny form slide to the deck gushing green blood from numerous deep slashes that almost severed its head.

 

Trotsky worried there was no room left for hit markers as he slashed the Harpy to bits..

 

 Gold Star for Trotsky! Immediately raising his binge 1 point. Still shaking somewaht, Trotsky holstered his cutlass and took up his HAR again. 

 It only remained for HIGGINS to now step forward and hose-down the skulking wounded Harpy with HEMG shells. The creature's component skeletal elements parted company with a disgusting slopping sound.

THREAT MOVE

There was still fight in the Harpies and the unwounded one threw a maximum move and attacked SNITMEISTER up on his cargo element. The Verminator had no option but to !DUCK again, and trust to YOU's accuracy with his pistol to repel his assailant. Blam! YOU snapped off a Hasty shot as the Harpy clambered onto the prone SNITMEISTER, with evil intent. The heavy slug smashed into the Harpy's skull and a crack opened, leaking goo. The creature fell back away from his prey. 

'Leave him alone, Biyatch!' screamed YOU as he blew the Harpy back off his co-worker

HOUSEKEEPING AND END

The Verms were now just left with the mopping-up and still no casualties had been taken despite several scrapes. 

Fewer Harpies. Everything calming down..

MORE POWER TO THE VERMINATORS!

NEW CALEDONIA : THE BIG ONE : PART 1

 Verminator Team Ajax - it cleans as it sweeps as it Verminates! Ready to enter Cargo Lock.

As the door opens, the Biosensor sweeps and detects that the infestation level on the  ships generally is 'HEAVING'  i.e. high.

 As the Verms' eyes adjust to the Cargo Bay lights ... Harpies can be seen. 

 

All Verms make a test and lose 1 BINGE if they fail a FUMBLE roll. 

YOU, TEQUILA AND PETTYBONE get an attack of the willies but everyone else is ok.. ATTACK!

Then we work through the Activation pile. This is good for forcing the action when solo playing. No decisions as to who acts..just take it in sequence.

TEQUILA: on the door control. No LOS. Dumps an action and goes onto WAIT.

YOU : Ditto - the hand blaster is OK to stop a rush if it happens...

TROTSKY : HAR shot at the Harpy on a stack of stuff. He has no other good angles and doesnt want to wreck cargo with a grenade so early in the mission.. His shot richocheted off the Harpy knocking it off the cargo but not doing any damage. He reserved his second action to repel any rush.

KONGO : th einitial deployment squeezed Kongo to tightly to make good use of his shotgun.  He decided to be bold and clear one of the side corners. He stepped forward then blasted the Harpy to his left. This blasted the  the creature into the bulkhead, wounding it. He then !DUCKed to let others cover him..hopefully. Being first to enter th emodule, AND having to stand adjacent to a Threat meant Kongo lost two BINGE points.

SNITMEISTER : was also crowded out by the poor initial deployment. He dumped an action and went onto WAIT.

PETTYBONE : Now belched flame onto the Harpy to the team's front.

The Harpy was crippled and remained writhing in the flames. Pettybone fired a single squirt to the right, boxing the Harpies there in from rushing the team.

CHANG : Now let rip over the prone form of Kongo with his HAR. The first round wounded and the second merely grazed. But the harpy was turned to the bulkhead, and was wounded makin git unlikely to attack next turn.

HIGGINS  was now ready with his weighty HEMG. He pumped 3 round sinto a Harpy on the right. and reserved his second burst. The first was deadly, scoring 3 wounds and deceasing the target.

The team had now let rip with their first volley and, as the smoke cleareda little, the Harpies screeched and chattered into action.

They mostly ran to hide...no attacks materialised.

 The initial entry had thus bagged two Harpies and forced most of the others back.

THREAT TURN : Nothing except milling arond..

Harpies pushed back. Entry going well.

 TURN 2

HIGGINS : Strides purposefully through the door and blasts to the right. No kills! one Harpy is forced back, another slamme dinto the bulkhead and drips blood.

TROTSKY: Steps up beside Higgins and blasts the wounded Harpy at close range, riddling it but failing to finish it off.

CHANG : continued the advance and leapt onto a cargo box to shoot over the flames at the hiding Harpy near Higgins. The Harpy was driven-off, unwounded. 

SNITMEISTER : Joins Chang on the box then pops a grenade into the corner unseen to attack the cluster of hiding Harpies. Scoring no wounds !

PETTYBONE: Advances and waits in front of the fire he sprayed last turn.

Things are getting cramped, the others dump an action and WAIT with weapons poised.

THREAT TURN

Now the Harpies try to counter-attack. The grenaded group rush forward over the cargo but Snitmeister and Chang throw themselves flat( !DUCK) and this allows YOU and TEQUILA to blast the Harpies before they get their claws into any Verminator. 1 dead, two blasted back.

Tequila blasts over his fellow !DUCKed Verms

 

Now one of those tricky situations happens which is typical when too many Verminators are too aggressive. The right-hand group of Harpies advances and one jumps at HIGGINS - normally, he would !DUCK and PETTYBONE could flame over him to fight-off the attack. This Harpy, however, sneaks along beside a cargo element and because HIGGINS is immediately adjacent PETTYBONE cannot shoot before the threat is on top of the HEMG gunner.

The second Harpy from the same group manages to jump on TROTSKY by the same route. Again TROTSKY is unsupported and cannot !DUCK. The last Harpy has 4 wounds and can barely hobble in the direction of the Verms. 

HIGGINS tries to ditch the HEMG and get his pistol out but he FAILS HIS FUMBLE! This means he has 1 less dice in the grapple. The Harpy has one wound so it is 3 dice versus 2 for the human.

An HEMG is not the best close combat weapon...

Mercifully, the Harpy gets no hits and HIGGINS gets 1. HIGGINS takes the oppurtunity to back  away and get out of the grapple. THIS  RAISES TENSION..HIGGINS and PETTYBONE now form a block to TROTSKY backing-off. TROTSKY must win his fight! This kind of mess doesn't just happen in 'Aliens' !

Harpies all around. Trotsky reaches for his cutlass.

TROTSKY has +2 grapple, he is a monster in a fight! He tries to draw his cutlass instead of his HAR but his FUMBLE IS 4! oh the horror! the dice rattles down the dice-tower and comes up......2!!!!!

 

The Verm's guardian angel shoves Trotsky's dice to 2!

Havingsuccessfully ditched his HAR and taken up his cutlass, TROTSKY lays into the lizard thing and the HARPY slashes back with claws, teeth and tail-spike. TROTSKY gets a damaging slash into the Harpy's teeth and manages to fend off all its attacks! TROTSKY cannot retreat because the way is blocked by his comrades. ............The dice clatter again for the second round..... TROTSKY blocks all the Harpy's talons and teeth and again lands a damging slash with his cutlass! The grapple continues. Tension rises!

HOUSEKEEPING sees no important actions.. 

End Turn 2 : Messy ! But no men down or wounded.

A LOT FOR TWO TURNS... Let's find a titanium mug of Plutonian Koffee!

SETTING-UP : NEW CALEDONIA IS A BIGGY

Setting-up for the Big One. The Mission Card drawn is 'retrieve Survivor or stow-away dead or alive'.

Maybe a second pass by another team will aim to wipe out the pests present but our aim is just to get the unfortunate Survivor off the ship. 

The Risk Assessment  form is filled-out with Harpies as our main enemy, but we do not know how many until we make contact.

Secondary infestations are not known either but we know they are at low level.

We do know we have Competitors, though. The Comptrollers are after the team with some requirement to enforce medical regulations.

 The Event Cards and Threat Pings I deal out ontothe small-scale map of the ship so they dont get in the way of play.

The cargo bays are populated with cargo items and each one has an Inventory Marker.

 

Cargo central including Handler Truck

One bay is Foodstuff, one bay is Hazardous loads, one bay is Gear. Then we have mixed loads in Cargo Central and the Cargo Lock.

THE TEAM

The mission is not part of a career campaign so the team's physical and technical attributes are dealt out at random.

Pettibone is strong so he gets the Flamer. Higgins is a dead-shot so he gets the HEMG.

YOU carries the Firebomb and the Biosensor.

The team will enter the Cargo Lock and head for the Bridge, with the hope there is some indication there on where the Survivor is.

 

If not, then they will sweep the ship on the way back to the Cargo Lock.

This kind of mission can be over quickly or end up as a pitched battle against every Threat on the ship!

 

ABANDON HOPE ALL WHO ENTER HERE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LITTLE BANG

 Grenades need a BANG marker. I have flame markers made of scrap mat foam and I have been using flat grenade explosion markers. I want some 3d BANG markers now.

Holy crap!  You want us to use those INSIDE a spaceship?

I go with using rubbish again despite seeing some very fine vids on the Tube. This trend to use LED tea lamps is a bit ..doll's housey for me. I need a marker not a simulation.

Reduce global warming,Do'nt use electric grenades!

Various rubbish is deployed... polystyrene...

fluffy stuffing and bits of sprue....

Cut-offs of foam mats....

Too much effort with polystyrene and stuffing to produce something which is not very tough. I am sure I could make them look very nice but they dont fit the trend of my building.

 So foam versions of Sonic the Hedgehog are the adopted type.....under-weighted with a coin.

Mark I Mark II  Mark III - bingo!

 Today's listen-while-build was 'Araminta Station' by Jack Vance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83fAMlZYe0I

PLAGUE SHIP

 Cheapnis is my weaknis. The Aldi skellingtons got a coat of paint and varnish which transformed them to the victims of interstellar plague.

All was quiet on the Space Freighter 'Xerxes'

Ensign Smith shouldn't have had that dodgy curry on Kamshattar 19

They are good enough for what I intend, so long as they dont get bent/stretched too much to flake the paint off.

HALLOWEEN BARGAIN

Following my principle of buy-first-make-monster-later, I found some horrible Halloween stretchy plastic skeletons at Aldi. 

For 20Kr I got 12 in orange and green. I was not sure if they were 54mm but they are 62mm so close enough.

I will try boiling in water or heating to shrink them a bit, but they are passable as they are. A paint job will make them scary enough for the Teamers to find.

WHAT WILL I USE THEM FOR ? They will be the remains of crew scattered about the ship. Perhaps victims of a plague? Or victims of a flesh-eating Pest. I can make a table with many variations of plague effects so the 'remains' can be used many time swithout getting boring.

Poor bastards. The aliens forced them to watch 100 boxed sets of Seinfeldt.

 

GETTING THE !DUCKS IN A ROW

 I had some details to finish before the Vermminators of DF Pest Control Division get sent on their most stupendous mission yet.

 The ship ends up being 6 feet by 5 feet!  Not much space on my 6x8 table for status cards  etc. I needed to make some extra external bulkhead elements and some double-interior bulkheads. 

 

External bulkhead complete with meteorite fragment lodged in it!

 

Some module tiles and bulkheads were not yet magnetised so that had to be done also.

Bulkheads have screws or old nails. Module mats have magnets let into them.

I also needed to make a cargo lock which I had put off for  along time..

Cardboard, meat-tray, printed bits and spray paint.

Finally an extra set of burners for the second propulsion module.

Tops off aerosols, disposable snaps glasses, drinking straws and spray paint.

I could not resist giving the bridge a nice viewing screen - with changeable views!

Plastic packaging, bits clipped out of old books, spray paint.

Meanwhile, in the background, the variety of Threats/Pests has been multiplying. The total is now up to 30 different species and five competing teams to make life difficult for the Verms!

Pests are safely contained in lockable containers...

Soon the ship will be constructed on the tabletop and the Verms can go in!

GET READY FOR THE BIG ONE!

 Time to try and throw everything at the wall to see what sticks!

I have 16 module tiles so it is time to build a ship that big and send a team of Verminators in!

The ship is New Caledonia,  a Cook Class Expeditionary. Originally headed for the multi-planet system around Grumio-17. As such it has a lot of cargo and various facilities.

MODULES

Bridge

Sci-Tech Lab

Crew Accommodation

Med-Lab

Bio-material Storage (Microbe Safe)

Arsenal

Gear Storage

4 Cargo Modules

Cargo Central

2 propulsion modules

2 engineering modules

MRS-Panzered-Peanut

 Oh Oh peanut butter : Success on Medical Research Station Panzered-Peanut

This research station orbits above the jungle planet Gamma-Eridani 7. Samples from the rainforest have been used to create drugs to treat various diseases but it is rumoured that unauthorised genetic experiments have also been conducted. Harpy infestation stopped all work but vital samples remain.

MRS-Panzered Peanut orbits GE-7

The Verminator team urgently called to retrieve medical samples left in a safe on the station when it was hurriedly deserted a year ago were:

Snitmeister and Trotsky (Flamer) ..handled by Ewan

Kongo and Pettybone (Shotgun)..handled by Jason

Chang (HEMG) and Tequila..handled by Colin

 

No one was a superhero in this team but there were six men for a station with only 8 modules - a slightly better team than the company usually deploys.

The Threat Assessment told the crew that they were up against Harpies who were present in PLAGUE numbers. 

Also they got to know that the Comptrollers were out to get them  during this tour...

There was also a small chance that a party of Ardzilians detected in a nearby planetary system could turn up to try and snatch a specimen of Homo sapiens for their Galaxy Zoo...

 

Bloody Death, Financial Irregularities, Eternal Captivity : Three Awful Fates

Overall plan of MRS Panzered Peanut

,,

 

TURN 1

Mother docked onto the propulsion module. It was not possible to find a good place closer to the Bio-medical Research Lab where the samples remained in a safe.

 

 Although a good pack of Harpies was in the module, the combined firepower of a team with full magazines made short work of them.

The Harpies were aggressive but came at the Verminators in 1s and 2s allowing them to be shot to bits. Snitmeister used his shotgun in this delicate part of the ship but failed to damage the drive units, luckily.

Slugs, grenades, flame, damn the propulsion units.....

Final tally was 6 dead Harpies.

When the dust cleared the team sorted themselves out to enter the Bridge Module.

 

THE BRIDGE

 The Biosensor gave a low reading and the doors slid open to reveal two Harpies standing in the centre of the module. 

Ready ! Aim! Fire!

 

The Harpy point of view...

Unfortunate. No mercy was shown and it was very soon quiet on the bridge.

Moving on quickly, the next module, the Crew Accommodation, gave a horribly high Biosensor reading. It took some time for the team to reach agreement as to their line-up before the door was opened. 

Not enough room to swing an Ezumian Micro Cat

CREW ACCOMMODATION

Before the Harpies moved-in the Crew Accomodation was well kept and cleaned. Harpies do not do house-keeping, though and the staff would not stay, even if they avoided being eaten. It was hot, it stank of rotten things and acid. The deck had not been hoovered for months.

Don't trust aliens with housework...

Six Harpies immediately came for the door to protect - THE HIVE! - for the Hive entrance was here.

 

But the Verminators were really on their game today and again the Harpies attacked in dribs and drabs which got mown down. 

Even when the Bull Harpy emerged from the Hive to defend his brood a lethal shot from Snitmeister removed any thoughts he had of avenging the dead Harpies...along with his head.

 

Controlled chaos but steady fire got rid of the Harpies without any casualties to the Verms

Amazingly, the Team was still unhurt, had plenty of ammo and even found some useful stuff in the lockers they had rummaged so far.

Next stop was the Arsenal and beyond that lay the Medical Research Module.

The Team decided NOT to wait with chucking the firebomb down the Hive entrance until they were  safely away. Even though this would draw Harpies from the rest of the ship when it went off, a happy accident meant there was a solid bulkhead between Propulsion and Freight modules so all Harpies must come at them from the direction they were moving in anyway.

Before setting the bomb, a Biosensor reading for the next module showed a MAX reading.

The Team kept their nerve and relied on being just as deadly as they had been up to now......

The bomb was set for a delay of 6 turns and dropped down the hole.

THE ARSENAL

The door slid open to reveal a horde of 9 Harpies. All turned their heads to the humans revealed in the doorway...

 

..and gazing in, he saw 'Horrible Things'

Snitmeister shot a grenade into the biggest cluster of shiny black aliens and the carnage began...

This module was roomy enough for a perfect use of the BLOCK AND BATTER tactic. Trotsky flamed a burning swathe across the deck and the rest of the team locked and loaded. 

 

Blocking and Battering

As the Harpies screeched and skwarked to each other they formed two main packs and ran toward the humans but stopped before the flames. Every barrel splurged lead and half the Harpies exploded into a black and green shower of remnants.The survivors retreated behind and into the shelving.

 

Another rush blocked and mown down

Grenade away, followed by a hail of slugs...courtesy Snitmeister

 

Pettibone now got a bit wild with his SHOTGUN and loosed a round into the stored weaponry. Everyone held their breath but no explosions followed. Obviously the shelves held weapons but ammo was elsewhere...pheeew. Encouraged, Pettibone continued to kill the remaining Harpies and made the storage look like a pile of collanders. Expensive collanders dripping with green blood.

If you are armed with a shotgun, everything looks like a pheasant..Doesn't it Pettibone?!

 There was a deathly silence.

The Team began to plunder the arsenal but everything on the shelves was now useless thanks to the effectiveness of Pettibone's shotgun. A Combat Drone stood on one wall but when examined it was found to without any AI brain and was useless. 

Just then, Kongo got an InfoByte from Mother in his head-up display. A dangerous meteorite swarm was approaching. Mother had to pull off the MRS in 12 turns from now!!!!

The Team all began to speak at once, but Chang kept his cool and insisted there was plenty of time if things continued to go well. Speaking as the slowest of the Team, carrying the HEMG, this confident attitude got everyone quiet and ready to enter the Medical research Module.

MEDICAL RESEARCH MODULE

The Biosensor reading was high but nothing like the Arsenal's reading.

When the door opened, the main problem was revealed to be congestion. There was not much space in the MEDMOD and the Harpies were hiding. 

Flame and close-range shots quickly dealt with most of them but a grenade lobbed over a cabinet to dislodge a Harpy resulted in 3 furniture elements getting damaged....and the safe and samples were in here somewhere. Everyone shouted at Pettibone to keep his finger OFF the TRIGGER of his shotgun...

The last Harpy was trapped behind a wierd experimental dome thing, by flame, and finished with a close range volley from Tequila and Snitmeister.

No place to hide.

 Now for the samples !  Just then, a dull 'crump' made the deck and bulkheads shake for a moment....

The FIREBOMB had just exploded ....all remaining Harpies on the ship would soon be making their way through here to the HIVE.....

The lockers were rifled,,nothing was found. Chang wanted to carry everything away to sell it but speed was more important, the clock was ticking.

Hell of a mess in the lab....

 Banging and scratching now started against the door and bulkhead into the Freight Module. The Harpies were coming!!!

Snitmeister decided to examine the dome thing....he wished he had not.

The clear dome was misted on the outside. It was obviously hot inside. Snitmeister rubbed the mist away and looked in. He jumped back, terrified when a slimy, clawed hand smashed against the plexiglass. 

This was followed by a grusome, deformed face with wild yellow eyes looking out. The thing inside, some kind of humanoid, began to scream and wail and smash against the glass with all its strength. Snitmeister wished he had packed extra trousers.

The others had meanwhile searched through the remains of the cabinets and miraculously found the small safe unharmed. Tequila dialled in the code and snatched out the magazine of vials inside.

the cause of all the trouble...

 He carefully placed them in protective satchel he had brought for the purpose and stood ready for the next move. Hopefully a retrograde one.

FLIGHT

6 moves remained until Mother had to undock. It would take the Team 5 moves unhindered to exit MRS-Panzered Peanut. But hindrances now arrived!!!

The DOME split open under the onslaught of the 'Experiment'. It emerged - horribly green and unpainted, for which the author apologises, but no less deadly for that!  His sticky yellow eyes peered round for movement - and flesh to consume...

Just then, one of those lucky moments occurred for which Verminators are usually not known.

A Harpy emerged from a conduit in the bulkhead and leapt onto the Experiment, assuming he was responsible for attacking the Hive!. Another wriggled out of a gap in the deck plates and joined in the fray.

 

Not wishing to spoil the fun, the Verminators fled in a hurry out of the MEDMOD and closed the door.

 

Exit stage left, hopefully not pursued by anything..

 They then dashed past the flames of the burning Hive and back to Mother, looking more like Keystone Cops than trained professional Pest Controllers.

RECKONING

Safely back on Mother, as she accelerated away from the 7th of 9 planets around Gamma-Eridani 9, the Verminators relaxed in their couches sipping warm Mexican chocolate and nibbling Venusian Doodads. Mission accomplished ! How much had they made ?

Chang doodled on the back of an envelope, long since uselss as a means of communication but kept on as vital note-taking devices. 

Sirius Cybernetics Model XVII with extensible flap

No-one was hurt but they had really smashed the MRS up. The Hive and the Samples netted them 110,000 but assorted weaponry and medical equipment perforated or toasted had cost DF 70,000. Snitmeister's bodycam had caught some heroic instances which netted him a 20,000 personal bonus but the shared-out Mission Bonus was just 10,000 each. 

Snitmeister was grinning as he opened his Communicator and started booking a tour to Eroticon 74 - The others would be lucky if they  could get to Dinsi World for a cheap recuperation weekend.

Old School Recreational Droids on Dinsi World

But such is the life of a Verminator! The next mission might just be the big one which netted them enough to retire!

As Snitmeister scrolled through pictures of the delights awaiting him on his leave, a scowling face with an over-sized peaked leather cap suddenly filled the screen of his Communcator. ..

Senior Comptroler Ebenezer Gradgrind  snarled disappointedly up at him.

"Just you watch it sonny ! 

We know some of your team have VERY dodgy Tax Returns and Time Sheets... 

We will get you one of these days....Lucky your ship left the MRS before we arrived to pickle your walnuts - 'meteor shower' indeed!!! 

Mark my words, you will meet us one day ! "

Every cloud of meteors has a silver lining!