"Listen here! Now maybe Ocean's Ten shouldn't have taken that contract to rob the Weland-Yutani "Life Sciences" Lab on Paramour. But you know what? Maybe Greywater Solutions should've chilled the frak out with all that gorram HE they fired, amirite? At the end of the day, with containment on a bio-weapon ruptured, ain't nobody getting through quarantine before the mothership's next FTL jump. Dead or alive, their interstellar adventuring days are over folks." --Overheard gossip at Twenty Forward Lounge on Mothership Leviathan
In the wake of this annihilation, how will the two premier mercenary companies of the 'verse recover and rebuild? Will they hold to their traditions, or blaze a new trail? Can they forget this catastrophe, or are they destined to fight to mutual annihilation?
Welcome to...
Space Cowboys for HireDiscord ServerIn Space Cowboys for Hire, a single team of players guide the actions of "Ocean's Ten," an interstellar mercenary crew, on a PvE campaign to avoid bankruptcy and potential bioterrorism charges. The crew will find physical and legal refuge on the Mothership Leviathan, humanity's only interstellar ship, as it follows its three year circular route through humanity's interstellar domain. Core gameplay will resemble a mission-oriented Arms Race, like Deniable Assets, but with a strong narrative focus and deliberately less micromanagement. Missions will take place on four heavily terraformed planetary systems, with settings ranging from Firefly-esque frontier worlds to dystopian cities straight out of Altered Carbon.
Basic Game Cycle:
Contact Phase. After being briefed a summary of the current planetary system, players are presented with a list of contacts and what kind of work they're hiring for. Players must now vote on which contacts to pursue. Contacts may ignore the players if they're associating with an opposing contact, forcing the players to pick sides in certain conflicts.
Contract Phase. Interested contacts will now send the players what detailed missions they want done that month/turn and their pay. Players must now write a quick pitch (one paragraph) to the contact to get hired for the missions they want. The voted pitchs are then either accepted or rejected by the contacts, along with appropriate written feedback as to why, or other suggestions.
Hardware Phase. A traditional AR design phase. Represents a fixed budgetary amount being spent to buy, craft, and eventually maintain, a specific quantity and quality of equipment. Rolled on a 2d4 modified by the difficulty of the design.
Specialist Training Phase. A traditional AR design phase, but for skills. Take a single operator and make him into something interesting. Rolled on a 2d4 modified by the difficulty of the design.
Operations Phase. Players now write how they're going to attempt their missions this turn. The voted mission plans are executed. A 2d4 modified by the difficulty of the plan is rolled for its execution. Another 2d4 is rolled for mission difficulty. And a third 2d4 is rolled for improvisation: situations not covered by the written plan, such as traps, ambushes, loss of key equipment/personnel. The GM interprets all of this into a battle report.
After eight months/turns in system, rent is due. If the players can make rent, they spend the next month/turn in FTL, before arriving in the next system. Failure to make rent will result in eviction from the Mothership Leviathan, and effectively Game Over. It should also be noted that casualties are only replaced during the FTL turn.
Setting and Deep Lore:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I can easily innundate you with details of Gaian Catalysts, Post-Einsteinian Physics, and Transhuman Immortalism. But that's not what you want to hear is it? The Exodus Initiative is going to deliver the shivering remnants of humanity to a New World of our own creation. We will give them life, and they will worship us for it. I'm not asking you to become the next Christopher Columbus; I'm asking you to become the next God."
--Exodus Initiative angel investor pitch (circa 2030 CE)
As the 21st Century trudged along, it was increasingly apparent Earth itself was doomed. Its resources squandered and climate increasingly hostile, nations turned on each other with various quasi-wars and terrorists acts. Amidst this chaos, the Exodus Initiative emerged out of Silicon Valley, with technology and funds to terraform and colonize distant planetary systems. Led mainly by Libertarian tech-billionaires, the Initiative launched FTL AI terraformers to a cluster of four planetary systems. With great fanfare, they then departed themselves on one-way FTL colony ships. As a "parting gift," they released all their data to public domain, encouraging any organization with the funds and willpower to join them in the New Worlds. And to varying degrees of success, several did.
"Varying degrees of success" could be best used to describe the overall colonization effort as well. While the terraformers were able to establish earth-like atmospheres, climates, and gravity on the exoplanets, ecological seeding was erratic. Genetically engineered fast growth forests didn't always work, resulting in most worlds becoming savannahs, deserts, or general wastelands. Entire food webs soon mutated in unexpected ways. Similarly, not all colonial voyages went as expected. While most of the well-funded Initiative vessels performed flawlessly, most of the public domain ships had supply, navigational, and other mishaps. Thus, public domain ships commonly landed undersupplied, off-course, and too late to claim good real estate. Initiative founders soon lived in modern comfort on urbanized glitterworlds while the much of the public survived in Wild West frontier worlds. As tensions between the Initiative haves and the public have-nots simmered over the years, the Libertarain Initiative founders financed various "private military companies," essentially mercenaries, to enforce their interests. Over the decades, the chaos was too much and each system begrudingly incorporated themselves in an emerging central government, the Coalition.
But as the Coalition claimed ownership of the worlds they created, well-off Libertarian hardliners fled to the Mothership Leviathan. With the four New Worlds systems lightyears apart, and repeated FTL difficult and costly, the Mothership Leviathan was the only interstellar vessel transiting these system. Spending only eight months in each system followed by a month sequestered in FTL, the Mothership Leviathan becamea a defacto neutral state outside of any particular system's control. As well as being an irreplaceable means of commerce, the Mothership Leviathan has since upgraded from a beast of burden to a true glittercity of its own. The luxurious residence deck has proudly assumed the moniker of New Monaco. With bleeding edge Transhuman Immortalist Medicine (TI Med) facilities onboard the Leviathian, New Monaco residents are effectively immortal assuming their fortunes never run dry.
In recent years, the Coalition security forces, commonly known as CoFor, have mostly reined in and replaced the mercenaries of old. While few local mercenary companies remain, the two Mothership Leviathan mercenary companies continue to thrive due to their unique legal and physical residence. Not to mention they both benefit greatly from an "all-inclusive" rent-controlled contract dating to before the glitterworld upgrades. To the chagrin of the New Monaco residents, members of both companies now get full TI Med service during every FTL month. Needless to say, an operator who can brought back to life every nine months, is a very dangerous soldier indeed.
Space Cowboys for Hire (Turn 0)*ring* *ring*
"Mrs. Ocean."
"Neil McCauley? Do you know what time it is?!?"
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we need to meet in the briefing room urgently."
"Fine. First thing in the morning, 9 sharp."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but that won't do. Sam Goldman is already here too."
"Gorramit, I'm on my way. This better be really good, or really bad Neil."
***
It's just after 4am as you enter the room in a bit of a huff. Neil grimaces awkwardly and is about to say something before Sam cuts him off. "Now I'd like to remind everyone that as legal counsel to Ocean PMC, everything discussed in this meeting is protected by attorney-client privilege..."
Neil interjects, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but your husband is dead. He insisted on a HALO insert to try and rescue our guys. I tried to stop him, but CoFor now has the whole planet locked down."
Before you're even able to ask what a 'HALO insert' is, Sam continues, "Upon review of the articles of incorporation, all ownership and control of Ocean LLC reverts to you. I know you've prefered to be a silent partner in this business, but we're going to need some quick executive decisions from you right now. Do you understand Mrs. Ocean?"
"Sam, don't you think you're being a bit too hard on her?"
"Neil, we've got 72 hours to FTL. We don't have time to sugar coat this. We lost Daniel and all ten field operators down on Paramour. There's chatter that the Coalition is floating terrorism charges against us."
You chuckle, "Good, the sooner we're out of here, the better. They were all due for a reju-regen anyways."
Neil sighs, "Two problems, we can't recover their TI implants from Paramour and we don't have the rent for this upcoming FTL."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE THE RENT!" you shout. "I am certainly not getting evicted from this ship, to live like some public domain refugee!"
"Calm down Mrs. Ocean, we're all in this together. If any of us lose our status with the Mothership, we'll likely face felony prosecution from the Coalition."
"Gorramit Sam, was that supposed to be soothing?"
"Neil, as your legal counsel, it's my duty-"
"WHERE THE FRAK IS THE RENT!" you interrupt.
"Ma'am, we had a rough couple months and we were banking on this last op to cover it. But it's okay ma'ma, Sam and me have a plan to get through this. We just need your approval."
They both stare you down pleadingly, knowing that despite their wishes, you're the one calling the shots now. After a long pregnant pause, you oblige, "Fine. It's not like I have a choice do I? As long as somebody tells me what the frak a HALO insert is."
***
"As you surely know Ma'am, every nine months, 500k rent is due. Now paying survivor benefits as well as onboarding ten new operators is going wipe out our entire savings. The only way forward is to empty the armory. I'm talking full firesale."
"We're going back to basics. Obviously we'll keep the shuttle and the handsfree comms. 12 ga pumps, .357 revolvers, and Gerber multitools are the bare essentials, but everything else can go. It's only the Thiel planetary system afterall. If we stick to frontier operations, we shouldn't need too fancy tech. We probably can afford to hold onto about four more hardware systems though."
"Attached I've provided a quick inventory, minus what we lost on Paramour. I wish I could provide more detail or answer questions, but I've only got about 48 hours to sell everything. I've designated the four systems that I, as Chief of Operations, recommend we retain. However, you're ultimately the boss Ma'am, so let me know if you'd prefer four other systems for some reason. Keep in mind that at least one of them should probably be a set of wheels. They don't have Uber in the frontier."
--Signed, Chief of Operations, Neil McCauley
Weapons
(0) Walther PPK .380 Pocket Pistol
(0) SIG Sauer P226 9mm Service Pistol
(0) IMI Micro Uzi 9mm SMG
(0) FN P90 5.7mm PDW
(0) Izhmash Saiga 12 ga Tactical Shotgun
(1) AS Val SP-6 Sound Suppressed Carbine: Ops Chief
(0) AK-74M 5.45mm Assault Rifle
(0) RPK-74M 5.45mm Light Machine Gun
(0) HK MSG90 7.62mm Sniper Rifle
(0) Barrett Model 82A1 .50 BMG AMR
(0) RPG-7 Rocket Launcher
(0) M67 Fragmentation Grenade
(0) TASER Less-Than-Lethal Gun
(0) OC Pepper Spray
Vehicles
(0) Volkswagon Transporter Panel Van
(1) Landrover Defender SUV: Ops Chief
(0) MINI Cooper S Compact Car
(0) Kawasaki Ninja Dual Sport Motorcycle
Equipment
(0) Low Profile Ballistic Vest
(0) Semtex 1kg Explosives Block
(0) Facial Disguise Prosthetics Kit
(1) Mechanical Lockpick Set: Ops Chief
(0) Radio Scanner
(0) Wireless Spy Cam Set
(0) IR Tripwire Kit
(1) FLIR Binoculars: Ops Chief
(0) Hobbyist Quadcopter Drone
(0) Climbing/Rappelling Ropes Kit
(0) Hydraulic Saw
(0) Stinger Anti-Vehicle Spike Strip
(0) Handheld Biometric ID Scanner
(0) Long Range Directional Microphone
(0) Ghillie Suit
(0) DSLR Camera With Super-Telephoto Lens
(0) Concealable Pin Mic Bugs
***
Just as you're about to Google what the hell half those weapons are, you see you have an incoming call from Sam Goldman, "Mrs. Ocean, some distinguished luminaries in New Monaco have heard of the recent tragedy upon their shipmates and have arranged a memorial service for both us and Greywater Solutions."
"I never thought anyone in New Monaco particularly cared for us. Well that's not exactly something we can refuse, can we?"
"Likely it's just someone thinking it's a good humanitarian PR stunt, but no, we need any sympathy we can get. The catch is that Greywater's President, Nick Clay, will be giving a eulogy. Accordingly, you, as Chief Executive of Ocean PMC, should do so as well. I understand that as a grieving widow, you may not be ready for this. Neil and myself will put something together if you like. But with all due respect Mrs. Ocean, I think this could be a great debut if you wanted to pursue a more active role in our business."
"Thanks for the heads up Sam. Who doesn't love public speaking engagements?"
Describe or write an appropriate eulogy to be delivered by Mrs. Ocean, Neil, or Sam. GM will choose the best and grant a reward appropriate to the spoken eulogy. Suggested topics include: your husband, the ten Ocean operators, the mission on Paramour, your relationship with Greywater, your relationship with Weyland-Yutani, your plans for the future, etc. Accuse, apologize, joke, keep it professional, or try a bit of everything; welcome to the world of public speaking. For the sake of brevity, it doesn't need to be word-for-word, just enough for us to understand the content and tone of the presentation.
If no submissions are received, Sam or Neil will speak instead... which may or may not be a good thing.
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