Wargames weekend: SF Mash Up

We started off our second day with a trial of the S&G Skirmish Games system in a strangely familiar science fiction universe. With inspiration coming from various SF series including Farscape, Firefly, Red Dwarf, Terminator and ST:TNG, it's Blakes 7, but not as we know it!

Professor Dyson, the renowned robotics engineer has been off the grid for many years. Both the Federation and the Resistance have been seeking him. Both sides have recently had good intel that android parts have been being shipped through a certain space port and so go to investigate.

Federation Commissioner Sneer sends Space Major Perkins (who lost one eye and an arm to the Resistance) and some Federation troopers. Whilst the Resistance is ably represented by a renegade Federation Officer, Aeyrn Moon, a grey skinned con artist called Chianti and Crouton, an overly obsequious robot butler.

Things begin to go badly for the Resistance almost immediately when Crouton opens a shipping container and releases a Parrot Dog, a barely trainable carnivore from the Sirius system, which some idiot has been illegally transporting. Whilst Crouton and Chianti are trying to deal with the Parrot Dog, Officer Moon starts a firefight with the Federation Troopers. As things develop Chianti gets caught between the Parrot Dog and the Federation troopers and is badly wounded. Meanwhile Crouton slips away and, rather unwisely, opens another shipping container which, unfortunately contains another three Parrot Dogs!

Officer Moon manages to eliminate the first Parrot Dog and escape the Federation Troopers whilst Crouton is running for his metal life away from the other three Parrot Dogs. With Space Major Perkins happy to sit back and let the Resistance deal with the Parrot Dog problem, Moon and Crouton have their work cut out for them.

With the carnivores dispatched, the Space Major and his troopers decided to move in. In danger of being cornered and captured Moon and Crouton transported back up to their ship (but not after having planted a transponder on the Federation ship).

Perkins found sufficient information at the spaceport to lead him to a desert planet. He contacted Commissioner Sneer who joined him there. The Resistance followed at a safe distance, formed a landing party from Officer Moon, Crouton, their perky female engineer Kylie and Pretty Boy Jim, their pilot, and transported down out of sight.

With both parties moving towards the only structure in the area, a ruin, an encounter what inevitable. Almost immediately a firefight broke out with each side using parts of the ruins as cover. The Federation troopers were coming off worse this time but Crouton was up to his old tricks and looking around. Suddenly he stumbled upon a metal object in the sand. On closer inspection it turned out to be a heavily armed and rather hostile android!

With things starting to look sticky, Commission Sneer decided to withdraw (planning to give the Resistance a taste of their own tracker medicine), leaving the others to deal with the robotic guard. Crouton once again managed to slip away and it was left to Jim to have showdown with the android - one which he one! The Resistance then located more clues to the whereabouts of Professor Dyson.

To be continued...