The Jackals (A Five Parsecs Campaign)

 

Four years ago (give or take a month) I discovered Five Parsecs From Home and was totally enthralled by the battle reports I was seeing coming out of it. 

As chance would have it, I only discovered the game shortly after it had become unavailable. There was this brief period where Modiphius was working with Nordic Weasel to pull together the current edition into the beautiful, glossy print version that we have to play with now. At that time, the next best thing to play (that I knew of) was Five Klicks From The Zone, and wow did I get into that game heavy. I still have a soft spot in my heart for that game, even now, even all these years later. Heck, the more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to pick up that old campaign again and do the only official scenario pack I never took on: Skull Takers. That could be fun!

Anyway, you can check out the battle reports for that campaign over here: Five Klicks

I've explored a lot of other games in the intervening years (XCOM, UVG, Wings of Glory, Starforged, a renewed interest in Battletech, etc.) but one of the things I also did was pick up all of the current edition books for Five Parsecs as soon as they came available. They (mostly) sat on my shelf for years, but recently the 5PFH bug has bit me again.

And wow, has it bit me.

Meet the crew of The Anubis, my latest Five Parsecs From Home crew.

I got the idea to run an all ferals crew while I was building up my Jackal army for One Page Rules. It seemed like a silly idea, quirky, weird, but most importantly, it seemed like fun. Using the "miniatures method" for character creation (plus random rolls on background, motivation, class and gear,) I rolled up the following character statistics:

Captain Anpu (Big Blue)

Rc: 1, Sp: 4", CS: +0, Tg: 3, Sv: +0, Lk: 1, XP: 2

Background: Isolationist Enclave

Motivation: Faith

Class: Explorer

Inventory: Rattle Gun (24" range, 3 sh, 0 dmg, with Stablizer to remove Heavy)

Bio: Anpu grew up as part of a stellar cult on Ijida, the desert homeworld of the Jackals. Her entire life, she has believed that it is her destiny to bring her people to the stars, and to bring back the riches of the heavens to raise her people up from their arid origins. 

First Officer Apollo (Little Blue)

Rc: 2, Sp: 4", CS: +0, Tg: 3, Sv: +0, Lk: 0, XP: 2

Background: Wasteland Nomads

Motivation: Order

Class: Punk 

Inventory: Marksman's Rifle (36" range, 1 sh, 0 dmg, Heavy), Insta-Wall

Bio: Apollo was born as part of a nomadic clan on the Jackal homeworld of Ijida. His skill with a scoped rifle earned the respect of Anpu and he agreed to join her on her mad errand into the stars in a stolen merchant vessel on the condition that he be made second in command. His eventual goal is to control the flow of wealth Anpu promises they will find among the stars so that it will benefit those less fortunate, like his own clan.

Wepa (Brown)

Rc: 1, Sp: 4", CS: +0, Tg: 4, Sv: +0, Lk: 0, XP: 0

Background: Primitive World

Motivation: Fame

Class: Nomad

Inventory: Military Rifle with Assault Blade (melee, dmg 1, wins draw)

Bio: Wepa grew up in the same clan as Apollo and admires him. While he is shrewd and focused, Wepa just wants to be someone with clout, to look cool and be respected like he is.

Skadi (White)

Rc: 1, Sp: 4", CS: +0, Tg: 4, Sv: +1, Lk: 0, XP: 0

Background: Subjugated Colony 

Motivation: Survival

Class: Hacker

Inventory: Shotgun

Bio: Born a slave and fitted with an explosive collar while she was still a pup, Skadi learned to hack systems well enough to free herself and earn a living back on the Jackal homeworld. In Anpu’s mad quest to steal from the stars, she saw a chance to get away from the life she was born into and she never wants to return to Ijida again.

Loki (Yellow)

Rc: 1, Sp: 4", CS: +0, Tg: 3, Sv: +1, Lk: 0, XP: 0

Background: Low Tech Colony

Motivation: Wealth 

Class: Scientist

Inventory: Handgun, Blade, concealed blade x2 (2” range, free action), Screen Generator (5+ Saving Throw against gunfire - not area or melee)

Bio: Loki was the prodigal son of an agricultural worker. He ingratiated himself with an older patron to pay for his studies and acquire tech from the heavens. His desire for riches led him to Anpu and he has worked with her for several jobs. He excels at hand-to-hand combat and relishes seeing the terror in the eyes of his foes as he bears down upon them.

Freki (Green)

Rc: 1, Sp: 4", CS: +1, Tg: 3, Sv: +1, Lk: 0, XP: 0

Background: Military Brat

Motivation: Wealth 

Class: Hacker 

Inventory: Infantry Laser, Blade

Bio: Born into a raider junta on Ijida, Freki distinguished himself by his mastery of technology from the stars. He works alongside Anpu for the money, and cares for little else.

Ship Inventory:

Story Points: 5

Quest Rumors: 3

Rivals: 4

Credits: 16

Shotgun x2

Handgun

Ship: The Anubis

Unreliable Merchant Cruiser

Debt: 24 Credits

Hull: 30

Captain Anpu, a custom Jackal I kitbashed for this campaign.

THE SET-UP:

Anpu and the crew of the rattling deathtrap recently christened as “The Anubis” have arrived on the world of Byng III, their first stop after “liberating” their Unreliable Merchant Cruiser from a trader who came to their homeworld hoping to sell overpriced technological trinkets to the locals. Byng III is literally in the next system over, so what better place could there be to start a grand (lucrative) new adventure into the stars? 

Turns out, literally any other place probably would have better.

It seems that the merchant they stole their ship from has a lot of friendly contacts on Byng III, so while the crew of The Anubis did begin their adventure with a safe full of credits, they also started out with a pile of ship debt and an even more formidable pile of rivals already itching to see them dead. Bounty hunters, enforcers and Blood Storm Mercs stationed on Byng III all have one directive when it comes to the jackals: hunt them down and reclaim the ship they stole.

But so far, the first day on Byng III hasn’t been all bad. The markets are lucrative (and relatively light on security) and Anpu has been contacted by a faceless contact representing Orbital Equities, a corporate patron willing to drop a few credits if the jackals make a trip out to the middle of nowhere to check out a grid reference some haunch in a cushy office wants intel on. It’s a one-off, but they can keep whatever they find on site. Orbital Equities just wants to know what's out there.

Or so they say.

Shortly before the mission, Captain Anpu visits the markets, taking Wepa and Skadi with her for some "trading." During the trip, Anpu "liberates" 3 Frakk grenades, Wepa "discovers" 2 credits and Skadi "finds" a shotgun.

At the same time, First Officer Apollo takes Loki and Freki "exploring."

Apollo "doesn't have a gambling problem" but manages to lose a colony rifle from the ship's stash over a handful of dice rolls anyway. Loki picks a fight and earns the group a rival (a salvage team also looking to hit it big on this world) while Freki gets a few beers deep and wanders back to the ship.

Unfortunately, this means that Freki was also too blitzed to participate in the battle (conditions indicated one unit does not deploy. The combination just made sense.)

The mission itself sounded so simple. Move through the site, gather intel, then bug out.

What the rep at Orbital Equities failed to mention was that the location the jackals were sent to scout was right in the center of the territory of a pack of Krorg. Huge, bear-like hunters with fearsome talons and huge appetites, the Krorg (represented by some owlbears I printed and painted for the occasion) did not take kindly to the crew of The Anubis entering their territory.

The first round of combat ended with a lot of missed shots, leaving the jackals sweating. 

Fortunately (for the jackals) one of the Krorg was so overwhelmed by stunning fire that it collapsed, unconscious.

(Thank goodness for that! In Five Klicks, the Jackals would have been hosed!)

The first kill of the day was made by Apollo (off camera), who got very lucky with his Marksman's Rifle. Skadi managed to get some stun tokens on the closest Krorg, but that wasn't enough to drop it.

Turns 3 and 4 saw a heavy fog descend over the Battlefield. 

Krorg in the mists, what a terrifying thing!

As the huge beasts closed with the jackals, Skadi took one down with her shotgun while Loki got up close and personal with the last one, shanking it solidly.

The end of the first campaign turn saw Captain Anpu gaining enough XP to increase her Combat Skill by +1. The crew also found a "personal trinket" in the Krorg's den that might be valuable to someone, somewhere beyond Byng III. Upon returning to The Anubis, the crew realized that Freki, in his drunken stupor, had tried to "hot rod" the engine and did six points of damage to the hull of the ship. Thankfully, Wepa was able to help him put most of the engine back together, minimizing the effects.

CAMPAIGN TURN 2:

One of the mission types I have been most excited about trying in Five Parsecs is the Salvage Mission. My goal was to get into one of these as soon as possible. As luck would have it, the rolls came together so that the second campaign turn could be exactly that.

This was also a wonderful opportunity to break out my old Space Hulk 2nd Edition tiles, which are very near and dear to my heart and have seen a lot of battles in the course of the last twenty-five years. I need to figure out an easy way to make more custom ones!

To start the turn, the jackals spent 12 creds and reduced the debt on the ship to 14 creds. Captain Anpu went looking for a salvage job and found one that was legal. To keep the rivals from interrupting the plans of the rest of the crew, First Officer Apollo and Wepa acted as decoys, leading the rivals on a wild jackal chase, as it were.

Meanwhile, Loki, Skadi and Freki went "trading."

As luck would have it, Loki managed to "liberate" 3 more frakk grenades, presumably from the same grenade merchant. Skadi "found" a shotgun (just there, out in the open and everything) and Freki, perhaps feeling a little guilty about taking apart the engine, "traded for" 3 credits worth of starship parts.

The salvage mission involved checking out a derelict starship stuck in a decaying orbit around Byng III. According to the scrapper contact that Captain Anpu spoke with, the ship was once a cargo hauler known as the "Cornelius", which was abandoned as space trash after a catastrophic drive failure. The most resistance expected? Rats, maybe feral felines at most. Nothing a crew like the jackals couldn't handle.

It wasn't long after the crew entered the derelict that they started to pick up contacts. One kept moving around the hallway outside of the airlock to The Anubis, but never came out into the open.

The first and second Points of Interest turned out to be a whole lot of nothing (well, a rumor and something else minor) Loki picked up some scrap and a second contact appeared in the engine room, stalking the catwalks beyond the heavy steel door.

The crew readied itself to crack the door and fire on whatever might be inside the engine room.

A third contact appeared, and as half the crew rushed into the engine room, they discovered that the blip inside was nothing at all, just a scrap of clothing caught on a duct.

The other half  of the crew (well, Apollo and Skadi) came face to face with a pair of Tech Gangers, apparently also here to grab salvage before the Cornelius could burn up on re-entry.

Deciding that the engine room would make a great chokepoint to use against the Tech Gangers, Captain Anpu pulled her crew into the room, then sent several jackals ahead to check out the remaining points of interest.

Practically the whole game, this contact kept "puppy guarding" the airlock back to The Anubis.

A quick skirmish unfolded as Loki rushed the closest Tech Ganger and ganked him.

The other Tech Ganger tried to flank Loki, and actually winged him.

But as the tech ganger came into the engine room, Captain Anpu unleashed a storm of lead from her rattle gun and put him down.

Another contact spawned and revealed a small pack of Tech Gangers eager to rush into the jaws of death, but Captain Anpu and Apollo were ready to face them.

Freki rushed into one of the aft cargo bays to investigate the third Point of Interest and found about 3 credits worth of valuables.

Meanwhile, a shoot-out was unfolding in the Engine Room. Before Captain Anpu or Apollo could get off a shot, they were both gunned down by the Tech Gangers, one of which was carrying a fury rifle. Rushing in, Skadi tossed a grenade and took down two of the enemy. The third ganger was dropped by Wepa.

Clearing out the last Point of Interest (a computer terminal that could lower the tension,) the jackals rushed back toward the fore of the ship, picking up three separate blips hot on their tails.

Lagging behind, Freki came into line of sight with a blip shortly after it appeared, revealing another trio of Tech Gangers. 

Instead of sticking around, Freki got out of there as quick as he could, narrowly avoiding getting a round in the back.

All told, the Jackals did really well this turn. Captain Anpu and First Officer Apollo suffered only minor injuries that will heal with a turn in sickbay. All of the points of interest turned out to be nothing but space junk, but the crew did recover six Salvage Tokens (enough to buy a scanner bot and a crate that turned out to be worth 6 credits when opened), 3 credits, a rumor and a new ally, an assault bot named "Pip" the crew equipped with a shotgun. To finish it all off, Loki got a letter from home that made him feel so warm and fuzzy that he got +1 XP.

CAMPAIGN TURN 3:

With the salvage mission down, it was time to really focus on the issues chasing the jackals from place to place: their rivals. So far, we've been lucky, narrowly avoiding them with good rolls and some character actions lost to decoy work, but eventually the rivals will catch up to the crew. Better then, that the crew seek out the rivals first.

To start this turn, Captain Anpu dipped into the credit reserves and almost completely paid off the debt on the ship (plus medical care for her and Apollo) leaving the crew with only a single credit that got pumped into ship repairs (along with the remander of salvage points accumulated) to fully repair "The Anubis." Captain Anpu and First Officer Apollo were still required to spend their move during this turn healing up, but Wepa and Pip were able to team up to track down one of the crew's rivals, a simple salvage team. Turns out Pip knows his stuff, and they managed to track down the rival easily.

Loki, Skadi and Freki go "trading" again, "liberating" 3 credits worth of starship fuel and 5 credits worth of starship parts. Freki didn't end up "trading" for anything, though. Instead, he spent the afternoon with an "information broker" but didn't learn anything except his alcohol tolerance (or lack thereof.) 

Misson: attack rival salvage team

Conditions: Gloomy (9" visibility unless you fire)

Priority Target: 1 random figure: +1 toughness, +1d3 credits if taken out
Showdown: 6 units (1 specialist) (1 Lieutenant) + 1 Unique Individual (Sand Runner)

Hitting the enemy at twilight seemed like a good idea. Light fog hanging over everything was good for shielding the approach of the jackals, making them harder to spot by the scrapper in the makeshift watchtower.

Moving in, Captain Anpu scored the first kill by lining up her rattle gun and firing through a gap in the makeshift log barracades around the salvager camp.

The scrapper in the watchtower took aim at Captain Anpu as the jackals spread out, but missed her shot.

That's when all hell broke loose. The priority target climbed into a good shooting spot and, with a lucky roll, put a bullet into Loki, even though he was hidden behind cover. To make matters worse, the scrapper with the shell gun got into position and launched a grenade straight at Captain Anpu, stunning her and half the crew clustered around her.

Rushing in, Pip unloaded his shotgun and dropped the priority target with another lucky shot. Too stunned to move, Captain Anpu rattled off a volley of rounds and dropped the guy with the shell gun.

The sudden carnage was too much for the scrapper in the tower. She failed her morale roll and bugged out.

But the Lieutenant in charge of the group was just getting started. Not only was she lining up shots, a random battlefield event gave her an extra move action and an extra attack action for the rest of the skirmish, making her twice as dangerous. 

Plus, she had that Sand Runner watching her back!

Anpu's people got into any available cover as the lieutenant darted into a space she knew she could turn into a killzone. The pincher attack was coming, but she was ready to go down swinging.

Rushing in, Skadi lined up her shotgun on the Sand Runner and got all the boxcars she needed to blast it into oblivion.

It also left her out in the open, making her an easy target for the lieutenant, who stunned her with one attack and dropped her with the other.

As the claws of the pincher movement closed in on the lieutenant, Freki winged her with his infantry laser, stunning her.

But ultimately, it was the combined attacks of Freki and Pip on the next turn (they rolled well on the reaction roll) that brought the lieutentant down, dropping her with enough stun tokens to knock her unconscious.

In the end, the rivals decided they'd had enough and stopped following the jackals. Skadi walked away with injuries so minor she didn't even need to spend any time in sick bay. Loki, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. The crew had to hold a funeral for him, and most of his gear was given to Pip. The rewards were pretty lackluster (the salvage team didn't have much) but the crew did score a 1 credit bounty for taking out the priority target, found 3 credits worth of shiny stuff in the camp, along with a health-boosting implant that Captain Anpu claimed for herself. Experience points were issued, and Skadi, Apollo and Wepa all gained a +1 to Combat Skill, making them more effective in battle.

The crew's performance was also noticed by a Corporate Patron (they found some info of value to the corp) and another Patron who "knew a guy who knew a guy" via Apollo.

The crew of the Anubis may have been down a man, but with enough credits to finally pay off the debt on the ship, enough weapons and skill to be formidable and two new patrons to give them jobs, there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon. 

I'll put a new entry up (and link it here) once I've played a few more turns in the campaign.

I'm also working on some small mods and will post those as I finish and test them as well!