Everytime at the Table: Spacers 180° 'Downhome Mars'

 I jokingly told Peryton that if showed for the Spacers season finale I'd give her 50$, but minus 10 bucks for every hour that she was late. Well she showed up at 9:45, the session started at 9:30. Damn I guess I owe her $50 now. 

Alezander's mother explaining to him that most Martians are clones these days.

Cut to the alien Odo Maximus working out in an area of The Arcardia's cargo bays that he set up a gym in. Nextremi 37 has promised to stay in her room and told him that he should work out while she rests, for her better protection. After the physical training, the Crig hears about her leaving the ship with her boyfriend... 

So The Arcadia and its shifting and growing crew has finally showed up at Mars. Specifically, Krakatoa City (name thanks to Steven Miles Lewis of Austin, Texas) deep within the Gran Mariner canyons, on the west side. Its domed covering already sheltered by the martian landscape around it, is filled with water surrounding the living areas. It helps with solar radiation deflection, easy way to help with maintaining pressure, and it's pretty noticeable when the living areas have a leak. Most of this extremely salty water is frozen but around the city its very sea like-- bulked up "dolphins" (see Spacers:180° for species description) live and work in these parts. 

The Characters were Alezander Deju (Curtis), Steev Sagus (Ben), Odo Maximus (Brett), and Nextremi 37 (Robin). Ship-based NPCs include Gal Qixtar, Punches Pilot, Chief Bloom, Doctor Orlando, and, brought over from the Flash Gordan homage Sphere of Doom, Broomstick the bot. 

As The Arcadia is brought down onto the planet via a Pike space station's tether, everybody got to meet Alezander's mom, Othra Deju. After a few formalities, Othra got her med-bot X-40 "Knee Brace" to start treatment immediately on her son's Dulcina disease. This point in campaign was supposed to be the "Big Reveal" but by last session all the Players had figured it out; everybody is a clone. While Earth Central, with all its old-time religions and their regressive collective of Long Arm militants, has dictates against cloning and genetic alteration of the human species, about 40% of the Terran solar system are doing these things all the time.  
"How else does one fill up a galaxy?" She asked rhetorically then added the death blow. "I often wear wigs."

NPC Cut-Away: Seeing everyone else preoccupied watching Alezander having a snark fest with his Matron, Gal Qixtar slipped off and headed out of the Deju complex. He hailed a taxi and was taken to a complex of deserted warehouses. There he met his 7th Republic controller, Vanda Lixx, She being an Askode, sexy reptile humanoid with cobra manes instead of hair, could smell the Divvah better than he could anyone else. 

She demanded his  Interstellar FastTalk stick. Upon having it she snapped it into a massive machine that can only be described as a "faster than light frequency generator" (a FLAG). A holographic image showed three Panni battleships and a "harvester" platform rounding Earth's moon and bringing a mountain-sized asteroid into terminal orbit of the Terran System's mother planet's gravity well. These vessels being cloaked by the "faster than light frequencies" that they were generating. 

Gal Qixtar after a bit of dialogue (Me talking to Me) then pulled out his retro-engineered  Interstellar FastTalk to call upon the Close Orbit Commands of both Mars and Earth and warn them of impending strike about to happen. So instead of New England being removed from the map, the Panni bombing run, avoiding Earth's defense forces, adjusted towards north of Alaska, the northern coasts of Canada, then along the Hudson Bay and Baffin Island. 

Oh crap

Things would still be cataclysmic for Earth Central but not as much as Qixtar being shot through the chest by Vanda seeing his betrayal.

Back to the Game Being Played: As news of the asteroid bombardment on Earth's most northern latitudes began filling TV streams, it was Nextremi that noticed that Gal Qixtar had stepped out of the room. He, err it, seemed a bit preoccupied. An hour later, the Devvah had not returned, Steev Sagus found a piece of the Insurance Salesman's equipment left behind. With Alezander's Fix-It  Perk, the group was able to view Qixtar's "If you're watching this, I'm in trouble. ..." message. Stepping away from his Dulcina treatment, this would cost his health even if getting treated again soon, Alezander rallied everyone to find their missing companion. It wasn't long until they essentially traced Qixtar's cell phone.

Now the Player Just Ben was a bit besides himself finding Gal Qixtar near-dead. Besides me being a mean GM, like Ashoka and Sabine Wren in Star Wars: Rebels, the two Characters had never really spoken. Like a true champ, he assumed the role of Chief Bloom to express his emotions. Good thing the kind-of Engineer was there. As Knee Brace, the med-bot, shuttled the lizard hominid to a hospital, everyone noticed the the FLAG in the center of the scene. It took a bit of railroading but Alezander was able to contact Mars Close Orbit Command about the device. 

Using the FLAG, MCOC was able to send messages in real time as well as see through the Panni's space vessels cloaking frequencies. I then sped through the following months (Earth time), narrating the ending of the 812 War. So then I did a "90 Days Later" thing with the Characters. Every Player almost cried as Gal Qixtar was released from the hospital. 

I then worked through the PCs to ask where they were at and what they wanted to do next. Here's to the 2025-2026 season.