Dawn of the Lead

The war between the Union of Terra and the Outer colonies was steadily grinding on. For their prowess in combat, the sixteenth had been given some generous R&R, sergeant Fender had been promoted to lieutenant and corporal Franz-Haugen-Ankerson had been made the new sergeant. Swartz and Bruce were still in the sick bay from being peppered with machine gun bullets in the unit’s previous mission. As a sort of reward, the team was handed an easy mission: Conner Industries’ research center 13 on the asteroid DH-3 was housing newly developed military technology. What’s more, the normally heavily guarded installation was going through a guard rotation and was sporting only a minimal security crew. A quick smash and grab of both research data and scientists was in order. The unit was joined by two new troopers:

Pvt. Brian Boru, a slightly unhinged flamethrower-wielding trooper with a tendency for pyromania and a faint aroma of gasoline always hanging about him.

Pvt. “Hellion”, a young female punk rocker. No one has an idea of her real nime, as she prefers her stage name. While reluctantly a part of the military, she tends to be good at it. Hellion wields a smartgun.

The sixteenth blasted their way into the station. The motion scanners detected a guard right outside their planned entry door. Springing into action, they opened the door – much to the guard’s surprise. The security officer hardly had enough time to register that something was happening, when he was grabbed by pvt. Dastevan and given a faceful of rifle stock. The unconscious guard was pulled into the entry chamber, and the team spread out into the corridors of the research center.

A lone blip on the motion scanner reveals a guard

Waiting to breach

The sixteenth fans out

The unit was steamrolling through the installation. Boru, Lau, Leroy and Franz-Haugen-Ankerson headed for the infirmary, while Hellion, Fender, DiGlaeser and Abdul took the main corridor towards the data core. Dastevan being Dastevan, he stormed off in order to take down another guard, who was warily approaching, clutching his pistol. The gun wasn’t much help though, as moments later Dastevan pounced on him and knocked him unconscious in one blow – right under the eyes of a quickly panicking scientist, who was the next one to go down after a brief struggle. Dastevan was on a roll and enjoying himself.

Sgt. Franz-Haugen-Ankerson’s crew entered the infirmary to find a surprised young doctor. The doctor voiced his disapproval but quickly fell quiet after observing the dynamic duo of Boru and Lau – the first cradling a flamethrower with a manic gleam in his eyes and the second twitching nervously, waving his gun around and looking the medicine cabinets over with the eye of a true connoisseur. The good doctor was bound with zip ties and private Leroy started escorting him out at gunpoint.

The medic and the doctor – there’s a difference

Everything wasn’t going to plan, however. While most of the operation was rolling along as expected, lieutenant Fender’s group didn’t have it their way. Private Hellion rounded a corner to take down a female security guard, who promptly proceeded to pistol-whip the smartgunner. Hellion took a nasty fall, smacked her head into the wall and fell unconscious.

The security guard surprises Hellion

With Hellion down, the guard quickly retreated to a better position. The security force wouldn’t go down without a fight, but with pistols and a few carbines against the UTOPIA troopers’ pulse rifles, flamethrowers and sharp sticks, it wasn’t promising. True enough, a moment later the guard saw her bullet glance off DiGlaeser’s body armour and she was taken down by DiGlaeser and Dastevan. Another security guard turning up had a similar fate, despite her carrying one of the security team’s two carbines.

Attempting to turn the tide, the security chief Hutchinson joined the fight. A long period of inactivity in the guards’ duties proved to be his demise, as his gun clicked empty when he tried to return fire against the troopers. In response lieutenant Fender shot Hutchinson in the face, killing him instantly. This left only one security guard, Smith.

Smith was definitely not going down without a fight. He had a good position at the end of a long corridor. He’d peek out and squeeze off a few shots with his carbine and then take cover behind a corner. Lieutenant Fender and trooper Abdul poured fire down the corridor but were unable to dislodge the pesky guard…

Officer Smith holds his ground

…who responded with some accurate fire of his own. Both Fender and Abdul were knocked to the floor and sheer luck saved their lives as Smith’s rounds whistled down the corridor.

Fender and Abdul run into trouble

It wasn’t until Dastevan managed to flank the guard that he finally put down his weapon and surrendered. It seemed the fight for research center 13 was well and truly over, when suddenly the Apache Owl – the unit’s dropship – hailed them: “Lieutenant Fender! Things are getting rough out here – the fleet is moving in and they’re transporting in new troops by the boatload!” Things started clicking into place: the convenient gap in the guard rotation, the skeleton crew, the scientists with their ID cards saying “assistant” or “intern”…A TRAP! The research center’s intercom soon let them know, that they had a minute to offer their surrender before facing annihilation. The sixteenth tried to bargain with the lives of the scientists and the security personnel, but to no awail.

Not willing to play ball, the sixteenth immediately started checking their surroundings. After interrogating the personnel, it quickly became clear that an easy escape was out of the question. After a bit of persuasion and discussion, the surviving members of the security team offered to join the troopers in exchange for their freedom. After all, it had just become apparent that their well-being wasn’t a top priority for their superiors. This proved to be a good deal, as one of the guards remembered a long unused cache of weapons in the armory. After opening the crate, the troopers found five automated sentry turrets, which were sure to become handy very soon.

As Lieutenant Fender started giving out orders for the defenders, the medic Shaq Leroy went to check on pvt. Hellion, who still hadn’t waken up. Leroy was in for a sad surprise, as Hellion’s head had hit the corner of a loose wall plate, and the young punk rocker was long gone. It seemed the sixteenth’s curse was still going strong – apart from Franz-Haugen-Ankerson and Evans who had been in the unit from day one, no female trooper had survived for more than a mission or two, and many had died on their first assignment.

Thus concluded the first game of Utopia’s “season 2”, and the first part of our first ever two-part mission for Utopia, the next part will follow when I get some new minis painted up for the attackers. The game was great fun, and yet another very cinematic session that attests to the versatility of the Flying Lead system. It was also a great chance to break out my Space Hulk tiles for a change. While ‘Hulk is a grid based game, the tiles worked perfectly well with Flying Lead’s measurement system. I also used plenty of resin scenery bits from Ainsty, although all too few of them have been painted yet. It was nice to have the recently painted security guards on the table too.

As always, I’m happy the campaign is still rolling on, even with long gaps between games! Feedback welcome, as always!