Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

LARP: Ship's Kats - Captain's log

The first of many Live Action Role Play (LARP) narrative reviews. This game, held in the Epsom WWII bunkers during Jan 2009, was based on the Alien/ Bladerunner/ Event Horizon universes - which the larpers have taken to calling 'High Frontier'.

I led a team of four other women who were superhuman 'Replicants' with an agenda not entirely in keeping with that of the main party.

Herein is the testimony of the captain of the Ship's Kats, one of only three to survive the ill-fated Night Crawler mission. Three survivors, thirty in the ground - and no few put there by our hand. One might ask what went wrong. As far as I'm concerned, nothing. We accomplished our mission and that is all that matters. That we lost two of our own is, while regrettable, eventually inconsequential. They can be replicated easily enough.

We were brought to a semblance of life in a universe popularised by such movies as Alien, Event Horizon and Bladerunner. A universe where interstellar travel is an established fact and three all-encompassing corporations of Con-An, Hyperdyne and Weyland Yutani rule worlds. And where humans walk - usually unknowingly - alongside biomechanoid counterparts; Replicants.
Such were my Ship's Kats, Replicants made by Hyperdyne, and as such fiercely loyal to our makers. This possibility must have never entered our Weyland Yutani employer's mind when he hired us, as we had gone to great lengths to keep our true identity - and allegiance - hidden from public view.

His proposal was simple: a transport ship by the name of Night Crawler was hauling enough of the precious mineral Wonderflonium to scour a solar system and he wanted to steal it - carefully. He didn't just come to us, of course. My Ship's Kats are good but an entire cargo ship on our own might have been a stretch, and why engage in the menial task of killing when Mercenaries are so easily hired? Not to mention expendable. And so we were joined by the Blood-Worthy mercenaries, well reputed by their own mouths if by no one else's, who divided themselves into three fire teams to better cleanse the Night Crawler of survivors. Getting us on board, which necessitated disabling the hauler's weapon system, was the two-person brigand crew known as Dante's Pirates. Lastly, the corporate stooge himself along with two bodyguards joined us - well to the rear - although I saw little of them as they were not our real mission.

Wonderflonium is crude, a brute's weapon and one fitting both Con-An and Weyland Yutani. My employers - my makers - have much higher ambitions. Concealed within the transport were an indeterminate number of alien Artifacts recovered on the surface of some distant mining planet and kept well under wraps by the Con-An hierarchy. Not well enough, however, for our orders came soon after the Weyland official contacted us with the job offer. 'Join the team, do whatever is required of you, but get the alien artifacts or at least detailed scans'. Our briefings are always as succinct, and we could only assume that no other parties had knowledge or interest of the rare objects.

And so we began, for all intents and purposes, as a vital component of the assault team. We entered first, moments behind Alpha team codename Sesame in the reasonable expectation that they would clear the way for us. That they did with comical efficiency, freeing the area of booby traps by setting each and every one off at great loss to their own team. Humans are hilarious sometimes. Once their unsightly body parts were removed from the narrow passageways we were able to get our first good look at the interior of the Night Crawler.

The damage Dante's Pirates had done to her when they disabled the weapons system was significant, and all power was out making torches essential. Our first barrier was a door to the Bridge which proved impenetrable from this side. Of course, that would be too easy. Further exploration revealed two engine rooms to either side of the bridge, both of which had suffered massive blowouts from our ship's attack and were in great need of repair. Damaged power cells had been scattered a great distance and had to be gathered and rewired to restore them to functionality. Enough were found to bring one engine room back online, but for the other we were sadly lacking and therefore had to make do with limited power.

For this initial exploratory sweep my Kats were content to play their part in the eyes of the other crews. We would open doors for them, dismantle bombs and booby traps, and perform any manner of menial task which was demanded of us. It was in our interest to be among the first to search the ship, and we were soon rewarded.

In a room to the rear of the bridge, deep in the belly of the ship, we found an explosive device set to detonate soon after the security on the door was bypassed. One of my Kats, with skilled and steady hands, managed to dismantle the bomb and once the immediate threat had passed we could assess the room. Under the guardianship of the bomb were four devices, all appearing innately alien in nature, and we surmised that we had located our primary target.

But it wouldn't have done to have taken them right then, under the eyes of the mercenaries. Telling half-truths, we shut the door and warned any away from it, explaining that the bomb was still volatile and liable to explode at the slightest movement. This, in itself, was entirely truthful, but concealed our true interest in the room.

The next half hour was challenging, but not for any other reason than the mercenaries feeling the need to protect the 'weaker sex', and even when the fire team moved ahead we were left with a detachment as a guard. If only they had known we could extinguish them with a touch maybe things would have played out differently, but telling them such would have violated the programming Hyperdyne had instilled in us and jeopardised the mission.

I lingered near the room as much as my prudence would allow, careful not to arouse suspicion. With luck another door some distance down the same corridor was found, this the rear entrance to the bridge. Once again my Kats were called forth, and I trailed at the rear. They knew my intent even if no others did, and so when the door was opened they ensured that it was to much excitement, every eye upon it. I took the opportunity to slip inside the small room, collecting three of the artifacts - as many as I could carry - and silently making my way back the way we had come, praying not to run into a following fire team. Because of the importance of this one moment, and the proximity to the mercenaries, I had to make the entire trip in absolute darkness, halting only once I had found a convenient hiding place behind an ajar door. I couldn't be sure how safe they would be there, however, so I took detailed scans of each before leaving them to make my way back to the crew, who had since breached the bridge.

Once inside I found that an original occupant (if a stowaway can be called such) had been found and was being held captive. The power supplied by the engine rooms was proving faulty and so half of my Kats were sent back to repair the damaged wiring while I volunteered to question the prisoner. A word he had spoken from across the room had caught my attention: 'Artifacts'. Our corporate benefactor was paying entirely too much interest to what he was saying for my liking, and so I arranged to have the prisoner left in my care. There was little I could say or do in the bridge, as the Blood-Worthy had set up a temporary base there, and I could not allow my words to be overheard. The captive himself provided my excuse by mentioning the very time bomb that had been guarding the alien artifacts - the disappearance of which was still unknown. I stressed the importance of this information to the Weyland official, pointing out that the bomb was still active and potentially a threat. It gave me a reason to get the prisoner away from the bridge, although as it turns out, not without company. Those cursed mercenaries were everywhere! A few hasty words in a dark and relatively deserted area confirmed that the man did indeed know of the artifacts, and offered us a hefty reward along with safe passage if we took him to them. I must stress that I had no intention of betraying my makers, but I deemed that it would be useful to appear as if we were interested in the bribe in the hopes of gaining more information about the artifacts. Even so, I was simply unable to take him to where I had secured them. By this stage there was suspicion that one of the engine rooms had been sabotaged and a guard had been placed at its entrance - in the very corridor I had felt my way through in the darkness earlier to hide our prize.

Disappointed by not defeated, I gathered my Kats and we returned the prisoner to the bridge so we could plan our next move. Before I had time to act two creatures - primitive ancestors of Replicants - burst through the fore-door and began shooting everyone in sight. They were taken down with some difficulty, as even our less sophisticated cousins are formidable foes. It did, however, give me another excuse to leave the bridge with the prisoner, citing that the mercenaries had failed in their duty to keep the room secure.

Despite my quick talking I felt certain mercenaries were becoming suspicious of our actions, and across several checkpoints our details were radioed through to command to be checked before we were allowed to pass. It was just too hot to try to get him to the artifacts, so once again we returned to the bridge.

What followed was unclear. I had left the captive in the care of the mercenaries, as there was little I could do with him at such a time, and so I believe he recognised he was under inferior guard and used this to his advantage. He himself proved to be a Replicant, breaking from his captivity and swiftly dispatching near everyone in the room with merely a touch, even my own Kats. I only escaped by ducking and seeking shelter in a side area of the bridge, one that was not worth his while to try to follow me into. I returned to the main room the only person still standing, and without medical aid. One of my Kats - thankfully a medic - had been out of the room during the attack and I called her back now. By the time she made it to us another mercenary had found his way back to the bridge and he was able to help with getting our crew on their feet.

With some unhappiness I noticed that two alien artifacts had been recovered by the mercenaries and were sitting abandoned on tables in the bridge. Still unable to act directly, as I had not secured us safe passage out, I settled for the alternative and positioned myself beside one of them. To all appearances I was guarding the entry against further attack, but in reality I was keeping in contact with the artifact, scanning and securing its technology. I did the same with the second, once a few soldiers were up and about, swapping guard duty with them so I could move to the other side of the room to where the second artifact lay. I believe my actions went unnoticed, although as it turns out they proved unnecessary.

While waiting for the injured to recover the pilot of Dante's Pirates came in and began accusing the corporate official of treachery, citing proof that he had sent Replicants against us. As a group the Kats expressed appropriate horror - our identity still intact - and left the bridge with the two artifacts under the pretence that we could no longer trust the man who had hired us.

The fore-entrance was too hot and we were forced to backtrack around the rear where it seemed completely deserted. However, at the first T-junction we stumbled upon a group of three older-model Replicants who opened fire immediately. Our first instinct was to run, but after seeing the length of the corridor and the worrying lack of anything resembling cover, I turned back around to face the Synthetics head-on and take them down with a touch each. I was felled in the attempt, and had to be revived by my Kats, who luckily had escaped without too much injury.

I regained consciousness just in time before a team of mercenaries came upon us, and my Kats disappeared back into the shadows and towards where we had disembarked from the pirate ship, Devil's Lie. Some of the more prudent mercenaries had had similar thoughts and had hijacked one of the escape shuttles. To their credit they were holding it open to fill it to full numbers, although at the time we didn't know that this would mean only three of our five Kats would make it aboard. Before we knew it they had sealed the airlock behind the third Kat, leaving the other two stranded on the other side and left to a dubious fate. But we had two artifacts, and scans of three more - it was a price that needed paying.

The shuttle we had escaped in was short range and judging by the talk of the mercenaries it seemed highly unlikely that we would live to see rescue by a larger ship before we ran out of resources. It was at this point that I determined the success of our mission took priority over the lives of the twelve mercenaries who had escaped with us, and I directed my two remaining Kats to run through their ranks dealing death to each living human. My Kats are very good…

I now have complete control of the shuttle, the greater portion of the alien artifacts - or at least the technology they represent - is within our control and we await only a Hyperdyne ship to answer our call.

Mission complete.


This post first appeared on Thought Of The Geek, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

LARP: Ship's Kats - Captain's log

×

Subscribe to Thought Of The Geek

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×