Before beginning Zero Wing, there are some key events in the first two story arcs that add context to how the heroes ended up where they are. Here is a brief summary of each.
A New World
While searching for a suitable planet, the colonists come to a world capable of supporting human life. As they perform sensor sweeps of the planet a massive spindle like ship appears to move into the system with incredible speed. Opening one wall, the gravity of the spindle is enough to siphon off the atmosphere of the world. Inside the spindle is a controlled black hole capable of eating worlds. Converting the matter to energy for an ancient race somewhere on the other side of the black hole.
As the planet begins to break apart the colony ship receives a distress call from below the planet’s surface. A small refugee camp of Radoum are trapped on the surface. A race of fierce warriors, the Radoum are known for their singular goal of conquest. However, the refugees claim that they have forsaken the endless war seeking a new home.
While attempting to rescue Radoum refugees the colony ship, shuttle and Quinn’s ship are all damaged. Unable to prevent the breakup of the planet’s outer crust, Quinn and Michael devise a plan to send the planet eater into the systems sun. Unfortunately, it cost Quinn the gravity controls from her wrench.
This story arc focused heavily on the characters less combat focused abilities, engineering, science, technical operations, and vehicle we key talents for the planetary exploration and understanding the alien spindle. Trying to override the spindle’s programming took coordinated action between characters as did navigating the gravity well to rescue the Radoum refugees. When characters coordinate, the supporting character effectively gives the character taking the action a bonus equal to their supporting Talent. This works both in an out of battle, but more on that to come.
Compromises and Bargains
The Radoum refugees faced cultural barriers as they struggled to find a place on an already cramped ship. This was complicated by the language barrier they faced. However, Otis was able to find a place inside the ship’s atrium, a garden that served as both renewable food source, and air filtration system.
Without the supplies to fully repair the colony ship the crew had to find a friendly port. Otis and Quinn scoured the ship for old data drives from the previous owners hoping to find a star map with any useful information. It was during this time the crew located three cryogenic tubes containing passengers in stasis. All three infected by nanobots from Grey Matter. The only thing keeping them from being consumed was their cryonic state. Locating a drive the colony ship headed towards an independent space station, outside the control of any major faction.
Docking at the station, the heroes mingle in the bazaar. Here they learn of Menoth, a salvage merchant and mechanic. They also found that members of the Thaden Guard, an elite military unit for the Ar’Dysis, a race of intergalactic arms dealers, were on board. And while trying to hide from an angry mob Otis in the service tunnels, small bombs that had been tucked away.
Deciding their best option was to try and cut a deal with Menoth, the heroes realized they lacked any tangible currency, forcing them to bargain for repairs. A savvy merchant, Menoth required the heroes to recover at least three ships from an old battlefield. With her gear partly disabled, and a potential time bomb in cryo-storage Quinn stayed behind to work on a cure for their icy passengers, and rebuild her wrench.
The remaining crew took the colony ship to Menoth’s battlefield. All that remained was a ship graveyard floating through an asteroid belt. Within the solar system, once habitable worlds, remained lifeless after almost an eon, still baring the scares of some ancient war.
The battlefield was guarded by mines designed to lock on to a ship’s engine signature. If not for Otis’s temporal talents and some fast repairs from Michael, and the ship engineering team, the colony ship would have been destroyed.
Navigating the minefield, the crew salvage three larger ships, and a personal fighter with articulated arms and legs. (Yes, alien mecha are a thing, don’t question it.) Of the larger ships, a massive dreadnought measured nearly a kilometer in diameter. The others included a gunboat, built from an old transport, and a battlecruiser, used to deploy dozens of fighters.
Clearing the dreadnought of a strange alien horde seemly made of nothing but eyes, the crew used the gigantic mobile base to clear the way for the colony ship and towed vessels. With the damage to their original colony ship catastrophic, the crew effectively trade in their vessel for the battlecruiser.
Note: During this part of the story, the play testers ran parallel adventures with Quinn aiding Menoth on the space station, while working on a cure and repairs. At the same time, Quinn’s player also stood in for one of the established colony ship NPCs. Conversely, Michael and Otis’s players picked up a pair of mercs working for Menoth as Quinn strong armed the competition for tools she needed.
The colonist and mercs were all built as Background characters. Background characters are easy to make NPCs often designed for one or two encounters, where a full character sheet wouldn’t be needed. It took about 5 minutes to stat all three supporting characters and they had enough depth that all three characters were able to directly engage their respective story lines.
The Zero Wing story begins where our last adventure left off. With the heroes finally reunited and ready to rebuild.
