The following is the intro in the rulebook that sets up the player’s current position within the universe that the game is set. I’ll try to keep it updated if there are any changes.
Introduction to Captain Craggler’s Craven Corps
“Say that again?”
“Captain Craggler’s Craven Corps”
“That’s quite the mouthful.”
“Yeah… Captain likes to read.”
You made a hrmph noise at that. That’s how you remembered your first conversation after you officially came aboard anyways. You blink away the effects of the longest comastasis you have ever embarked on. Facts start to stream back into your consciousness.
The Craven Corps was an odd outfit to say the least. You joined Craggler’s outfit to get away. Far, far away. It turned out the farther away from the core systems you got, the odder things seemed to get.
Their first destination after you joined was to Lissa’s end, a single wormgate system at the end of colonization chain. There wasn’t anything of significant value in the system to make it of interest to anyone of note. It was the typical dead-end system story. With no big corporation or government there with an interest in keeping the peace, different factions with different agendas rose. And inevitably conflicted. Those with enough money hired mercenaries to try and get the edge on the others. Or to protect them from the inevitable criminals and pirates. Mercenaries like the Craven Corps.
“It’s Captain Craggler’s Craven Corps.”
You mumble a bit as you try to blink your eyes back into focus.
“You said, ‘Craven Corps’. You know the Captain doesn’t like it when we shorten the name. You’ve been sitting their jabbering to yourself for almost two minutes. Time to wake up.”
That was the voice of Sergeant Sonya Ticks.
“Sorry Sticks… Has it been a hundred and one sols already?”
“Yeah… Maybe a little longer than that. Crazy, huh? Time to see what we’ve been missing. We’ll be near the outer planet in a few days.”
“How’s the ship?”
You still can’t see that well, but you think you can almost smell a faint trace of smoke in the air. “Eh, she’s in one piece anyways. Craggler and some of the rest have been up for a few days or so. They got it figured out. We’re just now waking up the mud heads. Anyways. Shake it off and let’s go. There’s a meeting in 10 in the conference room.”
The “conference room” was actually one of the ship’s cargo bays. Captain just liked calling it that to make it sound nicer.
The Captain walked up and began just as the last stragglers made their way in. “Alright fools, I got good news and better news. The good news is, is that Barns is gone. Died in comastasis. Very tragic. I cried I think. The better news is that there’s a new opening for Alpha Squad. And you’re all invited to the party.”
Barns was Lieutenant Darnby Ullor, formerly from a core world drop infantry unit. He and the Captain had a falling out right before the decision to go into deep sleep and wait out the war was made. Barns didn’t want to. Cap did. Barns got a little too vocal a little too publicly. And not just once either.
“Now, I’m not going to lie to ya. Ship’s not in great shape. And because of that we were out longer than I meant. It’s been more like 100 sols instead of 80. We need repairs and supplies pronto. Number one on that list is food. We don’t have but a morsel or two left, and I reckon you all will be wanting some in the near future.”
The Captain waved towards the holoprojector, which sputtered a few times before bringing up a global map of the outer planet.
“Now for the bad news. Things have change since we went night night.” His speech hesitated for a second here. “A lot. More than I thought possible. That’s on me. Sorry. There’s worse news. There’s no new wormgate.”
The Captain paused there for a few seconds to let the murmuring and sporadic shouts die down. The entire reason they had gone for an exo system loop was to wait for a new wormgate to arrive without getting muddled in unprofitable politics. The original one being destroyed during a battle between AI and human forces. Staying would have meant having to definitively choose a side. And, as Captain said, once you were on a side, that meant working harder for a whole lot less credits.
“Yeah, we’re stuck here for now. We need to figure out what’s gone wrong. But firstly, we need some feed.”
Some bright colored blips flashed in one holoprojected world. “So, here’s what we’ve identified as most likely to have scavengable food, or people to trade for food with. I’ve allotted 10,000 credits worth of ship board goods to each squad for the trading. The one that brings the most food back for the least gets to be the new Alpha. Extra credit for not wasting my credits. You got eight soldays to figure it out girls and boys. I’ve sent out data packages to your Sarges for review. Bonus points if you bring me back something I like.”
The Captain clicked off the holoprojector and turned to leave, but halted mid stride.
“Ah, one more thing. It’s not just the wormgate that’s gone bad. As far as we can tell, every planet has had severe problems. Technology has regressed substantially. I know you kids are good at your jobs, but be mindful out there. Everything has gone crazy.”
And with that, the Captain headed away from the cargo bay.
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