"Bugout", © 1993, 1998-2005 by Craig Sheeley, originally appeared in
_Challenge_ #68 (pages 40-42), and is reproduced here with
the author's permission.
Text-entry & HTML: Steve C.
(There was also apparently some confusion, at GDW, about the title of this article... On the "contents" page it was called "Bugout", while on page 40 it was titled "Bughunt"! According to Craig, the correct title was supposed to be "Bug Out" - a joke on a retreat forced by the Kafers.)
The PCs are on Eta Bootis IIc, otherwise known as Aurore. They were doing business with the colonists (either as part of another adventure, or just delivering supplies as independent cargo carriers, etc.) when the battle lines shifted. In short, the Kafers broke out and began deep-penetration raids to the French rear. Like everyone else not actively engaged in shooting bugs, the PCs tried to put more distance between them and the front, heading further into the rear areas.
They stopped for food and fuel at a refugee camp that had been established months ago for evacuees from the front areas. The camp is in an uproar about the possibility of Kafer attack - these people have few weapons and less transport. Trucks have been promised, but the fluid nature of the situation (translation: utter chaos) has interfered with the trucks' arrival.
The camp's director, Michelle DuBois, is happy to have the PCs there for the night. Their armaments and self-confidence are morale boosters, despite their stories of Kafer encroachment. The campers feel better for a squad of healthy, heavily armed soldiers (that's how they see the PCs), for the soldiery of the camp consists of a section of walking wounded French regulars convalescing in the camp's medical infirmary.
The PCs are fairly certain that they've left the Kafers pretty far behind, and they shouldn't be in danger for a day or so. This means they'll have enough time to rest for a night and continue on the next day toward civilization (and the spaceport where they can hop off this bug-ridden rock!). So they're taking it easy, wowing the refugees with horror stories of the front, bragging about the scrapes they've been through and enjoying a quiet evening without straining an ear (or other hearing organ) to listen for enemy fire.
The bugs have other ideas.
Most PC groups will have more heavy armament and vehicles than they can man. In case of a group that doesn't, they should have a minimum of equipment that they've picked up from the battlefield (so they don't have to pay for it):
Sidearms: Anyone who doesn't have a sidearm should have a Traylor Model 57 pistol. Each pistol has three loaded clips of ammo.
Longarms: Anyone who doesn't have a rifle and wants one may have a Wu-Beijing Type-49 assault rifle (supplied to the Aurore garrison to use up all that surplus 7.5mm ammo). Each rifle has six loaded clips of ammo.
Armor: Anyone who doesn't have better armor may have an inertial armor vest with vedette half-armor shoulder protection and a helmet.
Heavy Weapons: Unless they have some, the PCs may have their choice of two FAM-90 rifles with seven ammon clips and 15 30mm propelled grenades (four HEAP, eight HE and three concealment), or a Wu-Beijing Type 381 MG with two 150-round ammo cassettes, or a Type 1 high-energy assault gun with 12 powercells. In addition, the PCs get two Guiscard Blindicide-3 missiles.
Grenades: The PCs have picked up four concealment grenades, two concussion grenades, and six HE frag grenades.
Vehicles: Unless they have something better, the PCs have commandeered a Bridgeport Swift Warbird utility hovercraft (same as the Songbird, but with less comfortable accommodations and a pintle mount on the rear roll bar).
The PCs, like the rest of the camp, are asleep when the Kafers come calling. Around midnight, the Kafers come down the road in their crawlers and run into the camp - there aren't any lights showing in the camp (blackout conditions), the drivers don't see too well at night and the lead crawler literally slams through the chain-link fence and into the latrine tent! The other crawler careens to a halt behind the first, and the Kafers stumble out as way of deployment.
This commotion wakes the entire camp, causing everyone to run around in blind panic and confusion. This includes the Kafers, who have no idea whatsoever of what they've run into! The two "officers" dance among their troops, liberally bashing them with their "shock prods" to turn on their brains.
In other words, both forces take some time to perceive and react to the threat at hand. For the Kafers, this is going to take 1D6 turns (30 - 180 seconds). For the humans, the stunned refugee forces take 2D6 turns to get together and muster for action.
The PCs, who are a little more paranoid after having been in the war zone, react more swiftly. Roll 2D6 for each PC and subtract the PC's Coolness Under Fire from the roll. If the result is positive, that is how many turns the PC takes to wake up, figure out that they're under attack and grab his gear. If the result is 0 or less, the PC bounds up from the cot, weapons in hand.
Putting on armor takes extra time: slapping on a vest, helmet or vedette armor takes 30 seconds (one combat turn); slipping into a breastplate or full-body non-rigid/inertial armor takes 60 seconds (two combat turns); crawling into full-body combat armor or (gasp!) a walker takes 180 seconds (six combat turns).
The Kafers, once they come to grips that this is a combat situation, spread out into five-man fire teams and start mowing a random and thorough path of destruction through the refugee camp. The crawlers also advance, blasting buildings and people with their beamer plasma-gun turrets.
The complexion of the engagement changes when the PCs or the walking wounded (WW) French troopers actually start shooting at the Kafers. The aliens scatter in their five-man groups and start fighting a "bounding overwatch" battle - one fire team supports another's advance, and the advancing squad ducks and dodges, seeking cover. Once under cover, the advancing squad hunkers down and provides cover fire for the first squad, which advances. In the meantime, the two crawlers back off to the edge of the mapboard and spray observed human weapons positions with plasma fire.
Since the battle takes place in darkness, lit only by fires and weapons discharge, the Kafers are at a distinct disadvantage. All their weapons fire tasks are Formidable, except for the beamer gunners in the crawlers (who have thermal imaging gunsights, allowing them normal gunnery). Kafer soldiers tend to aim for gunflashes, particularly steady ones, and fire in teams - so if someone is using a chemical-projectile weapon on steady autofire, an entire Kafer team targets him! Beamer gunners look for heavy weapons in particular to shoot.
Of course, the darkness doesn't do the humans much good, either. Humans shooting at Kafers during the fight have their weapons-fire difficulty raised to Difficult unless they have low-light vision gear.
The Kafers' goal is to get to hand-to-hand grips to the human defenders, where the Kafers are certain they can wipe out the soft-skins with their superior strength. Besides, at close quarters, a Kafer can actually see its opponent, which is much more comfortable to the aliens than shooting at flickering lights on the edge of their visual range. They hope to destroy all the humans here, and they will retreat only if both officers are killed.
In the meantime, the PCs have to try to either fight off the Kafers or fight their way to the vehicle park in hopes of escape. Either way, the PCs have to deal with the trigger-happy Kafers (who fortunately aren't interested in singling out vehicles over tents for destruction) and the panicked refugees, who run around screaming and generally getting in the PCs' way. Tender-hearted PCs (that is to say, PCs who could be considered normal in terms of human kindness) will be plagued with the urge to assist the refugees, confronted with innocent people injured and mangled by Kafer fire and grenades.
Most of the structures on the map aren't solid structures at all, they're plastic tents. A tent constitutes soft cover, but won't stop a bullet, shell or beam. The tent plastic only burns when great heat is applied (i.e., a hit by a laser or plasma gun).
The tent city is built in a shallow valley. The terrain to the north and south slopes gently upwards, and is covered with thick undergrowth and some trees. The road to the west makes a sharp turn to the north about 50 meters off the map; this hairpin turn is one of the reasons the Kafer drivers didn't spot the camp until they ran into it.
Latrine/Showers: This is the building that the first Kafer crawler crashes into. The building is subsequently reduced to kindling.
Administration Building: This plastic pre-fab building houses DuBois' office and records. Its tough construction gives it an Armor Value of 0.5.
Infirmary: Another plastic pre-fab with an Armor Value of 0.5. The infirmary houses the French troopers, as well as other injured and sick patients. The troopers try to get away from the infirmary building before they start any hostilities, because they know the Kafers won't hesitate to blast the building if they think there's a threat there.
Vehicle Park: The PCs' vehicle is parked here, along with a range truck and a heavy truck belonging to Disaster Administration.
PCs' Tents: This is where the PCs are sleeping when the Kafers drop in. This is also where all the PCs' gear and weapons are. And no, they're not sleeping in their armor!
Other Latrine/Showers: These buildings have not had heavy alien crawlers crash into them, and they are still intact. The heavy plastic construction of these buildings confers Armor Value 1 for cover benefit.
Supply Tents: These oversized tents store the camp's supplies, sealed in plastic crates. The crates make good hard cover, giving an Armor Value of 0.9 to those hiding behind them.
Michelle DuBois, Camp Director: DuBois was a management trainee when the war broke out. Since then, she has managed to gain enough experience to cope with the problems of managing a refugee camp and winkling supplies out of the Disaster Administration. She's slender, calm and courteous, and confidently competent. She's no shrinking violet when it comes to combat. She's an Experienced NPC, with an inertial armor vest and a Mueller-Rivera P-3 laser pistol.
NPC Motivation Results: Heart 5: Loyal. Diamond 2: Cost-conscious.
French Walking Wounded: The eight soldiers are much better warriors than they appear; their wounds prevent them from acting at full capacity. They operate in two four-man fire teams of Novice NPCs (they really shouldn't be engaging in strenuous activity). Each team is identically equipped: two men with Wu-Beijing Type-49 assault rifles, one man with a DunArmCo close assault gun and one man with a GW-12 grenade launcher and two magazines (one concealment, one flechette and four HE grenades per magazine). All men wear full-body inertial armor and a helmet.
Kafers: The Kafers split into squads of five during battle. Two of the squads contain an officer, three thud gun troopers and a donderbus trooper. The other two squads contain three thud gun troopers, one donderbus trooper and one flashlight trooper. The vehicle drivers remain in the crawlers. The officers are Elite Kafers armed with horse pistols, cattle prods, three hand grenades and helmets. The drivers and troops are Veteran Kafers. The vehicle drivers are armed with combat knives and horse pistols. The troopers are armed with combat knives, three hand grenades apiece and their specialty weapon. Each Kafer trooper has one magazine of propelled grenades for its gun and enough regular ammo to last the engagement.
Horse Pistol: (Bulk = 0) Magazine: 6 rounds ROF: 5 Aimed Fire Range: 80 meters Area Fire Burst: 3 rounds (AFV = 0.25) Area Fire Range: 40 meters DP Value: 0.9.
Combat Knife: Melee Range: Short Melee Skill Modifier: +2 DP Value: 0.1.
Thud Gun: 12.1mm slug (Bulk = 2) Magazine: 66 rounds ROF: 2 Aimed Fire Range: 500 meters Area Fire Burst: 10 (AFV = 1.5) Area Fire Range: 300 meters DP Value: 1.1. 27.2mm grenade launcher Magazine: 9 rounds ROF: 2 Aimed Fire Range: 600 meters DP Value: As explosion (EP = 4).
Donderbus: (Bulk = 2) Magazine: 8 rounds ROF: 2 Aimed Fire Range: 85 meters Area Fire Burst: 4 rounds (AFV = 0.8) Area Fire Range: 65 meters DP Value: 19mm shotgun shell 0.5 (x6) 19mm propelled grenade as tamped explosion (EP = 3).
Flashlight: 75-01 laser (Bulk = 2) Action: Single-shot Pulse Magazine: 12 shots Aimed Fire Range: 1300 meters DP Value: 2. 27.2mm grenade launcher Magazine: 9 rounds ROF: 2 Aimed Fire Range: 600 meters DP Value: As explosion (EP = 4).
Hand Grenade: DP Value: As explosion (EP = 3).
Beamer: Action: Single-shot Magazine: 100 shots Aimed Fire Range: 2000 meters DP Value: As tamped explosion (EP = 5).
Crawler: Kafer all-purpose tracked APC. Crew: Driver Weight: 4500 kg Armor: Suspension: 0.8 All Faces: 1.1 Signature: 8 Evasion: 0 Sensor Range: 6 km Cargo: 10 passengers and 2000 kg Max Speed: 80 kph Cruising Speed: 40 kph Combat Movement: 160 meters Off-Road Mobility: Full Power Plant: Hydrogen fuel cell, approximately 0.2 MW Fuel Capacity: 204 kg Fuel Consumption: 6 kg/hr Endurance: 34 hours.