SICON's Sentinels. (Roughnecks: SST Chronicles. F/Any. Possibly system lite).

Started by Lustful Bride, March 26, 2021, 11:28:32 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Lustful Bride



It has been seven years since the Homefront Campaign. After two years of fighting the forces of the Arachnid Empire, on multiple planet hopping campaigns, the bugs tried to directly strike at the Earth itself and wipe out the source of human resistance once and for all. By this point the forces of SICON had taken multiple worlds from the bugs, liberated the Ptolemy (called 'Skinnies' initially) from bug enslavement on Tophet, and even managed to invade the homeworld of the Arachnids themselves on Klendathu. The allied forces of the Strategically Integrated Coalition Of Nations (SICON) managed to push the bugs like no other rival species had before, and they made a desperate gamble to cut the head off the human snake and keep the primitive mammals from ever being a threat again. But their tactics were not as foolproof as the Queen and her Brain Bugs might have thought.

The Arachnid Empire had made a grave error in prioritizing a strike on Earth without taking out its surrounding colony worlds and positions on the moons and other worlds within the Sol System. While the hit to morale was great (and disrupted SICON's initial response to the invasion), the nearby colonies and space stations were relatively unaffected, and able to continue the war effort. Indeed many of the Mobile infantry elements deployed to Earth came from Mars and its surrounding moons, and it was the first time manty of them had ever set foot upon the cradle world of their species. But even though it was not where they had been born, they fought just as hard as any Earthborn member of SICON.

The fighting was intense, as SICON moved its Terran HQ into the Pacific ocean, hoping to use the fast stretches of water to provide an advantage against the endless swarms. Mobile Infantry units fought the tooth and nail for every scrap of land possible. They fought the bugs room by room, street by street, and block by block. Some cities were completely untouched thanks to the valiant efforts of the MI, Fleet, Psi Corps, and even the likes of local militia or Skinnie support from Tophet. Though many others were left as rubble and horrible wrecks that will take decades to truly rebuild, if ever.

The war initially seemed to end after the battle of Oahu, where the bugs sent every last warrior, tanker, plasma, rippler, waterbeetle, and even worker bug on the planet, in one massive mega swarm that required near constant airstrikes and orbital bombardments to destroy. When it was all over everyone cheered as they felt the worst was finally over….but it wasn’t. The Arachnid Queen had two last tricks up her sleeve, the first being a planet destroyer bug, the size of a small moon, heading straight for Earth, that required multiple of SICON’s last remaining ships to give it their all, until one damaged cruiser flew directly into its mouth and overloaded its fusion drives to destroy the bug from the inside.

The next trick was a massive hive that the Queen had been working on, preparing to hatch a new swarm, bigger than the last which would overwhelm the already exhausted SICON forces. The Queen had even thought ahead to make sure she had almost ten thousand human prisoners held close to her nesting chamber, to dissuade the SICON forces from simply bombing her hive and glassing it from orbit. It worked, for almost a full day, as several brave Mobile Infantry, Psi Corps, and Power Armor specialists all began volunteering to go down into the hive on a suicidal mission to rescue the prisoners. Among them was Rico's Roughnecks, fresh off their victory at Oahu and ready to make SICON proud.

The rescuers would have exactly seven hours to break into the hive and rescue as many of the human prisoners as they could, and then evacuate. They were only to try and engage the Bug Queen if the opportunity presented itself, or if they had no choice. But no matter what, they had to accomplish this before the seven hour deadline.

The strike would be ordered no matter what, and anything left behind would meet its end. The operation was a bloody and valiant effort, with almost eight thousand civilians rescued from the hive, before the war took another turn, as Rico's Roughnecks found themselves faced with the Bug Queen herself. A desperate gamble by Rico paid off as they rammed a Marauder suit into the gaping maw of the Queen, and overloaded its powerpack, blowing the queen to bits.

The psychic resonance of its death sent the entire Arachnid swarm into chaos, with many bugs running in circles or killing one another, allowing the last of the civilians to be rescued and moved to minimum safe distance, just as the deadline finally came, and the sky was lit up by SICON's last remaining ships dropping everything that they could, and turning the entire hive into one massive glassed crater.

It was a victory that served as the perfect book end to the Bug-War, and the heroes of the Arachnid's Inferno were given just about every medal and commendation that SICON could throw at them. Even if there was still areas that needed to be cleared out of bug holdouts, as far as most were concerned, the war had finally come to a close.

In the five years since the end of the war, there hasn’t been any real sign of the bugs in the numbers that they once had. At worst its been a remnant hive that would be taken out by a bunker buster or a Mini-nuke being fired into it. Yet that is only within known space. In the outer reaches the bugs have not been idle.


It started out small, just a few mining outposts and frontier homesteads reporting sinkholes, and cattle disappearing. Then a distant SICON listening outpost came under attack. The Mobile Infantry repelled the assault, but the lesson was learned. They are still out there. On the Edge of known space, biding their time and maybe rebuilding. For all we know the bugs may even have a new Queen that is trying to rebuild the swarm and maybe come for a second shot at Earth while SICON and the rest of humanity is still nursing its wounds.

Thus SICON went about creating the Sentinels and the Argo mission. A taskforce comprised of elements of the Mobile Infantry, Fleet, Psi Corps, and forces from the people of Tophet. Loaded up with all the resources they might need, and fabers within the lead ships to help manufacture more materials to keep them fighting and on the move as they roll up the bug infestation like exterminators with high caliber weapons.

The mission was named after the famed ship belonging to Jason and the Argonauts, as those going on it would be enduring quite the journey. A five year mission that would take them far from home, where help might not immediately arrive, yet will be necessary to ensure the defense of the homeworld. Even if it is not the first signs of a resurgent bug threat, exterminating their enemy and securing more worlds will only benefit SICON in the long run.

They would be going out into the void, with old and new ships, past known space with the objective to clear out any worlds of Bug infestations, set up outposts and safe zones for a second wave of SICON forces to dig in and set up larger facilities that may be useful in holding back or counterattacking against a resurgent Arachnid Empire. If they happen to find worlds that would be valuable for mining colonies, or for farming then that is just a great bonus as well for everyone.

Its main goals though will be to scout ahead, exterminate small bug hives, and find out just what has been going on outside of SICON's patrolled territory. If they can destroy the bug threat before it rises up again then all the better. No one knows what exactly it is that SICON is going to find out there, and the members of the Argo Mission will be pushed to their limits against what the universe has to throw at them, but they beat the bugs before, they can do it again!

Come what may, SICON will not be caught on the backfoot again, the homeworld will never be threatened by the bug menace, nor will any other species out there. We fight now not just for our own survival, but for that of every sentient race in the galaxy that wishes to live in peace and finally put down its weapons to pick up ploughshares instead, and make the galaxy a peaceful place to live in. War cannot last forever, nor should it. But if the Bugs are intent on swarming and smothering out all other life in the universe, then SICON is willing to do everything needed to stop them. To ensure a better tomorrow, and a more peaceful galaxy, SICON will fight now, so no one else will ever have to fight again.

May their strength be enough to end this threat and bring peace forever more.





So this RP is my second attempt at a Starship Troopers inspired roleplay. However this one is based much more in the canon of Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. The old CGI animated tv series that was cancelled when it only had somewhere between 3 to 5 episodes left to finish.

I've tried to set up a starship troopers game before but according to some that I asked, it got very clunky and cluttered, as well as with a slight issue of the canonical Movie Federation being too fascistic. So It made me consider using the Federation (SICON) from the TV series which is far more heroic and might be easier for some to swallow and play as. Its different enough (and following a different canon) so I decided to make this one its own separate idea with its own thread. That said I am perfectly fine with reusing ideas from that other thread and discussing things. I even think that bringing in the aliens I designed (or even all new ones) could work well since SICON is much more open to interspecies cooperation.

I am looking to make use of canon information from the old Mongoose Publishing canon to help fill out the world with more lore and worldbuilding. That being said I have decided that it would be best to play this setting out with the System for Stars Without Number. In my opinion (and those of some friends I have asked) using SWN will be so much easier than trying to make things work for the old Mongoose system. It will require some work, but I do think that it can be made viable for this. Especially in regards to the changes I want to make and in how much SWN trims the fat off of the system.

I have all of the Starship Troopers RPG books (in PDF form), as well as most of the Stars Without Numbers books (In PDF form), so I am more than happy to share them with anyone who wants to join me in this game.

Still, I am open to maybe going freeform, going system lite, or even using a different RPG system to play out the combat and other such encounters. I'm open to talking things out and seeing where it goes.