Arc # 3110: Astro Adventures: The Scrapnoids from Outer Space!

[LonePhantom777]

Vanguard Headquarters, the War Room, 1700 Hours:

 

Lady Grey stroked her chin between slender thumb and forefinger, the slight furrowing of her brow the only indication that she was troubled by the images being projected onto the far wall.  At times like this, she was reminded of how used Vanguard had become to dealing with the Rikti threat...which, in turn, made it all the more likely for the organization to be caught off guard by things like this. Which, frankly, was unacceptable - once this affair was settled, she'd have to double down on drills that trained base personell on monitoring for non-Rikti threats.

 

Well. That was for later. Looking to the man on her right, Lady Grey raised a delicate brow. "How long do we have before the situation becomes unteneable?"

 

Dressed as always in his dark topcoat and fedora, the enigmatic figure of the Dark Watcher let out a thoughtful hum, lips pursing beneath his sunglasses. "If the data from our radio telescopes is any indication," he mused, "Twelve hours, at best."

 

Frowning quietly, Lady Grey turned to the man who was standing at her left, reduced to a silhouette in the dimly-lit room. "And you, Mr...Bounder, was it?"

 

The figure nodded, his voice brisk and good-humored as he let out a hearty chuckle. "If we're standing on ceremony, then yes, ma'am."

 

"Right. You say the instruments on your...exploration vessel...have detected peculiar energy readings coming from the object of interest?"

 

Another nod. "Affirmative, ma'am. I don't think it's these 'Shivans' I keep hearing about, but it DOES seem to resemble something I've seen before. And if it's what I think it is, we can't just launch cruise missiles to destroy it." The figure paused, crossing its arms over its chest. "But I'll need to get a closer look and run some scans before we can be sure..."

 

Just then, the door slid open, and an operative wearing the insignia of the Herald division stuck his head into the war room. "Er...ma'am?" she asked, clearing her throat nervously. "We've got Captain Dietrich on Line Two. She's saying that if we don't act soon, she'll be calling the White House to give Longbow active control over the situation..."

 

Lady Grey sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. "Smashing. Let her know I'm finalizing a response team now, which will mobilize within the hour."

 

As the Herald operative saluted and took her leave, Lady Grey turned to address the man who stood to her left again. "I trust you grasp the urgency of the situation?" she asked briskly, gesturing to the projection on the far wall. "If you haven't finished your work by 2200 hours, I can't be held accountable for the safety of you or anyone else you manage to find for your expedition - we'll have to launch by at least then."

 

As the figure stepped forward into the light cast by the projector, Lady Grey fought the urge to roll her eyes. She knew that some of these costumed sorts adopted some odd motifs and themes, but this chap was something else - from the form-hugging orange bodysuit that was accented by black trunks and a sleek star emblazoned across his chest, to the positively retro design of his rocket pack and bubble helmet, he looked for all the world as if he'd stepped out of the pages of a Flash Gordon comic book.

 

And it says something about Paragon City, she noted dryly, that that could very well be the case.

 

"Not to worry, Lady Grey," the man who had introduced himself as Astro Bounder declared, flashing a brave smile as he nodded towards the projected image of the large asteroid - that huge rock that seemed to be looming at them against the backdrop of outer space. "It's a daunting situation, true; but I've faced far worse..."

 

Featured in this Arc:

[*]Two missions of two-fisted, old-school sci-fi adventure for all those who want a fitting adventure for their space-related heroes!

[*]The classic high-level Clockwork models that acted as minions for the original incarnation of Praetorians Anti-Matter and Neuron, re-purposed as part of a new threat!

[*]Custom enemy mobs that utilize clunky robotic parts, jars for heads, and auras to simulate a strange new alien race.

[*]A development that turns a straightforward asteroid threat into a more complex problem.

[*]Use of the rarely-seen "Shivan Meteor" map to emulate a space mission.

 

Comments and critique are always welcome!

[Police Woman]

 

Our first SPOOOOKY story is Astro Adventures: The Scrapnoids from Outer Space (arc #71) - a retro sci-fi adventure from page 28 of the MA forum. 

 

Please note that in-game this is arc #71, not arc #3110 as mentioned in the original post.  How do you unpublish an arc and republish it as a lower arc number?  I have no idea!

 

 

We join the astonishing Spacegirl being briefed by the Astro Bounder on a desperate mission to divert a meteor from hitting Paragon City!

 

 

Arriving on the asteroid, Spacegirl is attacked by aliens!  Or robots!  Or maybe alien robots!  It's the Scrapnoids!

 

 

 

Fighting her way past the Scrapnoids, Spacegirl planted several scanners to gather scientific measurements, before returning to Earth.  There, Astro Bounder briefs her on the alien Scrapnoid species, and the two of them come up with a plan to tractor beam the asteroid away so that it doesn't hit the Earth.  The plan requires Spacegirl to plant some equipment that will distract the Scrapnoids away from Astro Bounder's tractor beaming equipment.

 

Back to the asteroid we go!  Only this time we're in caves deep inside the asteroid itself.  There's a bunch of weird space junk, as well, that apparently are leftover tech that the Scrapnoids have been using for food, or salvage, or whatever it is that alien robots consume.  (They're not really robots, there's some technobabble explaining that they're energy life forms that are animating space junk.)

 

 

Spacegirl runs into the Vapourian Prime, the brain of the Scrapnoid hive mind!  And it's got psychic attacks, which cut through Spacegirl's force fields like butter! 

 

 

Oh wait, no, it looks like force fields work against psychic blast now.  Spacegirl is okay!

 

Planting the last of the cannisters of Scrapnoid-bait, Spacegirl teleports back to Earth.

 

 

Yay, Spacegirl saved the day!

 

 

Overall impressions:

I really liked the retro sci fi aesthetic, and I was glad I picked a character to play that fit right in.  The story arc was short (just 2 missions) but it was enough, and the story made sense.  Spacegirl had no problem fighting the custom enemy group, even as a solo defender, but she is also a level 50 and heavily IO'd; the arc's stated level range is 1-54, but I would not like to try this as a level 1.  The writing for Astro Bounder was very good; there were no real other characters and minimal dialog from the Scrapnoids (since none of them could really talk except the Vapourian Prime).  I got turned around a couple times in the cave network which made it frustrating to hunt down all the glowies, but TBH that is my fault for getting lost.  There's some clues that are useful and some clues that are just mysterious and make me wonder, but don't appear to lead to anything

 

I was on the fence between rating this 4 or 5; I ended up giving the arc 5 stars.  The story arc has been published for over 5 years and had only been played 14 times before this, and would've been very hard to find in the search tool.  Give it a try if you're in the mood for a quicky sci-fi adventure.  

 

[sponazgul]

This set of missions sounds charming! I'm looking forward to playing it with some of my cosmic adventurer-style characters. @Police Woman, thank you for bringing it to the top of the thread.

[sponazgul]

Just ran @LonePhantom777's arc after Police Woman's review. I ran the arc with a level 50 superstrong/invulnerability tank (since this mission felt like an appropriate mission for him) - I enjoyed all of the text from the contact, Astro-Bounder (and his retro-look) and the overall gist of the Scrapnoids. I only gave it 4 stars, since (well, I'll use spoiler-text):

 

Spoiler

I think the Astro-Bounder contact should have a bio - I'm sure the author could provide a compelling one, and I wanted at least one more mission. For example: maybe Arachnos had sent in a team to loot alien stuff that the Scrapnoids had collected (there's some optional glowies in the final mission, to indicate that the Scrapnoids had collected alien bits during their space voyaging) and in good conscience, we couldn't just let those Arachnos types get marooned on the Asteroid when we took it away from Earth or something - this is just a spitballed example to expand on the 2-mission arc.) Also, the Mission Completion Clue is just exactly the speech that Astro-Bounder gives when you return, so I'd prefer the mission completion clue (which I read before talking to the contact) queued up the debrief from the contact.

 

Since I ran the mission with a high end character, I'll probably run it again with a mid-range character, and I'll certainly recommend it to my friends.

[Zhym]

Fun little arc, especially with my sci-fi hero Andromeda Brain. 

 

It was nice to see the asteroid map used for story purposes for once. :)