A proposed mini campaign

Queue the retired Fleet-Captain Herman N. York spending his well-earned money with his family in the resort world of Tyrador IX where he’s been hunting the playful Tyradorian narwhals. This all changed when a feral brood of Zerg in a mighty Leviathan wanders close to the planet and attacks it.
Though eventually beaten back the assault left entire towns demolished and tens of thousands massacred. Captain York lost a limb in the attack but his family perished.
After recovery he replaced his missing limb with a prosthetic and vowed his revenge on the feral brood. He took over Ahab, the old Leviathan-class battlecruiser with a few bloodthirsty mercenaries and headed after the Leviathan. The chase is on.

I know it’s a bit of a barebone concept but I feel like we need more small and personal stories in StarCraft. I imagined the campaign as a short series of defense or push oriented maps as Capt. York tries to reduce the wreaked havoc of the Leviathan. Some missions could be like With friends like these… from HotS where you actually control the Hyperion (in this case the Ahab). He could also personalize and upgrade the Ahab and his crew both of which would have several not-so-shiny-high-tech options to show it’s not a Dominion funded chase. And the aftermath of the chase? Well…

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This would work well as an anthology.

Several little stories tied together.

That wouldn’t be bad at all. I wouldn’t mind an Episodes of the Koprulu Sector campaign pack where we have short stories for all three races. Who knows what we could have from Blood Hunters to Renegade Broodmothers.

It’s honestly a little astounding we’ve never had an SC story that’s just about someone chasing their white whale, we’ve got a story that’s just space JAWS with a lesbian sheriff but no one trying to harpoon a big zerg they’ve got beef with

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Personally, I want a campaign where some eccentric Archeologist from Protoss and Terran team up for some kind of dungeon crawling where they tried to uncover ancient Xel’Naga technology.

Basically, Zeratul but no end of the world; just capitalism. The stake is lost history. Being capture just get you booted off world without any chance of returning in time.

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Is that right?

That’s the kind of stuff I want as well! Small, detached stories that ultimately have nothing to do with the main conflicts of the sector. Something about the little people who live and struggle and have their own goals. Would you mind branching it out and give me/us a more detailed plot, brother?

Let us start with some background.

The Dominion; the biggest Terran faction with lots of colony world.

The Kel-Morian Combine; an inconsequential faction consists of a lot of miner.

The Umoja; for all intend and purpose, a nation of nerd.

After the event in the Evolution, Valerian knows that the Protoss doesn’t want to talk with the Terran much until all their factions unite as one. Plus, at the beginning of the book, he was doing peace-talk with the Umoja, anyway. So as a start of my story, Valerian has summoned the ancient power of economic. More specifically, the Eldritch god, Capitalism. He tells his Congress (or whatever dominion equivalent) that they could send out their own miner to dig up those natural resources, but it would be easier to just outsource it to the Kel-Morian. They have more experienced miners. They require less infrastructure. And they worker pay is cheaper. Just give them a cut from whatever they dig up. It would be cheaper than do it ourselves. The Kel-Morian also think that the Dominion is ripping them off, but they’re running out of resources in their own domain. These material isn’t theirs to mine to begin with. The Dominion will also provide some security who is primarily there to protect the benefits of the empire. Hence, with this calculated bond that is like trust, but better, a lot of mining permits are handed out all over the place.

On one of the Umoja’s world, an Archaeologist names Mr. A is trying to get a right to survey an interesting site. For years, he has been fighting an ink spilled and paper cut. Now with the permit, the site is going to be defiled by the Kel-Morian miner. Aside from other valuable material in the surrounding area, the site sits on a deposit of Khaydarin Crystal (If you are well-verse in Protoss’ lore, this makes perfect sense). It wasn’t much; just a little bigger than a human body, but it’s the Khaydarin Crystal, nonetheless. He tried to get the site preserved, but due to some technicality in the Dominion law, he couldn’t. As such, he has an idea to visit the site himself. Dig up some Xel’naga artifact with intriguing property. Showing it to the evil investors. By proving that the site worths more as is, he might be able to convince them to let him study it. Or failing that, conserve it. The Crystal would be extracted in a more time consuming method that would preserve the site.

  • For the first mission, Mr. A with the help from his hacker friend name Ms. H sneaks into an off-site Dominion official building. He hacked into their server and learned which mining cooperation won the permit to the site. This sounds more dramatic than it is. This information is not public, but it’s not government secret, either. He then booked a ticket and visit the Kel-Morian shipyard. He sneaks into the harbor master’s office and find the blueprint for the ship that will depart to the dig site. Unfortunately, the ship has been heavily ‘modified’ that the blueprint is useless. Ms. H tried to tell him to just go home; it’s over. He doesn’t give up and does all the determination speech after which he magically realizes that he could use the mining scanner lying about in the office; connect it to his cell-phone which has much better processing unit (it’s an Umoja smartphones); with an updated virtualization software from Ms. H, he could just scan the ship and find a place to stowaway upon it. Luckily, with repair after repair, and decade of poorly maintenance the ship is a maze. He quickly find a redundant compartment. With a small hack into the shop’s door at the last minute, he closes off the compartment and makes his own room. The captain noticed that, but due to the ship’s age and all, decides to not bother worry about it. It’s worth emphasizing that all the hackings are done to low level security targets. Ms. H cannot hack into any high level security or even mid level target.

  • A Protoss from the same tribe as Khas (I can’t remember what they’re called; just that they like to study Xel’naga) whose name is Mr. P stumbles upon the site on a lark. (Yes, it’s pure luck, but isn’t it true for all encounter?) He decides to visit it. Since the grand unification, he has dabbled in some void energy. As a result he could cloak himself temporarily. (Unlike born Nerazim who could cloak permanently) He can also use some Khalai energy, but he is not a Templar, so he can only create a small discharge. In the first part of the second mission, he uses his cloaking ability to move around. Using his spark to distract or disrupt the guard; like jolting guard’s suit to make them move away for example. Once in the temple, he tries to find his way into the upper control room (or whatever Xel’naga equivalence). Along the way, he uses gadget that he accumulated from years of exploring Xel’naga temple. One of which is the ability to override the gate making it does strange stuffs such as opening and closing at his command. He also has a small psi-blade, which he use to defend himself from the temple security measure. (Even Rohanna has one, so it’s not strange for Mr. P. Beside, this is not Ulnar. The security is not as tight. That being said he cannot take on more than one construct at a time or they overwhelm him. His cloaked and door remote control are still his best friends.) At the end of the mission, he found the control room in ruined from the mining operations.

  • The third mission starts by Mr. A arrives at the site. He then proceeds to sneak into the site and follows the miner into the ruined control room. Using his scanner, he finds some component that still barely functions. He learns about a point of interest, but nothing else. (The component is ruined after all) While trying to get to that point, he has moved deeper into the temple. Hence, he is attacked by a large group of the Xel’naga construct. At which point the player has two option! He could take out his side arm which is so powerful that he proceed to destroy everything. As a result, he realizes what an OPAF side arm he has. Thus, he murders everyone and lays claim to the temple. Alternatively, he could panic. In which case, Mr. P, who has been curious by Mr. A’s action at the control room and stalked him, will come out and uses his superpower of opening and closing the door to save the day! They, then, team up for the second part of the mission and get to that point of interest.

This is the end of my imagination. What do you think?

I want to point out that at any point if you fail the stealth section in the Terran’s territory, there will be some kind of message or cutscenes. If Mr. A was caught, then the Dominion decided that he might be trespassing, but they couldn’t execute an Umojan citizen. So, he was deported with a fine that barely covers his traveling fee. If it was Mr. P, then they couldn’t doing any to the Protoss without starting a war. And this is so stupid a reason that there is no Terran in his/her right mind would do it. So, he got deported as well. They need each other to explore the temple in timely fashion. And so with one of them ‘gone’, they can’t finish the exploration in time and the site was ruined before the deported could come back.

Everyone ability is quite minimal. Fortunately, the threat that they face is minimal as well. None of them is combat trained and if Mr. A decided to use his side arm, the game ends in a bad ending. They might come across some Xel’naga weaponry, but it won’t be strong like Nova’s.

The game consists of two locales; the Terran’s and the Xel’naga’s. Each character interacts with them differently. With Mr. A better suits for the Terran’s site, whilst Mr. P suits for the Xel’naga’s. They will need to travel back and forth between both territories in order to ‘borrow’ some stuff from the Dominion or to simply walk across the mining site.

The good ending is achieved by Mr. A shows the evil investor that they’re sitting upon gold mine and the temple worth more than its part. Or maybe, he was able to learn enough about the temple before it was gone. And that the temple didn’t contain anything special compared to other archeology sites in the first place. I’m not sure which is better.

I like it. So as a mission perspective you’d mostly be just sneaking around with one character and there is no base building, right? It’s not really a problem because we’re trying to tell stories.

At the beginning, yes. But I want the two characters to team up and use each other ability to overcome the temple.

Mr. P can help Mr. A go to locked part of the temple. While Mr. A gives access to some of the Terran hardware and help deal with the miner and such.

I really like the idea. It’s a nice, grounded approach. I just can’t take seriously how you call the Protoss Mr. P. It sounds like a euphemism, if ya know what I mean.

You can do the entire story without killing or harming a single person, right?

I suck at naming name. Feel free to suggest one or three for me.

Yes, not only doable, but that’s the whole point. This is not a war or even a battle. No one is there to kill anybody. Mr. A and Mr. P are going to kill any guard no matter how much they want to move pass them.

Actually, I think I’m going to finish writing up this story regardless of how pointless it is. However, I want some feedback from you or anyone here really. It’s about the nature of the temple. Which of the following is better?

  • The temple is worthless in all aspect. This is why the Kel-Morian gains the permit to extract the Khaydarin Crystal however they please. There really is nothing there. The story ends in a whimper, not a bang. Mr. A and Mr. P finish exploring the temple before the miner destroys it. They gain scientific knowledge from the temple, but nothing special. It all becomes nothing more than a fond memory. It’s important to notice that they’re very satisfied. They came here to study and despite the result it was a success. They got to do what they love.

  • The temple does contain an interesting artifact. It is not world shattering, dues ex machina, mind you. It’s worth more than the Khaydarin Crystal market value. However, it’s not worth much more than a single column in some newspapers. The story ends with both characters report what they find to the Dominion, who declares the site sacred. However, they were promptly arrested soon afterward. Mr. A is deported, but they waive his fine for trespassing and entering Dominion space without visa. They also ban him from Dominion space for a year before lightening the sentence to six months due to some protest. Luckily, before the Dominion gets around to enforce it, he’s done studying the temple. As for Mr. P, the situation is a bit more complicated. He is deported, of course, but once they escort him outside the Dominion space, the Emperor Valerian himself come meet him in person. Mr. P is banned for a year as well and get his sentence reduced to six moths for the same reason. However, the Emperor give him a deal that he could return to the Dominion space after the ban as long as he agree to some term namely, he wouldn’t trespass into military site, official government building, private property and such; he must not harm any Terran citizens or break any local law; lastly, Artanis and the Daelaam in general must know how magnanimous he is with all these Protoss trespassing incidents. (Of course, the last one is in subtext and unspoken.)

The first one fits my theme better. It’s a personal story with a satisfied ending for the people involve. It’s very grounded. However, the second has more a impactful and interesting ending. Its implications to the story. I really like that in the end the fact that an Umojan and a Daelaam working together through some ordeal has a deeper imprint on the world than whatever the purpose of that temple is.

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I am a 100% behind the first one. Both of them gain knowledge which is what they sought, but the temple is destroyed due to the mining operation. Even if it is ‘worthless’ it is an archaic site and as such is held in high regard for them. Therefore the ending is bittersweet - they were able to learn from the temple and can pass on the knowledge for their respective people, but the temple itself is lost forever.

Everybody gets something they wanted, but loses something in the process. A lot better than a simple happy end in my opinion.

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You get it! I’m glad!

I like this thread. Maybe when I have a little more time I’ll post the background I’ve written for an SCR campaign. Maybe that will give me the ambition to actually work on it.

Continuing from where I left off, Mr. A and Mr. P reach the point of interest. The two of them split up to survey the room. Mr. P learned that this room contains a star map for nearby system. Although, the map is tiny covers just a corner of the Dominion space, it’s very detailed and describes some dwarf planet that has yet to be detected by any Terran. Mr. A, on the other hand, study the structure of the Temple, the shape of the rock and its ingrained. Along with the map of the Temple that they explored so far, he was able to discern a next location to investigate. And with that start the next mission.

  • This Mission Will be about getting to that next room. The two of them will sneak together. Trying to avoid Xel’naga construct, while using Mr. P ultimate ability to open and close door. Mr. A will use his observation to pin point where they should proceed next. During this mission, they talk. Since they decide to working together for the long haul, they chat a bit after Mr. P ensure that the patrol is deaf. Mr. P reveals that he has been studied a number of Xel’naga temple all over the place. Some of them is very powerful like the one on Sharkurus, but most are much less impressive. Before this one he had just studied another temple that is barely more than a shelter. The Xel’naga probably built it for some R&R. Whilst Mr. A tells him that he has been fascinated with this temple ever since his professor shown him its photo. This temple is different from most in that major part of its facilities are underground. The temple is the smallest on the surface. He believe that it might be the largest once we accounted for the unseen part as well. Ms. H also explains that she is a junior IT operator who works at some big Umojan company. Her job consists on fixing computer, installing network cabling and updating software. She helps Mr. A on the side out of shear boredom. The two of them were friend from college where she enrolled in electrical engineering corse while Mr. A enrolled in civil engineering course. Before he dropped out after a particular Xeno-architectures class. She also emphasizes that she wouldn’t mind stepping on some Kel-Morian’s toe, but once they crosses the Dominion, she will drop them like a hot potato.

They have arrived at a room with big and thick door. Mr. P cannot open it, however. Mr. A pointed out that since the temple is going to be defiled by the miner, anyway, why don’t they prematurely defile this door? And so the group decides to resurface and sneaking in to the miner settlement to steal some equipment.

  • For the first part, the duo will try to sneak into the Kel-Morian’s center of operations. Along the way, they will learn about the miner from eavesdropping that the miner just try to make an honest living. They don’t really care about the temple one way or the other. It’s just that the Khaydarin Crystal sells at a handsome price. Eventually, they reach the. Enter and learn about a power drill. (Feel free to insert some awesome model name here.) Unfortunately, the power drill is a property of the Dominion. It was kept and lock in their headquarters. Ms. H adamantly refuses to help with this. So, Mr. A suggests that she falsified some documents and plants in for the Kel-Morian. This report would ‘invite’ the miner to use the power drill at a particular part of the temple. The duo will then lure the construct to shoo away the miner and leave the drill for their nefarious need. Ms. H protests that the miner could be injured for this, so Mr. A agrees to dress as a miner and warn them away beforehand. (The Kel-Morian being Kel-Morian, it wasn’t hard to acquire their stinky mining attire) And hence for the second part of the mission, we lure a number of construct into a single room and lock them up using the universal door remote control. Once enough of them is accumulated, Mr. A lure them to the unsuspecting miner. Running to them while screaming to the top of his voice. The brave miners waste no time to flee. The Dominion guard try to stand and fight, but Mr. A helpfully points out that the power drill isn’t worth dying for. After some distance, Mr. A falls behind and slip through nearby door and double back to retrieve the power drill. (I’ll let you guess why the door let him and only him through)

  • For this mission, Mr. A will try to use the drill as a master key for the door. However, the drill is noisy and draws attention of nearby patrol. Mr. P must use his super amazing ability to shun them off; five night style! He could also destroy them provide that he could separate them into a more favorable number, which is one. (He could only take them on one-on-one) once the count down is finished the door is opened. And reveal a big a## construct… The duo puts their tail between their legs and run. This is the second part of the mission, by the way. After some ordeal, the duo is rescued by the miner.

After the rescue, it is revealed that the power drill has a tracking device installs. (Ms. H has no idea it was there. This is beyond her pay grade) Since the miner request for its used, they’re responsible for its missing. In order to avoid paying fine (Again, the Dominion is going to wage some war over this piece of equipment), the Kel-Morian decided to track it. Naturally, they come in prepare this time. After some angry debate they come to an agreement. The duo is free to keep exploring the temple as long as they don’t try to loot any Khaydarin Crystal. They will also share what they find about the temple design once they finish with a section. In exchange, they can now move around freely among the miner. They could also literally borrow Kel-Morian’s power tool, provided that it was returned in working condition. Mr. P also handed over the star map to help facilitate the deal. (The map contains a specific location of hidden planet that could be good for future mining) However, the Kel-Morian won’t talk to the Dominion about this, so the duo still need to avoid the guard.

And that’s it for today! What do you think?

Alright. Next idea upon us. A teaser of sorts.

Timber isn’t the fuel of the modern society anymore, it’s not the main building material and compared to other resources it is both less durable and harder to work with. For these reasons the timber industry took a sharp and steady dive until Dewey Foster used his considerable wealth to buy up the entire market and build his business empire on it - not from timber though.
Where conventional wooden furniture failed the commercially the luxury counterparts didn’t and while Dewey only expected a moderate fortune his son and grandson owned an ever-increasing pile of credits by the end of their careers. With their financial success came expansion and conquest, the quest to capitalize on the radically different properties of trees on different planets.

Bowman Foster is not a patient man. Turns out if you had everything handed to you with a private army to get whatever wasn’t given freely you will turn out that way. On Artemis III the big lumberyards were raided, except nothing is missing but the people. You are Corporal Jerry Haylen, and your platoon led by the marvelously corrupt Lt. Beckett was sent - after some monetary persuasion - to investigate whatever happened to the missing personnel.

The campaign is simple enough. You land and look around the base which comes under attack by the local wildlife - large arachnids similar to the amblypygi. You have to reinforce and protect the base than head into the forest to find survivors. After gathering a large enough army of the security team and your own forces your job is to purge the beasts’ nest and kill their queen.

I like it though you diss them KMC boys too much for me. Real men drill deep, brother!

You mean an Auger 12 000? Those things are banned both in the Dominion and in Umoja - and supposedly in the Combine as well - because of their highly damaging nuclear batteries and occasional radioactive leakage. But of course if you need to knock something down fast the Auger will do it. It’ll literally drill a hole in less than 12 seconds into the toughest and thickest Dominion or Protoss structure, vault or warship.

I am either too tired or too focused on Red Dead Redemption 2 to guess why the door let him and only him through. Mr. P had anything to do with it?

Maybe I do. What do you suggest I change?

Is this a native wild life or Zerg?