KURGAN Week! - Bal Anub Update

So, as those of you on the Discord may have noticed, I'm on holiday all week and it's time to push to get KURGAN finished. That is, finish the writing, finish the last few missions that are still a bit skeletal in structure, playtest the campaign a couple of times, lay out the pages and photography and commission the cover art from David Sondered.

However, I'm not going to punish myself. This is a holiday. I still intend to spend time chilling out and doing some other stuff. But the book is Priority One. With that in mind, here's a sneak peek.

Bal Anub returns in a supporting role in KURGAN, and some time has passed since the events at the end of NEMESIS. So I thought I'd update their narrative a bit:

Few have heard of Bal Anub, but those who have are some of the Fallen Earth’s most powerful and influential, whether members of the competing “rescue” forces or leaders among the larger groups of survivors.

Saladin’s team are loyal to their leader first and to their colony a distant second. But they have established a reputation within the growing network of Terran survivors, from Gaian revolutionaries and urban punk gangs to neocorporate opportunists. If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them…

Anya “Saladin” Abdalla

Before joining the Venusian rescue operation, and being diverted to its intelligence arm, Vidi, Saladin was already a veteran Long Stepper – the cadre of Venusian elite couriers that brave the low paths and even the planet’s incomprehensibly vicious surface to maintain connections between its isolated subterranean cities. To Saladin, Earth was a delight: a balmy and forgiving world whose ash-choked atmosphere was, quite literally, a walk in the park.

The events of Operation NEMESIS only confirmed to Saladin that the Venusian leadership couldn’t be trusted and she and her team are now operating beyond Vidi’s control, using whatever resources they have at hand to try to track down Amunet and the other “skylords”.

Beau “Prettyboy” Lox

Despite having started with the team as its medic and second-in-command, Prettyboy quickly developed a secondary role as its fixer. A combination of charm and ruthless negotiating means that, if it can be got, Prettyboy can usually get it. He prioritises medical supplies, good food and clean water before ammunition and weapons, but his experiences within the shattered city-states have also given him a taste for the finer things in life. Saladin privately worries that the right offer from the right person could turn Prettyboy against her but, so far, he has proved his loyalty at every opportunity.

Artur “Damage” Kurtz

Damage was a Long Stepper before Saladin was out of nappies, and survived to become a coach and mentor to a new generation before Saladin poached him for her team. Despite Saladin and Prettyboy both technically out-ranking him, the rest of the team always seek his opinion and respect his judgement. But Damage knows that his age holds him back. He tries to work remotely, through his quirky drone, Zot, and when he has to hit the field in person, uses remote weapons to support his allies wherever he can.

Since going rogue with the team, Damage has become more fatalistic, convinced that every day will be his last. Even though he’s never blamed her for it, Saladin is determined that Damage will get the quiet retirement she stole from him.

Miriam “Lolcat” Ngana

Being untethered from the comforting familiarity of Venusian leadership has affected Lolcat more profoundly than the rest of the team. Always a rebel from her privileged and influential family upbringing, this final step seems to have pushed her over the edge. Lolcat is obsessed with the philosophy of a group of Terran survivors called Gaians who refused to participate in the city-states, instead choosing to live, illegally, in the wilderness in small, nomadic groups. Lolcat’s handle comes from a metaphorical trickster deity in the Gaian mythos as she has a penchant for practical jokes and absurdist humour. Ghostface and Prettyboy have both expressed concern for her sanity, but Saladin knows that, behind the laughter, Lolcat is still mourning for the family to whom she can never go back.

Hiro “Ghostface” Marquin

By contrast with Lolcat, Ghostface has found, in Bal Anub, the supportive family they never had before. Never having felt any loyalty or love for Venus or the skymasters to begin with, the move to rogue status just drew their teammates closer to them and the wildchild of the team’s early days has become its rock. When Lolcat goes too far with a joke, or Damage gets too deep into melancholy, or Prettyboy gets too upset over some rare treasure found broken, or Saladin starts overthinking… it’s Ghostface who’s there to talk things out, smooth ruffled feathers, or crack a joke.

Cut off from easy access to the Vici BattleNet, Ghostface has used the team’s contact with a range of different groups, including the underpunk hacker networks, to adapt to a life of net-jumping. Between that a handful of still-active backdoors they can use to get limited use of both Vici and MASC’s BattleNets, they are, if anything, more useful than when they were restricted to just the one.

Zot

Zot’s original frame has lost so many parts, been hacked back together so many times, and been so frequently adapted and customized for each new mission that it’s hard to know if there is anything at all left of the original Venusian combat drone.

However, Zot, despite its appearance, is definitely a more sophisticated entity than it once was. Having started as a pure drone, remotely piloted by Damage with no independent program, Zot has been upgraded to be able to operate as an autonomous robot, freeing up Damage to run smaller drones or remote weapons instead.

Whether Zot has an actual personality or is just subject to so many bugs that it resembles one, the rest of the team treat it as one of their own.

BOBBITY

Lolcat’s X-Mech is always given the callsign “BOBBITY”, but the team now has several different light mechs stowed in secure locations around the world, bought, borrowed or stolen from less-deserving owners. Lolcat loves to spend time tinkering with them, but she doesn’t have Damage’s talent for customisation so for the most part the team has to rely on Prettyboy to make sure that trustworthy-ish locals handle maintenance and repair, and fix whatever Lolcat broke last time.