Nexus - Fifth Season

Starting a campaign in another location with so much history that was written by other people was a problem, as no one felt comfortable walking in the footsteps of the Pennsylvania gang. However, I told them that what was past was past, and that they now had a chance to outshine the former players of the Nexus campaign. So far, they have not let me down. The fifth season took up the improvements where the fourth left off, and added another episode to the 4 star club, "The Collangata Express," which took a plot from the GURPS space atlas and combined it with vividly expressed visuals and special effects to make one very popular episode. The fifth season has added a bunch of new alien races to the overall Nexus picture, and there are some new villians (some original, some not, but all of them are well liked). Interestingly, the fifth season included a switch in the gaming system used by the Nexus universe. Unlike the gamers in Pennsylvania, not many people in Wyoming play GURPS. When the gamers lost interest in the game because of the gaming system, I substituted Champions and kept going. The change has worked quite well, as I am well versed in the Champions rules, and there is a lot more flexibility in character generation and concept in the Champions system. The rest of the fifth season introduced more villains and more intricate plans. It was quite gratifying to me as a GM that this season was the first to receive an overall rating of three stars. My only let down was the fact that I was going to move to Laramie, WY and the campaign in Casper would only be one season long.

The fifth season of Nexus was rated at:

Fifth Season Episodes

59. The Demon (MB, PR, LR) (NR)

A new team of NSF officers is sent to bring Captain Hansen to Nexus, where he will be promoted to Fleet Admiral in order to replace the newly-retired Zahd Vidikit. On the way to Nexus, the team is attacked by a demon and his three minions who are attempting to kill Hansen.

60. Close to You (DR)

Grayson Wolf joins NSF. His first job is to help a young NSF officer fend off an insane man who is stalking her.

61. Superconductor (DR)

NS 227 is called into the Wuffian Restriction Zone to retrieve another Nexus vessel which illegally entered the zone and threatened the planetary government with destruction.

62. The Collangata Express (DR)

Wolf is sent to the Terran Commonwealth at the request of a scientist who is secretly building a device that will push the planet Collangata out of its orbit, which it shares with the planet Carmague. Wolf disrupts that experiment, then saves the station from an antimatter explosion.

63. The Queen's Gambit (DR)

Wolf, troubled by nightmares, requests permission to track down his wife, who has been listed as missing since her ship was hijacked by agents of the Queen. (a new villain). When Wolf�s request is denied, he and another team of oficers steal an experimental ship and go anyway. What they find is that the Queen has mentally taken control of the leaders of ATLAS and VOICE, and has formed the most potent criminal organization in Nexus. She is also stealing the life forces of prisoners to use as psychic fuel for her own private army. Wolf�s wife has been turned into a Psy-soldier, and Wolf is only able to recover her body. The group narrowly escapes from the Queen�s base. The group sets up shop on the planet Sheba where they will act as freelance mercenaries with the permission of the NSF.

64. New World Man (DR, MH)

Wolf and the group are placed temporarily under the command of the Nexus Genetics Command, which is doing genetic research on the effects of low-level radiation on human subjects. Wolf is subjected to bursts of radiation and mutates. He also meets Windsor, who is placed under his command after also undergoing the treatments.

Their first assignment is from Nexus. The first subject to undergo the treatments went beserk and stole a powersuit, bonded to it, and went on a rampage, killing civilians mercilessly. Wolf and Windsor attempt to stop this man, who calls himself Psychout, but when Eurostar and Terror Incorporated show up, along with Doctor Destroyer, the NSF officers beat a hasty retreat. Psychout eventually ends up with Eurostar.

65. Into the Net (RR, MW)

The group is sent into the Nexus computer network to stop a computer virus unleashed by the Queen.

66. Pirates of Zandar (RR, MW) (NR)

The White Guardian of Time asks the group to help him find and assemble the Key to Time, which has been separated into a number of pieces. When assembled, the Key will defeat the machinations of the Black Guardian, who wants to spread temporal chaos over the universe. The first key is located on the planet Zandar, the home of a group of pirates, whose planet is actually a spacecraft which is periodically used to �jump� to a planet, surround it, and disintegrate it. The next target is Nexus.

67. It (MH) (NR)

The search for the second piece of the Key takes the group to a planet where Nexus is mining for minerals under the bed of a large lake, much to the displeasure of the environmentally conscious natives, and their god, an extremely large sea creature which lives in the lake and just so happens to be the second Key.

68. Wars Within Wars (RR, MW)

The search for the final piece of the Key combines various elements: an interplanetary nuclear war, a princess who happens to be the Key, and a mysterious third race who periodically kidnap people in their search for the Key, which they want to obtain for their master, the White Guardian. (sounds strange, huh?)

69. Scarecrow (AZ)

NSF officers are dispatched to the planet Grammen to distribute a batch of hybrid seed from Kirwin, and to set up a series of monitoring beacons which will record the progress of the growth of the seeds. However, one of the beacons awakens an old menace in the form of Scarecrow, a phantom-like villain who begins attacking Nexus civilians. He is stopped when he is confronted by the group, and in the ensuing laser battle, a barrel of gunpowder is ignited, exploding and setting the building on fire. Scarecrow is killed by the blaze, or at least, that�s what the team thinks.

70. The Chase (MW)

Judge Knight and Monolith are called to stop an unknown invader from getting too far into Nexus territory. The Drolian ship is on course for the Watchtower system, and it leads the group through an asteroid field in an attempt to shake them. A fierce laser battle is fought while the two ships run through the field, and in the end, the alien ship manages to escape.

71. Satan's Rule (MW)

The group arrives at Watchtower Station and finds that most of the inhabitants have been evacuated to the moonbase, and the rest are being held by a Mephistopheles clone. The group battles and kills the clone, but they trip a booby trap which kills the captives. The group is unable to save them.

72. Mistwood (DR, AZ)

The group is sent to the planet Mistwood, which had been the actual target of the Mephistopheles clone. When they land on the planet, they are captured by the intelligent animals they find there, and are taken to the leaders of the �world-mind�. There the team discovers a plot by an evil scientist to create an army of giant insects to use in his plot to take over Nexus.

73. Painkiller (CV)

Gil Larson joins Nexus as he and the team answer a call from the local authorities who request assistance in order to stop a fight between a bunch of supervillains. The villains turn out to be Terror Inc. and Painkiller. Larson tries to lure the villains away from the Nexus Vault, where several artifacts of great value are stored, but he fails. However, Painkiller succeeds in beating Terror Inc. and starts after its last standing member, Scorpia, who is fleeing the battle site. A firefight breaks out between Painkiller and the group, but Painkiller breaks off the fight, saying �Justice has been served,� leaving the team to attempt to figure out whether this new character is a hero or villain.

74. Breakout (JU) (civilian)

Natasha Rederic joins up with Thunderbolt as he breaks his long-time love, Lady Blue out of the prison at Geidi Dirra, killing six guards in the process. The fugitives then head for the planet Badlands in order to permanently escape Nexus justice.

75. Wish Upon a Eurostar (JU) (civilian)

The character�s ship is captured by Eurostar while en route to Badlands. After barely defeating the villains, the fugatives are swept off course by an ion storm and crash land in the desert mountains of Minar, where they are rescued by a caravan of mirovi and are taken to see the minim �pirates�.

76. Chameleon (JU) (civilian)

Natasha and the rest of the group are staying with the minim pirates when Eurostar attacks again, this time with the help of a brainwashed White Knight (a friend of Thunderbolt), who attempts to lure the group into complacency with an offer of NIS-sponsored clemency and protection. This battle is won with the help of a field-built plasma cannon which Natasha assembled.

77. Fangs in the Dark (JU)

NS 233 is ordered to explore the space beyond the Null Zone and that is where they meet a disabled ship. The crew of the ship is in hibernation, and the captain of NS 233 orders them to be brought on board. Once this is done, two of the aliens are awakened, whereupon they ask to be returned to their home. The captain and the senior officers take this into consideration. During this meeting, one of the aliens complains that it doesn�t feel well, and is excused. The unsupervised alien tampers with the ship�s environmental controls, sending the temperature up to near 175 degrees.

Once this problem is solved, another one arises, as the temperature increase was enough to awaken the other 400 aliens on the ship. Security responds by using a stasis field on the entire deck, subduing most of the aliens. More problems arrive when two more alien ships approach and demand the return of their comrades. The captain decides to risk both the alien weaponry and a possible military tribunal on his breaking of Nexus General Order 23 and NS 233 attempts to make a break for Nexus territory. The aliens fire on NS 233, damaging the helm, navigation, and TD Drive controls. Nikko manages to hotwire the TD Drive and NS 233 jumps back into Nexus space after hurriedly dropping the aliens off on one of the alien ships.

78. Turf Wars

When a mob boss learns that the competition is growing against his smuggling operations in the Terran Empire, he sends a team to eliminate this nuisance. The problem is a bit harder to liquidate than the boss thought, as it turns out that the cyberman known as Mechanon is running the operation. A huge battle erupts and is only stopped by the arrival of the Nexus special forces, who impound Mechanon�s ship and paraphenalia. The mob escapes, but is tracked down and eliminated by Painkiller.

(A new group was recruited once I moved to Laramie. Also, I was unable to do a season finale for the Fifth Season, so it became the season opener for the Sixth Season.)