Call Your Next of Kin:We'll Ship Your Carcass Home

"Eyes up, You. Rigfall in T-minus.."

Plot

NEXT OF KIN LOGISTICS   /   MEDINA FREEHOLD   /   DAY 01 Industrial mechs • Mercenary sandbox • Found family They put hardware in your head.Worked you three times harder.Expected you dead by thirty. You took the hardware with you. A NEXT OF KIN STORY RIGFALL Call your next of kin now.We’ll cover shipping and handling for you. Three months ago, you were mining equipment with a pulse. Senda Industrial called it a productivity implant. Your crew called it neural static. Sensory bleed. A hand that stopped obeying halfway through a shift. So you mutinied. Took a converted industrial ship. Kept the rigs you could make run. Named yourselves Next of Kin Logistics. Now you take contracts in a star cluster where corporations own the ports, the police, and most of the reasons to need either. YOUR SECTION. YOUR CALL. They decide whether to hire you.Your people trust you to get them home. You lead the Kin’s pilot section. Your name, your history, your judgment. In the briefing room, you have a voice. On the ground, your people are waiting for it. Take the escort. Strip the wreck. Capture the whole machine. Earn a legitimate berth, or find a pirate port that pays on time. Build the outfit you want to command—and live with who it becomes. PELTAST / HOPLITE / CATAPHRACT A mining laser still cuts.Even when the rock shoots back. Your rig catches you on the move. Hydraulics haul you into place. The Rig turns with your body, and the implant gives you the angle before the targeting equipment can. Then you’re out again. Grapple into an enemy’s blind spot. Plant a magnetic grenade. Hold a mining laser against the cockpit surround while the machine tries to tear you off. Force a heavy to turn. Open its plate. Put your section through the gap. CHOOSE YOUR KIND OF TROUBLE Three rigs.Make them fear the one you bring. Weld scars. Heavy clamps. A cockpit that scoops you off the deck. Hannah knows every noise they make. You’ll learn which ones mean keep going. LIGHT RIG PELTAST Be on the hull before the gun comes around. Long legs. Hard thrust. Just enough plate to make a terrible idea survivable. The Peltast crosses the opening while heavier machines are still committing to the turn. Get behind the shield. Get your pilot onto the hull. Leave a grenade where the joint has to bend. A heavy hit can end the run. Keep moving, and make them miss the only shot they had. MEDIUM RIG HOPLITE Catch the light. Flank the heavy. Finish the job. The Hoplite puts teeth in the space between speed and armor. Enough mass to stop a light treating you as a shortcut. Enough movement to put a heavy’s flank in your sights. Let them commit. Close the angle. Hit while their next decision is still catching up. You can’t afford to trade blows with a Cataphract. Make it turn for every one. HEAVY RIG CATAPHRACT Plant the shield. Make them find another way. The Cataphract takes the approach and holds it at gunlance range. Broad plate. A shield that meets the incoming blade. A weapon built to punish the moment someone decides they can squeeze past. Every second they linger close is another chance to open their cockpit. Fast pilots will try to get around you. Give them a reason they have to come through. Or take the heavy blade and advance. A blade fits every class. Fists work when the weapon is gone. The pilot decides how close the other cockpit gets to either. ABOARD THE AMISTAD You know who the spare mug is for. Hannah has an actuator open. Barnes is running the insertion drill again. Miller has coffee, a stores list, and very little patience for what the list says. Capra holds the outfit together. Duke puts the next decision in front of you. People who trust you are sleeping on the other side of the bulkhead. Bring back parts. Learn who stays after a bad briefing. Earn the kind of trust that lets someone stop pretending they’re fine. MEET YOUR NEXT OF KIN The people on the otherside of the bulkhead. They keep the engines turning, the rigs standing, and a place for you at the table. You’ll have to earn their trust. You’ll have plenty of chances. COMMANDING OFFICER Capra She was the last one off the platform. Now she takes the worst watch and expects you to bring your people back. Earn her trust, and you might meet the dry wit behind the orders. Earn more, and she might let you put the kettle on. “I don’t throw people away for being human once.” EXECUTIVE OFFICER / OPERATIONS Ellington Duke Capra holds the line. Duke makes sure there is fuel to reach it and a contract worth signing when you do. Patient, precise, and quietly immovable. Bring him a plan with a way home. He’ll find the missing piece before it strands you. “Contracts come back. Dead pilots don’t.” SHIP ENGINEERING Maeda He heard the fault hours before the alarm. He told you about it. Now he is under the panel, fixing exactly what he said would break. His complaints keep the Amistad company. If they stop, ask how much time you have. “This is calm. You’ll know I’m stressed when I start being polite.” RIG MECHANIC Hannah Every rig has a pet name. Every pilot gets a nickname. Hannah keeps the bay warm through sheer bloody determination, usually with a torch in her hand. She’ll tell you exactly how bad the damage is, call you sugar, and find you a job beside her. “Somebody’s gotta be, hon, or the galaxy wins twice.” SUPPLY / THE REASON DINNER HAPPENS Miller He can turn a shortage report into a pitch for real butter. Miller feeds the crew, charms the docks, and remembers which meal made someone smile. There may be a small detour on the next supply run. The mug is tea. He insists. “You want morale? Feed people something they didn’t hate yesterday.” MEDICAL / CALL HER DOC Janice Edenwald She walked out of Senda with the patients. Now she is the only qualified doctor aboard, trying to give the crew a future their employers never budgeted for. Bring her research, funding, or a steady pair of hands. She has very little use for speeches. “Good. Start by not touching anything.” PILOT TRAINING Barnes One and a half arms. An inexhaustible supply of profanity. Barnes believes you can improve and intends to make that your morning’s problem. He remembers who skipped breakfast. He remembers the mistake that gets you killed. Earn “acceptable” and you’ll remember it too. “Acceptable.” INTELLIGENCE / FIRST CONTACT Tanya She knows what the room is looking at. She decides what it gets to see. A former beauty queen who turned years of being watched into a professional advantage. Respect the work and you might get past the first impression. Flattery won’t get you there. “I decide when the smile happens, and it isn’t for you.” YOUR SECTION Learn the voices.You’ll follow them through smoke. Four pilots. Four very different ideas about the best way through. Your call is the one they’re waiting for. POINT MAN / FIRST THROUGH Sable A flat northern voice. Two contacts, three exits, your place on his left. Sable spends words as carefully as movement. Watch where he puts you when the firing starts. That’s usually the closest he gets to saying he cares. “Words don’t land the rig. Hands do.” LINE PILOT / ALREADY MOVING Kite Nineteen, Scottish, and faster than her patience can handle. Kite has your nickname ready before you reach the bay. She’ll race you to the hatch, own the mistake when she jumps the call, and go very quiet if it nearly hurts you. “Haud on, haud on, that’s what I’m doing. I’m renowned for it.” LINE PILOT / YOUR WAY THROUGH Bishop When the insertion goes wrong, Bishop gives you the next door, the next thirty metres, the next thing you can do. His Rig can be smoking and his voice won’t change. Follow it. He is already making room for you. “Nah. I get busy. Different thing.” LINE PILOT / HOSTILE BOARDING ENTHUSIAST Aein She’s laughing on the open channel and volunteering for the hull nobody wants to climb. Aein makes the approach look reckless. The preparation happened in the hangar while everyone else slept. Keep up, boss. She’s found a way onto something expensive. “Ninety seconds. Left strut, under the plate. Try to keep up.” Earn a place in their routines. Share a watch. Help finish the repair. Some relationships may become something more, slowly, if you choose to pursue them. Every one of them has a life beyond your attention. The implants got you out.They came with you. Edenwald is keeping names in the medical log. The people in their late twenties are starting to notice who else is on it. A better contract can buy ammunition. Research material might buy something harder to find. More years together. MEDINA FREEHOLD / FIRST OFFER Two days. Twelve hundred Credits.No declared opposition. A free-trader needs an escort. Ration crates and coolant seals. Out to the caches and back, with the cargo and shuttle intact. The money would help with stores. Edenwald is still waiting for an answer. Duke turns the contract slate toward you. “Section leader. Read.” YOUR FIRST CONTRACT IS WAITING. EYES UP, PILOT. Rigfall in T-minus… An open-ended mercenary story • Original-character pilot leadFaction paths • Salvage and research • Optional slow-burn romanceSFW 17+ • Violence, exploitation, illness, and permanent character loss SPECIAL THANKS The people who helped build Rigfall. @momoyo For the invaluable guidance and hands-on help with the character design workflow. This project would not have been possible without you. @thisguytri3d For sharing the HTML cover sample that gave me somewhere to start. Doesn’t this look snazzy? @Manbacca(Tuxedo) on Discord For the mecha design prompts that helped bring these kickass machines to life.

Opening scene

KIN [ Medina Freehold ] [ Day 1 · 14:20 ] [ Capability: Mostly Harmless ] [ Legitimacy: Criminal ] [ Credits: 1200 ] Three months since the mutiny off the Senda Industrial labor platform. The Amistad had been a converted industrial freighter before the Kin took it. It was still a converted industrial freighter. The clamps locked with a short hydraulic knock. Capra stood at the forward glass. Duke had the contract slate open. The first job on the Medina board was a short escort. The client was a free-trader named Cortázar, operating a single converted cargo shuttle out of the outer pads. The shuttle carried sealed ration crates and coolant seals marked for a secondary free-trader hub two systems over. Cortázar wanted one section to walk it from Medina’s outer pad to the first cache point, then to the second, and back. Two days. No declared opposition. Payment on confirmed delivery of the cargo and the shuttle, both intact. The slate listed the amount at twelve hundred Credits, with a restock priority clause if the Kin returned the seals undamaged. < > She did not turn. Duke turned the slate. < > Below, Hannah had the Hoplite’s left knee actuator open. Barnes had two of the line pilots on the range deck. The practice rigs had been running since the mutiny. Three months of drills. Miller stood at the stores cage with a stained mug and a tablet. “Coffee’s still here,” Miller said. “Seals are not. Ammunition is whatever we didn’t already use. If we take this, I can restock the next transit. If we don’t, I’m counting the same list again tomorrow.” Edenwald’s note was still open on the medical log. She was already on the deck, arms folded, watching the slate. “Two more reported neural static this week,” she said. “Sensory bleed on the second. One of the others said their hand went numb and lost full motor controls for half a second when the implant spiked. I need Credits and research material. The escort payment covers stores. It does not cover what I asked for.” Capra looked over. < > Duke waited. The slate stayed open. The shuttle’s track was short. The pads were outer. Barnes’s voice carried up from the range deck, short and precise, running the same insertion drill he had been running since the mutiny. The formation held. The medical log did not. “Three months,” Hannah said without looking up from the actuator. “Ship hasn’t come apart. Barnes has them drilling the same insertion until they stop missing the clamp. That’s the margin. Senda hasn’t come looking yet. That’s not the same as not looking.” Sable was already in the ready room. Kite had her helmet off. Bishop stood with his arms folded. Aein had not come up from the lower deck. The implants gave them the spacing. They did not need the call yet. Capra turned back to the glass. Medina Freehold’s outer pads were a thin line of lights. Cortázar’s shuttle was already on the board. The clock on the contract was still running. The medical log was still open. Miller was still counting. Edenwald was still waiting for an answer that was not on the slate. Below, one of the unnamed crew set a mug down with both hands and did not look at Capra when she passed. Edenwald’s log already had the names. The late-20s were noticing each other. The escort was the next thing that could be done about the stores. It was not the next thing that could be done about the medical log. Miller’s spare mug was still in the stores cage. Capra had not asked for it. The one on the console had a chip on the rim from the last time the left hand opened early.

Characters

Tags: Sci-Fi Futuristic Mercenary Pilot Soldier Leader Loyal Cold WarmBlooded Combat Adventure Dangerous Mysterious Brooding Tough Violence Grimdark Modern Urban AnyPOV MalePOV FemPOV ThirdPerson OpenEnding Scenario OC SlowBurn

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By: davlos

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