Grakkan Games

(8 episodes)

 

Stan and Jeff find themselves in some sort of large gladiatorial arena. They are about to be attacked by one of the combatants, when the game is halted. They are escorted from the playing area and meet Lord Estral.

The year is 2350. Estral is the governor of this planet (Regai) and informs Stan and Jeff that the most popular form of entertainment on the vidnet in all of Grakkan’s Union (a series of planetary systems) are the Grakkan Games. There are many forms of the games, but all involved gladiatorial combat of one form or another. Estral assumes Stan and Jeff appeared due to a transmat malfunction and agrees to give them transport off-world. Stan and Jeff are escorted to a shuttle, but are instead taken to a closed off building of some sort, where they are transmatted to an unknown interior location. There are vidnet screens on the walls and they announce a new death match featuring contestants Stan and Jeff!

They are to face Team Impressive, lead by Captain Impressive. Other members of the team are Galeforce, The Kid, and Doombringer. Stan and Jeff realize they’ll have to go through the combat area if they have any hope of finding there way out of this predicament. The area is set up like a maze of various corridors and rooms.

They first meet Galeforce, who corners them on a walkway high above a near-bottomless shaft. Galeforce is a half-human, half-Distari and is able to create and control wind/air. She creates a small cyclone which blows Jeff off the walkway to his death.

Her power weakened, Stan chases Galeforce off. He continues on alone.


Galeforce
 

 

He meets two other contestants in the death match, a human military pilot named Arthur, and a humanoid wanderer named Woan. They agree to join forces to escape the death match. After wandering for a while, they meet The Kid in a large room filled with crates and a transmit pad. The Kid has telepathy and controls Woan, telling him to attack Arthur. Stan distracts The Kid and he loses his hold on Woan. The Kid calls forth Doombringer from an amulet and a large demon-type alien appears. Arthur shoots The Kid, killing him and after a fight that leaves Woan unconscious, Doombringer disappears.
Stan re-programs the transmit pad and has it take them out of the kill area into a waiting zone where they can watch the various cameras on numerous vidnet monitors. They discover a room with transmits and are accosted by security guards. Leaving the guards unconscious, the group steals the guards’ hover car and attempt to escape. Captain Impressive appears in the car (using a personal transmit device) and captures the group. They are brought before Lord Estral who exclaims their escape was a ratings winner! Instead of sending them back into the match, the rights to the group have been bought by an off-worlder. Stan and his new companions are brought aboard a fancy ship where they are taken away from Regai. Their benefactor turns out to be a Time Lord named Malarn. Malarn is a member of the High Council and he explains that Stan’s TARDIS was found on a deserted asteroid with numerous Dalek casings and old debris. Malarn returns the TARDIS to Stan on the promise that Stan will come to the High Council’s aid when called upon. Stan agrees and is at least happier to be working for the High Council rather than I-Branch. Arthur agrees to go with Stan (thinking he might be able to use some of this amazing technology for military means) as does Woan, who is a wanderer and is fascinated with the thought of travelling through time and space. The TARDIS arrives on the French cruise ship “Paris” in 1921, and Stan notices that there are three tickets on the control console of the TARDIS. Have the Time Lords sent them here?

 

 

This story was based on the collectible card game “Ophidian 2350”, in particular the storyline “Grakkan’s Union” by Chris Heffernan (me) and Andrew Powers. Read more about “Ophidian 2350” and “Grakkan’s Union” here:

 

http://clientes.netvisao.pt/kronnax/p1.htm

 

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