I would like to design a Dark Heresy Campaign centered around the plot of the movie "Hunter Prey." But as a first time DM I am going to need some help streamlining everything. For those of you who haven't watched the movie: Hunter Prey, you're missing out. I highly recommend it. To me it is a cross between Enemy Mine and Star Wars, and it lends itself PERFECTLY to the 40K universe. Again, I highly recommend you watch it, (it's available on netflix streaming) but here is a trailer and a quick plot synopsis:

youtu.be/h3aOB444D6A (Trailer)

Here's a quick synopsis:

THE MISSION...

Hunter Prey centers around a group of elite intergalactic commandos that have crash-landed on a harsh and unknown planet while transporting an alien prisoner. Now they must track down and recapture the escaped creature, and their orders are to bring it in ALIVE.
The soldiers begin to question their orders while finding themselves at a severe disadvantage, not being able to harm the prisoner. The team starts getting picked off, one by one, by their dangerous adversary, until the odds become even.
With one soldier remaining, he's faced with a decision. Does he risk his life playing the creature's game or does he disobey his orders and kill it. The realization he comes to, after finding out why his superiors want the prisoner alive and why the alien is trying to escape, starts to change the way he thinks not only about his situation, but himself, as he finds out who's really hunting whom?

Chew on that and I will submit my write up of the campaign later tonight. For the time being I have a date.

It's an interesting idea. How many players are in your group? I think it could be difficult doing something like this without killing off other players characters, which never really goes down well. If you're doing a one-off game then go for it, but I wouldn't be impressed if I had to roll up a new campaign character after one mission.

For one offs it's good fun to kill all the characters, but usually they all go with a bang. Being the first to snuff it makes for a boring evening if it goes on for a while.

Okay, I am finished writing up the proposed plot. Any questions, concerns, or suggestions are appreciated.

I am imagining the plot goes as follows: (note not all information below is necessarily given to players depending on the party's choices.)

• The party has recently finished a minor assignment on a remote backwater planet and must now find a way to return to their home world. As they investigate they realize that the only chance they have of returning home any time soon is via a small prison ship that was traveling through this part of the system and stopped to resupply. The party can attempt to board by several means. First, they can attempt to commandeer the ship (VERY DIFFICULT). Second, can attempt to sneak on board and stow away, (also very difficult, and also very dangerous.) Third, they can pay/bribe their way on board, an option which is both expensive and difficult. The easiest and most obvious path however is for the party to offer their services as additional security force for the prison ship as it finishes its trip home.
• Once on ship and in transit any investigation will reveal the following facts: there is a small group of prisoners onboard and a skeleton crew which includes a couple of guards and an Imperial Agent tasked with ensuring the prisoners safe and secure arrival. Further investigation reveals that the mission is top secret and that the prisoners have some tremendous but mysterious value. Any further questioning is fruitless since the crew doesn’t actually know anything, and the Agent isn’t inclined to share. Investigating the prisoners themselves is also fruitless since their identities are shrouded by rough robes and harsh iron masks. Even their species or gender cannot be discerned. It is also unknown what, if anything, they are guilty of since the masks make communication between prisoners and crew impossible.
• As luck would have it there is a malfunction and the ship crashes on a harsh deserted desert planet. Most of the crew is killed during the crash save the party, a couple expendable NPC's (including an imperial agent) and of course some if not all of the prisoners.
• Once they awaken, the party realizes that the prisoners take advantage of the accident and flee into the harsh and barren desert wilderness. If they choose to investigate further, the party will realize that the prisoners have killed several NPC guards and their weapons. Further investigation into the wreckage itself will reveal a pair of small communication devices. Ultimately, the party will split the devices between one party member and the Imperial Agent. Initially the Agent is able to gain communication with the authorities off planet. However, after reporting their situation, due to either the remoteness of the planet, or damage sustained during the crash, the communication devices lose the ability to broadcast off planet. They continue however to be useful for localized communication.
• The Agent instructs the party that it is of paramount importance for the prisoners to be recaptured. He also stresses even more enthusiastically the importance of the prisoners survival above all else, even their own lives. Pressed for more information, the Agent admits that these creatures are the last of their kind, from a planet the Empire had recently destroyed and that they were being brought back to planet X for interrogation. Further questioning is again fruitless as the agent is either unwilling or incapable of divulging further. Regardless, the agent insists that the group search for and recapture the prisoners.
• As they search for their quarry, the party notices that any NPC who splits off from the group, even momentarily, never returns. Investigation reveals dead bodies that have been stripped of all weapons. Any party member’s character or characters who choose to split off from the group will also be attacked, but in a less concerted way. Any attempt to press combat by the party will cause the prisoners to flee.
• Tension increases and some NPC suggests going against orders and killing the prisoners. If the party agrees to this, the eventually they will have to fight the agent. If they disagree they will fight some of the remaining crew members. Regardless, soon, only the party and couple crew members and the prisoners remain.
• Soon, especially if they figure out some way to communicate with the prisoners (a number of ways are possible, both peaceful and violent), the Party learns that the prisoners are in possession of knowledge regarding a weapon (a cloaked ship filled with enough explosives to destroy a planet) that is on its way to destroy their home planet.
• As they investigate the party finds that the prisoners, while obviously dangerous, seem to be in a fairly pitiable situation. Their home world has been destroyed, their family’s killed, and now it is being transported to party's home world to be tortured.
• The two groups should at this point begin partisan fight and flight style combat. By this point the prisoners will have freed themselves from their masks (by looting a key off of a dead guard) and the Party will realize that the Prisoners are neither alien nor cultist, but instead mutated human. Prisoners however, begin to display further traces of humanity by intentionally ignoring chances to kill/harm the party and attempting communication.
• Eventually a small group of mercenaries show up. Initially they succeed/attempt to capture the prisoners. But once they realize the prisoners value, the mercenaries decide to kill the prisoners themselves, so that the empire, whom they have no love for, will endure a serious blow. At this point, neither the prisoners, nor the players can defeat the mercenaries by themselves, however, working together should cause the mercenaries to be easily defeated.
• Following the destruction of the mercenaries, the Imperial Agent will reignite aggression between the Party and the prisoners. If/once the Party manages to capture the prisoners. They can attempt to gain coordinates and other information through speech or torture. Torture, will produce little beneficial results, but at least one prisoner will succumb to speechcraft.
• It is at this point, with the prisoners captured, the party regains communication with the outside world. This is because an imperial ship is nearing arrival in order to pick them up. When the party reports the cooperation, and HQ’s requests the coordinates. The cooperative prisoner however refuses to provide the code to the party, insisting he/she will only share it directly with Imperial Intelligence via the communications link, which will only work for someone with clearance.
• If the party provides access to the link, the prisoner will confess the coordinates to HQ and HQ will confirm destruction of the cloaked ship. Once confirmed HQ will admit that with the threat to the planet gone, the prisoners are now useless and will order the party to execute the prisoners. Additionally, the ship and informs the party that communication with the ship and HQ will be lost as the ship enters orbit.
• The prisoners will now attempt to persuade the party to release them to their fate on the desert planet rather than kill them. The party must decide between mercy and following orders. If the party has mercy the prisoners will flee. If the party refuses mercy, the prisoners will attempt to escape/fight their way to freedom. Either way, at least one of the prisoners will successfully achieve freedom. However, one of the remaining prisoners will admit that the cloaked ship was in fact a decoy, and that the real explosive cloaking ship was never launched because the prisoner’s race had no idea where the important imperial planets were located. But now that they had access to the Empire’s Network, they were free to send the weapon ship wherever they please.
• It is now up to the party to stop the remaining prisoners from escaping. The prisoners can escape either by surprising and overwhelming the incoming transportation vessel, or they can chose to use the mercenary ship. If the party is successfully able to stop the prisoners from fleeing, then all is good and the mission is over. If not, they must choose whichever ship has not been taken and pursue the escaped prisoners. Either way the mission ends with the leaving the planet.
• If the prisoners escaped the next campaign their mission will be to locate and stop the mutant. If the prisoners were defeated the next campaign will be something new entirely.

So what do you guys think? Any questions or concerns? What would you recommend I use as the *prisoners* from a mechanics point of view? or from a plot line point of view. At this point I am thinking either some type of Cultists or some type of Mutants... I like the Cultist idea because they could easily remeld back into Human society, but on the other hand, it's kind of hard to sympathize with a prisoner who worships the god war and death or rot and corruption. On the other hand, a group of mutants would be much easier to sympathize with but it might be more difficult for them to "reintegrate" into society as a means of escape for further plot line......... what suggestions do you blokes have?