Adventure 6 – The Gate of Shatoom Rys

BASICS

The Sley’eth of the Marshid Rel System

The PCs arrive on the Sley’eth new home world, as assigned by their Imperial Overmasters.  The Sley’eth Royals have a minor job for the PCs to investigate.  THey have been receiving anomalous signals as well as strange energy flares and patterns coming from the Shatfrag Nebula, just a few light years from their system.

The Sley’eth have known for years that there is a “dead” system inside the Nebula, however, no one dared explore it. The chaotic nebular seems to mirror the nature of the Shatterzone.  It is a mystery to all who study it.  It contains masses of proto-star gases, dark matter, and other strange particles.  Also inside this strange nebular is a long dead system, Shatoom Rys.

GIMMICK

The PCs must face off against a contingent of Drake and their massive self aware tank.  Alien future tech will be like nothing the PCs have ever face.  They will also learn of the Marines original mission.  If they can get the Marines back through the temporal rift with the dreadnaught, they could turn the tide of the future war.

ENIGMA

About Shatfrag Nebula

Shatoom Rys 2 is a dead, barren world with ruins of ancient alien cities and littered with ancient artifacts.  It was once home to a alien race that experimented with gate and teleportation technology.  It was a thriving civilization with millions of brings.  The Shatfrag Nebula did not exist at this time.  It was their experimentation lead to disaster, the creation of the Shatfrag Nebula, and the destruction of their civilization.

One of their experimental gates catastrophically malfunctioned, releasing uncontrolled bursts of spacial/temporal rifts.  Millions of their population were swept up and vanished in this rifts.  The rest died for the extreme radiation.  The civilization was utterly destroyed.  Once the gate’s wormhole stabilized, the other side materialized deep inside the Shatterzone, pulling ‘Zone matter through to the other end.  The system slowly became engulfed in Shatterzone gases and matter, forming the Shatfrag Nebula.

The wormhole remained stable until recently.  It worsened when a highly ionized chunk of dark matter collided with a planetoid on the ‘Zone side.  This radiated the planet on the other side of the gate and the wormhole fluctuated erratically.  It not only broke through space, but time as well.  temporal rifts pulsated from both ends, pulling in things from the future and the past – primarily innate matter but one was the Drake Dreadnought, killing the crew.

The temporal rift stabilized finally fixed in the far future during the largest war the galaxy has ever seen.  Fleet’s successor in the far future is battling with the Drake – an alien race that rivals the Armagons.

Also through the temporal rift is a heavily damage future-Fleet battleship, containing a small elite team of Marines – Gamma Squad or the Slaggers – the only survivors of the temporal trip.  They remain in their sleeper pods, the only reason they survived.  The battleship was engaged against the Dreadnaught, with a mission to capture the ship.  They needed the tech on the ship to turn the tide of the war.

Marines from the future are virtually super soldiers compared to modern marines.  They are larger and stronger.  Their squad leader is Major Gash Morrison, and his second in command is Sergeant Major Sabrina “Ace” McGuenna.  The highest ranking regular  Corporeal Jabron “Edge” Casal.

Slagger Assault Rift – CM-110 TYGR Assault System

• Gatling Assault Cannon (32 damage)
• Undermount Mini Anti-personnel missiles (38 damage)
• Undermount LIght Bolter Cannon, controlled Plasma burst (34 damage)
• Force Blade bayonet (adjustable)

Slagger Armor – light weight, power armor suit (TOU: +15/40.  320 kg.  +2 AGL based difficulties, +4 to all vision based checks.)

• Integrated plasma laser in wrists
• Integrated force sword in arms
• Integral-stored light repeating plasma laser rifle in leg, quick release holster
• An array of vision and sensory enhancements with psionic enhancement drug injector

The Future

The battleship and the dreadnaught are from over 850 years in the future, during the time of the Third Consortium.  The Marines represent the Consortium Space Fleet Marines. They refer to the Shatterzone as the “First ‘Zone,” indicating there are others.

Timeline (years from present)

• +57  – The Aramgons will commence a full scale invasion into the Inner Frontier, starting with attacking the Ishantran.
• +90 – Ishantran near extinct, pass on their genetic engineering secrets to the humans, who then use it to create super soldiers.  The Glahn, outrages by the humans would use Ishantran tech, break all ties from the humans and the Consortium.  The First Consortium is dissolved.
• +112 – After enslaving most of the bolter races, the Aramgons begin their first war against what is left of the Consortium, targeting primarily human space.
• +241 – The First Amagon war ends with the majority of Human space destroyed and taken over by the Armagons.
• +281 – Pockets of humanity begin the First Terran Rebellion.
• +336 – Second Armagon War begins
• +421 – End of the Second Armagon War and the beginning of the Second Consortium of Worlds.
• +502 – Third Armagon War begins
• +628 – End of the Third Armagon War and the destruction of the last Armagon stronghold world.
• +775 – Formation of the Third Consortium of Worlds and the Consortium Fleet.
• +862 – Start of the Drake War.