Adventure: The War Years 2 – Defector

BASICS

Time: A year or two after the Sauron Rebellion.

Patron:  UPF Military Intelligence contract

The PCs are to rendezvous with a Sauron traitor who is seeking political asylum in the Frontier.  In exchange, he will provide military secrets.  They must secretly meet with him while his unit in on a salvage mission to an abandoned space station orbiting an outpost world in a system six light years from Rhianna – Cassdee system.  The dead outpost world – Cassdee 4 –  was being mined by CDC during the Expansion and it continued to prosper until the Sauron Rebellion.  The Saurons invaded the system and took over the planet soon after.  They have since abandoned it, but on occasion, return to salvage supplies from the Station.

(Secret mission, one PC) One PC is given the assignment to destroy the station, regardless of the other mission’s results.  This PC is one that the UPF feels they can trust or can manipulate.  They don’t tell the others because they do not want them curious about what might be on the station or why they want it destroyed.

They are told to take the assigned assault sout, a dn rendezvous with Task Force Drysdale on the Sauron front.  The task force will get the PCs to the Cassdee system.  Cassdee is considered to be in no-man’s-land along the front.

PULL

The PCs are freelancers hired though MercCo or GTF to the UPF.  They will be paid well.

The PCs will be loaded up on an assault scout at Crune Garu and given a fighter escort to the Jump Point.  Upon dropping out of the Void, they enter into the most active fronts of the War against the Saurons.  The Assault Scout stumbles upon a Sauron fighter patrol.  After a couple of rounds of combat with the fighters, UPF fighter come to the rescue.  The Task Force Drysdale awaits inside an asteroid field that lies along the current frontline of the war.

PUSH

Front Line Horror (sub-adventure)

Basics: While docked on the flagship UPFS Alexandria, there is an “accident” aboard the light cruiser UPFS Amber Crown. The captain – Captain Edmonton Marrow, a human – will send a mayday, requesting assistance.  Many of his crew are dead (45%). He needs help repairing the damage and saving his ship. {as motivation, the GM can insert someone on the ship that a PC knows personally}.

Pull: One of the Amber Crown’s engine nessels exploded and the other three are severely damaged.  She is slowly drifting deeper into the asteroid field and at risk of slamming into a large stable asteroid.  Not only is this a risk to the Amber Crown, it is a risk to the rest of the fleet, creating a cascade effect and destabilizing the asteroid field.  Additionally, Captain Marrow long ago ordered all escape pods bays replaced with more torpedo tubes.  He was heard saying, “If the Sauron’s don’t use them, why should we?”  No crew can escape.    Task Force Commander T’lisk Marisk’Atai (Vrusk) requests assistance from the PCs.

Gimmick:  There is a saboteur – a Sauron passing as a human has set charges with the intent of destroying the Amber Crown (so he thinks.)  He was not told the entire Sauron plan, however.  He was simply given four charges to set on each of the engine nessels.  However, in truth, only two of the four charges were real.  The intent was to set the ship into a spin and before it crashed into an asteroid, capture it.  The  Amber Crown  is in fact the secondary tactical command ship, used in case the Alexandria is destroyed.  The tactical data on that ship would help the Saurons destroy the Task Force.  Only one charge actually went off.  The Saurons, confused, is frantically trying to get the rest of the charges to explode.  He has discovered that the two were fakes but the one left is real and he is working on that one to complete his mission.  The Saurons are waiting for the Amber Crown to drift behind an asteroid to shield it from the rest of the task force before they board it with specially design tractor beam fighters and a breaching assault scout.

The PCs will have to get to the saboteur before he finishes his job (after discovering there is one) or better the board party when they are boarded.  Optional:  If they are captured by the board party, the Sauron defector helps them escape but can not leave with them.  “See you at the station“

Cassdee Mining Space Station Alpha

The PCs will be dropped into a debris field a few dozen kilometer in long range from the space station space suits by a stealth assault scout.  They are give four (4) standard days to get the defector off the station.  They are asked to bring a limited amount of supplies (because of the limited amount of storage space on the space suits.)  TO reduce the EM signature (and prevent detection) they are asked to minimize the number of active electronics and energy weapons they carry.

The station has no gravity, but he PCs are given magna-boots.  The Saurons are to arrive 25 hours after the PCs.  They are at the station to salvage electronics and should take at least 3 days to do it.

GIMMICK

Kzin Stealth Ship – the Kzin ship carries a crew of four warriors sent to capture the Sauron defector.  From what they have learned about the Saurons, a defector in the ranks could mean a very important breakthrough in the Sauron genetic or social code.  They were genetically designed to be their master’s soldiers.  But they broke away from that.  And now, they are breaking from their new philosophy.  Could this mean the UPF could regain control of the Saurons and gain a new ally against the Kzin?  That can’t happen.

Station Orbital Decay – The station has slowly been falling towards Cassdee-4 for a while now, and with the added mass of additional ships, and the additional personnel, the station could begin to decay faster.  The Kzin know this and may attempt to force the station down to kill everyone, if needed.  NOTE:  There are lifepods aboard.

Cassdee Mining Facility – On planet, there is a small and simple abandoned mining facility.  With a little work, life support and basic systems can be reinitiated and operational.  There is also a small shuttle on the surface.  There is also a small contingent of semi-self aware robotic miners (currently shutdown) that can be brought back online and used.