Did You Drop Something?

BASICS

Planet: Arias III

Day: 46 hours (12 hour day, 34 hour night, due to the odd orbits of the moon)

Developing world, noninterference quarantined on the fringe of the Frontier.

Inhabitants: Tarogians – pre-industrial race of nocturnal amphibians.  They primarily live in flooded underground caverns.

Pirates have attacked a STREEL cargo ship, the Drelyas Ride – a military contracted ship paid to transport UPF military cargo.  PCs, enroute to somewhere, receive the Drelyas Ride’s distress call and are obligated to investigate by law.

The ship is under attach by three pirate corvettes and one frigate.  The PCs ship enters the battle just in time to see the Drelyas Ride crew abandon ship.  All hands eject in escape pods and the cargo is ejected from the bay.  The ship then detonates, destroying the assailants who were closing in to board.  Some pods as well as the cargo pods are pulled in by the gravity of the nearby world, Arias III.

The PCs pick up whatever pods they can, once of which holds the captain.  He says that he is obligated to recover his crew and the cargo.  He needs the players help to do that.  He warns that the planet is under noninterference quarantine, however.

PULL

The PCs are sent down with a minimum amount of tech and weapons to recover the survivors and the cargo.   Sensors show that the survivors and cargo splashed down on an ocean just off the coast of one of the continents.  They apparently washed ashore and need to be found.

PUSH

On planet, the PCs can not initially find the cargo.  On the beach, they find three escape pods opened and empty as well as some traces of blood.  Tracking reveals that there was more than just Tarogians there – booted feet of Alliance origin.  Tarogians were also there.  Each pod contains a locator scanner used to find the pods and cargo.  It reads that the cargo is still in the ocean but moving.

GIMMICK

As the PCs investigate further chasing down the moving cargo, they will be notified that the STREEL has decided divulge what kind of cargo they are chasing.  Inside the cargo container is a bio-chemical weapon that failed in development.  It has the potential of rendering the entire planet uninhabitable.

The also determine that the pirates have set up a base on this planet – on the small island (about 25000 sq. km.) they are on. There is a small security/staff unit stationed in a high-security facility.  They have enslaved some of the local s with cybernetics.

The head of the pirate group – the Khan Skayth Aq’iius Slithum – is a cybernetically enhanced genetically enhanced Sathar who survived the final war.  He and his kind served the Pirate Alliance to survive.  He actually has some Sirisian genetics in him, thus his extra arms and more “slithery” mode of locomotion. Skayth, during the war, became somewhat of an expert on the modifications made to him and applied them to the locals here.  There are three other Sathar types in the pirate group.

The pirate “tribe” consists of (roll 1d10 three times to determine the three types)

1. Yazirian
2. Huamans
3. Urtoran
4. Halogai’
5. Dralasite
6. Ifshnit
7. Vrusk
8. Torani
9. Skaniis
10. Standard Sathars

The Khan Skayth Aq’iius Slithum has established himself as a divine being among his tribe, feeding his megalomania.  He has created a society based on his religious status – a complete theocracy – over the locals of the island, who fanatically follow him.  The local Tarogians tribes actually give sacrifices in his honor, in hopes he will keep the “darkness full and long.“

GIMMICK

STREEL was hired by the UPF to dispose of the weapon, however, STREEL had other plans.  They decided to fake its destruction and steal the real thing for their own use.  The Drelyas Ride had already faked the disposal and was on its way to a rendezvous with another STREEL ship. That is when they were attacked.  The UPF has only recently been informed that the cargo has been stolen.  They sent a ship to hunt down the Drelyas Ride and seize the cargo.

Unfortunately, during the attack, the cargo container was breached and some of the crew was contaminated.  The bio-chemical agent causes massive mutations in any organics that it comes in contact with. It is transferable via body fluids.  Several survivors are starting to show symptoms of the agent even now.