Players’ Information:

An agent of the ruling noble of the subsector, Her Grace Duchess Estelle du Mere, contacts the characters. Sir Nolan Stannar is a member of the nobility who is well into middle age, recently retired from the Imperial Marines. He engages in small talk for a while, providing a round of refreshments while comparing military service histories, but soon comes to the point.

“Her Grace,” he says with a more formal tone, “is well into her second century of life and is preparing to retire from the Moot. In light of her exemplary service to the Imperium, the Duke of this sector has allowed her to select her replacement from among the nobility of the subsector. Her Grace has no relatives remaining to allow for a more… normal means of succession; so she has a short list of candidates.”

“The problem to Her Grace’s mind is that none of the most acceptable candidates has ever truly been tested by dire circumstances. Therefore, she has decided to stage such an event aboard her yacht – which has been specially fitted with extensive surveillance gear so Her Grace may make a full assessment of the candidates under such conditions.”

“Countess Yvette du Marisone, Marquis Kei Chang and Baron Lars von Helgard are currently bound for this world aboard Her Grace’s yacht. Her Grace intends for you to pose as members of a local group of pirates and stage an attack and boarding of the vessel. She will provide you a spacecraft and weapons loaded with non-lethal ammunition for this task.”

“The crew of the yacht is aware of this ploy, staging a slight delay on their last port of call to send word ahead. Their weapons will also be loaded with non-lethal ammunition, though they will endeavor to miss you so as to keep the façade going as long as possible. You will raid the ship, disarm the nobles without giving yourselves away, take valuables and pretend to kill the crew toward the end.”

“Before you can pretend to kill the nobles, you will depart indicating that the authorities are on their way. Once you are clear of the yacht, the crew will inform the nobles of the deception and upon your return to this world, you will each be paid Cr 50,000 and be provided a high passage for your trouble.”

He pauses to crack his knuckles before continuing. “Let me be clear: none of the nobility aboard the yacht is to be harmed beyond a bruise, abrasion or minor cut. The crew is only to be attacked with the non-lethal weaponry provided to you and nothing else. Any permanent injury to anyone aboard the yacht will void the agreement and possibly result in legal action against the lot of you.”

If the characters agree to this unusual arrangement, Sir Nolan will escort them to the starport to a fast pinnace armed with a laser that has been purposefully set to be ineffective. The livery of the local pirate group is boldly emblazoned on its flanks and the characters are fitted with vacc-suits and the non-lethal weaponry – snub pistols loaded with tranq rounds and a spare magazine loaded with marking paint rounds colored the hue of fresh blood (to “finish off” the crew of the yacht).

Sir Nolan provides emergence coordinates for the yacht as the characters prepare to depart. “The yacht should emerge from hyperspace about twenty hours from now – plenty of time to get ready.” He smiles and winks. “Give them a good show,” he says as the spacecraft’s hatch closes.

Image from Pixabay – Public Domain

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Players’ Information:

The PCs are in hyperspace on a routine voyage when suddenly and violently, they exit hyperspace. This exit should be violent enough to cause moderate damage to their ship due to the unexpected drop from FTL travel. The cause of this jump failure is an unexpected gravity source that is intersecting their jump vector.

This gravity source is nothing more than a large rogue gas giant. Cast away from its originating solar system, this planet still spins quickly around its axis and has also managed to carry along some of its satellites. There are also three medium-sized moons (size 3-5) tidally locked in an elliptical orbit around this gas giant as well. Each possesses an exotic atmosphere, but they all still generate heat due to strong forces of gravity pulling on them creating geothermal energy and heat. This strong gravitic force makes sensor readings difficult, but not impossible.

As the players recover from their ordeal, a faint distress call is overheard coming from one of the moons. Upon close inspection, a starship is found crashed on the planet’s surface. It is hard to tell unless someone goes down on the moon’s surface, but the ship is still fairly intact. It is half-buried under a rocky mound of sand and gravel. There is a hazard to travelling on the surface of this moon, however. The geothermal activity causes frequent seismic tremors and quakes, making the sand and rocks treacherous. Also, radiation from the gas giant limits the amount of time on the surface, as the moon is tidally locked there is no relief from this exposure. No unprotected person should be allowed more than six hours of exposure before radiation damage occurs. Thirty-two hours of overall exposure without medical treatment could be fatal.

If the players decide to investigate further, they will find a 2,000 ton cryo-ship still operating on minimal power. This ship was going to be used to start a colony, but somehow it ended up here. The gravel and the ship’s hull protect these colonists from radiation exposure, but whoever survived the crash rigged up an ingenious way to harness the geothermal energy of the planet to the ship’s power plant. Many of the cryo-beds are damaged and the occupant has long since died, but thirty beds are still operational.

Rogue Planet – Image from Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 license

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Players’ Information:

Many centuries ago, Jafa’raltay’yar was a bustling Solomani colony world. It was divided between two religious groups that prayed to the same god, albeit under different names. Unfortunately, one of these groups took their religion much more seriously than the other, leading to an all-out war. Chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons were all used in the initial phase of hostilities, and over half the population was killed outright. Those who survived continued the conflict, fighting initially with planes and tanks, then with guns, and finally with sticks and stones. When the fighting ended, less than 1% of the planet’s pre-war population remained. Those who hadn’t died in direct combat fell victim to radiation, starvation, disease, and various hazards of the alien biosphere. Needless to say, the world was quarantined.

The PC’s are passing through the system, simply hoping to refuel at a nearby gas giant, however, the refueling operation is a little bumpy, and although they manage to acquire enough hydrogen to jump on to their next destination, there’s now a new problem. Their ship’s lanthanum grid is damaged. It can be repaired, but they need lanthanum, and the only conceivable place there would be any would be in the nuked ruins of the old starport. In short, they have to break the quarantine.

Image from Project Gutenberg – Public Domain

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Players’ Information:

During a layover on the planet Sands (UPP E363613-7 Amber Zone, Gas Giant), the players are contacted by Jae Bussi, an elderly parolee. He has information suggesting his former ship, The Grand Illusion, was never recovered after crew was captured. Jae is offering Cr 10,000 each as payment for recovering a special coin collection onboard, as well as a percentage of any special cargoes recovered.

Image from Wikimedia – Public Domain

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