Adventure and Encounters Outline

(1) Players are recruited by the Earth Alliance Space Exploration Agency (EASA)

(2) Players get to play with the capabilities of the ship first.  Ship can take off from earth to space using impulse engines.

(3) Players take their new ship out on a test run.

(4) Players decide which system they head off to.  Describe space environment as needed.  Describe ancient structures planet side.  Stuff to visit: orbital defenses, mars base, asteroid belt mining/refinery, system wide picket & solar mirror, moon base luna, orbital shipyards,

(5) In space, the players encounter the Iilari drones first.  They'll encounter a few drones, depending on how many players they are.  The drones will be shards.

(6) Players can run away or defeat the menace, and then possibly go down to the planet.

(7) At the planet, they can land near the ancient structures, nearby or elsewhere.

(8) When they start getting close to the ancient structures, they're attacked by Iilari mechanical guards.  The guards will also be shards.

(9) Once they get past the shards, they'll find evidence of an advanced shuttle, but looking like it could have been piloted by humans.  The ship looks it's not warp capable, but can go much faster than standard earth ship powered by impulse engines, and hitting .75c, without hurting the occupants.  The controls are also in English, but a somewhat archaic form.

[ Background ] : this is a ship being used by humans who were kidnapped by another race

called the Si-Dek, what we know as the Greys.  They are fighting a guerilla war against the Si-Dek, alongside other races that were kidnapped from their home worlds and came to investigate this planet which they believe holds a key to a weapon that will give them an advantage to winning the war.  The crew is being held at the ancient structures.

(10) When the party approach the structures, they're met by a heavier contingent of mechanicals.  They'll face shards and partial characters, the number which will be determined by how many players there are.

(11) Nearby is a structure that's holding the captive humans.  When interviewed, they tell their story.  Rescue?  Find more info?  Scout?  Leave?

(12) Large force coming from other side of planet – flee or hunker down?  Might be too much to fight?

(13) players could also find the less powerful weapon that’s on the planet and use that

(14) if players leave, fight their way out on the ground and space – done with adventure 1

(15) on earth, government wants more information – info about Iilari, power? Tech? how prevalent?  Extent of influence?  Allies? Neutrals?  Victims?  New goals: get better tech, manufacturing, materials/resources

(16) surprise!  Iilari have followed their Alcubierre chute to earth and invading, major force

(17) preliminary fight – surprise!  Enemy has hacked solar mirror, must fix

(18) Sol wants to strike back, but don’t know much about enemy, when will enemy strike next, can they strike again?  First mission still in effect, new goals: find out more about Iilari

(19) explore, but where and what method? Investigate the 5 star clue?  Are there any systems with 5 stars?  There are!  2, but quite far away, 50 light years away from earth and 30 from each other.  One named 6314 Noctae and the other named Aken, both with terrestrial planets but harsh conditions.

(20) explore either Noctae or Aken,but both are inhabited.  What is their society like?  Which society?  Romari Empire.   Must explore and negotiate with people there.  Lots of bureaucracy and bureaucrats.

(21) black market and underground opportunities.  Official government won’t know where the god of war is, but underworld might.  Need to contact cults and shady people.

(22) location is pinpointed but not without a price.  Party must do something for underworld cult.

(23) head to location of god of war.  Is in another dimension.  Guarded by something, put some obstacles in.  party finds out that it’s powered by the willing souls of innocents who are in constant pain, who are consumed when the weapon is used.   Moral dilemma.

Alternative: run the module: Assault on Singularity Base – Cypher Core System

(24) what about objective to bargain for access to new technology?  

(X) big idea for chapter 3: earth finds a massive ship, a space hulk.

(X) party wins tickets to a mysterious manufacturer of confectionaries.  Take-off on Charlie and the chocolate factory?

(X) research station on distant world has stopped responding.  Land and only kids there.  Reference “And the children shall lead” ST:TOS episode with Rogan the friendly angel.

(X) The crystal entity – how to destroy?  Should be a crippled starship somewhere.

(X) Hyperspace is scary – found an Alcubierre chute to Hell

(X) Utopian society hiding a dark secret – traps party, party has to fight its way out

(X) encounter with cybernetic dinosaur riding humans – Atlantean empire from long ago, try to stop them from signaling home base for a bigger fleet.  Use Predation creatures/etting.

(X) investigate super soldier formula – it turns out the formula is eventually deadly to the user

(X) super/extreme cypher or artifact is making fictional characters from TV come to life

(X) planetovore / planet eater at the edge of Pax Romari space – warp capable.

(X) escort new colony ship to new star systems

(X) diplomatic team being sent to Romari Pax to get treaty for new materials science exchange.  Get terms favorable to earth?

(X) Need to buy exotic matter for experimentation, maybe found in special planet in space.

(X) ghost ships – need to placate spirits

(X) encounter ships w/cold sleeping aliens.  They’re nazi aliens.  They try to take a few ships.

(X) Eloi vs Morlocks, utopian society being fed on by underground race.

(X) space Atlantean empire conspires w/earth cultists to take over government.  Destabilize and manipulate elections.

(X) Space pirates wait for ship at Alcubierre node – betrayal by someone on earth?

(X) Elvis is everywhere – elvis sightings are way up – why?  Who is responsible?

(X) treaty with primitive aliens to acquire exotic matter materials available only on that planet.  Other empires want in.

TODO – galactic map of territories / systems and relative distance to earth and each other

TODO – system maps of times and distances of planets and orbits

Secret Background

Unbeknownst to humanity in general, the galaxy at large is inhabited by numerous intelligent races.  Some of the races are peaceful, others are after economic interests, while many are actively hostile.  The first race that humanity discovers are the Illari, a mechanical space-faring race.

== The Illari ==

The Illari are interested in resources for mining, energy and others. Because the players have no way to communicate with the Illari, they attempt to get rid of the interlopers.  There is a way to communicate with the Illari, but currently only the Si-Dek can do so with their

technology.

The Illari are constantly searching for resources, mining and building the infrastructure to keep on mining for metals, minerals and energy resources that may or may not be better than fusion.  Their goals are inscrutable to the other races, but it looks like what they do is strip mine systems bare of resources, taking them all to an unknown location.  While the Illari are not an overtly strong military power, they will fight back.  Their weapons are not particularly innovative, but they have a lot of them as

well as a lot of platforms.

When the Illari first make their incursion into a system is the easiest time to drive them away.  When they are entrenched and have been mining for a long time, there are many more ships than can be easily handled, with their massive mining lasers slicing apart ships like a hot knife through butter.  There are also their solar mirrors that focus light onto asteroids

that can be easily redirected to invading ships.  However, all of this needs time to set up correctly.  It generally takes the Illari 20 years to set everything up.

== The Si-Dek ==

The Si-Dek are a race familiar with humanity and planet earth, having been to the planet many times in the last millenia, taking whatever they want and experimenting on whomever they like.  This is the race known as the Greys to human conspiracy theorists. As of late, this has been a lot more difficult to do, as humanity has expanded into space and they can no longer operate so openly. However, they have stealth sytems that are far in advance of what humanity can detect or comprehend.  They don't want to be found as they are not militarily strong.

The Si-Dek have a slave force of humans who know how to operate their ships.  However, a number of humans have escaped with some of their military ships and hidden away, waging a

guerilla war with the Si-Dek.  Unfortunately, the human resistance do not have a good way of maintaining those ships, and while they have scored some big victories against the Si-Dek, their ships are breaking down and there is no way to replace them other than to steal more ships from the Si-Dek.

The Illari are not interested in the human resistance, having goals that are utterly alien in purpose.

The Si-Dek have also kidnapped other primitive races from their home planets and have trained them to use their technology and ships.  These range from sophisticated urban dwelling human-like races, feline races, reptilian savages,

and even more bizarre life forms.

== The Travellers ==

These aliens have never actually shown their true forms.  What they usually do is warp into a system, broadcast a signal in all of the known frequencies and platforms that they are willing to trade.  Their gigantic ships are protected by a multitude of large,

medium and small drones.  Those who have attempted to attack the Travellers have seen their systems destroyed and their culture wiped from the Galaxy. Their technology and fighting technology is based on Von-Neumann techniques that replicate destroyed ships as the battle rages, so that as an engagement continues to happen, they get stronger.  However, so long as they are not molested, they are completely peaceful and are willing to trade in knowledge and materiel.

== The Romari Empire ==

The Empire is a vast collection of smaller states,

each paying homage to the Pax Romari.  Each of these systems, states and principalities had at one time been an independent polity, but through either conquest or treaty, became part of the Empire. The ruling race is a synthetic race of mind-linked beings, whose consciousness spans the length of the galaxy. However, each individual retains their own personality,

each one contributing to their overmind that they call the In'orai, their word for the concept of a god.  The In'orai insists that they are just one member of the Empire, though, even as they fulfill all of the administrative functions and duties of said Empire. The physical form of the In'orai is a floating octopus surrounded by a band of microscopic impulse engines.  They are said to have psychic powers of both the mental and physical kind.

(1) Recruitment by EASA

The players are recruited by the Earth Alliance Space Exploration Agency (EASA)

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko speaks --

"The Earth Alliance Space Exploration Agency is proud to have you join their team.  I don't know if you've seen the news, but we've found the secret to folding space and in effect travelling faster than the speed of light.  With the new sources of power, portable fusion and the like, we can finally have a ship that can take us out of the system that's not the size of an asteroid.  We've found what we call 'golden systems' that can be reached within a short period of time.  These are not guaranteed successes.  We've given you the choice of which systems you'd like to investigate first."

"Your mission parameters are such: map the systems, figure out what the anomalies we're seeing are, get as much information as you can, and then come back here.  The ship we've built for you isn't a luxury liner, but it will do what you need it to.  It can take off from planetside, go up to .5c in normal space, but you'll be VERY uncomfortable when it does.  We put governors in it to prevent it from splattering you all over its insides.  You'll have plenty of water and food, though, made by the synthesizers.  It's not exactly gourmet food, but you'll survive.  Good luck!"

"Now, any questions?"

<answer questions by players as appropriate>

What about weapons?

Space Marine General Takashi Komuro speaks --

"You'll be outfitted with a few small arms.  Longarm slug throwers and energy weapons, as well as in their pistol forms.  We have a few heavy weapons such as rocket powered grenade launchers, but they're only to be

used in extreme emergencies.  Energy weapons are probably best to be used inside the ship and really, on any orbital facilities that you find yourselves in"

What about defensive systems?

Space Marine General Takashi Komuro speaks:

"Your ship has a few weapon systems on-board, and we have a few automated targeting systems, but they will be more effective with

one of you using them.  We don't expect problems or hostile beings, but in case there are .. things, well, they're here for your use. In space, depending on what ship you choose, you can use guided missiles, lasers and particle beams.  The missiles use similar impulse drives that your ship does, but of much lower range, of course.  The particle beams and lasers are of course, light speed."

What about small arms or infantry weapons?

Space Marine General Takashi Komuro speaks:

"We don't have the technology to outfit you with man-portable particle beam weaponry that will do more damage than your standard slug throwers, rocket launchers or laser weaponry.  If you find evidence of advanced alien life forms, you are to acquire their technology, peacefully if at all possible."

Protocols for meeting space faring life forms?

Professor David Kei Takishima speaks:

"If they're peaceful, try to get recordings of your interaction with them. Try to find out why they're here and what they want.  If they're not .. try to get away.  If you can't outrun them, blow them out of the sky."

What systems will we be exploring?

Astrohysicist Rin Hoshizora speaks:

"We have identified 3 star systems that have the characteristics for the possibility of life.  They're all within 15-20 light years away.

Your ships will be journeying out to beyond 882 million miles away from Sol in order for the warp drives to work.  That will take 1 month for our current impulse drive technology.  After that, our warp drives can travel 5 light years an hour, so it will be 3-4 hours to reach the desired system and then 1-3 months to reach the planet you're interested in."

If players are interested, read the star sytem data from the background file and find out where they want to go.

Is there evidence of intelligent alien life forms?

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko and one of the corporate sponsor, Akina Hino try to speak over each other:

"Although there have been conspiracy theories for years about alien intelligences on earth, we have not seen any evidence of such either here or with signals received from space.  You're out there to find out if we're alone or not as your primary mission and then get back here to report."

"Excuse me, Admiral Nadeshiko, begging your pardon, but we also have to consider some of the more commercial applications of space

exploration.  We need to know what kind of resources are out there.  How else will the investors that I represent decide whether to fund this project of yours or not?  Need I remind you that I have a mandate here?  Now, explorers, while the good admiral and I have our differences, we do want many of the same things.  I and my sponsors want material goods, new technologies, trading partners.  You are our first vanguard into this new market."

What happens if there is explosive decompression in the ship and I don't have my spacesuit on?

"If you hold your breath, the vacuum causes the oxygen to expand and rupture your lung tissue, forcing fatal air bubbles into your blood vessels and ultimately your heart and brain.  You will last about 15 seconds if you don't hold your breath.  You'll die immediately if you do."

Can we explore the rest of the base before we go?

Vandenberg Air Force Base is different from days past, as it no longer needs to hold rocket gantries.  Today, it looks more like an airport than anything else, with long hallways leading to vehicle bays that hold anywhere from atmospheric shuttles to small frigates with glowing engines meant for interplanetary travel. Vandenberg is still a military base, though, so these are mostly transports and gunships for planetary defense.  Most of the larger ships are in orbit, because even with fusion power plants and impulse engines, it costs more to lift a large ship than to use shuttles or small automated impulse drones.

The players are permitted to examine any of the

ships in the base.  The two ships that they can choose from are there, the

ESS Ryo-Ohki, designated IESV-1 (Interstellar

Exploration Vehicle 1) and the ESS Yukikaze, designated IESV-2.

Sometime during their tour of the base, the players are intercepted by what looks like a lieutenant in the Intelligence division.  He smiles and salutes, before greeting you.

“Gentlemen.  Yes, I know Admiral Nadeshiko has said there’s no real evidence of aliens, but there are some .. anomalies.  If you’ll follow me to one of our laboratories, I can show you some interesting things.  Oh yes, my name?  I’m .. Lieutenant Amari, EASA Intelligence division.  I’ve been instructed to get you something that might give you an edge in what you might encounter out there.”

If the PCs follow him, he leads them to a non-descript building on the base and swipes his badge to gain entry.  Inside is a maze of hallways, all looking alike, but he seems to know his way around.  Finally, he comes to a door marked Room 51 and punches a keycode.  Behind the decorative first door is a long series of air locks, sliding panels and vault-like portals.  Going through the doors, it seems like the actual walls for this room is 5 feet thick and would require a concerted effort to cut through.

“Inside this 20 by 20 room are shelves and cabinets, each one separated from the other with metal panels and has glass windows.  In each cabinet and shelf are objects of varying size and complexity.  Some are every day objects such as gloves, phones and pens.  Others are geometric shapes or other shapes that have no uniformity.  The Lieutenant explains, “These are objects we’ve gathered around the world whose behavior have no explanation and go beyond our knowledge of physics.  Some were holy objects, others were found in undersea trenches, still yet others were found in tenements.  There’s no pattern.  Let’s take for example this one.”  He holds up what appears to be a cross.  “Just by holding this object, you can tell what it does.  This one cures any disease of a certain infection level.”, he says.  He holds up another one, which looks like a high-tech buckler, “I can tell that this object will let me dodge attacks better.”.  

“Just one more thing, though.  All of these have a single use or limited number of charges or function for a limited time.  And you can only carry two of them or bad things start to happen.  We think you can carry more of them after a while, or so The Estate and the OSR assure us.  They call them .. Cyphers.”

Players make pick any two cyphers from the Cypher System Core book.  There’s 100 in all, or they may pick a random one.

(2) Starship Capabilities

[ on the ground ]

== Physical Properties ==

From the flight bay, the players can see that the

Both the ESS Ryo-Ohki and the ESS Yukikaze have 3 human shaped airlocks.  However,

it has two hatches that can be seen, one near the middle and the other near the back, both on the bottom of the ship.  There are several studs

and hard points on top of the ship where external missile racks and beam weapons can

be attached.  It looks like there are no weapons that are built into the ship and everything

is attached when it gets into space.  Around both ships is a large ring that holds the Alcubierre drive.  The EASA engineers have determined that having a torus is the most efficient energy usage of the exotic matter and energy that the drive uses.

The crew members can open the airlocks with

a wave of their hands, as the ship recognizes

their biometric signatures.  All three airlocks

can be opened in that manner.  The inside

is a long tube with alcoves either to the left

or right.  Towards the front is the main bridge,

the middle are weapon systems and the back are power, impulse and warp engines.  In the

engine room is also a backup bridge.

There are 5 external racks containing armored exo-suits. The exo-suits have their own power source, but do not have life support sytsems.  Someone in a space suit will have to exit through an airlock, get into an exosuit and interface with the controls there.  The exo-suits cannot fly in atmosphere, but can manuever

much like a spacecraft in a vacuum and outside a gravity well.  In a gravity well, the suits have powered limbs

and can run, lift and jump in excess of the most physically talented person.  They are also armed with infantry and anti-personnel weaponry, holding more ammunition than a non-armored soldier can hold.  In Cypher system terms, the exo-suits function as an asset where you can carry 4 heavy weapons at once.

While in atmosphere and without the weapons

attached, there is no way to determine what

kind of weapons the ship can handle or has.

* possible skill tests: *

• Attempting to open the external hatches is a Level 1 intellect task.
• Opening the airlocks is a Level 2 intellect task.
• Examining and trying to figure out the purpose of the external hard points is a Level 2 intellect task.
• Trying out the exo-suits is a Level 2 speed task.

Inside the Ship:

The computer is a standard military model,

ruggedized to operate in hazardous conditions,

with as much CPU and RAM as they could pack

into as small a space as possible.  There are

several modes of access, a traditional

LCD and keyboard, as well as the brand spanking

new 3D holographic display just made available

by Soros International.  There is no AI

available, as the current AI technology is

specialized towards very specific tasks.

Weapons control is through the ship computer and can offer three weapon engineers a +1 on targeting.  Piloting control is also through the computer, but human pilots also have manual controls. If the computer is helping, pilots are conferred a +1 on drive/pilot skill checks. Piloting tasks can be automated, such as landing, takeoff or travelling to specific coordinates.  But, if there is any combat to be done, human pilots have to take over.

Communications is through standard radio, laser and microwave frequencies.  There is military grade encryption available, but it

is not known how effective that will be against alien technologies.  The comm facilities will confer a +1 on deception when trying to fool an enemy as to the contents of a message.

* possible skill tests: *

• The computer weapons control skill test is a Level 2 speed task.
• The communications control skill test is a Level 1 intellect task.
• The computer control skill test is a Level 2 intellect task.

Atmospheric and Orbital tests:

The ESS Ryo-Ohki and the ESS Yukikaze while in an atmosphere can reach a speed of Mach 2 during normal flight.  It can reach escape velocity within 1 minute and be in low earth orbit within 5 minutes.  While in the air, the ship computer can compute flight plans and fly them if there is no combat or rapid maneuvering required.  For that, a human must be present to do so.

The ESS Ryo-Ohki and the Yukikaze has a maximum operating period of 1 month for on-planet activities, without refueling, so the players can conceivably visit any spaceship capable airstrip anywhere around the world in a couple of hours, as it is capable of sub-orbital flight.  Descriptions of earth cities will depend on where they are visiting, but will generally be near future technology.  In order to refuel, the ship can be parked at any spaceship capable berth or port and get fuel for their fusion reactor.

* possible skill tests: *

• Docking with the fighters in orbit is a Level 2 speed task.
• Planning and executing a flight plan is a two part task, the first is a Level 1 intellect task and the second is a Level 2 speed task.
• Flight stress testing is a Level 3 speed task.
• Standard maneuver tasks are Level 1 speed tasks.

Once the ESS Ryo-Ohki achieves escape velocity,

the players can visit any of the orbital facilities

around earth orbit.  There are any number of

orbital manufacturing facilities, recreational stations in L5 orbit, as well as shipbuilding yards.  There are also military stations in geo-synchronous orbit and numerous satelite

defense networks, some of which have their weapons pointed down, others which are pointed outwards.

There are much fewer facilities on the various

planets and moons.  On the earth's moon, there is a single solitary base that serves as a refueling

station.  On Mars, there is one ship capable station, with other bases serving as training facilities.

Mars has not been terraformed, so anyone walking around on the surface at the very least needs a supply of air.

The asteroid field is crowded compared to the

the planetary facilities, even though it is much larger in area.  Mining facilities, living quarters, processing and refinery stations, ship berths and a multitude of refueling stations dot the asteroid field, while ships ply the space lanes running their cargo back to hungry orbital facilities.  There are a few military installations in the asteroid field, lots of early warning systems, and automated defense systems consisting of large military grade lasers, missiles and particle beams. There are other bases that have personnel controlling ships and other hardened defensive points.

Travel between planets are a week to a month, depending on how far the two planets are. Travel between asteroid field stations is around a few days to a month for travelling across the system.

Travel between planets are a week to a month, depending on how far the two planets are. Travel between asteroid field stations is around a few days to a month for travelling across the system.

Travel to where one can warp is 6 months from Earth.

Because the ship can only last a month without refueling, it can refuel using magnetic ram scoops or dipping into an atmosphere with hydrogen or scooping water from asteroids or comets.

* possible skill tests: *

• Attaching external weaponry is a Level 1 speed task.
• Firing weapons at a stationary target does not need a task Number.
• Firing weapons at a predictably moving target is a Level 2 speed task.
• Firing weapons at a randomly moving target is a Level 3 speed task.
• ECM use is a Level 2 intellect task.
• Sensor use is a Level 2 intellect task.

  ---

(3) Ship Test Run

Possible destinations?

Not every destination can be described, so we have a few examples of where the players can go, a few things they can do there and what, if any skill tests they can take there.

Mars Base Sara - this is the main military base

on Mars, capable of refueling, arming a few ships, with a few fighter carriers on-station and in orbit.

Prime Earth Defense Station - this orbiting station directs and coordinates the defenses around Earth, providing facilities for life support, refueling, re-arming and repair.

Asteroid Base Artemis Weapons Testing Grounds - this is a large area in the asteroid field near 101955 Bennu that's reserved for testing ship weaponry of all sorts.

Asteroid Base Alamo Ships Race Course - this base is situated near 4999 MPC with sensors, transmitters with thrusters that can be reconfigured.

Jupiter Refueling Station Exxon 456a - this base

gathers and compresses Jupiter's hydrogen, providing a nice stopping place for a ship to refuel, rearm and rest its crew.

Deep Space Refueling Station 13-666b - this base has inputs for automated freighters to drop off fuel, as well as outputs for manned ships.

Earth Defense Satelite Equator 283 - this satelite isn't really made to be inhabited, but has temporary life support systems so that it can be manually operated or repaired.

Moon Base Xeno - this is a small base that normally doesn't have its own defenses, being meant as a sensor station and to refuel ships both incoming and outgoing.

** Mars Base Sara **

Mars Base Sara is a medium sized military installation located near the poles, so they can melt water for fuel and is easily identified with a central location.  It has an extensive sensor array, serving to relay messages from deeper in the system to further out and back.  There is a token defense force of exo-suits, fighter carriers, a few scout ships and possibly a few ships that have stopped by on their way to someplace else.

Mars is not terraformed, so there is a very thin

atmosphere and very cold, so someone without a spacesuit will suffocate and freeze to death in very short order. The base has its own static defenses, enough to drive away scavengers, bandits or other riff-raff, but not enough to stop a determined foe.  The carriers carry tens of armed fighters, but can only field 20 of them at a time and have no weapons of their own. The scout ships have heavier weaponry, but none of them are able to take on capital ships on their own.

Mars Base Sara has a friendly commander who will let the players do nearly whatever they want.  The base commander is Admiral Ai Nanasaki, and she welcomes the party as a respite from the general boredom that comes with an assignment at Mars, so long as the players don't damage too much equipment.

* possible skill tests: *

• Ship components repair requires three people, 1 making a Level 2 intellect task and another making a Level 2 speed task, lastly 1 making a Level 3 might task.
• Refueling at Mars Base Sara is a Level 2 speed task.

Most of the staff at the facility are pretty

bored and would welcome the opportunity for

some fun and frolic with the PCs.

** Prime Earth Defense Station **

This enormous orbiting station controls and coordinates all of the near-space military assets of Earth.  While those assets might be owned by different entities and ultimately answer to those entities, they see the need for cooperation in the case of any kind of determined attack on the planet.  There are facilities for a large number of staff, for the repair of capital ships and below, large amounts of short and long range defenses, sensor suites and communication arrays that span the entire solar system.  The station even generates its own gravity by spinning.  Internal security on the station is enforced by its own specialized soldiers who know how to move and fight in low, normal and transitional gravity.

This station is very well defended, with tens of fighters on patrol, satelites in static positions and orbiting around the station, scouts on the perimeter, heavier ships closer to the station and exo-suits in flight in tandem with the ships.  It's truly the pinnacle of space defense for humanity.

This is a tightly controlled area and the players will not have full reign to do whatever they want here. The commander is Admiral Yuuki Nagato, a domineering officer with a penchant for control and detail.  She is mistrustful of the PCs and want them gone as soon as possible.

But, there are some tasks that the PCs can accomplish.

* possible skill tests: *

• Ship components repair requires three people, 1 making a Level 2 intellect task and another making a Level 2 speed task, lastly 1 making a Level 3 might task.
• Refueling at Prime Earth Defense Station is a Level 2 speed task.

** Asteroid Base Artemis Weapons Testing Grounds **

This is a large area in the asteroid field near

101955 Bennu that's reserved for testing ship

weaponry of all sorts. The base itself is on a small asteroid that keeps orbit arond the sun, much as all the other asteroids. However, there are much smaller rocks on which there are transmitters, thrusters and receivers.  There are also ECM generators on the rocks.  All this is to provide targets, some static, some moving, some to provide a challenge.  The base controls all targeting operations so that no one using the facility gets their ship damaged.  Different targeting lanes are configured for differently sized ships and even ones for armored exo-suits.

static target lane

moving target lane

ECM target lane

ECM and moving target lane

exo-suit lane, multiple moving targets

large target lane, moving

small target lane, moving

** System Wide Picket and Solar Mirror **

The solar system is picketed by a large force of intra-system ships, none of which are equipped with Alcubierre drives.  All of them have substantial impulse driven engines and fusion power plants.  The typical picket squadron has a heavy cruiser, two destroyers and three frigates as its screening force.  They’re there to intercept system incursions.  There is also a tug that’s towing an external rack filled with gigantic Orion missiles, each of which are filled with frozen water and sawdust, and are a quarter the size of a frigate.  They’re meant to accelerate to relativistic speeds with their impulse engines and reduce to dust anything they meet.  They’re very expensive and are to be used as a last resort.  Neither of the PC ship configurations have an Orion missile.

There are four of these picket squadrons, each one having a quarter of the orbit outside of the asteroid belt.  Each are headed by a Commodore of the EASA, and depending on who they contact, it can be hard going, as these folks are not there to have fun or get along with anyone.

Picket Squadron Alpha

Commanding Officer: Commodore Haruto Harada

Attitude: unforgiving

Quotes: “What do you want?  Who has authorized you to approach this squadron?  Leave or be fired upon.”

Picket Squadron Beta

Commanding Officer: Commodore Akane Itto

Attitude: tired

Quotes: “Do we really have to accommodate your presence?  We’re really busy here, can’t you come back in a month?  Listen, I get off duty in half an hour and don’t have time for your nonsense.”

Picket Squadron Delta

Commanding Officer: Commodore Riku Tanaka

Attitude: wary

Quotes: “Are you sure the Grand Admiral gave you permission to make a fly by across my formation?  This is highly irregular.  Usually we get a warning for any kind of sortie.”

Picket Squadron Gamma

Commanding Officer: Commodore Asahi Nakamura

Attitude: friendly

Quotes: “Good to see a friendly face out there!  Say, where are you headed to?  Want to hang out during our next watch?”

The Solar Mirror is not just a single structure, rather it is many thousands of mirrors, each one reflecting a portion of the energy of the sun, either concentrating them in several beams or in a single beam in order to melt asteroids into a more malleable form.  It is also used for powering a few stations.  The routes of the beams are well documented and broadcast every few minutes so that ships travelling through the area don’t get burned to a crisp.  The mirror is managed by a computer network that’s manned by what seems like an army of technicians.  Of course, it is well guarded.

Solar Mirror Defense Picket

Commanding Officer: Captain Heisuke Sasake

Attitude: formal

Quotes: “Watch where you’re going, you don’t want to get hit by a stray beam.  We don’t really have a lot of facilities here, but you’re welcome to come by.”

* possible skill tests: *

• Dodging the beams is pretty easy, a Level 1 speed and intellect task.
• Docking with a station is a Level 2 speed task.
• Interfacing with the solar array is a Level 2 intellect task.
• Trying to hack the network needs the hacking skill or similar ability and is a Level 6 intellect task.

(4) Interstellar Space

“You’ve made it to the gravitational periphery, 888.2 million miles away from the Sun.  You can activate your Alcubierre drive and head to one of the three destinations that were outlined by the EASA.  Where do you go?”

It doesn’t matter where they go.  When they do decide, describe the system as such.

“Five hours later, you’re in the gravitational periphery of 1360 Xu Xiu/1180 Tauri/Fafnir.  What would you like to do first?”

Space travel hasn’t been perfected and there are still many hazards known and unknown to man.  Travel to a new system means they’ll encounter things that are part of the business of exploration.

While transitioning from their Alcubierre warp state, they find themselves in a dust cloud.

“Before you can execute your flight plan, you find your ship in a large dust cloud.  Optical sensors can detect tiny particulates around the ship and you may take damage even though your shields can mitigate some of the cloud’s effects.  The cloud may also obscure some larger objects that may penetrate the ship shielding.  What would you like to do?”

Staying in the cloud means a cumulative damage of 1 to the ship’s hit points every hour they stay there.  Moving directly through the cloud will take an hour and they will take damage for 2 hit points.  They can try various things, like using the ship’s electromagnetic ram scoops to clear a path through the field or maybe someone’s abilities can create/craft a device that can do something similar.

Clearing the dust cloud is a TL2 intellect task, but they will need a method or explanation to do so before attempting it.

A preliminary scan will reveal the presence of planets and their features as described in page 104 of the Players Guide.  It’ll take a few weeks to build up the acceleration to get to the planet.

Tasks?

• Planetary scans are a Level 2 Intellect task.
• System scans for anomalies are a Level 3 Intellect task.
• Flight plan to get to the planet or structure or location is a Level 2 speed and Level 2 intellect task.

If they find an anomaly, it is an anchorage, parked out in space, with a small electromagnetic signature.  It’s not broadcasting and has been abandoned by its previous owners.  It’s a small anchorage owned by the humans rebelling from the Si-Dek.

“One of your scans detects a small electromagnetic signature that stands out from the cosmic noise.  Relative to your position, it is 5 hours away and won’t significantly impact your flight plan.”

“Approaching the source, optical sensors reveal that it’s an object several times larger than a frigate and is stationary relative to your position.  Looks like it’s doing some sort of station-keeping using reactionless drives.  The electromagnetic signature is coming from its fusion reactor and active electronics.  While you see several docking ports, they look incompatible with your ship.”

Tasks?

• Constructing a compatible dock is a combined task and needs an appropriate skill: Might level 2, Intellect level 3.  This will take 3 hours and is repeatable.  Failure means trying again.
• Using exo-suits and doing an EVA to gain access to an airlock is a Speed level 2 task.
• Hacking the air lock is an Intellect level 2 task.
• Forcing the air lock open is a Might level 2 task.
• Maintaining air integrity when opening the second part of the airlock is a combined task: Might level 2, Intellect level 2.  Failure means some air from the anchorage escapes and there is a chance someone could get blown out.  Trying again while this is going on increases the level of difficulty by 1.
• Activating the anchorage lights needs engineering or hacking skill or appropriate type ability, with an Intellect task of level 2.

“You finally make it into the anchorage and the lights are dark.  If you’ve managed to turn on the lights, they flicker slightly with a strange tint.  The hallway you’re in is roughly 10 feet high and 10 feet wide and stretches 50 feet left and right of the air lock before turning.  There are strange doorways in the hallway but they look like they have no doors in them. “

The anchorage is a circle with a cross in the middle and a hub where the cross meets, like a crosshair.  Each quarter of the circle has 4 rooms, ranging from living quarters, laboratories, work rooms and operations.

Living/sleeping Quarters:

“This room has several upright depressions in the wall covered by a translucent membrane that is slightly frosted.  The depressions are about 7 feet tall and 2 feet wide and look like they would fit a standard human.  In the middle of the room is a cylinder about 5 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  It looks like there are geometric shapes on the top, as well as a few near the top on the vertical surface. “

Tasks?

• Manipulating the controls on the cylinder is a 2 part task: interpreting the symbols, figuring out the responses and then executing the task, which needs some muscle.  This is a Might Level 2 task and an Intellect Level 3 task.
• Figuring out how to manipulate the depressions in the wall and what they do is also a 2 part task: a Level 2 Speed task and a Level 2 Intellect task.

Failure in the cylinder task means the party doesn’t figure out, but can try again, with effort expenditure being required this time around.  Failure in figuring out what the depressions do means that the player is now trapped inside behind the translucent membrane.

Success in the cylinder task means that someone now knows what the symbols mean: they’re in an ancient earth language called Sanskrit.  Unless someone has a skill in linguistics, they won’t be able to read it, and even with then, it will take them a while to translate.  However, even without a lengthy translation, your party has figured out that the cylinder is for manipulation of the depressions and for monitoring the state of whoever is in them.

Success in the figuring out the depressions reveals that they are sleeping and recovery chambers.  You can now also open and close the membranes, as well as manipulate the controls from the inside.

Workrooms:

“This room is cluttered with equipment, from mechanical parts, to chemistry equipment and unidentified biological remnants.  It appears that whoever owned this ship used biological components in their technology.  There is a smell of rust here, as well as a faint sweet smelling odor.  As you step into the room, movement alerts you to a wild looking mechanical form emerging from a pile of scrap!  It moves to attack!”

Destruction isn’t the only option here.  Those with the skills can attempt to Hack the Scrap Drone using a Level 3 Intellect task.  It will require at least 3 rounds to hack the scrap done, but afterwards, it can be used as an asset to either help you target or defend from foes.

Operations Center:

“The Operations Center is in the hub in the middle of the anchorage.  There are what appear to be human-sized and human-proportioned chairs next to consoles, which have the same Sanskrit writing on them, along with other controls.  However, there don’t appear to be any screens or displays or any helmets.”

Tasks?

• If the party translated the other writing, the tasks to translate these are a combined Might Level 2 and an Intellect Level 2 task.
• There is also a power up task to get the consoles to actually activate.  This is for those who have the engineering skill, which requires more nimble fingers: combined Speed Level 2 and Intellect Level 3.

“If you manage to get these translated and powered up, what looks like a solid 3D hologram with what looks like the anchorage at the center and the 10 miles of space around it.”

There are controls for optical, radar, lidar and tagged entries for the objects on the hologram.  The party knows that the solid hologram is far beyond the technology of earth.  The party can play around and see what they can do with the operations center, maybe examining the other planets, looking at historical entries and such.  

If they’re looking at historical entries, all of them have been erased.  There are no entries for what this anchorage was used for, who was here, or where they’ve gone.  There are entries for what used to be here, weapons that used to

be mounted, as well as a search for something they called ‘the God of War’.  

(5) First Space Combat!

Event!  “While going through the entries in the anchorage, you see a blip on the solid holograms, and the alien computer designates it with a bright red chevron with a name  ‘Argos 1’.”  When they attempt to get a spectrographic scan, they see that it’s some kind of cloud and their trajectory is apparently in their direction and they’ll intersect in 5 hours in the current direction and speed.  The anchorage has no weapons or armor and any fighting will shred it like a hot knife through butter.  They’ll need to get back to their ship and either flee or fight.

Tasks?

• Evading the Iilari Drone Swarm is a combined Level 2 intellect and Level 3 speed task.

If they manage to evade the drone swarm, it follows them to the asteroid field and orbits the general area looking for them.  If they don’t, a fight starts.

It is possible to run away from the Scout Drone Swarm.  If they manage to take it down 8 health, it attempts to run away.  Failing that, it disperses into many different parts and calls out to its fellows.

“The swarm of fighters roars out to meet you, its weapons blazing in the blackness of space.  Individual ships are ¼ the size of a regular fighter, all remaining in sync with each other, and able to target multiple ships.  Each hit looks like it will hurt, and it is not here for dessert.”

What does the party do now?  Continue mission?  Go back to earth?

(6) Planetary Landing

If they continue their mission, they can go into the atmosphere with the Yukikaze or leave in shuttles from the Ryo-Ohki.  The planetary conditions will depend on which system they decided to visit, but in all cases, it will have atmosphere.

In orbit above the planet, they can tell that there’s a set of structures there, as well as weak electromagnetic pulses.  They’re radio signals, but ones that are gibberish when they try to listen.  Anyone trying to decode the radio signal must have a skill that’s applicable, such as linguistics or cryptography.  

Tasks?

• Decoding the radio signal is a Level 3 intellect task.

If the signal is decoded, it’s basically an SOS, a cry for help, but it sounds like it’s an automated signal and it is only barely received from high orbit.  If the players decide to descend through the skies, they’ll meet 3 Iilari scout drones in the atmosphere.

The scout drones will attempt to paint them with radar to try to identify them and then they’ll close in, whether in the shuttle or in fighters.  The scout drones are pretty easy opponents and the party won’t have to work very hard to blow them out of the sky.

“The unknown ships follow you until they’re in range of their active sensors, and then they start painting your ship with radar and lidar.  Your own sensors say their weapons are powering up.”

When they follow the source of the radio signal, they’ll find a ship, one about 3 times the size of a regular earth shuttle, almost the size of a frigate, but one of an unfamiliar design.

“The alien shuttle is somewhat oblong, with sharp edges along its length of unknown function, with nothing that looks like an obvious weapon on the outside.  You can see some human-sized hatches on the front and back, and the engines are where you would think they are.  The engine nozzles are dusty and look like they haven’t been used in quite some time.  There is no torus that would indicate a Terran Alcubierre drive.”

The players can investigate the ship, but there are also ruins here, an ancient city that didn’t appear in their scans.

“The city is a mile away from the alien shuttle, with a few tall spires and many more shorter squat structures.  Some are crumbling, others look pristine, still yet others look like they’re crumbling and then re-assembling themselves.”

Some things the players might want to do with the ship are trying to get in, examining the exhaust nozzles, looking for weapons hard points, looking for sensors on the outside.

Tasks?

• Opening the doors will require engineering or hacking.  However, brute force will do.  Engineering or hacking will be a combined Intellect and Might task of Intellect level 3 and Might level 2.  If they want to try to force it open, it’s a Might level 4 task.  The door is very difficult to open.  
• If a task fails twice, audible alarms ring and anti-personnel weapons pop out of hatches on the ship and start firing for two rounds.  Speed defense dodging will be a Level 2 task with medium damage of 4.  After two rounds, the weapons retract back into the ship.
• Examining the ship for gun ports is a Level 2 Intellect task and they’ll see the weapon hatches.
• Examining the ship’s exhaust nozzles reveals that they are somewhat cobbled together, with what look like welded on sections.  Determining what kind of propellant or mechanism generates thrust will require special engineering equipment and skill, plus a Level 3 intellect task.  
• If the party is successful in figuring out the exhaust nozzles, they’ll see that there are no chemicals that indicate any rocket propellant that they know of; that if anything, there is residual water vapor on the insides of the nozzles.

If the party has forced their way into the alien shuttle either with explosives, hostile weapons fire or other tools, the internal alarm will be active and internal defenses will be active.  The party can make an incursion into the ship and clear the first few feet inside the hull with explosives, but they risk damaging more of the ship than they wanted.

“The moment you step into the ship, turrets pop out of hatches near the airlock and start firing.  There are red lights on inside the hallway and a high pitched sound is blaring.  Maybe the ship was alerted by your forced incursion into the airlock?  Better start dodging, friends.”

• PCs who have stepped into the airlock need to make a Level 2 speed defense roll or take 4 points of damage.  The turrets and tracking beams remain active even after PCs have retreated from the hallway.

PCs can attempt to clear out the internal defenses with a few well-placed bombs, grenades or other explosives from outside of the ship.  This is a combined Level 3 speed and Level 2 intellect task.  Two people can participate in the task.

Once the PCs have gained entry into the alien shuttle without being fired upon, they can start exploring.  There are a few chambers worth investigating.  Depending on where they’ve entered, they can explore the bridge, the engine room and weapons control.  Each section has its own interesting features.

Engine Room

“The engine room looks like it has its own reactor, as well as tanks that look like they hold only .. water.  There is some unidentified material in the reactor itself that seems like it’s very reactive.  The reactor doesn’t look like a standard fusion reactor.  There are no magnetic bottles, no deuterium fuel, nothing else that is indicative of a fusion reactor of the type that EASA ships would use.”

The players can try to figure out what kind of reactor it is by poking, prodding, using an engineering skill and with special equipment.  They would also need to be able to translate the Sanskrit that the controls and consoles are written in.

Tasks?

• To figure out what kind of reactor this is, the players will need engineering, physical science or a mathematics skill, as well as a Level 3 Intellect task.
• To get the reactor working, they will need an engineering AND a hacking skillset as well as a Level 4 Intellect task.  Failing this twice will shut down the reactor for a while and they will not be able to try again for a day.

If the party manages to figure out what kind of reactor this is, they’ll find out that this is a reactor that makes use of the Higgs boson.  This is a fairly fundamental shift in the scientific and engineering technology that Terrans have.  The party won't know how they do it, just that it involves the use of that particle.  The energy return is so effective, that the ship only needs to use water as its propellant.  

Bridge

The bridge has controls and consoles that are written in Sanskrit.  The PCs should be able to read and translate all of it if they translated everything in the anchorage.  Activating the consoles and the controls will take a while, an hour or so, and will require some tasks.

“The bridge is dark, with a few human sized and human shaped seats, as well as consoles that are sized for sitting or standing humans.  There’s writing on the consoles that indicates usage, but all of it is in Sanskrit.”

Tasks?

• Getting the power to the bridge requires heading to the engine room and activating either the main reactor or the emergency batteries.  This is a Level 2 Intellect task + a Level 2 Might task, as the battery power is damaged and needs adjusting, assuming the Sanskrit is translated.
• Once the power is turned on, figuring out the consoles will take an hour.  This will take computer, engineering or hacking skill and is a Level 3 Intellect task.

If the PCs figure out how to manipulate the shuttle controls, which are significantly different from the anchorage controls, they can bring up the records, weapon controls and even engine controls, but the fuel tanks don’t have enough to take off.  For the engines to be activated, it has to be activated from the engine room in the Engine Room section.  But, the engine doesn’t have enough reactor material for the shuttle to achieve orbit.  

The weapons controls consist of low power self-contained anti-personnel burst lasers and ship to ship weapons.  Ships to ship weapons with the current battery power don’t work.  If the reactor were to be activated, that would provide enough power to the ship to ship weapons.  The controls indicate that there are only light anti-ship weapons, equivalent to multiple fighter weapons.  They’re all Level 1 weapons.  There are two lasers, a particle beam and two missile batteries.

While the anti-ship weapons can be activated from the bridge, they really need to be manipulated from the weapons control center, which have much larger screens and ways to investigate any ongoing problems with them, as well as do repairs to them.

The bridge is near the front of the shuttle, the weapons control center is in the middle and the engine room is in the back.

The PCs can also find the records from the alien computer.  If they’re successful in manipulating the consoles, a solid hologram can appear and they can get videos and text entries from the records in the computer.

“The occupants appear to actually be human, but they’re speaking in a language that hasn’t been heard in many thousands of years.  They’re speaking in Sanskrit, the same written language on the consoles and on the screens.  They appear to be gathering weapons and other instrumentation in a hurry and then activating the radio signal that your ship detected from orbit.”

What can the PCs find out?

• The occupants look like they’re human, but of an unidentified ethnicity that contains bits and pieces of discrete nationalities present now on earth.
• The last video is dated 5 years ago, in the reckoning of time that the ship indicates.
• There are no star maps or charts or anything that indicates any information about their technology, including the Higgs boson reactor.
• There are images and information regarding the city that’s a mile away.   More information is available in section (10) Ancient City
• This shuttle was not originally made for humans.  The seats, consoles, etc are all retrofitted by the last occupants.
• There is mention of a race called the ‘Si-Dek’ that is mentioned in derogatory terms.

• The last occupants refer to themselves as The People.
• There is no other information on either The People or the Si-Dek or what the relationship between them may be.  It is suggested that the information and those records may have been erased deliberately.

Weapons Control

There are 5 weapons available: 2 light burst lasers, 1 light particle beam, 2 micro-missile batteries, which are all fighter weapons.  All of them do damage equivalent to Level 1 weapons.

The weapons can be brought online from the bridge, but weapons control is a separate task that must be done in this area of the shuttle.

“The weapons control room fits 5 people with the same solid holograms that can be activated like in the anchorage.  There is the same style of architecture and trim that’s in the anchorage present in the entire shuttle.  The writing is in Sanskrit and you’ll need an hour to figure out how to work the controls and menus before being proficient in it.”

Tasks?

• Getting control of the weapon systems is a Level 2 Intellect task.  Afterwards, after an hour or so, all weapons can be controlled from this room.
• Figuring out how to start troubleshooting problems from the weapons control room is a combined Level 3 Intellect and Level 3 speed task, each one being done by a different person and takes two hours.

(10) Fight in The Ancient City!

“The ancient city is a mile away from the alien (human?) shuttle.  There is even what looks like a road near the shuttle going to the city.  The city itself is 5 miles radius, with anywhere from 30 to 50 feet between the buildings.  The road is made of some sort of polymer, with much of it broken and deteriorating.  However, like some of the city, there are parts of it that are breaking down and being reconstructed.”

The immediate area has unidentified alien plants with many strange looking shrubs with unfamiliar color schemes and structures.  None of the plants are taller than 5 feet, though, with most of them not even reaching that height.

The soil is a mix of gravel and rich patches, with plants growing out of the latter.  There is a river nearby as well, with a width of 30 to 80 feet and narrowing when it passes the city.  The part of the river that’s closest to the shuttle looks clear.

When the party heads into the city, there are no signs of animal life, but .. as soon as they get to within 100 feet of the city, they get a signal from their ship in orbit.

“WARNING.  ORBITAL INCURSION BY FOREIGN CRAFT.  DROPSHIPS INCOMING.”

“Foreign craft designated VANDAL1.  Dropships designated VANDAL2, VANDAL3, VANDAL4.  Vandal2, Vandal3, Vandal4 trajectories are on your position.”

If the parties check their portable computer, they’ll see the 3 drop ships approaching their position, as well as indicators that the drop ships are painting their position with target control radar and lidar.  A few minutes later, 3 irregular spheres come crashing down into the ground at long range.  They open up and 3 mechanical figures step out, each one different.  One is a blocky armored vehicle, with stubby turrets and tracks.  Another is a sleek from, with what looks like spikes that can detach and walks on two legs.  The third vehicle is hovering.

Iilari Pocket Tank

Template: Scrap Drone

“This looks like one of the old earth tanks, with armor plating all over it, tracks and a large cannon.  It’s as large as a fighter, so not as large as old earth tanks.  It also has a missile battery and the missiles have several knobby protrusions on the tip that look like grenades.  It is very slow, only moving one short distance a round.”

Iilari Medium Walker

Template: Mechanical soldier 4/12

“This mechanical form has two legs, a squat upper body, but no arms or head.  There is a large turret with a crystal on the end of it, as well as a mortar-like device that lobs bombs at long range.  There are antennae at the very top of the form that twitch every few seconds.  The antennae rotate and move to point to each one of you.”

Iilari Floater

Template: Vat Reject

“The floater moves slowly and is levitating about 5 feet off the ground.  It doesn’t appear to be able to fly further than 5 feet above the ground, nor does it appear to move very quickly.  This is a narrow disc that has buzzsaws at the front and a spine mounted rod with 5 stubs around it that indicate a solid-state laser.”

The party should be able to defeat this combination.  If the party is having trouble, midway into the combat, the Iilari Pocket Tank can have a mechanical problem and have its weapons break down, before having to retreat into its drop ship.

When the party defeats the Iilari mecha, they are now free to explore the city.

(11) Ancient City, Ancient Humans

“With the ancient city now free of the Iilari mechs, you are now free to explore.  The city is divided into three different types of areas.  The first obvious areas are those that are crumbling and decaying.  These may be spires that are half destroyed or squat buildings that are either entirely rubble or partially rubble.  The second are those areas that look pristine and continue to work.  These are mostly spires.  The third are areas that crumble and then are rebuilt.  These are both spires and squat buildings. “  

Crumbling and Decaying Structures

“These structures are clearly unreliable.  Anything that is rigorous movement may cause a part of the building to fall or perhaps the entire building may collapse entirely.  Inside the crumbling structures are remnants of equipment, alien in form and inscrutable design, nothing resembling human or terran usage.  Most of the equipment here are either entirely broken or non-functional.  Each building will take half an hour to search”

There is a 1 in 6 chance that they’ll find a Cypher somewhere in the building.  There is also a 1 in 10 chance that someone disturbs something and will need to do a Speed Defense Level 2 to avoid falling rubble or take 4 points of damage.

Pristine Structures

“These buildings look as if they’re untouched by time.  The surface is smooth, clean and the markings bright.  A panel on the outside of the building will open the sliding door with a touch.  The inside of the building is similarly untouched, with alien and inscrutable furnishings.  Some of the objects emit light, others project sounds of different sorts, some have dark surfaces that suddenly turn bright when you touch them.  But the most prominent feature seems to be that when something in or on the structure is damaged, it rebuilds itself within a few minutes.”

Most of the objects that aren’t nailed down can be taken from the building.  Something causes them to pop back to where they were when an attempt is made to leave with them.  However, the cyphers that are here (if any) can be moved.  Searching one of these buildings takes an hour.  There is a 1 in 6 chance that you’ll find a cypher or multiple cyphers someplace inside the building.  There is a 1 in 10 chance that there is information about the people who built this city in a self-contained translation device.

Roll 1d10 and use the following table to figure out what they find:

1. The species that built this city left centuries ago.
2. Originally, there were 5 intelligent species on this planet.  
3. There used to be another moon above this planet.
4. While there were 5 intelligent species, eventually there was just one.
5. The last remaining intelligent race left on faster than light ships and journeyed to the past.
6. This star system used to be a binary system.
7. There is a weapon buried here called The God of War in the last intelligent species’ language.  
8. The God of War is also called the Bringer of Life.
9. The weapon/bringer of life may not be on this planet.
10. There are signs and clues here in this city that may point to where The God of War may be.

Transition Structures

“These buildings are very strange.  Some parts are crumbling, others are being rebuilt.  Different parts crumble and are then rebuilt, no section the same.  It’s as if some mechanism is trying to rebuild everything, but the deterioration is too fast for it to keep up, so only anywhere from a quarter to half of the structure gets repaired.  It’s difficult to see what may be repairing the structure, but if one looks very closely, they’re very small particles that are moving of their own volition.”

Because the movement of the particles is unpredictable, the chances of falling or having something fall on a player character is 1 in 4 and they will need to make a speed defense task at Level 2 or take 2 damage.  This is per 20 minutes they spend in the structure.  It takes 1 hour to search the structure.  There is a 1 in 6 chance of finding at least 1 cypher in this building.  There is also a 3 in 10 chance of finding a different set of information on the peoples who used to live here.

Roll 1d10 and use the following table to figure out what they find:

1. The God of War is not here.
2. If you follow the five stars that are as one, the God of War might be found.
3. The Bringer of Life takes away the tears of war and brings only joy.
4. There is a god of war here.
5. The Bringer of Life is not here.
6. The Angel protects the Bringer of Life.
7. Night time brings terror and drove the people of five away.
8. Morning brings both rebirth and death.
9. Take shelter in the skin of the earth
10. The people here were advanced, but not wise, and changed to a form that they didn’t like, but had to for survival.

Who or what is here?

However many structures the party searches, there do not seem to be anyone currently living here.  None of the indigenous intelligent species are here and the humans who piloted the shuttle are here.  Other than the animals, plants and the wind, nothing else seems to stir.

“The only things stirring in the city are the wind and random animals that are wandering around.  The buildings you’ve searched seem to yield random bits of knowledge of who used to live here, as well as indications of some kind of weapon.  However, as night approaches, short blips of high pitched sounds start to impinge on your hearing.  It starts to become more and more frequent until it starts to sound like a flock of shrieking birds.  There’s also a cloud of small objects floating in the air that seems to surround the city.  The cloud contracts slowly as time goes by.”

 What do the players want to do?  Unfortunately, their ship is a mile out.  They could try leaving by trying a flying ability, but the cloud is also above them and sealing off their escape via sky.  The cloud try hiding in one of the pristine buildings.  Or, they could try something else.  Some may be more or less effective.  But, eventually, the cloud will get them.

“Your hiding place is compromised as the dark cloud starts to filter in between the cracks.  The clothing that it touches start to crumble, turning into dust, that is then taken by other bits of the dark cloud.”

Let them panic for a while.  Then ..

“From beyond the cloud, you hear a spraying sound and the cloud disperses.  There’s a figure there, with what looks like an aerosol dispenser in his hand, spraying a path to you.  ‘Come this way’, he says.  He appears to be a human and male, waving towards another building.  ‘We have a cypher that can ward these things off, but we have to hurry, the spray doesn’t last very long.’”

The human doesn’t appear to be armed, other than with an aerosol spray.  If the party follows him, he talks along the way.  

“We saw your ship land.  But we knew that the Iilari were still somewhere in the system, waiting.  And when we saw those drop pods land in your vicinity, we knew that we were right.  But, we did not expect you to defeat them.  Those were very powerful Iilari units.  What are you doing out here on the edge of known space?  No one comes here, ever.

There’s no other civilization in 50 lightyears.  No one is even sure what is even out here, other than dead aliens.  Some kind of catastrophe happened out here.  Something real bad.”

The human leads the party to an underground bunker and activates a panel on the airlock.  He motions you forward and the tunnel emerges out into a very large cave, one that is lit and with around 50 people.  They stare and look at the party before getting on with their business.

The PCs will probably want to know a few things.  These are a sample of what he knows.

• His name is Yuuto  Mori.
• His civilization call themselves ‘The People’.
• They were enslaved by a race called the Si-Dek many millennia ago and they have been fighting for their freedom ever since.
• The Si-Dek are short, skinny, silver skinned humanoids with large heads and very small mouths.  They are in possession of advanced technology, including faster than light and powerful weapons.
• The People can understand the party because they have universal translators.
• Their native language and writing is Sanskrit, but the Si-Dek do not need writing or language, which is why their shuttle looked like it was somewhat shoddily put together.
• The Si-Dek are an empire that
• Their shuttle doesn’t have enough reactor material to take off from the planet, and even if it did, where would they go, as the ship cannot travel far enough from this system’s star to warp out.
• The survivors have been here for 5 years, but their technological devices are starting to wear out and run out of reliable power.
• They did not come down here in a single shuttle.  They used to have a much bigger ship that landed most of the contingent here, and then had to flee the anchorage when the Iilari attacked.
• The Iilari are a mechanical hive-mind race.  Each mind has relatively low intelligence, but when there are many, they are capable of quite a lot of cunning.
• The goal of the Iilari is to harvest the universe for their own purposes and to hoard those resources only for themselves.
• Their weapons are not particularly advanced, but there are a lot of them and they are persistent.
• There is currently no way to communicate with the Iilari with the People’s capabilities.
• The Si-Dek can communicate with the Iilari.
• This group of humans escaped from the Si-Dek and have hidden away some of the ships and military hardware.  They are waging a guerilla war with the Si-Dek,but do not have a good way of maintaining any of that equipment, so their ships are breaking down and there is no way to replace them other than to steal more hardware.
• The Iilari are not interested in the human resistance, having goals that are utterly alien in purpose.
• There are other races the Si-Dek have made into slaves, but the humans are the best at piloting ships.
• The People do not know where they came from, originally.  Every planet where they are don’t have any evolutionary proof of their origins.
• The People assume that the party is like them, escaped slaves.
• The God of War is not here, and the People don’t know where it might be.
• There is another weapon here, of lesser power, but they’ll have to go find it and it might be guarded.

(12) Fight or Flight?

What do The People want?  

• They want to leave the planet and head for their own base.
• The players’ ship has barely enough room to fit them in, if they took the Yukikaze.
• If the players took the Ryo-Ohki, there’s plenty of room in the cargo modules, but they’ll be consuming more food than was packed.
• Is their Alcubierre drive and galactic map even compatible with their technology?  How will they know where to go?

While the players are deciding .. an alarm blares from their comms.  It’s the ship!  

“WARNING.  ORBITAL INTERCEPTION BY UNKNOWN FORCE.  INCOMING DATA LINK.”

The ship uploads the fleet composition to the PCs.  What they see are from the ship’s optical array, radar, lidar and other sensors and they all indicate 5 large masses, all at least 3 times as large as their own ship.  Yuuto wants to see the sensor data, and he does so, he gasps.

“It’s a Si-Dek Hunter Squadron.  Oh dear, this is real bad.  How did they know we were here?  From the looks of your data, there’s an Akitsu Maru class super-carrier, two Suma class cruisers, and two Yunagi class destroyers.  Those destroyers are especially bad news, because they have mass drivers that will rain destruction down on our position.  It looks like they’ll be here in 3 days. They have the acceleration advantage so if we take off, we might not be able to evade them.  Of course, if we stay here, they’ll drop kinetic strikes with those mass drivers on us.  What do you want to do?”

The other option is to find the other weapon, but it may be heavily guarded and will have its own danger.  But, if found and functions as they think it will, it should wipe out the flotilla that will be here in three days.

(13) Weapon of war

The PCs have decided that they’ll look for the weapon of war that’s been talked about in the city.  They don’t have any description of it, but there is a possible location from the escaped slaves here.  The People have a clue as to where it might be, but it’s located in a general area, about 5 miles wide.

“Obviously, we would prefer to just leave, but seeing as it’s your ship, we have to follow your lead.  We don’t know exactly where it is, but we narrowed it down to a five mile area about 300 miles from here. We can give you the coordinates, but most of our weapons have been depleted beating back attacks by either the Iilari or the Si-Dek.  It seems, though, that this time, they’re taking this a lot more seriously.  Our heavy weapons are unusable, our mobile armor will break and kill anyone inside with the first hit.  We just have this one last refuge and were waiting to die until you came.  So, unfortunately, we are of little use to you in acquiring the weapon.”

One of The People walks over with a data display, which is unfortunately incompatible with Terran designs.  “This will show you where to go.  We don’t know all of the kind of creatures are going to be there, but we’ve encountered pure biologicals, mechanicals, nanite clouds like what you see outside right now, bio-mechanical hybrids and automated defenses.  You can encounter any of that, but hopefully, it won’t be too much.  Your weapons, while very very VERY crude and seriously unrefined by our standards are fully powered and should prove to be enough.  Good luck, or as we like to say, Ganbatte.”

If you took the Ryo-Ohki, it can’t make it into the atmosphere and you will need to take your shuttle.  However, the Yukikaze can, as well as its fighters.  It’s currently in orbit, but can land in a short while.  There are some things the players can find out about the area using scans from the ship in orbit or by doing fly-bys with drones:

• Their ship can’t land directly within the area, as there is a continuous lightning storm and conditions are bad for just flying in.
• There’s a LOT of electromagnetic interference inside the lightning storm, but they can tell that the lightning storm is being caused by something inside the area, with the interference growing worse the closer to the center one got.”
• There is a half-circle shaped crater wall around the circumference of the area.
• There’s an ultrasonic sound coming from the area, one that gets louder as one gets closer, but isn’t in a frequency that humans can’t hear.

The People don’t know why there’s a continuous storm above the area, only that it’s always been there, the entire time they’ve been there.  By the time they found it, they’d used up most of their weapons fighting their enemies and had holed up in the city they’re in now.  When it’s time to go, they line up and wish you luck.

“Your flight plan takes 2 hours taking a ballistic flight to low orbit and then back down.  As you get close to the storm, you feel the harsh winds buffeting the ship and your engines straining in a high pitched whine that you’ve never heard before.  There’s more than just winds here, as you feel gravity itself strengthening – an impossibility on a planet and with the relatively low velocity you’re taking.”

There’s something extraordinary happening here.  It’s going to need exceptional piloting skills to pull this off.  This is a level 4 piloting/speed task to keep your ship from veering off course.  If players want to help, this won’t be a speed task, they will need to burn Might in order to help steer the ship back into course.  If they fail, they can try again, this time applying one level of effort as mandatory.  But if they fail again, the ship will need to land 5 miles away, where the winds aren’t so strong.  

If the players land 5 miles away, they face an encounter.

“Your ship lands roughly, skidding on the ground.  The gravity has returned to normal, and the winds are merely blustering and not damaging.  It’s cold here, with snow still on the ground, but not freezing.  You can see the storm 5 miles away, lightning bolts hitting the ground over and over again, winds and unnatural gravity bending the light around it.”

“The animals around here seem to have fled and there are a few trees and some hardy bushes remaining.  The way to the storm is mercifully flat and you have landed on the side of the area that’s open and not on the other side of the crater wall.  One hour into the trip, though, you do see something that stands out.  It looks like an 8 foot tall icicle sticking out of the ground, crystalline in structure, but with tentacles coming out of it.  It’s not moving.”

If the party attempts to move past the icicle, it comes to life!  It’s an Entrope.  (pg 46 Numenera Ninth World Bestiary 1)

Once the entrope is defeated or if the party actually lands next to the 5 mile wide area, they’re free to walk in without any hazards other than the uncomfortable heavy gravity that doesn’t have any other effect than to slow them down.

“As you cross the periphery of the 5 mile area, the lightning thunders ferociously around you, the wind whipping the rain until it feels like needles stinging your skin.  However, the moment you pass an invisible line, the winds, lightning, thunder and violence disappear to be replaced by a clear blue sky, the sun high in the sky and a pleasant wind blowing.  There is a structure 2.5 miles away, in the exact center of the external storm.  There’s also a song, that you can barely hear.”

“But, I guess

That I can live without you

But without you I’ll be miserable

At best”

The other lyrics can’t be made out.

The structure nearby is 10 feet tall and looks to be about 400x800 feet.  There looks to be an entrance in a courtyard.

“The inside of the structure is a maze-like affair with long hallways and unpredictable turns, along with irregularly sized rooms and frequent dead ends.  “

The rooms and hallways are numbered close to the how the players will encounter them:

Foyer: The door opens and the hallway immediately turns left, left again, straight and ends in a dead end.  If the players search, they’ll need to make a Level 2 Intellect task.  They can make the search separately or help each other.  When they find the secret door, it’ll be on the south side.

6: This is a 15x45 foot room, with a door on the south side and one in the middle of the east wall.  This appears to be a display room, with panels on the wall depicting daily life of the original inhabitants, which seem to be composed of 5 different species.  The pictures appear to move.

7: This room used to be an old botanical laboratory, with plants everywhere and is now overgrown.  It is 55x15 foot room.  “Hiding amongst the plants is a form that looks like a flickering flame of white, gold and blue, that’s floating and flitting through the air.  It notices you and you hear a voice in your head.”

“Why are you here in this place of eternal wind and light?  It is dangerous here.  Do not tarry.”

• The Erulian seeks to warn the party away.
• It has no idea what’s happening outside.
• It doesn’t want to be disturbed in its meditations.
• The players can negotiate with it with a level 2 Intellect task, if they have a social skill that applies.
• If the players manage to be diplomatic, it warns that yes, while there is a weapon here, the guardian is something they call a Relentless Reaper.
• Time flows differently here, slower than the outside.
• It asks for what has happened outside.

If the players don’t manage to placate it, it fights:

8: This is a 15x35 foot room, with a door in the north wall and an arch way in the south wall.  This looks like a place that used to dispense food, with cubicles along the western wall and what look like bowls scattered around.  There isn’t really anything that’s analogous to a chair, but there is rubble here.  If the players spend an hour, they can find a cypher here, roll on the Manifest Cypher table on page 346 of the Cypher Core System book.

2: This is a workshop used to build mechanical systems.  There are all sorts of equipment here, much of it incompatible with terran technology, but you do find a cypher here, if you search.

Cypher: Hunter/Seeker Level 3 (pg 354 Cypher Core System).

4: This room is empty except for glowing panels set in the floor and cloth on the walls.  If the cloth is examined using infrared, they make holograms of colors.  If they’re examined using the ultraviolet spectrum, it looks like the entire room is on fire.

11: “There are discs in this room and a few control panels on the wall.”  When pressed, they activate and start to vibrate.  When they finish, your clothes and armor are clean.

a: “This hallway has discs that take up the entire center of the room.  They’re glowing red and pulsing.”  When the players pass through the disks, they start to get sleepy and sink to their knees.  To resist is a Level 2 speed Task.  Otherwise, the PC sinks into the disk.  They wake up 2 hours later feeling refreshed.

3: “This room is full of ash.  The ash is light with most of it being fine, but there are chunks of heavier substances here and there.  There’s also a rectangular structure about 3 feet high with an opening in it that’s glowing.  There is another hole lower down and to the side.”  If a player puts something in the hole, it gets converted to ash, with the metals being converted to chunks of heavier substances.

11: “Red fills your vision from the lighting in this chamber.  The light is coming from spheres floating in the air, with the majority of them emitting red and the rest emitting white light. There are transparent boxes with human-shaped beings in them, swimming in a clear liquid.  Their mouths open and close, breathing in the liquid and out.”  These creatures are not actually miniature humans, but simulacrum thereof, in smaller form.  They don’t have their AIs activated and are not very functional.  If they’re removed and taken apart, they’ll be found to have a powerful transmitter in place of their brains.

10: This room is empty except for a hemisphere on the ceiling and a cylinder in the middle.  When touched, they cylinder appears with instructions in the players’ language.  Apparently, it’s a hologram projector.  When activated, the room fills with a display of the star system they’re in, the planet (or asteroid) they’re in, as well as the position of the hostile squadron that’s chasing them.  Obviously, it’s not in accurate scale, with the important objects scaled to much larger than normal.

9:  “You enter this room from one of the 4 corners.  It is approximately 7x5 with an entrance or a doorway in each corner.   Rubble is everywhere and a rotting stench is here.  There is a collapsing hole here that leads to somewhere underground and it looks like something has crawled out.  It looks like something that’s died, but with a number of cyphers crusted on a sword that it’s holding.  There’s two of them.  They  glare at  you and stomps forward”

5: “This room is dimly lit with flitting shadows moving back and forth.  Some of the shadows are shaped like birds, others are shaped like canines with large teeth.  There is an unmistakable smell of blood permeating the room.  It’s coming from the dog shaped shadows, who proceed to turn sideways into a thread thin black line and attacks!”

There are two Vapes/bladehounds who attack.

1: “The final room is one that’s 11x9.  At the other side of the room is a device of some sort, with some rather obvious control panels and an old fashioned screen.  However, in front of you is what looks like a mechanical beast, with four spinning blades.  It growls at you and rumbles forward on its mechanical legs.”

Inside the room, among some junk piles are 1d6 cyphers.  There are also a few artifacts here:

REPAIR SPHERE

Level: 1d6 + 2

Form: A small spherical automaton about 8

inches (20 cm) in diameter

Effect: This device comes with a small module that can be affixed to a machine. Floating along, the sphere attempts to follow within immediate range of the module (though it can be directed to remain where it is). It moves a short distance each round. It can come to the module from a range of up to 10 miles (16 km) away. If the module is attached to a machine and that machine takes damage, the sphere moves to repair the damage with sophisticated tools that restore 1d6 – 2 points per round (meaning that if a 1 or 2 is rolled, nodamage is repaired that round). This requires no action on the part of the machine being repaired. The sphere can attempt to repair a machine a number of times per day equal to its level. The sphere must be newly activated each day.

Depletion: 1 in 1d100

As a weapon:

“The screen shows the location of the flotilla that’s headed to the planet you’re on.  The controls light up and the letters arrange themselves to form words and phrases in your language.  With some effort, you can find a targeting reticle and the words form ‘READY TO FIRE’.  When you initiate the sequence, a hologram pops open with a panoramic view of the planet.  Thousands of previously undetected points of light emit a beam that coalesce into a much larger one that streaks into the formation of ships.  The view of the hologram follows the light, and it shows the large beam hitting the lead ship and then splitting to hit the others.  The flotilla is utterly destroyed.”

As a gate:

“The screen shows your asteroid’s position in the system with the flotilla actively looking for you.  The controls light up and the letters arrange themselves to form words and phrases in your language.  With some effort, you can find a menu to enter the coordinates for outside the system.  When the coordinates are entered, there is a brief shudder, where you feel ‘off’ for an instant, as if you were travelling through Alcubierre space and then it stops.  

Looking at the screen, you can see yourselves outside of the system.  If you take your ship out of the cave in the asteroid, you are in interstellar space, with an idea of where you are in relation to the system and to where you need to go in order to find your way back home.

(14) The PCs decide to Hoof it!

The players have decided to make a run for it and take The People with them.  Aboard the Yukikaze, it’s going to be a tight fit, but they’ll be able to stuff everyone in.  The Ryo-ohki has plenty of room, but the problem is that the life support system is only able to accommodate a few of the cargo modules, but it’s just enough to house the People until they can make it to the solar system.

Either ship can make it into orbit before the invading flotilla reaches their position, but the Si-Dek have the acceleration advantage on them.  From their position in this system, they can head in the opposite direction as the oncoming squadron and they only need to make it to 882 million mile limit away from the sun in order to use their Alcubierre drive.  

“You make it into orbit with your passengers and begin boosting for the edge of the system.  Unfortunately, hours later, you realize that they are gaining on you, having been accelerating longer than you have and are moving much faster.  Eventually, before you reach the system periphery, they’ll catch you and it’s going to be an ugly fight.  You have some options.  You can try hiding in the asteroid field, or you can try hiding on one of the other planets.”

Whichever way the players choose, they’ll have to fight their way out.  If they choose to hide in the asteroid field, a large asteroid reveals itself as a mining control center and starts its subsidiaries to start laying explosive/magnetic mines everywhere.  But, there is a large asteroid, big enough to enclose their ship several times over as well as a maze of tunnels.  The asteroid has a lot of metal deposits that block signals from the outside, so once the ship is in it, they can detect weak electromagnetic activity inside.

If the players try to hide on the planet, there’s a large cave large enough to hide their ship, and there are passages leading to a maze of corridors.   There’s also weak electromagnetic activity inside of the cave.

Use the same map as section 13, but during the ending fight, instead of a weapon, they find controls to create a gate to move their ship and everyone in it to outside their current star system.

(15) The Reckoning

New Adventure Start

“You find yourselves outside the star system, in between the stars.  You have a ship full of people and it doesn’t seem like you have enough supplies to last a week, let alone a month of mission time.  Is it time to go back to earth?  Your superiors will be wanting a report.”

Without a recourse, the PCs will have to return to earth.  When they get close to the inner worlds data network, they receive a message.

“IESV-2 Yukikaze, this is Picket Squadron Gamma, state your status and broadcast your IFF.”

Once the players answer, a different voice cuts in.

“IESV-2 Yukikaze, this is Squadron Gamma Actual, rendezvous with us at these coordinates and we’ll escort you in.  A new picket squad will be along in a few hours to fill in the gap in the lines.  All the pickets have been told to expect you.”

Squadron Gamma accompanies the ship full of people to Prime Earth Defense station, decelerating at the hallway point with you, but doesn’t dock at the station.

“Squadron Gamma Actual here.  Sorry about the strict procedures, as security wants to check your ship over for anything that might be dangerous and will want to decontaminate both you and your uh, passengers.  Keep your head down and good luck.”

“The ship docks at a subsidiary station, away from the rest of Prime Earth Defense and you are told to stand by for boarding by inspectors.”

“The airlock opens and there are drones there, ones with special sensors and air scrubbers.  The drones filter themselves amongst you, antenna and sensors waving, chittering amongst themselves and engines whirring.”

Eventually, the machines are done inspecting and purifying everything and hold out decontamination suits.  “Please put these on.  They’ll help contain any organics you may have.”

Once the party puts the decon outfits on and the airlock opens, they’re directed into a metallic chamber that seals them in from the outside.  A voice speaks, “This containment unit will protect us from any mechanical dangers that may have infested you.  We’ll do the scans from out here.”

The chamber is moved to another part of the station and the scans begin.  They take about 3 hours to do before the party is declared clean.  All sorts of scans take place, from x-rays to prodding by machines and blood samples.  At any point here, the PCs are free to do what they need to do in order to find out any information.

The People, who are passengers in their ship are put into a separate chamber from the party and look at you with questioning eyes.  However, it sounds like they’re familiar with such procedures.

“A corporal comes opens the door to the medical chamber and leads all of you out.  He tells you to get your uniforms on and to see the EASA council immediately.”

The party is led through the main thoroughfare of the station, with lots of personnel going back and forth, mostly enlisted personnel heading to and from duty stations and some fleet personnel heading to their ships.  After about 20 minutes, you head into a spacious chamber, probably one of the station’s bigger meeting rooms, with a table seated with some familiar figures, Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko, Space Marine Takashi Komuro, Professor David Kei Takishima, Astrophysicist Rin Hoshizora and Akina Hino awaiting your report.

The Grand Admiral speaks first, “Gentlemen.  It seems you have an interesting story to tell.  Please give us an overview of what you’ve found.”

Allow the PCs to give a report of what they’ve done and found.  And then the questioning:

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko: “Comparing our weaponry and theirs, how do we rank?  Pound per pound, rifle to rifle, missile rack to missile rack?  Are there more than two factions we are talking about here?  Have you seen any large Iilari ships at all?  The Si-Dek ships, what kind of armaments are they sporting and what are their combat capabilities?”

Space Marine Takashi Komuro: “I’m interested in the capabilities of the Iilari mecha you’ve seen.  You know how our own ground pounders are set up. How do we measure up?  Do you think we could beat them one on one?  Or do we need more of a two to one advantage?  Three to one?  Do you have any samples of their technology and what their force composition is like?”

Professor David Kei Takishima: “The Iilari are interesting to me.  How do you think they communicated and did they have a language?  How did they coordinate their movements and tactics?  Did they attempt to talk to you at all before attacking?  What about the Si-Dek?  The humans that you’ve taken back with you, where do you think their mastery of the technology is at?  Do you think they can explain how the Si-Dek drives and weapons work?”

Astrophysicist Rin Hoshizoka: “Did you run into any interesting dangers in space?  Any difficulties getting past them?  What about the planets you explored, can you tell us anything interesting about the planets themselves or any interesting artificial structures that you found?”

Akina Hino: “There are some fascinating materials there you’ve taken back.  We don’t currently have the capability to manufacture these.  Do The People know how to refine the ore or where to get it?  Hmm.  Do you think if we captured some of their former masters, that they would know?  Is there a possibility of trade with The People and what could they exchange for our help?”

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko: “I think outside of their specific interests, everyone here wants to know .. are we in danger of attack from either of these factions?  Were you followed?  How would you know if you were followed or not?  What is the force disposition of the flotilla that you encountered?  How many of our own ships would have to fight them and win?”

Space Marine Takashi Komuro: “If we were attacked today, how do you suggest we take the fight to them and win?  And at the very least, how would we gain more knowledge of these two factions in order to find out what we need to do to survive?”

At that moment, an alarm blares out.

“PICKET SYSTEM ALERT.  LARGE FORCE SYSTEM INCURSION.  UNKNOWN SHIPS INCOMING FROM MINIMUM ALCUBIERRE DISTANCE.”

(16) Iilari Attack

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko: “Looks like we’ll get some of our answers soon.  Our 4 system pickets are intercepting now, as well as our inner system fleet.  Minimum count is 50 ships.  We outnumber them, but barely, and we will intercept them at Jupiter, after we group up near Mars. “

The Grand Admiral speaks into his headset while punching some buttons into the console, “Yes.  Let the generating stations know that they’ll have to run on emergency fuel supplies for a few days while we re-purpose the solar mirror for combat.  Wait, what?  Are you sure?  What do you mean you can’t contact the solar array station?”

The Grand Admiral looks over at you with a grim expression, “We can’t contact the solar array station, the crew that maintains and controls the mirrors for their tasking.  It sounds like all transmissions stopped about an hour ago.  It will take whoever it is a while to interface their systems to ours, but they’ll eventually do it.  The majority of our forces are being deployed to intercept the incoming fleet, so we can’t spare a ship to fix this.  What about you lot?  You’ve had experience with these aliens, maybe you can figure out what they’ve done.  Having the solar array during this battle will be very helpful.  We can tell where the enemy are, and while the concentrated light won’t reach them for minutes, we can predict the trajectories of the ships and eliminate at least some of them.  So what do you think?  At this point, you’re our best choice.”

Probably the players will agree.  When they do, they can take either ship that they have access to.  If they take the Ryo-Ohki, the shuttle aboard it can dock with the solar array station.  If they take the Yukikaze, they can dock with the fighters or the auxiliary shuttle.  Neither capital ship can dock directly with the station.

From Earth Prime Defense Station, it will take two weeks to reach the station.  Are the players doing anything special during this time?  If not, they can receive news from Earth:

“Aliens discovered!  Are they the monsters we always thought they would be?!”

“Humans from outer space?  Where did they come from, how did they get here?”

“Under attack!  Our brave Space Forces engage the alien monstrosities!”

(17) The Solar Array

Interception: On the way to the station, the PCs are intercepted by an Iilari patrol of light scout ships.  Four of these fighters spot the player ship and accelerate to intercept them.  While on the one hand, they’re able to operate independent of a mother starship, they don’t have the staying power of earth fighters.

When the party gets to the station in two days, they notice that the ring structure of the station looks like there are very large mechanical spiders on it.  The “spider” fangs have pierced the structure of the station, but the station doesn’t look like it’s leaking air or liquids that would be typical of something that lost pressure in the depths of space.  The “fangs” look like they’re conduits of some sort, possibly to disgorge troops to the inside.  There’s also some kind of electromagnetic interference that’s effectively jamming communications that’s coming from the mechanical spiders.  Around the station, there’s also debris that looks like they’re the remains of the squadron that was stationed here.  There are escape pods that are flashing distress signals that can reach the immediate vicinity, but nowhere else in the system.

If the party looks at the records for what’s was patrolling this area, they’ll see that it’s an undersized squadron, with a few light cruisers and some system missile boats.  The spiders on the hull of the station don’t look like they have their weapons powered up, and an analysis of the way they’re clamped on says that if they’re fired upon, the station will take damage, possibly a lot of damage.  The PCs will need to go in.

The Iilari didn’t bother to enter using the station’s standard docking stations, so the PCs can use that.  If they fly a shuttle or a fighter to dock into the station, they won’t be challenged.

The players can park their ships at main airlocks A and B.  If someone has computers or hacking skill, they can remotely control the docking clamps, otherwise, they will have to do something manual.  They can also park their ships at Maintenance airlocks A and B, but they’ll end up in the bottom portion of the station instead of in the middle.  The secondary airlocks can be accessed by players using their suits or power armor for EVA.  

Main Airlock A: “The door hisses open and the air is clean as per the monitors.  Red lights are blinking and it appears that the station is on emergency power only.  There is a store room to the left and right of you that hold emergency food and usually some weapons and ammunition for use in the station itself.  Currently, all of the weapon racks are empty, but there are some magazines left in the cabinets.  Past the storage rooms are a locker room, where the inhabitants undoubtedly dressed for EVA or for immediate military activity.  There are spare spacesuits here, but no power armor.

Main Airlock B: “The air in here is clear and there are storage units to the left and right.  Much like the Main Airlock A, there are emergency food supplies in here, but no more weapons and only a few stocks of ammunition.  Beyond the main entry way, there is another door leading to the Auxiliary life support and Engineering controls.

Tasks?

• Station status.  The station is somewhat disabled and to get the status from a terminal here will be a Level 2 Intellect task.  Players can get life support (air, water, etc), life signs, and power status.
• Engineering controls can be reached here, but due to the power shut down, reactor and mirror array control won’t be possible.  Finding the break is a Level 2 Intellect task.  If the players trace the break, it’s in the communications and space traffic control area and will need to be repaired.
•  If PCs scan for motion or attempt to access the station cameras, they can see dead bodies in various parts of the station as well as Iilari mecha roaming the station, mostly the Iilari mechanical soldiers and Merkadian Soldiers.  Unfortunately, the video cameras on Deck 2 and 3 are completely dark.
• The crew state rooms are especially depressing, as it looks like anyone who was hiding in there was found and then killed.  Many of the personnel here fought to the last second, but were simply overwhelmed.
• While the video is gone from Decks 2 and 3, the PCs can hear a lot of whirring, as if metal is being cut, as well as the sounds of welding.
• The spider ships have clamped between the secondary airlock and Main airlock B, between the hydroponic garden and main airlock B, and between the Hydroponic garden and Main airlock A.
• The elevator is in the middle of the station, reachable by the common areas and the staterooms.

Common Area: “The tables used to be propped up against the door, but it looks like both the door and makeshift barricade were blown apart by some sort of explosion.  Dead human bodies are here, riddled with laser fire and other damage.  The food dispensers look like they haven’t been damaged and could be finagled to dispense something to eat if main power were on.”

Tasks?

• Figure out how long these people were killed.  Level 2 Intellect Task and using medical skill.  They were killed approximately 1 day ago, which means that the lasted for a day before the Iilari killed them.
• The bodies were not looted of their equipment, so they still have a few light weapons on them and two medium weapons.
• The inner door leads to the station hub.

While the PCs are investigating, there is a clanking from outside of the common area.  Three  Merkadian Soldiers have found the PCs and move to attack!  It looks like they’ve come from around the corner, from either the docking control or the Hydroponic Garden.

Hydroponic Garden: “Lush greens and edible plants are being grown here and have only recently begun to ripen.  Fresh fruits and vegetables hang temptingly from vines and from tubers.  It wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the 3 gigantic moths here.  They look angry that you’ve violated their abode and move in to strip you of your life.”

Once the moths have been defeated, you find what they were protecting.  There are 2d4 cyphers here. Roll on the random cyphers table on page 344 in the Cypher Core system book.

But where did the war moths come from?  They were not specimens on this station, and even if they were, the station is not for research, not by a long shot.  

Docking Control: If this is the first time the players have come here, there are three Merkadian Soldiers waiting for them.  If they have already encountered the Merkadian Soldiers, then the docking control room is empty, save for a foul smell left by the Merkdians.  “This room manipulates the docking clamps of the ship airlocks A and B.  There are both manual controls, as well as a place to plug in an external console.”

Tasks?

• Manipulating the consoles is a combined Intellect Tier 2 and Speed Tier 2 task.  Succeeding in this will let you dock and undock a ship.  The clamps also reach further than just the immediate areas of the main airlocks A and B.  They look like they can reach any area of the station.
• There are cameras on the clamps themselves, so you can see what you are manipulating.
• However, aside from some very basic positioning, the clamps don’t have power for major operations, like restraining a ship or un-docking one.  If the main power were on, the clamps could do so.

Crew Staterooms: “These chambers are reached from the station hub, which is reached from the common area.  There are multiple rack beds in the staterooms, fitting 3 sleepers in each rack, with one up top, one in the middle, and one on the bottom.  There are footlockers on the bottom of each rack, as well as a communal bathroom.”

Tasks?

• Opening the footlockers is a Might level 2 task or a Speed level 2 task if one is using lock picks.
• In the footlockers are various personal items, maybe a picture here, some are small data storage devices, others have game devices, one being a Nintendo Hologram Boy.
• There also appears to be a cat here.  The cat isn’t from earth and looks like he stowed away with the Iilari.  He looks up curiously at the visitors with intelligence in his eyes.
• Once three staterooms are explored, a swarm of gazers (6) attack!

Gazers are levitating metallic about 1.5 in diameter with equipment and blinking cyphers on its alloyed body.  It emits a beam of scarlet light as its weapon.

Elevator: The central hub has an elevator that goes down to Deck 2 and up to Deck 3.  The middle deck is called the Center Deck.  However, without central power, the elevator cannot go down to Deck 3.

Once the party is done with the Gazer attack, the cat talks to them.

“So.  Who are you guys? The hired help here have all been killed, and the new guys aren’t willing to submit to my control.  Very messy.  I’m Mr Fluffy.  Can I see your orders?  I hold the formal rank of Captain, but please call me Mr Fluffy.  Chop chop, let’s see your mission parameters.”

“Cats can’t read.  Read it to me.”

“I’m from the Estate.  I don’t really know where I came from, but I help out the EASA now.  I’m pretty good at finding problems in electronics and such.  They pay me in cat food.”

Mr Fluffy can tell them about what happened here.

“Well, the hired help thought we were just having another large bunch of meteors passing by, one that hasn’t come around for a long time.  Just rocks.  Until they opened up and lased the defending picket.  It was all very shocking.  And then they clamped on to the station.  Horrible mess and the creatures that came out, just terrible.  You over there, yes, the dumb one.  Cats need petting you know, and these ears aren’t going to scratch themselves.”

Deck 2

The elevator opens into a circular area with three doors that you know go to the reactor, engineering, life support and communications array that handles the solar mirror controls.  Even though the video cameras showed this area as dark, there is light in here.

Life Support: The door opens with a set of consoles pertaining to life support on the left and engineering interfaces on the right.  The cameras are wrecked as expected and the engineering interfaces are guarded by two scrap drones with Iilari markings.  They look like they are busy trying to scavenge the engineering interfaces and equipment.  The turn to you and the buzzing of their chainsaws are loud and menacing.

Once the scrap drones are defeated, the PCs can perform tasks at either the life support or engineering interfaces.  Here, life support functions can be directly manipulated, since the facilities for water storage, air creation and other necessities to living are nearby and can be reached.  The same thing is with engineering, with the reactor unit nearby.

Tasks?

• Monitor life support in each deck and chamber.
• Manipulate life support controls for every chamber with a doorway.
• Detect life signs aboard the station.
• Trace problems with life support and which nodes need repairing.
• Monitor reactor output.
• Manipulate reactor output and status.
• Feed the reactor with reactant.
• Trace power problems and where power nodes need repairing.
• All tasks are Level 2 Intellect.

The reactor can be repaired with 4 hours of work using the tools and spare parts on the station.  However, the solar mirrors are still offline and now that the reactor is operational, the elevator can move into Deck 3.

Deck 3

The elevator that opens on deck 3 has 2 doors that players can go into.  One is the Communications and Space Traffic Control chamber and the other is the Mirror Control chamber.  

Communications and Space Traffic Control: This section of the station houses the consoles that monitor traffic around it and has access to the comm arrays that can broadcast up to Mercury.  It looks like most of the consoles are now functional, since the reactor is online and providing power.

Mirror Control: “The mirror control room is the biggest in the station, housing numerous panels and consoles for the coordination of power and mining beams.  However, operating the controls frantically is a human surrounded by a trailing haze of dozens of overlapping, half-formed alternate versions of the central figure.  The alternate versions partly reflect the central image’s actions, but not perfectly; some of the half-visible images are engaged in completely different actions.  It speaks to you.”

“Ah yes.  The rescuing party.  You must understand, the Iilari are here and they must be allowed to harvest humanity.  The members of ANGEL know.  You cannot be allowed to stop them.”

The dimensional husk attacks!

When the dimensional husk is defeated, it fades into nothingness and the party can regain control of the solar mirrors.  Here, they can choose to do several things.  They can re-establish communications with Prime Earth Defense or they can try to target the mirror themselves.  If they use the mirror to target the flotilla, when they view the battle with their sensors, half of the earth ships have already been destroyed, with ominous looking shapes flitting through space.

Changing and controlling the mirrors is a Level 3 Intellect task.  Players can help with this as can skills like physics, mathematics and computers to drop the level of effort.  When they achieve control, their efforts completely obliterate the incoming alien fleet, cutting them to ribbons.

(18) Aftermath

When the PCs make it back to Prime Earth Defense, the EASA council needs to talk to them.

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko speaks.  “First of all, thank you for your work on the solar array.  Frankly, while our forces put up a good fight, they were outmatched by the enemy and the solar mirror being used against the Iilari was what decided the victory.  Second, we sent a system science ship to the incursion point, and it matches the coordinates where you entered the solar system.  There is also a matching energy signature from the invading ships.  It looks like you’ve been followed.  We don’t know how they did it.”

“Let me put it to you plainly.  Earth wants to strike back.  We want to take the fight to them, but look at what’s left of our grand fleet.  We have the bulk of our static defenses left as well as our long range Orion missiles, but as far as offensive projection of power?  We don’t have it.  If we send ships of significant numbers out there, we will attract the wrong attention.”

Akina Hino speaks up.  “This is where you gentlemen come in.  You have experience with multiple different alien races now.  You’ve been out there.  We need you to explore some possibilities.  We need to know where we can gather resources outside the solar system.  We need to know where we can set up bases.  What alliances we can make.  Who can we trust and who are our enemies?  Frankly, we need a powerhouse of an economy, which means better material sciences, better manufacturing and better technology.  We need you out there doing this for us.  We might be able to send another team, but that’s going to take us a year, since the second Alcubierre drive ship hasn’t returned yet, we need to construct another one.”

Rin Hoshizora speaks up.  “While we have a multitude of missions for you, in order to accomplish them, we need to know what’s out there.  Our friends here, the People, are completely lost without their astrogation gear, and none of it’s working any more.  We need you more than ever to map out and explore what’s out there.  And we need you to survive because we only have one team and that’s you.”

“Will you do it?”

Give the players 4 XP each, second episode is done, third episode to begin.

Solar Array Station

Appendix A: Opponents

Appendix B: NPCs

Grand Admiral Hiroshi Nadeshiko

The Grand Admiral is a veteran of two wars and is an old hand when it comes to fighting.  He’s a gruff old man, with greying hair and weary, but hard eyes.  He’s tired of fighting, but is careful when it comes to new engagements.  The Grand Admiral won’t back down due to threats and there is no give in him.

Space Marine General Takashi Komuro

Similar to the Grand Admiral in bearing, General Komuro has a difficult time walking, having been a veteran of those same two wars.  He believes in taking action and isn’t afraid to jump into a situation with all guns blazing and asking questions later.  With that being said, he will be the first to tell you to try a diplomatic solution and will avoid fighting if it is at all possible.

Professor David Kei Takishima

Professor Takishima became a scientist for the sole purpose of designing weapons of war to satiate his blood thirst.  He was widely known for developing anti-personnel munitions that have since been banned by the international community, but held in reserve by First World nations in an emergency.  As a scientist, though, he is very curious about all aspects of technology and wants to gain insight into anything found .. before dissecting the society or people that bears such technological distinction.

Astrohysicist Rin Hoshizora

Doctor Hoshizora has been studying the stars since she was a child.  She built one of the first phased array quantum telescopes after she graduated from MIT at the top of her class while working for Boeing labs.  She is utterly innocent of many human customs and is extremely socially awkward.  Her only ongoing concern is space travel and knowledge of the stars and star lanes.

Corporate Liaison Akina Hino

Miss Hino is the corporate liaison for a multinational group of mega-corporations who are interested in a brand new market outside the solar system.  Her goal is the acquisition of new sources of materiel, technology and possibly alien cultural information.  She is a confident and capable businesswoman in her own right, owning several large companies and large chunks of others.  Hers is a greedy mind that acquires wealth for its own sake.

Picket Squadron Alpha Commanding Officer: Commodore Haruto Harada

Commodore Haruto Harada is a stickler for the rules for the sake of the rules.  If there is something that makes sense to do, but violates the rules, he will instead follow the rules.  For him, the law is absolute.  He will not bend, ever.

Picket Squadron Beta Commanding Officer: Commodore Akane Itto

Commodore Itto only works here.  She’s just here to do her job and not one iota more.  However, she IS susceptible to bribes, so long as it doesn’t endanger her job and there are assurances in place that her participation will be kept secret.

Picket Squadron Delta Commanding Officer: Commodore Riku Tanaka

Commodore Tanaka is highly skeptical of any request made of her.  She doesn’t like deviating from previously given orders and always ask for confirmation from at least one level of authority above.

Picket Squadron Gamma Commanding Officer: Commodore Asahi Nakamura 

Commodore Nakamura is an overly friendly officer who implicitly trusts his peers and other officers. He always sees the bright side of every situation and prefers to be optimistic to a fault.  He is, however, good at his job, winning several official war games.

Solar Mirror Defense Picket Commanding Officer: Captain Heisuke Sasake

Captain Sasake is deferential to the chain of command, always knowing where the order comes from and which tree to shake for changes to orders or to confirm the information.  He’s not really good at having initiative, but he’s good at executing clear instructions.

Yuuto  Mori, the People

Yuuto Mori is typical of his kind, a former slave turned freedom fighter/guerilla.  He’s somewhat pessimistic about his cause’s chances of success, after having been on this out of the way planet for a number of years with no way to escape until now.  However, he has led many successful missions and knows no fear, even against great odds.  

Appendix C: Star Systems

Local Solar System Travel Times

Calculations are extrapolated from acceleration at 1g:

1.75 hours to moon from earth orbit

6 days to jupiter from earth orbit

9 days to saturn from earth orbit

18 days Kuiper belt (around neptune) from earth orbit

Extrapolated numbers:

Mars to Venus: 1.5 days

Venus to Earth: 3 days

Earth to Mars: 3 days

Mars to Jupiter: 3 days

Jupiter to Saturn: 3 days

Saturn to Neptune: 9 days

Neptune to Pluto: 3 days

Minimum Alcubierre distance is 882 mllion miles, between Jupiter and Saturn

Distance from Each Other from Inner to outer system

Appendix D: Player Ships

ESS Ryo-Ohki : IESV-1

Tier: 2 (6)

The ESS Ryo-Ohki is a converted merchantman with 1 heavy weapon, 1 medium weapons, 1 missile battery (heavy), 40 combat drones (light), 1 atmospheric shuttle, 6 modular cargo bays and a new experimental Alcubierre drive.  The ship is powered by a typical fusion reactor and has the newest sensors, electronics and EW/ECM.  This ship cannot go into the atmosphere and must release shuttles for any planetary incursion.

ESS Yukikaze : IESV-2

Tier: 2 (6)

The ESS Yukikaze is a frigate frame converted to carry 6 detachable fighters and as such has much less room for weapons and gear.  It does, however, have a medium laser and a missile battery, as well as a module cargo bay and a new experimental Alcubierre drive.  The ship is powered by a typical fusion reactor and has basic sensors, electronics and EW/ECM.  The Yukikaze can enter the atmosphere even with fighters attached to it.

ESS Space Superiority Fighter SF-23A

Tier: 1

The SF-23A was built, but never used in actual combat by the Earth Alliance.  It’s been tested extensively and is safe to fly, but only real combat will reveal its advantages and flaws.  The SF-23A only has 1 weapon, the light burst laser.  From mock combats, these fighters are most useful in swarms, as two fighters when coordinating their attack against one vehicle can drop the difficulty of the attack by one step.  Three or more fighters, the difficulty is reduced by two steps.  The SF-23A is capable of both space and atmospheric flight.