Adventure Source: GURPS Space Adventures

Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/star-trek-gaming/events/282939974/

Game Date: January 16 2021

Session Post: No session post

Teaser: Acheron Hyperdynamics was a small but innovative starship company looking for a big break. They got it when they landed their first major contract — their advanced M-66 modular warp drive was the winning design in a contest sponsored by the Federation for the new Argo class deep space colonization cruiser.

The prototype warp drive was sent to the Starfleet proving grounds for installation in the Argo. But it never arrived: someone staged a massive warehouse robbery at a starport storage facility. All 56 drive modules — enough to power a multi-million ton vessel — vanished.

• Cmd. O’Nnyah (Raven)
• Lt. Cmd. Reittan Andreas (Jon)
• Lt Cmd. Taemin Rahn (Garrett)
• Lt. Jr. Wolfgang Ratzel (Terry)
• Dok – Acting Chief Engineer (Kelly)

Important NPCs:

• Denivue Calais (Ariadne Skorpio) – Albino Orion criminal gang leader
• Rafe Scott (Sean Duvalle) – Henchman
• Endrix – Computer Hacker

Notable Information: dd

Mission Recap: A slightly revamped intro from the “Rebirth” adventure in the “GURPS Space Adventures book”:

Acheron Hyperdynamics was a small but innovative starship company looking for a big break. They got it when they landed their first major contract — their advanced M-66 modular warp drive was the winning design in a contest sponsored by the Federation for the new Argo class deep space colonization cruiser.

The prototype warp drive was sent to the Starfleet proving grounds for installation in the Argo. But it never arrived: someone staged a massive warehouse robbery at a starport storage facility. All 56 drive modules — enough to power a multi-million ton vessel — vanished.

“Hyperdynamics didn’t have its own security force, and didn’t trust the local police to do a good job. They turned to Starfleet Intelligence instead. We suspected it was at least partially an inside job, and soon discovered a company clerk whom the criminals had blackmailed into providing the details of the shipment. We found her.

There’s good news and bad news.

“The bad news was that the inside person had a vibroblade shoved between her ribs: they’d killed her to cover their tracks.

“The good news was that she was part Vulcan and managed a partial mind meld with another employee who found her just before she died.”

“Most of her memories were pretty scrambled, but we got something. The clerk — Karin Key — was about to receive her payment when they killed her. But she saw something before she died — one of the thieves was looking at a travel brochure. The title on it was Silicon Towers, the planet was Herne. Silicon Towers isn’t in our files — it may be a town, or a hotel — but it’s the only lead we’ve got. Herne’s a planet in the Vagabond system, a little ways into the Shackleton Expanse.  It’s a day’s journey from here. They left two days ago, so you’ll be right behind them.

There’s a briefing on Herne for you — read it on the trip.

“Key’s memories say there are six people in the ring. We couldn’t get clear descriptions on five of them — just one woman, four men. But we identified the leader: she’s Denivue Calais, a former member of the group known as the Five Systems Cabal (which, by the way, is tied to the Orion Syndicate). She’s also a former Marine Commando turned arms smuggler, wanted for the suspected murder of a Starfleet agent who vanished a few months ago.

“Since the M-66 prototype was stolen rather than destroyed, it’s unlikely the motive was sabotage against Acheron Hyperdynamics. Enough warp drive modules were taken to outfit a fleet of ships, or put a mass the size of a small asteroid into warp. The combined value of the system is over 400,000,000 credits,  but the experimental nature of the hyperdrive makes its components very easily identified, so the parts could not be easily resold without being identified.

Starfleet Intelligence’s best guess is that she’s working for someone who is planning to use the modules.

“Your mission is to find out who and why. Good luck, and move fast. You may not have much time.”

The Kimura is still undergoing repairs, and this is an undercover mission, so the crew members take Doc’s small ship to Herne under cover as merchants making a delivery. Herne has a planetary shield to protect it from the electromagnetic waveforms and tetryonic storms that plaque the Shackleton Expanse, so there is no ability to beam down to the planet. They land at the Freeport Spaceport, make their way through Customs and find their way to the Silicon Towers Hotel in the nearby city of Arden.
They do some asking around, trying to locate Denivue Calais. Nobody recognizes the name, but they find out that her description matches someone by the name of Ariadne Skorpio who is staying at the hotel with a male companion named Rafe Scott.

They also discover that Ariadne and Sean have been seen in the company of a small time computer hacker named Endrix. They also meet a tourist named Jeremy Kahm who had tried to pick up Ariadne for a drink in the bar the previous night. Lt. Ratzel arranges to go on a skiing trip with Jeremy, hoping to be able to find out additional information.

While Lt. Ratzel is on his ski trip, the rest of the group figures out which room belongs to Ariadne and Rafe and break into it. In one of the bags they find a business card that reads “Argos Import/Export: Anton Shrike” followed by an address of a warehouse. They swap a couple of items around between the bags then seal the room back up.

They also find Endrix at the bar and manage to get some additional information from him. HE seems to be upset about something that happened during his dealing with Ariadne and Sean, saying “I’m not a killer”. They realize that he’s using a black market IQ boosting drug known on the street as Highsign. They settle him into their room, with Dr. O’Nnyah knocking him out for an extended period of time.

This allows them time to set up across from the warehouse to observe what is going on there.
To be continued…