Echo Station - a story for Trinity, contributed
by Micael B. Lee.
Summary:
This adventure is designed for 3-5 players, playing Trinity field operatives
recently assigned to the Luna field office. Even in an organization as wealthy
and influential as the Trinity, her off-planet outposts must often make do with
limited resources and personnel, and the office at Olympus is no exception.
TRITON ARCHIVE
Source: Luna Business Weekly, June 15, 2118
Interplanetary Ores Goes for the Gold
-Fledgling Mining Company Gambles for Big Payoff
In a surprise press announcement early yesterday, officials from Interplanetary
Ores reported that they have presented orbital shipbuilder GenDyne with a 40
million-yuan purchase order for three of the newly-designed Crucible-class asteroid
mining ships.
These advanced vessels, touted as the "future of deep-space mining", represents
a substantial expenditure of capital for a company that has yet to stake a single
claim in the Ceres Belt. Interstellar Ores' spokesperson, Jan Beylich, described
the expensive purchases as part of "an aggressive strategy to maximize resources
with the most modern and efficient equipment available." "With the purchase
of these ships, Interplanetary Ores will be able to refine and process a wide
spectrum of valuable metals simultaneously, with a fraction of the overhead
and none of the safety concerns that our more conventional competitors share,"
Beylich stated. "Sure, it seems like a lot of money to spend for a company that
has yet to begin operations, but we expect the ships to pay for themselves in
the first year. No one in the business world has risen to the top without taking
risks, and Interplanetary Ores has no intention of settling for second-best."
Officials with GenDyne expect the first of the Crucible units to come online
in early 2119. Beylich stated that "the money used to purchase the ships was
provided by private investors, who at this time wish to remain anonymous."
TRITON ARCHIVE
source: Vive le Legion!, October 2119
Beware of the Rockdogs!
Legionnaire Isabelle Longchamps wears a patch on her arm bearing a fiery-eyed
canine lunging from a steel-gray asteroid. 12th Pursuit Squadron reads the red
letters stitched across its top. The squadron's motto underlines the leaping
beast: Bite Deep, Bark Later. "Belters have been calling us 'rockdogs' ever
since we got here," Longchamps says with a wolfish smile of her own. "We figured
we might as well make it official." Since its first operational deployment to
Forward Firebase 30 in 2115, the 12th Squadron has taken the Belters' slang
to heart, prowling their patch of the Ceres Belt with stealth, vigilance, and
aggressiveness. When a pirate or smuggler crosses their path, the Rockdogs sink
in their teeth and don't let go. "We catch more bad guys because we don't sit
on our asses waiting for a distress call," Longchamps says with typical Legion
frankness. "We get out there and prowl around, looking for trouble. If we find
a ship running with no flight plan- or God help 'em, no IFF- we shake 'em down,
right then and there." The Rockdogs' aggressiveness and gung-ho attitude has
reaped an impressive amount of successes: the capture and destruction of 15
pirate ships (including the Black Diamond, one of the most successful ships
of recent years) and the confiscation of two thousand tons of contraband cargo!
No other operational unit in the Seventh Legion can boast as much. "There's
just no way we could do business if it wasn't for the 12th Squadron," William
Caldwell, regional manager for Interplanetary Ores, asserts. "I can think of
at least three occasions since I have been here that they have saved our personnel
and equipment from potential pirate attacks. The Belt is a long way from civilization.
I mean, anything goes out here. You can't be too aggressive." Other individuals
have disagreed with Caldwell's assertion, however. Several Earth-based shipping
companies have made complaints to Legion headquarters in the past, citing unnecessary
use of force and harassment by the 12th Squadron. In every case, the complaints
have been withdrawn after careful review, but each incident adds to the squadron's
territorial reputation. Legionnaire Longchamps has no problem with having a
reputation for aggressiveness, or being overzealous. "Why the hell not? If you're
legitimate, then we've got no problem with you. If a bad guy hears about us
and thinks twice about stepping in our part of space, then we're doing our job
right, yeh?"
SEVENTH LEGION MESSAGE ARCHIVES-CERES THEATER
Archive Group: G12452532 (Access Restricted)
From: William Caldwell, regional manager, Interplanetary Ores
To: Colonel Piet Haas, 5th Pursuit Wing
Date: January 9, 2120
Encryption: DSE
Subject: Officer Recommendation
Major:
At this time please allow me to express the admiration and respect that my company
has for the efforts of the Seventh Legion, specifically the 12th Pursuit Squadron,
in maintaining order and safety for our employees in the Ceres Belt. Since we
have begun operations last year, your Legionnaires have saved the lives of countless
individuals and prevented the loss of millions of yuan in expensive equipment.
The hard work and courage of the 12th Squadron has contributed directly to the
success of our young company, and we have not failed to go on record to laud
their accomplishments. It has come to our attention that the 12th Squadron's
current commander, Major Heinrich Dormann, has accepted a promotion and a staff
posting on Earth, creating a need for a new squadron commander. For what it
is worth, we would like to offer our unreserved recommendation for one of the
squadron's most highly-decorated pilots, Captain Isabelle Longchamps. Her professionalism
and positive attitude are a credit to her unit, and we believe her record of
victories against pirate ships speaks for itself. From our close association
with Captain Longchamps, we feel that she would be invaluable to promoting further
commercial expansion of this part of the Belt, and would reflect very favorably
on the Legion as a whole. Once again, you have our heartfelt thanks for the
Legion's tireless efforts. If our company may be of assistance to your forces
in the upcoming expansion of asteroidal habitats, we would be pleased to lend
our abilities as a gesture of gratitude.
Yours truly,
William Caldwell
>>>>>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>
Rules Section
This adventure is designed for 3-5 players, playing Trinity field operatives
recently assigned to the Luna field office. Even in an organization as wealthy
and influential as the Trinity, her off-planet outposts must often make do with
limited resources and personnel, and the office at Olympus is no exception.
The station chief must carefully allocate the teams at her disposal to handle
each situation as it arises, and frequently rookie teams are sent to handle
routine or straightforward jobs that would free up more experienced agents.
Theme:
The theme of Echo Station is one of conspiracy. Nothing is quite what it seems.
Even the most banal events can mask vast, secret plans.
Mood:
This adventure is best played for spookiness and paranoia. Think X-Files. Just
when the players think they know what's going on, they turn a corner and find
out that things are bigger and scarier than they imagined.
The Briefing
The characters completed training barely two weeks ago, traveling to Luna to
begin their first assignment as Trinity field agents. For those who have never
strayed out of Earth's gravity, the transition is as unsettling as it is awesome.
The mood inside the Trinity field office is professional and hectic, as the
station chief and her staff face juggle their limited number of agents between
a flurry of assignments. For the first few days, the characters are put to work
processing paperwork and getting a feel for how things are run out of the office,
watching teams come and go with mounting eagerness and envy. Then, one afternoon,
the station chief tells them it's time to earn their keep. They are to report
to the briefing room for their first field assignment. The briefing room is
a small, windowless chamber in the building's lower levels, containing a long
meeting table, chairs, and a sidebar set with a coffee maker. Laura Brenner,
the Luna station chief, awaits the team, sitting in a high-backed chair at the
head of the table. Her manner is brusque, even slightly impatient, and she launches
into the briefing as soon as the characters find their seats. "Okay, people,
I'll say right from the start that this looks like a wild goose chase, but at
least it will give you a chance to get out in the field and start learning how
to work as a team. Yesterday, at 0900GMT, a merchant ship awaiting clearance
to dock at Forward Firebase 30 picked up a weak transmission on the interplanetary
distress frequency coming from within the Belt. The signal lasted for less than
five seconds, and was badly distorted by interference. As far as the ship's
comm officer could tell, the signal carried no understandable message, and it
did not repeat." Brenner leans forward and touches a series of buttons recessed
into the surface of the tabletop. "Things might have gone no further than that,
but the captain of the merchant ship has a financial arrangement with Triton
Division to share any unusual information he runs across while out in the Belt.
When he made port at Luna this morning he handed over a recording of the signal,
and we were able to clean it up somewhat with our equipment. This is what we
found." A muted, surf-like sound echoes through the room, punctuated by momentary
squeals of static. Suddenly, the characters hear a ragged, atonal buzzing, then,
quite clearly, a man's frenzied scream. The shrieking lasts for a full five
seconds, then the transmission ends. If the characters ask Brenner about the
buzzing sound, she will say that the comm techs believe it is some form of high-energy
interference. Characters may use Electronics (+1 difficulty) or alternately,
Perception (+2 difficulty) to analyze what they heard. If successful, the characters
feel that the noise isn't random interference -possibly some sort of local jamming.
If the players get extra successes on their rolls, the Storyteller can add that
not even that explanation sounds quite right, though. "Now, Absolute 30 has
better signal processing equipment than we do," Brenner continues, "and if a
merchant ship alongside the base heard the transmission, you can be damn sure
the base did, too. But the firebase sent no word of a distress signal to the
proper authorities, as required, nor did the base dispatch any patrols or even
heighten their alert status, which is very unusual. Given the reputation of
the squadron based there, it's very, very unusual. Maybe the squadron commander
had her reasons for discounting the signal…or maybe something odd is going on.
We're sending you to Absolute 30 to find out. "Your assignment is to investigate
this signal to the best of your ability, and determine why the Legion unit chose
not to report it. How you handle this investigation is entirely up to you, but
I want it kept low-key if at all possible. If someone gets wind that a Proteus
team is investigating a Legion unit, it will get back to Earth sooner or later,
and there is enough paranoia going around about the Orders without us adding
any more. The fact that you are all new agents will give you a good amount of
anonymity, as long as you don't draw attention to yourself. You will be catching
a ride out to the firebase on a merchant ship making a scheduled resupply run.
The ship leaves in two hours. Get out there, gather all the information you
can, and get back. Start packing." Not that the characters will be able to take
much with them to Absolute 30. Merchant ships frequently take on more passengers
than they have living quarters to make some extra yuan on short hops, and the
team is limited to carrying no more gear than they can fit in a small backpack.
(Twinks who seek to get around this limitation by stating that they will wear
their Chameleon BioVARG for the whole trip will be spaced out the first convenient
airlock.) Characters who have no appreciable equipment will be issued a pistol
of their choice (excepting plasma pistols!). In addition, the team leader will
be given three dots' worth of yuan for "operational expenses" (read: bribes,
hush money, whatever). Any use of this money must be accounted for carefully,
and the team leader will be assured that she will be held responsible for every
expenditure. If the characters take the wise precaution to do a little research
before leaving for the firebase, have the players make Investigation rolls.
Each character has enough time to check into one area of research before time
to depart, so if the team has a number of things they want to look into, they
will need to split up the areas of inquiry amongst themselves.
Forward Firebase 30:
If the characters wish to research info about the firebase, they learn that
it became operational in March of 2115 as part of a network of early-warning
and advance Legion bases running the circumference of the Ceres Belt. The base
provides patrols and search-and-rescue forces for its section of the Belt, and
is home to the 12th Pursuit Squadron, a unit of the Seventh Legion. The base
itself is set in a hollowed-out asteroid, which is also home to the field offices
of Interplanetary Ores, a small mining company that works exclusively in the
area. The asteroid also maintains a fairly sizeable transient population, consisting
mainly of prospectors and independent Belters looking to strike it big out among
"the rocks".
12th Pursuit Squadron (Rockdogs):
Characters researching the squadron are at a +1 difficulty due the Legion's
clannishness. Former Legionnaires can ignore the difficulty modifier. If the
characters are successful, the Storyteller can share the "Beware of Rockdogs!"
piece in the Setting section. The Rockdogs are a highly motivated, highly aggressive
squadron with an enviable record of successes against pirates in their sector.
The current commander is Captain Isabelle Longchamps, a French refugee with
FSA citizenship. No less than eight companies have filed complaints with Legion
headquarters regarding the 12th Squadron, all citing the use of unnecessary
force and even harassment against ships operating in their sector. In each case
the complaints were settled with a minimum of official notice, (presumably involving
a lot of yuan), and no official action has ever been taken against the unit
or its officers. The many complaints have served to make the squadron even more
tightly-knit and distrustful of outsiders than the typical Legion outfit. Captain
Isabelle Longchamps: The Legion guards personal information on their troops
very closely, to prevent the possibility of Aberrant reprisals against the families
of Legion personnel. Characters researching Longchamps do so at a +3 difficulty;
former Legionnaires have a slightly easier time of it, suffering a +2 difficulty.
Longchamps is a highly-decorated officer, having joined the Seventh Legion in
2114 and earning numerous commendations for bravery and coolness under fire.
She has been with the 12th Squadron since its first posting to Absolute 30,
and rose to command the unit after the previous CO was promoted to a position
on Earth. Included in her file is a copy of an email recommending her for the
post from the manager of Interplanetary Ores. (The Storyteller can share the
email message in the Setting section.) There is no information in Longchamps'
file regarding her life before joining the Legion. This is not too surprising;
recruits are excepted into the Legion with no questions asked.
Interplanetary Ores:
Information on this small company is very sparse: characters face a +1 difficulty
on their attempts. If the characters are successful, the Storyteller can share
the "Interplanetary Ores Goes for the Gold" piece in the Setting section. Other
than that first, ambitious press announcement, IO has pretty much faded from
public view. Being a privately-held company, it does not publish annual financial
reports, and it does not have a presence on the OpNet. If a researching character
gets an extra success on their roll, they learn that IO received the third and
final Crucible-class mining ship in late 2119, after which time it closed its
small Luna office and shifted operations to its regional office at Absolute
30. If the character(s) get two extra successes on their roll, they learn that
there is no mention anywhere of a home office for IO, nor is there any reference
to the identity or identities of its officers or investors.
This concludes the introductory section of the adventure. Stay tuned for Episode
Two
