TTW - The Belgardian Revolution of 1106

Outcome: The Ruby Costa boarding squad played an important role in the recent Belgardian coup d'etat, led by CMDR Aurimas Rumsa.

985-373 and Belgard (Updated)

985-373 - The system is a charted by otherwise abandoned system, designated as a "Red Zone" by the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service because of the many hazards to the system. These include astrogation hazards in space and both radiation and biological hazards on the system mainworld. It is also an occasional haunt of pirates.

PC Briefing - BNV Istvan systems and defenses

 

Image from http://swc.fs2downloads.com/reference.php?subdir=Misc/Gunship/Handree_Deckplans/

Gabriel and Velscur

The war between Baraccai Technum and McClellan Factors in the Trojan Reach is about to get a lot hotter, as the MV Ruby Costa begins its operations in the Egyrn subsector. The MF'ers are trying to open a Jump-3 bridge between their headquarters in Mertactor and the Florian League, something that would upset the apple cart in the Trojan Reach. 

Janus and Caldos

This article introduces Janus and Caldos, two neighboring systems that are the Spinward entrance to the Sindalian Main, aka "The Dustbelt". Unlike some previous posts, this is not a recap of prior events. Instead, it is a briefing for what you will be coming into. It will eventually be added to and turned into a traditional recap. The date will be Day 312 of the year 1105, 

Solaria - Arc Resolution

 

A lot happened in the final session on Solaria, which was dominated by the resolution of both the "corporate shenanigans" and the "biowar agents" story arcs, which wound up being combined into a single action. Additionally, a bit of speculative trade was done, some money was made, and the hold is partly full of quality wines and liquors. At the end of the session, the attending players unanimously decided it was time to move onto the next planets, Janus and Kaldos. 1XP was also awarded. 

600-ton Long Freighter

Converted from a Subsidized Liner of the sort common to Charted Space, the Long Freighter has been stripped of passenger-carrying capability, trading it instead for increased cargo space. The conversion yard removes all but four of the staterooms and five low berths for the six crew and any incidental passengers), as well as the common areas and the launch docking areas. In their place, the Long Freighter now carries two double beam laser turrets for self-defense, a "Slow Boat" for refueling and cargo transfer, and the ability to carry 260 tons of cargo. Like the original liner, the Long Freighter is not streamlined; this is not an issue thanks to the 19-ton capacity of the slow boat carried aboard. Long Freighters are externally similar to their ancestors, differing only in the absence of viewports, the addition of large cargo doors, and similar minor changes. The class mostly operates in regions away from "mains", especially in sparse frontier areas like the Trojan Reach. 

Solaria

The PC's arrived at Solaria, a TL8 agricultural world with a population of about sixty million. The populace lives mainly on the coasts of various tropical marginal seas and islands, as the interior is desolate, dangerous wilderness. Solaria is a breadbasket and could serve as a food source for all of the worlds in the local cluster, assuming the local elites could shuck off their reactionary ways. Whichever company secures this trade would benefit greatly and MF knows that. Even worse, MF is trying to establish a J-3 route through Odin to Mertactor. It is important that the MV Ruby Costa prevent MF from establishing itself here first.

Odin and Thor

In order to progress the story along to elements that are more interesting and involve more players in the action, I decided to "off-camera" this portion of the travel. This included the worlds of Odin and Thor, as well as a minor ship-to-ship encounter in the Thor system. In the interest of moving the story along, this encounter was gamed out using the M2SSSC and several random die roll generators on Google. No PC's were killed or seriously injured, and only minor freebie loot was acquired as a result of this. If you are satisfied with this method, I will probably handle other portions of the MV Ruby Costa's travels this way, narrating the repetitive bits in favor of the exciting and interesting parts of your journey. 

Mongoose 2e House Rules

We will apply the following tweaks to the Mongoose 2e Traveller rules for the "Trojan Trade War" campaign. These will be updated as new situations occur.

Velscur

The MV Ruby Costa dropped out of jump space near the inner gas giant of the Velscur system, exactly as intended. Lt. Crider quickly detected the Vargr corsair, the Raalzatu, cruising towards them. After about a day of maneuvering to lure the corsair in close, the PC's sprung their trap. While the Raalzatu got the first hit in with a strafing run by its light fighter, the MV Ruby Costa quickly finished the Raalzatu off with a quick succession of hits at long range with her particle accelerators. Between the direct damage to the ship and the lethal radiation, the corsair was left dead in space. The PC's closed to boarding range and assaulted the corsair through its main deck. Resistance was light and uncoordinated, as only a handful of Vargr raiders had survived exposure to 1200 rads of gamma radiation. 

Braudel and Goria

Having set a stealthy course across the Outrim Void, the MV Ruby Costa jumped from Orsech to Kydde, and then to Braudel. Braudel is an isolated world marked as a Red Zone by both TAS and the IISS, and the PC's opted to simply refuel at the system's largest gas giant, notable for a striking ring system. The refueling went without incident. Lt. Kryder noticed immediately, however, that the Red Zone Warning Beacon was not transmitting. Someone or something had taken it out, and they were unable to locate the buoy satellite. They noted the irregularity and did a J-3 to Goria. 

Senlis Foederate

The PC's have a week of travel between Bantral and Senlis, their next destination. The plan is to meet with local authorities and receive an official "Letter of Marque". This legal document will give them legitimate cause to hunt pirates. They will also be able to attack Arkesh Traders vessels without themselves being considered pirates. This will allow them to benefit from a prize court on Senlis, which could pay quite a lot if ships are captured and brought intact to Senlis itself. Finally, it should shield the MV Ruby Costa and crew from legal entanglements when operating in one of the several "Imperial Client States" of the Trojan Reach. If an Imperial Navy vessel orders them to heave to and be boarded, the "Letter of Marque" can reduce the delay to hours instead of days or weeks. 

Mr. Shalkash shares the following tidbits about Senlis, above and beyond the listed library data and whatever a player thinks to inquire about:

The Jawpig Hunt

At the suggestion of Mr. Shalkash, the troopers decided to go hunting for Jawpigs, the delicious local apex predators. The bridge crew and engineers remained behind to finish up the last of the pre-flights and adjustments on the drives, electronics, and primary weapon systems. It was known that a pack lived in the woods to the north of the plantation, so they all piled into a rangetruck after sunset and headed out, Blackbird Jack at the wheel. While the troopers were out, a delivery gravtruck showed up and dropped off two five-ton pallets of sealed "grains" of some sort. Mr. Shalkash apparently expected the delivery but declined to elaborate on the contents. The bridge crew inspected the containers as they were loaded, and determined that the cargo was in armored boxes of some sort. Mr. Shalkash insisted that the cargo be stored up in the nose cargo bay, sealed in and isolated from the rest of it. Nothing else was said about it, though several pointed looks were exchanged.

Beginnings on Bantral

The six month patrol of the Trojan Reach officially started on 240-1105, when the PC's were decanted from low berths aboard the MV Decameron, a Baraccai Technum-owned merchant cruiser bound for Bantral. They were then introduced to Mr. Avzel Shalkash, the BT executive in charge of the whole operation. The crew took a pinnace down to a research farm on Bantral, actually a base camp for the ship, the MV Ruby Costa. The crew did a quick meet-and-greet, and Mr. Shalkash laid down the mission parameters. 

Trojan Trade War - Dramatis Personae

This is a list of the Player Characters (PC's) and significant Non-Player Characters (NPC) for the "Trojan Trade War" campaign. As players provide information, I will add it to their writeups. Check back frequently!

The PC’s were all hired by agents of a major trading corporation, Baraccai Technum, to serve on a privateer for several months or longer. The mission will take the PC well beyond Imperial borders, and be fairly risky. The PC was lured with the promise of a sizable monthly salary paid into an account with Hortalez et Cie LTC (known as utterly reliable) plus bonuses aplenty. The downside is that the PC will be frozen into a low berth and transported anonymously out to the launch-off point for the start of the cruise. This will minimize the chances of any inadvertent intelligence leaks happening. We will actually start play with everyone being thawed out and debriefed.

Trojan Trade War: Things Everyone Knows

Anything you need to know, your character probably knows what is in Library Data - look it up! Additional information will be added to this blog post as they come up, so you may want to bookmark this post. 

Trojan Trade War: Campaign Premise and Characters

The PC's are hired to crew an up-gunned Subsidized Merchant Q-Ship in the Outrim Void, mostly in the Trojan Reach. They will be operating semi-autonomously on behalf of the Baraccai Technum, which is currently engaged in a low-key trade war against McLellan Factors and the Arkesh Traders in the region.