Aikhiy.txt

Aikhiy - Enigma and Rescue
(A GUESS Adventure for Traveller: The New Era)
by Guy Garnett


"In a service as small as GUESS, the scuttlebutt gets around pretty fast.  We
 all knew that Old Lady Honoko had something big planned for the Fidelity as
 soon as we were done with our shakedown.  Most of the smart money was on a
 trip to Aikhiy.  So I wasn't that suprised when the Skipper announced our
 destiation at the "all-hands" briefing.  A couple of the younger crewmembers
 looked a little pale, but most everybody else looked glad that we were done
 waiting, and finally going to GO SOMEWHERE."
                                                     -- 1st Sgt. Obenhowzer.


BACKGROUND

It was because of Aikhiy, or rather two starships that failed to return from
Aikhiy, that the Exploration Ban was instituted 10 years ago.  An early, and
politically important task of GUESS will be to visit Aikhiy and prove that
there are no "boogeymen" lurking in interstellar space.

Not only would the loss of another starship cause the imposition of another
Exploration Ban, but a successful mission is also politically important to
GUESS.  Admiral Honoko has been adamant that the exploration service be
independent from both the Gralyn Union Navy and the semi-civillian Space
Transport Authority.  Her argument, that GUESS's work is sufficiently
different from the mission of either other service thata specially-trained
independent service is required, is not without merit.  It is also not without
detractors. 

A success at Aikhiy will help vindicate her position, and a failure, even a
partial one, will provide her critics with more ammunition.  Although this
fact goes unspoken at Admiral Honoko's briefing, the Fidelity's officers can
hardly help but be aware of the current political situation.


OPTIONS

Individual referees will want to decide how bold (or cautious) they want Adm.
Honoko to be; the decision here will probably set the tone for the campaign,
and give the players an idea of how their characters are expected to behave. 
The cautious approach, while certainly more "realistic", may have the effect
of stifling some of the creativity and initiative on the part of the players. 
Individual referees will have to asess their players, and decide accordingly.
 
If the GUESS Admiral's style is bold, the Fidelity will be sent alone to
reconnoiter the system, "take appropriate action to ensure the safe navigation
of other ships", and return.  This will allow the player characters a greater
sense of freedom of action, without another ship "looking over their
shoulder".

In a cautious campaign, Honoko will send at least one other ship, almost
certainly New Hope, the service's 100-ton scoutship, with the Fidelity, to
ensure that at least one ship is able to report back on the fate that befell
the other.  The ships will jump into Aikhiy in formation, and the New Hope
will maintain strict radio silence.  The two ships will emerge from jumpspace
at widely-separated points in the Aikhiy system, to prevent both ships from
being attacked by the same menace.

The scoutship is manned by a "Line" quality crew; the referee should assume an
asset of 13 whenever one of these NPCs needs to make a task roll.  The
Fidelity's NPCs are "Crack" quality, with average assets of 15 in their
primary job skills.  The Fidelity's Captain Sternbaum is senior, and in
overall command.

If the formation jump is precise enough, the two ships can still communicate
via laser communicator.  This precision navigation is an Difficult task
against Astrogation, for the navigators of both ships.  If both are
successful, it is an Average Communications task on the part of either to
establish communications via a nearly-indetectable laser commlink (a roll is
required due to the distance, and lack of sensor contact with the other ship)
Apply a +1 Diff Mod to this roll per navigation roll that was missed. Allow
one attempt by the Fidelity's crew (and one by the New Hope's crew, if contact
wasn't established by the Fidelity within a reasonable amount of time). 

If both attempts fail, communications cannot be established.  The referee
should make both the astrogation and the sensor rolls in secret, to play up
the suspense - it is, after all, quite possible that some horrible fate has
overtaken the other ship, and awaits the players.

The New Hope's mission endurance is only a fraction of the Fidelity's; she
will remain on-station for a week, making detailed passive scans of the
system.  At the end of the week, unless requested to remain by Captain
Sternbaum, in which case the scoutship can remain for another week to ten
days, before life-support reserves begin to run low.


HISTORY UP TO THE CRASH

The Aikhiy system was originally explored by Aslan clan scouts, and a small
colony was placed on Aikhiy by the Loakhtarl clan circa -80.  Never fully
successful, the residents were one of the first of their colonies to succumb
to the Turmoils.  All that remains of the Aslan colony are a few ruins, and
the world names.

After the Peace of Ftahalr, Aikhiy was settled by humans recruited by the
Aikhiy Development Trust, a joint venture between Venice and Gralyn.  The
intent was to establish an agricultural world to supply the growing demand for
inexpensive, quality foodstuffs on both worlds.  This project proved
successful, and by the time of the Collapse, the Aikhiy was a typical
agricultural world.


Aikhiy System Profile circa 1200

Primary: Eayehwo.  K0 V.  Luminosity 0.42, Mass 0.825, Radius 0.908.

Orbit	Name		UWP		Pop
0       Aowaiw          Y000000-0 As    0
1       Iyyua'a         Y000000-0 As    0
2       Htahrew         LGG
    4    Htaih          Y200000-0       0
   11    Aikhiy         X5477A7-4 Ag    1
   13    Oi'hweh        YS00000-0       0
   45    Kahkiyrl       Y414000-0       0
3       Eilyel          SGG
    1    Ieiahorl       YR00000-0       0
   55    Yoae'ai        Y411000-0       0
   65    Eaoih          H100000-0       0
3.9     Witaikteah      YA34000-0       0

The system's central star, Eayehwo, is 4.2 light-seconds in diameter; inbound
starships can come no closer than slightly within orbit 3, 420 light-seconds
from the star, and 71 light-seconds away from Aikhiy. Ieiahorl is Trokh for
"bangle" or "bracelet", and is used by the Aslan in much the same way that
Terran astrographers use the term "ring". At one point, a good quality
spaceport on Eaoih catered to the needs of ships using the system a refuelling
point; although partially stripped during the Collapse, some salvageable
equipment may remain.


Aikhiy World Description

Aikhiy is an ordinary, molten-core world, 8,346km in diameter.  Like the other
worlds in the system, it is poor in heavy elements and mineral resources.  The
world is not dense, and has a surface gravity of 0.525g. Htahrew orbits the
central star once every 235.51 Imperial Standard (24-hour) days, and Aikhiy
orbits the gas giant once every 78.9 Imperial Standard days.  Htahrew's orbit
is nearly perfectly circular, causing little seasonal variation.  Aikhiy's
axial tilt of 2 degrees also has a minor effect; mini-seasons caused by
Aikhiy's orbit around Htahrew, of approximately 20 days duration are the only
significant source of seasonal variation - hardy crops can enjoy a year round,
though cool, growing season. 

Aikhiy rotates slowly, with a 51.3 hour day.  The day length is perhaps one of
the most disagreeable (to humans) features of the world - the long cycle
disrubts circadian rythms, causing any number of minor health complaints. 
Aikhiy "natives" have adapted fairly well, spending about 12 hours asleep
during the middle of the night, and a 4-hour nap during the hottest part of
the mid-day.  It takes about two weeks to adapt to the Aikhiy daylight cycle.

The atmosphere is tainted with biological spores from the world's diverse
native plantlife.  The spores cause a life-threatening severe allergic
reaction in about half of all humans (and Vargr).  For humans exposted to the
atmosphere for more than an hour, roll 1d10.  On 1-4, an allergic reaction
developes after 2d6x10 minutes (roll the time for each person separately - it
may be important, if characters with medical training are the first to
succumb).  On a throw of 5, the reaction will only develop after 1d6 weeks of
exposure, and on 6+, the person is unaffected.  Aslan are affected nearly as
seriously: throw 1d6, and on a 1-2, the reaction develops after 2d6x10 minutes
as above.  On a 3 exactly, the reaction occurrs after 1d6 weeks, and 4+
indicates immunity.   Droyne (and other alien races, if present) are less
seriously affected: throw 1d6; one a 1, the character succumbs in 2d6x10
minutes; on a 2, the symptoms develop after 1d6 weeks, and on 3+ the character
is immune.

Characters affected by the allergic reaction will initially break out in
hives, and will have an ahsma-like difficulty breathing.  Most will also
suffer from itching, sneezing, watery eyes, and general congestion.  The
symptoms will increase in severity with prolonged exposure until death follows
in 1d6x1d6 hours.  It is an Easy task against Diagnosis for a medic to
determine the cause of the reaction, and prescribe a course of treatment. 
Increase the task difficulty to Difficult if for some incredible reason the
medic has no reason to suspect that the atmosphere might carry an allergen. 
If the patient isn't removed from the allergic atmosphere, death will
eventually follow from the allergic reaction.  Removing the patient from the
contaminated atmosphere, and treatment with TL-6+ medicines, will accomplish a
complete recovery.


HISTORY SINCE THE COLLAPSE

Before the Collapse, Aikhiy was a profitable agricultural world, with a high
enough technology level (TL-7) to be comfortable.  Like many worlds in similar
situations, it had no manufacturing base to speak of; local "production"
consisting of assembling equipment from imported parts.  With the coming of
the Hard Times, trade fell off, and a slow slide in sustainable technology
level began, as imported parts and equipment became harder (but not
impossible) to obtain.

The coming of the Virus changed that.  Infected ships destroyed the starport
and themselves, causing considerable damage to the starport city of Groton (a
corruption of Agro-Town, the original ADT settlement) and much of the
infrastructure that supported the outlying farms.  Being an agricultural
world, feeding the survivors wasn't a problem.  Shelter and sanitation were.

Approximately 12% of the population succumbed to the atmospheric taint when
full-time filtered environments failed.  The percentage would have been
higher, except that ADT had a long-standing policy of refusing to post
personell to Aikhiy that were subject to the rapid allergic reaction.  The
long-term reaction was missed by ADT's screening tests.

The ADT Director-General, the highest ranking company official on-planet,
maintained order during the Collapse.  As a company colony, the inhabitants
were used to obeying instructions, and the Director-General's hands-on
management style allowed him to remain effective even after the disaster.

At an average technology level of 6, most of Aikhiy's technological society
was unaffected by the virus, except for the destruction of the starport and
surrounding city.  However, it still depended on imported parts and materials
to remain functioning.  With the complete loss of interstellar trade,
equipment broke down gradually over the next several years, although some
machinery was kept functional for over 20 years.

Even with the reduced agricultural efficency, providing food to the population
required less manpower than was available - leaving a considerable surplus to
rebuild the city, and seek out the resources required to maintain a technical
society.  Construction of New Groton, located accross the river from the ruins
of the old city, began as soon as practical after the crash.

Generally built to TL-4 standards, New Groton is nevertheless a well designed
city.  Streets are broad, and paved with cobblestone, and well drained into an
efficient sewer system.  Most construction is of a local sandstone, cut from
quarries upstream and floated downriver on rafts. Brick construction is also
used, and temporary structures are typically built from native softwood.

Local technology is an odd mixture of TL-4 through TL-7.  There has been some
success in locating small exploitable deposits of iron, copper, and tin in the
mountain ranges to the west of New Groton.  A railroad line has been extended
in that direction, to haul those commodities, from the boomtowns that have
sprung up near the mine sites.  The deposits are generally small, and of
mediochre quality; mines and whole towns are abandoned with the ore plays out,
only to be founded anew a few dozen kilometers away at a new lode.

Aikhiy has no fossil fuels; power sources must be derived from agricultural
sources, and include alchohol and charcoal.  Most machines are still
steam-powered, although electricity, electric lighting and motors are not
unknown and are used in some areas of New Groton.   The thin atmosphere
prevents aircraft from being practical with these power sources;
transportation is by foot, animal, railroad, or (for a priveledged few)
steam-powered automobile.


Politically, the Director-General is the de-facto ruler of the planet. 
Originally, he was responsible to the offworld backers of the ADT, primarily
the government agencies of Venice and Gralyn that between them own the
majority of the trust.  With the seperation of ties offworld, this
responsibility has been effectively removed.

However, shortly after the collapse, the Director-General at that time
"reformed" land ownership.  To facilitate the organization and management of
the colony, he granted his more effective managers "Stewardship" of large
areas of land, retaining a larger share, which included Groton and New Groton,
for himself.  The Stewards meet regularly, and function as a landed gentry. 
The Assembly of Stewards has a second important function: The Director-General
selects his successor by appointing his chosen heir to the position of Deputy
Director-General, and the assembly of stewards must approve the selection.

The director-general also personally controls the Company Forces. Originally
the small ADT corporate security force maintained onworld for emergency
services and to perform customs checks at the starport, the Company Forces now
act as the police, rescue, and fire service for New Groton, and perform tax
collection duties throughout the colony.  Stewards are responsible for law
enforcement and emergency services on their holdings, although Company Forces
have precedence over the Steward's men.


RECENT HISTORY

When the original explorers from Gralyn arrived, the director-general was Olav
Shugilii.  Although not a bad ruler, Olav's policies were unpopular with the
majority of Stewards, and he was by no means politically adept.  They were
assessed high taxes in order to pay for projects such as the rail lines, an
aqueduct, and other expensive projects which were seen by the stewards as
benefiting the city at their expense.  The stage thus set for a confrontation,
the post of deputy director-general was vacant due to the death of Olav's
older son; the Director-General intended to place his daughter, Gina, in that
position, but the Assembly refused to approve the selection of a 14-year-old
to the post.

Into this situation dropped the contact team from Gralyn.  Although initial
negotiations went well, from the Gralynite's viewpoint, the recontact with
Gralyn drove another wedge between Olav and the Stewards.  Fearing that
recontact with Gralyn might mean the loss of their stewardship, and its
privledges, most of the Stewards opposed the recontact.  Pulled by his sense
of duty, curisoty, and the geunine persuasiveness of the possibilities renewed
trade could bring, Olav took the opposite viewpoint.

The Gralyn contact team, which was sponsored in part by a branch of the ADT,
was from the 400-ton trade explorer Hope (a subsidized merchant, fitted for
trade exploration).  The contact team used Hope's lander, Chastity, as their
forward base.  In the midst of the negotiations, the ground team lost contact
with Hope, for reaons that remain unexplained.

The commander of the Company Forces, a charismatic, brash, and young Captain
Donal Nelson with the support of several influential Stewards staged a coup.
Within hours, the suddenly-stranded Gralynites were captured and held along
with Olav, his daughter Gina, and one loyalist Steward.  The balance of the
Stewards believed that they could control "their" Director-General, or that a
landless upstart commoner could be readily deposed if they so choose.

A relief mission from Gralyn, in a 200-ton free trader, was captured nearly
bloodlessly by the Company Forces.  Rationalizing this as necessicary to
prevent further unwanted offworld contact, the crew and passengers were also
incarcerated.  A small number of the captive Gralynites were executed; the
technically-knowledgable captives have been retained, and pumped for useful
information by local technicans.  The free trader is being used as a power
source, and technical repository by the Director-General.  Although in (more
or less) operable condition, a brick building has been built around it.  The
lander is inoperable, but is kept out in the open, the bait for trapping the
next group of offworlders to arrive.

After a few early power struggles, it became rapidly clear to the Stewards
that "their" Director-General had at least as much independence as the
previous one.   Donal had Olav executed within the year.  Although he released
the captured Steward after Olav's execution, he has had to execute one of the
other Stewards for "treason" (sheltering Gina after her escape) in the
intervening decade.  This, one of Donal's worst policy mistakes, caused
considerable backlash amoung the other Stewards that the Director-General has
since then concentrated on playing the Stewards off against one another,
rather than opposing them directly.

In order to cement his, and more importably, his heir's standing in the social
order, Donal made no secret of his plan to marry Gina.  Although long-delayed,
first due to her age, and later due to as many complications as Gina could
dream up, the wedding was finally scheduled for Gina's eighteenth birthday. 
Shortly before the ceremony, a sympathetic servant assisted Gina's exscape,
foiling Donal's plan. 

Director-General Donal is a charismatic speaker, and enjoys the support of
the middle classes in New Groton.  Outside of the city, the workers on the
individual stewardships at least pay lip service to him, but their more
immediate concern is with their own Steward.  Most Stewards command the
respect of their subjects.  Three Stewards opposed to Donal's rule command
sufficient loyalty that their subjects would follow them, even against the
Director-General.

Donal has appointed three new stewards, effectively raising some of his
associates to the nobility.  Publicly announced as ushering in a "New Era" of
expansion and prosperity, they have been shunned by the existing aristocracy.
One replaced the steward executed for treason, and the other two have
stewardship over the important resource areas, which are located outside of
the boundaries of the old land divisions.  Donal's appointees rule from New
Groton (it is traditional for Stewards to live and work on their landholdings)
and command neither respect nor loyalty.  These Stewards generally maintain
control through their managers and foremen, and occasionally through fear of
reprisals.

Gina was originally the symbol, and now (in 1200), the actual leader of the
small but dedicated rebellion against Donal.  Although the majority of the
population supports the current Director-General (at least with their
apathy, if not actively), there is a small but vocal minority who are
opposed to his increasingly arbitrary and oppressive rule.

Donal has been particularly clever at playing the Stewards off against one
another.  He disposed of one particularly difficult Steward by having the
Steward and her family killed, and her lands divided amoungst her three
neihbors, who provided most of the forces to perform the operation.

Into this situation, the player characters drop.


OPERATIONS

The Downtime academy students and faculty, in a series of role-playing
excercises and simulations, developed the GUESS "standard scenario".  This
calls for a starship like the Fidelity, when jumping into a
previously-unexplored system, to remain outside the 100-diameter limit, and
to maintain a sufficient fuel reserve that a jump back to the nearest safe
system with fuel available.  From this vantage point, extensive passive
scans are conducted.  Fidelity is equipped with sensor drones, to perform
active scans and to allow closer looks at interesting features in the
system.

Experience in both the Coonabaraban Belt and on Botany Bay have indicated
that there is no subsitute for putting trained personell "on the ground" to
investigate personally.  Fidelity carries a purpose-designed landing craft,
as well as crewmembers and scientists, for just such ground expeditions.

If the safety of the starship is threatened, the lander crew is expendable.

Passive scanning of the Aikhiy system will locate all of the bodies in the
system, and determine their physical characteristics (size, atmosphere, and
hydrographics).  Much of the material covered in the Survey chapter of the
World Tamer's Handbook is applicable to this phase of the mission.  Note,
however, that GUESS has had no difficulty applying IISS navigational data,
including stellar proper motion and orbital parameters, to compute the
correct current location of the Aikhiy system, and there worlds therein.

Moving into an orbit around Aikhiy will allow the probe (or lander) to begin
mapping the planet, and conduct detailed scans of Aikhiy's orbital space.
>From this vantage point, the emissions of small-scale electric generation can
be detected, as well as the thermal emissions of industries such as power
plants, smelters, ironworks, and the like.

Passive radio listening will not produce any intelligable signals on any of
the standard bands, but an Average task against Sensor Operation, or a
Difficult one versus Communicators, will reveal the presence of primitive
wireless telegraphy on Aikhiy.  The code in use is not standard, and proves
resistant to analysis, although the transmitters can be located, and the
symbols identifying each station can be figured out.  The code uses one
symbol (group of dots and dashes) to stand for a whole word.  Without some
idea of the vocabulary being used, the task to decode a message is Impossible,
and requires the study of a month's worth of traffic, per attempt.  If the
players somehow obtain the plaintext of several messages, the difficulty is
reduced to Formidable, and the duration is a week.  Posession of the
codebooks makes encoding or  decoding an individual message a matter of
minutes.

When the players attempt to search for the missing starships, consult the
"Derelict" section below.  Mapping the world's surface will take time; a
complete map will also require a polar orbit and 6+1d6 days of scanning
(reduce the time by the Sensor Operator's SKILL, not asset, level).  However,
a simple map of the world's inhabited areas will take only about a local day,
and reveal all of the world's phyiscal features, as well as indicate roads and
railroads, cities (and ruined cities).  Industrial areas, such as they are,
will be detected and mapped as well.  The referee should prepare a players'
map, using the Aikhiy world map as a guide, for the players to refer to.  If
the player request it, detailed scans of the city below can be made, and will
yeild a suprising discovery - a standard Gralyn-built lander is parked on a
concrete pad, in the center of a grassy quad that is surrounded on three sides
by important-looking low (three-story) stone buildings.


DERELICT

Although the players will almost certainly look, no trace of the missing
ships can be found from Fidelity's passive scanning viewpoint.  However,
should the lander or a sensor drone be used to make a scan of the close
orbit area around Aikhiy, there is a clue to be found.

On a passive scanning critical success, or on any successful active scan of
the area, a small object, approximately the size of a missile or sensor
drone, can be found in orbit.  The object is cold and (aparrently)
lifeless.  In order to determine what it is, the sensor drone (or lander)
will need to be moved closer, in order to improve the resolution of the
visual scan.  If the players ask the obvious question, the answer is yes:
moving close enough to determine the object's nature would definitely put
them in range of the object, if it turned out to be a detonation laser.

A visual inspection will reveal that the object is not a detonation laser
or other implement of destruction, but instead it is a Gralyn-made
communications relay drone, similar to the ones carried by Fidelity.  It is
recognizable automatically to anyone who has both RCV Operations and
Communications skills (they've probably operated this type of drone before).
Any characters with space-oriented backgrounds can use an Average roll
against INT to recognize the object for what it is.

Attempts to establish control of the communications drone will fail - its
fuel is exhausted, and the drone is powered down (but let the players figure
this one out for themselves).  The drone is too long to fit through the
lander's cargo airlock, but if the interior of the lander is depressurized,
so that both the inner and outer airlock doors can be opened at once,
the lander's cargo compartment will hold the whole drone.  Failing that, the
drone is designed to easily detach the equipment section from the propulsion
section.  The equipment section, will fit through the airlock.

Work outside of the lander, in vacc suits, will be required to capture the
drone, and bring it, or just the equipment section, on board the lander.
The players should be encouraged to think of an imaginative plan to
accomplish this.  The referee will have to assign task rolls based on the
actions of the players.  In any case, the players should (eventually) be
able to recover the drone.

The players will almost certainly want to examine the drone.  The players,
or failing that, NPCs aboard the Fidelity, have the appropriate skills to
conduct a thorough investigation of the object.  The referee should generate
appropriate tasks, depending on how the players go about their examination.
If the players succeed at appropriate skill rolls (none should be more
difficult than Difficult, and most should be Average), they can find out
the following information by carefully inspecting the drone inside and out:

1) The drone is a standard Gralyn Union design, and players with the
appropriate skills will have no trouble working on this equipment.

2) An examination of the propulsion section will quickly reveal the reason
the drone didn't respond to its controls: the fuel is exhausted, and the
drone's batteries are completely discharged.

3) A examination of the drone's hull will reveal micrometeorite pitting
consistent with it having spent the last 10 years in orbit.

4) The drone's markings are consistent with the first expedition to Aikhiy.

5) An  examination of the serial numbers and manufacture's spec. plates will
show that the drone was manufactured on Gralyn slightly more than 11 years
ago, again consistent with its inclusion on the first expedition to Aikhiy.

Electronics and Communications tasks will allow the drone's equipment to be
disassembled and tested.  It will be found to be in working order, and
lacking only electrical power.  If it is connected to a power source (such
as the lander or aboard the Fidelity), the contents of the tape recorder
can be played back.

The drone's tape recorder was used to store and forward messages from the
ground party to their ship.  Listening to the complete tape takes over an
hour, and in general makes little sense - the stored messages do not make
a complete record, because direct contact was used whenever the ground
party had a line of sight to their ship.  Listeners can use the following
tasks to attempt to make sense out of the messages on the tape:

Average versus Astrogation: The drone was in a geostationary orbit over
Groton, and the Hope (the first party's ship) was not; therefore the need for
a satellite relay.

Difficult versus Astrogation, or Average versus Survey: The Hope was in a
polar mapping orbit, conducting a detailed survey of the world.

Difficult versus Tactics(space): The Hope was not expecting trouble, and had
no indication that any other ship was in-system at the time.

Average versus Sensor Operation, or Difficult versus Survey: The Hope was
having technical problems with its sensors, causing various 'ghosts' and
false readings, and substantially increasing the time required to do the
detailed survey.

Average versus INT: The landing party was enjoying successful negotiations
with the "Director-General", aparrently an important local official.

IF, and only if, the players listen to the whole tape, they also get the
following two messages, both aparrently stored on the tape and never before
retrieved:

1) Negotiations with the Director-General took a turn for the worse, but the
contact team doesn't know why.  The Director-General abruptly cancelled their
afternoon session, without explanation.  Talks will resume tomorrow morning,
and the negotiators are generally hopeful that the problem can be resolved
once they know what it is.

2) The Hope is being attacked by an unknown ship that "appeared out of
nowhere" deep inside the gravity well of the planet.  This message is
scratchy and full of noise at best, and fades into a wash of static before it
is complete.

A Formidable roll against Communications (this roll can be enabled by a
Difficult roll against Astrogation, OR knowledge that the Hope was in a polar
mapping orbit) will reveal that the Hope was transmitting through the
communicator noise at the world's poles, in a desparate attempt to get the
message through to the relay.  The static that washes out the transmission is
of a different character: deliberate jamming.


IT'S A TRAP

The players will undoubtedly be curious about the first mission's lander,
parked near a complex of buildings in New Groton.  Repeated sensor scans can
be made of the area, and will yield additional information.  Each attempt
will require a local day, because several observations during the day and
night are required for analysis.  Repeated attempts are possible, provided
that the players are willing to spend the time (recall the duration of a
local day, above).  For each scan, roll a Sensor Operations task.  The
information recieved depends on the difficulty achieved by the roll:

Critical Failure: Improper operation causes minor damage to the sensor
systems.  Treat as a minor breakdown, using the T:TNE equipment maintainance
and repair rules.  No new information is gained.

Easy: The launch does not appear to be powered up, or otherwise
flight-ready.  The the concrete pad and surrounding quad are large enough
for another vessel to land, without damaging the nearby buildings.

Average: All information above, plus the quad is a lawn or field (as opposed
to an abandoned lot, or wild clearing) and has been recently mowed and
watered.  The buildings are electrically lit at night.

Difficult: All information above, plus regular human activities occur in the
quad.  While it is nearly impossible to deduce the intent, a time schedule,
showing the most and least active times can be prepared.

Formidable: All information above, plus one building on the north side of
the quad, is warmer that it "should", compared to the otherbuildings.

Impossible: All information above, plus sentries or guards are posted around
the quad.  Their number and location can be inferred from infra-red data,
and a map prepared.

Critical Success: All information above, plus the energy and radiation
signature of the "warm" match, nearly exactly, with the power plant of a
200-ton free trader (such as the relief mission used).

If some sort of raid or capture mission is attempted, the players will be
opposed by the Director-General's Company Forces.  They are equipped to the
best available standard, which can include anything from "new" TL-4
equipment, to old TL-7 gear, relics from before the Collapse.

The objective of the Company Forces will be to capture at least one (and
preferably as many as possible) of the player characters, and drive the
others away.  The area around the lander is kept under surveillance, is
protected by tripwires and boobytraps and a considerable number of troops
barracked in one of the surrounding buildings.

If the players do gain the lander, they will discover that it isn't operable
without repairs.  The lander is maintained at that location as a decoy, for
just this eventuality.  And it worked once before.

If the players attempt to contact the lander on a hailing frequency, or if
they attempt to contact the previous ground party on standard ship-to-planet
channels, they will instead contact a watchman for the Director-General.
The Director-General may consent to negotiate with the players over the
communicator; if so, proceed to the "MEET THE BOSS" section below.


ON THE GROUND

The players should be encouraged to make an expedition to the planet's
surface.  What they find will depend greatly on where they decide to land.
In general, they can choose to land in an uninhabited area, on the outskirts
of the settled area, on a large plantation, or near the city.

Uninhabited Areas: If they choose to land in an uninhabited area, there are
plenty to choose from.  The population of Aikhiy is concentrated on one
continent, near New Groton.  The rest of the world is uninhabited, and largely
unexplored (or rather, it was explored by the survey teams from ADT, but that
data has been lost).  The referee will need to generate encounter tables for
the area chosen by the players, and the survey rules from the World Tamer's
Handbook could prove useful in resolving an exploration of Aikhiy's
uninhabited areas. Aikhiy will prove to be quite suitable for an agricultural
colony, but is poor in mineral resources.  If would be possible to locate a
new colony on Aikhiy that is well clear of the currently-inhabited areas of
the planet.

Outlying Areas: The players may choose to land on the outskirts of the settled
area.  Making a covert landing, and hinding the lander, are fairly easy in the
sparsely settled fringes of the colony.  Several promising sites can be
located in the foothills of the mountain range that forms the western border
of the settled region.  A successful covert landing is an Difficult task
against the command pilot's Pilot(Interface/Grav) skill.  This roll can be
enabled by a Difficult roll against Survey, to locate a suitable area away
from signs of habitation.  Failure indicates that the landing attempt
accidentally alerted local residents to the ship's presence, and a critical
failure indicates a crash or collision.  The difficulty of the landing task
can be reduced

However, as the players explore the area, the referee should secretly roll for
encounters with the residents.  Each period, the referee should roll 1d6; on a
one, the players encounter some sign of habitation.  These "signs" might
include an area where logging is going on, a mine, a charcoal-making
operation, fields, farms, or homesteads, or even a trail leading to the
nearest town.  Depending on the time of day and the care that the characters
are excercising, this might result in an encounter with the natives.

The residents of these frontiers are generally more independent than most
other Aikhiy natives.  Many in these areas profess to be uninterested in
politics, and are remote from the intrigue in New Groton.  However, they are
also subjects of one of Donal's new Stewards, and a good number of these
people oppose Donal when they can do so without attracting the attention of
the Steward's men.  Several groups of "Traitors", having fled the more
civilized areas to avoid capture, are camped in the mountains, and survive on
donations from, and trade with, the frontier residents. 

Eventually, one of two events will happen.  Either the players will attract
the attention of the Steward's men, or they will contact the local
underground.  If the offworlders appear in town, or at a worksite such as a
mine, wearing filter-masks and other obviously offworld gear, their existance
will certainly be reported to the Steward's men.  In this case, the local
manager will attempt to ambush and capture the players.  There is a
considerably bounty on offworlders, if they are captured alive and brought to
the Company Forces in New Groton.  On the other hand, if the players can
gain the confidence of the local underground leaders, they will be covertly
shuttled from contact to contact.  Presuming that they can convince these
people (some friendly, and some quite skeptical) of their bona fides, they
will eventually wind up being taken to an isolated valley, where Gina and many
of her followers are currently residing.

Visiting a Plantation: Should the players choose to land on a plantation, a
covert is possible, but less likley.  A Formidable roll against
Pilot(Interface/Grav) is required, although it can be enabled by a Difficult
roll against Survey.  If the roll is failed, the residents are alerted to this
ship's landing.  News of this event will be reported to the Steward within
hours, and will eventually get back to the Director-General within a few days.
 In any case, the players will not be able to explore far from their ship
without encountering fields, work parties, worker's cottages, or other human
activity.

The referee should determine the general loyalty of the Steward on whose land
the players have arrived.  Most are ambivalent about Donal (at best), and a
substantial minority are inclined to replace Donal with Gina, if at all
possible to do so.  In any case, the first concern of the Steward will be to
talk to the offworlders personally, and asses them for himself (or herself). 
The tactics used by each Steward will also vary with their personality - some
will attempt to ambush and capture the players, while others will confidently
walk up to the players and greet them (the referee should remember that, from
the point of view of the Steward, the players are strangers on the Steward's
personal landholdings).

After the interview with the Steward, the referee should determine the
subsequent events.  The Steward's reaction to the players will influence this
considerably.  On a bad reaction, he will consider the PCs to be harmless (or
dangerous, depending on previous events) crackpots, and will probably turn
them over to the Company Forces in order to be rid of them.  If, on the other
hand, the player characters convince the Steward that they are genuine and can
offer advantages to his faction, the Steward will arrange a meeting with the
appropriate factional leader.  Thus,  the player characters should eventually
end up meeting either Director-General Donal, or the resistance leader Gina
Sugilii.

Holding the characters and their landing craft undetected on the plantation
will be impossible over the long term.  No matter which leader the Steward
decides to turn the players over to, the other will also find out, through
their network of informants.   At some convenient juncture, possibly as the
player characters are being taken to the meeting place, a group from the
opposing faction attempts to ambush the Steward's men and capture the player
characters.  The confusion should give the PCs an opportunity to choose sides
and become active participants in the struggle.  The actions of the PCs should
(unless they find truly interesting ways to foul up) be enough to tip the
balance of the fight, allowing the group they are supporting to win.  After
the fight, the victors will take the PCs to meet their leader, perhaps with a
new respect for offworld weapon technology.

Landing at the City: A covert landing in the vicinity of New Groton is an
Impossible task against Pilot(Interface/Grav).  This roll can be enabled by a
Difficult roll against Survey skill, to locate a suitable landing place.  Even
if a covert landing is successful, moving around the city without detection
wil be difficult, and wearing a fliter-mask is a dead giveaway.

When the player characters are detected, the Company Foces will be called out
to track them down and capture them.  In this case, the referee should prepare
a map of New Groton, and administer the Company Forces dragnet.  If at all
possible, an attempt will be made to capture some or all of the offworlders.



MEET THE BOSS

The Director-General, Donal Nelson, at 36 years of age retains his wiry black
hair, thin moustache, and considerable charisma and speaking ability, although
he has started a trend towards plump in his middle age.  He seems used to
giving orders and having them obeyed without question, and will be at a slight
disadvantage at first when talking to the player characters - he will initially
atempt to treat them as he does his subordinates.  Donal is a good politician,
won't make that mistake twice.  He is also ruthless in his pursuit of his own
self-interest, and will use whatever means are at hand to further his goals.
For combat purposes, Donal is a Trained NPC, and his personal guard are
composted of Veteran NPCs.

Donal also has hostages, the survivors of the first two expeditions to Aikhiy. 
He is certainly not above taking members of party captive, and using all the
hostages as leverage to get the remaining players to do his bidding.  Although
ignorant of the outside universe, and untrained in high technology, Donal isn't
stupid.  He percieves that offworld manufactured goods funneled through his
organization, and high-tech equipment for his forces, could considerably
increase his hold on Aikhiy.  

Ultimately, Donal would like to arrange a deal where he becomes the ultimate
and sole ruler of Aikhiy, supported by offworld technology and trade weath,
and disposing of the increasingly rebellious Stewards.  He will not, of course,
tell the player characters this in so many words.  He will offer reasonable
trade terms, as long as two main points can be met.  First of all, he will
insist on conducting all negotiations personally, on Aikhiy (Donal has no
subordinates who are both loyal to him, and sufficiently bright to be entrusted
with negotiations).  Secondly, Donal (or more properly, people and
organizations he designates that are loyal to him personally) must be the sole
point of contact with interstellar trade.

If the players indicate that they are willing to meet these conditions, they
can return to Gralyn with a preliminary trade agreement, and the bulk of the
first two expedition's survivors.  A few survivors will "choose" to
remain on Aikhiy to "further their research and technical projects" (one of
these "researchers" actually "chose" to remain of his own free will - the
others were retained on Donal's secret orders, because they are valuable to
ongoing projects).  This aggreement will be considered a success, at least at
the present time; as time progresses, the trade agreement could eventually come
back to haunt the PCs as well as the Gralyn Union government.


MEET THE OPPOSITION

Gina Sugilii is an attractive and suprisingly young woman to be leading a
resistance movement.  After observing her for a while (and if the players think
to ask) they can tell that she is geuninely well-liked within the rebel
organization.  Gina can almost always call any rebel she meets by name, and
seems quite concerned for her people's welfare.  In military matters, she leans
on her advisors a good deal of the time, and gets generally sound although
unimaginative advice.  For combat purposes, Gina is a Trained NPC, and her
personal guards are Elite NPCs.

The rebel group led by Gina Sugilii has been gaining support, and therefore
members, faster than they can acquire weapons for everyone.  New Groton is the
center of what little manufacturing there is on Aikhiy, and virtually all new
weapons are produced there.  Unfortunately, New Groton is loyal to the
Director-General, and acquiring weapons is therefore correspondingly difficult.
She is also aware that other offworlders are being held by the
Director-General, and her informants know where (down to the individual
building and floor) they are being kept.

When negotiating with the players, Gina's needs are relatively complex. 
Because her major supporters are the Stwards, she will absolutely require
assurances that ADT or other Gralyn concerns will not attempt to displace the
Stewards or lessen their influence.  Given those assurances, her other need is
for military equipment and training for her forces, so that she can
successfully challenge Donal.  However, until after her troops recieve the equipment and
training, she has no way of paying for them.  She is, however, willing to send
one of her advisors to Gralyn to negotiate the details of the sale.

Should negotiations with Gina Sugilii go well, the player characters can return
to Gralyn with a preliminary trade agreement, an ambassador and trade
negotiator from Aikhiy, and possibly the members of the original expeditions to
Aikhiy (see below).  If they free the captives, the mission will be considered,
at least by the popular media, as a great success.  The overall reaction will
be probably be favorable even if no attempt at a rescue is made.  Over the next
few months, credit arrangements will be made, and the shipment of arms and
military advisors to Gina's forces will begin.  The offworld technology and
equipment will make a telling difference, and eventually enable Gina to reclaim
her position (although there is certainly the possibility that the player
characters will be sent to Aikhiy again, for a special mission, or at Gina's
specific request).

Hostage Rescue: Immediately prior to the arrival of the player characters,
Gina's military advisors had been planning a raid on the major Company Forces
arsenal in New Groton.  Although a risky proposition, it was their best chance
of acquiring the weapons that the rebels need.  If the PCs require the return
of the captured Gralynites as part of the deal, or if the PCs suggest such a
raid to Gina's advisors, they can be convinced to agree, provided that the
players provide their expertise (and high-tech weapons) to the attack.

In the modified plan, an attack on the arsenal will be used as a diversion (and
to hopefully capture some weapons, although that is now a secondary objective)
while the PCs and the main group of rebels rescue the Gralynite hostages.  The
Fidelity's weapons locker has a considerable number of weapons which can be
used for equipping the NPCs, to the considerable suprise of the opposing
Company Forces. The referee will have to prepare maps of the work compound,
keeping in mind that it is designed to keep unarmed civilians IN, rather than
military forces OUT.  A clever plan, presented by one of the player-characters,
could lead to a nearly-bloodless (at least for the PCs) Entebbe-style raid,
particularly if Fidelity's lander is used as an improvised assault lander.


REFEREE's NOTES

One of the keys to running a first-contact scenario is role-playing.  Instead
of just having the players roll their various skills, and making reaction
rolls for the natives, it's far better to play out the conversation.  Even if
the players are reluctant to play their characters fully, the referee can draw
them into the game by portraying the NPCs to the best of his or her ability.

It is much more satisfying for everyone to act out a conversation that begins
with the Steward, one hand on his hip and the other resting on the butt of his
flintlock pistol, confronting the player characters outside their ship with
"And just WHAT do you think you're doing in MY beet field?" than it is to
throw a few dice and declare that "the nobleman doesn't seem to like you, make
a Liasion roll".

It is, however, unfair to penalize players for things that their characters
should know, or allow a player to get away with actions that are wildly out of
character.  If an inarticulate player makes a disaster out of the
negotiations, it should be mitigated by his character's Liasion skill.  On the
other hand, the Droyne engineer who barely speaks Galanglic well enough to
make himself understood shouldn't be able to singlehandedly save the day, no
matter how witty and charming his player may be.  In cases like this, rather
than quash a player's creativity, the referee may want to gently suggest ways
for the player to work in-character.  For example, the Droyne engineer may
need to a language roll (with hilarious misunderstandings if he fails) to get
his point across to one of the other characters in the group, who can then
explain it to everyone.

One thing the referee can do to encourage role-playing is to grant the players
beneficial modifiers to the die rolls, when the player has a good idea, and
presents it while acting in character.  A die roll modifier of -1 or -2 (and
up to -3 in exceptional cases) will not unbalance the game, but will reward
players for good roleplaying.