"Put it someplace Delicate but Important..."

Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:13:39 -0400
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
Subject: "Put it someplace Delicate but Important..."

[ Introduction: this is one of the more, er, extraordinary
incidents that came out of the first Traveller campaign
I ever played in.  It was Classic Trav, started before
Spinward Marches Campaign came out , thus
the references to non-Imperial empires.  It made
for a good story, and it could fit in a pocket TNE
empire just fine.  Hope this starts a thread.
The Original Incident was, well, incidental to playing 
the old "Traveller Adventure 1:Kinunir" module...]

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"So you want to know the truth behind the accident that destroyed
the Confederation's capital city, eh?" Bianca Mordell takes a drag
from the Terran cigarette you gave her.  "Immunity from prosecution,
of course, and get me off this damn prison planet!"  You nod,
saying you'll do what you can.  You're pretty sure you can get 
her sentence commuted; she was convicted of illegal psionics use,
and the political climate has changed considerably since then.

"We were hired to get some information on some piece of military
 hardware mounted on the then-obsolete Kinuir class warship 
used by the Confederation.  In those days, we were citizens
of the Fourteen Worlds -- this was before the 3rd Imperium
moved in and "assimilated" us -- and the Nebular Planetary
Confederation were our closest neighbors and enemies.  Okay,
 I admit it, we were hired as freelance spies...

"We being myself, recently resigned from the 14 Worlds Navy,
my brother, former Army Sgt. Brian Mordell, and ex-Marine,
ex-Commando Sgt. Sherman Bolo Lee -- deadly in a fight,
a complete sociopath, and dumb as a post.  Not that my late
brother was all that smart, either.  And then there was that
fool whose name I forget who caused the whole mess.
Former Scout Service puke, if I remember correctly; I believe
it was his ship we used for our trip to Regina.  Lord knows,
when it came to brains, he made Sherman look brilliant.

"It's a matter of public record now that Sherman is wanted
for assorted murders as well as illegal psionics, so I 
suppose I can admit that he was also a telepath.  Remember
in those days just being a psi was a capital offense in
some places, so those of us who were kept our own kind
of 'Masquerade', so to speak.  Why did I, a loyal officer of
the 14 Worlds Navy, get psi training?  I never was brain-
washed into blind prejudice, and I wanted an edge when
I went freelance."  She takes another drag from the cigarette.

"Before the Impy Navy moved in, Regina was the capital of 
our local opposition, the Confederation.  It had the usual facilities:
starport, shipyards, navy bases, etc.  In one of those shipyards
was the hull of a scrapped Kinunir.  Our plan was we would 
get pictures, etc from that hulk. We figured on bypassing the 
yard's security systems with the help of a "minor diversion".

"Sherman, former demolitions expert among other things , whipped 
a nasty little time-bomb and gave it to our moron Scout friend,
telling him, "We need a diversion; put it someplace delicate but 
important."  Off went the moron on his part of the mission, and 
off the rest of us went  on our part of the mission; Sherman
played bodyguard while I actually took the measurements and 
pictures of the military hardware -- okay, I'll admit it, the Black Globe
mount, which I know something about and had the experience to 
analyze -- and Brian played "high cover" from a nearby rooftop
overlooking the scrapyard.

"Infilitration of the scrapyard and the old starship hulk went just fine, 
until our diversion went into effect...

"Moron, with bomb, finds someplace he thinks is "delicate but 
important" ... the starport's super-refined hydrogen tank farm. 
 Moron plants bomb at base of hydrogen tank. Moron doesn't 
seem to know that liquid hydrogen is explosive. Moron has never
 heard of the concept of "sympathetic detonation". Time bomb 
explodes.  Tank explodes.  Tanks, plural, explode.  Starport 
disappears in not-quite-nuclear fireball.  Nasty firestorm.  
Blast levels buildings for blocks (many blocks) around.  
The mess is just starting.

"I did mention there was a Navy base and starport there, didn't I?  
There were several ships sitting around on launch pads, in 
various stages of launch readiness.  Several of them had pilots
who tried desperately to escape the expanding fireball...
One ship's soon-to-be dead Navy pilot in sheer desperation punches in
full fusion rockets IN ATMOSPHERE!  He almost made it, too.  
Unfortunately for everyone else, the fusion rockets obliterate what's
left of the starport and burns a nice trench through half the city as 
Navy ship crashes from explosion damage anyway.  A large 
warship, fully loaded with armament, tries to get off the pad on normal
takeoff jets, and doesn't even it make away from the starport; when
it explodes, radioactive debris from all of its nuclear missile warheads 
is sprayed across the city...  Another ship trying to take off loses
control and crashed into the continental rectenna grid for the solar power
sats, knocking out all power for the city and the continent.

"As for us, well, the multi-thousand-ton armored hull of the Kinunir lurched
about 
four feet to the left,  but protected our hides (that's Sherman and I). We
pick 
ourself up with a few bruises, and wonder what the hell happened.  Brian,
who was on top of the building does not fare so well as half the building 
falls out from under him, and the other half falls on top of him. Moron is
never 
seen again, presumed vaporized.

"I did say the two of us were telepaths, weren't we?  That was how we found
Brian in time.  He was literally on his next-to-last breath when we dug him
out and
got him some medical help.  He was eventually put back together, but he was
on
the critical list for a long time afterward."  She looks grim.  "And if he
had died 
there, Sherman would not have murdered him later, but that's a different
story."
  
"We brought the scoutship down from orbit and helped with relief
operations (it was the least we could do, after all).  Everyone in the city,
including us, was in such a state of shock, that no one noticed for days 
that we were flying around in an air/raft brightly painted with the 
"Fourteen Worlds Scout Service" logo! (Remember, we're in the
capital city of our main enemy nation, which has just blown up)
 We eventually noticed, went "ohmygod!" and carefully draped a
 couple of army blankets over the logo.  Somebody always remained
 with the air/raft to make sure the blankets didn't slip...

"And that, my friend, is the true story of how the capital of
the Nebular Planetary Confederation was blown up."
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A postscrypt: Dennis Matheson, our Traveller Referee, told us that
he recounted the story of this incident to Mark Miller at a con once.
I hear that Mark was suitably appalled....