Hidden Gems
This adventure requires a party of five to eight player characters with or without their own ship.
Player's Information
The Situation
While visiting Roye the party is approached by a Captain Marcus Garibaldi, the Head of Security at Roye High Port. He is wanting to engage the party as a possible search and rescue mission. A Roye transport ship that was inbound from one of the outer planets with a load of ore has gone missing. Station sensors last had the ship on a sling shot vector inbound around Roye's third moon. Captain Garibaldi is offering the party between 10,000Cr and 50,000Cr to locate the freighter and bring it back to the high port. The payment amount will be based on how much work is required to return the freighter. The party can choose to use their own ship to begin the investigation or if they don't have their own ship they can pilot one of the local Roye shuttles. The Roye shuttle has the same deck layout as a standard Roye 100 dTon SDB, however it has no weapons or armour. Also accompanying the party is a detachment of Roye troops, the number depending on the player's party size but will be between five and ten troops. All Roye troops are armed with laser rifles, SMGs and daggers/blades. They are wearing reflec lined mesh body armour and have vacc suits available. One of Roye's 200 dTon System Defence Boats is due to arrive back from it's patrol in six hours and will follow the party out.
The Moon Base The detected energy signature leads the party to two ships hidden in a crater on the moon's surface. Items 2 and 3 on the map appear to be airlocks connecting the ships to the side of the crater. Item 1 is a smooth grey dome, the only thing giving it away is the dull glow of interior lighting. Item 4 is a deep ravine leading off south of the crater. Item 5 is a tall bluff that overlooks the crater. The far side of this bluff cannot be seen from the crater.
There appears to be only three ways into the moon base, either through one of the two ships, or via what looks like a large airlock just to the south of the ships in the ravine wall. The base itself appears to be a mix of old and new structures. The airlocks connecting the ships to the airlock in the crater wall are all of new construction while the interior of the base appears much older. The walls dividing the mess hall and barracks, as well as the main hall and storage area are also much newer than the surrounding walls. Within the secure storage area is a fusion reactor powering the base. This is an older model, but not as old as the base itself. This is also evident by the rough wiring connections between the fusion reactor and the base electrical systems, as well as the lighting being out in places.
However the party enters the base the pirates will attempt to repel them, either on board the ships or in the base proper.
Referee's Information
Roye troops should be relatively green soldiers, aged between 22 and 34, having three to four skills each. They should have one laser or gun skill, one blade skill and one or two other skills. There will be one NCO for every four troopers.
If the party chooses to search around the third moon they will initially find nothing. If they search the moon they will detect a faint energy signature coming from a crater on the moon's surface. If the party chooses to do a low sweep of the moon they will be detected by the Corsair which will lift off and pursue the party. They may or may not catch the shuttle by the time the Roye SDB arrives. If the party chooses to scan the energy signature and then land some distance from the crater to investigate there is only one chance in six that they will be detected. There are 10 crew in the Corsair and 4 + 1D6 thugs in the base proper. They will have cloth armour and either a shotgun or SMG. If the party communicate their find back to the Roye authorities they will be offered 150,000Cr to capture the Corsair and its crew, either dead or alive.
Item 1, the smooth grey dome is in fact a lookout tower. There is a 50% chance the tower will be manned, but only two chances in six that the pirates in the tower will actually be looking out. The rest of the pirates will either be on the ships, in the mess hall, barracks or main hall. The pirate leader will most likely be in either room 1 or 2. Rooms 4 and 5 will most likely be empty after the initial looting of the base and room 3 is the prison. Room 3 is where the crew of the freighter is being held.
The base itself is very old, with the pirates only being new arrivals who are taking advantage of the base one of their scouts found. The base was originally constructed as the initial forward base before construction began on the main base on Roye itself. The base was used on and off for several decades until the revolt broke up the Reaver Kingdom and Roye was left to defend itself. To conserve resources the population of Roye abandoned the base and it was lost in time.
The pirates are currently stripping the freighter of all useful items, with the intent of disabling the ship and pointing it and the crew in the direction of deep space once they finish. If the party liberates the freighter without its crew the pirates will abandon the base with all their goods, plus the fusion reactor, leaving the freighter crew to the vacuum of space. The pirates will continue to fight the party until they detect the incoming SDB, at which point as many of them as possible will attempt to escape in the corsair.
There is a mixed bag of loot in the storage area, mining equipment, some precious ores, weapons and ammo, as well as supplies of foodstuffs. Although the main goal of the party is the rescue of the freighter and its crew, it is not the biggest prize to be found on the base.
In the space between rooms 2 and 4 is a hidden room. Originally this room was used to store the pay and weapons of the people manning the base, however later on it was used to store records. The entrance to the room is almost impossible to detect, the door being floor to ceiling in height and matching the construction of the walls perfectly. Only on close inspection with a light source brighter than the ceiling lights would someone realise that there is no mortar in the joins. The door itself is 15cm thick granite, equivalent to a starship bulkhead to break through. Inside the room the door is attached to the walls via hydraulics which used to be powered by a small unit inside the main chamber. The power source is now depleted and no longer operational. In the centre of the door is a unit that looks a little like a ship's grav plate unit, and was once used to trigger the door opening mechanism. Inside the chamber, opposite the door, is a cupboard that may or may not have survived the party's entry into the room. In the cupboard are rows of 10cm green crystals, one hundred in total. There is also a box containing 50 gold coins with odd numbers on them as well as plastic maps of the surrounding subsector of space.
The crystals are data crystals and on 10+ with 2D6 one of the Roye troopers will remember an antique reader in the Royeston History Hall. The data crystals and maps contain data pertaining to the time of the local Reaver Kingdom. The gold coins are worth 1000Cr in gold value however the real worth of this find is its historical value. The History Guild of Roye will want to aquire the find as soon as they hear of the base discovery.
