Amber Zone - Relocating the Landers

Last Updated 13 February 2004.

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1999 #1554

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 16:29:32 EST
From:
Subject: My best traveller adventure

Since my exams are over, and there is a race thread on the group, it is time for my promised recounting of my best traveller adventure.

Relocating The Landers

Background

The PCs, after discharge in the Marches after the latest war, had been approached and recruited by Navy Intel. They were given a beat up far trader with drives and a sensor package that looked so-so, but always worked. The rest of the ship was in well used shape.

The adventures continued, with some coming from missions, other they got into on their own. They never figured out how their control could get some places before them on multi-jump trips (i.e. the Imperiallines secret).

I played the universe as having so much information available that some important things got lost in the flow.

My universe featured a wealthy mega corp family, with a Duke as the true head of it, considering taking the throne by force. The PCs were enroute to the subsector capital when they stopped at a system I had handwaved into existence to make a J2 shortcut. The briefing data culled by the computer stated that the world was being sponsored by a megacorp (guess which one) in their development, and they had gone from tech 9 to high A in only 20 years, and they really liked high tech.

The adventure

I had the human players choose their skin color before they arrived on the world: most were white, one asian. The world itself ended up having an asian-like vast majority, with a small white sub-group who had arrived just after the Long Night, and stayed because of the natural beauty of the planet. This sub-group also wore beards and natural products, where the asian majority preferred a more clean cut, imperial fashion look. The sub-group became known as the Landers. The landers had originally lived on the south land mass, and only in the last 25 or so years had they started moving in response to mining needs in the south. The moves were rather forced, but in return they were promised reservations they could keep natural.

The players encountered some problems whenever meeting someone or being on the street, unless using or holding tech level A or higher equipment. They then intervened in the chase of a "dirty Lander" (Lander lover), but were unable to save her. The police responded, and at first did not care, then they cared when the PCs offered the use of their equipment for investigation work. The next day the police once again did not care, no matter what.

The PCs were contacted by some Landers who trusted them a little, as they shared skin color on a planet where color meant culture, and since they tried to help. The dead girl had seen something, as had another girl who went into hiding. The PCs wanted to know what.

The PCs found her. Along the way there was much pressure from some parties, and from the megacorp who was trying to advance the planet (bringing up the tech level and establishing new plants). It turned out the Landers had been starting to protest the tech uplift and the mining, and the upcoming elections in which a very-pro megacorp party might win. They were also mad that they were losing their reservations in the south...

Anti-Lander fervor got worse... the PCs discovered the hook was a plot to explode a nuclear weapon in the city while the starport's grid was down [Referee's Note: I state that the 3I has heavy dampers at all A-C ports, and most member planets are issued the same for their major cities as part of the defense of the 3I] during an announced upgrade (which would allow heavy ships to land and new ship construction to take place when finished). The Landers were to be blamed.

The PCs stopped the blast with minutes to spare after a grand chase and warehouse crawl. They were media heroes, but the proof that the megacorp is behind it was not there, and the Landers became hated by all... the people rioted, and the Landers were hunted.

The megacorp and new government offer to relocate the Landers at another planet better suited to their culture, one off of any jump routes. Big ships came and went, but the PCs got suspicious... because this relo program took place two weeks after the bomb adventure.

The PCs got into a relo center that was strangely empty, with all the personnel gone. They got the automated system to work: from the vehicle unloading center, to the vast briefing and waiting area, to the medical clearance area. They figured out what was going to happen in the med area, and avoided the poison. ;-) They did activate the robots (whose task was to strip bodies of all valuables, and destroy the bodies and remaining junk by fusion), but escaped just as the centers, in remote areas, all went up in small, controlled explosions. However, that wasn't until 90% of the Landers (those who did not flee to the wilderness areas) were "relo-ed".

The PCs fled to report to their NI controller at their assigned destination (late!) and were told that she knew what had happened. The Rebellion started some months later, and the PCs had a front row seat. The 3I won, the evil megacorp lost, and the group switched to AD&D with a new DM. ;-)

Gary

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