The characters, may be new or experienced. If they are new, the GM may want to introduce them through Gadios or they could be teleported out immediately although this is not necessary for this game and urgency may actually hinder the story.
The characters are sent out to aid a Scimrahn industry tribe called the Foetsh. Their commanding officer is given a strange bit of information before leaving. The Foetsh very reluctantly agreed to be helped. Usually Scimrahn quickly accept any help offered. The Commanding Officer has orders to stay with the tribe for two weeks to take care of any medical or defense issues they may need. A Platoon of footsoldiers, a TF-2394 and a tank is sent with the group. If any of the player characters are Footsoldiers, E-Suit pilots or Tank Pilots, then they are part of the platoon sent.
Scene One – Needs Of The People
The characters are teleported in to a small outpost and then loaded onto transports (or trucks if I-CA) and then drive for seven hours to the Foetsh tribe’s location. There are no encounters during the trip.
The Foetsh tribe manufactures Sensor Spikes. The tribe is located on the top of thirty Hosent in an industry hex on the fifth floor of the hex. This is a poor tactical site since it is very difficult to escape from but they players may not notice this unless they make a successful military intelligence roll. There are two hundred men and three hundred women and about six hundred young children.
When the players arrive they are greeted by the children of the tribe who look healthy but their clothing is very worn. Beginning characters may not recognize anything odd but these children are unusually noisy and rambunctious for Scimrahn children who are usually taught to be silent at all times. Any Scimrahn characters will immediately recognize this and are likely to be appalled by the noise. A character with Scimrahn Culture and makes a successful roll against it will also recognize this.
The children mob the player characters and those with them. Unless they make an Int roll some small item will be pick pocketed from them.
The Matriarch and Enforcer are very young and come out to meet the PCs next. They are pleasant but will occasionally ask why the players have come. If the PCs say to help them they will reply “But we’re doing fine.”
If there are Engineers in the PC group they will notice that the poor defensive location the tribe is in but that they are in a good position to maintain the Hosent on top.
The first job that the Earth forces are to carry out is to give the Fotesh medical attention. The players may be called on in getting people to come to the clinic set up by medics. If there is a medic character, the PCs are tasked with going to the Scimrahn that will not go to the clinic. Otherwise the players will need to deal with trying to persuade the Scimrahn to come. This could be used by the GM to explain Scimrahn culture to new players or if the players are experienced and already know the basics of Scimrahn culture, then this could be a time to have some lighthearted fun with odd situations.
Once the primary job of taking care of immunizations and medical treatment is over with, the task of the commanding officer is to assess the needs of the tribe when it comes to protection.
Scene 2 – Protection
The players may ask at some point why the Fotesh are unconcerned with protection. The question is likely to be avoided if they can avoid it. If the players are too forceful the Fotesh will act offended and remind the PCs that they are only there as guests and that the tribe did not ask for them to come.
After several days of rounding up tribe members for medical attention an alarm is sounded by an ASO E-Suit Pilot. There are sonar contacts approaching. Further investigating will reveal the sonar contacts are Kelrath and are headed directly for the tribe. There are eight Rall 4s and a cargo Zemot. The commander will scramble combat personnel to set up defensive positions. The players should be brought up to the point where they think they will be engaging the Kelrath in combat but at the last moment are told to stand down. The Kelrath will arrive soon after and the PCs will not have time to flee. Any fleeing characters will be fired on. The Rall 4 loudspeakers will boom out orders in the Kelrath language. Without a successful Speak Kelrath roll the players will not know what the orders are. The order is of course to put down their weapons and surrender. The Players have been told to stand down, so they should surrender. In addition, it should be stressed to them that they cannot do much damage to a Rall 4 on their own, unless they happen to be a tank pilot in which case, tell them that there are friendly forces too close to the Kelrath to safely engage them with their cannon or missiles.
The Commanding Officer (CO) gave the order to stand down because the Enforcer and the Matriarch insisted that they could talk the Kelrath into letting the Earthers go. In reality, they were only hoping that they could. This may factor into the discussion on the Scimrahn helping as things progress.
In a short amount of time the Enforcer will come out and meet the Kelrath. He will speak in the Kelrath language. PCs will have to make a successful Speak Kelrath roll to understand him. He will say “They are passing through and will leave soon! You do not have to concern yourselves with them!” A Rall 4 will respond over the loudspeaker “They are not allowed here! You have violated our boundaries!” Again a Speak Kelrath roll is required to understand him. Each time someone speaks in Kelrath a roll must be made to understand them. The Enforcer will then say “We had to allow them here for a short time, they have medical supplies that you can take with you!”
The Kelrath will pause for a few moments at this. If there is a Comm officer PC they will intercept a communication that has a low grade encryption (5 BP). It is unlikely that a single Comm Officer will be able to crack the encryption in the given time but there should be three of them in the platoon. For the GM however, the Kelrath are discussing what to do about the medicine and how to take any medical personnel with them. They will also decide that the rest of the Earthers should be sent to a CCC quarry for slave labor.
The Scimrahn will be told to separate any medicine and medical personnel from the group. The GM may have the players be identified as medical personnel since they were rounding up Scimrahn for treatment. Further they are told to strip the Earthers of any weapons and keep them from escaping. The Scimrahn will reluctantly follow these directions.
Scene 3 – Escape
The Kelrath do not have the ability to move the whole platoon. Two of the Rall4s will leave to get more vehicles to bring the Earthers back to the Quarry. At this point the PCs will have the opportunity to try and win the Scimrahn over to their side. The primary concern is that the Kelrath have been protecting this tribe and the tribe sells to them. They will be afraid of loosing the Kelrath protection and their food that they bring to trade.
This is a prison break/hostage escape situation. The primary danger is the six Rall 4’s that are left. The players have 14 hours before the Rall 4s that left return with cargo vehicles.
The Rall 4 pilots are all Gjorn. The Driver of the Zemot is a Kaloord. The Kaloord will drive away as soon as the the stand off starts and will remain outside the camp until he is given the all clear. The Rall 4s will alternate duties every two hours. Two will circle the area in opposite directions. It takes fifteen minutes for them to make one circle around the camp. Two will stand guard over the Earthers and the other two will leave to where the Kaloord is and get out of the E-Suit and rest. Scimrahn will also stand guard over the Earthers but they are reluctant guards and will be sympathetic.
The Rall 4 Pilots will not get out of the E-Suits while in proximity to the Earthers. They view the risk of infection as too great.
The PCs would be held in a open space between the Hosent. Since the Gjorn won’t get out of their Rall 4s they will rely on the Scimrahn to guard the Earthers and so they can talk. The PCs will have to be cautious about talking so that the Gjorn do not notice. It’s unlikely that the Gjorn can speak Scimrahn.
There are likely to be many ways to get out of the situation, the players should be left to explore any ideas of escape they may come up with however if there is an obvious revolt or attempt to run the Gjorn will not hesitate to fire.
The main point now is to convince the Scimrahn that the ASO or I-CA (dependent on who the players are) are able to protect them. Even at that, the Scimrahn’s way of life will drastically change. This is mostly a battle of the mind so Charisma and Psy will play a large part. The Scimrahn will at this point feel that they want to help but can’t anger the Kelrath
The PCs will have to convince the Scimrahn that they can give protection from the Chezbah and the now angered Kelrath. This will likely involve the idea of moving the entire tribe to a distant location.
This will require all new contacts and customers for their goods. This will have to be negotiated with the Matriarch. There would have to be assurances that a certain percentage of their goods (sensor spikes) would be purchased regularly. A successful bartering roll may be made to make this happen.
There should be one tank and one E-suit for the platoon. If the Scimrahn help, the player’s or NPCs can get back into the tank and E-Suit. However they would be hopelessly outmatched by six Rall 4s but could make a stand against two at a time if they time things right. In addition the Kelrath may surrender if they are isolated in twos (Psy roll). If they can group up in four or six they will fight.
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