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This adventure can be for any group of player characters but is not well suited for a beginning characters.

Introduction

The PCs are on a recon patrol of a remote area in Kelrath territory. They are helping establish the location of a base in the region by finding out where the Kelrath travel. They need to travel quietly and not alert any Kelrath patrols to their whereabouts in the process. The characters are equipped to be out on this area for several weeks.

The Favor

As the PCs are doing their recon, they find ample sign of Kelrath presence. Some roads are well used and occasionally it will seem that they have just missed actually encountering Kelrath traveling through the area. The need is for an area that the Kelrath do not use so the characters need to move on to fresh territory. After a day’s travel, with no let up on the signs of Kelrath presence the PCs need to find a place to camp. Somewhere undercover would be good. If there is a Scimrahn in the group they might be helpful in recommending a good place to sleep.

The players should decide ultimately where to stay the night but if they’re not coming up with ideas offer the following.

Staying out in the open would be dangerous, somewhere hidden would be preferable.

Tunnels in the floor could be used but they only leave two options for escape if discovered.

Camping out on a conveyor can be done but may cut off escape options. It’s better than a tunnel.

Camping in the buildings of a residential hex is possible but sometimes the buildings are crumbling.

Hiding inside the Hosent of industry hexes is an option but may have the same problem as the res hex buildings.

The character’s should have someone stand guard while the others rest. If there is a vehicle, leaving it’s sensors on to passively monitor may be a good idea. Have each player roll for their characters to see if they stay awake. They can use either their Con or Psy to pass this roll and the Iron Will skill if they have it.

If any fall asleep then a message arrives while they are sleeping. If no one falls asleep it can arrive on the last watch. It is a written message and it is sent by someone in the area close to the PCs. In very broken english it says “You are found but useful to me. Do what I say and you leave here safe. Stay here two days. Do not leave or I hunt you.”

The players will have to decide what they will do with this information. If a Communications Officer examines the transmission, a successful radio skill roll will reveal that the signal was sent by a Kelrath radio. If a quarter or eighth column is rolled, the Comm Officer will recognize that the signal was sent by a low power system that was very close to where the PCs are. Possibly only 200 meters away.

If the players do not decide to stay, go to The Hunt.

If the players decide to stay, in ten hours a single Kelrath Gijorn will walk directly towards the location the players are in but at 10 meters away, will put a piece of paper on the ground and walk away. If the PCs try to call out to him as he approaches, the Gijorn will put the paper on the ground and immediately walk away. He will not speak to the PCs (he cannot speak english at all). The note will say the following. “My loyal one is coming. You take him home and go in peace. He is not safe here. He come one more day.” Again figuring out what to do with this information is up to the players. If they do not listen go to the hunt.

The Hunt

The messages are being sent by a high ranking Gijorn. He is the equivalent of a general. At the moment there are ten Rall 4s in the region, several groups of 20 Geetin and the general in his Enhanced Variant Rall 3 (see The Fringe sourcebook for stats). If the players do not follow the instructions the whole force will be mobilized to track them down. One Rall 4 is within 30 Km. Others are farther away. Even if the characters can outrun the Ralls, there are more in any given direction that can intercept them. How many is up to the GM.

The Ralls have orders to detain the PCs not to harm them, much. The harder the PCs push the harder the Gijorn in the Ralls will push back. They don’t need all of the PCs, just one with a vehicle would be preferred.

The Act

Once the two days have passed, either because of the PCs volunteering to wait or because they are detained by the Ralls and Geetin, they will eventually see the Enhanced Rall 3 and a wheeled vehicle approaching. As it does, the Rall 3 will power up it’s shields. Through the loudspeaker, the pilot of the Rall 3 will say in english “You want my loyal one? You can not have him! I will defeat you!”

If there is an E-suit or tank in the group the Rall 3 will go up to it and start to punch at it (punches pass through shields). If there is no E-Suit or tank the pilot will exit the Rall with full Gjorn Armor on and declare “I do not need machine to beat you! I beat you with hands only!” and start boxing the largest PC.

This is an act. It is done with the Scimrahn so that observers will see some kind of a fight. The Gijorn will really fight but will not use any weapons unless punching is clearly ineffective. The more the PCs act like they are being hurt the more the Gijorn will let up. If the players try to use weapons, the Gijorn will do his best to disarm them but if that is not possible he will use the Rall 3s Plasma guns (which he can command remotely if needed), a knife or a Plasma Sphere depending on the situation. He will try to make it clear to the PCs that he is only there to fight with one of the PCs and the rest must watch. He may fire the Rall 3s weapons in between him and the other PCs if needed.

A turn or two into this staged fight, either by laser communication or by whispering it, the Rall 3 pilot will tell his opponent, “You steal him now, tell your friends.” He may say this several times. He means for other PCs in the party to break into the wheeled vehicle and take the occupant hostage. If the PCs aren’t getting the idea he will try again and again to indicate this is what they are supposed to do but only with limited english. If the PCs say anything about this over radio or out loud so that others can hear, the Rall 3 Pilot will proclaim that they will be defeated.

If at any time the PCs beat the Rall 3 Pilot, the remaining Rall 4s in the region (which have been closing in on the PCs) will attack.

Rall 3 Pilot

Once the PCs break into the wheeled vehicle (use the stats for an ASO transport) they will find an elderly Geetin in Geetin Armor. He will go with the PCs but will tell them “Make it look good” in Kelrath. Once the PCs have the Geetin, the Rall 3 Pilot will shout “No I will stop you!” but not make any other adjustments to his strategy he may even ease up. If the PCs use the Geetin as a hostage he will stop and declare that he and his men will leave if the PCs promise to not hurt the Geetin, refering to him as “My loyal one” in english.

The idea is for the PCs to escape with the Geetin. The Rall 4s will not attack as long as they have the Geetin and he is safe.

Conclusion

The Geetin has been an advisor to the Gijorn for many years. Recently he had to protect his master from an embarrassment which meant the death sentence for the Geetin. Because of his loyalty the Gijorn sent him out on one last task before his execution. The last task was where the PC’s intercepted and took him. The Geetin explains that they must leave and get away from the area or the General will not be able to protect them any longer.

Beginning I-CA characters are teleported from Earth to the outskirts of Gadios but teleported to a colony that is being constructed. The colony is starting a food supply in an agri hex but they will be dependent on the teleporter for months. They also have work of gathering materials for construction projects and are trying to get Hosent up and running for manufacturing. To do all this they need a civilian leader, the India faction of the group has insisted on a democratically elected governor for the settlement to coordinate the projects. There are slightly less than four thousand settlers and some Scimrahn. There are two platoons assigned to the camp.

Background

The colony is brand new and is only a tent city. There is razor wire strung along the perimeter to keep out animals. The whole setup is very basic and the colonists are making improvements every day. The lights are cycled on and off for day and night.

Give the characters appropriate responsibilities as they arrive. If the players are footsoldiers or pilots they could be stationed as police and guards etc. Scouts could be sent out to survey the local area or look for Hosent that may have parts they need. Scientists and Engineers may be employed in the agriculture or the manufacturing process. Comm Officers can be busy coordinating the garrison. However don’t spend a lot of time discussing the particulars of their jobs, they are mundane. If a player wants to get into their daily tasks describe them and then repeat it every day.

While the players are doing their jobs they hear of the heated election between four factions in the colony from casual gossip. Give them a little information at a time and let them ask for more. The India faction is united around one candidate named Daruka and so is the China faction on their candidate named Geming. These are the two major factions but it seems that the Indian candidate will win as there are more colonist from India in this settlement. There is also a coalition faction from the arab countries and a very small Korean faction that may just end up supporting the China faction but they are split on a few issues that they are holding out on. If the Korean faction joins the Chinese faction the race will be very close.

The election is to be held in two weeks. The players will have little to do with it other than learn about it, so don’t spend a lot of time on it after they get the basic idea.

Scene 1 – An Abduction

The action starts when Daruka and his wife go missing. The players are new so they wouldn’t likely be heading the investigation but they should be involved in it. Scientists and medics are especially useful at this stage.

Daruka’s tent shows obvious signs of struggle there are even small drops of blood found around the tent. If the players make a Int roll they will see that two bodies (obviously Daruka and his wife) were dragged away. Tracking is very difficult because of all the people that have gathered around the tent already and so any attempt at tracking gets a 80% Impairment. If the player does make the roll they can follow the drag marks toward the edge of the settlement but the marks are quickly erased as they go along a heavily walked path at the perimeter of the settlement.

The India faction immediately blames the China faction for Daruka’s disappearance and hostility becomes very high. If there are footsoldier players, they will be called in to police the settlers and might have to break up fights in the streets.

Scene 2 – Chaos Spreads

Over the next few nights there are more people taken from the camp in the same way. Most are Indian but some are Chinese. Two are taken each night for the first two nights. The GM can break up the ethnicity of the victims as is desired. The players should have the same chance for tracking with each victim.

If one of the players is an Engineer or has Structural Recognition they have a chance to notice that the razor wire perimeter has been modified so that it can be opened and closed by simply pushing on a section of it. A Int roll with a 40% Impairment will notice some blood by the razor wire here and a simple Intuition roll will notice wheelbarrow traffic away from the camp.

The players can now either repair the fence, follow the wheelbarrow tracks or set up a stake out to watch the fence. They may also come up with any number of other courses of action.

If they repair the fence or set up a stake out, the abductions happen in a different section of camp. On investigation they find the fence altered similarly.

If they follow the wheelbarrow tracks they find a pile of human manure around the corner of a small doorway just out of sight of the camp. If the players investigate by waiting by the pile they will find that a chinese colonist has been hauling manure from the latrines here. He knows about the break in the fence and says that there are many of them that the colonist made to more easily move in and out of the camp. He says he has noticed that some of the fences were opened in the mornings and just assumed someone was sloppy about closing them.

In the meantime the camp is erupting into chaos and policing work is becoming more and more difficult. Violence is becoming worse and worse as retribution killings start to take place on the third day. However the colonist organize their own armed garrisons and begin guarding at night. There are accusations that the military are trying to influence the elections.

Scene 3 – Monsters!

On the fourth night, an Egyptian man is found crying out in the street, bloody and badly injured. He is babbling about some kind of monsters that got into his tent and dragged him away. He is badly wounded in his head arms and legs by some kind of animal bites. A scientist with a biology roll will be able to find that the teeth marks are from an animal that is about the size of a dog but the teeth marks are more like that of a sharks teeth. The head wounds are likely why the previous victims did not cry out at night. The animal makes a killing bite crushing the skull and then drags the victim off. If the players consult a knowledgeable Scimrahn in the camp, he will name the animal as Seeter. Only reveal this if the players ask for the help of the Scimrahn.

At this point a scout arrives and reports that he is seeing movement all over in the next hex but he his having difficulty seeing what it is. If they players go out in vehicles to investigate they will find hundreds of Seeters moving toward the camp. The hex is a dark Residential Hex. They are spread out in and around the buildings and some of them are in adjoining hexes. This is a Seeter migration to their nesting grounds they spread out to better find food. The group is far larger than the average swarm as many swarms have joined together on the trip. There are near two thousand Seeter. The last few nights have only been the advanced scouts. At the sight or sound of a vehicle they will hide in buildings if they are nearby. The players should have plenty of chances to kill a few Seeter here and there but soon realize they are very close to the settlement already.

Not all the colonist are in the razor wire perimeter. Many are out farming and many are working on Hosent. If the players spend too much time killing Seeter these will be the first to be attacked without warning and there will be many casualties. It’s up to the GM to decide wether or not to warn the players of this or let them make the mistake of taking too much time before reporting back.

If the Seeters get to the camp en mass they will frenzy and charge the fence. Many will get stuck in the razor wire but more will charge over them and into the camp. The colonists should actually be able to make a stand against the Seeter inside the fence since they have already started a garrison.

Evacuating the colonist by teleporter is not an option as it is too slow.

It may be useful to the GM to have infantry rules for the Seeter and the colonists or the GM can play it by ear. There are no starting Agility modifiers for either the Colonists or the Seeter so start their Modifier Hits/Act at zero. Tracer rounds are distributed to the platoons. If the players help out the colonists by giving them help picking targets and coordinating them the group of one hundred the player is helping gets modifiers based on the player’s rolls. The player character rolls to hit normally and the Fraction Column is noted as this will decide the bonus to the colonists. Then the player makes a Charisma roll plus their Command skill if the character has it. If the Command roll passes, then follow the chart below for a Modifier Hits/Act for the colonists.

Colonists
Nearly 60% of the colonists are capable of fighting. That leaves 2400 Colonists to fight and two I-CA Platoons.

Colonists 24 groups of 100
Psy 20
AR 0
HP 1000
Act 100
Speed 5 Km/h

Act/Turn Weapon
100/Turn Shotgun

Shotgun
Modifier Hits/Act
+80 1/1
+20:+70 1/2
+10 1/3
0 1/4
-10 1/5
-20 0

Seeter 40 groups of 50

50 Seeter
Psy 30
AR 0
HP 450
Act 200
Speed 20 Km/h

Act/Turn Weapon
50/Turn Bite
150/Turn Claw

Claw or Bite
Modifier Hits/Act
+60 1/1
+50:0 1/2
-10 1/3
-20 1/4
-30 0

Vehicles like tanks and E-suits have mixed effectiveness because the Seeter are spread over a wide area. Each artillery attack from these vehicles will kill 1D10 Seeters.