The following material may not conform to what is considered canon Star Frontiers material. This is intentional as ideas for the adventure arose out of fan material developed for the Star Frontiersman fan zine. Game referees desiring to confrom to the canon material should have little trouble making changes to the background to suit their purposes.
The adventure portrays an early mission of the Clarion Royal Marines set at a time prior to the standard Star Frontiers game setting. The available equipment has been limited or changed to reflect time period.
The adventure is written from the perspective that the player characters will be Royal Marines. It is also possible that, with work on the referee's part, that they could easily be vrusk employees of the Naar Conglomerate or concerned humans citizens of Kdikit opposing the attrocities.
Seeing as how the Assault scout is later in time the following is a list of potential ships for the militia to use as small patrol vessels.
Also the Thruster Class from the Dragon article HS 2 with assault rockets. perhaps this vessel upgunned with 2x pod lasers in FF configuration.
I'm partial to a militarized version of the PGC-291M cargo courier with an assault rocket or two shoe-horned in. maybe the LB swapped out for a pod laser turret.
Background
Like many tragic events, the Free World Rebellion on Kdikit at Madderly's Star had its origin in simple twists of fate. The human colonist were unavoidably delayed from reaching their new home till they had been upstaged by the vrusk.
The Frontier Agricultural Resource Mission (FARM) had met with huge success in its mission to establish a agricultural colony on Lossend to supply the growing populations on Clarion and Minotaur. The next mission was planned for Kdikit and its colonist volunteers were sought from both Clarion and Minotaur. Saddly the mission was delayed repeatedly after first contact with the vrusk and dralasites. It was further delayed when the new joint colony of the three races was organized on Triad in the Cassidine system. The FARM board of directors organized an altogether new mission for Rupert's Hole in the Cassidine system to supply food to the new colony on Triad which further delayed the Kdikit mission. When the colonist for Kdikit did reach their new planet they discovered that a new vrusk conglomerate, Naar, had upstaged them by five months.
Eight months prior, the Naar organization had only been a small aerospace trade house. Its director, Hatzk, had bid aggressively for the contract to supply vrusk interest on Triad but lost out to a larger trade house with better connections in the Terledrom government. Fearing that his trade house was about to be frozen out of lucrative opportunities, Hatzk liquidated assets and converted the trade house into a new style of company called a conglomerate. His intent was to colonize and develop a whole planet or star system. Believing that Kdikit was free for the taking he moved his operation there. Within a few months Naar had built an active star port, several corporate style farms and the necessary infrastructure to support the aggricultural exploitation of the planet.
When the FARM mission finally arrived on Kdikit the Naar Conglomerate welcomed them hoping that the human farmers would add to the overall Gross Planetary Product and help drive prosperity and the success of Naar. The human colonist, for the most part, quickly became embittered against the vrusk. Resenting them as interlopers on what should have been their planet.
Differences in philosophy also led to friction between the humans and the vrusk. Due to ecological disasters in humanity's past the directors of FARM required that the colonist involved in its missions had to practice a self sustainable approach with a soft impact on the environment. The vrusk approach was diametrically different being an industrial approach with a harder impact on the environment. Hatzk's commitment to growing his conglomerate as fast as possible and the rapid expansion of the industrial farming system quickly marginallized the human farmers.
The governments of Clarion and Minotaur, despite their differences had agreed to underwrite FARM missions as long as the new colonies were not beholden to either planet but would be self determining. So while the colonist for the FARM missions were drawn from both Clarion and Minotaur neither planet had direct control of the new colony. Feeling abandoned, the human colonist of Kdikit organized Freedom Committees. Some even declared themselves the true government of Kdikit.
The spark that ignited open hostility came when the Naar Conglomerate cleared land for a new industrial farm within kilometers of the farm of a Freedom Committee leader. Members of the Freedom Committees stormed and vandalized the industrial farms. Hatzk tried to demand reparations but then the rebels attacked the star port, rounding up all the vrusk they could. A majority of the human colonist supported the eviction of the vrusk but reactionaries began killing them. The killings were quiet at first but not completely a secret. Hatzk witness the first masacre from orbit before dispatching ships to Clarion and Minotaur to demand intervention.
Realizing that the situation had the potential to create an interstellar incident, and unsure how the government of Terledrom might react, the Crown of Clarion ordered the Royal Marines to move in a restore order quickly. Saddly, in the time it took for the Royal Marines to Reach Zdikit the killings had spread.
Mercy Mission Madderley's star Prequel vignette
Alright The Mercy Mission to K'tsa-Kar document has a prequell vignette for the players to play out with pre-gen characters. to set the stage for that mission which also happens to be sequel to this mission.
this thread hints at a prequell vignette:
https://starfrontiers.us/node/7623#comment-51393
and i think that it should happen.
The proposed name is The Killing Fields of Kdikit
Options were:
Journalist
Clarion Diplomat (potentially a royal)
Royal Guard Engineers doing an engineering project.
Journalist is covering the royal who is a diplomat and they are watching a small team of Royal Guard engineers doing some engineering project meant to help the poor human farmers on Kdikit.
The Free World rebellion kicks off and these character witness an atrocity. They must get the word out. race to subspace broad cast station.
irregulars attempting to round up off worlders- they will threaten to kill the off worlders for seeing the massacre of vrusk civilians, latter they will claim they were vursk security forces and that the vrusk committed the atrocity first.
Play out this encounter. Royal Guard are only lightly armed. but may be able to improvise stuff and or explosives.
https://starfrontiers.us/node/7623#comment-51393
A Hot Landing Zone
page holder for a hot LZ mission
My thinking here is that the Assault scout is not be developed yet as Free World Rebellion, as I've set it up, is prior to SW1 and the founding of the UPF.
(note to self: remove all references to UPF and Space Fleet from Mercy Mission to K'tsa-Kar)
Need a vessel to stand in for the Pre assault scout, would like the tail first landing ability and a cargo hatch in bottum deck allowing for a pilot to engage the engines and slow the ship so that is "hangs" in the air and the PCs and company can jump from the ship and paraglide down to the hot LZ.
just because that sounds cool.
This is a secure objectives at the star port thing. Fuel dump, control tower, maintenance shops and etc plus take out irregular forces and technicals- vehicles modified to sport heavy weapons on tripods welded to the vehicle.
ROE require they use subdual weapons until met with leathal force. tangler grenades, stunners and needlers with anesthetic needles. which is stupid since statellite imagery clearly shows heavy weapons mounted on the technicals.
Mercy Mission Madderley's star Missions
In no particular order:
1. investigate the capture of the diplomat with royal connections- jetcopter or air lorry to site of the vignette- location of the engineering project is deserted and the project was never finished. There is a mass grave of daed vrusk nearby and some limited irregulars guarding the sub space broadcast station. capturing the irregulars can generate information on where abouts the royal and the Royal Guard Engineers. (anyone who died in the vignette episode will be buried near the radio station. Body to be recovered by royal marines.
2. BlackHawk down- some air asset shot down outside the starport- either a shuttle, jetcopter or air lorry. PCs try to effect rescue of downed crew and prevent the crafts weapons from falling into the rebells hands.
3. rescue- party of vursk fleeing from rebels must be rescued. Rebells will not stop because the RM shows up as they fear what the vrusk know and want them dead at all costs.
Note between intel gained from capture of irregulars at the radio station and rescue of the vrusk in #3 there is a body of intel that is being built up that will point to the diplomat's location. being elsewhere than the former corporate headquarters which is being called the Peoples Palace. and headquarters of the rebells.
Players must assemble 4 points of intell to locate the Royal and any Royal Guard that survived the vignette then they can move on that location.
4. "Here they come" convoy of corporate vrusk vehicles in running firefight with rebels trying to reach the starport. PCs must help some how. Insert and take out technicals at an intersection then hold it till the vrusk pass. then reguard back to star port.
these vrusk can have a point of intell
5. Rescue the Diplomat. each PC controls a squad and has a separate objective. Location is an isolated farm. Substantial forces must be neutralized. Royal Rescued. stand off could happen and a negotiated settlement will have to be effected.