Session 6-1: Cirrus Council

* (Unless the Xenophone AI has already helped them, they will not have gained access to the command tower yet.)

Some of the old crew members who wanted to muster out, have now decided against it and a new voyager class star ship is in operation. At this point there is not much chance of the ship being detected, unless it visits a planet that has a star port, or has scanning capabilities. The planets in the prime sector and the prime worlds of the outlying sectors in a region all have this capability, the rest do not. The chance of the ship being detected by another ship is based on the shipping schedules and how often patrols visit the area. While the crew is a veteran one, they will still rely upon the PC's help in navigation and procedures, the PC's should not just be allowed to copy a star chart and then be on their own way.
The old Chief Engineer (Dobbes) is building another voyager class star ship and this should be a hint to the PC's that they need to take a little more control over some of the things going on. The starbase has the facilities to build any class of Terran star ship, but they only have the people and skills to manufacture at TL-7 presently. Providing the PC's with a list of star ships that can be built, may give them the clue that they should advise Dobbes to build a few escorts for their new transport. If they don't, Dobbes will continue to build voyagers, that will end up being prey for pirates, when they do venture out on their own.
The fact that the living quarters that they have been assigned, is the furthest distance from the main population, should not be lost on the PC's. When they go to visit them, they will be given electric carts and a map, that will lead them through long empty corridors and show the populous spread through out the star base. The PC's should be concerned with being so far away from the hub and everything that is going on. If they are not, then the next time they visit the star base they will find that a coup has taken place and their names have been moved from the hero's rolls, to the wanted list. The PC's are the military commanders of the regime and part of their job is national security, if they are more the mercenary types they will find themselves battling as much at home, as away.
The starbase will have formed a militia/police force of 100, it would not be hard for the PC's to take command of them and plan contingencies. If they apply just a little influence now, things will continue to run smoothly, if they ignore human nature, it will turn on them. The idea is not to get the PC's tied up with politics, but just to get them to think things through and give a push every now again. If left to their own means, the star base will revert to anarchy and the PC's will be bringing rioters back, not refugees. The idea place for the PC's to be stationed and have their living quarters, is in the command tower. If they have not already gained control of it, the option of forcible entry is still not viable, even with the weapons of the cruiser the star base is capable of taking care of it's self.
If the PC's are getting ready to leave and they haven't dealt with any of these issues, a less than subtle hint can be given. A ranking marine can say to the armsman PC, "I thought you were the general?", when the PC asks, "What?", the marine will tell him that he overheard one of the council members calling a marine, "general", but that marine is not under the PC's command, nor will the PC even know his name. If they ignore this, when they get back and find the council member has become a dictator, let the marine make the comment, "I knew something like this would happen".
In the same sense, if the PC's do not take the initiative with Dobbes, let the crew of the voyagers be somewhat incompetent and afraid to make the journey back. They will demand to be escorted on the return trip and waste the PC's time in doing so. It is important that the PC's understand that their responsibilities extend further than the hull of the ship, as the theme of the campaign is galactic rebellion, not rebels without a cause. If they are not interested in the big picture though, most of this campaign will be wasted on them, as scenario after scenario, will be designed to help them run the second part of the campaign. In the second part they will continue to fine tune their skills and gain experience executing sensitive missions, but they will also be required to direct fleet and ground troop placement, just for starters.

Session 6-2: Refugees

At this point it will be extremely important that the PC's learn how to launch fighters, if the transport comes under fire and the PC's can't assist it, their esteem for one thing will be questioned. If the PC's have learned how to launch fighters, the pilots skill level is only rated at 2, as these ships handle very differently than what an experienced pilot is use to, the neural interface alone will take some practice, but the size of the fighter is important too, a tenth of the size of the smallest ship the GC has. A pilot will get the impression that the ship is little more than an EVA suit with wings, because of it's size, but with the use of nano-technology the fighter is actually one of the most sophisticated ships in GC space.
The transport will have weapons and if the PC's think about it, they can bring the weapons crew over for some intensive training and raise their skill levels from 5 to a 6. The transport should avoid being detected though and not use normal shipping lanes. A planet that the ship can orbit, as a rendezvous will need to be selected, if the PC's haven't already found one. To avoid discovery the selection needs to be based on the traffic in the area, if a star ship enters the system, there is a fairly good chance that the transport will be detected. If the PC's have not made an attempt to track the movements of other ships, but have relied solely upon the cloak, the transport ship will have a greater chance of being discovered.
The PC's will still need to be the only ones to remove families from their homes, if they do not complete this part of the mission and just turn the whole thing over to the transport, then they will find that the ship has been captured. The entire mission should take about three or four months, just to get the families of all the rebels. It is an important consideration to determine how many crew member of the Lyris are left.

Mission Notes:

1. Using the cargo hold, the PC's can fit about 400 persons in the cruiser and about a thousand on the transport.

2. Ten families can be abducted in one day during the first month, 15 in the second, and 20 in the third, working overtime, which is about 50/75/100 persons per day. Each time the transport heads back, the PC's will have time to rethink their strategy and improve on their pick up speed, up to 100 people a day optimum.

3. The rebels are from 20 different colonies in the region, with about 65 families on each.

4. The chance of something going wrong decreases each time the PC's rethink their strategy, (1 on a d6 per day) then (1 d6 per week), then (1 d6 per planet)

5. If something goes wrong, it will be visiting friends, a snoopy neighbor, or something of this nature, where the family will be forced to leave stuff behind, but make it out ok. It needs to be determined then, how many families are left on the planet; for that day roll (d100 and divide by 10 / 7 / 5). Each time the PC's try to get a family out, a (1d6) will determine if it is in a hurry, as a passing cop has noticed something.

6. Each time the PC's are caught, there is a 1% chance (accumulative) that the military will go on alert and step up patrols in the region. If this happens the transport should head back and the PC's will have to continue on their own.

7. When the region goes on alert, GC will be notified, patrols will begin watching all the shipping lanes, and a fleet will be dispatched to the planet in question. (While this won't effect anything but the time it will take to abduct all the families, GC will begin considering what is going on and figure it out within (d100) days). Once they do, two weeks later an order will be given to apprehend all the families of the Lyris crew.

8. How the PC's react to this will determine if they can still get everyone and especially the families of the scientists.

9. The first couple of times the PC's can use diversion tactics to throw the security force off the scent. This will only work a couple of times per planet and nullify 1%.

10. Each time a region goes on alert, the GC will have a 1% chance to realize that there is a new rebel faction, a successful roll upon their part means they dispatch a security team, a fleet, or something similar, when this chance reaches 100%, GC will start considering the rebels as a serious threat and begin devising methods to detect and catch them.

11. If the PC's do not cause a regional alert during this mission, what they have done will be discovered at the security council meeting at the end of the year and GC will be notified...

 Session 6-3: Family trees

The scientists are from the same region of space, Kara, and the PC's must first find out where this is. They will know that it is closer to Gal-prime than Varran is, but then that doesn't help much. None of the ships leaving from Varran will say, that they are headed to Kara, it is left to the PC's to figure out the major shipping lanes and start tracing them out. Kara is four jumps away and it shouldn't be too hard, their biggest problem will be getting lost. Once they reach Kara, they will have to figure out where the outlying planets are and calculate jumps to them as well. The planets the PC's will have to locate are;

The families of the scientists should be the PC's first concern, as depending on whether GC has started to round up the families of the Lyris crew, time will be short. The PC's will have figured out that when they have the family member with them, things go smoothly and will have brought all 312 scientists with them, or maybe not... If they did, getting the families will be possible with very few problems (1 on a d6 per planet, or per day without scientists). Most of the families are on Kara (159), the prime world of the sector, which will give the PC's a chance to listen in on comm traffic and get a basic idea of the expanse of the region. (Keep in mind that it is up to the PC's to figure out the significance of these prime worlds and the fact that there are regions.)
The time-table is important, if the region goes on alert because the rebels lived here and GC knows something is going on, then the families will be taken into custody, as well as the remaining scientists at the research facility. The mission won't be blown, but the PC's will be unable to complete it. If the region is on alert, the PC's will have a surprise waiting for them at all of the scientist's homes, a security team of 10 armsmen. If the PC's transport inside the house, they will have to fight, but if they are cautious they may have the chance to get the families out of the local jails, as the majority of the police will be away. An increase in space patrols will worry the PC's too, but they should have figured out by now that GC can't detect the ship, cloaked, or not.
Once the PC's find Kara, get a load of families and calculate the jump to Cirrus, they can bring the transport back with them and hide it. This will save them from having to make four trips, if the region is on alert though the transport will be in danger of being discovered and should be left on Cirrus. They won't need the transport to free the researchers and by this time the transport crew should be competent and not need escorted.

Session 6-3: Niwot Research Facility

The PC's must decide if they want to bring along a few scientists, all of them want to go, but there is only room for about 100. They will not relish the idea though research scientists are notorious for being hard to get along with and a hundred of them in a confined space like the cruiser is not very appealing. The scientists though will argue (of course), that they can be of immense help on the mission and they promise to be good, ("Like that will ever happen", the PC's will be thinking to themselves.) The scientists will bring up some very good points though and unless the PC's flat out ignore them, will be able to reason their presence as being vital to the mission, which is true...
Several families are from Niwot 4 and will know that Niwot 5 is the location of the research facility, depending on if the PC's bring the scientists with them or not, they can gather additional information, if they only brought a couple then they will have limited knowledge, if they double up the crew, they can bring a 100, without lessening the number that they can abduct. If they do this the scientists will have recreated the research facility on the holodeck and the PC's will be able to run a few scenarios before executing the mission. By doing this, their chance of success will sky rocket and the casualties will be zero. It will take all 100 though to understand the holodeck technology and how to program it, but in return they will be able to teach several of the crew members how to program, saving about 144 hours of training per. If they are teaching a PC, they will gain Holodeck Programming 5, as a new skill, for training purposes use computer skill.
Bringing the scientists along will reduce the mission, to characters skills and the roll of the dice. As the PC's are moving through the complex, they can be coached, ie... "Wait here, in 43 seconds George will be walking around the corner, he is 5-1/2 feet tall and walks slowly...". It might not make the mission as exciting, but it will ensure it's success. Without the scientists, the mission will go far more slowly and be a product of random chance and the PC's will likely miss someone, a scientist, or worse yet, a guard. If the PC's bring just a few of the scientists, they can provide the layout of the complex, a few security stations, and the work schedule, but little more than this.
Probably one of the most significant pieces of information the 100 scientists will be able to provide, is the loyalty of the other scientists. This will be a large factor in the mission, if the PC's don't bring the 100 scientists and a determination for each group must be determined (d6), (a roll for each scientist should be made, but that would get tedious, as there are 375...

1. Loyal to GC, will sound the alarm as soon as the PC's are recognized as not being guards and can't answer their questions.
   

2. Loyal to GC, because they are worried about their families, if the 100 scientists are brought along they can reassure them, if not, they will sound the alarm.
   

3. Not loyal, but will be concerned for their safety, if not reassured (*) will sound the alarm.
   

4. Not loyal, but do not want to go with the strangers, who may hold them for hostage.
   

5. Rebellious and will jump at the chance to get out of there.
   

6. Rebellious and will be able to help the PC's with the mission.

Without the 100 scientists to tell them who to leave behind (15), the PC's will most likely have to abandon the mission at some point, as additional troops can be there within 20 minutes, with enough firepower to cause the PC's to need transport. They are not overly fond of the scientists and will not be very discriminate with their aim. The scientists can also tell the PC's how to disable the security measures, so that there is no record on the monitors, no sudden surprises, and what would be the best distraction for the guards, (a volunteer in the power plant causing a melt down). With the scientists help the guards will think the researchers fled the complex because of the crises and will spend weeks trying to hunt them down.

The barracks houses 125 guards, with a gun emplacement on the roof, as well as the communications room. The guard towers are manned around the clock and at any one time there are 40 guards on watch. Their first reaction will be to call the military outpost that is 20 minutes away, which will send troops if anything serious is reported. There are four guards on duty in each of the labs, three walk the halls and one is stationed in the storage room. During the day, 30 guards will be roaming around and in the rec room, but at night, 60 will be asleep. There is usually a guard in the barracks office and some of them hang out in the garage. The dorm has four floors with 8 scientists per room and a guard posted on every floor. Two pairs of guards roam the complex continuously, checking in with the guard towers, stationary guards, and the barracks.
Ten scientists will be working all night, in different lab rooms and not in the same building and (d6) may be walking the grounds at any time day, or night. The scientists are not restricted to their rooms, but their movements are closely watched, 8-10 scientists are in each room. There are also 12 techs, who work around the complex and two are always on station at the power plant. They sleep in the dorm and have a little more freedom than the scientists. The quietest time is from midnight till 4am, which is when some of the researchers get up and start wandering around.
A shuttle carrying cargo and picking up research notes arrives at 6 pm each night and for about two hours the complex is fairly busy, when the shuttle lifts off, a head count is performed and the scientists are allowed to go to the dorm. Meals are provided all day and the scientists are not on set meal times, but the guards and techs are. There is little in the way of communication traffic, except when a shuttle is landing, the guards rely upon roving patrols and do not carry radios. Other shuttles land for refueling and personnel transfers during the day, (1 on a d6, every four hours).
The thought of a power plant explosion will cause chaos, some of the guards will head for the power plant and some will head to the garage and drive off to get away. The ones in the towers and on duty will all go to the ground level to see what's going on. The ones in the labs will force the scientists to come with them, but pretty much the scientists will be left on their own. A number of scientists will head for the gate themselves, if it is left open (1-2 on d6) the rest usually hang out the windows. This doesn't happen very often, but a few scientists have tried this as a means of making demands, the problem was they were shot each time. More armsmen will not be sent unless there is an attempted break out, then 3 shuttles will land with about 200 lightly armed.

Mission Notes:

If the PC's do not bring all 100 of the researchers with them, they will provide the following information;

1. They all attended a University on Kara.

2. It took about two weeks to reach Varran and the Lyris, after they left Niwot. (153LY)

3. There are 312 research scientist's families from 8 different planets.

4. The Niwot research facility is not a penal colony, but might as well have been one, once there they never saw their families, or home worlds again.

5. The planet has about 40 research complexes and no colonists.

6. A starport and military outpost are near the largest complex, but the scientists were from another complex several hundreds of miles away.

7. Star ships were constantly coming and going.

8. The scientists were housed in dorms, each one having their own room, but having to eat together, etc...

9. Numerous security guards were required to deal with ego conflicts and problems.

10. More research was lost, than accomplished, as the scientists did not react well to the threats and intimidation they faced on a daily basis.

11. The scientists will be able to give the PC's the complete lay out of the complex, including; location of guards, security cameras, and security codes to locked doors.

12. A few researchers were dedicated to their work and did not keep regular hours, but most stuck rigidly to the 10 hour day work schedule.

13. They weren't guarded as closely at night, but in the day, each lab had a least one guard.

If the 100 scientists come, they will help get the researchers out, while the PC's take care of the guards, unless they bring more armsmen, the PC's will be outnumbered 3:1, this won't be a problem if the scientists came along, if not the guards should be able to hold their own till reinforcements arrive. The guards are carrying night-sticks and the only rifles are in the two guard towers, on and near the barracks. The scientists are usually not much of a problem and shooting them, will get a guard in serious trouble. The roving patrols carry side arms and sticks, along with flashlights and radios, in case of trouble.
This should be considered the most important mission of the first part of the campaign. The rebels are woefully less in number than the GC and technologically inferior, (by only 0.09, but this will change soon, in the GC's favor). The cruisers will give the rebels a bit of an advantage, with covert-ops, but not a significant one on the main battlefields. This mission can change that, by bringing along the scientists, they will have the research labs at their disposal and will increase their own tech level to that of 10 and understand how to increase it further. Dobbes for one will benefit from this, as he will soon be able to build TL-9 star ships and TL-10 not long after. The addition of 360 research scientists from the complex on Niwot will help the PC's too, in the long run, as with only a few more they will be able to start increasing the rebels tech level.
Additionally, 50 scientists will want to transfer to the cruiser, up until this happens the science labs will be little more than storage rooms. The scientists that are need as crew members operate the science stations and will only use the labs for hobby purposes. Having the 50 research scientists aboard may not be appealing, (because of their nature), but they will help in ways the PC's can not foresee. They will be very important with understanding some of the more sophisticated systems, and most of all, will be able to placate the AI and allow the PC's to fire on other ships. They will play an instrumental roll in understanding the methods of the GC and will be able to advise the PC's on courses of actions they would never think of themselves. If the PC's do not bring them along, the ones they recruit later will not be as helpful, because they will be full of themselves, their ego will get in the way of their job, and they will be a constant thorn in the PC's side because of their constant bickering.
The researchers who want to transfer to the cruiser though, will feel privileged to use the facilities on board, get a sense of the big picture, and put their ego's aside for the common good. With them, the PC's will soon be using the full capabilities of the cruiser, without them, the PC's will be taking the chance, (often) of creating a disaster. They will be crucial to the success of the campaign and if the PC's do not accept this fact back on Cirrus, pull a player aside, give them a couple of hints and let them try to persuade the others. Do not force the issue though, the game will still be enjoyable and just be more of a challenge.
With future missions the PC's will send teams to destroy these facilities, with liberating the scientists a secondary part of the mission. By doing so, the intent is to slow the GC's technological progress and keep the upper hand. In another mission the PC's will attempt to do this, with, or without killing all the scientists, will be an issue in the third part of the game.

The PC's will be doing themselves a favor if they take their time getting back and map out the merchant routes towards Cirrus, by doing this now, they will be able later, to monitor fleet traffic by cruising along these shipping lanes at high warp. If they don't, then they will have to take the time later to do it and will have to first jump to Kara and back track. They will also get involved with a new mission as outlined in session 7:1, if they jump the entire distance though in one shot, they will miss this opportunity and what it leads to...

Session 6-4: Population Disbursement

The PC's will need to start keeping track of the population now, as they will approaching the numbers to have a viable colony. This is important, as it allows the PC's to track the disbursement of the population into their respective rolls and let the PC's know how many are available to fill positions like; crewmembers, scientists, workers, etc... The chart in Appendix One is provided to keep track of, new recruits, lost members, and population growth, (which occurs every five years). It is not necessary to record every single person who joins the rebellion, as major populations will be the significant factor. It is also not a priority to recalculate each time either, which will be more important later, when the PC's have to raise an army. The calculation of disbursement should be done to set a period for when the next growth will occur and should also be done when the population gets a influx of new colonists/recruits, from an outside source. The PC's colonies that will remain constant, will grow by 0.5 every five years, where as the star base of Cirrus will grow in spurts until it reaches 100,000, then be constant.
One chart can be used to keep track of Cirrus, or any other colony that the PC's are building up and another used to record all the ones that are already viable and need only be recalculated every five years. For ease, one date is selected for all the colonies to grow and a new sheet is used each time this happens. With the colony that the PC's are building up, each time they free prisoners, form an alliance, or fight a major battle, they make a new entry. The example below shows the # added, or lost of rebels and how the population is disbursed when it went over ten thousand. The disbursement does not effect the # of crewmembers, other than to let the PC's know if they have more available, or should retire some, at the beginning of the campaign though these numbers are not mandatory.

The entry that is underlined is a calculation of disbursement, done each time when the population grows by 10,000, or more.

(*) Underlined data is the base, for determining next population growth, there after, total population reflects the number of new recruits, not the accumulative population. Once growth is added to old total population, new recruits are added, then the population disbursement is recalculated and new growth date is determined, by adding five years to this date. 

Colonies:

A colony can be established with as little as 1000 persons, but does not become viable till 10k. A viable colony is one that has a growth rate that grows by 0.5 every five years. Population determines the class of a colony;

The star base of Cirrus can grow to 100k and then the population growth is added to a new planetary colony.

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