Just Another Border Skirmish (Phase World Adventure):

Hook:

The Trans-Galactic Empire is often looking for new territory to takeover and well as looking for places to act as staging grounds for the war they plan to eventually wage against the Consortium of Civilized Worlds. The system which the planet Azelle is located in is in an excellent position for such an advanced fleet base and staging area. The planet is not wealthy but is mostly self sufficient and brings in more income than it actually spends. The planet is of minor interest because the planet is rich in pre-cursor artifacts including what is thought to be the remnants of a pre-cursor starship. There are systems that have more pre-cursor artifacts but this system is very close to the Kreeghor border. It is believed by many that the pre-cursors used fold style FTL drives and the Kreeghor are very interested in getting this technology for themselves.

Line:

The Trans-Galactic Empire likes to arrange events so that they looks like saviors. This is even more important with this system because it is fairly well known. They decided to use pirates and an excuse for their conquest of the system. They often have used their own ships as pirate vessels but this was decided to be too much of a risk to the mission. The director of intelligence decided that it would be best to use a well known and already established pirate group and if possible one known to be brutal to help them have a better excuse to move in.

The Kreeghor got control over the pirate band by slipping a ringer into the pirate crews. This person is one of their best intelligence officers and quite attractive as well. She is to become a trusted member of the pirates and attacks on Trans-Galactic Ship are supported in order to make her cover work out properly. Her eventual job is to work into being the lover of the leader of the pirate band so he is more susceptible to her suggestions. She is to actually promote a higher level of brutality than is normal for the pirates so to make the Kreeghor's taking over the system and rescuing it from the pirates more humanitarian. The pirate band often end up moving around when an area gets too dangerous and she would suggest the system of Azelle when the area that they are in is getting too hot for them to operate. Her reasoning for knowing about the system is supposed that she used to be a crew member on a tramp freighter that made runs in the area.

The system had little in the way of defenses (Two older destroyers and a couple of dozen fighters) and the pirates were able to easily able to take the system. Once they take the system, the pirates brutalize the population of the system and treat them as slaves. The pirate attacks in the area start with attacks on not well defended merchant vessels. This target will include liners as well as cargo vessels. Like occurs with the population of the planet, the pirates will brutalize anyone whom they attack including torture, rape, and wonton murder. The pirates will not discriminate on who they attack and will go after both Consortium and Trans-Galactic Empire property. Attacks later will go after larger convoys using their superior numbers to deal with escorts. They will leave alone any convoys with heavy support. The attack will then go after even larger targets including small colony planets. The final target that they will be persuaded to attack is a Trans-Galactic Empire supply outpost. This is what is to cause the Kreeghor to have to respond. A large Trans-Galactic Empire force is patrolling the area and the reasoning is that they will find evidence where the pirates are operating from.

As a safe guard, few beings will actually know the plan. The plan is only known to the Dweller and a small number of members of Trans-Galactic Empire intelligence. This means that no one in the outpost will know it will be attacked and a slaughter is expected. The commander of the Kreeghor fleet does not know about the plan but the senior political does know. He has been charged with subtly directing the commander when needed.

Sinker:

There are several ways that the player character can be gotten involved. One way is for the character to be hired to transport scientists to the Azelle system to study pre-cursor artifacts. The ship will be attacked by pirates when trying to enter the system and find out about the pirates that way. The number of pirate ships against the player characters ships should be too powerful to be defeated in this encounter. Another way, especially if the characters are mercenaries and have more powerful ships, is to have the characters to find a ship, such as a liner, or a small colony that was raided by the pirates. The people should be brutalized so that the characters attention is gotten. Clues can either be given by physical evidence, sensor information from the pirated vessel, or have a lone survivor to give the characters information. The characters will be outnumbered by pirates so that they will have to use trickery to defeat the pirates. If any player character have major contacts in the intelligence fields or a background that would allow them to know, then they should that the Kreeghor would likely be interested in this system. If a player character or non player character was a member of either the T.G.E. or Free Worlds Council intelligence fields.

A basic guideline for the player characters to enter the scene depending on how powerful the player character group is. If the character group is less powerful, put them earlier in the process of the piracy to give them more time to deal with the pirates. If they are more powerful, give the players less time. The characters should have a pirate surrender to them. This surrendering pirate will let them know that the pirates are talking about attacking a Kreeghor supply base. The characters should realize that this will bring the wrath of the Kreeghor against the pirates and could likely be some kind of Kreeghor trick.

Pirate Forces:

	1	Wolfen Lictor class Cruiser (Flagship)
	2	Cargo Vessels converted to a Cruiser
	1	Cargo Vessel converted to a Carrier
	2	Wolfen Hunter class Destroyers
	2	Old Kreeghor Berserkers class Attack Ships
	4	Cargo Vessels converted to Destroyers
	12	Runners

Kreeghor Forces:

	2	Defiler II class Heavy Cruisers
	4	Smasher class Cruisers
	12	Berserker (Standard) class Light Attack Ships

[ Altara TM, Brodkil TM, Bushido Industries TM, CAF TM, Catyr TM, CCW TM, Consortium of Civilized Worlds TM, Coyles TM, Free Worlds Council TM, Gene Splicers TM, K-Hex TM, Kankoran TM, Kittani TM, Kreeghor TM, Kydian TM, Machine People TM, M.D.C. TM, Mega-Damage TM, Metzla TM, M’Kri Hardware TM, Monro TM, Mutants in Orbit TM, Naruni Enterprises TM, Noro TM, Paradise Federation TM, Phase World TM, Psylite TM, Rifter TM, SAMAS TM, S.D.C. TM, Seljuks TM, Splugorth TM, Sunaj TM, Trans-Galactic Empire TM, Tri-Galactic Military Service TM, United Worlds Warlock TM, U.W.W. TM, Wolfen TM, and Zembahk TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Robotech® and Robotech: Sentinels® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Harmony Gold USA, Inc. ]

[ Macross® is a registered trademark owned and licensed by Big West/Bandai. ]

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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