Information Run (adventure)

• Last modified 03/05/04
• Played on 12/29/03 (Charlie, Dan, Dave, Jon, and Tiffany)
• Played 01/02/04 (Dan, Dave, Jon, and Tiffany)

This is a simple adventure that takes place during the Sentinel Wars and can be played individually or as part of a larger campaign.  The scenario is designed to be played by 4-8 experience characters (level 4+) in approximately 6 hours.  The Game Master should reduce the number and/or the composition of the enemies to match the experience and number of players.  The scenario is designed for characters with the capability to pilot Veritech fighters, but could be modified for other OCC classes.

Player Background:

Your characters have been stationed on board the SS Vanguard, an Ikazuchi class battlecruiser, for approximately one month.  After defolding into the Cyas-5 system the characters are immediately scrambled to the flight deck.  If the characters are able to talk to the command crew they will be told that several Invid clam ships have been spotted in orbit.

Mission Briefing:

Once the characters are suited up and inside their Veritech fighters, they will receive the following broadcast from their flight commander. 

“Gentlemen, I will be brief and to the point.  One hour ago we folded into the Cyas-5 system.  Although the system does not have any habitable planets and is dominated by a single gas giant approximately 10 times the mass of Jupiter, the system is on several hyperspace routes between the core worlds of the former Robotech Master Empire and the outer Rim planets.  Two Invid clam ships have been detected orbiting the gas giant and are trying to escape.  The SS Vanguard will micro-jump in front of the Invid Forces and engage them with our fighters.  All squadrons prepare for jump.”

Game Master Section:

Unknown to the REF forces, but the Invid clamships are some of the last members of the Invid Regis forces and not part of the Regent's massive armies.  The two Invid clamships are leaving from a Invid hive which is hidden within the gas giant and used to resupply the Regis's forces as they make their exodus out from the inner core worlds.  This latter fact will be hidden from the characters for sometime until well after this first encounter is over.

The battle plan will enfold as the REF command had wished.  The SS Vanguard will defold just outside the gravitational field of the gas giant and approximately 10,000 kilometers from the two escaping clamships.  The characters fighter squadrons will immediately be launched towards the Invid, which at this time will respond by launching their Invid Scouts and Armored Scouts at the incoming REF veritechs.

2x Invid Clamships

• 100 Invid Scouts with boosters
• 150 Armored Scouts with boosters

The characters will be ordered to head directly towards the Invid and not allow any of the incoming Armored Ccouts to penetrate within 500 kilometers of the Ikazuchi.  The five Garfish class cruisers will engage their sublight drives and attack the two clamships from the rear while the SS Vanguard Veritech fighters are the engaging the mecha from the front.  The entire battle will be over 5 minutes after the initial engagement with the REF forces winning quite readily as they outnumber the Invid.

Roll on the following table every one-minute after the characters engage (if the players boost to the front add +20 for the first encounter only)

After five minutes of combat the Garfish cruisers will have destroyed the 2 clamships and most, if not all, the Invid mecha will have been destroyed.

At the battles conclusion, the squadron's commander will congratulate the fighter crews and then deploy several deep space reconnaissance satellites to report back to the cruiser on any further details.  After two weeks of uneventful patrolling the characters are scheduled for another patrol at 13:00 the next day when they are unexpectedly told to come up to the command bridge for a new mission.

Briefing Part II:

“Gentlemen, I will be brief and to the point.  At 0600 this morning our long-range deep space reconnaissance satellites deployed at Cyas-5 have picked up several hyperspace fold signatures.   The probes were able to view the clamships enter into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant before the ships were visually obscured.  We can only assume that the Invid have built a floating hive in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.  Furthermore, REF high command believes that the Invid forces that we engaged two weeks ago and these new ships are not part of the Regents forces but belong to the Invid Regis.  As you are well aware of, we are lacking any information on the Regis and the REF high command views this as a golden opportunity to acquire some hard evidence.  <A small biomechanical device will appear above the holographic table>.  We want your team to infiltrate the base and place this device on the Invid brain controlling the station.   The longer the device is in contact with the brain the more information it will be able to acquire.  A biomechanical engineer will be sent with you who is a specialist on the device.  Your team will be given full availability of mecha, heavy armaments, and weaponry and will be deployed from the Garfish SS Crossbow.  The ship will defold approximately 200,000 km from the gas giant, at which point your team will infiltrate the Invid outpost and place the device.  Once you require extraction radio back to the SS. Crossbow and they will relay the message via hyperspace to the SS Vanguard which will promptly fold in 25,000 kilometers above the gas giant and provide extraction”

Questions that the players might ask:

1. The exact size of the Invid outpost is unknown, but REF intelligence estimates that there is likely several hundred Invid stationed on the base and associated spacecraft docked there.
2. We have narrowed down the location of the Invid outpost to a grid of several hundred thousand cubic kilometers in the upper atmosphere.  It will likely take your team several hours to successfully search for the base.
3. We are sending in your team covertly because if the Invid at anytime think that their base will be overrun they will likely destroy the base and any relevant information.
4. Sensor pods <see Robotech: RPG Book Eight "Strike Force" pg 42-43> will enhance your ability to detect the station, but I will not order you to take any.  They will be left to the mission commander’s prerogative as the use of said pods reduces the number of missiles available on the Veritech hardpoints.

Search:

The characters will be dropped off from the Garfish cruiser 200,000 kilometers from the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.   Assuming expenditures of 10 kps of delta-v, the trip will take approximately 5.5 hours.  Characters will have to make piloting skill checks at  (-15%) to successfully enter the upper atmosphere of the planet otherwise they will take 1D6*10 MDC rolled randomly in 10 MDC increments to their mecha.  Any boosters will have to be ejected and Beta fighters will have to eject any wing mounted hard points on entering the upper atmosphere.

The upper atmosphere of the gas giant is constantly changing with high speed winds in excess of 200 kph and sensors will be greatly reduced in range (-50%)

Weather conditions (roll every 15 minutes)

Every 15 minutes have two characters roll sensory instrument checks (one with the best sensor system and one other random).  If sensor pods are used add +10%

Invid Outpost:

The characters will find the outpost after searching a maximum of four hours (or 10 random die rolls).   The Invid hive is 600 meters in diameter and is of the standard design with the following exceptions:

1. There is no force field surrounding the hive, instead all available power generated by the core goes into the anti-gravity system.
2. Four docking tubes (1,000 MDC) extend from the fourth level out 100 meters from the hive.  Each docking port can dock with a single Invid clamship.  There are two clamships docked to the hive on the top and bottom docking bays.
3. Reduce the interior defenses by 25% over the standard Invid compliments found on page 89-93 on Robotech Invid (except for the mecha guarding the Invid brain).

Exterior Defenses (double if the characters are expected or remove a storm is passing through the area):

• 20 Armored Scouts with boosters
• 10 Shock Trooper
• 1 Invid Pincer

Hive Interior:

In addition to the standard mecha in the hive roll once every minute on the following chart:

Once the characters enter the brain chamber and connect the device with the Invid brain roll the following will come into rescue the brain every minute.  The technician will require 10 minutes for full extraction.  However, if the fighting becomes too intense the technician will tell the squadron commander that partial extraction is better than destruction of the group.

Minute (roll randomly for which tube the mecha will come into see pg 93 of Robotech:  RPG Book Five "Invid Invasion")

After the group as decided to leave the area and radioed back to the SS Crossbow, the remaining Invid will evacuate the hive but still will send 1 heavy reconnaissance patrol after the players, and if necessary 1 standard reconnaissance patrol per remaining mecha.  After boosting outside the atmosphere requiring 2 kps of delta-v the SS Crossbow will pick up the characters.

Conclusion:

The Invid will evacuate the base on the two remaining clamships and bring the mobile hive outside the gas giant’s atmosphere and prepare to fold.  This will take several hours during which time the SS Vanguard will have folded in and destroyed the hive from orbit.  However, the two clamships will have already made their escape.  Depending on how successful the characters are in obtaining the information they will be congratulated and told that the information will take several weeks before anything useful is derived.

Experience points:

Experience points are divided into two groups.  All ‘type-1’ experience points are shared by the group and the GM should add all ‘type-1’ experience points at the end of the scenario and divide by the number of players and distribute the points evenly.  Type two experience points are given to each individual player for particular accomplishments during the mission.

Type-1

Type-2

No more than 3,000 experience points should be given to the characters for this particular mission.

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