TheFugitives ---- Start at: Players have just been informed that they can go home. Start at: Players have gotten something (info?) that the military cannot allow to escape. End at: Players need to have a damaged ship (possibly not their own), but be free to go home. ---- The players are told, if they haven't already been told, that they can come home now. The players see, if they haven't already seen, the blasted ashes of the first system they visited. The players enter a linear (2 jump points) system, still a couple of jumps from home. Call the gate they entered through 'A' and the other one 'B'. (At runtime, these will have system names) About halfway across it, they discover a huge ship - heading slowly away from them towards the other gate. It sure wasn't here the last time they visited. It didn't come through the gate they just came through. It couldn't possibly *fit* through a gate. This ship is, as far as the players know for sure at this point, impossible. This ship is a military carrier. It posesses a military gate key. Its mission is to blow up anything escaping through B from the system the other side, where a large military task force is due to begin a major operation soon. The carrier doesn't have particularly potent weapons or armour - and is low on ammo to boot - but it DOES carry five raider ships, which are fast and well armed (but fairly vulnerable). It is, notably, large enough to carry the player's ship if it ditches a few raiders. The carrier doesn't have particular orders about ships that wish to enter B - the military figures that they'll just get blown up by the forces on the other side. So the giant carrier is content to resemble a ghost ship as the players approach. If the players pour on the ergs then they can catch it well short of the gate. A normal low-fuel course will let the carrier reach the gate first - at which point they'll see it deploying the raiders. Once the players get close enough, or if they announce who they are, the carrier realises that they are the plague carriers and panics. It deploys the raiders (if they haven't already done so) and demands that they stand down and prepare to be boarded. It also fires off its secret weapon, blocking comms. The players can chose to fight. They have the advantage that the carrier and raiders are vulnerable, and want to hunt in a pack - the players could take them one by one, or threaten to do so in order to move them out of position. Theoretically, the best outcome here is to take control of the carrier. More likely, they can threaten the carrier enough to force it to evacuate, or a bit less and force it to move out of the way - allowing them through to 'B'. Less likely is a complete player victory - allowing them to pore over the remains and discover much the same things as if they take it. The players can choose to surrender. If they do, they will be boarded by a raider (lots of options for stealing a raider here) - thoroughly searched :'''''Question to other GMs - is it important that the virus remains unfound?''''' and any gate keys connected to the drives confiscated. They will then be left to die. If the players have secondary key(s), then they can just hop it through either gate and escape, thumbing their noses! If not, then they'd better talk fast, persuade the carrier to come back, maybe steal it - or they can still fight - though forcing the carrier to flee is no longer a survivable option. If the players have captured the (remains of) the carrier, then they have access to the milnet. This doesn't actually change any of the following practicalities - but should be regarded by the players as a big win and change the following mood to one of 'triumph being eroded'. Play it up as a big discovery that they really MUST get back to their planet as soon as possible. It will change the actual planets where the following events occur - but that shouldn't matter much. It also gives the military a REALLY obvious reason to be so thorough in their pursuit of the PCs. So it's probably a good idea to make sure that the players find themselves already on the most-wanted list - they need to know that stealing this isn't their ONLY offence. They can also run back through gate 'A'. This is the most likely option to be taken by the players at some point. They'll be pursued, but the raiders don't really want to engage singly, so can be driven off if the players are careful. They also have no gate keys/drives, so they can be escaped. Importantly, they know that they CAN get back home via 'A', it's just a longer route. And the players then have quite a long period of freedom. Keep them jumping at shadows, but there's no sign of pursuit. (The carrier had to wait for the picket to come through, to get off a message, await the lag to get orders through, free up the ships in the operation in 'B' and, of course, catch up - milnet has better connections, but they're still only so fast. And that's the first hour gone. We enter the next stage with the carrier showing up again - AHEAD of the player's route. (It might not be the exact ship, it can be a sister ship - and has to be if the players nicked/destroyed the first one...) It will oppose them, but will be even more timid if threatened. This is because it's short of raiders (partly because the players damaged some, or at least made them use ammo and fuel, and partly because it's sent them out to picket other routes. (If the players immediately turn tail and try another route, they can even find a different picket before the pursuit gets organised.) The pickets are acting as fairly boring pirates - demanding a toll from ships that want to use the gate. But the PCs recognise it and it ''is'' looking for them. Once the picket has been alert, the players get one more free jump - and then the pursuit starts. There are two pursuit groups (which the players will first see first entering the system just as they leave it) The first group is a pair or cruisers. Big beasty things, with good weapons and armour and good sustained real-space acceleration. But they're big, which means they're slow in hyperspace. The second group is a trio of smaller tin-cans. These are less well armed etc. - which is why there's three of them. They can do great acceleration in short bursts (making them very dangerous in a fight) - but they can't keep it up for long, which means the players can outdistance them in realspace. But since they don't carry cargo they will regain huge amounts in hyper. The captains ideally wish both groups to converge on the players and englobe them for a smooth capture. Failing that, they'll happily blow them up in a running battle. These ships outpower the players considerably - either group could take the PCs in a fair fight - and the captains know it. The players have to run. The chase takes them through several systems, as they try and balance their distance form both groups. * A system with many local gates. The players can jump around, try and get the groups out of position, keep them guesing as to which gate they want to exit the system by, jump to one local gate then realspace run to another, etc. * A system with lots of other in-system traffic. Here the player's best bet is to blend in. * A large gas cloud, where the players can attempt an ambush and counter-ambush. This is realspace 'near' home, though still several jumps away. * A system with a well defended exit gate - can they sweet talk thm into holding off the pursuers? Are the players theselves at risk? Kepp going, lots of highs and lows as they run. End the last part with a fairly small high - because they'll need that releif as we start the next bit. The third hour. Tension tension tension. We're going for it. One big slow ramp of scare as the bogey-men slowly catch up. We start with the players entering a totally empty sector. It's got a sun, and one other gate - and that's not even on the eliptic. All they can do is run for it and hope that they had enough of a headstart to make it out. We cut to ''inside'' the ship. The whole episode will take place there, on a personal level. Explain that this is what we're doing. We follow each player in turn, asking what they are doing as the days and ''weeks'' pass. The actual events we kick off with, in the form "{such and such happens} Where in the ship are you? What are you doing?" "{another player} is there/comes in {point at them}" slowly introduce the other players to the scene as needed. Ratchet up the tension as they talk. The events. * We're several days in, and there's still nothing on the sensors. The enemy is delayed somewhere. ** Expect the players to discuss options, council meeting, nothing really decided - no great urgency or fear yet. * The gate behind them flares up. It's the tin cans (maybe they should roll something to find that out. * The sensors go ''blank''. The tin cans have cloaked somehow. THey don't know where they are, what's going on. Their estimates on previous behaviour is that they're probably in the clear. But then why the cloak? * The gate flares up a second time. It's the cruisers. Again they cloak. But this time, assuming they stay on the least intercept they set up, the players will not get to the gate in time. ** Despair. Desperate plans. Maybe they redline the engines (though they probably already did that earlier) and maybe they turn to fight. Eventually, the players have to try something desparate - and we do it behind the curtain. One last 'close up' play, as the characters busy themselves about whichever insane and desperate plan they try. They talk, and things explode around them. And in the dying seconds of the session - it works. The players contemptuously destroy the enemy. Needed outcome - they get the milnet key (if they didn't already) and escape through the final gate. If needed, the long chase has run the other ships dangerously low on fuel and they warp out. Unless the players plan is VERY clever, and their play is very emotional, it should be clear that other enemy ships will pursue them later. But for now, it's over, and the gate to home lies within their reach. The relief should be great, and it's time for breakfast. (Don't try and oversustain the mood.) Side: If the players are ''too'' terrified of their pursuers, if - perhaps - they already attacked them once and were driven off - then a solution can be to have a small picket-ship pathfinder-jump in ''ahead'' of the players, with a ship they need not be scared of. (Emphasise this - it turns to run and start charging its jump as soon as it sees the players) - they can attack and steal the key from ''that''. ---- Oh, sidenote - in system 'B' (which the players can get to see, if they try) a large flotilla is blowing everything space-borne up, blanking comms, and setting up to steal the output of the fuel-plant for a considerable time. They're blockading all the out-system gates - including one that as far as the players know is inactive. (It's the milnet gate) and are very very dangerous once they're set up. Luckily for the players, they've not done so yet. Fighting here is suicide. Doing ANYTHING other than going back straight away is suicide. Should the players TRY the suicide, wing it - there's enough talking and combat options above that can be adapted.