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Monthly Archives: October 2020

Skills For Hire – Lab Crawl

So last week I wrote up the location of the GODCo bio-lab. This week we’re going to look at what my players found when they got there. First I’ll provide my game notes with the details of what had changed, and then so a short write-up of the players’ actions. “Lab Crawl” is the title I gave this scenario in my notes.

Background

GODCo has been operating the lab on Pale for about 20 years now.  The lab is a location the GODCo scientists are studying the Pale flora and fauna and looking for ways to adapt various yazirian plant species to the environment as well as improving flora and fauna used by Frontiersmen to be more adaptable to the Pale climates.

A few days ago the quarterly supply delivery to the “secret” base left but the drivers and vehicles (two ground trucks) never returned.  Yesterday an aircar flew out to the site and was shot at by the site’s defenses (heavy laser).  The PCs are being sent in (on the ground) to investigate. Their objectives are:

  • Figure out what happened
  • Rescue any personnel trapped and still alive in the lab
  • Secure the site if possible.

What Happened

In my game, there are still sathar on Pale from the First Sathar War (referred to as the Great Sathar War on Pale as the second one is just now brewing). While a few of the sathar on the planet are holdovers from the war, many more have actually slipped to the surface over the intervening years. They have been working to subvert the society and develop new bio-weapons (e.g. lesser quickdeath, sathar poison squirrel). It is to do some work on the poison squirrel that they have capture the lab.

A few weeks ago, a team of sathar attacked and captured the base. They needed access to the equipment and facilities to complete some work that they had been doing in more makeshift labs elsewhere on the planet. The staff that survived the attack are being held as prisoners and used as test subjects (and food) for the creatures they brought with them.

Changes From Last Post

In my previous post, I described the lab during “normal” operations. Here is what changed when the PCs arrived

Staff

There are only 1d5+5 of the original 44 staff members still alive, all scientists. They are locked individually in the living quarters and isolated from one another. They are all malnourished and weak. They will not be able to assist the PCs in any fighting.

I put them in the rooms farthest from the elevator/stairs but you could put them anywhere. The sathar have changed the computer security system so that none of the staff ID cards work to open the living quarters doors.

Vehicles

There is a ground transport in the garage (area 3, ground level). It is only partially unloaded.

Robots

All of the security robots were destroyed in the original attack. The sathar have reprogrammed all the maintenance and service robots to have attack/destroy programs and will attack any non-sathar beings on sight. These robots are all level 3 and have only their mechanical hands as weapons. The security locks have all been removed by the sathar as they modified them. They have the following stats:

STA: 100 ATT: 60 IM: 6 DMG: 2d10 Move: 30 m/turn

The remaining robots are located in the following areas:

  • 2 service robots – Ground Level in hallway (area 5)
  • 4 maintenance robots – Level 1 area 30. There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others.
  • 4 maintenance robots – Level 2 area 11 (at the far end of the lab area). There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others. They can also be called by the sathar on this level.

Sathar

There are 10 sathar at the facility.

Two are security officers and will be in the security office on that level (area 8). If the robots start fighting they will emerge and attack the intruders. These sathar have laser pistols with 3 power clips and a level 3 skill. Their stats are:

STA: 45 ATT: 50 IM: 5 DMG: 2d10 PS: 3 Move: 30 m/turn

The other eight are in the lab areas on level 2. Divide as desired among 3 labs. These are all scientists and will only have improvised melee weapons when attacked but do have a level 1 melee skill. Stats for these sathar are:

STA: 40 ATT: 30 IM: 4 DMG: 1d10 PS: 2 Move: 30 m/turn

In addition to the sathar on level 2, there are a number of sathar attack monsters with them in some of the labs. There are 2 cybernuks in one of the bio-labs, although only one has the cyber implant, and a caged juvenile quick death in another (use the Lesser Quickdeath stats).  A third lab has a cage containing 10 tailless squirrels.  If freed, any of these creatures will attack the PCs.  If they can, the sathar scientists will release the creatures into the lab hall (area 14) to attack the PCs as part of their defense.

Place the sathar and creatures in the labs as desired. In my game, I had them all in labs on the right side of the map. The first lab had 3 sathar, the second had 2 sathar and the nuks, the third had 3 sathar and the squirrels, and the fourth lab had the quick-death.

Other Notes

The computer is level 4 with a level 3 computer security program.  Lab doors have level 5 locks, bedrooms have level 1 locks.

Something got out and the power generator level is overgrown with a blue fungus/moss that is mildly toxic to the touch (S1/T20) toxin. This is currently growing on all the walls on level 3, part of the stairwell between level 2 and 3, and in the elevator shaft near level 3.  It has not yet traveled to Level 1 or 2.  Due to the fungus, the power occasionally will short out and brownouts occur occasionally around the lab.  There is a 5% chance any minute that the power will temporarily go out or lights will dim in any given room.

Loose Ends

Some things I left open ended and which didn’t really come up when playing that you can flesh out as desired for your game:

  1. Where’s the other ground truck? There were two in the convoy but only one is here. I honestly forgot about there being two when I was running it but it never came up directly. This is an opportunity to expand the scope of this encounter if you want your PCs to possibly pursue the sathar across the planet.
  2. The fungus/moss on the generator level – Was this something the sathar brought with them? Was it something GODCo was working on?

Running the Adventure

This adventure played out over two game sessions.

The PCs had no idea there were sathar involved when they were hired. The job was simply to go to the lab, investigate what happened, rescuing any survivors, and secure the facility. GODCo offered a generous bonus of 500 cr. per staff member recovered alive.

After about six hours of travel, mostly in an explorer, the PCs arrived at the facility to find the gate closed. As they got close to the site, however, they noticed that no radio communications were working. The site appeared deserted. The humma decided to jump the fence and got shot at by the heavy laser for his trouble. Luckily, it missed him. He was able to open the main gate and the explorer entered the compound.

They gained access to the garage and discovered the partially emptied ground transport. Exiting into the hall, they were attacked by the robot stationed there. They took some damage but were able to quickly deactivate the robot. (Since the sathar removed the security lock, I only required a DEX roll – the robot was attacking them after all – to switch it off. Their roboticist has a high DEX but still missed a few of the rolls throughout the adventure.)

As they rounded the barracks (not knowing what they were) they encountered the other robot and after starting to engage that, the two sathar emerged and started firing at them. A well tossed tangler grenade captured both sathar (although one was killed by laser fire the same round). Realizing it was caught and the robot deactivated, the captured sathar committed suicide.

Clearing the rest of the level, they opted to take the stairs down and not alert anyone else by using the elevator. As they emerged into the hall on level 1 they experienced their first brownout of the power. They entered the security office and found a number of CCTV cameras looking at different parts of the lab including the hallways on level 1 and one into each lab on level 2. They saw the 8 sathar and the attack creature but didn’t know where in the complex those images were coming from.

Examing the hallways, they ran into two maintenance robots coming out of area 30 on the fall left hall way. A fight ensued with those robots and the other two that were called out of room 30 after the fight was engaged. They managed to deactivate two of the robots while the other two were destroyed.

The fighting was occurring at the end of the hall by area 30 and the prisoners in the rooms there heard them and tried to get their attention. They proceeded to open (via tech or brute force, depending on the player) each of the doors and discovered that 9 of the scientists were still alive, although is fairly poor shape.

From the scientists they got the information about the attack and current situation as they understood it. They also learned that the brownouts only started occurring after the sathar arrived. Speculation began on what the sathar were doing that needed that much power.

With the scientists found, they shepherded them up to the surface, planning on driving them out in the ground transport. At this point a discussion ensued on what was next. Fighting sathar is a job for Star Law and really above their pay grade and several PCs were all for bugging out with the scientists, reporting what they found, collecting their rewards and walking away. However, one of the PCs is a member of the Anti-Satharian League (ASL) and floated the idea that they might be able to get some reward from that group for the sathar if they took them out themselves.

In the end, they decided that the Anti-Satharian League PC would drive the scientists out and call in for medical pickup once he got out of the radio jamming. He would report the sathar presence and request instructions from Galactic Task Force (GTF). He’d also contact the ASL and see what he could negotiate. That discussion ended the first session.

Session 2 started with finalizing the plan. While the ASL PC headed out with the scientists, the other PCs set about exploring the rest of level 1. They realized part of the way through that they should have asked the scientists for a tour. Meanwhile, the PC with the scientists, after about 40 minutes of driving, got out of the jamming range. Calling in GTF immediately dispatched some flying transports to pick up the scientists and told him to stand by on the sathar situation. While he waited, he called ASL and got the same response. After a few minutes, GTF told him that if the team chose to go in after the sathar, they would be deputized by Star Law for the operation (Star Law couldn’t get anyone there for many hours and didn’t want the sathar to get away) and offered a bonus of 1500 cr. each. Just after that conversation, he was called by his ASL contact and offered a 250 cr. reward for each sathar killed plus and additional 500 cr for any sathar data collected from the computer systems.

With the offers in hand, he headed back to the compound once the medical team arrived to escort the scientists. Having been gone a couple of hours, the rest of the team was getting a bit antsy and debated exploring the generator level but decided to be patient and wait. They also reprogrammed the two maintenance robots to obey them and attack sathar while they were waiting. When the offers were presented, they decided to take on the sathar and collect the reward from both sources.

Not wanting to walk down 50 m of stairs, and figuring they had the drop on the sathar, they opted to take the elevator. They quickly examined the areas outside the decontamination airlocks on that level. Hoping to reduce the odds, they hacked into the life support and ventilation systems for the labs (all 10 individually) and dropped a doze grenade into each system to try to knock out the sathar. They had to do all 10 because they didn’t know which system went to which lab or even which labs the sathar were in. Luckily they had 11 doze grenades between the 5 PCs.

Doze grenades dropped and hoping they worked, they went through the cleaning rooms into the lab area. Upon entering and seeing into the labs, they found that the sathar in the lab with the cybernuks had been knocked out but the other were still up and about.

They rushed the robots over to the first lab and had them block the door preventing the sathar from exiting while the PCs headed down the the third lab where the three sathar were working with the tailless squirrels. As they were approaching, the sathar let the squirrels out and there were suddenly several critters attacking most of the PCs.

On the second round of the fight, the four robots emerged from the robot storage area and started to advance on the PCs as well. An on the next round they realized the flaw with having the robots block the sathar in the first lab as one of the sathar deactivated one of the two robots.

With enemy both in front of them and behind, they started to fall back and regroup trying to deactivate robots, kill sathar, and fight the squirrel critters. A well placed frag grenade managed to kill most of the squirrels as they fell back but not before a couple of the PCs were bitten and poisoned.

Just as they were starting to get the situation under control, one of the sathar in the nuk lab woke up (I had rolled for the time each were going to be out and rolled low for that one). After spending a round trying to rouse its comrade (with no success), it then headed to the doors to let the nuks out into the fight.

The sathar and squirrels turned out to be the easy targets with the nuks and robots providing the most challenge. They managed to take out the sathar that had freed the nuks before it could let the quickdeath out or things might have been really bad for the team. As it was, two of the team members, wounded and cornered, retreated into the lab that the squirrels had come out of pursued by one of the robots. They trapped one of the nuks in the entrance to another lab, and then finished off or deactivated the remaining robots and creatures.

When the fighting was over, they had deactivated two more robots, killed seven sathar, 10 squirrels and one nuk. The last sathar never woke up and they hit it with a StayDose to keep it sedated. They left the trapped quickdeath and nuk for StarLaw and GODCo to deal with. They decided to report that there were only 7 sathar (they had miscounted) and secret the live sathar away to turn over to the Anti-Satharian League for a 2000 cr. reward.

It was touch and go there in the middle of the battle with a couple of PCs getting down to single digit STA, but they pulled through in the end. Each PC ended up with 6 XP and 3600 cr. They also ended up with 7 damaged service and maintenance robots that they took with them as well.

Final Thoughts

It was a good adventure. It just took longer to finish than I had hoped due to scheduling conflicts (on my part) and not being able to get it all done in a single session (or I would have posted this sooner).

I actually completely forgot about the quickdeath in the heat of the battle which is why the sathar didn’t immediately make a bee-line for that lab to try to get it out. But that was probably just as well. Had the quickdeath came into the fray it might have been too much. As it is, the fight went well. They PCs were a little worried there for a bit, but managed to pull it out in the end. I actually thought the squirrel were going to do a bit more damage but the frag grenade really did a number on them, only three of the 10 survived the initial blast.

The activating and deactivating of the robots was a bit of humor (at least for me) during the big fight. There was a bit of a go around of the sathar turning their robots off, them trying to turn the sathar robots off and also trying to turn their back on, and fighting the robots that weren’t deactivated. And the moment when I said that the sathar turned their first robot off definitely seemed to catch them off guard and ratchet up the tension.

This will be the the last Skills for Hire post for a while. As I talked about in my “What I need is … more focus” post back in August, I have a lot of things going on and that was the main cause of the scheduling conflicts. As such, I’ve decided to put the game on hiatus for now. My players are going to take up the GM mantle and run games for each other in the meantime but I won’t be doing anything for a while.

Did you like the adventure? What might you have done differently? What changes or additions would you make? How could you use this in your game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

October 27, 2020 Tom Leave a comment

SSW – Battle of Stenmar (Kazak) – FY61.281

I originally had a different post, the write-up of my players’ venture into the GODCo bio-lab, scheduled for today, but decided to bump it to next week in favor of getting this one up and getting some feedback.

Some Background

The Detailed Frontier Timeline project has reached the point where the events of the Second Sathar War game presented in the Knight Hawks Campaign Book play out in the timeline with the sathar’s main assault on the Frontier. The whole timeline project was originally conceived as a way for me to track, in a “realistic” manner the movement and construction of ships for that event (i.e. using the ship construction rules and rules for void jumping.).

As such, the initial round of events will look very similar to the opening of that game. But after that, things will start to diverge from the way the game plays in a number of ways.

First, I’ll be using the Void Jumping rules for travel times instead of the times portrayed on the Frontier Deployment Map this is part of that game.

Second, the Order of Battle for both sides is slightly different from what was presented in the rules. Although not by much. The timeline events have tweaked things so that the White Light and Truane’s Star militias have an extra assault scout or two, the UPF unattached ships are a slightly different mix, and the sathar have the cutter class ship. I tried to set up the ship construction so the sathar had the ships listed in the game and I came pretty close. They ended up with a few more fighters and an extra destroyer.

Third, reinforcements for both sides will come from the various starship construction centers around the Frontier and in sathar space rather than the arbitrary rules presented as part of the printed game. The sathar have a fully functioning ship construction pipeline that will continue to churn out ships, although they did just lose the starship construction center in the Liberty system. The UPF have a few ships already under construction (2 battleships, 1 light cruiser, an assault carrier and 6 fighters) but otherwise are going to need to get a production pipeline going.

Finally, I’ll be factoring in my take on various political situations across the Frontier as well as involvement of civilian and megacorp ships that may get involved in the conflict. This will also affect the ship construction to some effect.

The Second Sathar War game rules as printed are actually a good balance for a game to be played out over a short period of time but probably don’t represent how things would play out in “real” life in the Frontier. For one thing, a more realistic ship construction system will probably make it a much more drawn out affair, which is what I wanted to explore with the timeline project.

As the battles occur across the Frontier, it was always my intention to play them out with the tactical battle rules to see which side won and have the sides react accordingly. The results of those battles and the basic reactions will be the entries you see in the timeline.

Last week, I posted the question to the Star Frontiers Facebook group if they would like to see more detailed summaries of the battles more than just who won, what ships were lost, etc. There was definite interest and so this series of posts was formed. The format may evolve as I do more of these but here I’ll be posting write-ups of the battles, probably in a couple of different formats, but at the very least with turn by turn synopses (and maps) to show how it went.

Except for this one, which is coming out nearly a month early, the plan is for each of these posts to come out on the same day as I post that day’s timeline update to Twitter. Although when I have several battles the same day, I might just post one a day to spread them out. It is my intention that these are going to be “off schedule posts” that probably won’t count as one of my regular weekly posts (expect for this one and maybe the 4! for the battles that will come starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving in the U.S.). After the first few battles that open the conflict, they are going to start to spread out as ships begin to repair and maneuver.

Posting on the day the battle occurs, this battle wouldn’t show up until November 17th, but I’m posting it early to get feedback on the format and what people would like to see in the posts going forward. Please share your thoughts in the comments. You can consider this a “sneak peek” into some of the timeline events.

In addition to just being a “play report” of how the battles went for me, each one will include the order of battle for the various sides that you can set up and play at your own table. They won’t always be balanced encounters, but it would be interesting to see how you and your groups handle the various tactical challenges.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. On to the first battle.

Battle of Stenmar – FY61.281

While I had not planned on figuring in fighting in the Rim as part of this project, and haven’t really been tracking (or even really thought about) Rim ships and the organization of the Flight, part of the Timeline has dealt with events in the Rim and the Kazak system as it pertains to the discovery of the sathar construction center in OFS019 and the trip to Kazak by Strike Force Nova. As such, I had a list of Rim ships that were in the Kazak system. Plus, it’s a natural entry point into the Rim and is traversed by the sathar to get to Zebulon on my star maps. So it makes sense that the sathar would send ships to control this system. And since I already knew what ships were there, I designed some sathar fleets to attack this system. This is the write-up of the attack on Kazak that opened the conflict for the sathar. Plus using this as the first trial write-up doesn’t spoil the events of the conflict in the Frontier.

The ships for this scenario are not part of the order of battle for the Second Sathar War game presented in the Campaign Book but are extra to that. So what happens here doesn’t exactly impact the playing out of that larger scenario. Maybe at some point I’ll go back and work out the details of the fighting in the Rim.

This battle occurs on FY61.281 in the timeline, the day after sathar ships are detected entering the Frontier systems.

Order of Battle

Here are the ships on each side. I did not really plan this (I built the sathar fleet before I went back and looked to see what Rim ships I had placed in Kazak) but it turned out the sides were fairly even.

Rim Forces

  • 10 Fighters
  • 3 Assault Scouts (AS)
  • 2 Frigates (FF)
  • 2 Destroyers (DD)
  • 1 Light Cruiser (LC)
  • 1 Fortified Station

All told there were 18 ships plus the station with a total of 515 hull points. Definitely weighted to the smaller ships.

Sathar Forces

  • 8 Fighters
  • 2 Frigates
  • 4 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser (HC)
  • 1 Assault Carrier (AC)

The sathar had 17 ships with a total of 569 hull points and more capital ships.

The Fight

Setup

The Rim forces arrayed in a line slightly behind the planet and station and divided into several groups according to ship type. From top to bottom there was a flight of 5 fighters, the 3 assault scouts, and the light cruiser above the planet and then the 2 destroyers, the 2 frigates, and the remaining five fighters. The fighters were moving at speed 25, the assault scouts and frigates at 20, and the light cruiser and destroyers were moving at speed 15

The sathar’s main battle group was arrayed to directly approach the planet in a flying diamond. The middle row was the light cruiser, the heavy cruiser, and then the assault carrier. Outside of those ships were the four destroyers, 2 on each side, and then a frigate on either side forming the tip. All of these ships were moving at speed 10. The fighters were arranged into two flights of 4 fighters and positioned further out on the wings. They were traveling at speed 20 The setup looked like this:

Setup for the Battle of Stenmar. Click for full-sized image.

Turn 1

The main sathar battle group began decelerating toward the planet (slowing to speed 8), looking to make a concerted attack on the station as it came around from behind the planet. The sathar fighters accelerate to speed 25 and swing out further on the wings to prepare to swing in on the next turn and make their attack while staying out of the forward firing arc of the Rim forces.

The Rim forces decided to ignore the fighters and focus on the main battle group. The fighters accelerated to speed 30, flew in to make a maximum range attack with their assault rockets on the two frigates on the wings and then sweep back out of range of the capital ships’ main weapons. The assault scouts accelerated to 25 and executed a similar maneuver but aiming for the lead destroyer on their side of the formation. The frigates, with less maneuverability than the smaller ships accelerated to speed 23, swept past the main sathar formation, and then doubled back to attack the tail destroyer on that side of the formation. The remaining ships (LC & 2 DD) accelerated to speed 17 and turned in to attack the light cruiser. All the Rim ships stayed at least 4 hexes away from the sathar ships to remain out of range of their rocket batteries.

The sathar decide to ignore the smaller ships and focus on the Rim’s capital ships. However, the longer range and apparently poor training of sathar forces result in little damage to the Rim ships with the LC only sustaining 11 HP of damage and one of the frigates taking a hit to its combat controls system. All the other shots at the Rim ships, including several shots at one of the destroyers, missed completely.

The Rim ships were much more effective. The results were as follows:

  • The sathar frigate on the left flank (“top” of the diamond) is hit by 3 of the 5 assault rockets (AR) taking 14 HP of damage, losing 2 ADF, and having it’s masking screen launcher knocked out
  • The sathar frigate on the left flank (“bottom” of the diamond) is hit by 4 of 5 AR taking 28 HP of damage, losing 1 MR, and having it’s torpedo launcher knocked out.
  • The sathar destroyer on the right flank fires two ICMs at each of the incoming torpedoes (which miss) and is hit by 2 laser batteries (LB) for 8 HP and has its masking screen launcher knocked out
  • The sathar destroyer on the left flank is hit by 3 LB and 2 AR from the three AS and is completely destroyed with one of the LB and AR each doing double hull damage. 
  • The sathar light cruiser fires two ICMs at each incoming torpedo  (only the one from the Rim LC hits) and is hit by a number of weapons resulting in a loss of 2 ADF, a navigation control hit, a combat control system hit, its disruptor canon damaged, and a loss of 60 HP (the torpedo did double damage for a total of 52 points)

At then end of the turn, the ships were arrange as shown in the following map (with their movement marked). Destroyed ships marked with a red X.

Result. after the first turn.Click for full-sized image.

Turn 2

The sathar fighters on the left wing swoop in and unload into one of the UPF destroyers and then fly out of range to line up for another run. The frigate on that same flank, not expecting to survive the round, given the damage it sustained, turns and attempts to ram one of the destroyers. The rest of the ships turn and take on the Rim’s light cruisers.

Defensively, the assault scouts score a single hit on one of the fighters near them taking out its AR launch, effectively neutering it. The destroyers, seeing the frigate coming in for a ramming attempt, fire everything they have at it. One of the rocket batteries connects and the frigate flies apart before gets too close. The Rim frigates continue to fire at the destroyer they had already damaged doing 7 more HP of damage, and knocking out its MR and electron battery. The Rim light cruiser attempts to eliminate the damaged frigate before it can fire. It only causes 9 HP of damage but does knock out its MR and causes an electrical fire on board.

The sathar fighters firing on the destroyers unload all 4 AR at a single destroyer which all hit doing 65 HP of damage, destroying it. They caused a power short circuit as well but it was moot at that point. The rest of the ship unloaded all their ordinance in to the Rim light cruiser. It survived the 3 AR that hit from the fighters (knocking out its LB, all its MR, and 7 HP), the shots from the frigate (knocking out is combat control system), the shots from the destroyers (knocking out 1 MR and 22 more HP), but the sathar heavy cruiser finally overwhelmed it (knocking out its PS, a power short circuit, and a final 39 HP).

One flight of Rim fighters make a pass at the sathar heavy cruiser while the remaining Rim ships converge from various directions to make a pass at the sathar assault carrier. The fire on the sathar frigate causes another 7 HP of damage.

The sathar heavy cruiser fires at the incoming fighters with its EB doing 2 HP to one of them and a LB hit triggers a fire on another. All of the other sathar ship fire at the Rim destroyer doing 35 HP, -2 ADF, and a combat control hit.

Offensively, all 5 AR fired at the sathar HC hit knocking out 1 MR and the combat control system and doing a total of 85 HP of damage destroying it. Between the fighters and assault scouts, the sathar AC is hit with 6 of the 8 AR fired knocking out a LB, the ICM and masking screen launchers, and doing 83 HP of damage, destroying it. The Rim destroyer’s EB started an electrical fire and the LC from the frigate did an additional 26 HP of damage but the assault carrier was just scrap at that point.

Here are the ships at then end of this turn:

Positions after turn 2. Click for full-sized image.

Turn 3

The sathar fighters all converge on the station to fire their assault rockets. The sathar frigate with the fire, and the destroyer that has had its MR knocked out drift forward toward the station. The destroyer accelerates slightly to bring it’s torpedoes in range this round. The undamaged sathar destroyers turn and go after the remaining Rim destroyer. The Rim fighter with the fire suffers 2 HP of damage.

Defensively, the station fires at the three closest fighters with working weapons systems. all three shots hit knocking out the AR launcher on one of the fighters and destroying the other two. The assault scouts fire their laser batteries at the other flight of sathar fighters as they fly by but all the shots miss. The Rim frigates and destroyer fire at one of the sathar destroyers knocking out its LB and EB and doing 12 HP of damage.

Only the 4 distant fighters can fire at the station but 3 of the 4 AR hit doing 82 HP of damage. The ICMs from the station neutralized the torpedo from the destroyer and frigate and all the rest of those ships’ weapons miss. The shots at the Rim destroyer as less effective than hoped. They knocked out 2 MR, the MS system, and caused a power short circuit but only did 7 HP of damage.

The Rim frigates and one flight of fighters go after the sathar destroyers, the other flight of fighters go after the two damaged sathar ships near the station, and the assault scouts split their attacks firing their AR at the destroyers and their LB at the undamaged flight of sathar fighters. The station fires at the two fighters closest to it. The damaged Rim destroyer, unable to maneuver, drifts of the map hoping to slip away and survive the battle.

Defensively, the sathar destroyers fire their energy weapons at the retreating Rim destroyer starting a fire that is snuffed out when the other weapons do a total of 16 HP destroying the damage vessel. The fire their RBs at one of the frigates and both hit knocking out its MS and doing 14 HP of damage. The sathar ships near the station fire at the station but all miss.

The Rim forces have another stellar round with their assault rockets. The flight of fighters fire at one of the undamaged destroyers hitting with 4 of the 5 AR taking out the destroyers ADF, MS, and doing 16 HP of damage. The assault scouts fire at the other destroyer and hit will 2 of the 3 AR doing 24 HP of damage and knocking out 1 MR. All of the LB shots at the fighters miss, however. The Rim frigates fire at the same destroy targeted by the assault scouts and hit for 18 more HP and knocking out 2 ADF. The station manages to destroy one of the nearby fighters (leaving a single fighter with no AR in that flight). The fighters going going after the damaged sathar frigate and destroyer split apart momentarily to line up their shots with 2 fighters firing at the frigate and 3 at the destroyer. All 3 AR hit the destroyer doing 22 HP and knocking out 2 ADF. One of the AR hits the frigate doing 14 HP and destroying that ship.

At the end of the turn, the ship were here:

Positions after turn 2. (I forgot to move the station forward). Click for full-sized image.

Repairs

Several of the ships were able to enact repairs with the Rim fighter putting out its fire, the Rim frigate repairing 9 HP, and the station repairing 3 HP. The sathar destroyers were able to each repair some of their hull damage (10, 4, and 7 HP respectively).

Turn 4

At this point he Rim forces know they have a victory, as all the of the sathar ships (except a few fighters) are heavily damaged. It’s just a matter of cleaning up and protecting the heavily damaged station.

Only one of the sathar destroyers can maneuver and it loops back to fire on the Rim frigates, the other two just drift along on their current course. The fighter with the damaged AR launcher (it couldn’t get it repaired) loops around and attempts to ram the station. The other sathar fighters fire their last ARs at the station and loop away.

Defensively, the Rim assault scouts fire at the undamaged fighters but only one LB hits doing 5 HP of damage. The station also fires at these fighers (judging that the AR are more deadly than the ramming fighter). The Rim frigates fire at the destroyer closing on them and knock out all it’s MR and do 31 HP of damage, just 1 HP shy of destroying it before it could fire.

The lone sathar fighter rams the station for 4 HP of damage and 2 of the 4 AR from the other fighters hit doing 43 more HP of damage. The damage destroyer drifting by manages to hit with its LB causing a power short circuit and knocking out the the station’s screens and ICM launcher. The destroyer firing at the Rim frigate hits with its LB and EB knocking out 1 ADF and half of the frigates DCR.

Out of assault rockets, the Rim fighters start decelerating to dock with the station and execute some big loops away from all the capital ships. The assault scouts split up to each go after a damaged destroyer with their last AR. The frigates, suspecting that the sathar fighters might attempt to ram the station, pursue those ships in an attempt to eliminate them.

Defensively the sathar destroyer drifting off the bottom of the map is the only one to hit, its EB causing a fire on the assault scout.

The Rim assault scout firing at the destroyer now closest to the station hits with its AR doing 28 HP and destroying the sathar vessel. The assault scout targeting the destroyer drifting to the left also hits for 23 HP and destroys. it. The last assault scout, gunners distracted by the fire, miss completely. The frigate are not as successful as they had hoped, only hitting two of the fighters but both are obliterated (20 HP from a LC and 24 from an RB – both did double damage).

At then end of the turn, the battle looked like this:

Battle map after round 4. Click for full-sized version.

Turn 5

The remaining sathar destroyer continues to drift away and the two remaining fighter loop back and attempt to ram the station (which only has 14 HP left). The fire on the AS damages its DCR cutting it in half.

The Rim frigates fire at the two remaining sathar fighters and destroy them before they can ram the station. The burning assault scout fires at the drifting destroyer doing 8 HP.

The Rim fighters continue to decelerate and approach the station. All the other ships set off in pursuit of the last destroyer, only two of the assault scouts coming in range this round.

The sathar destroyer fires at the non-burning assault scout and hits with its EB knocking out 1 MR point but both AS hit the destroyer with their LBs doing a total of 14 HP and destroying it.

With the battle over, the ships positions were:

Map at the end of the fight. The counters were shifted to pursue the drifting destroyer. Click for full-sized version.

Wrapping Up

The fire on the assault scout continued to burn while repairs were attempted but caused a disastrous fire knocking out the assault scout’s ADF and MR and damaging its combat control system. Unable to put the fire out, over the next 20 minutes the assault scout succumbs to the fire as it eventually burns through the hull destroying the ship.

The other damaged ships manage to repair the minor damage they sustained. After 3.5 hours of work, the station manages to restore 33 HP before running in to a snag that will require outside assistance to get past and repair more.

Aftermath

The sathar tactics for this fight was basically “go for the heavies,” ignoring the smaller ships and going for the larger ships first. With all the Rim fighters and assault scouts flying around with their assault rockets, this was probably the wrong idea. We’ll see if any of the lessons learned were able to be transmitted out before the sathar were destroyed.

The Rim forces, capitalizing on lessons learned at the two fights in the Zebulon system over the past year and half, used the maneuverability of those smaller vessels to stay out of range of the sathar’s heavier weapons and inflict punishing damage. They Rim forces also heavily concentrated their attacks, preferring to focus on only a few ships each turn instead of spreading everything around. This resulted in a bit of over kill a few times (especially on the sathar assault carrier) but payed off in the end.

The sathar lost all 17 vessels totaling 569 HP. While the Rim only lost 4 ships, they were mostly capital ships totaling 185 HP. Plus the station only has 47 of its original 140 HP left. If the sathar had paid just a little more attention to the station (going after it earlier with the fighters or the one maneuverable destroyer going after the station instead of the frigates) they might well have destroyed it as it was down to only 14 HP at the end of the fight.

Speaking of the damaged station, the rules for the Second Sathar War game don’t give any guidance on how you repair station hull points if they fail a DCR roll. I’ve decided to apply the following rule throughout this write-up. A station (in a system that doesn’t have a starship construction center) can repair 10 HP a day after failing a DCR check for hull repair after a battle starting on the day after the battle occurred. If it is in a system with a SCC, the full repair ability of the SCC can be applied to the station. We’ll see how that goes.

News of the victory against the sathar was quickly broadcast across the Rim and Frontier as fast as subspace radio messages could traverse the intervening distances.

Sathar forces were engaged today by elements of the Flight around Stenmar in the Kazak system. After nearly an hour of fighting, the Rim forces were victorious destroying all the sathar ships but suffering serious losses themselves.

Sources within the Flight say that the sathar fleet consisted of single heavy and light cruiser, four destroyers, two frigates, and an assault carrier with eight fighters. It is believed that they originated from the recently discovered sathar occupied system OFS019.

The Flight lost a light cruiser, two destroyers, and an assault scout in the battle. Additionally the fortified station orbiting Stenmar was severely damaged and almost destroyed in the fighting. Repairs to the station are on-going but may take some time to complete.

Flight forces across the Rim are on high alert for other possible sathar activity.

Kaarln Duggart – Stenmar News Syndicate

Details of tactics used by both sides and the outcomes were transmitted to Flight and Spacefleet forces as well. Spacefleet and militia vessels across the Frontier, especially those facing an imminent fight with other sathar fleets in just a few days, eagerly studied the data and updated their plans and tactics.

The first battle in the Rim was a success for the Flight but who knows what else the sathar have in store. The first fights in the Frontier are only days away as the sathar ships decelerate into four of the UPF’s systems.

Last Thoughts

This is probably the longest post I’ve made yet on this site. And it was only a medium-to-large fight. The battle at Prenglar (in a few days in the timeline) is going to be a doozie as it involves Task Force Prenglar, Strike Force Nova, and a sathar fleet even bigger than this one.

What do you think of this style of write-up? Too technical and too much detail? Not enough? What would make it more interesting or enjoyable? Would you rather just see a narration of the fight instead of the details of each bit of combat? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

October 20, 2020 Tom 5 Comments

GODCo Bio-Lab

In the mountains, about five hours west of Navin’s Mill on Pale, the Greater Overall Development Corporation (GODCo) has a a semi-secret bio-lab. Everyone knows it there, or at least that it exists, if not its exact location, what is not known is exactly what type of research is done there.

And the truth isn’t all that exciting. As the Frontier’s preeminent terraforming company, GODCo has research labs all over the Frontier looking at adapting species, both flora and fauna, to the environments of the worlds inhabited by the Frontier races. And adapting the local flora and fauna for use by the Frontier races as well. This particular lab on Pale was looking at ways to better adapt some of the yaririan food crops to better live and thrive in Pale’s cooler climate with its yellower sun.

The secrecy around the bio-lab is institutional, not necessarily due to the work being done there. GODCo is always very secretive about its work as a way to avoid competition. Especially here on the Streel Corporation’s homeworld.

Location

Click for full-sized image

The lab is located in the mountains west of Navin’s Mill on Pale. Access is by paved roads and then a rough ground track (for the last 100 km). The total travel time from Navin’s Mill is about about five hours. While it’s possible to land an aircar at the facility, this form of access is rarely used.

The lab is built underground in the side of a mountain. Only a small structure is visible on the surface. This was done partially to take advantage of a geothermal power source discovered there, partially to make it easier to regulate the temperature in the labs, and partially to help maintain the secrecy of the lab by not having everything out in the open. The lab has been in operation for over 20 years.

Lab Staff

As part of GODCo’s veil of secrecy, all of the staff currently working at the lab live on-site. The non-science staff rotate in and out regularly while the scientists typically stay longer for the duration of there experimental work. The lab’s staff consists of:

  • Lab admin and assistant admin
  • 20 scientists
  • 8 security personnel
  • 2 power technicians
  • 2 roboticists
  • 2 computer technicians
  • 4 general technicians
  • 4 hospitality staff (cooks, recreation, etc)

In addition to the 44 staff members, there are 8 security, 12 maintenance, and 4 service robots at the facility.

Floor Plans

The lab itself consists of four levels. Except for the ground level, which is the only visible level on the surface, all of the levels are built into caverns that have been carved out of the mountain. The following sections give details on each level.

The various room descriptions are intentionally left fairly generic. Feel free to embellish or modify them to suit your game and campaign. Unless otherwise specified, all doors in the complex have level 1 locks that open to the staff ID badges.

Each of these maps are produce at 140 DPI, two squares to the inch with a scale of 1 meter per square. They should be able to be imported directly into your virtual table top of choice is you so desire.

Ground level

The only part of the complex visible on the surface, this level consists of the outer fence, a garage and storage facility, a security office, barracks for some of the security personnel, and an elevator and stairwell descending to the below-ground levels.

The contour lines on the following maps represent 1 meter elevation gains.

Exterior View

Exterior view. Click for full image. There is an unlabeled version as well.

This is the exterior view of the facility. The labeled items are:

  1. Access Road – This two meter wide access road is a gravel and pressed dirt road winding up the mountain.
  2. Wall and Gate – The wall surrounding the compound is 3 meters tall. The gate stands a little taller at 4 meters and can be opened (inward) to allow vehicular access.
  3. Garage – This garage is big enough to hold a ground truck for unloading when supplies are delivered (typically monthly). The roof here is 5 meters tall instead of the 4 meters of the rest of the building (the light gray area).
  4. Roof Access – This is a taller portion of the roof (total height 6 meters) that provides access to the roof from the stairwell below.
  5. Doors – Other than the garage, this is the only access into the building.
  6. Elevator Roof and Heavy Laser Mount – This is the roof of the elevator shaft. It extends an additional 4 meters above the lower roof and has a ladder to allow access. On top of this part of the building is a heavy laser that is connected to the complex’s power supply and computer.

Interior View

Interior view. Click for full sized version. There is also an unlabeled version.

This is the inside of the ground level of the complex. The labeled rooms and areas are described below:

  1. Access Road – as described above
  2. Wall and Gate – as described above
  3. Garage – Large enough for a ground transport, there are some tools and a parabattery recharging station here.
  4. Storage – This room is used as storage to unload arrive ground transport and hold supplies for which there isn’t room in the main underground facility. There will be a variety of lab and medical supplies, as well as food and housekeeping supplies in this room at any given time
  5. Hallway – This is the main hall of this level.
  6. Barracks – These are double bunk room for the four security personnel currently working on this level.
  7. Stairwell – This is long helical stairwell that descends to the lower levels of the complex. The stairs also extend up to the roof access (#4 in the exterior view). There are small landings every 10 meters of decent going down. Primarily used only in emergencies.
  8. Security Office – This is the security office for this level with a computer terminal as well as video feeds from external and internal cameras. This room has a level 2 lock.
  9. Elevator – This large elevator is the main mode of travel between the various levels of the complex. It is capable of holding up to 16 beings at once or carrying large freight or pieces of equipment. It travels 10 meters every 6 seconds.

Level 1 – Housing and Recreation

This level is located 20 meters below the surface. It extends deep into the mountain and houses all the housing, recreation, and office space of the facility along with things like the computer, tech shop, medical bays, and life support system.

Level 1. Click for full sized version. There is also a version without labels
  1. Elevator – This large elevator connects the various levels. It travels 10 meters every 6 seconds.
  2. Stairs – This is the stairwell that connects the levels of the complex.
  3. Security Office – This is the main security office for the entire complex. It has video feeds from security cameras on all levels of the complex as well as a computer terminal. This room has a level 2 lock.
  4. Administrator’s Office – This office is plushly decorated and has a small conference table and chairs in addition to the working desk. The desk contains reports of the work from the various labs as well as other administrative reports. This office has a level 3 lock.
  5. Tech/Robotics Shop – This is workshop for working on the complex’s computers, robots, and other mechanical items. It is well stocked and has high quality equipment. Any tech skill to work on machines, robots, or computers gains a +10% bonus when performed here.
  6. Storage – This room contains supplies and equipment for use in the repair shop.
  7. Main Computer – This room houses the main computer for the complex. There is an admin terminal here in the room. The room has a level 4 lock.
  8. Life Support Systems – This room houses the machinery that runs the life support system for this level and level 3. It contains water and air filtration and circulation systems.
  9. Garden – This room is filled with solar spectrum lamps and contains both hydroponic gardens growing food for the complex as well as just a relaxation garden with grass, flowers, and small shrubs.
  10. Offices – These rooms are offices for some of the higher ranked scientists. Each is decorated (and cluttered) according to the whims of the owner.
  11. Medical Bay Entrance – This small hallway provides access to the various rooms in the medical bay
  12. Operating Room – This room is a full surgical room. Any surgery skills performed here get a +10% bonus.
  13. Medical Office – This is the main office of the complex’s medical officer when they are not working down in the lab level.
  14. Exam Room – Typical doctor’s office exam room
  15. Sick Rooms – These two rooms are used to isolate sick members of the staff while they recover or away transport back to Navin’s Mill or Point True.
  16. Medical Storage – This room contains all the supplies needed by the medic for the exam room, sick rooms, and operating rooms. It contains the equivalent of 10 medkits plus any other supplies needed.
  17. Dining/Common Room – This room contains tables and chairs as well as a few couches and recliners There is a bay door/counter area between here and area 18 that can be opened for serving food in addition to the regular doors connecting the two areas.
  18. Kitchen – This is where all the food preparation is done
  19. Pantry – This is where most of the food for the complex is store. Part the room is a walk in freezer.
  20. Library – This room houses a collection of books as well as a computer terminal with access to the complex’s information storage program.
  21. Conference room – This room contains several tables and chairs. It also has a video screen for calls outside the facility as needed.
  22. Theater – This room is a large theater/lecture hall where the staff can watch movies or listen to presentations. Used for staff meetings and relaxation, the entire off-duty staff can fit in this room at once.
  23. Gym – This room contains a variety of mats and equipment for recreation.
  24. Sauna – This is a large sauna for use by the staff. Controls are in the wall by the door.
  25. Steam Room – Popular with the dralasite staff, this steam room allows for the addition of scents and other substances to be added to the steam system. Controls are by the door.
  26. Weight Room – This room contains a number of weights, weight machines and other exercise equipment for use by the staff.
  27. Restrooms/showers – Located throughout the facility, each of these rooms contains showers and lavatory facilities usable by the Frontier races.
  28. Cave/Running Track – Outside of the actual building, the residents have access to a running track that runs the perimeter of the cavern that the complex in built into. the floor has been smoothed and a track laid down but the walls and ceiling are still rough-hewn stone, although obviously cut and not natural. There is lighting along the entire length of the track.
  29. Living Quarters – These rooms are the living quarters for all of the staff. Each contains a bed, sofa, table and chairs. While the layout of each room is basically the same, each is decorated according to the taste of the tenant.
  30. Robot Storage – This is where the robots that work on this level and the ground level in the facility are kept when they are not working. It contains small bays for each robot that contain the recharging stations.
  31. Assistant Administrator Apartment – This is a luxury apartment for the assistant admin. It has it’s own private bathroom. This room has a level 2 lock.
  32. Administrator’s Apartment – This very luxurious apartment belongs to the administrator of the facility. It has it’s own private bath as part of the suite. This room has a level 3 lock.

Level 2 – Labs

This level houses the labs where the actual work of the facility is done. It is located an additional 50 meters below level 1. There are a total of ten labs on the level. The entire lab area is accessed through a series of decontamination chambers and then each lab is accessed through a separate airlock.

Level 2. Click for full sized version. There is also a version without labels.
  1. Elevator – This is the location of the elevator on this level.
  2. Stairs – This is the location of the stairwell on this level.
  3. Restrooms – These are the restrooms for this level.
  4. Conference Room – A large conference room for this level so that those working don’t need to go up the upper level for meetings or as a second room if the first one is in use.
  5. Life Support Systems – This room houses the life support systems and air filtration systems for this level. There are 11 systems here. Ten are independent systems that handle the cleaning and filtering of the air for each of the 10 labs. The other system handles all the other rooms.
  6. Cleaning room – This room contains large fans and scrubbers to remove most loose dirt and other contaminants from those entering the lab area. The floor is covered with sticky tiles that pull dirt off the bottom of shoes as you walk through the room. The inner door will not open until a full cleaning cycle has been completed.
  7. Changing Room – This room is where those going into the lab change into their lab suits and other gear.
  8. Clean Room Suit Storage – These rooms contain the clean room suits, lab coats, and other gear to be worn in the labs.
  9. Decontamination Room – This room does a final cleaning of any one or anything entering the lab area to remove any final contaminates. The inner door will not open until a full cleaning cycle has occured.
  10. Storage – This room contains lab supplies and other equipment that has passed through the decontamination process for use in the various labs.
  11. Robot Storage – These rooms are the storage area and charging stations for the robots that work on this level.
  12. Lab Entrance – These rooms are mini airlocks that provide the final security lock to prevent material from traveling into or out of the labs. These rooms have transparent walls so that you can see those inside. These doors have level 5 locks and can only be opened by those scientists working in the specific lab.
  13. Labs – Each lab is set up to work on an individual experiment. The walls facing the hall (area 14) are glass so that you can see into each lab area.
  14. Lab Hall – This hallway is inside the clean area and allows access to each of the labs and to the robot storage areas.
  15. Outer Hall – This hallway is outside the clean area and allows access to the elevator, stairs, life support systems, and conference room.

Level 3 – Power Generation

This level only houses the power generator. It is an additional 150 meters below the lab level. It’s quite a hike if you have to use the stairs.

Level 3. Click for full sized version. There is also a version without labels.
  1. Elevator – The location of the elevator on this level
  2. Stairs – The stair access on this level
  3. Outer Hall – Hallway connecting elevator and stairs with the robot storage area (#4) and the airlock into the generator area (#5).
  4. Robot Storage – This is the storage and charging area for robots working on this level.
  5. Airlock – Separates the power system from the access area to prevent anything crossing the boundary into the main facility. The locks on this door are level 4 and only open to the power techs.
  6. Inner Hall – Hallway connecting the airlock to the power generator
  7. Parabattery Bank – This room is full of racks of Type IV parabatteries. This is the backup power system for the facility that kicks in when there is not enough power being generated by the main generator or it is off-line for service. These parabatteries are charged when the generator is running.
  8. Control Room – A manual control room that allows for monitoring of the power generator in room 9 and the use of power throughout the facility.
  9. Power Generator. This is a Type III generator that is hooked in to a geothermal vent discovered in mountain. This rooms houses all the machinery, pumps, and transformers needed to power the facility.

Using The Lab In Game

That’s the basic write-up for the facility. I’ve left it fairly adaptable so that you can have whatever research you want going on. In my game, I had them working on yazirian food crops and a small yazirian pet, but you can have it be as innocent or sinister as you want GODCo to be in your campaign. And of course, you don’t have to leave this facility on Pale, you could move (or clone) it anywhere you need this type of facility on your game.

Next week I’ll do the write-up of how I actually used this lab for my Skills For Hire game. This is the “normal” operation. It was anything but normal when the players arrived.

How do you like the lab? What did I forget to include or what would make it a better location? Let me know in the comments below.

October 13, 2020 Tom 1 Comment

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.204 to FY61.233

Here comes the next installment of the detailed Frontier Timeline. The HSS History’s Hope is returning back home for it’s annual maintenance and gets waylaid, the UPFS Eleanor Moraes and CMS Osprey discover the sathar starship construction center in the FS30 system, and the Saurians start the process of settling into the Frontier.

We are drawing closer and closer to the launch of the sathar attack into the Frontier that will come to be known as the Second Sathar War. As I was starting to work ahead on that I realized that since back in mid April, I had forgotten to post the updates about the sathar ship construction and movement of sathar ships outside the Frontier. All of the craziness that result from COVID-19 resulted in me dropping the ball on these posts. The funny thing is, when I started this project nearly two years ago, these were the very posts and bits of information that I started the project to track. Seeing how the sathar moved ships around in preparation for and during the battle what the inspiration for the project in the first place. It’s kind of ironic that that is what I lost track of. The other stuff was just supposed to be filler around these posts, but these other threads seem to have taken on lives of their own.

I’ve gone back and fixed that error. In the final document at the bottom of the page, the posts (which start on FY61.068) that I missed posting to Twitter and in the monthly updates are highlighted in a blue font. I’ve assembled them into a separate table below so that you can see them all together if you don’t want to search for them in the document and see them in their context. These missed updates include almost all of the positioning of sathar forces before the commencement of the invasion. Going forward, things will be included as regular updates and posts and I won’t have to backfill.

I also realized, as I’m completing the events of the SFKH4 – The War Machine module, that in the time line, the Liberty System, which is the location of that adventure, is still unnamed and only known as FS30 on the star maps. So I’ve gone back through the document and changed all reference to the Liberty system to FS30. The name change actually occurs in the coming month and is an event that will be in the next update.

The Lost Events

Date (FY)Events
61.068A new sathar starship construction center comes on-line and begins producing ships.  This new center is located in a system “south” of Prenglar, OFS203.  It is designated SCC#1.
61.081Sathar SCC#2 (FS30) produces 6 fighters
61.096Sathar SCC#2 (FS30) produces a destroyer
61.105Sathar SCC#3 (OFS138) produces a frigate
61.116Sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) produces a frigate
61.1283 sathar ships (1 DD, 1 LC, 1 AC, designated transit group TG 1) depart SCC#5 (OFS19) and begin accelerating for a high-speed transit to SCC#4 (OFS111).
61.141A destroyer is completed in the sathar SCC#3 (FS30)
61.146The sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) completes 5 fighters.
61.148The ships of sathar TG1 arrive at SCC#4 (OFS111).  The destroyer remains in the system while the remaining ships are joined by 12 fighters (housed in the assault carrier) and another light cruiser.  TG1 begins acceleration for a high-speed transit to SCC#3 (OFS 136).
61.150A sathar frigate leaves SCC#4 (OFS111) and begins a high speed transit to SCC#5 (OFS019)
61.170The sathar frigate arrives at SCC#5 (OFS019)
61.172The ships of sathar TG1 arrive at SCC#3 (OFS136).  They are joined by another assault carrier (with 8 fighters), 3 heavy cruisers, and 3 frigates.  They depart immediately and begin accelerating for a high-speed transit to OFS167.
61.173The Sathar battle fleet arrives in orbit around Edge (Precipice).  They meet no resistance and begin bombing the planet.
61.175Destruction of the saurian world Edge (Precipice) complete, the sathar battle fleet begins acceleration to return to the Sauria system.
61.180Several sathar ships (1 AC, 1 HC, 1 LC, & 6 fighters, designated TG2) leave SCC#2 (FS30) and begin accelerating for a high-speed transit to new SCC#1 (OFS203).
61.182The sathar SCC#5 (OFS019) completes a cutter and light cruiser.
61.184The sathar fleet arrives back at Kischen (Sauria).  They begin an aggressive patrol of the system looking for any survivors or other ships that escaped their initial attack.
61.186The Sathar SCC#2 (FS30) completes a destroyer.  It along with six others, depart the SCC and begin accelerating for a high-speed transit to OFS 167.
61.193Sathar Transit Group 1 arrive in the inner system of OFS167.  They begin patrolling the system and waiting for other ships to arrive.
61.194– Sathar TG1 is reformed consisting of 1 AC (with 6 fighters), 1 HC, 1 LC, and 1 frigate.  It departs OFS167 immediately for a high-speed transit to SCC#1 (OFS203)

– A new transit group (TG3) is formed from the ships at OFS167. Consisting of 1 HC, 1 AC and 7 fighters, it begins accelerating for a high-speed transit to SCC#2 (FS30).
61.200Sathar Transit Group 2 (1 AC, 1 HC, 4 DD, & 8 fighters), arrive at the newly operating SCC#1 (OFS203)

That covers everything I missed in months past. I missed a few events in this month’s activities as I was doing the Twitter posts but they will just be included in the regular update below. The events I missed posting on Twitter will be highlighted in italics.

The Regular Update

Date (FY)Events
61.204After two days of preparation, the UPFS Eleanor Moraes, CMS Osprey, and the sathar scout ship (now named the UPFS Backdoor) lift off from Mahg Mar and begin accelerating toward the FS 30 system using the captured astrogation data. (SFKH4)
61.205After over a week of deliberations, discussions, and subspace communications all of the Frontier, Princess Leotia of Clarions extends a formal invitation from her world to the Saurians to set up an initial settlement there.
61.206– PG Meteor successfully jumps into the White Light system.  They do not slow down but immediately begin calculations for the 10 light year jump to Theseus.

– The second saurian Ark ships joins the first one in orbit around Minotaur and delegates from that ship join the discussions.
61.207– Two UPF Frigates slated for SF Meteor are completed in the Minotaur (Theseus) shipyards.  They begin a short shakedown cruise while they wait for the arrive of the assault scouts in PG Meteor.

– After two days of internal discussions, the saurians agree to send one of the ark ships to White Light for direct discussions about settling on Clarion, at least initially.  Princess Leotia offers to accompany them personally on their vessel as a show of good faith.
61.208– The UPFS Eleanor Moraes, CMS Osprey, and UPFS Backdoor successfully jump into the FS30 system.  They begin decelerating toward the location of the sathar base, codenamed Base Alpha. (SFKH4)

– The first ship, a light cruiser, is completed at the new sathar SCC#1 (OFS203) south of Prenglar.
61.209– The HSS History’s Hope jumps into the YS03 system and begins work on the jump back to YS02.

– Sathar Transit Group 3 arrives at SCC#2 (FS30)
61.210After 3 days of preparation, the 7th saurian Ark Ship leaves orbit around Minotaur and begins accelerating for a jump to the White Light system.
61.211Jump calculations complete, PG Meteor jumps to the Theseus system and begins decelerating toward Minotaur.
61.212– After four days of deceleration, the UPF ships approach the location of Base Alpha in the FS30 system.  They realize that the base is a small assault carrier.  Leaving the other ships behind, the captured sathar scout ship (UPFS Backdoor) approaches the carrier. (SFKH4)

– The UPFS Backdoor is pulled in to a docking bay of the sathar carrier.  After an intense battle through the decks of the sathar vessel, the crew manages to capture the ship and eject its engines before they can overload and destroy the vessel.   (SFKH4)
61.213Several ships, independently dispatched by members of the True Yaziria society, arrive in YS01.  They discover several Family of One vessels in the system patrolling for the eventual arrival of the HSS History’s Hope as it returns to the Frontier.
61.214– The HSS History’s Hope jumps to the YS02 system arriving safely.  They begin work to make the jump back to YS01.

– The True Yaziria ships engage the Family of One ships destroying one, crippling another, and driving off the remaining two.  The FoO ships are trailed until they jump out of the YS01 system.

– Four sathar fighters arrive from the inner system to investigate the explosions of the sathar carrier’s engines.  A battle ensues between the CMS Osprey, UPF Eleanor Moraes, UPFS Backdoor, and the sathar fighters.  The UPF forces win but the Moraes is severely damaged. (SFKH4)
61.215– The 7th saurian Ark Ship jumps into the White Light system and begins decelerating toward Clarion.  Princess Leotia radios ahead to alert her father of their arrival.

– PG Meteor arrives at Minotaur station, the assault scout crews are given two days of rest before they are given their next assignment.  The two frigates join the assault scouts, and the ships are temporarily assigned to the Frontier Expeditionary Force under Commander Reider.
61.216After two days of engine overhauls and repairs, a small chemically propelled rocket approaches the UPF ships in the FS30 system.  Capturing the rocket, they determine that it is a message requesting a meeting from some unknown group.  They radio back to FEF headquarters. (SFKH4)
61.217– The UPF forces in FS30 receive orders from Commander Reider to make contact with whomever sent the rocket and learn as much about the sathar in the system as possible.  He is personally bringing reinforcements.

– PG Meteor is split into two groups.  One (a frigate and 4 AS) are sent to the FS26 system to see if any sathar ships were pursuing the saurians and establish a forward screen there.  The other (a frigate and 2 AS), commanded by Commander Reider, depart for the trip to FS30.

– After completing preparations, the crew of the UPFS Eleanor Moraes depart for the rendezvous point indicated by the map in the rocket.  (SFKH4)
61.218The full White Light Militia, sans the CMS Osprey, boost out from Clarion station to meet the saurian Ark Ship.

– The sathar SCC#1 (OFS218) completes a frigate.
61.219– With everything ready to go, the crew of the HSS History’s Hope prepares to jump back to the YS01 system.  They go on high alert as this is the system they were attacked in before and are worried that there will be trouble again.

– Jumping in to the YS01 system, the crew of the HSS History’s Hope detect radio signals from several different ships. Initially concerned, they soon realize that these ships are there as escorts, not antagonists. Work begins on jump calculations as the ships in the inner system accelerate to join them.

– The Eleanor Moraes crew arrives at the rendezvous point, a small asteroid that has been hollowed out into a space station.  After docking they meet with a new race, called the Mhemne. (SFKH4)

– Two sathar destroyers arrive at SCC#3 (OFS138) and join the forces there.
61.220– The 7th saurian Ark Ship, together with the White Light militia, settle into orbit around Clarion.  Preparations are begun to send a delegation to the surface.

– After a day of negotiations, the UPF forces and the Mhemne reach an agreement to work against the sathar in the system.  They plan to slip to the surface of the planet (Snowball) and contact the resistance there and investigate the sathar factories on the surface. (SFKH4)
61.221– SF Nova prepares to depart the K’aken-Kar system and begins accelerating toward the K’tsa-Kar system.

– UPF forces descend to the surface of Snowball (FS30). After fighting off a Sathar hovercraft, they make contact with the Mhemne resistance on the surface. (SFKH4)

– After consulting with Commander Reider, the UPF forces, assisted by the Mhemne resistance, begin a series of raids on the sathar factories on the surface of Snowball to disrupt sathar operations while they wait for PG Lancet to arrive in system. (SFKH4)

– Descending to the surface of Clarion (White Light), the saurian delegation are met by King Leotus and Princess Leotia as welcome guests.  The next several days are spent in meetings, festivities, and other activities to introduce the saurians to the Clarion culture.
61.222– The larger portion of PG Meteor (retaining the PG Meteor designation) arrive in the FS26 system.  They don’t detect any sathar signals but do detect the saurian beacon.  They begin decelerating toward the inner system.

– The smaller portion of PG Meteor, now designated PG Lancet, arrive in the Padda system.  They begin calculations for a jump to the Waller Nexus system without slowing down.
61.223After two days of discussions, the saurian delegation, escorted by Princess Leotia, begin a multi-day tour of Clarion to look for sites where the saurians could set up a permanent settlement.
61.224– Joined by the True Yaziria escort vessels, the HSS History’s Hope jumps to the OFS222 system.  They immediately begin engine overhauls and plotting the next jump to OFS221.

– The last sathar Transit Group, TG1, arrives at sathar SCC#1 (OFS203).  All ships stand down and complete any maintenance needed after their recent maneuvers.
61.225After training the Mhemne resistance fighters, the combined UPF/Mhemne force make their first raid on a sathar factory.  Catching the factory unprepared, they overwhelm the defenses and manage to capture one of the sathar shuttles. (SFKH4)
61.226PG Meteor arrives in the inner system of FS26.  The ships split up to begin exploring the planets there while remaining alert for sathar vessels.
61.227– After completing engine overhauls and the astrogation calculations, PG Lancet jumps into the Waller Nexus system.  The immediately begin work to jump to the FS30 system, again without slowing down.

– Resting a day after their first assault, the UPF/Mhemne force on the surface of Snowball attack a second sathar factory.  This fight proves to be a bit more challenging as the factory is on alert after the first attack.  The factory is destroyed but the attacking forces are unable to capture another shuttle. (SFKH4)
61.228After 5 days of guided exploration, the saurians decide on a location in the southern hemisphere of Clarion that is about a quarter of the way around the planet from Valencia, Clarion’s capital.  They return to their ships to begin preparations for establishing the settlement.
61.229– After another day of rest, the UPF/Mhemne forces attack the third known sathar factory.  This is the most vicious fight yet and the sathar forces intentionally destroy all the shuttles when it is apparent they will lose the fight. (SFKH4)

– Strike Force Nova settles into orbit around Kwadl-Kik (K’tsa-Kar).  They will remain here for only 2 days before continuing on to Clarion (White Light) to meet the saurians in that system.

– HSS History’s Hope and escorts jump to the neutron star system OFS221. While there was a hint of ship radio signals, it is lost in the natural radio noise from the pulsar.  Work begins on engine overhauls and jump calculations for the trip to OFS224.
61.230After four days examining all the planets in the inner system of FS26, the ships of PG Meteor settle into orbit around one of the two habitable planet in the system to compare notes and prepare for a departure back to Theseus.
61.231SF Nova departs Kwadl-Kik (K’tsa-Kar) for Clarion (White Light)
61.232PG Lancet completes their preparations and jumps into the FS30 system.  They begin decelerating toward the inner system and establish communications with the UPF forces there.
61.233– After four days of searching, the UPF/Mhemne forces on Snowball find another sathar factory.  After a bloody and desperate fight, the UPF/Mhemne forces gain control of the factory and manage to capture an additional shuttle before it can be destroyed by the sathar forces. (SFKH4)

– One day before the ships are ready to jump to OFS224, the HSS History’s Hope and escorts are attacked by 3 unknown vessels (2 corvettes and a Lightspeed Lady class privateer). In the ensuing battle, two of the escorts are destroyed and the History’s Hope is damaged, but they manage to destroy the attackers

Here’s the full file with all the updates:

DetailedFrontierTimelineDownload

October 6, 2020 Tom 1 Comment
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