Wardn Gambits

Date: 073-1104

Location: Wardn/Lunion (SM1727) B756486-B Ni, PAg

Scout Base

Population: 76,000 Sophonts

Warden, formerly known as Silver and previously identified as part of the Metal Worlds, was initially settled by a small group of colonists from the Sword Worlds. After the Third Frontier War, the System was fully absorbed into the Imperium. Only twenty percent of the population can claim in some part to be descendants of the original colonists. The rest are, for the most part, members of the scout service who have retired and taken up residence. The economy of the System has yet to develop due to a lack of industry and labor. Wardns’s economy is based on Subsistence farming, further by providing foodstuffs or services, and contracting technical labor to the scout base brings additonal income to supplement the local economy. The planet is governed by an appointed governor-general who also holds a position of knighthood in the sector peerage. The Starport/Scout Base is garrisoned by a permanent duty Colonial Lift Infantry Battalion from Lunion equipped to tech level 12. Personnel rotate through two-year duty assignments. 

Wardn is a warm, moist planet with a thin atmosphere and 64% Hydrographic. Its largest continent hosts large rolling planes and low mountains. Transplanted and modified flora and fauna are being studied for long-term impact and suitability for future seeding and development into an agricultural world. The downport/scout base lies adjacent to the startown of Argent with small outlying farms that are currently successful in growing Terran-modified cereals and citrus foodstuffs; some small successful ranching of protein sources has made headway. 80% of the Systems population is located within the startown and surrounding farmsteads. 

Players’ Information

Coming out of jumpsapce in the Wardn system, the Suliman Scout’s systems begin to register electromechanical issues requiring maintenance and minor repairs with the Jump Drive. However, the group is in luck; Wardn has an IISS Scout base on the surface. The group reasons that repairs and maintenance should be easily accomplished there. As they land on Scout base landing pad ten, they are met by a Scout base ground crew and a representative of the Base Commander asking that the players accompany him to the base administrative headquarters. Within minutes, the group is whisked by air rafts to the Administrative complex, built on a small hill. The group noticed many Imperial Colonial Army personnel and vehicles guarding the base’s perimeter.

Located inside the Base Commander’s office, an Imperial Navy Lt. Commander and an IISS Commander with overall command of the base are waiting. They begin with pleasant introductions, refreshments are offered, and the base commander inquires about the group’s needs regarding stores and maintenance facilities for the ship’s repairs. As a cunning soul, the Base Commander has deduced the party is low on funds and proposes barter services for the parts and the base ground crew labor for the repairs in exchange for hazardous services. If the group agrees, he turns and introduces the Lt. Commander Gihelegashi, who appears disheveled and distraught but quickly masters himself to brief the group on the services he needs.

The Lieutenant Commander begins by appealing to the patriotism of the group and the absolute need for confidentiality. He has a big problem. A recent report by the 43rd Fleet Counter Intelligence indicated that Sword World’s Directorate of Military Intelligence has a deep cover of sleeper agents on the planet. The report also suggests a leak within a classified Joint Navy/Scout Special Intelligence Task Force within the scout base. The Lt. Commander sees an opportunity without tipping off the possible agent or compromised personnel by bringing in a Counter-Intelligence field unit. The Lt. Commander is appealing to the group to act under his authority to investigate the primary suspect by maintaining surveillance till enough evidence can be gathered to arrest the suspect and possible accomplices. He is willing to reimburse all expenses for the operation, such as equipment needs, bribes, etc. He further offers as an incentive to each group member a 20,000 cr. Further, for former imperial personnel, a letter of commendation and appreciation was signed by the 43rd Imperial Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Lord Danezi Vasilevye, to be entered into their service records.

If the group accepts the offer, they will be briefed. The primary suspect is William Decher, a local 15-year resident who is married to a Scout Base Communications Branch Officer. William Decher works as an outback safari guide and conservationist. His background is hazy, with a dubious record of a discharge from the Colonial Forces Imperial Army with the rank of Staff Sergeant in the infantry with assignments to Commando School as a student and later as an instructor. The brief record also notes the awards for three combat service ribbons: MCUF and Purple Heart. The Lunion Colonial Army is having difficulty finding a complete service record. The bureaucracy is slow, but it cooperates by trying to track down other members of his unit. His wife is Sarl Najal Guishivallii-Decher, a Scout Communication Group Administrator in charge of the Communication Section for the base. The sensitive nature of her position gives her access to encrypted imperial codes and all incoming and outgoing classified information within the sub-sector. A possible leak with the threat of a deep sleeper agent is of genuine concern to the Base Commander and Lt. Commander Gihelegashi.

Referee’s Information:

   The group has arrived in the buildup to the Fifth Frontier War. A joint Imperial Navy / Scout Service Surveillance Intelligence Task Force is co-located on the base. It is the cover for a joint operation for placing operatives and collection efforts in the Sword Worlds Confederation. Specially modified Suliman Scout couriers with Jump 3 capability are hidden within the squadron assigned to the base. Sword Worlds Directorate of Military Intelligence and its outworld coalition partners have long suspected the Base’s covert activities. They have a team of operatives on the planet keeping the base under surveillance and have ongoing active collection efforts within the base. The fears of Naval Intelligence are well founded, and to their credit, they have identified one, unknowingly, of the deep cover agents.

   The Gihelegashi has more than just the security of the operation to be concerned about; he is in love with Decher’s wife and has had an ongoing intimate liaison with her for the past two years. Her background check has been stringent and verified. The thought of her being coerced and compromised by William is maddening to the lovestruck naval officer. He is unaware that he is the target of a honey pot operation. The object of his romantic intentions is a Zhodani Intelligence Service officer who uses her psychic abilities to gather information from her day-to-day contacts. She is aware her cohabiting partner’s cover is blown, and to further insulate her, the misdirection of exposing Decher’s cover will maintain the flow of intelligence to the Outworld Coalition. Sarl and William, by engaging in some high-stakes theatrics, including kidnapping Sarl and attempting to take her off world with the assistance of a Vargr Corsair band (who are proxies of the Sword World Confederation Directorate of Intelligence Special Activities Branch), will throw Imperial Counter-Intelligence off the scent.

  Sarl and William have planned in two days to have an incident of an incriminating low-frequency encrypted off-world signal communication burst to emanate from William’s Safari Company’s Office that will be easy for a decryption expert to begin to extract a location deep in the Wardn High Veld and the phrase “movement of goods.” William will deliberately make it somewhat easy for the group to follow his sub-par tradecraft, sloppy dead drops to maintain the party’s focus on him. In the meantime, Sarl is moving copies of cryptological ciphers, dossiers, and critical intelligence that would expose imperial agents and the carefully constructed networks with the Sword Worlds Confederation. The fundamental objective is to ensure that Outworld’s Colalition’s surprise attack on the Spinward Marches achieves strategic surprise. 

   William will lead the group on a merry chase through the star town and veld to draw the party to perceive and rendezvous with a corsair ship in the veld to take him and captive Sarl off the world. The party will observe the logistics planning, such as purchasing restraints and food and stocking an air raft with weapons, communication gear, and survival equipment. William will also use dead drops to create red herrings dead-end inquiries by falsely implicating local officials and Scout Base personnel as co-conspirators. It is essential to know that William has limited access to the Scout Base as a dependent and socializes with the personnel in off-duty settings.

   Ninety-six hours after the group sets down on the planet, William and Sarl will begin the theatrics, setting the final plan in motion. The Lt. Commander will receive a frantic and broken video message from Sarl saying there was a struggle at her domicile and pleading for help. Will and Sarl will stage the house as a violent struggle, with them taking off for the rendezvous point mentioned in the previous off-world communication signal, followed by a second signal right after the flash message from Sarl to the Gihelegashi. With the group and Gihelegashi run hot pursuit. They will arrive at the rendezvous point to see a hovering Vargr Corsair ship with armored corsairs moving baggage and personnel aboard. Presumably, a firefight will erupt between the group and Vargr Corsairs, and casualties will be taken. Still, William will escape, leaving Sarl drugged and restrained in a grav utility truck, creating the image of an “unsuccessful” attempt to exfiltrate her off-world.

  The postscript will be the reuniting of the lovers. In the debrief, Sarl will continue to exploit her relationship with Gihelegashi and her position as a middle-level scout administrator to collect intelligence. At the end of the investigation, she will be cleared of any charges and suspicions. She will be transferred to the Major Scout / Naval Facility on Lunion, right under Naval Counter-Intelligence’s noses. 

Main NPCs

Lt. Commander Elian Gihelegashi 8789CA Age 38

(Imperial Navy Line / Intelligence- 4 terms) 

MCG, MCUF, Combat Command x2, Combat Service ribbon x4, Flight School, Staff College, Intelligence School x2, 

Streetwise-2, Interrogation-2, Admin-2, Pilot-2, Navigation-1, Ship’s Boat-1, Engineering-1, Handgun-1, Computer-2, Communications-1, Gunnery (Lasers)-1, Forward Observer -1, SMG-1, Ship Tactics-1, Fleet Tactics-1, Vaccsuit-1. 

   Imperial Navy Senior Intelligence Officer Assigned to the Joint Navy-Scout Intelligence Detachment Wardn. 

Sarl Najal Guishivallii-Decher 687AAA Psi:9 Age: 44 

“Scout Communications Administrator” (Zhodani Intelligence Operative) 

Telepathy-9, Clairvoyance -5, Awareness- 4; Streetwise-2, Forgery-2, Communications-2, Admin-2, Computer-2, Electronics-2, Bribery-1, Interrogation-1, Handgun-1, Vaccsuit-1

A specially trained deep penetration Zhodani operative descended from Solomani-Vilani Stock Humanity. 

Paul-William Decher – 978988 Age: 42 (SWC Army 3-terms) 

CMV X2, Wound Badge-Bronze, Commando School (x2), 

Combat Rifleman-2, Streetwise-2, Bribery-1, Tactics-1, Forgery-1, Brawling-1, Recon-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Blade-1, Demolitions-1, Survival-1, Communications-1, Grenadier-1, Vaccsuit-1, Handgun-1                       

 A member of the Directorate of Military Intelligence’s Special Service Force Brigade. 502. 

Scout Base-

– Commanded: IISS-Group Capt. (06)

– 4-6 Suliman Scouts (among which, two are the J3 Infiltrator ships)

• Approx 300-400 IISS Scout Personnel
• Approx 50 Imperial Navy Personnel.

Security:

IISS Security Forces Detachment.

Colonial Lift Infantry Battalion (Reservists- Lunion Subsector Army) – Major 

Headquarters and Support Company

x 3 Rifle Security Companies (at 75% strength)

x1 Reece Patrol Squadron (at 60% Strength)

Services Company 

Xiphos Solutions Company Cadre for training the Local Defense Force ( Major)

Author’s Note: this was my first and only entry into the Amber Zone Contest 2015. I have edited it and reposted it here.