Starlight:Launch Starlight!

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March 20, 2015 – Episode 1: Launch Starlight!

Game Outline

Introductions
1. Date: November 28, 2314
2. Location: Geneva Astrodrome, Geneva Switzerland
3. Through one mean or another you find yourself approaching the Geneva Astrodrome, the launching point of your first deployment as a fully trained Mechanized Soldier pilot. An important milestone for you personally the significance of the occasion as a whole is not lost on you. You were plucked from your graduating class to join the inaugural crew of the Starlight, and while you may feel a twinge of regret at not being able to serve alongside your fellow countrymen, for one reason or another, you were selected to join this historic crew. The importance does not seem lost upon the people of Switzerland either, as there is stepped up security surrounding the event. As most traffic to and from the Starlight flows in and out of Geneva, the security for the upcoming event has been ramped up. Mechanized LEOs stand sentinel along around the spaceport as you make your way to the entrance to the concourse, you take out your datapaper and bring up your deployment orders. “Terminal C – Gate 27”
4. You make your way through layers of security in the bustling spaceport, always getting ushered to the express line by the agents. As you wind your way to the proper Gate, you occasionally find yourself partaking in awkward, mostly one sided conversations with civilians, of all nationalities, wanting to thank you for your service – something you’re not totally unaccustomed to but still never fails to feel a little strange. After all, you haven’t really severed anything, you’ve been in school for the last 2 years.
5. You get to the gate, and finding it mostly empty, recheck the time on your orders. The times are correct, but, while not particularly early, you do find yourself here with only four other fellow soldiers, all wearing blue flight suits emblazoned with Starlight patches stitched on the shoulder.
6. The gate looks over the tarmac where an assortment of spacecraft of all sizes is in various stages of being parked, loaded, or clearing for take-off. In the distance they can see a series of runways that handle fixed wing aircraft that may require them.
7. Next to the main window looking over the tarmac is a large video advertising board that appears to have one video cycling over and over, an advertisement for the Sorenson Heavy Industries Modular Mechanized Soldier.
  1. The advertisement shows various systems for the MS, various modular weapon and propulsion systems, and a strange set of six mechanical arms, two wielding what massive impact wrenches. It appears to mostly be a tech demo put on loop.
  2. This is where they could be able to meet Hawke.
    1. A man in a business suit speaks up from behind you
      1. “it’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
      2. “fully configurable, the first true multi-theater fighter. This baby’s going to revolutionize the mechanized soldier. And finally allow the UEA to fully realize it’s mission.
      3. I helped design the thing. Spent nearly 20 years working on it in some way or another. All of my life’s work have lead up to this.
      4. Say, I see you’ve got a Starlight flight suit on. You think you’re going to be piloting one of these babies?
      5. Well, I hope so. Tell you what, go ahead and have these. Even if they don’t put you in the cockpit right away, this should help you.
    2. To the PC that speaks with him, he will hand him a brochure, and a well worn paper copy of a technical manual. This will help in the synchronization process somehow. Maybe a boost die to synch or however it’s going to be done
  3. PC’s Meet Senior Chief Petty Officer Yarab Zakari
    1. Says he’ll take them up to the ship so they don’t have to wait around
      1. You guys are pretty early.
      2. Well, from my understanding, first muster is at 20-hundred hours. That’ll probably take 3-4 hours, if things go smoothly… so you’re probably looking at sitting around in terminal at least for the next 18 hours.
    2. Was sent down in the Tyson by the captain to pick up some supplies he insisted on.
      1. Spare parts, some foodstuff, mostly things that would have been shipped up in the coming days anyway
    3. Most likely to be the one to dash the PC’s dreams of piloting the SIMMS. Says once the ship is fully stocked, they will be able to launch 12 SIMMS and up to 10 standard MS units.
      1. Says their squadron commander will probably tell them what they’ll be piloting. The main squadron (UEA 1st Space Superiority Unit) hasn’t arrived yet and is expected to show in the next few days. Squad commander Captain George Rose.
    4. PCs follow Yarab down a ramp, past a guard (who checks all their orders) and to a ship, roughly the size of a shuttle bus. The back half of the ship has had it’s seats removed and a cargo net and straps hold down the contents. There are six free passenger seats.
    5. PCs meet son – Ahmad Zakari (13 years old)
      1. Captain said it was ok for him to bring his kid up, since it would be a few days before the ship officially was launched, so he could show his son where he worked.
      2. Mentions his mother has passed, and this could be a long deployment, and wanted to spend some extra time with him before hand
8. Yarab pilots the ship to the Starlight
  1. Yarab sits in the pilot’s chair and puts on a headset. “it’s about to get pretty loud so if you want to keep talking, you might want to grab the headset above your seats.
    1. There is a co-pilot’s chair, one of them can sit in.
  2. Yarab begins flipping switches, and lights and readouts flair to life on the console. He starts the engines, which make speaking at anything below a scream impossible. He tunes the radio and keys the mic.
  3. “Geneva Aerodrome, this is the Tyson, bound for the Starlight Construction Platform, seeking clearance.”
  4. A moment passes and a response: “Tyson, Geneva Aerodrome, you have priority clearance to Starlight Construction Platform. Follow the course indicated.” A 3-d map coalesce out of the center of the console with a route through the earth’s atmosphere plotted out.
  5. Yarab: Course received, control. (to rest of pcs) one of the benefits of being headed to the Starlight, I guess. Priority clearance.
  6. Control: Tyson, cleared for lift-off. Godspeed.
  7. Yarab: Roger, control. Tyson cleared. Have a good day.
  8. Yarab gently raises the Tyson off the ground, clears from the building, and applies the throttle, pitching the nose of the vessel at a 45 degree angle, and turning the to east.
  9. You pass through the crisscrossing traffic at the lower levels of the city, through the skyscrapers in downtown, and then again through the traffic at the higher levels of the city over the buildings. Yarab slowly applies the throttle, smoothly accelerating upwards and over Lake Geneva. Once over the water, Yarab pushes the throttle up to full and the landscape drops away behind you.
  10. Pass through the clouds, can see the land slowly receeding behind.
  11. Further up, the sky slowly starts to go black and the whine of the engines begins to die down. Maybe mention something about the engines switching over from air breathing. A boost of acceleration or something.
  12. “we should be coming up on the starlight shortly” yarab calls out and points up to the windows lining the roof of the shuttle.
  13. Several ships, far away,seemingly rocket past you. As they come into yarb’s view, he punches the throttle all of the way up and the ships start to slow, as you start to match the speed of the vessels around you.
  14. A massive structure comes into view, somewhat skeletal, a ship you know as the Starlight in the middle. Several other ships float about, and various hoses and connectors attach to the ship from the structure.
  15. Yarab eases the shuttle up and beind the starlight.
  16. “Starlight control, this is the Tyson requesting permission to land.”
  17. “Welcome back Tyson. Cleared to land in bay 1.”
  18. The map display switches to show the path to dock.
  19. He has to say some flowery stuff here. Gotta explain the environs around. Various ships seeming to muster about the skeletal structure that serves as the dry dock for the ship. All sorts of wiring and hoses attached to the ship.
  20. In the docking bay, one PC has difficulty getting on board. He is delayed (deck officer won’t let anyone on he can’t verify. Needs to call back down to command.
  21. Yarab suggests the others check in with the ranking officer, in the Air Dept, who right now is Trevor Barnabas, as several deck staff members haven’t arrived yet
  22. Barnabas greets them warmly, makes some small talk
    1. He’ll take their orders and says he’ll give them back to Lieutenant Commander Coleman when she returns.
    2. Asks to see their ID cards. Notes that they should probably get some wristbands to put them on. “this ship, especially what you’ll be doing, you’ll need that ID card a lot. I’ve found it a lot more convenient to keep it around my wrist for quick swiping while I’m on duty.”
    3. Speaks of their position (probably piloting some of the standard MS units), also talks about how he isn’t exactly MS piloting material, but he may end up flying tactical assistance with them at times.
      1. He would pilot a relatively un-armed very fast recon vessel known as the Mosquito or “mozzie”
    4. Offers to show them around and introduce them to the XO, who should be on the bridge with some visiting dignitaries
9. Bridge of the starlight
  1. XO
  2. Heinrich Autenberg
    1. His crew
  3. Reporters
10. Finally cleared
  1. One of the PCs is finally cleared to leave the hanger bay. As they are trying to find their way about the ship, a voice calls out
    1. “Young man! I say! Can you help me?” an old man, with a long chest-length beard and white hair down past his shoulders is holding a dustbin and a broom. He is wearing a maroon jumpsuit. “I say, young man, could you possibly show me the way to the bridge. I’m quite lost and there’s much left for me to clean up around here. He says he has a map, but he can’t make sense of it. He hands a dirty, smudged paper map to the PC, upside down.
    2. If the player balks at showing him to the bridge, lay it on. “You can’t even spare a few minutes to help an old fellow.” “You kids these days, come on son, it won’t take very long. I’m sure your commanding officer will understand”
11. When the PC and the old man reach the bridge
  1. A deck officer turns to them and says “Captain On deck!” the military officers all freeze, turn towards the captain and salute. He is standing behind the PC. So maybe they’ll get confused. I don’t know. Probably a bad shtick anyway.
  2. The captain opens a closet door next to the entrance to the bridge, and places the broom and dustpan within. Out of the closet he retrieves a naval dress hat and coat, and puts them on. All the while not acknowledging the officers standing around at attention, looking at him.
  3. He strolls forward casually and stands at the control console overlooking the bridge.
  4. “Yes, well. I have the conn.” He clears his throat. “LAUNCH STARLIGHT!”
Launch Starlight!
1. The assembly of people on the bridge stand shocked “Sir, I’m not sure” the executive officer chimes in
2. “Did you not hear me? I said LAUNCH STARLIGHT!”
  1. The nagivation officer looking at his console. “ uh, so….. I uh,... hmm.”
  2. “Captain, what is the meaning of this” senator
  3. “Sir, are you sure…” executive officer
  4. Navigation: Sir, I don’t… we can’t move, we’re still tethered to the dock.
  5. Captain: *sigh* menu 4, emergency over-ride, subsystem 3 – emergency dry dock sever. Select that.
  6. Nav: I … uh…. Done.
  7. A shuddering his heard throughout the ship as docking clamps and hoses explosively sever from the exterior of the vessel
  8. Senator: Captain, the is inexcusable, the only reason you’re in charge here is because-
  9. Captain: Nav, take us out 25 meters per second
  10. Nav: aye aye
    1. Elsewhere in the hangar bay, a box teeters off the top of a massive stack of supplies Yarab is moving across the floor. as emergency rations scatter across the deck, he looks up to the deck officer “Are we moving?” he asks.
  11. XO: Captain, this is highly irregular.
  12. Suddenly, images begin appearing on the bridge
    1. “Starlight, this is flight control, is there something wrong, why are you moving?
  13. Captain: Comm, please remove that
  14. Communications office: y… yes sir.. *closes image*
  15. An angry looking, squished-face of an Asian man appears to another side, shouting something so horrible that the UT is choosing not to provide a translation.
  16. Captain: MY goodness, what a rude man. Get rid of him (the image disappears and the sound is cut off) who is that anyway?
  17. Comm: That’s CPO Wen, sir. Our loadmaster. He’s on EVA supervising the supply progress.
  18. Captain: Well, we’ll have to find a new loadmaster I suppose. If anyone here wishes to apply for the position, please leave a note on my door.
3. The ship clears the mooring, leaving a trail of unloaded supplies and confusion in its wake.
  1. Nav: (excitedly) we’ve cleared dock sir!
  2. Cap: Good, set course, altitude 23 degrees azimuth 14. Speed 500 meters per second
  3. Nav: aye aye sir! (the ship re-positions itself and the engines fire up)
  4. Sen: Captain, I demand you stop this at once. If not, I will see to it that you are hanged for treas-
  5. A face appears at the fore of the ship
  6. Ops: Bridge, we’re detecting a massive energy spike straight ahead. Tachyon readings are off the chart!
  7. With that a large yellow swirling vortex of energy forms near the front of the ship.
  8. Cap: BRACE FOR IMPACT! WWAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
  9. Everything goes dark.
Have PCs roll endurance to see who wakes up first
1. The first pc to awaken will find the gravity control is offline and they are free-floating on the bridge.
2. They may notice the captain is nowhere to be found.
3. Do they wake others up?
  1. As they do, they should consider awakening others somehow. Once the commander is awoken, she will suggest sounding a general alarm.
  2. The general alarm will awaken the rest of the ship. Shields will be raised until the situation is properly appraised.
4. Reports coming in from over the rest of the ship. Navigation cannot get a location lock. They are working to rectify that. But they can say the ship is located in some sort of interstellar space.
5. Engineering reports the jump batteries are drained and they will require at least a day to recharge them in the interstellar medium
6. Once gravity is restored, the captain falls out from under his console and awakens with a start.
  1. The commander turns to him for orders
  2. “Very well then, carry on with what you were doing” he says as he returns his hat and jacket, and retrieves the broom and dustpan from the closet and casually exits the bridge.
7. The commander orders the civilians off the bridge and to the commissary for the time being.
8. The admin officer there escorts them off the bridge.
9. She turns to the pilots and goes to say something, when she is interrupted by calls from Ops once again
  1. Andersen: Bridge, we spotted several small objects moving our way. Unknown origin and configuration.
10. She orders the pilots to scramble.
11. Barnabas looks to the four of them and tells them to follow him
  1. he bounds off the bridge and to a nearby door that says “SORTIE 1”. The door slides open and the room has a set of lockers along the walls. There is a closed hatchway in the floor and in the roof, with a computer console next to it. “Get some flight suits”
  2. the lockers have a place for the pilots to swipe their ID’s. after a second, and a the sound of a vacuum and a thud, the locker door opens to show a new flight suit fitted to the pilot inside and helmet.
  3. Barnabas is at the computer console typing furiously at it.
    1. He calls into the console “Dammit, Rennick, what’s going on down there?”
    2. A voice calls back: Sorry sir, we weren’t ready for this. We’re in place now, start sending.. wait, we’ve got pilots on board?
    3. “new ones yes, they’ll have to do”
    4. “but they’re not even in the system yet. Or synced.”
    5. Barnabas slams the console. “DAMMIT.” He types “bridge, I need priority clearance to get these men in the air. I need an override right now, the computer won’t let me sortie them without them being synchronized”
    6. The captain’s voice comes over the console: “Pardon me young man, but I think what you’re asking for is something only I can do. But don’t worry, I’ve gotten to a computer here in the hallway and… now, let me see what was that command. Oh, yes… Mikiboshi. Captain override. Four seven three eight nine nine two four. Aaron Stobulous. Allow launch of M-24. Immediately.”
    7. The computer chimes a response and relief washes over Barnabas’ face. “thank god. Alright boys, first up, swipe your card”
    8. Whomever swipes first
    9. Barnabas: “bloody hell. We don’t have seats for you yet either. Well, you’ll have to use ‘blanks’. It’ll hurt like hell, I bet, but there’s no doing otherwise.” He types some more and a chair with a computer console attach descends from the hatch above.
    10. “alright, on with you. (the seat drops down into the floor with it’s pilot strapped to it) Next!
  4. The command seat drops through the floor and you are launched down a tube lit only in a dull red glow. Neural impulses begin firing from your nanomachines and a series of strange options you’re completely unfamiliar with begin flittering across your vision and on the computer attached to your chair.
  5. You drop from another ceiling into a massive hangar, and are certain you’re about to plummet to your death when a pair of robotic arms launches from behind you and grabs the chair. You stop mid air and sit in place, looking out over the hanger. Directly in front of you is the launch tunnel. Above and to the right of that you see a member of the launch crew staring at you, a puzzled look on his face. You look around and see several other crew, stopping what they were doing and looking up at you as well. Someone higher up, you think maybe a petty officer shouts up. “What the hell’s going on? why isn’t anything happening?” to your left another one of your fellow pilots drops from the ceiling as well, and the same happens to him.
  6. “Sharky, I think they haven’t chosen a load-out.”
  7. “oh sonofabitch, a bunch of noobs? FORCE OVERRIDE, DEFAULT LOAD-OUT”
  8. The arms holding your command count pull you up, and another set of arms thrusts a chassis below you. A shell of a cockpit forms around you, and you hear the sound of loud pneumatic impact wrenches linking the cockpit to the chassis. Some more arms come in, and your MS now has a pair of arms, a gauss rifle in one hand. A knife gets inserted under the wrist of your left arm. You hear more sounds below as the legs of your MS get attached, more high pitched thundering of pneumatic wrenches, and armor is locked into place. A series of dots lights up red in the upper left corner of your view. A few begin flickering green, though you’re not sure why.
  9. The captain’s voice can be heard over a loud speaker in the hanger: I say, you all there. Yes, since you’ve not gone through this before, I believe I’ve got to do another one of these override things here, so.. let me get my glasses here… right.. so.. Mikiboshi. Captain override. Four seven three eight nine nine two four. Aaron Stobulous. Flight clearance immediately. NO DELAY.” Before he finishes his sentence you are hurtling down the launch tunnel.
Combat
1. The PC who got the field manual can roll some sort of check here. If they succeed, they will have one setback die for every MS related skill check. Otherwise, 2 setback dice.
2. Lieut Andersen: alright guys, I’m lighting up the targets right now. They’re TINY, and fast as a sonofabitch, so watch out. Comms is still trying to get a hold of them, but no response.
  1. Four small craft light up red on their consoles
3. Cmdr: gentlemen, we’re still not sure of their intent, but move out and give us a good buffer from them. We’re going to begin backing away slowly. If any of them break past your containment zone, swat them down. You have your orders.
4. As the targets move closer, the PCs can see they’re roughly shaped like a motorcycle gas tank, with what appears to be a weapon or gun port of some type at the front.
5. Initiative
  1. After the first one is destroyed, they commander calls to the PCs and asks them to try to capture one if at all possible.
6. After the fight, some drama with one hurtling towards the ship still, possibly going to impact with it. This will be the opportunity for someone to play heroics and grab it to retrieve one for the commander
7. When they re-enter the ship, someone is there with a large tarp to put it in.
8. The enemy can best be described as a sleek, silver-hulled vessel rougly 6 feet long and 2 wide. There are no distinctive markings on it or any noticeable ways in. it’s wrapped up in the tarp and moved to the hold until they can take a closer look at it.

Game Files

Musical Inspiration
Song:	Starlight
Artist:	Muse
Album:	Black Holes and Revelations
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