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BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the galaxy as fast as they could be built. While many see this as a boon to humanity, others take a different approach to the situation, and take the opportunity to hide themselves away.....
It is now MY 2493.
PREMISE
The holo-link came to life and, as Commander Koth had expected, the signal was scrambled. “Please state your name and organization for security verification” a woman’s disembodied voice reached out from the scrambled circuit.
“Commander Heinreich Koth, Chief Executive Officer, 5302nd Composite Unit”. The 5302nd - that was the official, and legitimate, name of the organization Koth belonged to. However most people in the business knew it by another name, “Merrill’s Mercenaries”. Such as Koth’s contact here.
“Authorization verified”, the voice responded, and the holo-link solidified into a woman seated behind an ornately carved desk. ”Greetings, Commander”, the woman offered, “I am Alyssandra Sim, Contracts Negotiator for Inter Realms, Incorporated”.
Commander Koth suppressed a slight grimace. As he had expected, his “customer” was Inter Realms, which in fact was a Morganite shell company that specialized in "less than legitimate" dealings. Worse, the woman’s last name “Sim” indicated Koth was speaking to a simulacrum, and not even a real person: whoever was on the other side of the holo-link was going to great lengths to cover their tracks regarding this particular job. Koth set aside the information and pressed on, “Good day, Ms. Sim. You have contacted my organization concerning a job that aligned with my companies, um, specialties.”
The simulacrums lips raised in a half suppressed smile, “yes, we seem to have encountered a situation that has eluded our abilities to date. Essentially we would like this situation resolved, and the sooner the better”.
Commander Koth held up a single sheaf of paper which was only half covered in text, “then if your hoping for a quick resolution to the situation, can you be a little more specific than what you have offered so far?”
Again the simulacrum suppressed a half-smile, “unfortunately no. Essentially we can tell you that there is a former Progenitor world that is now called Lilith which is inhabited by 6 Splinter Factions, of which none can be found in the Data Links.”
“Yes, Lilith”, Commander Koth responded, “I couldn’t find a reference to this planet in the Data Links, either. Is this intentional?”
“We don’t know” the simulacrum responded, then waited patiently for Koth’s next question.
“The report also states that the inhabitants all seem to possess some sort of enhanced psi capability”.
“Yes, regardless of their Splinter Faction background, they all seem to sense things in an enhanced manner”.
Commander Koth considered this, then replied, “so why not send in an Empath Team instead of us?”
“It doesn’t work. For some reason the inhabitants “know” that your not one of them”.
Koth digested this, as well as what had been intimated, which was that Inter Realms had already attempted contact once, and failed. Koth tried a different tack, “perhaps Lerclerc’s Legion would be a good candidate for this assignment, instead?”
“The Free Foreign Legion declined to discuss the contract we offered them”.
Now it was Koth’s turn to suppress a smile. Leclerc’s Free Foreign Legion recruited heavily from those peoples who had felt the oppressive yolk of Hive domination, and as such espoused “freedom” and “democracy”, neither of which seemed to be a concern in regards to the Lilith “situation”. Merrill’s Mercenaries on the other hand were primarily comprised of former Spartans, Angels, and Pirates, and were more inclined to be swayed by the call of a good payday than anything else. Koth continued, “would we have to be concerned about the United Nations interjecting themselves into this situation?”
The simulacrum responded, “the Peace Keepers will not be a factor in this situation”. It was a statement made to be taken at face value.
Koth paused and considered this: either someone was paying the PKs to look the other way concerning Lilith, or else the PKs were the actual customer, and they were merely employing “other means” to bring another planet under the Peace Keeper umbrella. Either way, it didn’t really matter to Koth, “and any extra monies that we come into possession of, we will then be able to keep at the end of the contract?”
“We will have the contract re-drawn accordingly”, the simulacrum assured, then “so, do we have a deal?”
“I think I have just the Commander for this assignment”, Koth agreed.
“Excellent!" the simulacrum responded. "And remember, the chief objective of this mission is to convince these renegade Factions to enter into trade agreements with Morgan Enterprises”, the simulacrum paused, then added emphasis to her final words, “by whatever means necessary”.
The holo-link went dead, and Commander Koth was left alone in the empty conference room. Koth allowed himself to relax, leaning back in his chair and smiling bemusedly as he thought about the assignment: essentially he was going to send a troop of Merrill’s Mercenaries to a planet that didn’t exist, to make contact with Factions that didn’t want to be found, all for a customer that wouldn’t even show their face! "Yup", Commander Koth said out loud, "just another typical assignment for Merrill’s Mercenaries!"
Objective
No formal mention or description of Lilith has been recovered from the Progenitor colonization archives. The only reference to this planet came via the Caretaker Science Institute which labeled this planet as a “Science Research Station”. From what was decyphered from fragmentary records the Progenitors established an archeological dig on this planet to investigate artifacts from a highly sophisticated precussor race that had performed extensive terraforming to the planet's surface, possibly for the purpose of setting up unique climates and habitation zones for the species that lived on the planet at that time. No other records have been recovered regarding this planet.
Planet Specifications
Planet: unknown
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: unknown
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable
Your mission is to land on the planet Lilith, ascertain the status of the native population, and then proceed to convince the local population by whatever means necessary to re-join mainstream society.
Good Luck Commander!
Directions:
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "Lilith", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "Lilith" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Spartan Splinter Faction.
3) To ensure everything is working right hit F1 and select "Faction Profiles".
4) While your in the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types as well, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the galaxy as fast as they could be built. While many see this as a boon to humanity, others take a different approach to the situation, and take the opportunity to hide themselves away.....
It is now MY 2493.
PREMISE
The holo-link came to life and, as Commander Koth had expected, the signal was scrambled. “Please state your name and organization for security verification” a woman’s disembodied voice reached out from the scrambled circuit.
“Commander Heinreich Koth, Chief Executive Officer, 5302nd Composite Unit”. The 5302nd - that was the official, and legitimate, name of the organization Koth belonged to. However most people in the business knew it by another name, “Merrill’s Mercenaries”. Such as Koth’s contact here.
“Authorization verified”, the voice responded, and the holo-link solidified into a woman seated behind an ornately carved desk. ”Greetings, Commander”, the woman offered, “I am Alyssandra Sim, Contracts Negotiator for Inter Realms, Incorporated”.
Commander Koth suppressed a slight grimace. As he had expected, his “customer” was Inter Realms, which in fact was a Morganite shell company that specialized in "less than legitimate" dealings. Worse, the woman’s last name “Sim” indicated Koth was speaking to a simulacrum, and not even a real person: whoever was on the other side of the holo-link was going to great lengths to cover their tracks regarding this particular job. Koth set aside the information and pressed on, “Good day, Ms. Sim. You have contacted my organization concerning a job that aligned with my companies, um, specialties.”
The simulacrums lips raised in a half suppressed smile, “yes, we seem to have encountered a situation that has eluded our abilities to date. Essentially we would like this situation resolved, and the sooner the better”.
Commander Koth held up a single sheaf of paper which was only half covered in text, “then if your hoping for a quick resolution to the situation, can you be a little more specific than what you have offered so far?”
Again the simulacrum suppressed a half-smile, “unfortunately no. Essentially we can tell you that there is a former Progenitor world that is now called Lilith which is inhabited by 6 Splinter Factions, of which none can be found in the Data Links.”
“Yes, Lilith”, Commander Koth responded, “I couldn’t find a reference to this planet in the Data Links, either. Is this intentional?”
“We don’t know” the simulacrum responded, then waited patiently for Koth’s next question.
“The report also states that the inhabitants all seem to possess some sort of enhanced psi capability”.
“Yes, regardless of their Splinter Faction background, they all seem to sense things in an enhanced manner”.
Commander Koth considered this, then replied, “so why not send in an Empath Team instead of us?”
“It doesn’t work. For some reason the inhabitants “know” that your not one of them”.
Koth digested this, as well as what had been intimated, which was that Inter Realms had already attempted contact once, and failed. Koth tried a different tack, “perhaps Lerclerc’s Legion would be a good candidate for this assignment, instead?”
“The Free Foreign Legion declined to discuss the contract we offered them”.
Now it was Koth’s turn to suppress a smile. Leclerc’s Free Foreign Legion recruited heavily from those peoples who had felt the oppressive yolk of Hive domination, and as such espoused “freedom” and “democracy”, neither of which seemed to be a concern in regards to the Lilith “situation”. Merrill’s Mercenaries on the other hand were primarily comprised of former Spartans, Angels, and Pirates, and were more inclined to be swayed by the call of a good payday than anything else. Koth continued, “would we have to be concerned about the United Nations interjecting themselves into this situation?”
The simulacrum responded, “the Peace Keepers will not be a factor in this situation”. It was a statement made to be taken at face value.
Koth paused and considered this: either someone was paying the PKs to look the other way concerning Lilith, or else the PKs were the actual customer, and they were merely employing “other means” to bring another planet under the Peace Keeper umbrella. Either way, it didn’t really matter to Koth, “and any extra monies that we come into possession of, we will then be able to keep at the end of the contract?”
“We will have the contract re-drawn accordingly”, the simulacrum assured, then “so, do we have a deal?”
“I think I have just the Commander for this assignment”, Koth agreed.
“Excellent!" the simulacrum responded. "And remember, the chief objective of this mission is to convince these renegade Factions to enter into trade agreements with Morgan Enterprises”, the simulacrum paused, then added emphasis to her final words, “by whatever means necessary”.
The holo-link went dead, and Commander Koth was left alone in the empty conference room. Koth allowed himself to relax, leaning back in his chair and smiling bemusedly as he thought about the assignment: essentially he was going to send a troop of Merrill’s Mercenaries to a planet that didn’t exist, to make contact with Factions that didn’t want to be found, all for a customer that wouldn’t even show their face! "Yup", Commander Koth said out loud, "just another typical assignment for Merrill’s Mercenaries!"
Objective
No formal mention or description of Lilith has been recovered from the Progenitor colonization archives. The only reference to this planet came via the Caretaker Science Institute which labeled this planet as a “Science Research Station”. From what was decyphered from fragmentary records the Progenitors established an archeological dig on this planet to investigate artifacts from a highly sophisticated precussor race that had performed extensive terraforming to the planet's surface, possibly for the purpose of setting up unique climates and habitation zones for the species that lived on the planet at that time. No other records have been recovered regarding this planet.
Planet Specifications
Planet: unknown
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: unknown
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable
Your mission is to land on the planet Lilith, ascertain the status of the native population, and then proceed to convince the local population by whatever means necessary to re-join mainstream society.
Good Luck Commander!
Directions:
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "Lilith", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "Lilith" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Spartan Splinter Faction.
3) To ensure everything is working right hit F1 and select "Faction Profiles".
4) While your in the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types as well, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
I knew it was one or the other; just got it backwards. It takes me a while to get these things played, but I'll be sure to post as soon as I encounter anything relevant or unusually interesting.
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