The Ace of Spades Campaign - Raid on Sterling part 16

Timo the Whistle-blower

"I was assigned to Finn's Mercenary Company two months ago," Timo Olmstead began in a calm and assured voice. "I am an employee of Hoag-Warner GmbH. Hoag-Warner hired Finn's Company to run the colonists off their land. I don't know why. I wasn't privy to that information. I was assigned to the mercenaries as a watchdog and to operate the sophisticated FTL communications equipment. I have no idea of the content of the messages, since they were all in code. I simply received the messages and sent an acknowledgement signal. On a couple of occasions I sent a message from Captain Finn to a company official named Joachim Alvarez. Those messages were also coded. Finn must have a codebook or a translator program keyed to a particular cipher, because he never asked me for help in deciphering the codes."
"That's very interesting," Kimberley said thoughtfully. "How do you feel about testifying against Finn?"
"Gladly!" the young technician agreed unhesitatingly. "I did not sign on to be party to kidnapping and murder. That's not the kind of person I am. I am happy to make whatever amends are necessary."
"You're a good man, Timo," Kimberley said, smiling warmly at him. "Thank you."
"You little shit!" Erik Finn snarled with unbridled fury. "I'll..."
"You'll do nothing whatsoever," Katja said menacingly as she jabbed the barrel of her Starbird Disruptor Rifle in his right cheek. "Now shut the fuck up!"

"Timo, do you have copies of the messages Finn sent and received?" Julia asked. As a former detective she had a different outlook on matters to the rest of the crew. Gathering clues came naturally to her.
"Absolutely," Timo replied. "They're all saved on the computer here."
"Let's see what you've got," Julia requested amiably.
"What are you thinking, Julia?" Kimberley asked, her curiosity now piqued.
"If we send these files to Sharuna," the bounty hunter smiled knowingly, "I bet she could crack them."
"Oh, I just bet she could," Kimberley responded with a wink and a grin to Julia. "Timo, I'm going to open a channel to The Ace of Spades, okay?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Kimberley calling The Ace of Spades. Come in."

"Hi, Kimberley," Storm answered cheerily. She was clearly happy to hear from her captain. Whilst Sharuna and Judith had plenty to occupy themselves onboard, she was bored. "How are things going?"
"Very well indeed, Storm. I'm hoping we'll be back with you very soon. Can you put Sharuna on, please?"
"Sure can. She's with me here on the bridge. Sharuna, Kimberley wants a word."
"Hi there, Kimberley. Nice to hear from you."
"Hi, Sharuna. Listen, I have a little job for you to do. It should be right up your street."
"Ooh, cool! What is it?"
"I'm going to send you some coded files. I want you to crack them for me, please."
"Rock on!"
A mere five minutes later, Sharuna got back to Kimberley.
"That wasn't too hard, Kimberley," the young hacker said smiling from ear to ear. "I was hoping for more of a challenge."
"Attagirl, Sharuna! Tell me what you've got."
"Finn used the password "Warner" for these files. I've got a list of the hostages his men kidnapped, brief dossiers on the council members of the Sterling Agricultural Company and rather worryingly, our crew. That's naughty! Oh, and an interesting file that was code-named "CHMNLUWNCIHM". What it is, is a set of instructions directing Captain Finn to run the colonists off their land in no more than two months. The instructions say that the mercenaries may use any means necessary short of nuclear weapons to carry out their assignment. The orders are signed by a man named Joachim Alvarez."
"Brilliant work, Sharuna! You hit the jackpot for us." Kimberley was delighted. "With this evidence we should be able to prosecute Hoag-Warner."

Aftermath

A few hours later, the crew of The Ace of Spades gathered on the small landing strip of the Sterling Agricultural Colony as they prepared to take their shuttle back to the mother ship. Alfred Sterling, his wife Radula and son Mearc, along with Sheas Danelish and Royce Tavahi were present to see them off.

"Miss Wells, once again, I can't thank you enough for all you have done for our colony," Alfred said with sincere gratitude. "You have done us a great service, my dear. Thank you so much."
"I don't like bullies, Mr. Sterling, and so I was more than happy to lend a hand," Kimberley replied. "I am so glad it all worked out for you. So what happens next?"
"With the coded transmissions you gave us, the comm tech witness and your statements, I'm going to the Interstellar Trade Commission to file charges against Hoag-Warner. I strongly believe we have an excellent chance of winning."

"I wish you well, sir," Kimberley smiled affectionately at the old man. "I hope you take them to the cleaners and sue the bastards for every credit you can. Now if it's okay with you, I'd like to get back to The Ace of Spades."
The two parties hugged, kissed and made their goodbyes. Then Kimberley and her crew boarded the shuttle The Jack of Spades and returned to Downport. Mission accomplished.

With them was one passenger - Captain Erik Finn. He was placed in a cell onboard The Ace of Spades, to be dropped off at the nearest Interstellar Police Agency station, where he would face charges of murder and kidnapping. He would later be found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison a few years later, a broken man. He had lost a total of 28 men (29 if you included Timo Olmstead) of his 50 man company in this costly debacle. His company was disbanded and the survivors found jobs elsewhere.
The multi-stellar corporation of Hoag-Warner GmbH hired the best lawyers in the galaxy, whose defence rested on the claim that Joachim Alvarez was working on his own with no authority from the company's board of directors. The arguments from both sides were dazzling and convincing. Timo Olmstead gave his damning testimony, citing his experience as a Hoag-Warner communications officer and his knowledge that one man could not have garnered the funds needed for the transmissions without company help or approval. The opposing lawyers countered by calling Alvarez himself to the stand, hoping that he would affirm that he deceived the company accountants and misappropriated funds that were earmarked for peaceful projects.
Unfortunately for them, Alvarez snapped on the stand and he spilled the entire story about the plan, fingering his superiors. He broke down completely and apologised to Alfred Sterling for aiding in this desperate, greedy scheme. He offered to pay his price, whatever it was. The judge found for the Sterling Agricultural Company and granted them a one hundred million credits award. Joachim Alvarez and Timo Olmstead had to perform 500 hours of community service. The Hoag-Warner executives loosened their collars slightly, but otherwise showed no response to the decision. However, the part played by the crew of The Ace of Spades was duly noted by the board and filed away for future reference. When the time was right, there would be a reckoning.
Alfred Sterling passed the colony leadership to his son, Mearc, (with no protest from James Akira and his abashed council opposition) and retired early, a very wealthy man.
As for Kimberley and her crew, they had been offered as payment for helping out the colonists, two shares each of the colony's profits for the next five years, payable once a year. Originally, the fee was to have been for 30,000 credits per person per year but with the colony's windfall and ensuing boom in trade, that was increased to 50,000 credits per person per year. It turned out to be a tidy profit for all of them.

Conclusion
This has been, without doubt, the best scenario I have ever ran, and I have been games mastering since the late 1970's. N.E.W. has proven to be a superb sci-fi role-playing game and with this scenario I really gave the rules a good try out. Many thanks to Russ Morrissey for creating the perfect RPG! Credit should also go to Thomas S. Gressman who wrote this scenario for GURPS Space. For me, it was the ideal scenario to showcase the N.E.W. rules as it had a bit of everything - mystery, intrigue, starship combat, a bar-room brawl, a hostage rescue and it culminated in a huge battle which really stretched the ground combat rules to the limit. There was a heck of a lot of work that went into producing this narrative for my blog but I enjoyed every second of it. I did make a few changes to the scenario as written, but they were mainly for thematic reasons that helped enhance the story. I also deliberately kept the rules to a minimum and instead concentrated on the story, which I firmly believe was the right decision. The story was far more important than the dice rolls and skill checks.

As a final note, the crew earned the following experience points for completing this mission. Everyone earned 6XP, which is equal to their grades, because this was considered a Medium Difficulty mission. All of the human characters (i.e. everyone except Celeste and Danica) earned an extra 6XP for having the Explorer exploit, which grants them XP equal to their grade every time they travel to a star-system that is new to them. Finally, for the planning and execution of the hostage rescue mission I awarded Celeste, Danica, Julia and Katja a further 6XP each. I decided that no one had completed a milestone in this mission, so no points were awarded for that. So, Celeste, Danica, Gwendoline, Jeanette, Judith, Kimberley, Kyran, Lynda, Rebecca, Sharuna and Storm earned 12XP each and Julia and Katja earned 18XP each. Note that I am playing my campaign using the cinematic rules so I'm using the Fast Progression advancement rates for awarding XP.  No one spent their XP.

Until next time (and yes, there definitely will be a next time) thanks for reading and if you have any comments you'd like to make or questions you want answering, please don't hesitate to do so.

Bryan Scott aka Vampifan.