The Nuln Chronicle

TRAVELLER

Sit Rep after January 31 2009 Gaming Session 

• Pilot  / Fixer                       Dom
• Sensors / Astrogation     Andy
• Armourer / Security         Ben
• Trader / Engineer            Jon V
• Diplomat/ Captain          Jamie
• Mechanic / Security        Jon W

 The party now into its third imperial month of travelling they have arrived at the space station of Agidda and found that they had been set up by Commander Le Strange. He had wanted patsies to take the heat off him and his nefarious business enterprise, as he was aware of imperial investigations. Indeed he wanted the pilot off planet as he had a suspicion that he was not the tramp pilot he portrayed. 

The party restocked and took on a mechanic with a series of highly plausible lies to entice him aboard. They then investigated the locked cargo pod that had baffled them up to that point. As they jumped to the next destination with papers that would be unquestioned anywhere but the Headquarters of Imperial Intelligence they felt safe in approaching the Imperial Naval Depot at Lagash. That was until they found that what they carried in the closed cargo pod was seven Ultra Secret Naval battle tanks. 35 feet tall with enough weaponry to bring a battle to a ceasefire these behemoths were only a whisper to top brass and as for anyone below the rank of admiral forget it.

 

Imperial Dragoon Missile Warrior WKD1

 

 

It was at this point the party knew they were in deep trouble they had never seen hardware of this magnitude. The ex servicemen were even more amazed as they had never even heard rumours of such fearsome weapons existing.  They all knew that normal security could not stop rumours of military hardware getting out. For the navy to have kept knowledge of these battle giants out of circulation had to have taken top-level security. Security that was only possible for Imperial Intelligence. The mechanic had worked in the lower levels of imperial intelligence and contacted his old boss to ask him if he knew about the cargo. To his surprise his boss was as much in the dark as he was. It was more surprising when, on arriving at the next planet, they were met by a young woman called Miss Harker with Credentials that made it impossible to ignore her. 

She asked to see, and was shown, the cargo that had caused so much consternation. She knew she had the party as soon as they complied. She signalled to her team to prepare the necessary paperwork and commit to the plan worked out so long in advance. It had taken her nearly two years to get an agent into the upper echelons of the gang led by Admiral Bremerton, aka Commander Le Strange. She had worked patiently waiting for him to make a mistake and now he had she was going to reel in her catch. “Minnows” she thought as she gave them their orders for the return of the cargo. 

The party headed to the Imperial Naval Depot at Legash where they managed to steal , stock and cargo a jump 2 capable ship make a small fortune in selling illegal cargo from their old ship. And get caught by Miss Harker doing so. Interestingly she added it to their criminal record, which she conveniently “lost”. She has informed them that should the party make a mess of things it will just as easily be found. Needless to say this piece of information scared them even more than the young woman’s credentials. 

So the Ships complement stands at :

• Pilot
• Astrogator
• Trader / Engineer
• Diplomat
• Mechanic
• Gunner / Security 
• And a Medic called Stevie 

The Medic was provided by Miss Harker and as such is not exactly what the party was expecting. Firstly she is gorgeous; she could pass as a top glamour model or TriVid actress. Secondly she is a failure despite an IQ of 270 she failed to pass her first career as an Imperial Assassin because of a tricky conscience. Thirdly it would be difficult to pick her up, not that the party tried to lift her, as she weighs around three quarters of a ton. And finally she is an android, a perfect human replica and self-aware. 

Stevie has to be lost she has become an embarrassment to the Imperial Navy who paid for her construction when she became self-aware and could not kill on “moral” grounds. She has no such morals about torture as long as the subject does not die. Trying to force Stevie to kill ends very badly for the person trying and for surrounding buildings as she does sublimate her rage by property destruction. As long as Stevie is treated with respect she is a charming young woman in her mid twenties. 

The party has also gained the use of a Mech Warrior Battle Drone. This came about when The Diplomat caused a strange reaction in Miss Harker. An analyst might say that he intrigued her by being more efficient and clever than the background she had on him would suggest. Truthfully it was a combination of things that drew her to him an element of loneliness brought about by her position. There is also an element of attraction caused by his latent alien-ness, which she is sensing. 

The party has now, after negotiation, secured a faster ship several legitimate cargos and a patron who scares the bejeezus out of them. They have a clean sheet and are starting to work as a team. All in all a remarkable achievement 

Where will the next journey take them?

Information (Out Of Game)

The Empire runs on different levels of bureaucracy and power. The emperor is titular head similar to the English queen but he has judicial power to create law.  His advisors are almost all from his family; there have been several notable exceptions including Count Duncan Black, Kyre Drazma for a time before she turned her back on the empire and became a pirate and Dr Simon Templar who also performed as the Emperor’s physician. Miss Harker is one of three people groomed by Duncan Black to take over the Imperial Intelligence Network. 

The Empire is a benign institution that functions well by allowing local political rule, local law levels and as long as citizens don’t complain too much antonymous power. Space is divided in to systems, sub sectors, sectors and empires (or large expanses ruled by the majority citizen type, Aslan Droyn Human etc)

        Sector Map. A sector is controlled by a duke who will reside at the sector capitol

 

   Sub Sector Map.

A subsector is a semi autonomous region of space controlled for the most part by a marquis each system will have a ruler or rulers based on the political set up – theocracy ruling body a religious group, a dictatorship by one person and so on.

Understanding this will help to assess how powerful Miss Harker is, she holds the title duchess she is not related to the emperor but has access to the upper echelons of the empire. In effect she controls the imperial intelligence service for the empire. She has access to data that is known only to the emperor and his advisors.

Imperial Intelligence has two distinct branches, political and military these are the faces that everyone knows about political looks after internal problems and military for external defence. Most of the populace knows that Imperial Intelligence monitors the empires borders and controls insurgencies within them.

What is not widely known is that Imperial intelligence has two further roles ultra secret and well hidden. The first is as the emperor’s judicial enforcers, they police the emperor and his advisors – they have the role of imperial security but they can stop with whatever measures they deem necessary even the emperor if they threaten the peace of the empire. This branch is known as the Praetorians after the roman emperors guard.

The second role they undertake is the backdoor diplomacy that allows the races of the galaxy to believe they are coexisting peacefully. This includes political assassination, concealed war and cleanup. Battle tech mech warriors are sent to sparsely inhabited or uninhabited planets to do battle with enemy (alien) battle tech mech the winner of these world chess games win the argument. This allows the populace to sleep safe and trade flowing freely, no blockades no tiresome and costly wars.

There are branches of Imperial Intelligence known only to the emperor and the head of Imperial Intelligence ultra black ops teams of mercenaries hired for single missions then retired.

The empire is benevolent and these retirements are not always of the permanent kind.

NB Imperial Intelligence recruits its most senior staff from people with a latent but undiscovered Psionic Talent. The reason is quite obvious when dealing with outsiders who regular use psionics to keep the top-level secrets hidden when meeting with top-level diplomats. (This is a house universal constant)