Not all of the local worlds are content to be ruled and, in their opinion, exploited by the British Star Empire. Over the past decade a resistance movement has sprung up in the nebula. The "Planets Organized for Orion Freedom" (POOF) have assembled a disparate fleet of light military ships and converted freighters and scattered them in small pockets, hidden in the dusts of the nebula. The POOF spies watch carefully, and when the moment is right, a small flotilla is assembled to strike at the East Orion Company assets.
One such opportunity has arisen in the past few days. Alpha-Trapezius, one of the four bright stars that make up the Trapezium near the center of the nebula, is home to four young planets and a rich asteroid belt. HM Rich Endeavor, one of many Imperial mining stations in the nebula, works to extract heavy elements and water ice from this floating rubble field.
These mining stations are lightly guarded under normal circumstances. A small POOFter fleet has assembled to strike at the station, hoping to disable or destroy it. Unknown to them, The Honorable Sir Hugh Basstardt, Governor of the East Orion holdings and all around tyrant, is visiting the station on an inspection tour aboard his flagship, the Heavy Cruiser HMS Ego. The odds are a lot worse than the POOFters had expected to face, but the opportunity to do in the Governor is irresistable.
The players take turns to place the asteroids, one at a time, on the table until all have been positioned; the only limitation to this positioning is that no asteroid may be closer than 12" from any other asteroid, or any table edge. After all the asteroids are placed, the East Orion Company player locates the station, again at least 12" from any table edge or any asteroid.
The asteroid field is a chaotic place, and the movement of the asteroids that make it up is unpredicatable. For each asteroid, determine its movement direction randomly (either roll 1D12 and use a clock face, or use a Scatter die). Roll 1D12 to determine the velocity of each asteroid as well.
The East Orion Company player may now deploy his ships on the table, all ships being within 12" of the Rich Endeavor. All of the EOC ships start the game stationary (i.e.: velocity 0).
The POOFter attack force enters from the table edge furthest from the Station's position, on Turn 1, at a velocity of 10 for all ships.
All ships are represented by Bogey markers until scanned.
After orders have been written and before any missiles or ships have been moved, move each asteroid. If an asteroid hits a ship or missile during its move, the ship or missile is destroyed. Similarly, if a ship or missile moves into an asteroid during its move, the ship or missile is destroyed. The only exception to this is the Rich Endeavor, which is equipped with powerful magnetic repeller field (the generator for which is heavily shielded and invulnerable to damage or threshold checks) to keep it safe in this environment. Any asteroid moving into the station "bounces" off, departing in a new random direction.
If an asteroid leaves the table, roll another Scatter die (or D12 with a clock template). Find the point on the table edge that would allow an asteroid moving along the new vector to travel farthest while staying on the table. This is the entry point for the new asteroid. Determine its velocity by rolling a D12.
Data sheets for these ships and the Rich Endeavor are available here.
Data sheets for these ships are available here.
This scenario is based very much on the "Mining Station Con-Am 12" scenario in Full Thrust
Full Thrust and More Thrust are terms copyrighted by Ground Zero Games.
Ship data sheets created using Tim Jones' stencils for Microsoft Visio. These stencils are available from the Full Thrust Computer Core.
