Your next contract comes from your old friend Bazuhl of the Loghos Corportation . Loghos has recently acquired Shrawley-Gosha Industries. Unfortunately, SGI has left them with a hot potato.
(Bazuhl once sent your team to the pleasure planet of Andarta. Loghos runs Botany Bay World, using the lizard-person virus.)
Loghos Corportation expects the laser team accepting its contract to sign an ironclad non-disclosure agreement, with financial penalties ten times greater than the value of the contract in case of violation. They must sign before reading the rest of the briefing pack. This does not obligate them to accept the mission.
Loghos is offering a generous bonus on top of a Standard payout. Discretion and ability to solve extremely dangerous cases have made Bazuhl believe they Lasers are the right people for the job.
You get the idea that this is quite important to Loghos and you may be able to bargain for other compensation as well.
Ovy (Law) checks out the NDA. "Like any agreement in the lawless Bleed, this provision is essentially unenforceable."
Dr. Merick (Forensic Accounting) opens his hands. "But if word gets out that our crew has broken it, our reputation among prospective clients will take a serious hit."
Dr. Merick "Better to have knowledge and choose not to use it then to live in ignorance. We sign the NDA."
"Very good." Bazuhl nods his head. "In fact we are especially pleased to know a man of your talents, Dr. Merick."
The NDA signed and transmitted, Bazuhl's hunches forward, looking right at you.
The briefing pack reveals the following:
36 days ago, Charles Shrawley, a board member of SGI in perpetuity, launched a survey mission,to the third moon of the planet Lampeto, in search of readily harvested tungsten deposits.
Other personnel, all recruited by Shrawley himself, were:
-- Alva Brin, crew services
-- Dorrie Haslett, xenoanthropologist / hailer.
-- Brice Iler, epidemiologist.
-- Krd-Drk, xenobiologist.
-- Dion Kwong, logistics
-- Juana Jaxon, imaging technician
-- Sunny Roane, mining engineer / wrench.
-- Osh Stricker, security / stratco.
-- Vangel Snow, security / gunner
-- Meris Vale, medic.
DONE Combine History (1 point spend) revealed more information about Meris Vale. (Altairis)
-- Vatak, geologist / pilot.
Twenty days ago, its ship, the Francis Crick, a Sherlock-class spacecraft modified with extra crew accommodations, sent an auto-ping through the interstellar communication relay network. Due to the degraded state of the network, it took five days to reach Shrawley-Gosha head office on Friedman’s World. The automatically generated message indicates that the ship is in orbit around Tartarus, a “bad planet” given ULC status by the Combine.
The crew is to go to Tartarus, examine the Francis Crick and proceed to execute the following mission objectives, in order of importance:
1. effect a rescue of any surviving Shrawley-Gosha personnel aboard the ship or on the planet.
2. locate and take a DNA sample from the remains of any and all non-surviving members of the survey team. A crew manifest with DNA profiles will be supplied.
3. gather sufficient information to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the presumed demise of the survey team.
You think about this, tapping data slates and sharing information while you consider.
Altairis Debin (Astronomy): "Lampeto is roughly the same distance from Friedman’s World as Tartarus. One of its moons does fit the criteria for likely tungsten deposits."
Dr. Merick (Bio Signatures & Zoology): "Tartarus owes its HLC designation to the hyper-adaptive DNA of its microbes and higher organisms. Many of its bioforms shift through various life-cycles, with widely diverse morphologies. Fascinating place."
DONE (Bio Signatures: or Zoology: 1-point spend) For further information on the biology of Tartarus. (Altairis, Dr. Merick, Sundancer)
Sundancer (Cybe Culture): "Shrawley became a cybe six years ago and is considered a hero of the evolver faction."
Dr. Merick (Forensic Accounting): "Charles Shrawley founded the Shrawley Corporation during the war, when the Combine was suddenly forced to rely on private enterprise to supply materiel and services for its war effort. Afterwards it merged with Gosha Industries, a research firm established by former Combine munitions researchers. The merged company has since diversified into a major supplier of ships, weapons, vehicles, and consultancy services to military organizations throughout the Bleed. Their slogan: Help Us Prevent Your Next War. They have just been acquired by Loghos Corporation."
Ovy (Reassurance used to get Bazuhl to admit): "Shrawley's expedition to Tartarus was hidden from us during the negotiations."
?? Forensic Accounting: (1-point spend) for more of Shrawley's history with SGI. (Dr. Merick)
Dr. Merick (Virology): "In recent years Shrawley has endowed a number of virological research facilities."
?? (Virology: 1-point spend) for more information on the research facilities Shrawley supported. (Dr. Merick, Ovy, Sundancer)
Altairis Debin (Xenoculture): "Nothing in the records suggests that Tartarus is inhabited by a sentient people. Nor, for that matter, is any other ULC planet, presumably because their life-forms are too hostile to support creatures with the precursor traits required for the evolution of intelligence as we know it."
The briefing pack indicates that the situation on Tartarus may be time-sensitive, but does not explicitly discourage the contractors from performing additional legwork before journeying there.
Spends
Altairis digs deeper, calls up some contacts, and uses some classified reference databases.
(Combine History 1 point spend) Meris Vale won a Combine Meritorious Service medal for her role in turning back a Klorn invasion. Klorn are a Class-K lifeform once thought to be native to the Tavak Homeworld, but have been found scattered about known space. Klorn cycle through a series of life stages, becoming more dangerous every time you kill them.
It is the duty of every Laser, or indeed any citizen of the Combine or Bleed, to destroy all Class-K entities on sight.
(Bio Signatures 1 point spend) Lifeforms on Tartarus hybridize with one another so rapidly that the entire notion of a stable taxonomy becomes moot. In some sense, every living thing on Tartarus might be considered to be a member of the same infinitely diverse species.
Sundancer (Virology 1 point spend) Shrawley endowed a number of virological research facilities. Many of these take their ideological cues from the evolver faction of cybes. By far, most of the megacredits went to a facility known as Rescendence.
Altairis (Astronomy) & Dr. Merick (Geology) know about "Bad" ULC planets: