Xmission Date: 04/12/5720
Xmission Orig: CEF HQ Aquitaine
Auth. Code : Lima Zero Zero Blue One
EYES ONLY EYES ONLY EYES ONLY
> To :
Commanding Officer,
CEF Contact & Liason Team
Mirabilis
> From :
Colonel Kristian Hauptmann
CO, Contact & Liason Regiment
Commonwealth Expeditionary Force
Refer your xmission 25/11/5720. We concur that incoming craft is most likely sub-light colony ship launched from Terra in mid 21st Century.
The colonists carry with them tools, materiel and knowledge necessary for TL 8 to 10 industrial production. In Mirabilis' current context, this is of extreme importance. The nation that allies with the colonists will, in a short space of time, dominate the planet.
Given your current mission on Mirabilis, it is vital to Commonwealth interests that the colonists ally with the Republic of Varangia. Your orders are to do everything possible to create such an alliance.
Note that current combat and engagement restrictions still apply.
Xmission ends...
The characters are members of the Near Bootes Commonwealth Expeditionary Force, part of a Contact and Liason team on Mirabilis. Mirabilis is like many habitable worlds after the Virus struck - struggling to maintain a TL 4 economy, and fragmented into a number of nation-states.
Your C&L team has estsablished relations with the Republic of Varangia, a (relatively) progressive and democratic nation on Mirabilis' eastern land mass. Varangia is the nation most likely to countenance Mirabilis' eventual incorporation into the Commonwealth. Your team's ultimate goal is to bring Varangia into a position of political dominance on the planet.
Two months ago, Varangian astronbomers discovered an unknown object on a hyperbolic course towards the inner system. The object was decelerating. Despite the absence of much historical data, Varangian researchers were able to identify the craft as a Terran colony ship, launched before Terrans discovered the jump drive in AD 2089.
Unfortunately for Varangia, unfriendly agents have passed this information on to their governments. Now, the race is on strike up an alliance. Rival governments will stop at nothing to win this race - the stakes are high.
The ship in question is the UNCS "New South Wales", launched in AD 2047 by the United Nations Repatriation and Relocation Agency. The ship is home to twenty thousand colonists in low berths. Crew is rotated amongst the colonists.
The colonists were fleeing one of the most turbulent periods of Terran history. Many are political dissadents and malcontents escaping repressive regimes, others are refugees from war zones. At any rate, they are a mixed bunch, and are likely to be as fragmented as the people of Mirabilis.
Between the Mirabilans and the colonists, the stage is set for double-dealing, betrayal and intrigue on a grand scale. When so much is at stake, the potential for a healthy dose of violence can't be ignored either.
The Near Bootes Commonwealth is my own campaign setting, for the Reformation Coalition or another pocket empire, use any habitable world near the empire's borders. For added effect, have a rival empire doing the same thing for one of Varangia's rivals.