Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:47:00 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 09:01:10 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 6052
The current TNE campaign directly related to my first Classic Traveller campaign that began in 1979. That campaign happened during the last happy years of Third Imperium, when we traveled all across the charted space, in search of adventure, money and spare parts.
In those days we went from Vyborg to Guaran, from Kirur to Capital, from Ancient to Lair, and from Regina to Zhdant. In Zhdant the campaign was split into two, when some of the characters decided to travel into Aslan Hierate, while psionically sensitive characters decided to stay in and apply for Zhodani citizenship.
Those characters who stayed with the Zhodani took eventually part in the Fifth Frontier War. In the war they made several successful commando strikes against the Evil Imperium, and after the war the surviving characters joined a core expedition, and went into where no man has ever gone before.
This core expedition campaign is still going on. After GDW published TNE rulebook and FFS, the old characters and equipments were updated into the new system, and campaign continues as if nothing had happened.
Those characters who went into Aslan Hierate were revived after MegaTraveller was published. While core expedition campaign is quite nice, it becomes sometimes boring, and the rebellion gave many adventuring possibilities. The adventures of the old group continued in 1988, when the group of hardy traders traveled through Hierate back into their home in Vyborg/Solomani Rim, and from there they went into the Imperium. When the characters were in the middle of the Imperium, the heard the news that the emperor has just been murdered. When the players noticed that they are in the middle of a full-scale rebellion, they decided to exploit the situation and become gun-runners.
When the rebellion escalated into black war, the characters went into the relative safety of Spinward Marches. They were eventually employed by Deneb Navy, and they went back into the Imperium with Arrival Vengeance. After the long journey of Arrival Vengeance, the characters were assigned to their last epic mission, to get disintegrator parts from Depot.
During this Depot mission they hear that emperor's assassin Dulinor has been killed by computer-controlled harvester, and they also notice that there is something strange happening in the spaceport, where they were repairing their ship. After the first contact with the Virus, the characters fled back towards Solomani Rim, with their battered TJ frontier transporter, which had navy-modified transponder. The following journey was a hellish trip through war-torn Imperium, trying to move faster than the virus spread. Traveling had never been as difficult as during this journey, because the ship was badly damaged, and any repairs in a shipyard would take too long time. Additional frustrating thing was that nobody would believe the characters when they tried to warn people about the virus.
After many long adventures, the characters finally arrived into Vantage, where they had to repair their ship before the last jump into Vyborg. Just before their ship was ready, an X-boat jumped into Vantage, and transmitted coded Virus into Vantage's traffic control computer. Soon after that, the Vantage's grav-supported cities began to fall like rocks, and the characters had to hijack a transport shuttle from a falling city to get back to their ship. One of the oldest characters (generated in 1979) was killed during this shuttle-flight, when they had to pilot the shuttle manually into a malfunctioning docking bay in orbital station. After disabling the station's computer with their last nuclear warhead, the characters made their final jump into Vyborg system.
When the characters finally returned to Vyborg, they were able to present much evidence about Virus to local authorities. The characters had recorded some of the happenings in Vantage, had much material from their expeditions, and had a sample virus in a portable computer. The Vyborg Defense Forces set up space-based area jamming to prevent Virus transmission from reaching the habited planets, and was able to set up blockade using mothballed ships with isolated computers. The blockade eventually led into pitched battles with refugees, and later, with vampire ships.
The first years of blockade were quite difficult, but the efforts paid out, and Vyborg was spared. The threat of Virus caused some major changes into the global communications network, and a radically different computer architecture was created. As the blockade held, and the characters were finally home, they eventually grew old and died.
Their names can be found in footnotes of some history disks. Otherwise, they are forgotten.