Zahriel is a temperate world on the fringe of Federation space. If it had more land, it likely would have been a prosperous colony word. Unfortunately, it has only one significant landmass above the waves. On the seabed, however, it has sizable deposits of a material known as astryx. Astryx is vital for many pieces of modern technology, from starship engines to medical equipment.

A company called Orica Blue Mining owns the mineral rights to this world, and their mining ships crawl across the world-spanning ocean, seeking deposits of astryx. The work is dull and dangerous, but it pays better than anything else on the world.

The planet’s only settlement, Zahriel City, exists almost entirely to support the industrial activities related to astryx extraction and refinement. Tram lines allow safe access for the workers, and safe egress for boatmen on shore leave.

Recently, things have gotten somewhat worse on Zahriel. The armed forces on Zahriel have defected to a rival power known as the Dominion. A battle ensued, destroying the Government Center, killing the leaders of the planet’s civilian government, and wiping out the local planetary guard regiment.

This article assumes the party is part of the Federation military, or at least on their payroll, and presents three missions to complete, with this framework in mind.

The Zahriel Liberation Front

The coup forces, who call themselves the “Zahriel Liberation Front” are a mix of armed citizens and former Federation soldiers. The ZLF is aided by a few squads of Dominion troops, and a coven of evil space wizard acolytes led by Lord Phren.

Adventure Introduction

Your ship floats above the planet Zahriel. Below, you see dramatic cloudscapes over deep blue sea. You know the planet has a couple of landmasses, but none of them are visible from here.

This ship is a particularly ugly beast. Its central section is a heavy lifter, little more than a cockpit, some fuel tanks, and some enormous engines. Attached to its underside is a 74-meter-long ship, built for water. Fresh paint on its side declares it to be the ORICA WHISTLER, but that name, along with the rest of the ship, is covered by a cocoon of metal.

Your radio crackles and the pilot calls “Five minutes until descent.” You all check your restraints, down in the hold of the Whistler. Some of you stare at the monitor on the wall, watching the image of the marble-like planet below. Others sit with their eyes closed, running through the mission plans again.

Five minutes later, you feel a force pressing against you as the ship’s trajectory begins to change. Reentry is rough. The ship shakes violently and you can feel the heat even through your EVA suit. You’ve heard veterans call this part of the journey “shake and bake.” That’s all you can think about until the heat dissipates and the vibrations slow.

Finally, you hear a loud boom, which you know is the sound of the heat shield being ejected and falling into the ocean below. Another loud bang and the ship starts to fall, quickly, before slamming into the surface of the ocean. Quickly, you work your way out of the restraints and out of your EVA suits and breathe in your first breaths of salty ocean air.

Welcome to Zahriel.

The Support Crew

Two weeks post-insertion are spent running the mining equipment and slowly traveling towards the main port. How does the party pass the time? Card games, getting to know the support crew?

Due to the nature of the mission, the Support Crew are all in roughly appropriate attire for mining work.

A week into the mining operation, the belt that pulls the material up from the seabed and into the processing equipment on the deck snaps, catching Espejo Ci’Tali on the thigh and slicing it open. It’s a nasty wound, gushing bright red blood onto the deck. Who’s first to act? Who can provide medical care? Who can fix the belt afterward? If the party can’t deal with the wound themselves, they could try calling another ship for aid, but that comes with a risk of discovery.

The rest of the mining part of the operation is fairly uneventful. You see other ships in the distance now and again; there’s no worries about claim jumping, since every ship is owned by Orica Blue Mining. Or they were, before the coup.

Docking

After another week, you’re within sight of Zahriel City. As you near it, you can hear radio traffic. Ships confirming passing directions, friendly banter between radio operations… and the Orica Whistler, confirming clearance to dock at an unloading station. The real Orica Whistler. What do you do?

There are a few options. Accuse the other Whistler of being an imposter, delay docking for a few days, or attempt to disembark on the far side of the island. Or, of course, whatever harebrained scheme the party suggests.

Disembarking on the far side of the island means hauling equipment over three kilometers of moss-covered volcanic rock. It’s dangerous and tedious, but it is doable. Once they reach the edge of the city, getting around becomes much easier.

At the port, there are a few armed guards, but they are unlikely to take interest in the party unless they start a fight or are openly carrying weapons. Workers in coveralls carrying bags of possessions for their shore leave are not that unusual here, and the ZLF is on low alert.

Shelter

The next order of business is shelter. The party has been given the location of an apartment building called the Salt Arms, whose proprietor, Kyel Ry’Ego, is willing to shelter them. Unfortunately, while the party was in transit, Kyel passed away. Now his daughter, Kedden Ry’Ego, runs the Salt Arms.

Their quarters at the Salt Arms are sufficient but not luxurious: A furnished two-bedroom apartment, with a living room and a kitchen. There’s enough space in the living room to lay out maps and computers, making it a decent spot for a command center.

Missions

Retaking Zahriel from the ZLF has three prerequisites: The destruction of their fuel supplies at the spaceport, neutralizing their anti-air defenses, and the assassination of their leader. Once these conditions are met, the Federation military can move in for what will hopefully be a short conflict with a minimum of casualties among the Federation or local civilians.

Each completed mission raises the alert level of the ZLF, making successive missions more difficult. Alert Level starts at 1, and goes up by one with each objective completed.

For every 10 minutes spent in an objective area, roll on the encounter chart below.

Roll 1d8
1: Patrol. The size of the patrol depends on how many missions have been completed so far. At Alert Level 1, patrols are just two soldiers armed with laser pistols. At Alert Level 2, the patrols are doubled and armed with laser rifles. At Alert Level 3, this increases further to five soldiers armed with laser rifles and one carrying a grenade launcher.
2: Off Duty. 1d3 soldiers drinking liquor. They’re not looking for security breaches, so they are unlikely to be hostile unless the party looks particularly out of place. They may even get the party to try to join them.
3: Give me some PT! 2d4 soldiers doing physical training, running to the cadence of a profane chant. They can be heard before they can see the party. The soldiers are wearing shiny, reflective belts for safety reasons, making them very easy to shoot.
4: Grooming Standards. A senior officer and a junior officer. The junior is carrying a clipboard and the senior is complaining about the mess and disorganization of the facility. “Soldiers out of uniform, weapons unsecured, coffee makers in the barracks,” and so on. They haven’t noticed the party… yet.
5: Loner. A single rifle, propped up against the wall. One soldier is just around the corner, taking a leak against a wall.
6: Finders Keepers, Heat Seekers. A stationary forklift with a pallet of man-portable anti-air missile launchers sitting on the forks. One of the wheels is obviously broken, immobilizing the forklift. The anti-air missile launchers are stored in green plastic cases and are very easy to grab off of the pallet.
7-8: Whole lot of nothing. You’ve got a few minutes of quiet, use them well.

Destroy Supplies

Zahriel’s spaceport is used for commercial and military craft. Shipments of processed astryx are hauled out of here and sold to traders in the wider galaxy, often in ships still bearing Orica markings.

The spaceport has a substantial stockpile of fuel, split between two tanks on opposite sides of the spaceport. At Alert Level 1 the fuel tanks are unguarded. At Alert Level 2, a pair of laser rifle-armed soldiers are positioned at each. At Alert Level 3, the tanks are guarded by four soldiers positioned behind sandbags, with orders to shoot first and ask questions later. Three soldiers carry laser rifles, and one has a grenade launcher.

The fightercraft at the spaceport pose a significant problem for any possible invasion. Most of the fleet is stored in a climate-controlled hangar, safe from the salty air. A sliding door allows aircraft to exit and enter, and can be opened wide enough for up to five planes to leave at once in an emergency. The roof of the hangar can be accessed via a ladder at the rear, or by using some poorly-placed supply pallets to reach an air conditioning vent that can be climbed.

The hangar is always busy, and even at Alert Level 1, it has four soldiers in front of the door at any given time. They are armed with pistols. At Alert Level 2, they are given rifles. At Alert Level 3, two soldiers with sniper rifles are put on the roof as well.

Destroying both fuel supplies or severely damaging the hangar counts as a success for this mission.

Sabotage Anti-Air

The grounds of the old Government Center have been converted into an anti-air battery, using imported weapons, emergency stockpiles, and so on. If this installation remains operational, any invasion will have to be as circuitous as the party’s insertion was.

The anti-air battery is a mix of physical projectiles and laser weapons. The laser weapons are on the north side of the grounds, and the projectiles are on the south. The ruins of the old Government Center are being used as a storage warehouse for the rounds and shells for the projectile weapons. Detonating this stockpile will destroy the projectile half of the battery.

On the north side, miniaturized power reactor sits in the center of the lawn, with a garden shed built around it. If the party gets a look at the anti-air battery from above and compares it to previous pictures, the shed should stick out as a new addition.

Destroying the power reactor, or any other clever plan the party comes up with, will destroy the laser battery. Once both the laser battery and the projectile battery are destroyed, the mission is complete.

At Alert Level 1, the anti-air battery is easy to infiltrate. There is no fence around the area, and patrols are rare. At Alert Level 2, chain-link fences have been hastily erected around the area and topped with barbed wire. At Alert Level 3, a second layer of chain-link fences have been erected, and wooden watchtowers stand at each corner of the property. Each watchtower has two soldiers armed with laser rifles.

Assassination

Finally, Grand General Riego needs to be assassinated. Without his charismatic leadership, the Zahriel Liberation Front will lose a lot of their civilian support, and the inevitable splintering will cause the military to be slower to react. That’s the theory, anyway.

Riego gives speeches throughout the city, but these are rarely announced more than an hour in advance. The relatively small size of Zahriel City allows people to quickly move to attend these speeches, but scoping a location out in advance is impossible for a would-be assassin. Unless, of course, you know the schedule in advance.

Included in the briefing is information on a contact: Jash Myk’kel, an officer in the Zahriel Liberation Front. He can be found at the Burnside Bar every Thursday night, around 7 PM.

Jash Myk’kel, double traitor. Jash is a wokro officer, part of the group that defected. After an encounter with Lord Phren, Jash has reconsidered his loyalties is now looking to sell out his superiors in return for amnesty and maybe a little prestige. For the meetup, Jash wears casual clothing.

As soon as Jash gives the location and time to the party, Alert Level d3 armed soldiers bust in through the front door of the bar, telling everybody to stay still and prepare to be searched. The soldiers are looking for Jash, specifically. The bar has a back exit through the kitchen.

According to Jash, there is an important speech announcing the future plans of the ZLF planned for the upcoming Sunday, set to take place in a building called the Spirit Center.

Given the current political situations in the real world I’m not going to elaborate on possible methods here. Just run with whatever the party comes up with.

Other Places of Note

The Zenith Gem. The Zenith Gem was a small but luxurious hotel in the business district of Zahriel, which primarily served Federation officials and high-level Orica Blue Mining staff. Now, it is the headquarters of the Zahriel Liberation Front. It is heavily defended on the surface, but an underground tunnel leads from the Zenith Gem to a commercial laundry facility across the street. The ZLF is unaware of this tunnel, and it is undefended.

Orica Blue Mining HQ. The tallest building on Zahriel is the Orica Blue Mining tower, standing at a relatively impressive 15 storeys. Guards stand at every entrance and exit, and only essential employees are allowed in or out. The remaining employees are responsible for controlling and maintaining the mining fleet, though all of its profits now go to the Zahriel Liberation Front, instead of the company.

Afterword

Unfortunately, the party is unable to drive the forklift, even if they’re certified.

If you want to pry this adventure out of its intended universe, it should be fairly easy! I tried to keep it mostly self contained, and you can scrub out “the Dominion” and write in your villains of choice, and maybe ignore Lord Phren.

But hey, whatever you do with it, I hope you have fun!

-Garm

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