“On the flight deck, crews are manning up for the 15:00 departure. Vac combat fighter-to-fighter is expected. Get in your proper deck suit, domes on, visor down and locked, visor down and locked, visor down and locked! Locators active and secured! Check your pockets for FOD! Stow any locks and chocks and any other loose gear on the deck! Clear all intakes and exhausts, start ‘em up, and ready the catapult!”

This article presents a grim sci-fi setting where humanity is split between an authoritarian, xenophobic government and the refugees running from and fighting against that government. Player characters in this setting are rebels stuck between an intolerable government and a galaxy that judges them for that government’s actions.

This article also includes a system-agnostic adventure for human fighter pilots, where they earn money and fight the Terran Authority.

Setting

The Authority was forged in an era where humanity believed it was alone in the universe. It colonized Mars, Venus, and Titan, freeing humanity to expand beyond the ever more crowded Earth.

The device that freed us from the shackles of space was the “C Drive,” a device that allowed travel up to speeds of 0.99C. Not enough to get us beyond the boundary of our system in a reasonable timeframe, but enough to make an orbit-to-orbit Earth to Mars trip take only 5-30 minutes, depending on the current orbital configuration.

The Authority was ruled by a council of five “elected” leaders: One from each planet (and Titan), plus one from Earth’s orbital and lunar stations.

Humanity discovered they were not alone on the 9th of November, 2531. Transmissions humanity had sent to the stars had finally been picked up by the broader galactic community, and one species responded to the transmissions: the Zil.

Their ships appeared above Earth, gigantic dodecahedra appearing in orbit. Every radio frequency used on Earth was filled with horrendous screeching, rendering any communication impossible. Whether this was an attempt at communication, a scanning tool, or deliberate radio jamming is hotly debated to this day.

Regardless, after a few hours, the dodecahedra began to move. They positioned themselves above the San Andreas Fault, the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Afar Triangle, Whakaari, and Lake Toba. Simultaneously, each fired a massive energy weapon downwards into the earth’s surface, causing a chain reaction that shattered our home planet into dozens of pieces.

In mere minutes, three quarters of the human population, a total of 15 billion souls, was wiped out.

The lunar and orbital colonies were left tumbling out of control through the solar system, jettisoned by the energy of the Earth’s destruction and the sudden shift in gravity. Many of the stations were either recovered or evacuated by ships from Mars, but the Moon plunged straight into the sun, taking another billion souls with it.

Humanity was devastated. But all was not lost. The orbital stations of Earth picked up enough signals and footage from the mysterious invaders’ entrance and exit that we could begin to understand their faster-than-light technology.

The councilmember for Earth was off-planet at the time, and he addressed the solar system that day, promising vengeance and assuring humanity that under his leadership as Voice of Earth, no such tragedy would ever befall humanity again.

It took only a year for humanity to build a basic warp drive. Another year to build a sturdy enough ship to survive using it. A third to cover that ship with missiles, lasers, and whatever other weapons the shipyards of Venus could produce. This ship was named Messenger, and it was sent out into the galaxy with one mission: Destroy anything that could hinder humanity.

Messenger warped from star to star until it found an alien vessel. They fired on it immediately, destroying a freighter hauling food and medical supplies for a species that had nothing to do with our tragedy.

That was five years ago. Now, the Terran Authority rules the solar system and its few extrasolar holdings through propaganda and force. It is the scourge of the galaxy, but its ruthless tactics and inventive weaponry have made it too strong for the galaxy’s powers to take out directly.

Most humans live under the Authority. Some have snuck away over the years, seeking refuge among the other spacefaring civilizations, to mixed results.

One of these groups is the crew of the TAS Silver Dove, a warship that slipped out of its convoy while en route to attack a planet.

This is your home.

The Silver Dove

The IS Silver Dove is a bulky carrier ship liberated from the Terran Authority. By galactic standards, it’s nothing special: Most shipyards won’t put cutting-edge equipment on a human-controlled vessel, in case that equipment makes its way back to the Authority. The distrust runs deep.

Downside Lounge: On the ventral side of the ship, one of the storage bays has been converted into a bar with some of the comforts of home. Sure, the closest thing to beer is some alien liquor mixed with cola syrup, but some cunning engineers built an “air hockey” table by fiddling with the gravity plates, so it’s not all bad. Viewscreens around the bar show a mix of historical sports broadcasts and modern simulcasts of galactically-popular sports. The crew is still trying to figure out the rules of Mazeball.

Fighter Bay: The fighter bay is on the dorsal side of the ship. Here, fightercraft are repaired, maintained, and launched into space through a forcefield at the end of a launch catapult. The fighter bay crews wear bright and highly visible uniforms whose color denotes their role. Above the catapult exit, the Terran Authority’s emblem has been painted over and replaced with a crude painting of the Silver Dove, with the words “FOR A BETTER FUTURE” below it.

Briefing Room: Just below the Fighter Bay is the briefing room, a theater-like room with stadium seating for up to 50 personnel. A holo-display sits at the far end, allowing three-dimensional maps and schematics to be easily displayed during briefings.

The Bridge: Located on the dorsal side of the ship, the Bridge is a rectangular room with rows of consoles along both sides and a large screen at the front. The entrances are on the sides of the room, near the back. At the very back is the Captain’s Chair, which sits on a dais, making it two feet higher than the other consoles, which allows the captain to easily see the screens of the other stations. The Bridge is kept at 17 degrees Celsius at all times, a measure intended to keep the bridge staff alert.

Crew

Flashpoint: The Bochiri Belt

This adventure has no stats, but should be playable with any rules-light starfighter TTRPG, like After\\Burner or Super Bandit. Or you can break out some X-Wing miniatures if you’re feeling spicy.

The Bochiri System is a four-planet system near the border between Terran Authority space and the territory of the galaxy’s more “civilized” powers. It has an unusually substantial asteroid belt, thought to be the result of two large planets colliding. The Ura’al have recently set up a mining station here, mining the belt for its precious metals. Unfortunately for them, the Terran Authority had the same idea, and they are willing to defend “their” system.

The Ura’al are one of the major galactic powers. They are bear-like humanoids with widely varying fur colors. They average seven feet tall, and any sexual dimorphism they have is hidden by their fur. They can run on all fours for brief periods of time, giving them incredible sprinting speed. Find some appropriate tokens for the Ura’al here.

They are known for their brute strength, community-focused society, and highly durable weapon designs. Their weapons are, after all, designed to be used by Ura’al primarily.

Act 1: Patrol

“This is the Bochiri system. Four planets, with a dense asteroid ring between 3 and 4. The Ura’al have been mining the belt for the last few months, but recently, some of their mining ships have been destroyed. We’re not sure if it’s just a run of unfortunate collisions, some kind of vac-based wildlife, or a hostile power. We’re a bit far out for the Terrans to be likely, but the Eeg and T’zeen have outposts within a jump of here. You’ll be escorting an ura’al mining crew for their shift. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the bills. Suit up, launches start in 10 minutes. Dismissed.”

Transit from the Silver Dove takes about 15 minutes. Halfway through the journey, one of the Ura’al speaks up on the comm net you share. Her voice is low, and the automatic translator makes it a bit tinny.

“Hey, you’re humans, right? How do we know you’re not going to kills us and run off?”

The ribbing continues as long as the party responds. It sounds joking, but a real skepticism and fear underpins it.

Two hours into the shift, the party picks up a transmission on a known Terran Authority transmission frequency.

“Hey, those designs… Cap, those are Terran fighters!”
“How fortuitous. We get our prize, and we get to wipe out some traitors as a bonus. Witch Squadron, engage.”

Four starfighters enter sensor range, vectoring in for a fight.

Witch Squadron

Terran Authority bandits, attacking miners and stealing their ore. Four fighters and an armed hauler for cleanup.

Witch-3 and -4 have the callsigns Spider and Bat, respectively, and there is nothing important about them beyond that. They should be the first to die.

Workhorse: Workhorse is an armed hauler, slow-moving but capable of defending itself. Its radio operator is Val Yamano, addressed just as “Workhorse” over the comms. If attacked, she will spit curses at the party for betraying humanity, with more profanity than the other pilots.

If Workhorse is destroyed or disabled, the other pilots will attempt to flee, returning to the foundry ship Vulcan.

Act 2: Rest & Relaxation

After their mission, the party returns to the station where the Silver Dove is docked. They are not cleared for any further sorties in this system, and the only way to take their starfighters out again is to convince the Ura’al authorities that there are more Terran ships nearby, or to launch without authorization and risk fines or worse.

Great Warrior of Mining Station

A space station located just beyond the danger zone of the Belt, slowly advancing spinward relative to the belt to keep roughly in line with the mining operations.

Great Warrior of Mining Station’s docking bay has a gigantic mural of a brown-furred ura’al swinging a pickaxe at a rock. His name is long and hard to pronounce, but he is the Great Warrior of Mining that the station is named after.

Act 3: The Hunt

Following the emissions signatures in the asteroid belt leads to the location of Vulcan, the smelter ship, which is the core of this bandit expedition.

As you approach the source of the emissions, you hear radio chatter.

If Witch was fully destroyed:

“Hey, Boss. Shouldn’t Witch have checked in by now?”

“Yeah. Ten minutes ago. Maybe Stitch finally bit it. Vulcan, begin switching to mobile mode. As soon as Ox and Warden get back, we’re getting out of here.”

If any Witch members got away:

“Vulcan, Priest-1. Start preparing for transit. Once Warden and Ox return, we’re leaving. If what Witch said is true, we should get out of here before we attract any more attention.”

“Priest-1. Five minutes left on smelt cycle, then we’ll begin shifting to mobile mode. We should be ready to warp out in ten minutes total.”

“Vulcan, copy. Ten minutes, then we can get out of this damn billiards hall.”

Priest Flight are patrolling the area around Vulcan in a wide circle, dodging around asteroid sand looking for threats.

Priest 2 through 5 are, for the purposes of this mission, nameless grunts. Every member of Priest Flight flies a standard starfighter with a tail emblem depicting a Saint Julian’s Cross. They are armed with a single volley of missiles and a nose-mounted energy weapon, which functions exactly like a machine gun aside from having effectively unlimited ammunition.

Vulcan is a foundry ship with two circular smelting vats, which glow bright orange when in use. Vulcan is attached to a large asteroid, which it uses as a heat sink, allowing it to smelt metal without burning everyone in the ship alive. A cannon mounted on the dorsal side of Vulcan allows it to fire chunks of slag. This is primarily intended to reduce the weight it has to haul, but it makes a nice weapon, too.

Priest Flight will fight to the death to protect Vulcan, while Vulcan fires its slag cannon every other round at the nearest member of the party. This is a low-accuracy but high-damage weapon. Priest is not well-disciplined and will try to take on the party in a series of 1v1 fights.

If all of Vulcan’s escorts are destroyed, Liquid Lee keys up his mic and transmits,

“This is Vulcan to hostile fighters. We formally surrender. Our weapons are powering down, and we will obey your instructions. All I ask is humane treatment for my crew.”

And, true to his word, Vulcan’s slag cannon shuts down and retracts against the hull.

If this happens before turn 5, Warden arrives at the start of the next turn, but Vulcan does not reactivate the Slag Cannon.

Warden & Ox

Warden is a two-man flight that arrives after five turns. They are another bandit squad with the same MO as Witch, and they make up for their smaller numbers with better skills.

Ox: Another hauler of the same type as Workhorse. Upon realizing that Vulcan is under attack, Ox’s pilot will transmit a single swear word, dump his cargo, and flee.

Epilogue

Once the Terran Authority ships are defeated, the party returns to Great Warrior of Mining Station. Any surviving Terran crew are taken into Ura’al custody, and the crew of the Silver Dove are awarded a waiver of their dock and repair fees. Wuugok, the ura’al who refused to take their analysis seriously earlier, hails one of the party’s fighters and admits that he was incorrect. He ends the call before anyone can respond.

Afterword

This article is not any specific analogy for any particular conflict or series of conflicts, but the influence of various events in global politics from the last 50 years should be evident enough.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. The whole “fighting against humanity, which Sucks,” premise is a bit depressing, I will admit, but I’d like to think there’s a spark of hope in the idea that some people would betray an atrocious regime, even at great personal cost.

For a better future,

-Garm

Map & Asset Downloads

We recommend these maps and assets…