The Far Orbit Project

A Pirates & Privateers Supplement

by Timothy S. O'Brien

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It is a dangerous time for the Rebel Alliance. Following the destruction of the Death Star battle station at the Battle of Yavin, the Emperor has ordered the annihilation of those who would oppose his rule. Vast fleets of Imperial ships have been dispatched to the far corners of the galaxy to root out and destroy Rebels wherever they can be found.

In this desperate hour, the Rebel Alliance needs supplies, equipment and weapons to pursue its mission of liberating the galaxy from the forces of tyranny. To further this goal, Mon Mothma and other Alliance leaders have issued Letters of Marque and Reprisal to a select group of private raiding ships: Rebel Privateers.

One of the first privateers to take up the dangerous mission of harassing Imperial ships is the Far Orbit, a captured Nebulon-B escort frigate crewed by a motley collection of Imperial mutineers and former pirates.

The captain of the Far Orbit, Dhas Vedij, was once a capable and respected officer in the Imperial Navy. Now, he has volunteered to spearhead a series of daring strikes into the Ringali Shell, deep in the heart of Palpatine's domain. But, unbeknownst to Vedij, an old enemy awaits him in the Core Worlds....

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Introduction

Captain Vocis Kenit, captain of the Far Orbit, did not strain against his captors as he was marched down the corridor to a hatch marked EMERGENCY USE ONLY. He was well aware of the destruction that the Imperial-issue blaster could wreak, and he currently had over a dozen of them aimed in his direction.

The captives — consisting of Kenit, a junior officer and a half-dozen disarmed Imperial Navy troopers — were herded to the end of the corridor. The leader of the group — still wearing an Imperial commander's uniform, Kenit noticed — stepped forward. "Blasters ready," he ordered sharply.

Kenit looked his second-in-command in the eye. "You will all die for this," he said, his voice a monotone. "You know what the Empire does to mutineers. We will hunt you down. Your families will be executed. And you, Commander," the captain spat, "will be subjected to the slowest torture that can be devised."

Commander Dhas Vedij faced his former captain and smiled without humor. "Perhaps," he said. "But you will not live to see it." Turning to his fellow mutineers, he gestured at the group of captives and issued his first command as the new master of the Far Orbit.

"Put them in."

The mutineers cycled the airlock open. Kenit and the rest of the prisoners, facing a wall of blaster muzzles, stepped reluctantly into the chamber beyond.

The lock cycled back and from his vantage point Kenit could see Vedij grip the release handle. Vedij took a moment to face Kenit and the others in the escape pod. Then he pulled the handle. There was the sharp crack of the docking clamps retracting, and a sickening lurch as the escape pod shot out from the Far Orbit like a falling star.

Kenit was hurled back into the mass of bodies behind him as the pod tumbled into the void.

Rebel Privateering

Military commerce raiders have operated throughout history, and while the Alliance has always run hit-and-fade attacks on Imperial shipping, destroying cargo denies it to everyone. Seizing supplies from the Empire allows the Rebels to continue their fight against Palpatine's forces.

Unfortunately, most Rebel units are not equipped or skilled enough to undertake boarding actions, nor are Alliance commanders willing to risk their troops in such actions.

Recently, a proposal by the Alliance Minister of Ordnance and Supply, Ral'Rai Muvunc, has stirred up controversy among the Rebel leadership.

Muvunc suggested that the Alliance may be able to contract privateers to answer many of the Rebellion's needs:

• Privateers can supply their own ships by seizing enemy ships and supplies, providing a cheap alternative to expensive X-wing or Y-wing hit-and-fade missions.
• Privateers interdict Imperial cargo, denying valuable supplies to the Empire while providing those same supplies to the Alliance.
• Privateering divides Imperial forces by forcing some lines to be reassigned to combating piracy.
• Privateering drives corporations away from the Empire, as it cuts into target corporation's profits, increases insurance rates, and fosters dread in the hearts of crews and executives.
• Privateers profitably distract the most acceptable pirates away from random violence.
• Privateers provide goods that can be resold to help fund the Rebellion.
• As long as the Rebel privateers can be focused on Imperial targets and within an acceptable margin of behavior, the idea seems to have great utility.

A problem with this proposal immediately presented itself: Mon Mothma is uneasy with the idea of associating the Alliance with piracy — even a semi-legitimate privateering operation. She feels that most privateers would be mercenaries at heart, and uninterested in the higher ideals of the Alliance. The privateers would have to be held to a high standard and show an equally high level of results.

Currently, Rebel privateering is in the midst of an experimental period, thus far resulting in numerous complaints from the privateers themselves: the Alliance holds privateers to a higher standard of behavior than they hold their own crews; the profits are too low; the allowed targets are too heavily armed (and therefore are too dangerous to engage); the Alliance observation agents assigned to privateer vessels interfere in ship command and are generally disruptive; Alliance bases give privateers low priority and short shrift on repair and resupply rosters.

Justifying the practice of privateering is one of the few genuinely deep rifts in the Alliance, as Admiral Ackbar and others have wanted the privateering experiment scuttled. Ordnance & Supply and Support Services argue that the privateers can serve the Alliance well, and that to create an equivalent military force for the express purpose of interdicting and seizing Imperial trade would require far more resources than are available. The controversy continues.

State of the Galaxy

This campaign takes place at about the same time as the events of Star Wars: A New Hope. Alderaan and the Death Star were destroyed a few weeks earlier. The Rebel Alliance is scattered and has limited support on the Rim and among many alien populations. In the Core Worlds, the Rebels are a media curiosity, although they are about to become the subject of a vicious Imperial propaganda campaign.

Piracy is on the rise on the fringes of settled space, but virtually extinct in the heart of the Empire and on major space lanes. Rebel privateering is a new phenomenon, unheard of anywhere but the Outer Rim.

The Empire is healthy — at least on the surface — and is publicly dedicated to the safety and security of its citizens. Fleets of mighty Imperial Star Destroyers patrol the Empire, supplemented by cruisers, frigates, strike cruisers, and corvettes. Ironically, in the Core Worlds and Colonies region, these symbols of Imperial power are more rare than in the outlying systems (since these areas are powerful enough to patrol their own space with patrol craft).

The Mission

The captain of the Far Orbit, Dhas Vedij, has taken up a highly dangerous mission: to lead a daring series of strikes into the Core Worlds, long considered suicidal targets by most pirates.

Vedij, a former commander in the Imperial Navy, believes the Empire to have a soft underbelly where it should be best protected — this is one of many reasons Vedij led a mutiny several weeks ago while on a routine patrol in the Outer Rim Territories.

The Far Orbit has a Letter of Marque specifically limiting its raids to the Ringali Shell, and to the Empire and its supporters (see page 6). If Vedij or any of his crew violates this contract the Far Orbit will be targeted by the Alliance for capture and trial.

The Far Orbit Campaign

The Far Orbit Campaign is divided into three main "phases." In the first phase of the campaign, "Predator in the Fold," the Far Orbit will have a relatively easy time, since no one initially suspects that an escort frigate might be under the control of an enemy of the Empire. "Predator in the Fold" includes background information, setting information and initial suggested adventures for starting the campaign. In addition to these adventures, the Far Orbit might run into any number of other adventures of a gamemaster's design.

In the second phase, "Gathering Storm," the Far Orbit has attracted the attention of local patrol and law-enforcement agencies, and begins to suffer the attentions of the Imperial Navy. There are also suggested adventures for this phase of the Far Orbit's raids.

In the third phase, "Stormbreak," the Far Orbit is the subject of a full-scale hunt, as Imperial battle lines are diverted to search out and destroy this affront to Imperial power. In the face of this overwhelming attention, the Far Orbit stages daring raids before retiring from the field...or is destroyed.

Characters in the Far Orbit Campaign

The player characters in the Far Orbit campaign come in three varieties: mutineers, pirates and Rebels.

Mutineers. A large percentage of the Far Orbit's crew served aboard her when it was under Imperial control. All of the mutineers are human and most are male. Many of the mutineers were either drafted into the Imperial Navy or retained forcibly at the end of their term of service "for the duration of the emergency." Since the mutiny, they are all under a death sentence and unable to return home. Outlawed, they require a purpose. Vedij has given them one.

Most of the ship's officers are from the mutineer group, simply because Vedij knows them and their abilities, and also knows he can trust them in a tough situation.

Volunteers. A large proportion of the Imperial Navy is made up of young people who joined to fight against the well-publicized and heavily propagandized "chaos and piracy in the galaxy," and defend the Empire from a vaguely defined alien threat. Volunteers tend (or, on the Far Orbit, tended) to be somewhat idealistic and Imperialist. The bulk of the officers are or were volunteers.

Conscripts. An equally large proportion of the Imperial Navy consists of young people pressed into service, either directly by the Empire or by their local government to meet Imperial Navy quotas. While the draftees are generally willing to serve, they largely do so because they are compelled by social and legal pressures — avoiding service is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 20 years of hard labor. The bulk of the Far Orbit's deckhands are draftees, and they were among the most enthusiastic mutineers.

Careerists. Some Navy personnel choose to remain in the service after their initial term of service ends; others are compelled to remain — typically deckhands — but they remain in service, because they enjoy their duties, like to travel, have found a vocation, or simply have nowhere else to go. Senior officers and long-term deckhands are careerists. Relatively few of the remaining Far Orbit officers were careerists, as most have families and a long-term mental commitment to the Navy, but a few remain under Vedij's command.

Navy Natives. A constantly shrinking percentage of Naval personnel is made up of "Navy natives," people who belong to families that have served in the Navy for generations. With the rise of Palpatine and the commitment of some of the Navy families to his policies, control of the Navy has largely slipped into the hands of come-lately careerists and Imperial political agencies. Natives are neither volunteers or draftees; they move into the Navy in their youth as a way of life.

Captain Vedij is a Navy native. Only one or two other crew members are natives; they could be officers or senior deckhands.

Pirates. Pirates are new crew members recruited from shadowports (mainly StarForge Station). They can be of any species and gender. The pirates are all criminals of some kind, most of whom see Rebel privateering as a chance to stick it to the Empire without blatantly associating with the Alliance (which, to most pirates' thinking, doesn't have a chance anyway). Most of the pirates are deckhands or boarders, although a competent pirate might fill an empty officer's slot, if Vedij doesn't have a mutineer available. (In other words, if a player wants to have a pirate officer character and the gamemaster agrees.) Nearly any sort of personality is possible; the typical pirate is not what one might expect from the holothrillers. Pirates come from all walks of life:

Thugs. The stereotypical, bloodthirsty pirate lusting for gold, spice and slave booty. Only the richest cargoes slake his thirst, because he spends it all in a single leave. Thugs tend to have short, exciting careers that end in a burst of turbolaser fire. Few thugs are acceptable to the Alliance, and vice versa.

Professionals. These are able, well-trained beings looking for an interesting and profitable career in space service. They are usually unorthodox in personality and unacceptable in security or military service. Others merely found the usual options — shipping and trading — unappealing, or simply have a taste for something more far-reaching. Professionals tend to have the longest and most profitable careers.

Thrillseekers. A large section of any criminal group are the thrillseeking type, always looking for a way to make an exciting living. These pirates usually chase bigger and bigger prizes until they take on something they can't handle. Their careers are flamboyant and often short, ending violently.

Draftees. Many pirates start their careers as draftees, pressed into service either through mutiny (like the Far Orbit crew), capture (the alternatives usually being death or slavery), or overall peer pressure. Draftees often stay with the work out of lack of options or an acquired taste for the life. A large portion of the Far Orbit pirate crew is made up of draftees.

Misfits. A small group of pirate crews are misfits, not really belonging anywhere, but free in piracy to be their own odd selves.

Rebels make up the smallest portion of the Far Orbit crew. There is only one Rebel character required by the campaign: the Alliance Observer (whose duty is to oversee the operations and activities of the privateer captain and crew). If no one wants to take on this position the Observer can be a gamemaster character (a sample is provided on pages 16-17), but the Observer should ideally be a player character. Other Rebels might be aboard for advice and observation — or as an additional security element should the privateers become too unruly — but no more than one Alliance-affiliated character per player should be allowed; this campaign centers on privateers, not Rebels.

Multi-character Play

One of the problems of running large groups of characters is the amount of attention it requires of the gamemaster. Another difficulty in playing in a large crew is that a player may not have a character that can contribute meaningfully to an adventure.

Both of these problems can be solved through a kind of game play called multi-character (or "troupe") play. The players run not just one, but two to four characters in a group, each with their own personalities, skills and unusual contributions to make to the campaign. Players don't play all of their characters at once; they just run one at a time, but might play one character on one adventure and another during a different scenario, depending on the needs of the plot.

This has several benefits — there are fewer "spare" characters on a adventure, the gamemaster can leave a large part of the crew to the players, the crew gains a wider range of developed characters, the utility of a party is broadened (for example you can play a boarding party one session and the command crew in another), characters can be more specialized than the typical player character, adventures aren't performed by the same small group of heroes all the time, and you can play several characters in one campaign, reducing the odds of getting bored with your character.

For example, a player may choose to develop three characters: an officer, a boarder and a deckhand. The officer will be involved with the real decision-making on board, has access to Captain Vedij, can issue orders, and is responsible for the performance of his

"Open the shipwide comm," Vedij ordered.
"Ready, sir."
"Attention, all hands. This is the Captain Vedij speaking.
"As many of you will no doubt be pleased to learn, we have just put Captain Kenit off the ship. I'm sure that Imperial Command will treat him with as much care as he has shown all of us. He made various threats as to our inevitable fate, but I'm sure we can keep a few steps ahead of whatever they send against us.
"The Navy — in conjunction with ISB and COMPNOR — have developed profiles on 'typical' mutineers. According to these files, all mutineers move towards the Outer Rim. I have decided to move towards the Core Worlds instead, in an effort to stay ahead of their search patterns and find a quiet shadowport to off-load those of you who decide to depart.
"Some of you may choose to fade away, join the Rebels or take up raiding. For those who wish to stay, know this: I intend to stick a lesson down the throat of the Empire, and hopefully make all the 'great minds' in the Navy, ISB and COMPNOR suffer for their arrogance. I hope you will join me.
"That is all."

the next firefight he'll be in, and whether his armor is going to stand up to getting shot again. The deckhand is probably a technician of some kind, and might be sent along on landing parties to scout out the area, pick up vital shipping information or slice into a computer system.

For the Far Orbit campaign, it is suggested that the players take on three characters; one major character and two minor characters.

Major characters are experienced and talented people — skilled officers or tough senior deckhands. They should be generated with an initial nine skill dice (instead of the usual seven). Major characters are expected to be pivotal in the campaign. Player character officers and the Alliance Observer are major characters.

Minor characters are relatively normal characters generated with six skill dice instead of the usual seven. These characters are usually deck hands, boarders, techs, and perhaps lesser officers. Players may control two minor characters.

Additional Far Orbit Campaign Information

For gamemasters that want additional material to use in the Far Orbit Campaign, see The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal, Volume 1, Number 18. Players may also find the character templates presented in the "Rebel Privateers" article (in The Best of the Star Wars Adventure Journal) and Pirates and Privateers useful. Heroes & Rogues and Platt's Smugglers Guide should provide additional inspiration for suitable pirate characters.

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Chapter One: The Far Orbit

The Far Orbit

The Empire's solution to pirate and Rebel attacks on Imperial shipping was the Nebulon-B escort frigate. Overall, the Nebulon-B has performed admirably; kill rates have doubled since her introduction a few years ago. The ship is equipped with a superior sensor array, a long-range subspace transceiver, and facilities for two platoons of troops and two TIE squadrons.

The Far Orbit was, until several weeks ago, an Imperial ship operating in the Outer Rim. Her mission: guard Imperial transports from piracy and Rebel attacks. The Far Orbit's former captain, Vocis Kenit, was a martinet and a bully, and his methods of maintaining discipline were an affront to several of his officers. Crew discipline was inordinately brutal — particularly to troops that had been pressed into service — and his treatment of captured enemies was even worse. Kenit's only saving graces were his political connections and his insight into pirate strategies.

His second-in-command was Commander Dhas Vedij, a career officer with a Navy lineage going back to the very founding of the service. Vedij has watched the transformation of the Navy into the overfunded, over-grown creature in service to political hacks it is today. He watched as New Order officers were promoted beyond their abilities while capable officers with ties to the Old Republic — himself included — were kept out of command posts. Worse yet, he saw the Empire create dangerous instability in the galaxy by imposing its own twisted brand of "order."

Months ago, he made up his mind to strike back and take the Far Orbit out of Imperial service along with him. He gradually gathered support in the crew, waiting for the right mix of crew outrage. Then news of Alderaan's destruction reached the ship and an Alderaanian deckhand was arrested for suspected treason.

"Ops: Ships' status?" Vedij asked, leaning back in his chair. He had stripped the captain's ready room of Kenit's memorabilia and personal items, and had thus far left it undecorated. The room was stark and efficient.
"Sir, we are running at skeleton efficiency. The ship is sound and the crew's morale is up, but we can not operate effectively as a combat vessel. We lack the proper crew to fight."
"I see." Vedij mused for a moment. "Plainly we will have to take on crew or abandon the ship. I'd rather take on crew. I need this ship."
"Sir, perhaps the Rebels would buy it," offered the ops officer.
"They might if they had the money. Contrary to widespread reports, the Rebels have very little income. Their raids on our — excuse me — on Imperial shipping are limited to destroying isolated freighters and injuring the occasional escort...."
Vedij's gaze focused on the far door as he reflected for a moment.
"Now there's an interesting idea," Vedij finished.
"Sir?"

"I think I've just figured out how to finance our little operation," Vedij said. "We may make the newsnet beamcasts come true, in a manner of speaking.
"Start combat-drilling the crew. We need to come up with working plans for operating in combat with a skeleton crew. See what engineering can do to automate sections where we're short on crew and select decks for mothballing. We are going to have to be on top of our form if this is going to work out. How long until we reach the StarForge Nebula?"
"Eighteen hours, sir."
"Plus seventy-two to find the Station, another seventy-two to locate and deal with the people I need. Then, perhaps a week of negotiations."
"Sir?"
"You'll see, if you stay," Vedij said. "Otherwise, keep your eyes on the holonews. Get me a full report from all sections. Start weapons testing and shield-load balancing. I want us ready to respond to whatever we trip over and a complete picture of our situation."
"Yes sir!"

Vedij immediately saw through the propaganda and realized that the time to overthrow the ship was at hand. He circulated a rumor among the crew that the Empire had destroyed the world as an exercise of power and that the Alderaanian had been arrested and beaten for his planet of origin.

The ship's security was provided by a platoon of Naval troopers and a platoon of stormtroopers. The stormtroopers were unapproachable, but Vedij managed to convince most of the Navy troopers to either mutiny or stay in their quarters until it was over.

The struggle for control of the ship was brief. The single COMPNOR Observation officer was quietly overcome. The stormtroopers were distracted by a false report of a riot and trapped by security bulkheads. When Vedij announced a general mutiny, roughly two-thirds of the crew joined him. The rest had no heart to resist; they were promptly "stored" with the captured stormtroopers. The Far Orbit was secured.

Captain Kenit, his loyalists and the stormtroopers were ejected in escape pods. Half of the remaining crew elected to jump ship, leaving just enough crew to run the Far Orbit. The ship was intact, with 6 months supplies...but had nowhere to go. Since at that time the Nebulon-B was only in Imperial service, the Far Orbit couldn't go to any Fringe port without drawing far too much attention...and even outright attacks.

Vedij, however, headed quickly and surely to locate a shadowport. By approaching the port quietly and keeping the Far Orbit a considerable distance outside sensor range, he shuttled a landing party in to look for Rebel contacts without trouble. Once contact was made he offered the Alliance a deal; for a Letter of Marque and general pardon for himself and his crew he would cut a swath through space long considered to untouchable: the Core Worlds.

The Alliance was halfheartedly pursuing a privateer program, but saw this as a chance to strike a blow to the softest part of the Empire (largely due to Vedij's reputation as a fine officer and excellent strategist). Negotiations followed, and after a few weeks the relevant parties met at Starforge Station to sign the deal and re-crew the ship.

The Far Orbit
Craft: Kuat Drive Yards' Nebulon-B Escort Frigate
Type: Escort Starship
Scale: Capital
Length: 300 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Nebulon-B
Crew: 854, gunners: 66, skeleton: 307/+10
Current Crew: 427, gunners: 47
Crew Skill: See Crew
Passengers: 75
Cargo Capacity: 6,000 metric tons
Consumables: 4 months
Cost: Not for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Atmosphere: 280; 800 kmh
Hull: 3D+2
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/0D
Scan: 75/1D
Search: 150/3D
Focus: 4/4D+2
Weapons:
Twelve Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 6 front, 3 left, 3 right
Crew: 1 (2), 2 (8), 4 (2)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 2-6/24/50 km
Damage: 4D
Twelve Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 6 front, 2 left, 2 right, 2 back
Crew: 1 (6), 2 (4)
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 2-6/24/50 km
Damage: 2D
Two Tractor Beam Projectors
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 12
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Atmosphere Range: 2-10/30/60 km
Damage: 4D

The Far Orbit's Crew

The following stats can be used for the various "generic" troops and deckhands that gamemasters may need in the course of the campaign.

Typical Far Orbit Mutineer Hands.
All stats 2D except:
Astrogation 3D
Capital ship gunnery 4D+1
Capital ship piloting 3D+2
Capital ship shields 3D
Sensors 3D+1
Starship gunnery 4D+1
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
Comlink
Toolkit
Blaster pistol (4D)
Character Points: 3

Typical Far Orbit Mutineer Troopers.
DEXTERITY 2D+1
Blaster 3D+1
Blaster: blaster rifle 4D+2
Brawling parry 3D+1
Dodge 3D+1
Grenade 3D+1
Melee combat 3D+1
Melee parry 3D+1
Running 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 1D+1
Intimidation 2D+1
Streetwise 2D+1
MECHANICAL 1D+2
Repulsorlift operation 2D+2
Capital ship shields 2D+2
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 4D
Search 4D
STRENGTH 2D+2
Brawling 4D+2
Stamina 3D+2
TECHNICAL 1D
Security 2D
Move: 10
Equipment:
Blast helmet (+1D physical, +1 energy)
Blaster pistol (4D)
Comlink
Character Points: 3

Typical Far Orbit Mutineer Officers.
All stats 2D except:
Astrogation 3D
Capital ship gunnery 4D
Capital ship piloting 4D
Capital ship shields 3D
Command 4D
Sensors 3D
Starship gunnery 3D
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
Comlink
Rank cylinder
Blaster pistol (4D)
Character Points: 5

Typical Far Orbit Pirate Hands.
All stats 2D except:
Blaster 3D+2
Capital ship gunnery 4D+1
Capital ship piloting 3D+1
Capital ship shields 3D
Sensors 3D
Starship gunnery 4D
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
Comlink
Toolkit
Blaster pistol (4D)
Character Points: 4

Typical Far Orbit Pirate Boarders.
All stats 2D except:
Blaster 4D+2
Melee combat 4D
Melee parry 3D+2
Strength 3D
Brawling 3D+1
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
Comlink
Toolkit
Heavy blaster pistol (5D)
Character Points: 4

Typical Far Orbit Pirate Officers.
All stats 2D except:
Astrogation 3D
Capital ship gunnery 4D
Capital ship piloting 4D
Capital ship shields 3D
Command 4D
Sensors 2D+1
Starship gunnery 3D
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
Comlink
Rank cylinder
Blaster pistol (4D)
Character Points: 4

Far Orbit Command Staff

The following are stats for the main command crew that can be used as gamemaster characters during the course of the campaign. While players are encouraged to create their own characters, use of the following individuals is strongly recommended.

Captain Dhas Vedij

Dhas Fenoep Vedij was born into a life of privilege and power. His father, Baron Admiral Ronnan Tyla Vedij, was a well-respected member of Coruscant society.

Baron Vedij had inherited his title and wealth, but — unlike his ancestors — who were content to let their money buy safe, noncombat positions in the military — joined the Navy, where he led a distinguished career. At one point, then-Bosun Vedij suffered grievous wounds at the hands of alien commerce raiders. His heroic actions — he single-handedly fended off the assault — led to his commission to Captain. Rising quickly through the ranks, he eventually attained the rank of Admiral and retired to Coruscant.

His sons, Dhas and Elon, had been born while the Baron Admiral was still in the Navy, but he made sure that the boys was brought up believing in a strong military, and eventually Dhas joined the Navy himself. His brother followed a few years later.

Like his father, Dhas rose quickly through the ranks. Shortly before Palpatine dissolved the Imperial Senate, however, Vedij's career stalled. The Emperor had begun seeding New Order loyalists into the military, and those who had ties to the Old Republic Navy saw their careers enter a tailspin.

Shortly after attaining the rank of Commander, Vedij was transferred to the Far Orbit, where he served under Captain Vocis Kenit. Vedij despised Kenit, who had achieved his present position largely due to political acumen, not military proficiency.

Vedij — and the other officers on the Far Orbit — bridled under the constant haranguing and outright violence of Kenit's command style. One dissenting officer was reported to the ISB and later died under mysterious circumstances. In a military notorious for corrupt and brutal leaders, Kenit was among the worst.

At about the same time as his transfer to the Far Orbit, Vedij received word that his parents had died in a "traffic accident" on Coruscant. Apparently, a robo-hack had misinterpreted routing instructions and entered a flight pattern traveling in the opposite direction. While pursuing an inquiry into the accident, Vedij was "warned off" by Coruscant security forces and the ISB. Vedij believed his father — a vocal opponent of Palpatine's "retooling" of the military — had been assassinated at the Emperor's order.

Two days after the death of his parents, Vedij's younger brother, Elon, was transferred to the Far Orbit's fighter crew. The Vedij's believed that they would be the next targets of Imperial reprisal, and that they had been placed together to facilitate their "removal." Dhas began to plot a mutiny, though only in vague theoretical terms.

The incident that finally sparked the mutiny was not an assassination attempt; instead, Captain Kenit's arrogance — and incompetence — pushed Vedij into action. The Far Orbit had been tracking a pirate group — the Silent Blades — for several weeks. The pirates had destroyed several system patrol craft and starfighters, and local governments were demanding Imperial assistance. Kenit — a fair tactician in his own right — possessed a flair for anticipating the pirates' movements, and had the pirates on the run.

Eventually, Kenit pushed the Silent Blades into a stand-off. The pirates had taken refuge in an asteroid field; the Far Orbit could not easily enter the region, but neither could the pirates flee. Vedij recommended that reinforcements be called in to further intimidate the pirates into surrender, but Kenit refused. In fact, Kenit berated Vedij for suggesting that the "glory of the pirates' destruction" be given to others.

Kenit ordered a starfighter assault on the pirate stronghold — an attack that ended in victory but cost the lives of every Imperial pilot...including Elon Vedij. The Far Orbit's entire starfighter complement was destroyed.

Infuriated that Kenit's desire for glory and promotion cost so many lives, Vedij's nebulous mutiny plans began to crystallize. After orchestrating the mutiny, Vedij vowed to teach a lesson to the Empire that honored and rewarded bullies like Kenit.

Vedij is an inscrutable, seemingly passionless individual, whose quiet nature belies the fiery determination underneath. Vedij is an excellent strategist, tactician and leader who is accustomed to being obeyed. However, his cold and calculating nature has left him without attachments or many friendships; the Navy was his life, and now, the Far Orbit is.

Captain Dhas Vedij
Type: Rebel privateer
DEXTERITY 4D
Blaster 6D
brawling parry 5D
dodge 6D+2
grenade 4D+2
melee combat 7D
melee parry 6D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 4D
business 4D
intimidation 6D
languages 4D
law enforcement: piracy 4D+1
planetary systems 4D+2
streetwise 5D+1
tactics 4D+2
tactics: raiding 5D+1
willpower 5D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D+1
capital ship shields 3D+2
communications 3D+1
sensors 3D+2
space transports 4D+1
starship gunnery 4D
PERCEPTION 4D
Command 6D+1
con 4D+2
investigation 5D
persuasion 5D
search 4D+2
sneak 4D+1
STRENGTH 2D+1
Brawling 3D+2
brawling: martial arts 7D
stamina 4D
TECHNICAL 2D
Capital ship repair 2D+1
first aid 3D
security 4D+2
space transports repair 4D
Force Points: 1
Dark Side Points: 1
Character Points: 20
Move: 10
Equipment:
Heavy blaster pistol (5D)
vibrorapier (STR+3D)
vibrodagger (STR+2D)
datapad
rank cylinder
comlink
Nebulon-B frigate (the Far Orbit)

Major Cet Willak

Major Cet Willak is a SpecOps special missions agent on assignment as an Observer for the Rebel privateer Far Orbit. It is not a glorious job and Willak will be happy to live through a tour with what he refers to as "a band of cutthroats, thieves, murders, and space-rats." He is not at all happy to be assigned the duty, since he is sure that the "real action" is happening somewhere else.

Willak's mission is to observe the actions of the privateers, record prize values and lend assistance as he is able. The crew doesn't like him and the feeling is mutual. Willak's opinion of the crew is offered without provocation, and Vedij has had to step in several times to prevent crewers from harming the Alliance Observer.

Willak is cocky and fond of relating how good he is — at virtually every task — to anyone unfortunate enough to happen by. He is sure that "this group of losers and pirates doesn't stand a chance against the Empire," but has the duty of keeping them honest and away from civilians.

Despite his abrasive nature, Willak is competent — not exceptional, but competent — at combat operations, strategy and planning. However, his obvious disdain for the crew and their captain has made him an extremely unpopular individual.

Gamemaster Note: Cet Willak
Major Willak can be used as a gamemaster character if none of the players are interested in the Alliance Observer position. He isn't as good as he thinks he is and the player characters may have a hard time keeping him alive. He must be kept alive, though, to report back on the Far Orbit's progress — it would be very hard to explain his death to the Alliance and Captain Vedij will make sure that the characters know it.

Major Cet Willak
Type: Alliance Observer
DEXTERITY 3D+1
Blaster 4D
dodge 4D
KNOWLEDGE 3D+1
Streetwise 4D
tactics 3D+2
value 4D
MECHANICAL 3D
Communications 4D
space transports 3D+1
starship gunnery 3D+2
PERCEPTION 3D+2
Search 4D
sneak 4D
STRENGTH 2D+2
TECHNICAL 2D
First aid 3D
space transports repair 2D+1
Character Points: 10
Move: 10
Equipment:
Comlink
communication encryption unit
datapad with safe port and contact information
100 credits
blaster pistol (damage 4D)

Far Orbit Command Sections

A Nebulon-B is divided into several sections, most separated by main bulkheads. Each section is commanded by an officer — Chief Engineering Officer, Operations Officer, and so on — and has a corresponding station on the main bridge. The following descriptions of Nebulon-B sections illustrate how a Nebulon-B is operated in the Imperial Navy. In most cases, Captain Vedij has kept the operation of the Far Orbit consistent with Imperial protocols.

Operations Section

Operations (Ops) is the largest single section and its commander has the broadest responsibility of any of the section chiefs. Ops is responsible for the overall running of the ship and smooth integration of all the other sections to that end. Several other sections report directly to Ops, and the Ops Officer is the Far Orbit's second-in-command. In the Imperial Navy this command goes to an officer of at least junior commander rank. (Vedij was the Operations Officer of the Far Orbit until the mutiny.)

Quarters

Quarters section is responsible for the maintenance and housekeeping of the living sections of the ship. Enlisted personnel keep their own areas neat, but there is a small staff of deckhands and droids that cleaned the officer's quarters and the common areas of the ship. Quarters also runs and maintains the galley and autochefs.

This is a minor administrative post and the most junior section command aboard ship. Except on the largest Imperial ships, Chief of Quarters is usually headed by a junior lieutenant who answers to Ops.

Command Section

Command section has the overall responsibility for the ship as a whole and is the link to Line Command — the mind of the ship. All other sections ultimately answer to the Command Section Chief, referred to in all but the most legalistic situations as the Captain. In the Imperial Navy, the Captain is an officer of at least junior commander rank. Combat vessels are commanded by at least commanders, and most capital vessels by actual captains. Dhas Vedij is the Captain of the Far Orbit.

Secondary Engineering

Secondary Engineering is responsible for power, maintenance and repair for the ship, as well as emergency power if the command module is cut off (literally or functionally) from engineering. Secondary Engineering is usually referred to as "Power" to avoid confusion with Primary Engineering; the section commander is commonly referred to as the Power Chief. The Power Chief, at least a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, answers administratively to Engineering and functionally to Ops.

Life Support

Life Support is one of the most critical sections on any ship. "Life" operates and maintains the atmosphere tanks, air scrubbers, water delivery and reclamation systems, gravity generators, and temperature controls aboard ship.

The Chief of Life Support (CLS) works closely with Power and answers to Engineering.

Sensors and Communications

Sensors and Communications (SenCom) is split into three main areas on a Nebulon-B. The main sensors section is near the ventral end of the command module, while the primary and secondary communications sections are on the top dorsal of the primary module. The sensor and communications arrays are physically separated to reduce interference, but administratively tied because they are technically similar. SenCom is the eyes, ears and voice of a ship. Directly under the Chief of SenCom are two experts more directly responsible for their respective specialties: the Sensor Officer and the Communication Officer. Each subsection has its own station on the bridge. The SenCom Chief is primarily an administrative position answering to the Captain.

Weapons and Security

Weapons Section is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the ship's weapons and shields. The Far Orbit has 12 turbolasers, 12 laser cannons, two tractor beams, and a full array of deflector shields. Although the section has a fairly small staff of gunners and shield operators, they are crucial to the ship's survival. The Weapons Officer is also the administrative head of ship's security via a security chief commanding the Naval troops. Stormtroopers have their own internal administration and although they generally obey the security chief they are more directly under the captain and CompForce Observer. Since the Far Orbit does not possess stormtroopers, boarders fill their role.

Flight and Vehicle Operations

Flight and Vehicle Operations — commonly called FVO or Boom section — is in charge of operating and maintaining all the ship's carried craft, including shuttles, starfighters (typically TIEs), escape pods, and ground vehicles. The Far Orbit lost all of its TIE complement during the ill-advised assault on the Silver Blade pirates. In addition, the Far Orbit was never issued ground vehicles. Also, the escape pods were jettisoned in the mutiny. As a result, the Far Orbit's FVO staff is quite small.

The main area of FVO is located around the ship's boom, although there is also a docking bay in the command module. FVO answers to Ops.

Optional Rules: Turbolaser Operations

The Far Orbit's turbolasers are the primary defense for the ship. Each gunnery station is dimly lit — to avoid glare on targeting scopes — and, due to their proximity to the ship's outer hull, are not well insulated against noise (and consequently echo with the hum and rumble of the weapons' testing routines).

The gunners handle all targeting and firing of the weapons with targeting data assisted by sensor readings. Fire control orders are delivered from the bridge, although in combat, Vedij often gives gunners "full discretion" in choosing targets.

The Far Orbit's turbolasers are hardwired into the reactor system, providing nearly unlimited firepower as long as the supplies of blaster gas hold out. Blaster gas is stored in canisters that are roughly one meter tall and a third of a meter in diameter. Each canister weighs 110 kilograms, and contains enough blaster gas to fire 20 capital-scale turbolaser blaster shots (or 40 starfighter-scale blaster shots).

It takes a Moderate Strength roll to lift the canister into a cradle/receptacle which is attached to the power delivery system of the weapon. The cradle is "rammed" home, which takes one round. Once rammed home, the gunner must break the seal on the canister, which is accomplished by manipulating a control on the gunner's status panel. This requires one combat round to accomplish.

The actual storage and placement of replacement canisters of blaster gas is left largely to the players; they can keep spare canisters at gun emplacements for ease of access in combat, but this can lead to massive explosions if the gun is damaged by enemy fire. The alternate approach is to store the canisters in the cargo holds — preferably in armored containers — and hand-deliver them as needed. This leads to a delay of several minutes in combat, but reduces the chance of accidental explosions.

If the players develop a system for hauling canisters out of storage and delivering them to gun emplacements as needed, it is possible to keep up a fairly steady rate of fire. For example, Vedij may decide that, if a gunner gets down to his last five shots, he must alert the bridge and call for a "reload." Boarders or technicians can be assigned "gas lugger" duty and race the replacement canisters — via repulsorcart — to the emplacement as needed. Otherwise, gamemasters have free reign to delay reloads as long as 3D-6D combat rounds (depending on how poor the players' combat planning is).

Currently, the Far Orbit possesses 24 weapons, each with one canister of blaster gas. 26 canisters of gas remain in ship's stores.

Nebulon-B Blaster Gas Canister
Type: Shipboard munitions
Cost: 1,000 credits standard
Availability: 2, R, X
Game Notes: Blaster gas canisters come in a variety of shapes and sizes; the Nebulon-B requires Imperial Munitions Type II blaster gas canisters — or compatible knock-offs by SoroSuub or TaggeCo. Each canister can provide enough blaster gas for 20 capital-scale or 40 starfighter scale turbolaser blasts.

Deflectors

Deflector section is run out of a heavily armored, cramped module just off the engineering section. The deflector module is only occupied when the Far Orbit is in combat-readiness posture, and it is a high-priority target in any ship-to-ship action. Most simple combat repairs can be made in the deflector module by the operators (who are generally trained in this unusual repair specialty.) Section administration takes place on the top level of the engineering module. The Deflector Chief answers to the Weapons Officer.

Engineering Quarters

Engineering Quarters is under main Quarters. There is no separate officer for this section.

Engineering Operations

Engineering operates and maintains the ship's engines, supplies power, and is responsible for the hardware and technical aspects of the ship's operations. The Chief Engineering Officer has several sections under his authority and is stretched as thin as the Operations Officer. Engineering Operations is run out of main engineering, in the forward area of the propulsion module.

Engines

The actual drive section of the ship is at the extreme rear of the ship. This section includes all technicians involved with the seven realspace engines, the hyperspace motivators, the reactor, and the fuel transfer system.

Command Module

The command module consists of the Nebulon-B section fore of the boom module. This is where most of the ship's non-engineering operations occur. The command module is divided into sections, roughly corresponding with section commands. Most of these physical sections are separated by main bulkheads (Body Strength 3D+2 capital scale to resist damage).

Forward First Section

Water Tanks. The water tanks actually only hold enough water to last about one day. The water is almost fully reclaimed in the water reclamation station (the Life Support section in Fifth Section).

TIE Flight Deck. The flight deck is the launch and landing deck for the ship's two TIE fighter squadrons. It houses a short-range catapult/cushion tractor beam, TIE racks, repair bays, and flight control center. Since the Far Orbit had not yet received its replacement TIE complement, this area is no longer used; the deck is mothballed and empty of any fighters or support equipment.

Crew Quarters. The full crew is supposed to be squeezed into a series of tight, cramped, uncomfortable compartments on Deck 5. The forward compartments are directly over the TIE flight deck and the aft compartments abut against the docking areas. The triple bunks can just fit an average human. The quarters have limited entertainment facilities and basic common refreshers. With the current small crew aboard these facilities are actually adequate, with some modifications for any "larger-than-average" deckhands.

Crew Galley. The crew galley is where the enlisted crew is intended to eat. This area is too small to feed the entire crew simultaneously and the crew usually eats in shifts. Currently, the crew might be able to squeeze in, but meals have shifted over to a buffet-style, help-yourself method and typically are obtained "off-watch" whenever possible (leading to a relatively constant flow of crew through the area). The galley is run by a small staff of hands with the aid of several cook droids and low-capacity serving droids. The food quality has not changed since the mutiny, although Vedij has ordered fresh provisions be acquired as soon as possible.

Storage. There are storage compartments all over the ship. This is a main storage compartment. A wide variety of goods, from power packs to ready-to-eat meals can be found here, but no weapons, parts or specialized tools.

Troop Deck. This is a practice facility, firing range, and briefing room for the ship's troopers. Small arms lockers can be found here, but the weapons are stored in the armory when not scheduled for use.

Troopers' Quarters. The Naval troopers and stormtroopers were quartered between the main crew quarters and officers and command sections. This is intended to slow the progress of a mutiny. If a large fraction of the officers and the bridge is kept out of the hands of mutineers, the ship should be recoverable. Of course, this has the parallel benefit of forcing boarders to go through not only the crew but also the troop decks on their way to the bridge — all the docking facilities are above this deck. The boarders, including some of the old Navy troopers, have taken this area as their own.

Cargo Tonnage vs. Cargo Space
While the Star Wars Roleplaying Game has only rarely concerned itself with the minutiae of space travel, the Far Orbit Campaign will necessitate some scrutiny of cargo space.
In general, use the following formula to determine how much cargo and equipment the Far Orbit can hold. Note that consumables do not factor into the cargo space.
100 tons of cargo can be held for every 50 cubic meters of available cargo space.

Aft First Section

Primary Communications. Primary communications (PrimeComm or P-Com) houses the long-range subspace transceiver, with a range of over 100 light years. Since the Nebulon-B was designed to serve as a command ship during missions, there are two communications arrays that allow contact between local traffic and long-range receivers.

Processing so many signals requires a powerful communications computer, and the Nebulon-B has a highly advanced TerexComm processor with multi-channel sorting, high-speed channel switching, and full encryption/decryption programming. This area has increased in importance since the mutiny, as the comm techs tap into Imperial signals and listen for important comm traffic regarding the Far Orbit, Navy ship movements, and lately listening for shipping information. PrimeComm has a secure transmission room for critical and sensitive communications.

Short-range Communications. Short range communications (ShortComm or S-Com) processes local, light-speed transmissions, usually among ships of the Far Orbit's line and local system assets. This department has seen a decline in activity since the mutiny, as the Far Orbit no longer has to maintain constant contact with the Imperial Navy. ShortComm also handles intercom traffic and maintenance. ShortComm uses its own antenna, scrambles its own comm traffic, and is able to function without aid from PrimeComm (important in the event one of the communications sections is damaged in combat).

Boarding Bay. This is the main boarding bay for foot traffic while docked with other ships or space stations. It is also a primary embarkation facility for troop shuttles that are about to undertake a boarding action. The bay is equipped with cutting devices (3D capital-scale damage), a universal airlock, and armored repeating blaster positions to aid boardings and slow counter-boardings.

Storage. Similar to the storage area in Forward First Section.

Sick Bay. The ship's main medical facility is able to handle all normal injuries and illnesses. The ship's doctor, who answers to Ops, has a small staff of human medical technicians, supplemented by a full complement of MD-series medical droids, (MD-0 through MD-5). None of these droids have been operational long enough to have developed personalities and Vedij insists that all droids receive regular memory wipes.

MD-5 is the general practitioner of the complement, and performs all check-ups and routine minor surgery. MD-5 has all officers' medical records on file and can access the medical records of any crew hand in a matter of seconds.

Patients reporting illness are first seen by MD-0, the diagnostic droid, who can perform a thorough diagnostic in a matter of minutes. MD-0 also performs emergency triage during combat, and acts as MD-5's aide in regular physical examinations.

Sick bay has eight single-occupant bacta tanks, able to heal almost any injury within hours. Bacta tanks are not emergency treatments. Standard procedure requires critically injured patients to be stabilized before bacta treatment is attempted. The bacta unit is managed by MD-3, who also operates the pharmacy.

The surgery unit is equipped to handle a full range of procedures, from amputations and cybernetic replacement to microsurgery. This facility is overseen by MD-4, the ship's surgical droid, with the assistance of MD-2, the anesthesia/life monitor droid. A limited supply of replacement limbs and prosthetics are on hand, and more can be assembled with 24 hours notice. These replacements are primarily functional — they do not appear organic.

The medical lab is not particularly specialized, but able to handle routine pathological investigations. The lab is run by MD-1 with occasional consultation with MD-2 and MD-3.

Brig. The security detention facility (brig) is able to retain up to thirty-six prisoners at a time — up to seventy-two if the prisoners are crowded in. While not as impenetrable as a full security wing, it is still quite secure, with remote-activated locks and multiple security cameras. It is currently empty.

Forward Second Section

Officers' Quarters. Officers' quarters are not luxurious, but they are far less crowded than crew quarters. Junior officers share quarters (two to a room). Senior officers have their own small room to themselves. Each officers' room has a small entertainment console and a limited-function autochef, able to dispense hot and cold beverages and a selection of pre-packaged hot or cold meals.

Guest Quarters. Guest quarters are functionally the same as officers' quarters.

Aft Second Section

Officers' Mess. The officers' mess is where officers can share a communal meal. Captain Kenit required all senior officers to join him for dinner (stiff, formal and unpleasant affairs) but Vedij found this annoying and while he still holds a nightly officers' dinner it is now an informal social occasion, one which Vedij himself only rarely attends. The junior officers eat as dictated by their watches, usually after the senior officers.

Officers' Lounge. This is a small social area used for communal entertainment, fast meals and occasional sabaac games. Kenit found sabaac a tiresome game (he was, in fact, spectacularly bad at it), and forbade officers and crew from playing it, but a regular game sprang up shortly after the mutiny. The lounge also has a fully functional autochef.

Forward Third Section

Main Bridge. The bridge is the command station and the locus of information and order relaying. Each of the bridge stations can override its section controls, with their section head's rank cylinder. The Captain has the ability to override all ship functions from the bridge by using the Captain's rank cylinder. This is intended to limit the effectiveness of capturing a ship and reduce the odds of a successful mutiny; Captain Kenit was overpowered before he could reach the bridge.

Bridge Stations

Operations Station. At this station, the Operations Officer can patch into nearly any ship controls, issue lockout commands and communicate with any section control station. While it is possible to access ship's controls from here, only one system can be accessed at a time and it is generally more efficient to patch in at a dedicated station or the main section controls.

Sensors Station. The sensors station has a direct link to sensor reports as they feed into the sensor computer, relays sensor orders, and directs and monitors scanning modes. Only one scanning mode can be compiled at a time.

Communications Station. The communication station can patch directly into the communications arrays. The comm operator is responsible for internal communications and external short- and long-range communications. Routine transmissions can be routed from the bridge, but secure transmissions are made from the primary comm section.

Gunnery Station. The gunnery station is primarily a command relay point. (Orders for coordinated fire can be relayed in one round.)

Security Station. The security station on the bridge is a coordination center for boarding actions, boarder repelling, riot suppression, and other activities involving the ship's troops.

Deflector Station. The deflector station relays shield-switching orders from the bridge.

Engineering Operations Station. This is a monitoring station for situation reports. Almost all actual controls for engineering are in the engineering section, in the propulsion module.

Helm Station. The helm controls the ship's primary and lateral thrust in realspace. This control can be overridden in engineering. Helm also engages the hyperspace motivators, on the astrogator's release.

Astrogation Station. This station is where the ship's astrogator calculates hyperspace jumps, with the aid of the ship's navigation computer. The astrogator then relays the calculation to the helm and releases the hyperspace motivator for use.

Power Systems Station. This station is primarily a relay and monitoring station, although system-to-system power switching can be controlled from here in an emergency.

Life Support Station. Also a relay and monitoring station, with override controls. From here the station controller can shut off ships' deck gravity, air or water, and open or close any hatch. This is a damage control station, responsible for fire and life support resource control during combat.

Officers' Ready Rooms. The ready rooms are the administrative centers for officers. All of the command module section officers have ready rooms in this area.

Optional Rule: Power Control

"More power to shields!" "Route additional power to main guns."

Although the Star Wars films refer to power switching and rerouting available power, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game has downplayed this mechanic in order to maintain simplicity. A gamemaster interested in increasing the level of technical detail can use the following rules.

A ship has enough power available to run all of its systems simultaneously, and has enough carrying capacity to channel up to an additional +2D to any system, rerouted from any other system. This power is in raw form, and has no benefit to computer systems, like the navigational computer or targeting systems. It might be able to boost communications range or active sensor scans.

In addition, power is commonly routed from an inactive system to an active one, and from non-firing weapons to firing weapons.

For example, the Far Orbit is in an exchange with another escort frigate. Captain Vedij orders extra power routed to the main weapons and shields. Power Control takes this power from the ship's two tractor beams with 4D of power each — 8D of additional power to be divided among the 12 main turbolasers. Power Control allocates 1D to each forward turbolaser and 1D+2 to the forward shields, leaving +1 left over and of no benefit to any system.

As the enemy ship passes the Far Orbit on the right in the exchange, power control switches the extra power from the forward turbolasers to the right arc weapons and shields. The 8D are distributed differently this time, with 1D+2 going to each of the three right turbolasers, for a total of 5D (3D straight over with 2D getting split into 6 pips) and 1D+2 going to the shields. The remaining 1D+1 goes either to waste in the power buffer or gets routed to some other system.

The power controller might have routed power from the left arc shields or weapons, but that would have meant that the left arc would be with little or no defenses to fend off surprises from that side of the ship. Starfighters with shields do this occasionally, switching shield power to a particular side the pilot expects to come under heavy fire.

Please note that ships moving All-Out (at the highest rate of speed) cannot fire or maneuver, and may not be able to use shields, at the gamemaster's discretion; this can be chalked up to routing all available power to the engines.

Transferring power is a demanding task, and carries some built-in difficulties. Use the following as benchmark difficulty numbers:

Power switching takes time, however. When the shield operator rolls as indicated above, compare the result to the table below:

Armory. The ships' armory is kept firmly in the physical control of the officers. Only the senior officers' rank cylinders will open the armory — a heavily armored room with blaster pistols, blaster rifles, light repeating blasters, munitions, and all other boarding weapons safely tucked away under security lock (Very Difficult security roll to open without the appropriate rank cylinder).

Fourth Section

Power Control. Power control has the routine duty of regulating power flow to all sections and making sure the power is "clean" (uncontaminated by frequency irregularities). In combat, power control switches energy flow (according to combat priority) and handles backup and emergency power in the event the energy lines from the propulsion module are cut or extra power is required.

Emergency Batteries. The emergency batteries provide additional power under combat conditions and emergency power to the command module or subsections should it be cut off from main power.

Fifth Section

Life Support. This is the control center for the ship's air, water and gravity. Life support has the duty of making sure that air and water flows through their respective channels unimpeded and that gravity is uniform on every deck (to within .05 Gs). Life support also has hatch override control, with a higher priority than security's override. If a fire should break out, life support extinguishes it by sealing the compartment and allowing the oxygen to be consumed.

Water Reclamation Station. Very little of a ship's projected consumable air and water is actually kept on board. Every ship must recycle its air and water thousands of times, using water filtration and air-scrubbing units. Nebulon-Bs have an excellent recycling station, with a 99.5% efficiency rating, purifying hundreds of kilograms of air and water every day. Under normal conditions a Nebulon-B can last on its air and water for up to two years before the supplies dwindle. The Far Orbit has sufficient air, water and recycling supplies for another year and a half, although the food supplies are much lower.

Sixth Section

Sensors. The sensors are the eyes and ears of any ship. This section houses the sensor computer, technicians and operators. The computer correlates, reports and records all sensor data. Using the information acquired, the computer can make sophisticated analysis on a wide variety of subjects.

Forward and Aft Sensor Units. A Nebulon-B has an excellent sensor unit, with one of the most powerful and sensitive long-range scanning ratings in the Imperial fleet. The sensors units have a full range of sensors from standard electro-photo receptors, full-spectrum transceivers, dedicated energy receptors, and lifeform indicators to more exotic crystal gravfield traps and hyperwave signal interceptors, used for specialized long-range scans. The crystal gravfield traps (CGTs) are used to detect stealthy ships and dark objects at long range, while the hyperwave signal interceptors (HSI) is able to detect a ship entering or exiting hyperspace and at what vector. Astrogation can then, possibly, calculate the ship's heading. The HSI is also useful for intercepting hypertransceiver and subspace transceiver signals, which are recorded and passed on to P-Com for decryption.

Seventh Section

Primary Weapons. Although the ship's weapons are spread all over the ship, this is the primary weapons section, by virtue of having the most guns and being the first guns to receive targeting sensor data. These are, therefore, the lead forward-firing weapons on board. The other forward-firing weapons follow their fire. This section also houses the main weapon power processing units, targeting computers and central blaster gas tanks. All the guns operate on battery power and with their own reserve of blaster gas, and would continue to operate if this area were destroyed. However, detonating the blaster gas tanks would result in a phenomenal explosion. This section is accordingly very well-armed.

Boom Module

Docking Bay One. This docking bay is used to land small freighters and shuttles on board for unloading into the command module. The bay is equipped with a launch/land tractor beam, allowing pilots to avoid a tricky hover-up and land maneuver. Some of the ship's shuttlecraft, including the captain's shuttle, are stored in a forward section of the bay. The bay can be a tight fit, and wide craft are docked using the docking tubes.

Access Corridor. This is the only walkway from the command module to the propulsion module. The corridor is only one deck deep in the center of the boom module and very heavily armored to reduce the chances of an open-vacuum breach. Still, it remains a tempting target for attackers.

Docking Tubes. The docking tubes are used to provide access to docking shuttles and freighters too large to fit into the docking bay. There are two tubes, one forward and one aft of the central access corridor.

Docking Bay Two. This docking bay is very similar to Docking Bay One. It is used to unload supplies to the propulsion module and as a repair bay.

Propulsion Module

Deflector Generator. The Far Orbit has a standard Delphus JC-671 shield projector, housed off the propulsion module to remove the assorted threats presented by the unit. Deflector generators are very powerful, and the shield system absorbs tremendous amounts of energy in a ship-to-ship exchange. As a priority target with a tendency to explode when breached, the deflector section is kept off the main body of the ship.

Engineering Quarters. Very similar to the forward quarters, for both crew and officers. These quarters are perhaps slightly grimier and more cluttered from the lubricants, parts and tools the engineers bring back to quarters. The deflector crew is also housed in this area, for combat readiness.

Hyperspace Motivator. Nebulon-Bs are propelled through hyperspace with a military-grade motivator from Aether Hypernautics, an independent corporation that subcontracts to KDY for much of its cash flow.

Fuel Tanks. The fuel tanks carry two years of fuel for the seven realspace engines and hyperspace motivator. This is a high-priority target in a to-the-death ship action, and the tanks and housings are constructed out of high-grade quadranium to prevent breaches.

Engines. There are seven high-efficiency KDY engines propelling the ship and providing ship's power. These engines are not tremendously powerful — the ship has only a relative space speed of four units per cycle — but they are fast enough to push her into combat.

Main Engineering. This is the control and monitoring center of the ship. All ship's primary functions can be controlled from here with the engineer's rank cylinder, although the engineer's cylinder is third in priority after the captain and operations officer.

Main Reactor. The reactor converts fuel into energy for use in the engines. For safety reasons, the reactor is housed at the very bottom of the propulsion module, outside the ship's gravity well. In the event of a reactor core meltdown, the unit would only burn through the outer hull, not through any intervening decks. If the generator does start to go critical, engineering can shut it down with a Moderate capital ship repair roll or eject it on a Difficult roll.

Static Discharge Vanes. These vanes are used to bleed off any dangerous energy build-ups in the engines. They are not necessary for daily operation, only under certain conditions, such as combat or ion storms. If somehow lost the engines might wind up building dangerous amounts of energy, causing a reactor meltdown (assuming the fuel system doesn't explode first).

Bulkheads. Any main wall, external or internal, is a bulkhead. Exterior bulkheads are the hull (Body Strength 3D+2, capital-scale). Areas shaded in to indicate heavy armor plating may, at the gamemaster's discretion, be considered more resistant to damage (armored hull has Body Strength of 4D+2 capital-scale). Interior armored bulkheads and blast doors are also hull-grade (Body Strength 3D+2, capital-scale). Other interior bulkheads and hatches are lightly armored (Body Strength 3D+2, starfighter-scale).

Turbolifts. Turbolifts are indicated on the map. These high-speed lifts can transport passengers from deck to deck in as little as one round if not stopped to load new passengers. The turbolifts can be overridden by an officer's rank cylinder to force it to ignore calls. The turbolifts are not continuous and not every deck is serviced, for security reasons. Much deck-to-deck traffic is done via vertical hatches equipped with ladders.

Operational Concerns

There are many reasons why this ship, crew and mission should fail. Some are purely a matter of the challenges of daily operation of a combat starship under current circumstances.

Supplies. The Far Orbit is under-supplied. Although it has up to two year's worth of basic supplies — air, water and fuel — it only has four month's worth of cruising rations — concentrated food and medical supplies.

Crew. A standard Nebulon-B is crewed by 854 deckhands and officers, plus 66 gunners and 75 troops. It can be skeleton-crewed by a skilled crew of 307 for a short period.

As of its arrival at Starforge Station the Far Orbit had 380 with 25 gunners; enough to operate the ship but hardly enough to enter combat. With the addition of hands from the station the crew swelled to 427 deckhands and 49 gunners. The lack of crew is a serious concern; some areas are sealed off and mothballed because there aren't enough crew to justify using the space.

In some cases this is fine; the TIE flight deck isn't needed, as there are no TIEs on board. In other cases this is serious — the Far Orbit doesn't have enough life support technicians and the section has had to rely on droids and rationing. Even with the new crew, maintenance is lax. The lack of crew is reflected by increased difficulty of repairing or modifying the ship and all other group efforts (+5 to all group efforts until the crew is increased to at least 683; then difficulty is increased by +3 until the ship is fully crewed).

There is another concern with the crew. With the addition of pirates to the mutineers, Vedij has a potentially explosive mix of treacherous and well-armed hands all around him.

Intelligence. The Far Orbit was once part of the vast Imperial military intelligence network. Once Kenit, the former captain of the Far Orbit, was reunited with the Imperial Navy, all local and cross-Imperial codes were ordered changed. Within 60 days of Kenit's reunion with Imperial forces, the entire Outer Rim had its codes changed, either in response to the Far Orbit mutiny or the Battle of Yavin.

In the Core Worlds, these codes are only now being altered. The Far Orbit may still be able to tap into classified Imperial transmissions for weeks. Even then, the basic encryption algorithms will take a while to be changed. The Far Orbit can try to decode Imperial messages with no penalty and can automatically tap into Imperial frequencies at up to the Very Difficult level. Luckily, the Far Orbit may be able to take advantage of the complacency of local ships and Imperial branches to cooperate and provide some information as well, if the players bluff well, at least for a while.

Combat Issues

Weapons. The Far Orbit's weapons consists of twelve turbolaser batteries, twelve light laser cannons, and two combat tractor beams. The turbolaser batteries and light laser cannons feed off the same power systems and blaster gas tanks, although they run off independent power cells and gas tanks for combat (to limit the impact of destroying a gun emplacement; this does not prevent weapon damage as per the rules on p. 128-129 of the main rules from occurring, just from being worse).

Optional Rule: Ship Location Targeting

Raiders (and military vessels) occasionally have to use full-power energy weapons against a target (if they don't have ion cannons, for example). This is quite dangerous, since these weapons might accidentally destroy the prize. To avoid this, gunners may choose to "call a shot" — target a particular location on a ship. This is harder than just hammering away at the enemy ship. Also, a higher-scale weapon cannot target a location on a lower scale target — for example, a capital scale ship can target a capital ship's engine's, but not a starfighter's engines. In the same way, a starfighter can target another starfighter's engines or a capital ship's bridge, but not a walker's legs or head.

Targeting a primary section of a ship (the conning tower of a Star Destroyer, the engines, the landing bay, the main body) adds +2D to the difficulty to hit. Targeting a sub-section of a ship (a gun battery, a particular engine, the shield generators, the command section,) adds +4D to the difficulty to hit. Targeting a specific location of a ship (a specific gun, the bridge, a maneuvering thruster, an engines thermal exhaust port) adds +8D to the difficulty to hit.

Damage should be worked out normally. The specific results should be determine by the gamemaster using the normal starship damage results guidelines.

In general, a lightly damaged location loses -1D or -1 Move, a heavily damaged location loses -2D or -2 Move, a severely damaged location is disabled and unable to perform its function, and a destroyed result indicates that the location has suffered catastrophic damage (this may mean that the engines have overloaded, or that a gun explodes, setting off a chain reaction of gun explosions). Targeting locations doesn't guarantee that a ship will be simply disabled, but it does increase the odds of capturing a ship with minimal damage.

The turbolasers are the main anti-capital ship weapons. They are not overwhelmingly powerful, but can be quite dangerous if used in tandem. The laser cannons are underpowered and should be used together if expected to be effective.

The tractor beams run off main power, and require no expendable fuel. They have an effectively limitless "ammunition" supply. They are used to secure a ship and reel it in for increased fire control or boarding. While the two main combat tractor beams are forward-facing, the Far Orbit also has several cargo and docking tractor beams — one in each docking bay, one in the boarding bay, and one in the TIE flight deck. These require a crew of 3 each, use the capital ship gunnery skill, fire control 2D, space range 1-2/5/-, damage 2D. They are ordinarily used to fasten a docking ship, reel in shuttles, and launch or land TIEs, and also in ship-to-ship boarding actions to secure a ship that has been brought alongside.

Defenses. The Far Orbit is externally armored all over her hull, in some places quite thickly. In addition to this armor, she has a particle-shielding charge running through her hull, bringing her up to combat capacity and defending her from damage by common space debris. This basic armor and shielding is supplemented by a Delphus JC-671 deflector shield generator, able to partially guard the ship from incoming fire.

Equipment

The Far Orbit has a wide variety of military and naval equipment. Engineering does not suffer from lack of tools, nor does sick bay want for surgical supplies. The full inventory of equipment available on the Far Orbit would take up pages. The gamemaster should allow the players to have any reasonable equipment that can be expected to be available on a deep-space military escort ship.

Armory

The armory is not heavily stocked with ultra-powerful weapons. There is a good selection of small arms suitable for boarding actions and low-intensity planetary landings. The armory can only be accessed by senior officers with a rank cylinder. Breaking into the armory is a Very Difficult task.

50 BlasTech DL-18 Blaster Pistols
Type: Blaster pistols
Ammo: 100
Range: 3-10/30/120
Damage: 4D
Game Notes: These sidearms are issued only to officers.

100 Stormtrooper Two Blaster Carbines
Type: Blaster carbines
Ammo: 100
Range: 3-25/50/250
Damage: 5D
Game Notes: +5 to difficulties at long range.

10 Light Repeating Blasters
Model: BlasTech Light Repeating Blaster
Type: Repeating blaster
Scale: Character
Skill: Blaster: repeating blaster
Ammo: 300
Cost: 1,500 credits
Availability: 2, R

50 Fragmentation Grenades
Skill: Grenade
Ranges: 3-7/20/40
Blast Radius: 0-2/4/6/10
Damage: 5D/4D/3D/2D

25 Stun Grenades
Model: Merr-Sonn Stun Grenade
Type: Stun grenade
Skill: Grenade
Ranges: 0-8/16/25
Blast Radius: 0-2/20/40
Damage: 6D/5D/3D (stun)
Game Notes: This stun grenade is a multi-target effective stunner, originally designed for riot control. The stun grenade can be reused, but only holds one charge at a time.

5 Kilograms Thermite Gel
Model: Gatrellis Plasticene Thermite Cube
Type: Controlled pyrotechnic explosive
Scale: Character
Skill: Demolitions
Cost: 1,000 per kilogram
Availability: 2, X
Damage: 20D for a full kilogram; 2D per hundred grams
Game Notes: Used to burn through hulls. The gel can be ignited by remote relay. Thermite gel can be shaped, molded, or stretched, and a full kilo can cover up to 20 square centimeters. The gel burns for 3 rounds.

Optional Rule: Shielding in Combat

Shield operators are not generally paid much attention in the existing rules. The following rules may make this critical position more interesting.

If shield dice are lost due to a "shields blown" result on the starship damage table, the shields may overload; the shield operators in the deflector module must compensate or risk further damage. Roll 1D per shield lost to determine how difficult it is to shunt the shield overload into the static power buffer (the attempt uses the capital ship shields skill).

If successful the energy is transferred to the static buffer and discharged, resulting in nothing more serious than ionization of controls (unless the discharge vanes have been destroyed, in which case engineering has a problem). Controls ionized result is serious, but recoverable.

If unsuccessful, or if the discharge vanes are not operational, the shields overload; roll the number of shield dice lost against the ship's hull dice. The result is taken as normal damage as the energy shoots through connected systems. If a critical failure occurs (a 1 on the Wild Die) or if the starship damage table result indicates "shields lost" the shield module itself explodes.

Support Craft

The Far Orbit had several shuttles in its craft complement; most of these were used to put off loyalist crew or ship-jumpers. The remaining two shuttles were retained for their suitability in boarding actions. Both the Grek-class troop shuttle and Katarn-class boarding shuttle are in good repair and have full consumables pods at the beginning of the campaign. Ship's stores has one week's operating consumables for each shuttle.

Grek-class Troop Shuttle
Craft: Corellian Engineering Grek-class troop shuttle
Type: Ship-to-ship troop shuttle
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 30 meters
Skill: Space transports: Grek shuttle
Crew: 2
Crew Skill:
Space transports 4D
starship gunnery 4D
Passengers: 50
Cargo Capacity: 500 kilograms
Cost: 18,000 (used)
Consumables: 1 day
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 6
Atmosphere: 330; 950 kmh
Hull: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 15/0D
Scan: 30/1D
Search: 50/3D
Focus: 2/3D+2
Weapons:
Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 4D

Capsule: The Grek-class troop shuttle is used by several space defense forces, including the Imperial Navy, for non-combat troop shuttling and general cargo hauling. The Grek shuttle is also occasionally used as a boarding shuttle, if an dedicated combat shuttle is unavailable. Greks are available on the open market.

Katarn-class Boarding Shuttle
Craft: Rendili StarDrive's Katarn-class boarding shuttle
Type: Boarding shuttle
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 28 meters
Skill: Space transports: Katarn shuttle
Crew: 2; gunners 1
Crew Skill:
Space transports 4D
starship gunnery 4D
Passengers: 50
Cargo Capacity: 500 kilograms
Cost: 55,000 (used)
Consumables: 1 day
Maneuverability: 1D+2
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1050 kmh
Hull: 5D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 10/0D
Scan: 20/1D
Search: 40/2D
Focus: 2/3D
Weapons:
Double Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D
Plasma Torch Boarding Device
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Crew: 2
Range: 4 meters
Damage: 8D

*Note: The plasma torch boarding device is mounted on a ship's airlock system. The controls are just inside the main airlock. The extendible plasma torch quickly cuts through the prize's hull. Roll the target ship's hull -2D; if the torch's roll scores at least a "lightly damaged" result, it has breached the hull. Once the hull is breached, the torch requires a full minute to cut a one-meter-wide by two-meter-high hole. The extendible boarding tube attaches to the hull and forms an airtight seal in 30 seconds.

Capsule: Rendili StarDrive's Katarn-class boarding shuttle is intended to quickly move troops to boarding actions. While the Katarn lacks the heavy arms and armor of the spacetrooper Gamma-class assault shuttle, it can hold its own in a combat zone.

The Katarn is designed as a boarding shuttle and features a nose-end beading airlock. The ship rams a prize, seals the airlock to its hull, and launches a boarding party through the hull in as little as two minutes.

---

Ship's Articles

To all officers, crew, civilians, and passengers of the Independent Frigate FAR ORBIT: the following ship's articles replace the Imperial Military Code and Regulations and must be observed at all times and without question.

1. OFFICERS AND VOTES. The captain of the FAR ORBIT is Dhas Vedij. All officers shall be appointed by the captain, except for the shareout committee, which shall be elected by the crew. During any period where the FAR ORBIT is not in immediate danger, any officer may call for votes on matters unsettled by these Articles. The final determination on whether or not the ship is in danger resides solely with the Captain. Every officer and crew member shall have a vote when votes are called for, and equal share of provisions found during the course of our activities.

2. SHAREOUT. All booty shall be doled out fairly, under the watch of a group of seven shipmates selected by the crew. The Captain, Operations Officer, Engineer, Weapons Officer, and public stock shall have two shares, other officers one and a half shares, and all other crew one share each. Defrauding the crew shall be punished by marooning.

3. DISTRACTIONS. No gambling, intoxicants or other distractions shall be undertaken while personnel are on duty. Failure to comply with this Article is punishable by forfeiture of share.

4. READINESS. Weapons and vacuum suits will be kept clean and serviceable at all times. Failure to comply with this article is punishable by forfeiture of share.

5. ADDITION OF CREW. No additional crew will be added during the tour once crew strength reaches serviceable levels (in the Captain's sole discretion). Should the crew complement be reduced to skeleton levels, the captain will suspend the tour until the compliment is renewed to fighting strength.

6. DESERTION. Desertion of one's battle station is punishable by marooning or death by spacing, at the vote of the crew.

7. DISPUTES. Duty disputes shall be settled by the section officer or watch commander. Personal disputes are to be settled planetside by duel. No fighting is allowed on board. Failure to comply with this Article is punishable by marooning.

8. DISBANDING. The crew of the FAR ORBIT shall not retire or disband until each of us has shared out 1,000,000 credits and served one Standard year. Those crippled during the tour shall receive 250,000 credits out of the public stock, and those who have suffered other wounds will receive shares paid out proportionately.

9. PRISONERS. Captives will be held safely in the brig or in assigned quarters. Torture or abuse of prisoners is strictly forbidden. Failure to comply with this Article is punishable by imprisonment in the brig or marooning, determined by a crew vote.

10. ALLEGIANCE. The FAR ORBIT is a Privateer under contract to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and will abide by the terms of her Letter of Marque and Reprisal.

By order of Captain Dhas Fenoep Vedij, Master of the Independent Frigate FAR ORBIT

---

Chapter Two: The Ringali Shell

Overview of the Ringali Shell

On the outer edge of the Core Worlds lies the Ringali Nebula, a bright cloud of interstellar gas that dominates the skies of hundreds of worlds in Bormea and Darpa sectors. The two sectors that encompass this impressive nebula are referred to as the Ringali Shell.

These sectors are among the most developed and densely populated in the Empire, most with advanced manufacturing or service economies. These Core Worlds rely on resource planets in the Outer Rim region for the raw materials needed to support their industries, but only a fraction of the goods made in these sectors are shipped back the outlying sectors. Most of the Shell's exports are sold to other Core sectors and the Colonies and Expanse regions.

Inhabitants of the Core Worlds are generally wealthy in the material sense, although not necessarily rich. Most inhabitants of the Core have access to goods and services rare or unheard of in the Outer Rim, and can live a life littered with opportunity. Even the poorest human Coreworlder can expect to have regular meals and basic shelter, due to healthy economy, system government programs, charity organizations, or corporate weal. Aliens in the Core, especially on human-dominated worlds, live markedly different lives, however.

There are hundreds of worlds in the Ringali Shell. Some are terrestrial planets with vast populations, others are small, developed satellites, and still others are dull, backspace settlements. (Gamemasters can be sure that every inhabitable world has been settled and that most tolerable moons have at least a token outpost. The Core is brimming with inhabitants and the Shell is no exception.)

Jump Zones

All systems in the Ringali Shell have multiple charted jump zones. A jump zone is a set of coordinates used to safely arrive and depart a system. These zones are kept clear of debris by local system patrols, and visited as briefly as possible to reduce the risk of a collision with other incoming ships.

Ringali systems with high traffic have differentiated jumps zones for commercial, military, super-container, private, and corporate ships. Very few ships arrive elsewhere; to do so is too dangerous for most captains to risk.

While it is possible to jump to any position in a system — as close as planetary orbit — only military and illegal vessels do so, and even then it is fantastically dangerous. Regular commercial and private ships file flight plans to maximize the odds of arriving safely in their assigned jump zone.

The transit from zone to orbit can be anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours, depending on local charts, traffic and Imperial Survey Corps updates. A zone might be as little as 50 spacial units from orbit, or up to 2,000 or more units distant. Brentaal, for example, has jump zones as far away as three days travel from orbit at standard speed for a x2 hyperdrive.

Once a ship arrives in a jump zone, it may take several minutes to calculate jump coordinates. Many ships calculate their hyperspace jump while en route to the jump point, although all starports in the Shell offer navigation calculation services (for a small fee) and most corporate ships have their jumps pre-calculated by the company traffic control computers.

Gamemaster Note: The Far Orbit is not immune to these dangers, but shouldn't be frequenting the busiest sections of system traffic anyway — there's no place to hide and the presence of a Nebulon-B frigate will be noticed by dozens of ships. The best place to take on a freighter is in the deepest sections of a system's jump zones and out in deep space — in the void between systems, where the space lane traffic is thinnest.

Ringali Shell Target Corporations

The ships, cargoes, and space-born property of the following Ringali Shell governments and corporations are considered legitimate targets for Alliance Privateers:

All ships and properties of the Imperial Navy, COMPNOR, or Imperial government, and subsidiary Bormea and Darpa sector governments.

(C) = Corporation, (S) = System government.

Aether Hypernautics. (C) Hyperdrive manufacturer; Contractor or subcontractor for several classified Imperial military projects. Provides military-grade hyperdrives to the Imperial Navy. Known to be pushing the edges of hypernautic technology and seeking to produce a .1 military hyperdrive motivator. Works closely with Sienar Fleet Systems. Headquarters: Corulag.

Cambrielle SolidState. (C) Manufacturer of a wide variety of power cells; Provides Imperial military power cells. Headquarters: Ralltiir.

Caldrahlsen Mechanicals. (C) Manufacturer of third degree droids; Producer of the C4LR litigation droids and Imperial interrogation droids. Caldrahlsen's C4LR litigation droids are commonly used by COMPNOR's Progress Coalition Justice branch to bolster Justice's policy of Imperial legal infallibility. Headquarters: Esseles.

Corulag. (S) The House of Citizens of Corulag is a strong and vigorous supporter of the Galactic Empire, hosting several pro-Imperial corporations and the Corulag Imperial Military Academy.

Danth Artifice, Ltd. (C) Developer of droid personality matrixes; Major interface programming subcontractor for Arakyd Corp. Headquarters: Corulag.

Esseles. (S) Supporter of the Empire, host of Terril Naval Base, the primary support base for the sector Star Destroyers.

Gwain Spices. (C) Spice producer, buyer, importer, and seller; operates under Imperial license, the fees for which are funneled directly into Imperial intelligence and COMPNOR budgets, supplies potent spice to Imperial intelligence agencies. Headquarters: Corulag.

Gowix Computers. (C) Primarily a commercial manufacturer of home and corporate computer systems; Provides no direct support to the Empire, however, Gowix is a TaggeCo (q.v.) subsidiary. Headquarters: Corulag.

Les Tech. (C) Droid manufacturer; manufacturer of Imperial scout droids, often in conjunction with Danthe Artifice. Headquarters: Brentaal.

Sienar Fleet Systems (SFS). (C) Starship and starfighter construction; Although Santhe/Sienar Technologies is based on Lianna, a non-Ringali world, Sienar Fleet Systems maintains a major research and development complex on Corulag, near Dammon University. SFS works closely with Aether Hypernautics, designer of the compact hyperdrive in Sienar's Skipray blastboats.

Sienar Intelligence Systems (SIS). (C) Droid programming (personality matrix, SkillWare and TraitWare) developer; A fast-growing arm of Santhe/Sienar Technologies, SIS works with Les Tech to develop new military and other Imperial government droids.

In addition, the following corporations might also be encountered operating in the Ringali Shell. Any ships owned by or carrying their cargoes are legitimate targets:

Arakyd Corp. Produces weapons and droids systems for the Empire. Currently absorbing Danthe Artifice.

BlasTech Corp. Czerka Weapons. Blethern Gas Industries. Norsam Corp. Munitions and weapons systems suppliers to the Imperial Military.

Chiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company and subsidiaries; GeneTech Laboratories, Corellian Chemical Corp. (CorChemCo), Chiewab Nutrition, Degan Explorations, and The Vernan Group. Manufacturers of various pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, surgical systems, chemicals, and nutritional supplements. Supplies Imperial military.

Consolidated Learning Systems. Supplies computer systems to Imperial military.

Corporate Sector Authority; ships of. The Corporate Sector Authority is a strong supporter and supplier of the Galactic Empire and routinely ships cargoes through the Ringali Shell.

DefenStar Ltd. One of the largest defense shield and orbital defense systems manufacturers in the galaxy. Supplies Imperial military.

Drearian Defense Conglomerate. Special munitions manufacturer to the Empire.

Drever Corp. Small arms and tool manufacturer. Supplies the Phoenix Plasma Punch, a boarding tool, to Imperial Customs.

Dweomilis Advisory Foundation. Think tank and policy advisory company. Works in tandem with several military suppliers and developers, including several in the Ringali Shell.

Dynacorp. Arakyd probot subcontractor. Works with Danthe Artifice.

Fabritech, Inc. Sensor and controls systems manufacturer, supplies Imperial military. Contracts and subcontracts for Santhe/Sienar and Sienar Fleet Systems.

Gastess Finance, Inc. Economic pirates, indirectly supplies slave labor for Imperial workforce by bankrupting planetary economies. Consults with COMPNOR on the financial "reconstruction" of Ralltiir.

Hydrospeare Corp. Manufactures Imperial water vehicles. Design center: Kailor V

I'att Armaments. Major munitions supplier to the Imperial Army. Headquarters: Druckenwell.

Imperial Droid Corporation. Assembled from four Mid-Rim droid manufacturers (Banche Tech, Cencil Corporation, Reiber Manufacturing, and SFI Systems), IDC manufactures combat, assassin and other military droids. Routinely develops projects with Danthe Artifice and Sienar Intelligence Systems.

Imperial HoloVision, TriNebulon News, Nova Network. Distributors of pro-Imperial propaganda.

Imperial Meats and Produce. An Imperialized food production corporation. Headquarters: Tyed Kant

Imperial Mining Corp. Imperial corporation with branch offices in several sectors. Headquarters: Coruscant, branch offices in several sectors, including receiving and distribution yards in the Brentaal system.

Incom Corp. The new Incom management is Imperial-friendly and actively designing starfighters to compete with the Y-wing and X-wing designs.

Kessel Spice Corporation. The Imperial administrating force of the infamous Spice Mines of Kessel. Supplies Gwain Spice with glitterstim. Headquarters: Kessel.

Kuat Drive Yards (KDY). Major shipwright of the Imperial Navy. Headquarters: Kuat.

MerenData. Droid and security system manufacturer. Supplies Imperial military and interrogation droids and targeting drones.

Merr-Sonn Mil/Sci. Heavy weapons, armor, siege equipment, military gear. Subsidiaries: Merr-Sonn Munitions, MerrWeapons, Merr-Sonn Industrial Equipment.

Mining Guild. Supplier of Imperial raw material, ecological ravager and slave-labor user. Operates distribution center on Brentaal.

Nen-Carvon Corporation. Imperial combat vehicle manufacturer.

Nebula Consumables. An Imperial military food supplier. Headquarters: Tyed Kant

Rythani Products. Manufacturing subcontractor for Imperial AT-AT, AT-ST, and other combat vehicles. Headquarters: Rydonni Prime

Santhe/Sienar Technologies and subsidiaries: Santhe Passenger and Freight, Curich Engineering, Sienar Fleet Systems, Sienar Intelligence Systems. Research, development and manufacture of several Imperial military systems and technologies, notably the TIE fighter. WARNING: Has state-of-the-art, military-quality defense systems. Headquarters: Lianna.

Silviut Corporation. Designer of Imperial stealth-equipped ships.

Snedarl Electronics. Imperial electronics equipment contractor.

Shanki Drive Works. Designer and producer of hyperdrive systems for the Imperial Navy. Occasionally works with Aether Hypernautics. Headquarters: Demophon.

SoroSuub Corp. One of the largest manufacturers and retailers in the Galaxy and enslaver of their homeworld, Sullust, for the Empire. Headquarters: Sullust.

The Tagge Company (TaggeCo). Owner of Bonadan Industries, Tagge Mining Company, GalResource Industries, Mobquet Swoops and Speeders, Trast Heavy Transports, Gowix Computers (R), the Tagge Restaurant Association, which owns the Biscuit Baron chain and several macro-farms. Major supplier to the Imperial Governments, COMPNOR and the Corporate Sector.

TransGalMeg Industries, Inc. A manufacturing megacorporation. Headquarters: Demophon.

Ubrikkian Speeders. Imperial combat vehicle manufacturer.

Zone Supplies, Ltd. Produces security systems for the Imperial Army.

Some of these corporations ship their own products in company ships, but most rely on second party shippers. The largest shipping concerns operate vast fleets of container ships, transports and freighters, and routinely contract small, local transport companies to distribute to secondary systems. 90% of all commercial shipping in the Ringali Shell goes through three megacorporations:

Red Star Shipping Lines. Red Star is a dominating commercial shipper in the Core and Colony regions, dealing primarily with corporate cargo. Maintains a major hub in the Brentaal system.

Santhe Passenger and Freight (SP&F). Santhe is one of the last passenger/freight lines, shipping both sentients and cargo in the same vessels, generally for cross-regional transit. SP&F also operates divided passenger and freighter ships for local service, and has a division devoted to sensitive cargoes; Imperial, system government, military, and classified cargoes of both the corporate and governmental varieties. SP&F's range is Empire-wide, and operates hundreds of hubs, including three space platforms in the Brentaal system and a major office on Brentaal's surface. A subsidiary of an Imperial support corporation, SP&F is also a direct target for Alliance privateers.

Xizor Transport Systems (XTS). Xizor Transport is an Empire-ranging immense shipping megacorporation which owns a huge fleet of container ships and courier vessels. XTS concentrates on two main areas; cheap bulk transport and specialized point-to-point delivery. Like its two rivals, XTS controls an orbiting distribution platform and a shipping center and corporate office on Brentaal.

Ringali Shell Gazeteer

The Ringali Shell and the Far Orbit
For the most part, the Far Orbit is expected to spend its time on the fringes of Bormea and Darpa sectors, jumping lonely freighters and dodging system patrols. The crew is only moderately likely to need to land on any of the worlds of the Ringali Shell, using either the frigate's shuttles or a captured ship. They are much more likely to quietly slip onto one of the many space platforms in the systems of the busy Ringali port worlds. However, a brief description of the major Ringali worlds is in order, in case player characters go where they aren't expected to. Only the three most influential worlds in each Ringali Shell are profiled.

Bormea Sector

Bormea sector is the Coreward of the two Ringali Shell sectors. It is a quiet sector, steeped in millennia of history and influence, with the most recent interesting period ending decades ago. Bormea sector Moff Jansom Caglio is a quiet, inoffensive man with no identifiable ambition, who spends most of his time on Coruscant, only a few hours away by x1 hyperdrive. Most of the actual power in the sector lies in the hands of the Imperial Governor of Corulag, Zafiel Snopps. Snopps is much more hard-edged than Caglio, but is more interested in using his official position to build his industrial empire than cracking down on minor infractions of Imperial Code or flexing his political muscles.

Bormea's military is fairly small; the Sector Group consists of two superiority fleets plus attendant deepdock and support fleets, with a single system army comprising the sector ground troops. The sector is classified Passive.

Corulag

Corulag is, in many ways, the perfect Imperial world — low crime rates, primarily human population, placid, industrious, productive, and concerned only with its own affairs. The planet's surface is predominantly urban, ranging from thick skyscraper forests to labyrinths of shopping zones and quiet residential zones.

Corulag is home to Aether Hypernautics, Danth Artifice Limited, Gwain Spices, Gowix Computers, sister corporations Sienar Fleet Systems and Sienar Intelligence Systems, and the Corulag Imperial Military Academy, which houses both Army and Navy undergraduate and graduate programs. Corulag's largest moon hosts a branch Navy training facility.

The ancient ruling body of Corulag, the House of Citizens, is entirely compliant to the will of Imperial Governor Zafiel Snopps, who is fortunately more interested in maintaining the system's economy than in political reform.

Corulag
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Urban
Length of Day: 25 standard hours
Length of Year: 371 local days
Sentient Species: Human
Starport: Imperial class
Population: 15 billion
Planet Function: Administration/corporate headquarters
Government: Imperial governor
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: High tech, luxury goods
Major Imports: Raw materials, foodstuffs

Chandrila

Chandrila contrasts with its sister Bormean worlds in many ways. Although urban, Chandrila prides itself on its balance of developed areas and tended agriculture and agriforest zones. Although most of the planet is developed for production, the bulk of this developed area is in agricombines, making Chandrila one of the last food exporters in the Core, and one of the few with no oxygen factories.

Chandrilans are noted as gardeners and farmers in the midst of the most urbanized sectors of known space, and export rare fresh fruits and vegetables to the finest restaurants and most expensive food services of the Core. Vast agrifarms provide staple grains while the carefully managed park system offers one of the few hunting grounds in the entire Core.

Chandrila
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Dry
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Developed rural
Length of Day: 20 standard hours
Length of Year: 368 local days
Sentient Species: Human
Starport: Stellar class
Population: 1.2 billion
Planet Function: Agriculture
Government: Participatory democracy
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: Foodstuffs
Major Imports: High tech

Brentaal

Brentaal is the crux system of the Perlemian Trading Route and the Hydian Way, making the Brentaal system an ideal transshipment point. The Perlemian Trading Route is a hyperlane from the Core to the Outer Rim, and the Hydian Way is a main hyperlane reaching from the Corporate Sector across the Mid-Core.

The capital planet of the system is Brentaal IV. The planet's eight continents are dominated by cities of warehouses and hectares of landing pads, controlled by a few central offices. Every major shipping corporation has at least a primary branch on Brentaal IV, and many are simply headquartered here.

Brentaal IV produces essentially nothing; all its economic needs are met by trade, warehousing and the byproducts of transshipment. Brentaalan space is thick with ships entering and exiting hyperspace or uploading or droploading shipments from the gravityside warehouses, and space platforms, constantly buzzing with activity — worker droids loading, unloading and transferring cargoes. No ship enters Brentaal space without filing a flight plan — the risk of hyperspace collision is too great for an unscheduled flight.

Of course, this hive of activity is also home to a vast invisible market. Smugglers, thieves and black marketeers find Brentaal a perfect environment for blending their work into the background activity of one of the busiest spaceports in the galaxy.

Brentaal is also home to a huge Imperial Customs office, with one of the largest bodies of customs agents in the Empire, but still with a fairly low agent-to-ship ratio. Customs agents have a vast array of tools, contacts, resources, and the full cooperation and support of the Sector Rangers and assorted Brentaalan police forces, yet a river of smuggled goods still slides through the shipping network each year.

Brentaal
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Dry
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Urban, ocean, mountain
Length of Day: 23 standard hours
Length of Year: 342 local days
Sentient Species: Human
Starport: Imperial class
Population: 65 billion
Planet Function: Trade
Government: Guild
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: All
Major Imports: All

Darpa Sector

Darpa sector is on the border between the Core and the Colonies, and is considered a frontier by stuffy Core World standards. For centuries, the sector was dominated politically and culturally by Esseles, and is still greatly under Esselian sway.

Darpa sector has shown some signs of Rebel activity and a new Moff — Jander Graffe — has been assigned to keep the sector secure. To do this, he ordered the invasion and occupation of Ralltiir to "scour the planet of its Rebel infestation." The other border worlds were outraged, but got the message, and Rebel activity has all but vanished from the region.

Moff Graffe is a dark and twisted man, totally loyal to the Empire and eager to do its work, but he is stymied by the political need to keep the politics of the sector placid and under control.

Darpa sector has a full Sector Group, with three superiority fleets, one assault fleet and complete sector army. Of this, a full superiority force and one line corps is assigned to the Ralltiiran occupation taskforce.

Darpa Sector Border Stations

Darpa Sector possesses a pair of border outposts, located near the Ringali Nebula (along the Darpa-Bormea border). The stations — holdovers from the days when Esseles was the dominant power in the region — now act as rescue outposts and anti-smuggling staging areas. Since the Ringali Nebula is an excellent route for pirates and smugglers to sneak into the Core Worlds, these stations routinely patrol and scan the region.

Both border stations are under the direct command of Esseles' naval bases; in fact, troops stationed on Esseles are often rotated out to border station posts for tours lasting six to eight months.

Station 2LC/Blue

Station 2LC/Blue is considered by Esseles-based Imperial forces as the easier of the two border postings. It is 10 hours (x1 hyperdrive) from Rhinnal, and 16 hours of from Esseles. (The route to 2LC/Blue is a restricted-use hyperspace path; any unauthorized vessels encountered within 100 units of the platform are immediately attacked.) If the station encounters trouble, help is less than a day away.

In addition, the proximity to two Core Worlds means that there is always a supply of fresh food, replacement parts, entertainment packages, and other amenities. Since the Esseles naval base is nearby, Station 2LC/Blue has only a modest force present.

Station 2LC/Blue is a massive space platform, but has one glaring tactical weakness: lack of storage space for consumables and supplies. As a result, cargo pods float in close proximity to the station; when supplies are needed, a cargo tug must be dispatched to bring the pods to the station.

2LC/Blue's primary defenses are formidable: 50 capital-scale turbolasers and 50 more starfighter-scale cannons. In addition, a missile rack (turret mounted) provides extra anti-starfighter capability. Two squadrons of TIE fighters (36 ships in all), a pair of troop transports and a dozen cargo tugs round out the available spacecraft at the station. In addition, capital ships — notably the Victory-class Star Destroyer Scourge, which patrols the sector — frequently stop off at 2LC/Blue to deliver new personnel, replacement starfighters and cargo pods.

Station 2LC/Blue
Craft: Rendili StarDrive's Bavos-I Heavy-duty Military Space Platform
Type: Military space station
Length: 1,300 meters
Crew: 600, gunners: 200, skeleton: 100/+20
Crew Skill:
Capital ship gunnery 6D
capital ship shields 5D
starship gunnery 6D
Passengers: 200 (100 stormtroopers, 100 Imperial Navy troopers)
Cargo Capacity: 50 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hull: 6D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 100/2D
Search: 120/3D
Focus: 5/4D
Weapons:
50 Medium Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 2
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Damage: 5D
50 Anti-starfighter Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: 10 turret, 10 front, 10 left, 10 right, 10 back
Crew: 2
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-2/10/20
Damage: 5D
Concussion Missile Bank (30 missiles, fired from bridge)
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1 (bridge officer)
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-5/15/28
Damage: 6D

SilverWing and GoldWing Squadrons

Two squadrons — 20/181 and 20/604 — maintain patrol in close proximity to station 2LC/Blue. The TIE pilots for the squadrons — nicknamed SilverWing and GoldWing Squadrons — are an arrogant, haughty bunch, but are highly skilled and dangerous foes. The wing commander — Colonel Vel Terno — is a fighter ace with 15 combat kills to his credit. He demands perfection and constantly subjects his pilots to drills and training exercises. As a result, any ship approaching the station are met with alert, battle-ready TIE flights.

Colonel Vel Terno.
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D
KNOWLEDGE 2D
Alien species 5D
Bureaucracy 6D
Intimidation 5D
Law enforcement 5D
Planetary systems 5D
Streetwise 5D
Tactics 4D
Tactics: starfighter 7D
Willpower 5D
MECHANICAL 4D
Astrogation 6D
Repulsorlift operation 6D
Sensors 5D
Starfighter piloting 6D
Starship gunnery 6D
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 6D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 6D
TECHNICAL 3D
Starfighter repair 6D
Character Points: 20
Move: 10
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
Flight suit
Datapad
Comlink

Typical 2LC/Blue TIE Pilot.
DEXTERITY 3D
KNOWLEDGE 2D
Intimidation 4D
Law enforcement 4D
Planetary systems 4D
Streetwise 4D
Tactics 4D
Starfighters 4D+2
MECHANICAL 4D
Astrogation 5D
Repulsorlift operation 5D
Sensors 4D+1
Starfighter piloting 5D
Starship gunnery 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
STRENGTH 3D
TECHNICAL 3D
Character Points: 1-6
Move: 10
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
Flight suit
Datapad
Comlink

Adventure Idea: Raid on 2LC/Blue
2LC/Blue can be a tempting target for the Far Orbit: all of the base's consumables — blaster gas, fresh food, water, medical supplies, and so on — must be shipped in from Esseles and Rhinnal. Typically, these cargo pods are brought to the station by lightly armed bulk transports. Of course, once word reaches the station that shipments are being hijacked by a Nebulon-B, the Far Orbit's masquerade as an Imperial vessel is well and truly ended.
Vedij's best bet is to follow the normal military-access hyperspace route to the station and attempt to convince the station commander that the Far Orbit is carrying replacement personnel. If he is successful, the player characters — disguised as Imperials — must board the station and seize the command center. Once in control of the station's bridge, the characters can activate the interior security bulkheads (sealing the station's personnel in place), giving the Far Orbit enough time to steal fighters and supplies.

Station 1B6/Green

Station 1B6/Green — referred to by her inhabitants as "the Bulwark" — is widely regarded as the most difficult military posting in the sector. The station — a sprawling Bavos-II military space platform — is located 46 hours (x1 hyperdrive travel) from Esseles, on the fringe of the Ringali Nebula. The station is much more isolated than 2LC/Green, and as a result has additional defenses that the smaller platform does not possess.

The Bulwark is protected by a pair of IPV-1 system patrol craft and a Lancer-class frigate. In addition, 1B6/Green has a ring of Imperial Munitions' Type 5 hunter-killer mines, four squadrons of TIE fighters (64 ships in all), a squadron (18 ships) of TIE bombers, dozens of shuttles, cargo tugs, and assault gunboats, and a direct HoloNet node to a support naval base on Esseles.

The Bulwark is viewed as a demanding, difficult post; raiding vessels that use StarForge Station often pass the area that 1B6 controls, and the combat rate in the region is surprisingly high for the Core Worlds.

In addition, the commander of the Victory Star Destroyer Scourge once served as the commanding officer at the Bulwark. As a result, he occasionally "drops in" on the station to make sure all is well.

Station 1B6/Green
Craft: Rendili StarDrive's Bavos-II Heavy-duty Military Space Platform
Type: Military space station
Length: 2,500 meters
Crew: 1,600, gunners: 400, skeleton: 200/+25
Crew Skill:
Capital ship gunnery 6D
capital ship shields 5D
starship gunnery 6D
Passengers: 300 (150 stormtroopers, 150 Imperial Navy troopers)
Cargo Capacity: 300 metric tons
Consumables: 18 months
Hull: 6D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 60/1D
Scan: 150/2D
Search: 200/2D+2
Focus: 5/3D
Weapons:
100 Medium Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 2
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Damage: 5D
100 Anti-starfighter Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: 10 turret, 10 front, 10 left, 10 right, 10 back
Crew: 2
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-2/10/20
Damage: 5D
Three Concussion Missile Banks (30 missiles, fired from bridge)
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1 (bridge officer)
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-5/15/28
Damage: 6D

Imperial Type 5 Mines
Type: Imperial system defense drones
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 5 meters
Cost: 1,200 credits
Hull: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 5/5D
Scan: 5/4D
Weapons:
Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Turret
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/5/10
Damage: 5D
Concussion Missile Launcher (one missile)
Fire Arc: Turret
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-3/15/30
Damage: 9D

Capsule: The Type 5 mine is a stationary drone, with built-in active and passive sensors. As soon as it detects a target that is not broadcasting a pre-arranged transponder signal, it begins firing a laser cannon; the mine's droid brain has 3D in starship gunnery. The mine is only lightly armored, and any damage to its outer hull triggers an automatic destruct mechanism, and fires a single concussion missile at the attacking craft. 1B6/Green has 200 such mines englobing the station at a distance of 5 Space Units.

As an additional precaution, each mine is pre-programmed to recognize the transponder codes broadcast by authorized ships and fighters; any ship that approaches the mines that is not broadcasting a "friendly" transponder (or none at all) is immediately fired upon.

Imperial Assault Gunboat
Craft: Alpha Class Xg-1 Star Wing
Type: Assault fighter/gunboat
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 15 meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting: assault gunboat
Crew: 1
Cargo Capacity: 100 kilograms
Consumables: Three days
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050 kmh
Hull: 4D+1
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 20/0D
Scan: 35/1D
Search: 50/2D
Focus: 3/2D+2
Weapons:
Two Taim & Bak KX5 Laser Cannons (single or fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 3D+2
Two Borstel NK-3 Ion Cannons (single or fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/7/36
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/700/3.6 km
Damage: 3D+2
Two SFS M-s-3 Concussion Missile Launchers (8 missiles each)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700
Damage: 9D

Green/Aura and Green/Besh, IPV-1 System Patrol Craft. Capital-scale, capital ship gunnery 4D, capital ship piloting 5D, capital ship shields 4D, sensors 3D. Maneuverability 2D+1, space 7, atmosphere 350, 1,000 kmh, hull 3D+1, shields 3D. Weapons: four turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 4D).

The Rage, Lancer-class frigate.
Capital-scale
astrogation 3D+2
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 5D
starship gunnery 5D
Maneuverability 1D
space 4
hull 4D
shields 2D+2
Weapons:
20 quad laser cannons (starfighter-scale, fire control 4D, damage 4D)

TIE Bomber.
Starfighter-scale
missile weapons 4D+1
starfighter piloting 4D
starship gunnery 5D+2
Maneuverability 0D
space 6
atmosphere 295; 850 kmh
hull 4D+1
Weapons:
Two laser cannons (fire-linked, fire control 2D, damage 3D)
concussion missiles (16 carried, fire control 3D+2, damage 9D)

Sienar Fleet Systems' Hauler-2 Cargo Tug.
Starfighter-scale
space transports 3D
Maneuverability 1D
space: 3
hull 1D

Scenario Hook: The Hutt Gambit
In dealing with the Rebel Alliance, Vedij may rapidly tire of the lack of assistance he receives; the Alliance Observer is obstructionist, the Far Orbit gets short shrift on repair rosters and resupply drops, the Rebels demand big results but provide poor backup, and so on. In response, Vedij may turn to the criminal underworld to receive needed weapons, starfighters, replacement parts, foodstuffs, and additional personnel. Since Vedij has served on a patrol craft in this region for years, he is already well-acquainted with many aspects of the criminal element.
Vedij decides that the group most likely to help the Far Orbit — for a steep price, naturally — is a consortium of Hutt "entrepreneurs" that operate out of Brentaal. They control the local black market, have only modestly marked-up prices and carry goods of decent quality.
The characters are sent to Brentaal IV to negotiate a "trade agreement" with the Hutts; Vedij offers a percentage of the overall profits seized in the Far Orbit's raids — skimmed off the top, before the Alliance gets its cut — in exchange for a shadowport, access to illegal weapons and protection from bounty hunter groups that may be seeking members of his crew. The percentage is suitably high: 30 percent of the merchandise, money and goods seized by the Far Orbit will be delivered to the Hutts. However, Vedij will attempt to exclude military hardware from the deal; the Far Orbit needs weapons, armor and gear more than the Hutts, and Vedij is not so far removed from his Imperial roots that he would arm a gang of criminals.
The Hutts may demand that the characters pass some sort of test, or perform a risky errand for them — which could easily lead to a game of hide-and-seek with the RSSF or Imperial Customs. If the characters perform well, the agreement is made. Vedij will likely reward them accordingly.

Puullo the Hutt
Type: Hutt criminal lieutenant
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 3D+2
blaster: hold-out blaster 7D
dodge 4D
KNOWLEDGE 5D
Alien species 8D
business 7D
bureaucracy 7D
cultures 6D
intimidation 5D+2
languages 7D
law enforcement 7D
planetary systems 8D
streetwise 8D
value 8D
willpower 9D
MECHANICAL 2D
Astrogation 5D
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 4D+2
capital ship shields 5D
hover vehicle operation 5D
repulsorlift operation 6D
sensors 5D
space transports 6D
starship gunnery 6D
starship shields 5D
PERCEPTION 4D+2
Bargain 7D
con 6D
forgery 6D
gambling 8D
search 5D
STRENGTH 2D+2
Stamina 5D
TECHNICAL 2D+2
Capital starship repair 5D
computer programming/repair 5D
Special Abilities:
Force Resistance: Some Hutts have an innate defense against Force-based mind manipulation technique and roll double their Perception dice to resist such attempts.
Character Points: 15
Move: 4
Equipment:
Multi-pocketed vest
concealed hold-out blaster (3D)
encrypted datapad
encrypted comlink
credit voucher (1 million credits)
Imperial transit pass

Capsule: Puullo the Hutt is a lieutenant in the criminal faction run by Shettora, a fellow Hutt. Unlike most of his species, Puullo is generally well-liked by those in the criminal underworld. He is soft-spoken, relatively fair (if a bit uncompromising) in his negotiations, even-handed, and tends to avoid violence. Puullo is not to be trifled with, however; several individuals who have mistaken his patience and pleasant demeanor for weakness have never been seen again.

Puullo is essentially the "beachhead" of Shettora's organization; because of Puullo's shrewd nature and business acumen, he effectively controls the black market on Brentaal IV, and has his pudgy fingers in the activities of several other Core World criminal ventures.

Puullo specializes in procuring starships — particularly starfighters and freighters — and is knowledgeable in many aspects of space travel and combat. As a result, he selects quality merchandise, refusing to deal in defective goods. Merchandise purchased from Puullo is typically very reliable and, in the event of malfunction, the Hutt can occasionally be convinced to pay a refund or replace the damaged item. It is this fairness and willingness to stand behind his products that has made him a valued member of the fringe.

In fact, Puullo often travels with an entourage — consisting of gunslingers, smugglers, pirates, and other rough-and-ready individuals — who typically owe Puullo a favor or two. As a result, the Hutt is extraordinarily well-protected.

The Scourge

One of the best-known Imperial vessels in Darpa sector is the Scourge, a Victory-class Star Destroyer commanded by Alpiett Gredge, an aging (but well-respected) Vice Admiral. Gredge — a native and part-time resident of Brentaal IV — is an honorable man, but he is uncompromising in his support for the Navy; he will never betray his Emperor. When he learns of Vedij's mutiny, he is eager to provide whatever assistance to Kenit that he can. Typically, the Scourge helps maintain the security of the restricted space around Ralltiir, but Gredge frequently makes inspection tours of the sector's two border outposts.

Vice Admiral Alpiett Gredge.
DEXTERITY 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 4D
Alien species 5D
Bureaucracy 6D
Planetary systems 5D
Planetary systems: Ringali Shell 7D
MECHANICAL 3D+2
PERCEPTION 4D
Command 7D
STRENGTH 2D+1
TECHNICAL 2D+1
Move: 8
Character Points: 15
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
Comlink
Rank cylinders
Datapad

VSD Scourge
Craft: Rendili Star Drive's Victory I
Type: Victory-class Star Destroyer
Scale: Capital
Length: 900 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Star Destroyer
Crew: 4,798, gunners: 402, skeleton: 1,785/+15
Crew Skill:
Astrogation 3D+2
capital ship gunnery 4D+2
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D
sensors 3D+2
Passengers: 2,040 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 8,100 metric tons
Consumables: 4 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x15
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Atmosphere: 280; 800 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 3D+1
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 70/2D
Search: 150/3D
Focus: 4/3D+2
Weapons:
10 Quad Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 5 left, 5 right
Crew: 5
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 5D
40 Double Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 10 front, 15 left, 15 right
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 2D+2
80 Concussion Missile Tube Launchers
Fire Arc: 20 front, 20 left, 20 right, 20 back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 2-12/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 4-24/60/120 km
Damage: 9D

Adventure Idea: Smash the Scourge!
If Vedij has not exhausted all his favors with the Alliance, he proposes an audacious assault on the Scourge. Since he knows that Gredge will respond to attacks on Station 1B6/Green, Vedij proposes a joint assault to the Rebels.
The Far Orbit makes repeated hit-and-fade attacks on 1B6/Green until Gredge is concerned enough to investigate. (Of course, support ships from Esseles will also aid in the hunt for the Far Orbit.) Once the Scourge is located, Vedij plays a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with Gredge, luring him to a pre-arranged ambush point (where a task force of five Corellian gunships, six Corellian corvettes and a Mon Cal MC80 cruiser are waiting for Vedij's signal).
Provided the Far Orbit can survive long enough, Vedij helps the Alliance capture or destroy a Victory-class Star Destroyer. The ambushing force surprises Gredge enough to allow three full salvos of ion cannon blasts, giving the Rebels a real chance to neutralize the Victory.
Once this happens, Phase One of the campaign has ended, and the forces of the Imperial Navy are now actively seeking Vedij's capture or destruction.

The Imperial governor, Griff Takel, is a moderate and capable administrator, able to balance the demands of the Empire with Esselian sensibilities. Both Graffe and Takel are working hard to ensure Esselian loyalty, via pro-Imperial marches, rallies and "spontaneous" pro-Palpatine demonstrations.

Rhinnal

Rhinnal
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Urban, forest, mountain
Length of Day: 27 standard hours
Length of Year: 357 local days
Sentient Species: Human
Starport: Stellar class
Population: 5.5 billion
Planet Function: Research
Government: Imperial governor
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: Pharmaceuticals, medical services, textiles
Major Imports: Raw materials

Rhinnal is a quiet world noted mainly for its advanced medical facilities. The Imperial governor, Phadreas Kole, is more interested in his landspeeder collection than in converting Rhinnal to Imperial standards, and as the locals have posed no threat to the Empire, Kole's Imperial masters have taken no notice of his inactivity.

Rhinnal was occupied by Esseles for centuries before the Empire arrived and the people saw no significant change in governing. Rhinnalians find their cultural identity in passive aggression; Rhinnal is noted for its exclusive attitude toward fashion, behavior and style, and no foreigner, particularly non-humans, can measure up to their standards.

Rhinnalian medical science is famous throughout the Core and the economy is based on advanced treatments ranging from genetic to holistic treatment. The planet's industrial base is devoted primarily to cybernetic prosthetics and the production of pharmaceutical medicines.

The most honored and ancient hospice on the planet is reputed to be one of the few Jedi chapter houses still standing in the Empire, (presumably spared only because of its reputation as a medical facility). Rhinnal also has a cottage textile industry, providing tapestries and rugs to the Core. Although it has shrunk dramatically in the last few hundred years, the industry has stabilized as a luxury item for chic Core shops.

Ralltiir

Ralltiir
Type: Terrestrial
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Urban, mountain, wetlands
Length of Day: 19 standard hours
Length of Year: 255 local days
Sentient Species: Human
Starport: Imperial class
Population: 10 billion
Planet Function: Occupied world
Government: Imperial governor
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: Marble, financial services
Major Imports: All

Ralltiir was once a powerful world, the only major Darpan world to evade Esselian control and remain free of Imperial intervention. The basis of this independence was the famous Ralltiiran banking system, giving the planet the complete support of most of its client worlds against any would-be dominator (and the necessary cash to pay for the best military and mercenary forces available).

This independent streak was an affront to the Empire for years, until quite recently, when Moff Jander Graffe used a trumped-up charge of rebellion to justify a full scale invasion, led by Lord Tion.

The invasion was brutal and followed by a punitive occupation. An entire line corps is assigned to the occupation of Ralltiir — Army troopers and stormtroopers patrol the streets and deal with law-breakers harshly. Travel from place to place requires a transit pass, arrests for political crimes are common and a strict curfew is enforced. A full Imperial garrison was deployed in the capital shortly after the invasion. The Ralltiiran ruling body — the High Council — remains in place, but has been purged of all political "unreliables." Ralltiir's financial system is now in shambles, with the majority of the banking assets frozen by the Empire, pending investigation.

This situation is still developing, but it is likely that a series of show trials will follow, with most of the non-human accounts seized, the interest on all accounts confiscated and the human accounts released to key businessmen and nobles who can be "convinced" to support Imperial policies.

While interstellar corporations are departing as rapidly as possible, the Ralltiiran citizens are unable to leave the planet without an expensive and difficult-to-acquire travel visa. The only remaining economic resource still operating undamaged is the formerly-unimportant, high-grade Ralltiiran marble mining concern.

(Note that the space around Ralltiir is highly restricted; the chances of encountering large, heavily-armed military convoys or patrol ships is tripled when rolling random encounters.)

Lord Tion has recently turned over the occupation to Imperial Governor Dennix Graeber, a harsh man and protege of Moff Graffe (transferred to the position at Graffe's request). Graeber is able to indulge his sadistic tendencies where his teacher is not, and Ralltiir will likely suffer for it.

The occupation of Ralltiir is highly evident. The system is patrolled by a large military force (a "superiority force"): three battle squadrons and a light squadron, including three Imperial Star Destroyers and the Victory Star Destroyer Scourge. The superiority force will remain until Ralltiir is considered pacified.

The Ringali Nebula

The Ringali Nebula is a thick, barely navigable cloud of gases and charged particles that is avoided by commercial freighters and passenger ships.

The nebula is a hyperspace navigation hazard, avoided by all publicly charted hyperlanes. The Imperial military has charted some cross-nebula lanes, used for rapid deployment and hidden military facilities. Cross-nebula hyperlanes can cut three to six hours off a Ringali Shell crossing.

The Far Orbit has no information on these hyperlanes, although Vedij is aware of their existence. If the crew wants to enter or cross the Ringali Nebula they will have to chart new lanes or steal astrogation data from the Imperial military.

In the thickest section of the Nebula, no hyperspace travel is possible; the Nebula's mass acts as a barrier to hyperspace travel. Rogue asteroids and uncharted asteroid belts litter the area.

In addition, some of the Nebula's gasses are volatile, and might be detonated by engine emissions or blaster fire (causing anywhere from 1D to 10D damage, gamemaster's choice of scale, to all ships caught in the blast). The Nebula is electromagnetically active, scrambling sensors and communication (which adds +5 to +15 to sensors and communications attempts).

(For more specific information on the Ringali Shell and the Core Worlds in general, please refer to the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal, Volume 1, Number 7, pages 206-229.)

Ringali Shell Random Ship Encounter Tables

If faced with the need to quickly come up with an assortment of ships (such as determining what ships are in transit near a hyperspace jump point) gamemasters are encouraged to use the tables in this section.

Roll randomly or pick from the tables. The result indicates only what ships or other phenomena are in sensor range of the Far Orbit, not what is in the system overall. All sorts of surprises might lurk just outside sensor range.

To use these tables roll two differently colored dice. One die indicates the table to use, the other the ship(s) encountered.

Major systems are constantly buzzing with activity; roll three times. Secondary systems in the Shell are quite busy themselves; roll twice. Minor systems are less busy; roll once.

"Typical" examples of ships and crews are given below. Typical ship stats may be higher by as much as 1D+2 (or +4 in the case of Space speed). Typical personnel stats can be higher by as much as +2D, or +2 for Move.

Table 1: Light Freighters and Space Barges

Typical light freighter crew. All stats 2D except: Mechanical 3D
astrogation 4D
space transports 5D
sensors 3D+2. Move 10
comlink
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 10.

Table 2: Medium Freighters

Typical medium freighter crew. All stats 2D except: Mechanical 3D
astrogation 4D
space transports 5D
sensors 3D+2. Move 10
comlink
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 10.

Table 3: Heavy Freighters and Large Cargo Vessels (major systems only)

Table 4: Patrols

Table 5: Navy

Table 6: Other Encounters

Light Freighters and Space Barges

Light freighters in the Shell are primarily owned by minor shipping companies operating only in their own systems or sectors. Occasionally some companies operate Shell-wide, although this usually indicates a fairly large business (often a subsidiary of a megacorporation). Few light freighters in the Shell are independently operated cargo haulers. Free traders are even rarer, as local laws and corporate operations squeezed out the small-time operators centuries ago.

Incom X-series Space Barges

X-23 StarWorker Space Barge.
Starfighter
Space 2
hull 3D
Cargo Capacity: 5,000 metric tons
An easy prize, the X-23 lacks any defense worth considering, except for its tendency to operate near well-defended stations
No hyperdrive
(See pages 56-60, Pirates & Privateers.)

X-26 StarHaul.
Starfighter
Space 2
hull 3D
Cargo Capacity: 5,000 metric tons
Weapons:
1 laser cannon
(fire control 1D, damage 3D)
(See page 60, Pirates & Privateers.)

Gamemaster Note: The Far Orbit might be able to capture one or two freighters in such a convoy, but the bulk of the ships are likely to escape. The ships are crewed by hands interested in survival more than heroics, and are very unlikely to attack. The trick to attacking convoys is to know which ship is carrying the most valuable cargo — or is the really valuable stuff split up and carried on all of the ships?

Ghtroc Light Freighter

Ghtroc 580 Light Freighter.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 4
hull 4D
shields 1D+2
Cargo Capacity: 200 metric tons
Weapons:
1 laser cannon (fire control 1D+2, damage 4D)
The 580 is an older Ghtroc model with more cargo space
(See page 62, Pirates & Privateers.)

Ghtroc 720 Light Freighter.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 3
hull 3D+2
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 135 metric tons
Weapons:
laser cannon (fire control 1D+2, damage 4D)
The Ghtroc 720 shows the decline in Ghtroc's design ability and manufacturing quality

YT-series Light Freighters

This is a classic light freighter, from the highly able YT-1210 to the cheaper (but easily-modified) YT-1300, to the advanced and modifiable YT-2400. YT-series freighters can be found virtually anywhere.

YT-1210 Light Freighter.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 4
hull 4D
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Weapons:
1 laser cannon (fire control 1D, damage 4D)
The immediate predecessor to the famous YT-1300, 1210s can be found virtually anywhere
(See page 60, Pirates & Privateers.)

YT-1300 Light Freighter.
Starfighter
Space 4
hull 4D
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Weapons:
1 laser cannon (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
This is the basic model, without shielding or maneuvering thrusters
The appeal of the YT-1300 isn't her basic equipment; it's that she's hardy enough to take an extraordinary amount of tinkering and alteration
Nearly every YT-1300 is altered from these stats in some way
Smugglers and blockade runners typically modify the weapons and hyperdrive, while legitimate cargo haulers add extra cargo pods and shielding

YT-2400 Light Freighter.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D+2
space 6
hull 5D
shields 2D
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Weapons:
1 heavy double laser cannon (fire control 1D+2, damage 5D)
The latest addition to the YT-series
(See page 61, Pirates & Privateers.)

Other Freighter Types

There are too many lesser known freighters to list here, even in abbreviated format. A long list with full statistics is available on pages 56-66 of Pirates & Privateers.

Light Freighter Convoy

A light freighter convoy is a collection of several light freighters, usually flying under contract from one company, sharing astrogation data and sticking together for security. While not as affordable as shipping via bulk freighter, some companies simply lack the cash flow to invest in larger ships. Such convoys are usually from Rimward ports and while not expecting trouble in Core systems, they can usually recover from the surprise of an attack quickly. A convoy typically has anywhere from three to twenty-four freighters. (Roll 3D to determine how many ships are in the convoy.)

Mixed Freighter Convoy

This is a collection of light and medium freighters much like the convoy mentioned above. Like the lighter version, these convoys are usually from Rimward ports and can recover from the surprise of an attack quickly. A convoy typically has two to ten freighters, including one or two fairly large and lumbering bulk transports.

Medium Freighters

Medium freighters, like light freighters, mostly belong to small or medium-sized shipping corporations. Most of these shippers are subcontractors for larger cargo-hauling concerns. Medium freighters are usually cross-sector or cross-Shell transports, visiting dozens of worlds every month, for a few hours at a time. Common medium freighters are presented in short stat form below. (Less common medium freighters can be found on pages 66-69 of Pirates & Privateers.)

Gamemaster Note: The Far Orbit should be able to capture one of the larger freighters, but the bulk of the ships are likely to escape in this sort of convoy as well. Identifying the ship with the most valuable cargo is a problem here as well, complicated by the temptation of going after the easier medium freighters, loaded with more — although possibly less valuable — cargoes or after the smaller ships, probably packed with more valuable goods.

Mark I Bulk Transport.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 3
hull 5D
Cargo Capacity: 60,000 metric tons
Weapons:
Laser cannon (fire control 1D, damage 2D)
A common long-range bulk transport, Sienar's Mark I was discontinued several years ago in favor of larger transports
It is nevertheless quite common, with a high resale value
(See page 66, Pirates & Privateers.)

Gallofree Medium Transport.
Capital
Space 2
hull 2D
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 19,000 metric tons
A common mid-range transport throughout the galaxy, the Gallofree is popular for its durability and easy loading
(See page 67, Pirates & Privateers.)

Imperial Armored Transport.
Starfighter
Space 4
hull 5D
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 30,000 metric tons
Weapons:
2 laser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
All Imperial Armored Transports carry Imperial cargoes; military, corporate or government
They also carry a platoon of Navy troopers and usually travel in convoys
Unlike other convoy ships, Imperial Armored Transports will swarm attack a raider
(See page 68, Pirates & Privateers.)

Action-series Bulk Freighter

The Action-series of bulk freighters usually operates in well-patrolled space or in convoys, as they lack shields, speed, weapons, and rapid hyperspace ability — the Actions have no nav computer and must rely on an astromech droid or spaceport computer to calculate jumps. These ships are so vulnerable that pirates call them "Inaction" freighters. They stay in service only because they are extremely cheap per ton of cargo to purchase, maintain and operate. (See pages 68-69, Pirates & Privateers.)

Action IV Bulk Freighter.
Capital
Space 2
hull 2D
Cargo Capacity: 75,000 metric tons

Action V Bulk Freighter.
Capital
Space 2
hull 2D+2
Cargo Capacity: 80,500 metric tons

Action VI Bulk Freighter.
Capital
Space 2
hull 3D
Cargo Capacity: 90,000 metric tons

Medium Freighter Convoy

This is a convoy of three to twenty-four medium freighters, usually all of approximately the same type — Actions, Subla Ransoms, Mark Is, Armored Transports, and so on — and almost always under the same corporate aegis. Usually, any of these ships carry far more than a pirate can carry away, and together they carry more than a small pirate fleet could steal. To take more than a fraction of the potential cargo requires the Far Orbit to seize the freighters as prizes and pilot them to a safe point.

Mixed Medium Freighter Convoy

This is a convoy of three to twenty-four medium freighters, usually not of the same type. This convoy contains a variety of ships, possibly including a few light freighters. These ships may all belong to the same corporation, might belong to a merchant's or shipper's guild or may have banded together informally and temporarily.

Heavy Freighters and Large Cargo Vessels

A large percentage of cargo in the Shell is carried by large freighters able to carry tens of thousands of tons of cargo at a minimum. These container ships are owned by large shipping corporations, who also operate the smaller transports that split up the cargoes and move them planetside or to lesser systems. Corporations large and powerful enough to operate such super transports are automatically Imperial supporters, at least publicly — they would have been Imperialized if they were not.

Gamemaster Note: The Far Orbit will have a very easy time with local and sector patrols, at least initially, as long as they don't announce themselves as Rebel privateers, open fire on inoffensive traffic, panic, or otherwise behave stupidly.

Container Ship

This is a super transport, able to ship millions of tons of cargo for a fraction of the cost of a local shipper. Such ships cross entire regions from one major transshipment system to another. This sort of ship is too large for most pirates to bother attacking, and usually operates only in the most heavily trafficked systems. Scores of container ships travel to and through the Shell. (See page 70, Pirates & Privateers.)

Container Ship.
Capital
Space 2
hull 3D+2
Cargo Capacity: 25 million metric tons

Ore Hauler

Ore haulers are often escorted into the Shell to deliver high-grade ore cargoes. Included in the large cargo vessel table for the extraordinarily high value of the ore. (See page 69, Pirates & Privateers.)

Ore Hauler.
Capital
Space 2
hull 2D+2
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 90,000 metric tons

Rin Assid Bulk Hauler

Large, lumbering, amazingly slow, unarmed, and ripe for attack, Rin Assid bulk haulers ferry cargo for an assortment of corporate entities. (See page 69, Pirates & Privateers.)

Rin Assid Bulk Hauler.
Capital
Space 1
hull 3D
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 100,000 metric tons

Super Convoy

A super convoy includes two to twelve large ships (roll 2D to determine the number), usually of the same class. This sort of convoy is only found going from one major transshipment point to another, and is too big to rob — a raider could hijack a ship, but the rest are likely to escape.

Escorted Super Convoy

A super convoy with one or two escort ships. This escort is not expecting trouble, since its arriving or departing the safe end of it's run. Nebulon-B's are common escorts for this sort of convoy.

Patrol

Patrols routinely sweep every Shell system. Typically, patrols are not looking for pirates — they are looking for traffic code violators, smugglers, Rebels, and emergency situations. Patrols will essentially ignore any Navy vessel, at least initially, because they fall outside the patrol service's jurisdiction, and have overriding authority.

Customs

Customs patrols are mostly interested in commercial traffic and curtailing smuggling. They have no authority over Navy vessels and have no interest in the Far Orbit or her activities, including boardings, as long as she is masquerading as a Navy ship. The customs agents are officers of an Imperial ministry and law enforcers, and if the Far Orbit becomes known as a pirate ship they are likely to attempt to intervene in a raid.

Typical Customs Agent. All attributes and skills 2D
except blaster 3D
sensors 4D+1
space transports 4D
starship gunnery 4D
starship shields 3D+2. Blaster pistols (4D)
comlink
vacsuit
medpac
survival kit
datapad.

Customs Light Corvette.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 2D
space 8
hull 5D+1
shields 3D
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Weapons:
6 double turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
(See page 83, Pirates & Privateers.)

Customs Light Frigate.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 2D
space 5
hull 3D+1
shields 3D
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Weapons:
6 heavy laser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 5D)
(See page 83, Pirates & Privateers.)

Customs Guardian-class Light Cruiser.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 9
hull 5D
shields 2D
Cargo Capacity: 200 metric tons
Weapons:
4 laser cannons (fire control 2D+2, damage 5D)
(See page 84, Pirates & Privateers.)

Sector Rangers

Sector Ranger patrols can show up anywhere, have hyperspace radio links, and can command a great deal of firepower. Rangers are notoriously determined and able. A Ranger patrol that stumbles across the Far Orbit in the course of a boarding might very well decide to attack after calling for backup. Ranger backup takes an average of an hour to arrive (sometimes much less), with 2-12 ships.

Typical Sector Ranger. Dexterity 3D
blaster 5D+1
dodge 4D+2
melee combat 5D
melee parry 4D+2
Knowledge 4D
alien species 5D
cultures 5D+1
languages 5D
law enforcement 8D
planetary systems 5D+1
streetwise 5D+2
Mechanical 2D
astrogation 3D
sensors 3D+1
space transports 3D
starfighter piloting 3D
Perception 4D
bargain 5D
command 5D
hide 5D
investigation 7D
sneak 5D
Strength 3D
brawling 4D
stamina 4D+2
Technical 2D
armor repair 3D
blaster repair 4D
computer programming/repair 3D+1. Move: 10. Blaster pistol (4D)
blast helmet (+1 energy
+1D physical
head only)
comlink
medpac
survival kit
datapad. Force Points: 1. Character points: 5. (See page 81
Pirates & Privateers.)

Sector Ranger PB-950 Patrol Boat.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 2D
space 8
hull 5D
shields 3D
Cargo Capacity: 180 metric tons
Weapons:
1 quad laser cannon (fire control 2D, damage 5D)
1 concussion missile tube (fire control 2D, damage 9D)
2 medium ion cannons (fire control 3D, damage 4D)
(See page 81, Pirates & Privateers.)

SFS Light Patrol Ship.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 8
hull 4D+1
shields 2D
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Weapons:
2 twin laser cannons (fire control 1D, damage 3D+2)
3 laser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 5D)
(See page 82, Pirates & Privateers.)

System Patrol

Most systems in the Shell maintain their own patrol forces, more to crack down on safety violators and smugglers, and provide emergency services, than to fight off piracy. System patrol ships usually have no hyperdrive and operate within an hour of their base. They maintain comlink with their base at all times. Backup is usually one to six ships, and takes between ten minutes and half an hour to arrive.

Typical System Patrol Officers. All attributes and skills 2D
except capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 3D. Blaster pistols (4D)
comlink
vacsuit
medpac
survival kit
datapad.

Pursuer Enforcement Ship.
Capital
Maneuverability 1D
space 7
hull 4D
shields 1D
Cargo Capacity: 35 metric tons
Weapons:
Twin blaster cannon (fire control 2D, damage 5D)
two ion cannon (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
(See page 75, Pirates & Privateers.)

IR-3F.
Capital
Maneuverability 2D
space 7
hull 3D
shields 2D+2
Cargo Capacity: 180 metric tons
Weapons:
4 turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
(See page 74, Pirates & Privateers.)

Regulator X-Q2 System Patrol Cruiser
Craft: Regulator X-Q2
Type: System Patrol Cruiser
Scale: Capital
Length: 150 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting
Crew: 9, gunners: 4, skeleton: 3/+5
Crew Skill: Capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 4D+2
capital ship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 15 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 3 weeks
Cost: 350,000 (new), 200,000 (used)
Maneuverability: 2D+2
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 160; 460 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Five Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret (1), left (1), right (1), front (1), back (1)
Crew: 1
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+2
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150
Damage: 4D

Ringali Shell Security Force Patrol

RSSF patrol ships are outfitted to provide emergency assistance for breakdowns and cope with poorly armed minor smugglers and other criminals. In the event they need serious firepower they can call on the aid of system patrol ships, or Ranger aid (although they are loath to do so).

Navy Patrol

The Navy only maintains local patrols in sectors or systems of substantial strategic value. While the Shell is of considerable value, the Navy considers local patrols to be adequate in most systems. In the first stage of the campaign Navy patrols are confined to systems with a substantial Navy presence, whether a large number of ships or a Navy base.

Typical Navy Patrol Crew. All attributes 2D except: capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D. Move 10. Blaster pistols (4D)
comlink
vacsuit
medpac
survival kit
datapad.

GAT-12j Skipray Blastboats.
Capital
Maneuverability 1D+2
space 8
hull 2D+1
shields 2D
Weapons:
3 Medium ion cannon (fire-linked, fire control 3D, damage 4D)
proton torpedo launcher (fire control 2D, damage 9D)
2 laser cannons (fire-linked, fire control 1D, damage 5D)
concussion missile launcher (fire control 1D, damage 6D)
Skiprays usually operate in recon lines of two to four ships

GAT-12g Skipray Blastboats.
Capital
Maneuverability 1D+2
space 8
hull 2D+1
shields 2D
Weapons:
3 medium ion cannon (fire-linked, fire control 3D, damage 4D)
proton torpedo launcher (fire control 2D, damage 9D)
2 laser cannons (fire-linked, fire control 1D, damage 5D)
tractor beam (fire control 4D, damage 6D)
This Skipray model has a tractor beam in place of the standard concussion missile launcher

Imperial Patrol Vessel 1.
Capital
Maneuverability 2D+1
space 7
hull 3D+1
shields 3D
Cargo Capacity: 200 metric tons
Weapons:
4 turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 4D)
IPVs are not hyperspace-capable, and usually operate out of Navy bases, Imperial garrisons or large carriers, including Star Destroyers
(See page 74, Pirates & Privateers.)

TIE Patrol. A TIE patrol is usually a flight of 4, operating in pairs. About half are standard TIE/ln models, the rest are usually TIE/rc models. TIEs report any unusual circumstances to base; base can be an orbiting defense station, Imperial garrison, or capital ship.

TIE/ln Starfighters.
Starfighter
starship gunnery 5D
starship piloting 6D. Maneuverability 2D
space 10
hull 2D
Weapons:
2 laser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 5D)
TIE/ln starfighters typically attack in pairs or trios

TIE/rc Starfighters.
Starfighter
starship gunnery 5D
starship piloting 6D. Maneuverability 2D+2
space 10
hull 2D
Weapons:
2 laser cannons (fire control 2D, damage 2D+2)
These TIEs avoid combat and are in constant contact with their base

Navy

The Navy has a moderate presence in the Shell. Most Navy vessels encountered are on standard maneuvers, not looking for the Far Orbit, although they will attempt to engage the ship as soon as they become aware of it, following standard procedure. A high percentage of Navy lines in the Shell have green crews and a small ratio of experienced officers, operating in safe space to work their way up to postings farther out in the Rim.

Navy ships usually operate in groups. Most Naval groups encountered are lines, the basic unit of a Navy squadron. Operational conditions in the Shell do not call for squadrons to be deployed, at least not in the first stage of the campaign.

Although not crewed by veterans and not expecting trouble, attacking a Navy line of any configuration is a short road to suicide.

Attack Line

This is a line of three to six combat frigates and cruisers; lighter ships indicate a larger line, heavier ships make up smaller lines.

Heavy Attack Line

Four to eight light and heavy cruisers, possibly including a Victory-class Star Destroyer.

Pursuit Line

Four to ten light ships, generally corvettes, frigates and light cruisers. Pursuit lines are one of the few Navy units that might be sent after the Far Orbit.

Skirmish Line

Four to twenty small ships as small as Skiprays and as large as frigates. A skirmish line is intended to engage small ships to keep them off large combat vessels. Such a line might be detailed to engage the Far Orbit.

Troop Line

Two huge transport ships, often Evakmar-KDY transports or Delta-class troop transports, escorted by two medium cruisers. This is the most consistent line configuration in the Navy, because this line interacts almost entirely with the Imperial Army, an organization that allows for little variation. This is one of the few Navy lines that might be profitably attacked by the lone Far Orbit.

Star Destroyer

Specifically, an Imperial-class Mark I Star Destroyer. There are no Mark IIs in service in this sector, and no Super-class Star Destroyers in service yet. A Star Destroyer is far too dangerous for the Far Orbit to engage, and is always accompanied by at least three additional lines.

Other

Ion Storm

Powerful ionic radiation flashes across local space, causing 1D-6D ion damage (starfighter or capital scale, at the gamemaster's discretion) to all ships in sensor range. Ion storms are sudden, unpredictable and dangerous. They cause little direct physical damage, but can burn out power systems, touch off weapon's blaster gas canisters, overload shields, blind sensors, and generally cause chaos. Ion storms pass as quickly as they appear.

Asteroid Squall

An uncharted cluster of asteroids moves in a random direction through local space (roll a die; 1 indicates a collision course with the Far Orbit; roll another die to determine direction of collision course). Asteroids create a Difficult terrain zone for 3D rounds. Impact is a standard collision, causing variable capital-scale damage depending on Speed, see page 125 of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded ("Collision"; remember: no shield bonus to resist).

Consular Ship

This is a diplomatic vessel ferrying diplomatic staff from one Shell government to another (or possibly a ranking Imperial official). The ship's transponder code announces the craft's presence and diplomatic status. The ship may obey local traffic rules or may bully it's way through a system — it doesn't have to be polite and is immune from normal legal considerations. The ship is unlikely to have an escort from its own government, as its safety is a concern for the local system patrol. (The local system patrol might be on hand to receive it, however.)

Corellian Corvette.
Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D. Maneuverability 2D
space 6
hull 4D
shields 2D
Weapons:
6 double turbolaser cannon (fire control 3D, damage 4D+2)

Space Rescue Corps Emergency Aid Cutter

These striking, red-and-black cutters are found wherever a space accident happens — rescuing crew trapped in damaged vessels, recovering escape pods and occasionally lending technical assistance to Imperial Navy or Sector Ranger operations. SRC cutters are equipped with universal airlocks, plasma torch hull cutters, emergency medical bays, first aid droids, and fire-foam backpacks. SRC ships are considered sacrosanct by nearly all spacers, and firing on one is unthinkable. An order to do so would likely result in a mutiny.

SRC Emergency Aid Cutter.
Starfighter
Maneuverability 1D
space 10
hull 4D

Imperial Survey Corps Lone Scout-A

The Imperial Survey Corps serves as both a scout service and a space-charting agency. Lately the Empire has funneled most of the Corps' remaining budget into recharting known space for military intelligence and improving trade routes. They are little threat, but are legitimate targets and may have valuable charting data.

Scout Ship
Craft: Sienar Fleet Systems "Lone Scout-A"
Type: Stock scout vessel
Length: 24 meters
Skill: Space transports: Lone Scout
Crew: 1
Crew Skill: Astrogation 3D+2
sensors 3D
space transports 4D
starship gunnery 4D
starship shields 3D+2
Passengers: 3
Cargo Capacity: 150 metric tons
Consumables: 1 year
Cost: 125,000 (new), 30,000 (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x15
Nav Computer: Yes
Space: 5
Atmosphere: 295; 850 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/0D
Scan: 50/1D
Search: 75/2D
Focus: 5/3D
Weapons:
Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: Pilot
Skill: Starship gunnery
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 4D

Star Yacht

See pages 70-72 of Pirates & Privateers for a list of star yachts. Many star yachts are owned by the rich executives of target corporations or wealthy Imperials who have profited from their position. Which are targets and which are owned by comparatively innocent civilians is often very difficult to determine.

Chapter Three: Enemies of the Far Orbit

The Far Orbit's mission is extremely difficult, given the number of enemies present in the Ringali Shell. The Shell is well-patrolled by several agencies; the Imperial Navy, the Sector Rangers, corporate security forces and local system patrols will all hamper the privateers' activities.

Individuals

Captain Vocis Kenit

Vocis Kenit is a fairly typical Imperial Navy officer. Kenit — a native of Hallu sector (an undistinguished Mid-Rim region) — enlisted in the Imperial Navy in its first major expansion and attended the Imperial Naval Academy on Lianna after a two-year term of service.

Upon graduation, the newly commissioned Junior Lieutenant Kenit was assigned to the Victory-class Star Destroyer Semqi Pefis. While on the Semqi Pefis, Kenit used his cunning, technical excellence, freshly instilled fervor for the New Order, and strict adherence to the newly issued political regulations to bring the careers of several superior officers under scrutiny.

At the end of his first tour as an officer, Kenit was promoted and assigned a dirtside post at the Thomquizarr Naval Base. He repeated his performance: superior service, intelligent execution of duties, adherence to the ideals of the New Order, and a keen eye for spotting the political "failings" of his rivals and superiors. In time, he was again promoted and transferred.

This pattern became Kenit's career path. In every post he received commendations for his abilities and performance while alienating his peers for his personal and professional habits. Too powerful and well-connected to break easily, but not powerful enough to bother destroying, the safest and easiest way to be rid of Kenit was to recommend promotion and transfer.

In a mere twelve years, Kenit rose to the rank of captain, and was awarded command of a new Nebulon-B escort frigate, the Far Orbit. Kenit found himself assigned to the far edge of the Empire.

Kenit turned his devious intellect to rooting out the pirates that plagued these far sectors of the Empire. Three pirate lords and a host of small-time pirate ships fell to Kenit's coordination of escort forces into anti-pirate strike forces. Kenit's ship was kept on the move, as much to keep him from endangering the careers of his superiors as to track down pirates.

In spite of his success, the Far Orbit would probably have been his last career posting, if he hadn't had as cunning and commanding a first officer as Dhas Vedij. His exacting nature and sense of politics failed him at the last moment; he was unprepared for the treachery of an officer more loyal to the Navy that to the Empire.

Kenit was set adrift in space with an emergency tracking signal. After his recovery and report he was incarcerated (pending a court-martial for failure of command). His many political enemies had found a convenient method of eliminating him. Weeks later Kenit was summarily marched to a holopod to face an Imperial Advisor — Sate Pestage — and learn his fate: he had been tried and found guilty.

Pestage had become involved with the affair when word of Vedij's treachery reached the Imperial court. Palpatine was outraged that officers of the Navy would desert en masse, and ordered a full investigation — spearheaded by one of his closest, most-ambitious Advisors.

Kenit's sentence was death — a suspended sentence pending the results of his new assignment.

Pestage ordered Kenit to locate and destroy the Far Orbit and Dhas Vedij. Failure means death at the hands of Vedij...or an Imperial execution squad. Success means Kenit has a chance to resurrect his stalled career...and save his own neck in the process.

Captain Vocis Kenit
Type: Imperial Navy Captain
DEXTERITY 4D
Blaster 5D
brawling parry 4D+2
dodge 6D+2
melee combat 5D
melee parry 6D
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 5D
business 5D
intimidation 6D+1
languages 3D+2
law enforcement: piracy 5D
planetary systems 5D
streetwise 5D+2
tactics 4D+1
tactics: raiding 5D
willpower 5D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 4D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 5D+2
capital ship shields 4D
communications 3D
sensors 4D
space transports 4D+2
starship gunnery 4D+2
starship shields 3D+2
PERCEPTION 4D
Command 5D
con 4D+2
investigation 6D
STRENGTH 2D+1
Brawling 3D+2
stamina 4D+1
TECHNICAL 2D
Capital ship repair 3D
first aid 3D
security 4D+2
Force Points: 2
Dark Side Points: 2
Character Points: 27
Move: 10
Equipment: Rank cylinder, datapad, comlink, Navy-issue blaster pistol (4D), Nebulon-B escort frigate Feline.

The Empire

The Empire seeks to control known space and all the worlds therein. To this end, the Empire must control and assure safe passage of commerce (necessary to the economy of the galaxy, and continued health of the military and bureaucracy). Protecting civilians from natural and social hazards is a primary Navy mission and piracy has traditionally been the target of Navy attention when no other threats loom. In addition to the powerful capital combat ships used by the Navy, the Empire supports patrol services and police agencies, and maintains fleets of light ships, used to patrol Imperial space, provide search and rescue services, and maintain the peace.

The Imperial Navy

One of the founding principles of the Imperial Navy was the suppression of piracy, and this duty built the agency's reputation and image across the galaxy — an image that still brings millions of recruits into Naval service every year. This mission is currently secondary to suppressing the actions of the Rebel Alliance, but still lies near to the heart of the service. (Not surprisingly, a number of old-school Naval officers refer to the Rebels as pirates.)

The escort force is the primary anti-piracy task force, and makes up the bulk of a sector group. Escort forces are included in every fleet and are reflections of the need to spread as much firepower across a sector and maintain a presence in as many systems as possible.

The superiority force, built around Star Destroyers, uses a modern strategy of massive firepower concentration, and is used for combat missions. There are few superiority forces in the Core in this era, and those that are present are kept concentrated near key planets or systems — Kuat and Coruscant, for example.

More specific guidelines on escort forces, smaller Naval units, ships, and their anti-pirate activities can be found later in this book.

Scenario Hook: TIE Prototypes
Since many of the Imperial admirals, fleet commanders and munitions manufacturers often test new equipment in the field, the Far Orbit can encounter capital ships and fighters that are far superior to the production models found in the Empire.
Perhaps the Far Orbit raids a Santhe shipment that is guarded by a TIE prototype — the TIE Advanced. The TIE Advanced — equipped with shields, powerful weapons, hull armor, and some of the fastest sublight drives available to starfighters — is potentially a match for the Nebulon-B (and is certainly the superior dogfighter against whatever starfighter complement the Far Orbit has gathered). By the same token, if the Far Orbit has procured ion weapons, capturing the prototypes will become a priority for Vedij — the TIEs will make fearsome additions to the Far Orbit's arsenal.

Prototype TIE Advanced
Craft: SFS TIE Advanced/TIE/Ad
Type: Prototype starfighter
Scale: Starfighter
Length: meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting: TIE Advanced
Crew: 1
Crew Skill: Astrogation 6D
starfighter piloting 6D
starship gunnery 6D
starship shields 5D
Consumables: 2 days
Cost: 400,000 credits
Maneuverability: 4D
Space: 12
Atmosphere: 450; 1,300 kmh
Hull: 3D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 10/1D
Scan: 40/2D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 5/3D+2
Weapons:
Two SFS L-s9.3 Laser Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 6D

Imperial Customs

Imperial Customs monitors intersystem shipping, enforces trade and tariff regulations, and captures or pursues smugglers. Part of Imperial Customs' mission is to provide security in system space (by performing search and rescue and anti-piracy actions when possible). Customs answers to the Coalition for Progress Commerce branch, which collects and maintains vast amounts of data and minutiae on piracy. Commerce's interest stems from the impact piracy has on Imperial intersystem and intersector trade.

It is impractical for the Empire to assign Naval ships to constant security patrol duty. For routine system patrol, especially in secure sectors, it relies on the Imperial Customs Office, which is quite capable of countering freighter-based smugglers and pirates.

Every system in the Ringali Shell has an Imperial Customs branch with at least ten ships assigned to them; important systems may have an armada. Several local system governments also acquire these ships for their own patrol vessels and to supplement their navies.

Imperial Customs uses three main ships: Rendili StarDrive's Light Corvette, Rendili StarDrive's Imperial Customs Frigate and Sienar Fleet Systems Guardian-class light cruiser. Each are fine spacecraft, capable of performing the general task of suppressing smuggling and violations of Imperial trade laws. They are, however, probably not up to the task of dealing with the Far Orbit.

Light Corvette
Craft: Rendili StarDrive Light Corvette
Type: Imperial customs vessel
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 180 meters
Skill: Space transports: Imperial light corvette
Crew: 52, gunners: 6, skeleton: 18/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
space transports: light corvette 4D+2
starship gunnery 4D+2
starship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 20
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 2 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x8
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050 kmh
Hull: 5D+1
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Six Double Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 300-1.5/3.5/7.5 km
Damage: 4D

Capsule: Rendili's light corvette is a fast, nimble, durable craft with excellent weapons and shielding. It was designed to counter ships flown by smugglers who have modified their craft beyond legal specifications...and does a good job of it. Not surprisingly, shadowport knockoffs of the light corvette are in high demand.

Imperial Customs Frigate
Craft: Rendili StarDrive's Imperial Customs Frigate
Type: Imperial customs vessel
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 35 meters
Skill: Space transports: Imperial customs frigate
Crew: 6, gunners: 6, skeleton: 3/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
space transports: customs frigate 4D+2
starship gunnery 4D+2
starship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 10
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x8
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 5
Atmosphere: 295; 850 kmh
Hull: 3D+1
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Six Heavy Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D

Capsule: The standard Imperial customs frigate is slower and less durable than the corvette it often serves with, though it hits harder and requires a smaller crew.

Imperial Customs Guardian Light Cruiser
Craft: Sienar Fleet Systems Guardian-class light cruiser
Type: Inter-system customs vessel
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 42 meters
Skill: Space transports: Guardian cruiser
Crew: 16 (3 can coordinate), gunners: 4, skeleton: 8/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
space transports: Guardian cruiser 4D+2
starship gunnery 4D+2
starship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 6 (brig)
Cargo Capacity: 200 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x10
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 9
Atmosphere: 400; 1,150 kmh
Hull: 5D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Four Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 2 front, 2 turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+2
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D

Capsule: The Guardian-class cruiser is a fast, tough, hard-hitting ship, intended to patrol remote systems without immediate fear of destruction. The Guardian is not well-equipped for boarding actions, as it lacks a space for a boarding party, and often patrols with corvette or frigate support. Sienar has followed this cruiser with the Guardian 344, a ship with essentially the same performance statistics, but with a quarter the operating crew and space for a boarding party of 10 troopers.

The Imperial Security Bureau

One of the COMPNOR branches interested in piracy is the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). It has no interest in actual piracy, but will quickly develop an interest in "politically inspired piracy" — specifically Rebel privateers. Once the ISB becomes aware that the Alliance is chartering privateers, it will begin investigating ways to cut off this new "procurement method" while drumming up the Imperial propaganda machine to label the Rebellion "bloodthirsty pirates and violent, lawless terrorists." This leads to assorted jurisdictional issues as agents of the Sector Rangers, Imperial Intelligence, COMPNOR, ISB, and the Imperial Navy all bicker and maneuver against each other in their pursuit of glory and promotion.

Scenario Hook: Tracking Devices
It is possible that the Imperial Intelligence scheme to slip tracking devices into cargo the Far Orbit seizes actually succeeds. As a result, an Imperial special agent — codenamed WRATH — tracks the Far Orbit across the galaxy. Imperial covert agents strike locations that the Far Orbit has just vacated — StarForge Station, black market operations on Brentaal, and so on — until the privateer is suddenly viewed with suspicion by the fringe. Vedij will likely realize that the ship is somehow being tracked, and will attempt to use this information to lure the forces trailing him into an ambush.

Special Agent WRATH
Type: Imperial Intelligence Special Agent
DEXTERITY 3D+1
Archaic guns 4D+2
blaster 6D+2
blaster artillery 5D+2
brawling parry 6D+1
dodge 7D+1
firearms 6D+1
grenade 5D+1
melee combat 6D+1
melee parry 6D+1
missile weapons 5D+2
pick pocket 5D+2
thrown weapons 6D
vehicle blasters 5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D
Alien species 5D
bureaucracy 6D
business 5D+2
culture 6D*
intimidation 5D+2
languages 7D*
law enforcement 6D
planetary systems 7D*
streetwise 6D+2
survival 6D+2*
MECHANICAL 3D
Archaic starship piloting 5D
astrogation 7D*
beast riding 6D
communications 6D
ground vehicle operation 6D
hover vehicle operation 6D
repulsorlift operation 7D
space transports 5D+2
starfighter piloting 5D+2
swoop operation 5D
walker operation 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 5D
command 6D
con 4D+2
forgery 6D
hide 7D
persuasion 5D+2
search 6D
sneak 6D
STRENGTH 3D+2
Brawling 5D
climbing/jumping 6D
brawling: martial arts 5D
lifting 5D
stamina 5D
swimming 5D
TECHNICAL 3D
Computer programming/repair 6D
first aid 6D
ground vehicle repair 6D
hover vehicle repair 6D
security 7D*
walker repair 5D
* Some skills have been artificially enhanced by specialized training and mnemonic drugs.
Special Abilities:
Martial Arts Techniques**:
Blindfighting: If WRATH makes a Very Difficult brawling: martial arts roll — and is within striking distance of the target — he can ignore the effects of blindness; he cannot see, but can hear, smell or sense a target will enough to strike. This may be used as a reaction skill.
Flying Kick: WRATH adds +2D to his damage roll if he makes a Difficult brawling: martial arts roll. Failure to beat the difficulty indicates that he is off-balance and an opponent may make an additional attack this round with no multiple action penalty.
Instant Knockdown: If WRATH makes a successful Moderate brawling: martial arts roll — and the attack is not parried or dodged — the target is immediately knocked to the ground. The fallen character must either wait one round to stand or suffer multiple action penalties.
Multiple Strikes: WRATH can make a second attack with no multiple action penalties if he makes a Moderate brawling: martial arts roll. The second attack inflicts 3D damage.
Silent Strike: Providing he can sneak up on an opponent, WRATH can instantly kill or render a target unconscious. The enemy must be within arm's reach and WRATH must declare if this is a killing or stunning attack prior to making the attempt. A successful Difficult brawling: martial arts roll indicates that the target is neutralized.
Spinning Kick: If WRATH makes a successful Moderate brawling: martial arts roll, he adds +1D to his damage roll. Failure to make the Moderate roll indicates that he is off-balance and his opponent may make an additional attack this round with no multiple action penalty.
** For more information on martial arts techniques, see pages 116-118 of Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForces Handbook.
Character Points: 21
Move: 10
Equipment: Modified hold-out blaster (4D damage
10 shots
no serial number)
blaster pistol (5D)
series of fake IDs (CorSec
COMPNOR
RSSF
Sector Rangers
civilian)
datapad
encrypted comlink. In addition
WRATH can draw on virtually any piece of personal gear in the Imperial arsenal prior to a mission.

Capsule: The agent known only as WRATH is a top Imperial Intel operative. He is a cold, brutal professional who will never back down from an opponent — a merciless, incorruptible, implacable foe.

Imperial Intelligence (the Ubiqtorate)

Like its political counterpart, Imperial Intelligence (commonly referred to as the Ubiqtorate) has no interest in actual piracy. Rebel piracy is a different matter. Also like the ISB, the Ubiqtorate is interested in using this development to further its own ends, although these ends are significantly different from, even at odds with, the goals of COMPNOR. A longstanding rift between the agents of the ISB and COMPNOR frequently causes infighting between these two powerful agencies.

Scenario Hook: Special Forces
The Ubiqtorate maintains a string of secret bases, some hidden on worlds of the Ringali Shell, others are concealed within the Ringali Nebula itself. Base D8-Red is designated as the Imperial Intelligence "Special Projects Facility" — a staging area for several covert operations throughout the Core Worlds, and a preliminary launch point for ops in the Outer Rim Territories. The base is built on a stable planetoid and houses thousands of Intel agents, a team of engineers and scientists (tasked with the chore of developing new weapons suitable for covert operations), and several hundred Imperial SpecNav troops.
The SpecNav program is an unusual joint effort between the Ubiqtorate and the Navy. (The Navy hopes to gain dangerous soldiers that can land and establish beachheads — eliminating the need to rely on Army troops. The Ubiqtorate hopes to gain mobile Intel operatives based aboard far-ranging ships that can be deployed on sensitive missions at a moment's notice.) Thus far, the experiment has been successful: Imperial SpecNav troops are dangerous, highly-skilled and crafty soldiers.
The Alliance — and indeed most of the Imperial Navy — are unaware of the existence of SpecNav troops. If the Far Orbit discovers the SpecNav troops and reports it to their Alliance overseers, the Rebels will likely be very grateful.

Imperial SpecNav Troops
Type: Imperial Naval Special Forces trooper
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 6D+2
brawling parry 5D
dodge 5D+2
grenade 5D
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 4D
planetary systems 5D
streetwise 5D
survival 5D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 4D+2
beast riding 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D+2
capital ship piloting 4D+2
capital ship shields 4D+2
hover vehicle operation 5D+1
repulsorlift operation 5D
space transports 5D
starfighter piloting 6D
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
Con 5D
search 6D
sneak 5D+2
STRENGTH 3D+1
Brawling 5D+1
brawling: martial arts 7D
TECHNICAL 3D
Blaster repair 4D
computer programming/repair 6D
demolitions 6D
first aid 6D
security 5D
Special Abilities:
Blindfighting: If the trooper makes a Very Difficult brawling: martial arts roll — and is within striking distance of the target — he can ignore the effects of blindness; he cannot see, but can hear, smell or sense a target will enough to strike. This may be used as a reaction skill.
Instant Knockdown: If the trooper makes a successful Moderate brawling: martial arts roll — and the attack is not parried or dodged — the target is immediately knocked to the ground. The fallen character must either wait one round to stand or suffer multiple action penalties.
Multiple Strikes: The trooper can make a second attack with no multiple action penalties if he makes a Moderate brawling: martial arts roll. The second attack inflicts 3D damage.
Silent Strike: Providing he can sneak up on an opponent, the trooper can instantly kill or render a target unconscious. The enemy must be within arm's reach and he must declare if this is a killing or stunning attack prior to making the attempt. A successful Difficult brawling: martial arts roll indicates that the target is neutralized.
Zero-g Combat Training: SpecNav troops are trained in zero-g combat, and receive a +1D bonus to all dodge rolls, or any roll to attack.
Character Points: Typically 2-12
Move: 10
Equipment: Varies from mission to mission — frequently, SpecNav troops are issued prototype personal arms, armor and explosives as needed.

Specialists: There are five standard designations for SpecNav troops: Line, Saboteur, Tech, Assault, and Covert.
Line units. Standard SpecNav troops that have the stats indicated above.
Saboteur units. These troops have an additional +1D in hide and sneak
and an additional +2D in computer programming/repair
demolitions
streetwise and security.
Tech units. These troops receive +1D in armor repair, blaster repair, droid programming, droid repair, first aid, repulsorlift operation, repulsorlift repair, space transports repair, starfighter repair, and walker repair.
Assault units. Assault units receive +2D in blaster, blaster artillery, brawling, brawling parry, grenade, melee combat, melee parry, and vehicle blasters.
Covert units. Covert units receive additional training in espionage and counterintelligence and have +1D to bargain, command, con, hide, search, sneak, computer programming/repair, security and streetwise.

Law-enforcement Agencies

Sector Rangers

The Sector Rangers have remained essentially unaltered since the rise of the Empire. It patrols Imperial space and enforces the Imperial Code in general. The Sector Rangers are part of the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigation (IOCI), which keeps watch over assorted police organizations and maintains the Imperial Enforcement DataCore. IOCI in turn answers to the Justice branch of the Coalition for Progress — a branch of COMPNOR. The IOCI is primarily a criminological agency which collects and exchanges data among other branches.

The Sector Rangers are more vigorous than their parent branch. A Ranger team — defined by the number needed to crew a given Ranger ship — may move anywhere in a particular sector and are authorized to use whatever means necessary to apprehend criminals. This includes powers of deputization, temporary commandeering of vehicles and equipment, and the suspension of local officials that obstruct investigations and enforcement of Imperial law. Rangers are known to use this authority to its full extent, and are ruthless in their investigation techniques. Although too intelligent to fall back on ISB-style torture, the Rangers do apply strong-arm tactics with some regularity.

The Rangers share an uneasy co-existence with the Ringali Shell Security Force, a local Ringali police organization. The RSSF traditionally has more influence over local system patrols, but the Rangers have a higher authority as an Imperial agency. The agencies rarely cooperate or share information directly. Complicating matters is the broader physical jurisdiction granted the RSSF. The two sectors of the Shell have one Ranger branch each, but the RSSF can (and routinely do) cross sector boundaries in the pursuit of an investigation, while Rangers must coordinate with the local Sector Ranger branch.

Typical Sector Ranger
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D+1
dodge 4D+2
melee combat 5D
melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 4D
Alien species 5D
cultures 5D+1
languages 5D
law enforcement 8D
planetary systems 5D+1
streetwise 5D+2
MECHANICAL 2D
Astrogation 3D
sensors 3D+1
space transports 3D
starfighter piloting 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Bargain 5D
command 5D
hide 5D
investigation 7D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 4D
stamina 4D+2
TECHNICAL 2D
Armor repair 3D
blaster repair 4D
computer programming/repair 3D+1
Force Points: Varies; typically 1-2
Character Points: Varies; typically 3-8
Move: 10
Equipment: Blaster pistol (4D)
blast helmet (+1 energy
+1D physical
head only)
comlink
medpac
survival kit
datapad.

Law-class Patrol Craft

One of the smallest patrol ships in Imperial service, the Law-class patrol ship was KDY's first attempt at creating a system patrol craft. It has gained little acceptance in its intended role of scouting, but serves as a system customs and patrol craft in several sectors. The Law-class patrol ship is the primary vessel for Sector Ranger teams.

Law-class Light Patrol Craft
Craft: Kuat Drive Yard Law-class Light Patrol Craft
Type: Advance scout patrol craft
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 51 meters
Skill: Space transports: Law patrol craft
Crew: 15, skeleton: 4/+5
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
space transports: Law patrol craft 5D+2
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 10 (brig)
Cargo Capacity: 250 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 5
Atmosphere: 295; 850 kmh
Hull: 5D
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Four Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 2 front, 2 turret
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+2
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D
Proton Torpedo Launcher (with five torpedoes)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 0D
Space Range: 1-5/10/15
Atmosphere Range: 100-500/10/15 km
Damage: 9D

PB-950 Patrol Boat

The PB-950 is an older patrol boat, which saw its last productions shortly after the Clone Wars. The Empire phased out the 950 in favor of the Customs Corvette, but 950s are perfectly able ships and used by many patrol services, including the Sector Rangers of Bormea and Darpa sectors.

PB-950 Patrol Boat
Craft: Corellian PB-950
Type: Stock patrol boat
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 37 meters
Skill: Space transports: PB-950 patrol boat
Crew: 2, gunners: 2
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
space transports: PB-950 5D
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 8
Cargo Capacity: 180 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050 kmh
Hull: 5D
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Quad Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/3.5 km
Damage: 5D
Concussion Missile Tube (with five missiles)
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700
Damage: 9D
Two Medium Ion Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (pilot or co-pilot)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/7/36
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/700/3.6 km
Damage: 4D

Regulator X-Q2 System Patrol Cruiser

The Regulator X-Q2 is a commonly used patrol cruiser, especially for long-term patrols. The Rangers use a few Regulators in the Shell, although none of them have had to fire anything more than a warning shot in the last five years.

Regulator X-Q2 System Patrol Cruiser
Craft: Loronar Regulator X-Q2 System Patrol Cruiser
Type: Inter-System Patrol/Customs Cruiser
Scale: Capital
Length: 150 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting
Crew: 14
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting: Regulator X-Q2 4D+2
capital ship shields 4D+2
Passengers: 15
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Maneuverability: 2D+2
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/2D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 5/4D
Weapons:
Five Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 1 front, 1 back, 1 left, 1 right, 1 turret
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+2
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 4D

Ringali Shell Security Force

The Ringali Shell Security Force (RSSF) was originally founded centuries ago to counter a variety of threats to public safety — pirates, insurgents and criminal organizations, to name a few. In time, the RSSF developed from a loose collection of police, colonial marshals and maverick constables into a model service. In recent times, it has aged into a genteel public safety service, more concerned with assisting ships in distress than in the remote threat of piracy. Most of the anti-crime duties the RSSF was founded to pursue have been assumed by the Sector Rangers.

The RSSF has many patrol ships criss-crossing the Shell, mostly watching for ships in distress. The RSSF once functioned as the Shell's de facto navy and home guard, but this side of the service withered as the frontier moved on and the Shell became reliant on the Old Republic Navy.

The RSSF has an investigations division which pursues criminal investigations (although it is primarily interested in aiding or coordinating investigations of crimes that cross Bormea and Darpa sector boundaries). The investigations division typically hunts out smugglers, black marketeers, thieves, and fugitives that attempt to move across sector boundaries. System police forces are perfectly able to investigate local crimes, but a criminal ring that is large enough to operate in across both sectors requires more legwork to quash than the local patrol services are able to undertake.

The charter of the RSSF grants it authority to cross the Bormea-Darpa border freely in its activities. Ringali system patrols tend to be more interested in cooperating with the RSSF than with the Sector Rangers, and both agencies frequently clash over jurisdiction. The RSSF nominally answers to the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations, as do the Rangers, but the IOCI rarely exercises any authority over local police forces.

Typical Ringali Shell Security Force Agent
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 4D+2
dodge 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 4D
Alien species 4D+2
cultures 5D+1
languages 5D
law enforcement 6D
planetary systems: Ringali Shell 6D
streetwise 5D+2
MECHANICAL 2D
Astrogation 3D
sensors 3D+1
space transports 3D+2
PERCEPTION 4D
Command 5D
hide 5D
investigation 6D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 3D+2
stamina 4D
TECHNICAL 2D
Computer programming/repair 3D+1
first aid 4D
Force Points: Varies; typically 1-2
Character Points: Varies; typically 2-6
Move: 10
Equipment: Blaster pistol (4D), comlink, 2 medpacs, vacsuit, datapad.

SFS Light Patrol Ship

The RSSF uses many ships included elsewhere in this chapter but has more SFS Light Patrol Ships — a short-range patrol ship more common Coreward than Rimward — than any other type of craft.

The Light Patrol Ship is a freighter-sized vessel with excellent sublight speed and solid hull armor. The shielding and maneuverability of the ship are somewhat lacking, however; as a result, the RSSF prefers to send patrol ships out in trios.

SFS Light Patrol Ship
Craft: Sienar Fleet Systems Light Patrol Ship
Type: Patrol ship
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 38 meters
Skill: Space transports: SFS light patrol ship
Crew: 3, gunners: 3
Crew Skill: See Ringali Shell Agent
Passengers: 8 (brig)
Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
Consumables: 1 month
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x10
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050 kmh
Hull: 4D+1
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D+2
Scan: 60/2D+2
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/3D+1
Weapons:
Twin Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 3D+2
Three Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D

System Patrols

System patrols are operated by local law-enforcement agencies, native to a particular system. They generally have ships and firepower to counter the threats they expect — smugglers and minor local criminals. Although generally only a minor threat to a well-armed ship like the Far Orbit, they are dedicated and annoyingly omnipresent. A system patrol ship is likely to be the first response to a distress call in any populated system or jump zone.

Pursuer-class Enforcement Ship

This older-model Mandalorian police ship is still used in patrol forces through the galaxy, although it is no longer known to be produced. The Pursuer is extremely nimble and possesses a formidable weapons package. Several local system patrols have this ship in their space force, especially ones with more than one system to patrol.

Pursuer-class Enforcement Ship
Craft: MandalMotors Pursuer-class Enforcement Ship
Type: Systems patrol vehicle
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 30.1 meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting: Pursuer
Crew: 1
Crew Skill: Astrogation 3D+2
space transports 3D+2
starship gunnery 4D+2
starship shields 3D
Passengers: 2, 5 (prison cells)
Cargo Capacity: 35 metric tons
Consumables: 5 weeks
Cost: 200,000
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x16
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 1D
Sensors:
Passive: 35/1D+1
Scan: 55/2D+1
Search: 80/3D+1
Focus: 3/4D+1
Weapons:
Twin Blaster Cannon (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/10/17
Atmosphere Range: 100-500/1/1.7 km
Damage: 5D
Two Ion Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/7/36
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/700/3.6 km
Damage: 4D

IR-3F Patrol Ship

The forerunner to the IPV-1, the IR-3F patrol/customs craft is tied to a particular system; it lacks a hyperdrive.

IR-3Fs are capital combat vessels that primarily rely on brute force. Typically, such ships are assigned to systems where ongoing blockades are in operation. The IR-3F is well-designed, with a high power output for its size — its main flaw is the small crew, which tends to wear down more quickly than missions call for. IR-3Fs are common patrol ships in the Shell, along with the more advanced IPV-1.

IR-3F Patrol Ship
Craft: Sienar Fleet Systems IR-3F
Type: Inter-system patrol/customs craft
Scale: Capital
Length: 110 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting
Crew: 3, gunners: 8, skeleton: 1/+5
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D+2
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting: IR-3F 4D
capital ship shields 4D
Passengers: 10 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 180 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 kmh
Hull: 3D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/1D+1
Search: 130/2D
Focus: 4/2D+2
Weapons:
Four Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 300-1.5/3.5/7.5 km
Damage: 4D

Corporations

Few of the Imperial-supporting corporations in the Ringali Shell see a need for a large, armed and expensive security force in the calm and quiet space of the Shell. Most corporate security divisions concentrate on property security, monitoring employees (to prevent theft), and countering economic espionage. The hazards of space seem remote, and are — in the corporate mindset — best handled by the legitimate government. In the early phase of the Far Orbit's career, corporations are easy prey.

Corporations are not devoid of security measures, however; they are merely lax in some ways and focused on other threats. Some shipments, especially shipments of small and valuable goods that can be easily resold (gems, precious metals and artwork, for example) have a strong security presence to counter the threat of professional thieves. (Ironically, this heightened security is the result of the actions of the infamous Tombat, a sneak-thief that has plagued the Core Worlds for months.) These measures are not intended to counter armed robbery in space.

As the Far Orbit becomes more and more daring, the corporations targeted by the Rebel Alliance begin to implement anti-piracy protocols on their cargo shipments. (See Chapter Two for more information.)

Scenario Hook: Never Raid An XTS Freighter...
While Vedij is well-briefed on the criminal element in the Ringali Shell, he has never encountered Black Sun, a shadowy organization that many consider a myth (if they've heard of it at all). Black Sun is run by Prince Xizor, a Falleen noble who is also a close confidant of Palpatine himself. One of Xizor's many front companies is Xizor Transport Systems, a shipping concern that operates throughout the Core Worlds and Outer Rim Territories.
XTS maintains fleets of container ships and massive bulk freighters — easy targets for a Nebulon-B. If the Far Orbit attacks an XTS craft, Xizor will order an investigation through the criminal underworld. At the same time, he will appeal to the Emperor to ensure the protection of his craft. As a result, teams of bounty hunters, assassins and thugs will be searching for the Far Orbit, as will the Imperial Navy and other legitimate law-enforcement agencies who have been spurred into furious action by the Emperor himself.
In the event that the Far Orbit does seize XTS cargo, Puullo the Hutt will declare any agreements null and void, StarForge Station will not allow the Far Orbit near, black market contacts on Brentaal IV will disavow any Far Orbit crewer, and most underworld connections the crew may have developed will dissolve...all in a matter of weeks.
For more information on Black Sun, see Chapter Three of the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook.

Chapter Four: The Fringe

The fringe — that loose collection of spacers, smugglers, pirates, free-traders, info-brokers, and others who live outside the bounds of Imperial law — is of critical importance to the Far Orbit and her crew. Without the fringe, the Far Orbit cannot dispose of the goods and cargo she captures; she cannot acquire the parts she needs; and she cannot gather the vital information needed to plan her raids.

The fringe is centered around StarForge Station, an orbital shadowport hidden in the Ringali Nebula. StarForge is the Far Orbit's primary staging area and the main market for captured goods. The black market in the Ringali Shell also operates off of Brentaal IV, in the system's orbital habitats.

The prices of goods available on the black market change as the Far Orbit's campaign progresses. The campaign is divided into three phases: Phase One, during which the Far Orbit is unknown; Phase Two, when the Far Orbit has attracted the attention of Imperial authorities; and Phase Three, when the Empire is actively hunting the privateer. As the campaign progresses, prices for equipment rise as suppliers raise their prices in response to the increased risk. The tables below list the base cost (Phase One price) and multipliers for Phase Two and Three.

Availability Codes:

• 1: Readily available throughout the galaxy
• 2: Normally available, may need minor searching
• 3: Specialized item, requires moderate search
• 4: Rare item, requires significant effort to locate
• F: Fee or permit required for purchase
• R: Restricted item, requires license
• X: Illegal item, available only through black market

Equipment Tables

Computer Equipment

Medicine and Medical Equipment

Weapons, Armor and Explosives

Sensors and Communications Gear

Cybernetics

Tools and Repair Gear

Droids and Droid Gear

General Equipment

Starship Systems

False Permits and Licenses

^1 Cracken's Rebel Field Guide ^2 Fantastic Technology ^3 Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Revised and Expanded ^4 Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters ^5 Platt's Starport Guide ^6 Platt's Smuggler's Guide

Pirates and Pirate Groups

There are several groups and individuals that can either help or hinder the Far Orbit and her crew. The following are examples of the fringe operators in the Ringali Shell. Gamemasters can use them or create their own.

Venslas Beeli

The background of Venslas Beeli is largely unknown; he first appeared in an Outer Rim trading port, seeking work aboard a commercial freighter. He found none, but did find a berth on a pirate ship. He quickly learned how to survive among the raiders and soon rose in their ranks to general hand, gleefully joining boarding operations. Beeli became a terror to prize ships, toting a pair of heavy blaster pistols and leading insane charges into ships, howling at the top of his lungs and firing away like a lunatic. His successes gained him many friends among the pirate community, and he learned all he could about ship operations.

After a few years, the pirate crew broke up and Beeli became one of a few leaders in a newly formed gang, the Solar Terrors. The Terrors acquired a half-dozen heavily armed freighters and ganged up on single transports. This worked very well, and Beeli used the profits to bribe a series of port officials and crew.

One of these was an engineer on a Corellian corvette (which Beeli later seized and named the Zahtjav, after a legendary Rodian monster). A few more years of success brought the Javiq and the Pyesmev into Beeli's pocket fleet...and the full interest of the Imperial Navy on his activities.

After a three-month game of hunter and prey, a taskforce commanded by Captain Lev Kepzen of the Imperial escort frigate Feral tracked Beeli down to his base and captured him. For all his thunder, Beeli surrendered when outnumbered. Beeli's capture occurred one week after the Navy became aware of the Far Orbit, and only three days after the release of Captain Vocis Kenit to hunt down the rogue ship.

Kenit offered Beeli a choice; serve the Empire or die. Now he has his ships back and a mission — to portray a Rebel privateer and lure the Far Orbit into the clutches of the Imperial Navy.

Venslas Beeli
Type: Pirate Captain
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D+2
blaster: heavy blaster pistol 6D+2
brawling parry 4D+2
dodge 6D+1
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 5D
KNOWLEDGE 3D+1
Business 4D
intimidation 7D
languages 3D+1
planetary systems 5D
streetwise 5D+2
tactics 4D+1
tactics: raiding 5D
willpower 4D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 4D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 5D+2
capital ship shields 4D
communications 3D
sensors 4D
space transports 4D+2
starship gunnery 3D
starship shields 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Command 6D+1
STRENGTH 2D+1
Brawling 3D+1
TECHNICAL 2D+2
Capital ship repair 3D
demolitions 4D+1
first aid 3D
Character Points: 20
Move: 10
Equipment: Codekey, datapad, comlink, twin BlasTech DL-6H heavy blaster pistols (5D, 3-10/30/120), Corellian corvette Zahtjav, Etti lighter Javiq, and Rendili light corvette Pyesmev.

Zahtjav
Craft: Corellian Engineering Corporation Corvette
Type: Modified mid-sized raiding vessel
Scale: Capital
Length: 150 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Corellian corvette
Crew: 50, gunners: 12, skeleton: 20/+5
Passengers: 20
Cargo Capacity: 3,000 metric tons
Consumables: 1 year
Cost: Not for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 6
Atmosphere: 330; 950 kmh
Hull: 4D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/2D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 5/4D
Weapons:
Four Double Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: 2 turret, 1 left/back, 1 right/back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 4D+2
Two Tractor Beams
Fire Arc: Front/right, front/left
Crew: 1
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Atmosphere Range: 2-10/30/60 km
Damage: 6D

Capsule: The Corellian corvette Zahtjav is Beeli's flagship. The Zahtjav was originally an Old Republic exploration vessel on scout duty on the far reaches of the Outer Rim. With the rise of the Empire, budget cutbacks required the sale of the ship as surplus. It was purchased as a secure vessel, where it served ably until it was finally seized by Beeli, who bribed an engineer to cut the hyperdrive at a prearranged point. Beeli didn't pay the engineer, but did allow him to live — in an escape pod, with a week's air and food, in deep space.

Javiq
Craft: CSA Etti Lighter
Type: Modified medium freighter
Scale: Capital
Length: 125 meters
Skill: Space transports: Etti lighter
Crew: 25, gunners: 13, skeleton: 15/+10
Passengers: 15
Cargo Capacity: 400 metric tons
Consumables: 3 days
Cost: Not for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x10
Nav Computer: Limited to 4 jumps
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 5
Atmosphere: 280; 800 kmh
Hull: 3D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/3D+2
Focus: 6/4D
Weapons:
Ten Quad Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 4 front, 2 left, 2 right, 2 back
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-5/10/20
Atmosphere Range: 100-500/1/2 km
Damage: 5D
Tractor Beam
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-10/20/40
Atmosphere Range: 100-1/2/4 km
Damage: 4D

Capsule: The Etti lighter is unremarkable as a medium freighter, but the converted patrol and interdiction vessel has achieved a certain amount of fame (and notoriety) in the Corporate Sector and surrounding space. The Javiq was originally a territorial space patrol ship on the borders of CSA space. It had the misfortune to stumble across a hyperlane blockade Beeli had arranged and was damaged in the cutout. The crew was spaced but the ship recovered, repaired and added to Beeli's little fleet. Beeli mainly uses it as a zone lurker or false security patrol ship.

Pyesmev
Craft: Rendili StarDrive Light Corvette
Type: Imperial customs vessel
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 180 meters
Skill: Space transports: Imperial light corvette
Crew: 52, gunners: 6, skeleton: 18/+10
Passengers: 20
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 2 months
Cost: Not for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x8
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050 kmh
Hull: 5D
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 60/2D
Search: 90/4D
Focus: 4/4D+1
Weapons:
Six Double Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 300-1.5/3.5/7.5 km
Damage: 4D

Capsule: Rendili's light corvette is a fast, nimble, durable, little craft with good weapons and shielding. This particular ship is a shadowport knockoff, purchased by Beeli several months ago to replace a ship gutted in an unfortunate exchange with Sector Rangers. It suffers slightly from the low quality of the outlaw shipyard it was built in, mainly in speed and a lower-than-average hull integrity.

Beeli's Pirate Hands. All stats 2D except: Blaster 4D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 3D+2
capital ship shields 3D
sensors 3D+1
starship gunnery 4D. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
toolkit
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 3.

Beeli's Pirate Boarders. All stats 2D except: Blaster 4D+2
melee combat 4D+2
melee parry 4D
Strength 3D
brawling 4D+2. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
toolkit
heavy blaster pistol (5D)
armored vacsuit (+1D vs. energy and physical damage)
vibrorapier (STR+3D). Character points: 4.

Beeli's Pirate Officers. All stats 2D except: Astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 3D
command 4D+1
sensors 2D+1
starship gunnery 3D. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
passkey
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 4.

The Tarnished Blades

The Tarnished Blades are the survivors of the Silent Blades pirate ring (which was all but destroyed by the Far Orbit while it was under the command of Captain Kenit). A number of the survivors still operate together, though they only possess a handful of light freighters and a pair of Preybird-class starfighters.

The Tarnished Blades have vowed to locate Captain Kenit and exact their revenge on him for their defeat. However, they don't know that the Far Orbit crew has mutinied and are in fact seeking the renegade Nebulon-B out.

Once convinced that the Far Orbit is rogue, they will agree to help the privateers out (particularly if there's a chance of encountering Kenit).

Shel Marcino
Type: Pirate leader
DEXTERITY 3D+2
Blaster 6D
brawling parry 7D
dodge 6D
melee combat 6D
thrown weapons 5D
KNOWLEDGE 3D+1
Planetary systems 5D+2
streetwise 6D
value 6D
MECHANICAL 3D
Astrogation 5D
space transports 5D
starfighter piloting 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 5D
command 4D
con 4D
search 5D
STRENGTH 2D+2
Brawling 5D+2
TECHNICAL 2D+1
Character Points: 14
Move: 10
Equipment: Blaster pistol (5D), datapad, 500 credits, light freighter (the Dark Vendetta)

Capsule: Shel Marcino was little more than a deckhand when the Far Orbit — under the command of Vocis Kenit — shattered the Silent Blades pirate band. Narrowly escaping the conflict, Marcino has gathered several of the survivors of the battle into a tiny raiding group that ply their trade near the Ringali Nebula. Marcino is an obsessive, somewhat-unstable individual who suffers from flashbacks and traumatic nightmares about the Silent Blades' destruction. He longs to exact vengeance on Vocis Kenit, if only to make his horror-filled memories fade.

The Dark Vendetta
Craft: Modified Corellian HT-2200 Medium Freighter
Type: Modified medium freighter
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 54.8 meters
Skill: Space transports
Crew: 2
Crew Skill: See Shel Marcino
Passengers: 8
Cargo Capacity: 800 metric tons in four bays
Consumables: 3 months
Cost: 260,000 credits
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1
Hyperdrive Backup: x6
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 3
Atmosphere: 206; 750 kmh
Hull: 5D+2
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 10/0D
Scan: 25/1D
Search: 40/2D
Focus: 2/3D
Weapons:
Two Pulse Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1 (pilot)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 4D
Two Quad Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (copilot)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 6D
Light Ion Cannon
Fire Arc: Back
Crew: 1 (pilot or copilot)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/7/36
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/700/3.6 km
Damage: 3D

Pirate Preybird-class Fighters
Craft: SoroSuub Preybird-class Fighters
Type: Modified heavy assault starfighter
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 21 meters
Skill: Starfighter piloting: Preybird
Crew: 1, gunner: 1
Crew Skill: Astrogation 6D
sensors 5D
starfighter piloting: Preybird 5D
starship gunnery 6D
starship shields 6D
Cargo Capacity: 15 kilograms
Consumables: 4 days
Cost: 160,000 credits (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Nav Computer: Limited to five jumps
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 9
Atmosphere: 400; 1,150 kmh
Hull: 3D+2
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 20/0D
Scan: 60/1D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 3/3D
Weapons:
Two Heavy Laser Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+1
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D+1
Concussion Missile Launcher (armed with five missiles)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700
Damage: 8D

Typical Tarnished Blade pirate. All stats 2D except: blaster 5D
dodge 6D
brawling 6D
starship gunnery 5D. Move: 10. Character Points: 5. Equipped with: Heavy blaster pistol (5D)
blast vest (+1D physical).

Infochants

Infochants — information brokers — are one of the most valuable assets a pirate group can cultivate. Unfortunately, if the pirates become successful, the infochant is likely to sell the raiders' location and identities to bounty hunters or law-enforcement personnel. Still, most infochants walk a dangerous tightrope between the law and their clients.

One of the most successful infochants in the Ringali Shell is the enigmatic ARCHIVE-H, an elusive data merchant who only deals with clients via pirate transmissions on the HoloNet. ARCHIVE-H will — for a fee, transferred to a labyrinthine series of secure financial accounts — locate whatever information the client requires.

The size of ARCHIVE-H's fee varies, though the infochant has an almost supernatural ability to determine what a client can and can not pay. For low-priority information, ARCHIVE-H charges a modest fee ranging from 100-1,000 credits. For sensitive information (the infochant's specialty), the price can run as high as one million credits. Despite the high price, ARCHIVE-H has an almost perfect success rate.

Bounty Hunters

Scenario Hook: The Price of Success
As the Far Orbit's infamy grows, the privateer crew will face a new threat: bounty hunters, assassin droids and contract killers. Since a large portion of the Far Orbit's crew is comprised of mutineers — whose names, identifying marks, genetic markers, retinal patterns, and so on, are all on file with the Empire — it is only a matter of time before they appear on the Most Wanted lists of the Ringali Shell.
Kenit is not above dealing with the criminal element; he has placed a substantial bounty on Captain Vedij and any of the mutineers he once commanded. Kenit's only restriction is that Vedij be brought before him alive. All other Far Orbit crewers are expendable.

Dej Vennor

Dej Vennor
Type: Bounty hunter
DEXTERITY 4D
Blaster 6D
blaster: heavy blaster pistol 8D
blaster: blaster rifle 7D
brawling parry 5D
dodge 6D
melee combat 6D
melee parry 6D
KNOWLEDGE 2D+2
Alien species 3D+2
business 5D
intimidation 6D
languages 6D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 5D+2
beast riding 5D
ground vehicle operation 4D
hover vehicle operation 6D
jet pack operation 6D
powersuit operation 6D
repulsorlift operation 6D
sensors 6D
space transports 6D
starship gunnery 6D
starship shields 6D
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 6D
con 6D
hide 6D
search 6D
sneak 7D
STRENGTH 3D+2
Brawling 5D+2
brawling: martial arts 9D+2
stamina 5D
TECHNICAL 2D
Armor repair 6D
blaster repair 6D
computer programming/repair 6D
demolitions 6D
first aid 6D
Special Abilities:
Martial Arts Skills:
Disarm: If Vennor rolls a successful attack that is not parried or disarmed (and if that roll is higher than Moderate), his target is disarmed. The attack inflicts no damage, but sends the opponent's weapon flying out of his grasp.
Flip: A successful Moderate martial arts roll indicates that the target is hurled to the ground (provided the attack is not parried or dodged). The target suffers 3D damage. This tactic may be used as a reaction skill.
Foot Sweep: A successful Moderate martial arts roll indicates that the target is tripped and falls prone. The target must remain prone for the remainder of the round.
Instant Knockdown: A successful Moderate martial arts roll indicates that the target is knocked to the ground (provided the attack is not parried or dodged). The fallen character must either wait one round to stand or suffer multiple action penalties.
Multiple Strikes: If Vennor rolls a Moderate martial arts total, he can make a second attack that round. The attack inflicts 3D damage.
Power Block: Vennor can block a brawling attack in a manner which inflicts damage. If he makes a Moderate martial arts roll, he inflicts STR+1D damage on the target; this tactic can be used as a reaction skill.
* For more information on martial arts techniques, see pages 116-118 of Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForces Handbook.
Character Points: 31
Move: 10
Equipment: Blaster rifle (5D+2)
heavy blaster pistol (5D)
force pike (STR+2D)
stun grenade (5D stun damage
15-meter blast radius)
stun cuffs
3 pairs of binders
modified Imperial scout armor (see below)
modified Firespray-class patrol craft (the Target Acquired; see below)
comlink
datapad
10,000 credits
modified IT-series droid (IT-901; see below).

Capsule: Dej Vennor is a deadly, proficient bounty hunter who accepts anti-pirate contracts exclusively. He refuses to go after smugglers, Rebels or other law-breakers unless they have committed an act of piracy. No one really knows Vennor's history, save that he may once have been an Imperial scout. Rumors abound that the laconic bounty hunter has been horribly scarred by a pirate king — which is why he is never seen without his armor — and that his entire family was wiped out in a pirate raid. Others insist that these stories are myth, and that Vennor tracks pirates to their hidden lairs only to snare the raiders' booty for himself. Whatever the reason, Vennor preys exclusively on pirates.

Dej Vennor's Armor
Model: Modified Imperial scout armor
Type: Bounty hunter armor
Cost: Not available for sale
Availability: Unique
Game Notes:
Basic Suit: Vennor's armor provides +1D protection versus physical and energy attacks, with no Dexterity penalty. Suit has a move of 20 (rolled on powersuit operations).
Power Suit: +1D to climbing/jumping and lifting.
Sensor Pod: +1D to search.
Internal Line-slinger: 20-meter range. Standard line is tipped with a magnetic or claw grappler. Roll missile weapons to fire.
Jet Pack: Can move 100 meters horizontally or 30 meters vertically in a single round. Has 20 charges and can expend 2 per round until exhausted.
Sealed Enviro Filter: Filter system can block out harmful gasses or toxins for up to two-hours. Provides protection in vacuum.
Motion Sensor: Neuro-Saav MacroMotionMonitor. Adds +1D to search rolls involving motion up to 50 meters away.
Reflec coating: Vennor's armor has been coated with the sensor-absorbing compound, reflec. If he is not being actively scanned for, he adds +1D to his hide and sneak rolls.
Wrist Lasers: Hold 15 shots per unit, and inflict 4D damage to targets within 3 meters.

IT-904
Type: Modified Imperial IT-series Interrogation Droid
DEXTERITY 1D
Blaster 5D
dodge 3D
melee combat 6D
melee parry 4D
missile weapons 7D
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Intimidation: interrogation 6D
MECHANICAL 2D
Astrogation 5D
starship shields 5D
PERCEPTION 4D
Search 6D
STRENGTH 3D
TECHNICAL 2D
Computer programming/repair 6D
first aid 5D
security 6D
Equipped With:
Laser scalpel (3D damage)
Hypodermic injectors (4D stun damage; alternately, loaded with truth serums)
Two grasping claws (allow fine manipulation of controls and tools)
Repulsorlift locomotion (altitude 10 meters)
Internal blaster (range 20 meters, 6D damage)
Internal grenade launcher (fire rate: 1/2, range: 5-20/100/250, damage: 6D stun damage; armed with 10 micro-stun grenades)
TranLang III translation module (with 10,000 languages)
Vocoder speech system
Scomp-link (adds +1D to computer programming/repair rolls when linked to a computer network)
Astrogation buffer (stores one set of nav coordinates that can be scomp-linked into a nav computer with a Moderate computer programming/repair roll)
Move: 6
Size: 0.3 meter diameter
Cost: Not available for sale

Capsule: IT-904 was once an Imperial interrogation droid that Vennor purchased at auction — from the Armorer's Guild on Epsi Nadir — and had extensively modified. The droid has been augmented with additional weapons, and a large portion of its memory and processing capability has been upgraded. Unlike most IT-series droids, 904 is fiercely independent and has a sarcastic manner when dealing with any organic.

The Target Acquired
Craft: Modified Firespray-class attack craft
Type: Limited production sublight patrol and attack craft
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 21.5 meters
Skill: Space transports: Firespray
Crew: 1
Passengers: 6 (prisoners)
Cargo Capacity: 35 metric tons
Consumables: 6 months
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x20
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 kmh
Hull: 2D+2
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 20/0D
Scan: 45/1D
Search: 90/2D
Focus: 3/3D
Weapons:
Two Twin-Mounted Quad Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 6D
Two Ion Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/10/15
Atmosphere Range: 100-500/1/1.5 km
Damage: 6D
Tractor Beam Projector
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/15/20
Atmosphere Range: 100-800/1.5/2 km

Chapter Five: Gamemaster's Section

The Far Orbit Campaign

This chapter focuses on the progression of the Far Orbit Campaign. Gamemasters are encouraged to review this material prior to play.

In essence, the three phases of the campaign show how the Far Orbit's enemies and allies respond to her actions over a period of time. Each phase detailed in this chapter gives general descriptions of the actions of the Alliance, ISB, Imperial Navy, IOCI, Sector Rangers, and so on. These actions can be used as the basis for your own adventures, or to provide additional complications to the scenarios presented on pages 114-166. Also included in this chapter is a "pre-scenario checklist" that gamemasters may find very useful when preparing to run Far Orbit adventures. (See page 113.)

The Adventures

The adventures in this book are examples of how to structure the Far Orbit Campaign. Gamemasters may feel completely free to ignore them and come up with their own adventures, if they so desire, or intersperse their own scenarios among those presented here. Although the adventures follow an overall plot progression (described in this chapter), they are presented in a "loose" fashion; since privateers are unpredictable, locking players into preset paths will shatter the tone of freedom that a good Pirates and Privateers scenario needs. This loose format was selected because different groups with different players and characters can diverge radically from each other, and it is very likely that individual campaigns will be extremely idiosyncratic.

Other Adventures

Some gamemasters may want to have the players engage in raiding, espionage, monitoring Imperial ship movements, following up blind leads on rumored shipments, and making contacts in the major ports — mostly Brentaal and StarForge Station. These adventures can take place between or in place of the set adventures.

Of course, gamemasters may use this campaign as source material and choose to let the player characters go off largely on their own.

Phase One: Predator in the Fold

Phase One of the Far Orbit Campaign is the easiest for the characters; the Far Orbit is not known to the local patrol organizations and was last reported hundreds of light years away, on the edge of the Outer Rim Territories. No one — military personnel, law-enforcement agencies or the general populace — expects a Nebulon-B escort frigate to be a Rebel or pirate ship. With only a moderate amount of cleverness on the part of the players, the Far Orbit should be able to operate undetected for several weeks of game time.

Captain Vedij is intelligent enough to use these facts to his advantage. One of the first suggested adventures parlays the advantage the Far Orbit enjoys into a massive convoy hijacking. Once this adventure is played (or this concept used) the players might be able to pull off a similar hijacking two or three more times, but no more. Such huge shipments can only vanish a couple of times before Imperial Naval Intelligence discovers the pattern, interviews witnesses, alters security codes and circulates a report to open fire on lone Nebulon-Bs. Imperial Nebulon-Bs will, of course, then operate only in lines. Still, by then the Far Orbit can conceivably have hijacked millions of tons of cargo.

Ending Phase One

Phase One ends when the Far Orbit crew has done something — in the gamemaster's opinion — to alert the Empire to their activities in the Ringali Shell. In the suggested adventures, Phase One ends with the capture of Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv.

If you are not running the adventures in this book, other situations that can signal the end of Phase One include:

• Botched raid. A freighter escapes after the Far Orbit has attempted to seize it, and manages to report the incident to the authorities. At the very least, even if the crew continues to pose as an Imperial Naval vessel, this will bring official attention to their activities.
• Success. The Far Orbit can only seize so many ships before an official investigation is launched by the RSSF, the Sector Rangers, Imperial Customs, or a local system patrol. The Navy probably won't be involved unless the Far Orbit poses a clear and present danger to the local populace — violent dirtside raids, spacing of captured ship crews, and so on.
• Chance encounter. There's a great deal of traffic in the Ringali Shell, and perhaps someone jumps in during an inspection-raid-turned-violent. This by itself isn't enough to mount an investigation, but the story of a pirate Nebulon-B will spread, and if enough of a furor builds, someone will start asking questions. Perhaps a holovid reporter is aboard the interloping ship and starts a massive on-air campaign to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

Phase One Complications

The Alliance

Elements within the Rebel Alliance do not trust the Far Orbit, her captain, officers, or crew. The Alliance has agreed to provide intelligence updates — although Rebel spynets are very busy handling their regular duties — and will provide supplies as it is able (which is not very often at this stage of the civil war.)

The fact that Mon Mothma and the Alliance command structure are willing to employ the Far Orbit indicates Alliance desperation in the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin and destruction of Alderaan. The crew of the Far Orbit consists of pirates and mutineers led by an unstable Imperial Naval officer — it would be utterly foolish to have blind faith in such a motley collection of "mercenary scoundrels." Until the Far Orbit has shown herself worthy of trust, her crew's actions will be viewed with suspicion.

The Ubiqtorate

Once the Ubiqtorate knows there is a Rebel privateer active in the Ringali Shell it will move swiftly to locate, observe and — surprisingly — protect her. The Ubiqtorate is extremely interested in the intelligence-gathering potential of the Far Orbit. By tracking the movements and activities of the Far Orbit, Ubiqtorate agents hope to determine what cargoes the Alliance is seeking (on the theory that the Rebels are directing the privateer to seek specific material), how wide and deep Rebel spynets are (on the theory that the Rebels will fully support the privateer with intelligence), and perhaps where any forward Rebel bases are (if a tracking device can be slipped into hijacked cargo).

In fact, the Alliance has already decided to account for as many of these variables as possible. The Far Orbit receives almost no support from Alliance Intelligence, no information of forward Rebel outposts, and has ordered the Alliance Observer aboard to mandate thorough sensor sweeps of every cargo that comes aboard the ship. (In addition, any cargoes delivered to the Alliance from the Far Orbit are again scanned and visually searched for tracking devices.)

Once the Ubiqtorate is satisfied that the Far Orbit's intelligence potential is exhausted — which may take several weeks — it will move to have the ship eliminated.

The Navy

The Navy has no sense of humor about pirates, mutineers or Rebels. The Far Orbit is all three; the fact that a large percentage of the crew are ex-Navy is particularly galling to the military. Once Ringali Shell Sector Group Command becomes aware of the Far Orbit's existence, the Navy will make locating and capturing her a high priority.

The Ubiqtorate will cloak the existence of the Far Orbit as long as it can, but the truth will come out sooner or later. Once it does, all Navy vessels will be extremely suspicious of any Nebulon-B frigate they encounter, and will be ready to fire on the least excuse.

COMPNOR and other Imperial Agencies

For the most part the Imperial political wings and bureaucracy are not a factor in the first phase of the Far Orbit Campaign.

Captain Vedij

Vedij himself is something of a wild card. He is intended to be a "gamemaster's override," providing a plausible reason for the gamemaster to prevent characters from acting in ways that would send an adventure "off the map." (Some gamemasters may decide not to use Vedij at all, instead selecting a player character for the role of captain, although this is not recommended.)

Vedij can be used as a sort of "lucky charm" — he may pull tricks out of his cap to save less-experienced characters or be used to herd player characters toward a particular situation by ordering them into it. He is, in short, a handy tool for the gamemaster.

Vedij should be a somewhat remote captain, accessible to the right officers and willing to accept advice but not particularly hands-on in command style. He has capable people and delegates authority to them until they show themselves unable to perform.

Another option is to turn Vedij into an enemy. Perhaps he is dangerously unstable, taking reckless chances that cost the lives of crewers. Or perhaps he is an Imperial agent on a daring mission against the Alliance intelligence apparatus. In essence, Vedij can be used in whatever matter suits the gamemaster's desires for the campaign.

The Crew

The Far Orbit's crew is quite an unstable mix of mutineers and pirates. They are unlikely to have much loyalty to the officers or captain, and may even try to overthrow the command crew if they do not feel that events are proceeding in a desirable manner — not enough food or booty, or the casualty rate of Far Orbit engagements is inordinately high, for example. Such a mutiny is a perfectly normal threat, and very deadly.

Phase Two: Gathering Storm

By the time Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv is captured, the activities of the Far Orbit have come to the attention of the Imperial authorities. If the players have been crafty, the Far Orbit may have avoided the scrutiny of the ISB, Ubiqtorate or the Imperial Navy, but Veshiv's disappearance will focus a great deal of high-level interest on what is going on in the Ringali Shell.

In the second phase of the Far Orbit Campaign, the frigate has had an opportunity to return to StarForge Station, take a shore leave, refresh the consumable stocks, and upgrade the weapons, shields and engine performance. This may take several weeks, and gamemasters are encouraged to drop the crew into some independent adventures aboard StarForge.

Beginning Phase Two

The forces of the Empire are on the move in the wake of Advisor Veshiv's disappearance. The Emperor himself has taken an interest in Ringali Shell piracy and has privately vowed to eliminate Grand Admiral Teshik — who is charged with Core World space security — if the embarrassing situation is not dealt with decisively and immediately. As a result, pressure is being applied on local sector forces — from the very top of the command structure — to locate and rescue Coh Veshiv and capture or destroy the Far Orbit.

In the event that the Far Orbit has made itself more than a little famous, the Imperial propaganda machine is taking this chance to paint the entire Rebellion as a nest of thieves, pirates and murderers as well as terrorists and agitators.

In general, however, the activities of the Far Orbit is still not revealed to the general public and is a classified matter.

Complications of Phase Two

The Alliance

The Rebels are probably fairly pleased with the returns on this operation (assuming the Far Orbit hasn't led them into traps or dropped a tracking device on their heads). The Alliance is beginning to trust the Far Orbit with more confidential intelligence, although they aren't about to start dropping deep secrets in the Far Orbit's lap. The Nebulon-B is slowly becoming more of a priority on Alliance resupply and repair rotations.

The Ubiqtorate

Imperial Intelligence is now frantically trying to locate the Far Orbit. Even if the Far Orbit has managed to keep a fairly low profile, the Ubiqtorate has puzzled out the broad parameters of the situation:

1. The Far Orbit crew mutinied.
2. Cargoes in the Ringali Shell are disappearing.
3. An Imperial Advisor has also gone missing.
4. The last known ship to be sighted with the Advisor's ships was a Nebulon-B escort frigate.

Given the above facts, the Ubiqtorate has determined that the Far Orbit is now a pirate, possibly a privateer. In either case Imperial Intelligence is interested in tracking the Far Orbit down.

If they have not yet managed to slip a tracking device aboard via a doctored cargo, they will redouble their efforts to do so by hiding tracking devices in valuable military and industrial shipments and sending them off in easy-to-hit freighters, often with no escort.

The Navy

Once Naval Intelligence deduces what is going on, the Navy quickly orders that all Nebulon-B escort frigates pair up and transfer to squadrons and battle groups with other ships. No escort frigates are to operate alone. Any Nebulon-B escort frigate found to be operating alone is to be fired on.

Navy patrols, skirmish and recon lines are stepped up to search for the raider. These forces are mostly comprised of small ships (though some are large enough to be a threat to the Far Orbit individually and a serious problem if encountered in a group). Large ships — Star Destroyers, Victory Star Destroyers, and so on — are not detailed to search for the Far Orbit, although if such vessels encounter the Far Orbit, they will certainly take action.

The Navy begins arming several small freighters, sending them out as bait for the Far Orbit. These bait ships operate alone or in pairs in remote space without detectable escort. If they run into the Far Orbit, they simply open fire — they have no backup and are only expected to wound the Far Orbit. The Far Orbit might encounter two or three of these before running into the surprise package in "The Trap" (see page XX).

COMPNOR

The ISB immediately uses the existence of a raider in the Core Worlds as evidence of treachery at the highest levels of sector government and launches a general purge. This is unlikely to have any direct effect on the Far Orbit, although word of the mass purges may encourage the crew.

The Justice branch of the Coalition for Progress puts a lot of pressure on the IOCI to locate the Far Orbit for the Navy.

Commerce branch considers the existence of a Rebel raider in the Core Worlds an excellent excuse to centralize control of commercial traffic, and begins organizing convoys among the Imperialized corporations, whether the Navy is interested in protecting them or not.

IOCI and the Sector Rangers

Whether the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigation identifies the threat of the Far Orbit or is informed by another party, it comes under a great deal of pressure to track the Far Orbit down. The Sector Rangers are under slightly less pressure (since their ships aren't expected to be a physical match for an escort frigate), but they are expected to step up patrols and find the raider's contacts in the Shell.

The Ringali Shell Security Force and System Patrols

The RSSF and system patrols are under a great deal of scrutiny. Although pirates haven't been a problem in the Shell for years, the patrols are expected to locate potential troublemakers in the area and warn them off. The presence of a raider in the area is completely intolerable, particularly to the RSSF commanders.

The Far Orbit's presence might be used by the Empire to absorb the RSSF into the Sector Rangers, or even to centralize the system patrols (something the system governments want to avoid at all costs). The patrols are eager to find and destroy the Far Orbit as fast as possible. To do this, the patrol ships are consolidated into patrol groups of 2-5 ships, to better confront the Far Orbit if she is located.

The Corporations

Even if the Far Orbit raids remain a comparative secret, the better-connected corporations are likely to learn that raiders have begun operating in the Ringali Shell. These corporations step up security and organize their ships into small convoys.

Random Ship Encounters

In Phase Two, the random ship encounters are essentially unchanged, except that any Naval or patrol group will be on the alert for trouble. Any result of "patrol" now indicates a group of 2-5 ships. There is a small chance that any ship is a Navy trap or shipping Ubiqtorate-tracked cargo.

Operational Advice
In the first phase of the campaign the Far Orbit has the best chance of survival and plunder if she mimics an Imperial escort frigate on patrol duty. As no one but the Empire has Nebulon-Bs at this early date, the Far Orbit should be able to quietly divert quite a load of cargo into the hands of the Rebels before anyone figures out what is going on. This tactic has the advantage of being executable in trafficked areas and allows the Far Orbit's ersatz "inspection" teams to ensure the prize cargo is worth taking.
Fake "Navy inspections" can easily cover a cargo raid as a confiscation, and corporations will spend weeks tracking the cargo down for compensation. Once the masquerade is over, it is over permanently, so the crew is well-advised to make the most of it.
Clever players will soon realize that they need to set up a regular pipeline to the Rebels if they intend to take large ships. While the Far Orbit has 3,000 tons of cargo capacity, that isn't much when compared to the cargo holds of some of the freighters she encounters.
The Alliance can be contacted to arrange pick-up runs to pull in full cargoes (and even partially restock the privateer). The Alliance will be more than willing to do this, since on-site pick-ups keep the Far Orbit from putting in at a Rebel port. The price of a restock is deducted from the privateers' cut of seized cargo.
Other options available to the players are:
Capturing freighters and delivering the ship and the cargo to the Alliance. This is a good idea, since it removes the freighter from circulation entirely. (Missing freighters are likely to be chalked up to a hyperspace accident, at least until the number of disappearances begin to pile up.)
Modifying the Far Orbit. A number of stealth modifications and weapons upgrades are available at shadowports, particularly StarForge Station. Since the Far Orbit's mission is to capture enemy cargo and ships, she clearly needs weapons more suited to the job than her current armament. Ion cannon batteries and stealth gear are highly recommended.
Creating a fighter wing. Since the Far Orbit's TIE complement has been completely destroyed, she has little hope of screening a determined starfighter or TIE bomber assault. The problem facing the crew in this case is the fighter bay itself; it is designed for TIEs. Attempting to use X-wings or Z-95 Headhunters (which will be easier to acquire on the black market than military TIEs) requires extensive modifications to the hangar. These modifications include the removal of overhead TIE racks, the widening of the launch port (with a subsequent increase in the size and strength of the bay's magcon shield), and increased power to the docking tractors. These modifications can be done with a team of 20 crewers, four Moderate capital ship repair rolls, and 3D weeks' worth of modification time.

Ending Phase Two

Phase Two ends when the Far Orbit is handed a defeat by the Empire, and probably retreats from the Ringali Shell.

Phase Three: Stormbreak

Beginning Phase Three

Phase Three begins with the return of the Far Orbit to the Ringali Shell. This may be several weeks or even a few months after their departure, and the local patrol forces may consider them driven off, but security protocols are still being followed. Once the Far Orbit is known to be operating in the Shell again, she will be vigorously hunted.

The example adventures assume that Vedij announces the Far Orbit's return to the Ringali Shell in a very public way. He can be talked out of this, but this chapter assumes that he follows through on his plan to embarrass the Empire.

Complications of Phase Three

Navy

The Navy goes to a full alert posture as soon as the Far Orbit is reported in the Ringali Shell. All Imperial escort frigates are accounted for and ordered into lines. Supplemental capital ships have been added to the ranks, and there are rumors of new squadrons of prototype TIE Advanced fighters being deployed.

The Ubiqtorate

Imperial Intelligence has a quiet, professional fit over the Far Orbit's exposure, and further increases attempts to track her movements. Now, however, the Ubiqtorate orders that the ship be eliminated. A Crisis team is assembled, with Infiltration and Assassination branches assigning agents to the mission. An Adjustment agent is also assigned, without the knowledge of the Crisis team.

COMPNOR

The Select Committee of COMPNOR is outraged over the Far Orbit affair and the ISB orders the Darpa and Bormea Sector Offices to solve the problem. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the ISB tends to make problems vanish by looking for traitors. The ISB isn't going to be effective against the Far Orbit, but will make witnesses and involved patrol officers miserable as they try to root out Rebels.

IOCI, Sector Rangers, Ringali Security, and System Patrols

Once the Far Orbit's raids are public knowledge, the IOCI posts a 10,000-credit reward for information leading to the capture of the Far Orbit. The Sector Rangers gain direct emergency power over both the Ringali Shell Security Force and local system patrols. This sets a precedent in the Shell that the Empire has overriding power in cross-sector space law-enforcement emergencies.

The Corporations

Once the Far Orbit's raids become known to the corporate powers of the Ringali Shell they react in one or more of the following ways (possibly contradictorily). These actions may take weeks to coordinate and fund, and the companies are likely to be inconsistent for the first several weeks.

• Stepped up security. Smaller corporations may hire security personnel to accompany their shipments; larger corporations probably have their own security forces and increase staffing to match the new problem. These on-board security measures will make stockholders feel better, but they probably won't be very effective against a determined Far Orbit assault. Megacorporations may include a large, well-equipped security division, possibly armed with military-grade weapons. Santhe/Sienar is an excellent example of this — Santhe Security is essentially a private army, with highly advanced TIE models and other Sienar Fleet Systems ships available to guard Santhe Passenger & Freight convoys.
• Bounties. Several companies may pitch in to create a bounty fund, and some of the companies may offer rewards independently. These are likely to come in a bewildering variety of forms, with options on top of options.
• Demands for Imperial protection. A large section of the private sector will do little beyond whine to their system governments and Empire for action.
• Private counter-piracy operations. Very large megacorporations may take direct, positive action to eliminate the privateer threat, from boobytrapped ships to cargo ships with tracking devices. Think of these security divisions as private versions of the Empire, but cost/benefit oriented. Santhe/Sienar and TaggeCo are the obvious candidates for this sort of operation.
• Private convoys. With or without Imperial assistance, the major shipping companies and large corporations are likely to start scheduling convoys, possibly with private security escort ships.

The Fringe

Elements of the Ringali Shell fringe were probably aware that raids were taking place weeks or months before the matter became public. Crime lords may be quite happy to sell assistance, arrange black market buys, sell arms or ship modifications, and generally make a profit off the situation. These crime lords are equally willing to turn the Far Orbit over to the Imperials if the privateer ship becomes valuable enough (although most crime lords would probably cut a more complicated deal for immunity, favors or cessation of criminal investigations).

In Phase Three, the random ship encounter tables should be adjusted to reflect these changes. Fewer ships operate alone, more convoys are encountered. The easiest adjustment is to simply double the number of freighters encountered. Most importantly, once the Far Orbit's raids become public knowledge, no one will trust a lone escort frigate in the Ringali Shell, no matter how believable their codes, and will transmit an alarm as soon as one is detected.

The End of Vedij and the Fate of the Far Orbit

The end of the Ringali Shell campaign is not automatically the end of the Far Orbit's raids. If she survives, she can be unleashed in another region, her reputation leading to quick surrenders by all but the most hardened crews. If Kenit is still alive at the end of the campaign, he might lead the chase. Note that Kenit is likely to be executed for failing his assignment, and a new villain should be introduced. The Ubiqtorate will keep sending Adjustment agents until the Far Orbit is destroyed, the Sector Rangers will keep trying to track her down, and if the Emperor is annoyed at the lack of progress he might even send one of his feared Dark Adepts or High Inquisitor Tremayne to oversee the hunt. (Still, if Kenit has been a good antagonist for the players, there is enough leeway to keep him around; perhaps the Emperor or Pestage gives Kenit one last chance….)

The example ending adventure features the Far Orbit raiding an Imperial Star Galleon filled with precious materials (taxes from primitive worlds in the Outer Rim). Assuming the Far Orbit survives the Imperial attention she enjoys toward the end of the adventures, the campaign probably ends on a high note — the Star Galleon is raided or another victory finishes off the Ringali Shell escapades of the Far Orbit. The campaign might end up on a mixed note — the Star Galleon is hijacked at the cost of the Far Orbit herself, or the ending triumph is somehow muted by a tragic loss, death, pyrrhic victory, or other bittersweet climax. Least satisfying is the tragic ending — the Far Orbit is destroyed in the end; the Empire finally corners and defeats its rogue offspring. Downbeat endings can be satisfying in their own way but are extremely difficult to successfully implement.

Whether she survives the Ringali Shell or not, the Far Orbit is considered a success by the Alliance. She brings in much needed war material and ties up dozens of ships that might have otherwise been deployed against the Rebels. The Alliance privateering project is to be duplicated, with some minor adjustments, and the privateers allowed wider hunting grounds.

The fate of Captain Dhas Vedij and the Far Orbit is largely in the hands of the gamemaster. Provided that Vedij remained in command of the Far Orbit throughout the campaign, there are several avenues that he may take at this point:

• Enlist. Vedij might elect to join the Alliance. He is a skilled and experienced captain with a great deal of political clout; he even comes with his own capital ship. The Alliance would welcome him into their ranks, though his reckless ways will eventually cause him problems with his commanders. Perhaps his ship and crew act as a test program for a form of Alliance "Naval" SpecOps unit; Vedij is left to his own devices, planning his own missions. This scenario is not terribly different from the privateer campaign, with the exception that missions are now decidedly more military. Should Vedij take this option, only a few of the crew joins him. (Logically, the player characters would be excellent choices to remain.)
• Remain a privateer. Vedij may choose to continue as a raider; in this case, the vast majority of the crew will likely sign on again. If Vedij returns to raiding, the Alliance, pleased with the results of the Ringali Shell campaign, grants him a non-restricted zone of operation — the Far Orbit can raid anywhere in Imperial space. The reward for the capture or confirmed destruction of the Far Orbit reaches legendary proportions in only a few months, and her adventures escalate.
• Turn to piracy. Perhaps the crew elects to return to raiding, but this time, there is no partisan cause. In such a case, Vedij will likely retire or join the Alliance, turning the ship over to the crew.
• Retire. Vedij might decide to retire to some remote world. In this case, he is probably quite willing to sell the Far Orbit to the officers, crew, or Alliance at a discount. This assumes he doesn't want to retain the Far Orbit as his personal yacht.
• Die. It is possible Vedij dies in the boarding of the Emperor's Will. This is very much in keeping with the dark mood of the campaign, and leaves the Far Orbit in the hands of the player characters. This is perhaps the best option for player groups that have a keen grasp on tactics and don't have a tendency to leap into danger heedlessly. Still, Vedij's death should have some meaning; he won't throw his life away needlessly. Sacrificing himself to save his crew or his ship is the most likely method of Vedij's passing.

Some Final Words

The Far Orbit Campaign poses some interesting challenges to the gamemaster, since the players will likely have very definite ideas about what they want to do with a Nebulon-B at their disposal. In general, gamemasters should follow where the players lead; if they decide to hunt for a rumored Ubiqtorate base, for example, let them. Talk with the players prior to beginning a roleplaying session and get a feel for their mood, what character they like to play, and what they hope to accomplish. This will give you a better idea on how to steer the session the way you want it to go.

To help gamemasters steer the game in the direction they wish to go, the Far Orbit Campaign comes with a series of player handouts (see Appendix A). These handouts are essentially "data noise" — intelligence information supplied by the Rebel Alliance. Think of these handouts as built-in scenario hooks. For example, if the Rebels put out a call for bacta (and promise double the normal pay for it), the players will in all likelihood start planning some bacta raids.

Adventure Set-up Checklist

• Main Villain:
• Secondary Villains:
• Adventure Outline:
• Episode # / Description:
• Setting:
• Goal/Success Conditions:
• Complications:
• Clues/Important Info:

(Repeat for each episode)

Adventure One: Preparing For War

Introduction

The Far Orbit has assumed a distant position from StarForge Station to land a shuttle and negotiate with the Alliance on neutral ground. Once the negotiations are concluded, Captain Vedij will post a public call for hands experienced in capital ship combat operations.

This adventure is the starting point for all new, non-mutineer characters — pirates, other fringe characters and Rebels.

StarForge Station

Hidden in the thick cloak of Ado sector's StarForge Nebula is StarForge Station — an affront to the New Order. This hidden illegal base is one of the most successful shadowports in civilized space, and one of the few places where the Far Orbit is relatively safe.

The station is run by a loose council of tenants, who select an administrator to deal with the day-to-day operations of the station. The administrator commands a small staff and security force to enforce the few rules imposed by the council. Murder (cold-blooded killings, not self-defense), unwarranted assault, and theft are punished by either execution — in the case of murder — or exile (assuming the violator is still alive to stand for a brief trial).

The Station has facilities for light- and medium-sized freighters and small capital ships, as well as dozens of warehouses, repair bays, cyberdocs, arms dealers, restaurants, a casino, permanent living quarters, and the famous StarForge Shipyard (capable of constructing or repairing any ship up to the size of a small cruiser).

Survival

The existence of StarForge Station is a major affront to local law enforcement. The shadowport is high on the Imperial Locate and Destroy list and the Navy would be quite happy to aid any such operation. The StarForge Shipyard alone should bring the full might of the Empire down on the Station's head. Yet it remains.

There are several reasons for the station's longevity (among them administrative complacency, lack of military force and widely spread bribes to key Imperial and customs officials). This has recently changed with the appointment of Moff Irnst Stavveld, a retired Navy admiral. It will take Stavveld time to bring Ado sector's military up to his high standards (and to root out the corruption that has allowed this boil on the Empire's side to remain unlanced).

Another reason for the Station's survival is a problem of scale versus resources. The StarForge Nebula is a vast, sensor-muddling, comm-jamming cloud of seething matter. Navigating through the nebula is incredibly difficult. Finding the Station is hard enough if you know where to look and when, and virtually impossible to find without assistance.

Local space is full of planetoids to be avoided, requiring slow movement. The Station itself moves periodically, and puts out a net of passive sensor buoys to alert Station control of visitors. Patrols do stumble across it occasionally, fight their way out, and return with reinforcements, only to find that the Station has moved. To destroy the Station would require a massive sweep of the Nebula with forces large enough to pin the Station in its current location. The Far Orbit took days to locate the Station, and it had the advantage of having an Alliance chart to the place.

Defenses

When the Station has to, it can defend itself. Early on, the original owner invested some of his profits in acquiring a defense ship, and this has continued up to the present. All the tenants contribute to Station upkeep and defense, either monetarily or in time and labor, and several of the Shipyard's products have gone into the small defense force over the years, currently including a knockoff light customs corvette and a squadron of six Koensayr Y-wings. If the Far Orbit is discovered before Captain Vedij can assure the administrator of his friendly intent, it will be attacked by these ships, and possibly several others, while the Station makes an emergency jump away.

StarForge Station light corvette. Starfighter
starship gunnery 5D+2
space transports 5D
starship shields 5D+1
Maneuverability 2D
space 8
hull 5D+1
shields 3D
Weapons: 6 double turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 4D).

Y-wings. Starfighter
starship gunnery 4D+1
starship piloting 4D+2
starship shields 3D
Space 7
hull 4D
shields 1D+2
Weapons: 2 laser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 5D)
2 proton torpedoes (fire control 2D
damage 9D)
2 light ion cannons (fire control 3D
damage 4D).

StarForge Station
Type: Asteroid
Temperature: Temperate
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable)
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Gravity: Standard
Terrain: Artificial
Length of Day: Standard
Length of Year: Standard
Sentient Species: Highly mixed
Starport: Standard
Population: About 10,000
Planet Function: Shadowport
Government: Tenant council
Tech Level: Space
Major Exports: Free market, ships services, starships
Major Imports: Raw and processed materials

Episode One: The Alliance Deal

This adventure begins in media res. The understrength Far Orbit is searching for StarForge Station, hidden somewhere in the fringe of the StarForge Nebula. The Far Orbit has only a hazy idea where the Station is, and must carefully scan for a tight-beam beacon to guide her in. Detecting the Station requires one to six hours and at least a Very Difficult sensors roll (one attempt can be made per hour); the Station's picket patrols are likely to find the Far Orbit first.

If the Far Orbit doesn't find the Station in six hours she is found by a Station Y-wing patrol comprised of four fighters. They are aware that a mutinous Nebulon-B named the Far Orbit is due in their space, but are extremely wary — this may not be the ship they are expecting, or the whole situation may be a trap orchestrated by the ISB and Imperial Navy.

The Y-wings hang back on the Far Orbit's rear, and spotlight her with focused sensor scans, which make the Y-wings Easy to detect.

This is a excellent opportunity for a fatal error; the Y-wings have hot weapons and targeting locks on the Far Orbit, though they will not fire unless fired upon. Firing on the Y-wings cuts the Far Orbit off from StarForge Station and gives her a swiftly spreading bad reputation on the Fringe. Hailing them is much smarter. The Y-wings gruffly ask them their business, and if convinced of the Far Orbit's legitimate business (requiring some roleplaying or an opposed persuasion roll) lead her in to the edge of the pocket currently inhabited by the Station.

Vedij and several of his staff (including player characters) are at StarForge Station to meet with representatives of the Alliance to finalize the terms of the Far Orbit's Letter of Marque. The mutineer characters arrive on the Station, via shuttle, and are met by Station security. The security force is made up of a few long term professionals with shady backgrounds and several more between-berths thugs. Security warns all new arrivals of the basic rules:

• No Heavy Weapons. Sidearms are allowed, but longarms, repeaters and explosives are prohibited. Purchases of such weaponry must be delivered sealed, and escorted to the buyer's ship or shipper by security. Anyone caught with outlawed weapons is summarily spaced.
• No Killing. Except in self-defense or in prearranged duels, killing is prohibited. The penalty for committing murder is death or permanent exile (depending on security's judgment).
• No Beatings. Fair fights and duels aside, beating somebody up for no good reason will get you kicked off the Station.
• No Stealing. Anyone who survives being caught for theft is permanently exiled.

After being told the rules, the new arrivals are free to roam the Station. Captain Vedij, and possibly some of his senior staff, knows when and where the meeting is to take place: the Lean Nuuti Bar and Grill. The mutineers are to come in a group of six and order flangth and ootoowergs with Shasa ale. The characters will be approached by an Ithorian. The final deal can then be cut.

Read the following aloud when the characters enter the Lean Nuuti:

The Lean Nuuti Bar and Grill is everything you would expect from a leisure hall on a pirate space station: dank, grubby, dark, and filled with unsavory individuals from every corner of the galaxy. Bad Rodian music is blaring from a broken autojuke in the corner, as several pirates are jostling each other over a game of holodarts.

There are no Ithorians in the busy Lean Nuuti when the characters arrive. The group of humans is eyed suspiciously by all the aliens in the room. There are few humans here — none, in fact (other than any human player characters). The group finds a table and have little choice but to wait.

A few minutes after they place their food order with the serving droid, an Ithorian emerges from the kitchen and says there are no ootoowergs left. "Perhaps two of you would like to see what's available?" he says.

Captain Vedij and an assistant (preferably not a player character) go back to negotiate the final deal with the Alliance. Meanwhile, the rest of the group waits. A few more minutes pass, and the group is approached by four large, alien thugs, who try to goad them into a fight in accented Basic.

Read the following aloud:

"So they are letting humans in here now? I will have to eat at other places. The bad smell makes me sick," growls one of the thugs, fingering the blaster tucked into his belt.

"These humans are traveling in packs. They are smart, because they would be rounded up and spaced, otherwise," observes his comrade.

"I think these are very scared little humans. They do not have their Empire here to protect them," hisses the third.

This is a "legitimate" attempt to start a fight — station security will not interfere. There are an equivalent number of the aliens as there are human player characters. If the fight comes out on one side or the other, the losers are expected to buy a round for the house, and if it comes out even the aliens will probably buy the humans a drink to patch things up. The fight could turn into a general brawl, depending on the reactions of the fringe player characters (see below).

Alien Brawlers. All stats 2D except: Strength 4D
brawling 6D+2
Move 10
Blaster pistols (4D)
Character points: 2
Note: The brawlers won't draw their pistols unless someone else does first

When Vedij returns, he snaps an order that halts the fight. As soon as the fight ends, he marches the characters off to find quarters.

---

Non-Mutineer Characters

This scene is an excellent introduction to the Far Orbit crew for characters that weren't part of the mutiny. Any non-mutineer characters are sitting in the Lean Nuuti Bar and Grill, together or separately, when the Far Orbit-ers enter and order. After a few minutes the Ithorian cook comes out to talk to them (Difficult Perception roll to overhear), two of whom go back toward the kitchen. A few more minutes later some aliens start to pick a fight in the manner described. The fringers can join in if they like.

Once the fight is over, the small, light-eyed, dark-skinned human in charge of the other five emerges from the back. The man — obviously their captain — rounds up his men and takes them off through the market. If the non-mutineer characters assist the Far Orbit crew during the fight, Vedij will introduce himself, and ask for them to accompany the group.

If the fringe characters do not elect to accompany the Far Orbit crew, they may decide to keep an eye on these strangers, who have a disturbingly military air. If they want to shadow the mutineers, the fringe characters can roll their sneak against the mutineer's Perception.

The mutineers find cheap quarters just outside the Market. The doors are only Moderately difficult to open with a security roll, but the rooms are relatively well-kept.

This is an excellent time to introduce plot elements on StarForge Station that might nudge the fringe characters toward signing on a ship to get off the Station.

A character might have an old enemy who just arrived on the station — "You turn the corner, and there, down the row at a market stall, is Kanarak the Slayer, your old enemy who's sworn a blood oath to wear your bones on his deathnecklace. He's got two pals with him. He's examining a large vibro-ax and hasn't seen you yet..." — and it's time to get out of town.

Other characters might be:

• Broke. "You just spent your last credits. You've got enough food for two days and shelter for the night, but that's it." Obviously, this only works for characters who start with little or no cash.
• Bored. "This place is driving you nuts. It's been weeks since you saw any sort of action."
• Really looking for work. "Your old shipmates have disbanded and you need a new berth."
• Escaping a gambling debt or loan shark. "You're coming out of the bar when a slab-like Gamorrean picks you up and slams you against the wall. His keeper, a shifty-eyed human with bad breath politely reminds you that you owe Three-Finger Jak, and that non-payment is very unhealthy. They drop you in a dumpster and fade into the shadows."
• Avoiding a social misunderstanding. "When you get back to your rented quarters you find you have 57 messages from Luona, the girl from the bar last week."

These encounters or personal situations should provide ample opportunity for roleplaying and a little simple combat.

---

Episode Two: Exploring StarForge Station

The Market

Nearly anything might be found in the StarForge market — although whether it is actually available is entirely up to the gamemaster.

Choice locations include:

• Weezo's Gun Shop. A cornucopia of weapons, specializing in ship-board weapons. Weezo is a scarred, female Nalroni with an eyepatch. Her prices are double the list price, but that's normal for the Station. She keeps a target range in the back — the weapons are placed in the range by Weezo, then the characters are allowed in. They're not allowed out until the limited ammunition is exhausted. The range is reinforced with high-grade durelium, thick as ship's battle armor. Weezo doesn't carry battle armor, by the way. She refers inquires to Just Armor.
• Just Armor. A shop devoted entirely to personal armor, ship armor and passive defenses. A wide assortment of armors can be found here, for 50 percent above list price. Some armor is new, but most are used. The shop is run by Gjaddia and Morol, two humans. Gjaddia is the businessman, Morol does the repair and fittings (very important; poor fitting armor should carry a -1D penalty to all Dexterity rolls and reduce Movement by -2).
• Starwind Chandlery. A general store and ship outfitter. Most spacer's supplies can be found here, including shipsuits, spacesuits, lockers, toolkits, and a small selection of blaster pistols and melee weapons. Starwind's main business is supplying consumables (food, air, water, etc.) to starships. The Far Orbit is too large for the business to adequately restock — if the store were emptied, the Far Orbit would gain a couple weeks of consumables. They can arrange larger purchases, though, with a month's warning. The store is managed by a tired, old Devaronian named Labio, and clerked by a Wookiee named Wurrooba and a petite, human woman named Mioe.
• Nuyu's. Nuyu is a Lafrarian tattoo artist and body decorator. He has clean equipment and makes a modest living selling major and minor cosmetic body alterations to rough pirates and mercs.

Episode Three: Gathering A Crew

The next day Captain Vedij posts a general call for crew experienced in capital ship combat. The hiring desk is on the docks. Once a good-sized crowd of applicants has arrived, Vedij makes a short announcement. (Read the following aloud.)

"Attention, please. I am Captain Vedij of the privateer Far Orbit. I am in need of an experienced crew. Anyone here who has experience with capital ships, starship weapons or boarding actions is welcome enough. We are also in need of technicians and general spacehands. I have the ship's Articles here. Form a line to declare yourselves and sign."

Fringe characters of all sorts have come to see what's up, and a large number try to find a berth. Not all are good risks. Some sample characters are:

Kanarak the Slayer
Type: Pirate
DEXTERITY 3D+2
Blaster 5D+2
blaster: blaster rifle 6D+1
brawling parry 5D+2
dodge 5D+2
grenade 4D+2
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 5D+2
running 4D+2
vehicle blasters 5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D+2
Intimidation 5D
streetwise 4D
survival 4D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Ground vehicle operation 5D+2
repulsorlift operation 4D+2
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 3D+1
hide 3D+1
search 4D+1
sneak 4D+1
STRENGTH 4D
Brawling 5D+1
climbing/jumping 3D+1
stamina 4D+1
TECHNICAL 2D
Force Points: 1
Character Points: 25
Move: 10
Equipment:
Vibro-ax (STR+3D+2)
Merr-Sonn Flash-4 heavy blaster pistol (4D+2)
deathnecklace (made from bones of victims)
haversack with assorted personal items

Capsule: Kanarak is an intensely violent, aggressive, deadly alien with pronounced canines and a mane of thick dark hair. While Kanarak would be very useful in boarding actions, he can be a threat to the rest of the crew. Kanarak is mainly interested in destroying his victims and lacks the personal discipline to obey orders.

Swifty Yonsen
Type: Outlaw gunslinger
DEXTERITY 4D
Blaster 5D
blaster: heavy blaster pistol 7D
dodge 6D
KNOWLEDGE 2D+1
Survival 3D+1
MECHANICAL 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Con 5D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 2D+2
Brawling 5D
TECHNICAL 2D
First aid 3D
Character Points: 6
Move: 10
Equipment:
Pair of mismatched blaster pistols (4D)
well-worn gun holster (second-hand)
brimmed hat (covers his bald spot)

Capsule: Yonsen has acquired a fearsome reputation as a hired gun (the hardened pirates around him take a step back when he announces his name), mainly through misadventure and rumor inflation. He looks the part, sort of, but is just a low-talent space bum. His reputation is so fearsome that most gamemaster characters will either back down or flub their blaster rolls.

Green Gruk
Type: Gamorrean pirate
DEXTERITY 3D
Brawling parry 5D
melee combat 5D
melee parry 4D+1
thrown weapons 5D
KNOWLEDGE 1D
Intimidation 3D
survival: Gamorr 4D
MECHANICAL 1D
PERCEPTION 1D
STRENGTH 4D
Brawling 6D
stamina 5D
TECHNICAL 1D
Armor repair 3D
Character Points: 10
Move: 7
Equipment:
Ax (6D)
leather armor (+1D physical)
2 morrts
necklaces
arm-bands
rings
and earrings

Capsule: Gruk is a 1.5 meter-tall, bulky Gamorrean mercenary. He doesn't understand what the privateers are really about, doesn't care about the Alliance, and isn't interested in hurting the Empire. He just likes to fight. There's a special problem in hiring Gruk; he won't obey any leader who has not personally thrashed him in combat — and Vedij isn't about to wade in against him. If anyone does beat him, they have a large, warty, smelly, strong pal who won't obey anyone else.

Option: Gruk is the leader of a band of (roll 4D to determine the number) Gamorrean mercenaries. Defeating him means the entire band is at the disposal of the victor.

Pao-Neh-Lo
Type: Tiss'shar pirate
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D+1
dodge 4D+2
melee combat 5D
melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 4D
languages 5D
planetary systems 5D+1
streetwise 5D+2
MECHANICAL 3D
Astrogation 3D
sensors 4D+1
space transports 4D
starfighter piloting 4D
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 5D
hide 5D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 4D
stamina 4D+2
TECHNICAL 3D
Blaster repair 4D
Special Abilities:
Scale armor: +1D physical +1 energy
Heat vision: Tiss'shar can see in the infrared spectrum and are able to effectively see in the dark (assuming a heat source)
Character Points: 15
Move: 11
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D+2)
hold-out blaster (3D)
vibroblade (STR+3D)
vibrodagger (STR+2D)
grenades (5D)
detonite
comlink
survival gear
utility belts with supplies and toolkit

Capsule: Pao-Neh-Lo is an experienced Tiss'shar pirate with little mercy. She is cold-hearted, but disciplined, and will obey a strong leader to the end. Like other Tiss'shar, she wears no clothes, proudly displaying her intricate scale patterns for all to see. She does wear the tool-harness commonly used by her people to hang an impressive array of weapons.

Cemma the Younger
Type: Outlaw
DEXTERITY 3D+2
Blaster 5D+2
brawling parry 4D+2
dodge 5D+2
melee combat: knife 4D+2
melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D+1
Intimidation 3D
streetwise 2D
survival 3D
MECHANICAL 3D+2
Repulsorlift operation 4D+2
swoop operation 5D+2
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 3D+1
hide 3D+1
search 3D+1
sneak 5D+1
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 4D+1
stamina 3D+1
TECHNICAL 2D+1
Blaster repair 4D
first aid 2D+2
repulsorlift repair 2D+2
Character Points: 10
Move: 10
Equipment:
2 blaster pistols (4D)
knife (STR+1D)
hold-out blaster (3D)
pack of chak-sticks

Capsule: Cemma comes from a backwater world where he has acquired a reputation as a quickdraw. He is fairly proficient with a blaster, but he prefers shooting his victims in the back. Cemma is crude, psychopathic, mercurial, and brutal, but has a youthful, adorable face that humans find trustworthy and human females consider irresistible.

Katiz Xemir
Type: Anti-Imperial raider
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D+2
brawling parry 4D+2
dodge 5D+2
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Intimidation 5D
streetwise 4D
survival 5D
MECHANICAL 3D
Repulsorlift operation 4D+2
PERCEPTION 3D
Command 5D+1
hide 4D+1
search 4D+1
sneak 5D+1
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 5D+1
stamina 4D+1
TECHNICAL 3D
Blaster repair 4D
first aid 4D+2
repulsorlift repair 4D+2
Character Points: 15
Move: 10
Equipment:
Heavy blaster pistol (D)
2 blaster pistols (4D)
hold-out blaster (3D)
knife (STR+1D)

Capsule: Originally a settler on a remote colony world, Xemir's family was butchered by the Empire when he refused to relocate offworld to make way for a mining facility. He's drifted ever since, hiring out as a gunhand against any Imperial target. As the Rebellion grows in strength, Xemir will probably eventually join them, but at this point he's still just an outlaw merc. Xemir is 2 meters tall, lean, quiet, and self-absorbed.

Napvansa Tadavv
Type: Sluissi engineer
DEXTERITY 2D+2
Blaster 3D
dodge 4D
melee combat 3D+2
melee parry 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D+1
Streetwise 3D
survival 3D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Communications 3D+2
PERCEPTION 3D+2
Command 4D+1
hide 4D
search 4D
sneak 4D
STRENGTH 2D+2
Brawling 3D
climbing/jumping 3D
stamina 3D+1
TECHNICAL 4D
Armor repair 5D
blaster repair 5D
capital ship repair 5D
demolitions 5D+2
first aid 4D
ground vehicle repair 5D+2
hover vehicle repair 5D+2
repulsorlift repair 5D+2
space transport repair 5D
starfighter repair 4D+2
Character Points: 10
Move: 10
Equipment:
Several tool sets
blaster pistol (4D)

Capsule: Tadavv is a Sluissi with a thick accent. She has extensive experience keeping large engines performing and is a superior ship's engineer, although she has a habit of tripling repair time estimates so when she beats the self-imposed deadline she'll look good.

Xad
Type: Falleen raider
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 4D+1
dodge 3D+2
melee combat 4D
melee parry 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Cultures 3D+1
languages 4D
streetwise 3D+2
MECHANICAL 3D
Sensors 3D+1
space transports 3D+1
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 5D
command 4D
persuade 4D
sneak 3D+2
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 4D
stamina 4D+2
TECHNICAL 3D
Special Abilities:
Pheromones: Exuding special pheromones and changing skin color to affect others gives Falleen a +1D bonus to their persuasion skill
with an addition +1D for each hour of continuous preparation and meditation to enhance the effects — the bonus may total no more than +3D for any one skill attempt and the attempt must be made within one hour of completing meditation.
Amphibious: Falleen can breathe underwater for up to 12 hours and gain +1D to all swimming attempts.
Character Points: 10
Move: 9
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
deck-sweeper (ammo: 10, fire rate: 1/2, 3/5/10 m., 6D damage)
comlink

Capsule: Xad is a minor Falleen aristocrat who is, unlike others of his species, curious about the galaxy at large. He is on a "pilgrimage" to see its wonders, and has an innate curiosity that has gotten him into more scrapes than he can count. He is a natural, cold-hearted predator, with a calculating mind and sharp wit. He can be a good friend, and has most of the qualities humans find noble.

Mii Heswop
Type: Interstellar transient
DEXTERITY 3D
KNOWLEDGE 3D+1
MECHANICAL 2D+2
PERCEPTION 3D+1
STRENGTH 3D
TECHNICAL 2D+2
Computer programming/repair 3D
Character Points: 2
Move: 9
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
comlink
computer toolkit

Capsule: Mii is a portly human who claims to be a good computer technician and general spacer. He is supposedly familiar with standard ship's procedures and has traveled extensively. He makes no outrageous claims of superiority, only presenting himself as generally able. Actually, he's an egocentric nitwit with no real ability or capacity for learning, although he's full of trivia about a vast array of subjects.

Selecting New Crewers

The trick, of course, is for the characters to identify which applicants are valuable and which are dangerous or counterproductive. One option is to stage a series of tests — which can be roleplayed out by players controlling command crew (to set an example for applicants) and prospective recruits.

---

Thrill Scenes

Thrill scenes can be used to heighten tension and player participation during a roleplaying session. During a thrill scene, the gamemaster sets a short time limit and a required number of successes (instead of a difficulty number). Before the time limit elapses, the players must roll the appropriate number of skill dice and try to roll as many sixes as possible. If the players do not roll the required number of sixes, the attempt fails.

For example, the characters are trapped in a cave-in. The gamemaster tells the players that they have 30 seconds to roll five sixes in order to avoid the falling rocks. The players roll their running or Dexterity dice (whichever is higher).

---

Some examples are:

• Marksmanship. A thrill scene. The characters have 30 seconds to score five hits on moving holotargets.
• Emergency astrogation plotting. A thrill scene in which characters have one minute to plot an emergency course on a datapad. This thrill scene requires ten successes.
• Capital ship simulator. Characters must navigate a Nebulon-B into a combat scenario in a computer simulation. The simulated targets are TIEs. (This is not a thrill scene.)

Simulated TIEs. Starfighter
starfighter piloting: TIE. Starfighter piloting 4D+1
starship gunnery 4D. Space: 10
Hull: 2D
2 Laser Cannons (Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D)

• Unarmed Combat Test. Characters pair off and wrestle in non-lethal combat. The top five winners are accepted into the Far Orbit's boarding party squads. (This is not a thrill scene.)

Episode Four: Turmoil

The partial recrewing of the Far Orbit, up to the lowest level needed to take her into combat, requires several shuttle trips. As fresh crew is shuttled in, the collection of applicants is sorted through over a period of several hours. Eventually the throng of applicants dwindles.

The captain takes the last shuttle trip over, and orders the Far Orbit to make ready for departure. After a couple of hours, the Far Orbit nears the edge of the StarForge Nebula, an astrogation course is set, and the Far Orbit is on her way.

The new crew members are a motley collection of scruffy humans and scruffy aliens, with weak, questionable (or non-existent) loyalty. The aliens resent the humans — particularly the Imperial mutineers — and the ex-Imperials have little love for the aliens. Fringe humans are under pressure from both sides. This is a natural boiling-point situation.

The gamemaster has several options:

• After only a few days of friction, one side or the other picks a fight, and a brawl develops in the galley. (Perhaps the fight is over the dietary habits of humans versus those of aliens — the Tiss'shar prefer to eat live prey, which is in short supply; the Gamorreans eat nearly anything, but make a tremendous mess; other aliens have other eating habits an Imperial mutineer finds disgusting; and so on.) Alternately, an alien is offended by the human food on board, and expresses this by trashing the autochef and any humans nearby.
• Kanarak considers all humans weak and worthless, and expresses this opinion regularly. It only takes a few days for an incident centering on Kanarak's attitude to develop. Kanarak isn't willing to wait for planetfall to duel — per pirate tradition — and starts killing all the humans. This isn't a mutiny per se, just an individual's violent tendencies coming to the fore.
• Gruk likes to fight — one of the strongest, non-player humans takes him on, and winds up with an accidentally broken back. A small group of humans decide to exact revenge with clubs, leading to several cases of isolated beatings along human/alien lines.
• The fringe humans and Imperial mutineers have tremendous antipathy for each other, leading to a series of scuffles. Eventually, a career pirate officer decides to challenge a mutineer officer to a duel to settle the issue. The duel is a tente — the duelists fight to first cut: deliberate killing is to be avoided. Vedij agrees, on the understanding that this is to be the end of the scuffles. There is no issue of leadership involved here, just relief of social pressure.
• There are a number of human racists in the mutineer crew, the result of Imperial indoctrination; one of the prominent aliens offends them and is found in an isolated section, dead of a stab wound. The aliens howl for human blood while the humans close ranks, leaving a few player characters in the middle.

Several of these options could be played out over the course of the campaign, creating an undercurrent of internal strife. Periodic duels, gradually increasing in intensity, relieve some of the stress. A mutiny is possible, but not likely.

---

Shakedown Cruise

Before running an initial raiding adventure, gamemasters may want to spend a session or a half-session letting the characters play off each other. It takes over two weeks to travel from StarForge Station to the Ringali Shell and once there, Vedij spends several days drilling the new crew. This time gives everyone (both in-game and out) a chance to develop some basic relationships. Then move on to the first action adventure.

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Adventure Two: The Hijacking of Shipment 1037

Introduction

The Far Orbit is ready to make her first major strike. After stocking up the ship, the Far Orbit cruises into the Core Worlds — part of Vedij's strategy is to keep the Imperial Navy guessing — in hopes of locating a suitable target.

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"The Hijacking of Shipment 1037" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit locates an easy target. During the raid, the crew discovers the location of a convoy worth millions of credits.
• Episode Two. The crew plans to infiltrate the convoy and prepare to hijack it.
• Episode Three. The Far Orbit enters the convoy and must contend with the Imperial escort frigate, New Star.

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Episode One: Milk Run

After several days of shakedown the Far Orbit is looking for a first target. Vedij has made it clear that the Far Orbit is to maintain the image of an Imperial ship for as long as possible, and is currently "on patrol" in Nopces system, a minor system on the Mid-Core edge of Darpa sector, along the Hydian Way.

The Far Orbit is cruising a jump zone, waiting for a suitable light freighter to target. A player character officer has just come on duty (preferably all players have a character on duty). Sensors have detected a low volume of traffic since the Far Orbit arrived; never light enough to warrant a confrontation, but never heavy enough to move on. Just after the change in watch the sensors report a medium transport approaching from Nopces Prime, the main world of the system. There are no other ships on the scope. As the ship draws nearer it can be identified (on an Easy sensors roll) as Transport A-175, a mid-range hauler owned by Red Star Shipping.

How the matter is handled is up to the players. Vedij is available at all times, of course, and should be called to the bridge once a good target is detected, but the main decisions should be made by the players. Vedij will take recommendations and follow them as long as they're not obviously stupid.

Transport A-175 is legitimate: she's not a smuggling ship, has all of her datawork in order, and is hauling a cargo of power cells and power system components for Cambriele SolidState, worth about 35 million credits (before the Alliance cut). The captain is named Joh Steen and will cooperate with what he thinks is a legitimate Imperial Navy ship.

Action IV Bulk Freighter. Capital. Space 2, hull 2D. Cargo Capacity: 75,000 metric tons.

Typical bulk freighter crew. All stats 2D except: Mechanical 3D
astrogation 4D
space transports 5D
starship shields 3D
sensors 3D+2. Move 10
Datapad
comlink. Character points: 5. The crew doesn't carry sidearms under normal circumstances. They are not expecting trouble and generally cooperate until given a reason not to.

The ship is on route to Brentaal to join with a convoy headed out to the Rim. This convoy is expected to go through some dangerous regions of space and will be escorted by a Nebulon-B frigate. The crew knows this, and it is on file as part of their flight plan.

One course of action is to board the ship for an inspection, then seize it. If they do, the character will have to discover the details of the convoy on their own. The smarter thing to do is to board for inspection, investigate the ship's contents and records under the guise of Imperial inspectors, and then offer to accompany the ship to the gathering point. The convoy, consisting of at least 10 medium and heavy transports, is scheduled to leave in three standard days.

Hopefully the players will get the idea that the convoy is ripe for a mass hijacking, if they work quickly. If none of the players think of this, Vedij does. If the Far Orbit can contact the Alliance and convince them to lend some support ships they should be able to divert the convoy right into the hands of the Rebellion.

Contacting the Alliance is not difficult (they have a communications scrambler link for that very purpose), but convincing them to put their meager resources on the line so early is hard. It takes an excellent plan and a Difficult persuasion roll to get the Alliance to agree to assign a small task force to the job (which consists of a wing of 36 Y-wings). A Heroic persuasion roll gets them a pair of Corellian corvettes as well. The details of the task force is not revealed in advance under any circumstances: the Alliance is still unsure of these privateers and wary of traps.

Episode Two: Interception

If the Alliance is convinced to send support ships there is only one real plan available; link up with the convoy, convince the Imperial escort frigate that they have legitimate orders to join the convoy, and an updated astrogation plot. Clever players might add that the new destination is to link up with an even larger escort force, since Navy Intelligence has uncovered a plot (by Rebels or pirates; players' choice) to intercept the convoy. Faking authentic-seeming Imperial orders requires a Moderate forgery roll or Perception versus forgery roll (no modifiers). Getting Captain Conar of the Imperial escort frigate New Star to accept these orders without checking in with Bormea Imperial Command — assuming he believes they are real — requires an opposed Perception versus con roll (no modifiers), preferably made by a player character officer.

If the Alliance isn't convinced that the proposed raid is feasible, the Far Orbit has a large problem; how to take a significant portion of the convoy and whether it is worth the risk. It may not be — walking away from this situation is perfectly understandable.

The players may choose to intercept the frigate (which arrives at the rendezvous point in two standard days), destroy her, take her place, divert the convoy, hold the entire convoy up, contact the Alliance, and keep the ships under the Far Orbit's guns and inside range of a jamming signal until an Alliance relief force arrives, which will take at least two days. Such a relief force would consist of the 36 Y-wings and two Corellian corvettes mentioned above. While the transports are no match for the Far Orbit, keeping them docile for so long would be something like herding Jawas.

A better option may be to try to capture the escort frigate, New Star, and ignore the convoy. This would be a great victory for the Far Orbit to start her campaign, and would fetch a good purse — it's worth about 9 million credits new; the Alliance would value it at only about 4.5 million used; the prize money would be 50% of that price: about 2.25 million credits. That's assuming the Far Orbit doesn't borrow her for its raids before reporting the capture. The New Star has a half-complement of TIE fighters and a full complement of shuttlecraft and escape pods — most of which the Far Orbit ejected weeks ago.

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate, New Star. Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D
Maneuverability 1D
space 4
hull 3D+2
shields 2D
Weapons: 12 turbolaser batteries (fire control 3D
damage 4D)
12 laser cannons
starfighter scale
(fire control 2D
damage 2D)
2 tractor beams (fire control 2D
damage 4D). The New Star is commanded by a competent captain
Miech Conar
and crewed by loyal officers and hands.

12 TIE/ln Starfighters. Starfighter
starship gunnery 5D
starship piloting 6D
Maneuverability 2D
space 10
hull 2D
Weapons: 2 laser cannon (fire control 2D
damage 5D).

Captain Conar
Type: Imperial Naval Captain
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 5D+1
dodge 4D+2
melee combat 5D
melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 5D
cultures 5D+1
languages 5D
law enforcement 4D
planetary systems 5D+1
streetwise 5D+2
MECHANICAL 3D
Astrogation 4D
capital ship piloting 5D
starfighter piloting 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Bargain 5D
command 5D
investigation 5D
STRENGTH 3D
Stamina 4D+2
TECHNICAL 2D
Character Points: 7
Move: 10
Equipment:
Blaster pistol (4D)
comlink
two rank cylinders
medpac
datapad

Episode Three: Hijack

There's no telling exactly how the adventure will develop and finish, but let's assume the Far Orbit has conned the New Star, joined her and diverted the convoy into a trap. An Alliance taskforce is waiting. How the Far Orbit springs the trap is up to the player characters. How the Alliance cooperates and Captain Conar reacts is up to the gamemaster and in-play development. Note that Conar is an intelligent officer with a fully crewed, well-trained ship, and a platoon each of stormtroopers and Naval troopers at his disposal. He also has no desire to be killed in a pointless ship-to-ship action.

If the player characters are at a loss on how to proceed, Vedij orders the Far Orbit to turn sharply on the New Star, bringing her forward guns to bear, and fires full barrages until the Imperial frigate is destroyed, then issues a command to the convoy to cut their engines and prepare to be boarded. The transports have limited subspace transceivers, but Vedij orders a jamming signal to be sure no cry for help escapes.

12 Y-wings. Starfighter
astrogation 3D+2
starship gunnery 4D
starship piloting 4D
starship shields 3D
Space 7
hull 4D
shields 1D+2
Weapons: 2 laser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 5D)
2 proton torpedoes (fire control 2D
damage 9D)
2 light ion cannons (fire control 3D
damage 4D). The Y-wings attack in pairs.

If the Far Orbit managed a Heroic persuasion roll the task force also has:

Corellian Corvette. Capital
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 3D
Maneuverability 2D
space 6
hull 4D
shields 2D
Weapons: 6 double turbolaser cannons (fire control 3D
damage 4D+2).

The convoy has 12 medium transports with over 180,000 tons of mixed cargoes. The entire haul, including the ships, is worth 340 million credits (before the Alliance cut). The shipment includes no weaponry, but does have enough ship's consumables to completely restock the Far Orbit. This costs 18,000,000 credits, off the Far Orbit's cut.

The Alliance awards the Far Orbit a flat 3 million credits in bounty for the capture of the New Star intact with her officers and crew, 2 million if she was captured seriously damaged, 1 million for her destruction, nothing if she escaped, damaged or not.

Adventure Three: The Capture of Coh Veshiv

Introduction

An Imperial Advisor — Coh Veshiv — is touring the Ringali Shell on a "fact-finding mission." (In reality, the annoying, self-important blowhard has been sent away from Imperial Center under a cloud.) The player characters have an opportunity to capture the advisor and turn him over to the Alliance. This adventure marks the end of phase one of the Far Orbit Campaign.

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"The Capture of Coh Veshiv" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit intercepts an Imperial transmission, pinpointing the location of Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv (who is touring the Ringali Shell). The Far Orbit attempts to infiltrate Veshiv's convoy under the guns of a Corellian corvette and a Golan III Space Platform.
• Episode Two. Veshiv attempts to convince the Advisor to travel aboard the Far Orbit. Once aboard, the Far Orbit must deal with Veshiv's crack stormtrooper bodyguards, the Corellian corvette Empire Forever and a Golan III space platform, and escape fro

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Staging Tips

Between the hijacking of shipment 1037 and the events of this adventure, the Far Orbit should have two or three minor encounters which can be resolved without blowing their cover as Imperial ships. The encounters should not endanger the Far Orbit's cover as an Imperial escort frigate.

Some suggestions are:

• Old Habits. The Far Orbit stumbles onto a pirate raid on a passenger liner. Believing the Far Orbit to be an Imperial patrol ship, the passenger liner's captain asks for assistance. The Far Orbit has to fight off the pirate attack or risk being unmasked as privateers. Another alternative is to "defeat" the pirates and then offer them jobs if they'll sign on under Vedij. Another alternative — which is lucrative in the short-term, but perhaps costly in the long run — is to assist the pirates in capturing the liner and split the booty; dispatching the pirates and seizing the liner (in hopes of ransoming wealthy passengers) is yet another option. The final option listed here is not the wisest course; once the prisoners are released, word will spread quickly that the Far Orbit is no longer under Imperial control.
• Base Hunting. Vedij decides that the Far Orbit needs a safe area to hole-up occasionally, and sends the characters to meet with a shadowport contact on Brentaal. While on Brentaal, the characters notice that they are being tailed by ISB agents. The characters must elude their ISB pursuers and meet with their contact. Negotiations to arrange a haven for the Far Orbit can then be roleplayed out.
• Hide and Seek. The Far Orbit stumbles onto a massive Imperial Navy training exercise: a fleet of Star Destroyers and dozens of support ships drop out of hyperspace near the Ringali Nebula. The Far Orbit must go silent and hide in the nebula. If the Far Orbit attacks or destroys any Imperial vessels, they will face the full wrath of the enemy fleet.

As some point, the Far Orbit intercepts a high-clearance transmission, requiring only a Moderate communications roll to decode (due to the communication and cryptography equipment at hand on the Far Orbit).

How much of the message is decoded depends on the skill of the character trying to decode the message (see the Decoder Roll Chart on page 50 of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Revised and Expanded rulebook). A character may attempt to decode the message once per day (it takes some time to run the decryption programs properly), although multiple characters may make an attempt. When the message is decoded, hand the player the datapad readout on page 130.

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PRIORITY TRANSMISSION: GOLD17012/X

From: Imperial High Command, Imperial Center To: Imperial Central Command, Esseles Re: Arrival — Advisor Veshiv cc: Moff Graffe, Governor Takel Message: Coh Veshiv, Advisor to His Majesty the Emperor, Supervisor of Darpa sector, on inspection tour. Consular ship Empire Forever arrives Esseles on 34:2:7, jump point 125:35:90. Departs on 34:5:9, jump point 180:45:115. Full honors are required.

MESSAGE ENDS

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The arrival time on the datapad is three days after the message is intercepted. The advisor's departure is three days after his scheduled arrival.

Ranking ex-Imperials may have heard of Coh Veshiv, though he is only a minor courtesan, a moderately important official and advisor to Palpatine. Current rumors on Imperial Center indicate that Veshiv is not the Emperor's favorite, though he is knowledgeable in his field.

Vedij immediately decides to attempt to capture Veshiv. The Alliance has a set bounty for military personnel that tops out at 5,000 credits for a sector-rank officers. As an Imperial-ranking official Veshiv is probably only worth about 10,000 credits, but in political terms is an extremely important target. The Alliance would probably be most impressed — legitimizing the privateer experiment — and the Empire would suffer a major embarrassment.

How the Far Orbit officers decide to capture Veshiv is up to the players. The course of action most likely to succeed is to attempt to entice Veshiv aboard the Far Orbit. If the players have a tough time coming up with a suitable scheme, Vedij suggests this as a plan of action.

The Far Orbit has a partial schedule for Veshiv's tour (depending on how much of the transmission is decrypted), but lacks information on the Empire Forever's course after departing Esseles. This makes it extremely difficult to set up a hypermass blockade (Heroic +10 astrogation roll), so the Far Orbit will probably have to enter the teeth of the Esseles security network. The best time to try to capture Veshiv is on his departure (so that Veshiv won't be missed for some hours, possibly days).

Approaching jump-point 180:45:115 should be a nerve-wracking experience. Gamemasters should call for frequent Perception, search or sensors checks; while the rolls are unnecessary, the gamemaster can keep the players edgy. Immediately on entering the system the Far Orbit is queried by Esseles Space Control. Read the following aloud:

"Imperial escort frigate Far Orbit: this is Esseles Space Control. You are entering controlled space. Transmit your orders and code clearance."

If the player characters were successful in their attempt to update their clearance codes and slice bogus mission orders into the local command lines, they should have no trouble. If not, let them sweat for a minute before saving them — this is a routine procedure, so Captain Vedij can step in smoothly to cover for the crew.

Jump-point 180:45:115 is within sensor range of the main space defense platform, a Golan III NovaGun. The consular ship Empire Forever, a Corellian corvette, is in orbit near the massive platform. Unless the players have a different idea, Vedij requests an orbit parallel to the Empire Forever's.

Golan III Space Defense Station. Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship shields 6D+2
Hull 5D+2
shields 4D+2
Weapons: 50 turbolaser batteries (fire control 2D+1
damage 5D)
24 proton torpedo launchers (fire control 2D
damage 9D)
15 tractor beam projectors (fire control 4D
damage 6D).

Platform 8127/121
Craft: Golan III Space Defense Station
Type: Space Defense Platform
Scale: Capital
Length: 2,600 meters
Crew: 880, gunners: 228, skeleton: 200/+15
Crew Skill:
Capital ship gunnery 5D
capital shields 6D+2
Passengers: 100 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 15,000 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hull: 5D+2
Shields: 4D
Sensors:
Passive: 35/0D
Scan: 60/1D
Search: 100/2D
Focus: 3/2D+1
Weapons:
50 Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+1
Space Range: 1-5/10/17
Damage: 5D
24 Proton Torpedo Launchers
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 2D+1
Space Range: 1/3/7
Damage: 9D
15 Tractor Beam Projectors
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Damage: 6D

The Empire Forever
Craft: Modified Corellian Engineering Corporation Corvette
Type: Mid-sized multi-purpose vessel
Length: 150 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Corellian Corvette
Crew: 40, gunners 12; skeleton 15/+30
Crew Skill:
Astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D+1
capital ship piloting 3D+2
capital ship shields 3D
sensors 3D+1
Passengers: 18 (6 TIE pilots, 10 stormtrooper guards, 2 aides to Advisor Veshiv)
Cargo Capacity: 3,000 metric tons
Consumables: 8 months
Cost: 3.5 million (new), 1.5 million (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D+1
Space: 7
Atmosphere: 350; 1,000 kmh
Hull: 4D+1
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/2D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 5/4D
Weapons:
Six Double Turbolaser Cannons
Fire Arc: 3 front, 1 left, 1 right, 1 back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 4D+2

Capsule: The Empire Forever is a modified Corellian Corvette that serves as the personal flagship of Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv. The Empire Forever has had significant interior space converted into recreational areas (for Veshiv's personal use), an arboretum featuring plant life indigenous to Veshiv's homeworld, counter-boarding force fields and sensors, and a docking area for a complement of six TIE/ln starfighters.

Despite the Empire Forever's modifications to her speed and durability, she is under orders to avoid combat (in order to protect Veshiv). The commander, Captain Annance, is a deeply patient man who has tolerated Advisor Veshiv for almost three months and has run out of temper. He is positively eager to be rid of Veshiv.

Approaching the Empire Forever

Protocol calls for the watch commanders of ships in proximity to greet each other. The Far Orbit is the arriving ship, so it should hail the Empire Forever; any ex-Imperial officer automatically knows this. Vedij's plan is to claim the Far Orbit has orders to transfer Advisor Vedij to his ship.

Veshiv has in fact issued several requests for a cruiser, but the Far Orbit has no way of knowing this. Captain Annance might be suspicious under normal circumstances, but considers this a terrific stroke of luck and hardly even glances at the orders before informing Veshiv that a new ship is ready to continue his journey.

Veshiv crosses to the Far Orbit on his personal Lambda-class shuttle, Myrenia. He is accompanied by two aides and his cadre of stormtrooper bodyguards.

Lambda-class shuttle, Myrenia. Starfighter
space transports 5D
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 4D
Maneuverability 1D
space 5
hull 4D
shields 1D+2
Weapons: 3 double blaster cannons (fire control 2D
damage 4D)
2 double laser cannons (fire-linked
fire control 3D+1
damage 4D).

Vestig and Pich, aides to Advisor Veshiv. All stats 2D except: bureaucracy 4D. Move 10. Datapad, comlink. Character points: 2.

Shuttle pilots. All stats 2D except: space transports 5D
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 4D. Move 10. Datapad
comlink. Character points: 3.

Veteran Stormtroopers
Type: Imperial Stormtroopers
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 7D
brawling parry 5D
dodge 6D
KNOWLEDGE 3D
MECHANICAL 3D
PERCEPTION 3D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 5D
TECHNICAL 3D
Special Abilities:
Enhanced Perception: Veshiv's bodyguard detail has been specially trained to "read" the body language of potential opponents to determine if the opponent is about to attack; they receive a +1D bonus to Perception rolls for initiative. If the troopers believe a target to be hostile, they receive a +2 bonus to initiative.
Character Points: 10
Move: 10
Equipment:
SoroSuub Stormtrooper One blaster rifle (5D, +1D to blaster if retractable stock used)
blaster pistol (4D)
stormtrooper armor (+2D physical, +1D energy)
tongue-activated helmet comlink
sealed body glove
Multi-Frequency Targeting Acquisition System (adds +2D to Perception checks in low-visibility situations, +2D to ranged weapon skill used against targets moving more than 10 meters per round; polarized lenses prevent flash-blinding)
utility belt (high-tension wire, grappling hooks, spare blaster power packs, ion flares, concentrated rations, spare comlink, water packs, two medpacs)
Note: These stormtroopers are hardened veterans and not subject to the usual stormtrooper armor Dexterity penalties.

Coh Veshiv

Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv is a career diplomat and politician. Veshiv built his career not on a military record, service to the Old Republic or Empire, political deals, personal wealth, or family ties. Veshiv's career is built on the secrets of others. His particular talent is ferreting out improprieties in the lives of others, and using whatever embarrassing facts he uncovers to extort favors and gather influence. If possible, Veshiv uses a lesser secret to begin the extortion process, and gradually reveal his knowledge of other illegal or unethical acts. He trades favors for his silence and reports select tidbits to his dark master, who finds Veshiv amusing, subtle and occasionally diverting.

Few in the Imperial Court rival Veshiv's skill in the art of blackmail and he has used these secrets to rise to a high level in the Imperial inner circles, surpassed only by the Emperor's closest servants. Only those few are powerful enough to be beyond Veshiv's attention: Vader would kill him without a thought; Isard would only hesitate long enough to wring his mind of her rival's secrets; Pestage would simply make him disappear.

Veshiv is kept reasonably busy tending to the sectors under his supervision and keeping the Moffs and Grand Moffs appraised of Palpatine's wishes. Recently, he was ordered on a "fact-finding" tour and personal inspection of the capitals of his assigned sectors (the better to inquire after the Moffs' private lives). While this is by no means unusual on the surface, his departure from Imperial Center was under something of a cloud.

While digging up dirt on a prominent Imperial Grand Admiral, Veshiv found evidence of illegal financial transfers. The Grand Admiral refused to cow to Veshiv's blackmail, and the Advisor brought word of the impropriety to Palpatine. Unofficial reports on Imperial Center hint that the Grand Admiral was diverting funds — at Palpatine's request — to fund top-secret starfighter research. Annoyed that Veshiv had damaged a covert military operation, Palpatine ordered Sate Pestage to send Veshiv away.

Veshiv was irritated to discover that the transport assigned for his tour was a simple Corellian corvette, a consular ship no better than the craft that once ferried him about as a Senator. This insult, arranged by Pestage, sits uneasily with Veshiv.

Veshiv is a vain, gluttonous, consumptive human with an unhealthy pallor and an obsessive interest in the lives of others. He is a physical disaster and his health is poor. While he poses no physical threat, he has a sharp mind and has detailed knowledge of the Imperial Court's dirty secrets.

Coh Veshiv
Type: Imperial Advisor
DEXTERITY 2D+1
Blaster 3D
dodge 3D
KNOWLEDGE 4D
Alien species 5D
bureaucracy 6D
business 5D
cultures 4D+2
languages 5D
law enforcement 5D
scholar 5D
streetwise: Imperial Court 6D
tactics 4D+1
willpower 5D
MECHANICAL 2D+1
Astrogation 3D
communications 3D
repulsorlift operation 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Bargain 6D+2
command 5D+1
con 5D
investigation 7D+1
persuasion 6D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 2D
TECHNICAL 3D+1
Computer programming/repair 4D+1
droid programming 4D+2
first aid 3D+1
security 4D
Special Abilities:
Perfect Recall: Veshiv has absolute recall of all his memories with extremely fine detail.
Force Points: 2
Dark Side Points: 6
Character Points: 25
Move: 9 (due to weight)
Equipment:
Datapad
hold-out blaster (3D)
comlink
rank cylinder

Capturing Veshiv

Although Veshiv is very pleased to find an escort frigate waiting to shuttle him around, he immediately starts complaining: he requested a cruiser: "A man of my rank deserves a cruiser to properly convey my importance. After all, that black-hearted lackey, Vader, has a Star Destroyer under his personal whim. While I see no need to divert a Star Destroyer, a cruiser really isn't so much to ask, is it…"

How long the player characters allow this to go on is up to them, but if Veshiv is annoying enough they probably won't let it continue. Veshiv is a coward and will surrender as soon as his life is directly threatened, but he has enough confidence in his guards that he won't surrender until he is facing the business end of a blaster.

The Stormtroopers

The stormtroopers will fight to the very end, even if ordered to surrender by Veshiv. They will attempt to reboard the shuttle with Veshiv, if possible, and alert the pilots by helmet-comlink. If Veshiv is separated from them they will try to storm the bridge without other orders. If the shuttle and her pilots are neutralized, the stormtroopers will charge for the bridge, hoping to commandeer the comm system and send a message to the Empire Forever and the Golan III nearby. This will likely lead to a raging firefight through the corridors of the Far Orbit.

The Shuttle

If the Far Orbit is still in realspace, the shuttle pilots will probably try to punch a signal through to any nearby Imperial ship, and may try to blast their way out of the bay. The players may plan to stun the pilots as soon as Advisor Veshiv and his entourage are out of the hangar bay.

If the Far Orbit entered hyperspace before tipping Veshiv to his situation the pilots surrender without a fight — they're cornered and know it. Should they get a distress call out while under the guns of the Golan NovaGun, the platform will briefly attempt to raise the Far Orbit, and when the frigate fails to halt will open fire — the jump-point is only 12 units away from the station.

The Aftermath

Once Veshiv understands that he is in the hands of Rebel sympathizers, he meekly acquiesces to his captor's orders. In return for his continued health, he offers a wealth of private information on members of the Imperial Court, from Lord Verpalion's private bank accounts to a list of the locations of Imperial Inquisitors. None of the information is directly valuable, but a decent profiler could assemble a fairly good psychological model of Veshiv's former associates.

How long Veshiv stays in the Far Orbit's brig depends on individual play, but Vedij will have him moved to Alliance hands at the earliest opportunity.

---

Captain Kenit entered the holopod of the Stalwart with his hands trembling. His mission was unsuccessful; he was unable to track the Far Orbit on the Rim. The traitor Vedij had evaded his attention and now he was summoned to contact his patron and report on his progress.

Kenit waited in the pod, kneeling, for ten minutes before the signal came through. To not be humble when the hololink was established was unthinkable. The shimmer of the holotransmission settled into the form of the emaciated, dark figure that had come to haunt his dreams. Stray flecks of static flickered across the projection.

"Report your progress, Captain," commanded the wheezing voice of his master.

"Regretfully, I have found no sign of the Far Orbit, my lord."

"That is because she is now in the Ringali Shell. She was reported in the Esseles system two days ago. She has captured Imperial Advisor Veshiv, a valued and loyal servant of our master. You will go to the Ringali Shell to locate the Far Orbit and carry out your mission. You will bring the Far Orbit to heel or pay the price." Pestage's whispery voice carried shadows of menace though the static and Kenit felt the hairs on his neck stand. "Do not fail your Emperor, Captain. You are well aware of the rewards of success…and the price of failure."

The holoimage of Sate Pestage dissolved into nothingness. Kenit left the chamber and felt his heart start again.

---

Adventure Four: The Rival

Introduction

The Far Orbit has thus far been forced to deal with Imperial forces only. As a result, Imperial communications are becoming more and more difficult to intercept.

Now, a new foe has entered the campaign — a vicious pirate who claims to be an Alliance privateer.

---

"The Rival" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit intercepts a news transmission, detailing the savage pirate attacks by Venslas Beeli, who claims to be an Alliance privateer. Vedij decides to hunt Beeli down and end his reign of terror.
• Episode Two. The hunt for Beeli continues, until a pattern in his raids is discovered. Vedij plans his assault on the pirate.
• Episode Three. The Far Orbit beards Beeli in his lair, leading to a deadly confrontation with a small pirate fleet.

---

Episode One

A few weeks pass on the Far Orbit. They may have whatever encounters the gamemaster likes. While these encounters are happening, the communications crew may notice a drop-off in low-priority comm traffic on the usual Imperial channels and a change in Imperial encryption codes. Since these codes are issued while in dock there is no practical way to get the code algorithms from the Empire. This makes cracking Imperial messages one Difficulty level harder: minimum difficulty is now Difficult.

Then the communications section intercepts a standard commercial newsbeam transmission with a disturbing bit of news.

Read the following aloud:

The communications tech flips a few toggles on the comm board and the face of Ashii Nermani (one of the most popular Imperial HoloVision newscasters) flickers into view.

"…Topping tonight's news — Rebel terrorists have been reported operating in the Ringali Shell. The Rebel agitators have attacked civilian targets near Brentaal, Esseles and Rhinnal.

"In two cases, the Rebels attacked transport ships to rob citizens of their belongings. In another case, the bloodthirsty gang of pirates seized a cargo ship with critical medical supplies bound for Raltiir. In the most recent atrocity, the Rebels destroyed a cargo ship when it resisted capture, then fled when Sector Rangers arrived on the scene.

"One of the Rebel attacks was holorecorded by a passenger on one of the victimized ships. As you can see, the Rebels have the transports outnumbered and are firing to intimidate the ships to surrender. Apparent on the ships is the insignia of the seditious Rebel conspiracy.

"The leader of the Rebel pirates identified himself as Venslas Beeli, a notorious pirate who until recently had operated in the Outer Rim Territories. Beeli is already wanted for numerous counts of murder, piracy, assault, and other crimes. Beeli's transmission to the target vessels indicated that he is 'Rebel privateer striking a blow for the Rebellion.'

"Imperial officials have issued a condemnation of these attacks, and vow that the Rebel pirates will be tracked down, captured and made to pay for their aggression. Sector Ranger patrols are being stepped up and a spokesperson for the Imperial Navy has said it is taking a direct interest in locating and breaking up the Rebel pirate fleet.

"The Ringali Shell Security Force announced that it is working closely with the Imperial services and local system patrols to coordinate security for civilian traffic. The Imperial Security Bureau announced new travel regulations intended to limit the ability of the Rebels to smuggle hijackers on board commercial transport ships and is issuing new travel identification codes to increase security.

"In other news, Imperial Center Security has announced the sudden and tragic death of Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv in a space accident. Advisor Veshiv's shuttle was destroyed by a stray asteroid while on an inspection tour of the sectors under his supervision. The news was delayed while the Space Rescue Corps conducted an extensive search for the shuttle.

"The Advisor was responsible for Bormea and Darpa sectors and represented the Ringali Shell in the Imperial Court. The offices of Moff Graffe and Moff Caglio issued a joint statement praising Advisor Veshiv's record and contributions to Imperial stability and growth. No replacement has been named…."

The broadcast should alarm the player characters — clearly this is an Imperial propaganda piece. Anyone who makes a Moderate streetwise roll recognizes Beeli as a real pirate from the Rim, just as bad as the broadcast mentioned; on a Difficult roll they know that he has no political interests and has laughed at the idea of the Rebellion against the New Order.

The ships can be identified by any spacer who makes an Easy Knowledge roll as a Corellian corvette, a light corvette and an Etti lighter. The light corvette and Etti lighter are both common patrol vessels. On a Moderate roll they know in general terms what a common Corellian corvette is armed with, and on a Difficult roll they know what the usual arms of the other ships are.

The players should draw their own conclusions about the broadcast and its meaning. The Alliance observer automatically knows that his superiors will be very concerned over this news.

Vedij decides that the Far Orbit should make every effort to track down and destroy the pirates. Whether an Imperial trap or a clever pirate, the problem must go away. Hopefully, the player characters will agree.

Now the player characters have to come up with an idea of how to track this little ship down. This is largely up to them: unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's point of view) it is as hard to track Beeli down as it would be to track the Far Orbit.

Episode Two: Chase

Finding Beeli's pirate fleet is difficult, especially since the fleet retires to a deep-space rendezvous with Captain Kenit's command ship Stalwart. The Far Orbit may decide to locate probable hiding places, patrol likely raiding points, or try to detect a pattern in Beeli's raids.

They are unlikely to find his hiding place, but gamemasters will want to pinpoint a remote location in the Shell, just in case the Far Orbit stumbles across it. If this happens the jig is up: go to the final episode of this adventure and add the Stalwart to the mix.

---

What's Going On Here?

Captain Kenit has been given broad authority to find and eliminate the Far Orbit, and has devised a scheme to discredit her. Although the Far Orbit has — so far — not announced itself as a Rebel privateer, Kenit wants to be sure that the well of public opinion is sufficiently poisoned when Vedij makes his move and declares his ship's activities and political affiliation.

To do this, he offered a recently captured pirate, Venslas Beeli, a choice: do the Imperial Navy's bidding or die. Beeli is a coward and opportunist for all his bluster, and chose to accept and hope for a chance to escape.

Realizing that Beeli would run at the first chance, Kenit had the entire crew infected with Vira606 — an easily treatable synthetic virus manufactured by the ISB. Unfortunately for Beeli, Vira606 can only be treated by a serum supplied by the Empire. Beeli has seen the effects of the virus, and will cooperate.

The virus is not contagious (it codes itself to the genetic makeup of its host) but is incurable. Victims need to be injected with the serum for the rest of their lives, and Beeli has only enough serum to last about a week. The serum vials are issued to each pirate, to prevent hoarding.

---

Patrolling likely raiding points has a few rewards, since the Far Orbit wants to locate such places for her own raids (but also increases the odds of encountering Imperial patrols who are also searching those areas). Still, some gamemasters may choose to have the Far Orbit encounter the pirates just as they are leaving a victim behind — leaving the Far Orbit in the position of rescuing them or abandoning them, or worse yet, being mis-identified as a participant in the raid. The pirates might even stick around long enough to exchange a couple of shots, but will do their very best to vanish into hyperspace.

Looking for a pattern to Beeli's raids is difficult, since the Far Orbit is, by this time, having greater difficulty decrypting Imperial communications and the beamcasts are maddeningly vague about where and when the "Rebel pirate atrocities" are taking place (although they are described in lurid terms). There is an overall pattern, though: Kenit has Beeli hit the edge of Brentaal space every third raid. The other two raids might be anywhere, but Beeli seems to cross Brentaal space regularly.

System patrols are being specifically restrained from greatly stepped up their rounds in the Brentaal system, in an effort to let the Far Orbit set up in this area. It will take a certain amount of effort to uncover this pattern, but eventually some bright officer on the Far Orbit should notice that Brentaal is mentioned a great deal in the reports.

This episode can be an ongoing thread and may take some time to play out. It can be continued through several other encounters and adventures, perhaps to nearly the end of the campaign. Beeli and the Far Orbit might run across each other several times before the confrontation takes place.

Episode Three: Confrontation

Eventually, the Far Orbit should find Beeli's fleet. How and when is largely up to the gamemaster and circumstances of play, but here are a few suggestions:

• Caught Raiding. Beeli jumps a ship in Brentaal space while the Far Orbit is searching for him nearby. Battle is quickly joined. Beeli's crew is disciplined enough to gang up on the Far Orbit, all on one side of the frigate. They will try to stay out of the Far Orbit's forward fire arc.
• Found the Hiding Place. There's a small chance that the Far Orbit can track Beeli to his hiding place. If this happens, the fleet will be with their handler, Kenit, on the Imperial Nebulon-B escort frigate Stalwart. The Stalwart is a match for the Far Orbit, and the fight should be pretty close. In fact, the Stalwart has a significant edge: starfighter support. The Far Orbit may be in trouble in this engagement, and the smartest thing to do is to jump away as soon as possible.

---

Gamemaster Note

This ending can be used in conjunction with Adventure Five. Beeli's fleet is being used as bait to pull the Far Orbit into a trap. No sooner does the Far Orbit dispatch the pirates and board the freighter — it's a legitimate target, according to its manifest, and likely to be an easy target — than the surprise package inside springs its trap. This option could be used if the Far Orbit is having too easy a time with Beeli and the Imperials.

---

• Tracked Down. Most Imperial forces consider Beeli's fleet to be exactly what the propaganda claims it is. Perhaps the Far Orbit encounters Beeli while the pirates are fleeing a Sector Ranger patrol. During the fight the Ranger patrol, three IPVs, shows up to back up the "Imperial frigate" that caught the pirates. This puts the Far Orbit momentarily on the side of the Imperials — they may have trouble slipping away, or might decide to turn on the Ranger ships. This option is best if the players are inexperienced.

In any fight, Beeli gives an enemy no chances. In his current state, infected with a terminal disease and under the thumb of the Empire, he fights with abandon — if necessary he'll ram the Far Orbit. He is under no illusions about his future if the Far Orbit is captured. He wants to die in battle, not from the Imperial's virus, and if he manages to take out the Far Orbit, he plans to fire on all Imperial ships that arrive to confirm the destruction of the privateer.

For easy reference, Beeli's stats, his ship's stats and his crew's stats are presented here in short form.

Venslas Beeli. Dexterity 3D
blaster 5D+2
blaster: heavy blaster pistol 6D+2
brawling parry 4D+2
dodge 6D+1
melee combat 5D
melee parry 5D
Knowledge 3D+1
business 4D
intimidation 7D
languages 3D+1
planetary systems 5D
streetwise 5D+2
tactics 4D+1
tactics: raiding 5D
willpower 4D
Mechanical 2D+2
astrogation 5D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 5D+2
capital ship shields 4D
communications 3D
sensors 4D
space transports 4D+2
starship gunnery 3D
starship shields 3D
Perception 4D
command 6D+1
Strength 2D+1
brawling 3D+1
Technical 2D+2
capital ship repair 3D
demolition 4D+1
first aid 3D. Move: 10. Codekey
datapad
comlink
twin BlasTech DL-6H heavy blaster pistols (5D). Force points: 2. Dark side points: 4. Character points: 20. Beeli's full stats and description can be found in Chapter Four.

Corellian Corvette Zahtjav. Capital
astrogation 5D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 4D
Maneuverability 2D
space 6
hull 4D
shields 2D
Weapons: 4 double turbolaser cannons (fire control 3D
damage 4D+2)
2 tractor beams (fire control 4D
damage 6D). This is Beeli's command ship.

Etti lighter Javiq. Starfighter
astrogation 5
starship gunnery 4D
space transports 4D
starship shields 4D
Maneuverability 1D
space 5
hull 3D
shields 2D
Weapons: 10 quad laser cannons (fire control 1D
damage 5D)
1 tractor beam (fire control 2D
damage 4D).

Light corvette Pyesmev. Starfighter
astrogation 5D
starship gunnery 4D
space transports 4D
starship shields 4D
Maneuverability 2D
space 7
hull 5D
shields 3D
Weapons: 6 double turbolaser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 4D).

Beeli's Pirate Hands. All stats 2D except: Blaster 4D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 3D+2
capital ship shields 3D
sensors 3D+1
starship gunnery 4D. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
toolkit
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 3.

Beeli's Pirate Boarders. All stats 2D except: Blaster 4D+2
melee combat 4D+2
melee parry 4D
Strength 3D
brawling 4D+2. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
toolkit
heavy blaster pistol (5D)
armored vacsuit (+1D energy and physical)
vibrorapier (STR+3D). Character points: 4.

Beeli's Pirate Officers. All stats 2D except: Astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 3D
command 4D+1
sensors 2D+1
starship gunnery 3D. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
passkey
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 4.

Adventure Five: The Trap

Introduction

The Far Orbit has located an easy target: a Santhe cargo transport with poor defenses and a cooperative captain. But, unbeknownst to the privateer crew, the freighter is bait to a trap designed to crush the Far Orbit.

---

"The Trap" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit encounters a poorly-defended freighter with a valuable cargo. During the boarding action, the privateers face a rude surprise: a contingent of veteran stormtroopers, Imperial SpecNav troops and Storm Commandos. The Imperial troops attempt a counter-boarding action and a running battle aboard the Far Orbit erupts.
• Episode Two. While dealing with the Imperial commandos wreaking havoc inside the frigate, the Far Orbit must also contend with a surprise attack of Navy ships, led by Vocis Kenit.

---

Episode One: Surprise Package

Cruising in a backspace area of Brentaal space, on the approach to a cheap jump-point, the Far Orbit locates a poorly defended Mark III bulk transport. The freighter captain is cooperative, and transmits a cargo manifest on request (see the handout on page 142).

Any spacer who makes a Moderate Knowledge roll knows that the Mark III is known for her slow speed, poor handling and lack of armaments.

SPF 14897

Craft: Sienar Ships Mark I Bulk Transport
Type: Bulk transport
Scale: Capital
Length: 300 meters
Skill: Space transports
Crew: 10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 5D
starship gunnery 4D
Cargo Capacity: 160,000 metric tons
Consumables: 5 months
Cost: 400,000 (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x20
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 3
Atmosphere: 260; 750 kmh
Hull: 5D
Sensors:
Passive: 20/0D
Scan: 50/1D
Search: 80/2D
Focus: 4/3D
Weapons:
Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Turret
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/5/10
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/500/1 km
Damage: 2D

Scans show the ship, SPF 14897, is a normal freighter for her class. No modifications have been made, except for ion shielding in her cargo hold — which blocks sensor scans. This is standard operating procedure for ion engine parts, as their circuitry can be damaged by stray radiation (they are housed in radiation-shielded compartments for regular use).

The ship's pilot sounds a little surprised if asked to dock with the Far Orbit, but complies. If the Far Orbit threatens the freighter, the pilot sounds shocked, but still complies. (This is assuming the Far Orbit is not yet known as a privateer. If she is, the pilot sounds scared.) The docking takes place without incident. All indications are that this is a simple raid.

All of the shipping datawork is in order. The crew is unarmed. The first indication of trouble is when the cargo hold is opened: the hold is full of stormtroopers.

Hidden Surprises

Unsealing the transport's cargo hold triggers an automated hypertransceiver beacon, which is instantly picked up by the Far Orbit's communications array. It is transmitted on a standard Imperial frequency. The beacon summons a taskforce of Imperial ships, microjumping from only a few light-minutes away. It takes only six rounds for the Imperial ships to arrive.

The stormtroopers have orders to kill all boarders and attempt a counter-boarding. They have no orders regarding the safety of the freighter's crew, and cold-bloodedly shoots them down if they get in the way or are taken as hostages. The crew are CompForce Observers, selected for their expendability, and they are ready, willing and able to sacrifice themselves for the Empire.

There are 24 stormtroopers in the hold (three squads) — specially trained stormtroopers that have years of experience in counter-boarding and anti-piracy operations. This platoon is commanded by three Imperial officers and supplemented by a squad of 10 Imperial SpecNav troops. In addition, the counter-boarding troops are augmented by a squad of eight Imperial Storm Commandos; two regulars, two assault commandos, two saboteur commandos, and two tech commandos.

Stormtroopers

Type: Special missions stormtrooper unit
DEXTERITY 2D
Blaster 4D
brawling parry 4D
dodge 4D
KNOWLEDGE 2D
MECHANICAL 2D
PERCEPTION 2D
STRENGTH 2D
Brawling 3D
TECHNICAL 2D
Character Points: 5
Move: 10
Equipment:
SoroSuub Stormtrooper One blaster rifle (5D) (adds +1D to blaster skill if retractable stock is used)
blaster pistol (4D)
two fragmentation grenades (5D)
one smoke grenade (acts as cover: -1D to opponent's attack rolls — per grenade — in 5 meter area from detonation)
stormtrooper armor (see below)
Note: These elite stormtroopers are highly experienced at operating in their armor, and are not subject to the standard Dexterity armor penalties.

Stormtrooper Armor

Model: Standard stormtrooper armor
Type: Military armor
Scale: Character
Cost: Not available for sale
Availability: 3, X
Game Notes:
Armor Protection: +2D physical
+1D energy
-1D Dexterity and related skills (see note above).
Comlink: Tongue-activated helmet comlink.
Sealed Body Glove: Climate controlled body glove and breath mask allows operation in uncomfortably cold or warm climates and toxic air environments.
MFTAS: Multi-Frequency Targeting Acquisition System; adds +2D to Perception checks in low-visibility situations
+2D to ranged weapon skill rolls against targets moving more than 10 meters per round; polarized lenses prevent flash-blinding.
Utility Belt: High-tension wire, grappling hooks, spare blaster power packs, ion flares, concentrated rations, spare comlink, water packs, 2 medpacs.

Imperial SpecNav Troops

Type: Imperial Naval Special Forces trooper
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 6D+2
brawling parry 5D
dodge 5D+2
grenade 5D
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Alien species 4D
planetary systems 5D
streetwise 5D
survival 5D
MECHANICAL 2D+2
Astrogation 4D+2
beast riding 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D+2
capital ship piloting 4D+2
capital ship shields 4D+2
hover vehicle operation 5D+1
repulsorlift operation 5D
space transports 5D
starfighter piloting 6D
starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
Con 5D
search 6D
sneak 5D+2
STRENGTH 3D+1
Brawling 5D+1
brawling: martial arts 7D
TECHNICAL 3D
Blaster repair 4D
computer programming/repair 6D
demolitions 6D
first aid 6D
security 5D
Special Abilities:
Blindfighting: If the trooper makes a Very Difficult brawling: martial arts roll — and is within striking distance of the target — he can ignore the effects of blindness; he cannot see, but can hear, smell or sense a target will enough to strike. This may be used as a reaction skill.
Instant Knockdown: If the trooper makes a successful Moderate brawling: martial arts roll — and the attack is not parried or dodged — the target is immediately knocked to the ground. The fallen character must either wait one round to stand or suffer multiple action penalties.
Multiple Strikes: The trooper can make a second attack with no multiple action penalties if he makes a Moderate brawling: martial arts roll. The second attack inflicts 3D damage.
Silent Strike: Providing he can sneak up on an opponent, the trooper can instantly kill or render a target unconscious. The enemy must be within arm's reach and he must declare if this is a killing or stunning attack prior to making the attempt. A successful Difficult brawling: martial arts roll indicates that the target is neutralized.
Zero-g Combat Training: SpecNav troops are trained in zero-g combat, and receive a +1D bonus to all dodge rolls, or any roll to attack.
Character Points: Typically 2-12
Move: 10
Equipment:
Heavy blaster pistol (5D)
blaster rifle (5D)
blast vest (+1D physical, +1 energy)
blast helmet (+1D physical, +1 energy)
comlink
3 smoke grenades

Storm Commando

Type: Imperial SpecForce trooper
DEXTERITY 3D+2
Blaster 7D
brawling parry 5D+2
dodge 5D+2
grenade 5D
melee combat 5D+2
melee parry 5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Survival 6D
MECHANICAL 2D
Beast riding 5D
hover vehicle operation 5D+1
repulsorlift operation 5D
PERCEPTION 3D
Hide 6D+2
search 6D+2
sneak 7D
STRENGTH 3D+1
Brawling 5D
TECHNICAL 3D
Armor repair 5D
blaster repair 5D
first aid 4D
demolitions 4D+2
security 3D+2
Character Points: Varies; typically 3-15
Move: 10
Equipment:
SoroSuub Stormtrooper One blaster carbine (5D+2) (adds +1D to blaster skill if retractable stock is used)
blaster pistol (4D)
combat knife (STR+1D+2)
Storm Commando armor (see below)

Assault Team.
As Storm Commando
vehicle blasters 5D+2
blaster artillery 4D+2
Additional equipment; 2 concussion grenades (5D)
Communication equipment
computer probes
appropriate tool kits

Saboteur Team.
As Storm Commando
streetwise 5D
hide 8D+2
sneak 9D
security 5D+2
demolitions 6D+2
Three satchels detonite (9 cubes)

Tech Team.
As Storm Commando
repulsorlift operation 6D
repulsorlift repair 4D
droid programming 5D
droid repair 6D
computer programming/repair 6D

Storm Commando Armor

Model: Standard Storm Commando armor
Type: Military armor
Scale: Character
Cost: Not available for sale
Availability: 3, X
Game Notes:
Armor Protection: +1D physical and energy
Comlink: Tongue-activated helmet comlink.
Sealed Body Glove: Climate-controlled body glove and breath mask allows operation in uncomfortably cold or warm climates and toxic air environments.
MFTAS: Multi-Frequency Targeting Acquisition System; adds +3D to Perception and search checks in low-visibility situations
+2D to ranged weapon skill rolls against targets moving more than 10 meters per round; polarized lenses prevent flash-blinding.
Viewplate: Macrobinocular imaging set (100-250/500/1000 meter range) with UV nightvision (see MFTAS, above).
Utility Belt: High-tension wire, grappling hooks, spare blaster power packs, ion flares, concentrated rations, spare comlink, water packs, 2 medpacs, additional supplies pouches.
Stealth Coating: Special black reflec polymer coating hides wearer from sensor scans; +1D to hide and sneak.

Shoulder-launched Ion Cannon

Model: SoroSuub Equalizer
Type: Limited use ion cannon
Scale: Speeder
Skill: Blaster artillery
Ammo: 4
Range: 3-50/120/300
Damage: 3D (Ionization)

Capsule: Carried by one of the assault Storm Commandos, this weapon is usually used against vehicles, but in this case is to be used against bulkheads to scramble blast door locks and to interfere with communications.

CSPL Projectile Launcher

Model: BlasTech CSPL-12 "Caspel"
Type: Projectile launcher
Scale: Character
Skill: Missile weapons: Caspel
Ammo: 4 (magazine)
Cost: 3,000
Availability: 2, X
Range: 5-50/100/250
Radius: 30 meters
Damage: Varies; see canister effects
Canister Effects:
Smoke Canister: Marks terrain, obscures vision.
Fex-M3 Canister: Highly toxic nerve gas. Effective if in contact with exposed tissues. Damage: 5D.

Capsule: The Caspel is intended to drop smoke and nerve gas canisters into firefights. It takes five minutes to effectively vent canister gases in a space ship.

Two Imperial Naval Officers. Dexterity 2D+2
blaster 4D+2
dodge 4D
Knowledge 3D
bureaucracy 4D
planetary systems 3D+1
tactics: capital ships 5D
tactics: fleets 4D
Mechanical 3D+2
astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 4D
capital ship shields 3D
Perception 3D+1
bargain 5D+1
command 4D+1
hide 4D
Strength 2D+1
brawling 3D+2
stamina 3D+1
Technical 3D
capital ship repair 4D+1. Move 10. Datapad
comlink
rank cylinder
blaster pistol (4D). Character points: 5.

Bannish Kolow

Type: ISB Investigations Agent
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 4D+2
brawling parry 4D
dodge 5D
KNOWLEDGE 3D
Bureaucracy 5D
cultures 3D+2
intimidation 5D
languages 5D+1
law enforcement 5D
streetwise 4D+2
willpower 4D
MECHANICAL 2D
Capital ship piloting 3D
communications 4D
repulsorlift operation 3D
sensors 4D
space transports 4D+1
starship gunnery 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Bargain 4D+1
command 5D
con 6D
hide 5D
investigation 6D
persuasion 5D+1
search 5D
sneak 5D
STRENGTH 3D
Brawling 4D
stamina 4D
TECHNICAL 3D
Computer programming/repair 4D
droid programming 4D
first aid 4D
security 5D
Force Points: 1
Character Points: 15
Move: 10
Equipment:
Datapad
blaster (4D)
comlink with scrambler
ISB uniform
ISB identification

Capsule: Bannish Kolow is one of several ISB agents assigned to the Far Orbit hunt, detailed to the bait ship operation to oversee the capture and initial interrogation of the Imperial mutineers. Kolow has the basic naval knowledge to act as a Naval officer, should the need arise.

Stormtrooper Tactics

The standard stormtroopers open fire on all boarders. In the first round the number of stormtroopers that can fire is limited to eight troopers (due to the confined space), but in the second round the forward unit falls prone (+2D to difficulty to hit prone targets) while the second unit kneels to fire (+1D to hit kneeling troopers) and the third squad fires in a standing position, all using their blaster pistols — the space is too confined for rifles. To keep the die rolling down — and the danger level up, the units fire in detail; four troopers fire at the same target (+1D to hit and damage) — so the gamemaster only has to roll for the six details, instead of each of the 24 troopers.

The standard stormtroopers act in detail or in squad at all times. As the boarders are pushed back, the stormtroopers follow by squads: the standing troopers press forward into the front rank; the kneeling troopers rise and fall back, becoming the rear rank; and the prone troopers rise, forming a center rank.

If one detail (four stormtroopers) is incapacitated, another detail uses its smoke grenades, increasing the privateer's firing difficulties by +1D, with no effect on the stormtroopers due to their helmet-mounted targeting systems.

If the boarders are entirely wiped out, the stormtroopers attempt to counter-board the Far Orbit. The Imperial Guard enhances this attack with pin-point fire or by charging as a unit into hand-to-hand combat against disrupted formations of privateers. The melee option is only used in quarters with a minimum of range or in areas thick with smoke; otherwise the privateers have enough time to fire.

The Storm Commandos are on hand as support troops and infiltrators: should a door need to be opened, the tech team comes forward; should the ion cannon or Caspel projectile launcher be needed the assault team comes forward; if a blast door needs to be blown open, the saboteurs are handy. The regulars are on hand for the counter-boarding.

If the counter-boarding works, the stormtroopers split up into squads: one squad heads for the bridge, one squad for the propulsion module, and one to the operations section. The Storm Commandos split into two details and move independently on the bridge and propulsion module in a supporting attack. The SpecNav troops lead the attack on the bridge.

At no point during the attack do the stormtroopers consider surrender an option, or hesitate to attack. Wounded troopers treat themselves with their medpacs and get back into the fight. The stormtroopers set their blasters to stun if they make an assault on the bridge: they have orders to capture the senior staff, particularly Vedij.

The Imperial officers and ISB Agent, Kolow, stay out of harm's way as much as possible. The boarding is a stormtrooper mission, and the stormtroopers are left to their job.

The Far Orbit's Response

There is little the Far Orbit command staff can do for the boarders, except order them to retreat and have the discipline to wait for the survivors to return.

One cutthroat option is to immediately retract the docking tubes and get out, stranding the boarders. This is very practical in the short run, but has a devastating effect on morale. It shows that the command staff will abandon their crew at a critical point.

Another option is to send in additional boarders to cover the retreat. This gets several more boarders killed, and leaves the Far Orbit open for a counterattack, but shows the crew that the officers are willing to risk a lot to retrieve them and does wonders for ship's morale and loyalty. Unfortunately, it also leaves the Far Orbit stuck for at least a couple of rounds while the Imperials close in.

Episode Two: The Imperial Cavalry Arrives

After six rounds, the Imperial reinforcements arrive. The Far Orbit's hyperwave interceptor picks up five mass-objects dropping out of hyperspace — the Far Orbit is surrounded by a Nebulon-B escort frigate, two Skipray blastboats, a strike cruiser, and an interdictor cruiser.

The hyperwave interceptor detects increasing mass all around the Far Orbit as the interceptor cruiser targets the area with a mass shadow. (Add +1D to astrogation difficulties per round targeted or see pages 18-19 of Wanted by Cracken for more complex rules on gravity well projectors).

The frigate hails the Far Orbit: "Attention Far Orbit, this is the Imperial frigate Stalwart, commanded by Captain Vocis Kenit. Your ship and her crew are under arrest for mutiny, treason, piracy, and conspiracy to overthrow the Empire. If you surrender the traitor Dhas Vedij, your cooperation will be considered during your trial."

Vedij's immediate response is to call all hands to battle stations and order teams to repel boarders.

The strike cruiser and Nebulon-B launch TIEs; they launch their fighters in trios. This takes one round per trio; the strike cruiser has a complement of 12 TIEs and the Nebulon-B has 24. They launch as many as they can before the Far Orbit starts to flee.

Meanwhile, the Skiprays move to the rear of the Far Orbit, taking up a station 10 space units away. If the Far Orbit fires they return fire with their ion cannons.

Once the cruiser and escort frigate have launched their TIEs, the cruiser moves forward and the Nebulon-B hangs back. If fired on, the cruiser returns fire with her ion cannons. The task force is under orders to capture the Far Orbit, not destroy her, but if the Far Orbit gains the upper hand, the Imperial taskforce will switch to turbolasers.

The Stalwart has no ion cannons, and is forced to rely on her tractor beams to grip the Far Orbit for the other ships to pummel with ion fire. The TIEs only move in on the Far Orbit if ordered to, which occurs if the capital ships are forced to fire with full effect.

When sent in, the Imperial ships target the Far Orbit's shield module and engines.

Strike Cruiser Hammer

Craft: Loronar Strike Cruiser
Type: Strike-class medium cruiser
Scale: Capital
Length: 450 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Strike-class cruiser
Crew: 1,972, gunners: 140, skeleton: 800/+10
Crew Skill: Capital ship gunnery 4D+2
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 3D+2
Passengers: 340 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 6,000 metric tons
Consumables: 1.5 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 6
Hull: 6D
Shields: 2D+2
Sensors:
Passive: 30/0D
Scan: 50/1D
Search: 100/2D
Focus: 4/3D
Weapons:
Twenty Turbolasers
Fire Arc: 5 front, 5 left, 5 right, 5 back
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 5D
Ten Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 4 front, 3 left, 3 right
Crew: 4
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 7D
Ten Tractor Beam Projectors
Fire Arc: 2 front, 3 left, 3 right, 2 back
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Atmosphere Range: 1-5/15/30 km
Damage: 4D
Ten Ion Cannons
Fire Arc: 4 front, 3 left, 3 right
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Atmosphere Range: 2-10/30/60 km
Damage: 4D

Capsule: The Hammer is the heaviest ship in this line; tough, versatile and well-armed with turbolasers, tractor beams and ion cannons. She is more than a match for the Far Orbit and has no hesitation about closing to short range to use her ion cannons.

Interdictor Cruiser Claw. Capital
Astrogation 5D
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D. Passengers: 80 (troops)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x8
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 6
Hull: 5D
Shields: 3D
Sensors: (Passive: 30/1D
Scan: 75/2D
Search: 150/3D
Focus: 5/4D). Weapons: 20 Quad Laser Cannons (Fire Arc: 10 front
5 left
5 right
Crew: 1
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 2-6/24/50 km
Damage: 4D)
4 Gravity Well Projectors (Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 6D
Space Range: 1-5/75/150
Damage: Blocks hyperspace travel).

The Claw is well-armored and well-shielded. She is not particularly heavily armed, instead armed with a set of gravity well projectors. The Claw is easily a match for the Far Orbit, but stands off at about 50 units, allowing the other ships to engage.

Skipray Blastboats, SD-109 and SD-32

Craft: Sienar Fleet Systems GAT-12h
Type: Defense and patrol blastboat
Scale: Capital
Length: 25 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting
Crew: 2, gunners: 2, skeleton: 1/+5
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D
starfighter ship gunnery 5D
starfighter ship piloting 5D.
Cargo Capacity: 20 metric tons
Consumables: 1 month
Cost: 285,000 (new), 150,000 (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: 2x
Nav Computer: Limited to four jumps
Maneuverability: 1D+2 (2D+2 in atmosphere)
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 415; 1,200 kmh
Hull: 2D+1
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 35/1D
Scan: 60/1D+2
Search: 100/2D
Focus: 3/2D+2
Weapons:
Three Ion Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Crew: 1 (gunner 1)
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 4D
Proton Torpedo Launcher
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Crew: 1 (gunner 1)
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700
Damage: 9D
Two Laser Cannons (fire-linked)
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship gunnery
Crew: 1 (gunner 2)
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D
Concussion Missile Launcher (24 missiles carried)
Fire Arc: Front
Skill: Starship gunnery
Crew: 1 (gunner 1)
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 1-50/100/250
Damage: 6D

Capsule: The blastboats are tremendously durable for ships of their size, but are mainly a threat to the Far Orbit from their ion cannons and, to a lesser degree, accurate torpedo, missile and laser fire. The blastboats station themselves at the rear of the Far Orbit, where they can target the engines and shield generators.

TIE/ln fighters. Starfighter
Starship piloting 4D+1
starship gunnery 4D
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 10
Atmosphere: 415; 1,200 kph
Hull: 2D
Sensors: (Passive: 20/0D
Scan: 40/1D
Search: 60/2D
Focus: 3/3D). Weapons: 2 Laser Cannons (fire-linked
Fire Arc: Front
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 5D).

The TIE fighters are primarily intended as a distraction to the Far Orbit and to intimidate Vedij with the sheer presence of superior numbers. If the TIEs are sent in, they strike at the main guns, then the secondary weapons.

Possible Endings

The Far Orbit is at a tremendous disadvantage in this engagement. The stormtroopers are likely to cut a swath through her crew while the Imperial ships pound her with ion fire.

The Far Orbit can probably take out one or two of the Imperial capital ships before they switch to full-effect weapons, but the situation is grim.

The Interdictor Claw should be a priority target; she is keeping the Far Orbit under Imperial guns. The other priority target should be the strike cruiser Hammer; she is the heaviest ship in the line.

The Stalwart is a match for the Far Orbit by herself, but is not a tremendous threat here, since she is hanging back (Kenit has no desire to confront Vedij directly when there are other ships available).

The Skiprays and TIEs are, in the scale of this adventure, a nuisance, and can be dealt with as needed.

Some other possible endings include:

• Surrender. Clearly, the option of surrender should be discussed; there is an excellent chance that the Far Orbit will lose this fight, particularly if the Claw can not be neutralized. Vedij, realizing that he has been trapped surrenders to fight another day. Contacting Kenit, Vedij offers to surrender himself if he lets the privateer crew go. Kenit will agree to this, planning to double-cross his former second-in-command and kill the privateers as soon as Vedij is in his clutches. However, this option can be resolved a few different ways: while Vedij shuttles over to the Stalwart, the Far Orbit crew has a few minutes to launch a new plan of attack; the privateers manage to make an escape after Vedij's surrender and vow to rescue the captain who saved them from Imperial capture; and so on.
• Battle to the Last. There is a chance that — if the players are very lucky — they can defeat their enemies. If this is the case, the Far Orbit likely suffers massive damage, but can raid the debris of the battle to scavenge replacement parts. After such a rout, the Imperial Navy will devote major resources towards the destruction of the Far Orbit: several Imperial Star Destroyers, dozens of Nebulon-Bs, Strike cruisers, and wings of starfighters are tasked with locating and obliterating the privateer. In addition, StarForge Station is declared off-limits to the Far Orbit; too much Imperial attention is focused on the privateer, the station operators do not want to get killed in the crossfire.
• Last-ditch Plan. Vedij formulates a reckless plan to take out the Interdictor: using her tractor beams, the Far Orbit latches onto several starfighters, using them as shields against the Skiprays. Then, after closing with the Claw, the Far Orbit targets one of the gravity well projectors and concentrates fire. If it survives the engagement, and destroys one of the gravity well projectors, she has a brief moment to plot a jump and escape. A further refinement is to use the tractors to crash the enemy fighters into the Interdictor's weapons, allowing the Far Orbit to use the damaged Interdictor as a shield against enemy fire.
• Rebel Bail-Out. After the capture of Coh Veshiv, Alliance Command is keeping a closer eye on the Far Orbit. An Alliance Intelligence team discovered the plot to trap the Far Orbit but couldn't get word to the privateers in time. Instead, a rescue operation is mounted: ten Corellian Corvettes and 24 X-wings jump into the system and shoot several of the Imperials off the Far Orbit's back, giving the privateer time to jump free of the combat area. However, the rescue costs the privateers a fair amount of political capital with the Alliance; there will be no other rescues in the future.

If the Far Orbit survives and escapes, she is probably seriously damaged. Vedij orders a withdrawal to the nearest shadowport for repair and recovery.

Adventure Six: Raid on Brentaal

Introduction

After several weeks of repairs and recovery, and surviving whatever adventures they have in the interim, the Far Orbit crew is ready to return to the Ringali Shell. Captain Vedij has been keeping to himself for much of the recovery time, brooding, planning and making use of the long-range comm equipment and ship's computers. Finally, as the Far Orbit approaches the edge of the Shell, Vedij requests the First Officer to assemble a landing party for a mission.

---

"Raid on Brentaal" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. A landing party is sent to Brentaal IV, to locate a Rebel contact and acquire a datadisc. Cover identities and false flight plans must be filed.
• Episode Two. Once on Brentaal, the characters discover their contact has been arrested. A new contact sets up a meeting, but the ISB arrives and attempts to arrest the nest of Rebel conspirators.
• Episode Three. The player characters must run a gauntlet of TIEs, Arakyd Hunter-Killer Probots, and a Golan space platform to escape Brentaal.

---

Episode One: Scouting Mission

The landing party should have at least one mutineer officer. Nearly any other mix of humans and aliens is acceptable: the mission may require some muscle, but relies primarily on intelligence and interpersonal skills.

The landing party is to take one of the hyperspace-capable ships on hand (one will have to be acquired if there aren't any available) and proceed to Brentaal IV. There, in Cityblock Kesk-319, at the Pathline Tapcafe at the intersection of Route 6903 and Citypath 515, they are to make contact with an infochant. To make contact, the characters must ask the Devaronian waiter for Gruuvan shaal — a Twi'lek food. Once using this passphrase, they will receive a datadisc. This datadisc must be returned to the Far Orbit.

According to Vedij, the mission should be simple, and the landing party is going in lightly armed. The Far Orbit will meet the characters at a pre-arranged point in intersystem space.

This is an undercover mission and all members of the landing party are expected to keep a low profile. Clever players may inquire about cover identities — no provisions for fake IDs are made unless the characters request them, however. The landing party must provide their own equipment, of course (except for a short-range distress beacon to be used only in an emergency, and then, only if the datadisc is in hand).

Which ship is available is up to the circumstances of play. A captured freighter, suitably re-coded, would be a perfect ship for the landing. A shuttle might work, but most shuttles are owned by commercial services, corporate entities or governmental agencies.

Whatever ship is available, a flight plan will have to be filed with Brentaal Space Control via hypertransceiver, but that is a simple matter requiring only 24 hours notice for the further-flung jump-zones.

Brentaal flight plans require the arriving ship to jump in at a specific time — down to the minute — and at a specific place, within a second of a degree of arc. Failure to arrive has no penalty, but mistimed or misplaced jumps carry a 100-credit fine per second (either definition) missed.

Jumping to the pre-arranged coordinates takes a Difficult astrogation roll if calculated by the landing ship, automatic if calculated by Brentaal Space Control. Pre-calculated jumps cost 75 credits and require the exact jump-out coordinates of the ship, a security risk if jumping from a remote system or deep space — it arouses suspicion after the Far Orbit's raids.

Episode Two: Mission on Brentaal

Upon arrival in Brentaal space, the landing party is approached by an IPV-1 Brentaal patrol vessel and queried about her cargo, point of origin and so on. The characters are required to submit identification codes and pilot's credentials. This is a routine and random check. No pirate raids in the area have involved ships of this size, and the patrol is more interested in rooting out smugglers. The patrol ship also scans the ship for safety violations.

If the characters acquired cover identities they should have little trouble. If not, the patrol will base its interest in the ship on the party's real IDs. If trouble brews, the crew is on its own. They won't be able to land — patrol ships and customs vessels converge on the ship and the only escape is into hyperspace.

If the patrol is satisfied that the ship and crew is relatively clean, they are turned over to Brentaal space control, which gives them instructions on approach, orbital pattern and landing. Requests for landing bays in specific cityblocks are allowed but not guaranteed. The Kesk-300 cityblocks are a low-priority zone and getting a landing bay is not a problem.

The landing bay has some costs involved. Docking fees are 200 credits per day on the surface, 100 credits in an orbital station, two days minimum and in advance. Consumable restocking is mandated by Brentaalan code, and costs 10 credits times the total crew and passenger capacity times the days of consumables to be restocked. (For example: A ship with a capacity of 2 crew and 2 passengers that has 3 days to be restocked would take 120 credits. 10 credits x 4 people x 3 days = 120 credits.) The restock takes 10 minutes for every day to be replaced, primarily due to fueling speeds. It is largely up to the gamemaster to determine how current the landing party's ship is.

The Pathline Tapcafe is easy to find in the Brentaal planetwide directory, and is exactly where expected. The Kesk-section cityblocks are served by an extensive mass transit system (5 credits for a day pass) and getting to the cafe from a Kesk-section docking bay should be no problem. If the ship is in an orbiting platform the landing party will have to board a orbit shuttle to drop to Kesk Cityblock (10 credits per trip) and then go to the cafe.

Carrying weapons is illegal on Brentaal, and every public transit station has a weapon-scanner. The scanners won't pick up non-powered weapons, like knives or slugthrowers, but blasters require a Moderate hide roll for hold-out blasters, Difficult for regular pistols, Very Difficult for heavy blasters, and Heroic for larger weapons. (If the characters carry illegal weapons and are caught, they have the opportunity to summon aid from the Far Orbit. It is up to Vedij — or the acting commander — to decide if a rescue should be mounted, or if a second landing team to be assembled to continue the mission.)

---

Far Orbiting

While the characters on Brentaal are undertaking their mission, the Far Orbit jumps to an empty system nearby and has gone silent: the ship's systems are running at minimum power (to put out as minuscule a sensor signature as possible). This means the Far Orbit has shut down all transmitting communications and sensor equipment and is only receiving signals. Unfortunately, if the Far Orbit is detected she won't be able to tell until oncoming ships are within 40 units, well within firing range.

---

Kesk Cityblock

The streets of Kesk Cityblock are wide and active, but are seldom traveled by private vehicles or foot traffic. Kesk's economic zone is primarily devoted to warehousing; repulsor trucks groan by constantly, but few people live here — mostly warehouse workers and managers and a few workers in the small support economy.

The Pathline Tapcafe is only a few minutes' walk from the local transittube stop. Finding the Devaronian waiter is harder. None of the staff are Devaronian — all are human. If they inquire, they are told that the Commerce branch of COMPNOR recently started enforcing a non-native workers act, one of the last pieces of legislation passed by the Imperial Senate. The Devaronian waiter, Tynial, lacked the proper identification and was arrested two days ago along with several other non-humans. Curiously, the Commerce agents didn't show any interest in the non-Brentaalan humans, but they aren't complaining. The manager is left scrambling for staff.

This presents what may seem to be a serious problem. However, if they order a Gruuvan shaal from any of the staff, they are approached by a friendly young waiter, who asks if they're from around here and mentions that they might be interested in going to the Jovvitz tonight, a nightclub in Block 135.

Nightclubbing

Block 135 in Kesk Cityblock is a small commercial shopping district serving the needs of the locals. The Jovvitz is closed and abandoned, its windows painted over. Breaking in takes an Easy security roll, as there is no security system beyond the locks. Once inside, read the following aloud:

The dark club seems abandoned — chairs are up-ended on top of tables, and no lights are on. As you move across the dance floor, lights suddenly snap on and a voice from above commands: "Hold still and identify yourselves!"

Any attempts at deception are met with scorn and insults from the hidden speaker. If the party identifies themselves as Far Orbit crew, the lights come down and the waiter from the tapcafe steps into view, the rest of his group hanging back in the shadows.

He apologizes for the surprise, but explains that they are very nervous after the recent Imperial attention. Tynian would have greeted them on schedule, but he is still in Imperial detention. He holds up a datadisc, and tells them they should get off-world as soon as possible. The data on this disc, freshly sliced, is so hot the Imperials might close the local spaceport when word of the theft is noticed.

If asked what is on the disc, he just smiles and says that they're probably not supposed to know.

Further conversation is cut short by the arrival of security vehicles, announced with flashing lights.

"Attention in the building. This is the ISB. Lay down your arms and surrender, and no one will be harmed. You have one minute to comply."

The lights shut off and the waiter spins and runs in the back. The players should follow — sticking around is tremendously unhealthy, as a pair of blaster shots smash though the painted-over windows. After a moment, a pair of ISB agents enter through the window, shooting anything that moves.

The waiter speeds though the nightclub, past a room full of computer equipment, and out a back door. He hops into a waiting speeder, pausing only long enough to start it, which is long enough for the party, or at least the bulk of the party, to clamber in.

Ubrikkian CL69 Landspeeder. Speeder
maneuverability 2D
move 115; 330 kmh
body strength 2D.

The waiter speeds off into the night, followed by a pair of security speeders. The pursuing agents fire at the fleeing speeder as it reaches a wide street, and the waiter gasps and slumps over. Wresting control of the speeder requires a Very Difficult repulsorlift operation roll and a Moderate lifting roll to pull the body out.

The security speeders chase the party until shaken off. If things are going too easily, two more speeders join the chase.

Security Landspeeders. Speeder
blaster 4D
repulsorlift operation 4D
maneuverability 2D+2
move 125; 360 kmh
body strength 3D.

The party will probably want to get off-planet as soon as possible. They can't lift off unless they've paid up for their docking fees (which they had to pay in advance) and their restocking fees. Paying on the run is no problem; they just need to transmit a credit code. The docking bay doors don't open until the debts are paid. Shortly after the party's ship lifts off, the Kesk Cityblock spaceports are closed down by Imperial command and all ships in the air originating there are ordered to land (and are fired upon if they do not comply). The party's ship is nearly in orbit by this time. When they refuse to land they are pursued by TIE fighters. This would be a good time to activate the distress beacon.

Episode Three: The Announcement

Suddenly, on the Far Orbit, communications reports a strong signal from the landing party: the distress beacon. Vedij orders the Far Orbit to microjump into close orbit (Very Difficult astrogation roll), charge weapons and prepare to raise shields. The Far Orbit races into hyperspace for a split-second, then reverts to realspace.

Vedij orders communications to broadcast a wide-beam transmission.

"This is Captain Dhas Vedij, formerly of the Imperial Navy. I am speaking to the people of Brentaal and to the citizens of the Empire. Several weeks ago, I rejected the authority of the Empire and overthrew the captain of my ship, the Far Orbit. Since then I have operated as a private raiding ship for the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

"I urge all civilian pilots and crews to cooperate with me, should you find yourself the object of my attention. Although my orders require me to restrict my raids to Imperial targets only, it is possible I may target those corporations that choose to ally themselves with the Empire and turn a profit on the blood and deaths of the Empire's millions of slaves.

"I assure you all that my intentions are purely honorable, and I will not suffer the injury of any innocent. Good fortune to you all."

This announcement splashes across the Brentaal beamcast network before it can be blocked. Howls of outrage emerge at the highest level, and all Imperial and Brentaalan security forces are ordered to converge on the Far Orbit.

Rescue!

The escaping landing party is watching the approach of six TIE fighters when the Far Orbit jumps into close orbit and they pick up the broadcast. The TIEs make one strafing pass, then abruptly break off, heading in the direction of the Far Orbit.

TIE/ln Starfighters. Starfighter
starship gunnery 5D
starship piloting 6D
Maneuverability 2D
space 10
hull 2D
Weapons: 2 laser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 5D). These TIEs attack in pairs.

The ship's sensors pick up a contact approaching at low speed. A pair of hunter-killer probots are also moving toward the Far Orbit, but on an interception course with the landing party's ship. The probots are massive and powerful, but slow. They will attempt to capture the fleeing ship while passing by, but are more interested in pursuing the Far Orbit.

Hunter-Killer Probot

Type: Arakyd Hunter-Killer Probot
DEXTERITY 3D
Dodge 5D
KNOWLEDGE 2D+2
Bureaucracy 3D
law enforcement: Imperial customs 6D
MECHANICAL 3D
Starship gunnery 5D
starship shields 5D
PERCEPTION 4D
Search 7D
STRENGTH 2D
TECHNICAL 2D
Scale: Capital
Size: 150 meters
Cost: 165,000
Space: 3
Atmosphere: 105; 300 kmh
Shields: 1D
Hull: 4D
Equipped With:

• 4 heavy grasping arms
• 4 fine work arms
• Advanced sensor array
  Passive: 40/2D
  Scan: 80/2D+2
  Search: 10/3D+1
  Focus: 5/4D+2
• Capture system including:
  Ion Cannon
  Fire Arc: Turret
  Skill: Starship gunnery
  Space Range: 1-5/15/30
  Atmosphere Range: 100-500/1.5km/3 km
  Damage: 8D
• Internal secure chamber. 30 x 30 x 10 meters.
  Weapons:
  Two Quad Blaster Cannons (fire-linked)
  Fire Arc: Turret
  Skill: Starship gunnery
  Space Range: 1-5/10/30
  Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
  Damage: 5D
  Two Ion Cannons (fire-linked)
  Fire Arc: Turret
  Skill: Starship gunnery
  Space Range: 1-3/7/36
  Atmosphere Range: 100-300/700/3.6 km
  Damage: 8D

The fleeing ship should have little difficulty evading the probots. While doing so, the ship must pass into the long firing range of one of the Golan space defense platforms, for two rounds, then may attempt to jump into hyperspace (Difficult astrogation roll).

Golan II Space Defense Station. Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship shields 6D+2
Hull 4D
shields 2D+2
Weapons: 35 turbolaser batteries (fire control 2D
damage 5D)
10 proton torpedo launchers (fire control 2D
damage 9D)
8 tractor beam projectors (fire control 4D
damage 6D).

Meanwhile, the Far Orbit is the center of an overwhelming amount of attention. Sensors are muddled from all of the ships approaching. A quick jump into hyperspace seems to be in order; Vedij so orders.

The Datadisc

The information on the datadisc is indeed very valuable: it gives the exact route of the Imperial Taxation Bureau Star Galleon Emperor's Will, an estimated revenue declaration (400 million credits in assorted precious metals, minerals and spice), and the ordered escort, one Nebulon-B escort frigate, the Zaff Jendinpurg. The Star Galleon is due to approach Esseles in only three days; fortunately it is scheduled to remain in hyperspace from its origin point (Arkanis sector) until it arrives at Esseles. The galleon is out of communication while in transit.

If the Far Orbit is in place by the time the Star Galleon passes by, they can pull it out of hyperspace completely by surprise.

The slicers that the landing party encountered were members of a Rebel cell on Brentaal; their fate is probably fairly grim, since the ISB is now actively hunting them.

---

Expanding "Raid on Brentaal"

Some gamemasters may want to run "Raid on Brentaal" as a privateer-only adventure. In this case, the landing party is given a larger mission — they need to research the planet, acquire a base of operations, take or locate an infochant with crack slicing skills, get the information, and get off-planet in short order. The ISB will probably be able to track down the location of the slicers quickly, so the privateers need to have a quick escape route planned. This takes a little more effort, but could be quite rewarding.

---

Adventure Seven: Hunter/Hunted

Introduction

The Far Orbit — having learned the location and route of an Imperial Star Galleon — has a chance at pulling off a spectacular raid. But is the Star Galleon as easy a target as it seems, or is this another Imperial trap?

---

"Hunter/Hunted" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit — hunting for an Imperial Star Galleon — is knocked out of hyperspace by an Interdictor cruiser, and Captain Vedij is seriously wounded. The crew has only a few minutes to regroup and recover from the unexpected attack before the Imperial ship opens fire.
• Episode Two. The Far Orbit must destroy, evade or capture the Interdictor before Imperial reinforcements arrive.

---

Episode One: Stone Wall

The Far Orbit, armed with the precise route of the Emperor's Will, races to a prime ambush point along the wispy edge of the Ringali Nebula. Vedij plans to pull several asteroids out of the nebula and use them to set up a mass barrier, forcing the Star Galleon and her escort out of hyperspace.

The Far Orbit is counting down to the drop into realspace when, at D-minus twenty-nine seconds, she suddenly lurches and drops out early. Most of the bridge crew are strapped in for the impending arrival, but several officers are slammed against bulkheads (Moderate Dexterity roll to keep up; 4D damage if tossed around). Captain Vedij is just heading for his jump station when the deck pitches and he slams against a bulkhead on the far side of the bridge. Read the following aloud:

The Far Orbit lurches and shudders, throwing people to the deck. Collision alarms sound and emergency lights kick in as a spine-chilling howl echoes through the deckplates. The starlines collapse back into pinpoints of light, and the Far Orbit faces a large, triangular Imperial ship — an Interdictor cruiser! Turning for orders from Captain Vedij, you realize your commanding officer has been hurled to the deck and is seriously wounded....

Interdiction and Escape

Characters who make a Moderate tactics roll figure out that the Empire, also knowing the route of the Emperor's Will, rushed available Interdictors to the region around the best ambush points to nab the Far Orbit.

The Interdictor (the Claw, if she survived the earlier encounter with the privateers in Adventure Five) is on battle stations and alert and gets a free round of fire. The Far Orbit, although probably at battle stations, is reeling from the surprise drop and takes a round to recover.

Damage reports flash in from all over the ship:

• Weapons are on-line.
• Life support reports a power flux settling down (+1D to movement difficulties for two rounds due to gravity shifting).
• Shields are on-line.
• Engineering is locking down a blown power generator and reports the main hyperdrive is off-line (one hour and a Moderate capital ship repair roll to repair).
• The secondary hyperdrive can be on-line in one minute.
• Communications are on-line.
• Sensors are lightly damaged — the hyperwave signal indicator is off-line; the passive and active sensors are on-line.
• Navigation reports no hyperspace jumps are possible until the hyperwave signal indicator is available, since the Interdictor is surely blanketing the area with all four gravity wells.
• No fatalities are reported.
• There are a total of 20 casualties: 17 minor injuries and three serious injuries — including those suffered by Captain Vedij.

Episode Two: Fight or Flight

The first officer is now in charge. (If the first officer isn't a player character one of the other major injuries could be the intervening ranks, leaving a player character in charge.) How the Far Orbit responds to this situation is in the player's hands. Possible reactions:

• Run and hide! The edge of the Ringali Nebula is within two minutes (24 rounds) at All-Out speed. The Nebula is, much like the StarForge Nebula, a sensor-muddling soup of charged particles and asteroids. A Difficult tactics roll informs players that the Interdictor requires no time to turn off the gravity well projectors, but the power drain will slow her for about 20 to 30 seconds (the Interdictor moves at a base speed of 2 the first round, 3 the second round, 4 the third round, 5 the fourth round, and 6 the fifth round). Furthermore the Far Orbit is facing the Nebula; the Interdictor is facing away — the Far Orbit could dive under the Imperial cruiser and have the time to reach the Nebula, even though the Interdictor is usually 50 percent faster than a Nebulon-B.

Once in the Nebula, the Far Orbit can probably evade the Interdictor long enough to work out of the sensor fog and escape on the hyperdrive backup system, or maybe sneak up on the enemy ship for a counterattack (the preferred option).

If the Far Orbit waits too long to leave the Nebula she faces a problem: Imperial reinforcements. Dithering has consequences, and the Far Orbit may discover too many Imperial ships to evade waiting for her to emerge. In this case, the only options are to lurk on the edge of the Nebula or try to cross a large wisp of gas and debris (Very Difficult astrogation roll and three Difficult capital ship piloting and sensors rolls). Crossing the Nebula takes three hours, minimum; one extra hour for every missed roll. Complications may involve collisions with rogue asteroids, ion storms, radiation flashes, or mynock infestations.

• Fight It Out. The Interdictor is probably more than a match for the Far Orbit, but the privateers may have a superior crew. A battle could be worth the effort, if quickly concluded. A protracted battle will surely leave the Far Orbit seriously damaged and unable to face the Star Galleon and her escort. Any extended battle in open space has the additional problem of reinforcements: the Interdictor may be alone now, but that won't last more than several minutes. A damaged Far Orbit would have to face whatever reinforcements the Interdictor can summon.

Interdictor-class cruiser. Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D
Maneuverability 1D
space 6
hull 5D
shields 3D
Weapons: 20 quad laser cannons (fire control 2D
damage 4D)
4 gravity well projectors (fire control 6D
damage: blocks hyperspace travel).

• Board the Interdictor. One extremely risky maneuver is to board the Interdictor. One of the Far Orbit's shuttles may be able to lurk within the Ringali Nebula — fouling the Interdictor's sensors — while the Nebulon-B lures the Interdictor closer. When the Interdictor is within striking distance, the shuttle moves in and a boarding team cuts through the upper-deck airlocks. Once the bridge has been seized, stun gas can be used to render the crew unconscious. While stormtroopers are still lurking throughout the ship, it is a small matter to seal the interior bulkheads and blast doors until they can be rooted out. The Interdictor's gravity well generators may come in handy when hunting the Star Galleon or during future raids.

Adventure Eight: The Grand Prize

---

"The Grand Prize" Quick-start Outline

• Episode One. The Far Orbit plans a second ambush point for the Emperor's Will, an Imperial Star Galleon. Once the attack is launched, the characters must contend with an Imperial Nebulon-B, and the anti-pirate systems aboard the Star Galleon.
• Episode Two. The Star Galleon's internal cargo pod is jettisoned, and its hyperdrive unit activates. The Far Orbit has only a short time to locate the pod and capture the treasure before Imperial reinforcements arrive.

---

Introduction

After dealing with the Interdictor and repairing the Far Orbit's hyperdrive, the characters have another shot at the Emperor's Will, an Imperial Star Galleon laden with treasure.

After escaping the Interdictor and repairing the hyperdrive, the Far Orbit navigator plots another good ambush point and moves to it. The Far Orbit has, at most, twelve hours before the Emperor's Will arrives (less if they had to cross the Nebula to avoid Imperial reinforcements). Subtract the time spent crossing the Nebula from the time available.

Captain Vedij may or may not be recovered from his injuries at the time the Far Orbit arrives. Use the normal injury recovery rules to determine this.

The drop out of hyperspace is uneventful this time, and the Far Orbit must locate sufficient mass to pull the Emperor's Will out of hyperspace. It takes one hour of active sensor sweeps (Difficult sensors roll) to locate an asteroid with enough mass to block the Star Galleon and tow it into place. Plotting the correct location to place the barrier to pull the Star Galleon into realspace requires a Heroic astrogation roll, even with the course information on hand.

To set this trap, a minimum of one large asteroid is required; each additional asteroid drops the difficulty for plotting the correct barrier location by one level. How many asteroids are placed depends on how long the Far Orbit has to place them.

Navigation sets up a countdown; A (for Arrival) minus the remaining minutes and seconds. It is recommended the players spend this time planning tactics, assuming they haven't already done so. Dredging up information on Star Galleons out of the Far Orbit's database is not very hard (Moderate computer programming roll), if the players think of it. Characters who make a Difficult scholar: military ships roll (Moderate for former Imperial officers) know a fair amount about Star Galleons. The important facts (roll for each item) are:

• Star Galleons are transports and self-contained escort ships, designed to frustrate pirates and boarders.
• They are armed with concussion missiles and turbolasers, and armored as heavily as a cruiser.
• They can carry up to two companies of troopers (about 300 soldiers), which may be Navy troopers, stormtroopers or a mix.
• The interior of the Star Galleon is partially reconfigurable by the bridge — intruders also have to face a veritable fortress of anti-intruder defenses, including blaster slits and gas dispensers.
• The cargo bay is ejectable, and automatically jumps into hyperspace, randomly selecting from hundreds of preprogrammed coordinates. The pod emits a hypertransceiver signal and can be tracked by tuning to the proper frequency. Which frequency is a closely held secret, on file with Imperial Center, and not available to the Far Orbit. The pod jumps and spends a pre-set number of hours in its new location before jumping again; the jump timing program is also a secret.

Springing the Trap

The navigator counts down the time to arrival (if the navigator is a player character, have him or her count off the remaining time, starting at 30 seconds). When the count reaches zero... nothing happens. A plus One. A plus Two. A plus Three.

A Nebulon-B frigate and a Star Galleon drop out of hyperspace right in front of the Far Orbit, in a rough line. The newly arrived frigate pitches and yaws, and fires all her braking thrusters. A series of ion flashes runs over the Zaff Jendinpurg, indicating damage from the abrupt reversion to realspace. The Star Galleon rises a little and also fires her braking thrusters, but seems not to have taken any serious damage.

Zaff Jendinpurg
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate. Capital
capital ship gunnery 5D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 4D
Maneuverability 1D
space 4
hull 3D+2
shields 2D
Weapons: 12 turbolaser batteries (fire control 3D
damage 4D)
12 laser cannons
starfighter scale
(fire control 2D
damage 2D)
2 tractor beams (fire control 2D
damage 4D). Gamemasters are encouraged to customize their campaigns by rolling the Zaff Jendinpurg's damage on the "Lightly damaged" or "Heavily damaged" table (gamemaster's choice) on page 128 of Star Wars Roleplaying Game
Second Edition
Revised and Expanded. Full statistics for a Nebulon-B escort frigate can be found in Chapter Two.

The battle with the Zaff Jendinpurg should be brief; the Zaff and Emperor's Will are taken completely by surprise and do not fire for a full round. If she survives the first round, the Zaff scrambles her fighters, launching four fighters per round until her full complement of 24 are in space or she has been destroyed, and returns fire enthusiastically. Once the Zaff is dispatched, the Emperor's Will can be dealt with.

The Emperor's Will is no mere transport: she joins the fight immediately with concussion missiles firing forward.

Imperial Star Galleon, Emperor's Will

Craft: Kuat Drive Yards' Star Galleon
Type: Cargo/escort frigate
Scale: Capital
Length: 300 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Star Galleon
Crew: 130, gunners: 20, skeleton 50/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 3D
capital ship gunnery 4D
capital ship piloting 5D
capital ship shields 5D
sensors 3D
Passengers: 150 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 100,000 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x15
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 3
Hull: 5D+2
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 15/1D
Scan: 45/1D+1
Search: 90/2D
Focus: 3/2D+1
Weapons:
Ten Turbolasers
Fire Arc: 5 left, 5 right
Crew: 1 (5), 2 (2), 3 (2)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150km
Damage: 4D
Concussion Missile Launcher
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 4
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 2-12/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 200-1.2/3/6 km
Damage: 5D

With the Zaff out of the way, the Far Orbit can concentrate on the Emperor's Will. This is a little trickier than dispatching the frigate: they want to capture the Star Galleon, not destroy her. This might be done in several ways — precision fire against the engines, possibly delivered by starfighters; perhaps the Far Orbit has acquired ion cannons in her adventures, and if so, she can probably reduce the Emperor's Will to a sparking hulk; the Far Orbit might attach herself to the Emperor's Will with tractor beams, so that even if the Star Galleon jumps away the Far Orbit remains attached (this is very difficult and dangerous — the extra mass increases the astrogation difficulty by one level per additional Hull die).

The Emperor's Will has 50 concussion missiles and enough blaster gas for 1,000 shots; the fight will be long over by the time these resources are exhausted. The Emperor's Will's first priority is to escape into hyperspace; she pulls up and makes for open space (this is a tactical error, as it allows the Far Orbit to close on her unarmed aft section). If escape into hyperspace proves impossible, the Emperor's Will will try to destroy the attacking ship. The captain is familiar enough with the Nebulon-B design to attempt to attack the Far Orbit's side. If boarded, the Emperor's Will's troopers (at half strength — only one company of stormtroopers) fight until eliminated. Stormtrooper statistics and tactics can be found in Adventure Five.

The stormtroopers give absolutely no quarter; wounded boarders are shot to death, corpses are shot again to ensure against cleverness. If the Star Galleon seems to fall or has been severely damaged, her captain will eject the cargo pod in a last attempt to deny it to the privateers.

Vedij is counting on the Star Galleon's captain to do this. He always has. It's really the best way to take the cargo pod. As the Emperor's Will is finally beaten into submission, her hull splits along her long axis and blows away as the pre-placed hull charges are fired. The cargo pod fires her thrusters and builds speed. The Far Orbit has one round, as the pod clears the debris field, to prevent a jump. Blowing the pod up is a poor option — disabling the pod with ion cannons or immobilizing it with tractor beams is a much better idea. The pod is still very likely to make the jump; it needs make no astrogation roll, it just flashes into hyperspace at the end of the escape round.

Episode Two: The Hunt Is On

A gamemaster might have a great deal of fun staging encounters where Imperial ships arrive just as the privateers locate the pod and engage long enough to allow the pod to jump again. If the pod escapes, the Far Orbit may be able to pick up the pod's beacon signal on a Very Difficult communications roll. Tracking the pod's beacon signal takes a Difficult sensors, communications and astrogation roll.

Of course, once the Emperor's Will is missed, the Empire sends out a task force to recover the cargo pod, headed by an Imperial Star Destroyer. It takes only two hours for the Emperor's Will to be missed, and another four to organize the task force (any former Imperial officer should be able to estimate the response time on a Moderate tactics roll). The ships tasked to find the cargo pod operate in line, and are at least two steps behind the Far Orbit, but these lines have sixteen to twenty ships. The Far Orbit is vastly outnumbered. She will have to recover the pod as quickly as possible.

Once located, the pod's hypertransciever should be disabled — shot, if necessary. (The pod can be slaved over to another ship for a recovery jump, if the ship transmits the proper slaving code, but this code is unknown to the Far Orbit.) The crew may be able to break the pod's code; this requires six hours and a Very Difficult computer programming roll. The time can be decreased by increasing the difficulty by +10 per hour saved.

The pod could be towed away after being disabled, using the Far Orbit's tractor beams. The pod probably can't jump away while in the tractor beam, and may damage itself trying. This gains the Far Orbit time, while the Imperial ships methodically search the area around the pod's last known location.

Once safely spirited away, the cargo pod has to be opened. This requires Very Difficult security and computer programming rolls. The cargo pod might be booby-trapped with fragmentation explosives (up to 6D damage, plus a spacesuit breach), locks with high-charge electric shocks (5D damage), and automatic antipersonnel blasters (fire control 4D, damage 4D). Failure sets these traps off, probably killing a boarder each time.

Treasure of the Emperor's Will

Finally opened, the cargo pod reveals fantastic riches:

Metals (in 1 kilogram bars)

1,836 bars of gold.

1,296 bars of mythra, 936 bars of platinum.

Several hundred crates of gold and platinum coins, stamped with the Imperial seal, about 10 tons.

Gems

15 high-grade Bothan glitterstones, average of 2 carats.

55 mid-grade and 32 high-grade chyrstopaz, average of 2 and 1 carats, respectively.

1 high-quality, 1 carat Corusca stones.

2 high-clarity crystalline vertices, 2 carats each.

312 high-grade diamonds, average of 2.5 carats each.

243 mid-grade emeralds, average of 2 carats each.

5 Gallinorean rainbow gems, 4, 3, 4 and 2 carats.

1 Jasse heart, 4 carats.

A necklace of 12 Jorallan opals on a mythra chain, 36 carats overall, plus the high-purity mythra (more valuable as jewelry).

19 kuggerags, 1.5 carats average.

2 matched set of Lalmy'ashian pearl necklaces and earrings.

1 nova crystal, 4 carats.

15 Quella gems, 2.5 carats average.

12 sapphires, 3 carats each.

21 Sasho gems, 2.75 carat each.

Spice

300 grams of Andris; 50 grams of Carsunum, 100 kilograms of high-quality ryll kor (thirty times as expensive as common ryll).

Artwork

Dozens of crates of art from hundreds of alien worlds, with an unknown value.

The Aftermath

Gamemasters should calculate the ultimate value of this treasure using the guidelines in Chapter Four of Pirates & Privateers, and should adjust the treasure to match personal preferences, player performance and campaign scale. There is far less that the full 100,000 tons of treasure than might be expected, but the treasure should gloss that disappointment over. Gamemasters interested in continuing the Far Orbit campaign may want to drop some even more rare and valuable items in the cargo pod, from slaves packed in sleeper pods, to rare cultural artifacts, mysterious alien objects, or perhaps a Jedi holocron.

Appendix A

Player Handouts

The items contained in this appendix are intended to help the gamemaster develop interesting privateer scenarios to more fully flesh out the Far Orbit Campaign. These handouts — in the form of Alliance Intelligence updates and Travel Advisories — can be used in conjunction with the adventures in this book, or can serve as springboards for original scenarios. Also included is a blank form for gamemasters to use to create their own handouts.

SecuriDex Travel Advisory: Ralltiir

System Name: Ralltiir
Planet: Ralltiir
Designation: Occupied World
Major Locals: Imperial Governor Dennix Graeber
Contacts: [Classified]
Industries: Marble; Financial services
Overall Personal Threat: Very High
Threat Register: Low; See addendum.
Addendum: The Ralltiir System is under Imperial blockade; Ralltiir space is patrolled by a complete superiority force, including three battle squadrons and a light squadron. The planet is controlled by a line corps, and the system is subject to martial law. Alliance personnel are instructed to avoid Ralltiir space.

SecuriDex Travelling Advisory: Ringali Nebula

Region: Ringali Nebula
Designation: Astrological Feature
Overall Personal Threat: Moderate
Threat Register: None
Addendum: The Ringali Nebula is the dominant astrographic feature of the Ringali Shell. The Ringali Nebula is poorly charted and is considered a high-grade navigation threat, due to the large volume of rogue asteroids, ionic disruptions and radiation fields present. Alliance personnel are advised to avoid using the Ringali Nebula as a staging area due to the danger to operatives and ships.
Further Information: See attached astrographic chart.

Alliance Intelligence Advisory: Ringali Nebula

Region: Ringali Nebula
Designation: Astrological Feature
Overall Personal Threat: Unknown
Threat Registor: None (as yet)
Addendum: Intelligence data suggests a Ubiqtorate base is hidden within the Ringali Nebula. The data further suggests that the base is a weapons development and testing facility and is a major staging area for Ubiqtorate operations in the region. Alliance Intelligence requests that any available units investigate and obtain whatever information possible without undertaking undue risk.

Alliance Intelligence Advisory: Imperial Naval Patrols

Region: Ringali Shell
Subject: Imperial Naval Patrols
Overall Personal Threat: Fatal
Threat Register: Moderate
Addendum: All Alliance operatives in the Ringali Shell: be advised that the Imperial Victory-class Star Destroyer Scourge is active as a free-roaming patrol vessel. Alliance ships operating in the Shell should be on the alert and report any sightings or encounters with the Scourge.
Further Information: See attached profile.

Alliance Intelligence Request for Information: Sienar TIE Prototypes

Subject: Sienar TIE prototypes
System: Corulag
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Sienar Fleet Systems is believed to be testing TIE prototypes at their research and development facility at Dammon University, possibly in conjunction with one or more hypernautics corporations. Additional information requested. It is further believed that Santhe Passenger & Freight vessels may be covertly transporting these prototypes to test sites.

Ordnance and Supply Alert: Equipment Needed

Subject: Equipment needed
Requested: Astromech and prospecting droids
Priority: High
Addendum: All Alliance personnel are requested to acquire and forward any astromech droids as able. R2 units preferred. Leads on mining, repair and medical droids are also requested.

Alliance Command Request for Aid: Cargo Transfer

Subject: Cargo transfer
Planet: Brentaal
Designation: Cargo extraction
Major Locals: ISB agents
Contact: Blue 7
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Cargo transfer, 1 standard ton; material perishable and in danger of discovery. Contact Brentaalan underground for instructions.

Alliance Intelligence Advisory: Anti-piracy Forces

Region: Ringali Shell
Subject: Anti-piracy Forces
Contact: Alliance Intelligence
Overall Personal Threat: Fatal
Threat Register: Unknown, probably High
Addendum: Intel reports that a task force under the command of Captain Vocis Kenit has been charged with the destruction of the privateer vessel Far Orbit. All Far Orbit crew have been placed on the Most Wanted lists of Bormea and Darpa sector.

SecuriDex Travelling Advisory: Ringali Shell

Region: Ringali Shell
Subject: Imperial Navy activity
Overall Personal Threat: Moderate to High
Threat Register: Unknown
Addendum: Reports indicate the Imperial Navy has stepped up patrol activities in the Ringali Shell, possibly in response to recent raids. Further information requested.

SecuriDex Request for Information: Brentaal

Sector: Bormea
Planet: Brentaal
Subject: Disappearance of high-level Imperial dignitary
Contact: Alliance Intelligence
Overall Personal Threat: Unknown, presumed moderate
Threat Register: Unknown, possibly high
Addendum: A high-level Imperial dignitary recently disappeared while travelling through the Ringali Shell. Imperial investigation is reportedly very intensive. Further information requested. Note: While Alliance personnel are encouraged to show initiative, spontanious involuntary extraction of high-ranking enemy personnel is discouraged, as it tends to inspire Imperial investigation efforts in non-standard vectors.

Ordnance and Supply Alert: Medical Supplies

Subject: Medical supplies needed
Requested: Bacta
Priority: High
Addendum: All Alliance personnel are requested to acquire and forward bacta supplies or leads on same. Privateer bounty on bacta stocks is doubled for the next two standard weeks.

SecuriDex Travelling Advisory: Esseles

System: Esseles
Designation: Sector capital
Contacts: Gray 12
Industries: Governmental services, high tech luxury goods
Overall Personal Threat: Moderate
Threat Register: Moderate
Addendum: Alliance personnel are advised that an additional Imperial-class Star Destroyer has been assigned to Terril Naval Base. Further information requested.

SecuriDex Travel Advisory: Darpa

System: Darpa
Designation: Border Station 1B6/Green
Contacts: Targeter, Blue 9, Elba-0
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Imperial Naval traffic in and around Border Station 1B6/Green has recently doubled. Reports indicate that the increased traffic is a training exercise, but Intel data suggests that this is a mask for a covert operation.

Alliance Intelligence Update: Darpa

System: Darpa
Designation: Border Station 1B6/Green
Contacts: Blue-9, Elba-0
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Recent activity in and around Border Station 1B6/Green may be an Imperial response to an escaped fugitive who has reportedly fled from Imperial Center. All Alliance personnel are instructed to avoid this region. If the fugitive is encountered, determine his identity and provide any assistance that does not expose our forces to undue danger.

Alliance Intelligence Update: Darpa (2)

System: Darpa
Designation: Border Station 1B6/Green
Contacts: Targeter, Blue 9, Elba-0
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Imperial Star Destroyer Inquisitor recently sighted in the region of Border Station 1B6/Green.

SecuriDex Travelling Advisory: Ringali Shell Security Force

Region: Ringali Shell
Subject: Ringali Shell Security Force activity
Contacts: Blue 35, Green 4
Overall Personal Threat: Moderate to High
Threat Register: Moderate
Addendum: The Ringali Shell Security Force has recently stepped up investigations into smuggling and black market activites, probably in an attempt to trace the logistical trail of the Far Orbit. Alliance personnel are advised to excercise caution, as the RSSF is cooperating with Sector Rangers to set up counter-smuggling and counter-intelligence operations, and port security presence is generally increasing.

Alliance Intelligence Security Alert

Region: Core, Colonies
Subject: Imperial Intelligence activities
Priority: Highest
Contact: Alliance Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence
Overall Personal Threat: High
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Recent shipments of high-capacity power cells may be tagged with Imperial Intelligence tracers. All shipments of power cells and internally-powered equipment must immediately be scanned. Tracers must be jetisoned or destroyed.

Starfighter Command Advisory

Regions: All
Subject: Starfighter availability
Priority: High
Contact: Starfighter Command
Overall Personal Threat: Low
Threat Register: High
Addendum: Requests for starfigher support are being received at a very high rate. Priority targets are reviewed at best speed and selected based on available resources. Starfighter Command advises all sector commands to acquire independant starfighter support and supplies if possible, as current demand is notably higher than supply.

Ordnance and Supply Advisory: Privateer Support

Regions: All
Subject: Privateer support
Contact: Ordnance and Supply
Overall Personal Threat: Low
Threat Register: Moderate
Addendum: Ordnance and Supply wishes to remind sector commands that the privateer experiment continues, and that requests for resupply should be given due consideration regardless of personal opinion. O&S wishes to point out that the recent influx in goods is in part due to the efforts of privateers, and that for privateer-acquired supplies to remain at current levels or improve, the privateers must be able to occasionally purchase supplies through local Alliance contacts. Sector commands unable to provide this assitance should inform O&S immediately, so an inventory and audit can be performed to determine the cause of the supply shortfall.

Alliance Intelligence Advisory: Adjustments Agent

Region: Ringali Shell
Subject: Adjustments Agent activity
Contact: Alliance Intelligence
Overall Personal Threat: Fatal
Threat Register: Unknown, probably High
Addendum: Sources indicate Imperial Intelligence may have dispatched an Adjustments agent to the Ringali Shell, reason unknown. All cells and personnel are placed on high alert. Unusual activity should be reported immediately.