Background: Information:
It's been three days since the end of the last adventure. After the brief break, the Pegasus is preparing to leave Lylenia for Lylos. Your mecha have been repaired and fully loaded. One of the local traders has provided you with month old data on Lylos. The general morale onboard the ship is pretty high.
Background: Situation:
The Pegasus is going to Lylos to make a peace treaty with the Lylosian Government. Unknown to them, the Invid have already visited Lylos and conquered it. The Invid Commander, Shishrar, has left behind a fully staffed hive to watch over the planet. In orbit above the planet is the hulk of the Arabian-Class HADC: Stallion. The Stallion had been caught taking supplies to another REF base in another sector. Shishrar brought the wreckage here so that his scientists could study it. Unknown to him, there are a couple of survivors in the hold of the ship. Someone may try to signal to the group.
When the group comes out of light speed they discover that the planet has been taken over. Just when they are about to attack the hive, they get a surprise. Five Zentraedi Battle Cruisers come out of Fold space and begin to launch Battlepods. From this point their mission is to land, sneak into the hive, and recover the data core that is being studied by the Invid scientists.
The Pegasus Troops:
Second M.A.G.:
2-10 Alphas 2-10 Betas 1-10 Destroids 0-10 AJACS II |
0-5 V.H.T.s 0-10 Logans 0-20 Cyclones 0-10 Super Veritechs |
2000 Armored Scouts 1000 Scouts 500 Troopers |
1000 Shock Troopers 200 Enforcers 50 Red Enforcers |
The Adventure:
The Background: Information: should be shared with the group. The
rest is only for you the GM to know.
To the Adventurers:
At long last you are finally leaving Lylenia. Just about all of the damage incurred during the fighting has been repaired. Minutes after exiting the atmosphere, the Pegasus begins fold operations. After nearly an hour your ship lurches out of Fold- Space, and your stomachs once again begin to heave.
As a precaution, Pegasus comes out of Fold-Space several
orbits out. As luck would have it, it was a wise decision. After arriving on the bridge, you see a startling sight. In orbit around the planet is the ripped hull of the Stallion, the missing Arabian HADC. After a quick retreat to a nearby moon, you are summoned to the conference room.
After taking your seats, the captain begins the briefing. "As you have probably surmised by now, the Invid have taken control of Lylos. I had the feeling that might have happened, ut what is surprising is that somehow or another, the Invid were able to catch the Stallion. The Stallion was running supplies to one of our bases in another sector when it failed to report in. We feared that it had been destroyed, now we know for sure."
"Since there is no point in trying to free Lylos now, we might as well try to accomplish something while we are here. We have been getting signals form the Stallion's computer core on the planet's surface. You are going to recover it from the Invid hive and get it back here. We want it intact, but if you can't get it, destroy it. We'll cover you going in, after that you will have to complete the mission on your own."
Unless the group has any questions, that's pretty much it. To any questions about enemy strength, just respond that there are three hives, and they will be invading the biggest one. Anything other than that is undetermined.
Twenty minutes later you launch from the Pegasus, taking up your flight positions. Just when you get within scanning distance of the planet, you suddenly pick up two strange readings from two different directions. From out of deep space you suddenly get all of the indications of a massive Fold-Jump. After a flash of light, you see 5 Zentraedi warships bearing down on the planet. Within seconds of defolding, the ships begin launching thousands of battlepods. Almost simultaneously, you see a large fleet of Invid warships come from behind the plant. They too begin launching thousands of fighters. You're suddenly caught right in the middle of a huge dogfight, where both combatants are also trying to kill you.
Give the group some time to digest this information, then ask what they are going to do. If they make it through the dogfight, this would be the perfect cover to sneak onto the planet. If they don't come to this realization by themselves, have the captain order them to land on the planet. Either way they will be attacked by both sides.
While you are making up your minds, several battlepods and armored scouts attack you.
The invid group consists of 20 Armored Scouts. The Zentraedi group consists of 10 battlepods, 5 light Artillery Pods, and 1 heavy Artillery Pod.
After you finish your fight, you begin entry into the atmosphere. [There is a 30% chance that one of them sees a light from the Stallion. If they do see a light, the only thing they can do is report it and hope Pegasus can investigate.] After entry into the atmosphere you encounter no resistance. As you approach the hive, you once again encounter no resistance, seeing as how the patrols are all fighting the Zentraedi.
Once they enter the hive, they might have an encounter every two minutes (there is a 40% chance of this). If they do, it will consist of 1 Enforcer, 1 Odeon, 3 Scrim, and 5 Cougars. As long as they don't start blowing out walls this is pretty much all the resistance they will face. If they do start blowing down walls, they'll get hit by a couple of Extermination Squads (at full strength). It ought to take them 20 minutes to find the computer core. The last encounter before finding the core will be a Raiding Patrol.
After you recover (or destroy) the computer core, you blast your way out of the hive. The Pegasus is above you bombarding the hive with laser fire. Upon your recovery, Pegasus retreats out of the atmosphere. [If they reported seeing the light, a shuttle will join them when they reach orbit.] After leaving orbit, the Pegasus blasts a path through the two combatants, and runs for deep space. After a couple of minutes the ship begins Fold Operations. When the ship comes out of Fold Space a couple of minutes later, you are called to the bridge.
When you arrive on the bridge the captain tells you what happened. "We didn't have enough energy saved up for a full fold. We're going to run on conventional engines for a while to recharge the batteries, then we'll refold out of here."
Just as he finishes saying that, one of the techs yells out, "Sir, we have fold activity, directly behind us!"
The captain orders full speed in the opposite direction. Minutes later, the same tech tells him, "Sir, there are four Zentraedi warships directly behind us. One Command Ship, and three Landing ships."
"How long until we'll have power for a full fold jump?"
"Thirty minutes, sir."
For fifteen minutes, your ship runs ahead of the Zentraedi warships, waiting to have enough power to fold away. Then, unexpectedly, "SIR! Ten Zentraedi warships defolding dead ahead, sir!"
The captain orders, "Plot a fold course back to the previous system. Maybe we'll have enough time to use the solar arrays to recharge the fold system."
With that final order, your ship reenters fold-space. Minutes later you reemerge in the Lylosian solar system. At almost zero energy, the ship nears the sun to recharge. Just when you thought you were safe, "Oh No! Zentraedi warships defolding all around sir! We have no where to run!"
At almost the same time you receive a signal form the Zentraedi Flagship. On the screen appears the face of a Zentraedi commander. "Captain of the Micronian vessel, you've led me on a merry chase, but you have one minute to power down, or you will be annihilated." With those words, the main cannon on his ship opens and prepares to fire.
The captain looks at you and says, "Unless you know how to deflect a reflex blast, I suggest we surrender and find out what he wants." With those words, he surrenders to the ship to the Zentraedi. After being pulled along side the Zentraedi Flagship, the entire fleet folds out of the system. An hour later, you come out of fold space near a planet. Surrounding the planet are a couple hundred Zentraedi warships. Also present is one of the two dozen Robotech Factories.
"These aren't renegade Zentraedi," says the Captain. "This must be the lost fleet of Commander Zatar."