Planet of the Cybertank
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an adventure for Traveller or other science-fiction role-playing games
for player characters with access to a light starship or armored fighting vehicles
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In a quiet system the Player Characters (PCs) receive a distress signal from another spaceship – scrap salvagers stranded on a forbidden zone amber planet (UWP X642000-0). The small world, Zinah 2, was once host to a mining colony. Starchart library data indicates that it was irradiated by nuclear weaponry and abandoned 200 years ago.
Adventure Overview
This adventure has the players land to investigate a distress signal, only to also be stranded on planet by a massive tank piloted by an artificial intelligence. They will have to use skill and guile to escape from the planet.
As an alternative scenario, if the travellers have access to grav tanks or similar military equipment, they may be hired to eliminate the cybertank so that salvage can be collected or a new mining colony can be established.
The Cybertank’s Domain
From orbit the automated emergency distress signal appears to be coming from the highly radioactive wreckage of a type A Free Trader “SS SWAMPDOGE”. The wreck is on the outskirts of the ruins of a mining outpost.
When the players arrive in orbit the cybertank is in its repair bunker in low-power mode (see below). A difficult (-6 DM) sensors check is required to detect the cybertank there and the PCs will likely land before they are aware of it.
Near the wreck, the planet’s rainbow-colored lichen line the gravel ravines under a dusty, hazy sky. The air is very thin, and tainted by radioactive dust. Weirdly shaped trees dot the hills.
Due to high radiation in the area spacesuits are strongly advised. Those without will be exposed to 40 rads per hour. The destroyed free trader is much more radioactive, and those exploring the wreck are exposed to 100 rads per hour. Breathing the air without a filter is deadly – the radioactive dust will result in some type of severe cancer if not treated by an advanced medical facility.
Once the travellers land and leave their ship to investigate, the megatank will emerge to attack them. The cyber-brain controlled tank is currently still trying to complete its mission to defend the colony from offworlders. Either the megatank will shoot down their landing craft, or after they disembark it will cut the crew off from return to their ship. Programmed to be conservative with its ammo, the cybertank uses it’s 180 mm tactical-nuke cannon against unarmored starships (dealing 1-2 points of damage and possibly disabling systems with the EMP), the 120 mm cannons against vehicles, and will try to run over and machine gun those on foot. Programmed with target engagement parameters, it will not attack a starship with more than 1 point of armor, but will instead wait for the crew to disembark before attacking.
If the referee is having trouble stranding the party on-world, the cybertank could always disable their ship with an EMP from the tactical-nuke cannon.
The remains of the mining colony are in bad shape from the fighting that took place here and the decades of neglect since then. Most of the buildings are now little more than piles of rubble, though the central administration building and one of the mining machine shops are mostly still standing. Near the strip mine at the edge of town a massive industrial bulldozer sits in disrepair. Several destroyed APCs are near the main intersection in town. The tower that housed the colony’s beam laser turret is knocked down. If the administration building is searched, the PCs might discover records about the conflict that the cybertank thinks it is still fighting, or about it’s targeting parameters. A key-card for the bunker’s side door might also be among the scattered debris left behind when the colony was abandoned.
Tunnels under the ruined buildings of the mining colony or ravines and caverns could provide some shelter from the cybertank. The players may find survivors from the Free Trader in the tunnels – Captain Dan Verast and engineer Vohn Mree. The survivors are almost out of supplies and suffering from moderate radiation sickness. They will tell the player characters how they landed to search for salvage, were attacked in their grav car by the megatank, and when they returned to the ship and fired the beam laser turret at the megatank it destroyed their ship with nuclear shells. They were the only survivors.
At the referee’s option, the security drones from the bunker could go into the tunnels to hunt down the player characters.
Lair of the Cybertank
Among the ruins of a military base on the outskirts of the colony the megatank repair and reloading facility is still semi-operational. The cybertank returns there periodically, though at the referee’s discretion it may be low on ammo or damaged. The PCs may be able to infiltrate the facility with stealth and sabotage or reprogram the megatank.
In addition to the remote-controlled blast door for the megatank, the bunker has a side entrance for personnel with a key-card lock they will have to bypass unless they found a keycard in the administration building. Within, many systems are old and broken, but one or more automated security drones may still be operational, programmed to destroy those without proper ID or uniforms. Automated repair drones are keeping the station barely operational, and at the referee’s discretion might also be able to repair damage done to the cybertank.
In the lower levels there are systems for drawing up well water and refining it into hydrogen for the cybertank’s fusion reactor. From logs on data wafers in the facility they can piece together the details of the conflict that ended with the abandonment of the colony – centuries ago the colony bought the cybertank and other arms to defend themselves from an aggressive band of raiders, only to have the fallout from the conflict render the area uninhabitable. When they fled the station the cybertank was left behind.
If they can establish communications with the cybertank and convince it that the war is over and it has succeeded at its mission, the cybertank may agree to leave planet with the travelers, though anti-theft and security protocols might be in place that make this very difficult.
There is some salvage from the free trader and other salvage from the bunker, mining facilities, and the war that left the cybertank on-world. Any crew from the free trader who are rescued will gladly pay for passage to another world. If the PCs are capable, they will also pay for help salvaging their ship, though it will require radiation decontamination before it can be stayed in without protective gear on at all times.
Omega-class Megatank
Statistics
These gigantic war machines were created during the early stellar era. The emergence of crystaliron steel caused an arms race which culminated in enormous computer-controlled tanks and megatank-killing shells with tactical nuclear payloads.
Originally these types of weapons were justified by the representatives of stellar era governments by asserting that they would only be used on worlds that were already uninhabitable for sapient life. Many early colony worlds were nevertheless rendered hazardous or sterile by escalating conflicts that utilized these weapons.
Most designs combined a main gun that fired tactical-nuclear warheads, several smaller cannons, and a host of machine gun turrets. Thus equipped they were capable of destroying multiple combined-arms groups and smaller tanks.
Because of the radiation dangers and other design considerations, later versions were not piloted by living crew but instead by early models of cybernetic brains. Large and primitive compared to a high-tech droid’s positronic brain, these massive computers were designed to swiftly and ruthlessly destroy their targets. Furthermore, the electronic brains were programmed to avoid the reluctance to utilize the atomic weaponry that organic crewmembers had sometimes shown. These elements combined to make megatanks terrifying killing machines.
These designs became obsolete with the emergence of compact grav drives and hypervelocity cannons.
Omega class megatank
Cost (Cr.) 15,137,000
TL 11
Skill drive (tracked)
Agility +1
Speed 37 kph
Range unlimited
Crew 0 or 6 (commander, driver, 4 gunners)
Cargo none
Open no
Hull 100
Structure 100
Armor 128
Shipping Size 100 tons
Weapons
190 mm tactical-nuclear-warhead cannon (20d6, ignores 60 points of armor, 500 m burst radius, or else 1d2 points of damage against starships, plus crew radiation hit) in light turret with 30 rounds
3 x 120 mm cannons (10d6, ignores 20 points of armor) in light turrets with 40 rounds each
6 x heavy rotary machinegun (5d6, ignores 5 points of armor) in light turrets with 7,000 rounds each
Extras
AFV
extra armor x 15
tracked (+3 DM to Drive checks when off-road)
extra speed x 20 (+200%)
fusion plant (unlimited range)
cyber-brain autonomous battle control (level 6 computer)
laser anti-missile system (TL 10, +1 to negate hits)
advanced controls (+1 agility)
standard navigation (+2)
TL 10 communications (encrypted continental)
smoke
flares
chaff
Software
agent – drive (tracked) level 2
agent – gun combat (heavy weapons) level 2
agent – tactics level 2
intellect 2
Many thanks to Steve Jackson Games for inspiration.
Posted in Adventure, Traveller, Vehicle by Adam A. Thompson with 5 comments.
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