GM Stuff

What follows is a mission outline.  Unlike the missions you will find in books by West End Games, this is purely an outline.  Add whatever ingredients you like to turn it into a fully-rounded mission.

The core of the mission involves a handful of secret societies.  For maximum potential, it is suggested that you have a member of Romantics and/or Sierra Club and a member of Pro Tech in the team.

This mission is best suited to players who like drawing maps and like solving the occasional puzzle.  There are still plenty of opportunities for them to shoot at each other.

Background

Pro Tech have got hold of some really hot information.  One of their spies has managed to find where and when the local Romantics are going to hold one of their meetings.  Rather ambitiously, Pro Tech have decided to try to assassinate the leader of that local group (Inn-U-NDO-6).  Of course, they can't do this themselves.  So they have decided to set up a Troubleshooting team...

The meeting is being held in a hall within a Sierra Club "farm" - a secret place where they store living things they have found Outside (hence the title of this mission outline).  They are kindly letting the Romantics use this area.  Pro Tech don't realise that the area has anything to do with Sierra Club.

The cameras in this area were disconnected some time ago, but Sierra Club managed to get some help doing this.  The upshot is that the Computer didn't actually realise that the cameras weren't working (until it was pointed out).

Pro Tech have pulled a few strings and managed to get FCCCP to agree to set up a troubleshooting mission into the area (although FCCCP don't know why the mission is being arranged).  Pro Tech (not wanting to take any chances) have also arranged for one of their members in R&D to make some "modifications" to the bot that will be assigned to the team.

The bot in question is a fairly basic model, equipped for cleaning duties.  It has an internal laser pistol and a couple of other vaguely useful gadgets.  The bot knows all about these items.  What it doesn't know is that it also has an automatic slugthrower and a grenade launcher installed inside it.  Not only that, it has a second brain...

The bot with two brains

The first (and main) brain has a rather childlike personality.  It will treat the robotics officer (who will be chosen at the mission briefing) as its "daddy".  It has absolute faith in daddy, and won't cooperate with anyone else unless daddy says it's OK.

The second brain will be dormant most of the time.  However, if it sees Inn-U-NDO-6 it will take over control of the bot and use the secret weapons to wipe him out (and any other society members who get in its way).  The first brain won't be aware of what's going on, except that lots of people are firing at it for some reason.  (Even if it sees Inn-U-NDO get killed with a slugthrower or grenade, it won't realise the shot came from itself).

Secret Society stuff

Only a handful of secret societies are directly involved with this mission.  Give clones from other societies whatever information/disinformation you feel is appropriate...

FCCCP
Rumours: This mission has been organised by FCCCP.  It's got something to do with retrieving a broken bot.
Pro Tech
Rumours: This mission will take you into an area where a rival secret society sometimes meets.  Wipe out the leader.  Kill anyone who tries to stop you, but try not to arouse suspision beforehand.  You are not the only assassin in this team!
Objects: A photograph of Inn-U-NDO-6 to aid visual identification of the target.

Romantics
Rumours: Your team is going to be sent into a hide-out of a secret society who sometimes help us out - called Sierra Club.  Try to help minimise what the team finds out and reports back to The Computer.  Your team contains a member of Sierra Club.
Objects: A photograph of Inn-U-NDO-6 - what a hero!
Sierra Club
Rumours: The Computer is sending your team to wipe out some members of a secret society called Romantics.  This society is friendly with ours, so try to stop this from happening.

Mission Briefing

Troubleshooters.  You are to ride the transtube to area 704-YGTD-MT.  We have received reports that a large number of video cameras in that area have stopped functioning.  If one or two cameras were inoperative we wouldn't be too worried, but we have lost virtually all of the cameras.

We suspect that the sector has been taken over by Commies.  Your team is to go into the area and investigate what has happened there.  Once the area has been declared safe, we can then send in a group from Technical Services to repair the cameras.  Since you're going into an area which hasn't been serviced for a long time, you will be assigned a scrubot which can clean areas once you have secured them.

Since you are going to be assigned a scrubot, you will need a Robotics Officer.  Who volunteers?

Give the team a few moments to choose a Robotics Officer.  If they take too long, nominate someone.  Perhaps the person least suited for the job.

After choosing a Robotics Officer, get the team to choose a Team Leader.  As before, if they take too long, nominate someone.  The Team Leader is promoted to Orange clearance.

Once the briefing is over, send the team to PLC and R&D for whatever equipment you want to give them.

Map

        +-----------+  Green            I/R                           \ +----+
        |  Stage   (L)---------+---------------+--------+--------+----/-|Guns|
   (L)  |-----------|          ||          +---+---+ +--+--+  +-(V)-+ \ |    |
    |   |           |          |V Up       | P    O| |Dark +--+ I/R | | +----+
    |   |           |      +---+---+       | L     | |Room |  |Cntrl| Force
    |   |  Theatre  |      |       |       | A  +--| +--+--+  +-----+ Field
    +--(D)         (D)----(L) Red  |       | N  |  |    | +---------+
    |   |           |  Up->|       |       | T  +--|    +(L)        |
    |   |           |      +---+---+       | S     |    | | Animals |
    |   |           |          |A Up       +-------+    | |-+       |
    |   +-----------+          || (Stairs)     |        | | |       |
    |                          +---------------|        | | |       |
+---+-----+                                    |        +-| |       |
|---------|                     N              |        Up| +-------|
|   +-+   |Drawbridge           |              |        ->| Walkway |
|         |   Room           W--+--E        +--+---+      +---------+
|         |                     |           |      |   Black
|         |                     S           |Orange+----------+
|         |                                 |      |          |
|         |                                 +--+---+    +-----+---------+
|---------|                     Toilet         |Blue    |---------------|
+-----+---+                    +-------+       |        |      |        |
      |                        |       |   +---+---+    |      |        |
      |                        |  I/R  |   |       |    |      |<-Planks|
      |                        |       + - +  Red  |    |      |        |
      |                        +-------+   |       |    |      |        |
      |                            |       +---+---+    |      |        |
      |                        +---+---+       |        |      |        |
      |                        |    +--|       |Green   |---------------|
      |                        |       |       |        +------+--------+
      +------------------------+  I/R  +-------+---------------+
      |                        |       |         Black
      |                        |       |
      |                        +-------+                    (D) - Door
      |                        Reception                    (L) - Locked Door
   Station                                                  (V) - Violet Door

Station:

This is the transtube station where the Troubleshooters disembark.  It is totally deserted.  The only exit is the corridor to the north.

The Troubleshooters discover that the drawbridge is retracted, with the controls on the northern side.  The door to the north is locked, and the controls are on the other side of the door.

This room has a counter in the northeast corner and doors to the North and East.  North leads to the toilet.  East leads into an Infrared corridor.  Behind the counter are 30 credits.  (Hey, this sounds a bit like D&D).

A search of this room reveals a loose ventilation grate.  Behind is a narrow passageway that a Troubleshooter may be able to crawl through, which leads to a red room with no other (legal) way out.  The bot won't fit through here.

Two corridors branch off this one.  Troubleshooters can't get along the green corridor - an automatic laser shoots them if they try.  Clever troubleshooters may figure out that bots can get through here unscathed.

[When I ran this mission, a clone with a flamethrower reclassified the entire corridor infrared.]

A large hole in the ground (approximately 10 metres deep), with planks across it.  Easy agility rolls for anyone trying to cross.  Normal rolls if they are carrying heavy R&D equipment (now that would be unfortunate) or if they try to cross backwards (why shouldn't they trust their buddies?)  Heavy bots don't stand a chance of getting across here.

Put whatever useless junk you want in here.  Or maybe some laser barrels or something.  A small weapon would be good if only one Troubleshooter has come in here.  Just watch him try to conceal this when he gets to the armory...

Red Troubleshooters can't get through this room without their Orange teammate.  As long as an Orange (or above) is in the room, they're fine.  Like the green (and blue) corridors, an automatic laser shoots anyone who shouldn't be here.  One shot per round - choose your victim if there is more than one.

This can get interesting when your Orange troubleshooter is leading - they all get into the room OK, but as soon as he walks out of the other door, the shooting starts!

This is where the Sierra Club are growing trees and stuff - not that your team are likely to know what trees are.  With luck, they'll be wondering if they are allowed in there - with all that Green stuff!

Inside this room (which is BIG) there is a garden shed - unlocked.  Our heroes can find all sorts of gardening equipment, flower pots, etc.  They might even try to use some of them as weapons.

In the North-East corner of the main room is a metal drum with a lid on it.  The drum is about 1 metre across and 1 metre high and it is fastened to the floor.  Removing the lid reveals a dark vertical tunnel (for want of a better name), which are heroes may believe to be a well (encourage this!)  In fact, it leads straight to the incinerator, but they probably won't find this out until one of them tries to go down it.  "Hey guys, his rope's gone slack."

Let them have fun trying to get the bot up these (and failing, unless they're really clever)...

Each way in has two doors, forming a sort of "airlock" in between.  There is no light in the room itself (hence the name).  Any source of light in this room will be shot at automatically.  Troubleshooters can grope around in the dark looking for other doors, but this will be a slow process.  Clones can try to shoot out the automatic laser, but it'll be a difficult shot and most weapons emit some form of light when fired...

To the south of this room lies a corridor with one door midway down on the eastern side.  At the southern end of the corridor is a ladder going upwards, leading to the:

The walkway overlooks an area containing animals (described below).  To the south is a room with desks, books and old computer terminals in.  There is a cardkey in this room which the team should find fairly easily.  If this mission goes according to plan, they are in for a heap of trouble later.  Let them think things are going well...

The Sierra Club are breeding animals in this area.  Anyone opening the door (or worse, blowing it up) is likely to be charged by a large bull.  If they try to run back to the dark room, they may let some light in...  If they remember to shut the first door before opening the second one, perhaps the bull will smash through the first door and get shot by the automatic laser.

The northern door is Violet, but our heroes can go through it if they want.  By this time they are probably too scared to go outside their security access.  The room itself is Infrared clearance, and has various control panels in it.  Power, fire sprinklers, air conditioning - use your imaginiation if they start fiddling with them!

Lots of nice weaponry in here.  There's a particularly useful rocket launcher.  Shame they won't be able to get past the:

A sign outside the Armory says "No weapons beyond this point".  Strange how the Troubleshooters should be warned about this sort of thing.  The force field hums menacingly.  Anybody trying to pass through while carrying a weapon gets zapped by it.  If the bot tries to go through it will short out, which will make life interesting for anyone inside the room at the time - how are they going to get back out?  When the force field is zapping someone, nobody can pass through or touch the person being zapped.  (Well they can, but they'll get zapped themselves!)

Alert troubleshooters may work out that they can fire the rocket launcher down the corridor and blow up the door at the other end (heh heh...).  This will kill several clones on the stage behind the door (Inn-U-NDO being one of them) and provoke a swift counter-attack by Sierra Club.

The climb to the north is a steep ramp - your bot will just wheel-spin if he tries to get up here by himself.  He will need a push.  This may (possibly) alert your team to what is going to happen later.

To the west is a locked door - they will need a cardkey to get through this door.  You can let them use the same key to get through the door onto the stage if you want, but this way is more fun.

They can blast their way through this door if they like, but they will lose any element of surprise.

Behind this door (and the one onto the stage) they can hear someone speaking, though they won't be able to work out what is being said.  (It's Inn-U-NDO giving a speech to his followers).

Once they've got the door open, the bot will push its way through.  (If they are going for stealth rolls, so much the better).  Once it gets past the door it will realise that it is on a downward slope with no chance of stopping.  The poor bot will crash through the double doors at the end of the slope, straight into the theatre...

This is where the second Bot Brain becomes active.  The players will hear lots of gunfire, a few laser blasts, a couple of explosions, and then...  Silence.  This may worry your players.

If your players decide to see what's happened, let them get into the theatre before the Sierra Club members attack.  If they decide to stay in the Red Room, let the society members attack them from the west and north.  They can escape out of the south corridor if they want, but how will they get the bot back?

If the clones don't have the bot with them, the clones can wander down the slope and into the hall.  Some Sierra Club members will open fire on the team when they spot them.  The rest of the club members will escape through the drawbridge room and then the defenders will then escape once everyone is out.  (Leaving the drawbridge extended, which makes life easier for the clones when they want to get out again).

Once they have wiped out the attackers (and the attackers have wiped out a few of them), they can make their way to the theatre.

If the bot caused the devastation in this room, the team find it lying on its front, inactive.  It has a few laser blast marks on it.  The main power circuit has popped and needs to be reset.  Up on the stage are three society members.  One of them is Inn-U-NDO-6.  They are all dead (of course).  If your team members want to be detectives, let them notice that all of the dead bodies have laser pistols, but nobody has slugthrowers or grenades.

If the bot wasn't about at the time, Inn-U-NDO-6 manages to escape to live another daycycle - unless one of the clones managed to kill him in the firefight.