Dead Moon
	
	Tyrell, Captain of the Trieste, a port of call class far trader, was drinking a cup of coffee as he was looking over the books on his holo-screen in the Captain's Quarters. "I'll never get rich this way," he thought, barely having two nbickles to rub together. Hauling machine tools into Mewey, an agricultural world, was decent credits, but they better have something better to trade going out, a hold filled with grain was as bad as dead heading out. A chime and tab appeared on his holo screen, his pilot calling in, he hit the tab and his screen filled with a sultry exotic face: the pilot. "Captain Rees, we will be dropping out of Jump in fifteen minutes." She reported. He looked into her dark eyes and angular beautiful face, shaped as if a "V", maybe for Vilani, Fitting. He had told her to call him Ty for the last three years she'd piloted this old ship, but as a naval officer and how vilanini being weened on tradition, their comfort zone, hers; she couldn't understand why he wouldn't use his title of Captain, to her it was absurd. One can't fault her though, and he couldn't ask for a better pilot, in piloting, accuracy counts, and to her, a millimeter off was sloppy, intolerable. She set her jaw and bit her lip slightly, looking at him, waiting for his reply. He almost called her Lyssiinki, her first name, but decided to just state: "I will be out shortly, thank you."
	
	As he hit the bridge, Lyssiinki called out, "Captain's on the Bridge." Jazon, the comms, nav operator always gave a bit of a smirk at it, but not to her face. Standing there, she looked very dutiful in her old navy uniform, still cut to fit perfectly, sans insignia. Her admin skills had been a real lifesaver, but his whole crew was the money maker in the ship, it couldn't be done by robots, that's for sure. They dropped out of jump space, for what seemed to be another routine cargo run, with a fistfull of credits to pay the crew and maybe enough left over to buy a beer or two at a downport dive. What wasn't routine was the two fighters that lit out on an intercept course for them. "Heave to, this is Mewey Control, over." Huh? This is a scheduled run, they had to have the plan we're coming in, smuggling check maybe? Ty thought. Lyssi cut in on the comm quickly with a reply with her measured response of cool authority: "This is the Trieste running machinery, vector zed fiver, into Mewey, scheduled." Her voice dripping ice. It did the trick as usual, the patrol letting them on through. However, landing was anything but the normal boring that was usuual at the end of a milk run like this, the landing pad looked like a battle had recently erupted and a squad of troops meeting them was more than a little odd... 

	Mewey ( 0808 D786799 5 Rich. Agricultural. G.) an independent world in the Five Sisters Subsector on the edge of the Imperium. The player group is bringing in cargo to this argicultural world with an A2 Far Trader. Everything seems fine on the approach to the planet, clearance to land is granted without a problem, once they state their origin. landing, there seems to be an unusual amount of activity on the landing field, a ship marked with a CinoCor logo is there, looking damaged as if it made a barely controlled landing. upon closer inspection, there are soldiers covering up and moving corpses on to vehicles, obviously a battle has taken place here recently. The crew will be met by squad of local armry troops, accompanied by an individual in an Imperial Navy Officer's uniform.

	The officer is Lieutenant Commander Devon Garris, Naval Intelligence attache at the Imperial Embassy to Mewey. Garris will want to talk to the Captain of the ship, alone if possible. Garris needs the crew to take him and a squad on a very important mission to a world two parsecs away. Lt. Commander Garris has a few options to try to convince the crew to go along with the mission, he'll convince the captain of the ship to come to the Embassy with his crew to talk there. Once there he will be cordial offering whatever luxuries of the Imperium that he has managed to import to this world. his office is beautiful with big windows overlooking mewey's capital, a clean bustling mid-sized city on a green world. Once there Garris will skirt around the issue of what happened at the landing field, saying there had been some sort of attack. However he will eventually get down to fact he needs the ship, preferably flown by the crew as he is a pilot, but there are few others on Mewey who know how to run a starship. As an official of the Imperium, he has the authority to offer the crew a healthy payment to take him there and back. 

	Garris will start off with using the idea of doing the right thing, then moving to the offer of money (up to 1 MCr) and then to threaten to bar them from entering the Imperium. If the crew agrees to the deal, he will then tell them to get ready to leave as soon as possible, he will explain the rest of the mission in jumpspace. The post jump check over of the ship and other duties will leave a 14 hour turn around. If refueling at the gas giant and the use of unrefined fuel has a detrimental effect on the ship, Garris can give a chit for an overhaul at a Imperial Naval base. Garris will also want to bring a squad of Imperial Marines from the embassy guard (Gauss Rifle armed and armored in Combat Armor), he may be able to supply arms and armor from the Marine Armory at the embassy. As the time to leave, Garris will be impatient to leave.

	975-452 (0810 E100316 9 Non-industrial. G independent.) Is the destination, Garris will inform them it is the location of Cinotaksim Corporation Research Laboratories. It is an isolated moon of the gas giant, which the moon is owned by the corporation. Garris has a message he took from the CinoCor ship, he had to decode it, though from previous messages, Naval Intelligence provided the cypher key. Garris will finally explain the battle at the landing pad was with individuals who had been affected by a bio-warfare weapon and that there are likely to be more infected individuals at the laboratory. Any fears of the crew about being affected by the bio-weapon, Garris will give a wry smile and say that it is airborne, however if they stay sealed up, they should be fine.

	The message reads:
	
	"Success! It still needs better weaponization, however the Reanimator Dreadnaught is amazing, this is a profound breakthrough. I know that when you see the results, you will feel your investment to have paid off handsomely.
								-Asuragai"

	Arriving in system, the moon is spotted orbiting the the Gas Giant, all in it's silent splendor, seeming to mock the crew's nervous anticipation. Moving towards the moon, slowly radio transmissions are picked up, System Defense Boats will close in challenging the ship, Garris will wave them off, saying the are the beginning of an Imperial rescue mission, move in to try to get information from them. Eventually a larger ship is seen, a 400 ton surplus fuel shuttle, it radios in that it's crew is requesting pickup. Garris, however, identifies himself as the Imperial authorities and that help is on the way (which for all the crew can tell is not true). As time passes, Garris becomes more agitated, when asked about the mission, he says it will just be a quick incursion into the actual lab to retrieve the data from the experiment, so as to secure it from anyone getting their hands on the weapon. The moon itself is rather rocky and barren place, within a canyon upon the floor, lies a mid-sized domed city - Cinotaksim Corporation Laboratories, what employees call CinoCor City. All is quiet as the Far Trader comes in for a landing at the domed city's starport... 


	Referee Information- 

 	All is not as it seems for the crew of the Far Trader, nor will CinoCor City give up it's secrets lightly. At the main docking airlock, that docks near the main lab building, a large multi-story structure, the airlock is jammed, with a fire raging on the inside. Another way will have to found to get in, one of the smaller airlocks surrounding the dome. Breaching the dome will not be an option, firstly from explosive decompression, but secondly from that evacuating the air from the dome will kill the scattered survivors. Once inside, the party will find that chaos rules, fires blaze, lights are down in sections and that there is no overall command or control amongst the survivors. CinoCor City housed at its downfall, over 7,000 people, almost 2,000 employees and the rest, family and service personell. Part of the support personel was a 600 man security battalion, now of which there are less than 200 left as well as about 500 othe lab employees, their family and the support personel. The survivors are in scattered groups as command and control was destroyed early on in the emergency.

	The emergency has been caused by re-animated corpses, zombies to be exact, of which there are almost 2,000 wandering through the city. The Reanimator Dreadnaught is a virus developed here by one of the scientists. The problem is that the scientist in question, a Dr. Gio Asuragai, developed the virus in the basement at his house, not in the lab. thus exploration of the lab, including hacking the lab computer (for which Garris has the passwords) will not lead to the data on the Reanimator Dreadnaught. The two most direct ways would be to look up Asuragai's residence, or to have the computer show where the earliest outbreaks occured. With enough detective work, the party should be able to trace it back to Asuragai's residence. Garris should be able to provide help if the party can't figure it out. 

	Garris unlike many things, is what he seems, a dedicated agent working for the security of the Imperium. He does know more than he is telling the crew of the far trader, such as that Cinotaksim Corp. is a subsidiary of SuSAG. He is assigned to be keeping an eye on the research labs here, however the Imperium doesn't have any direct authority. The Imperium does have the ultimate power to move in if they think there is a direct threat to them, of which the RD virus does represent.

	After making their way through the city on foot to Asuragai's house, the party will realize they aren't alone in their search. Mercenaries will be on the trail of Asuragai as well. The mercenaries are from a Sword World company that are in the the employment of Asuragai's off world Patron. At some point, if crew is left on the ship, they will see a Broadsword class mercenary cruiser landing with teams deploying from it. The ship won't be able to contact the crew inside as the city's computer will be jamming any communications from inside the city as a security protocol, unless disabled by Garris from the lab. The mercenaries mission is to recover Asuragai and his data, not fight it out with the party or Garris. Garris will do his utmost to prevent this and failing that, get as much information on them in order to track them down later. 

	Asuragai's house is in an upscale part of the city, the residential area for upper management types. It is a ultra modern two story structure with expansive lawn and gardens, surrounded by 3 meter hedges, concealing it from the street. Asuragai is there at his house, in a lab underground, working on an antitdote for the virus. The antidote will only help those who have been bitten, but not turned to a zombie (cures bite on a 5+ on 2d6); Asuragai will need 4d6 hours to complete the work on the antidote. Asuragai's family is also there, a wife and son, which he will need to be evacuated with him. They will all be down in the lab, the site of the first outbreak, where they were experimenting on cadavers and his assisstant was bitten and the cadavers, reanimated corpses by then, escaped. With the cadvers escaped in the area of upper management and Asuragai's assisstant going back to the house, the virus spread with Asuragai being indecisive about what action to take knowing he was to blame. With the lab personel being infected first, the management and security commander as well, chaos quickly broke out in CinoCor City. 

	CinoCor City is a high tech domed city, buit not only to house the research lab, but with gravitic plates to simulate 1G of gravity and other ammenities to make the long term residence pleasurable. Around the lab complex, there are extensive parks, beyond that a very chic shopping and entertainment district, even the lower level employees have nice and clean condominium style apartments with the latest appliances. Policing was done by a company of the 600 man security force, though mostly just boring patrol duties as nothing generally happened. About as boring as the part of the force manning 10 triple laser turrets and 10 missile turrets that ring the top of the mountains around the city. There is an under city complex as well, with hydroponics, mechanical systems and power conduits (feeding power from the fusion plant, outside the dome in an armored bunker by the landing area). Now however power is out in sections with reduced gravity (.125 native G), explosions and fires putting out acrid smoke of burning synthetic materials. There is a solar relector at the top of the dome, which is out, and the weather system is trying to muster rain to help with the fire fighting. Many of the services are automated with robots, which while trying to not hurt the virus zombies, are drawing attacks from the zombies. This has cast the city into a twilight zone, some areas completely dark, some with fires raging and all through with survivors fighting a losing battle against the virus zombies of the Reanimator Dreadnaught.


	

General encounter table  2d6
----------------------------------------------

2: Security Team Survivors (2d6) with civilians (2d6). Security Team in Cloth armor armed with ACR's the civilians are unarmored and armed with whatever hand weapons they can scrounge up from their surroundings. Reaction rolls will determine how they view the party.

3-4: Civilian survivors (2d6) unarmored and armed with whatever hand weapons they can scrounge up from their environment.

5-6: Virus zombies (6d6) If they notice the party they will attack, the attack will draw more zombies.

7-8: Virus zombies (40-240) besieging survivors as above in 3-4.

9-10: Security Team with lab personel, trying to make it to the lab. Reaction rolls will determine if they may try to arrest the party, or may try to help them.

11: Explosion and Fire, it will draw firefighting robots and zombies that will attack the robots.

12: Sword World mercenaries (2d6) in Combat Armor armed with Gauss Rifles, looking for Asuragai.

	
	Zombies from Biowarfare virus, the "Reanimator Dreadnaught". Hits 20 or -3 to hit for a head shot instant kill. 2 grapple/Bite. move 1. Bites from the reanimated corpses will 99% of the time infect with the Virus (only natural 12 on 2d6 saves), if the anti-viral is made by Asuragai, if administered before death, will stop the infection 50% of the time (6+ on 2d6). If bitten, without the anti-viral, a person has 2d6 plus endurance hours before death, after that, there is 4d6 minutes before reanimation and the join the horde of the living dead. Here Garris is incorrect, the virus isn't an airborne contagion, even with liquified and used as an aerosol, it's effectiveness would be limited, however it could affect troops that are already compromised by wounds received in combat. 


	With the conclusion of this adventure, further adventures can include dealings with SuSAG, either being payed off to be silent about what happened, working for them or even running from them as their security tries to hunt them down. The adventurers can also be recruited by Garris to help him hunt down the Patron of the mercenaries, either if the mercs took the virus or just to run down the trail who is trying to acquire such a weapon if they didn't. The adventurers if they have foiled the mercenaries, may also have earned the enemity of the mercenaries patron. Cinomaksim Lab may also contain other interesting experiments on anti-aging and psionics, some which the Zhodani would be highly interested in and they may even have agents in the city. The Lab has multiple levels below the city streets (the upper levels are administrative offices) and even the city has sub levels which to explore.

	SuSAG Research subsidiary Cinotaksim Corp (CinoCor) for CBW/Anagathic/Psionic research. 

	Watching Ty loose a couple of last snapshots with a gauss rifle cutting down two animated corpses, she knew there was something there. The classic balance, as good as she was with the known, she knew he could be depended on to deal effectively and successfully with whatever unknown that would arise, she had seem him do it quite a few times. She was going to have to take things into her own hands, for socially, these frontier types (and he was even Nth percent solomani barbarian) lacked the insight to read subtle social cues, they practically had to be clubbed over the head. She knew however, that many strong and ancient Vilani trading families started as a union aboard a merchant vessel...

-Robert Currie 7/29/2011