Scenario Name: UNWanted
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 6/12/08
Original host site: Apolyton
BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a
Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much
investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact,
and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out
with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in
the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from
civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array
of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of
the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located
approximately three AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown
composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with
its oblique angle to the local star and the odd protrusions that
covered its surface and cast intermittent long dark shadows across its
otherwise reddish surface, the stargate had picked up the nickname of
the Roulette Wheel.
There was another, more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this
nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at
approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft
involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a UN Resettlement transport full of
refugee factions has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace.
Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an unknown
stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient
civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the
galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to
them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system.
The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had developed their own
system for dealing with these “events”: the resettlement ship had simply
landed on the Roulette Wheel’s unlucky 13. They marked it down as such
in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for
transit….
The UN Resettlement ship New Hope had emerged from the unknown stargate
and now hung above an alien, previously unknown world. The world itself
was approximately 80% water, and at some time in the past an asteroid
had broken up and slammed sideways into the planet, completely
obliterating any landmasses that had existed in the equatorial region.
Worse, it appeared that a piece of the same asteroid had impacted the
stargate, as the alien monolith had obviously sustained significant
damage to its exterior.
After much debate amongst the Faction leaders the choices were narrowed
down to either trying their luck through the damaged stargate, or
proceed down to the planet surface and wait for rescue. Both choices had
their drawbacks: if they tried transitting the stargate they might end
up back at their starting point in the Premius star system, or they
might end up somewhere else in the galaxy, even more remote than where
they were now. If they stayed and waited for rescue they would
undoubtedly have to migrate to the planet below, as the New Hope was not
provisioned for an extended duration. Worse, the peoples on board were
not settlers: they were peoples plucked from planets who no longer
wanted them, unwanted refugees being resettled (some forcibly) to new
locales where it was hoped they could start anew. These downtrodden
peoples were not prepared for the rigors and hardships of attempting to
establish new colonies on an unknown alien world.
After conferring with the refuge Faction Leaders, Captain Jarretta
agreed that the best option was to take the gamble of attempting to
transit the stargate again, in the hope that it would deliver them
either back to their original starting point in the Premius system, or
to another known stargate. And if they ended up elsewhere, they could
always make the transition again until they ended up somewhere more
hospitable.
Jarretta lined the New Hope up with the stargate, and slowly entered
the outskirts of the gate’s energy nexus. However as the spaceship
entered the gate proper, huge energy plumes lashed out from the gate
itself, raking across the bow of the New Hope, and shorting out a
majority of the ship’s power systems. The spaceship, now powerless,
began to drift off course, slowly heading for the side of the looming
stargate. Jarretta checked the status of the New Hope’s engines, and
realized the engines would not be back online in time to save the
spaceship from colliding with the stargate. Realizing his spaceship was
lost, he gave the command to abandon ship.
As the escape pods began to depart for the planet surface below Jarretta
wondered what would happen to these peoples: forcibly evicted from
their original homeworlds, lost in transit via a malfunctioning
stargate, and now marooned on an uncharted alien world, it was as if the
Universe itself had turned its back on them. They were the ultimate
unwanteds – throw away peoples whom nobody would miss or bother looking
for. As Jarretta braced for the fatal impact he wished them well…..
Directions
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "UNW", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "UNW" and choose the scenario “UNWanted”. The game
will automatically load up with the PKs.
Enjoy!
D
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 6/12/08
Original host site: Apolyton
BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a
Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much
investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact,
and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out
with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in
the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from
civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array
of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of
the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located
approximately three AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown
composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with
its oblique angle to the local star and the odd protrusions that
covered its surface and cast intermittent long dark shadows across its
otherwise reddish surface, the stargate had picked up the nickname of
the Roulette Wheel.
There was another, more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this
nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at
approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft
involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a UN Resettlement transport full of
refugee factions has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace.
Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an unknown
stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient
civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the
galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to
them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system.
The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had developed their own
system for dealing with these “events”: the resettlement ship had simply
landed on the Roulette Wheel’s unlucky 13. They marked it down as such
in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for
transit….
The UN Resettlement ship New Hope had emerged from the unknown stargate
and now hung above an alien, previously unknown world. The world itself
was approximately 80% water, and at some time in the past an asteroid
had broken up and slammed sideways into the planet, completely
obliterating any landmasses that had existed in the equatorial region.
Worse, it appeared that a piece of the same asteroid had impacted the
stargate, as the alien monolith had obviously sustained significant
damage to its exterior.
After much debate amongst the Faction leaders the choices were narrowed
down to either trying their luck through the damaged stargate, or
proceed down to the planet surface and wait for rescue. Both choices had
their drawbacks: if they tried transitting the stargate they might end
up back at their starting point in the Premius star system, or they
might end up somewhere else in the galaxy, even more remote than where
they were now. If they stayed and waited for rescue they would
undoubtedly have to migrate to the planet below, as the New Hope was not
provisioned for an extended duration. Worse, the peoples on board were
not settlers: they were peoples plucked from planets who no longer
wanted them, unwanted refugees being resettled (some forcibly) to new
locales where it was hoped they could start anew. These downtrodden
peoples were not prepared for the rigors and hardships of attempting to
establish new colonies on an unknown alien world.
After conferring with the refuge Faction Leaders, Captain Jarretta
agreed that the best option was to take the gamble of attempting to
transit the stargate again, in the hope that it would deliver them
either back to their original starting point in the Premius system, or
to another known stargate. And if they ended up elsewhere, they could
always make the transition again until they ended up somewhere more
hospitable.
Jarretta lined the New Hope up with the stargate, and slowly entered
the outskirts of the gate’s energy nexus. However as the spaceship
entered the gate proper, huge energy plumes lashed out from the gate
itself, raking across the bow of the New Hope, and shorting out a
majority of the ship’s power systems. The spaceship, now powerless,
began to drift off course, slowly heading for the side of the looming
stargate. Jarretta checked the status of the New Hope’s engines, and
realized the engines would not be back online in time to save the
spaceship from colliding with the stargate. Realizing his spaceship was
lost, he gave the command to abandon ship.
As the escape pods began to depart for the planet surface below Jarretta
wondered what would happen to these peoples: forcibly evicted from
their original homeworlds, lost in transit via a malfunctioning
stargate, and now marooned on an uncharted alien world, it was as if the
Universe itself had turned its back on them. They were the ultimate
unwanteds – throw away peoples whom nobody would miss or bother looking
for. As Jarretta braced for the fatal impact he wished them well…..
Directions
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "UNW", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "UNW" and choose the scenario “UNWanted”. The game
will automatically load up with the PKs.
Enjoy!
D