A Sting in the Tale

A High Frontier Tale of environmental conservation by Paul Watson

A small agricultural colony on the outer rim world LVR-113, run by Weylan-Yutani has gone off-line and nothing has been heard from them for the last 2 months.

Colloquially known as the Hippy Commune, it has steadily produced ‘miracle’ solutions to many of the agricultural problems on Earth.

Their work has been widely publicised in the popular and scientific press. Their current project has involved investigating solutions to hive collapse on colonies of Earth’s honey bees in an attempt to solve their decline over the last two centuries and reintroduce them back into the Earth’s ecosystem to restart crop production and pollination on the exhausted planet.

The finer details are currently under wraps but there is rumoured to be pivotal progress in beating the fungal aspects of honey bee deaths (although, as ever, the rumour mill has it that there is a military element looking to skewing the research into biological warfare than harmless honey bees).

Responding to such rumours, concerned environmental activists on Earth have been campaigning to get current findings made public, but so far the ICC have refused, citing W-Y’s right to complete research before the need to publish.

The loss of communications is disturbing – the data is vital to Earth’s continual survival and, whilst rival corporate sabotage is something NOT to be ruled out, an official investigation needs to take place.

As such, your task force of Corporate, Scientific and Military back-up is being hastily assembled.

However, whilst gathering your forces together, the environment group Mother Earth has publicly stated they will perform their own independent investigation. The hiring of a private commercial freighter by the activists was first speculated to be a pointless publicity stunt, but the failure to spot several key members at recent protest rallies has led to the conclusion that they have actually gone ahead with their threat and are already on their way to the research colony – 3 days ahead of the official team.

The Goodman Protocol

A High Frontier game of First Contact by James Bloodworth, Nick Reynolds and Andy Flood

Since Humanity first looked up at the stars, they have asked the question, “are we alone?”.

Despite substantive rumours and numerous alleged sightings, the official line is that we are.

However, people who live and work on the “High Frontier” are still expected to report anything unusual or phenomenon that cannot be explained, this is known as The Goodman Protocol.

Operation Phoenix

A High Frontier event

The last port of call was hell. Creatures coming out of the night, ripping open marines, taking more shots then you could believe before finally dropping. It was close. Ammunition was really short at the end. But you survived. Your squad survived.

Next stop: Shore leave. Medals. Hero’s welcome. Drinks with the lads. Bragging rights.

At least that was the plan. Your ship took a couple of hard knocks and now the jury-rigged repairs are starting to fail. The main CO2 scrubber is down, and the main power core is on the verge of failing. You need replacement parts and waiting until you’re back at base isn’t an option.

The nearest planet is your best hope of getting what you need. Your records show there is a colony there. Best case scenario is that they have the parts you need and you can collect them, take off and be on your way. If not, then the air is breathable, and you can hunker down until the nearest base sends a repair team.

Everything should be fine. Even if the colony is a penal colony. The documentation claims it is nice: designed to be a “model prison planet” with everyone living in harmony and those who had served their time being offered land grants and being eligible for recruitment to local government roles, including guards. All in all, a peaceful cooperative that shouldn’t cause any trouble.