A Sense of Obligation

by Rob Milcik

The rescue of the Scout Bowie by Captain Phil Kosnett in Y165 was heralded as a great accomplishment. Most Federation citizens were unaware that the Bowie had been on a clandestine penetration mission into the mysterious Tholian Holdfast. Even fewer were aware, or gave much thought to the concept, that other such operations were probably being conducted.

In truth, in Y159 one such clandestine operation, disguised as a freighter, had penetrated into the Holdfast. The freighter had vanished utterly.

One of the senior officers on the freighter was Lt Commander Hans Fregessan. Hans Fregessan had been the oldest of four children when their parents had died in a shuttle crash. He had managed to keep the family together, and eventually had joined Star Fleet. The youngest of his three siblings was Sven Fregessan, and he had followed his older brother into the fleet determined to repay the debt he felt he owed his elder brother.

Sven was convinced that his brother was alive and held by the Tholians. For political reasons, the Federation chose to ignore any chance that any members of the crew of the freighter Ubichi Ranger might be alive. It was the goal of the Federation to seal the Tholian-Federation neutral zone to communications between the Klingon and Romulan Star Empires. Inquiring into the fate of the Ubichi Ranger might endanger the negotiations, besides being an admission that the ship was indeed on an intelligence gathering mission.

Sven Fregessan pulled every string he could find to keep himself assigned to, or as close as possible to, the Tholian- Federation neutral zone. He talked to any free trader or other merchant who had any dealings across the zone, and volunteered to serve as an aide to any diplomatic embassies to the Holdfast. He carefully perused any intelligence that the Federation might gather on the Holdfast that he could gain access to.

Strangely, this obsession of his passed unnoticed by his superiors, and Sven's otherwise exemplary service eventually garnered him command of a cruiser in Y164, albeit an old "R" class, the Ramilles.

Going over the findings of the Bowie, Sven finally found what he was looking for when he compared the notes from his own studies. The Tholians seemed to employ some humanoids in the construction of their bases. Since pressure suits for humanoids were not as dense as those for Tholians due to the lesser need to retain heat, and there was no place a person could escape to in space, it made perfect sense.

In Y166, the final pieces fell into place. Captain Sven received an "eyes only" message from Star Fleet, and he already knew that the Tholians were establishing a new base. He had already prepared a falsified message he would present to his own senior officers, and after briefing them, the rescue attempt was on.

(SP555.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2; the Federation player and the Tholian player.

(SP555.2) INITIAL SET-UP FEDERATION: CA Ramilles enters from anywhere along he xx01 map edge on Turn #1, heading C, D, or E, speed max, WS-III. THOLIAN: Mobile Logistics Base in 2215, with four cargo pods and two cargo modules attached, initial facing and rotation rate at the Tholian player's option, WS-I. >....DD Quartex enters on Turn #4 from anywhere along the xx30 map edge, heading A, B, or F, speed max, WS- III. >....PC+ Obstinate enters on Turn #6 from anywhere along the 01xx map edge, heading B or C, speed max, WS-III. >....DPC+ Trusty enters on Turn #8 from anywhere along the 42xx map edge, heading E or F, speed max, WS-III. >....CC Protector enters on Turn #10 from anywhere along the xx30 map edge, facing A, B, or F, speed max, WS-III.

(SP555.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario contin-ues until all forces belonging to one side have been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged.

(SP555.4) SPECIAL RULES

(SP555.41) MAP: The map is fixed; it does not float. Any unit leaving the map has disengaged and cannot return. The Federation units can only disengage in direction A. The Tholian units can only disengage in directions C, D, or E. Units which disengage in unauthorized directions are considered destroyed.

(SP555.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: No shuttles or PFs have warp booster packs.

(SP555.421) If using the optional MRS shuttles the Tholian CC may have an MRS. No other ship carried an MRS in this incident.

(SP555.422) There are no fighters in this scenario. In a variant in which fighters are present, use the standard deployment patterns (one EWF for each squadron of eight or more fighters) for EW fighters. (SP555.423) There are no PFs in this scenario.

(SP555.43) COMMANDER'S OPTION ITEMS

(SP555.431) Each ship can select additional or special equipment as Commander's Option Items (e.g., T-bombs, extra marines, etc.) up to 20% of its combat BPV. See (S3.2) for details and exceptions.

(SP555.432) None of the ships involved in this action used drones. In a variant where drone-armed units are used all drones are "slow," i.e., speed-8. Type-II and type-V drones (speed 12) and "medium;" speed-20 drones are available for purchase as special drones.

Each drone-armed ship can purchase special drones up to the historical racial percentages as part of the Commander's Option Items. Note that (S3.2) allows drone ships extra points for this purpose.

(SP555.433) One of Sven Fregessan's assets for his raid was a prime team, Ramilles' Redoubtables, which was assigned to his ship. This team is represented by an additional boarding party over and above the normally assigned boarding parties and any extras purchased under

(SP555.431). This team functions as an "Outstanding Crew" boarding party (G21.241). There are no Tholian Prime Teams in this scenario.

(SP555.44) REFITS: At the time of this incident, all refits are as noted in (SP555.2).

(SP555.45) BASE: The BLM is a battle station under construction and has only been recently established. In addition to its own normal crew, there are ten crew units of "humanoids." These are prisoners that the Tholians have taken in various incidents on all three of their borders, and include; one crew unit of Romulans, three Klingon crew units, two Orion crew units, and four Federation crew units. (Note that the Romulans are specific as there are no non-Romulans in the Romulan Empire, whereas the prisoners from the other three groups include mixtures of races.)

(SP555.46) RESCUE: The point of the scenario is for the Ramilles to rescue at least the Federation prisoners.

(SP555.461) To determine the location of a non-Tholian crew unit, the Ramilles must first attain level M intelligence (D17.0) on the station. Once this is attained, the Federation player knows the location of all prisoners on the station. Take a cup and place ten counters in it; four Federation counters, three Klingon counters, two Orion Counters, and one Romulan counter.

(SP555.462) To determine the specific race of the prisoners the Federation player must gain 10 points of information under (G5.2) on the specific crew unit. Use a scrap of paper to record how much information is collected on each individual crew unit. Once a crew unit is identified, the Federation player draws one counter from the cup to discover which prisoner unit he has found.

(SP555.463) Whether the nationality of a given crew unit is determined or not, the Federation player can attempt a hit and run raid to rescue a crew unit. If the crew unit was identified, he can roll for that specific unit. If he rolls for a crew unit that is not identified, he rolls the hit-and-run and if he succeeds randomly draws a crew unit from the cup to see who he rescued. The die rolls are resolved as follows:

If an outstanding crew boarding party, commando boarding party, or prime team [see (SP555.433) above makes the attempt, use the following table:

Poor crews attempt rescues on the following table:

(SP555.47) NON-VIOLENT COMBAT: The Federation player must use Non-Violent Combat as he must attempt to keep the incident as low key as possible, and slaughtering Tholians is not going to accomplish this.

(SP555.48) THOLIAN REACTION: The Tholians really are not sure just what is going on, but they will not attempt to guard the prisoners nor to execute them. Their primary interest is in saving the station and making the Federation ship go away (or destroying it of course). The Tholians will not perform hit-and- run raids in an effort to recapture the prisoners.

(SP555.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS: If all four of the Federation crew units are rescued and no more than 10 crew units of Tholians become casualties, including wounded (G9.23), the Federation player "wins". >....NOTE: No matter what the outcome of this engagement, Captain Sven Fregessan will be relieved of command and court martialed, but he considered it worth the price if he could save his brother. Players who doubt this should consider the ramifications of sanctioning Commanders of warships using their vessels to settle personal scores.

(SP555.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one or more of the following changes:

(SP555.61) Substitute a Romulan KR (no B refit) for the Ramilles. The Romulan will not worry about "political" considerations, and is not required to use Non-Violent Combat. However, one of the prisoner crew units will die for every ten internals scored on the station in addition to any Tholian casualties. The Tholian player will draw a random counter and keep this concealed from the Romulan player until the scenario is over. Note that since there is only one Romulan prisoner crew unit it is possible that the Romulan may kill it first and render the whole point of the scenario moot without knowing it until the end.

(SP555.62) Change the cargo modules on the BLM to power modules and add a web surrounding the station, strength 10 at start. Assume another Fregessan sibling was involved in the plot and brought in a frigate to assist Sven in the attempt (or that Sven found a frigate captain with a similar sense of obligation who was also missing a sibling from the Ubichi Ranger or some other failed intelligence mission).

(SP555.63) For a smaller and faster battle, use a frigate in place of the CA, and delete the DD and CC from the Tholian reinforcements.

(SP555.64) Fregessan's XO was suspicious of the mission orders, and might have been trying to determine if they were real by various checks and inquiries. To simulate this, roll one die at the start of each turn and record the result. When the total reaches 30, the XO has determined that his captain is not operating on legal orders and relieves him on the spot. At this point, the Federation cannot win the scenario, and further rescue attempts cannot be made. The Federation ship can, if it successfully disengages, at best claim a draw.

(SP555.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced be- tween players of different skill levels by one or more of the follow-ing:

(SP555.71) Change the CA to a CC.

(SP555.72) Replace the PC+ with another DD.

(SP555.73) Reduce or increase the number of Federation prisoner crew units.

(SP555.8) TACTICS:

(SP555.9) PLAYTESTER COMMENTS:

(SP555.X) DESIGNER'S NOTES: When we received this scenario, we all said "this would make a great story!" And so it came to be, as we commissioned Bruce Graw to create the story in this issue based on the scenario. This is, so far as we know, the first time that the scenario was done first.

HISTORICAL OUTCOME: See the Fiction Story "Sense of Obligation" in the Captain's Log for the outcome.