Freelance Traveller - Active Measures - Getting Off The Ground

Take The Money And Run

by Michael Hughes

A peace keeping has gone terribly wrong and the subsector senate has decided to pull out - securing only the starport from local interference but otherwise letting the various factions battling for supremacy fight it out. Amidst the chaos there is an opportunity to be made. Specifically transporting a store of valuable metals that the local currency had been pegged against, which government officials are hoping to get off world to fund a government in exile as well as recruit merc companies so they can come back in and restore order once the various other factions have fought themselves to a standstill.

A government official approaches the PCs and asks for their assistance in transporting the goods to the starport. Trouble is the Imperials have declared a no fly zone for anything above 100 feet as part of flight control measures during the pull out. The government offers 1% of the value of the goods recovered in government bonds (which will take years to claim but are worth a fortune and can be resold on to other investors). The PCs will have to pick metals (four dump trucks worth), transport them through crowded streets and through various zones of control of competing factions.

Possible directions to take this adventure:

The offer is genuine as per above. However with societal breakdown the health system under great pressure has been unable to deal with pandemics and the like. As a result half the people they meet with are ill and the PCs may likewise become infected.
Various government officials are in service or the pay of competing factions - all of which naturally want the metals to buy arms or support. Each has set up an ambush site when the PC's cross through their area. Unless the PCs are very careful about their Opsec they will discover this unpleasant fact shortly.
Final collapse is coming quicker. By the time the PCs are ready to move, government officials want their families taken, too - about 30 civilians all up including women and children. It's not technically part of the agreed upon job.
A rival merc firm that contracted the job organises a hit on the convoy, bribing imperial officials to look the other way when they come in with grav craft to block/steal the shipment.
As 4 save the mercs approach the PCs and offer to 'stage' a hit, stealing the goods then splitting the resale 50/50. Except of course possession is 9/10ths.
The shipment was completely bogus. Instead the goods are being funnelled via Imperial peace keeping units (the imperials wanting the government to survive as it is the most viable but want to be seen as neutral in the oncoming difficulties) who land with stealth while the PC's are driving/flying the false shipment. Do the PCs find out? Who knows?