Traveller Adventure: Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility

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Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
The characters have traced the origin of the data cube to Pandora Research Facility. Now to dig up all the information they can about the Black Market based there.

Background
Refer to MediShield's Black Market for the immediate background on how and why the characters are researching the Pandora Research Facility. Suffice to say that any facility manufacturing and selling weaponized diseases should be shut down or at the very least monitored.

Adventure

This is a straight information-gathering outing using various skills noted below. As mentioned in MediShield's Black Market, each character can try once per day to throw a 9+ (DM +Skill) to discover information about the Black Market and Pandora Research Facility. Some are rumors, but most are facts that can be used to stop the Black Market and indict those responsible for organizing it. Give one piece of information from this Dossier per success with a relevant skill. Throwing a modified 5- will start raising eyebrows and only some fast talking or creative message interception from Dmitri will keep the strike teams from being activated.

The skills listed with each data point should guide what information results from research, not absolutely restrict it. If the story justifies using Carousing or Engineering to uncover something about the financials at Pandora, go for it. If the players want to use Jack of All Trades, have them describe how they're using it so you'll know what kind of information to give them if they succeed.

• The data crystal (see What's On The Crystal? for contents) was created at the Pandora Research Facility, which is a small lab station in a close orbit around Elysium's sun for abundant solar power and easy incineration in case of facility-wide contamination. (Free info from Zoe's preliminary research.)
• Dr. Laura Falken works as the Facility Administrator on Pandora. She keeps track of the station's entire budget and approves all requests for materials and personnel, so chances are she's involved in the Black Market. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer, Liason, Medial, Merchant - get this info into the character's hands however you can.)
• Dr. Falken is also a noted biomedical researcher who has worked with containing and preventing fast-spreading diseases in the past, but her research output has dropped to nothing since taking on the Administrator job. (Medical.)
• The station is very close to the sun, so it's well-shielded. It has a modular design, with each module connected to a spine running the entire length of the station so each section can be individually jettisoned if needs be. (Bureaucracy, Computer. Station blueprints forthcoming.)
• Pandora needs research specimens. Specifically, they'll pay 10kCr per Quartz Jaguar delivered to them in good health, no questions asked. Quartz Jaguars are killing machines and a real pain to catch without damage. They're found on the icy rock of Elysium-7, the outermost planet in the system. (Carousing, Liason, Merchant. Any of the local traders will know this.)
• Some recently delivered supplies and equipment don't fit with any of Pandora's declared research projects from their last update to the Chief Research Officer. They have 4 projects on that report, each dealing with the physiology of non-carbon-based life forms like the Quartz Jaguar. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer.)
• The extra supplies and equipment can be used for synthesizing infectious agents, psychotropic drugs, and nerve agents. (Medical.)
• MediShield has a broad agreement with the Imperium to provide vaccinations and medical care to the armed forces in exchange for lax oversight and tax breaks. The Imperium can't really pressure MediShield or they'll go broke vaccinating the Marines alone. (Computer, Liason.)
• Pandora is one of at least 8 autonomous research facilities maintained by MediShield and scattered throughout the sectors. They're treated as individual Skunk Works facilities to develop new products and research newly found infectious agents to develop vaccines and protocols for decontamination. They're ultimately deniable and any work that MediShield gets in trouble for can easily become the sole responsibility of the Facility's Administrator. (Bureaucracy, Liason.)
• There are 22 researchers and 12 security staff working at Pandora according to the last personnel manifest. A few researchers' families live on board as well, so a frontal assault on the station may not be the best plan. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer.)

(NOTE: I'll probably be adding more data points here as time goes on, but this should be enough to get the characters on the right path.)

Further Hooks
There's not much here to tie the Black Market at Pandora to Admiral Greenberg, the CCO and suspected mastermind of the whole operation. Perhaps a visit to Pandora will turn up some concrete evidence.

Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.