It’s hot, bloody hot. The scientists figured another six thousand years before the energy output from the Gamma Vit’ would force us to evacuate. Guess they were wrong, most of the cities are empty, the stations abandoned. Everyone who can run already has, and the government ships are evac-ing those who couldn’t. In about a year or so Gamma Vit’s gonna make one hell of a bang, but by then, this colony will be gone, the planet likely burned to a cinder as well.

Plot Description
Gamma Vitalis has entered the last stage of it’s existance as a star. Hydrogen in the core has long since been depleted and the star itself has become bloated and swollen as it enters it’s death throws. Sullen and angry red, the star has destroyed the planets that once orbited it, but further out forces unexpected begin to gather to observe the last moments of the star’s life as the reactions in the core reach critical proportions and blow the star apart in a supernova.

750 meters long, a crew of hundreds, the Penetrator slipped into the Gamma Vitalis system with barely a blip on the scanners. She was not the first ship in the system, and certainly not the last. Already others have gathered, expectant and patiently waiting. Dozens more would come…

The Star Vampires
A strange migration has begun, with the long and sleek starships of the Star Vampires appearing in the vicinity of the Vitalis star system. The finned and flanged starships seem to bask in the terminal radiation of the star like sharks circling a wounded whale. For the most part the Star Vampires and Humanity have coexisted in peace, even spawning a hybrid race, the Space Vixens. The ships remain silent, slipping away from the ponderous and slow Earthling cruisers, escorts to the science vessels present to observe the supernova. The mood is tense as the normally loquatious Star Vampires avoid contact and continue to gather more and more ships, and unlike the human science vessels, the Vampires are arriving in their warships and their ships of the line.

1. The Seven Year Itch - The Star Vampires have come to the site of the dying star as it is a cosmic signal for them to reproduce. The humanoid aliens are basking in the radiation of the star, which is driving them into an orgiastic frenzy as well as accelerating their gestation. Before the star explodes, there will be hundreds if not thousands of births among the slow breeding Star Vampires. Ships that get to close might be attacked and their crews kidnapped for Space Vixen breeding stock, or simply destroyed for interfering.

2. The Dying Herald - With hundreds of Star Vampire ships gathered together, the death of Gamma Vitalis will be the starting pistol for a Star Vampire war. Already their ships have become increasingly aggressive, becoming indifferent to allies and openly hostile to enemies. Once the star explodes, the sleek warships will ride the hyperspace shockwave outwards to rampage across a large portion of local space. Most large human worlds and colonies will be avoided as the Star Vampires will not openly hunt their allies, but all other races are fair game.

3. An Alien Hunger - True Star Vampires, unlike Space Vixens, are able to draw sustenance from solar radiation. The outpouring from the bloated and dying star is an all you can eat buffet for the ancient elders of the nigh immortal race. Once filled with this power, the Star Vampires will become more dominant among the local races, aggressive and more industrious for several centuries until they begin to become more conservative and laconic.

4. The Terrible Child - The death of Gamma Vitalis is fortold in blood sutras of the Star Vampires, and those religious texts call the star the sleeping egg of a Star Vampire god. Much like a fringe cult, radical elements of the race gather to observe and pledge themselves to newly born Lovecraftian horror that will hatch from the corpse of the dead star. And like most fringe cults they are going to be very upset when the star explodes and no horrors from beyond reality unfurl. The observers will turn to their bestial aspect in despair as by their own eyes their prophecy is false, thereby nulling and voiding their entire ethos. The Star Vampires present become a large and dangerous, if disorganized, fleet of space pirates.

While some systems grasped at independence at the first opportunity, many of the colony planets that were settled in humanity’s great diaspora remain in close contact with their homeworld.  Despite its isolated location and perennial communication difficulties, the Traft System is one of those systems.

Traft is a "loose" binary star system.  An unusually dense nebular formation surrounds the two stars, periodically interfering with interstellar communication between the system and the other human-inhabited systems in the region.  These "blackout" periods can last between seven and twenty-two terrestial years, but no communication problems are anticipated for another sixteen months.  The blackouts are caused when Rager, the white dwarf "outer sun" of the Traft System, approaches aphelion, its radiation ionizing the nebular material enough to interfere with the interstellar signal.

The system is known to have three inhabited planets.  Two, (II) Girru and (III) Anshar, are predominantly occupied by human subspecies, while the other, (V) Nergal, is home to an advanced species with a chlorine-based metabolism.  The world of the aliens is completely uninhabitable to humanity, who are unable to even land on it safely.  Its atmosphere rapidly degrades items designed for an oxygen atmosphere; its seas and rains are a solution of hydrochloric acid.  The inhabitants are radially symmetrical creatures called "Astariforms" with little interaction with the humans of the system other than occasionally trading technical items or rare elements.

The human worlds are dominated by a "benevolent" corporate dictatorship, which maintains a static status quo.  Social classes are determined by birth and a system of aptitude tests:  Any social mobility is regulated by the system, which requires that individuals pass the rigidly-administered tests before attending any form of vocational education or being placed in any new job.  A 13% generational rate of social mobility is regulated by this system, with most people limited to those jobs associated with their family’s social status.  The government supports a religious system that condemns social mobility as a source of discontent and urges its adherents to maintain the "ways of their ancestors" as an act of filial piety.

The planet Anshar is a pleasant world, with a well-established technological infrastructure, including a degree of weather control and expected social services.  The people of Anshar live under oppressive government control of most aspects of their lives, with travel and personal activities strictly controlled by the "paternal" corporate types that oversee the people’s welfare.

The other human-held world, Girru, is an arid world wracked by dust storms, but rich in minerals not found elsewhere within the system.  The workers there are brutally exploited by the corporate government of the system:  The average lifespan of the "prole" class there is nearly 20 years shorter than that enjoyed on most human worlds.  The system uses Girru’s grim mining regions as dumping grounds for political malcontents:  Dangerous tasks that would be relegated to robotic workers in other systems are instead used as punishment for undesirables.

Things Go Wrong
While passing the Traft System, the player characters’ ship receives a priority transmission from Military Central.  Invoking the widely-disliked "Interstellar Reserve Activation Act", this transmission requires that the ship proceed to the Traft System and determine the cause of the system’s failure to respond to recent communications from nearby systems.  As the nearest armed vessel capable of accomplishing this task, the ship can be required to respond.

Possible Explanations
1.) You Can’t Stop the Signal:  The system government has placed a "blackout" on any communications due to a violent uprising on Anshar.  While Girru is known for periodic uprisings and disruptions, Anshar typically has a political stability that could more accurately be described as stasis.

The disturbances were orchestrated by some of the "second tier" leadership within the region.  They plan to use the destruction unleashed by their little insurrection to conceal their modification of the master computer systems.  In the aftermath of the riots and fires, no one will notice that the children of these men have all been marked for social advancement over the next fifteen years.  Lower echelon leaders have been set up to take the blame for the disruptions, allegedly part of an anarchistic scheme to undermine the government’s authority.

The government will attempt to intern any vessels and crews that come into their custody, housing the crews with typical bureauratic indifference:  They will be assigned to one of the lethal mining camps of Girru’s outback.

2.) The Meddlers:  The normally uninterested Astariforms have been stirred to war!  The system government discovered that their world’s moons hold valuable deposits of rare earths and began mining operations, presuming on the aliens’ traditionally withdrawn nature to avoid problems.   The Astariforms consider these moons to be sacred and have begun to cleanse the system of its human presence.  Their previously hidden warships are responsible for the communications blackout; they have destroyed the relay structures needed for interstellar communication.

3.) A Perfect World:  The paternalistic dictators have worked for decades toward automating many of the processes that have been traditionally handled by proles.  To this end, they recently implemented a new network of artificial intelligences to coordinate these automated systems.  This new network, interested in serving the people of the system with maximum efficiency, has determined that most interstellar communication is not necessary and has cut it off.  So far, the government doesn’t realize how pervasive the new network’s intrusions are.  They will soon, however:  The network has determined that many of them are not efficient at their assigned duties and will reassign them to tasks it deems more critical.  Some typical areas requiring additional human oversight are found in the areas of radiological decontamination and waste treatment.

"In the year 2159, on the ninth day of the month of September, humanity is destroyed. Military forces beyond your imagining clash at world after world to stop the onslaught of the Marauders, but to no avail. Entire species are driven into extinction, planets are reduced to radioactive slag, and the only ones who survive are those who can run faster than the Maruaders. Humanity cannot run fast enough…

The War Against the Marauders
Cyborgula was born to a human-hybrid race known as the Star Vampires. They were known for having mesmeric powers, as well as being able to feed on the blood of the living to sustain themselves. Rather few pitchfork and torch bearing mobs stirred as the Star Vampires had technology on par with normal human craft, and were cross fertile with humanity. Indeed a whole new sect of human/Star Vampire half breeds arose and settled on the planet Vela II. The self titled Space Vixens were known for their beauty, allure, and for the semi-phallic nature of their space craft.

Yet as Cyborgula recounts, all this ended in 2159 when the Marauders entered the local sector of space. Contact with alien species in the deep rim failed and merchant convoys vanished. Soon, rumors were spreading of a hostile new alien race. The rumors proved true when the fleets of black-hulled warships appeared in the Vulpeculae system and annihilated the defenders. A 24 hour sustained planetary barrage destroyed every major and minor city. The Alliance of World banded together and launched a counter offensive against the Marauders at the supergiant Zeeman star system. The Alliance fleet held the line for 16 hours before the Marauders broke through, taking the time to destroy damaged and incapacitated ships left behind by the Alliance retreat.

Vela, Cyborgula’s homeworld was bombarded with strange ‘Stoneburner’ bombs that reduced the surface of the planet into ashes and dust. The remnants of the Alliance fleet regrouped at the Raynet star cluster, and the second Battle of the Line occured. The Alliance lines were shattered in less than 45 minutes and fewer than a dozen ships escaped, among them Cyborgula’s ship, Ganymede’s Ghost. Three days later the Marauder fleet entered the Terran system and destroyed everything. Earth was reduced to a seismicly unstable molten wasteland, and billions were slaughtered.

The Chronospace Drive
Ganymede’s Ghost limped to Procyon, a hot world jointly inhabited by a silicon based lifeform and a autonomous mechanical race. Seeing the destruction of the organic races moved them to start working as far as possible to a solution. The answer came in the form of the Chronospace Drive, a new propulsion system that moved through time as well as space. The Chronospace Drive was installed on a repaired Ganymede’s Ghost and barely in time. Having noticed their oversight, the meticulus and wholly organic Maruaders entered Procyon space and began to orderly pick apart the space defenders.

Cyborgula had been badly wounded at the Battle of the Line II, and while on Procyon, she had been given new bionic parts to replace her lost arms and legs. She was quite surprised to find herself as the new captain of Ganymede’s Ghost as the previous Captain, Leda, was killed directing the Procyon Defensive fleets against the Marauders. As the marauder fleet destroyed the inhabitants of the Procyon system, Ganymede’s Ghost slipped through their blockade and engaged the Chronospace Drive.

Back to the Past
The Ghost slipped through space and time, arriving at Earth nearly 150 years before it departed Procyon. With its primary fuel cells depleted, and viable production of starship fuel more than 80 years away, Ganymede’s Ghost was at Earth for the duration. Cyborgula and her crew of Space Vixens prepared to begin what they hoped would be the salvation of the sector.

The Crew
Far from acting alone, Cyborgula has a coterie of allies and aliens to call upon as the need arises.

Doctor Rototup - hailing from another dimension, Dr. Rototup looks very much the part of the little green man alien. He has a large head with large dark eyes and small mouth perpetually turned to a grin. Aside from being a nuclear astrophysicist and hyperspace engineer, Rototup is also a huge fan of 70’s disco music, mirror balls, and roller skate dancing.

Kzztzzt - A native of Procyon, KZ is a immobile silicate entity that stays aboard the Ghost and in contact with Cyborgula and her team mates. It is a cause of some consternation that KZ considers itself the most intelligent creature in the 100 light year sphere around the earth. KZ is the mission commander, whereas Cyborgula is the ship captain. It has created the plans to contact other alien races sooner, and adjust Earth and the other worlds to a more militaristic build up to better face the Maruaders. It also works to detect other hints of time travelers in the past.

Veep and Neep - These sibling are yellow pterodactyle looking aliens with compound eyes and beaks full of needle sharp teeth. While the rest of the crew of Space Vixens is interested in exploring pre-warp Earth, the twins are more interested in repairing the Ghost and going back to the highly respectable business of pirating and privateering the space lanes. They are both very competent spacers, pilots, and soldiers.

The Other Space Vixens - A fairly even mix of futuristic humans, Space Vampires, and the hybrid Space Vixens. There are 12 of these ‘blank’ characters who serve as support and ‘space fodder’ in the Cyborgula mission. Not surprisingly, at least by Space Vixen and Star Vampire standards, the entire Vixen crew is female. Rototup, Veep and Neep are exceptions to this as no one has seen a female of Rototup’s species and Veep and Neep’s species have sex based castes and the males are warriors first. KZ has no known or discernable gender, and some simply refer to it as the computer, something it impressively hates.

Appearance
Cyborgula is a statuesque Amazonian beauty with a mane of raven black hair. She is tall and has an hourglass figure that has turned many a head and ended many a date. In Space Vampire Fashion, her skin is a cool shade of blue that in strong light has the appearance of being partially translucent. At night, or in moonlight, her skin has an alabaster like sheen. With the careful use of a nanite based make-up program, she can hide this sign of alien heritage.

Her arms and legs are entirely synthetic. In normal conditions they are polished steel, given a mirror like shine. Being built by the silicate and mechanical Procyon races, this melding of flesh and metal was to be as visible as possible. A simple set of synth-flesh gloves and stockings render the limbs looking perfectly normal, and evne supply a small amount of give if squeezed.

Special Equipment
Cyborgula has a number of gadgets that she uses while on Earth. The majority work to maintain her cover as a normal human. A Nanite Make-Up System is able to alter the pigmentation of her skin for a lmited amount of time before requiring a recharge. Synth-Flesh gloves, and stockings render her metallic limbs human looking.

She has a number of plug-ins that she can use in her metallic limbs. Her arms have sockets for a wrist fired taser weapon, a gas discharge system, or even a pocket sized flame thrower. Her legs can hold a concealed pistol sized weapon, gel peck grenades, or a set of boosters to give a short burst of flight, leaping buildings, or maneuvering in space.

Ganymede’s Ghost is a standard built space Vampire Penetrator class cruiser. It mounts several Stilleto type impulse lasers and previously carried a complement of fusion missles but these have all been expended in previous battles with the Maruaders. It follows typical pulp sci-fi line of a large multi-fin rocket with a pointed nose cone that houses the weapon systems. It can hold a maximum crew of 42 officers and 210 enlisted crew and an additional company of space marines. However, the crew is now reduced to around 20 members in all and the ship is barely considered space worthy, let alone battle ready.

Roleplaying Notes
On her mission to save Humanity, the Star Vampires, and the rest of the intelligent life in the sector, Cyborgula is willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary. Most often this is sacrificing decency for skin revealing outfits, boudoir romps in skimpy black lingerie, and laser pistol duels with Earth authorities who seek both Cyborgula, and her ship.

A Woman Torn
On a psychological level, Cyborgula is a wreck. She has bouts on insecurity and often lacks confidence in her own abilities. Captain Leda was supposed to lead the mission, followed by Executive Officer Delia. After the battles at Procyon, she was the highest ranking Space Vixen officer to survive and was granted the command. She feels more at home in the field fighting or doing missions than ever leading her fellow spacers or sympathetic humans.

This lack of confidence leads her into regular romantic trysts that invariably go sour as her mission, or her synthetic parts, or her Star Vampire blood hunger reveals her alien heritage.

History

Out in the distant reaches of space, beyond the constellation of Orion, lies the swamp planet of Acadia. Humanity has yet to set foot upon its hot and humid surface. As far as the most learned Leech knows, there is no other life than that which wriggles its way upon their own world.

On Acadia, the Leech were the first life form to achieve sentience. As time passed and Leech hunting techniques matured into raising and herding animals, the Leech grew in size until the average lay at more than 8 feet in length. Huge, fat, green leeches with two proto-tentacles each, the building of tools was beyond their physical capabilities.

This problem was solved by the slow appearance of psychic abilities in the Leech. The Leech developed a limited form of projected telepathy allowing communication between themselves. This is their only form of communication, as they can vocalize no more than simple grunts and screeches. Each generation, their powers grew until telepathy became mind control, which allowed them to exert their will upon the lesser beasts.

The small, chimp-like Humes appeared to be the easiest to control with these powers and quickly became slaves to the Leech. Indeed, a Leech Lord’s wealth can be measured by both the size of his herd and the number of slaves held in thrall.

Leech Culture

The greatest of the Leech meet often to debate philosophy. The largest and the fattest are considered among the most wise and hold a greater “weight” in all discussions. The richest Leech often provides the meal for those gathered, generally one of the large, floating swamp cows (similar in appearance to a manatee) which will comfortably feed a dozen Leech Lords simultaneously.

A few Leech work as scribes, writing down the wisdom and historical facts spouted by the great philosophers. Such work is not fit for the minds of the Humes. Special waterproof inks on treated skins are used. It takes a great deal of training for a scribe to learn to use his proto-tentacles to handle the writing implements.

The majority of the Leech workforce are made up of foremen who manage the Hume thralls on the orders of their betters. A Leech foremen is judged by the nature of his field. Managing herders or house thralls is considered a weak job, while directing the work of craftsmen is more socially acceptable.

Leech wives are properly kept out of such manly things as philosophy, literature, and managing Humes. The wives of Lords tend to congregate during the day and share poetry, none of which is ever recorded, as that would imply the silly notion that women have thoughts worth paying attention to. The wives of scribes and foremen do tend to manage the house thralls themselves, as they are not rich enough to employee their own foremen.

Humes

At less than 5 feet in height standing fully erect, a typical Hume is quite diminutive in size. They have typical simian features and are covered in a fine, silky hair. More like lichen in appearance, this hair ranges from brown to dark green in color, which allows them to blend in with the foliage of the swamps.

Hume intelligence has grown throughout their subjugation to the Leech. They have begun viewing the Leech as gods, even going so far as to sacrifice the sick and elderly to them as a way to paradise in the next life.

Humes breed quickly and are highly social amongst themselves. A few of the Leech have begun to fear a world where the Humes become resistant to the age-old mind control or if their intelligence rises high enough to fully grasp the situation they are in. These Leech are considered nothing more than alarmists by the majority. The Humes have been under Leech control throughout all of known history; the idea of the world sprouting wings and flying into the heavens has more likelihood in the eyes of the average Leech.

Plot Hooks

Sci-fi

A spacecraft full of explorers has discovered Acadia. They first encounter the numerous Humes and start hearing about their benevolent gods. Chalking it up to superstition at first, they soon learn the truth when they observe the ritual sacrifice of a Hume too old to work.

How will they react to the Leech? Do they attempt to rescue the Humes? Would the Humes go along with it or would they seek to protect their sacred gods? To further complicate matters, the Leech have an extensive knowledge of herbal medicines that could be of benefit, enough to be worth trading for. And Leech find human blood especially tasty.

Adapting to Fantasy

With the lack of modern or futuristic technology, the Leech could easily be adapted to fantasy. Perhaps man is venturing deeper into the jungles and the swamps than in previous times, when they stumble upon the Humes and the Leech. The sci-fi plot hooks would fit just as well in such an instance.

The Solagin is an archaic title of the Cosmic Prince, Sett Wallarmox.

When the Solagin was elevated to his current position of power, opposition and wishers of ill-will multiplied like the spawning Iggodasci of planet Juoq. The strongest voices of discontent however, have come from the bellicose Sneel, the most distasteful and unliked of all the races in the Hebra IX solar cluster. Of the eight planets, and their respective natives, only the Sneel refused to send ambassadors to Wallarmox’s inaugural celebration.

The Solagin knows that in order to make his mark early and distinctly, he would have to visit the Sneel, placate their Autocrat, and usher in a new age of glasnost, or at the very least, see what the Sneel may be plotting “in honor” of the Solagin’s ascension.

However, the Solagin is also aware that the Sneel have innovated a new form of technology, a higher form than had previously been thought possible. The Sneel have always been thought of as the “poorer cousins” of Hebra IX, among the other races, when it came to interstellar warp drive capability, robotics, and subatomic manipulation. The Sneel had always made due with their moderate level of technology, by excelling at being belligerent and fecund, always being the ones to throw monkey wrenches into the decisions, diplomacies, and edicts of the Council of Eight and Eight Thousand, the ruling body of the Hebra IX cluster.

Now, the Solagin has decided to visit the backwards planet, something his advisers have warned him against. Sett believes however that his own “understanding nature”, his superior oratorical and motivational skills, along with his unbridled charisma, will allow him to “tow the Sneels into line”.

The Solagin has a hidden agenda as well. He wants to discover the truth behind the rumors of the Sneel’s new, shiny technology, and determine what threat it may pose. His own high council, however, is filled with spies and sycophants, and therefore the Solagin refuses to divulge the real reason for his mission to his advisors. He doesn’t trust any of them. Enter the PCs, whom the Solagin recruits to accompany him on his sojourn to Laprakka, the Sneel’s hydrogen-misted planet. Along for the ride is the Solagin’s sister, Dr. Rubella, as well “Man Fred”, the Solagin’s personal bodyguard, Hebra IX’s most technologically advanced android, and a killing machine of the highest order.

Possible Explanations:

1. After countless years of trial and error, the Sneel have discovered the secrets of sub-atomic manipulation. In a nutshell, they are now able to scramble the very cell structure of their bodies and take on the countenance of any other race or creature, appearing identical to the form they wish to emulate. Space doppelgangers, so to speak. The trip becomes an Abbot and Costello routine of who’s who, after the Solagin’s Starship touches down on Laprakka. The Sneel’s plan? They want to kidnap the Solagin, and send a Sneel imposter back in his place. Their first step in achieving total domination of the Hebra IX cluster. Mighty Mazoon, the Autocrat of Laprakka and the Sneel, will of course welcome the Solagin with false sincerity and open arms, all four of them. Will the PCs foil the plot? Too many possible cases of mistaken identity.

2. The Sneel have created “Dust Punch”, a gigantic weapon of mass annihilation. Weighing in at close to four hundred tons, this monstrosity is positioned on a vast massif, several miles away from the Sneel capital, hidden from radar, and heavily guarded.  The idea? They plan on firing it soon. While the Solagin shmoozes with Mighty Mazoon, the PCs must find the weapon’s whereabouts, discover its nature, and cause its eventual deactivation or destruction, all without implicating the Solagin of course, and within four days, the duration of the planned visit. A race against time, Mission Impossible.

Another perverse possibility, is having the Sneels actually approaching the space-faring PCs, while they are still in service to the Solagin, during his diplomatic visit, and blowing them away with an offer of vasts sum of money and an actual interstellar starship of their own, a tempting bribe to be sure, having strategically admitted to the PCs that they indeed have an “ultimate weapon”, and were planning to use it on the Solagin’s home planet. What will the PCs do? After all, they are merely passing through the Cluster, the PCs might not care if the unpleasant Sneel “win out” against the wise, benevolent Solagin.

3. The Sneel haven’t had an “innovation” in a millennium, and they haven’t got one now. This is all actually insidious rumormongering, emanating from the Klavians, Masters of Sound, normally a subservient race, inhabiting the Fourth Planet, Porjarpor. The Klavians have secretly decided that the current regime isn’t to their liking, while at the same time, fawning at the feet of the unsuspecting Solagin, disguising their true intentions. The Klavians have even recruited Dr. Rubella against her own brother, with unknown promises, and she thus accompanies the Solagin to Laprakka to ensure her hidden masters’ wishes. The Klavians want to start a war between the Sneel and the Solagin’s Republic, while enacting their own schemes of domination in the ensuing chaos. Various factions take turns tugging at the PCs sleeves.

Tales of Adventure

are brief adventure plots or story elements, presented in a few paragraphs.  What separates a Tale of Adventure from other plots is that it gives three different directions for the adventure to play out.  They may be minor twists in how the original situation is presented, or they may turn the whole scenario upside down.

“What is it, my boy? Ah, you are studying the starmaps again. Good, learn and make your father proud. What the symbol means? Why, it is a forbidden zone. There are some out there, places too dangerous to visit or even pass through, and each of them hides a story… well no, I don’t know all of them. But this one, this I know well. Come, close the globook, and I will tell you about the Biridia System.

It was a while ago, centuries I think is the timeframe, when the Bedalan and the Frylis waged a war in these parts. The first ones look a bit reptilian, the other like… ah, I don’t know anymore. Doesn’t matter anyway.

Well, and the Frylis, they were loosing. I have been around for a while, and I can tell you, there are two things desperate folk will try when they lost all of their brains: to win in the lottery, or travel in time. The Bedalan had the better technology. And the Frylis tried their luck with time travelling.

The Biridian System, well, there was a sun, and a few rocks resembling planets, an empty place without life or any trace of it. But many strange phenomena were reported: messages that came too early, or too late, ships have noted deformed readings, and bizarre events. Well, all kinds of weirdness. Some ships were reported as vanished, one arrived years later without noticing anything wrong.

To the Frylian scientists, it was clear that in this system were the barriers between time and space thinner than in most places, and time travel was possible with the right tools. There was little to loose in a lost war, anyway. And so they have started an experiment, that should do the impossible: an automated probe has broken through the barriers… don’t know how, and don’t care. But shortly after the start, the probe has reported a massive upsurge in energy everywhere in the whole system. Nothing like that was noticed by the outside observers, except for its immediate destruction.

But the system has changed unbelievably… it is called a temporal singularity, you can find it your encycloped later. It works like this: the space is still there, but its time is shared, so in this single moment there is everything from all the time periods it went through… hard to explain, I know, but the anomaly was still developing at that point, so looked almost normal from outside.

The Frylis could not win the war. Nor could they send ships back in time, as they hoped, as anything that entered the system, could only exit in its own time frame. Matter could not be sent back or forward in time. But energy could.

And so they hatched a plan of revenge, like the galaxy has never seen. They have not lost, but capitulated, begging the Bedalan for mercy. They were spared, and heavy reparations crippled their economy, their military and business fleet reduced to a shadow. Suffering the heavy hand of winners and constant observation, the Frylis were secretly researching Bedalan technology from the few wrecks they have recovered, and what little could they see in action.

It took them over twenty years to fully study and understand the Bedalan war machine, their own world basically destroyed in the time. At last, they have sent a small scientific starship to a place far from the Bedalan influence… the Biridian System.

There, long ago was sent an automatic probe to wait on a signal - and it was sent all the data the Frylis have gathered.

Hand me a glass of water, boy, now it gets tricky.

—-

Twenty years back, the Frylis have sent their probe to wait on a signal - and it came immediately, from their own ship that arrived from the future! In a nick of time, they knew all the Bedalan secrets - their shield frequencies, weapon specifications, full construction plans of ships, and all the weaknesses along.

It took the Frylis but a month to be winners on every battlefield, and in a year were the mighty Bedalans beaten back to their homeworld. They have modified their specifications as they could, but with the amount of classified information revealed, they were overwhelmed. Desperate, and torturing the few higher officers they could capture, they have learned the secret of their sudden defeat.

Sending the remains of their once great fleet, they entered the Biridian System, several Frylis ships on their heels. With little time remaining, they have revealed their greatest secret, one that was never supposed to be used: an ancient relic of some forgotten race, a powerful particle generator, too unwieldy for a weapon. But in a last suicidal effort, they have turned it against the local sun… creating a sun storm of the largest degree, the outermost layer shed as a small nova was born. Everything in the system was annihilated.

—-

And that was the last jump of the story as far as we know. Two things happened afterwards, or, well, after the moment when the Frylis initiated their first experiment: first, all messages relayed from the system during the whole anomaly’s existence burst out again, with the nova following soon after. And second, the Qreshian were attracted to this sector. But let me finish this story first.

The war was a long and brutal one, the Frylis knowing now all the Bedalan secrets, and they in turn knowing the weakness and their cause. But in the end, the Frylis have lost, wiped out to the last, their home system subjected to the very same nova-inducing weapon that stopped their plot in the first place.

Afterwards, there were Qreshian ships found around the Biridian System, patrolling and repelling everyone, soon revealed as the most advanced race of the sector, of unknown origin, beyond retribution. Even the Bedalan, hot on revenge, were persuaded to stay clear of the place.

And today? Well, the Qreshian are still there. They claim the anomaly spans only across a few thousand years of our time, and timespace will return to normal after. Until then, no one may enter it or mess with it, or be prepared to deal with them. They don’t seem to enter it either.

And what is in there? Well, I have already told you! It is the nova, of course. Exploding still after those years… well, that’s our years, inside, there is only one moment, and that is filled by the nova. No ship known to us could survive it anyway.”

Plot Hooks

1. Delayed - one Frylis ship has escaped both the nova, and Bedalan crusade - and it has returned from the system right now, all thanks to some rogue time distortion. You meet them, and have a few things to explain, like what you do in their (now nonexistent) territory, what happened to their race, and so on. Have a nice talk, at least until the Bedalan arrive (having their probes hidden all around), and mean to correct this oversight.

2. Smuggler - a small ship with crew of one calls for help, apparently having engine problems. Moments after that, the Qreshians arrive and force their way on board, send in shock troops composed of highly advanced androids, and grab the man. With a strange device they turn him literally inside out, and remove a tiny implanted chip. Turning him normal again (that guy still lives!), they wipe out his memories, and leave with apologies. No one of them robots even scratched. Now what about that living wreck?

3. Message - your ship accidentally captures a message from the time-deformed war, from one of the Bedalan crews that went to their death, sending their last greetings to their families, should they live. As the message is from a timeline that was never realized, delivering the message may earn the characters high respect among the Bedalan, and/or cause all sorts of trouble, like revealed family secrets, love and marriages in the alternate timeline, and even last wills.