Traveller Vignette 040

“The liner Jenny Haniver emerged from jump without warning, on a prohibited vector that intersected the orbit of the system's main inhabited world. Orbital control tried to raise her onboard flight computers, then the backup flight computers and finally the human crew, without any success.

She'd exited jump with significant velocity – another serious navigation infraction – so control wanted her boarded before she hit atmosphere and burned up. The tyranny of orbital mechanics meant we were about the only ship with the right location and thrust potential to intercept, and the fact we were nothing but an intra-system shuttle without a full crew aboard be damned. Anything from planetside or close orbit would have to burn to meet her, then reverse thrust and burn in the opposite direction to match velocities, which wasn't going to happen.”


(Author's note - This is obviously a scenario set up; if the PCs have a ship, then it happens to be the only one which can intercept, and they have only the weapons in the ship's locker. What awaits them on board could be mechanical failure, hijackers, or a crew incapacitated by some form of disease which has made them feverish, aggressive and irrational)


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