The Fall of Tomorrow

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Three months ago, a colony ship called the UPF Tomorrow sent out a distress signal, saying their engines had failed. That was their last message, and they never arrived at their destination. It has been calculated based on their previous trajectory that the Tomorrow must have crashed in the mountains of one of the planet’s yet unnamed moons.

The characters have been hired to investigate the wreckage, recover the “black box” from the Tomorrow, and look for any survivors. They will be dropped off by a commissioned mining ship, which will pick the characters back up on its way back from its own destination. The characters will be alone on the planet for three weeks to accomplish their task. They are offered 1,000 Credits apiece, and are provided with half up front.

Finding the wreckage isn’t so hard. Once close enough, the captain of the mining ship locates it with his short range sensors, landing the characters very nearby in a landing skiff. Once on the ground, the skiff is recalled.

The remaining crew have had to abandon the wreckage, because a Gamma class security robot has been damaged in the wreck and has gone rogue, thinking anyone on the ship is there illegally. It’s stuck in a loop with its attack/defense program, and will attack on sight. Anyone who lists functions will notice, however, that the robot isn’t damaged; it’s been tampered with!

Tracking the crew is dangerous, as the salt forests of the moon are not safe. They find bodies along the way of dead crewmen, clawed to death by something savage. A native predator is hunting the crew... and now the characters too!

When the characters finally find the crewmembers, there are only two left: the ship’s pilot (a Dralasite) and doctor (a human). By the time they find the crew, they have precious little time remaining to get back to the landing site to make their rendezvous. If they make it on time, the plot takes a small twist: The doctor will attack them with a concealed laser pistol. It turns out the doctor was hired to sabotage the colony mission and he’s the one who damaged the engines and reprogrammed the Gamma. He was supposed to be picked up by his employer two days ago... but he never came – the doctor was double-crossed! The doctor doesn’t want the evidence from the “black box” to make its way back to UPF, or he’ll be in big trouble. So he tries to eliminate the characters and destroy the evidence, then get away on the skiff when it arrives! With any luck, he’ll be able to spin all of this into him being the hero...