In Absentia

By Nick Huggins
Players: 15
Genre: Science fiction trial
Liberty Habitat – The Earth colony on Gauss-4124
Tango. The second extra-solar world to ever be colonized by human beings in a
universe largely devoid of habitable planets. Far enough away from Earth that
radio signals take weeks to arrive - mounting an expedition to Gauss-4124 from
the home world would take six months between prepping a starship and making the
journey. 
The Habitat was built on Gauss-4124 (called Liberty
by the colonists) twenty years ago – A series of geodesic domed structures,
necessary because of the corrosive and poisonous atmosphere of the planet. The
Habitat and the buildings around it are now home to ten thousand men, women and
children; a colony in the process of making a better world.
Once the first parts of the colony were established
by a handful of pioneers, the majority of the rest of the colonists arrived
from Earth on a series of transports with the atmospheric re-processor that
would allow ten thousand humans to share the same air. The building of the
proper colony began. 
Seventeen years later the colony hit its first
major stumbling block. A hydroponic forest had been created to supplement the
operation of the atmosphere re-processor under the supervision of the botany
team. In the course of three days it burned to the ground, the blaze quickly
raging almost out of control in the enclosed environment until almost all of
the colony’s resources had to be devoted to quenching it. In the wake of the
fire, a new colony leader was elected and studies done on the atmospheric
re-processor to make sure it could tide the colony over until a new forest was
grown. It could have.
Not that any chance was given to it – Six days ago
an explosion in the atmospheric re-processor ripped it apart, rendering it
useless. With only a limited hydroponic solution available, estimates suggest
that the colony has roughly two to three months of oxygen left. No useful Earth
transport can be mustered in that timeframe.
With some exceptions (see below) you are the Council of Liberty Habitat.
You are comprised of the Heads of some departments, the Governor and the Earth
Liaison as well as some notable individuals. This place is the Council Chamber.
You are here to bring Keith Jenkins – The man
responsible for bombing the atmosphere re-processor – to justice. The colonists
know what has happened. Already there is an atmosphere of riot and panic in the
streets. Hopefully, by doing the “right thing” the Council can show the
colonists that they have some degree of control over a situation that they
really have no hope of controlling.
There may be more to this meeting – Most notably what plan is there for
the doomed colony…
Cost: free
Available from: http://www.irishgaming.com/scenario_storage/nh/inabsentia.zip
Category:Nick Huggins
Category:10-15 player
Category:15-20 player
Category:Science fiction