5

This warrant is an extremely basic mission sending the Dogs to

a rendezvous point to pick up a set of message-crates Þ lled with

an assortment of things they are not supposed to look at. It is the

single most basic warrant they could probably ask for but also

the least likely to be exciting. The Player Characters assigned

this duty will be put to the test concerning their curiosity and

honesty, with their role being little more than delivery men.

Assignment InitiatedWhen the team begins this warrant assignment, they will be

transported to an orbiting cargo platform with minimal amenities

called the Rounder. Reaching the Rounder will take a few hours

of space travel, after which read the following:

The Rounder is a grey metal cylinder spinning with a backdrop

of black and stars, a reminder that you are linking up with one

of the least exciting places in known space. But hey, it pays the

bills with no one trying to blow the sneck out of you.

After the airlock hisses open, you walk out into the central

terminal area of the station. It is a dull, gunmetal coloured oval

dotted with numbered doors in several languages. There is no

one else here, giving you the pick of the 20 some odd benches to

sit and wait. And wait you will, if your chrono is to be believed.

So you sit… and you wait…

The team will get to the Rounder and be forced to sit and wait

for a few hours before the Herald G17 will arrive. During this

time the Dogs are going to be bored, tired and probably looking

around for something to keep them occupied. If they decide to

start looking around, they will discover all of the following pieces

of information:

There are only two security cameras and one is not

functioning, leaving a large section of the waiting area

outside of surveillance.

Three of the seven airlocks have large strips of warning

tape over them reading ‘OUT OF ORDER’

The glass over the emergency Þ re kit near airlock 5 has

been broken, the foam-emitter is empty and the pry-bar is

missing.

Warrant Designation: Duty/Courier Run

Reward: Cr. 1,500

Warrant Status: Open

LVS – Herald G17, Courier Transport: 13/10/85

Notes

This warrant assigns a duty to the S/D agents undertaking it, giving them GCC clearance to accept a shipment

of unknown data and cargo from the crew of the courier ship Herald G17. The agents are not to open the sealed

containers under any circumstances and must not allow the containers to leave their sight.

After a while the Dogs will run out of things to look at, investigate

and meddle with. Just as soon as they have reached the limit

of their patience, the ß ashing lights and buzzers over airlock 4

will signal the arrival of the courier ship. In a few moments’ the

Herald G17’s crew will pile out through the airlock with three

plasterene shipping crates. One crewman, Ensign Bartikol, will

step forward to ask for the warrant card to ‘verify the dropoff’.

Once veriÞ ed, the ensign will explain he is sending the proper

codes back to the GCC, arranging for their return ß ight home.

Once the crates exchange hands, the ensign will embark upon

his ship and be on his way – leaving the Dogs alone once again

to wait for a ship to arrive for them.

This time however, they have three large and mysterious GCC

crates sitting in the poorly monitored waiting area with them.

Each crate is 1m x 1m x 0.5m, coloured a bright red and

marked with several stickers in numerous languages. They read

‘ClassiÞ ed GCC Materials’, ‘Caution: Fragile’ and ‘May Contain

Temporally Sensitive Equipment: Handle With Care’. The crates

each have a mass of roughly 50kg.

The Dogs will have two hours alone with the crates before the

GCC transport returns for them. A team might spend the time

quietly, resisting the urge to check out the crates but many

Strontium Dogs have the job because they are not perfect

citizens. Between natural curiosity and the tantalising stickers

on the crates, some may look inside.

Getting into a crate is easy; the side latches are popped open

and the plastic seal is broken. This requires no skill roll but will

be impossible to miss when the crates are delivered back at

the Doghouse. If a character wants to get into one of the crates

without leaving a trace of his passing, he will need to pass either

an Athletics (coordination) skill check at a –4 DM or a Deception

skill check at –2 DM. If the Dog passes one of these checks,

the crate can be opened without breaking the seal completely,

allowing the characters to look around inside the container.

The GCC knows what is supposed to be in each crate through its

data manifesto packed within. These can be doctored rather easily if a

character wanted to make it look like something inside never existed.

This requires a Computer skill check and around 10 minutes but will

erase any one item from a crate’s contents per Effect.

In case the Dogs do look through the crates, their contents are

as follows:

Crate 1:

22 electronic memos to GCC staff members

10 handwritten letters of a personal nature to GCC staff

members

2 wrapped holiday packages addressed to GCC staff

members

1 bottle of expensive alien liquor

Crate 2:

5 safety-locked Westinghouse ‘Manhunters’ (see page 51

of Strontium Dog Roleplaying Game)

1 sealed case of Plasma grenades (see page 54 of

Strontium Dog Roleplaying Game)

10 Gauss Pistols (see page 54 of Strontium Dog Roleplaying

Game)

Crate 3:

1 magnetically locked and shielded medical container that

holds a non-lethal but very contagious cold virus

Exactly what the Dogs do or not do with the crates is up to them.

Two hours after they are dropped off, the GCC transport will

dock again with the Rounder and pick the team up to go back to

the Doghouse for debrieÞ ng.

Assignment DebriefingWhen the team returns with the crates, the inspection ofÞ cer will

go over them quickly but with care. The Referee should roll 2d6

for the ofÞ cer; a 5 or higher will reveal a tampered crate if the

seal is broken, where an 11 will notice that something is amiss

with a crate that was expertly opened.

Unless the Dogs are caught with tampered crates or stolen

merchandise, they will receive the payment as expected and be

allowed to leave. They can count this as a successful assignment

and hope to get something a little more exciting next time.

If the inspection ofÞ cer manages to notice a crate has been

tampered with but nothing is missing from the electronic

manifest, half the warrant’s reward is docked and the Dogs will

be reprimanded. Their next warrant reward will automatically

have a –10% penalty applied to it for this infraction.

If the inspection ofÞ cer notices something is missing from the

crates and the Dogs failed to alter the manifest they are in for

a long lecture about following orders and ‘losing’ important

parcels. For their ‘mistake’ they will each be docked Cr. 5,000

from their GCC accounts, which they WILL pay back before

being allowed to purchase anything other than essentials (food

and ammunition) from the Doghouse commissary. They will also

have to return the missing items.

Assignment: The Black BoxSome planetary cultures rely heavily upon air travel to get

around their worlds. When important people travel on these

aircraft and the aircraft are summarily shot down, there are

many questions that need to be asked and answered. Using

an earther colloquium, many of these important aircraft carry

‘black boxes’ that record everything that happens to the vessel

in travel. Someone has to retrieve these black boxes when

things have gone awry; sometimes someone out of the GCC

is hired to do so.

Not the normal sort of work Strontium Dogs undertake, it is

still a paying contract that should be relatively easy and safe

to complete. Travel to the crash site, Þ nd the black box and

return it to the client. Unless complications arise, it should be

easy money.