Space Cruiser Amahara

Space Cruiser Amahara is a game about the eponymous ship and its adventures through the cosmos in a quest to save besieged humanity from destruction at the hands of the Lunarians. It is a (very) soft-science space opera.

Background

First Space Race

Following the conclusion of the Sixty Years War, the countries of the world settled into the Cold War, a military, economic and political deadlock between countries and power blocs across the world. Though hostile to one another, each side was deterred by the awesome power of the spin bomb and fear of more global war amidst fresh memories of the self-destruction wrought by the previous three generations. The Cold War was thus about more about proxy conflicts, political maneuvering, economics, and ideology. At the same time, knowledge gained over the Sixty Years War had advanced human sophistication by leaps and bounds. Across the world, scientists sought to conquer outer space in a race to prove the technological superiority of their respective countries.

Lunarian Attack

After a period of competition through the eighties and early nineties in producing rockets, satellites and space stations, the communist People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia first gained a clear upper hand in the Space Race by launching a lunar probe in 1993. Soma-1 was apparently successful and announced in communist media with significant fanfare. However, much of the information on the probe and the data it collected were classified. A series of missions followed but were all said to have failed mysteriously during final approach. The first non-communist mission, with a much publicised launch ceremony presided over by Napoleon X and the Princess of the Church, was the Luna α mission of 24 April 1999. On that day, the Lunarian fleet emerged from the surface of the Moon. Without warning, the aliens launched an all-out attack on the Earth, bombarding the surface and decimating civilisation aboveground by the end of the year. The Hollow, a layer of caverns deep beneath bedrock and previously of little interest besides the tapping of spin wells, became humanity's last refuge.

Alien Technology

Though forced to dwell underground, humanity continued to resist the invaders, using the close confines of the caverns to intercept and destroy Lunarian robotic units before they could approach the hidden underground settlements. Without the direct support of their fleet, the Lunarian onslaught ground to a halt and the war stalled for many years with the Lunarians lacking the will or the means to escalate the conflict now taking place many kilometers beneath the surface. Instead, destroyed robotic units that failed to self-destruct have become salvage for their alien technology. Even more mysterious, are strange ruins being sporadically confirmed in the vast unexplored stretches of the Hollow.

On 21 December 2012, a mysterious, unmanned alien ship impacted in the North Ectasian Ocean. The event drew a massive response from both sides of the war resulting in a pitched battle where humans prevailed against the Lunarian forces for the first time. NEET forces secured the underwater wreckage and immediately began salvage operations, removing the ship, piece by piece where necessary, through undersea rifts to Hollow Amahara.

For the countries of the North Ectasian Economic Treaty, the Ectasia Impact had profound technological consequence. Although hardly intact after its (possibly unintended) crash and the ensuing battle for control of it, the wreck still contained massive amounts of usable data as well as advanced technology that could be reverse engineered for the construction of starships unlike any before contemplated. Among the chief overtechnologies military scientists gained were the crashed ship's mysterious liquid metal hull, gravity manipulation and superdimensional intelligence catalyst and quantum processing that led to breakthroughs in superluminal flight and QT research.

After examining the wreckage and leftover data, it was concluded that the alien ship was launched by a sympathetic alien power and represented an aid package intended for salvage by humanity.The international A Project was quickly organised by the member states of NEET with several goals in mind:

1) Contact the alien power, attempt to gain further assistance and receive whatever communications might have been on the ship that was destroyed by its crash.

2) Survey the cosmos for habitable planets that might be suitable as a replacement for Earth.

3) Acquire any technology or assistance that might, in any way, alleviate the desperate military situation on Earth.

4) Represent the North Ectasian Economic Treaty as a diplomatic emissary.

It is now April 2015. Two and a half years have passed since the Ectasian Impact and sixteen years since the first Lunarian attack. In response to the Second Battle of the Ectasia the Lunarians have again stepped up their campaign and begun deploying Spin Stabilisers underground. Nevertheless, with the resources carefully shepherded by years of resistance, the overtechnology space cruiser Amahara is now preparing to launch ahead of schedule. The time has come for Earth to begin its counterattack.

Characters

This will be fairly rules light. All characters have three stats that start at 1 each, one specialty of choice and 40xp to spend.

Physical is the Suzaku stat, affecting physical conditioning, accuracy, reaction time and agility under all gravity conditions. Very useful for all kinds of physical activities as well as piloting tactical armours.

Raising Physical costs 4xp per level up to 6 and then +1xp for every level above that.

Smarts is the Lelouch stat, affecting intelligence, perception, awareness and knowledge. Very useful for most of the things to be done on the bridge besides keeping one's balance.

Raising Smarts costs 4xp per level up to 6 and then +1xp for every level above that.

QT (Quantum Tesselation) is the Newtype stat. Quantum powers derive from a poorly understood organelle in human neurons and differs in level of activation from person to person. Generally provides extrasensory perception or assists in tasks of the other stats. QT can be used as many times as its rating per session and grants one of the following bonuses provided that the action could reasonably benefit from QT.

• Add one automatic success.
• Reroll any action.
• Roll QT and reduce threshold on the next action by the number of successes to a minimum of 2.
• Perfectly dodge any threat to your person.

Raising QT costs 8xp per level.

Specialties are linked to a stat. When that stat is rolled for that specialty (which should have the same scope as an Ability under White Wolf), the dice pool is either doubled or increased by +3, whichever is better.

Specialties cost 8xp each.

NPCs

Crew of the Amahara

Ruruuiye
One of the ship's two superdimensional intelligences, Ruruuiye is integral to the ship's superluminal travel.

Shibo
The ship's senior superdimensional intelligence. Shibo is the integrated computing shell of the Amahara, effectively acting as the all-purpose general AI.

Musubi
A teenaged girl and youngest member of the crew. She is the official shrine maiden of the ships as it related to Amaharan religious traditions and law.