The Bituin Expedition To Kepler 22-B

Sector I-5 of the Kepler 22-B collaborative world-building project has been claimed by FATE SF. I will be posting original content for the project at the Strange New World blog. Over here on FATE SF, I'll be posting a bit more setting and campaign background with FATE mechanics.

You will want to check both sites for content, as my posts at each site will have some unique information not available at the other site. I will let you know when Sector I-5 content goes live over on the Strange New World. I will be developing a little bit of my own off-world background here first.

First up is the nature of the expedition to Kepler 22-B. There are many players who have arrived in-system and are exploring the world. A good number of them are not even stopping at Port Gernsback, the planet's only spaceport, which is located in Sector G6. Instead, many explorers are dropping directly planetside.

This is also the case with the Bituin Expedition. Since entering the system, the mostly Filipino and Filipino-Chinese crew of the Bituin moved directly into orbit over Sector I-5, dropped automated claim staking messenger probes at the four corners of the Sector, and began in-depth orbital mapping of the Sector.

So, a bit of background on the ship and crew, with OGL Mechanics later on in the post. The Bituin ("Star" in Tagalog) is a Chinese-built clone of the popular Ethiopian explorer ship design. The Philippines Kasama Peoples Republic (PKPR) government chose to purchase the four ship's conical landers directly from the Ethiopian manufacturers, as the Chinese versions have a poor landing track record. The PKPR also wiped all Chinese-built data systems on the vessel and rebuilt the data architecture from scratch. This eliminated the malware and spyware that the Chinese government routinely embeds into technology sold to "fraternal" states.

The Bituin now has a crew of 60, but departed Earth with a crew of 85. Unfortunately, 20 of the existing crew complement are transplants after a lethal boarding action by a pirate vessel of the offworld Cojuangco criminal syndicate. The exchange occurred in the Sol system while the Bituin was in transit to the slipknot. The Bituin was successful in suppressing the boarding action and in disabling the pirate vessel. Some of its crew were taken on-board the Bituin to replace those lost in the boarding action. It is believed that the Cojuangco family was given classified telemetry information on the Bituin's flight path from a rival faction in the PKPR government.

This is what the vessel looks like:

Art by Rory McLeish

There is an animation of the spacecraft here. Note that the conical landers on the Bituin land using huge rotors built into the broad base of the lander. This means no fires at the touchdown point.

OGL MECHANICS

Banyan-class T2 Exploration Ship Bituin

Systems:

• V-Shift 2 
• Beam 3 
• Torpedo 2 
• EW 0
• Trade 2

Stress Tracks:

• Frame 3
• Data 3
• Heat 3

STUNTS:

• Slipdrive: Can traverse slipstreams
• Cheap: Made from inferior materials (no mechanical effect)
• Interface vehicles: Ship has four conical landers which can be equipped to carry 2 crew and up to 9 passengers

ASPECTS:

• A cheap knockoff of a superior design
• State of the art data systems
• Our first interstellar mission!
• Guided by Party ideology...and Science!
• Enemies onboard