Conquering the verse, one parsec at a time.

Aster Vale Prospectives contacts The Redacted with a quiet and carefully worded offer.
One of their agents has been working undercover inside Verity Public Communications, investigating deleted media records, transport irregularities, and signs of interference with Aster Vale relocation operations.
Aster Vale claims the matter may involve missing corporate property, but they do not confirm details.
Their briefing is controlled and incomplete:
“The agent was investigating Verity interference in our relocation operations. His findings may relate to missing corporate assets. At this stage, we are not prepared to disclose more. Retrieve the agent. Retrieve his recording. Avoid public exposure.”

Battlefield – Northern jungle region.

Dense undergrowth and large trees. The crew arrive near the extraction location via Minnow Lander and must cover the remaining distance on foot.
The Minnow Lander starts at one end of the table with the rescue crew.
The Agent is located at the centre of the table in cover, hiding from the Kharth.
The Kharth are on the opposite side of the table looking for the agent.
The Kharth will move in a random direction until they see an enemy model; from then on, they will move towards the enemy if possible.
A crew member must move into base contact with the Agent and spend an action to verify his details. Once verified, the Agent will move and act in the same way as any other crew member.

Considerations
The lander has a maximum capacity of 6 occupants.
The lander can leave at any time.
Anyone left behind when the lander leaves is considered a casualty and must roll twice on the post battle injury /bot damage table and apply the worst result.
If the Agent is killed, the mission is a failure.

Objectives
The crew completes the primary objective if they:
• Locate the Aster Vale Agent
• Safely escort the Agent to the Minnow Lander
• The Lander leaves the battlefield with the Agent onboard

The VIP
Agent Corren
Corren is an Aster Vale intelligence operative embedded inside Verity as a low-level narrative auditor.
His assignment was to find suppressed footage, deleted broadcasts, and internal Verity discussions related to Aster Vale relocation projects. He wasn’t told everything, and he doesn’t know how closely his mission may connect to the missing colony package.
Corren discovered that Verity has been suppressing evidence of Kharth activity and that Tarsk Meridian has had direct contact with them. He recorded part of a meeting before his cover was blown.
Now he is wounded, frightened, and hiding near an off-grid Verity relay site.

Adam led a small team of The Redacted into the northern jungles of Veyr’s Fall. Accompanied by Caesar, Nyah, Scrapper and Mortimer, their mission was to locate and extract an undercover Aster Vale agent carrying valuable intelligence.

The Minnow Lander touched down in a secluded clearing, and the crew quickly moved into position. Scrapper used his jump belt to scout ahead, bounding over the dense undergrowth in search of the missing agent, while the others fanned out to secure the landing zone.

Initially, the operation went smoothly. That changed when a Kharth warrior spotted movement as the wounded agent struggled through the vegetation. Alerting its comrades, the warrior began closing in, joined by others determined to intercept their quarry.

Caesar reacted immediately, unleashing a thunderous burst from his Rattlegun. The rounds hammered into the Kharth, but their formidable armour held. Although the attack failed to bring them down, it succeeded in drawing half the warriors away from the agent and towards the Minnow Lander.

With the Kharth closing from several directions, the Redacted opened fire. Bullets and energy blasts tore through the jungle as the crew desperately covered the agent’s retreat. The sustained barrage took out two Kharth warriors, but the remaining reptiles kept advancing.

Under mounting pressure, the crew held their ground just long enough for the injured agent to stumble into the clearing. With everyone safely aboard, Adam ordered an immediate departure.

The Minnow Lander’s engines roared to life, lifting the craft above the jungle canopy as the surviving Kharth converged on the now-empty landing zone.

The mission was a success. The agent had been recovered alive, and The Redacted were heading back to civilisation.

The Agent’s Revelation

During the return flight, the wounded agent, Corren Vale, finally revealed why the Kharth had been hunting him.

While working undercover within Verity Public Communications, Corren had uncovered evidence that the corporation was deliberately concealing the presence of Kharth warriors on Veyr’s Fall.

More disturbingly, he had secretly recorded a meeting between a senior Verity representative, a Tarsk Meridian official and a Kharth war leader.

Corren explained that he had been investigating suspicious freight movements connected to Aster Vale relocation operations. Although he failed to locate the missing cargo, fragments of the recorded conversation suggested Tarsk had arranged covert transport routes while Verity suppressed any reports that might expose their activities.

Background

Aster Vale’s Real Interest

Aster Vale may be the closest thing to trustworthy inside the Heptagon. They genuinely want to get people off Veyr’s Fall and build new colonies.

But they are still a corporation.

The recording gives them leverage over Tarsk Meridian for transport terms, route access, and future relocation operations. It also gives them leverage over Verity, preventing media leaks about Aster Vale’s missing relocation cargo.

There is one more motive they reveal: Aster Vale wants viable Kharth biological material.

They are not trying to recover Kharth embryos. Instead, they want blood, tissue, marrow, reproductive cells, or other usable genetic samples. Their scientists believe these samples can be used to create Kharth-derived synthetic embryo lines for rapid-growth research.

The aim is to produce stronger, tougher, more aggressive military-colonist defenders for frontier settlements.

Is it corporate arrogance disguised as survival planning?

Aster Vale believes it can take the useful parts of a monster and grow them into something loyal.

It is almost certainly wrong.