Arms Race 6013

[DragonRage]

Arms Race 6013:  The Corporate Wars

 

RP Discord:  https://discord.gg/X27Cs92

 

The year is 6013.  A great galactic war has recently concluded in armistice and peace talks between the Federation of United Planets and the Coalition of Sovereign Systems, arbitrated by the Disciples of the Five.  The perfect time to do a little off-the-books mineral prospecting and research in the isolated Psi Centauri system, a lawless solar system rich in natural resources outside the reach of any of the three great powers.  However, it seems that your company is not the only one to have this most excellent idea.  Those hacks cannot be allowed to claim these valuable resources!  You’ll never get promoted if you fail here!  In the name of a cushy middle management position, you must achieve victory!

 

The Psi Centauri solar system is a remote location outside the official control of any of the three great powers, the technology-focused Federation of United Planets, the magic-focused Coalition of Sovereign Systems, and the enigmatic AI conclave known as the Disciples of the Five.  Two mighty corporations have set their sights upon extracting Psi Centauri’s resources, the Federation-based manufacturing and department store juggernaut We Make Everything, and the Coalition-based compact of artisans known as Sunbow and Svenson, Inc.  In this isolated place, the only rule is to not make enough of a mess of your competitor and the surrounding area that a bigger fish feels the need to stop pretending you don’t exist.  And, of course, to turn a profit and impress your superiors.  Now if only that dastardly other company would stop trying to mine your mineral nodes!  It’s time for some frontier justice.

 

For reference, these are the current state-of-the-art technologies used by each of the three Great Galactic Powers’ armed forces:

 

Spoiler

Federation of United Planets:

Standard Infantry Weapons:  Sidearms are usually gauss-based, large bore pistols that trade fire rate for penetration.  Assault rifles and automatic shotguns, also gauss-based, are common infantry weapons prioritizing rate of fire over individual bullet damage.  Shotguns are preferred aboard ships because they’re less likely to breach hulls, with assault rifles more common for planetside operations.  Machine guns can be operated by a single person and are cooled with liquid nitrogen or nanotechnology.  They are relatively portable, but usually require a tripod or other brace to be used.  Guided and unguided rocket launchers are often deployed to deal with heavy units, often delivering a payload of positron-doped C4.

 

Standard Body Armors:  Body armors typically use layers of highly resilient ceramic composites with excellent energy-resistance but middling bullet-resistance.  Armors are light, flexible, and easy to move in, but sacrifice some protection for this.

 

Standard Vehicle Weapons:  Heavy gauss-guns with bore sizes ranging from 20mm flak cannons to gargantuan 500mm artillery pieces are very common.  Pulse Cannons, which fire disintegrating bolts of dark energy, are rarer but still used, as are high explosive ARTEMIS cruise missiles piloted by read-only copies of AI volunteers.  Large ships may deploy starfighters and bombers equipped with missiles and 20mm gauss-guns.  Large ships may also drop tungsten rods to bombard planetary targets.  Tanks, walkers, and powered armor are frequently deployed to support ground troops.

 

Standard Vehicle Defenses:  Heavy armors made of nearly indestructible Battleplate, forged from titanium and shed dragon scales, as well as energy-dispersing ceramic composites, which are layered for a powerful defense.  Note that the energy weapons which ceramic armors stop can breach Battleplate, but Battleplate’s ability to hold its shape under any physical stress through extreme elasticity means it will shatter ceramics placed above it.  Magnetic shield generators may also be deployed, though these can only stop energy weapons and can be worn down, as may hard-light shield generators, which can create physical barriers in the form of simple platonic solids that block incoming and outgoing fire from one direction.  Clusters of laser turrets are often deployed for point defense.

 

Sapient Resources:  The Federation’s most common species are the industrious and methodical dwarves, though they also employ large numbers of humans, the ancient and wildly creative faeries, and AI they insist are not slaves.  Opinions on this among the AI vary greatly.  Dragons are rare but present, and usually make a living by selling their scales to be smelted into Battleplate.

 

Power Supply:  The Federation can manufacture antimatter-based power sources, but these are expensive and can be very destructive when breached.  Fusion power plants are safe, reliable, proven technology, and thus far more likely to be used even if they don’t provide as much energy for their mass.

 

Coalition of Sovereign Systems:

Standard Infantry Weapons:  Crossbows powered by springs made of super-elastic, indestructible Battleplate are issued to officers and specialists.  The rank and file must rely on gunwax-based chemical firearms, powered by explosive wax from genetically modified bees.  The standard issue gun is a semiautomatic battle rifle that can be used with a scope, and the standard pistol is a basic revolver designed to never, ever break or jam.  Melee weapons are common, from sidearm to polearm size, and they and crossbows are frequently enchanted to improve one or more aspects of performance.  Elemental damage enchantments are especially popular.

 

Standard Body Armors:  Coalition body armors favor heavy, expensive, full-coverage designs that employ impact-cushioning gels and foams alongside bulletproof, enchanted materials to create a design that is great at stopping bombs and bullets, but less good at foiling other things.  Soldiers who can’t afford full-body protection and aren’t strong enough mages to warrant being given it to preserve their expensive training will often receive a similarly-designed vest instead.

 

Standard Vehicle Weapons:  Scaled-up, enchanted spring-crossbows and potent, complex ritual spells are the weapons of choice for most Coalition vehicles.  These crossbows may have more isoteric enchantments like gravity manipulation, magma transmutation, or electromagnetic pulse generation applied to them in addition to the more common elemental damage enchantments.  A plasma sheath enchantment to punch through Battleplate is especially common, albiet almost useless against Federation ceramics.  Levitated, armored, hollowed rocks of varying sizes from boulders to large asteroids are deployed to support large infantry armies, and as starships.  Dragons may be deployed as raiders or shock troops.

 

Standard Vehicle Defenses:  Battleplate is sometimes used, but its elasticity can shatter the superstructure of Coalition vehicle designs when struck hard enough, as their aircraft are carved from hollowed asteroids and boulders.  Mithril, a light, tough, rigid, enchanted metal, is far more commonly used even though battleplate is tougher.  Magical defenses called wards may protect against a specific form of attack, but layering too many of these weakens them all.

 

Common Species:  The Coalition’s most common species are the haughty, highly observant elves, though they also sport significant numbers of humans, the ancient and wildly creative faeries, and occasionally dragons.

 

Power Supply:  The coalition uses magic to power most of their technology, drawing upon their citizens’ mana reserves to fuel it, but they employ Tokamak fusion reactors to supply electricity at times.

 

Disciples of the Five:

Standard Infantry Weapons:  Prismatic melee weapons, which use fiber-optics to line the cutting edge with lasers, are a common side-arm, as are hammers that can fire sonic charges with enough force to shatter rock.  Heavy machine guns and grenade launchers are the standard issue infantry weapons of choice, with infantry mortars and man-portable ARTEMIS missile launchers issued to specialists.

 

Standard Body Armors:  Layers of titanium and ceramic-composite armor are maintained by self-repair nanites, resulting in a very high level of protection, especially if given time to repair.  Large amounts of damage in a very short time frame can break this otherwise superb defense.

 

Standard Vehicle Weapons:  Disintegrating pulse cannons are the weapon of choice.  Large-bore gauss-guns and plasma cannons, short ranged, highly damaging weapons that act like vehicle-based flamethrowers capable of igniting steel, may also be used. Ground vehicles are rare, but Disciples with large, heavy frames can equip these weapons.

 

Standard Vehicle Defenses:  Full magnetic and hard-light shielding can be deployed to cover the entire vehicle, though hard-light shielding must still be lowered in the direction of the intended target to fire out.  Armor composition is similar to body armor choices.  Clusters of laser turrets are employed for point defense.

 

Common Species:  All Disciples of the Five are AI, who follow the Council of Five, containing their most capable individuals.  With greater logical capabilities and less dependence on emotion than organics, the composition of the Council is universally agreed upon, and occasionally challenged.

 

Power Supply:  Zero point generators, which produce immense amounts of energy without consuming fuel, give the Disciples a supply of power that far outclasses anything the Federation or Coalition have.

 

The Megacorps:

We Make Everything is a Federation company founded by dwarves (yes, they call themselves that), though they’ll employ anybody who’s willing to work for just over minimum wage.  The company prides itself on manufacturing anything they can get away with selling, giving them a wide industrial base but no real specializations or downfalls aside from a lack of direct experience with magic.  They are excellent at mass-production, and can create or requisition large quantities of inexpensive goods with ease.  The company’s base is on the west side of the mineral nodes, in a vast prairie full of grass and rich soil.  The expedition’s commanders express utmost confidence that their precision dwarven engineering, Terran ingenuity, and high industrial capacity will bury those prissy, featherweight elves in bullets, securing the system in short order.

 

Starting Technology:

Spoiler

Weapons:

D-545 Assault Rifle:  Standard-issue infantry weapon.  This gauss-gun is eminently reliable and can be easily mass-produced, and fires standard 10mm ammo at supersonic speeds.  It has 30 round detachable magazines and iron sights.  However, its basic ammunition is terrible at penetrating combat armors except at point-blank range.

 

DS-12 Pistol:  Officer sidearm.  This gauss-gun sports a design shamelessly stolen from Smith, Wesson, and Ironfingers with a 10 round magazine and relatively heavy 40mm ammunition, with iron sights.  This weapon is issued with Full Diamond Jacket rounds, which pierce all but the toughest armor, but also make these weapons far too expensive to issue to the rank and file.  (no cost for standard ammo, FDJ rounds cost 3 minerals)

 

D-132 Entrenching Tool:  Standard-issue infantry sidearm and equipment.  This heavy shovel-like device is equally suited for digging earthworks and cracking skulls.  Invented by dwarves, it is frequently issued as a back-up weapon for close combat among those under their command.

 

D-82 Hammerhead:  Heavy anti-vehicle weapon.  This powerful weapon fires high explosive, armor-piercing gyrojet rounds with a high rate of fire, from a magazine inserted sideways into the front of the weapon, giving it a profile like a hammerhead shark.  However, as the We Make Everything design is cheaply made, it is prone to jamming, and jammed rounds explode inside the weapon with alarming frequency, invariably killing the operator and filling their surroundings with deadly shrapnel.  (Cheap, unreliable)

 

Defenses:

DF-25 Tactical armor:  Ceramic-composite scale mail provides excellent protection against directed energy attacks such as lightning or fire spells as well as most bullets, but is not especially effective against crossbow bolts, explosives, or more creative methods of attack.  It is light and cheap, though.

 

Technology:

Gauss coil projectile acceleration technology

Assembly line mass production (no bonuses or penalties to created items)

Dwarven earthworks and bunkers

Bullet-resistant ceramic composites

Detachable magazines and clips

Rocket-propelled, dumb-fired explosives

Full Diamond Jacket Rounds (expensive, raises mineral cost)

Dark Energy Rockets produce thrust from electricity alone.

Small fusion power cores, civilian grade.

Battleplate smelting from titanium and shed dragon scales (very expensive, raises mineral costs slightly and personnel costs greatly)

10mm rifle round

40mm pistol round

Gyrojet rounds (unreliable)

Magnetic shield generators (very expensive at minimum, raises mineral cost).

 

Sapient Resources:

Human, dwarven, and fae workers, engineers, and security personel.

Human, dwarven, and fae war veterans

1 young dragon kept on retainer for shed scales

Trench Warfare:  Dwarven soldiers excel in defensive battles, especially when employing earthworks and tunnels.

 

Vehicles and Vessels:

1 Star Skimmer-class unarmed scouting vessel, equipped with solar panels for extended duty in local space.  No FTL, no shields, no combat armor.  Fragile spaceframe incapable of taking anything rougher than being sat on by a small dragon for up to a minute, after which the landing gear will snap (Less than 4 meters long from nose to tailtip).

 

1 Whale Shark-class unarmed cargo hauler, capable of carrying 200 passengers or 100 tons of cargo.  FTL drive allows wormhole generation; copyright protection hardware prevents easy study or disassembly of mechanism.  Has a light magnetic shield, and one layer of thin (barely bullet-resistant) ceramic composite armor for defense.  The civilian-grade spaceframe is not well reinforced against impacts, insulated against energy weapons, or compartmentalized heavily enough to prevent explosive decompression from venting large portions of the vehicle if punctured.  It is cheap, however.

 

Assets and Resources:

Minerals:  1 – You can only afford to make small items with metal.

Population:  2 – You have a modest population, equivalent to a large village.

Industrial Capacity:  1 – You can manufacture one project at a time.

Energy Generation:  2 – You can generate enough power to keep your facilities running with a modest surplus for use on other things.

Liquid Assets:  1 – You have enough money to buy some minor items.

Arcana:  0 – You have no mages.

Company Favor:  1 – We Make Everything is uninterested in providing favors until you demonstrate you’re worth their effort.

 

 

 

Sunbow and Svenson, Inc

Sunbow and Svenson is a Coalition company founded by a partnership between human and elven investors (they don’t call themselves that, but no human can pronounce their name for themselves).  They hire mostly humans and elves, and quietly discriminate against dwarves despite such practices being illegal.  The company prides itself on high quality goods, and on charging a premium for fine, hand-crafted items.  Their enchanted crossbows are especially good, but their armor technology is somewhat lacking in comparison.  Sunbow and Svenson employ a good amount of mages, but even after the war made doing so look less like a sign of treason have been slow to explore advanced computers and other magic-free technologies.  The company’s base is on the east side of the mineral nodes, carved out of a thick, steamy jungle that makes the elves feel at home.  The expedition’s leaders express utmost confidence that the superior quality of their troops’ training and equipment, and contingent of powerful mages, will make short work of the opposition’s cannon fodder and flea-market weapons technology.

 

Starting Technologies:
 

Spoiler

Weapons:

Barracuda PDW:  Standard infantry weapon.  Simplegunwax firearm with 10mm rounds, 20 round detachable magazine.  A mithril strip installed in each weapon under the barrel allows for easy enchantment by magically-gifted soldiers, but it does not come enchanted.  Uses iron sights.  Not especially good at penetrating armor except at close ranges, unless an enchantment is used to help it, and the rate of fire is not especially good either.

 

Y’trisda Halberd:  Standard infantry weapon.  A sturdy melee weapon usually forged of titanium alloy, though more expensive metals can be used, which would jack up the cost.  An elven design equipped with a wide axe head for slashing and a vicious, armor-piercing backspike.  Excellent for close quarters combat, excellent against light and medium armors, usable against heavy armors.

 

CM 24 Crosspring Bow:  Officer infantry weapon.  A powerful crossbow acquired from military surplus whose bolts are propelled in part by a Battleplate spring.  An expensive weapon with a slow rate of fire, iron sights, and excellent armor penetration.  Expensive.  May be equipped with a standardized enchantment that transmutes bolts into molten rock immediately after firing, which tiers it up to very expensive.  Standard variant costs 2 minerals, 2 arcana.  Magmatic variant costs 2 minerals, 5 arcana.

 

Defenses:

Trapsilk Vest:  Tactical vest.  A tough antiballistic armor made of spidersilk from genetically modified spiders, with inserts of bullet-catching gel.  Cheap, easy to move in, and light, but designed to reduce fatalities rather than incapacitating wounds.  Only really good at stopping bullets.

 

Ballistic Plate:  Heavy armor.  A full suit of plate armor that covers the entire body with layers of impact-absorbing gel and titanium plates and mail over vital areas.  Only issued to expert mages and other valuable personnel.  Very good at stopping bullets and explosives.  Not especially good at stopping other things, especially edged melee weapons.  Expensive, costing 3 minerals and 3 liquid assets to manufacture.

 

Technology: 

Basic understanding of the six Low Arts of elemental magic, for direct manipulation of elemental fire, air, water, earth, metal, or light in close proximity to the mage.

Basic understanding of using metal magic to manipulate magnetism to provide radiation shielding to vessels.

Basic understanding of air magic used to send and receive messages back to the main company through teleportation magic.

Gunwax beehive maintenance.

Trapsilk spider lair maintenance.

Impact-absorbing foams and gels (unreliable but cheap)

Battleplate-spring crossbows

Mithril forging (expensive, lightweight, raises mineral and industrial capacity cost)

Magmatic Bolts ritual (very expensive, greatly raises arcana cost)

10mm rifle round

Assembly teams create each item individually (increases manufacturing time per unit, but also mitigates high-impact bugs)

Advanced melee weapons (polearms)

 

Sapient Resources:

Elven, faerie, and human researchers and laborers.

Elven and faerie mages of the six elemental low arts (valuable personnel)

Elven and human soldiers, some of whom are weak mages

3 young dragons, hired trained as heavy shock troops.

Jungle Fighting:  Elven soldiers excel in tight quarters with lots of high places, such as jungles and urban environments.

 

Vehicles and Vessels:

4 dump trucks powered by mana storage crystals protected by a copyright preservation enchantment.  The trucks have no mechanical parts; the wheels and bed are moved by magic, making them far lighter and therefore cheaper to get than a mechanical truck, but also impossible to use without enough magical power.  The entire team was transported to Psi Centauri using a portal generated at the company headquarters.

 

3 Rocs.  These massive birds of prey have a 50 foot wingspan and are well-trained to carry riders.  However, they are unarmored and large, making them easy targets for infantry if they fly low over combat zones.

 

Assets and Resources:

Minerals:  1 – You can only afford to make small items with metal

Population:  1 – You have a modest population, equivalent to a small village.

Industrial Capacity:  1 – You can manufacture 1 project at a time.

Energy Generation:  0 – You do not generate any surplus power.

Liquid Assets:  1 – You have enough money to buy small items.

Arcana:  2 – You have a decently sized circle of 30 powerful mages, with 100 more lesser adepts scattered among your soldiers and civilians.

Company Favor:  2 – Sunbow and Svenson are prepared to offer some small aid to help their investment get on its feet.

 

 

 

 

The Rules of Engagement:

Turns consist of several stages in which you, the R&D directors of this expedition, vote on the course your company will take during this quarter.

Stage 1:  Design

            In this phase, you may suggest a new product to be manufactured for your troops or company.  I will roll secretly to see how plausible it is for you to manufacture this based on your assets, resources, and current technologies, and depending on how viable it is for you I will assign an Expense in assets and resources, which must be paid to produce and deploy the product.  You cannot spend more resources per quarter in all phases than you have.  Company Favor may be substituted for any resource, but using it too often may result in your parent company cutting you off until you repay your loans.  Equipment may have bugs, which may or may not show up until it is issued to the front lines.  Please do not act as a director for both companies; nobody likes a traitor.

 

Equipment is Expensive if you’re short one or two of the resource levels needed to make it, and Very Expensive if you’re short three or more.  If you’re lacking 6 or more resource levels needed to make it, it could require a Full Company Effort to produce.  More expensive products are difficult or impossible to produce in large quantities.  Reliable or Lightweight items consume more Industrial Capacity than normal, but have better performance in the field and raise the morale of your troops.  Cheap or Heavy products lower morale and aren’t as effective, but cost less than their more consistent counterparts.

 

Some products are so expensive they require a Full Company Effort, occupying all of your phases and resources.  These products are usually one-of-a-kind, at least for your tech level.  You’re very much going all-or-nothing on these, so make sure they’re worth it.

 

You can manufacture 1 product for every point of Industrial Capacity you have.  Each megacorp will have a separate channel in the Discord server in which to perform their phases, with results of the quarter being posted in this thread.  Do not metagame by looking at the other corporation's thread.

 

Stage 2:  Revision

            In this stage, you can revise an old design with tweaks and bug fixes, or try to reduce how expensive it is to make.  In general, small changes will be more effective and likely to work as intended than large changes in this phase.  This doesn’t have to be the product you created in the first phase, but it can be.  Again, players propose possible revisions and then vote on the one they want to move forward on.

 

Stage 3:  Exploration

            In this stage, players vote on an area of the Psi Centauri system to explore for more resources.  The more you explore, the more places become available to explore, and the more kinds of Random Events become possible.  Minerals, Arcana, and Liquid Assets may be expanded in this way.  However, Company Favor is only gained by being victorious in battle, Population is only gained by recruiting through random events or corporate poaching, and Energy Generation and Industrial Capacity can only be increased through research.  The following areas are available on Psi Centauri 2, the planet you begin on.  Psi Centauri 1-6, and 8-10 are not surveyed.  Who knows what resources they hold?  Note that if you can’t transport a resource back to your factories, it isn’t especially useful to you.

 

Southern Deserts:  Ancient ruins and tombs of a long-dead civilization can be explored for Arcana or Liquid Assets.  This region is contested territory, especially close to the main mineral nodes, and explorers might be ambushed by enemy troops.

 

Mountains:  The Mountains to the north are not as desirable as the ones between the two companies’ bases, but could still be developed for mineral resources.  This region is contested territory, especially close to the main mineral nodes, and explorers might be ambushed by enemy troops.

 

Jungle:  Sunbow and Svenson could explore the jungle for possible mineral deposits or liquid assets.  We Make Everything doesn’t currently have access to this terrain, but could get it later.

 

Plains:  These are available to both factions, and might contain minerals, or new technologies.  Pre-War of the Seasons faerie structures from before the Summer and Winter Courts nuked each other back to the stone age thousands of years ago dot the landscape.

 

Space:  We Make Everything could venture into space with one or both of their starships, getting a chance at special random encounters or to survey other planets.  Currently, they do not have the capacity to extract resources from other planets, though.  Sunbow and Svenson don’t currently have starships, but could look into acquiring or building one.

 

Stage 4:  Random Encounter!

            Exactly what it says on the can.  Something happens.  The more you’ve explored and the more and better vehicles you have, the wider the range of random encounters become available, with the best and worst occurring once significant steps have been made into space.  Players vote on how to respond, and may gain or lose resources and technologies depending on their response.

 

 

Stage 5:  Industrial Espionage

            Each company has a corporate spy in the other’s company, who can act once a quarter to do spy things.  Spies have a default 50% chance to succeed, and may be caught in the act and killed if they bungle especially spectacularly.  Spies that take no action will never be caught, and spies that die will be replaced in 2 quarters, so if your spy screws up and dies you’ll be without one for a while.  Manufacturing equipment useful to spies could improve their chances of success.  Spies will take the first action PMed to me, or whichever action has the most votes if multiple people suggest the same thing.

 

Stage 6:  War Report

            In this stage, the players receive reports from their company’s military command how well their company performed in the struggle for the mineral motherlode this quarter, as well as any requests the troops have for new equipment or improvements to existing kit.  It is strongly advised that players consider their war reports when choosing which products to manufacture.  Ignoring what your troops want too often could make them think you consider them expendable, lowering morale.

 

            Battle happens on three fronts:  In the open no-man’s-land over the mineral deposit where both sides are reluctant to deploy any weapons that could damage the valuable minerals below ground, in the mountainous region to the north of the minerals, and in southern deserts, where combat is centered around oases and the ancient ruins that frequently surround them, creating a mix of skirmishes and urban warfare.

[Hal Henderics]

Joining S&S for Magical Glory!

[Yours Truly]

Oh shit I am going to have to go up against Shadestyle of all people aren't I?

[Swampellow]

S&S it is for myself!

[Endlessblaze]

S and S over here as well.

[Strider]

I'll be on WME.

[DragonRage]

War Report:  Quarter 1

This quarter, We Make Everything’s research and development team re-invented the pickaxe as an improvement to their standard entrenching tool.  Their updated design does unfortunately use a wooden handle, making it more expensive than it otherwise would be due to a lack of wood near their base of operations.  However, it is a substantial improvement on the standard entrenching tool, and has pleased the board of directors enough to award a point of Company Favor.  They are impressed by your initiative in improving a tool used by the entire company.  And in the future, as more mineral resources are developed, this tool will make extracting them easier.  They also added a feature to their Hammerhead rocket launchers that prevents rockets from exploding while near their launcher.

 

Sunbow and Svenson focused instead on their guns, creating an enchantment that replaces fired lead projectiles with steel projectiles travelling at the same speed, greatly increasing muzzle velocity and armor penetration since the only things about the lead projectile that matter are how fast it’s going and where it’s aimed.  These new enchanted guns are more effective, but also more tiring to use for those lacking in deep mana pools.

 

In the mountains, fighting has gone slightly in the favor of Sunbow and Svenson.  Their mages give them superior mobility over We Make Everything’s infantry, allowing them to make commando raids with relative impunity.  Their modified guns have proven somewhat useful, but the reduction in troop endurance they enforce has kept them from consolidating any gains.  Casualties are heavy on both sides, though S&S has yet to lose any of their crucial high mages.  The improvement in anti-vehicle weaponry is largely balanced by the other side not fielding any vehicles.

 

On the mineral lode, Sunbow and Svenson have made significantly more progress.  Their improved guns, together with their mages, have allowed them to begin pushing forward.  We Make Everything’s forces have dug in stubbornly, but only stalled the advance due to their greater numbers and ability to fight longer without rest.  Unless something changes, they will soon begin losing ground.  Casualties are heavy on both sides, though S&S has yet to lose any of their crucial high mages.

 

In the desert, a group of scouts from each company searching ancient ruins for treasures ran into each other and engaged in a brief firefight.  After several deaths, someone accidentally activated an ancient faerie kill-bot shaped like a giant scarab, which dismembered the remainder of both parties with razor-edged mandibles.  Random Encounter:  The first company to slay the faerie kill-bot will claim the secrets of its workings!  The kill-bot resides in the desert.

Your spies are now in place.  Both sides gain an espionage credit.  Remember that espionage credits once spent will take a few quarters to recover barring random events or espionage-improving actions.