Colonial Reconnaissance Corps: Chapter 5: A-Team General Rules and Policies

From SSDC, Inc.

Here are some of the general rules and policies which A-team members will face on a regular mission.

ISOLATION: Once an A-team has entered a new biosphere, they are isolated from the remainder of the PRC vessel's crew until it has been established that they are not infected with any hostile microbes from the biosphere. Due to the risk of an “Omega Pandemic” scenario this policy is rigidly enforced. They A-teams and their direct support personnel will occupy a smaller vessel that detaches from the main vessel after orbit is established over the planet under study. The smaller vessel has no FTL drive and carries it's own destruct warhead that can be triggered from the main vessel or by an oddman on board. The players vessel will have full medical resources and staff on board to help with any injuries. Also it contains automated labs capable of carrying out a great number of tests and experiments under remote control from the main vessel. Many times players will be asked to bring samples from the planet to these labs (which are themselves often isolated from the rest of their vessel in a detachable module) for study.

RESPONSIBILITY: If the players are assigned a task, they are expected to complete it and will be subject to penalty unless they can prove that the task was impossible to complete. Getting such proof may be as hard as the task in question, however. Note that any military personnel judging the players in such cases may know what it's like to be given an impossible mission by someone who had no idea of the situation, and be sympathetic to the players.

EXPENDABILITY: A-team members accept that their task involves a great deal of risk, and if there is a possibility that they have picked up a potentially hostile microbe that they may be 'expended' to avoid bringing a plague back to Alliance worlds. While the PRC staff and crew will do everything possible to save the A-team members they will stop short of risking a contagion reaching a populated world. It may be necessary to allow a A-team member to die of a new pathogen so it may be studied in order to gather knowledge to fight the pathogen later. It may be necessary to even vivisect an A-team member that has been infected with a new disease or parasite. While A-team members are not treated as expendable items, they are expendable in the interests of Alliance safety.

MINIMIMUM CONTAMINATION: While an A-team is operating in a newly discovered biosphere they are to exercise 'minimum contamination' protocols. This involves using environmentally sealed vehicles and armor, using low to no emission vehicles and power sources and, when necessary, using weapons that cause no contamination, such as lasers.

REASONABLE SAFETY: An A-team may not be sent into a new biosphere until reasonable amounts of time and effort have been spent to test it for as many hidden dangers as possible. One shot flying robot probes will always be sent down long before any living beings are to gather atmospheric samples for testing. Later probes will land on the surface to take soil samples for microbial analysis onboard an isolated, automated lab module. Some small animals will be taken by later probes for DNA and further microbial study. Only after every reasonable precaution against an “omega pandemic' scenario has been taken will an A-team be sent down. They are, after all, Alliance citizens and sentient beings who deserve a certain degree of respect. This is one of the few areas where the government is willing to stand up to the megacorps on. (If the megacorps had their way they'd just dump criminals or unemployed people on a new planet and see if and how they died.)

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Colonial Reconnaissance Corps: Chapter 6: Running an A-Team Adventure

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