THE CRYSTALLINE SOLUTION

The party are adventurers from the Imperium who have decided to go into mining
after discovering an abandoned belter base on an ice asteroid orbiting a worldlet
in the Jeldemnar system of the Liberty Hall subsector. From the equipment & 
armament put into the asteroid by its original owners, the operation, though small
must have been very lucrative.  The asteroid showed signs of battle damage & had
human remains (including children) scattered all over the interior.

In the past two years, the party has restored power & gotten the asteroid into working
condition except for some of the laser turrets.  Restoring the defense is important 
since the system is disputed by the League of Free Worlds, LOFWIA terrorists, Die
Weltbund, & it is rumored, the original settlers of the system.  The party has discreetly
been mining the nearly frozen planet below always looking over their shoulders.

The belters consisting of 13 adults & two children & two ships, the 100 tonne seeker
'Geomancer' & the 200 tonne free trader 'Vagabond Queen' have finally recovered 
enough to put a cargo together to pay for supplies, spare parts, & to repair their 20
tonne mining boat, the 'Sonna Del'.  They also have a aboard 20 grams of an 
unknown ore for which they intend to get an assessment of.

The players will play the six members of the 'Vagabond Queen' returning from the 
voyage to Gamma Centre where they have resupplied, bought spares for the boats
& repaired their boat, plus bought two more mining suits.  Dead broke again, they 
have good news:  the mysterious  mineral they found is berasite (also known as 
esperium), a rare metal from which  is used for psionic amplifers worth around 
10000 Cr. per gram.  Happy with this news, the party is returning to Marichel 
Station to recover the 1.2 kilograms of berasite already in their warehouse &
prepare to mine more berasite.

However, the news of the ore strike was leaked, despite bribes to keep it quiet.
 Sattoi Minerals represented by a Mr. Jan Orghol had approached the party with 
an offer of selling out for 3.8 Million credits.    A second party, who calls himself Mr.
Tockman, has offered 4.3 Million credits to sell out.  Neither party was pleased to 
have their offer turned down.

The adventure starts with the crew still in jumpspace.