Operation Solstice Rain

Your mechs are prepped and loaded aboard the dropship, ready for deployment. Through your chassis’ camera feeds, strapped securely into the cockpit, you watch as the hatches slide closed around you and the hangar airlocks open for launch. From up here, Cressidium looks peaceful – a shimmering jewel hanging in space.

“Ten seconds to drop.”

You take a breath as the pilot counts down. Inhale. Exhale. Then your stomach lurches as the clamps disengage and the dropship’s thrusters kick into full burn.

***

For 500 years, the planet Cressidium has been isolated from the wider galaxy. Turned from a fledgling colony into a refuge for those fleeing from the fall of the Second Committee, the people of Cressidium have struggled and fought to build a home for themselves while casting off the shadow of SecComm’s tyranny. 

Five centuries later, an encounter with a Union exploratory mission has ignited an interest in rejoining the galactic community, but not everyone on Cressidium sees the Third Committee as potential allies, but rather usurpers of humanity’s rightful legacy among the stars. Now, the arrival of a Union diplomatic delegation may be the spark that causes simmering tensions between nations to erupt into all-out war.

***

Operation Solstice Rain is a structured mission module for Lancer, written and designed by Kai Tave, and designed to introduce new players and GMs to the game and familiarize them with its blend of tactical combat and narrative challenges. 

This module will take characters from License Level 0 to LL2 across two missions of pitched urban combat in the city of Nov Elysia. As a squad of rookie Union pilots, the PCs are tasked with undertaking a daring rescue operation when fighting breaks out during tense diplomatic negotiations between two of Cressidium’s largest nations, the Leandric States Alliance and the Vestan Sovereignty. Though this may be their first time in actual combat, they’ll need to use every bit of their training and push their mechs to the limit if they want to survive, but if they can make it through this then they’ll be well on their way to being able to call themselves lancers.

In addition to six combat scenes spread across two missions, complete with extensive tactical advice to help new GMs to learn the ropes, this module also contains new player options suitable for any Lancer campaign:

• The GMS Chomolungma - A new GMS mech available from LL0 onwards, the Chomolungma represents the latest in GMS electronic warfare design, with an array of powerful, flexible tech options including an integrated Advanced Intrusion Package.
• New Talents - Become an expert at handling explosives with Demolitionist, or use Sysop to safeguard your allies from physical and electronic battlefield threats.
• Exotic Gear - New prototype GMS weapons and equipment may give you and your allies a needed edge in combat.
• The Ebro-class Light Carrier - For use in Lancer: Battlegroup, the Ebro-class is a fast, responsive light carrier that brings additional tactical options to a naval commander’s portfolio.

Each combat encounter in Operation Solstice Rain is also accompanied by its own fully illustrated tactical map, with design by Dunya Kat and artwork by Conner Dodd, made for use with both square grids and hex grids depending on your group’s preferences. Additional artwork provided by E.M. Fields, Peyton Gee, Juan Gee Tan, and Gwen Williamson come together to bring this story to life.

The .lcp files included also contain all the player facing content for COMP/CON, our free character builder tool, and will remain free to download (see the 'demo' file below).

[Editor's note: The .lcp has a little more work to do on it and should be arriving in a few days]

***

There’ll be more missions in your future, maybe here on Cressidium, maybe a hundred worlds away, with new wonders to experience and new threats to face – new powers to contend with and new causes to champion. There’s a whole galaxy out there beyond the peace and safety of the Core worlds, waiting for someone like you to come along and make a difference.

Time to get to work, pilot.

[Image credit: Tom Bloom, Peyton Gee, E.M. Fields]