Space Prison Break!

Advanced societies often deal with criminals in innovative ways. They can use mind altering techniques to rehabilitate criminal minds or they can resort to cyber implants that make sure some criminals can never act out their crimes again. As advanced and effective as those techniques are, some societies enjoy just locking some people away some place really unpleasant.

Space Prisons satisfy this desire. These space stations are often located in desolate areas of space far away from civilized worlds. The interiors are unpleasant and barely qualify as habitable, while armed guards and merciless robots keep the criminals in line. If anyone ever does escape from their cell, the only place they can escape to is the cold vacuum of space.

Anywhere that there is a legal system, someone rich and powerful are going to try to buy their way out of consequences. Today a criminally wealthy person wants to hire pirates to break them out of the space prison that they are incarcerated in. The pirate will be paid handsomely if they bring them out alive.

First, generate the type of prison that they are located by rolling a d6.

1 – Class 3 Space Jail Rep 3
2 – Class 3 Space Jail Rep 4
3 – Class 4 Space Prison Rep 3
4 – Class 4 Space Prison Rep 4
5 – Class 4 Space Prison Rep 5
6 – Class 5 Space Maximum Security Rep 4

Class 3 Space Jail

Class – 3
Thrust – 0
Hull – 8
Shields – 2
Guns – 2
ML – 1
AAR – 1

Class 4 Space Prison

Class – 4
Thrust – 0
Hull – 16
Shields – 3
Guns – 3
ML – 2
AAR – 2

Class 5 Space Maximum Security

Class – 5
Thrust – 0
Hull – 24
Shields – 4
Guns – 4
ML – 3
AAR – 2

Space Prisons can’t move. They also have no facing so their missiles are effective in a 360 degree arc. The Space Prison is of the same faction as the faction controlling the ring that it is located in.

Rescuing a criminal from a Class 3 Jail is worth 100 CV.
Rescuing a criminal from a Class 4 Prison is worth 200 CV.
Rescuing a criminal from a Class 5 Maximum Security is worth 400 CV.

Once you know the size of the prison, the Pirate player can decline the adventure. This results in time passing on the campaign log and counting as a failed mission.

The Prison starts at the center of the table. The pirates may enter in from any side of the table and from multiple sides if wanted. The Pirates activate first. The Prison will fire a warning shot at any ship that comes within 48 inches. If the Prison will skip a warning shot if fired upon.

The Prison will send out a distress signal as soon as fired upon just like a merchant ship.

The Pirates have two options. They can either wear the prison down and try to get the Prison to surrender, or they can board and try to grab the prisoner.

When boarding, roll as normal except that if the pirates are successful, they have found the right prisoner and returned to the ship. At no point can the pirates seize control of the prison as these kinds of space prisons have triple backup systems to prevent prisoners from doing such a thing.

A Prison Station has Cell Bays instead of Cargo Bays. It is entirely possible to kill the prisoner you are looking for by accident! Make a note of how many Cell Bays are destroyed. When the Pirates force a surrender OR do a successful boarding action, roll randomly to determine which of the Cell Bays that the prisoner is located in. If it blew up, oops!

Example: The Pirates hit the Space Jail’s Cell Bays twice. Out of the 10 Cell bays, only eight are left. The Space Jail surrenders and offers to hand over the prisoner. The Pirate player rolls a d10 to determine which Cell Bay the prisoner was in. Then he rolls a D10 twice to see which Cell Bays blew up.