(SP2104.0) THE PICK-UP
(Y169) by Grant Rockland, Colorado
    Shortly before the Federation became involved in the General War, the Federation received a transmission from one of its top scientists who had been missing for nearly ten years. The scientist claimed that he had discovered a means to penetrate the Romulan cloaking device. He called on the Federation to pick him up from his secret lab inside the Federation-Romulan Neutral Zone.
    The transmission had been sent in the clear, and fearful that Romulans or Orions would get to him first, the Federation dispatched the nearest available ship, a Q-ship that was en-route to join a forming convoy. When the ship arrived to begin the search, it noted another freighter rapidly entering the asteroid field as well. A Romulan Q-ship dispatched by the Romulan government to prevent the information from being delivered into Federation hands. The Romulans, however, could not simply destroy the lab. They needed the information as well because, if someone found a means to penetrate the cloak, it was only a matter of time before someone else duplicated the experiment. Learning how it was done would give the Romulan Empire time to circumvent the new technology.
(SP2104.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2; the Federation player and the Romulan player.
(SP2104.2) INITIAL SET UP
TERRAIN: The entire map is an asteroid field (P3.0). 
FEDERATION: Large Q-ship enters the map anywhere along the 10xx map edge, speed 6, WS-III.
ROMULAN: Large Q-ship enters the map anywhere along the 32xx map edge, speed 6, WS-III.
(SP2104.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until all forces belonging to one side have been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged.
(SP2104.4) SPECIAL RULES
(SP2104.41) MAP: The map is fixed; it does not float. Any unit leaving the map has disengaged and cannot return. The Federation units can only disengage from the 10xx map edge. The Romulan units can only disengage from 32xx map edge. Units which disengage in unauthorized directions are considered destroyed.
(SP2104.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: No shuttles or PFs have warp booster packs. 
(SP2104.421) No ship in this scenario is qualified to carry an MRS shuttle, but in a variant of the scenario where that is possible, they may be purchased [up to the limits in (J8.5)] under (SP2104.431). 
(SP2104.422) There are no fighters in this scenario. In a variant in which fighters are present, use the standard deployment patterns (one EWF for each squadron of eight or more fighters) for EW fighters. 
(SP2104.423) There are no PFs in this scenario.
(SP2104.43) COMMANDER’S OPTION ITEMS
(SP2104.431) Each ship can purchase additional or special equipment as Commander’s Option Items (e.g., T-bombs, extra marines, etc.) up to 20% of its Combat BPV. See (S3.2) for details and exceptions. 
(SP2104.432) All drones are "medium," i.e., speed-20. Each drone-armed ship can purchase special drones up to the historical racial percentages as part of the Commander’s Option Items. Note that (S3.2) allows drone ships extra points for this purpose.
(SP2104.433) No ship in this scenario normally carries a Prime Team (G32.0), but such Teams are sometimes assigned to various ships. Players may experiment with Prime Teams, perhaps as a balance factor. 
(SP2104.44) REFITS had not been installed on any units involved in this scenario.
(SP2104.45) THE LAB: The scientist is in a lab in a small hollowed out asteroid the location of which is not known to either side. To find this, it will be necessary to scan the asteroids. Asteroids can be scanned from a range of two hexes for this purpose. The lab will be in one of the hexes occupied by an asteroid counter (P3.0). Place 17 red chits and one blue chit into a cup and each time one of the asteroids is scanned, draw one chit. If the red chit is drawn, the lab has been found. 
(SP2104.46) RADIATION: The lab has suffered a radiation leak, and heavy contamination is interfering with transporter activity. The only way the professor and his data can be recovered is by landing a shuttle on the asteroid (actually docking to a small airlock) and sending in a crew unit to pick him and the data up.
(SP2104.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS: The player who disengages with the scientist and his data wins. If neither player has the scientist and his data, both lose.
(SP2104.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one or more of the following changes:
(SP2104.61) Replace the Q-ships with Q-ships of any two neighboring races. 
(SP2104.62) Change one of the large Q-ships to a small Q-ship and replace the opposing Q-ship with a police ship. Optionally, replace one large Q-ship with a Police Flagship.
(SP2104.63) For a faster battle, replace the Large Q-ships with Small Q-ships.
(SP2104.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced between players of different skill levels by one or more of the following:
(SP2104.71) Change the stronger player’s large Q-ship with a small Q-ship, or with a Frigate.
(SP2104.72) Replace one player’s Q-ship with a squadron of class-I fighters escorting a HAS and GAS shuttles carrying two crew units and four boarding parties (total). Allow the player with the fighters to equip them will allowable pods from their "carrier".
(SP2104.73) Add two or four class-I fighters operating from a distant base to support the weaker player’s ship.
(SP2104.8) TACTICS: It may be best to attack your enemy and disable him before searching for the scientist, as otherwise you may be out of position when he finds the scientist first.
(SP2104.9) PLAYTESTERS COMMENTS: Gosh, maybe if we had some playtest reports, some of those would include comments we could publish here?
(SP2104.X) DESIGNER’S NOTES: Duels between Q-ships are rare
HISTORICAL OUTCOME: The Federation Q-ship badly damaged the Romulan ship and recovered the scientist and his data. Unfortunately, the radiation leak had damaged the man’s mind, and his belief that he had penetrated the cloak proved to be only a fantasy. Even so, it did drive the Romulans to extensive research into cloak enhancements.