1) The players got stranded after ending "Secret of the Ancients". In that module they had made a deal with a relative to one of the players. This relative operated a small starship. As the party was picked up by the Ancient ship, the relative got tired of waiting several weeks for them to return. The ship was running low on supplies and needed to go to a starport. The relative had no idea when the players would return. As the owner still need to pay sallary to the crew and cover morgage, they just can't sit weeks at end waiting while not making any money. Thus when the players returns to the gas giant and find their transport gone, the ancient starship decide to drop them off someplace safe just a few parsecs away. Knorbes ends up as their final destination. The ship drops them off in the wilderness a few days by foot to the closest settlement.
The Ancient ship gets you over one hurdle, namely the orbital cover for the Ancient Base on Korbes' lesser continent (IMTU named "Lesser"
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
). Presumbly the ship has anti-detection capability up the wazoo.
2) The derelict hasn't crashed, but made and emergency landing. Which will be apparent when the shp is foind under the vegetation.
The derelict would have approached Knorbes at a time when the picket had been temporarily withdrawn due to being needed elsewhere. Also works.
3) The ship is a 800ton modified Broadsword. Instead of carrying two cutters and cutter modules, the hangar space has been converted to fuel tanks, and the original fuel tanks are then modified to cargo hold. As I use TNE rules and the ship hasn't been fully designed yet, details are a bit sketchy at the moment.
Is there any reason why it has to be a
Broadsword? If I was a Zhodani secret agent trying to smuggle a Black Globe through a war zone, I'd choose an inoffensive civilian ship, not a para-military vessel. Less chance of being chased down and inspected by an Imperial patrol.
4) The holes comes from laser fire. It emerged at the Knorbes gas giant for refueling ending up in a major battle between two fleets during the FFW. (IMTU Knorbes orbits a GG) The ship was hit twice. The experienced Zhodani Crew managed to turn the ship towards Knorbes for a landing as it was apparent they would not be able to go anywhere else. A remote site was selected to ensure the safety of the mission.
I have a lot of background information about Knorbes. None of it canon, alas, although I hope it'll be one day. When T20 came out (yes, that long ago), I started on an adventure to submit to Hunter. It was set on Knorbes in the Year 1000. I did quite a lot of work on it before I ran out of steam, including an ftf playtest of the first two thirds of the adventure. So I have an 8000 word file full of adventure and background, plus a thick sheaf of handwritten notes.
If you're interested, I've updated the entry for Knorbes on the Traveller wiki with an updated (Year 1116) version of the background material:
http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Knorbes_(world)
I also have various maps, but they're outdated (A political map of Knorbes around 900 and a topographical map without names for Year 1000). I'll see how much work It'd be to update it to 1116. No promises, but I'll let you know if I finish it.
5) as the Zho lost the war, the remaining crew could do nothing more than wait on an opportunity to get off planet. However, as the ship needs repairs, but the local tech can't provide spare parts, the ship was sealed up, dead crew burried at a distance, and left. The Zhodani then went for a settlement a week trek away. Once in a while the Zhodani return and check up on the ship, about once a year or so.
Interesting dilemma. There are regular passenger liners coming through Knorbes (an assumption of mine based on Knorbes' position three parsecs from both Regina and Efate), but if they're all recognizable as Zhodani, they might not dare avail themselves of it (presumably they had an ample supply of Imperial currency along on the mission). But if they were trying to pass for an Imperial ship, wouldn't they have at least a few crewmen aboard who belonged to more obscure MHRs? Or even surgically altered Zhodani?
6) as the Zhodani was on a undercover mission deep inside the imperium just prior to the start of FFW, the ship has been cleaned of all Zhodani identification, no matter how trivial. The ship was equiped with a fake ID that would pass general inspection. However a proper checkup with cross-referencing with other databases (which take time as data only propagates fast as the x-boat routes go).
Wouldn't the ship have been purchased legitimately through some kind of front?
If it was built anywhere in the Imperium (as, IIRC, the
Broadswords all are), I think that a thorough forensic examination would eventually identify its origin (where it was built and which of the ships built at that shipyard it is), but such an examination would take time and expertise that probably wouldn't be available. OTOH, ship's registry information may only propagate at a few parsecs per week, but they'd be forwarded as a matter of course, so the database at Regina would have all the available information by now (five years later).
Hans