When they return, they will find that Tredd has completed most of the repairs (if it has been more than 10 days, Tredd is complete). If repairs are not complete, they will take no longer that 10 more hours of work due to the number of people working. As soon as the ship is repaired, Wilson orders the backup pilot to begin preparations for takeoff.
Not two minutes into takeoff preparations, another Sathar raiding party attacks! They are 150 meters away, atop a low hill, firing into the clearing in which Discovery sits. All Sathar have soft cover. There are 8 Sathar, two of which are setting up heavy weapons, the rest carry gyrojet rifles, sonic swords, and albedo suits.
The Sathar's gyrojet rifles ordinarily wouldn't be a problem for Discovery's hull. However, any characters who look at the Sathar through magnigoggles or omnoculars see them setting up a large rafflur-type weapon and two grenade mortars. These could cause quite a bit of damage to Discovery! The PC's estimate that they will be set up and ready to fire in 2 minutes. To make matters worse, the PC's and Tredd are outside the ship examining the engines when the Sathar begin to snipe at them. If they scamper for cover in the trees (10 m away), the Sathar will automatically miss. If they head for Discovery's hatch, roll normally. Only one character at a time can fire accurately from the hatch. Tredd will follow the PC's. If the PC's head for the trees, they can return fire (but will have to run across open ground to get back to Discovery before she takes off!)
Use the stats for the first Sathar encounter for the Sathar soldiers' statistics. Assume the Rafflur gunner fires an M-10 with skill level 4, and the mortarmen fire frag grenades at skill level 4. They will fire at the ship (large target). A hit has a 10% chance to damage an engine, making takeoff impossible without further repairs. If this happens, the Sathar will begin to advance through the forest toward Discovery, trying to capture her and kill the crew.
When Discovery takes off is up to the PC's. This is not entirely realistic, but for the sake of interest, assume that Wilson will rely on the PCs' combat experience in this situation. Discovery will need 16 minutes for preflight; two minutes have already been spent. See Knight Hawks campaign book page 31 for hurried takeoffs.
If the takeoff is successful, the Wilson orders Discovery to flee the planet at top speed. After a few minutes, everyone calms down, and the PC's are sure that no Sathar ships are following them. If they haven't called their contact at Truane's Star with a full report by now, they should. Little do they know that the Truane government is listening in, and its militia ships will pounce on the CDC communications ship before it can radio the report to anyone else!
Secret - do not reveal this paragraph to players. A certain secret, shadowy security organization (hereafter called "The Agency") within the government of Truane's Star has broken CDC's code and has been eavesdropping on their communications ever since Xagyg X1 has been found. They see the planet as a potentially lucrative colony, and wish to grab it before CDC turns it into another corporate world. The PC's discovery of the Tetrarchs will make this difficult for the government, due to UPF rules about colonizing planets already containing advanced races. The powerful Director of Operations of the Agency sees the Sathar as unwitting allies in this situation. His plan is to allow the Sathar to destroy the Tetrarchs, then alert the UPF to the Sathar presence. After the UPF removes the Sathar from Xagyg X1, the planet will be open for colonization from Truane's Star, unless CDC gets there first. The Agency has no intention of allowing that to happen. For this to work, the Agency must not let word of the system's existence to get to the UPF. To this end, several key CDC officials in the Truane system will "disappear" in the next few days. The Discovery will also have to be captured, with her crew. The Agency would also like to obtain astrogational information about Xagyg X1. They plan to interrogate Discovery's crew after their capture.
Don't hand out XP's yet. Let the PC's wait a bit longer.