This adventure was played with GURPS Final Frontier (an unofficial GURPS Star Trek rules set) and the GURPS Alternate Earths sourcebook. Reich 5 is as described in the latter. You should familiarize yourself with this alternate earth and provide colorful descriptions to your players. You might also need GURPS Time Travel to understand the concept of timelines. For short you may imagine them as parallel dimensions, more or less similar to our own. In order to distinguish between the two timelines involved in this adventure I will give time references with FT (= Federation Time; the timeline that leads from our earth to the United Federation of Planets) and R5T (= Reich 5 Time; the timeline that leads from our earth to Reich 5 and beyond into a different future). E.g. "1996 R5T" means the year 1996 in the Reich 5 timeline.

Background

The timeline of Reich 5 is like our good old Earth in many ways but in a parallel dimension. It should have developed very similar to the Earth of STAR TREK. But through some mind-bending time-loop it was influenced by our, the Federation timeline.

The earth of timeline Reich 5 (R5 for short) of 2300 R5T has established a Transtemporal-Shielding-Device to prevent tampering with the past of their timeline. That indicates that timeline tampering is considered possible and assumed to be a real threat to R5. But later more about R5 and time machines. An unanticipated side-effect of this project is the creation of a dimension-bridge into Federation space. Imagine this as a physical "pocket" of space from the R5 dimension, bent into the FT dimension. This went unnoticed by the "Space Nazis" [1], because their ships are "rooted" in Reich 5 space and are unable to cross into Federation space. The other way works just fine (for inexplicable reasons [2]), except for the negative effects on IDF/SIF-generators [3]. The graviton polarity sources of these systems overload and quit under the intrinsic graviton spin stress induced by the transtemporal shield.

The Federation ship Nor-Falgun, a Vulcan long range exploration vessel, on a routine charting mission in 2309 FT dropped into the danger zone of the R5 shield while investigating radio emissions coming from a class M planet and hinting to a pre-warp civilization (which was 1932 R5T). By the Federation standards of 2234 FT the IDF/SIF-generators of the Nor-Falgun where not bad. But they were nevertheless immediately destroyed and the ship was thus unable to alter course or velocity. The Vulcans dropped from warp and were lucky to pass R5 at a barely survivable distance, still suffering further damage and losing the ability to communicate. In an ad-hoc decision the Captain beamed an away team down to the planet in order to try and establish contact with Federation rescue ships, but not to interfere with the locals. She assumed that rescuers would probably go and look for the same class M planet.

The team got into a real mess soon after landing and was killed before all equipment could be destroyed. Some local R5 native made use of one phaser weapon to kill the local R5 equivalent to president TD Roosevelt. Of course the exact details where kept secret, including the true nature of the weapon. This incidence was the turning point for the timeline of Reich 5. From now on everything went different. Some TL10 equipment from the Vulcans made its way to very curious German scientists and pushed the development of technical sciences, especially those related to space travel.

The Adventure Begins

The communicator of one crew of the Vulcan away-team can be localized in what appears to be Berlin, Germany in 1996 AD. It is immediately clear to the PCs that this class M planet is not Earth but a very similar world, perhaps from a parallel dimension. More precise localization of the signal is impossible. Some fancy subspace anomaly distorts the infrequent emissions of the old and weak locator. This anomaly is a by-effect of the time traveling activities of the Space-Nazis. Some puzzling vague hints to this is all the PCs should receive at this time of the adventure.

Unfortunately for the unsuspecting PCs, the past of Reich 5 is not only protected by the Transtemporal-Shielding-Device but also by Space-Nazi Time Patrols, equipped with advanced technology. One of these is able to locate, stealthily approach, and board the PCs ship as soon as they decide to beam down and have left the ship. Sudden contact loss to a mother ship is always sure to gear up tension :-)

Down in Berlin

The only way to save the Federation from invading Space-Nazis is to change history in Reich 5. To this end the PCs need to detect the characteristic emissions originating from a time-traveling device. Either by chance or after direct inquiry of the PCs the tricorder measurements point to an area south of Besançon, in SS Burgundy, near a mayor maglev-hub.

And another signal is picked up again. The old style communicator (complete with flip-open antenna grid :-). It is to be found in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, Gestapo-Hauptquartier [4]. Maybe not all Vulcans where killed. They are very tough, one knows. And it would be a nice, dramatic, and morale enhancing discovery finding an 200-year old Vulcan resisting nazi-interrogation for 60 years.

The locals at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße are not very cooperative, to say the least. Massive firepower will be brought to bear if the PCs are willing to mount a mayor fight. Here a new NPC enters. Its Oberführer (Colonel) Johannes von Lühning. He ends the fighting and takes the PCs under his custody. He will suggest and accept conditional surrender. Officially he arrests them, of course.
 

Twisted Loyalties

But while its very hard to fool the Gestapo its impossible to elude one of the secret mind reading psykers of the "Ahnenerbe" [8], the branch of the SS involved with occult research on a broad scale. Special agents of an elite "Ahnenerbe" subgroup named "Nemesis" are the sole contacts of the Space-Nazis throughout the timeline of Reich 5. And one of them has in turn infiltrated the Kempei Tai cell in Berlin. He is the trusted helicopter pilot of von Lühning. In the middle of their journey he will suddenly kill the rest of the crew and all guards, including the Japanese agent with a combination of poison, Telecontrol (PSI) and his SMG. The chopper is keyed to his palm-print, retina and voice. It will crash when he is incapacitated, so any attack on him will be unwise.

Then he will present himself as a member of the American resistance and offer to help the PCs, disguising his true intentions behind the advanced telepathic skill Facade. Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Markus Adler, that's his name, will strongly suggest to leave the helicopter, for the Luftwaffe (Air Force) will not take long to hunt down the of-course helicopter. So a change of vessels in mid-flight to a maglev train is required. The helicopter will continue his flight and self-destruct in a simulated accident. Only Adler slips when entering the train from the roof and falls to death. He was an excellent Psyker, but a not so excellent acrobat. 

Using the Devil's Tools

The undetected withdrawal from the maglev train and the subsequent discovery of an unused but operable time-travel conveyor is small potatoes for all truly heroics PCs [9]. The trip into the local year 1932 is equally no big deal for well skilled temporal engineers (let them make several skill rolls for improvisation). Once arrived there its only a matter of locating the passing Nor-Falgun and picking up the away team as soon as it is beamed down. And instantly the R5 space pocket will vanish. History has changed.
 

Aftermath

What had happened now is: The Nor-Falgun had a mayor warp core emergency resulting in the destruction of the graviton polarity sources. And the away team spent all the years on an - not especially remarkable - pre-warp class M planet unnoticed. Sixty years later the PCs ship rescued them.

To bad that no one will remember and enjoy all the heroic deeds the PCs just accomplished. Except the players. At least, I humbly hope so.

Good night, and "Fare well and prosper !"

• [1] "Space Nazis" is how I will call the future descendants of Reich 5 as it is described in GURPS Alternate Worlds. They originate from 2373 R5T and time-traveled back to 1996 R5T.
• [2] Fill your players with technobabble for as long as you enjoy or until they are satisfied, whatever comes first.
• [3] For more on Inertial Damping Field / Structural Integrity Field generators see GURPS Star Trek or Star Trek - The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rich Sternbach and Michael Okuda.
• [4] Gestapo is a German acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei = Secret State Police. Hauptquartier = Headquarters.
• [5] SD is a German acronym for Sicherheitsdienst = Security Service. The SD was the secret intelligence agency branch of the SS. SS is a German acronym for Schutzstaffel = Protection Squadron. The SS is part of the NSDAP, the German Nazi-party. For some more information see p. AE36.
• [6] Give Oberführervon Lühning the following advantages: Acute Senses +5, Absolute Timing and Direction, Combat Reflexes, High Pain Threshold, Night Vision, Peripheral Vision, Rapid Healing, and Toughness (Lev. 2).
• [7] The Kempei Tai is the secret intelligence agency of Imperial Japan.
• [8] Ahnenerbe is German and means literally  "Heritage from one Ancestors" .
• [9] Too much might happen at this stage of the adventure. So I limit myself to the bare outline of what should happen. It is up to the improvisation of the GM to flesh this out according to the actions and plans of her players. In my experience this works just fine.