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So, I've been running a small Rifts game for my wife, brother, and his fiancé (none of whom are very experienced gamers but have taken to Rifts very well). With a few random friends showing up to round out the party. The core group is a human crazy soldier from the golden age, a line walker themed as a native American shaman from the pre European colonists era America, and a human vagabond who keeps and trains monsters as pets to fight for him from another dimension. The game has taken place between southern Ohio to dinosaur swamp. They've mostly been working out of a magical keep owned and occupied by survivors of the tolkeen war and trying to find the monster trainer's missing brother. What id like to do is get them some kind of space ship and get into some deep space mischief.
In a nutshell I'm looking for ideas/story hooks to get them from campfires and dinosaurs to space travel and aliens.

They get Rifted to a planet in the 3 Galaxies,where they save a Ship Captain,so they join his /her crew.

That How I see it.

If you want to stay in the Milkyway Galaxy then the Aliens Unlimited and the AU:Galaxy Guide would be the core texts you'd look at. Even though they are HU books.

Maybe have them go to Mars via a portal and after some exploring find a small spacecraft. Mutants in Orbit has details for Mars.

I really like the idea of rescuing a ship captain since none of them have any idea of how to operate space craft. That also gives some sweet options for the captain NPC and a couple unsavory scalywags aboard his vessel. Now I need to pick up 3 galaxies.