DragonStar Kingmaker-esque campaign help

[DreamingGod05]

Alright. The premise of the campaign is in the Outlands (think Outer Rim) of the Dragon Empire there's a new burgeoning empire. The Imperial Spys have discovered that the Koreizan Federation (people in the Outlands) have discovered ancient ruin with powerful technology on a star system. The PCs are hired to go there, and get the planet from the Federations grip without implicating the Dragon Empire.

I plan for them to be able to take the planets and run it, I want them to explore underground vaults, and other such cool things. Problem is, I am drawing a blank on some of the finer details on taking cities and running the empires. Also, I want the empire to appear entrenched. It's a level 15 Mythic game in Pathfinder.

Anyone have any cool ideas on how to do that? Cool plot ideas for ancient vanquished civilizations and cool technology?

Thanks.

[BWR]

Woohoo! Another Dragonstar fan.
Before we can help we need a little more information.

For one thing, is the main problem building and running a domain or finding ancient tech and exploraiton?

In the former case you could pick up Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign and use the domain rules there. however, you would have a lot of homebrewing ahead of you if you want to add DE level tech and magic to the sort of things UC has. If I wasn't running Mystara right now I'd probably be conerting that stuff already.

In the latter case I can only recommend digging up Traveller supplements (especially the Mileu 0 setting) and use them and run the adventures them with a little modification. I've done that and been quite satisfied with the results.