AREA 5 – HALLWAY / HAZMAT SUITS

Sharp angling of the exterior wall.

HAZMAT SUITS: 12 hazmat suits hang in individual sterilizing chambers.

STAIRWAY: Of a white, gleaming plastic. It can collapse down and become a lift pallet.

AREA 6 – HALLWAY / RESEARCH DRONE STORAGE

Sharp angling of the exterior wall.

RESEARCH AI FORK: The Research AI Fork is running off a server in this room.

DRONES

• HAB REPAIR ROBOTS (x2)
• ROBOMULE

---

HAB REPAIR ROBOT: Crab-like frame. Panopticon, pg. 157.

Walker 4/20 (max 20 kph), Armor 4/4, DUR 40, WT 8

Access Jacks, Chem Sniffer, Electrical Sense, Enhanced Vision, Extra Limbs (6), Grip Pads (+30 Climbing), Headlights, Maker, Nanoscopic Vision, Repair Spray, Tool Kit, Utilitool

AI: Hardware: Industrial 40, Hardware: Robotics 40, Perception 30.

---

ROBOMULE: Human-sized, but horizontal and with six legs. Legs can also transform into flippers for swimming (deploy reusable flotation bladders). Carry 250kg of cargo over long distances.  Upper surface made of smart materials that transform into straps, etc. Gatecrashing, pg. 162.

Walker 4/20 (max 35 kph), Armor 4/4, DUR 40, WT 8

Access Jacks, Extra Limbs (6), Headlights, Maker

---

 

AREA 7 – ACCESS SHAFT

SENSORS: Monitored by the Sensor AI; 40% chance that the feed is also being monitored by a human.

• HYPERSPECTRAL: +20 Perception modifier (Panopticon, pg. 162)
• INFRARED: With active infrared lighting (+10 Perception modifier).
• INFRASOUND: Capable of detect footprints within 20 feet (+30 Perception modifier).
• PRESSURE SENSORS
• QUANTUM RADAR (Active)
• RADIATION SENSE
• T-RAY/X-RAY/GAMMA RAY (Active)
• ULTRAVIOLET
• SPECIAL VISION: Nanoscopic Vision, Polarization Vision

MOVING LADDERS: Four moving ladders spaced around the walls of the shaft. Grabbing onto the runs will cause the ladder to begin moving. (Two ladders go down; the other two go up.) The ladder can also be climbed normally.

AREA 8 – ASTEROID DOME

SENSORS: As per Area 7, but with 80% chance that feed is being monitored by a human.

• CHEM SNIFFER
• GHOST IMAGER (Panopticon, pg. 152)

FLOOR: The floor of the crater itself. A wide pit has been excavated (using scourer nanoswarms), revealing the asteroid which thrusts up out of the ground.

ASTEROID: A multi-faceted prism of silver crystals filling a latticework of silver-black. The lattice is constantly sheened with Silver Basilisk oil.

FRACTAL ARMS (x3): Fractal, mechanical arms extend from the walls. These can divide down to micrometer scale; have enhanced chemical sensor suites; and can release scourer nanoswarms.

• SCOURERS: Analyze the dirt, regolith, ice, etc. in a region and then remove it, layer by layer. Anything not matching that pattern is location tagged and the swarm uses ultrasound to clear the item and clean it. (Gatecrashing, pg. 160)

MANIPULATOR CUFFS (x3): Stored in silver tubes attached to the dome wall.

---

MANIPULATOR CUFFS: Attached as a forearm cuff to the outside of a vacsuit. Utilitool and mobile lab. Controlled through arm movements and mesh signals. Protrudes 2-meter long telescoping manipulator. Can bend, flex, and squeeze through openings only 2mm wide. Can also detach and move under its own power (using flexible treads). Feels like an extension of the user’s hand. (Gatecrashing, pg. 160)

Tracked 2/8 (max 8 kph), DUR 5, WT 1

Access Jacks, Electrical Sense, Enhanced Vision, Fractal Digits, Grip Pads (+30 Climbing), Mobile Lab, Nanoscopic Vision, Shape Adjusting, Telescoping Limb, Utilitool

---

Go to Part 6: Developments

Go to Part 1

(150 meters wide)

EXTERIOR

• Building is on 10-foot high stabilizing stilts.
• Mostly made out of white plasteel. The windows are clear plastic with protective metal blinds on the outside.
• Bundles of cable run from the Research Hab around the perimeter of the crater to the Security HQ.
  • These contain hardwired camera and communication feeds.

SURVEILLANCE

• Every room including the private quarters are monitored with standard audio/video feeds. The sensory feeds are hardwired to the Security HQ.
• Chemical sniffers and radiation detectors in the labs (areas 5-12).

AREA 1 – CENTRAL CORRIDOR

Generally only the door facing the crater is used. (The building is prefabbed.)

AREA 2 – MESS

Cheap, one-piece plastic chairs and tables secured to the floor using solid adhesives.

The fabber here has broken down. Canned goods are being fabricated in the Security HQ and then carried over here.

AREA 3 – RESEARCHER QUARTERS

For security purposes, these chambers are kept extremely depersonalized. (Security monitors this using the sensory feeds.)

AREA 4 – CARLYLE’S QUARTERS

The security feed for Carlyle’s quarters have been compromised: Carlyle’s muse is feeding false data to make everything appear normal.

BED: The bed is affixed to the ceiling. (Carlyle melted the solid adhesive bonding it to the floor and then secured it to the ceiling.)

• A nest of bedding has been huddled up on the floor beneath the bed.

TABLE: A table has been magnetically attached to the wall. The surface of the table is covered in a multi-colored mélange of scrawled symbols and diagrams.

• UNDER THE TABLE: If the table is removed from the wall, a tiny diorama will be found glued to the wall in the hollow space beneath the table’s central pillar. The diorama is a replica of the asteroid dome (area 8 of the Research Spike), including, most notably, a replica of the crystal-like extrusion which appears to be smeared with blood.
• SCRAWLS: If each color of ink is separately extrapolated as a layer of data, they are revealed to be star charts. Specifically, they are constellations as viewed from the Martian sky directly above the Research Spike, with each layer of color representing an epoch of time progressively farther in the past. (Starting 50,000 years ago and increasing to 500,000,000 years.)

AREA 5 – LAB SECURITY CHAMBER

BRAINSCANNING: Access to the labs requires identification verification using a portable brainscanner (Panopticon, pg. 152). A set of six chairs line the room, allowing an entire lab team to be processed simultaneously.

• This process is monitored by the Research AI.

HAZMAT SUITS: 12 hazmat suits hang in individual sterilizing chambers.

AREA 6 – SAMPLE STORAGE

This room contains a number of freezers and shelving units with individual components formed from self-sealing smart materials.

• Usually used for storing scientific samples, but the only samples currently being held here are a number of soil samples extracted from the surrounding terrain.
• Most of the storage space is going unused.

BURN UNIT: The room also contains a sterilizing burn unit suitable for destroying toxic or dangerous materials.

• This unit vents to a containment unit which can either be sealed and removed or vented to the outside atmosphere.

AREA 7 – GENERAL LAB

Fully-stocked laboratory suitable for general scientific study, but it’s going essentially unused on the current project.

RESEARCH AI: Research AI is running off a server in this room.

AREA 8 – DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER

The full decontamination process takes 2 minutes.

STEP 1: NANODETECTORS: In the ceiling, suck air out of the chamber for analysis.

STEP 2: DECONTAMINATION MIST: To unprotected biomorphs, this acts as a toxin that causes eye irritation and difficulty breathing. 1d10 damage, -30 modifier to sight-based Perception tests, and a -20 modifier to all other actions.

STEP 3: NANOSWARM – MICROBIAL CLEANERS: Released into the room.

AREA 9 – SUPPLIES

This room contains supplies for the laboratories. It notably includes:

• Nanodetectors
• Nanoswarm – Scientific Nanoanalyzer
  • Specifically designed to analyze compounds down to a molecular level.
• Nanoswarm – Cleaner
• Specimen Containers

AREA 10 – SOIL LAB

SAMPLES: The samples have been carefully tagged with the GPS locations where they were picked up (mostly from within the crater, but also samples up to 3 km away from the crater).

REPORTS: Stored on the local servers.

• No foreign matter was found in the ejecta, which would suggest that whatever impacted in the crater didn’t vaporize or suffer structural disintegration of any kind. (This is extremely unusual for an impact crater.)
• The 3D map of the asteroid dome (area 8, Research Spike) prepared by the scourer nanoswarms is on file here.

AREA 11 – BIOCHEMICAL LAB

WORK: The primary work here was an effort to replicate and map the DNA traces from the silver-black oil taken from the asteroid.

SILVER BASILISK SAMPLE: A small sample of Silver Basilisk in a diamond-crystal faraday container is kept in the lab’s sample case.

• FARADAY CONTAINER: Gatecrashing, pg. 160. Superconductive charged wires block radio signals, electrical charges, and electromagnetic radiation from getting in or out.

SHREDDED BASILISK: In order to study the complex, interlaced DNA of Silver Basilisk, the researchers have ripped it apart using terahertz lasers and are attempting to individually cultivate the DNA strands. “Shredded basilisk”, however, remains highly toxic due to the fractal nature of the exsurgent virus (which will attempt to reconstitute itself).

• Anyone exposed to shredded basilisk must make a DUR test (DUR x 4 if they have medichines or toxin filters). If they fail, there’s a 10% chance they’re affected as per second generation Silver Basilisk as the shredded basilisk migrates to the brain.
• Otherwise, shredded baslisk inflicts a -5 modifier to COO, REF, and COG per week while simultaneously making the victim suffer extreme hallucinations and act as a focal point for Basilisk Dreams. Half this damage is dealt permanently to the ego (even if it resleeves). If any aptitudes are reduced to zero, the morph is effectively paralyzed and catatonic.

AREA 12 – BIOINFORMATICS LAB

WORK: This lab is using biological data analysis techniques to study the interactions, functions, and properties of the X-91 oil.

TISSUE SAMPLES: They’ve infected three major sequences of stem-cell-derived microbiological tissue with X-91 oil. (Each sequence consists of thousands of closely related samples that have had their DNA altered only slightly one from the next in an effort to analyze variant interactions with the oil.)

• All of these are potential infection vectors for Silver Basilisk (although a character can make a DUR test or a DUR x 3 test if they have medichines or toxin filters).

SECURITY MONITOR: This room has access to the surveillance feeds from the asteroid dome (Research Spike, area 8).

• This allows the researchers to remotely observe and study the X-91 asteroid.

REPORTS: Stored on the local servers.

• The X-91 oil appears to use a partially synthetic cell structure featuring incredibly complicated systems of intracellular communication using a protean peptide (which is constantly changing its shape and apparent function according to principles and stimuli that the researchers have been unable to fully identify).
• There are macro-level reactions in the “anomalous large cells” of the X-91 structure which appear to be in reaction to the presence and proximity of specific individuals. This has made isolating micro-interactions difficult.
• Instructions have been prepared to begin testing on animal subjects when their work moves to a larger facility.

 Go to Part 5: Research Spike

Go to Part 1

(120 meters wide)

EXTERIOR

• The bulk of Security HQ is on 10-foot high stabilizing stilts, with the exception of the garage (area 1).
• Mostly made out of white plasteel. The windows are silvered from the outside (but anyone inside can look out).
• Bundles of cable run from the Security HQ to the Research Spike and around the perimeter of the crater to the Research Hab. These contain hardwired camera and communication feeds.

AREA 1 – GARAGE

VEHICLES:

• Flying Car (Security Model) – Sunward, pg. 170
• Martian Trike (x2) – Sunward, pg. 170
• Hyperdense Exoskeleton – Eclipse Phase, pg. 344
• Maintenance berths for two flying serpents (see pg. 6).

AREA 2 – ENTRY

FABBERS (x2)

WEAPONS RACK

• Sniper Rifle (x2) (AP -12, DV 2d10+5 – SA – 12 reactive armor-piercing ammo – safety system, smartlink)
  • Also has bug ammo (EP, pg. 337)
  • Smartlink (EP, pg. 342): +10 attack test, microcamera, shoot around corner, control which ammo is being shot.
• Automatic Rail Rifle (x12) (AP -9, DV 2d10+8 – SA, BF, FA – 30 ammo – safety system, smartlink)
• Medium Rail Pistol (x12) (AP -5, DV 2d10+4 – SA, BF, FA – 12 ammo – safety system, smartlink)
• Shock Batons (x12) (DV 1d10+3+shock)
• Heavy Body Armor (x12) (armor 20/18, ablative patches, full helmet, shock proof)
  • Ablative Patches (EP, pg. 313): +4/+2 armor, reduce by 1 per hit
  • Shock Proof (EP, pg. 313): +10 bonus when resisting shock attacks

AREA 3 – LOUNGE

Chairs, tables, food fabbers

AREA 4 – SECURE ROOM

FEEDS: This room contains the hardwired security feeds from the Research Hab and Research Spike. It also processes the wireless feeds from the Security Perimeter.

DISPLAYS: By default, the security feeds are only available via the “silver snakes” which biometrically-validated users can attach to their skin. The feeds are then delivered as AR entoptics via a skinlink.

SECURITY AI: The security AI for the complex is housed in a server in this room. It has the ability to wirelessly broadcast the security feeds, but will generally try not to do that for security reasons.

• Performs a security handshake with the Research AI once per hour.

AREA 5 – BARRACKS

Bunks for six.

DREAMLOGGER: One of the pillows is Dominic’s Dreamlogger, designed to record a person’s dreams while they sleep.

• ACCESSING: Requires bypassing a firewall; Infosec test (-20). The data is essentially an XP recording and must be either experienced or processed into a visual feed (which would require additional tests).
• CONTENTS: Roughly six days after coming onsite, Dominic begins experiencing increasingly disturbing dreams (see Basilisk Dreams, pg. 4).

AREA 6 – BARRACKS

Bunks for six.

AREA 7 – BATHROOM

With a feed line to the fabbers in area 3.

Go to Part 4: Research Hab

Go to Part 1

The crater is roughly 300 meters across.

Mars Fresh Impact Crater, 17 January 2009. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

SECURITY PERIMETER

Direct Action has established their security perimeter with a 1 km diameter (350 meters from the edge of the crater).

MONOFILAMENT SPIMES: These spimes are dropped as “metal marbles” which uncoil to a height of seven feet. Once uncoiled, they’re nothing more than thin, silver threads.

• SENSORS: Monitored by the Sensor AI; 10% chance that the feed is also being monitored by a human.
  • HYPERSPECTRAL: +20 Perception modifier (Panopticon, pg. 162)
  • INFRARED: With active infrared lighting at night (+10 Perception modifier).
  • INFRASOUND: Capable of detect footprints within 20 feet (+30 Perception modifier).
• DETECTING:
  • SNIFFING: Interfacing test to detect the signal; Infosec (-30) to decrypt
  • SURPRISE: Infiltration vs. Perception; on success, spot the spimes before being spotted by them. (+10 to Infiltration test if a Perception (-30) test is passed to spot the almost invisible silver stalks.)
• X: The “x” on the map indicates a hole in the spime coverage where a ridge blocks the sight line of the nearest spime.

FLYING SERPENTS: Two flying serpents orbit the security perimeter. These security bots look somewhat similar to a Chinese dragon. They have railguns bolted to their sides, they shoot plasma out of their mouth, and they have a seeker that can pop out of their underbelly.

• TRACKS: When not in response mode, the flying serpents are snaking along the security perimeter. The deep groove of the track they’ve worn is easy to spot and trivial (-30 test) to identify.
• REACTION: If any monofilament spimes go offline, a flying serpent will fly there at top speed (arriving in 1d10 action turns). Both flying serpents will be scrambled as part of a reaction to known intruders.

---

FLYING SERPENTS: Snake 4/16, Thrust Vector 8/60 (max 200 kph), Armor 16/16, DUR 60, WT 12

+5 COO, +5 SOM, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Vision, LIDAR, Neurachem, Oracles, Radar, Radar Absorbent (Panopticon, pg. 149), Structural Reinforcement, T-Ray Emitter

Railgun Assault Rifle (x2): AP -9, DV 2d10+8 – SA, BF, FA – 30 ammo

Plasma Rifle: AP -8, DV 3d10+20 – SA – 10 ammo

Underbarrel Seeker: 3 concussion seekers, 3 EMP seekers

---

LOCATION ROSTER – CRATER X-91

* Basic Crater Security can use the exoskeleton in Security HQ 1, see stat block.

Go to Part 3: Security HQ

FIREWALL BRIEFING

The PCs receive a briefing packet via their RED PRIORITY dead drops (the dead drops they are to check at least once daily and which are to be used only for the most time-critical of assignments).

BRIEFING:

• Three days ago, a second-pass data analysis algorithm detected abnormalities while cross-referencing near-Mars sensor data.
• Interpolating the data sources revealed an unregistered asteroid that was evidencing deliberate and possibly active cloaking of its albedo.
• Three weeks ago, this asteroid impacted the surface of Mars in the Terra Sirenum, several thousand klicks south of Pathfinder City in a sparsely populated portion of the planet.
• This was sufficient to elicit interest.
• When the orbital path of the asteroid was traced, it was found to have originated 10 years ago from V-2011/Caldwell: The location of The Vulcanoid Gate.
• In other words, the asteroid had either been ejected from the Vulcanoid Gate (or possibly launched by a TITAN as it passed through the gate) during the final days of the Fall.
• We also know that a Direct Action militia team has been dispatched to secure the site.

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

• Establish an onsite presence ASAP.
• Determine the purpose of the Direct Action team and, if possible, the parties responsible for their presence onsite.
• Assess the asteroid impact site for a potential existential threat.
• If a threat is identified, take whatever action is necessary to neutralize it.

BACKGROUND – CRATER X-91

• Three weeks ago an asteroid impacted the surface of Mars and left a crater several hundred meters across. This is unusual because most asteroids of this size are identified and have their orbits altered before impact (although errors and oversights are not unheard of).
• Shortly before or after the impact, an organization or individual we’ll refer to as the Host became aware of the asteroid:
  • It was evidencing deliberate and possibly active cloaking of its albedo.
  • Tracing the orbital path of the asteroid revealed that it originated 10 years ago from V-2011/Caldwell: The location of the Vulcanoid Gate.
  • In other words, the asteroid had either been ejected from the Vulcanoid Gate (or possibly launched by a TITAN as it passed through the gate) during the final days of the Fall.

• The Host mobilized a team to take control of the impact site.
  • Within two hours, a Direct Action team had arrived at the site – termed Crater X-91 – and secured the area.
  • Three days later, research personnel and equipment began arriving onsite. Quick-fab research facilities were erected and the area was further quarantined.

WHO IS OUR HOST?

Discovering the identity of the Host of the X-91 Project is beyond the scope of this scenario. Possibilities include:

• Virtually any hypercorp
• Project Ozma
• Pathfinder
• An undercover TITAN (or its agents) still active in the solar system

The Direct Action team was hired anonymously through the hypercorp’s secure communication protocols. Direct Action might know who’s paying the bills, but nobody on the ground does.

The research team is composed entirely of forks: They woke up in new morphs, received a recorded message from their alphas which told them they had been paid very large amounts of money, and were then shipped to the job site. (Some of them had done this sort of thing before.) Their alphas might know who’s paying the bills (although that’s almost certainly obfuscated), but, once again, nobody at Crater X-91 does.

BACKGROUND – SILVER BASILISK

What’s in the crater is Silver Basilisk: An exsurgent nanoplague. Instead of a nanoswarm, however, Silver Basilisk takes the form of a strange, silver-black oil.

INFECTION:

• Anyone touching Silver Basilisk is considered infected.
• Toxin filters and medichines allow a DUR x 3 test to resist infection.

EFFECT:

• FIRST GENERATION: Those directly exposed to the concentrated form of Silver Basilisk found in the crater suffer the effects of a mindstealer strain of the exsurgent virus (EP, pg. 367).
  • Suffer 2d10 SV.
  • Succumb in COG + INT + SAV action turns.
  • Suffer -30 penalty to all tests during this time as they feel Silver Basilisk taking control.
• SECOND GENERATION: Second generation exposure to the virus will suffer the effects of a haunting strain of the exsurgent virus (EP, pg. 366), but on an accelerated timeline of weeks instead of months.
  • Stage 1 (initial infection to 3 weeks): 1d10 SV, gain Psi (Level 1), Mental Disorder, and a psi-chi sleight. Gain new psi-chi sleight every 2-4 days.
  • Stage 2 (3 weeks to 6 weeks): 1d10 ÷ 2 SV, gain Psi (Level 2). Gain new psi-gamma sleight every 2-4 days.
  • Stage 3 (6 weeks+): 1d10 ÷ 2 SV, +5 COG, +5 WIL, gain Psi (Level 3). Fully under the control of Silver Basilisk.
• ETCHING: In addition, the silver-black oil of Silver Basilisk will etch itself into the skin of victims (or press its way out, depending on how it manifests).
  • It particularly focuses on the face and, later, the eyes.
  • Stage 2: These tattoos will intensify during moments of “ascendancy” in which Silver Basilisk takes greater control of the victim.
  • Stage 3: The tattoos become permanent.

BASILISK EFFECT:

• The silver-black tattoos of a Silver Basilisk host have the effect of a basilisk hack.
  • Viewer: COG + INT + SAV test; on failure, suffer 1d10 SV and catatonic stupor for 1 minute  + 1 minute per 10 MoF.
  • Avoid: REF x 3 test to block out the sensory input.
• Silver Basilisk hosts will generally paralyze their victims and then vomit the silver-black oil into their mouths while they’re catatonic. The victim’s experience is that they look at the host’s face… and then wake up (possibly having experienced strange visions and with a bad taste in their mouth).

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

A final gift from the TITANs to transhumanity? Or was it something trying to hitch a ride with the TITANs that got caught at the last minute and forcibly ejected?

CURRENT EVENTS – BASILISK DREAMS

Those sleeping near the asteroid may experience strange and disturbing dreams:

• 20% chance of experiencing the dreams + 10% per previous time experiencing the dreams
• The dreams act as weak basilisk hacks: COG + INT + SAV + 20 test. If this fails, a single suggestion is planted in the character’s mind. (Eclipse Phase, pg. 366)

Features of the dream vary. A few possibilities:

• Corkscrewed corridors of gleaming fuligin (a material darker than black and almost nonexistent to transhuman eyes).
• Experiencing emotions that cannot be felt by transhuman minds (and certainly cannot be expressed in words); the absence of those emotions upon waking is an immense and empty sorrow shaped like a lily.
• The dream seems to end, but the character is paralyzed in their bed and a silver caul creeps up the sides of their face and covers their eyes and smothers them and plunges into their ears and eyes and nose and mouth. Then they wake up. (This dream may repeat several times.)
• Staring into a mirror at one’s own face and slowly becoming aware that some other ego is looking out from their eyes. And then the reflection turns and walks away and the mirror is a window which looks into the world which they have been locked away from. (Turning to see that the world they inhabit is filled with half-formed items that consist only of those sides and features which might be reflected in the mirror.)

Go to Part 2: Crater X-91