327: The Maas Gate

ENTRY 327: The Maas Gate

"The Pandora Gates are a universe in and of themselves; each is obviously based on the same technology, but each is also unique, yet there are no indications that one was made before the other, with no indications of refinement or development. Even the basic materials they are made of could have been made a million years ago or yesterday. Each is also complete into itself, a whole unit...except for the Maas Gate."
- Prof. Brainbug, impromptu lecture at Titan Autonomous University

The Maas Gate was discovered and claimed late in AF 9 by Kalen Maas on Tethys, buried in centuries-old ice. It was recognized early on as technology of a piece with the Pandora Gates, but with crucial differences - smaller, with a simpler interface, and partially damaged as evidenced by a sixteen centimeter burn mark on the edge of the outer torus. Kalen quickly incorporated as Maas Laboratories, and has begun construction of a new laboratory facility to study it; meanwhile the Maas Gate is kept and studied in a high-security laboratory leased from Godwinhead and originally designed for dealing with radioactive samples.

By design or damage, experimentation with the Maas Gate has shown it does not operate identically to existing gates. The gate torus is small, only twenty-eight centimeters inner diameter. There is a wormhole effect, but no means to input an address. The effect itself only remains stable for 2.4 seconds, and puts out so much electromagnetic noise that telemetry from probes is often lost or corrupted. What came as a real surprise is that 11.2 seconds after the gate effect collapses, it spontaneously activates again and ejects an object with near-identical mass to any that passed through the prior gate episode at a velocity of 4.6 m/s, often accompanied by an "exhalation" of gases. These "exchange masses" are always alien objects which are of sufficient dimensions to fit through the torus and within 3 grams of the mass of the initial mass, none of which have ever been recovered.

So far "exchange objects" have included micrometeorites, metal fragments, partially fossilized extraterrestrial gastropod-analogue shells and exoskeletons, a single gold-coated alnico magnet with considerable intermetallic buildup, a lightly radioactive saline/heavy water solution, and a glass tube filled with neutral gasses and inscribed with a series of lines of different thicknesses and depths. The nature of this quid-pro-quo exchange and the complete randomness of the "exchange mass" has led to both considerable theorizing about the purpose of the Maas Gate and, almost inevitably, gambling. The "lottery" method of testing with the Maas Gate has proven popular with researchers, who simply drop input masses through and receive the exchange mass for study - and many of the results are posted directly to the Mesh, where bookmakers like Maas Roulette can bet on the nature of the outcome.

The current popular theory, supported by the little sensor data relayed from probes sent through the gate-device, is that the Maas Gate hooks in to a storage and exchange system set up by the gatebuilders to facilitate communication. The only slightly-less-popular theory is that the Maas Gate is an intelligence test, and that the more crap transhumans drop through the gate the greater the likelihood that whatever comes out is going to be dangerous enough to destroy everything. Maas Labs has already limited the mass of input objects to no more than 1 kilogram, ostensibly to minimize the possibility of receiving highly unstable heavy elements in quantity, and the countermeasures have been set up to hopefully contain any alive xenobiological material or active nanoinfections that might pass through.

Using the Maas Gate

Using the Maas Gate in a game directly is tricky; although PCs could gear themselves up as micromorphs (entry 282) and maybe go exploring with no guarantee of return. Instead, the Maas Gate will primarily be used in the form of the exchange objects that it outputs, which are perfect macguffins for most games and at 1 kg +/- 3 g are eminently transportable and valuable. Concerns about the nature and purpose of the gate are real, and the internal politics at Maas Labs regarding the cavalier "lottery" approach can get quite heated, and may cause some parties to involve the PCs in one fashion or another - staging a break in to underline the need for greater security, etc.

Alternately, the gamemaster may decide that the Maas Gate is a fake, a clever prop whose properties are replicated with stage illusion and carefully planned demonstrations in front of scientists. The electromagnetic noise, the light show, the puff of smoke or gas that just happens to hide the object the moment it emerges, the inability to get good sensor data - all possible elements of an elaborate hoax. If this is the case, then Kalen Maas will laugh all the way to the bank, provided they can find someplace far enough to run when the scheme is exposed.

285: The Mortal Diamonds

ENTRY 285: The Mortal Diamonds

"And when they die, their end shall be as the sparks that fly from the hammer of God as it strikes the anvil of creation, seeds of stars cast off to reflect the divine."
- Lynn of Mitchell

There is a treasure that few would have the heart to steal. One million carats or more of high-pressure diamonds, created from the Lucifer's Hammer project on Jupiter, crafted from the cremains of some of those who died during the Fall. They are the honored dead, transfigured to immortal carbon, for that is all that remains of them. One of the great treasures of the Jovian Junta, the Mortal Diamonds are on perpetual display in a memorial-shrine at Liberty on Ganymede.

Seeds

• The Planetary Consortium asks the PCs to take on a daring mission: infiltrate the Junta on Ganymede, and swap out some of the Mortal Diamonds for fakes that contain passive spy bugs.
• Within the Junta, a gauche faction in The Castle is planning on making their own memorial, the Mortal Diamonds II. This seems sacrilegious (as well as extremely poor taste) to some of the more restrained Jovians, and through an intermediary they approach the PCs to disrupt this effort by stealing the diamonds intended for the second memorial - the PCs, as outsiders, are utterly deniable, but the media outrage at their crime could have serious consequences if they are caught.
• Five years ago, transmissions from the Junta reported a failed attempt to steal the Mortal Diamonds, and the pirates had fled to the Court of Zeus. Now, a friend of the PCs approaches them with a carefully pieced-together map, supposedly showing where the thieves landed - and of course, a story about how they must have gotten away with something, or the Junta wouldn't have wasted so much effort for so many years trying to track them down.
• Miracles! is the word of the day on Ganymede...a debate has erupted in the Holy See on accounts of visions that have occurred to pilgrims who have visited the shrine. Scientists are examining the chamber and combing through the case histories, looking for what phenomena may be behind the rash of hallucinations, while a faction within the populace and the church urge the pope to declare it a true miracle. The PCs are asked to investigate by a minor mediacorp, which is willing to pay their expenses as they pursue the story...up to a certain point, anyway.
• The PCs are hired to assist the Planet Killer (entry 048) in stealing the mortal diamonds - and thanks to his plan they succeed, and get away clean. Only to discover that the Planet Killer intends to use the diamonds as ultrahard shrapnel in an antipersonnel weapon designed to wipe Liberty off the face of Ganymede. Can the PCs stop the Killer in time? Will they?
• Not all the Mortal Diamonds lay in the Junta's hands. The artist-engineer who designed the memorial kept two two-carat diamonds crafted from the cremains of his parents, and took them with him when he later defected to the Planetary Consortium. The Junta is eager to have these final diamonds to complete their memorial, and are willing to go to great lengths to retrieve them...even murder. Corned by the Junta's agents, the engineer passes them on to the PCs. Now they hold some of the most precious stones in the solar system, and everyone will be looking for them.

246: The Crypt

ENTRY 246: The Crypt

Any Firewall agent that’s around long enough hears rumors about the Crypt. The secret, secure storage unit where archivists keep the most dangerous and important fragments of Firewall’s ongoing struggle against exsurgent threats. Samples of exsurgent viruses, alien artifacts, a library of confiscated basilisk hacks…some scuttlebutts like to throw in rumors of “lost” technologies, a hidden Pandara Gate, a live TITAN, major religious artifacts from Earth, a zoo of psi-capable transhumans and animals (and one really pissed-off toaster), the only known dracomorph, proof that ghosts exist, the cryogenic chamber hold Adam and Lucy the back-hacked common genetic ancestors of all transhumanity… Legends grow in the telling; some of the archivist queue even spreads them deliberately.

The truth is a little more colloquial: yes, Firewall does contain a secret secure storage facility, codenamed Crypt, which is managed by a queue of archivists. However, most of the material is rather mundane: secure backups of critical files, and a scattering of artifacts, cell samples, exsurgent virus cultures, etc. Nor is there any one single hidden facility hiding beneath a lavafall in the depths of Mars or only accessible if you put in the “Zero Code” on a Pandora Gate (what does happen if you do that is still classified for the next hundred and fifty years, but the last time it almost wiped out Extropia). Instead, the Crypt is maintained pretty much wherever the archivists can find the space, often with secure storage facilities being fitted into the unused spaces between walls and exterior bulkheads in habitats. The archivists prefer a modular honeycomb setup of self-secured cells with a hexagonal cross-section that can be easily stacked and magnetically bond together.

The main security device for such systems is to remain hidden, but each cell also typically contains a shaped charge sufficient to destroy the contents if anyone tries to tamper with them or open one without giving the right answers (selected by a philosophical expert system with several “trap questions”). Archivists also tend to come up with their own security systems, preferring small modular systems like overlapping sensor nets tied to particle beam bolters, spiders that “spin” webs of nanowire in dead spaces, and “radiation leak” false alarms coupled with low-level microwave agonizers to discourage unauthorized personnel.

The downside of this distributed approach is that sometimes a given Crypt is discovered and needs to be relocated quickly and quietly, or one or more items might need to be recovered either because it was stolen or escaped. In these circumstances, archivists are generally given the authority and resources to impress any local Firewall personnel or regular stringers to help them recover the missing material or help see to its safe transfer.

The Crypt system does include a few “megacells” which are essentially prisons for certain transhumans who are too important to destroy but cannot be trusted with their freedom. Such sites are usually located at brinker outposts or within existing prison habitats as special administrative solitary blocks. The most hazardous individuals are restrained (and sedated) at secure private medical facilities, but the cost of such incarceration generally prevents Firewall from overindulging in that option.

222: The Painted Diamond

ENTRY 222: The Painted Diamond

A clear cube eight centimeters on a side, created by layering thousands of microscopic sheets of artificial diamond one atop the other. Each sheet has been subject to selective irradiation, causing the normally clear diamond to take on color in specific shapes and places. Together, these discolorations form a 4 x 4 x 4 cubic array of sixty-four three-dimensional characters, evenly spaced apart. If a light source is shone through any of the cube’s faces, an image of sixteen characters is projected onto the opposite surface; each face yields a unique “page” of such text. Nanoscopic examination of the surface of the cube reveals scratches commensurate with extreme age, as well as a greenish-amber discoloration of one corner that suggests accidental exposure to a neutron bombardment. The object as a whole is slightly radioactive.

Using the Painted Diamond

There is a joy to discovery that is often lost on players in roleplaying games; with so much great material to draw from many players and gamemasters are content with having their characters visit within the mapped confines of the game setting, and rarely venture much beyond it. Yet there is something to be said for uncovering something new and unexpected that is very enriching to a game. The artifact described above is essentially a macguffin that a gamemaster can place in their game—anywhere, from embedded in the center of an asteroid or comet to some distant exoplanet, in a hypercorp lab or on the auction block at the local habitat, as an object of worship or as payment for a gig. It may be of transhuman or alien manufacture: humans have been manufacturing artificial diamonds for decades before the Fall and using radiation to purposefully “paint” diamonds by selectively discoloring them for some decades before that, yet the “stacking” technology of the multiple diamond layers is likely outside the known limits of transhuman manufacturing—at least, the publicly known limits—so perhaps it is the result of some advanced alien race.

This is, then, a prompt for players and gamemasters alike: who are the diamond painters that made this artifact? Where is it found, and in what circumstances? What do the symbols mean—do they form an actual text that can be translated, or a map? Perhaps the cube represents a set of six gate coordinates. The possibilities are endless, and the gamemaster is encouraged to listen as the players wonder out loud, and perhaps incorporate some of their ideas into the history and purpose of the cube. Whatever players and gamemasters come up with, the cube is likely to be worth a great deal for someone, and unlocking its secrets could be the subject of many adventures…or perhaps something unveiled a bit at a time, new cryptic hints revealed session by session as the PCs go about their other missions.

Seed

• A contact of the PCs who has been evaluating the markings on the cube believes that they form a gate code—one that no-one has ever visited before. Arranging the meeting, the PCs pass through the gate to find themselves in a cubic room, each face of which has sixteen cubic holes. Many of these depressions are empty, but that still leaves several dozen other diamond cubes like the ones the PCs own…the only question is, is this a trap set by the diamond painters, to lure gate-using races to a world they cannot escape from?

190: The Mirror of Earth

ENTRY 190: The Mirror of Earth

Luna. Weeks before the Fall. An artist called San Julian prepared a very special long-exposure photographic plate on the surface of Mars, the work of months of planning, calculation, and construction. A photograph the size of a football field—and it captured, in extraordinary detail, one full revolution of the Earth as it was. Captured there is humanity’s homeworld at the height of its civilization—not the darkened, burnt, and scarred face it shows today.

The significance of this achievement was not widely recognized given the more immediate concerns of the Fall. The Mirror was partially covered, and forgotten. The edges, which were thinner and most vulnerable to damage have partially cracked and fractured. Scroungers made off with whatever equipment was left, and may have broken up the whole plate for scrap silver if they hadn’t been discovered by Lunar explorers, out delving through forgotten outposts for a thrill. With re-discovery came recognition that this priceless record of Earth-that-was must be protected, and made available.

Today, the Mirror of Earth is regarded as something of a monument, carefully preserved within a special dome facility built over the vulnerable, fragile plate to keep it safe. Restoration artists work on the damaged boundaries, while high-quality digital scans of the Mirror have been archived on the Mesh, there for anyone to see, and if they are old enough to remember, where humanity came from…and where it might yet someday return.

Using The Mirror of Earth

At its most basic, The Mirror of Earth is a point of interest and nostalgia—a monument as distinct for Luna as the Statue of Liberty is for New York City, a public place where PCs and NPCs might meet, and a stage upon which to enact their struggles against a suitably awesome backdrop. On another level, The Mirror of Earth is a work of art, and like many works of art is probably not alone in its generation. The mysterious San Julian (who disappeared during the Fall, and may or may not be alive) may have done early, smaller models of The Mirror of Earth that remain to be discovered, and are worth a princely sum (if sold) or a considerable boost in rep (if donated to the public); likewise, San Julian might have gone on to attempt a similar Mirror of Mars waiting to be discovered. The Mirror itself may contain secrets of old pre-Fall Earth, unwittingly captured and kept in plain view.

Finally, and most importantly, The Mirror of Earth is potent to destroy. It is unique, and even the high-resolution digital copies cannot capture the full details of the analog technique that went into its manufacture. There is a real sense of loss that may come with the Mirror’s destruction, and the depth of its effect on NPCs may well affect the players as well. If you as the gamemaster are in need of a suitable target for a bit of supervillainy or terrorism, there are few as iconic and emotion-laden spots—but it is new to players, so you won’t disrupt anyone’s view of the setting if it suddenly goes kaboom.

172: The Neptunium Skull

ENTRY 172: The Neptunium Skull

Distance impedes nearly all communication; both the physical distance measured in kilometers and the conceptual distance between one ego and another, or one community and another. Information comes through various channels and becomes distorted or misinterpreted in passing from one receiver to the next, rumors growing as they are told and retold, and even the most diligent wiki on the Mesh cannot perfectly control all of what its members post. Space gives birth to legends.

One such legend regards the Neptunium Skull: 59.88 kg of neptunium-236, cast or carved or otherwise shaped into the semblance of the skull of a human female. Those are the facts; the rest is mostly conjecture. Its likely first appearance was a line on a security report from Rhea, when an “irregular near-critical mass” of neptunium was listed as among the missing following a break-in at a radioactive materials storage facility. A few weeks later, a Ruster yegg fresh from a “honeymoon” on Saturn died of radiation poisoning, mumbling about a skull—her partner/wife escaped custody and was never seen again. The first “official” sighting was when the St. Catherine Tong handed over the Skull to the administration of New Quebec, in exchange for the release of sixteen of its members from various forms of incarceration or service. The accepting official, Davier Jose Cheecha, was later indicted in scandal when the skull disappeared from its secure vault, and fled for the Outer Rim.

So the tales go, on and on—the Neptunium Skull crops up here and there throughout the solar system, an objective of inestimable worth and danger, leaving a trail of broken lives and contamination in its wake.

Mechanics

The Neptunium Skull is radioactive. Any unshielded exposure to the Neptunium Skull results in radiation poisoning for biomorphs (see Eclipse Phase, p.201); synthmorphs tend to become contaminated and may suffer flawed and corrupted backups, as well as passing the contamination on to others by exposure. Currently, due to shape, density, and mass the Neptunium Skull is subcritical and will not create a sustained nuclear reaction. This can be easily overcome however, so there remains the possibility that under the right conditions the Neptunium Skull can be converted into a nuclear weapon. The effects of this happening are left up to the gamemaster, but should probably involve “BIG BADDA BOOM” and radiation poisoning and contamination for any nearby morphs that survive.

Using the Neptunium Skull

A deadly sort of MacGuffin, the Neptunium Skull represents an object of nearly incalculable worth and danger all rolled into one. The industrial effort required to synthesize and separate that much neptunium-236 is tremendous, the idea that it is running loose in the solar system-wide grey market frightening. While not apparently designed for use in a nuclear weapon, the mass is sufficient that it could easily be used for such a purpose. However, the greater appeal of the Neptunium Skull is: who made it, and why? The shape and properties of the Neptuniun Skull also make it easy to transfer legends of real-life “cursed” and apocryphal objects like the Hope Diamond or the Crystal Skulls to the Neptunium Skull; some deluded individuals may even believe that the Skull contains the ability to enhance psi powers in some fashion. NPCs may play up this and other reputed powers of the skull, but the very real threat of carrying a massive ingot of refined radioactive isotope should be more than sufficient threat for most players.

171: Cuidad

ENTRY 171: Cuidad

On the surface of Mars, at the edge of the Tharsis plateau, stands a monolith in the shape of a steeply-angled, flat-topped pyramid eight meters tall, and six meters on a side at the base. The surface appears to be granite, of shade just to the red of black, and in the right light parts of it seem to sparkle where metal filaments and piezoelectric crystals meet the surface. Its name is Cuidad, and they claim to be the first stonemorph in transhuman history.

While the details of the design remain proprietary, Cuidad claims that his morph is a single massive solid-state device, the product of a new discipline called geoelectronics, and that barring seismic cataclysm or accident his morph will last ten thousand years, until the hard shell is weathered away by the winds and waters of a terraformed Mars. The truth of that claim remains unproven, though visitors to Cuidad have noted sonar and x-ray scans do show that the structure appears almost entirely solid, and with a high degree of electrical activity.

What is known is that the Cuidad stonemorph is extremely limited in its abilities—immobile, with none of the typical transhuman senses, they perceive the world entirely through a refined electrical sense, judging distance, velocity, and even shape through varying capacitance between nearby objects and its stone skin. Cuidad’s only “natural” means of communication is the production of weak electrical signals, but these are boosted and converted by its Mesh inserts into something other transhumans can interpret. Hermitical by nature, Cuidad enjoys its isolation, both geographical and sensory. Most of its time is spent directing a handful of robots to sculpt the surrounding landscape, and interpreting the seismic data it receives.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	15	15	5	14	-	20	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
4	1	40	8	60	1600	200	2400

Morph: Stonemorph (Unique)

Skills: Academics: Geography (Mars) 65, Academics: Geology (Mars) 70, Academics: Geophysics 70, Academics: Seismology 55, Art: Landscaping (Xenoscaping) 52, Hardware: Electronics (Geoelectronics) 64, Interests: Martian Vulcanism 56, Interests: Zen Gardens 34, Interfacing 45, Language: Native Portuguese 84, Language: English 73, Language: French 70, Language: Spanish 70, Networking: Martian Mining Hypercorps 60, Networking: Scientists 25, Profession: Seismologist 66, Scrounging 25

Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Electrical Sense, Seismograph

Armor: 30

Notes: Immobile, no hands, linked to five Dwarf robots (Eclipse Phase, p.345) which manipulate its environment when necessary.

Using Cuidad

Sometimes the NPCs come to the PCs, and sometimes the PCs have to go to the NPC—Cuidad is NPC and remote location all in one. A veritable sage on anything involving Martian volcanism, the stonemorph can be a valuable if eccentric asset, either helping the PCs out or hiring them to go on missions to investigate geological anomalies on Mars. Despite the isolated context, savvy players will probably realize that designing, building, and installing the “stonemorph” and expensive Dwarf robots suggests considerable resources on Cuidad’s part—and indeed, the monolith has a minority interest in several Martian mining corporations, and continues to act as a highly-paid consultant for several of them.

Seed

• In their last adventure, the PCs have stumbled upon a multicolored metal cube with bizarre electrical characteristics. Research into the artifact leads them to Cuidad, who recognizes it as a “geoelectronic” device, and realizes someone is pirating his designs. Cuidad will offer to hire the PCs to deal with the infringers…or, failing that, at least buy the artifact off them for a hefty sum.

164: Molly 8

ENTRY 164: Molly 8

Even Firewall makes mistakes. Molly 8 was trained as an asset, one more orphan of the Fall that nobody would miss if things went wrong, but with skills and dedication to the cause. She volunteered for the Experimental Psi-Implant program. Nothing was ever quite clear to her after that.

Molly 8’s escape from Firewall containment was messy. Her mental state since then has continued to degrade, though she remains generally functional in society. Instincts or the remainder of her training convince her to change her face and name frequently, to seek out the edges or lowest levels of society, and to generally keep on the move. She no longer remembers who exactly is looking for her, but she knows it has something to do with her powers.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
12	13	15	15	8	12	50	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	100	10	200	40	8	60

Morph: Remade

Skills: Academics: Neurochemistry 60, Academics: Linguistics 60, Blades 45, Climbing 55, Clubs 45, Deception 80, Disguise 65, Fray 45, Free Fall 45, Freerunning 45, Impersonation 65, Infiltration 60, Infosec 60, Interests: Firewall 55, Interests: Psi 55, Interests: Psychiatric Drugs 55, Kinesics 45, Language: Native English 85, Language: Korean 50, Language: Spanish 50, Language: Mandarin 50, Networking: Criminals 40, Palming 45, Perception 55, Profession: Scrap Merchant 55, Profession: Spycraft 55, Spray Weapons 25, Unarmed Combat 55

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Enhanced Respiration, Experimental Psi-Implant, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters

Traits: Addiction (Psike-Out, Major), Exceptional Aptitude (WIL), Mental Disorders (ADHD, General Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia, PTSD), Neural Damage (Dyslexia, Mood Swings, Synaesthesia), Uncanny Valley

Experimental Psi-Implant

The experimental psi-implant administers is a combination of dozens of drug glands tied to specialized medical sensors and a computerized controlled center. It releases controlled doses of various psi drugs into Molly’s system, either on a preset schedule or on command. At any given time Molly 8 has 3 different doses of Psi-Opener running through her system, giving her access to 2 Psi-Chi and 1 Psi-Gamma sleight (determined by the gamemaster); Molly can also voluntarily activate a dose of Psike-Out once every hour. A command override signal to the implant will cause it to release a dose of Inhibitor once every six hours. It was hoped that the continued circulation of psi-drugs would enable Molly 8 to develop Psi skills, but instead the continual mental stress and her constantly changing brain chemistry have left her almost insane.

Seed

• Molly 8 was a failure. Molly 9 was a success—but she went rogue. Molly 9 is smart enough to time her psi-drug intake, and knows exactly when she’ll have what sleights available to her, and is working to upgrade herself even further, by stealing a tech device that might grant her access to exsurgent-only psi sleights. Firewall wants Molly 9 brought down, but she has already defeated three teams. As far as Firewall can see, the only hope is to recruit Molly 8 to help hunt down her “sister”; maybe then the player characters will have a chance.

148: Gravity Bridge

ENTRY 148: Gravity Bridge

Ruby is an exoplanet accessible through the Martian Gate, an irregularly shaped planetoid that shows signs of heavy industrialization orbiting a red giant somewhere on the far side of the Crab Nebula. The gate is located on the lip of an open-pit mine, one of fifteen such bores on the exoplanet’s surface, and the first explorer fell three hundred meters down the terraced slope before it could arrest its fall. Soil samples indicate the race who built it was probably mining for radioactive materials, especially a particularly blazing form of aluminum oxide contaminated and splendidly colored by native uranium ores to yield rainbow-shifted rubies, some up to ten centimeters long. The center of the pit is filled with waste materials from the mining and processing operations that must once have been a major concern: there are at least three hundred metric tons of radioactive slag, spent fuel rods, and assorted other junk piled into the middle of the hole. On any other exoplanet, the prospect of picking through the toxic and radioactive waste from the abandoned mining station of an apparently space-going alien civilization would be counted as a major win—but Ruby has something more: the Gravity Bridge.

Hanging above the horizon and about a hundred kilometers from Ruby in a parallel orbit around the red giant is an artificial satellite, a ring of metal with an inner diameter of 16.3 meters—more than big enough for a ship or ore container to pass through. If a viewer on the surface stares up and looks straight through the ring, they notice something weird: the stars and planets seem to shift toward the center. The first observers considered it an optical illusion; subsequent tests proved that gravity within the ring really was abnormal, producing approximately 30g of acceleration passing from the side facing Ruby to the other side. Ships (or anything, really) that approach within a kilometer or so will be sucked in and accelerated at a leisurely 300 meters/second squared, usually hitting a velocity of a couple thousand kilometers per second by the time they leave the trailing area of the effect. Fine for rocks, not so good for organics.

The Gravity Bridge is plainly a one-way device for speeding up transport from Ruby to whatever the bridge was pointed at—currently the ring appears to be oriented toward an asteroid belt 53 million kilometers distant that might have been a fair-sized planet at one point. It would have been a cost-efficient method for a long-term mining. Researchers speculate the patch of distorted space-time is caused by exotic matter from within the satellite itself, though they’ve been slow and careful in their examination so far, afraid to break the device, which they believe might be a primitive precursor to Pandora gate technology.

Mechanics

The surface of Ruby is a mildly radioactive near-vacuum with very low gravity (0.1g); anyone that jumps to hard will find themselves falling into space, drifting toward the Gravity Bridge, accelerated very quickly indeed and flung out in space in an arc that would eventually take them to an asteroid field that may or may not contain the debris of a former spacefaring civilization. Alternately, characters can not do that and take a ship, which is generally safer.

Seed

• A medium-sized automated explorer vessel with a resleeving station and a group of synthmorphs was pushed through the Gravity Bridge and with the gravity assist has reached the asteroid belt in record time. The call has gone out for gatecrashers willing to do an initial survey—a job slated to last at least twenty-four months (including two months training and prep), but with a massive payout at the end with plenty of bonuses if the characters find anything interesting. If the PCs want the job, they’ll probably have to call in every favor they ever owed and stretch their rep to the max…but at the end of the two-year mission, they’ll either be dead or rolling in fortune and glory.

147: Blackbodies

ENTRY 147: Blackbodies

Transhumanity is not alone in the universe, but it need not bother the Factors or gate to an exoplanet for proof. They were first revealed by Eva Motowski, an ice prospector/scientist mapping the slow tidal movements of Saturn’s rings, caused by some of the shepherd moons that prevent the rings from dispersing. Overlapping measurements from different angles revealed the presence of a small, angular superblack object which Motowski speculated might be carbon agglutination. A probe sent into the region found no trace of it, but reports of similar artifacts came in from Jol Kebana, an amateur astronomer on Titan. The ice prospector and astronomer collaborated, seeking out other telescopes and sensors pointed in the right direction at the right time, and over the course of several weeks traced out a probable trajectory for the object. Presenting their data, they convinced the operators of three radio telescopes to direct their equipment toward a specific region of trans-Saturnian space for a period of 72 hours.

This time, there were four of them.

That was the last time the blackbodies were seen around Saturn, although a handful of possible sightings have been made around Neptune. Consensus in the scientific community about the nature of the blackbodies is fairly solid: small superblack craft whose hulls absorb the majority of electromagnetic radiation, or at least the kinds of light and radio waves that transhumanity typically uses in its long-range sensors. In theory this is near-perfect camouflage so long as the vessel is not viewed only against black space in a vacuum. The effect is not perfect however, so that different angles absorb and emit slightly more or less energy; a single telescope might get lucky, two or more pointed at the same spot from different angles are much more likely to pick up the craft.

Questions remain, however. If the surmise on the technology is correct, the vessels should build up a vast amount of waste heat—all the energy it absorbs and does not emit. Aside from the heat problem, the technology involved is within current transhuman capabilities. Given that, it is reasonable to assume the blackbodies’ originate from one of the existing factions, the Factors, or the TITANs, though certain parties still prefer the idea of a new, unknown extraterrestrial race that is spying on transhumanity prior to making contact. The Factors for their part have not answered any questions about the craft, and none of the major factions have demonstrated craft with similar capabilities so far.

Seed

• Jol Kebana has a divergent theory about the blackbodies: they think that blackbodies actually are a carbon-based lifeform native to Saturnian orbit, and that the angular shape represents the “tacking” of its natural light sails. Using some arcane calculations (and half-assed guesses), Jol believes that the blackbodies will return in the wake of Saturn’s moon Pan—and wants the PCs stationed at different points with cameras to capture a good close-up look at it. Floating alone in space to capture a maybe-living superblack object…nothing could go wrong with that, except perhaps a pirate ship inspired by the blackbody sightings to mimic their appearance.

138: The Reliquary Cluster

ENTRY 138: The Reliquary Cluster

Shortly after the Factors announced their presence, astronomers noticed an artificial satellite orbiting Uranus—what appeared at first to be a conglomeration of large, irregularly shaped, partially translucent solid organic polymers with darker objects apparently embedded within. When questioned about the artifact, the Factors displayed their famous reticence, but later sent a probe to attach a navigational beacon to the satellite, which broadcasts a generic warning in fifty human languages to any vessel that comes within about one-hundred and fifty kilometers. The presence of the artificial satellite as much as anything else is responsible for rumors of a Factor settlement in the atmosphere of Uranus.

While all of the Factor’s trading partners have a tacit agreement not to interfere with the object, nearly all of them have trained their telescopes and more exotic sensors on it, and any vessel that goes anywhere vaguely near Uranus on any pretext is sure to have all of its sensor time purchased or rented by various anonymous parties. As a result of this surveillance, researchers have confirmed early reports: the object is a collection of heterogenous macromolecules similar to amber, with colors ranging from red-green to a deep orange-purple, varying in size from clusters less than an inch in diameter to monoliths up to ten meters long. Trapped inside these pseudogems are what appear to be hundreds or thousand examples of xenofauna—everything from insects to a multilimbed critter the size of a small whale, though most appear to be only fragmentary remains such as heads, limbs, shells, and organs. All of the visible specimens appear to suffer the typical degeneration one would expect of long preservation, though a few appear remarkably well preserved.

Speculation on what purpose the Reliquary Cluster may serve the Factors—if it does indeed belong to them, and is not an artifact of the TITANs or some forgotten human faction—is rampant among those who know of its existence; while no-one openly advertises the satellite’s existence for fear of offending the Factors, its existence is a fairly open secret to most of the major governments and hypercorps. The most paranoid believe that the Reliquary Cluster is a honeytrap, designed to lure transhumanity in with its vast trove of xenobiologicals, while others suspect it is a storage facility for when the Factors eventually leave this system.

Mechanics

The Reliquary Cluster is an irregularly shaped jumble of spaceborn amber (or something close enough to it) about 500 meters in diameter, though density studies suggest it isn’t solid and there are probably open spaces or chambers within the body of the object, possibly with atmosphere. On the surface there is no atmosphere, no gravity to speak of, and no more radiation than typical around Uranus, making it safe enough for a spacewalk barring whatever protections the gamemaster may choose to have installed on or around the site. Most transhumans have difficulty looking at the Reliquary Cluster, as the colors of the amber are outside the typical spectrum of human sight; this applies a -30 modifier to Perception Tests when trying to observe any part of the object, including when on the surface.

131: The Locker

ENTRY 131: The Locker

In life, they estimate, the beast would have been just a hair over a hundred meters tall, and weighed up to 60,000 metric tons. The first gatecrashers emerged in a hall, a portion of its central spine running along the roof, twenty meter-long vertebrae whose spiny protrusions merged seamlessly with the arching rib-analogues on the outside of the chamber. It wasn’t dark exactly, but most of the light in the ultraviolet spectrum and the air was hot and humid—hovering around 188 degrees Celsius, with an atmosphere laced with hydrofluoric acid that swirled around as a supercritical fluid, condensing on the smooth, cold ribs that faced vacuum. The floor was littered with the corroded remains of dozens of other beings—shells, bones, scraps of clothing and equipment, anything organic, plastic, or glass was highly degraded, and most of the rest had pooled and solidified on the floor under a rime of salt. Short on time, the gatecrashers did a quick survey, took some samples, and retreated back through the gate just before their morphs disintegrated.

There wasn’t much to tell: it was a space-going vessel at least eighty meters long, no crew visible, though almost certainly built by aliens. And they had built it out of the carcass of the most massive megafauna anyone had ever yet recorded. The survivors of the first mission called it the Locker, joking that it was where gatecrashers went to die, and the name stuck.

Mechanics

While first accessed through the Vulcanoid Gate, the Locker is also accessible from the Pandora Gate. The atmosphere in the locker is both toxic and corrosive (Eclipse Phase, p.201), though not quite as corrosive as Venus (damage is only 5 points of damage per minute). Temperature is the other major issue; even a biomorph with temperature tolerance (p.305) or vacuum sealing (p.306) will succumb within a few minutes—less if they stumble into a pool of hydrofluoric acid. The preferred expedition gear for exploring the Locker is a modified hard suit (p.334) with anti-corrosion coating and improved cooling, and even those operate at the upper limits of material tolerances, which mean the suits are no longer self-sealing.

Seeds

• The last survey of the Locker has revealed what researchers believe is a vacuum-lock leading to the outside hull. While conditions inside the alien craft are hellish, pure vacuum would actually be easier to handle, and if conditions are suitable a small research station or supply point could even be erected on the outside of the craft. TerraGenesis is looking for a few good gatecrashers to go through the Vulcanoid Gate, navigate forty meters of passages partially carved from the bones of some indescribably massive beast, and then venture through an air lock into what everyone hopes is hard vacuum. It’s a big rep boost and a pile of creds for anyone that survives!
• The last group of gatecrashers into the Locker has gone dark and have not returned. Their last transmissions spoke of a possible exsurgent synthmorph and something attacking them. TerraGenesis is looking to launch a rescue mission through the Vulcanoid Gate, but Firewall has caught wind of it and assembles a seek-and-destroy team to go through the Pandora Gate. The PCs can join either group—only to find themselves facing off against not only their opposite numbers, but a group of shifters (p.370) eerily adapted to the environment, able to operate without the corrosive effects.

068: Spetälsksbok

ENTRY 068: Spetälsksbok

Recovered from the dead extraterrestrial Iktomi civilization on Echo V, the Spetälsksbok was reportedly part of a parcel of alien artifacts looted and brought back through the Pandora Gate, but the expedition suffered a mechanical failure and died before returning. A subsequent recovery mission by Gatekeeper located the craft, including the skinless remains of one crewmember holding the damaged Spetälsksbok, and the alien artifact was flagged as a potential biohazard and placed in a quarantine archive.

Spetälsksbok was removed from the archive after it was observed “eating” airborne dead skin and hair cells. Subsequent scientific examination of the webbing-like structure revealed it consists of variegated filaments of keratin around a monolithic core of viral machinery hosted by symbiotic radiophage bacteria.  The Spetälsksbok captures environmental sources of keratin to repair and rebuild damaged sections of the object—basically, a highly-developed and durable bioengineered artifact. The presence of nearby radiation sources awakens the dormant bacteria, which powers the viral machinery’s capture of nearby keratin sources—including the skin, nails, and hair from the majority of biomorphs if they get too close.

Physically, the Spetälsksbok resembles a fractal structure of lace-like branches up to ten centimeters in length, surrounding a sixty-centimeter long spun cone of the same material; though the whole of the artifact has been badly damaged by some endothermic process and it is estimated a quarter of its total mass and three quarters of its surface area remain missing. Analysis of the structure of the filament branches reveals regular features suggestive of language, and the general consensus among xenoarchaeologists is that it is some form of Iktomi book. Crowdsourced analysis has identified several features of the language, with some suggested implications regarding Iktomi culture and anatomy, but so far the work remains untranslated.

Mechanics

Any biomorph who touches the Spetälsksbok with their bare skin takes 1 damage as the viral machinery infects them and breaks down the keratin in their hair, skin, and nails (and scales, feathers, horns, etc. as applicable) in the immediate area; synthmorphs and other characters without keratin are immune to this. Any implant or precautions that protect from nanoinfection are effective against the viral machinery.

Seeds

• Gatekeeper Corp has been “feeding” Spetälsksbok vat-grown keratin fibers in the presence of various radiation sources in the hope of causing the artifact to fully regenerate. However, one experiment has caused the Spetälsksbok to regenerate to quickly it has spawned a room-filling cancerish mass that has resulted in the deaths of four biomorphs and trapped three researchers in the lab as the fractal branches continue to grow. Gatekeeper is offering a reward for anyone that can rescue the lab researchers without substantially damaging the artifact, or in extremis shut off the radiation-source.
• A possible translation of a part of the Spetälsksbok reveals what may be a map of Iktomi settlements on Echo V—including several not heretofore known, explored, or looted. Gatekeeper is asking for volunteers to check out these new sites, in exchange for a cut of the profits from whatever they bring back.

012: The Face of Man

ENTRY 012: The Face of Man

An artificial comet drifts through the solar system, out past the orbit of Saturn, a massive chunk of ice and dust with a wispy tail. While smaller than the brighter comets in orbit around Sol and little different in composition, this comet has been carved and shaped in a dozen semblances of human faces, pockmarked here and there by the craters of small impacts, hence its name. Given the size and composition of the comet, most astronomers agree that it was formed from the material of Pluto or one of the dwarf planet’s moons; a minority view holds that the Face of Man began as a transneptunian object, or is an entirely extrasolar object. How the mass was accelerated and placed in its current orbit around the sun is even less clear—while several likely technologies exist, there is no evidence of any known faction’s hand in the engineering of this feat.

There are twenty-six faces on the comet in various scales, representing a collection of human and hominid phenotypes. A slight majority of the faces are identifiably female, with the rest male or neuter, and there are at least three faces that appear to represent Neanderthal, Devosian, and an unknown hominid race, but these were either left unfinished or are the most damaged by micrometeorite impact. Given the imperfections and asymmetry of each face, it is assumed they were modeled after individual transhumans or from high-quality composite software models, but none of the models have yet been positively identified.

Image analysis of the comet suggests little as to its original sculptors, save that the style is photorealistic. Close-ups fly-bys suggest that the rock and ice were cut by lasers and smoothed by industrial sanders using artificial microdiamonds—a simple and pragmatic approach. Actually landing a probe on the comet and taking samples might reveal more information, but major factions and habitats are leery of damaging the intriguing object, and most have signed the Face Accords, which allow no direct or damaging analysis of the object without the agreement of all the signatory parties.

Seeds

• Firewall has discovered a small exhuman group on Eris believes that the Face of Man was crafted by extraterrestrials—and contains an alien artifact. They intend to land a probe in defiance of the Face Accords and drill for it. Whether they are right or wrong, Firewall intends to stop them in case they unleash an exsurgent threat...and they want the player characters to help.
• A system-wide image search has identified a strong correlation (94%) between the appearance of one of the player characters and one of the faces on the Face of Man. The player may cash in on this likeness (+10 rep), but may attract the attention of Face-watchers eager to find out the secrets of the artifact.
• A wobble in the Face of Man’s orbit threatens to take it too close to the sun, boiling off too much of the outer layers and destroying the sculpted images. The Face Accord signatories are unable to agree on a course of action, and private parties have pooled their resources to engage in a rescue mission, trying to tow or push the comet into a more stable orbit—provided they can find a crew crazy enough to do it.

005: 312 Kirby

ENTRY 005: 312 Kirby

Some evidence dug up by data archaeologists suggests that astronomers marked out 312 Kirby before the Fall, evidenced by a slight distortion on the edge of Neptune in an ancient video series from a primitive probe, but if so its original designation and supporting documentation have been lost. What is known is that 312 Kirby is a gravitic anomaly that follows an eccentric and highly inclined orbit that takes it below the plane of the ecliptic and away from the majority of planets and planetoids for most of its orbit, spending only 3 of an estimated 1100 days within the vicinity of Neptune. 

Efforts at tracking or analyzing 312 Kirby have been few and laced with difficulty; the object is very small, with estimates suggesting it may be under a meter in its longest dimension, and it has no discernible electromagnetic reflection. Transhumans studying the object rely on an scanning the area that it is estimated to appear in with polarization-sensitive differential radiometers usually reserved for deep space observation, or plotting the minute discrepancies its gravitational pull induces on Neptune and its moons. The current leading theory is that 312 Kirby is a chunk of cold degenerate matter from another system that was weakly captured by the sun’s gravity.

The wild fringe, of course, suspects that 312 Kirby may be something else entirely. Nat Akasdottir, an atmosphere skimmer that operates out of Neptune’s minor moons has noted samples of naturally-occurring deuterium in what she believes is Kirby’s usual path.  These samples have a higher proportion of hydrogen atoms per cubic meter than statistically would be normal for that area of space, and has produced an e-text claiming Kirby is an alien artifact that converts ordinary hydrogen to deuterium. 312 Kirby: A Love Story earned Akasdottir a bit of rep amoung the conspiracy crowds, but she’s lost all credibility in academic circles until she can produce something to substantiate or refute her claims.

Seeds

• Dark Gold: The time is approaching for 312 Kirby to approach Neptune again, and this time Nat Akasdottir want to get a close look at it—and possibly even capture it, thanks to a new ship designed by Starware. Now all she need is some fellow investors and a crew to man it—if the player characters have the entrepreneurial spirit, that is. Of course, Firewall will want a look at Kirby too, just in case it does turn out to be an Exsurgent threat—and what better place for a spy than in Akasdottir’s own team?
• Three Day Space Madness: The Neptunian community of Mahogany have just made an interesting correlation between the timing of 312 Kirby’s passage and rates of mental disturbance among neo-avian biomorphs, causing a minor political uproar. Half the transhumans on the station want the anomalous object destroyed, while the rest dicker about science and environmental concerns. The debate is heating up, supported by pundits from both camps. Infomorphs in the station are curious as to whether it is the approach of 312 Kirby causing this mess, or whether someone else is using that as a cover to sow chaos. They need an outside perspective, someone without a stake in the political outcome—if the player characters are willing to help, their rep will get a major boost.