TEXT: Icereach-1
  Icereach-1
  by Rob Nuttman
   
  Color Art Peter Woods 
  	
  	 Xanditz 
   
   Huy Mai Van
   
  Maps Xanditz
   
  Editing Russ Morrissey
   
  Layout Xanditz
  Incident
  Incidentat
  at
  They say bad luck comes in threes. The 
  Central Lunar colony was struck head-on by 
  an x-ray and gamma ray burst from the Sun, 
  and the corresponding mass coronal ejection 
  is imminent. Much of the colony’s personnel 
  was dispatched by lunar trawlers to shelter at 
  the southern outpost… but the solar storm’s 
  interference has fouled communications 
  between the colony and the three caravans. A 
  series of  flashes were seen in the last satellite 
  pass over the mining outpost of ICEREACH-1 
  and jolts were picked up by seismometers, 
  but Central Lunar command gets only radio 
  silence. Colonial skeleton crews are working 
  round the clock, repairing damage caused 
  by the x-ray and gamma burst, as well as 
  battening down the colony for the imminent 
  coronal mass ejection. But Central Lunar 
  command needs to know what’s going on at 
  ICEREACH.
  They were due a monthly supply run 
  anyway, and one of the old manned-descent 
  shipping containers has been taken out of 
  mothballs and recommissioned in order to 
  get eyes and ears inside ICEREACH outpost, 
  assess the situation, restore communications 
  from the outpost’s end, and either prepare for 
  the caravans’ arrival or warn them away to 
  another of the basin’s smaller outposts.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Adventure Background
  The south pole of the moon hosts the largest 
  impact crater in the Solar system, thought to have 
  been caused by a collision with another moonlet 
  in the youngest years of the Earth-moon system’s 
  formation. Cometary collisions brought ice to the 
  crater, too, discovered during the early 21st century 
  by the fledgling space exploration services of Earth. 
  When humans finally returned to the moon to lay 
  down roots, it was private industry leading the charge. 
  The United Earth governments stepped in at the last 
  minute, consolidating several independent industrial 
  colonization efforts, merging them into a single 
  multipurpose industrial/science complex, which was 
  dubbed Central Lunar colony. Resident industries 
  chafed at the additional expense of long transport 
  times of crew and cargo, and several branched out to 
  found their own, smaller self-sufficient stations and 
  outposts closer to their areas of operation.
  One such industrial outpost is the North Atlantic 
  Heavy Industries’ ICEREACH-1. They hold the 
  majority of the water-ice mining contracts with 
  earthbound corporations, as well as for Central 
  Lunar, based on the near-side. Because of their near 
  monopoly of harvesting and equipment — even 
  if the UEG were to carry out its own operations, 
  they would still use NAHI’s equipment and 
  facilities — the UEG has left the facility largely 
  alone. ICEREACH ships ice regularly and reliably, 
  and unlike many of the other remote industrial 
  sites, aren’t constantly clamoring for increases in 
  rationing, budgets, or personnel. They pass muster 
  on their quarterly inspections, and the crews return 
  from station rotation often in better condition than 
  when they left Central Lunar.
  Increased solar wind activity has fouled radio 
  communications with the facility, and the backup 
  fiber-band has likewise suffered some sort of 
  malfunction. With news of the pending massive 
  solar flare brewing, Central Lunar Command has 
  evacuated most of the main colony’s peripheral staff 
  and residents. ICEREACH-1’s deep mining staging 
  area, by way of the outpost itself, was to be their 
  primary holdout until the storm passed. One day into 
  the three-day trip by lunar trawler, a trio of flashes 
  and tremors indicating some sort of explosion have 
  put the viability of using ICEREACH in question.
  Adventure Overview
  The PCs are tasked with discovering what has 
  happened at ICEREACH-1, and reporting their 
  findings back to Central Luna, as well as contacting 
  the incoming trawlers to either warn them away, or 
  direct them to shelters. In order to do that, they’ll 
  need to stabilize the outpost’s power supplies. They 
  can then reposition the comm-sat array and resume 
  either radio or laser-burst contact with the UN-
  LUNA-6 orbital or ground-based relay stations.
  For the Game Master
  North Atlantic Heavy Industries found 
  more than just water ice in the shadows of the 
  Atinken basin. Tests of the ice returned from the 
  deeper bores were coming back with strange 
  ionic readings, and what had previously 
  been only trace amounts of odd elements 
  they’d chalked up to sample contamination 
  were now showing up in higher and higher 
  concentrations. Some weeks later, the work 
  crews came across something metallic, buried 
  deep beneath the ice — too regular in shape and 
  far too large to be any sort of meteorite.
  Further digging revealed that it could only 
  be some sort of spacecraft, of a metallic alloy 
  not known to Earth. Best guesses based on 
  its depth beneath the ice put its age at several 
  million years, though finding its age any more 
  accurately has thus far been impossible. 
  NAHI elected to keep the news under wraps 
  until they had more answers. It would not do to 
  have work disrupted when they were already 
  falling behind on their contracts.
  One of the mining crews blasted into the 
  spacecraft, coming away with a large metallic 
  cube. That artifact awakened on inspection, 
  collapsing into several biomechanical 
  exploratory drones of the machine-intelligence 
  on the buried starship, which itself was 
  beginning to awaken from a long, cold sleep.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Introduction. Happy Landing!
  A secondary explosion in one of the outpost’s 
  reactors sends up a cloud of debris, damaging the 
  PCs’ supply hauler, and also fouling comms with the 
  landing/retrieval array. They’ll either need to make 
  a hard landing, or manage a soft reset of the landing 
  array’s computer-aided gravity “net.”
  Act 1. The Lights Are On…
  The PCs will most likely be disappointed to find 
  the EVAC rover deployed by the station’s landing 
  bunker devoid of personnel — it acts autonomously, 
  on pre-programmed emergency response protocols.
  Investigation of the launch/retrieval 
  communications bunker shows signs of a hasty exit. 
  System logs indicate a spate of power surges, but 
  little else. If the PCs want more information, they’ll 
  have to journey down the 2-mile access tunnel 
  connecting the bunker to the bulk of the outpost.
  Moving from module to module, the PCs will 
  be able to see that something is definitely wrong: 
  there are signs of struggle, yet no signs of life. Their 
  investigation is hampered by unstable power: the 
  lighting and computer systems are iffy. Attempts to 
  access the stations’ computer network at any given 
  time are difficult at best until the power can be 
  stabilized or fully restored.
  Along the way, the PCs may make contact with 
  two of the survivors of the disappearances: the 
  facility director’s young daughter (a young naive 
  civilian who reads voraciously), and the remaining 
  officer of the token security detail (an alert cop who 
  secretly reads old pulp detective novels). 
  The PCs find the outpost’s access keys to restart 
  the idling second fusion reactor, the bunker for 
  which is located some five miles from the main 
  outpost dome. They encounter their first drone in 
  the reactor access bunker, manage to restart the 
  secondary fusion reactor, restoring the outpost’s life 
  support, lighting, communications and computer 
  systems… as well as providing full power to the hive 
  tree in the garden dome.
  Act 2. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?
  The PCs are greeted on their return to the outpost 
  — by the first of the cybrid-ized inhabitants hatched 
  from the freshly powered hive trees. They’ll have 
  to retrace their steps through the outpost to get to 
  the Slingshot bunker, to warn off the approaching 
  Central Luna trawlers. The PCs progress will be 
  hampered by either more cybrid-ized outpost 
  personnel or packs of Entity hunters. 
  Nanite Conversion Sickness
  Illness
  Transmission
  Pool
  Interval
  Difficulty
  Effect
  Nanite 
  conversion
  Injury
  END
  Hourly
  Demanding [21] Mobility/Death
  The first phase of the nanite infection attacks 
  the victim’s nervous system, as the nanites begin 
  spinning out nano-filament bio-wiring, taking 
  greater and greater control of the voluntary 
  muscular system. As the victim moves from 
  autonomous control to being slaved to the Entity, 
  the victim is paralyzed once the first phase’s 
  END countdown reaches zero, and hunters 
  then move the body to a hive tree for further 
  conversion. 
  The second phase of the infection begins a 
  second END countdown within a hive tree 
  cocoon, where the victim’s skeletal and muscular 
  system are reinforced. The biowiring and 
  cytronic circuitry is expanded in the victim’s 
  brain, and its sensory organs are replaced with 
  superior synthetics. Because ICEREACH-1 
  has been operating under backup power, this 
  conversion follows a slow countdown. If full 
  power is restored, the hive tree conversion 
  process speeds up to a medium countdown. 
  Cutting power, to either the entire station or just 
  the garden dome stops the countdown.
  Once the countdown reaches 0, the victim 
  emerges a mechanoid under total control of the 
  Entity, a slave to its will.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Act 3. Cybrids & Nanites
  The PCs should notice that the cybrids all 
  seem to be trying to get to the same “spoke” 
  — the access way leading to the NAHI mining 
  transports. It would go badly if any of the cybrids 
  or accompanying drones should spread to other 
  outposts. Their reaching Central Luna would be 
  disastrous. Their encoded commands compel them 
  first to return to the Entity spacecraft, where they 
  can fully restore its systems and bring the Entity 
  itself to full power and sentience. This would also 
  awaken its hunter-killer production capabilities.
  If the PCs can keep the drones and mechanized 
  inhabitants confined to ICEREACH-1, the outpost 
  sits close enough to the upper rim of the basin that 
  the plasma wave from the coronal mass ejection will 
  destroy the nanite threat within the facility.But is it 
  enough to shut down the Entity?
  Power, PCs, and Partial conversion?
  Cutting power to the Hive Trees in the garden 
  dome halts the mechanization process for those 
  already cocooned. It also stabilizes the backup 
  reactor, bringing rest of the outpost back up to full 
  power. The PCs would need to cut three of the four 
  power conduits that run through access paneling 
  beneath each of the dome’s four entrances in order 
  to power down the agricultural dome. The hive tree 
  will dispatch a hunter-killer to investigate at the first 
  sign of tampering.
  It is possible the PCs may become infected with 
  the Entity’s nanites in combat with any of its drones. 
  If they can expose themselves to microwaves or a 
  strong magnetic field, they can add an extra LUCK 
  die to their next countdown roll. Even if the PC 
  manages to fend off the first phase of the nanite 
  infection, they are plagued with Discomfort from 
  tingling extremities or headaches for 2d6 days after.
  Having a companion in the clutches of one of the 
  Entity’s hive trees certainly is motivation for the 
  rest of the team to end the threat. But what of the 
  out-of-play PC? The GM could hand over one of 
  the existing NPCs for that player to use. Or perhaps 
  another survivor can be found for that player to 
  run (either using an existing miner or specialist, or 
  having a secondary character ready to go).
  If all of the PCs succumb to the Entity’s nanite 
  infection and conversion, it certainly doesn’t signal 
  an endgame. Their objective could simply switch to 
  one of lunar domination. The Entity might use the 
  exceptional PCs to infiltrate the other flesh-beings’ 
  society and gather more information while it slowly 
  builds up its army of hunter-killer warriors for the 
  impending invasion of the blue-green home planet…
  Beginning The Adventure
  The Hauler isn’t pretty — not really much 
  more than a shipping container on a rocket-
  studded frame, with a crew cabin on one end — 
  but it doesn’t have to be terribly aerodynamic or 
  comfortable for such a short trip.
  Its hard to tell where the rattling of the ship 
  ends and your teeth begin, but then the g’s ease 
  up as the Hauler clears top of its trajectory. 
  The frame shudders as course-stabilizing jets 
  give brief squirts, and you immediately see 
  that something is definitely wrong with mining 
  operations. Or rather, you don’t see anything: no 
  lights, from either the habs, or the agro-dome, 
  or the operation site deeper within the basin. 
  Then there is a glimmer, a spark, a bloom of 
  orange-yellow, and seconds later, the Hauler 
  shakes, and then a hard clatter of debris and 
  regolith hammers against the outer hull. The 
  correction-jets fire again, and again, then sputter 
  as the Master Alarm begins to wail: one of the 
  propellant tanks has been punctured, and the 
  Hauler begins to slew, and spin.
  The PCs will have to act fast! A Challenging [13] 
  LOG (engineering) check or Difficult	[16]	AGI	(piloting) 
  check can keep the Hauler from drifting too far off 
  course. It will take more time on the ground to affect 
  anything more than the quickest of jury-rigs to the 
  maneuvering jets and propellant tanks.
  Once the Hauler stabilized, they’ll need to worry 
  about landing the Hauler (A Difficult	[16]	quick	
  extended	piloting	task.)
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Usually, the landing process is automated, using 
  a telemetry feed from the target location’s landing 
  strip. Communications with the landing strip’s 
  comm array returns nothing but static. A quick 
  challenging [13] computers task will remotely reboot 
  the automated landing system, with each success 
  after the first lowering the pilot’s landing check 
  benchmark (From Difficult to Challenging, then 
  Challenging to Routine)
  Area Descriptions
  ICEREACH Outpost consists of the EM-landing 
  strip, its small command bunker, and the geodesic 
  garden dome complex. Several outlying modules 
  are used to store mining vehicles and processing 
  equipment. The station’s power is provided by 
  three fusion reactors, which are kept several 
  miles from the main dome of the complex. Radio 
  communications are screwy near and within 
  the outpost:  comm-links fade in and out, the 
  transmissions clouded by static or a strange 
  throbbing hum that sounds almost like some sort of 
  mechanical heartbeat.
  Cargo Launch & Retrieval Strip.
  A half-mile long strip of leveled, smooth-baked 
  regolith is split down the middle by the Hauler 
  catch gantry, which looks like — and is referred to 
  by the outpost residents as — ‘the Slingshot.’ Rather 
  than use rubber bands, the twelve-foot-wide forks 
  are lined on each side by smaller versions of the 
  superconducting magnets that run the sides of the 
  landing strip’s central groove. Computer-aided laser 
  guidance mechanisms correct the incoming Hauler’s 
  trajectory so it is caught and suspended between 
  the forks, shedding velocity through a combination 
  of the container assembly’s retrorockets and the 
  slingshot’s electromagnetic braking. Containers 
  are then offloaded at the end of the ‘runway’ by 
  automated rovers, which deliver the cargo to the 
  outpost’s shipping and distribution extension.
  The Launch and Retrieval command bunker (dubbed 
  “The Pillbox”) squats some five hundred feet off the 
  three-quarters point of the landing/launch strip. The 
  Pillbox is topped by a conventional radio dish as well 
  as laser-based comm array. A cramped airlock allows 
  emergency access from the lunar surface.
  Hazards
  The power fluctuations have frayed the outpost’s 
  already-overtaxed electrical systems. Some possible 
  consequences of the power surges are listed below:
  2-4 Power surge causes a nearby panel, cathode, 
  or overhead lighting fixture to overload, showering 
  those within 10 feet with sparks and/or glass, for 
  2d6 electrical or heat damage. Exposed combustable 
  items are ruined, per the singed condition. If the GM 
  determines that the lighting fixtures have blown out, 
  the module or access way will be completely dark.
  5-6 Pipeline: Damage to electrical conduits 
  has also stressed the outpost’s water circulation 
  infrastructure: A nearby overhead pipe bursts, 
  releasing gouts of superheated steam or super-
  cooled vapor, for 3d6 heat or cold damage. 
  Additionally, until they move out of the cloud, the 
  PCs will be blinded and slowed. Unless a cutoff 
  can be found, within an hour, the module or access 
  way’s environment will become either hot or cold. 
  Iced-over walkways also become slippery. PCs may 
  find these areas helpful in avoiding or escaping 
  notice of the Entity’s minions.
  7-8  Hatchway malfunction: Either the hatch seals 
  itself, refusing to open, or the magnetic clamps refuse 
  to hold after it shuts behind the PCs. A Challenging [13] 
  LOG check will bypass/engage the magnetic clamps, 
  but then a Difficult	[16] STR check is needed to haul 
  the door open or closed. Annoying as this would be 
  during initial exploration, it could add another layer 
  of tension, should the PCs find themselves pursued by 
  hunter or hunter-killer drones…
  9-10 Explorer drone pack. The PCs encounter 
  2d6 explorer drones feeding on an exposed power 
  conduit. It is up to the GM to determine whether the 
  PCs or the drones are surprised. Treat this result as 
  “Hunter Pack” if the PCs have already engaged and 
  been injured by explorer drones.
  11-12 Hunter Pack. The PCs encounter 2d6 
  hunters. A result of 9-12 indicate a hunter pack 
  encounter if one or more PCs have been injured by 
  explorer drones in a prior engagement.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Inside, the usual conglomeration of computer 
  terminals, comms and radar workstations can be 
  found. Like everything else at the outpost, the 
  interior is under red-tinged emergency backup 
  lighting when the PCs arrive. The communication 
  equipment is only capable of short-range 
  transmissions until main power is restored, at which 
  point the arrays can be directed to either an orbiting 
  relay satellite, or one of several ground-based laser-
  burst repeaters. A LOG or computers check is enough 
  for the PCs to find the correct auto routine in the 
  bunker’s main terminal.
  Access to the main outpost dome is through a nearly 
  two mile-long tunnel bored through the lunar surface.
  Transit Tunnels
  All of the transit tunnels bear the same general 
  description, only varying in length.	This	corridor	is	
  nothing more than a long, twelve-foot-wide tube burned 
  just	below	the	lunar	surface,	with	a	Plasteel	arch	making	
  up	the	“ceiling.”	A	wide	yellow	stripe	is	painted	down	
  the	center	of	the	tunnel,	broken	by	black	arrow	markers,	
  pointing	in	the	direction	of	the	main	outpost	dome.
  Access panels placed every 15 feet contain vacuum 
  masks and gloves, as well as a small dumb terminal-
  and-display. A Routine [10] LOG (computers) check 
  allows a PC to call up the most basic of information 
  on the outpost’s severely outdated network.
  The transit tube from the Slingshot ends in a 
  slightly wider garage, which houses two four-
  seater battery-powered buggies, obviously meant to 
  alleviate the need for hiking the length of the tunnel. 
  One of these buggies is parked haphazardly by the 
  airlock hatch, as if its users were in too much of a 
  hurry to bother with the niceties of properly lining 
  up the buggy in its charging station.
  The buggies have enough power for 
  approximately 30 mies of travel before their batteries 
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  deplete. They won’t be able to recharge until main 
  power is restored. The skewed buggy has only a 
  half-charge remaining.
  Central Ring and Complex Access
  The main body of the outpost surrounds the 
  geodesic garden dome in a segmented ring. The 
  rest of the complex sprouts from this central ring 
  like spokes from a wheel, or the hours of a clock. 
  Addressing within the outpost often refers to this 
  clock position. The “spoke” corridors are not wide 
  enough for buggy access.
  12:00.  Main administration & records, operations, 
  security and med-bay. Director General’s 
  suite.
  1:00.  
  Electrical stores, backup data cores.
  2:00.  
  Access tunnel to Primary Reactor A; Reactor 
  operations post, engineering quarters and 
  workshops.
  3:00.  
  Science ‘wing:’ access to labs A & B 
  (Geology/metallurgy, inorganics); 
  technicians’ quarters, scientific stores.
  4:00.  
  Residential/recreation. Personnel family 
  quarters, galley/mess, education & recreation 
  stations
  5:00.  
  Residential stores.
  6:00.  
  Residential/recreation: Personnel bunking/
  barracks, galley/mess, recreation stations. 
  7:00.  
  Residential stores.
  8:00.  
  Access tunnel to secondary reactors.
  9:00.  
  Science ‘wing:’ access to labs C & D 
  (Biological/hydrological/hydroponic); 
  technician’s quarters, reserve scientific stores.
  10:00.  Access tunnel to mining operations, 
  manufacturing and storage.
  11:00.  Access tunnel to the Slingshot. 
  Though the outpost can house 500 individuals, it 
  is currently only staffed by about 200: a compliment 
  of 100 miners, 50 technicians/scientists, another 
  50 maintenance, support workers, plus the 
  administrators. The director general as well as several 
  of the scientists and many of the service personnel 
  have brought their families to live at the outpost. 
  12:01. Central Administration and records: A 
  handful of cubicles with data terminals are 
  all that are needed to maintain day-to-day 
  operations at the outpost.
  12:15. Central Operations: This module sports the 
  graphical displays and work stations needed 
  to coordinate mining operations, from shift 
  details down to the prepping and shipping 
  of ice blocks back to Central Luna.
  12:30. Security and Medbay: these two sections sit 
  opposite each other. The medical bay has 
  a fully operational surgical suite and small 
  recovery wing; anything short of an organ 
  transplant can be conducted here.
  The security office contains CCTV monitoring 
  stations, a small-arms armory, and a four-person 
  cell (usually only used as a drunk tank for when the 
  miners have one too many and cause a ruckus). A 
  man lies on one of the cots, and he starts awake, wild-
  eyed at the PCs approach, raising an orange-tipped 
  taser pistol. When he sees that the PCs mean him no 
  harm, he slowly lowers the weapon. 
  Sergeant 
  Caleb Conolley locked himself in the brig in order to 
  keep the Entity’s drones at bay. Indeed, one of them 
  lies disabled at the cell’s doorway, its bio-organic 
  circuitry fried by repeated zaps from the taser.
  What Conolley Knows
  Conolley knows the following information:
  1.   About two day-cycles ago, the miners 
  were all abuzz about something they’d 
  discovered. It must’ve been something, 
  though, because that whole work crew 
  got sloshed and caused a bit of an uproar 
  at mess, two of them fighting over which 
  would get to hold onto ‘it.’ Conolley had 
  to cuff them to opposite sides of the cell so 
  they wouldn’t keep at each other. They and 
  their whole crew went to see the Director 
  General the next day, and they were all put 
  on suspension.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  2.   ‘It’ turned out to be some weird looking 
  metal cube, with raised sides and corners. 
  It was weirdly slick to the touch, even with 
  gloves on. Conolley had to practically tear 
  the crew-chief’s dorm apart to find the thing. 
  Per the DG’s orders, he brought it to the 
  inorganics lab, where they locked it up in the 
  vacuum-chamber.
  3.   The power went out that night, and only 
  came partway up when it came back online. 
  But when it did, the whole place was in 
  chaos. Some weird metallic bug-like things 
  the size of dogs were crawling all over the 
  place, people were screaming. He went 
  to the security office to arm himself, and 
  wrangled with one of the ‘bugs,’ managing 
  to fend it off with the taser-pistol. (“Fries 
  ‘em real good, these things do!”) He’s since 
  locked himself in the cell between forays to 
  the galleys for food.
  4.   The ‘bugs’ keep semi-regular patrols; it’s 
  been hard to time them with the flickering 
  of the power and the CCTV monitors going 
  in and out. The majority of them seem to be 
  concentrated in the geodesic dome.
  5.   The security armory holds two more taser-
  pistols (treat as electro-arcs), as well as three 
  stun batons and three suits of riot armor.
  12:45. The Director General’s suite, located through 
  a secured hatchway off his main offices, is 
  perhaps the only spacious living quarters in 
  the facility: three bedrooms are located off the 
  central sitting room. The suite also supports a 
  fully equipped kitchen and full sized dining 
  area, with seating for eight, though the Direct 
  General has never had to entertain so many 
  visitors at once, even when the facility was 
  first opened for operations twelve years ago.
  The hatchway control panel to the suite is 
  damaged, from the office-side. The partially-
  exposed wiring makes opening this particular 
  hatch a Challenging [13], rather than Difficult	[16]	
  LOG, computers or electronics check to disengage the 
  magnetic seals.
  An Entity hunter lurks beneath the Director 
  General’s desk, awaiting the PCs’ opening the hatch, 
  so it can complete its sweep of the suite. It is not 
  actively attempting to hide, and thus a Routine [10] 
  INT (perception)	reveals its location, if the PCs don’t 
  specifically think to look under the desk.
  Lilly, the Director General’s nine-year-old 
  daughter, hides in the crawl space beneath the 
  floor of her bedroom closet. PCs will need to make 
  a Challenging [13] INT (perception) to spot her. 
  Otherwise, they may encounter her making a run to 
  the galley for food, or the library for a book.
  What Lilly Knows 
  Lilly knows the following information:
  1. There was quite a hubbub (that’s what 
  Mama called it) several day-cycles ago, and 
  all the miners were abuzz about something.
  2. Papa was furious that one group of the 
  miners did something they obviously 
  weren’t supposed to, and they got 
  suspended. “It” was moved into the lab. 
  (Whatever “it” was…)
  3. The power went out, and when it came 
  back up, there was lots of shouting. Papa 
  and Mama told her to hide, and locked her 
  bedroom hatchway. She’s been sneaking 
  back and forth to the kitchen for food over 
  the past couple days, but her food stores are 
  running low, and she’ll need to either sneak 
  into the galleys at 5 and 6, or — much closer 
  — steal into the garden dome.
  4. She has a copy of her father’s key-card, 
  which Mama said to hold onto just in case, 
  because Papa’s always losing things.
  1:01. Electrical stores. Sensitive electrical 
  equipment is stored in these modules, portions 
  of which are set up as Faraday cages. The backup 
  computer core data banks are buried in a vault 
  beneath the main module, accessible only with the 
  DG’s and a master electrician’s key-cards.
  2:01, 8:01. Reactor 1 Access tunnels is half a mile 
  long. The reactor maintenance crews’ quarters and  
  workshops branch off the main tunnel, which itself 
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  ends in the reactor relay control room.  The reactor 
  controls are linked to an identical terminal in the 
  respective reactor bunker. An airlock leads to the 
  clean room and decontamination showers, and e-suit 
  lockers. An exterior airlock leads to a docked rover 
  that will only drive a dedicated path to and from its 
  designated reactor (See “Fusion Reactors” below).
  3:01 & 3:30: Low-g specialty labs A & B Lab A is 
  home to teams of geologists are studying some of the 
  deeper strata of the Aitken basin, while another group 
  researches various types of crystal growth under the 
  moon’s lo-gravity conditions in Lab B. The artifact the 
  miners brought back from the Entity’s ship was held 
  in Lab B, which is now in massive disarray: spilled 
  sample cases, instruments knocked over, tables 
  overturned. The vacuum containment chamber has 
  been breached, apparently from the inside.
  4:01-4:45. Family residential suites Several families 
  are stationed at the outpost — mostly technicians 
  or administrators. Those with children use the half 
  dozen family suites down the 4:00 wing. Like the 
  Director General’s quarters, these consist of sitting 
  room, bedrooms and private shower/wc. Unlike the 
  GD’s, family suites do not have full kitchens — just a 
  small refrigerator and microwave. Meals are normally 
  taken in the common mess/galley.
  4:55: Education/recreation The outpost maintains 
  a small school room, where the children can take 
  lessons with visiting tutors from Central Lunar, many 
  of the scientists in residence, or through telepresence 
  with classes either at Central Lunar or on Earth.
  5:01-5:45. Residential stores Just about anything 
  replaceable is stored here, from spare beds, bedding, 
  furnishings, fixtures, LED lighting panels, cleaning 
  supplies to paper goods and small appliances.
  6:01-6:55. Dormitories, Galley/Mess The main 
  galley and mess hall are located at the front of this 
  wing, with a recreation room and gym behind those. 
  Further down the access way, the mining personnel 
  dorms begin: simple two-bunk modules with 
  attached privacy nooks, and a common shower/wc 
  facility for every half-dozen dorms.
  7:01-7:45. Residential sores II More of the 
  same from 6:00 is stored down this branch, with 
  additional modules for storing dry foodstuffs as 
  well as the fruits and vegetables raised in the garden 
  dome. One of the smaller, spare modules (7:35) has 
  been converted into a library.
  8:00. Secondary reactor access Like the corridor at 
  2:00, this hallway houses more technician quarters 
  and workshops. The clean room and airlock at 
  the corridor’s end is larger, and hosts two exterior 
  airlocks, with rovers dedicated to reactor bunkers 
  2 and 3. The Reactor 2 rover does not startup, 
  returning a “Radiological Hazard” error if the PCs 
  should try to take it to the crater of what is left of the 
  secondary reactor.
  9:01 & 9:30. Low-g specialty labs C & D Lab C is 
  home to teams of botanists, growing various strains 
  of elongated potatoes. Several genetic experiments 
  were on-going in Lab D. The dozen mice have been 
  infected with the Entity’s nanites, and are now 
  robocritters.
  10:00. Ice Mining Access Tunnel Instead of small 
  buggies, four 12-seater electrical trams are parked at 
  the garage-like entryway. The tunnel leads slightly 
  downhill, towards the Ice Mining Facilities.
  Garden Dome
  Several acres worth of Earth soil have been 
  “transplanted” to the outpost’s centralized 
  agricultural dome, to facilitate the growing of 
  various fruits, vegetables, and grains for the crews 
  stationed there. This dome is kept under a minimal 
  (thin) atmosphere, so PCs will need vacuum-masks 
  in this area. The dome is under nighttime conditions 
  when the PCs arrive, and will remain so until they 
  or repair crews can restore full power to the outpost. 
  Still, the dome is not pitch black; emergency exit 
  lights strobe over the four dome airlock hatches, 
  and an eerie blue-green light can be seen amidst the  
  trees of the orchard quadrant of the gardens.
  Several of the trees in the apple orchard quadrant 
  have been infected by the Entity’s nanites, and have 
  mechamorphed into a Hive Trees. Their modified 
  roots have burrowed into the outpost’s electrical 
  mains, allowing the trees to draw off a major portion 
  of the power put out by the remaining fusion reactor.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  If the PCs manage to restore more than the 
  quarter-power that the outpost is currently under, 
  the countdown to the Hive Trees’ conversion of the 
  personnel goes from slow to medium. Conversely, 
  if they think to cut power to the garden dome, the 
  countdown freezes.
  North Atlantic Heavy Industries Ice 
  Mining Facilities
  NAHI’s mining complex is a series of warehouse-
  like utility bunkers a mile out from the main body 
  of the outpost. Each contains excavation, processing, 
  and shipping machinery, in addition to pressurized 
  facilities for the work crews, administration offices 
  and a small infirmary for handling all but the most 
  serious of injuries. With the reactors falling offline, 
  all of the machinery has shut down, and the vast 
  hangar-like bulk of the facility is downright spooky 
  under the red glare of the emergency lighting.
  Fusion Reactors
  Two small-mass fusion reactors normally provide 
  more than enough power to the outpost, with a 
  third acting as a redundant backup. The outpost 
  is currently running off Reactor 3, but it is rapidly 
  approaching its critical threshold due to the 
  additional power drained by the Entity’s nanite-
  infected hive tree. Reactor 2 exploded just prior to 
  the PCs’ landing at ICEREACH, due to the Entity’s 
  explorers’ tampering. Reactor 1 underwent a failsafe 
  shutdown, which requires a ‘hard restart.’
  The fusion reactor access bunkers jut just above 
  the lunar surface, surrounded at the quarter-mile 
  mark by radiation hazard markers. Once past 
  the cramped airlock, the interior of the bunker 
  contains two terminals, displaying the most basic 
  of information. A heavily shielded interior airlock 
  grants access to the hundred foot deep access 
  shaft. Another airlock hatch lies at the bottom of 
  the shaft, and the space between is filled with with 
  water, which acts as further shielding, as well as an 
  emergency source of coolant. 
  Performing anything more than routine status 
  checks at the consoles requires key-card verification 
  from registered UEG engineering, as well as the 
  outpost’s director general. The interior hatches, 
  likewise, do not open without the same dual-key 
  verification. A minor	difficult	computer	task should 
  be enough to forge credentials, if the requisite key-
  cards cannot be found in the complex. Actual 
  switches and levers must be thrown in the reactor 
  chamber itself to bring the reactor back online. 
  Once the reactor powers back up — a process that 
  takes approximately fifteen minutes — the shielded 
  hatchway and airlock at the base of the reactor 
  shaft seal themselves, and cannot be opened while 
  the reactor is operational. After the reactor’s fifteen 
  minute startup, the chamber becomes irradiated. 
  An Entity explorer drone hides (Challenging [13] 
  INT (perception)	to spot) in the control room ceiling, 
  waiting for the PCs to open the hatch. It is left to the 
  GM whether the drone attacks in the upper bunker, 
  or after the PCs have descended the shaft and 
  initiated the reactor restart sequence.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Monsters
  Biomech Explorer (Drone)
  Roughly the size of a large cat, or small dog, the 
  Entity’s exploration drones are a fusion of something 
  mechanical and spider-like. Their chitinous exoskeletons 
  are criss-crossed by wires and circuitry. While the two 
  main eyes appear to be organic, the lesser six definitely 
  have mechanical and manufactured lensing in place. 
  In the place of mouth-parts, they have a semi-flexible 
  proboscis, adapted to interface with electrical systems, 
  or bore into conduits. If a drone should score a bite 
  attack, it injects nanite ‘markers’ into the victim’s 
  bloodstream, which attract biomech hunters. 
  Biomech Explorer Drone  
  Small	common	semi-sentient	mechanoid(4d6)
  STR 3 (2d6) 
  AGI 10 (4d6) 
  END 3 (2d6) 
  INT 8 (3d6) 
  LOG 3 (2d6) 
  WIL 4 (2d6) 
  CHA 2 (1d6) 
  LUC 0 (0d6) 
  REP 5 (2d6)
  HEALTH 16
  MELEE DEFENSE 15; RANGED DEFENSE 15; 
  MENTAL DEFENSE 11
  SOAK 2; VULN 1d6 (electricity), 2d6 (ion); 
  immune poison
  STATUS IMMUNITIES -  Nausea, Tiredness
  INITIATIVE 5d6
  PERCEPTION 5d6
  SPEED 6; CLIMB+ 6; JUMP 12’/6’
  CARRY 60lb (max lift 300lb)
  ACTIONS 2
  NATURAL DAMAGE 1d6+3
  REACH 5’
  Bite 5d6 (2d6+2 piercing + nanite marker infection)
  Skills  perception 4 (2d6), reactions 3 (2d6)  
  stealth 3 (2d6) 
  Gear  - 
  Feint (1). Scouter drones are quick and seemingly 
  unpredictable; they can feint, using one action to 
  gain a +1d6 bonus to their next attack roll if taken 
  on the same turn.
  Insectoids. Scouter drones are basically insectoid 
  in shape, with tripartite bodies and six legs. The 
  creature gains a CLIMB speed equal to its regular 
  SPEED and does not need to make checks to climb. 
  Such creatures can move on walls and ceilings 
  normally
  Lifesense. Because of their enhanced, multi spectral 
  vision, scouter drones can sense and effectively see 
  living creatures to a distance of 40’ even through 
  darkness, cover, concealment, etc. 
  Called Shot. The explorer drone’s eyestalks and 
  antennae are about the only unarmored portions of 
  the creature. A called shot with piercing, slashing, 
  or ballistic weaponry can severely hamper the 
  mechanoid’s sensory systems. A successful hit 
  bypasses SOAK. If it deals 5 or more points of 
  damage, an eyestalk (1-3) or antenna (4-6) is severed. 
  Destroying one of the creatures’ antennae hampers 
  its live link to the Entity’s hive tree. It must pass 
  Routine [10] LOG check to receive new orders, or it 
  will continue performing its last instructions. Severing 
  both antennae completely cuts its communication to 
  the hive tree, and inflicts the Confused status on the 
  creature. Damage to the eyestalks pushes the creature 
  down the Sight status track
  Biomech Hunter (Drone)
  A slightly bulkier version of the scouter, Hunters 
  have the same basic arachnoid shape, but add a 
  metallo-crystalline shell over the main abdomen 
  area. The Hunter’s mandibles are more developed, 
  and it uses its bio-active“bite” to deliver the first 
  stage of conversion nanites. These gradually induce 
  paralysis, after which the hunter then uses its 
  filament spinnerets to bind its quarry and brings to 
  the nearest Hive Tree for assessment and possible 
  mechanization.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Biomech Hunter drone 
  Medium	uncommon	semi-sentient	mechanoid	(5d6) 
  Arachnoid harvesters which gather prey for their 
  Hive Tree.
  STR 6 (2d6) 
  AGI 12 (5d6) 
  END 6 (3d6)
  INT 8 (3d6) 
  LOG 2 (1d6) 
  WIL 2 (1d6)
  CHA 1 (1d6) 
  LUC 0 (0d6) 
  REP 7 (3d6)
  HEALTH 16
  MELEE DEFENSE 18; RANGED DEFENSE 18; 
  MENTAL DEFENSE 11
  SOAK 5; VULN 1d6 (electricity), 2d6 (ion); 
  immune poison
  STATUS IMMUNITIES - Nausea, Tiredness
  INITIATIVE 3d6
  PERCEPTION 3d6
  SPEED 7; CLIMB+ 7; JUMP 30’/4’
  CARRY 120lb (max lift 300lb)
  ACTIONS 2
  NATURAL DAMAGE 2d6+2 
  REACH 5’ 
  Bite 5d6 (2d6+2 piercing+ nanite disease)
  Web 5d6 (restrains damage; range 3)
  Skills perception 4 (2d6), reactions 3 (2d6)  
  stealth 3 (2d6) 
  Gear  - 
  Nanites. The hunter’s bite attack contains the 
  first stage in conversion nanites, which steadily 
  override the victim’s central nervous system. (See 
  “Nanite Conversion Disease” sidebar) 
  Filament (1). An hunter’s web attack is a ranged 
  attack which restrains a medium sized target or 
  smaller.  Escape is a Challenging [13] STR check and 
  requires one action. The filaments are flammable 
  and can be burnt off, but this causes 2d6 heat 
  damage to the trapped creature. They can also be 
  dissolved with alcohol.
  Lifesense. Because of their enhanced, multi spectral 
  vision, scouter drones can sense and effectively see 
  living creatures to a distance of 40’ even through 
  darkness, cover, concealment, etc. A hunter will 
  concentrate its attacks on those who have been 
  injected with the scouter drone’s marker nanites 
  before it attacks anyone else.
  Called Shot. The Hunter’s eyestalks and antennae are 
  about the only unarmored portions of the creature. 
  A called shot with piercing, slashing, or ballistic 
  weaponry can severely hamper the mechanoid’s 
  sensory systems. A successful hit ignores SOAK, and 
  if it deals 5 or more points of damage, an eyestalk or 
  antenna is severed. Destroying one of the creatures’ 
  antennae hampers its live link to the Entity’s hive 
  tree. It must pass Routine [10] LOG check to receive 
  new orders, or it will continue performing its last 
  instructions. Severing both antennae completely 
  cuts its communication to the hive tree, and inflicts 
  the Confused status on the creature. Damage to the 
  eyestalks pushes the creature down the Sight status 
  track.
  Biomech Hunter-killer
   As Hunter +2d6; large. The Hunter-killer has 
  SOAK 8, and its bite deals +1d6 electrical rather than 
  injecting conversion nanites. It also has a claw attack 
  5d6 (2d6+2 slashing)
  Anything the Entity cannot convert or subsume 
  with its hunters it marks as a threat to be eliminated 
  with extreme prejudice. For this task, the Entity 
  has reserves its hunter-killer variant: a bizarre half-
  spider, half-crab-like mechanoid modeled after the 
  native life it encountered beneath the icy crust of 
  Europa. A hard, carbon-fiber-ehnanced carapace 
  encloses most of the creature, with only its six 
  sensory eyestalks and pair of antennae exposed. 
  The thing’s mouth-parts have been replaced with 
  retractible needle-like appendage, with which it 
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  pierces power conduits to ‘feed.’ It has kept its host 
  species’ regular digestive system, but only feeds in 
  the normal sense as a last resort.
  Biomech Hive-tree
  Hive trees are the result of nanite corruption 
  crossing over into plant life. They are used as energy 
  production and storage factories for the machine-
  entity. Those trees which bear fruit have been 
  converted to a more sinister purpose: supporting 
  cocoons from which the Entity can more efficiently 
  convert other host-species. 
  A hive tree resembles its host tree, but its leaves 
  are slicked over with a thin layer of silicate, which 
  act as photovoltaic cells. Power conduits gleam 
  and strobe just beneath the tree’s bark, emitting 
  unsettling flashes, pulses, and streamers of light. The 
  bark is reinforced with thin metallic filaments, which 
  act as a low-grade armor, while leaving the woody 
  bark to act as natural electromagnetic shielding.
  Elongated, pulsing sac-like cocoons, dangle from 
  the thicker, lower branches, or bulge, tumor-like, 
  from the girth of the trunk. These cocoons are made 
  of a tough, fibrous material similar to kevlar, but 
  somewhat more transparent. The steady orange-red 
  glow from within is interspersed with twinkling 
  and pulsing lights. The hazy silhouette of whatever 
  creature may be in the process of mechanization can 
  be seen in the murky depths of a cocoon, but exact 
  details can not be made out (perhaps for the best for 
  the casual observer).
  Hive trees cannot move, and normally rely on 
  hunter-killers for defense. As a last resort, the hive 
  tree can lash out with its filament-infused vine-like 
  growths. The Entity also uses hive trees to ‘evolve’ 
  drones into either hunters, or hunter-killers if its 
  own full production capabilities are not online.
  Biomech Hive Tree 
  Large	rare	semi-sentient	mechanoid	plant	(6d6) 
  Conversion factories for the alien machine Entity.
  STR 12 (4d6) 
  AGI 1 (1d6) 
  END 12 (4d6)
  INT 6 (3d6) 
  LOG 1 (1d6) 
  WIL 3 (2d6)
  CHA 1 (1d6) 
  LUC 0 (0d6) 
  REP 10 (4d6)
  HEALTH 32
  MELEE DEFENSE 17; RANGED DEFENSE 10;
  MENTAL DEFENSE 11
  SOAK 10 (barkskin); VULN 1d6 (fire) 1d6 
  (electrical) 2d6 (ion)
  INITIATIVE 6d6
  PERCEPTION 3d6
  SPEED 0; CLIMB -; JUMP -
  CARRY 360lb (max lift 900lb)
  ACTIONS 3
  NATURAL DAMAGE 2d6+2 
  Vine 5d6 (2d6+2 piercing/elecrical damage; range 6)
  Skills combat 3 (2d6) hardy 3 (2d6) 
  Gear -
  Called Shot. An individual vine can be targeted with 
  a called shot. The vine does not have any SOAK, and 
  10 slashing damage is enough to sever it, freeing any 
  victims. The hive tree has many vines, so severing 
  one does not otherwise reduce its capabilities.
  Many vines. A hive tree has an extra action for its 
  size; unlike most creatures who cannot use an action 
  more than once per turn it is able to use all three of 
  its actions to attack, although no more two attacks 
  can be directed at a single target.
  First Blood. The vine’s attack is considered piercing 
  until it draws blood. It must spend an action 
  immediately after to analyze and assesses the targets’ 
  viability for conversion. If it meets the Entity’s 
  criterion, subsequent attacks on the target deal 
  electrical damage, attempting to knock the target out, 
  whereafter they are dragged close enough to the tree 
  to be absorbed into an existing pod, or a new cocoon 
  can be spun around the paralyzed victim.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
  Grab (m). Hive trees can grab their opponents with 
  a ranged attack using a vine. A grab is an attack 
  with a -2d6 cost. A creature struck by the grab attack 
  is grabbed and remains so until escape. An escape 
  requires a STR or AGI attack against the plant’s 
  MELEE DEFENSE and is an action which places the 
  victim free from the grab in an adjacent square. It 
  costs the plant an attack each round to maintain the 
  grab, but it does not need to make any further checks; 
  however it can use that action to make an opposed 
  STR check and drag the victim 5 squares closer. 
  Once a victim is brought adjacent to the hive tree, its 
  attempts to deposit them into a conversion pod.
  Swallow whole (m). A hive tree can pay 3d6 to drag 
  an adjacent large or smaller creature into a conversion 
  pod.  The victim begins to drown in the nanite-infused 
  conversion solution (Fast END countdown). Escape 
  requires a single melee attack against the reinforced 
  biomaterial which does 20 damage. The hive tree’s 
  SOAK does not apply, if attacked from within.
  EONS Magazine  | Incident at Icereach-1
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/WOIN/EONS Magazine/Eons 56 - NEW, Adventure - Incident at Icereach-1.pdf