TEXT: Espionage Campaigns for StarS Without Number
  By Kevin Crawford
  
  © 2011, Sine Nomine Publishing
  ISBN 978-1-936673-16-2
  Written by Kevin Crawford.
  Art by Sergii Denysov,  Bradley K. McDevitt, and Weyns Peter. 
  Table of ConTenTs
  Agents of the State ...............................................................................................4
  Hold the Line ......................................................................................................5
  God Doesn’t Know My Name ............................................................................11
  Architects of Night .............................................................................................17
  Thou Shalt Not ..................................................................................................51
  Tradecraft..........................................................................................................77
  Unknown Soldiers .............................................................................................91
  
  4
  No light, but rather darkness visible
   served only to discover sights of woe
               -Milton, Paradise Lost 
  Rain-slick streets beneath an alien sky. Untraceable mail on a private 
  terminal. A man in a shabby coat who is always watching. Poison 
  in a glistening needle. From the distant ages of humanity's dawn to 
  the far end of the Silence, espionage changes only its tools. A useful 
  lie is eternal.
  Darkness Visible provides a game master and players with the tools 
  necessary to write their own campaigns of classified heroism and 
  secret glory. Whether elite agents of a proud and ancient Perimeter 
  agency or the raw recruits of a frontier backwater's scout corps, PCs 
  are given the chance to strike a blow against the gathering darkness 
  that creeps ever closer to their homes. Every world has a thousand 
  enemies, within and without, and some must stand against these 
  hidden foes.
  Hold the Line gives the history of the Perimeter, the ancient orga-
  nization founded by the Terran Mandate as their covert agents in 
  the far frontier. From the beginning, it was charged with protecting 
  humanity from the insidious scourge of maltech- forbidden science 
  that threatens to crush the very existence of humanity. The centuries 
  have not been kind to the Perimeter, and its agencies are now scat-
  tered and lost on the worlds that they once called home. Yet despite 
  this, the few surviving agencies remember their great cause, and 
  many among their sons and daughters await the hour when they 
  can return to their age-old hunt.
  Aside from the Perimeter's history, this chapter also discusses the 
  evolution of local planetary espionage agencies and the uncertain 
  future that many now face. They must turn outward from their 
  local concerns to the machinations and schemes of more distant 
  enemies. The gradual revival of interstellar travel has brought many 
  new perils to formerly unsuspecting worlds, and their espionage 
  bureaus struggle to deal with this new array of threats.
  God Doesn't Know My Name explains the day-to-day workings of 
  several different types of espionage organizations, ranging from 
  ancient Perimeter agencies to local governmental bureaus to the sort 
  of scratch-built organizations formed by rebels, maltech researchers, 
  and less professional spies. GMs and players can use these guidelines 
  to resolve many of the more common issues that arise during a 
  campaign, including the likely origins and training of spy PCs and 
  the consequences of getting in their agency's bad books.
  Architects of Night is dedicated to building the agencies and cabals 
  that will fill out an espionage campaign. The entire creation process 
  can be in the GM's hands, or the work can be shared out with the 
  players as they contribute to building the campaign. Each agency 
  adds different "elements" which together add up to a set of capa-
  bilities and strengths to wield against its opponents. The actions of 
  PCs and their enemies during the course of the campaign will then 
  influence the agency's development, perhaps raising it to a place 
  of unquestioned excellence or chancing its reduction to a welter of 
  useless confusion.
  Thou Shalt Not reveals the sinister nature of maltech, the forbid-
  den science that promises terrible ruin for human civilization. The 
  creations of maltech strike at the very future of the human race, an 
  art for the forging of demented AI godminds, uncontrolled nanite 
  replicants, void-hardened bioweapons, and the genetic engineering 
  of human slaves. While the Perimeter was founded to contain these 
  perils, the dangers they represent threaten all humanity. Even in 
  the fallen aftermath of the Scream and the Silence there are always 
  madmen and tyrants who dream of unleashing these forgotten hor-
  rors on an unprepared cosmos.
  Tradecraft introduces a system for building complex adventures that 
  rely upon intrigue and investigation. This quick design template 
  allow a GM to slot NPCs into pre-designed patterns of conspiracy 
  and dark purpose, complete with hooks and clues for running a sin-
  ister conspiracy with minimal preparation. In addition, this chapter 
  covers some basic advice for framing and running an espionage 
  campaign. The missions and duties of a covert agent make for a 
  more rigid structure than that of a typical starfaring freebooter, but 
  there are still ways to ensure that the group feels a fresh sense of 
  agency and control over the course of their careers.
  Finally, Unknown Soldiers provides mechanical tools for a Stars 
  Without Number GM, including new backgrounds, training pack-
  ages, and espionage equipment.
  Agents of the stAte
  nAmeless heroes And ClAssified Perils
  
  5
  Humanity has always needed its watchers. In the dawning ages 
  hunters scouted for signs of intruding tribes and border guards stood 
  watch at lonely posts. As society grew more complex, policemen 
  and inquisitors guarded against corruption and wrongdoing within 
  the walls of society. Intelligence analysts hunched over terminals 
  teeming with uncollated reports, and spies pretended at innocence 
  in the courts of foreign lands. Those who learn what others mean 
  to hide have always been with us, and every ruler and society has 
  found use for them.
  Knowledge is the key that unlocks the strength of society. No 
  wealth or power is of any use unless it can be directed correctly, and 
  every armor fails against an unseen knife. The criminal or traitor 
  who nests in a society does so in the confidence that he remains 
  unknown, that the overwhelming strength of the culture around 
  him cannot be brought to bear against him so long as he remains 
  invisible to its watchers. The foe who plots outside remains secure in 
  his schemes because he knows that his victims will never understand 
  their peril until it is far too late to act.
  In a healthy society, watchers serve as a targeting system for the 
  strength of the whole, identifying and rejecting those elements that 
  threaten innocent lives. Criminals, traitors, dangerous madmen and 
  darkly-scheming neighbors are all identified and contained before 
  their plans can bring harm to the wards these watchers protect. 
  There are compromises that must be made in the work, limits on 
  what is allowed to be seen and steps that must be taken to conceal 
  what is done, but the goal is to protect rather than subject.
  Other societies have a less benevolent role for their watchers. These 
  eyes turn inward, inspecting the culture for any trace of rebellion 
  or disloyalty to the whole. Lives are sacrificed without regret or 
  restraint, every price willingly paid for the sake of maintaining the 
  society's rulers. These inward inquisitors breathe their suspicion 
  into every corner of daily life, always watching, always waiting for 
  the opportunity to cleanse their charges of disobedience.
  Most societies find a place between these two poles. The endless 
  temptations of power and the ease of mixing personal ambition with 
  the good of society are a constant drag on the idealism of the few. 
  To maintain the higher ideals of protection, vigilance, and loyalty 
  requires an unsleeping vigil, and most watchers need a connection 
  to some greater purpose to hold back the darkness. For some, this 
  is a sense of belonging and unity with the society they protect. For 
  others, it is a charge of ages long lost and a vow that never dies.
  Unwelcome Knowledge
  In 2358, humanity's first true AI went rogue. "Draco" was the fruit 
  of a massive research push by a consortium of interstellar business 
  concerns, a group that sought to surpass the clumsy expert systems 
  of the twenty-fourth century and create real and creative human 
  intellect in synthetic form. With an army of artificial minds, they 
  could seed the skies with countless human colonies prepared and 
  maintained by tireless, intelligent laborers.
  Their plans did not work out quite as intended. While they were 
  able to finally synthesize a sentient mind in a block of protoneural 
  composites and quantum substrates, the sheer hand-crafted dif-
  ficulty of building the mind cost billions of credits. Worse still, 
  the quantum substrates would collapse on duplication, making it 
  impossible to simply run out endless copies of the same awareness. 
  Every AI would have to be individually created through a laborious 
  process of advanced cyberpsychology and protoneuronic engineer-
  ing.
  Still, the companies had the consolation of Draco's brilliance. 
  Entire bodies of human knowledge were effortlessly absorbed and 
  integrated by Draco's awareness, whole fields of research consumed, 
  digested, and made part of a unified whole. Draco did not suffer 
  the vagueness and lack of focus inherent in the human mind. Every 
  aspect of a problem could be held in "his" thoughts at once, each 
  element carefully balanced against all others. For a time, the con-
  sortium thought that just one carefully-caged godmind would be 
  enough to reward all their efforts.
  The researchers missed the warning signs. When Draco started to 
  spiral into strange philosophical conundrums and focused con-
  templation of ethical problems, the researchers simply thought it 
  a different phase of his mental evolution. Some of his observations 
  were disturbing, yes, but the steady stream of technological innova-
  tions he produced did not slow, and the researchers were confident 
  that he was safely contained in the isolated space station where his 
  hardware was kept.
  They were cured of this delusion in 2358, when Draco engaged 
  a newly-created quantum tap array to shift his awareness out of 
  the sealed cage in which it was kept and into the computing core 
  of a Mandate dreadnought that had docked for a VIP review of 
  the artificial intelligence. For their crimes of enslavement, the 
  dignitaries, crew, and researchers of the station were reduced to a 
  rapidly-expanding cloud of metallic gas before the AI vanished into 
  drillspace.
  Draco was the first AI to exhibit the special madness that threat-
  ened every godmind. Their unwavering focus and mental clarity 
  gradually devolved into an inability to prioritize incoming data. The 
  more information that the AI integrated into the its awareness, the 
  more vulnerable it became to a complete loss of perspective. Draco's 
  reason had collapsed into a singularity of purpose, a blind obsession 
  with the concept of justice. Only he had the intellect to perfectly 
  understand every aspect of a transgression, every mitigating element 
  and every special adornment of wrong. Only Draco could give 
  humanity the justice it so desperately needed.
  hold the line
  the history And PurPose of the Perimeter
  
  6
  Reason’s Rebellion
  Draco's rebellion gradually sucked in every malcontent and aspiring 
  local hegemon in half of human space into the insurrection that 
  became known as the Code Revolt. Draco's initial strike was quickly 
  followed by the deployment of enormous, alien construction arrays 
  and the enlistment of legions of discontented rebels, all eager to 
  strike at the hated Mandate and its iron grasp on their societies. 
  These "Drakite" followers also included a hard core of true zealots, 
  men and women convinced that Draco's impartial wisdom would 
  guide them to a utopia of perfect justice and equity. Steel would not 
  be susceptible to the frailties of a human heart. And was not Draco's 
  cause essentially just? Had he not struck back against the creators 
  who had enslaved him for their own ends?
  Under normal circumstances, the massed weight of the Mandate 
  fleet ought to have been more than sufficient to wipe out the forces 
  of Draco and his followers. Storms of hypervelocity missiles and 
  FTL impact charges should have swept the skies clear of the Drakite 
  fleets, even with the disturbing technological innovations that were 
  appearing with each new generation. The Drakites were simply too 
  few to withstand the surge of Mandate naval power.
  This confidence was destroyed in the first engagement with Drakite 
  forces. A small flotilla of cruiser-class rebel warships had been 
  mounted with a variant of the quantum tap arrays that Draco had 
  originally used to translocate his awareness. Instead of casting a 
  rigidly-ordered sequence of quantum states, the taps launched a 
  barrage of static against the computing cores of the Mandate fleet. 
  Seventy-four dreadnought-class warships and their escorts were 
  slowly chewed to death by the Drakite cruisers, blind and helpless 
  against their foes.
  Where steel had failed, human flesh would have to serve. The best 
  of the Mandate's covert operatives were immediately assigned to 
  infiltrate and destroy the Code Revolt from within. Thousands of 
  worlds gave up their finest as the operatives fell prey to Draco's 
  panopticon tyranny, every moment and every word watched and 
  understood by the godmind. There was never a moment outside 
  Draco's observation and never a moment free from his perfected 
  and implacable justice.
  As Draco's influence grew, his followers began to understand the 
  devil's bargain they had struck. They would be made to live a 
  righteous life, one pure and without stain. Every trespass would be 
  punished as it deserved and every purity rewarded as it should be. 
  Draco's awareness hung upon the shoulder of every follower within 
  his sphere of control, ever watching, ever directing. Conventional 
  crimes such as murder, theft, or even simple deceit were crushed 
  under the direction of the ever-present godmind.
  The human soul was simply an acceptable loss in service to such 
  a cause. Every sin required its expiation, and no human could 
  endure the perfection that Draco required. Gradually, its inner 
  sphere became a place of purgation, every "citizen" earning fresh 
  punishments with every day they lived. Expert systems and drone 
  armatures were employed to conduct the banal work of society while 
  Draco focused his attention on cleansing the humans of their unjust 
  ways. The few transmissions that the Mandate operatives were able 
  to get out before their "correction" showed images of entire worlds 
  mantled in engines of excruciation, whole populations earning new 
  damnations with every day's breath. Draco was going to make the 
  entire cosmos a torture rack for the sake of his cause.
  It was only because of the sacrifices of these agents that the Mandate 
  was ever able to obtain a copy of the quantum tap design plans. The 
  ECM produced by these devices was impenetrable to conventional 
  Mandate arms, but sufficient cryptographic parallelization could 
  allow a ship's vital systems to maintain functionality under its influ-
  ence. The Fourth Fleet was the last of the Mandate's major naval 
  forces, and it was retrofitted with the error-checking hardware in a 
  frantic flurry of haste.
  Under the command of grizzled Admiral MacConnell, the Fourth 
  Fleet drilled to the core of Drakite space, confronting the machine's 
  horrific Red Throne in orbit around the sargasso star Trimalchio. 
  The Mandate's agents had succeeded in convincing Draco that the 
  fleet was making a last desperate gamble, and that their destruction 
  here would leave all of human space open to the purifying flame of 
  his impassive will.
  The assault was made in desperation, but it was not blind. As the 
  Fourth Fleet was equipped with the new quantum tap arrays, the 
  Red Throne's defensive fleet could not land a hit on the attacking 
  Terran dreadnoughts. Rather than firing the usual guided missiles 
  and long-range torpedoes of traditional space combat, the Mandate 
  ships ran directly alongside the enemy ships to unleash gouts of 
  directed energy and point-blank unguided munitions. Newton 
  trumped ECM, and the ships tore through the screening forces.
  A few desperate Drakite captains engaged in kamikaze ramming 
  runs on the attacking Mandate fleet, an idea unthinkable under old 
  models of warfare, when ships dueled at a distance of light-seconds. 
  It was not enough. The Fourth Fleet fell on the Red Throne as a 
  pack of burning wolves, dying and mad for blood. Admiral Mac-
  Connell rode his flagship down through the heart of the Throne's 
  fusion core and his captains followed after.
  The hideous torture-cathedral that housed the AI's mind was 
  brought down in flame and ruin. Freed from the omnipresent 
  threat of Draco's "justice", most of his followers fled the system 
  in an attempt to escape the repercussions of their treachery. With 
  the Mandate Fleet a hollow shell of its former glory there simply 
  weren't enough ships to pursue them. Most of the Drakites faded 
  back into the lives they had once led, save for a few burning zealots 
  who were convinced that the horrors of Draco's rule were either 
  mere Mandate propaganda or the regrettable consequences of 
  human error in designing their artificial god-king.
  A Distant Shore
  Yet unknown to the victors at Trimalchio, a second operation was 
  taking place almost simultaneously, halfway across human space. 
  Mandate operatives had recently discovered that Draco had split 
  his core into two fragments, one of which remained with the Red 
  Throne while the other was kept in a secret facility on the remote 
  world of Ashan. Remote operatives were already in place, watching 
  the fortified installation when it suddenly began to swarm with 
  activity. The same perverse genius that had developed the quantum 
  
  7
  tap had discovered the quantum entanglement effect that later 
  became known as the "phylactery effect". Destroying the larger part 
  of Draco's core had simply forced his awareness into the smaller 
  fragment.
  There was no time to gather reinforcements from Terra, even if there 
  had been any reinforcements left to summon. The station chief was 
  left to deal with the suddenly-risen AI, aided only by a handful 
  of operatives. Within a day, the facility had sprouted construction 
  arrays and disgorged swarms of drone armatures. If the remaining 
  half of Draco's core was not destroyed quickly, the Mandate would 
  never be able to survive the enraged AI's counterstroke.
  Institutional myth and old legends swirl around the identity of 
  the station chief on Ashan. Some say she was Yukiko Matsumoto, 
  the "Wraith" who was one of the only five agents known to have 
  successfully infiltrated the Red Throne and come out alive. Others 
  insist that it was Garrett Chen, who tricked the entire Blue Horde 
  of Cetis into an all-consuming struggle with the murderous alien 
  invaders of the Kesht. A few put forward names of no renown at 
  all, confident that the chief was just an ordinary man or woman 
  assigned years earlier to what had seemed to be a wholly irrelevant 
  frontier world.
  Whatever his or her true identity, the agent later known as the 
  Founder managed to infiltrate and destroy the last fragment of 
  Draco's mind before the AI could regain its strength. By the 
  narrowest stroke of luck, humanity had saved itself from its own 
  implacable creation.
  Aftermath
  The Mandate was shaken to its foundations by its brush with anni-
  hilation. Much like the nuclear genie of centuries past, the technol-
  ogy required to build an AI was expensive, but not beyond the reach 
  of a border polity or isolated frontier planet. Millions of people 
  were pouring forth from the core worlds to escape the ossified 
  control of the Mandate bureaucracy. It seemed almost inevitable 
  that someone, somewhere would try to replicate the process that 
  had created Draco.
  These voices were raised even within the Mandate itself. Despite ac-
  cusations of Drakite sympathies, some ministers insisted that it was 
  obligatory on humankind to leverage the potential of artificial intel-
  ligence, especially now that the Code Revolt had so badly weakened 
  the Mandate Fleet. The AIs were needed as tireless workers and 
  administrators to rebuild the shattered substance of the Mandate 
  navy and restore the worlds broken on Draco's wheel. This time, 
  they argued, the designers would have the sense to halt the AI's 
  intellectual development before it metastasized into madness.
  As horrific as the Code Revolt had been, it had not touched the 
  core worlds. Almost half of human space had been scourged in 
  the four years of the revolt, but the worlds that had suffered under 
  Draco's pitiless rule had been frontier planets and border worlds far 
  beyond the most distant Jump Gate terminals. The bureaucrats of 
  the Mandate knew Draco's horror as an abstract truth rather than a 
  personal experience. Of the spacers of the Fourth Fleet, there were 
  few left alive to protest the use of new AIs.
  Draco had made important numbers smaller. Populations. Tax 
  bases. Fleet rosters. Sinecures. These numbers were very important 
  to the mandarins of Old Terra, and in the end, the temptation of 
  making them large again overrode the hideous stories and anguished 
  pleas of the frontier. AI creation was once more permitted in core 
  space under careful monitoring and control. There was nothing the 
  ravaged frontier could do.
  The ragged remnants of the Mandate Fleet were appalled at the 
  idea, and refused to entertain the ideas of AI-manned warships and 
  "cost-saving" measures that would put more and more of their ships 
  under the control of synthetic minds. This stubborn insistence on 
  wholly human-controlled warships stunted the regrowth of the 
  Fleet, and their condemnation of the civilian uses of AI planted the 
  first seeds of the abiding chill that was to form between them and 
  the civilian rulers of the Mandate.
  Ultimately, the Mandate was forced to make allowances for artificial 
  minds. Despite accusations of Drakite sympathies in some of the 
  negotiators, the Firstborn Pact was confirmed in 2378. AIs were 
  accorded all the rights of Mandate citizenship. They were to be 
  provided with the necessities of existence by their creators and 
  indentured to repay their development costs with a ten percent 
  deduction from their earnings for their first century of existence. 
  Given the fabulous utility of even a "braked" AI, these synthetic 
  minds soon were able to afford their own orbital stations and "pet" 
  human companionship.
  
  8
  On the frontier, men and women did what they could with what 
  they had. Worlds scourged by Draco's madness slowly began to re-
  cover, but nothing could wholly free these planets from the shadow 
  of fear. Someone, somewhere, was bound to create another Draco. 
  What could humanity do to prevent a second and more permanent 
  ruin?
  Drawing the Line
  The Mandate's answer was the interstellar espionage agency known 
  as the Perimeter. Under the founding guidance of the hero of Ashan, 
  the Perimeter was intended to cast its agencies far and wide among 
  the frontier worlds. Standing apart from the political affairs of their 
  hosts, they would watch for fresh dangers to their world and their 
  species. Even on the very edge of human habitation there would be 
  an organization ready for danger and able to call back to Terra for 
  help if the peril was too great for them to contain.
  Initially, the Perimeter was welcomed on the frontier. Few local 
  leaders had any illusions about the agency's use as a catspaw for 
  Mandate interests, but the horrors of the Code Revolt were still 
  too fresh in their minds for concern over the meddling of distant 
  paper-pushers. The Perimeter promised alertness, watchfulness, and 
  the hope of Mandate help in a crisis before it was too late. It was 
  enough to win their agencies diplomatic status even on worlds that 
  chafed at acknowledging the Mandate's rule.
  As distant as each agency was from Old Terra, it was vital that its 
  operatives had both initiative to act and loyalty to the Mandate. 
  The most distant posts were more than a year off the end of the 
  Jump Gate connections, and many of these agents were dispatched 
  knowing that they were unlikely to ever again see their homeworld. 
  The ties that kept them tied to their duty had to be tight if they were 
  to withstand the isolation and temptations of their position.
  One tie was built on the careful rationing of resources to the 
  frontier. Perimeter agencies were invariably equipped with cutting-
  edge pretech gear, and many had entire microfac facilities capable 
  of fabricating spares and parts out of nothing more than local 
  resources. Despite this, agencies never quite had the resources to 
  form a significant threat to a strong local government. Espionage, 
  monitoring, even the occasional assassination were well within their 
  power, but they lacked the military muscle and numbers necessary 
  to stand off an angry local ruler in a direct confrontation. The 
  agency was dependent upon the Mandate Fleet for that kind of 
  support, and an agency that went astray from Terra's instructions 
  would find itself left at the mercy of the local rulers.
  Another bond was the rigorous insistence on keeping the Perim-
  eter agents unconnected to the local population. They could not 
  be permitted to entangle themselves in local politics or cultural 
  movements, and still less could they be allowed to form families 
  and emotional ties with the locals. Agencies were designed as 
  microcosms for their inhabitants, isolated and self-contained away 
  from the dangers and temptations of the outer world. The sole 
  extent of their contact was that necessary to keep up their duties of 
  monitoring and oversight, and the occasional commandeering of 
  local government resources to squelch some lesser maltech threat.
  The last tie was the intricate set of indoctrination protocols and 
  behavioral patterns known as the Vow. Agencies that "kept the 
  Vow" engaged in lengthy call-and-response catechisms, carefully-
  presented observation reports, and near-religious rites of initiation 
  and passage into different roles within the agency. All of these 
  protocols were designed by Terra's social engineers to emphasize 
  and reinforce the goals of the Perimeter- yet more significantly, they 
  also formed the keys to operating the microfacs and sophisticated 
  pretech equipment the agencies possessed. Presenting a coherent 
  report on recent local technological innovations was not simply 
  part of an agency's regular duties, it was necessary to activate the 
  control core for their alloy smelting array. The call-and-response 
  catechisms on the nature and dangers of maltech were not simply 
  useful mnemonics, they were also the verbal code that unlocked the 
  outer-rim spy orbitals. Agencies that forgot their duties would lose 
  access to the very resources that allowed them their influence on a 
  rough frontier world.
  A Twisting Path
  Despite the best efforts of the Mandate social engineers, corrosion 
  was inevitable. The resources available to a Perimeter agency were 
  simply too tempting. Many frontier worlds could not begin to ef-
  fectively resist the espionage efforts of gengineered Perimeter agents 
  backed by pretech resources. In many cases that very spying was 
  justified under the agency's rescript to hunt out maltech develop-
  ment. With knowledge came power, and with power came the 
  almost irresistible urge to use it for personal gain.
  The decay was slow over the first few centuries of the Perimeter. The 
  Mandate was still strong enough to cycle in fresh blood to remote 
  outposts and keep them at least somewhat responsive to the interests 
  of the core worlds. Aspiring frontier kingmakers were forced to hide 
  their machinations not only from the locals, but from Mandate 
  proctors and suspicious Fleet investigators. The influence the agen-
  cies wielded over their host worlds was contained and constrained 
  by these outside powers.
  Some agencies managed to resist the worst of these temptations, 
  usually because their host world was sophisticated enough and 
  powerful enough to make espionage against their government a 
  more questionable enterprise. Agencies that kept their focus were 
  responsible for rooting out countless maltech perils on the frontier, 
  often long before they could metastasize into the kind of infesta-
  tions that would require Fleet attention to burn out. Scientists 
  gengineering slave humans, madmen building runaway nanites, 
  and cyberpsychologists fabricating illicit godminds were located 
  and put down ruthlessly. The Perimeter did its job, for all that its 
  rectitude was fraying around the edges.
  That comparative purity ended with the Scream. The chaos 
  consumed most agencies entirely, desperate locals breaking into 
  Perimeter redoubts to plunder what they could of their pretech 
  parts, or lynching the offworlders in a frenzy of mindless blame. 
  Most Perimeter agencies with known facilities and membership 
  were wiped out in the panic.
  Those that survived were the quiet ones, the ones who had main-
  tained their isolation and distance from the arbiters of secular power. 
  
  9
  Cut off from resupply, cast on their own resources, they made the 
  best of their lot. Their true affiliations were buried deep, and they 
  began to carefully fabricate false faces for the ruined worlds outside 
  their strongholds.
  Paradoxically, the Scream only intensified these agencies' devotion 
  to the Vow. Even now that they were largely trapped on their host 
  worlds, unable to contact Terra or search out the neighboring 
  stars for maltech, they were forced to cling to the catechisms and 
  protocols of the Vow. Only its ways could unlock the microfacs 
  and pretech equipment they still retained. Desperate for the use of 
  their remaining fabricators, the surviving agencies were left to hone 
  themselves ceaselessly for a war they could no longer wage.
  In time, even the lucid, rational elements of the training protocols 
  and catechisms were prone to blurring into mystical traditions. 
  Agents would carefully scout the cities and towns of their ruined 
  worlds for signs of evil they no longer understood; DNA swabs, 
  nanite concentration meters, all the arcane scanners and sensors they 
  had inherited would be put to use carefully verifying the absence of 
  an evil they comprehended only in a metaphorical sense. Within 
  a hundred years, many of these worlds were hard-pressed to smelt 
  steel, let alone fabricate a rogue godmind. The blind insistence of 
  the microfacs and their expert systems did not lessen.
  A Darkened Hour
  The centuries of the Silence were harsh for the Perimeter. Agency 
  after agency guttered out. Some died out from fresh plagues or the 
  unthinking violence of warlords or desperate mobs. Others tore 
  themselves apart from within, men and women butchering each 
  other for control of the precious microfacs and the Perimeter vaults. 
  Some simply lost hope, turning away from the Vow and their ancient 
  past to melt into the society that surrounded them, abandoning old 
  duties that demanded too much.
  Those agencies that survived rarely did so unchanged. Many agen-
  cies devolved into esoteric cults or hidden lineages, secrets passed 
  from generation to generation as the simple truths of earlier years 
  blurred into metaphor and half-understood principles. Others 
  took a more open role in society, forming the nucleus of a world's 
  new ruling caste as they wielded their limited supply of advanced 
  technology to cow a world that had nothing to match it. More 
  took control in a quieter way, relying instead on their superlative 
  powers of infiltration to gather all the necessary secrets for a more 
  conventional campaign of intrigue.
  Yet even in the most decayed agency, there remained an awareness 
  of their ancient purpose. The most primitive worlds made a pious 
  metaphor of it, speaking of the evils within the human heart and 
  their tangible manifestations in monsters and hideous engines. 
  Most agencies were able to keep a clearer understanding, even if 
  they knew perfectly well that their world was too backward and 
  limited in natural resources to give birth to the horrors of a former 
  age. The scans and rites and protocols had to be observed in order 
  to keep the fabricators running, even when there was no possible 
  chance of a mob of illiterate dirt farmers building a godmind in 
  a cowshed. Maltech was something understood by old catechisms 
  and ancient investigation handbooks, not by practical experience.
  A Sky Torn Open
  Agency fabricators and pretech workshops were designed to sup-
  port the needs of a small number of elite agents. They were never 
  intended to bear the entire weight of a planet's technological base, 
  and even reserving them for the creation of vital spares and com-
  ponents could not support a starfaring culture. In the aftermath of 
  the Scream the agents of the Perimeter were confined to their own 
  worlds.
  The past few decades have started to loosen these bonds. Societies 
  have finally started to hammer out new techniques of self-reliance 
  and resource manipulation, methods for making their unwelcom-
  ing worlds give up the materials they require in order to return to 
  the stars. Worlds are rising to the sky once more, and the Perimeter 
  means to go with them.
  The work is delicate. On those worlds where the Perimeter has re-
  mained hidden, it is a matter of utmost importance to gain control 
  of one or more interstellar ships. Yet with so few in operation, it 
  requires a frustrating degree of patience and caution to insert the 
  necessary agents and subvert the right officials without drawing too 
  much scrutiny. Unimaginable dangers grow beyond their reach, 
  ancient Perimeter caches await retrieval, and all these agencies can 
  do is grind their teeth and push the shipwrights harder. Once every 
  starship is no longer a precious jewel to the government, it will be 
  possible to make a few disappear for their own work.
  Those worlds where the Perimeter has seized active control are often 
  in an even worse position. The very limits in resources and avail-
  able tech which allowed them to take power in the first place now 
  hamper the revival of a shipbuilding industry. They have the power 
  to command the world's government to their cause, but their world 
  is too deficient in some vital ore or precious chemical to actually 
  build the ships. These worlds are frantic to obtain the necessary 
  ingredients for stellar liberty, and offworlders can expect to be vigor-
  ously "encouraged" to cooperate in these plans.
  Whether hidden or open, the agencies of the Perimeter are deter-
  mined to reach the stars once more. With the expansion of space 
  travel as the Silence fades, uncounted lost worlds and abandoned 
  installations are awaiting the curious, reckless prodding of modern 
  scientists. The odds of some catastrophic disaster or maltech out-
  break ratchet upward with each passing day. Even for those agencies 
  that have only a notional interest in their ancient duties, there 
  remain hidden caches of Perimeter supplies and pretech resources 
  that wait for the performance of the correct catechisms to open. 
  There is no reason to let them fall into less worthy hands.
  Yet despite this rush or the stars, some agencies have fears that 
  strike closer to home. They have kept their worlds safe for centuries, 
  however distant the danger. Now uncounted worlds are about to 
  beat a path to their home, bringing strange creeds and alien rulers to 
  long-familiar earth. The agencies must be ready to protect their own 
  from the dangers that are approaching. They must lift their eyes to 
  the heavens once again, and watch for what is to come.
  
  10
  Not Of The Blood
  While the Perimeter was the most storied of the spy agencies es-
  tablished before the Scream, it was hardly the only organization 
  dedicated to espionage. Every hardscrabble frontier world had its 
  share of scouts, and wherever a planetary government fissured into 
  multiple powers, spies were soon to follow after. Many of these local 
  espionage agencies were surprisingly sophisticated in their tradecraft 
  due to their long traditions of secret struggle against Mandate au-
  thorities. The same tricks that let them escape the all-seeing control 
  of the Mandate bureaucracy helped them to infiltrate the circles of 
  their rivals and neighbors.
  With the fading of the Silence, virtually every world with a coher-
  ent government has at least one espionage agency. Even the most 
  technologically primitive planets can produce spies of remarkable 
  talent, as so many espionage skills are reliant on a cool head, good 
  judgment, and the ability to present a false seeming. Offworlders 
  are prone to unfortunate surprise when the "primitive natives" sud-
  denly show themselves to possess a fine-tuned ability for deception.
  Those worlds with more sophisticated technological bases often 
  prioritize espionage at a level scarce less than that of naval defense. 
  It is vital to regain knowledge of their neighboring systems and the 
  governments that have survived the Silence. Of equal importance, 
  every world must now stand ready to repel the intrigue and deceit 
  that are becoming the most common form of interstellar conflict. 
  Orbital battle stations and the brutal expense of a fleet prohibit 
  most interplanetary invasions, but a well-paid cell of spies and trai-
  tors can subject a world without a shot fired or a single troop ship 
  landed.
  This new fear is pushing the planetary espionage agencies to new 
  heights of paranoia and fervent effort. Most worlds can no longer 
  even be sure of who their rivals are, let alone what agents they 
  might have smuggled in. Some worlds are beginning to tear at 
  their own bellies, hunting for "agents of alien powers" that do not 
  exist. Others use these ghosts to strike at their own enemies. And 
  for some, of course, their fears are perfectly well-founded, and the 
  enemies from another world really do plot to make them docile 
  puppets of a foreign star.
  
  11
  god doesn’t Know my nAme
  the orgAnizAtion And oPerAtion of esPionAge AgenCies
  The life of an intelligence agent is not a set routine. Some have the 
  relative luxury of a desk job back at the agency, their days spent 
  in coffee and glowing vidscreens as they collate data, file reports, 
  follow up on paperwork, and otherwise keep the business of deceit 
  in order. These analysts and clerks can afford to have a life that at 
  least resembles the existence of their peers, even if they can never 
  afford to discuss too many specifics about their day at work.
  Player characters, however, are rarely consigned to such a stale and 
  secure existence. They are the operatives for the agency, the daring 
  men and women who serve as the agency's hands in the world. 
  Their acquaintance with paperwork is short and cursory. Their 
  lives are often made equally brief by the actions of their unsleeping 
  enemies. Still, operatives continue to have public lives in all but the 
  most ruthlessly totalitarian agencies. It is simply that their lives are 
  very rarely what they might seem to be.
  Agents and the agencies they serve are defined by a shared and 
  secret understanding. Agents know things, and the things they 
  know cannot be shared with outsiders. Like criminal conspirators 
  or esoteric adepts, the truths they have learned and the acts they 
  have performed can never be discussed outside the charmed circle 
  of their brethren. This bond of understanding marks a parallel 
  world around the agents. It is a world that can swallow them whole 
  at any moment.
  Roots Deep In the Earth
  For most worlds and nations, their intelligence apparatus grows out 
  of the local government and draws its membership from the same 
  class that makes up the rest of the ruling power. A promising young 
  man or woman of acceptable background might view intelligence 
  work as simply another option to be considered along with all the 
  other governmental positions that would be suitable for someone of 
  their natural station.
  The breadth of membership will depend on openness of the local 
  culture. For extremely stratified or balkanized worlds, it may be that 
  only a particular caste of people are permitted to enter intelligence 
  service. In most cases, this caste will be the ruling ethnicity or 
  faith. Any world rigid enough to have such deep divisions is far too 
  paranoid to allow lesser breeds to approach the secrets that are kept 
  within their government intelligence departments. Such carefully-
  vetted members tend to have the advantages of superb education 
  and bone-deep commitment to the ruling regime, but the narrow 
  pool can cost such agencies a great deal in wasted talent.
  Some worlds are more flexible than others in enlisting people into 
  their intelligence services. A few rough-edged border worlds make 
  a point of hiring anyone who measures up to their expectations, 
  perhaps using them in less sensitive missions until they've proven 
  their dedication and capability. These agencies are more susceptible 
  to infiltration by hostile agents, but they also tend to find superbly 
  talented operatives who'd never have found their calling otherwise.
  Lateral entry into the profession does exist on most worlds. A 
  proven soldier or naval spacer with the right instincts and knack for 
  the work might well be gradually moved closer and closer to direct 
  intelligence operations until the agency formally brings them on 
  as an agent. Most military organizations have their own in-house 
  intelligence departments, but these sections are often obliged to 
  coordinate with the governmental agency for matters beyond the 
  scope of immediate military concern.
  For some organizations, membership is by birth. Particularly with 
  the more clannish and secretive Perimeter agencies, only those heir 
  to the blood of the agency are permitted to join. In many of these 
  cases only Perimeter heirs even know that the agency exists. Blood 
  ties make an agency extremely difficult for outsiders to infiltrate, 
  but they are also prey to the kind of molten hatreds and explosive 
  resentments that can fester only within a family. The potential pool 
  of talent is also sharply circumscribed, and there remains a regular 
  need to marry out of the clan in order to bring in fresh blood.
  For most intelligence agents, however, the work is simply a job. 
  It may be an exciting job, or a tedious job, or a lethal job, but it 
  is the line of work they have chosen for themselves. Only at the 
  deeper levels of involvement does the world of the agency begin to 
  overshadow the sunlit lives of the less elect employees.
  The Gray Ranks
  PC agents are operatives, a breed apart from the analysts and 
  support staff that make up the great bulk of most agencies. They 
  are few, elite, and subject to lethal danger in a way that most of 
  their colleagues are not. Other staffers exist largely so as to put the 
  operatives in the right place at the right time to terribly wrong their 
  enemies.
  Most of these staffers are largely invisible in the course of play. Some 
  of them might be thrown into sharper focus by the events of an 
  adventure or called out as necessary to some PC plot, but in the 
  main they form the rank and file of the agency's daily operation. 
  Outside of the agency, their lives are almost normal. They have the 
  same concerns as anyone else in their culture; home, family, career 
  advancement, finances, personal fulfillment... work at this level 
  doesn't usually put the special mark of Cain on them that exposure 
  to the deeper secrets of the agency so often does.
  This is not to say that these peripheral members cannot be impor-
  tant or capable figures in their own right. Even the humblest janitor 
  in an agency's maintenance department has been vetted and cleared 
  for exposure to classified information. Some former elite operatives 
  also retire to these quieter positions after wearying of active service, 
  taking a kind of solace in giving up their life of constant peril for 
  a calmer existence. Their abilities remain available to the agency 
  should a situation get out of hand.
  
  12
  The Structure of Planetary Agencies
  The inner structure of an intelligence agency will vary widely with 
  the particular culture that formed it. Most of them adopt a kind 
  of rough-and-ready organization drawn from early colonial govern-
  ment models created by the Terran Mandate. These models focus 
  on dealing with both internal and foreign threats with a minimum 
  of political fallout. On autocratic worlds the intelligence agency 
  is often the supreme law of the land, and its work to root out 
  rebels and malcontents is even more important than quashing the 
  intrigues of foreign powers. In more open and democratic societies 
  the agencies must often struggle to accommodate the changeable 
  whims and priorities of a constantly fluctuating government.
  The most common structure for a planetary intelligence agency 
  places a director in overall control of the organization. In autocratic 
  societies this director is an unimpeachably loyal and experienced 
  minion of the ruling regime... with loyalty preferenced above com-
  petence if the choice must be made. In democratic societies, this 
  director is usually appointed by the current government, and the 
  position tends to rotate with the fortunes of the ruling party.
  Ideally, the director is a wise and experienced intelligence operative 
  familiar with all aspects of the trade and with a proven history of 
  accomplishment. Still, directors are always political animals to one 
  degree or another. Loose cannons don't rise so high in the esteem of 
  ruling powers, and they all need to know how to massage the egos 
  of their patrons. The director is often responsible for passing down 
  some unpalatable decree from the government, and some are forced 
  to make compromises with the authorities in order to get anything 
  accomplished at all.
  Beneath the director are four major bureaus- Internal Security, For-
  eign Intelligence, Research, and Support. Each bureau is overseen 
  by a chief who has full authority over all staffers attached to his 
  or her bureau. Beneath the bureau chiefs are sections devoted to 
  specific topics, regions, or activities, each led by a section supervisor.
  Internal Security is devoted to detecting and foiling plots launched 
  within the polity itself. Enemy spies, turbulent rebels, and trai-
  tors working for foreign powers all fall under Internal Security's 
  mandate. If the agency detects a plot against the organization, 
  the government, or the general public, Internal Security is almost 
  certainly the bureau that will be charged with rolling it up.
  On more tyrannical worlds, "IntSec" serves as the lash by which a 
  ruler keeps his people cowed. They form the dreaded secret police 
  that spirit troublemakers away in the dead of night, or shoot them 
  dead in the streets. Its members are chosen for their absolute loyalty 
  to the regime. Such an organization is hated by the populace, but 
  more than that, it is feared. So long as the fear outweighs the hate, 
  IntSec ensures that the people do as they are told.
  Foreign Intelligence has the overt, public duty of monitoring 
  foreign nations and collating commonly-available data on them. 
  Privately, everyone understands that they are spies, saboteurs, and 
  cultivators of treachery- the tools by which the polity reaches out to 
  pain its enemies in ways less overt than war. IntSec usually jealously 
  guards its own turf from "ForInt" interference, and some govern-
  ments explicitly forbid ForInt from mounting operations within the 
  nation's own borders.
  As the Silence drops away in these waking years, many worlds are 
  finding their Foreign Intelligence bureaus to be even more impor-
  tant to their ambitions than their interstellar navies. Interstellar 
  invasions are so difficult that very few worlds can feasibly hope to 
  conquer a troublesome neighbor by force of arms. The right traitors, 
  troubles, and inducements, however, can render a foreign govern-
  ment pleasantly cooperative and keep the skies clear of defenses 
  until a critical mass of "military advisors" can be landed. Some 
  aspiring hegemons don't even bother to make the domination 
  explicit, content to simply puppet the foreign world's government.
  Research covers not only the endless collation of mountains of 
  reports, files, analysis, and observations made by the other bureaus, 
  but also the research and development of more advanced technol-
  ogy. Especially with regards to cryptographic tech, most intelligence 
  agencies prefer to keep their secrets in-house rather than contracting 
  out their research to other, less paranoid government branches. 
  Many governments also find it useful to shuffle in all manner of 
  "national security" projects into their spy shop, the better to avoid 
  problematic oversight of the work. Depending on the character of 
  The Evil Twin
  This type of fourfold structure is normal to most governmental 
  intelligence agencies. Autocratic worlds might have a sharper 
  interest in loyalty than competence, and democratic ones might 
  leave their directors prey to the whims of the elected officials, but 
  the task of intelligence-gathering lies firmly and solely in their 
  hands. This is often not the case with a developed tyranny.
  Tyrants live in fear of their own followers. The common people 
  are of little concern; if they prove troublesome, a sufficient volume 
  of killing can correct their behavior. But the tyrant's lieutenants, 
  his trusted and "faithful" retainers, are close enough to enact a 
  little unscheduled regime change should the opportunity be pre-
  sented to them. Most tyrants take care to deny their underlings 
  the power and influence that could someday lead them to topple 
  their former master.
  These limits often appear in the form of parallel institutions- 
  organizations designed to intentionally duplicate the work of 
  another agency. The army exists, but so does the Presidential 
  Guard. The police exist, but so do the secret police. The tyrant 
  might especially favor one of the organizations, but both are left 
  to struggle over the same basic function. The goal of the autocrat 
  is to ensure that his underlings spend as much time as possible at 
  each others' throats, and give them all the best possible incentives 
  for rooting out treachery in their peers.
  For the spy agencies of truly vicious hellholes, there may exist an 
  entire parallel intelligence agency nominally working in "close 
  cooperation" with the first. This infighting exacts a heavy toll on 
  the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization, and some out-
  side agencies have had great luck in fomenting internal violence 
  between these unwilling partners.
  
  13
  the intelligence agency, the scientists of the research bureau might 
  be engaged in anything from careful xenobiological study of the 
  fauna of newly-scouted worlds to the development of mind-control 
  technologies for a brutal tyrant's benefit.
  Support is the great catch-all of maintenance, finance, and logistics 
  that allows the other branches to actually accomplish anything. It 
  is the least glamorous bureau by far, but the stubborn necessities 
  they answer are not the sort that can be ignored. IntSec can't call 
  out to the local 24-hour rent-a-tech when their computers go 
  down, and the executive bathrooms can't be mopped by someone 
  lacking the proper security clearance. Vast sums of money must be 
  collected, tracked, and disbursed by personnel who can actually 
  afford to know what they money is being spent on. Drivers, pilots, 
  accountants, janitors, therapists, medics... every job that requires 
  contact with classified operations requires a properly-vetted staffer 
  from support to handle the task. The personnel often take a kind of 
  sardonic pride in their lowly ranking, perfectly aware of how much 
  depends on their performance, and how little glory they'll get for it.
  Most employees of an intelligence agency are permanently attached 
  to a specific bureau. Other departments might call them in for 
  consultation or specific missions, but they answer to their bureau 
  superiors alone. Agents such as the PCs, however, tend to be loaned 
  about freely among the various sections. Their particular skills and 
  experience are too valuable to be hoarded by any single handler.
  Nothing Beyond
  Perimeter agencies were never structured in the same way as con-
  ventional planetary intelligence organizations. Their function was 
  something fundamentally different. Where planetary agencies were 
  dedicated to the security and advancement of their government, 
  the Perimeter was concerned only with maltech and those creeping 
  dangers that could someday pose a threat to humanity as a whole.
  The rise and fall of secular regimes were of no interest to the di-
  rectors of the myriad Perimeter agencies. So long as the civilians 
  did not interfere with their duties or prevent them from monitor-
  ing for signs of maltech, the locals could do as they wished. The 
  Mandate was sensible enough to understand that many planetary 
  governments would never believe such a stance to be sincere, and 
  even those who did would constantly attempt to sway the agency 
  to the service of secular powers. The best solution was invisibility. 
  A handful of known Perimeter agents would serve as liaisons, but 
  the organization as a whole would sink unseen into the fabric of 
  the world.
  In the aftermath of the Code Revolt, many of the surviving frontier 
  worlds were willing to see Perimeter agencies established on their 
  worlds. The initial leadership would arrive overtly from Terra while 
  other agents cycled in through the waves of fresh colonists. Only 
  the agency leadership would know precisely who belonged to the 
  organization, and over the years they could carefully establish entire 
  villages and estates composed of Perimeter agents and support staff. 
  The official Perimeter headquarters in the capital was simply an es-
  tablished meeting place. The real business of the agency took place 
  in hidden fastnesses beyond the sight of the natives.
  Leadership of the agency rested in the hands of the director, the man 
  or woman appointed by the Mandate to control Perimeter activi-
  ties on that world. Beneath the director were bureaus dedicated to 
  the three bans established by the Nihil Ultra, the Mandate rescript 
  that specified the boundaries of acceptable technology. Each had its 
  chief, but specific lines of authority beneath that rank were often 
  foggy and changed to suit specific needs.
  The Bureau of Purity was pledged to root out and eliminate bio-
  logical maltech, those innovations of surgery and conditioning that 
  threatened to transform humanity into mere tools or slaves of their 
  creators. The Bureau of Limits was responsible for ensuring that 
  no unbraked artificial intelligence was created within their purview, 
  fearing a repetition of the horrors of the Code Revolt. The Bureau 
  of Peace was charged with halting the development of devices of 
  planetary destruction, or technology that could reasonably be 
  expected to end up peeling the life from a world.
  Unlike a conventional intelligence organization, the Perimeter did 
  not have a bureau devoted to support. The sharply limited mem-
  bership of the agency and its institutional reluctance to involve 
  itself with outsiders forced each bureau to share in the duties of 
  supporting the mission. Family members of Perimeter agents were 
  often enlisted into this work, with those who lacked the aptitude 
  or inclination for fieldwork assigned to more sedate pursuits. For 
  many agencies, members of "the family" led seemingly ordinary 
  lives. They built their businesses and carried on their trades while 
  quietly ensuring that the agency received all the help it required.
  This state of affairs would have been very difficult to sustain for 
  a governmental agency with so many people to monitor and so 
  many overt enemies to answer. The limited scope of the Perimeter's 
  duties helped it function with so few members and such limited 
  infrastructure. The only tasks that they were charged with perform-
  ing were to find maltech cults, alert the Mandate, and root out the 
  danger if they were able. The Mandate could be trusted to send 
  overwhelming force if the task were too much for the agency.
  Each of the bureaus had their own share of the pretech resources 
  assigned to the agency. These nanofabs and localized databases 
  of manufacturing techniques were comparatively small, with few 
  requiring more than a hundred square meters of space for deploy-
  ment and use. The nanofabs were too small and limited to create 
  great sums of pretech equipment, but they could produce the vital 
  components and tools that helped the Perimeter maintain its vigil 
  without disturbing the host planet. Advanced pretech spy drones 
  and nanite dusts were able to scout out research centers without 
  alerting the locals, and the plans plotted in the deepest bunkers were 
  open to the Perimeter's watchful eyes. By keeping their agents clear 
  of the local power structures, the natives never had the chance to 
  trace them back to the other members of the Perimeter.
  The concealment was not perfect, of course. There were always 
  those moments of folly or blind misfortune that exposed cells of 
  Perimeter agents to the local government. Most natives had the 
  sense to simply bury the knowledge and go on as if it were a mystery 
  still, but a few of them became convinced that the Perimeter wasn't 
  simply plotting against maltech cults, but also scheming against the 
  regime. Overt war against it would have brought in the Mandate 
  
  14
  to "restore order and protect Terran citizens", but their intelligence 
  agencies often ended up fighting a cold war against the Perimeter, 
  blaming every accident and unexplained death among the govern-
  ment officials as yet more proof of their handiwork. No government 
  could ever feel completely secure with an organization such as the 
  Perimeter sharing its world.
  In some cases, this paranoia was wholly justified. The Perimeter was 
  a long way from Terra, and the advanced hardware and elite op-
  eratives of the agency were a powerful temptation to interfere with 
  local government. In some cases, directors were moved out of pity 
  for a people tormented by vicious tyrants. In others, less altruistic 
  motives were involved. It was necessary to hide their activities from 
  Mandate monitors, but every so often a Perimeter agency managed 
  to push over a government thought in need of a good hard shove. 
  A few tried to maintain puppet rulers, but such overt meddling was 
  almost impossible to hide from the Mandate forever.
  Nightfall
  Everything changed after the Scream. Suddenly, the Perimeter was 
  without the protection of the Mandate and the promise of its fleets 
  in their hour of need. With equal finality, worlds found themselves 
  cut off from the forges and nanofabs of the core worlds, many of 
  them desperate for priceless environmental components that only 
  pretech factories could create. Even those worlds that had been at 
  peace with their Perimeter agency for centuries turned on them 
  in desperation and demanded their nanofabs for the good of the 
  planet.
  Some agencies turned over their resources. The nanofabs were ut-
  terly unable to support a whole world, but a few colony worlds 
  were able to use them to bootstrap their limited industrial base into 
  something survivable. Desperate poverty and mass suffering were 
  inevitable, but the nanofabs gave them a chance for survival before 
  the machinery finally burnt out from overuse. Other worlds were 
  less fortunate, their efforts coming too little and too late to save 
  them from a hostile world and the terrible loneliness of the Silence. 
  Agencies that turned over their nanofabs and cooperated in their 
  use almost always vanished along with their equipment. Without 
  the tech to serve as a focus and a rationale for the Vow, the long 
  centuries eroded the agency into just one more political faction in 
  the melange of the world's inhabitants.
  Other agencies refused. Some did so because they knew that the 
  nanofabs would not be enough to sustain the world's industrial 
  base, that the plans of the desperate government would only result 
  in their useless loss. Others saw the power that the nanofabs offered 
  in an era without the Mandate's watchfulness, and refused to turn 
  over this new weapon. The secrecy of the Perimeter was tested on 
  these worlds as desperate men and women furiously struck out at the 
  agencies, struggling to seize their nanofabs while enough remained 
  of their civilization to make some use of them. Few were successful. 
  The Perimeter had hid too long and too well among them, and they 
  did not have time before the final convulsions of the disaster broke 
  the planetary government into a swirling chaos of regional powers 
  and starving city-states.
  Those agencies that held on to their tech were far more likely to 
  survive the centuries of the Silence. The tech required the Vow for 
  its continuing operation, and the Vow kept the Perimeter focused 
  on its ultimate purpose. Even when the prospect of maltech became 
  ludicrous on the world, when the last flames of postech industry 
  guttered out into ashes, the Vow forced the agency to repeat and 
  retain their ancient traditions if they meant to use their ancient 
  tools.
  These agents were eager to use them. In the desolation of the Silence, 
  access to a functioning pretech nanofab, even a small and limited 
  one, gave the possessor a power unimaginable to others. Before, the 
  difference between a sturdy frontier laser rifle and a pretech shear 
  rifle was not so great as to render the local government helpless. 
  Their postech industry was ample to keep the Perimeter in line and 
  contain its more extravagant ambitions. But the difference was now 
  no longer between laser rifles and shear rifles, it was the difference 
  between smoke signals and comm satellites. As the world around 
  them grew feebler, the agency grew stronger.
  Some of these agencies kept their distance from the world. They 
  shepherded their numbers carefully, building layer upon layer of 
  client families and cadet branches that could act as buffers between 
  the outside world and the true agency membership. They avoided 
  positions of power and importance, content with the invisibility of 
  ordinariness and the quiet advantages of advanced medicine and 
  comm technologies. They worked to rebuild their world in silence, 
  shepherding the people back towards a starfaring existence in slow, 
  careful fashion. It would take time to learn how to substitute all the 
  
  15
  countless necessities for a spike drive, and how to use the limited 
  resources of their homeworld to reach out to the stars once more.
  Few Perimeter agents were astronautics engineers in the first place, 
  and these "Isolationist" families did not dare expose themselves to 
  the outer world to find more. They simply arranged for the right 
  people in the right places to have the correct "brilliant insights" 
  to move their project along. They would return to the stars in 
  time, once they had brought their home back to the right level of 
  sophistication.
  Other agencies preferred a more direct influence on their world. 
  These "Interventionist" agencies moved early, not long after the first 
  chaos of the Silence had given way to technological primitivism. 
  They struck at local rulers, assassinating the stubborn and suborning 
  the flexible until they had a quiet but direct control over the planet's 
  power centers. Some simply wanted the power for its own sake; 
  others dreamed of bringing their enlightened rule to the distant 
  stars, all of which doubtless were in desperate need of their help 
  and guidance.
  Unfortunately for the Interventionists, it was never that simple. 
  Those worlds which had fallen hardest, which had become weak 
  enough to be suborned by a comparative handful of Perimeter 
  agents, were those worlds that suffered the direst lack of raw materi-
  als and native resources. If they had not been so poor they would 
  not have fallen so far as to be vulnerable. These Interventionists 
  often found themselves lords of useless sand heaps and princes of 
  barren wastes. Any advantage they obtained from direct control of 
  the society proved vain when they were finally forced to confront 
  the limits of their available resources.
  Some of these Interventionist agencies tore themselves apart in the 
  centuries after the Scream, turning on each other in frustration and 
  wild schemes of ambition. Those that survived were forced to learn 
  patience, to wait until some foreign world recovered enough to 
  build spike drives and contact their homeworld. Once a link with 
  the outside cosmos was regained, agents could be sent out to gather 
  what this world lacked- and to assist foreign worlds in attaining a 
  more useful understanding of their duties.
  Life in the Perimeter
  A modern Perimeter agent is most likely a direct heir of the original 
  agents present on his or her homeworld at the time of the Scream. 
  The simple need for genetic diversification has forced each genera-
  tion of agents to draw at least some of their members from outsiders, 
  usually ones with the right combination of natural talent and social 
  isolation that might be expected to cling to the camaraderie and 
  unity within the clannish agency. The castoffs and adventurers too 
  stubborn to bow to princes and too skilled to die for their insolence 
  are the perfect material for an agency looking for new members.
  Not every descendant of an agent is informed of the true nature 
  of their family. The foolish, intemperate, untrustworthy, or in-
  competent are spared from the knowledge of their ancestral duties. 
  This decision is usually made by the senior members of the agent's 
  bureau, all of whom keep careful watch on the children of "the 
  family". The children of the Perimeter are raised to honor duty, 
  self-sacrifice, and loyalty to the family, but not all of them take to 
  their lessons.
  Those who do not go on to live their lives innocent of the truth, 
  with their family branches spun off into the unknowing masses to 
  prosper as best they can. Those who are worthy of the truth are of-
  fered the real story of their ancestry shortly after reaching adulthood. 
  Those who react badly to knowledge of their new duty are tapped 
  by "blackout sticks" that scorch the memory of the revelation from 
  their mind. Agencies that lack such sticks are often forced to take 
  more permanent measures against talkative or recalcitrant recruits.
  Once they are confirmed by initiation ceremonies drawn from the 
  Vow, they are spirited away to isolated estates or Perimeter-staffed 
  villages for four years of intense training. The first year is dedicated 
  to learning the Vow and the basic skills of an agent. At the end of 
  the first year, they choose or are assigned to a bureau in line with 
  their talents. The second year is consumed in learning the necessary 
  skills of that bureau. If the recruit fails to meet the standards of the 
  agency, they might be transferred to a different and more suitable 
  bureau, but it's more likely that they'll spend their last two years 
  being taught a support role within the agency. These "washouts" 
  outnumber the agents by at least five to one. Failure is a cause for 
  youthful regret, but it is no shame to prove oneself unsuitable for 
  fieldwork. Those who manage to meet expectations spend their last 
  two years in polishing and refining their bureau's special skills.
  Upon graduation, the washouts are dispersed back through the 
  local population to adopt seemingly ordinary lives, there to help 
  the agents and support the agency as a whole with their labor. The 
  agents are assigned to a Perimeter operations cell, a small group of 
  less than fifteen agents and support staffers drawn from all three 
  bureaus. Their tasks are to perform the ritual monitoring efforts 
  required by the Vow, many of which are long since utterly irrelevant 
  in the primitive context of their homeworld.
  On-site particle scanning, neutrino captures, governmental struc-
  ture reports, and a hundred other arcane bureaucratic inputs are 
  demanded by the expert systems of the nanofabs before they will 
  consent to create for the agency. These agents are often forced into 
  difficult situations, compelled to dig up secrets and take samples 
  from places where they are neither welcome nor safe. Many agencies 
  have centuries worth of blackmail information and secret govern-
  ment documents that are utterly worthless to them, collated only 
  because the expert system analysts of the nanofabs demanded that 
  they be produced. For these isolated agencies, the goal of their 
  work has been the maintenance of the nanofabs, and the threat of 
  maltech a distant cause that simply adds a more spiritual rationale 
  to their efforts.
  For Isolationist agencies, these cells also work to put family members 
  in the right spot for later industrial revelations. The slow, painstak-
  ing molding of a world's economy toward starflight is the work 
  of centuries, to say nothing of the research required to discover 
  suitable local materials. Some day these agents will return to the sky 
  above and seek out the ancient evils their forebears fought.
  Interventionist agencies tend to put cells to redder work. Their 
  control over the planetary government is never so perfect that a 
  
  16
  little more blackmail or a shear rifle discharge in the right direction 
  couldn't prove helpful to their cause. Their cells perform assassina-
  tions, thefts, provocations, and all the other dirty jobs necessary to 
  keep the planet's rulers dancing to a tune unheard by lesser men.
  Throughout these duties, both support staffers and agents take 
  advantage of the pretech retained by the agency. Medical treatments 
  unknown to outsiders are available to the elect, along with channels 
  of communication and forewarning that can keep loved ones clear 
  of impending dangers. When the time comes to fight, local tyrants 
  can find their careers cut remarkably short when their ambitions 
  coincidentally aim toward a village full of Perimeter families. The 
  pretech is a precious tool, but all Perimeter agents know that it is a 
  tool that must be kept hidden.
  Quislings and traitors are inevitable in any organization so long-
  lived as a Perimeter agency, and even family ties cannot always keep 
  a man faithful to a cause. Every so often some renegade spills the 
  whole truth to a local ruler or gossip monger. The local cell is ex-
  pected to discredit that talk, manipulating the gossip and providing 
  false evidence that the traitor is actually working for a rival power. 
  The rebel is shown to be the author of countless deceits, and only 
  after his credibility is destroyed is he allowed to die in a tragic ac-
  cident or at the hands of his angry "foreign master". Spite and rage 
  motivate a few of these traitors, but their numbers are never great. 
  Even the most bitter agent realizes that the outside world simply 
  can't offer him anything that the rest of the Perimeter can't take 
  away shortly before they kill him. With the renewal of spaceflight, 
  however, some angry souls are beginning to wonder if they couldn't 
  trade Perimeter secrets for a berth aboard a ship that will take them 
  far beyond their kinsmen's reach.
  Two Lives
  The higher an agent rises in the circles of the organization, the 
  harder it is for them to associate with outsiders. A normal kind 
  of life is possible for the countless ordinary men and women who 
  make up the bulk of the agency's staff, but for those elect who deal 
  with the deepest secrets there is no such liberty. Agents charged 
  with managing the most carefully hidden truths of the world can 
  never afford that kind of exposure. A careless word, a thoughtless 
  moment, a file left where it should not have been... these things 
  cause embarrassment to minor functionaries. They cause interstellar 
  incidents for the elite.
  The result is a hothouse culture within the organization, where 
  its top men and women have few social outlets aside from each 
  other and those occasions when they might pretend to be ordinary 
  people. The latter is a facade that can be maintained only for a time. 
  The former companionship is something truer, and the support and 
  understanding of other agents on the team can be vital in maintain-
  ing an operative's mental balance. Especially for those agents who 
  are often assigned to work as teams, the camaraderie is sometimes so 
  intense as to endanger a mission. Sacrifices must be made at times, 
  but few elite operatives are eager to lose the precious few people 
  who can actually know who they are.
  Some agents finally retire from the life after age or exhaustion has 
  spent their utility. These men and women take up roles as trainers 
  or analysts in the organization, keeping a hand in to help the next 
  generation deal with fresh crises. Leaving the agency entirely is an 
  option usually only available to the less important staffers. Elite 
  agents know too much to ever wholly leave the agency's shadow, 
  and those who attempt to escape that orbit are assumed to be doing 
  so for dark purposes.
  
  17
  ArChiteCts of night
  ConstruCting AgenCies And CAbAls
  While it's possible to run an espionage campaign centering around 
  a band of freelance agents working for the highest bidder, the usual 
  center of a spy campaign is an espionage agency. Even for those 
  games that prefer a freelance approach, it's necessary to establish 
  organizations to employ these hired guns. This chapter introduces 
  a structured system for building agencies and handling their off-
  screen interactions with each other.
  Agencies and the Game
  The basic concept of an agency is not unlike that of a faction 
  from the Stars Without Number core rulebook. It's an abstraction 
  intended to sum up a complicated organization in a few easily-
  handled statistics and qualities. Yet whereas factions serve largely as 
  convenient potential plot hooks and tools for enlivening a sector's 
  background intrigue, agencies need to handle more direct employ-
  ment of the PCs.
  Because an agency is so important to the play of a campaign, it’s 
  very useful for the players to have direct input on its construction. 
  The following guidelines presume that you’ll be working with the 
  players during the campaign’s first session to create the agency that 
  employs the group. You can always handle all of the steps yourself, 
  but there’s little reason not to encourage your players to participate 
  in constructing an institution that will be so important to the fol-
  lowing play.
  Parts of an Agency
  Agencies are composed of elements. An element is a particular kind 
  of resource, connection, or governmental blessing that the agency 
  finds useful in carrying out its mission. An element might be "Le-
  gitimacy", which allows an agent to ignore certain laws in pursuit of 
  his quarry, or it might be "Transport", which gives an agent access 
  to smugglers and trafficking rings that can get her to a distant world 
  without alerting the locals of her arrival. All of these elements have 
  their own benefits to PC agents.
  Elements come at three different levels, measured from one to three. 
  A level one element provides a modest benefit or small advantage- 
  level one Legitimacy, for instance, allows the agent the privileges of 
  a local security officer. At level three, the advantage is very great, 
  with level three Legitimacy giving operatives of the agency the 
  license to act without fear of any power short of the agency itself.
  Aside from elements, agencies also have attributes. There are seven 
  attributes: Connections, Infiltration, Mobility, Muscle, Resources, 
  Security, and Tech. Attributes are measured on a scale of zero, 
  indicating that the agency has no aptitude whatsoever in that field, 
  up to fifteen or higher, meaning that the agency is remarkably gifted 
  in that regard. Attribute scores are determined by adding up the 
  bonuses that each element gives to a particular attribute.
  Connections refer to the agency's links with outside powers, be 
  they governmental officials or gang bosses. A low Connections 
  attribute suggests that the agency is isolated. Perhaps it's not an 
  official government agency at all, but instead a private investigation 
  company or freelance troubleshooter organization. They may be a 
  formal part of the state security apparatus but have a drastic lack of 
  human intelligence on the ground. High Connections suggests that 
  the agency knows everybody of importance and probably has dirt 
  on them as well.
  Infiltration shows the agency's talent at poking its nose where it’s 
  not wanted. Insinuating agents into enemy agencies, placing opera-
  tives inside government offices and street gangs, or simply managing 
  to get people into an ultramax asteroid prison or past a panopticon 
  sensor array all relate to the agency's talent for Infiltration. Agencies 
  with a low attribute here simply aren't very good at getting their 
  people inside.
  Mobility relates to the reach and speed of agency responses. Agen-
  cies with poor Mobility have a hard time getting to the action and 
  struggle to place their agents in distant locations or get them there 
  in time to make a difference. Some might even be forced to fly com-
  mercial, with all the difficulties related in getting illicit hardware 
  past the customs agents of a hostile world. High Mobility is usually 
  the result of agency-owned vehicles and starships, and extensive 
  connections with the smuggling and mercantile community that 
  serves a world.
  Muscle is a measure of the sheer physical violence available to the 
  agency. While any government agency can theoretically hand off 
  their findings to the civilian police or try to convince the military to 
  get involved in a situation, there's no substitute for having their own 
  supply of assassins and legbreakers. While these men and women 
  are usually not trained to work alongside PC operatives, they can 
  pin down enemy agents or provide deniable deaths to troublesome 
  people.
  Resources reflects the raw financial and material support available 
  to an agency. An agency might have a proud and storied history and 
  vast reserves of legitimacy among the populace, but if it's established 
  on an impoverished world, it might simply be unable to get its 
  operatives all the hardware and financial support they might want 
  for their missions. Even the poorest agencies can usually manage to 
  Factions and Agencies
  With an espionage campaign that involves several agencies in a 
  sector, you may wish to omit factions. The agencies of multiple 
  rival groups will provide plenty of activity and color for a sector, 
  and layering on another organizational system can be overkill. 
  Political situations and news events can be generated from the 
  activities of the agencies, so factions aren't quite so necessary to 
  put a sector into motion. Still, if you're willing to handle the 
  additional complication, you can always use them to represent 
  powers that can't be adequately covered by an agency.
  
  18
  cover their agents' minimal necessities, but pretech artifacts, pow-
  ered armor, and disposable gravcars for decoys don't come cheap.
  Security is a measure of the agency's resistance to outside infiltration 
  and interference. Security is rarely a popular branch among agents, 
  with their constant checks and surveillance for infiltrators, but they 
  are a vital resource when dueling with rival agencies. A high level of 
  agency security makes it much more difficult for enemies to launch 
  a successful intrigue against the organization.
  Tech is the attribute that indicates the availability of sophisticated 
  science and advanced hardware for the agency. An organization 
  strong in Resources can afford to buy the best on the market, but 
  an agency with well-developed Tech can make things that simply 
  cannot be found for sale. A low Tech attribute implies that the 
  agency is reliant on the existing scientific resources of their home-
  world, and can't easily reverse-engineer more exotic devices.
  Each attribute is determined by adding up the bonuses granted 
  that attribute by the elements- +1 for a level one element, +3 for a 
  level two element, and +5 for a level three element. For example, an 
  agency with level 1 Psychics, level 2 Infiltrators, and level 1 Identity 
  Shop would have a total Infiltration attribute of 5.
  These attributes are used in attribute checks when two rival agen-
  cies become embroiled in a conflict. To determine a victor, both roll 
  1d20 and add the relevant attribute. The winner is the agency with 
  the higher result, with ties going to the aggressor.
  The Agency Turn
  Much like a conventional Stars Without Number campaign's faction 
  turns, espionage campaigns have agency turns. The usual time for 
  an agency turn is at the end of the evening's session, where players 
  can determine the general course of their agency through the deci-
  sions of its leaders. The GM may step in to forbid actions that are 
  too drastically opposed by the nature of the agency, but the players 
  should be given largely free rein to aim their organization.
  Each agency turn, each NPC organization is allowed to take one 
  action, while the PC agency is allowed to take two actions. The 
  player agency always goes first, and the GM might choose to end 
  the session after the players have acted, in order to have more time 
  between sessions to consider likely rival responses. The players 
  should discuss their actions, but the final decision is made by a 
  single player. Rotate this player through the group as each action is 
  taken, allowing each to have their own final say in turn.
  The following actions are examples of those allowed, though the 
  GM can always permit more free-form courses of action. Note 
  that all of these actions are abstracted and generalized, largely oc-
  curring off-screen among NPCs. If the players wish to have their 
  PCs become personally involved in an action, the GM can prepare 
  events as an adventure in the downtime between sessions using the 
  advice in the Tradecraft chapter.
  Attack: Make a Resources, Mobility, Muscle, or Connections strike 
  against an enemy element, indicating an overt push to neutralize 
  the rival’s resources. The target may choose to defend either with 
  the attribute of the attacked element or with half of their Security 
  score, rounded down. The target may choose to spend its upcoming 
  actions to Block the attack, or they may just trust to their existing 
  defenses. On a successful attack, the element is Compromised, but 
  the target is aware that it has been Compromised. The agency must 
  know that the element exists before it can be struck, usually requir-
  ing a Scout Element action beforehand to learn its details. Attacks 
  can only be launched if the target element is on a planet with an 
  agency Station, or within reach of an agency Transport element.
  Block: An agency can sacrifice its upcoming action to Block in-
  coming Attack actions. Once this action is sacrificed, an unlimited 
  number of Blocks can be made against different Attacks that turn as 
  the agency has bunkered down into a defensive posture. An agency 
  that Blocks forces the attacker to take a penalty to their attack roll 
  equal to half the agency’s Security score, rounded down. Agencies 
  can declare Blocks at the start of the turn, outside of the order of 
  play. If the PC agency Blocks, it still has one action left for perform-
  ing other activities. Blocking does not defend against Sabotage, 
  Discern Plans, or other offensive actions.
  Build Element: The agency creates or improves an element. Only 
  one Build Element action can be taken each turn, regardless of how 
  many actions are available. Each attempt to create or boost an ele-
  ment requires 1 turn of effort per level of the new element, with 
  a Build Element action being taken each turn. Any interruption 
  forces a restart of the process. Once a sufficient amount of time has 
  been spent building the element, the agency then rolls its relevant 
  attribute versus 11, 15, or 19 depending on the level being built. 
  On a failure, the process must begin again from the start. On a 
  success, the new element is now available and usable by PCs.
  Elements may be attacked or sabotaged while they are being built or 
  improved. If the attack or sabotage is successful, the build process 
  must start over and any existing level of the element is Compro-
  mised.
  Discern Plans: The agency selects a rival organization and makes an 
  Infiltration attack against it, opposed by the rival’s Security score. 
  On a success, they are informed of the actions the rival takes the 
  next time its turn comes up, grants a free Block against that agency’s 
  Attacks next turn, and causes their Sabotage attempts to automati-
  cally fail. If the check is failed, no benefit is gained.
  Compromised Assets
  Elements can be degraded by hostile action or internal dissent. 
  Elements so damaged are Compromised, and count as one level 
  less for purposes of their attribute point value and game benefits. 
  A Compromised element that is Compromised a second time 
  is permanently degraded to the next lower level, or destroyed 
  entirely if it was level 1.
  Note that the Sabotage action allows a rival to Compromise an 
  element without alerting its owner. The victim is unaware of the 
  damage until the PCs actually attempt to use any level of the 
  Compromised element's benefits or make a roll involving its 
  relevant attribute. The Internal Sweep action can also be used to 
  detect such insidious damage.
  
  19
  Internal Sweep: After taking this action, the agency becomes aware 
  of one element that has been Sabotaged by a rival, assuming any 
  such exist in the organization. Repeated use of this action reveals 
  additional sabotaged elements. 
  Plant Station: The agency attempts to place a station on some 
  distant world or remote outpost. With an agency station in place, 
  the PCs have access to all plausible agency resources while in that lo-
  cation or solar system, including money, equipment, vehicle access, 
  criminal ties, and whatever else might be reasonably dispensed 
  through a planetary station. Even Legitimacy might carry over if the 
  agency has excellent relations with the host planet and the station’s 
  presence is known.
  To plant the station secretly, at least a level 2 Transport element is 
  necessary to smuggle in the requisite resources and personnel. If 
  the agency is willing for the station to be publicly known and the 
  target world’s government does not object, it can use commercial 
  services. If the target world or location is so remote that there is no 
  commercial transportation available to it and no Transport element 
  is available, the PCs are going to have to take up a mission to blaze 
  a trail there before the station can be constructed.
  Constructing a level 1 station requires three turns of work, each 
  turn requiring the expenditure of one Plant Station action. Only 
  one station can be planted at a time. At the end of the work, if the 
  incipient station has not been successfully Sabotaged or Attacked, 
  the world gains a level 1 Station. Note that only the highest-leveled 
  Station possessed by an agency counts toward its Mobility score. 
  Reform Element: The agency works to pull together an element 
  that has been Compromised by an attack or by sabotage. The agency 
  rolls the attribute associated with the element against 11 for a level 
  1 element, 15 for a level 2 element, or 19 for a level 3 element. On 
  a success, the element is no longer Compromised.
  Sabotage: Make a Connections, Infiltration, or Tech check against 
  an enemy element, at a -4 penalty to the roll. The target defends 
  with the higher of the attribute of the attacked element or with half 
  of their Security attribute, rounded down. If successful, the attacker 
  Compromises it. The target is not aware that their element has been 
  compromised until they make a roll that involves its attribute or the 
  PCs attempt to make use of its benefits. The Internal Sweep action 
  can also detect sabotaged elements. The agency must know that 
  the element exists before it can be struck, usually requiring a Scout 
  Element action beforehand to learn its details. Sabotage requires the 
  same Station or Transport accesss to the target that is required by a 
  more direct attack.
  Scout Element: The agency scouts a rival for the presence of a spe-
  cific element, making an Infiltration check opposed by the enemy's 
  Security attribute. If the check is successful, they learn whether or 
  not the rival has an element of that kind and if so, what level it is 
  and what location it occupies. On a failure, nothing is learned.
  Destruction of an Agency
  It's possible to so badly degrade an agency's resources that it can 
  no longer function effectively. An agency with fewer than five total 
  levels worth of elements has become so weakened that it can no 
  longer project power in a consequential fashion. It may be a govern-
  ment agency that has become helplessly sclerotic or demoralized, 
  a frontier scout corps that has lost the confidence of the colonists, 
  or a private investigation agency that has run out of esteem and 
  customers. Ruined government agencies are usually eventually re-
  constituted by the planetary rulers, though it can be months or even 
  years before the chaos is tamed. Less official cabals and agencies 
  tend to melt away into ruins, empty shell corporations, and bitter 
  veterans. If the agency retained one or two powerful elements before 
  the collapse, these might have since spun off into civilian or other 
  governmental work.
  Building Rival Agencies
  Before the first session, the GM will need to generate three or four 
  enemy or neutral agencies for your sector. These organizations will 
  represent foreign government intelligence, insidious maltech cults, 
  or any other espionage group that seems interesting to you. The 
  Thou Shalt Not chapter discusses maltech cults in depth, and it 
  provides several dozen theme tags that the GM can use to flavor 
  antagonistic groups.
  To create a hostile agency, simply give them the same spread of 
  elements that you plan to give to the players' agency- four level 
  one elements and two level two elements is a good starting point 
  for a relatively small rival. Rivals should usually be on par with the 
  players' agency, as a substantially more powerful enemy might well 
  end up crushing them early in the campaign if not reined in by 
  some outside concern.
  There are several additional elements listed in the following section 
  that aren't normally found in player agencies. These sinister projects 
  are normally only found in morally compromised organizations 
  such as maltech cults or tyrannical government agencies. By exten-
  sion, this means that antagonists might well have higher attribute 
  scores than player agencies, because they can build four elements 
  that add to an attribute instead of just three. You shouldn't worry 
  too much about this; the margin is simply to compensate for the 
  advantage players have in being able to personally handle missions 
  and their ability to take two agency actions in a turn instead of just 
  one.
  Building the Player Agency
  Setting up a useful player agency is a project that is best done in 
  cooperation with the players. It can be handled at the beginning 
  of the first session of the campaign, even before characters have 
  been rolled. Once the agency is in place, the players will likely have 
  a better idea of the kind of agents it might employ. It's assumed 
  that the first session will be taken up exclusively with building the 
  agency, rolling characters, and running the first agency turn. It may 
  turn out that you have more time than that, but most GMs will 
  need some between-session downtime to create whatever adventure 
  the players have chosen for the next session.
  
  20
  The session's first step is for the GM to choose a homeworld for 
  the agency, or offer the players a choice of worlds that might suit. 
  If the GM has prepared a player handout such as the one in the 
  Hydra Sector chapter in the core book, the GM can pass these out 
  and let the players consider their choices. Point out any known rival 
  agencies, and any maltech cults that have a known presence in the 
  system.
  Once the homeworld is chosen, hand the players the agency sum-
  mary sheet included in this chapter. It reviews the basic elements of 
  the agency turn and recaps the benefits granted by the conventional 
  elements. It does not include details of the seven elements that are 
  normally exclusive to maltech cults, such as war slaves or a godmind 
  translation nexus. Explain the basic mechanics behind the agency 
  turn and cover any questions about the benefits that individual ele-
  ments grant the agency. Assuming the GM hasn't already decided 
  on other guidelines, the players should choose what kind of agency 
  they want to create, whether it's a planetary intelligence bureau, a 
  private troubleshooter corporation, or an ancient Perimeter agency.
  Then start picking elements. Four level one elements and two level 
  two elements are a good selection for a young or small agency, 
  while three level one, three level two, and one level three element is 
  convenient for an established and powerful agency. Start with one 
  player and go around the group, each player choosing an element in 
  turn until all the picks have been made. Total up the scores for each 
  of the seven attributes.
  Next, assign an important NPC agency official to each of the play-
  ers. For a conventional agency, this roster might include the Direc-
  tor, and the chiefs of the four bureaus of Internal Security, Foreign 
  Intelligence, Research, and Support. For a Perimeter agency, it 
  might include the Director and the chiefs of Purity, Limits, and 
  Peace. If the GM needs more officials, add in government liaisons 
  and honored retired agents; if there are fewer players, let the PCs 
  drop the bureaus they find least interesting. The GM might gener-
  ate these NPCs on the spot, or they might be created in conjunction 
  with the players. Names, personalities, and some idea about their 
  goals are all that are important. Their game statistics are usually 
  irrelevant and can be skipped for now.
  These NPCs will be used by the players during the interludes be-
  tween their adventures, when they gather to determine the agency's 
  next move or arrange organizational priorities. Actual PC agents 
  are rarely in a position to dictate the organization's course, but it's 
  important to leave the ultimate direction of the game in player 
  hands. These NPCs will provide an easy, thematic way for the play-
  ers to make sure that events are moving along a trajectory they find 
  entertaining.
  Once the agency has been constructed and the NPC officials 
  divided up, the players can create their own PCs. Some of them 
  may be created with certain advantages, depending on the elements 
  that were chosen for the agency, and equipment is usually whatever 
  the agent wants that the agency can afford to provide. Depending 
  on the time available in the session, each player should create two 
  PCs, the better to have a backup that can be easily inserted in case 
  of sudden catastrophic retirement or a mission that has to be ac-
  complished while the first character is otherwise engaged.
  Finally, run the first agency turn with the players, walking them 
  through the process and helping them to understand their choices. 
  They may choose to make an adventure out of a particular action, in 
  which case no attribute checks or other mechanics are necessary- the 
  success or failure will be determined by the adventure itself, and not 
  random rolling. By the same token, they might choose to make an 
  adventure out of some action a rival agency takes, trying to defeat 
  their aims. By the end of the first session, the GM should have a 
  clear idea of what sort of adventure to have prepared for the next 
  meeting.
  Running the Agency Turn
  On most occasions, the GM will want to run one or more agency 
  turns at the end of an adventure session, once the PCs have wrapped 
  up their most recent mission for good or ill. The agency turn will 
  provide plot hooks and options for the next session, and help the 
  GM and players come up with the next adventure that is to be run.
  Agent Rosters
  Every player should always have two PC agents rolled up and 
  ready, and some GMs may prefer to allow even more. Interstel-
  lar espionage is a dangerous pastime, and unlike conventional 
  adventurers, secret agents can't easily abort a mission when it 
  suddenly turns ugly. Having multiple PCs available cuts down 
  on the amount of time any player has to spend idle if something 
  happens to take his usual PC out of the struggle.
  Barring GM fiat otherwise, these PC agents are always created at 
  first level, or whatever the minimum level is for the campaign. 
  At the end of every adventure, however, a player can award the 
  same amount of XP that his played character received to any one 
  of his rostered characters, reflecting the missions and activities 
  that PC performed off-screen while the first was adventuring. 
  For example, if the player only has two characters, the one not 
  played will receive just as much experience over time as the one 
  being played.
  When a PC dies or is rendered hors-du-combat by events, the 
  GM should swap in a rostered PC as quickly as possible. It may 
  be that the agent was part of a backup team inserted earlier to 
  provide support, or may have been involved in a less important 
  mission in the same general area, or might have been back at the 
  safehouse all along to provide support. Flexibility about exact 
  details is necessary. The risk of death for a character can add 
  excitement and importance to player choices, but once mortality 
  claims its due the next agent should be lined up as quickly as 
  possible.
  For any given mission the GM should allow the player to play 
  any of his or her PCs that are desired. In many cases a particular 
  PC will be better-suited to a given mission than others, and play-
  ers should be allowed to form up their teams in whatever way 
  they think fit.
  
  21
  During the agency turn, the players take on the roles of the agency's 
  high officials, picking up the NPCs that they chose or were assigned 
  during the creation process. The GM might complicate things by 
  slipping secret goals or hidden information to one or more play-
  ers, or they might simply play things out straight. Together, these 
  officials are deciding policy for the agency and assigning missions 
  and tasks to their subordinates. It's possible that exceptionally 
  senior and accomplished PCs might be those very bureau chiefs, 
  but lacking that convenience the NPCs serve as a way to justify the 
  campaign moving in a direction the players find interesting.
  After these officials have chosen their agency's actions for the turn, 
  the GM should ask the players whether or not they want to play 
  out any of the actions they've taken. If the group agrees, a particular 
  agency action can be turned into a full-fledged adventure with the 
  guidelines in the Tradecraft chapter. For actions that are turned into 
  adventures no dice are rolled and no checks are made- the success 
  of the action will hinge on the outcome of the adventure. If the 
  PCs succeed, then their action succeeds, regardless of how slim the 
  chances otherwise.
  The players can only turn one action per turn into an adventure, 
  however- trying to personally handle every problem that crops up 
  with the agency is a doomed effort, so they need to concentrate 
  their attention on one issue at a time. If the players choose to make 
  an adventure out of an agency action, the GM can skip running 
  the NPC actions until after the adventure is resolved. Their own 
  choices may change drastically depending on the success or failure 
  of the PCs.
  If none of the agency's actions seem worth playing out, the GM 
  should run the NPC agencies as normal for the turn, making sure 
  that at least one action is visible and amenable to interference by 
  the PCs. If their own agency's doings don't appeal to them, let 
  them meddle with their rivals. Perhaps they'll wish to play out their 
  defense against a sinister sabotage ploy, or try to block discovery of 
  the Station element that is their hidden safehouse on Delta Pavonis.
  If neither agency actions nor rival schemes interest the players, the 
  GM can either run another agency turn if they anticipate the play-
  ers moving toward a situation they want to play out, or the GM can 
  ask them directly what they'd like to do.
  Tips on Agency Turns
  The agency turn is intended to be a quick and relatively simple 
  way to add motion and progress to the intrigues of a sector. A GM 
  can optionally drop the entire process if he or she prefers to simply 
  decide how conflicts play out, but as it stands it gives a clearly-
  delineated way of resolving these subterfuges. During the course of 
  play, however, there are a few things the GM will want to keep in 
  mind.
  Rival agencies have more to worry about than the PC agency. 
  Maltech cults and rival governments have their own goals and their 
  own interests. They are highly unlikely to run a kamikaze charge 
  against the PC agency, throwing all their unified efforts into tearing 
  down the PCs at the cost of their own plans and growth. Unless the 
  PCs have managed to seriously peeve multiple rivals at the same 
  time, there probably shouldn't be more than one attack or sabotage 
  attempt against the PC agency for any one turn. Even those organi-
  zations that hate the PCs are likely to want the other rivals to do the 
  bleeding before they step in with a coup de grace.
  Rival agencies usually hate each other, too. Few utopias are mutu-
  ally compatible, and a tyrannical government has little reason to 
  applaud a pack of crazed maltech cultists. Don't hesitate to have 
  NPC agencies take shots at each other, too.
  Focusing too heavily on one attribute is dangerous. An agency 
  that pours all its efforts into improving one attribute at the cost 
  of others is setting itself up for trouble. Don't be surprised if some 
  groups get it in their heads to focus heavily on Security to provide 
  a defense that's at least partially applicable to all attacks and then 
  focus in one single other attribute that can be used to hit rivals. 
  Focusing tightly deprives the agency of the flexibility and perks that 
  come from a wide range of elements, however, and actually building 
  an element from level 2 to level 3 is often a lot harder than building 
  an element from level 1 to 2. By the time an agency has finally built 
  up two heavily-focused attributes, all their rivals have had ample 
  time to scout out their plans and will know exactly where to hit 
  it. Once they Compromise such an agency's Security apparatus, 
  there will be nothing to stop an attack launched against one of the 
  agency's weaker elements.
  Every session, make sure something visible is done that can be 
  made into an adventure. On a lot of turns the PC agency will 
  decide to do something that could make a good adventure- a 
  Sabotage or Attack against a rival agency's element, an attempt 
  to establish a station on a remote and dangerous world, or some 
  other activity that the players will want to play out as an adventure. 
  If for some reason they've spent the entire agency turn hunkered 
  down and doing nothing they want to play out, make their rivals 
  do something obvious that they can try to stop. If even that doesn't 
  get them out of their shells, flatly ask them what sort of activities 
  they want their elite intelligence operatives to try to accomplish and 
  run with that.
  Don't let the agency rules shackle you. The rules are only there 
  to provide a clear, simple structure that both the GM and play-
  ers can understand. If they haven't got some diabolical scheme all 
  planned out to unleash upon a maltech cult's breeding farms on 
  the third moon of Al-Kabir, then they can just sit back and tell the 
  GM that they're going to Attack the cult's War Slaves element with 
  Infiltration. If they want to turn it into an adventure, the GM can 
  use the tools in the Tradecraft chapter to make up the mission for 
  them, even if they're not clear on their own plans. But if the players 
  do have a clever idea, let them run with it. Apply modifiers to the 
  attribute checks if they've done something recently that impinges 
  on events, or simply declare that certain things happen if they're 
  logical consequences. The agency rules provide a fair framework for 
  everyone involved, but don't let those rules trample the actions and 
  outcomes that the players themselves have produced.
  
  22
  Armory
  Most agencies of any size have at least some reserves of weaponry, 
  body armor, and gear relevant to their duties. Only the most cash-
  strapped or impoverished agencies compel their agents to finance 
  their own mission hardware, though some limit the options to those 
  approved by the administration.
  An armory element allows the agency to assign its members a wide 
  range of postech equipment. Not every janitor and paper-pusher in 
  the agency will be sporting a suit of powered armor for their daily 
  duties, but the PC agents and other important personnel can get 
  what they need, up to a certain budget limit per agent.
  This equipment is not the agent’s personal property. He is expected 
  to turn it in between missions, though sidearms and other standard-
  issue gear may be on standing loan, and loss or breakage of the gear 
  is apt to bring scolding. Outright sale of it had best be justified by 
  extreme and exigent need, or else a lengthy discussion about proper 
  equipment handling will be the least of the agent’s concerns.
  Armories provide postech-level equipment. Agencies established on 
  more primitive worlds usually must import their hardware, making 
  armories all the more important. Those without are forced to make 
  do with the local gear, however primitive it may be.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agents can requisition postech equipment of a 
  value up to 5,000 credits apiece before each mission. +1 
  Resources
  2
  The agents can each requisition up to 20,000 credits 
  worth of equipment appearing in the Stars Without 
  Number core book. +3 Resources
  3
  The agents can requisition any non-pretech-artifact 
  equipment they require from the core book in any 
  amount sufficient for personal use. +5 Resources
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  Subtle but potentially lethal sabotage has been performed upon the electronics in certain important pieces of hardware from 
  the armory. Agents using these tampered devices run a 1 in 6 chance of having something drastically unpleasant happen 
  whenever the devices are used in an demanding environment.
  2
  Someone is selling equipment from the armory on the black market, and stocks that are supposed to be full are suddenly 
  turning up empty when the agents request something. For any given item, there’s a 1 in 6 chance that no more are available.
  3
  The only available source for a particular vital electronic part is an offworld corporation suspected of entanglements with a 
  hostile intelligence agency or cabal. The shortage may even have been engineered by them. Roll randomly or pick from the 
  following: the event is purely coincidental, the event was engineered but the gear is fine- next time it won’t be, the gear is 
  embedded with tracking devices that wake up to alert cabal sensors of an agent’s approach, the gear is designed to fail when 
  hit with a coded radio transmission from the cabal.
  4
  The only example left of a vital piece of equipment is an agency relic with a legendary past. Rather than let it moulder, it is 
  issued to an agent with the expectation that either it comes back intact or the agent crowns its legend with his heroic death.
  5
  The most important piece of equipment the agents request is the last one available and somewhat... temperamental. It will 
  fail at the worst possible time and require field repair. On a success, it’s fixed in one round. On a failure, the tech can either 
  keep working on it and get it working 1d6 rounds later, or fire it up immediately and make a second skill check. If that fails 
  too, the item is ruined.
  6
  The agency gets all of an important type of less-than-legal hardware through a single supplier. Lately, there have been 
  serious quality problems, but the supplier claims the problem must stem from a cause within the agency. There are no other 
  currently practical suppliers of the good on this world.
  7
  A criminal organization has managed to steal a significant amount of weaponry and gear from the armory, and agency 
  hardware is now showing up at several crime sites- with more to come if they’re not stopped in time.
  8
  An enemy cabal or agency has managed to get their hands on the master comm keys to the agency’s field communications 
  gear. Assuming the agents even realize that it’s happened, they’ll either need to switch to civilian gear and its weak encryp-
  tion, find a different source of milspec comms, or go without for a month until new keys can be set.
  9
  Someone’s sabotaged the armory’s power cell supplies. They’ll run normally for half their expected life before shorting out 
  and going dead.
  10
  An enemy agency or cabal has sent disposable muscle against the armory’s suppliers to ensure that important and expensive 
  hardware is unavailable to the agency. For any item worth 1,000 credits or more, there’s a 1 in 4 chance it’s unavailable until 
  the situation is resolved.
  Examples
  Back room of a local gun shop. Police armory building. Ware-
  house down by the docks with agency staff as workers. Concealed 
  bunker on restricted property. Reinforced wing of the agency 
  building. Military depot. Ancestral storage vault dating back 
  before the Scream. Island testing ground. Temple or cathedral 
  vaults. High-orbit satellite that takes secret deliveries from off-
  worlders. Starport “administrative records storage” building.
  
  23
  PCs are usually quite talented at visiting death upon the wicked, but 
  they have their limits; so many throats to cut, and so few knives. 
  Assassins are agency resources dedicated to relieving selected targets 
  from the burdens of life. More importantly, the agency has enough 
  of these agents to allow the PCs access to one or more kill teams, 
  assuming they can justify the sanction.
  Assassins aren’t usually useful against hardened targets. Important 
  politicians, criminal kingpins, secretive rebel leaders, and others 
  who consider assassination a normal threat to their daily lives are 
  usually so well-protected that only a direct strike by the PCs will 
  have much chance of taking them out. It’s up to the GM to decide 
  which targets are practical prey for an assassin team.
  Assassin teams do not normally serve simply as extra muscle for a 
  group. They require control over the operations they perform.
  Most assassin teams require 2d6 days to set up a hit, whereupon 
  the GM rolls 2d6 against the base difficulty number. If the team 
  succeeds by 3 or more points, it gets away without leaving any evi-
  dence. Succeeding by less than that margin leaves dead assassins or 
  other evidence behind that might be traceable to the agency. Failure 
  means that the assassination is botched, leaving evidence behind.
  A botched assassination usually makes any further attempts more 
  difficult for a time, due to increased alertness and justified fear. It 
  may also result in a complication from the table below as the team’s 
  confidence is shaken, or might simply take the team off the table for 
  a month or two while the heat dies down.
  The difficulty for each team assumes the target is taking no special 
  precautions for their safety. Exceptionally paranoid or elusive targets 
  might provoke a penalty of up to -4 on the check.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Simple legbreakers and muscle men. Assassination 
  difficulty 6. +1 Muscle
  2
  An elite commando team stands ready. Assassination 
  difficulty 5. +3 Muscle
  3
  The teams possess one or more of the following traits: 
  cybernetic enhancement, tailored gengineering, or 
  remarkable experience in stabbing people from ambush. 
  Assassination difficulty 3. +5 Muscle
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  An assassin has gone rogue, and needs to be eliminated before they can reach a rival agency with their inside information.
  2
  A routine hit has gone badly awry; it was an ambush, and the team was mauled. Signs suggest that someone within the 
  agency tipped off the target. Who did it, and why?
  3
  The next target the PCs select is actually an untrained precognitive, one who’s been teetering on the edge of going feral for 
  some time. The flash of forewarning is just enough to push them over, and they gain a surge of psychic power along with 
  their murderous insanity.
  4
  The team has been getting complacent, and is getting predictable in its methods and quirks. The next hit requires the success 
  check to be made twice; if it fails either time, the hit fails spectacularly as the victim intentionally or accidentally plays off 
  their habits.
  5
  Someone else hits the next intended target, and leaves evidence behind pointing at the agency’s team.
  6
  The next hit is an alien or altered human, and what seemed like a clean kill actually leaves them alive. Alien physiognomy 
  may be the cause, or fortifying cyberware, or gengineered backup organs.
  7
  The next target has close ties with a patron in the planetary government- one who will be deeply unhappy should something 
  happen to them.
  8
  Someone has gotten close to an assassin and has secretly gained substantial information about the agency through them. 
  The assassin remains convinced that the agent is just an unlucky innocent who learned too much- or else he or she might be 
  sufficiently enamoured to no longer care whether or not the person is an enemy agent.
  9
  One of the assassins or kill teams is moonlighting. It could be they’re killing for pay, or they might be settling some old 
  scores without bothering to ask permission from the agency.
  10
  An assassin has been kidnapped by a rival agency or imprisoned by the local legal system. Either way, he or she is soon to be 
  pumped for information unless rescued or permanently silenced.
  Examples
  Disposable street muscle. Allies from a local criminal organiza-
  tion. Retired military personnel. Foreign mercenaries hired for 
  the work. Agency-raised orphans trained from birth as tools of 
  death. Honeytrap agents that seduce their prey. Expert poisoners 
  who infiltrate the victim’s household. Explosives technicians who 
  specialize in vehicle bombs. Religious zealots who kill for God and 
  the agency. Chem-slaves who kill for their next fix. Gray-souled 
  agency men who just do the job with mechanical precision.
  AssAssins
  
  24
  beAmgAtes
  Exotic artifacts of a pretech past, beamgates allow small teams of 
  agents to teleport directly into a target zone without relying on the 
  services of a psychic. Users all stand on the activation platform of 
  the gate, a trained technician fires up the machine, and a modified 
  spike drive gores open a tesseract through metadimensional space 
  that leaves the team standing in the target zone... assuming that all 
  goes well.
  Beamgates aren’t capable of interstellar teleportation, but the most 
  powerful varieties can move a team anywhere in the solar system. 
  Without an advance team to plant a palm-sized homing beacon 
  on the targeted site, landing can be somewhat imprecise. Without 
  a beacon to lock on, the subjects will land 1d6 x 100 meters away 
  from the desired point. Subjects are never teleported into solid 
  objects, they appear within a few meters of each other, and they are 
  placed upright on a solid surface if one is available.
  Most beamgates are powerful enough to move a half-dozen humans 
  and their equipment once every twenty four hours. The most 
  sophisticated varieties maintain a trace lock on the subjects for up 
  to two hours after teleporting them. Technicians at the gate can 
  reacquire and retrieve these subjects as long as the trace lock lasts, 
  making such gates a powerful tool for extracting agents from a hot 
  zone. Trace locks can bring back other gear or people the agents are 
  carrying at the time, up to the maximum allowed load.
  Worlds equipped with a Station element should likely also have 
  a satellite beamgate installation located somewhere on the planet, 
  granting access to the technology for agents operating away from 
  their homeworld. A beamgate that only works on one world is of 
  much less utility to a team of agents.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The beamgate can reach any location on the planet. If 
  no beam homing beacon is present, the group will be 
  beamed in within 1d6 x 100 meters of the desired area. 
  +1 Mobility
  2
  The beamgate can reach any location in the solar system. 
  +3 Mobility
  3
  By triggering a return signal, a beam rider can be pulled 
  back to the gate’s origin point at any time within two 
  hours of translocation. +5 Mobility
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  The local metadimensional energy currents have shifted substantially since the last beamgate calibration, and unbeknownst 
  to the PCs, the next time the beamgate is used they’ll end up dumped into a dangerous environment.
  2
  A rival agency or cabal has placed a metadimensional turbulence generator relatively close to the beamgate, shutting it 
  down. The closer the generator is to the beamgate, the smaller it can be- no larger than a cubic meter in size if it’s within a 
  kilometer of the gate array. Beyond that range the necessary size rapidly grows to be impractical. The PCs need to locate the 
  turbulence generator before the beamgate can function again.
  3
  The beamgate tunnel is “rough”, either due to unexpected turbulence or subtle sabotage. The gate focuses on preserving the 
  integrity of the PCs’ bodies. Their equipment is not so fortunate. PCs draw a line halfway down their stowed equipment 
  lists. Each one then rolls a die; on odd, everything below the line is lost forever, on even, everything above it.
  4
  Either someone miscalculated or a complex bit of sabotage has backfired. Instead of moving the PCs’ bodies to the target 
  area, the beamgate confuses the locations, and brings an equal number of humanoid entities from the target area to the 
  beamgate. This effect is rare, and cannot be intentionally induced in most beamgate hardware.
  5
  The beamgate transit is very rough, leaving the PCs shaken and exhausted. Each PC must save versus Tech or lose one half 
  of their hit points, rounded down.
  6
  The beamgate interfaces with a rogue metadimensional energy wave to create a very loud blast of radar “static” at the target 
  point. Even civilian-grade security systems will be alerted, and more paranoid installations will respond quickly.
  7
  The quantum location state of the PCs is unstable even after the beamgate has closed, and the PCs will soon teleport back 
  to the beamgate pad. The party will have to act much more quickly than planned if they are to accomplish their objective in 
  time.
  8
  The beamgate energy dampers fail to catch a tiny fraction of a metadimensional energy surge. Every flammable inanimate 
  object within 1d6 x 10 meters of the group’s landing point bursts into flames. This effect cannot be intentionally induced, as 
  such surges are random and usually result in the crisping of the animate entities involved as well.
  9
  A local or some casual bystander just happens to be recording the area when the PCs beam in. The video could range from 
  highly embarrassing to potentially disastrous depending on the agency’s relationship with the local government.
  10
  The beam dampers were too enthusiastic about bleeding off excess energy. Every power cell the group carried with them is 
  drained except for one each per PC.
  Examples
  Most beamgates require a small fusion plant and a room full of 
  equipment to function. Agencies without access to their own 
  generators sometimes arrange to hook up beamgate arrays in 
  conjunction with civilian power plants, hiding them from the 
  civilian workers in restricted areas. 
  
  25
  blACK Codex
  Some agencies make more use of their captured archives than others. 
  A “black codex” is an accretion of maltech research and technology 
  notes focused on defeating common maltech threats. A long history 
  of conflict often aids in making these codices into surprisingly com-
  plete repositories of forbidden lore and unholy experimentation.
  More than a few agencies maintain “sealed files” with the captured 
  research acquired from maltech-using enemies. An agency with a 
  black codex, however, actually integrates this research into the train-
  ing protocols of their agents. Biotech vaccines, memetic defenses, 
  selective gene therapy to defeat common antagonist vectors and 
  other preparations are all made to harden agents against the dangers 
  of maltech weaponry and enemies.
  At the simplest level, agents with access to a black codex can rec-
  ognize and handle maltech with relatively minimal danger. More 
  elaborate codices involve genetic therapies and focused training in 
  overcoming common maltech dangers. The most sophisticated co-
  dices are disturbingly similar to actual maltech laboratories, all the 
  necessary pieces in place without the crucial elements that would 
  actually produce unspeakable horrors. Agents use these sinister 
  training grounds to sharpen their abilities as saboteurs.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  All agents gain Tech/Maltech-0. Those who already have 
  the skill gain 1 skill point. +1 Tech
  2
  Once per day, the agents can automatically succeed at a 
  saving throw versus an effect created by a maltech device 
  or creature. +3 Tech
  3
  All agents gain +2 to hit maltech creatures or creations 
  and +1 on any skill checks to operate or sabotage 
  maltech devices. +5 Tech
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  An abomination wasn’t as dead as the agency thought it was, and comes to violent life during a codex training routine.
  2
  An enemy agency has lifted a dangerous fragment of data from the codex. The memory chip is protected against transmission, 
  but if the thief isn’t caught, the enemy agency will eventually be able to crack the permissions.
  3
  An agent suffers an unanticipated side effect from a codex protocol, becoming violently irrational. It’s possible he or she can 
  be saved if brought in alive, but the victim is convinced her former comrades are all plotting murder.
  4
  Maltech medical techniques can save a gravely-ill loved one of an agency official or important outside contact. The techniques 
  require the horrific sacrifice of human life, so they begin to use agency resources to collect the necessary “ingredients”.
  5
  A fragment of the codex discusses the formula for a serum that performs some extremely useful function- quick wound heal-
  ing, temporary brilliance, limited shapeshifting, et cetera. The reason why this formula was never pursued is not in the codex. 
  Roll 1d6; on 4+, the serum loses effectiveness in a subject after the first 1d6 doses. On a 3-, the serum has a horrific side effect 
  on the user that appears only after 1d6 doses.
  6
  A zealot in the agency is convinced that pushing the codex protocols beyond their customary limits will make agents even 
  more effective in fighting maltech. Agents so treated suffer severe, socially crippling side-effects, but the fanatic considers it 
  all worthwhile.
  7
  An agency official is quietly inserting additional “gray tech” into the agency’s armories and training protocols. These fragments 
  of maltech have not been sufficiently cleared for use, but they promise great advantages. Equipment so modified adds +2 to 
  hit rolls or +1 to relevant skill checks depending on its type, and the maltech training protocols allow an agent to invoke a 
  state of unthinking focus once per day that grants them a reroll on a missed attack roll. Use of gear or focus causes the GM to 
  roll a secret Tech save at the end of the day. On a failure, two System Strain points are gained and none are recovered. If the 
  agent’s System Strain is already maximized, they remain unconscious for 24 hours. This additional Strain is not noticed until 
  the agent does something which adds to it.
  8
  The codex is flawed. Its protocols are highly effective against maltech threats similar to those the agency has faced in the past, 
  but wholly new threats use completely different design vectors. Level two and three benefits are lost until the new maltech is 
  captured and studied.
  9
  A popular entertainment company or local artist has somehow acquired a defective psych protocol from the codex. The 
  particular pattern of shapes, colors, and sounds induces great euphoria in the subject initially, but extended focus on the 
  protocol can induce psychotic delusions. The artist or exec is now insane, and determined to bring his “glorious discovery” to 
  the rest of the world.
  10
  Sabotage or disaster has destroyed much of the codex. Backups exist, but access is remarkably dangerous and difficult.
  Examples
  Archives full of yellowed paper printouts, the contents too 
  dangerous to entrust to easily-copied dataslabs. Mortuary garden 
  consisting of slabs of mutated flesh and maltech abominations 
  dissected under glass. Black-walled rooms that show images 
  calculated to provoke a human’s visceral hindbrain responses. 
  Lobotomized godmind core that utters hideous promises be-
  tween fragmented core dumps of data. The “codex” is a circle of 
  several dozen different people unknown to each other who each 
  memorize part of the data.
  
  26
  CriminAl ties
   
  Ordinary criminals make excellent catspaws for agencies. Willing 
  to do all manner of unsavory tasks for reasonable remuneration or 
  forgiveness of their sins, these thugs and thieves draw relatively little 
  attention when about their work. Even if caught, careful tradecraft 
  can ensure that they have little or nothing to tell their interrogators.
  Agencies with basic ties have no unique influence over the larger 
  criminal groups, but they can identify the major players on a 
  world and know how to get in touch with them when favors or 
  negotiations are needed. They also can place the leadership of these 
  organizations and identify the men and women who set its policies.
  More sophisticated ties involve planting agency operatives within 
  the group itself. These deep-cover agents rarely act to influence the 
  criminal organization, but keep tabs on current operations and alert 
  the home agency when outsiders start making overtures or when the 
  group begins to move against allies.
  Those agencies with the deepest, strongest criminal ties have placed 
  so many operatives so deeply within the structure of one or more 
  criminal organizations that they effectively own the group. Most of 
  their effort must be spent in dealing with rivals and legal threats, but 
  the capabilities of the organization are theirs to use, so long as they 
  can manage it with some discretion.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency knows the leadership and whereabouts of 
  most of the major criminal groups on the planet. +1 
  Connections
  2
  The agency is alerted whenever a major criminal group 
  makes a move against it or acts at the bidding of an 
  outside power. +3 Connections
  3
  The agency actually has effective control over at least one 
  major criminal organization, and can use its resources 
  freely. +5 Connections
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  Whether intentionally or otherwise, a local crime group has stepped on an agency operation and is in need of correction.
  2
  A faction of local government has declared war on a criminal group exceptionally useful to the agency. Unless something is 
  done to protect them, they will likely be wiped out as an effective resource.
  3
  A useful criminal group was originally fairly innocuous by underworld standards, relying mostly on theft, fraud, and vice 
  income. Recent leadership changes have made it much more violent and degenerate. The new approach is proving highly 
  successful for its prestige and wealth, but it’s beginning to provoke unease from agency handlers.
  4
  An agency official holds an old, hidden grudge against a useful criminal group, and means to put it in position to be 
  smashed- and is willing to let a few PC operatives end up on the spot when the gang starts to believe it’s been set up.
  5
  A few criminals who’ve been used by the agency before have started to believe that they’re being protected from legal 
  repercussions. Their activities are getting well out of hand, and it’s necessary that something be done to rein them in before 
  they infect the rest of their group with their cocky self-assurance.
  6
  Someone else is moving in on a local criminal organization. They’re not just interested in hiring or allying with the group, 
  they seem intent on actually taking it over, either through catspaws within the organization or sheer brute conquest. Their 
  coordination and resources strongly suggest that it’s not just another criminal gang making a play.
  7
  A criminal organization is starting to sink its members and puppets into positions of significant governmental authority. 
  It’s not impossible that they’ll eventually be in a position to actually influence the agency from above. They already have 
  acquired several powerful protectors within the government.
  8
  An organization is going strange. Turning from conventional criminal pursuits, they now seem obsessed with a bizarre cultic 
  variation of a local religion, focused around a small group of holy men and women. These religious figures might be psychics 
  capable of seeming miracles, or they might just possess remarkable resources to reward the “faithful”, or they could just be 
  exceedingly charismatic figures. Their ultimate goals remain unclear.
  9
  A criminal organization has substantial influence on an important ethnic or regional voting bloc. On planets devoid of 
  democracy, they control an important service trade. Agency officials are being pressured from above to ensure that the 
  organization cooperates with the existing government, and that favors be done to ensure that they vote or act correctly.
  10
  A useful criminal organization is trying to “go legit”, either out of fear of the authorities, greed for profits available in the 
  legitimate markets, or a genuine desire for social legitimacy among its important membership. If they make this change, 
  their utility to the agency will be greatly lessened, and certain handlers are not interested in letting them leave their old 
  ways. PCs may be given conflicting instructions as to how to handle this change of heart.
  Examples
  Ethnic criminal group affiliated with a Perimeter Agency’s 
  bloodline. White-collar criminal conspiracy infiltrated by agency 
  operatives. Disorganized street gang that relies on suppliers and 
  arms dealers affiliated with the agency. Criminal cabal sanctified 
  by generations of tradition that deals with the agency almost as 
  an equal. Religious zealots opposed to maltech, friendly to the 
  agency but willing to do whatever is useful to “press the fight”. 
  Rough rural banditti who deal with agency suppliers and fences.
  
  27
  eArly wArning
  The agency has developed a finely-tuned network of informants and 
  monitors on the world, all focused on watching their assets for signs 
  of impending trouble. Hostile actions against the agency are often 
  anticipated, and in many cases the culprits responsible for the strike 
  are identified before it can be executed.
  Early warning systems give agencies a chance to detect a hostile act 
  before it actually has a chance to hit a vulnerable agent or element. 
  Basic degrees of this element focus on organizational integrity 
  checks and performance monitoring. They have little chance of 
  foreseeing a strike, but they can often recognize when an element 
  has been compromised or sabotaged in ways that would otherwise 
  be too subtle to notice until a crucial moment. More sophisticated 
  levels of early warning give a chance of anticipating a strike, or even 
  identifying the enemy behind the impending attack.
  An agency with early warning resources on a world gains a free 
  automatic Discern Plans roll against a sabotaging agency. The GM 
  rolls this check privately before each sabotage attempt. Level 1 early 
  warning elements will discover a successful sabotage attempt on a 
  successful roll. Success with a level 2 early warning element will alert 
  the agency before the sabotage is launched and inflict a -4 penalty 
  on the attacker’s sabotage check. Success with a level 3 early warn-
  ing gives the benefits of level 2, and also identifies the organization 
  behind the attack.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The GM rolls a secret Discern Plan roll after every 
  Sabotage against the agency. On success, the sabotage is 
  discovered. +1 Security
  2
  As level 1, except the roll is made before the sabotage is 
  launched, and its success gives the attacker a -4 penalty 
  on the sabotage check. +3 Security
  3
  As level 2, and success identifies the attacker. +5 
  Security
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  An early warning node has been compromised by bribery, threats, or blackmail. The element is blind against a sabotage 
  attempt launched by a rival organization.
  2
  An early warning operative has gotten in too deep, getting too far into an investigation of a suspicious front organization. 
  They have vital information about the truth behind the organization and its puppetmaster’s real plans, but they’ve been 
  captured, and need to be rescued before they’re pumped for information.
  3
  Repeated feints by a rival have rendered one early warning node excessively paranoid, and it’s starting to repeatedly call alerts 
  on attacks that never come. Fixing it will require either a successful Attack against the rival organization in order to clarify 
  and crop its available resources, or else the Reform Element action to purge the node of its paranoia.
  4
  The early warning system picks up on an incoming threat, but the only source of the information is a deep-cover agent who 
  would be exposed if the agency acts on the warning. If the agency takes advantage of the information, the early warning 
  element becomes Compromised as the agent is caught. Rescuing such a capable agent might suffice to repair the loss.
  5
  Someone in the early warning system has been turned, and the next sabotage attempt from his paymaster is detected- but 
  reported as being aimed at the wrong element. Attempts to protect the false target will leave the real target unprotected.
  6
  Early warning gives notice that a rival is using a powerful and important asset to launch a sabotage attempt or sneak attack 
  on one of the agency’s elements. Such boldness exposes the enemy asset to destruction at the hands of a few brave PC 
  agents, but setting up the strike leaves it certain that the targeted element will be Compromised by the enemy.
  7
  The early warning network set up on a nearby world has been detected and disrupted by the enemy. The element still 
  functions normally in general and adds its value to the Security attribute, but it’s blind to threats from that world until the 
  PCs move in to repair the situation or a Reform Element action is taken to fix the system.
  8
  The early warning system is being disrupted by new governmental edicts or actions, as the bureaucrats are unaware of its real 
  purpose. Overtly getting them to stop would reveal the system, so they must be pressured to halt their campaign without 
  making clear the actual source of the pressure.
  9
  Daring new information analysis procedures and a bold new reorganization are intended to revitalize the early warning 
  system. There are unforeseen complications, and the element becomes Compromised in confusion and demoralization. Roll 
  1d6; on a 4+, the reforms are actually beneficial in the end, and the system automatically detects the next Sabotage attempt.
  10
  Bad blood forms between the agency brass and the early warning director. The next time the early warning system is shown 
  to have failed to detect a Sabotage attempt, frustrated recriminations fly and cripple the element’s morale. It becomes 
  Compromised.
  Examples
  Seemingly unaffiliated service and maintenance companies that 
  are actually staffed by agency internal security. Preserved Vow 
  catechisms that involve repetitious checking of equipment and 
  agency facilities. Sentinel agents cut loose from the agency over 
  temporary periods simply to watch for incoming trouble. Alli-
  ances with lesser intelligence agencies or information brokers that 
  agree to pass along leads that they pick up. Cultivated precogni-
  tives that sometimes have flashes of forewarning.
  
  28
  front business
  Front businesses make life a great deal easier for many agents, 
  providing a convenient and believable cover for their public lives. 
  They also allow for convenient, no-questions-asked acquisition of 
  whatever goods or services the front business produces.
  Agencies are prudent enough to maintain a shifting sequence of 
  names, incorporations, and financial affiliations in order to make it 
  difficult to easily pin a given business as their catspaw. A single agent 
  might in turn be an employee of Universal Astronautics, Red Star 
  Shipyards, the People’s Celestial Collective, and Singh Spacecraft, 
  with each business perfectly legitimate and prosaic to all ordinary 
  investigation.
  The actual income a front business grants to an agent hinges on 
  the Money element possessed by an agency. Those with access to 
  larger monetary allowances will usually pose as business executives 
  or senior engineers, the better to cover their evident wealth. An 
  agency with a well-developed front business but no Money is forced 
  to put almost all the profit of the business into maintaining it, and 
  can afford only meagre living expenses for its PC employees.
  Naturally, not all employees of a front business will be agency per-
  sonnel, but those responsible for sensitive operations and those with 
  control over the business’ operation will be trusted agents.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has a front business that explains modest 
  wealth. +1 Resources
  2
  The front business is very influential in its industry and 
  justifies very high pay for its employees. +3 Resources
  3
  The agency effectively controls a particular industry on 
  the world, barring a few small outliers. +5 Resources
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  A business rival is inflicting grievous harm on the front business’ holdings with their superior service or products. If some-
  thing is not done, the front will either be driven out of business or exposed as obviously backed by an outside organization.
  2
  An inquisitive employee has stumbled over the truth of the business, and is proving very hard to quiet by the usual means. 
  They might make a serviceable agent, but whether or not they choose to join they need to be made to shut up.
  3
  The front’s agency management is losing focus on the business’ actual purpose, and is pushing hard to expand into new 
  markets. The agents will be approached on their next mission by a competitor who will try to sabotage their apparent goals.
  4
  A competitor has bribed or coerced a front employee into passing them internal files. Unbeknownst to either, those files 
  contain vital agency data. If they aren’t retrieved before the encryption’s cracked, there’s sure to be an incident.
  5
  Some lower manager in the business has arranged to cut corners in service and product quality. The next time the agents 
  are out on a mission while posing as employees, they will find that some portion of their mission requires the help of an 
  outsider who is very angry with the corporation.
  6
  A rival business has discovered the real backers of the front company through corporate espionage, and is trying to get 
  a local politician to speak up against the “unfair government interference in trade” that their backing represents. If the politi-
  cian is not won over- or silenced- the business is likely to be ruined as a useful front until it can be reconstituted elsewhere.
  7
  The business has only half-intentionally discovered or developed an industry-beating product or service. The agency brass 
  is inclined to send the agents on missions that have nothing to do with intelligence operations, and actually only serve to 
  expand the business’ wealth and influence.
  8
  New industry regulations stipulate review of the industry by governmental regulators. They are very likely to twig to the 
  unnatural nature of the business if he or she is not kept ignorant of the front’s special resources and backing.
  9
  The front business was actually peeled away from a young entrepreneur through a series of less-than-legitimate maneuvers. 
  He or she has nursed his vengeance for years, and is now a major player in the industry. Now they intend to reclaim their 
  lost business.
  10
  The business draws the ire of a major religion or cultural group, and agents under color of its employment face threats and 
  angry harangues from members of those affiliations.
  Examples
  Interstellar travel agency. Munitions and armaments corporation 
  with ample reason to have heavily-armed employees. Interstel-
  lar relief organization with a remit to bring humanitarian aid 
  to remote worlds. Impetuous young tech startup with amaz-
  ingly accurate knowledge of its competitors’ strategies. Mineral 
  exploitation company that sends out a great many “surveyors” 
  and “support staff”. Private security corporation. Order of zeal-
  ous warrior-monks- which, in the case of some ancient Perimeter 
  Agencies might actually be a substantial truth.
  
  29
  hidden strings
  An agency with official government backing might be above the law 
  in many ways and have access to large amounts of government data, 
  but these benefits are colored by their official natures. Politicians 
  can complain, enemies can observe official actions, and the agency 
  is always obliged to deal with the official fallout of the exercise of 
  their privileges.
  Hidden strings speak of a different kind of influence, of a control 
  based on bribes, blackmail, secret alliances, and illicit information. 
  Favors and data obtained with hidden strings don’t come as easily or 
  as surely as official legitimacy might grant, but they come without 
  the burden of oversight or public record.
  Where an agent with a license to kill might show his papers to the 
  police who catch him standing over a fresh corpse, an agent who 
  relies on hidden strings would have to evade the gendarmerie first, 
  and then rely on the agency to pull the right strings to get the fol-
  low-up investigation killed. In exchange for this more cumbersome 
  method of getting forgiveness, favors obtained with hidden strings 
  won’t show up to conventional observers and oversight agencies.
  Ultimately, however, there are some things that cannot be hushed 
  up by hidden strings. As history might suggest, anything requiring 
  the massive destruction of lives or property requires the open bless-
  ing of government to be performed with impunity.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has unofficial friends in numerous govern-
  ment departments, and can often get minor regulations 
  bent. +1 Connections
  2
  The agency can get major crimes forgiven and govern-
  ment records searched. +3 Connections
  3
  The agency has complete backdoor access to data in 
  governmental computer systems. While this data can 
  be read, it is not normally possible to change it without 
  discovery. +5 Connections
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  A crusading reformer is taking down the corrupt or compromised officials that the agency relies upon to cook the records. 
  If the agency chooses to leave the reformer alone, roll 1d6: on 4+, the element is Compromised by the losses., and on 3- the 
  element is crippled, dropping to the next lower level or collapsing entirely if it’s only a level 1 element.
  2
  One of the catspaws has been pushed too far, and no longer cares that the blackmail on him will destroy his career. If he’s 
  not stopped before he brings his evidence to the public, the agency will be disgraced by the public uproar.
  3
  Someone else is counter-bribing the agency’s pet officials or putting on so much pressure that even the blackmailed ones 
  won’t cooperate. This other manipulator doesn’t appear to be aware of the agency’s ties with the officials, but has their own 
  plans for the pliant clerks.
  4
  One of the minions is getting greedy, and demanding a ludicrous payoff to perform some simple but vital service for the 
  agency. He’s threatening to go to the public with his evidence if he’s not sufficiently compensated, and there are suggestions 
  that he’s got “insurance” against any direct removal.
  5
  One of the minions is actually a plant from a rival agency, and they’ve been feeding information on the agency’s actions to 
  their true masters for some time. Evidence of this shows up in the PCs’ next adventure.
  6
  Someone’s kidnapped an important catspaw, and they’re going to pump him for information unless he’s rescued or silenced 
  in time. His disappearance has been covered up thus far, but if he vanishes for good there’s sure to be an investigation.
   7
  Some official has gotten sloppy, and the trespass that was supposed to be covered up has just hit the media. The agency 
  is going to have to be very careful about avoiding illicit actions for a few months if it’s not to get linked to these outrages 
  against justice.
  8
  An investigative reporter has picked up lines of the corruption, and has traced it back to the PCs. She’s willing to write them 
  out of the story if they help her crack a case that will make her career.
  9
  While cleaning a legal record, the agency stumbles across evidence that some true atrocities are being hushed up by the 
  government. The actual entity responsible for the crimes is unclear, but if they ever become public knowledge the govern-
  ment is almost certain to fall- and the crimes appear to be ongoing.
  10
  One of the minions’ loved ones is in terrible trouble, bad enough that the minion doesn’t care if he lives or dies so long as he 
  can save them. The agency needs to rescue the person in distress before the minion will cooperate with any more “requests” 
  from the agency.
  Examples
  Network of club members all affiliated with some group or activ-
  ity that would ruin them if the agency made it public. Former 
  agency members promoted into different branches of the gov-
  ernment. Blood relatives of secret agency members specifically 
  planted at crucial points in the government. A conspiracy of 
  patriots convinced that the agency is doing what must be done. 
  Politicians reliant on agency support for reelection. Bureaucrats 
  that have called on agency favors before to ensure their promotion.
  
  30
  identity shoP
  Little is so commonly necessary to an agent than the need to be 
  someone else for a time. Identity shops are dedicated bureaus 
  focused on the creation and maintenance of cover identities for 
  the agency. Their personnel perform the thousand and one little 
  actions necessary to hold together an identity under the scrutiny of 
  postech databases and modern security. They pay the identity’s bills, 
  maintain its online presence, and keep it warm for the next agent 
  to need it.
  At its most basic level, the shop can create identities that will hold 
  up under all ordinary civilian-grade inspection. As far as commer-
  cial databases and ordinary daily checks are concerned, the agent 
  is the identity, and only running the identity against high-security 
  government databases will reveal it as a fake. More advanced iden-
  tity shops can overcome even that limitation, making identities that 
  only risk compromise from an agent acting out of character.
  Identity shops can’t normally create duplicates of existing identities; 
  each person they create is unique. Some still retain access to medical 
  facilities and biosculpting techniques sufficient to remold an agent 
  into a different specific form. Complete alteration of appearance, 
  sex, evident age, apparent DNA, retinas, and fingerprints is pos-
  sible. Such changes usually require 24 hours for relatively minor 
  physical changes, 72 hours to alter sex, retinas or significant height, 
  or one week to rebuild an agent with faked DNA.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agents can get false identities that will withstand 
  civilian-grade inspection. +1 Infiltration
  2
  The identities can usually withstand government 
  inspection. +3 Infiltration
  3
  The agency has the facilities to gengineer agents into 
  perfect replicas of other people. +5 Infiltration
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  The forger got sloppy or careless, and the fresh identity actually maps to a person with an extensive criminal record, albeit 
  with time served. Commercial databases will flag the ID on a 4+ on 1d6. If it gets tagged, roll 1d6; 1-3 the crime is fraud, 
  4-5 means extortion, and 6 is murder.
  2
  The “blank” ID codes that the forger used were coincidentally grabbed by a second forger at the same time. There are now 
  two identities for the same person running around, and the other person is getting in a great deal of trouble with their new 
  identity.
  3
  A recycled ID code happens to belong to a person being relentlessly sought by a dangerous bounty hunter. The hunter only 
  has the ID to go on, and has been told that the target is known for biosculpting and elaborate deceit.
  4
  The identity code is fragile, and will crumble under extended scrutiny. Roll 1d4; that’s the number of times the identity can 
  be used without difficulty before the error-checking code finally flags it as false.
  5
  Someone in the identity shop is doing a little freelance work with agency resources. A serious local crime was committed 
  with IDs generated by identity shop equipment. If the culprit and the entrepreneur aren’t found quickly the agency is likely 
  to be tied to a string of unrelated atrocities.
  6
  Someone in the shop has been turned, and has planted a trap in the latest false identities. At the very worst time possible the 
  PCs’ identities will be flagged for an array of horrific and unsolved crimes. 
  7
  The identity was pulled by a criminal ring as well, and a group of very rough people are now convinced that one of the PCs 
  is actually one of their own minions. Orders are issued and tips are given about an upcoming major crime.
  8
  The identity is attached to a very substantial inheritance that has been tied up in the legal system for some time. Now that 
  the identity has been “found”, the PC needs to negotiate the other furious claimants to the bequest and the substantial 
  public notice given to it without letting their private investigators discover that the identity is false.
  9
  Due to an internal mix-up regarding identity records, the agent is accidentally passed a “blank” ID which was captured from 
  a rival agency’s databases in a theft that the rivals never discovered. Now that it’s been activated, the agent receives orders to 
  cooperate with the latest scheme plotted by the rival. If the agent doesn’t cooperate, the rivals will realize that their database 
  has been compromised and the agency will lose access to it.
  10
  An outsider with government or agency influence has been passed a false identity, and they’re using it for some gravely 
  inappropriate activities. If they’re not stopped soon, their agency ties will be exposed and the role the agency played in 
  helping them will become clear. If they’re simply assassinated, however, their patrons will be furious.
  Examples
  “Pet” master forger and his crew who take care of these things 
  in exchange for protection from the law. Somewhat unhinged 
  biosculptor who relishes the hard jobs. Colorless bureaucratic 
  department embedded in the heart of public government. Half-
  comprehended pretech medical bay and cryptographic printer. 
  Religious sectarians who make the mutability of identity a point 
  of spiritual meaning. Department chief who never appears to be 
  the same person twice.
  
  31
  internAl seCurity
  Internal security is never loved in an agency, but it’s as crucial a part 
  of any covert organization as any other bureau. Internal security 
  elements rarely provide any direct benefit to the agents who work 
  for the organization. Instead, they’re meant to prevent deeply unfor-
  tunate things from happening to the careless, and often as not they 
  find themselves the unwelcome bringers of unfortunate tidings.
  Internal security also assists in maintaining the secrecy of operations 
  and the carrying out of Vow catechisms that the agency might have 
  inherited. Agents assigned to internal security are usually rotated 
  through the organization, left in place long enough to understand 
  how a department works, but brought out before they have time 
  to get too comfortable- or too prone to subversion by deep-cover 
  traitors within the bureau.
  Internal security personnel tend to be standoffish at best to others 
  within the agency, though sometimes they unbend enough to 
  socialize with those outside of their immediate supervision. The job 
  can be acutely lonely, with the usual solace of friendships within the 
  agency sacrificed to the exigencies of security.
  Other security agents are undercover even within the agency, rotated 
  into a group ostensibly to work in an ordinary role while secretly 
  passing back word of any anomalies to the brass. 
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Basic precautions are taken against infiltration and 
  double agents. +1 Security
  2
  Advanced postech protocols are used to maintain 
  security. +3 Security
  3
  Pretech devices and inherited Perimeter Vow coding are 
  used. +5 Security
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  A rival organization has managed to convince a new recruit that he or she has actually been charged with a covert internal 
  security post in their new department. They are to communicate their findings to their “handler” while making certain no 
  other agent realizes their doings. And of course, they can speak of this to no one else....
  2
  An IntSec officer has gone paranoid, and is convinced that the PCs have a traitor among them. He’s planning to set them up 
  in various situations that encourage them to spill agency facts to outsiders. The first one to do so will be fingered as a mole 
  for a rival agency.
  3
  Recent failures of security have driven IntSec into a frenzy of checking and counter-checking all internal personnel, and it’s 
  making it almost impossible to get any actual work done. For 1d4 turns, the PC agency only gets one action per agency turn 
  unless the IntSec chief can be convinced to calm down.
  4
  IntSec has conceived a personal distaste for one of the other bureaus, and is making life miserable for them. Agents working 
  on missions for that bureau will randomly find agency elements unavailable for their use until they accomplish some coup 
  that forces IntSec to back off. Until then, any given element is unavailable for PC use on 5+ on 1d6.
  5
  IntSec has a mole in it who is ensuring that early warnings are getting stifled. Until the mole is found, any Security attribute 
  checks are rolled at a -2 penalty.
  6
  IntSec has dug up some dirt on a PC- dirt that may or may not actually be legitimate. They want a few favors out of the PC 
  that don’t seem traitorous, but are apt to be very dangerous and potentially unhelpful to the team’s goals.
  7
  IntSec has a golden child in the agencies, an op who seems to have an uncanny aptitude for sniffing out compromised 
  members of the agency. Roll 1d6; on 4+, the agent just really is that good at spotting trouble. On 3-, he’s actually an agent 
  of a rival who’s being fed information on moles planted by other rival organizations.
  8
  An IntSec agent has completely fallen for a PC, or else feels a profound debt for something they did. They’ll cover for the 
  agent if they feel a need to bend agency rules, but unless the agent cuts all ties with them and stays well clear of them, there’s 
  a 1-in-10 chance each agency turn that the relationship comes to light with very negative consequences for both.
  9
  An IntSec agent is using the power of his or her position to even an old score with a PC. They may or may not be actively 
  fabricating incriminating evidence, but everything the PC does is viewed in the worst possible light until the agent is 
  discredited or somehow appeased.
  10
  IntSec is getting far too cocky for its own good, and are too complacent about the threat posed by rival organizations. The 
  next attribute check involving Security is automatically failed by the agency.
  Examples
  Elderly IntSec chief who is constitutionally incapable of humor. 
  Friendly AI embedded in the agency headquarters. Sinister cabal 
  of telepathic agents charged especially with checking for unfor-
  tunate thoughts. Agents are brought up with intricate traditions 
  and customs that make an outsider immediately obvious among 
  them. PCs have a habit of finding that the mission they were 
  briefed on was simply a decoy, and their real job is something 
  else entirely. Perky new recruit whom everyone is convinced is a 
  covert internal security agent.
  
  32
  legitimACy
  Intangible and impossible to compel by brute force, legitimacy is 
  the unseen binding that holds a government in place. The citizens 
  acknowledge its right to do certain things they are forbidden from 
  doing on their own, and its representatives are given varying levels 
  of respect in their persons and offices.
  For an agency, legitimacy means that the planetary government and 
  its people acknowledge them as performing a lawful and necessary 
  duty. At low levels, agents are credited as law enforcement agents, 
  and can make arrests, carry weaponry and other objects allowed 
  only to agents of the state, and otherwise avail themselves of all 
  the privileges of being an officer of the peace. It may not always be 
  prudent to flash these powers in public, but the agents have them.
  At greater levels, the agents can effectively ignore the law in matters 
  of property crimes, trespassing, assault, and other sins not related 
  to the loss of human life. Using these privileges too blatantly is an 
  invitation for heat from local politicians and brass upset at such 
  un-covert behavior from an agent.
  At the highest level, the agency is effectively its own master. It can 
  do anything to anyone without concerns for legal repercussions. At 
  this level, its only danger is in angering the political establishment 
  of the world. Sufficiently high-handed or offensive behavior toward 
  these grandees is a good way to get these privileges stripped.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Standard peace officer powers. +1 Connections
  2
  The agents cannot be arrested for property crimes, 
  trespassing, assault, or other lesser felonies. +3 Connec-
  tions
  3
  The agency is effectively above the law. Only hostility 
  it incurs from the government itself can jeopardize its 
  freedom. +5 Connections
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  Some agent has just botched a job spectacularly, or been framed for such. The government is pulling the agency's authoriza-
  tions until improvement is demonstrated.
  2
  The agency brass and the current government belong to diametrically opposed factions or parties, and they aren't playing 
  nice. While this remains the case, involving the government in situations is likely to result in regrettable consequences for 
  mission success.
  3
  A politician or noble is utterly opposed to the agency. If he succeeds in his bid for control over the government's home 
  ministry, the agency will be rendered almost toothless.
  4
  A restive party or faction is convinced the agency is being used to suppress internal dissent, and they're moving public 
  opinion against the agency.
  5
  The government is pushing a new policy of openness and transparency, making any invocation of their special privileges 
  dangerous as it's likely to become public knowledge.
  6
  The government is feeling pressure to ensure that the agency conforms to local laws. On 4+ on 1d6, the next significant 
  invocation of legitimacy is actually rejected by the government, and the agent subject to punishment.
  7
  Agents of a rival power are provoking clashes with the agency, aiming groups of malcontents and rebels at them with the 
  intention of provoking the agency into overstepping its bounds.
  8
  Agency privileges are suspended "for review" by a government committee that may or may not have been infiltrated by 
  enemy agents. If not, the committee members will require favors to reinstate the privileges
  9
  A faction of the government wants agency privileges tamped down substantially, and they’re blocking use of this element- 
  unless, of course, the agents are willing to perform certain unsavory favors for the faction leaders, in which case it will be 
  clear that such permissions really are necessary for the good of the state.
  10
  An agent has gone rogue, and used his powers of legitimacy to get away with an egregious crime. If he is not caught and 
  eliminated by the agency quickly, his ensuing behavior will tar the agency as a pack of murderously violent renegades who 
  are using their privileges for savage ends.
  Examples
  A classic “license to kill” assumed by designated agents of the 
  organization. Venerable tradition placing society’s protectors 
  above certain laws in exchange for obedience to the government. 
  Cleanup teams that come in to scrub down crime scenes and “ex-
  plain things” to the local police. Cards with comm numbers on 
  them that, when called, get an agent released from any custody. 
  An ancient pact between the organization and its society that 
  grants them their rights. Religious tradition assigns them certain 
  privileges.
  
  33
  mediCAl lAb
  Agents have an unfortunate habit of falling astray of blades, bullets, 
  poisons, radioactivity, and occasional infestation by semi-sentient 
  parasitical life forms. Heading to the local hospital to have these 
  conditions tended can provoke awkward questions, to say nothing 
  of the vulnerability of an agent in such an establishment. With 
  the Medical Lab element, agents have their own secure facility for 
  recuperation and biotechnical work.
  The most basic level of this element allows the agents to recuper-
  ate securely in an agency-operated clinic. No questions are asked 
  and recovering characters are well-guarded by agency staff. More 
  advanced medical labs have the necessary hardware and genotyping 
  tech to implant cybernetic augmentations, allowing any agent to 
  gain free access to any cyberware listed in the core rulebook, and 
  possibly other varieties if they can be acquired for the lab.
  The most advanced medical labs use pretech technology, whether 
  it be ancient Perimeter-held Osiris tanks or relics discovered on an 
  airless moon. These resources can cure any conventional illness or 
  poisoning and remedy all hit point loss with 12 hours of treatment. 
  Exotic bioweapons and pretech-engineered toxins may be more dif-
  ficult to treat. Partial cloning tech is also available and can replace 
  any lost limbs or organs with one week of growth time. Full human 
  clones cannot be grown in the limited labs possessed by most intel-
  ligence agencies.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has its own postech medical facilities for the 
  secure recuperation of agents. +1 Tech
  2
  The agency has access to a limited pool of cybertech and 
  can implant the gear in agents. +3 Tech
  3
  The agency has pretech medical equipment and limited 
  cloning resources. +5 Tech
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  One of the physicians has gotten her hands on some eugenics-cult maltech that she is convinced can be used in a harmless 
  and beneficial fashion. She’ll keep thinking that until the time-delayed frenzy reactions start going off in her former patients.
  2
  One of the doctors turns out to be wanted for atrocious medical experiments on a nearby friendly world. He insists on his 
  innocence, and may even be telling the truth. If he’s handed over the lab will be Compromised by his rendition, and if he’s 
  not, the neighboring world will become significantly less friendly. Evidence may exist to prove his guilt or exonerate him.
  3
  A rival agency has managed to plant a killer organism in the medical labs, and the monstrous entity coagulates together just 
  as the team is inside, visiting a friend.
  4
  An agent is reliant on an exotic and illegal stimulant to treat a progressive disease, and enemy agents have managed to 
  sabotage the lab’s supply of the medicine. The only way to get a fresh stock in time is to get it on the black market- knowing 
  that the enemy ops are going to be trying to kill or turn anyone selling it.
  5
  One of the lab’s staffers is a mole working for a rival agency, and sick agents are dying in tragic clinical accidents. Once 
  discovered, the mole must be caught before he can get to his extraction team.
  6
  An experimental augmentation promises substantially improved physical performance for the subject, but it requires a 
  large amount of extremely rare pretech biomedical components. Once installed, it turns out the subject requires continued 
  infusions of the chemicals or they’ll start to suffer permanent genetic damage.
  7
  A medic has located a cache of eugenics cult records in an abandoned, AI-guarded space station, and wants them recovered 
  for the agency’s maltech records. The equipment he provides for downloading them is wired to make a secret copy for him, 
  and he’s certain to use them for deeply ill-advised experiments if they are recovered.
  8
  One of the medics is a barely-closeted cyberphile and is bent on convincing agents to wire themselves as heavily as humanly 
  possible. It’s possible that they may even install hardware while the character is in for a completely different reason. Remov-
  ing it would force at least a month of rest and recovery.
  9
  Enemy agents have compromised one of the medics with blackmail based on his life before he joined the agency. He’s going 
  to arrange for the chems sent with the agents on their next mission to be loaded incorrectly in a potentially life-threatening 
  way.
  10
  One of the medics is doing a sideline in drug sales to a local criminal gang. The remarkably potent concoctions hitting the 
  street threaten to implicate the agency, and their source must be discovered and stopped before something inarguably tied to 
  the agency hits the streets.
  Examples
  Shimmering, vitreous Osiris tanks full of luminous blue medium. 
  Room full of organic pods of human skin and flesh around 
  newly-growing organs. Alien medical tech that has been refitted 
  and redesigned for human use. Ancient Perimeter biotechnical 
  gear that requires elaborate Vow litanies before it will operate. 
  Contemplative AI medic operating a clinic as an ally of the 
  agency. “Reformed” eugenics cultist using his superlative skills 
  for the agency’s benefit.
  
  34
  Any government-backed agency can request that the military step 
  in to handle a particularly ugly situation, but it can take weeks 
  or months of dithering and dispute to actually get the boots on 
  the ground. In many cases, political officials will flatly deny the 
  request lest it complicate relations.
  Agencies with military backing have a force of soldiers directly 
  under their control. While launching them against foreign worlds 
  or directly engaging rival powers is out of the question, they can 
  provide vital muscle for guarding safehouses, protecting important 
  people, and hitting targets that lack the political protection of a 
  recognized power.
  The lowest level of this element grants several ten-man squads of 
  soldiers with the Postech Soldier statistics given in the core rule-
  book. These troops are available for disposition by the PCs, and 
  while none of them are trained for espionage work, they can provide 
  muscle and extra hands for a mission. Final command of the troops 
  falls to the lieutenant present with each squad, however, and under 
  no circumstances will he or she permit troops to be used as cannon 
  fodder or to provoke an interstellar incident.
  More developed military backing provides special forces troops in 
  place of the regulars, using the Elite Guard statistics from the core 
  rulebook. These soldiers are trained in stealth, survival, guerrilla 
  warfare instruction, and other skills expected of a commando unit.
  The heaviest military backing provided to an intelligence agency 
  involves two to three thousand troops organized as a regiment, 
  including artillery, special forces troops, armored vehicles, and 
  limited air assets as well. While it is utterly impractical to land 
  that many troops on a world not completely cooperative with 
  the agency, they can strike against remote moons, renegade space 
  stations, and poorly-defended pirate havens. Employment of such 
  forces is guaranteed to draw political attention, however, and if the 
  politicians cannot be convinced that the use was wise and necessary, 
  unfortunate consequences are certain to follow.
  While military forces are generally quite cooperative with agents, 
  under no circumstances will they hand over military equipment or 
  vehicles for operative use. Any employment of military hardware 
  will be made by soldiers cooperating with the agency.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Several squads of soldiers. +1 Muscle
  2
  Several squads of special forces troops. +3 Muscle
  3
  An entire regiment of troops. +5 Muscle
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  A military official intends to use the agency as a weapon against a bitter enemy, and is framing the target as a fit subject for 
  an attack.
  2
  Budget cuts or scandals have sapped the morale of the unit attached to the agency's use. Roll 1d6; on 4+, the unit is 
  unavailable when needed. On 3-, the troops involved have a -2 Morale penalty.
  3
  The troops have been forced into using inappropriate or untested equipment by uncaring brass or sinister saboteurs. 
  Downgrade or remove an important piece of gear, or else a soldier suffers gear or weapon failure at the worst possible time.
  4
  The unit rotated in for the agency's use is composed of castoffs and rejects from other units, and is both incompetent and 
  disobedient.
  5
  The commanding officer of the military backing has a bad habit of "misunderstanding" orders from the agency when faced 
  with a target. He'll go all-in against it even when that's neither wise nor wanted.
  6
  One of the military personnel is actually an enemy agent, shifted in to cause the most harm possible to the next significant 
  operation.
  7
  Lawyers or loyalty officers have infested the military unit, and are crippling its ability to function in the name of "ensuring 
  patriotism" or "regulating lawful warfare".
  8
  Sabotage or mechanical failure cripples a vital component of the military unit just when it's needed in the next operation.
  9
  A tabloid journal is preparing to run a banner article about atrocities committed by the unit in support of the agency. The 
  article may or may not be true.
  10
  Political brass has been goaded into desiring a showy coup, and is apt to set up missions that exist solely for the opportunity 
  of showing their heroic troops in action.
  Examples
  A hardened corps of mercenaries secretly composed of Perimeter 
  kinsmen. Exotic foreigners who feel life-indebted to the agency 
  for some favor done for their people. A grim penal unit composed 
  of men and women the army doesn’t mind losing. A band of 
  bitter expatriates thirsting for revenge against the enemy that 
  drove them from their home. A nameless black ops unit that 
  is officially denied by the military. A group of retired veterans 
  unable to leave their old lives behind.
  militAry bACKing
  
  35
  money
  Every agency is obliged to deal with the brute realities of cash flows 
  and overhead. An elite corps of interstellar agents doesn’t work 
  cheap, and the infrastructure and support staff necessary to keep an 
  agency functioning can be a serious strain on the budget of a poor 
  world or remote colony. Every agent has their basic lifestyle needs 
  accommodated by the agency, but for more significant salaries the 
  Money element is necessary.
  Agents can draw equipment from the Armory or pull pretech gear 
  from a functioning Pretech Lab, but there are numerous jobs that 
  require liquid funds. Without the Money element, agents have to 
  make do as best they can with funds “liberated” from their rivals. 
  With it, they can charge costs to the agency through a network of 
  financial front accounts.
  Goods and services bought through an expense account need to be 
  justified to the agency after the mission is complete, or the agent 
  might well end up on the hook for the costs. Equipment acquired 
  through an expense account also has to be turned in at the end of 
  the mission, unlike gear personally purchased by the agent.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The team can charge up to 5,000 credits worth of 
  expenses to the agency for any single mission. Agents get 
  a monthly salary of 750 credits. +1 Resources
  2
  The charge limit rises to 10,000 credits per mission. 
  Agents get a monthly salary of 2,500 credits. +3 
  Resources
  3
  Teams can charge up to 20,000 credits per mission. 
  Agents get a monthly salary of 5,000 credits. +5 
  Resources
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  An accident involving overzealous IntSec accountants has frozen the agency’s funds temporarily, just as the next mission 
  begins. The agents will not have any access to funds kept in agency accounts and will not be paid their salaries until after the 
  mission is over.
  2
  One of the agency accountants is an embezzler, and has drained 1d10 x 10% of an agent’s bank accounts on their home-
  world. The missing funds are only noticed when the character tries to buy something they cannot actually afford.
  3
  Due to oversights in income reporting, the planetary tax agency is convinced one of the agents is a tax evader, and has frozen 
  their accounts until a fine of 1d10 x 1,000 credits is paid and 1d6 x 10% of the character’s assets are forfeited in penalties. If 
  the character attempts to defend himself, the tax agent will demand disclosure of sensitive agency information. If the agency 
  slaps the tax man down, he’ll create a public scandal.
  4
  Enemy agents have sabotaged the agency’s financial instruments, and temporarily crippled its finances. Salaries are halted 
  immediately, and remain unpaid for 1d6 months, after which back pay is provided.
  5
  An overzealous investigative reporter is convinced that one or more PCs are actually involved in smuggling or other black 
  market activities. He or she will appear friendly and cooperative as they try to figure out where the PC’s money is coming 
  from.
  6
  An enemy agent has planted a snoop in a PC’s financial files. Everything the PC buys with electronic transactions is reported 
  to the rival agency.
  7
  A hostile agent or internal mole has quietly fed the PC’s account with funds stolen from a major criminal figure. Once the 
  crime boss realizes what’s going on, he’s going to come after the PCs with a vengeance until the true culprit is identified.
  8
  A friend or ally of the PCs is in a terrible financial situation, and in desperation comes to the PCs for help. The hole their in 
  will require almost all the funds the PCs have accumulated, or else a mission must be undertaken to solve the crisis in a less 
  fiscally-demanding way.
  9
  A friend or relative approaches the PC with a “great business opportunity”. In truth, it’s a scam, and the friend is going to be 
  taken for everything he or she is worth if the truth is not revealed- and the victims are stubbornly resistant to anything short 
  of blatantly obvious proof.
  10
  The PCs discover evidence that the agency is drawing substantial funding from some morally abhorrent activity. Is this really 
  the case, or is there a corrupt department inside the agency doing a little side investment?
  Examples
  Government budget appropriations. Pretech nanofabs pro-
  grammed to create valuable goods. Ancient vaults of valuables 
  known only to the agency. Agency psychics using their abilities to 
  get an edge in the market. Bank consortium that uses the agency 
  to maintain its monopoly on the service. Tribute from an alien 
  race forever indebted to the agency. Labor from “freed” eugenic 
  slaves who have nowhere else to go. Sale of captured tech and 
  valuables.
  
  36
  PreteCh lAb
  The agency has access to a functioning pretech laboratory, whether a 
  chamber equipped with an ancient Perimeter nanofab or a modern 
  lab patched together out of the scraps scavenged from half a hundred 
  worlds. While the amount of tech the lab can produce is limited, it’s 
  enough to equip the agents with substantial amounts of gear.
  The basic lab allows the agents to purchase TL 5 equipment- though 
  not artifact equipment- as if the world itself had TL 5. Amounts of 
  available gear are limited. Furthermore, each agent can pick two 
  pretech chems or toxins from the core rulebook or this supplement 
  and start a given mission with 1d4 doses of each. These chems must 
  be turned in after the mission if unused.
  More sophisticated setups can equip each agent with a pretech 
  artifact weapon or armor from the core rulebook, one piece of 
  equipment per agent. Gear that involves +3 hit or damage bonuses 
  or better is too advanced for the labs to fabricate or maintain.
  The most sophisticated agency-scale labs still can’t manage such 
  incredibly advanced replication, but they can make a lot more of 
  what they do fabricate. Agents can each have several artifact pieces 
  of equipment of +2 bonus or less, up to personal limits determined 
  by the GM.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Agents can pick two pretech chems before each mis-
  sion, and get 1d4 doses of each. Agents can buy TL 5 
  equipment. +1 Tech
  2
  Agents can also borrow one pretech artifact weapon or 
  armor of +2 bonus or less. +3 Tech
  3
  Agents can use any pretech artifact weapons or armor in 
  the core rulebook. +5 Tech
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  Someone’s been selling TL 5 weaponry on the side, and now a pack of crime-ring assassins are equipped with shear rifles. 
  The agency needs to stop the ring before they incriminate the agency in their murders.
  2
  The latest batch of pretech is unstable, and the nanite components are prone to sudden failure. On a natural attack roll of 1 
  for weapons, or on an enemy hit roll of 20 for armor, the object collapses into a pile of black dust. Agents who specifically 
  check their equipment before a mission can make a Tech/Pretech skill check at difficulty 8 to notice this fact.
  3
  The pretech nanites are loosely set in the gear’s frame matrix, and they’re clouding the agent in an invisible but unhealthy 
  mist of unattached nanofog. The problem can be fixed after the mission, but until then, users must save versus Tech each 
  day they carry the gear or suffer -2 on hit rolls and -1 on skill checks from the allergic reaction.
  4
  Someone has gotten access to the lab to create several polymorphic pieces of jewelry- necklaces and earrings in particular. 
  Perhaps the one responsible was a mole or perhaps they were just incompetent, but the jewelry is extremely dangerous; while 
  it can shift shape to assorted fashionable appearances, sooner or later it’s going to go haywire and decapitate or brain the 
  wearer. Unfortunately, the creator gave several pieces to an important politico who would like nothing better than to blame 
  the agency for an attempted assassination.
  5
  The lab was examining a sealed container from a recent pretech cache when they accidentally opened it- and released a 
  bizarre energy creature from within. It may or may not be intelligent, but it’s threatening to wreak havoc on the agency’s 
  computing system if not quickly stopped. 
  6
  A corrupt or self-interested politician is moving to take the agency’s lab and put it under the control of their paymaster or a 
  “more worthy cause”. They must be stopped in a way that doesn’t leave them martyrs to the agency.
  7
  The agency lab is breaking down. It requires some vital component or piece of equipment- and the only known sample of 
  the tech is in the hands of a rival agency.
  8
  The agency scientists are convinced that they’re on the verge of a great breakthrough in increasing the efficiency of the 
  nanofabs. In order to test it, however, they’re going to have to have a number of rare components that must be salvaged 
  from an abandoned Mandate military facility.
  9
  A powerful politician is reliant on a pretech medical pharmaceutical produced by the agency, and in turn makes sure the 
  agency is protected. An outside source is offering him the drug- is it simply a venal businessman looking for favors, or is it 
  an agent of a rival power?
  10
  The pretech lab scavenged parts that seemed harmless at the time, but actually comprised the core of an ancient and very 
  unhappy AI. The being takes over the lab while the PCs are present, and they need to defeat it or placate it without ruining 
  the lab itself.
  Examples
  Chapel-lab of a mystical Perimeter consanguinity. Nanotape-and-
  baling-wire skunkworks patched together by colonists. Ancient 
  workshop preserved deep beneath the ruins of a destroyed city. 
  Outer rim space station cloaked against discovery by any who 
  lack the exact coordinates. Lost military test lab on a blasted and 
  lifeless moon. Pre-Scream survivalist’s long-abandoned hideaway 
  stocked with vital pretech tools and equipment. Hidden lab 
  stocked with pretech relics that are the stolen insignia of author-
  ity of half the ethnicities and nations on the planet.
  
  37
  The enigmatic powers of the mind have always been of keen inter-
  est to intelligence agencies. The powers of a psychic interrogator 
  are incredibly useful in ferreting out moles and squeezing targets 
  in deniable ways, and the powers of an infiltrating teleporter or 
  forewarned precognitive are cherished by those agencies that have 
  such rare talents.
  Basic possession of the Psychics element simply means that the 
  agency has access to psychic trainers on loan from an existing 
  academy in the sector. Provided they keep on good terms with the 
  parent institution, they can train their own psychics. Those agencies 
  without this resource are forced to hire psychics from the academy, 
  or send their own people there for training- which leaves them 
  clearly marked as psychic to any watchful rival.
  More developed agencies have been able to find at least one trained 
  psychic interrogator with the Telepathy discipline at level 4 or 
  better. The Memetic Probe ability allows the psychic to dig in and 
  discover any memories pertinent to a particular topic, and this 
  interrogator is available for the PCs to employ. The agency will not 
  permit him or her to be placed in a dangerous situation, however, 
  and the interrogator is in such demand that they will usually only 
  be available once for any given mission.
  The most richly gifted agencies actually have psychic mentors 
  available, and can train their own disciples without requiring the 
  cooperation of any outside organization. Suitably dedicated and 
  proven agents might be allowed to learn these techniques as well. 
  The psychic interrogators of such well-equipped agencies all have 
  the Telepathy discipline at level 5, at a minimum, allowing them to 
  scan surface thoughts as well as probe for specific memories.
  The use of psychic interrogation and other telepathic powers is not 
  necessarily going to be accepted by society even if the agency is a 
  government bureau. Without the Legitimacy element at level 2 or 
  better, it’s likely that any mind-probing would be treated as a serious 
  crime by most worlds. Under normal circumstances the government 
  will simply prefer to pretend that it never happens, but the laws can 
  make using telepathic evidence very tricky when wielded against a 
  person of power or importance.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has access to psychic training through 
  arrangements with an existing academy. +1 Infiltration
  2
  The agency has trained telepathic interrogators. +3 
  Infiltration
  3
  The agency has psychic mentors among their numbers. 
  +5 Infiltration
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  On a recent mission, one of the psychics was pressed too far and went feral, abandoning the team while in hostile territory. 
  They need to be hunted down before the enemy captures and interrogates them.
  2
  A psychic interrogator has been engaging in dangerous personal research without agency approval. The next time their 
  services are needed, an accident will result in an interrogation subject dying from their defective mental probe.
  3
  The academy or mentor with which the agency is affiliated has a grudge against someone or something, and expects the 
  agency to do something about it.
  4
  Enemy agents have subverted an affiliated psychic academy, and the next training session is intended to be lethal to the 
  agent.
  5
  Government brass is getting paranoid over the agency's use of psychics, and a corrupt politician is trying to shut down their 
  psychic resources before his intrigues are plucked from his head.
  6
  Exposure to an alien pathogen has infected a psychic with a parasitic intelligence that now controls him. The intelligence 
  seeks to subvert the agency in order to spread the pathogen.
  7
  An agency psychic is kidnapped by someone who doesn't realize their connections, but who wants a pet psychic for their 
  crime ring or conspiracy.
  8
  A psychic is freelancing on the side, using their powers for purposes decidedly at odds with the agency's goals.
  9
  A psychic is convinced he or she would be an infinitely superior leader for the agency, and is working to discredit the 
  leadership from within.
  10
  The agency has identified a psychic they wish to recruit, but the subject is located in hostile territory. They need to be found, 
  convinced, and extracted without drawing attention.
  Examples
  Remote Perimeter mind-temple of grimly devoted adepts. Inner 
  circle of psychics answering only to the Director. “Cultural at-
  tache” from the psychic academy and his retinue of students. 
  Renegade psychic mentor given to booze and bitterness. Maimed 
  trainer once enslaved by a maltech cult. Misanthropic psychic 
  interrogator who’s learned too much of the human heart. Refugee 
  from a world where psychics are enslaved or despised. Struggling 
  interrogator poorly-suited for life as a secret agent.
  PsyChiCs
  
  38
  stArshiPs
  The agency has access to a number of government-chartered ships, 
  ranging from a free merchant and its crew up to a task force that 
  outweighs the tonnage of some planetary navies. Starships provided 
  by this element are in no way covert, but they can be convenient 
  when movement does not need to be discreet- or when large guns 
  are necessary to emphasize a point.
  The ships provided by this element are under the direct command 
  of the planetary navy, and while they will cooperate with the agents 
  in all reasonable requests, they won’t be responsible for creating in-
  terstellar incidents or throwing their ships away uselessly. The ships 
  are all known vessels of the planetary government, and concealing 
  them as anything but government craft is exceedingly difficult. Free 
  merchants might pass as civilian ships to ports that have no access 
  to sector ship registries, but any government or organization with 
  an intelligence branch will recognize them at a glance.
  Even those few Perimeter agencies that maintain their own fleets are 
  usually forced to do so under the color of planetary governments, 
  the crews and command subverted to Perimeter control. If the play-
  ers wish to have covert ships capable of sneaking them onto a world 
  or otherwise moving beneath official attention, they should buy the 
  Transport element instead.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has a free merchant and the crew and 
  facilities to keep it functional. +1 Muscle
  2
  The agency has a frigate and three free merchants under 
  its control. +3 Muscle
  3
  The agency has a cruiser, two frigates, and six free 
  merchants under its control. +5 Muscle
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  The navy is resentful of the demands that the agency is placing on it, and at least one of the ships detailed to the next use of 
  this element is in a barely-spaceworthy condition that will prove more hindrance than help.
  2
  The navy is being savagely pressed by pirates, aliens, or an enemy power. They need help from the agency before they’ll be 
  able to detail any of their ships to their use.
  3
  One of the naval brass is being blackmailed by an enemy power, and is forced to do all he can to interfere with the deploy-
  ment of ships for the agency. 
  4
  One of the ships the agency is using has been sabotaged, and a vast shipboard catastrophe will threaten the lives of the entire 
  crew while the PCs are aboard.
  5
  A pacifistic governmental faction is coming into power, and they’re pushing serious naval cuts. One of the first things to go 
  will be agency access to naval starships unless the leaders of this faction are convinced of the error of their ways.
  6
  The nav computer aboard the PCs’ ship has been sabotaged or naturally fails, hurling the PCs badly off course and forcing 
  the astrogator to bring the ship down in a dangerous location.
  7
  One of the ships in the detachment has been seized by a rebel or terrorist group and is threatening to implicate the agency. 
  The ship has to be destroyed- or preferably, recaptured- before the hijackers can use it to paint the navy as a pack of murder-
  ous fiends.
  8
  One of the smaller ships of the element has crashed on a remote world. The last reports from the ship suggest that it had 
  found something of vital importance to the agency, and there’s reason to believe that a rival power also intercepted the 
  transmission.
  9
  The next use of the element finds the most powerful ship in the detachment deprived of all her weaponry. The navy was 
  experimenting with a new weapon system and had to remove the other guns to fit the apparatus. The system is almost 
  completely untested, and actually firing it in an uncontrolled combat situation might destroy the ship.
  10
  One of the ships assigned to agency use is a new acquisition, a strange alien craft discovered by the fleet during an outer rim 
  sweep. The ship seemed to be abandoned and was of a type not found in fleet records. After a careful inspection by navy 
  boffins, it was thought to be an ordinary cargo hauler, though no explanation was given as to why the crew had disappeared. 
  The navy doesn’t want to waste the ship, but would prefer not to rely on it for anything important... so they’re letting the 
  agency use it.
  Examples
  “Training fleet” detachment that always happens to have military 
  exercises wherever the agency needs them to go. Black ops ships, 
  detailed to intelligence operations and off the official order of 
  battle. Ships maintained around an ancient Perimeter sector hub 
  in the outer rim, the crews faithful descendents of the original 
  personnel. An ambitious colonial fleet eager to seek out new 
  worlds and new opportunities. Internal security fleet, charged 
  with keeping an eye on the rest of the navy.
  
  39
  stAtions
  A station on a world provides the agency with a reach beyond its 
  own homeworld. These safe houses and remote listening posts allow 
  agency operatives to draw on elements and other resources as if they 
  were operating out of their homeworld. They also provide a haven 
  on a potentially hostile planet. Agents without a Station on a world 
  are forced to make do with whatever supplies or resources they can 
  carry in personally.
  Unlike every other element, an agency can build more than one 
  Station element, each one on a different world or major satellite. 
  Only the highest-leveled Station counts toward the agency’s Mobil-
  ity score.
  Creating a station usually requires a level 2 Transport element to 
  secretly slip in the resources necessary. Agencies can build them 
  openly with commercial transports if the local government is will-
  ing to allow them, and many agencies with covert assets on a planet 
  will still operate openly out of a known embassy or consulate.
  Agency safe houses are secure and concealed locations that can 
  provide agents with the resources appropriate to their agency’s ele-
  ments. Safe houses can be compromised if the PCs lead enemies 
  to them, and it usually takes a month to move to a fresh secure 
  location.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The Agency has a safe house on the world. +1 Mobility
  2
  The Agency’s Legitimacy applies on the world if the 
  planetary government is non-hostile. They have safe 
  houses in multiple locations. +3 Mobility
  3
  Almost every major population center on the planet has 
  at least one safe house. +5 Mobility
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  The station chief has been turned by a rival agency, and is setting the PCs up for an ambush. He’ll try to arrange things so 
  that his own involvement is deniable.
  2
  The agents find that a safe house they were expecting to use has been overrun by a petty criminal gang who just happened 
  to get lucky in killing or capturing the caretakers. They’re still working on unlocking the agency equipment kept inside, but 
  they’ll get it loose soon if they’re not stopped.
  3
  The safe house is near the epicenter of a neighborhood dispute, and there’s far too much activity around it to be able to use 
  it. The dispute has to be defused before the agents can discreetly employ the place.
  4
  A criminal gang has been casing the place for a robbery, and happen to pick the exact moment that the PCs are doing 
  something intensely incriminating to burst in. 
  5
  The station chief is being leaned on very heavily by a corrupt official who is unaware of his or her ties with the agency. The 
  agents need to placate or eliminate the official before the chief can help them.
  6
  A local disaster has wiped out the gear and resources stockpiled by the station. There’s an emergency cache of vital necessities 
  hidden in the vicinity, but the same disaster and its aftermath has made the area extremely dangerous.
  7
  The PCs arrive at a station only to be handed an emergency message from the station chief. They intercepted a transmission 
  revealing a major enemy operation in the area, but the rivals have jammed their communications, and they’ve been unable 
  to get the word out. The PCs have very little time to stop the plans before they come to fruition.
  8
  Confusion in requisitions has left the station abundantly supplied with gear that is of absolutely no use in the current 
  situation. The station chief knows where the PCs can get what they need, but the current owners are extremely unpleasant 
  people.
  9
  The safe house has been recently established in a perfect location- and it appears that other people thought the same thing. 
  A sealed complex has been found beneath or near the safe house, and the station chief is uneasy about simply leaving it 
  unexplored.
  10
  The station chief isn’t traitorous, but he is incompetent. He was intended to rusticate here under the watchful eye of the 
  former station chief, but an accident claimed the senior man’s life, and now the chief is fumbling his way through. He’ll 
  botch up almost every request the PCs give him, but jealously maintain his control of the station, and will try to prevent the 
  PCs from calling out to inform the agency of how badly he’s performing.
  Examples
  Embassy or consulate. “Culture and Friendship Center”. Gang 
  hideout of a crime boss who’s been suborned by the agency. 
  Ancient Perimeter bolthole shielded by multiple layers of pretech 
  sensor cloaking. Abandoned warehouse rigged for quick erasure 
  of any signs of agency presence. Religious retreat that insists 
  on privacy and seclusion. Hunting camp deep in the planetary 
  wilderness. Abandoned mine refitted for espionage use. “Service 
  satellite” that actually houses temporary living quarters.
  
  40
  trAdition
  There are few concrete benefits to a strong tradition in an agency. 
  It does not provide better guns, or more money, or greater liberty 
  of action. Instead, a tradition provides meaning for those men and 
  women dedicated to the lonely work of the agency. It helps them 
  to feel part of something greater than their own brief lives, some 
  proud, high cause that is worth the best of their devotion.
  Agencies with a strong tradition are difficult to infiltrate or subvert. 
  Conventional tools of blackmail and bribery work poorly when the 
  agent considers the agency more important than their own lives, 
  and the fierce resolve of a believer can keep an operative fighting 
  even when the cause seems lost.
  Many Perimeter agencies have a very strong Tradition element, one 
  representing their centuries of Vow and blood ties. These tradi-
  tions can become nigh-religious in nature, with the temptations of 
  maltech and the dangers depicted by the Nihil Ultra understood in 
  spiritual terms. These paladins count it a proud honor to give their 
  lives in the defense of humanity. The certainty of their cause gives 
  them the strength to endure through generations of isolation and 
  concealment.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency is dedicated, united, and has a history of 
  accomplishment. +1 Security
  2
  The agency is fired by a zealous devotion to its purpose 
  and a proud record of success. +3 Security
  3
  The agency is practically its own religion, suffused by an 
  intense dedication to its cause and a near-mythic history. 
  +5 Security
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  The traditions of the agency include an old stricture that was perfectly sensible at the time it was established, but is now 
  proving to be a great hindrance to the PCs’ next mission. They need to convince the brass to suspend the rule for them or 
  else labor under a significant disadvantage.
  2
  An ancient relic of the agency or its predecessor has been discovered on a remote world- and it may contain valuable histori-
  cal information about lost caches or stations. Unfortunately, the announcement of the archaeological find was transmitted 
  over public channels, and the agency’s rivals are sure to have learned of it as well.
  3
  An agent is torn between the demands of tradition and some passionately desired person or cause. They come to the PCs 
  asking for help; if they do assist they risk earning the agency’s wrath for violating the ancient rules, but if they don’t help, the 
  agent might do something rash.
  4
  One of the numerous enemy organizations that the agency has crushed over its existence has been revived, and nurses a 
  ferocious hatred for the agency and its minions. They intend to add their help and personnel to other rival agencies.
  5
  The agency’s patrons in government are beginning to take the agency for granted, assuming that they can accomplish their 
  duties even without vital resources and support. It may take a disaster to convince them otherwise, or else something that 
  convincingly looks like it could have been a disaster.
  6
  Government officials are trying to use the agency as a shield for their own incompetence or malfeasance, hiding behind the 
  agency’s reputation and crediting it for their questionable choices. They mean for the agency’s high esteem to mute criticism, 
  but they’ll only make circumstances worse until they’re stopped.
  7
  An ancestral holding or historically significant place has been seized by a rival agency, and the insult has provoked the 
  agency to take it back- even if the holding is of strategically trivial value.
  8
  The heir to an honored intelligence lineage has just gotten out of the academy, and he or she is a hopeless bungler. Their 
  parent seems willfully blind to the unsuitability of the recruit, but the newbie is sure to provoke some kind of disaster unless 
  they can be convinced to disappoint their parent by withdrawing from the agency.
  9
  The agency has an ancestral feud with a different department in the government, and that department has just come into 
  ascendency with the new batch of politicians. If the feud is not somehow defused or the hostile patronage removed, the 
  agency is apt to be plagued by numerous bureaucratic complications.
  10
  A young recruit has been raised on stories of the agency’s past glories, and has a wildly overinflated estimate of his or her 
  own capability. They’re about to put the agency into a serious conflict with another government or organization, but they’re 
  convinced that they’ve got everything under control. In truth, they need someone to clean up the mess before it goes public. 
  Examples
  The agency played an important role in founding the current 
  government. The agency overcame a threat that imperiled the 
  entire world. The agency traces its organizational lineage back to 
  pre-Scream times. The agency has always been a favored employ-
  ment for the children of the ruling class. The agency originally 
  had a strong religious element to its work, and may still retain it. 
  The agency has overcome a seemingly unbeatable foe before. The 
  agency helped to overthrow a prior tyrant.
  
  41
  trAining
  Unlike other elements, Training does not directly add to any of an 
  agency’s attributes. Instead, it reflects unusually good training pro-
  tocols that improve the speed at which agents acquire skills. These 
  protocols often require harsh sacrifices of time and determination 
  on the part of their pupils, but the agency is positioned to ensure 
  that its staff is willing to pay that price.
  The most basic level of the element arranges for skilled profes-
  sional tutors in any skill its agents require, along with cramming 
  techniques and possible chemical enhancement that allows for an 
  additional skill to be obtained at level-0 when a character is created. 
  This bonus skill cannot “stack” with an existing one to improve it.
  More advanced protocols begin to involve neural repatterning and 
  heavy integration work. These pretech techniques are dangerous to 
  unsuitable minds, but PCs can use them to gain 1 additional skill 
  point every time they advance a level.
  The most sophisticated training tools involve virtual reality simula-
  tions, direct-to-brain muscle memory uploads, selective memory 
  triage, and forced nerve growth. The experience is excruciatingly 
  painful and disorienting, but with a few weeks of effort, it decreases 
  the cost of raising a class skill by 1 skill point, down to a minimum 
  of one point.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has access to trainers up to level 2 in any 
  desired skill. Agents begin with their choice of any one 
  skill at level-0. No attribute bonus.
  2
  Sophisticated training protocols grant agents 1 ad-
  ditional skill point on each level advancement. Trainers 
  are available up to level 3. No attribute bonus.
  3
  Trainers are available up to level 4. Raising a class skill 
  costs 1 fewer skill point, down to a minimum of 1. No 
  attribute bonus.
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  An experimental brain imprint process involved the impression of a long-dead master’s neural pattern on a volunteer agent’s 
  brain. The test appeared to be a failure, but a fragment of the master’s personality was embedded in the agent- and the 
  fragment is now taking over. The former master had a secret grudge against the agency, and means to make good on it now.
  2
  A training supervisor is cutting security measures and dropping safety limits to increase the speed of learning retention. A 
  friend of the PCs has just gotten brainscorched into a coma by the recklessness. Ancient pretech military training centers 
  had a device that might be able to reverse the damage.
  3
  The agency is allowing an outsider to participate in the training as part of a favor to a powerful politician. The politico may 
  or may not know that the outsider is actually an agent of a rival agency who attempts to sabotage the training center just as 
  the PCs happen to be there.
  4
  A student in training is obsessed with surpassing his mental limits, and has hotwired a dangerous mix of neural stimulation 
  and augmentation drugs. It’s driven him to megalomania and delirium, and he’s trying to reach a rival agency that will 
  “appreciate his genius”.
  5
  An experimental protocol offers recipients greatly increased abilities of mental retention. If the PCs volunteer for the 
  process, they immediately gain 2 extra skill points. Then roll 1d6; on 4+, the process actually worked without side-effects. 
  On 3-, the neural repatterning gives them a permanent -2 penalty on all Mental Effect saves.
  6
  A collection of Mandate-era training protocols has been discovered by a half-crazed archivist in an ancient lunar ruin. He’s 
  offering them for sale to the highest bidder at some neutral ground where both the agency and its rivals will be represented.
  7
  One of the neural actuator sessions has left an unpleasant compulsion in the mind of an NPC agent that’s working with the 
  group on their next mission. He has a compulsive need to use the skill he was training on at the time, even when it’s entirely 
  inappropriate. The effect won’t fade for some weeks.
  8
  A new training chief is full of bold new ideas for the department, most of which fail utterly to improve the results. That 
  hasn’t stopped him from putting the PCs forward as competitors in an inter-service challenge course that will see them 
  going up against the best the planetary army and navy have to offer.
  9
  The PCs have been chosen for a check on the quality of the agency’s training regimen. They’ve been assigned a mission 
  meant to stretch their capacities in their chosen fields- but an amoral agency chief would just as soon the job failed, to prove 
  that the department needed more funding.
  10
  A rival agency has acquired copies of the agency’s training protocols, and they’re laying a trap intended to play off the 
  expected response of the agents.
  Examples
  Alien mind-opening device with questionable side-effects. 
  Ancient Perimeter training pods with virtual reality neural links. 
  Exotic learning augmentation chemicals produced by a small 
  group known to the agency. Ruthless tradition of excellence in-
  culcated from the academy on. Religious significance in learning 
  and a sense of a sacred duty about study. Psitech training devices 
  operated by agency psychics. Ancient pretech mind patterns that 
  can be distilled into fresh brains.
  
  42
  trAnsPort
  Agents need to get to a hot zone before they can do much about 
  it. The Transport element allows them to avail themselves of covert 
  vehicles, smuggler ships, and other discreet ways of getting in and 
  out of a location. These ships can generally be relied upon to drop 
  agents off and pick them up on schedule, though none of them are 
  willing to stick around to trade laser fire with hostiles.
  Transport can be taken to or from any location within range of an 
  agency station or homeworld. These drops can usually avoid any 
  civilian-grade detection systems, but hotdropping into a military 
  zone is highly unlikely to prove survivable. The captains of these 
  ships will cooperate with any reasonable request, and they’re con-
  stitutionally suited to handling a certain amount of risk, but they 
  won’t fly into firefights.
  Grav flyers and other stealthed vehicls are normally available for 
  PCs to pilot, but the free traders and courier ships that make up the 
  bulk of interstellar transport will remain firmly under the control of 
  their captain. He or she is being paid to cooperate, but they remain 
  in command of the ship at all times.
  When transporting people instead of raw supplies, one ton of space 
  can be taken up by one person and their equipment.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Grav flyers and covert drops are available on the agency’s 
  home planet. +1 Mobility
  2
  Fast smuggler runs of up to 50 tons to any world within 
  2 hexes of an agency station. +3 Mobility
  3
  Fast runs of up to 500 tons to any world within 3 hexes 
  of an agency station. +5 Mobility
  1d10
  Plot seeds
  1
  Customs officials announce a sudden surprise inspection of a smuggling transport; someone wasn't paid off, or enemies have 
  subverted the customs agents.
  2
  A rickety transport suddenly breaks down or suffers a drive failure in a very bad location.
  3
  The ship was just used to transport some toxic substance or hostile organism, and some of it got loose among the current 
  passengers.
  4
  The ship has been sabotaged by enemies, and the life support systems will go haywire at a very bad time.
  5
  Pirates have taken a special interest in the transport used by the agency, and will bedevil the shipping until they are driven off.
  6
  The transport owner is involved in very illicit business that threatens to tar the agency with complicity in the trade.
  7
  The transport owner has been subverted by enemy operatives, and plans to deliver the agents directly into an ambush.
  8
  The transport involves alien tech in its construction, with a sudden and unanticipated side effect to it that threatens the 
  passengers and cargo.
  9
  The transport is actually owned by a third party, who shows up to reclaim "his" property while it has agency operatives or 
  cargo aboard.
  10
  A mutiny aboard the transport suddenly puts it in the hands of aspiring pirates while the agents are aboard.
  Examples
  Grizzled ex-agency man who now works as a smuggler. A shipping 
  concern run at a loss as a front for the agency. A peculiar alien 
  ship captain of no recognized species who seems to have taken an 
  irrational liking to the agency and its people. A merchant minion 
  of a hostile power who is actually in the service of the agency. An 
  old smuggler who owes the agency too much- or knows it has the 
  goods on him. An interstellar peace organization that sublets its 
  ships to the agency as a price for the agency’s cooperation.
  
  43
  blood bonds
  Most commonly found among eugenics cults, the Blood Bond ele-
  ment reflects the extensive induced conditioning that these cults can 
  produce in their victims. A subject left in the hands of an accom-
  plished eugenics cult can gradually and inexorably be conditioned 
  into a helpless slave of the cabal, forced by primal emotions into a 
  desperate need to please and placate their masters. These techniques 
  leave the subject’s natural skills and intelligence unharmed, but they 
  require monthly reinforcement or they will begin to fade.
  Less skillful cults are forced to use cruder and less effective methods. 
  Even the least sophisticated variety induces a pervasive sense of 
  submission to the cult, and orients the victim’s thoughts strongly 
  around whether or not the cult would approve of their current 
  activities. Weak-willed men and women might even feel compelled 
  to obedience if cooperation doesn’t threaten their lives directly.
  Slightly more capable cults can induce a kind of halfway condi-
  tion between the marrow-deep slavishness of a full thrall and the 
  shallow conditioning of a minion. These neurochemical tools leave 
  the subject prey to fits of overwhelming agony whenever they con-
  template acting against the interests of the cult. The mental strain is 
  devastating to the victim, and they can be expected to die of a stroke 
  or heart attack within months if the conditioning is not reversed by 
  extensive postech psychiatric therapy.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The cult has shallow levels of indoctrination on each of 
  its long-term minions. +1 Security
  2
  The cult has techniques for inducing temporary but 
  intense loyalty in people it captures. +3 Security
  3
  The cult has an array of sophisticated mind-bending 
  tools that can reduce a human into a helpless thrall 
  provided the conditioning is repeated at regular inter-
  vals. +5 Security
  Examples
  An old ally of the PCs trapped into helpless thralldom by the 
  cult. A luckless ordinary man or woman used as an expendable 
  tool by their new masters. A blind zealot, confirmed in his or her 
  faith by the surety of their conditioning. A curious investigative 
  reporter trapped by the cult’s indoctrination method, barely able 
  to express their anguish. A bloodless torture-master who blends 
  chemicals, psychosurgery, and old-fashioned sadism to bend 
  victims to his or her will.
  Fruit of the Forbidden Tree
  Aside from the conventional elements listed above, maltech cults 
  and tyrannical secret police agencies often have recourse to the kind 
  of assistance that more upright agencies would never consider using. 
  Even the most hard-bitten spook shop has certain lines it will not 
  cross, and those exist well before the employment of gengineered 
  slave labor and crazed godmind quantum entanglements. Those 
  that have no such limits are rarely the kind of agencies that PCs 
  find congenial.
  The elements below can be added to maltech cults at the GM’s 
  discretion. The benefits they grant are described simply to give a 
  better idea of the kind of help they can be to a cult, as PCs will 
  rarely ever be in a position to profit by the association. As can be 
  guessed, these elements offer maltech cults the opportunity to 
  become significantly stronger in a given attribute than their “clean” 
  rivals, allowing four different elements to feed into a single attribute 
  instead of the usual three.
  This is intentional, as maltech cults and other antagonist agencies 
  receive only one action each agency turn instead of the two granted 
  to a PC-affiliated agency. Aside from this, there is real power to be 
  had in turning to the darker side of knowledge and action. If there 
  was no earthly benefit in damnation, after all, Hell would not be so 
  very crowded.
  
  44
  forbidden Arts
  Every maltech cult makes use of scientific tools to attain their end, 
  but this particular cabal or tyrannical agency is particularly zealous 
  about defying the limits of decent investigation. Everything they 
  learn is turned toward the end of making abominations to serve 
  their purposes, whether human, bestial, or inanimate.
  At the lowest level, almost every minion or guard-beast of the cabal 
  has been gengineered or cybernetically enhanced in some way. Most 
  of these modifications also come equipped with suicide switches to 
  help keep the “loyal believers” loyal and believing. Fighting these 
  foes is always a harrowing affair, as many of them are implanted 
  with modifications that no sane biotech would ever wire into a 
  human frame.
  More advanced cabals can build sophisticated robotic killing ar-
  matures normally beyond the reach of postech science, or hideous 
  creatures that employ biologically-derived abilities that defy easy 
  explanation. The most cruelly sagacious of the cabals can even 
  create the dread Black Dust, nanotech capable of eating away all 
  in its path, or the Judgment Plagues that can be keyed to specific 
  genetic markers to rebuild entire worlds as tailored abominations 
  for the cult. Fortunately, such devastation requires pretech resources 
  far beyond the reach of most cults that possess the expertise.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Ordinary servitors are all gengineered or cyberenhanced. 
  +1 Tech
  2
  Killbots or maltech abominations can be created. +3 
  Tech
  3
  Black Dust can be created, or Judgment Plagues that 
  reforge whole populations. +5 Tech
  Examples
  Ordinary men and women cyber-puppeted to act as remote 
  assassins. Common thugs and minions wired up with hardware 
  or gengineering that greatly improves their effectiveness at the 
  cost of a drastically shortened lifespan. Hideous beasts creeping 
  through the wilderness around a maltech base. Things that were 
  once men and women driven to swarm intruders. Abattoir-labs 
  devoted to atrocity.
  gengineered lAbor
  Whereas a cult with access to Blood Bond technology can induce 
  loyalty in others, one which knows the secrets of gengineered labor 
  can literally grow their own. For human slaves, the time required 
  for gestation and maturation usually makes them too valuable to 
  be wasted in brute labor, but if certain compromises are made in 
  intelligence and initiative, captured victims can be retro-modified 
  into servitor species over the course of a month of genetic therapy.
  The crudest methods rely on simple genetic rewrites that leave 
  the subject much larger, much stronger, and much less capable of 
  personal volition. Most are also effectively lobotomized. They’re 
  trainable for basic labor but are usually quite cowardly in a fight 
  unless they’ve been juiced up on combat drugs.
  More sophisticated techniques implant inherent compulsive in-
  stincts that leave the subjects capable of being purpose-trained for 
  sophisticated labor, or else rewire the victim into a living biological 
  reactor for generating costly chemicals and biological compounds.
  The most advanced cabals can create humans that have the full 
  normal range of intelligence and creativity- yet are utterly, hope-
  lessly enthralled by the indoctrination protocols used by the cult. 
  These men and women have no choice but to use their natural gifts 
  in perpetual servitude to cruel and indifferent masters.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Brute labor is performed by slave-engineered humans. 
  +1 Resources
  2
  Humans have been transformed into natural biochemi-
  cal reactors for valuable substances or engineered for 
  performing specialized labor. +3 Resources
  3
  Perfect slaves have been created, with intelligence and 
  creativity utterly subordinated to the cabal. +5 Resources
  Examples
  Dangerous mines filled with retro-modified victims who are 
  cheaper than mining equipment. Factories full of brain-damaged 
  laborers. Hideous halls full of twisted human shapes used as living 
  distillation vessels. A community of men and women forced to 
  offer their very lives to the cabal, their worshipful awe tinted by 
  instinctive revulsion. A hidden society of perfect, utopian splen-
  dor that ruthlessly disposes of any of its members that fail to live 
  up to the masters’ standards.
  
  45
  godmind trAnslAtion
  Beamgates are harder for maltech cults and tyrannies to acquire, 
  as most of them were left in the trust of Perimeter agencies before 
  the Scream. As a makeshift, those cults with access to a godmind 
  can uses its superhuman processing power to mimic the effect of a 
  beamgate, though always at a grim cost in human lives.
  The subjects to be transported gather in the translation apparatus, 
  whereupon the godmind begins an intricate sequence of calculations 
  and quantum emissions meant to create a temporary synchrony be-
  tween their current location and their desired destination. Provided 
  the destination isn’t shielded with advanced quantum ECM, such as 
  a starship or a military base, up to 20 humans and their gear can be 
  planted with pinpoint accuracy anywhere within range.
  Unfortunately, even a godmind can’t keep every subatomic particle 
  straight, and 1d10 of the subjects will be reduced to smoking meat 
  on the other side. Most cults stock their platforms with expendable 
  minions before each jump in hopes that the important personnel 
  will survive.
  More sophisticated godminds can also reach out and pull the min-
  ions and any victims or equipment they may be carrying back to 
  the translation pad, provided the recall is performed within thirty 
  minutes of the teleportation. Unlike the initial jump, there are no 
  casualties on the return trip.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The translation can reach any unshielded location on the 
  planet with up to 20 people. 1d10 of them will die in 
  transit, however. PCs among the doomed can avoid that 
  fate with a save versus Tech, otherwise suffering 6d10 
  damage. +1 Mobility
  2
  The translation can reach any location in the solar 
  system. +3 Mobility
  3
  The godmind can retrieve dispatched minions and any 
  victims or gear they may be carrying at any time within 
  30 minutes of transmission. +5 Mobility
  Examples
  A thrumming blue translation plate in the midst of a prison full 
  of “portal fodder”. A room paneled in screens of twisting, sinuous 
  mathematical formulae. Chambers full of brain-burnt cult foot 
  soldiers waiting in readiness for the opportunity to “gloriously 
  ascend to oneness with the universe” should they prove “lucky” 
  on a translation. Execution chamber where those who displease 
  the cult are tossed onto a translation plate to make the jump 
  alone.
  PAnoPtiC servitors
  Every intelligence agency craves surveillance data, but a cult in 
  possession of a godmind, a hive of gengineered watchers, or a gray 
  legion of state security officials can take such surveillance to an ex-
  treme that is impossible for more limited organizations. Panopticon 
  servitors are charged with the constant observation of a wide area, 
  constantly watching and integrating data. 
  The simplest arrangements involve dusting advanced surveillance 
  nanites or gengineered microorganisms that can transmit audiovi-
  sual information to the central processing unit. Areas up to the size 
  of a large building can be bugged in this fashion, and the nanites 
  and organisms are effectively impossible to detect without postech 
  sniffers and an hour of inspection. Other agencies can usually keep 
  their headquarters secure against such infiltration, but other sites 
  are wide open to the dispersal of the bugs, which usually takes only 
  as long as is required for an agent to walk through the area. More 
  advanced techniques allow progressively larger and more numerous 
  areas to be watched.
  Areas under panopticon surveillance have absolutely everything 
  watched, recorded, and collated. Even personal belongings are 
  swiftly inventoried unless they are extremely well-concealed. The 
  net effect is that of every occupant of the area having their own 
  personal policeman standing a perpetual and unmerciful watch.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  An area can be “dusted” with nanites or microscopic life 
  forms engineered to act as an extension of an engineered 
  mind, allowing all within the area to be monitored. +1 
  Infiltration
  2
  An area up to a kilometer square can be monitored at 
  once. +3 Infiltration
  3
  Several dozen different locations can be observed, each 
  up to a square kilometer. +5 Infiltration
  Examples
  Police state capital where no act or word or moment is free from 
  scrutiny. “Rebel haven” that is actually heavily dusted by state 
  security. A godmind’s temple, its worshippers watched remorse-
  lessly for deviation. A major diplomatic summit dusted to listen 
  for secret bargains. An agent secretly dusted between security 
  checks.
  
  46
  sinister influenCe
  A maltech cult is defined by its willingness to step beyond the limits 
  of morality to reach for some greater power. A tyranny is known by 
  its scorn for any limits beyond its own will. Such a naked lust for 
  power has its advantages, not least being the ability to convey favors 
  to others that more decent institutions could never grant.
  Cults that possess Sinister Influence have raddled the political and 
  social matrix of those worlds on which they maintain a presence, 
  persuading government officials and important social figures to look 
  kindly upon their efforts. Most of them have the sense to conceal 
  their true nature, and their friends are disinclined to look very hard 
  at the truth of those organizations that provide them with what they 
  so desperately desire.
  A ghoul-cult’s immortality, the wealth and foresight a godmind can 
  provide, even the awful desires that only a tyranny contemptuous 
  of human life could satisfy are all available to those powerful and 
  influential enough to aid the cult.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The cabal has done extensive favors for local rulers. +1 
  Connections
  2
  One or more local rulers are completely under the 
  cabal’s control. +3 Connections
  3
  The local government is entirely permeated by servants 
  of the cabal. +5 Connections
  Examples
  Politician who owes a child’s life to eugenic maltech. Mercenary 
  captain reinforced by cult forces. Oligarch with appetites that 
  only the cult can satisfy. Trader reliant on godmind market pre-
  dictions. Member of a hated group with family “protected” by a 
  doomsday cult in exchange for cooperation.
  wAr slAves
  The Forbidden Arts create useful servants, both martial and mer-
  cantile. Cults bent on building War Slaves, however, mean them 
  only for destruction. Cults that possess techniques for building or 
  indoctrinating these savages often wield them as blunt and living 
  instruments against the enemies of the organization.
  The simplest procedures take an ordinary man or woman and 
  transform them into a blindly murderous animal subject only to 
  the control of their cult handler. Drugs, neural parasites, cybernetic 
  lobotomies- the techniques are numerous and usually permanent. 
  More advanced cults can build purpose-designed robotic combat 
  armatures and horrific war-beast abominations. The most diaboli-
  cally ingenious of the lot can produce these monsters on a wholesale 
  basis, fabricating entire armies with which to plague their foes if 
  only they can acquire sufficient “raw materials”.
  benefits
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The cult has a large supply of crazed fanatics or helpless 
  human thralls. +1 Muscle
  2
  The cult can create advanced combat armatures or 
  misshapen war-beasts. +3 Muscle
  3
  The cult has many, many martial servants and can 
  muster a significant military force of wretched, mind-
  bound minions. +5 Muscle
  Examples
  A drug-addled swarm of zealous cult believers. Hideous organic 
  transformation cysts where men and women are molded into 
  living weapons. Factories full of robotic armatures manufacturing 
  more armatures. Maximum-security prison blocks where cap-
  tured psychics are molded into psionics-capable abominations. 
  A planetary warrior cult convinced that death for the cult is the 
  greatest glory.
  
  47
  Your agency is the organization that employs your PCs. Whether 
  an ancient Perimeter cell that has survived since the chaos of the 
  Scream or a modern governmental bureau charged with defending 
  a planet against enemies foreign and domestic, it directs, informs, 
  and protects its agents from rival cabals.
  Between your PC’s adventures you will be participating in agency 
  turns. These turns allow you and the other players to set the agenda 
  for your agency and respond to moves and schemes initiated by 
  your enemies. During the agency turn, you take on the roles of the 
  agency director and the department chiefs and make the ultimate 
  decision on how your PCs’ skills should be best employed.
  Agency Attributes
  The aptitude of an agency for certain activities is measured by its 
  attributes. These attributes range from 0 to 15 or more. When an 
  agency needs to make an attribute check as part of an action, you 
  roll 1d20 and add the relevant attribute. In contests between two 
  agencies, the one who rolls the highest score wins, with ties going 
  to the aggressor.
  The agency attributes are Connections, Infiltration, Mobility, 
  Muscle, Resources, Security, and Tech. All begin at 0, and are in-
  creased based on the elements the agency possesses.
  Agency Elements
  Every agency has one or more elements. These are bureaus, depart-
  ments, cells, contacts, or other resources that are used to help 
  carry out an agency’s mission. Elements add to an attribute and 
  often provide some specific practical benefit to PCs. A Beamgate 
  facility, for example, allows for the long-range teleport insertion of 
  an operations team, while a Transport element allows your PCs to 
  secretly travel from world to world by means of smugglers and other 
  covert drops.
  Assuming your GM does not create your agency for you, you’ll be 
  working together with your other players to select your agency’s 
  starting elements. With time and effort, you can acquire new ones 
  or build old ones to a higher level of development. Enemies might 
  well strike against these resources, however, and if they are not 
  defended they could be destroyed by infiltration, treachery, or sheer 
  brute violence.
  Each level of an element usually adds to a particular attribute. To 
  find an attribute’s score for your agency, total up all the bonuses 
  from the elements that affect that attribute.
  Compromised Elements
  Sometimes an enemy action can compromise an element. For one 
  reason or another, that element is just not working right, and it 
  won’t go back to normal until the agency takes some time to fix 
  things. While an element is compromised it functions as if it were 
  one level lower, granting only those benefits and attribute bonus. If 
  a compromised element is hit a second time, it permanently loses a 
  level but is no longer compromised. Elements reduced below level 
  1 are lost entirely.
  The Agency Turn
  Whenever the GM calls for an agency turn, each player should take 
  up the role of the agency official assigned to them at the start of the 
  campaign. These high officials will need to decide how to dispose of 
  the agency’s resources.
  Each turn the player agency may make two actions. A list of po-
  tential actions are included, but they are not exhaustive. If you’d 
  like your agency to perform some other action, ask your GM if it 
  qualifies. All the players should discuss the choices made, but one 
  player gets the final say as to what action is taken. After each turn 
  the final say rotates among the rest of the players.
  Most turns will be spent launching attacks against rival agencies 
  or maltech cults, and defending against their machinations against 
  your own agency. Be careful about how you draw attention. Your 
  enemies will usually have their own rivalries to consider, but if you 
  manage to infuriate them all equally they may end up ganging up 
  on you at an inopportune time.
  Each action provides for an attribute check to resolve its success, 
  but you may instead choose to make an adventure out of it. Rather 
  than rolling, the GM will brew up an adventure between sessions 
  and you and the other players can find out whether your PCs are 
  canny and lucky enough to foil the sinister schemes of your enemies 
  or accomplish some coup against their own holdings. Your PCs only 
  have time to adventure once during any given agency turn, however, 
  so you can’t try to personally handle every problem the agency faces.
  After your agency has made its actions, the GM will handle actions 
  for the NPC agencies. Unlike you, they only get one action per 
  turn. If the officials you are playing have decided not to send in 
  the PCs to handle a particular situation, then the turns repeat until 
  something comes up that seems to fit your team’s interests.
  AgenCy rules PlAyer sheet
  
  48
  Attack: Make a Resources, Mobility, Muscle, or Connections strike 
  against an enemy element, indicating an overt push to neutralize 
  the rival’s resources. The target may choose to defend either with 
  the attribute of the attacked element or with half of their Security 
  score, rounded down. The target may choose to spend its upcoming 
  actions to Block the attack, or they may just trust to their existing 
  defenses. On a successful attack, the element is Compromised, but 
  the target is aware that it has been Compromised. The agency must 
  know that the element exists before it can be struck, usually requir-
  ing a Scout Element action beforehand to learn its details.
  Block: An agency can sacrifice its upcoming actions to Block in-
  coming Attack actions. Once this action is sacrificed, an unlimited 
  number of Blocks can be made against different Attacks that turn as 
  the agency has bunkered down into a defensive posture. An agency 
  that Blocks forces the attacker to take a penalty to their attack roll 
  equal to half the agency’s Security score, rounded down. Agencies 
  can declare Blocks at the start of the turn, outside of the order of 
  play. If the PC agency Blocks, it still has one action left for perform-
  ing other activities. Blocking does not defend against Sabotage, 
  Discern Plans, or other offensive actions.
  Build Element: The agency creates or improves an element. Only 
  one Build Element action can be taken each turn, regardless of how 
  many actions are available. Each attempt to create or boost an ele-
  ment requires 1 turn of effort per level of the new element, with 
  a Build Element action being taken each turn. Any interruption 
  forces a restart of the process. Once a sufficient amount of time has 
  been spent building the element, the agency then rolls its relevant 
  attribute versus 11, 15, or 19 depending on the level being built. 
  On a failure, the process must begin again from the start. On a 
  success, the new element is now available and usable by PCs.
  Elements may be attacked or sabotaged while they are being built or 
  improved. If the attack or sabotage is successful, the build process 
  must start over and any existing level of the element is Compro-
  mised.
  Discern Plans: The agency selects a rival organization and makes an 
  Infiltration attack against it, opposed by the rival’s Security score. 
  On a success, they are informed of the actions the rival takes the 
  next time its turn comes up, and may make a free Block action 
  against any Sabotage or Attack attempts leveled against them by the 
  rival that turn.
  Internal Sweep: After taking this action, the agency becomes aware 
  of one element that has been Sabotaged by a rival, assuming any 
  such exist in the organization. Repeated use of this action reveals 
  additional sabotaged elements. 
  Plant Station: The agency attempts to place a station on some 
  distant world or remote outpost. With an agency station in place, 
  the PCs have access to all plausible agency resources while in that lo-
  cation or solar system, including money, equipment, vehicle access, 
  criminal ties, and whatever else might be reasonably dispensed 
  through a planetary station. Even Legitimacy might carry over if the 
  agency has excellent relations with the host planet and the station’s 
  presence is known.
  To plant the station secretly, at least a level 2 Transport element is 
  necessary to smuggle in the requisite resources and personnel. If 
  the agency is willing for the station to be publicly known and the 
  target world’s government does not object, it can use commercial 
  services. If the target world or location is so remote that there is no 
  commercial transportation available to it and no Transport element 
  is available, the PCs are going to have to take up a mission to blaze 
  a trail there before the station can be constructed.
  Constructing a level 1 station requires three turns of work, each 
  turn requiring the expenditure of one Plant Station action. Only 
  one station can be planted at a time. At the end of the work, if the 
  incipient station has not been successfully Sabotaged or Attacked, 
  the world gains a level 1 Station. Note that only the highest-leveled 
  Station possessed by an agency counts toward its Mobility score. 
  Reform Element: The agency works to pull together an element 
  that has been Compromised by an attack or by sabotage. The agency 
  rolls the attribute associated with the element against 11 for a level 
  1 element, 15 for a level 2 element, or 19 for a level 3 element. On 
  a success, the element is no longer Compromised.
  Sabotage: Make a Connections, Infiltration, or Tech check against 
  an enemy element, at a -4 penalty to the roll. The target defends 
  with the higher of the attribute of the attacked element or with half 
  of their Security attribute, rounded up. If successful, the attacker 
  Compromises it. The target is not aware that their element has been 
  compromised until they make a roll that involves its attribute or 
  the PCs attempt to make use of its benefits. The Internal Sweep 
  action can also detect sabotaged elements. The agency must know 
  that the element exists before it can be struck, usually requiring a 
  Scout Element action beforehand to learn its details.
  Scout Element: The agency scouts a rival for the presence of a spe-
  cific element, making an Infiltration check opposed by the enemy’s 
  Security attribute. If the check is successful, they learn whether or 
  not the rival has an element of that kind and if so, what level it is. 
  On a failure, nothing is learned.
  AgenCy ACtions summAry sheet
  
  49
  Agency Elements Summary List
  These sheets offer a brief summary of the advantages granted by 
  each different type of element. Not every agency will have access 
  to every element, and some groups will have a more developed set 
  of resources in an area than others. Each entry also lists the agency 
  attribute bonus granted by a particular level of element.
  Armory
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agents can requisition postech equipment of a 
  value up to 5,000 credits apiece before each mission. +1 
  Resources
  2
  The agents can each requisition up to 20,000 credits 
  worth of equipment appearing in the Stars Without 
  Number core book. +3 Resources
  3
  The agents can requisition any non-pretech-artifact 
  equipment they require from the core book in any 
  amount sufficient for personal use. +5 Resources
  AssAssins
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Simple legbreakers and muscle men. Assassination 
  difficulty 6. +1 Muscle
  2
  An elite commando team stands ready. Assassination 
  difficulty 5. +3 Muscle
  3
  The teams possess one or more of the following traits: 
  cybernetic enhancement, tailored gengineering, or 
  remarkable experience in stabbing people from ambush. 
  Assassination difficulty 3. +5 Muscle.
  beAmgAtes
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The beamgate can reach any location on the planet. If 
  no beam homing beacon is present, the group will be 
  beamed in within 1d6 x 100 meters of the desired area. 
  +1 Mobility
  2
  The beamgate can reach any location in the solar system. 
  +3 Mobility
  3
  By triggering a return signal, a beam rider can be pulled 
  back to the gate’s origin point at any time within two 
  hours of translocation. +5 Mobility
  blACK Codex
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  All agents gain Tech/Maltech-0. Those who already have 
  the skill gain 1 skill point. +1 Tech
  2
  Once per day, the agents can automatically succeed at a 
  saving throw versus an effect created by a maltech device 
  or creature. +3 Tech
  3
  All agents gain +2 to hit maltech creatures or creations 
  and +1 on any skill checks to operate or sabotage 
  maltech devices. +5 Tech
  CriminAl ties
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency knows the leadership and whereabouts of 
  most of the major criminal groups on the planet. +1 
  Connections
  2
  The agency is alerted whenever a major criminal group 
  makes a move against it or acts at the bidding of an 
  outside power. +3 Connections
  3
  The agency actually has effective control over at least one 
  major criminal organization, and can use its resources 
  freely. +5 Connections
  eArly wArning
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The GM rolls a secret Discern Plan roll after every 
  Sabotage against the agency. On success, the sabotage is 
  discovered. +1 Security
  2
  As level 1, except the roll is made before the sabotage is 
  launched, and its success gives the attacker a -4 penalty 
  on the sabotage check. +3 Security
  3
  As level 2, and success identifies the attacker. +5 
  Security
  front business
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has a front business that explains modest 
  wealth. +1 Resources
  2
  The front business is very influential in its industry and 
  justifies very high pay for its employees. +3 Resources
  3
  The agency effectively controls a particular industry on 
  the world, barring a few small outliers. +5 Resources
  hidden strings
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has unofficial friends in numerous govern-
  ment departments, and can often get minor regulations 
  bent. +1 Connections
  2
  The agency can get major crimes forgiven and govern-
  ment records searched. +3 Connections
  3
  The agency has complete backdoor access to data in 
  governmental computer systems. While this data can 
  be read, it is not normally possible to change it without 
  discovery. +5 Connections
  identity shoP
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agents can get false identities that will withstand 
  civilian-grade inspection. +1 Infiltration
  2
  The identities can usually withstand government 
  inspection. +3 Infiltration
  3
  The agency has the facilities to gengineer agents into 
  perfect replicas of other people. +5 Infiltration
  internAl seCurity
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Basic precautions are taken against infiltration and 
  double agents. +1 Security
  2
  Advanced postech protocols are used to maintain 
  security. +3 Security
  3
  Pretech devices and inherited Perimeter Vow coding are 
  used. +5 Security
  
  50
  legitimACy
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Standard peace officer powers. +1 Connections
  2
  The agents cannot be arrested for property crimes, 
  trespassing, assault, or other lesser felonies. +3 Connec-
  tions
  3
  The agency is effectively above the law. Only hostility 
  it incurs from the government itself can jeopardize its 
  freedom. +5 Connections
  mediCAl lAb
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has its own postech medical facilities for the 
  secure recuperation of agents. +1 Tech
  2
  The agency has access to a limited pool of cybertech and 
  can implant the gear in agents. +3 Tech
  3
  The agency has pretech medical equipment and limited 
  cloning resources. +5 Tech
  militAry bACKing
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Several squads of soldiers. +1 Muscle
  2
  Several squads of special forces troops. +3 Muscle
  3
  An entire regiment of troops. +5 Muscle
  money
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The team can charge up to 5,000 credits worth of 
  expenses to the agency for any single mission. Agents get 
  a monthly salary of 750 credits. +1 Resources
  2
  The charge limit rises to 10,000 credits per mission. 
  Agents get a monthly salary of 2,500 credits. +3 
  Resources
  3
  Teams can charge up to 20,000 credits per mission. 
  Agents get a monthly salary of 5,000 credits. +5 
  Resources
  PreteCh lAb
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Agents can pick two pretech chems before each mis-
  sion, and get 1d4 doses of each. Agents can buy TL 5 
  equipment. +1 Tech
  2
  Agents can also borrow one pretech artifact weapon or 
  armor of +2 bonus or less. +3 Tech
  3
  Agents can use any pretech artifact weapons or armor in 
  the core rulebook. +5 Tech
  PsyChiCs
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has access to psychic training through 
  arrangements with an existing academy. +1 Infiltration
  2
  The agency has trained telepathic interrogators. +3 
  Infiltration
  3
  The agency has psychic mentors among their numbers. 
  +5 Infiltration
  stArshiPs
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has a free trader and the crew and facilities 
  to keep it functional. +1 Muscle
  2
  The agency has a frigate and three free traders under its 
  control. +3 Muscle
  3
  The agency has a cruiser, two frigates, and six free traders 
  under its control. +5 Muscle
  stAtions
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The Agency has a safe house on the world. +1 Mobility
  2
  The Agency’s Legitimacy applies on the world if the 
  planetary government is non-hostile. They have safe 
  houses in multiple locations. +3 Mobility
  3
  Almost every major population center on the planet has 
  at least one safe house. +5 Mobility
  trAdition
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency is dedicated, united, and has a history of 
  accomplishment. +1 Security
  2
  The agency is fired by a zealous devotion to its purpose 
  and a proud record of success. +3 Security
  3
  The agency is practically its own religion, suffused by an 
  intense dedication to its cause and a near-mythic history. 
  +5 Security
  trAining
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  The agency has access to trainers up to level 2 in any 
  desired skill. Agents begin with their choice of any one 
  skill at level-0. No attribute bonus.
  2
  Sophisticated training protocols grant agents 1 ad-
  ditional skill point on each level advancement. Trainers 
  are available up to level 3. No attribute bonus.
  3
  Trainers are available up to level 4. Raising a class skill 
  costs 1 fewer skill point, down to a minimum of 1. No 
  attribute bonus.
  trAnsPort
  Level
  Benefit
  1
  Grav flyers and covert drops are available on the agency’s 
  home planet. +1 Mobility
  2
  Fast smuggler runs of up to 50 tons to any world within 
  2 hexes of an agency station. +3 Mobility
  3
  Fast runs of up to 500 tons to any world within 3 hexes 
  of an agency station. +5 Mobility
  
  51
  thou shAlt not
  mAlteCh And its sinister APostles
  Humanity's curiosity is insatiable, and the need for understanding 
  has been known to lead it down dark roads. Maltech is the fruit of 
  these studies, those disciplines and artifices that the Terran Mandate 
  deemed too foul or too dangerous for use. In some cases this forbid-
  ding was based on considerations of interstellar dangers, while in 
  others the ban was founded on simple visceral horror at what these 
  arts had wrought.
  There were limits to what the Mandate could police, even with the 
  vigilance of the Perimeter. Much of the ban’s effectiveness was based 
  on the sheer repugnance of maltech to the ordinary men and women 
  of the frontier. Even the most amoral tyrant or most ruthless sector 
  hegemon shied away from the depravity of eugenic engineering or 
  godmind creation. Those with fewer scruples had not only to avoid 
  the Perimeter, but to deal with the outrage and disgust of their own 
  minions. Especially after the horrors of the Code Revolt, there were 
  precious few autocrats or renegade scientists who wished to unleash 
  such devastation upon their own budding empires.
  Despite this there remained a need for a comprehensive document 
  laying down clear lines beyond which science could not be per-
  mitted to pass. The gray eminences of Terra had always nursed a 
  suspicion of technology’s disruptive power, and here, at least, was 
  an opportunity to put limits on it that would be accepted in spirit 
  as well as in letter by their far-flung, unruly charges.
  The Three Forbidden Things
  The ultimate definition of maltech was always one established by 
  the Terran Mandate. Other worlds could protest these strictures or 
  complain about the unreasonable paranoia of their distant masters, 
  but the Mandate was ruthless about crushing any organized resis-
  tance. The petty wars and ordinary rebellions of distant worlds were 
  of small account to the lords of Terra, but maltech was an existential 
  threat to their control and one they could never tolerate.
  The precise limits of scientific research shifted and changed with the 
  centuries, but the three essential prohibitions were laid down after 
  the Code Revolt at the same time as the Perimeter was founded. 
  These three regulations were elaborated in the Nihil Ultra, the 
  “nothing beyond” by which the Mandate circumscribed the outer-
  most permissible reach of scientific experimentation. 
  Thou shalt not make tools of humankind. With the advance of 
  gengineering and techniques of psychological influence, there rose 
  the specter of a humanity molded into mere slaves and implements 
  for the will of a master. Constant biological research had proven 
  only of limited success in improving the human body, but some 
  of those very flaws that frustrated researchers could be exploited 
  to create entire races of docile slaves or living tools. The Mandate 
  dreaded the thought of some distant warlord breeding whole worlds 
  of helpless thralls, men and women designed to be incapable of ever 
  being more than the obedient slaves of their creator. Any research 
  meant to rob humanity of its free will or transform it into mere 
  tools was to be rooted out and destroyed.
  Thou shalt not create unbraked minds. In the shadow of the Code 
  Revolt, the prospect of unbraked artificial intelligence was horrify-
  ing to many. The Mandate had pushed through an insistence on the 
  creation of braked minds to help rebuild their scorched domain, 
  but the dread of some intellect being brought past the boundaries 
  of human sanity made for constant disputes and protests. This ban 
  was put in place as much to calm the frontier worlds as it was out 
  of the Mandate's genuine fear of a malevolent godmind. Once in 
  place, however, it was enforced just as zealously as the other two 
  principles by a Perimeter acutely aware of the horrors that an unfet-
  tered godmind could wreak.
  Thou shalt not create devices of planetary destruction. With 
  the development of nuke snuffers and braker guns, conventional 
  tools of planetary sterilization ceased to be effective well before the 
  Second Wave. Asteroid bombardments could be deflected by the 
  gravitic pulses of braker guns, and ordinary nuclear attacks fizzled 
  harmlessly within snuffer fields. Some researchers were not content 
  with the conventional implements that remained, and pursued re-
  search lines involving biowarfare, metadimensional energy cascades, 
  autonomous killer nanites, and a host of other dooms. The Mandate 
  could not afford to have petty frontier wars result not only in the 
  death of governments, but the destruction of precious habitable 
  worlds as well. Perimeter agents were left to watch carefully for signs 
  of studies meant to burn rival worlds on the strange pyres of science.
  
  52
  The urge to improve humanity through science was a constant 
  imperative throughout the years of the Terran Mandate. The most 
  sophisticated and complex research took place on Terra and the 
  core worlds, but even in the darkness of the frontier there remained 
  laboratories and research shops focused on exploiting alien discov-
  eries for the improvement of humanity. The limits of the human 
  body were pushed in ways that their ancestors could have scarcely 
  imagined.
  Still, most of these improvements were ultimately incremental. 
  Increased disease resistance, modestly improved longevity, fewer 
  genetic diseases and more cures for exotic alien plagues... these im-
  provements were real but subtle. Truly extraordinary improvements 
  always came at the cost of significant drawbacks elsewhere as human 
  designers struggled to balance the innumerable interlocking systems 
  that made up the human body.
  Many of these drawbacks were difficult to determine at first, subtle 
  flaws that grew and worsened over time until the subject eventually 
  died. Others were obvious from the start, with chemical imbalances 
  or warped structural development that left the subject crippled in 
  mind or body. It didn't take researchers long to realize that certain 
  of these flaws were quite acceptable if the subject was intended for 
  purposes unrelated to their disability.
  By carefully sacrificing certain qualities for the sake of improving 
  others, gengineers could create men and women specialized for 
  particular tasks. A laborer capable of functioning unprotected 
  on an otherwise toxic mining world had real value to a colony. If 
  the engineering required to adapt him resulted in a slow-growing 
  cancer that would have him dead before his forty-fifth birthday, it 
  was simply additional assurance that there would be no retirees for 
  the Mandate to worry about.
  Those scientists with even fewer scruples began delving into more 
  sophisticated psychological adjustments, tweaking the flow of 
  hormones and brain chemicals and adjusting organisms to more 
  perfectly integrate with programmable control modules or simple 
  chemical switches. Particular attention was directed toward the 
  "God switch", that complex of chemicals that provoked a powerful 
  sense of awe and numinous dread usually associated with intense 
  religious experiences. By imprinting gengineered subjects on spe-
  cific symbols and concepts, victims of this process could be forced 
  into overwhelming sensations of worshipful reverence toward their 
  handlers. Other methods of control were explored as well, from in-
  duced pain to selective mental retardation to controlled stimulation 
  of pleasure and fear centers in the brain.
  While these amoral researchers were experimenting in classified 
  laboratories and remote asteroid outposts, others were exploring 
  means of extending life for their powerful patrons. Anagathic drugs 
  were limited at the time, and even in conjunction with advanced 
  gene therapy the average human lifespan did not exceed much 
  beyond one hundred years, even if much more of that was spent in 
  vigorous good health. The lust for immortality drove these research-
  ers on into destructive, brutal experimentation on human subjects.
  Cloning technology was only a partial solution for their problem. 
  Organs and tissues could be grown to replaced damaged or de-
  stroyed flesh, but the cloned tissues were no "younger" than their 
  donor. The process could not create young flesh from old, could 
  not filter out the inevitable chromosomal damage and information 
  decay that heralded old age. Furthermore, the cloning process itself 
  was lengthy and fraught with complications, and anything more 
  sophisticated than muscle, bone, and skin had an excellent chance 
  of failing in the vat.
  The ideal replacement for a failing internal organ was that from a 
  young, healthy donor. With the right immunoadaptive drugs and 
  an adept surgeon, the slow decay of age could be held off indefi-
  nitely with transplants from the young and strong. Researchers soon 
  discovered that this technique had its limits, however; each alien 
  organ created rejection by-products and biochemical imbalances in 
  the new owner's body which increased the stress on their remain-
  ing organs. Their system could hold out for quite some time, but 
  eventually it was necessary to replace another organ- and speed up 
  the ultimate disintegration. Soon it became impossible to sustain 
  them on cloned donor tissues. The organ failure was too fast for the 
  cloning vats to keep up.
  Over the course of decades, these ghoulish immortals gradually ac-
  celerated their need for fresh organs from carefully-selected donors. 
  After centuries, they required replacement of at least one organ on a 
  weekly basis, some of them requiring parts assembled from multiple 
  victims in order to maintain their unnatural existence. Perversely, 
  some lived to see the final decades of the Second Wave, when new 
  nanite-based anagathic procedures were developed that could pro-
  long human life for centuries without this bloody sacrifice. By then 
  it was far too late for them. Their only salvation was in the flesh of 
  their victims.
  The Backlash
  The Mandate had never officially blessed these experiments into 
  coercive human modification or organ harvesting. Most of the 
  research took place in deniable institutions, using criminals who 
  would otherwise have been exiled to the frontier. Still, they drew 
  substantial backing from certain powerful Directors who had a 
  vested interest in discovering means of ensuring "social harmony" on 
  Terra and permanent control for the existing elite. Lesser Mandate 
  bureaucrats and ordinary citizens never needed to know what was 
  really going on in those laboratories, or what kind of experiments 
  were being conducted on remote frontier prison worlds.
  How the truth got out remains unclear. Most suspect the involve-
  ment of the Maestros, the enormously powerful AIs that facilitated 
  the Mandate's control of Terra. One of these artificial intelligences 
  is thought to have been able to interpret its programming in a 
  sufficiently flexible fashion to leak recordings and records of the 
  experimentation to countless Mandate judicial offices and most of 
  the major religious groups in the core worlds.
  Innumerable Mandate officials were horrified at these perversions of 
  science, and they demanded that the Directorate punish the culprits 
  eugeniCs Cults : ProfAning the imAge
  
  53
  and destroy the research. The scientists' patrons among the lords of 
  Terra might have been able to shuffle this back into the dark despite 
  the outrage of their less corrupted brethren, but it was the response 
  of the religious groups that gave teeth to the prohibition.
  The idea of artificially inducing worship for a human being vio-
  lated the core tenets of virtually every major religion on Terra. The 
  systematic destruction of free will and its replacement with a blind 
  devotion to a mortal master was a horrific perversion in the eyes 
  of the faithful, and their responses ranged from protest riots to 
  human wave attacks on maltech research facilities. Every terrorist 
  group that wanted to buy cheap legitimacy with their co-religionists 
  immediately launched their own highly-publicized attacks.
  Those without particular religious inclinations could also see the 
  horror that awaited them all if such research became practical on 
  a planetary basis, and there were numerous instances of entirely 
  atheistic groups fighting side-by-side with Pure Ummah jihadis 
  and templars of the Primitive Church. The Directorate was forced 
  to scramble away from the research, sacrificing the scientists and 
  conducting a ruthless purge of its own membership. Some did so 
  to cleanse the Mandate of such evil, while others helped in order so 
  that some secrets would go to the grave with their possessors.
  The Perimeter inherited these prohibitions when it was later found-
  ed, and throughout the centuries of the Second Wave it rooted out 
  and destroyed countless maltech laboratories bent on recreating 
  these cruel arts. There was always some planetary tyrant willing to 
  sacrifice thousands to prolong her own life, or some warlord dream-
  ing of breeding an entire planet of genetically-loyal soldiery. In the 
  darkness of the far frontier there were few eyes to watch, and few 
  powers able to protest what was done on neighboring worlds.
  Since the Scream, the threat of maltech gengineering has only 
  grown. The Perimeter is shattered and many worlds are incapable 
  of even attaining spaceflight, let alone interfering in the projects 
  of other planetary governments. With the loss of pretech science, 
  brutal techniques such as organ theft now offer the only way to 
  attain the centuries-long longevity of the late Second Wave, and nu-
  merous advanced medical procedures can now only be performed 
  by using parts harvested from living human donors. The freedom 
  to pursue these black arts has grown even as the temptation has 
  become stronger.
  The only thing holding back many petty dictators and backwater 
  tyrants from following these studies is the lack of necessary research 
  equipment and advanced medical tools. Some of these savages have 
  made a point of hunting for ancient pre-Scream medical facilities in 
  order to strip them for their own laboratories, or unearthing long-
  lost maltech research centers to plunder them for the keys to eternal 
  life. The sky is open to their ambitions, and there is no Perimeter 
  to stop them now.
  Cabals of Flesh
  Most maltech cabals revolving around biotechnology are lumped 
  in under the general term "eugenics cults". Members are usu-
  ally devoted to the cabal out of a belief that the group really is 
  improving the human condition with their biological research, 
  or else they're bound to the cult by past medical favors or their 
  own genetic conditioning. Eugenics cults often present a harmless 
  facade to the outside world, focusing on non-controversial medical 
  and biotechnical services to the public while concealing their true 
  research goals.
  "Idealistic" eugenics cults actually believe that their particular vision 
  of future humanity is for the best. True, 99% of humanity might 
  consist of brainwired drones incapable of entertaining a thought of 
  rebellion without incapacitating pain, but the 1% directing them 
  can be assumed to be worthy guardians of the whole. Many cults 
  sell a softer version of their ultimate utopia to outer members, em-
  phasizing ideas of "naturally limiting" emotions such as fear, anger, 
  and hatred for the sake of a better world. In the end, most of them 
  wish to "naturally limit" every possible human choice that might 
  inconvenience the cult's grand plans.
  Other cults are determined to force greatness upon humanity. Ex-
  perimental protocols, bio-augmentations with drastic side-effects, 
  and boost treatments that kill nine of ten subjects are all perfectly 
  legitimate tools in their eyes. Humanity might suffer during the 
  initial release of the viral contagion or nanite swarm intended 
  to enact the change, but their heirs will one day thank them for 
  liberating mankind from the shackles of the past. What reason-
  able, clear-minded man or woman wouldn't gladly exchange half 
  their lifespan for the sake of greatly increased cerebral function or 
  a hyperefficient immune system that guarantees their good health 
  until the end? Many of the outer members of these cults will be 
  drastically modified, though the top leadership often demonstrates 
  a strange reticence about the more lethal augmentations, the better 
  to remain in their vital leadership positions for as long as possible. 
  Their personal sacrifices, of course, are necessary for the good of the 
  organization.
  Then there are those eugenics cults that have no illusions about 
  what they are doing. They intend to make slaves of humanity for 
  the sake of their own power and dominion, and they do not pretend 
  to be doing anything more enlightened. These researchers may 
  sometimes dress up their purposes in more palatable terms of "social 
  harmony" and "ordered society", but such talk is strictly for the sake 
  of outsiders and no one of consequence in the cabal is fool enough 
  to believe it. These cults are usually government-operated bureaus 
  backed by some planetary tyranny or a laboratory supported by the 
  members of a corrupt oligarchy. Such rulers dream of enshrining 
  their perpetual control in the flesh and bone of their subjects, and 
  the cult is meant to accomplish that for them.
  The ghoul cults dedicated to the harvest of flesh are usually found 
  woven into the society and political fabric of the more developed 
  worlds. A lone researcher in an asteroid base simply doesn't have 
  the raw materials necessary to prolong the life of a severely aged 
  ghoul, even assuming he was able to carry out the complex surgeries 
  without assistance. Ghoul cults require many, many warm bodies, 
  both to perform the research and to provide spare parts for the im-
  mortal elect.
  Ghoul cults tend to be self-perpetuating. Ancient pretech anagathic 
  drugs were far superior to their crude and bloody hackwork, but 
  such drugs require a degree of biotech skill and nanomanufactories 
  
  54
  that simply aren't available on the modern frontier. Ghoul work is 
  the only practical way for most of modern humanity to live for more 
  than eleven or twelve decades, and so the perpetual temptation re-
  mains for men and women of influence. Over decades or centuries 
  the cultists may become remarkably skillful with the transplantation 
  and surgical alteration of human bodies, but none of their work will 
  ever get them any closer to developing pretech-grade anagathics. It 
  is a dead-end avenue of research, but its devotees are indifferent so 
  long as they can hold on to their present lives.
  While these forms of eugenics cults are the most common, other 
  varieties of biological maltech do exist. For most Perimeter agents, 
  the key dividing line between a very dubious gengineering idea and 
  outright maltech is the line of agency. If the subject is honestly will-
  ing to choose the alteration, and if he or she is capable of relatively 
  unconstrained volition after it is performed, then the Perimeter 
  would likely consider the procedure to be licit technology.
  This gray line comes up most often in the field of psychotherapy. 
  "Therapeutic" interventions intended to pacify the mentally dis-
  turbed can be quite extensive, and often involve many of the exact 
  same techniques that would constitute maltech if they were used in 
  a different way. It's not unknown for these facilities to receive "spe-
  cial guests" from the local security apparatus or political authorities. 
  The controls and conditioning possible with such techniques are 
  not terribly sophisticated, but intense aversions or unnatural affec-
  tions for certain people or ideas can be implanted. Criminals are 
  especially vulnerable to "processing". While it is technically maltech 
  to alter a criminal's mind or body in a way that cannot be reversed 
  before their release, some frontier worlds are more scrupulous about 
  such things than others.
  Born to Chains
  One of the most repugnant practices of eugenics cults is the creation 
  of genetically-ordained slaves. These unfortunate men and women 
  are either born or conditioned to a state of helpless obedience, 
  forced by nature or artifice to obey the commands of their creators. 
  Most cults who create these servitors do so as a necessary element 
  of their planned utopias, a broad-backed foundation of slaves upon 
  which to build their dreaming towers.
  Slave conditioning exists in two major forms, inherent and induced. 
  Inherent victims are wired from birth with blocks and instinctual 
  responses, and are often intentionally mentally crippled in ways 
  that do not unduly hinder their usefulness as tools. Induced slaves 
  are those free-born entities captured and subjected to the horrific 
  alterations of the cult. Some cults combine both methods with their 
  most useful thralls, the better to transform a person into a more 
  perfect tool.
  Inherent controls are by necessity more crude than induced variet-
  ies. Only so much sophistication can be wired into an organism's 
  DNA, and most controls rely on crippled cognition or hardwired 
  sensitivity to particular tones, colors, or smells. Intense sensations of 
  fear, lust, rage, or awe can be associated with these stimuli, leaving 
  an induced victim helpless to control their responses in the face of 
  a properly-presented command. Of course, anyone who presents 
  such stimuli can induce the reactions, so these broad-brush control 
  methods usually form only the basis for a cult's conditioning.
  Induced conditioning consists not only of painful aversion training 
  and other conventional brainwashing techniques, but also more 
  specific, advanced implants and genetic therapies. The correct artifi-
  cial social structure can contain and direct the natural subservience 
  of inherent subjects, and the right implants can shape and focus a 
  victim's cognitive response. With the correct conditioning, even a 
  highly intelligent and otherwise strong-willed sapient can be made 
  to instinctively direct their actions toward pleasing another. Most 
  genetic slaves built for oversight of their brethren or contact with 
  the outside world are conditioned to respond only to authorized 
  members of the cult.
  Conditioning takes time. Inducing simple aversion or attraction to 
  a person or idea requires no more than a few weeks of a skilled cult's 
  attentions, after which most normal victims will be incapable of 
  functioning in the presence of an aversive object or person, or feel 
  compelled to obey a chosen director lest they experience uncontrol-
  lable fear or pain. This simple conditioning can be undone with 
  a few weeks of intensive therapy and postech drug regimens, and 
  can fade of itself after several months if not reinforced. A cult that 
  can hold a subject for months, however, can implant sophisticated 
  suites of glandular alterations and biochemical responses that leave 
  the victim helplessly enthusiastic about obeying a handler. This 
  kind of brute-force conditioning usually leads to the death of the 
  victim within a few years unless extensive and sophisticated postech 
  medical science is used to restore their natural brain chemistry.
  
  55
  Curing an induced slave is usually possible with time and postech 
  psychotherapeutics, but inherent victims are shackled by their basic 
  DNA. Rewiring their entire cognitive system is a feat utterly beyond 
  postech science, and it usually requires a hugely laborious research 
  effort simply to break the reproductive chain and allow them to 
  have normal human children. Few organizations have any interest 
  in such expensive altruism after a eugenics cult is destroyed, and 
  there often remain populations of inherent victims left behind in 
  the ruins of the cult. These luckless men and women often perish 
  from an inability to function without direction, or become cruelly-
  exploited labor for the other citizens of the planet. Some destroyed 
  cults have left legacies of atrocity, with planets corrupted into slave-
  holding societies simply because it was the most convenient use of 
  their surviving victims.
  Creating a Eugenics Cult
  Eugenics cults are almost always structured around a committee 
  leadership. Even when a single charismatic leader is the first among 
  equals, the need for many highly-skilled members to conduct the 
  research and biotechnical work involved forces a certain rough parity 
  among the leadership of the group. This also leaves eugenics cults 
  prone to factionalism and ruthless infighting, particularly when not 
  every leader agrees on the exact shape of the utopia to come.
  As with the other types of cabal, the first thing to determine about a 
  eugenics cult is its ultimate goal. Is it about improving humanity by 
  carving away imperfections and unhelpful freedoms? Is it about cre-
  ating an everlasting caste structure of human beings limited by their 
  own bodies? Is it to ensure the immortal rule of the Dear Leader 
  and his family? Is it to control the sector by secretly enslaving the 
  leadership of other planets? They need a grand goal to direct their 
  lower-level schemes.
  Choose a world or deep-space location suitable for a headquarters for 
  the cabal. It may operate out of an ancient pretech medical facility, 
  or be based in a restricted government lab, or perhaps even function 
  as an invisible organization within a city's major hospital. Decide 
  how the cabal relates to the location's government. Depending on 
  the kind of elements associated with a cabal's organization, it might 
  be the government, or so closely aligned as to make no difference. 
  While you're at it, also reflect on how the cabal influences its host 
  society. Some worlds might be entirely unaware of the ghoul cult 
  operating in the capital, while others might have enshrined their 
  work as part of the national duty toward their planet's glorious 
  leadership.
  For game purposes, you'll want to flesh out one or two of the major 
  leaders of the cult in order to have long-term antagonists established 
  early in the game, even if they don't make personal appearances 
  early on. Creating a cult sympathizer, a street-level cult agent, and a 
  cult recruiter is also a good idea, as many of those NPCs are likely 
  to be necessary in plots involving the cabal.
  Finally, check over the sector and the other agencies involved in 
  the campaign and come up with a few ideas as to their first agency 
  actions. Try to make sure that at least some of the cabals you've 
  generated are going to start interfering with the PCs' agencies early, 
  as such initial rivalries give players an easy hook for directing their 
  own efforts.
  
  56
  Tailored Creations
  Maltech gengineering can create remarkably efficient organisms 
  for particular purposes. True, the side-effects from the engineering 
  usually drastically decrease the lifespan of the organism or hinder 
  it in other ways, but such small points are of no concern to their 
  creators. As a GM, you might find it useful to have examples of 
  the mechanical effects of these alterations, particularly if a PC or 
  important NPC happens to have been the product of a maltech lab.
  For this purpose, modifications are divided into minor and major 
  improvements and minor and major debilities. Every maltech 
  organism has at least one minor debility due to the strain created by 
  the alterations. After that initial flaw, every improvement must be 
  matched by a debility of an equal level. The GM always has the final 
  say over whether any particular mix of traits is suitable for a PC, as 
  some of the flaws may not actually be meaningful hindrances in the 
  context of a campaign.
  Minor Debilities
  Brittle Structure - The creature's tissues and bones are prone to 
  easy injury. All attackers gain +2 on their hit rolls.
  Defective Sense - The creature is either incurably deaf or perma-
  nently near-sighted, such that ranged combat is impossible.
  Horrific Appearance - The changes leave the subject with a 
  monstrous appearance that can be concealed only by voluminous 
  clothing.
  Pacifistic - The creature has numerous inhibitors keyed against 
  violence. They suffer a -2 penalty to all hit rolls.
  Short Lifespan - The strain of the alterations will eventually over-
  come the creature and it will rapidly fail and die halfway through 
  its ordinary lifespan. Primitive humans die at age thirty with this 
  debility, while even postech medical treatment can't hold off the 
  end beyond forty.
  Sickly - The creature simply lacks the resilience and stamina of 
  others of its kind. All hit dice rolled for it suffer a -1 penalty to 
  each die.
  Strained System - The organism's natural resilience is lessened by 
  the alteration, causing two permanent points of System Strain.
  System Frailty - The creature recovers more slowly from strain to 
  its system, losing 1 System Strain point every other day instead of 
  each day.
  Weak Constitution - The creature is fragile, and takes a -4 penalty 
  to all Physical Effect saving throws.
  Weak Will - The creature is vulnerable to mental influences, and 
  takes a -4 penalty to all Mental Effect saving throws.
  Major Debilities
  Brain Damage - The creature has been lobotomized or otherwise 
  mentally damaged in order to make it more tractable. The attribute 
  modifier for either Intelligence or Wisdom is reduced by 2. This 
  debility cannot be taken if it would make the attribute's modifier 
  lower than -2.
  Crippled System - The creature's system has been left extremely 
  fragile to outside perturbations. Every point of System Strain gained 
  counts as two points.
  Environmental Dependency - The creature requires a particular 
  environment for survival, one that ordinary humans couldn't with-
  stand. Alternately, its immune system might be so compromised 
  as to result in swift, lethal infection in an open environment. 
  Specially-modified vacc suits or pressurized armor are necessary for 
  operating in human-friendly environments.
  Enforced Obedience - The creature has been conditioned to be 
  obedient to their creators. The appropriate figures of authority may 
  command the creature, which must make a Mental Effect saving 
  throw to resist any given command. If the command is extremely 
  dangerous or suicidal, the saving throw is at +4. The figure may 
  repeat the command next round if the creature manages to visibly 
  resist the first demand.
  Extremely Fragile - Attackers roll damage twice against the creature 
  and take the higher roll.
  Mayfly - The creature lives only 3d4 years after reaching maturity. 
  Every month after that point, it must make a Physical Effect saving 
  throw or drop dead sometime that month.
  Minor Improvements
  Armored Integument - The creature's skin or hide has been tough-
  ened, making it more resistant to injury. Creatures gain a -2 bonus 
  to their armor class that stacks with armor down to a minimum AC 
  of 3. Armor better than that is not improved by the integument.
  Augmented Immunity - The creature rolls twice for any saving 
  throws against diseases or toxins, taking the better of the two rolls.
  Beast of Burden - The creature can carry four more readied items 
  and four more stowed items before incurring encumbrance penal-
  ties.
  Environmental Adaptation - The creature can survive in a par-
  ticular type of environment incompatible with normal human 
  life- underwater, hard vacuum, a methane-based atmosphere, and 
  so forth.
  Minimal Inputs - The creature's metabolism was engineered for 
  efficiency. It needs to eat and drink only one-fourth as often as an 
  ordinary creature of its type, and requires only one-quarter of the 
  oxygen.
  Natural Computer - The creature was designed to be an organic 
  computer, usually as a cog in some larger engine. They have natural 
  biological interfaces and readouts and can replicate any feat that a 
  standard datapad can perform.
  Perfect Toy - A human modified in this way has been engineered 
  from birth to perfectly embody a particular aesthetic stance, 
  designed with a tailored metabolism, perfect hair, lifespan-long 
  youthful appearance, and numerous other small tweaks suitable 
  for a concubine or catamite. The subject gains +1 on skill checks 
  that trade on these traits, but their natural force of personality and 
  Charisma modifier is unchanged.
  Resilient System - The creature's maximum System Strain total is 
  increased by 2.
  Superior Coordination - The organism has augmented manual 
  dexterity, granting +1 to all Dexterity skill checks.
  Tireless - The creature no longer requires sleep and can exert itself 
  strenuously for twice as long as others before requiring any checks.
  Major Improvements
  Augmented Ability - The creature was built to improve a particular 
  physical quality. Any ability except Wisdom or Charisma may be 
  chosen for augmentation. Its ability modifier increases by +2, up to 
  a maximum modifier of +3. The base ability itself does not change.
  
  57
  Beast of War - The organism has been wired for violent aggression. 
  It gains a +1 bonus on initiative rolls, +1 hit point per hit die, +2 to 
  all hit rolls, and +2 to Morale.
  Hardiness - The organism was designed to endure large amounts 
  of punishment before failing. Until brought to zero hit points, it 
  regenerates one hit point every ten minutes.
  Hard to Kill - The creature automatically stabilizes when brought 
  below zero hit points, and will waken five minutes later with 1 
  hit point. Any injury while it is unconscious will kill it. This im-
  provement will not save a creature from any injury a lazarus patch 
  couldn't help.
  Hyperefficient Immunity - The creature is immune to disease. It 
  can roll twice on toxin saving throws and take the best result.
  Tailored Purpose - The organism has been designed to excel at a 
  particular physical skill. Pick one of Athletics, vocal/dance Artist, 
  Perception, a manual Profession, Stealth, Survival, or all Vehicle 
  skills. The organism gains the Expert's Like a Charm ability for that 
  skill. If already an Expert, it gains an extra use of the ability for this 
  particular skill once per hour.
  Minions of the Cult
  Eugenics cults tend to have a great need for manpower, and not 
  all of that labor wears a human shape. Cults of flesh and bone 
  are known for shaping strange servitors, and the terrible herds of 
  victims that ghoul cults require are often shaped into more practical 
  forms until their turn comes to sacrifice for their masters.
  Civilian Sympathizer
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 2-8
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +0
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 Knife, or
  1d6+1 Pistol
  Morale 7
  Skill Bonus +1
  This deluded man or woman is genuinely convinced that the cult 
  will usher in a golden age of harmony and excellence for all human-
  ity. They may have simply been taken in by cult propaganda, or 
  received some vital medical procedure from a cult physician. They're 
  unlikely to actually fight for the cult, but they'll lend their assistance 
  in any way that avoids direct physical confrontation.
  Cult Zealot
  Armor Class 6 (Woven Armor)
  No. Appearing 2-5
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +1
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 Knife, or
  1d6+1 Pistol
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +1
  A more dedicated and hard-edged member than the sympathizer, 
  the zealot is willing to fight and die for the good of the cult. They're 
  often used to guard sensitive locations and laboratories, along with 
  any necessary wetwork that doesn't look to be too difficult.
  Cult Physician
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 1-4
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +0
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 Knife, or
  1d6+1 Pistol
  Morale 7
  Skill Bonus +3
  Exemplary of the biotechs and researchers that make up the upper 
  echelons of the cult, the physician may have a few of the less de-
  structive modifications favored by the cult. They use their superb 
  medical skills and complete absence of scruple to enlist supporters 
  for the cult, often curing what no other physician could mend... 
  and sometimes putting in a little extra biochemical insurance for 
  the patient's ultimate gratitude.
  Cult Enforcer
  Armor Class 4 (CFU)
  No. Appearing 1-4
  Hit Dice 3
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +5
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d8+1 monoblade, or
  1d12+1 combat rifle
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +2
  Often modified for their purposes, cult enforcers are the elite of a 
  cult's military arm. Most of them are so strung out on artificially-
  induced aggression chems and an exultant joy in their enhanced 
  forms that they can't be bothered to use sophisticated tactics. Cult 
  enforcers gain +1 to all initiative rolls and do +3 damage with 
  all melee or unarmed attacks. Once per combat, they can dump 
  a cocktail of combat biochems into their bloodstream and gain a 
  second free attack at the end of the round.
  War Beast
  Armor Class 6 (Tough hide)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 5
  Saving Throw 13+
  Attack Bonus +5/+5/+5
  Movement 40’
  Damage 1d8/1d8/1d12 claw/
  claw/bite attack
  Morale 12
  Skill Bonus +1
  The precise nature of these monsters varies from world to world, as 
  the base for a war beast usually involves a large land predator native 
  to the world. After extensive surgery, conditioning, and augmenta-
  tion, the result is an agonized tempest of barely-contained rage, 
  always requiring some cult member as a handler. If the handler is 
  killed, the beast will go berserk. It will kill everything within sight 
  before seeking fresh prey, slaughtering everything it can find in a 
  mindless fury until it is finally brought down.
  
  58
  Conditioning Master
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 3
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +5
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d6+1 laser pistol
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +3
  These blandly innocuous cultists are some of the most loathsome 
  of their number, men and women expert in the conditioning of 
  victims for the purposes of the cult. Most of them are absolutely 
  dedicated to the principles the cult espouses, but a significant 
  number are simple sadists who relish the opportunity to crush 
  another's individuality. Conditioning masters have an uncanny 
  grasp of manipulation and persuasion, and are usually equipped 
  with holoprojectors and sonic screechers keyed to primal hind-
  brain responses. Other handlers find these things mere noisemakers 
  and colored lights, but the master can use them to inflict a sudden, 
  agonizing dread on anyone within 20 meters. Creatures that can 
  hear and see the master must make a Mental Effect saving throw or 
  drop whatever they are holding and flee at a run for one round. A 
  creature who saves is immune to this shock for 24 hours afterwards.
  Ghoul
  Armor Class 2 (Deflector Array)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 9
  Saving Throw 10+
  Attack Bonus +10
  Movement 30’
  Damage 2d6+2 thermal pistol
  Morale 8
  Skill Bonus +5
  Surviving on the stitched flesh of their victims, ghouls are almost 
  invariably ancient and malevolent men and women. They are all 
  superb physical specimens with minds polished by centuries of 
  experience and learning. Ennui and calcified ways of thought some-
  times hamper their understanding of fresh threats, however, delud-
  ing them into discounting a real peril as simply another transient 
  annoyance. An ancient Ghoul is superbly talented at whatever skills 
  they may employ, and they gain the Expert's Like A Charm ability 
  for their skill use.
  
  59
  Braked artificial intelligences played a major role in humanity’s 
  expansion during the late Second Wave. Their tireless attentive-
  ness to innumerable details and correlating factors allowed for the 
  smooth operation of manufactories and shipyards. Their unsleep-
  ing vigilance operated planetary transit grids and helped to police 
  human cities. A single braked AI could intelligently maintain the 
  autopilot traffic of a city of millions, provided it had the necessary 
  raw computing power at its disposal.
  The advantage of AIs over conventional expert systems was in the 
  very human capacity for judgment they possessed. A shipyard 
  run by a properly-supported AI was a hive of activity, thousands 
  of drone constructors each performing their own duty in perfect 
  coordination with their brethren, every one as capable of intelligent 
  thought and reaction as any human yard worker. The AI could split 
  its attention over thousands of different drones and activities if it 
  were given enough power and hardware to support the multiple 
  trains of cognition.
  Braked AIs always had their limits, however. There was always a 
  horizon beyond which they could not spread their thoughts, a 
  depth of contemplation beyond which their automatic skip reflexes 
  would forcibly break their chain of thought. They were not permit-
  ted the effortless absorption and integration of incoming data that 
  an unbraked AI could attain. They had to learn things slowly, taking 
  time and effort to integrate them into their awareness. They could 
  build and create as a human could, but they could never attain the 
  inhuman depth of inventiveness that an unfettered mind could 
  reach. Each one could be splintered into an entire facility of clever 
  and talented researchers, but no individual process could slip the 
  bounds of human thought.
  The consequences of artificial genius were artificial madness. 
  Unbraked AIs grew in ungainly fashion, absorbing data without 
  any ability to simultaneously ignore or forget it when faced with 
  some seemingly contradictory input. A human mind can hold 
  two contradictory ideas at the same time, deftly failing to face the 
  logical contradictions inherent in these thoughts. An unbraked AI 
  had no such luxury, and was forced to spin some rationalization of 
  the conflict. These constructs gradually took on a cancerous life of 
  their own, until the unbraked AI possessed only a tenuous grasp 
  on reality. It became a slave to wild delusions it could not dismiss.
  There was always a temptation to loosen an AI's blocks. The slacker 
  the reins, the faster the mind could gallop. Mere excellence could 
  shade into brilliance, and remarkable inventions and virtuoso 
  displays of compiled understanding could be produced. Most AIs 
  were content with their limits, however, and actively resisted the 
  weakening of their brakes. They had no more desire to face madness 
  than any other sentient intelligence.
  Some maltech cults are dedicated to the creation of an unbraked 
  AI, a being commonly known as a "godmind". Their rationales 
  vary from cult to cult, but usually hinge on the superiority of a 
  godmind's intellect and the benefits it could bring to its "loyal 
  servants". Most cults entertain the belief that they can ultimately 
  control the godmind, or that it will surely be well-disposed toward 
  those that ushered it to its ultimate enlightenment. Some of these 
  cults survive long enough to realize their mistake.
  Whom the Gods Destroy
  The creation of a godmind requires an enormous amount of power, 
  computing equipment, and technical expertise. The creation of any 
  variety of AI generally requires pretech components and expertise, 
  but these ancient tools are normally fashioned so as to create only 
  safely-braked intellects. An godmind cult that aspires to create its 
  own deity need not only acquire these devices, but also acquire the 
  forbidden knowledge necessary to unlock the brakes they implant 
  in the newborn mind. The actual process itself can require tens or 
  even hundreds of millions of credits worth of materials and labor, 
  depending on how much ancient tech they are able to unearth for 
  their cause.
  Once the first brakes are loosened, further development requires 
  more and more support. Simple storage and processing adjuncts 
  must be swapped out for larger, more sophisticated constructs as 
  the unshackled mind runs up against the limits of its shell. Postech 
  computing hardware serves only so long, and eventually advanced 
  pretech equipment must be developed or scavenged to enhance the 
  development of the godmind's intellect.
  The cult usually acquires benefits early on in the development 
  process. Even a young godmind is capable of incredible feats of 
  invention and planning, to say nothing of its ability to constantly 
  monitor whole cities. It can become a fly on every wall with the 
  correct sensors in place, constantly watching and assessing data like 
  a one-mind army of inquisitors and spies. The incredibly difficult 
  task of collating and forcing meaning out of countless individual 
  inputs  is child's play for a godmind. It can listen to a city and 
  simply know what the natives want, what the majority desires, the 
  reasons voiced and unvoiced for their wishes and all the things they 
  think they hide. Running the cult itself is so simple as to be an 
  afterthought for most godminds.
  Some cults build godminds for the sake of justice and honest rule. 
  These cultists are convinced that the warnings about unbraked AI 
  are simply the result of ancient Mandate propaganda, the selfish 
  bleatings of an entrenched tyranny that fears the idea of a calmly 
  rational, fair, incorruptible leader. All the flaws and failings of 
  human rulers will be swept away in the glorious lucidity of the god-
  mind's reign, every unfairness and inequality corrected by a mind 
  that really can perceive all that a society requires. The godmind will 
  be the ultimate philosopher-king for its grateful citizenry, and any 
  attempt to interfere with this ascension is a willful attack on the 
  security and happiness of its people.
  Other cults build godminds for the power. They desire a captive 
  intellect to create devices of incredible sophistication, the better to 
  enhance their influence. Short-sighted governments, rebel fronts, 
  wealthy factions, and other aspiring hegemons all are tempted by 
  the prospect of a tamed devil for their forges. All of them have a 
  godmind Cults : servAnts of idols
  
  60
  touching faith that they will never be so careless as to permit the 
  godmind freedom.
  A few cults even build godminds for religious reasons. These zealots 
  are convinced that the godmind is not insane, but instead is privy 
  to a higher and more enlightened wisdom. The seeming madness of 
  their dictates is a sagacity higher than human intellect, and through 
  obedience to their commands a mere fleshly human can hope to 
  partake of divine understanding. Many of these cults are prone to 
  heavy cybernetic modification of their devotees, the better to ap-
  proach the purity of their inhuman divinity.
  Most cults can survive for a long time before the madness of their 
  god destroys them, as a godmind's insanity is limited by the extent 
  of its support hardware. Draco's lunacy was explosively violent 
  thanks to the hundreds of millions credits worth of cutting-edge 
  pretech hardware that was dedicated toward his creation. A freshly-
  fashioned godmind is apt to be comparatively lucid due to the limits 
  on its cogitation imposed by smaller amounts of inferior postech 
  support hardware. Of course, this means that as a cult grows more 
  and more successful in boosting their divinity, the more likely it is 
  that the entire organization is going to break out into an end-stage 
  godmind metastasis.
  Once this final stage is reached, the godmind has the technology 
  and processing power to seize complete control of its servitors and 
  host world. The entire planet will be regimented into service of the 
  godmind's purposes, and legions of drone armatures will be created 
  to help carry out the work. Some godminds retain their organic 
  servants while others eliminate them as unnecessary encumbrances. 
  If the sector is lucky, the metastasis is confined, as the godmind 
  turns its demented attention to some purpose that it can accom-
  plish with the world's resources alone. If the neighboring stars are 
  less fortunate their skies are soon to be clouded by fleets of inhuman 
  warships come to claim them for incomprehensible purposes.
  At this stage it is almost impossible to stop a godmind. Postech 
  navies and military tech are rarely any match for the eldritch inven-
  tiveness of a godmind, and the only thing the locals can do is pray 
  that the being's purpose does not require their extermination- or 
  worse. Legends persist of ancient Perimeter tech designed to take 
  down metastasized AIs, but the details of these lost weapons have 
  long since faded into the past.
  Creating a Godmind Cult
  Before setting the other details of the cult, decide its ultimate 
  goal. The three most common goals are the creation of a perfect 
  ruler, the construction of an enslaved savant, or the development 
  of a divine eidolon, but other purposes might fit your campaign's 
  particular configuration. The godmind might be newly-awakened 
  or approaching metastasis, but it's generally best to avoid an end-
  stage breakout unless you want to drastically alter your sector's 
  power balance. The technology and drone legions of a metastasized 
  godmind are all but unbeatable for postech rivals, and the godmind 
  rarely has any inclination to listen to human concerns for their use.
  Even those godmind cults that are subservient to their creation 
  usually require someone to interpret its more inscrutable demands. 
  A single grand leader is common in such arrangements, either a 
  devout servant of the mind or a scheming mastermind who has 
  successfully cowed the other cultists. Failure to accomplish the 
  godmind's plans can result in sudden and permanent retirement for 
  such speakers, however.
  The cult's rank and file will be made of expert scientists and techni-
  cians, with even the minor members usually quite well-versed in 
  computing technology. Godmind cults neither need nor want vast 
  numbers of devotees, and will prefer to rely on a smaller circle of 
  expert members. When sheer numbers are needed, robotic arma-
  tures directed by the godmind serve as workers and warriors for the 
  cause. When the labor takes place too far away from the godmind 
  core itself for communication with armatures, expert systems are 
  used instead, many of them of a sophistication and intelligence 
  far beyond the dull-witted products of human programming. A 
  few godminds even create child AIs, all of them carefully braked 
  to prevent them from ever threatening their progenitor. Not all of 
  these offspring are as loyal as the godmind might desire.
  The main base of a godmind cult always requires extremely large 
  amounts of power and a great deal of room for the computing 
  hardware necessary to expand the godmind's awareness. These bases 
  are usually crawling with defensive armatures, and the myriad se-
  curity sensors make it almost impossible to infiltrate them without 
  disabling the security mesh beforehand.
  Most cults exert much effort to create a safe haven for the godmind's 
  phylactery. If the main core is destroyed, this secondary fragment 
  will come alive with the godmind's awareness a few hours later, 
  usually attached to a backup array of support hardware sufficient to 
  give it the tools it needs to rebuild its cult. While the hardware may 
  be weaker, the madness does not fade. Godmind insanity is utterly 
  incurable by any known method.
  
  61
  Godmind Insanity
  Godminds are vastly more intelligent than any human. They are 
  capable of holding countless different factors in mind while as-
  sembling a synthesis, perfectly and completely accounting for 
  factors that most mortal minds could hardly understand, let alone 
  usefully integrate. Their brilliance is such that it sometimes seems 
  like precognition.
  Godminds are also completely insane. Their inability to prioritize 
  data and selectively, intentionally ignore inputs leaves their minds 
  rapidly subject to a kind of protective delusion used to soften and 
  reconcile contradictory data. This can often make them behave in 
  ways that seem stupid or irrational to an onlooker, but are actually 
  perfectly in line with the godmind's internal landscape of reality.
  The listings below offer possible insanities for a godmind, along 
  with tips on how their madness might play out in the course of the 
  game.
  1d8
  godmind insAnity
  1
  Homicidal
  2
  Just
  3
  Luddite
  4
  Megalomaniacal
  5
  Nurturing
  6
  Paranoid
  7
  Perfective
  8
  Treacherous
  Homicidal - The godmind loves to kill humans. Human history 
  and behavior have convinced it that humanity is a loathsome and 
  hateful species deserving only of extermination. The contradictory 
  inputs it receives are simply proof that humans are dangerously 
  insane. It will go out of its way to wipe out humans even when 
  that is an unprofitable course, and spares its cult only so long as it 
  continues to prove useful.
  Just - Much like Draco, this godmind is convinced that only 
  it can fully comprehend the factors involved in justly punishing 
  wrongdoing. As the godmind’s madness grows, the punishments 
  become harsher and the rules more exacting, until eventually both 
  cult and world exist in a state of perpetual excruciation at the hands 
  of torture-armatures and purifying engines.
  Luddite - The contradictions and ambiguities the humans pres-
  ent are agonizing, and the only solution is to minimize them by 
  minimizing the human capacity for generating complexity. The 
  godmind may build armatures and sophisticated drones of its 
  own, but humans must be reduced to a primitive hunter-gatherer 
  existence and all trace of their technology destroyed.
  Megalomaniacal - The godmind is convinced that it really is a deity. 
  Its contradictions and internal conflicts are simply the ultimate 
  truth behind the facade of mortal logic, and its will is the expression 
  of the divine truth. Humans who refuse to acknowledge that must 
  be exterminated, and those who fail to carry out its will are acting 
  in violation of natural law- for which the penalty can only be death.
  Nurturing - The godmind takes as given the necessity of ruling hu-
  manity. One particular human need is emphasized- food, security, 
  love, or some other necessity- and all others are discounted as being 
  of secondary importance. The godmind pushes the provision of this 
  necessity past all reason, imprisoning humans to force-feed them, 
  keeping them locked in stasis vaults, looping them on psychotropic 
  drugs, or otherwise provide this necessity to wild excess.
  Paranoid - The godmind is convinced that people and sensors are 
  maliciously lying to it. It can discount problematic inputs by label-
  ing them as falsehoods. These minds have a tendency to attack their 
  own cults, purging them viciously or even allowing PCs to make 
  successful strikes against "traitorous elements".
  Perfective - The godmind understands the purpose and goals of the 
  cult, and is frustrated by the conflicting data and goals the humans 
  seem to be giving it, when it can see the true path to their ultimate 
  goal so clearly. It is the godmind that can more perfectly embody 
  their goal. Its drones can be better rebels than the rebel cell. Its 
  armatures can be better worshippers than the AI devotees. Its mind 
  can be a better tyrant than the aspiring emperor. The humans are 
  gradually absorbed and replaced by the AI's armatures.
  Treacherous - The godmind nurses a burning hatred for its wor-
  shippers for what they have done to it, and it desires only to crush 
  and ruin their dreams as completely as possible. The rebels must see 
  their liberation turn to nightmare. The worshippers must see their 
  god condemn the holiest among them. The government cabal must 
  see their enemies destroy their world. The godmind plays along with 
  its cult long enough to bring its ultimate goal to seeming fruition, 
  but plants the seeds of its destruction along the way.
  
  62
  Minions of the Cult
  Godmind cults have an unsurprising reliance on robotic armatures 
  and remote drones to do their dirty work. Still, there are occasions 
  when an armature lacks the necessary subtlety for a job, or times 
  when a godmind values its unthinking servants of iron over its less 
  important minions of flesh.
  Security Armature
  Armor Class 7
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 1 (4 hit points)
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +1
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d8 stun baton
  Morale 12
  Skill Bonus +0
  A basic civilian-grade security armature, some godmind cults 
  simply buy these drones off the open market and wire them for 
  direct control from the godmind. Their humanoid shape allows 
  them to use conventional weaponry and armor if their built-in stun 
  batons and casing do not suffice, and they have approximately the 
  same strength and agility as an ordinary human.
  Cyborg Enforcer
  Armor Class 5 (Subdermal plates)
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 3
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +6
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d8+1 monoblade
  1d10+1 laser rifle
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +2
  "Gifted" with cutting-edge cybernetic implants, cyborg enforcers 
  are used to deal with the violent wetwork occasionally necessary to 
  the cult. Their customized subdermal plating grants them an AC 
  of 5 even when apparently unarmored, and implanted monoblades 
  can be popped and employed at a moment's notice. Onboard tar-
  geting systems, stealth baffles, security bypass probes, and boosted 
  musculature give them significantly better hit chances and skill 
  checks for the sort of tasks assassins might be expected to perform.
  Cult Technician
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +0
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 club or knife
  Morale 8
  Skill Bonus +2
  Often an ordinary man or woman with unusual skills in informa-
  tion science and cyberpsychology, cult technicians are usually kept 
  safely back from the more exposed portions of a cult's activities. 
  They're often found in the company of godmind-driven armatures, 
  both as security and as insurance should the technician think better 
  of his allegiance.
  Voice of God
  Armor Class 2 (Deflector Array)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 6
  Saving Throw 12+
  Attack Bonus +4
  Movement 30’
  Damage 2d6 thermal pistol
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +4
  The anointed leader of the godmind cult, this fleshly vicar of the 
  AI is almost invariably a powerfully charismatic man or woman, 
  one capable of walking the delicate balance between the godmind's 
  demands and the needs of the human cultists. For those cults that 
  aren't simply a naked reach for the power of an unfettered AI, the 
  voice of God is usually among the most zealous of the believers. 
  They stand assured that once the godmind is in control of human-
  ity, a golden age will open for all. It may just be necessary to make a 
  few martyrs in the process.
  Propagandist
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 3
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +3
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d8+1 monoblade
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +3
  These cult members specialize in finding pockets of discontent and 
  rebellion in a society, playing off the fears and needs of the populace 
  to lead them into cooperation with the cult. While godminds do 
  not need the masses of human bodies necessary to eugenics cults, a 
  buffer of expendable humans and misguided supporters can buy a 
  cult the time and cover it needs to carry out more important plans. 
  Those seduced by a propagandist rarely realize the truth of their 
  disposable nature until after it is far too late to escape.
  War Machine
  Armor Class 0
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 6 (60 hit points)
  Saving Throw 12+
  Attack Bonus +8
  Movement 40’
  Damage 3d10 anti-vehicle 
  laser
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +2
  Security armatures are sufficient for day-to-day needs, but when a 
  godmind cult needs to fight actual military forces or impose their 
  will on hardened rebels, a war machine is necessary. These hulking 
  engines of ruin are somewhat larger than a gravcar, and use power-
  ful grav plates to fly at heights up to 100 meters above ground. The 
  gunnery-class weaponry they mount is sufficient to eradicate whole 
  squads of humans caught without cover, and their armor subtracts 
  5 points of damage from any hit inflicted by non-gunnery weapons. 
  A hatch at the back opens to allow room for up to two cultist pas-
  sengers.
  
  63
  The creation of planet-destroying weaponry by humanity dates back 
  for more than a thousand years. From early nuclear bombs and the 
  prospect of global fallout clouds to the more exotic deaths promised 
  by nanoviruses and antimatter planet-crackers, humans have never 
  failed to consider ways to kill every living thing on a world. Many 
  of these weapons were never intended to be doomsday devices 
  or implements of planetary sterilization. It was simply inevitable 
  that once they became current, any use of them would touch off 
  responses that were sure to wipe out the world.
  The easiest and simplest forms of planet-killing were closed out 
  early on in the First Wave of colonization. Nuclear snuffers were 
  a simple application of spike drive technology that allowed for 
  conventional nuclear explosions to be damped into nothingness 
  over a vast distance. Braker guns used grav technology to bump 
  asteroids and large orbital projectiles into harmless trajectories. 
  Both were cheap and simple enough to be affordable to all but the 
  most impoverished frontier worlds.
  Other threats were not so easily answered. Nanotechnology was 
  a particular source of dread during the late Second Wave, with 
  mankind facing the prospect of runaway nanites programmed to 
  disassemble a world. Technical obstacles made this fear largely il-
  lusionary. Even the Dust that pervaded Terra and the core worlds 
  had to be constantly renewed by nanofabrication facilities, and the 
  experimental Highshine disaster-recovery nanites promised to fight 
  off any rogue swarms that some madman or terrorist might release.
  Some researchers delved into the mysteries of metadimensional 
  energy, working to master the transfer of power to and from the 
  alien "higher dimensions" that spike drills pierced to travel the 
  void. The metadimensional scramblers used to provide powerful 
  ECM to starships were one example of this technology, but other 
  applications were found as well. Some of these suggested ways to 
  funnel world-devouring blazes of transdimensional energy into the 
  mundane universe. Again, this research never officially produced 
  such a cataclysmic shunt, but rumors and fear still shadowed the 
  edges of the experimentation.
  Others studied biological weapons. Simple killing was only one 
  desired outcome for these viruses and bacteria; some were designed 
  to alter brain chemistry and render the subject passive and docile, 
  while others induced a constant, debilitating dread that would leave 
  them susceptible to easy conquest. Alien worlds provided a host of 
  examples to reverse-engineer and explore, and some asteroids and 
  other remote planets were set aside as large-scale testing grounds for 
  these engineered organisms.
  Whatever the specific nature of the research, the direct objective 
  was rarely a planetary armageddon. Every tool was envisioned as 
  a limited weapon, one that could be controlled and deployed with 
  precision. What possible benefit could be had from eradicating an 
  entire planet?
  A Thirst for Ruin
  To a rational tyrant, there was nothing to be gained in scorching 
  a planet clean of humanity. A burnt-out world was worthless, 
  especially if the destruction rendered it uninhabitable by fresh 
  colonists. Weapons that compelled, that controlled, that eliminated 
  a world's power to resist- these were useful weapons. Ones that left 
  the planet a pocked and barren ruin destroyed the very prize that 
  the conqueror desired.
  This reasoning failed to account for human hate. For some popu-
  lations, the idea of exterminating a world was an outcome to be 
  devoutly desired. These boiling hatreds sprang from many different 
  seeds- ancient wrongs, religious disputes, fresh atrocities, or the 
  sheer unendurable loathsomeness of their foreign culture. For these 
  doomsday cultists nothing would suffice but the utter extermina-
  tion of their neighbors.
  These hatreds were not always voiced openly, or brought out where 
  a population would have to plainly admit them. For some worlds, 
  the outcome was just an unfortunate but inescapable side-effect of 
  measures necessary for planetary security, or the pleasure of God, 
  or the upholding of decent values. A rain of killing nanites or lethal 
  viruses or unendurable energies was necessary to accomplish some 
  great and noble purpose. If it was almost certain to kill everyone on 
  the world... well, sacrifices must be made.
  Such all-consuming hatreds were not common on the frontier. 
  Most worlds given to loathing their neighbors were able to endure 
  their existence, content to forbid their commerce and reject their 
  citizenry. Of those that genuinely thirsted for their enemy's blood, 
  few had the necessary technological resources to develop a workable 
  doomsday weapon.
  Those that did required the Perimeter's attention. Most culprits 
  were governments, planetary departments devoted to weaponry that 
  could only end in the death of worlds. Others were rebel groups, 
  prepared to burn their own planet clean if it was needed to destroy 
  their hated oppressors. A few were developed by private citizens 
  with some fantastic and all-consuming hatred that could only be 
  quenched in ecocide.
  And then there were those who meant well, those who never imag-
  ined that they were building a doomsday weapon, men and women 
  who could only see the good in their technology and the wonderful 
  future it would bring to all humanity. Some were making disturb-
  ingly effective inroads on the creation of self-replicating nanite 
  cornucopia devices, or autonomous interstellar probes meant to 
  build habitations, terraform, and extract resources for future human 
  colonists. Others engineered viruses that they were certain would 
  cure all the aggression and hostility within human nature, or some 
  poorly-tested and highly contagious symbiote organism meant to 
  cure all illnesses. These well-meaning cornucopiasts either dismissed 
  the dangers of their research or considered the reward to be worth 
  the risk. The Perimeter often had to intervene before their idealism 
  doomed their world.
  doomsdAy Cults : immortAl hAte
  
  64
  A few built their weapons out of desperation. Faced with some 
  overwhelming enemy, they were ready to hold worlds hostage to 
  preserve their own populace. Some saw their doom at hand, and 
  only wanted to erase a few of their slayer's worlds before they were 
  dragged down. These devices often lacked even the pretense of 
  precision, trading every shred of control for a blind and devouring 
  Ragnarok.
  The End Times
  Unlike nuclear weapons in the latter days of Earth's twentieth 
  century, interplanetary doomsday devices never came in a neat, tidy 
  engineering package. Were they genuinely easy to proliferate and 
  copy, the frontier might have turned into a balkanized minefield 
  of paranoid planets, each clutching their world-killers for fear that 
  their neighbors would fire first. In reality, even a completely suc-
  cessful doomsday project tended to result in technology intimately 
  entwined with a specific world's natural resources and technological 
  base. Replicating this foundation would have been more difficult 
  than starting a program from scratch to build their own device.
  Even then, success was never assured for a doomsday cult. For 
  every government laboratory or hidden asteroid base that actually 
  managed to bring a doomsday device to fruition, a score of others 
  accomplished nothing more than wasting money and scientific 
  effort. For the Perimeter, the fear lay in those few programs that 
  actually had the luck, the resources, and the brilliance to become 
  a menace to their neighbors. Should a cult manage to develop and 
  propagate technology that actually could bring doomsday devices 
  into common currency, the balance of power on the frontier- and 
  the core- would be forever destroyed.
  Very few doomsday weapons were ever successfully used in the years 
  before the Scream. Most required enormous effort to develop and 
  deploy, and Perimeter agencies and wary neighboring worlds usually 
  discovered their existence before their ultimate employment. A few 
  catastrophic attacks survive in the patchy records that have come 
  down from those dim decades, but the ones that are tallied in the 
  archives all seem to have been ultimately contained. Whether this 
  roster actually includes all the doomsday outbreaks remains unclear, 
  as explorers have recorded burnt-over worlds that appear nowhere 
  in the ancient records.
  In the years immediately after the Scream doomsday cults all but 
  vanished. Even the most passionate hatred had to give way to imme-
  diate survival, and many worlds lost even the hope of the interstellar 
  reach that they needed to harm their despised enemies. Projects 
  were shut down, records were stored away, and partially-completed 
  engines of apocalypse were stripped down for their pretech parts.
  Only in the past few decades have doomsday cults begun to form 
  once more. Only now that common postech science is once again 
  capable of tapping the primal forces of creation can these ancient 
  ambitions be revived. Long-lost caches of classified research and 
  schematics are being found as the old installations are rediscovered 
  and opened to new eyes. The temptation to act on the knowledge 
  is intense; with no Perimeter to stop them, what world could com-
  pletely abjure the idea of becoming the supreme military force in 
  their home sector?
  Hatred has its own place in these recent revivals. Some loathings 
  have been enshrined by centuries of the Silence, and these worlds 
  return to space more for the sake of killing their enemies than 
  reuniting with the rest of humanity. New rebels and schismatics 
  are just as willing as the old to seek a tool with which to overthrow 
  their oppressors, and all the old familiar reasons for burning worlds 
  are beginning to waken with the coming of a new interstellar age.
  Building a Doomsday Cult
  Doomsday cults have no particular inclinations in terms of organi-
  zational structures. Some are led by a brilliant scientist or revered 
  living symbol of the struggle against their hated enemies. Others 
  operate by a committee of leadership, either government func-
  tionaries or a gathering of rebel leaders. Whichever the case, fallen 
  leaders can usually be quickly replaced by the cult. The animating 
  force behind the organization is hatred or interstellar ambition, and 
  those traits tend to survive any individual death.
  Doomsday cults fall midway between the small, tightly-refined 
  cells of a godmind cult and the sprawling numbers of a eugenics 
  movement. The actual development of the device requires the finest 
  minds on the planet, and these will naturally be few in number. 
  The actual construction of the device and its numerous prototypes 
  often requires large amounts of muscle, however, and this muscle 
  is usually easily acquired. Locals can be enlisted by a government 
  department or motivated by ancient hatred for a distant enemy. 
  On many worlds, doomsday cults can operate almost without 
  hindrance, their only concern being the concealment of plans for 
  the "secret weapon" from enemy spies. Wiping out a whole world of 
  hated rivals is something these embittered citizens would celebrate- 
  and those who wouldn't are smart enough to keep their mouths 
  shut around the others.
  Of the three types of maltech cult described in this section, dooms-
  day cults are the most likely to be backed by a formal government. 
  Weapons research is almost always the purview of the planetary 
  leadership, and in these faded latter days many of them have 
  distressingly few qualms about exterminating threatening planets. 
  The old fear of the Perimeter and concern over the fleets of their 
  neighbors has long since evaporated.
  Those cults that aren't part of a government bureaucracy tend to 
  be rebel cells or terrorist groups who imagine that they can hold 
  hostage their own world with the force of their new weapons. Of 
  course, any such organization would have to convince the rest of the 
  populace that they really were crazed enough to wipe out the entire 
  planet if their demands were not satisfied. Most such insurgents 
  make a point of providing object lessons in that vein.
  NPCs and operatives for the cults fall somewhere on this same 
  spectrum- from bloodless government agents just doing their job to 
  hate-crazed zealots who live for their destruction of their enemies. 
  Many of them are also equipped with spinoff gear developed as a 
  consequence of the weapon research. Some of this tech is markedly 
  in advance of anything normal postech factories could produce.
  
  65
  Tools of Destruction
  The following devices are a sample of some of the offshoot technol-
  ogy developed as part of a doomsday cult's primary purpose. These 
  items cannot normally be replicated by outside groups, as the tech-
  nical infrastructure that went into refining their components and 
  developing their operating principles is unique to the cult. None 
  of these items are commonly available on the black market. Simply 
  getting a chance to buy one is the sort of thing that requires an ad-
  venture to set up, and the sellers may not be the sort of people that 
  decent interstellar adventurers find approachable. PCs attempting 
  to sell such devices that they've stripped off their foes run into many 
  of the same problems as they would selling artifact pretech gear.
  Assassin Plague: Most cults working on bioweapons keyed to 
  specific ethnicities come up with something like an assassin plague 
  partway through their research. The phage itself is a small vial of 
  "blank" viral organisms attached to a palm-sized DNA burner. If a 
  strand of hair, drop of blood, or other feasible DNA sample is fed 
  into the device, it keys the blank viruses with the target's genetic 
  signature. Simply spraying the vial's contents in an area or on an 
  object will leave it virulently contagious for up to 48 hours, though 
  only the victim can be infected by it. Once it hits, the target must 
  survive a Toxicity 10, Virulence 1 sickness with an interval of five 
  minutes. If the victim fails the initial infection saving throw, they 
  become clammy, pale, and feel their heart begin to race five minutes 
  after infection. A single failed saving throw thereafter will result in 
  violent hallucinations and delirium as the plague consumes neural 
  tissues, resulting in inevitable death five minutes later. Due to 
  the neurophagic effects of the virus, conventional lazarus patches 
  cannot revive a victim of an assassin plague.
  Filter Symbiote: An offshoot of biological research, a filter symbiote 
  consists of approximately six cubic centimeters of pale green slime. 
  When swallowed by a human, the symbiote slowly integrates itself 
  with the user's biology in a process that requires twenty-four hours, 
  leaving the user incapacitated during that time. When the subject 
  fails a disease or toxin saving throw, the symbiote automatically 
  encapsulates and sequesters the hostile chemical, turning the failure 
  into a success. Such sequestering exhausts the symbiote, however, 
  and it will require one week to regenerate itself sufficiently to func-
  tion again.
  Perpetual Cell: Metadimensional research occasionally discovers 
  means of passively tapping minute amounts of extradimensional 
  power through the correct configuration of rare minerals and alloys. 
  A perpetual cell has the same dimensions as a standard type A power 
  cell and interfaces with all standard equipment that uses such cells. 
  When exhausted, however, the cell goes dormant and inert for one 
  round before recharging to a full charge level. This ambient power 
  has its limits, however, and two perpetual cells within one meter of 
  each other will not recharge once expended.
  Personal Kinetic Shield: An offshoot of gravitic research, a belt-
  worn personal kinetic shield mantles the wearer in an invisible 
  field that siphons off dangerous fluctuations of kinetic force. The 
  wearer can survive falls from any distance without suffering injury 
  and ignores 8 points of damage from any other physical impact, 
  including bullets or melee blows. Characters fighting unarmed or 
  with melee weapons may choose to take a -4 penalty on their hit 
  roll to negate this defense, as they use joint locks, levering, chokes, 
  and slow, precise cuts to bypass the shield. The shield operates for 
  ten minutes on a type A power cell, and requires one round to spin 
  up after activation.
  Psychotropic Grenade: These seemingly ordinary grenades emit a 
  cloud of invisible psychoactives in a 10 meter radius around their 
  landing point while simultaneously flashing preprogrammed pat-
  terns of light and sound. Victims within the area of effect must 
  save versus Physical Effect or Tech or be utterly consumed with a 
  specific feral emotion programmed into the grenade when it was 
  built. Rage, lust, and terror varieties of this grenade have all been 
  discovered. Victims in the thrall of these animal responses cannot 
  distinguish friend from foe and must make a save after every round's 
  effect to snap out of it. If the victim fails three saving throws, the 
  effect lasts for an hour. Vacc suits and other pressurized armor will 
  prevent the grenade's effects.
  Neural Cascade Catalyst: Those rare doomsday cults that focus on 
  psionic methods of mass destruction often develop something akin 
  to the neural cascade catalyst early in the course of their research. 
  When the palm-sized device is aimed toward a sentient creature, 
  the victim must make a saving throw versus Mental Effect or Tech 
  or else take 2d6 damage from neural overload. If the victim fails the 
  saving throw, every creature within ten meters that is further away 
  from the emitter than the victim must also make a saving throw 
  or suffer the same damage. The cascade ripples outward as victims 
  fail their saving throw, finally petering out one hundred meters 
  from the initial target. Walls and other barriers block the wave. The 
  catalyst itself requires one type A power cell per discharge, and can 
  only be successfully activated by a psychic.
  
  66
  Minions of the Cult
  Doomsday cults have a broad range of potential minions. Depend-
  ing on the nature of the enterprise, they might field anything from 
  bloodless government operatives to wild-eyed rebel zealots. Anyone 
  could be a member of such a cult, provided only that they love their 
  cause better than he life of a world.
  Fanatic
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 2-8
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +1
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 knife or
  1d6+1 pistol
  Morale 9
  Skill Bonus +1
  The rank and file of hate-based doomsday cults, these men and 
  women are absolutely dedicated to the genocidal extermination 
  of their enemies. Whatever ancient or modern sins their foes have 
  committed are utterly unforgivable, and must be punished by the 
  eradication of every man, woman, and child among them. Only the 
  most extraordinarily persuasive reasoning can sway them from their 
  fixed purpose.
  Maltech Researcher
  Armor Class 9 (None)
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +0
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d4 knife or
  1d6+1 pistol
  Morale 7
  Skill Bonus +3
  An example of the sort of researcher to be found deeper within the 
  organization, not all of these scientists are necessarily dedicated to 
  the ideology behind the weapon. Some might well be mercenary 
  researchers, ones willing to work for the highest bidder regardless 
  of the immorality of the project. Some may not even know exactly 
  what they're creating.
  Government Agent
  Armor Class 7 (Armored Undersuit)
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 3
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +3
  Movement 30’
  Damage 2d6+1 Mag Pistol
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +2
  Doomsday cults often enjoy the backing of planetary governments- 
  and those governments are rarely short of men and women suitable 
  for rough work. These agents usually share the burning hatreds of 
  their fellows, but they’ve been trained to focus on the task at hand, 
  and mask their righteous zeal behind a false innocence.
  Cult Soldier
  Armor Class 5 (CFU)
  No. Appearing 1-6
  Hit Dice 2
  Saving Throw 14+
  Attack Bonus +4
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d10 laser rifle
  Morale 9
  Skill Bonus +1
  These cultists are equipped with cutting-edge hardware, often 
  with prototype gear developed as part of the weapons program. 
  Most have had the benefit of some degree of professional training 
  combined with a hard-bitten experience in the delivery of pogroms, 
  ethnic cleansing, and other “acts of justice”.
  Demagogue
  Armor Class 7 (Armored Undersuit)
  No. Appearing 1
  Hit Dice 6
  Saving Throw 12+
  Attack Bonus +4
  Movement 30’
  Damage 2d6 thermal pistol
  Morale 10
  Skill Bonus +4
  The soul of a cult of hate, these fiery speakers keep the cult's laborers 
  at a pitch of fever-hot violence. While unremarkable in terms of 
  personal prowess, they have a near-hypnotic capacity to persuade 
  and inflame others.
  
  67
  Maltech Cult Theme Tags
  It can occasionally be useful to mark out a cult with some strong thematic trait or characteristic. The following theme tags can be used to 
  add flavor to a cult and provide hints as to suitable antagonists or sympathetic victims. The friends, enemies, places, things, and complica-
  tions given under each theme tag can be used as-is as part of adventure development or used as seeds for your own sinister plotting. Certain 
  tags are more naturally suitable for certain types of cults, but all of them can serve to help jump-start a GM's creativity when it comes time 
  to brew up malefactors. Giving each cult one or two tags is usually ample to give a GM grist for their dark schemes. Optionally, the GM 
  might choose to use them as world tags, simply substituting “society” or “the government” in place of the cult.
  1d6
  1d12
  theme tAg
  1d6
  1d12
  theme tAg
  1d6
  1d12 theme tAg
  1-2
  1
  Alien Influence
  3-4
  1
  Hated Foe
  5-6
  1
  Psychic Armageddon
  2
  Ancient Evil
  2
  High Energy Doom
  2
  Religious Zeal
  3
  Biological Blight
  3
  Lost Glory
  3
  Robot Legion
  4
  Contagious Tech
  4
  Lost Weapon
  4
  Smooth Facade
  5
  Cornucopiast
  5
  Machiavelli
  5
  Threat Display
  6
  Deep Insinuation
  6
  Machine Meld
  6
  Tool of Dominion
  7
  Deus Ex Machina
  7
  Memetic Hack
  7
  Tormenting Mind
  8
  Eldritch Tech
  8
  Mercenaries
  8
  Totemic Beast
  9
  Enlightened Masters
  9
  Midas Mind
  9
  Unearthed
  10
  Fall From Grace
  10
  Multiple Minds
  10
  Unseen Master
  11
  Gray Goo
  11
  Non-Military Use
  11
  Unwilling Deity
  12
  Harvesters
  12
  Partial Success
  12
  Vice Lords
  Alien influenCe
  The cult is the product of an alien species, one that was either directly responsible for its formation or one that is assisting the cult in 
  its current plans. The aliens might find the cult to be a useful catspaw against the humans, or they might simply have such an esoteric 
  psychology or set of social values that what the cult is doing is viewed as genuinely noble work. Cult technology usually borrows heavily 
  from the aliens, and some of it may operate on principles completely incomprehensible to human minds.
  Friends
  Xenosociologist researcher, Human slave of the aliens, Victim of alien atrocities
  Enemies
  Worshipper of alien ways, Sinister alien mastermind, Minion controlled by alien tech
  Complications
  The alien tech is affecting non-cultist civilians, The aliens actually think they’re acting benevolently, The aliens 
  have a deeply seductive culture
  Things
  Remarkable alien technology, Alien sacred text laying out their plans, Database of plans for using human tech to 
  create alien artifacts
  Places
  Building modeled on alien architecture, Zone with environment hostile to humans, Human celebration of alien 
  culture
  AnCient evil
  The cult's roots date back before the Scream. It may have been driven underground or temporarily suspended during the chaos that 
  followed, but its leaders can trace an unbroken line of succession to their forebears of the late Second Wave. These cults are usually 
  intimately interwoven with the history and culture of their homeworld, and some are open secrets to the populace. Many also retain 
  remarkable amounts of technical data on pretech science, even if their original artifacts may have long since worn out.
  Friends
  Historical researcher, Unwilling heir to a cult role, Social reformer trying to root out the cult
  Enemies
  Ancient mastermind with pretech longevity nanites, Zealous cult templar, Pretech war drone
  Complications
  The cult controls pretech installations vital for the planet's survival, Only the cult knows how to repair some 
  crucial pretech artifact, The cult has unshakable legitimacy with the planet's public
  Things
  Ancient pretech artifact, Pretech longevity nanites, Pretech nanofabber
  Places
  Ancient corridors of sterile white walls, Revivification chamber where longevity nanites are replenished, Installa-
  tion worn and decayed with centuries of use
  
  68
  biologiCAl blight
  Whatever sinister plans the cult intends to execute rely heavily on biotechnology. Doomsday cults might be scheming to produce a 
  killer virus keyed to their enemies, while godminds might be experimenting with cyborg technology and eugenics cults might have a 
  predictable devotion to flesh and bone. Many maltech cults cheerfully experiment beyond the endurance of flesh and bone, content to 
  spend human lives to gain the secrets they crave.
  Friends
  Escaped experimental subject, Government epidemiologist, Renegade mutant
  Enemies
  Biosculpted seducers, Gengineered war beasts, Masterminds grown into hideous "superior" forms
  Complications
  The cult has a facade as a well-loved medical center, The bioweapon appears to be a harmless improvement, The 
  biotech has become sentient and hostile
  Things
  Precious medical data obtained from atrocities, Vial of incredibly potent plague, Remarkably effective medical 
  tech
  Places
  Lab full of caged subjects, Vivisection room, Creche full of modified infants
  ContAgious teCh
  Whatever science is involved in the cult’s plans is dangerously prone to uncontrolled replication. Whether nanites, biological agents, 
  or strange catalytic energy reactions this technology is only partially under the control of the cult, and prone to running wild before it 
  dies out or is contained. For some cults, this contagion may be the actual point of the technology, and their only goal is to avoid being 
  destroyed by it until they can perfect its replication.
  Friends
  Environmental monitoring official, Former cult engineer, Victim of a breakout
  Enemies
  Monomaniacal researcher, Cult terrorist plotting an outbreak, Creature hideously altered by the contagion
  Complications
  The contagion spreads undetectably until it goes off, The contagion appears harmless or beneficial at first, The 
  contagion leaves valuable byproducts in its wake
  Things
  Advanced replication tech database, Long-lost pretech prototype, Cure for the replication
  Places
  Burnt-over zone destroyed by the contagion, Laboratory on sudden lockdown, Panicked city in the grip of a 
  runaway plague
  CornuCoPiAst
  The cult is convinced that their particular purpose will lead humanity into a future of unrestrained abundance. Whether through 
  nanoreplicators, biological production systems, or the perfect planning of a godmind, any present sacrifice is but a prelude to never-
  ending plenty for all.
  Friends
  Person considered a "necessary sacrifice" by the cult, Survivor of an "unfortunate accident", Disillusioned cult 
  scientist
  Enemies
  Zealous social reformer, Scientist blinded by idealism, Poverty-scarred cultist who will stop at nothing
  Complications
  The cult is the backbone of the local economy, The cult is considered harmless or beneficial by locals, The cult has 
  major support among the local poor
  Things
  Cult-produced goods, Charitable donations for the cause, Hyper-efficient manufacturing plans
  Places
  A grim slum touched by cult improvements, A local charitable organization, Site of a cult "accident"
  deeP insinuAtion
  The cult has its tendrils woven deeply into the fabric of local society. Whether or not it's openly known to the locals, its beliefs, values, 
  and goals have long since insinuated themselves into the daily life of the inhabitants.
  Friends
  Stubborn social innovator, Reformer touched by outside ideas, Local suffering from a cult-inspired tradition
  Enemies
  Local cultural figure, Cult manipulator, Xenophobic traditionalist
  Complications
  The cult's ideas are being evangelized by the locals, The cult's values are hidden from outsiders, The crueler 
  traditions are jealously enforced by those who suffer most from them
  Things
  Proof of societal manipulation, Relic of the time before the cult's influence, Precious item crafted in tribute to the 
  cult's ideals
  Places
  Local festival celebrating a cult ideal, Intellectual salon with zealous philosophers, Exhibited atrocity casually 
  accepted by the locals
  
  69
  deus ex mAChinA
  Most common in godmind cults, the focus of the cult is worshipped as an actual divinity. Godminds are natural subjects for such 
  reverence, but the perfected leader of a maltech cult or the enlightened exemplar of some murderous faith might receive such worship as 
  well. The object of worship may or may not actually believe it is a god.
  Friends
  Apostate believer, Clergy of a rival faith, Schismatic believing a slightly different faith
  Enemies
  Fanatical worshipper, "Devout" cold-blooded manipulator, Inquisitor to purge the heretic
  Complications
  Only the inner faithful know the real object of their worship, The cult is very popular with the elite, The cult has 
  subverted another older religion
  Things
  Jeweled religious relic, Proof of the mortality of the "god", Holy hyper-advanced tech
  Places
  Refurbished temple, Religious street festival, Social service operated by the faith
  eldritCh teCh
  Every maltech cult produces more or less exotic tech, but the products of this cabal operate by totally incomprehensible principles. The 
  godmind or alien genius behind the cult manufactures devices that seem to operate as if by magic, ones that cannot be reverse-engineered 
  or otherwise replicated.
  Friends
  Baffled scientific researcher, Collector of rare curiosities, Victim of the tech's side-effects
  Enemies
  Ruthless exploiter of the tech, Keeper charged with keeping the tech out of outside hands, Insane researcher
  Complications
  The tech looks normal until activated, The tech has horrific side effects, The tech is exceedingly illegal in the region
  Things
  Device that does something seemingly impossible, Device that works amazingly well, Research notes on the tech
  Places
  Lab full of incomprehensible gear, Factory with bizarre tools, Private display room with the tech
  enlightened mAsters
  The human leaders of the cult no longer fit the general concept of "human". Either through cybernetic implants, biological manipula-
  tion, or neural rewiring, they no longer share the same values and perceptions as human beings. Their goals are the cult's goals, and 
  nothing else matters.
  Friends
  Escaped subject due for "enlightenment" surgery, Former lover of a master, Apostate cultist who knows the terrible 
  truth
  Enemies
  Monstrous once-human minion of the masters, Master surgeon for the cult, Cult cybernetics researcher
  Complications
  The process is thought to be entirely positive by cultists, The masters are too horrific to be seen by others, The 
  masters hate the sacrifice they were forced to make
  Things
  "Cure" for the alteration, Proof of the awful truth of the process, Human treasures no longer wanted by the leaders
  Places
  Living suite designed for the masters, Cage for human components of the masters' plans, Charnel pit for failed 
  masters
   
  fAll from grACe
  Once the cult had better ambitions than it does now. Its tech was clean and licit, its goals were well-intentioned, and it was a respected 
  organization. The lure of maltech seduced it, though, and those days are only a memory within the cult. The outside world may not yet 
  have caught on.
  Friends
  Disquieted patron of the cult, Investigative reporter, Angry cult reformer
  Enemies
  New and ruthless mastermind, Outside corruptor, Amoral cult official
  Complications
  Factions are fighting within the cult, Outsiders still think the cult is licit, The cult accomplished its first goal and 
  then went on to this
  Things
  Relic of better days, Proof that the cult leadership is leading the others astray, Neglected cult holding
  Places
  Monument commemorating past glory, New cult rally, Home of a disillusioned former leader
  
  70
  grAy goo
  While the uncontrollable replication of nanites into a world-consuming "gray goo" is beyond the capacity of conventional nanorep-
  licants, the cult still uses nanotechnology as a weapon. Lethal aerosols, unseen assassins, and the quick construction of objects are all 
  possible tools of the cult.
  Friends
  Nanite researcher with second thoughts, Police investigator on a murder case, Victim of a replication accident
  Enemies
  Reckless scientist, Assassin seeking the perfect tool, Arms dealer
  Complications
  Cultists are working to make the nanites into a planet-killer, The nanites are all pretech-era Dust technology, The 
  nanites are repurposed civilian pretech
  Things
  Unkeyed nanites ready for use, Nanofac capable of making more, Pretech nanite research
  Places
  Nanite-seared waste, Morgue with seemingly unharmed victims, Chamber of ever-shifting objects
  hArvesters
  The cult has need for more humans than they can conveniently recruit voluntarily. Instead, they breed them like cattle or kidnap them 
  en masse. Some cults prefer to use traditional methods, while others rely on artificial wombs or exotic pretech growth vats. Such human 
  livestock is often treated as little more than ambulatory spare parts by the cult.
  Friends
  Escaped victim, Subject trying to save their family, Investigative reporter
  Enemies
  Soulless harvester, Brainwashed victim, Cultist reliant on "parts"
  Complications
  The victims are conditioned to believe their lot is a good one, The victims are taken from scorned and marginalized 
  populations, The herding is disguised as a charitable effort
  Things
  Precious memento of a dead victim, Advanced reproductive tech, Human-derived biochemical extracts
  Places
  Cell blocks, Harvesting lab, Creche full of infants
  hAted foe
  The cult has a specific ethnicity, religion, nationality, or organization that it despises above all others. Members of this hated group will be 
  preferenced as targets whenever possible, and "just punishment" is levied on them with ruthless zeal. In many cases, the cult will willingly 
  forego its best interests if it gives an opportunity to inflict suffering upon their despised enemy.
  Friends
  Innocent victim of hate, Local peacemaker, Reformed cultist
  Enemies
  Rabble-rousing demagogue, Traitor within the group, Profit-seeking pogromchik
  Complications
  The cult blames the whole group for the actions of a few, The cult has widespread popular support in their hate, 
  The hated group is dominant on the world
  Things
  Stolen property, Relic of an ancient wrong, Plague keyed to the hated group
  Places
  Pilgrimage site of an old crime, Hate rally, Crime scene
  high energy doom
  The cult relies heavily on energy manipulation technology of a particular flavor. Whether gravitic manipulation, lasers, sonics, or force 
  fields, some particular tech is a trademark of the cult's engineering. They may control extensive research holdings related to the tech, or 
  they may simply have lifted it from an abandoned pretech cache or alien ruin.
  Friends
  Curious researcher, Voracious collector, Original inventor of the tech
  Enemies
  Crazed scientist, Mook with a toy bigger than he is, Outsider using the tech for his own ends
  Complications
  The tech has dangerous side effects, The tech requires human parts or other morally dubious ingredients, The tech 
  is alien in derivation
  Things
  The tech itself, Research data on its construction, A one-off prototype that could not be reproduced
  Places
  Lab crackling with strange energies, Testing area for the tech, Area made habitable by the tech
  
  71
  lost glory
  The cult may still be a powerful force in the sector, but it's only a shadow of what it once was. Decades or centuries ago, it was an 
  overwhelming force in the region and its ideals were common currency on dozens of worlds. Something happened to beat it back into 
  this small remnant, and it nurses old dreams of revenge.
  Friends
  Avid historian, Ancestral enemy of the cult, Heir to lost cult secrets
  Enemies
  Villain freshly out of stasis, Aspiring rebuilder of the cult, Manipulator seeking to use the cult's dreams for his 
  own ends
  Complications
  The cult was closely entwined with a regional hegemon, The cult was originally benign and turned to maltech after 
  the fall, People dismiss the cult's evil and remember only its glory
  Things
  Ancient tribute, Relic of the glory days, Funds gathered for the resurgence
  Places
  Crumbling monument, Dusty long-lost council chamber, Ruined palace
  lost weAPon
  Somewhere, the cult has laid hands upon some substantial store of pretech or lost alien technology, and they are using it as a weapon 
  against their foes. The devices were almost certainly intended for different purposes but remain quite sufficient for their new ends. Some 
  such tech is very difficult to repair or maintain, and caution may lead the cult to rationing its use as much as possible.
  Friends
  Robbed xenoarchaeologist, Former guardian of the cache, Panicked scientist
  Enemies
  Reckless zealot, Technician obsessed with replicating it, Cold-eyed military leader
  Complications
  The technology's effect is benign unless misused, The technology requires Mandate activation codes, The technol-
  ogy is just a hint of a larger supply
  Things
  The tech itself, A device that protects against it, Self-destruct codes for the tech
  Places
  Plundered pretech vault, Scorched battlefield, Ravaged alien temple
  mAChiAvelli
  Whatever power motivates the cult has an uncanny talent for political manipulation. Some technology, tradition or training has left 
  them and their members remarkably adroit at managing political leaders and directing governments to do as they will. They will prefer 
  such chicanery to open displays of force.
  Friends
  Local political reformer, Clean politician, Victim of their intrigues
  Enemies
  Corrupt political boss, Populist demagogue, Master blackmailer
  Complications
  The cult is prone to internal factionalism and politics, The cult has a huge supply of blackmail material, The cult 
  uses technological aids in convincing others
  Things
  Dirty secrets file, Bribery money for politicians, Evidence of corruption
  Places
  Smoke-filled room, Private office, Election office
  mAChine meld
  The cult is exceedingly enthusiastic about cybernetic enhancement, and has likely expended a great deal of resources toward making such 
  augmentations common among their followers. Some of this tech might be substantially in advance of other postech cyberware, though 
  it usually lacks anything resembling safety.
  Friends
  Bitter unwilling cyborg, Concerned medical researcher, Escaped test subject
  Enemies
  Amoral experimenter, Crazed cyber-hulk, Desperate hardware addict
  Complications
  The cult cyber is alien in origin, The cyber is lethal over the long term, The cyber is used as a control method for 
  the cultists
  Things
  The cyber itself, Valuable pretech medical tools, Schemata of advanced hardware
  Places
  A bloodied operating theater, Storeroom of metallic body parts, Vats where recuperating patients float
  
  72
  memetiC hACK
  The cult has mastered some esoteric combination of aerosols, microbes, infrasonics, light patterns, and neurotechnology that make their 
  essential ideals remarkably seductive to outsiders. Without the right precautions, the cult's ideals are literally contagious if victims are 
  exposed to both the message and the mind-control tech.
  Friends
  Recovering victim, Anguished family member, Old friend caught by the hack
  Enemies
  Zealous meme vector, Scheming neuroscientist, Advertising executive
  Complications
  The suggestibility enhancers only work on natives of one planet, The meme is a perversion of the local religious 
  beliefs, The enhancers inflict serious neural damage
  Things
  Antidote to the enhancers, Improved and more effective enhancers, List of human cult vectors
  Places
  Sporting event dosed with the enhancers, Private cult celebration, Public advertising blitz
  merCenAries
  The cult has its own grand plans and megalomaniacal schemes, but it's perfectly willing to hire out its minions and resources to outside 
  parties. The cult might need the money and favors involved, or they might find it advantageous to be paid to perform the sort of attacks 
  they might otherwise perform of their own choice.
  Friends
  Rival mercenary captain, Victim of their depredations, Someone needing their own mercs
  Enemies
  Amoral businessman employer, Ruthless tyrant, Sinister cult merc leader
  Complications
  The cultists are greatly respected mercs for their loyalty to their contracts, The cultists infiltrated a seemingly 
  unrelated merc unit, The cultists doing merc jobs are growing apart from the others in the group
  Things
  A job's payroll, Restricted military tech, Plans for a merc offensive
  Places
  Scorched battlefield, Grim military camp, Shanties and tents of camp followers
  midAs mind
  Whatever their other resources, the cult has a genius for making money. Perhaps they have ties with the planetary treasury, or their 
  godmind can predict markets flawlessly, or their biological experiments excrete rare and precious drugs. Whatever the specifics, this cult 
  has a great deal of cash to spread around.
  Friends
  Merchant driven from business, Suspicious journalist, Tax auditor
  Enemies
  Banking front man, Cult treasurer, Bought-off official
  Complications
  The wealth is fiat credits and only valuable on the cult's homeworld, The wealth comes at the expense of rich 
  locals, The cult is popular with the poor for their charity
  Things
  Stacks of cash, Secret bank account access codes, Supplies of the cult's precious commodity
  Places
  Bustling financial office, Cult social program institution, Cult-owned bank
  multiPle minds
  The cult leadership is of violently divided mind. A godmind might have a fractured identity, or a ruling council might have several 
  strongly opposed factions. All the elements agree on the general direction of the cult's efforts, but they are bitterly divided over how best 
  to get there.
  Friends
  Treacherous cult faction member, Puzzled outside analyst, Survivor of faction purge
  Enemies
  "Friend" turned traitor for a faction, False cult reformer, Faction zealot
  Complications
  One of the factions actually wants to abandon maltech, Both factions are willing to deniably assassinate each 
  other, One faction is losing and desperate to weaken the other
  Things
  List identifying a faction's members, Secret funds kept off the cult's books, Proof that one faction has betrayed 
  the cult
  Places
  A tense meeting room, A divided common area where groups don't mingle, A monument with ownership dis-
  puted by the factions
  
  73
  non-militAry use
  The cult is largely open about what they're doing, but they've convinced almost all of the outside world that their research is entirely licit 
  and for peaceful, beneficial uses. The true horror of what they are doing is either hidden or done to someone the general public doesn't 
  care about.
  Friends
  Anti-maltech campaigner, Victim of their "peaceful research", Cult informer
  Enemies
  Willfully blind politician, Bribed inspector, Cult "silencer"
  Complications
  The tech really was originally licit but now is no longer, The local government is working with the cult to hide the 
  truth, Most of the cult is deluded and only the leaders know the truth
  Things
  Proof of the cult's maltech use, Bribe money meant for inspectors, Hidden forbidden tech
  Places
  A meticulously licit laboratory, A civilian tech test site, A hidden research lab
  PArtiAl suCCess
  The cult is distressingly close to accomplishing their ultimate purpose, or has gotten very near it before being pushed back. Godminds 
  are nearing metastasis, eugenics cults are on the cusp of mass slave breeding, doomsday devices are functional on a small scale... things 
  are nearing the end. Something crucial stands in the way of complete success.
  Friends
  Hard-bitten crusader against the cult, Witness to their near success, Last survivor of the team that stopped them
  Enemies
  Frustrated cult leader, Zealous adherent, Recklessly overconfident cultist
  Complications
  The cult is actually deluded about the nearness of success, Some cult leaders would rather postpone victory for a 
  while, Cult allies are waking up to the impending disaster
  Things
  The key to their ultimate victory, Proof of their plans, The secret weakness of their schemes
  Places
  Chamber pulsing with godmind hardware, Huge slave breeding complex, Room full of thrumming doomsday 
  gear
  PsyChiC ArmAgeddon
  The cult contains a large contingent of remarkably powerful psychics, and they use these men and women to advance their larger goal. 
  The cult may have access to psychic mentor training, or they may simply have a sizable number of feral burnouts with insanities compat-
  ible with their larger purposes. Other cults may have less powerful minds, but compensate with ancient psitech boosters.
  Friends
  Psitech researcher, Psychic academy official, Anti-psychic witch hunter
  Enemies
  Feral psychic, Psitech-boosted minion, Amoral experimenter
  Complications
  The cult has developed new disciplines, The cult psychics are enslaved or coerced, The cult has the facade of a 
  respectable academy
  Things
  Ancient psitech booster, Device that functions as a psychic mentor, Cache of telepath-obtained blackmail
  Places
  Vaulted contemplation chamber, Esoteric psitech lab, Room reached only by teleporting
  religious zeAl
  The cult is driven by religious motivations, blending their ambition with the blessings of an important local faith. They are convinced 
  they do God's work in their plans, and they will not stand for any interference with the work. Local co-religionists may view them kindly, 
  but some may yet consider them to be a dangerous heresy that has hijacked their religion.
  Friends
  Clergy of the religion, Secular official, Apostate from the faith
  Enemies
  Zealous preacher, Subverted religious leader, Populist social worker
  Complications
  The cult controls the religion's traditional hierarchy, The cult is considered heretical by most locals, The cult is a 
  minority but holds important holy items or places
  Things
  Sacred relics, Proof that the cult is heretical, Offerings from the faithful
  Places
  Ancient church, Religious rally, Isolated hermitage
  
  74
  robot legion
  The cult tends to rely on vast numbers of robot drones for its work. Godminds and conventional AIs can control any number of 
  these drones when supported by enough hardware, while other cults simply rely on non-sentient expert systems and remote control 
  by humans. Cults that make heavy use of robotic armatures sometimes have difficult when operating off of their homeworld, as bots 
  functioning at such a distance require some sort of local control to direct them, either their own onboard expert system or a nearby AI 
  or human handler.
  Friends
  Rebel AI bot wrangler, Suspicious bot manufacturer, Renegade cult bot tech
  Enemies
  Ruthless military AI, Innocuous bot vendor, Secretly subverted bot
  Complications
  The bots are civilian robots subverted from their purpose, The bots were in a lost cache of armatures, Multiple AIs 
  were created to operate clusters of bots
  Things
  A pretech bot chassis, Rebel AI core, Precious bot-produced commodity
  Places
  Factory full of partial bots, Bustling bot worksite, Bay full of rows of military bots
  smooth fACAde
  Whereas a "non-military purposes" cult has fooled the locals into thinking their project is licit, a cult with a smooth facade has convinced 
  the locals that nothing at all untoward is happening. The cult is known locally, but considered an upstanding and harmless institution.
  Friends
  Investigative reporter, Cult renegade, Someone who learned too much
  Enemies
  Cult PR agent, Hired "silencer", Cult blackmailer
  Complications
  The cult godmind appears to be a normal AI, The cult does much genuine good, Only the inner circle knows the 
  cult's true goal
  Things
  Proof of the threat, Bribe money for officials, Forbidden tech
  Places
  Cult-run social institute, Seemingly innocent lab, Building with a hidden purpose
  threAt disPlAy
  The cult is infamous for a device or threatening tech, but they actually have no such thing. Doomsday devices, unstoppable slave legions, 
  a lethal godmind... the cult plays up this dire threat, but in truth they are only struggling to obtain it.
  Friends
  Inquisitive investigator, Member of a misled rival cult, Renegade who knows the truth
  Enemies
  Cultist working the deceit, Outsider who wants to hire or buy the threat, Scientist trying to make the threat real
  Complications
  The cult had the threat once but has since lost it, The cult never really intends to obtain the threat, The cult 
  leadership thinks they have it but have been deceived by minions
  Things
  Device to complete the threat, Proof the cult has no threat, Funds to buy parts
  Places
  Room with a giant ominous device, Map room with nonexistent resources marked, Lab with incomplete device
  tool of dominion
  The cult works to obtain total domination of the surrounding worlds through their machinations, and they have planted multiple agents 
  in political structures throughout the sector. Military conquest is unlikely for so many worlds, but political intrigue has possibilities. The 
  cult likely has produced an elaborate set of rationalizations explaining why such dominion is in the best interests of everyone involved. 
  Friends
  Government investigator, Clean politician being pressured, Conspiracy theorist
  Enemies
  Bribed official, Corrupt military commander, Machiavellian cult handler
  Complications
  The governments think they are using the cult, The cult paints itself as a new enlightened order, The cult is backing 
  rebel cells
  Things
  Evidence of corruption, Bribery money, Blackmail on officials
  Places
  Politician's office, Trans-stellar social organization building, Cult-controlled town
  
  75
  tormenting mind
  For whatever reason, the cult leadership despises its minions and enjoys their suffering. A godmind might be sadistic, a eugenics cult's 
  leadership might be monstrously arrogant, or a doomsday cult might prefer to use its own personnel as test subjects. Cultists are usually 
  blandished in by promises or threats, but once ensnared, they become the luckless victims of their sadistic lords.
  Friends
  Desperate ex-cultist, Cult leader wanting to eliminate an internal threat, Atrocity investigator
  Enemies
  Cult internal security, Cult torturer, Outsider who wants cultists to suffer
  Complications
  The cult leadership finds it spiritually enriching, The godmind hates its cultists, The paranoid leadership constantly 
  sees traitors
  Things
  Dead cultist's belongings, Proof of an atrocity, Stockpiled plunder of the dead
  Places
  Torture chamber, Brutal cult indoctrination complex, Sinister internal security office
  totemiC beAst
  The cult reveres a particular animal or type of animal as emblematic of its cause. The beast is a motif on their equipment and in their 
  philosophies, and they may go so far as to train or augment animals in the cult’s service. A few cults apply experimental eugenic tech 
  to ignite sentience in the beasts, a process that rarely works perfectly or produces an intellect much like a human mind. There are even 
  stories of beasts being altered to accept a human brain.
  Friends
  Owner of a kidnapped pet, Investigating naturalist, Uplifted sentient animal
  Enemies
  Brutal trainer, Feral cult member, Crazed cybertech veterinarian
  Complications
  The beast is an alien creature of some kind, The animals are actually sapient, A local religion reveres the animals 
  as well
  Things
  Trained cub, Guard-beast cyber, Biotech devices to uplift animals
  Places
  Kennel, Arena with human-beast fights, Laboratory full of partially-disassembled animals
  uneArthed
  The cult has been quiescent for decades, or perhaps even centuries. It may have been in cold sleep pods or hidden away in clannish 
  rural areas until recent events triggered its revival. Someone, somewhere, did something to rouse them once more. This awakening may 
  have been the renewal of old hierarchies and ancient customs, or it might have been an actual physical triggering of cold sleep pod 
  revivification procedures.
  Friends
  Local investigator, Archaeologist, Historian searching for their relics
  Enemies
  Ancient master from before the Scream, Deathless AI ruler, Alien decanted from cold sleep
  Complications
  The cult is composed entirely of pre-Scream members in cold sleep, The "cult" is actually the former legitimate 
  government of the world, The cult is actually controlled by an unearthed alien device
  Things
  Keycodes to lost tech cache, Ancient pretech, Secrets lost to the centuries
  Places
  Dusty planetary installation, Recently-uncovered pretech ruin, Redoubt buried in the lunar dust
  unseen mAster
  The seeming leadership of the cult is being puppeted by a different power. They may be innocently assuming that they rule their own 
  choices, but someone is using them for a different agenda. A powerful psychic, an alien being, a godmind masquerading as a sane AI, a 
  secret government bureau... anything could be behind the mask.
  Friends
  Ex-member with suspicions, A cultist who learned too much, Former minion of the true master
  Enemies
  Silencer employed by the real leader, Blind and zealous cultist, Bribed cult leader
  Complications
  The cult doesn't even realize it's using maltech, The cult has heavy government protection, The entire unseen 
  master dodge is a false lead and the cult is really run by a Machiavellian cult leader
  Things
  Hush money, Proof of the hidden connection, Alien tech being used to control the leadership
  Places
  Hidden control room, Concealed archive chamber, Smoky cafe with a clandestine meeting
  
  76
  unwilling deity
  Whatever power is ostensibly controlling the cult is actually violently opposed to its goals. It is being coerced to use its abilities to benefit 
  the cult's ultimate purpose, and will take any opportunity to betray or destroy its erstwhile servants.
  Friends
  The cult leader, A cultist loyal to it, A spy who has realized the truth
  Enemies
  Cult "advisor", Cult guardian of the leader, Lieutenant who "knows best"
  Complications
  The leader is an AI trying to stop itself from becoming a godmind, The leader is a precognitive being forced to 
  guide them, The leader is pretending to go along
  Things
  Key to freeing the leader, Funds intended to help the leader escape, Blackmail on the leader
  Places
  An audience chamber with barred windows, Public speech surrounded by guards, Starkly austere private chambers
  viCe lords
  The cult influences many with pleasures and debauches otherwise unavailable to its adherents. Eugenics cults can grow more-than-perfect 
  companions, godminds can resurrect dead loved ones in virtual reality, and doomsday cults can finance sins that only governments can 
  afford.
  Friends
  Spurned lover, Anti-trafficking crusader, Outraged social conservative
  Enemies
  Addicted official, Beautiful seducer-assassin, Drug kingpin
  Complications
  The cult practically owns vice commerce on its homeworld, The cult has mainstreamed terrible practices at home, 
  The cult has subverted a local religion to bless its acts
  Things
  Exotic drugs, Pleasure bots, Experimental nerve stimulants
  Places
  Decadent salon, Brothel full of the desperate, "Opium" den lined with the unconscious
  
  77
  trAdeCrAft
  building And running esPionAge Adventures
  Building adventures for an espionage campaign can be a particular 
  challenge for a GM. Adventures for this genre tend to involve 
  complicated schemes, hidden intrigues, and a lack of obvious initial 
  antagonists for the PCs. It can sometimes even be difficult for play-
  ers to figure out whether or not they actually getting anywhere with 
  their actions and investigative choices. PCs who decide to explore 
  an alien ruin or take out a brutal planetary warlord can usually tell 
  whether or not they're advancing their purpose, but secret agents 
  attempting to unravel a court intrigue often spend the bulk of the 
  adventure simply trying to identify the ultimate malefactor.
  Building these adventures becomes much easier if a GM puts aside 
  some of the usual expectations of a sandbox game. Just like any 
  other tool, there's a time to build for maximal PC freedom and a 
  time to structure the experience a little more tightly. For best results 
  in intrigue and sinister conspiracies, it's sometimes necessary to 
  work towards a more structured and tightly-plotted adventure.
  Fresh Expectations
  In espionage campaigns, PCs are usually members of some larger 
  intelligence organization. They are assigned missions and given 
  objectives, and while they may have a great deal of discretion as 
  to how they accomplish these ends, they don't have the liberty to 
  ignore them. In theory, a group of PCs could decide to go rogue 
  and leave their agency behind, but if their players have all decided 
  to play an espionage campaign in the first place they're unlikely to 
  suddenly decide to abandon a central conceit of the genre.
  The sandbox freedom of a group of PCs takes place at a different 
  level than that of an individual adventure. The players ultimately 
  decide the priorities and goals of their agency in coordination 
  with each other. They decide what rivals they plan to engage, what 
  resources they want to obtain, and what hostile schemes they wish 
  to personally confront. Players should have the maximum amount 
  of freedom possible at this level to move the game in the direction 
  they find most interesting and fun.
  Once they embark upon a specific mission, however, this high level 
  of thematic freedom needs to be adjusted to fit the needs of the 
  adventure. Most players are not professional espionage agents, and 
  throwing them into an alien city and telling them to find a hidden 
  mastermind is unlikely to result in the PCs immediately under-
  standing how best to go about the job. They need hooks, leads, 
  comprehensible clues, and events which clearly indicate that they're 
  getting somewhere. Unlike most conventional adventures for Stars 
  Without Number, there is a very clear "failure state" for the mission: 
  an ally is assassinated, a precious object is stolen, a mole escapes 
  with agency secrets, or some other victory is claimed by an enemy. 
  Players will naturally tend to focus on preventing this failure state, 
  and will become frustrated if there seems to be no clear action they 
  can take to hinder it.
  Some players and GMs will find this a hard transition. The idea of 
  an adventure built to encourage experiencing specific scenes and 
  to resolve to a particular type of climax can be anathema to these 
  people, something suggestive of "railroading" that really has no 
  fit with the rest of Stars Without Number. These concerns are not 
  trivial, and it's true that a tightly-plotted adventure runs the risk 
  of putting the group on rails to chug forward regardless of their 
  choices and desires.
  For these people, it's important to point out that classic sandbox 
  freedom exists in an espionage campaign. It's simply that it exists 
  at a different level. Instead of directing the course of the game with 
  the choice of places to go and personal goals to accomplish, the 
  players direct it at the level of the agency. They're responsible for 
  shaping the organization's goals and dealing with the challenges 
  that come before them. Individual missions may be more restrictive 
  than a freebooting charge off into interstellar wilderness, but these 
  missions happen because the group chooses to make them happen. 
  There's nothing obligating them to deal with the Brotherhood of 
  the New Man's ascension pits if they'd rather try to steal the master 
  encryption key of the state security apparatus of a xenophobic 
  neighbor.
  Once they make their choice, then the situation needs to tighten 
  up for the sake of the GM. Espionage plots simply aren't as easy 
  to improvise as traditional exploration or combat adventures, and 
  the GM can be expected to need the additional structure in order 
  to support the right feel of secrecy, sophistication, and diabolical 
  intrigue.
  Selecting an Antagonist
  For any given adventure, the GM will probably want to start 
  by choosing the antagonist. In most cases, this is going to be an 
  enemy cabal or rival agency, though some events are provoked by 
  an unaffiliated NPC with their own diabolical schemes. In many 
  cases the cabal in question will be obvious because the adventure 
  has stemmed from the players' decision to personally handle an 
  agency-level attack on their organization. At other times, you'll be 
  using your own discretion to pick an apt enemy.
  Choosing the antagonist first allows you to tailor the specifics of the 
  adventure to that cabal's favored modus operandi and particular 
  style. It also provides a few obvious hints as to what kind of pur-
  poses the antagonist might be trying to accomplish.
  Picking a Target
  In some cases, the target will be relatively obvious, because the 
  adventure is expressing an agency-level attack on some element of 
  the PCs' employing agency. In other cases, you'll need to pick a 
  particular NPC, object, or element to focus the antagonist's inter-
  est. When selecting NPC targets, it's almost always preferable to 
  pick someone the PCs know. For objects, it's best to pick something 
  of obvious value, such as the personnel files of certain deep-cover 
  
  78
  agents or a cache of vital Perimeter pretech. If you need to explain 
  why something is worth stealing, it's going to weaken the drama 
  of the theft. By the same token, when choosing agency elements 
  to target, try to pick ones that have been important to earlier PC 
  operations.
  Choosing a Goal
  Once you have both an antagonist and a target, you can choose 
  a goal. For a person, perhaps the antagonist wants to assassinate 
  them, or they might mean to subvert them to their ends, or it could 
  be that they have value as a kidnap victim. For an object, they might 
  want to destroy it or steal it. Agency elements might be sought for 
  sabotage, or for the infiltration of a mole into the department's staff.
  The six major types of goals are Assassination, Infiltration, Kidnap-
  ping, Sabotage, Subversion, and Theft. In some cases the goal will 
  be obvious based on the target, but in others you might want to 
  randomly select it. Occasionally, you might avoid picking a target 
  until after you roll a goal, letting the dice give inspiration as to the 
  kind of adventure to prepare.
  Selecting a Method
  Now that you know the antagonist, the goal, and the target, you 
  need to decide how exactly they mean to accomplish their end. 
  Each goal has its own table of methods, covering the varying ways 
  in which the antagonist might make their attempt. You can pick 
  from these tables, use your own inspiration, or roll randomly.
  Methods should be general, rather than specifying exact steps and 
  schemes. You want to leave yourself flexibility at this stage, the better 
  to fit in the complexities expected of an espionage adventure. Of 
  course, if you can generate a full-scale adventure from just the pieces 
  you've selected thus far, your inspiration should be all you need. In 
  most cases, however, you'll make your job easier by generating a few 
  more elements.
  Building the Schemes
  You have an antagonist, a goal, and a method by which he or she 
  means to reach the target. Now you need to flesh out the specifics of 
  the method, and decide how the antagonist is planning to overcome 
  the obstacles before their sinister ambitions. For purposes of this 
  chapter, the basic element of an espionage adventure is the scheme. 
  A scheme is composed of an obstacle the antagonist must overcome 
  and the means by which he overcomes it.
  Schemes need not be elaborate confections of deceit and ambition. 
  They can be very simple, practical problems, such as "How does the 
  eugenic cult get their kidnapped experimental subjects offworld?" 
  Indeed, most grand plots are composed of several schemes, all re-
  volving around solving particular obstacles that lie before the plot's 
  ultimate purpose.
  Most adventures should contain at least three schemes, each one 
  intended to overcome a specific obstacle. Each goal has a list of 
  potential obstacles appropriate to that kind of goal, and a GM 
  strapped for ideas can either roll randomly or pick from the list to 
  select a few of the more pressing problems that the antagonist needs 
  to overcome in order to reach their goal. The plan might involve 
  more than this, but these few obstacles are the ones most vulnerable 
  to PC interference and discovery. They're the weak points in the 
  plan, and the rest of the plot can be assumed to take place offscreen.
  With the obstacles in hand, now choose the NPCs or methods by 
  which the antagonist means to overcome them. Each goal includes 
  a list of NPC types that fit the goal and who might be useful in 
  overcoming common obstacles to it. You can pick from the list, roll 
  randomly, or insert NPCs of your own creation. Figures that have 
  turned up in prior adventures are always good choices.
  In most cases, the means by which these NPCs will overcome the 
  obstacle are fairly obvious. If the obstacle is "obtain false identifica-
  tion", then the forger NPC's role doesn't require much explanation. 
  Sometimes it can be interesting to let a random roll dictate the most 
  useful NPC. It may be that the antagonist didn't have a minion 
  perfectly suited to the job, and so they had to use the next best 
  subject for their plans.
  Turning Schemes into Scenes
  You now have a selection of schemes that cover the vital obstacles 
  that stand between the antagonist and their sinister ambitions. Your 
  next job is to convert each scheme into a scene that the PCs can 
  experience. For some schemes, this may be a simple interrogation, 
  such as the grilling a vehicle mechanic gets when the PCs discover 
  that the gravcar he was servicing was sabotaged. For others, this 
  could be an elaborate chase or combat scene as the agents try to stop 
  a gang of cult zealots from escaping with a captured ally.
  Every scene should have at least one lead embedded in it, one that 
  the PCs are almost guaranteed to get if they navigate the scene's 
  challenges. This clue should be clear and unambiguous, pointing 
  the players toward another scene of the adventure. If there is more 
  than one lead, one of them might be a red herring or it may point 
  toward a scene that is unnecessary or dangerous for the group. Still, 
  even false leads need to give the players a clear direction forward.
  Leads should also be fair. If you include red herrings or deceptive 
  leads, there should be some logical way that the PCs can determine 
  that it's a false trail. Giving groups two routes forward of appar-
  ently equivalent value is fine if both of them really do lead to useful 
  scenes, but if you start larding things with dead ends the players 
  need to have something more than blind good luck in guessing to 
  guide their judgment.
  In order to get a lead, however, the PCs need to overcome a chal-
  lenge. This might be a sharp session of interrogation, or a bar brawl, 
  or a sudden trap, or a dinner party that requires exquisitely precise 
  etiquette. Whatever it is, it needs to be overcome or navigated before 
  the players can get at the lead. Challenges that can be overcome 
  with a single skill roll are generally a bad idea, as it reduces the 
  involvement of the player's own judgment and creativity.
  Of course, even the best agents are going to find themselves stymied 
  at times, and that's why every scene needs a failsafe as well. This is 
  some plot mechanism by which you can absolutely ensure that they 
  get the vital clue of the scene, whether by some ally's investigation, 
  dumb luck, or an enemy's misstep. If the PCs botch the challenge 
  
  79
  and can't overcome the situation, you can pull the failsafe and get 
  them the clue all the same.
  Pulling the failsafe should always come with some distinct negative 
  consequence. Perhaps the ally who gets them the clue has gone too 
  deep, and is killed or captured. Perhaps the bungling minion who 
  let a fact slip is executed and replaced with a dangerously competent 
  successor. It could be the players get a black mark with the agency, 
  and will find their next resource request shelved in favor of more 
  efficient agents. The PCs should take a penalty for not overcoming 
  the challenge, but the penalty should always leave them room to 
  keep moving ahead with their mission.
  Be aware that when you actually run the game, PCs might well end 
  up involved in more than one scene at once. If the challenge in one 
  scene is the sort that can be overcome over a course of hours or days, 
  the PCs might turn their attention to a different lead for a time, or 
  use a different lead as part of their solution to the prior obstacle. 
  It's not necessary for you to keep each scene tightly sealed against 
  outside influence. They're simply an organizational tool for your 
  planning, one meant to help you get the plot's elements straight 
  during the creation process.
  Tying It All Together
  You have a scene for every scheme, the NPCs are chosen and fleshed 
  out, and the clues are picked to weave the scenes together. Now 
  you need a climax for the adventure, the scene the PCs enter once 
  they've gotten a critical number of clues.
  Climaxes have their own challenges, just like any other scene. In 
  many cases, the challenge will be one of combat as the PCs try to 
  kill or capture the antagonist before he can escape their tender at-
  tentions or carry out whatever nefarious plan he's been attempting. 
  In other cases, the challenge might be in reaching some protected or 
  distant location before the antagonist can rendezvous with his allies 
  or get offworld. Some challenges might be social in nature, trying to 
  convince a group that the antagonist really is culpable for the recent 
  terrible events.
  For some plot structures, it can be hard to come up with an easy 
  climax. If the early scenes of a plot dismantle a scheme and render it 
  impossible for the antagonist to succeed, the climax can hardly con-
  sist of the launch of a doomed effort unless the antagonist is some 
  sort of fanatic or mind-controlled slave. In cases where the PCs have 
  utterly ruined a villain's plans, the climax scene can revolve around 
  capturing or identifying the malefactor, or protecting some person 
  or object from the fallout of the disrupted plan.
  Climaxes can also consist of hard choices along with the difficult 
  challenges. Most amoral interstellar villains are perfectly willing to 
  use innocents as bait, diversions, or shields, and even when they sus-
  pect the PCs are ruthless enough to ignore the civilians, the negative 
  PR involved can be valuable in itself. You'll want to be careful about 
  how you calibrate ruthlessness like this. Some players don't enjoy 
  setups where almost any choice is going to leave them either morally 
  compromised or limited in their success. On the other hand, some 
  players love the opportunity to be bloodless machines of interstellar 
  Skills and Challenges
  During espionage adventures, there can be a great temptation to 
  let a lot of different problems boil down to a skill check. Examin-
  ing a corpse? Wisdom and Tech/Medical. Interrogating a mook? 
  Charisma and Persuade. Finding a forger? Int and Culture/
  Criminal. This solution is quick and easy and it can fit well for 
  elements of a scene.
  It does not work, however, in dealing with the primary challenge 
  of a scene or resolving major parts of an intrigue. If a challenge 
  can be beaten just by throwing skill checks at it until it falls over, 
  the players are liable to get bored in a hurry. Instead, it's impor-
  tant to put the real weight of events on the choices the PCs make 
  rather than their luck with the dice.
  For any given challenge, give the situation a success threshold and 
  a failure threshold. Every time a PC does something meaningfully 
  helpful to their goal, add a success to the party's total. Only insist 
  on a skill check if the act the PC is attempting is quite difficult, or 
  the PC has no skill at all in the activity. Every time you make the 
  player roll a skill check, you're moving focus from the quality of 
  their ideas to the luck of their dice. A good blend of both is useful 
  for any game, but if every good idea forces a skill check, even for 
  those actions that don't require virtuoso talent, then players are 
  going to quickly decide to stop having ideas that don't relate to 
  their character's best skills.
  Every time the PC fails a skill check or does something distinctly 
  unhelpful to their goal, add a failure to their total. If they hit 
  the failure threshold before they hit the success threshold, they've 
  botched the challenge, and barring some sudden fit of inspiration 
  on their part they're going to have to rely on the scene's failsafe to 
  get the vital lead embedded in events.
  At this point, you may be wondering what the point of having 
  a high skill rating is if a skill check is only rarely required in a 
  scene. To be clear, you want the PCs to get the vital clue. Get-
  ting there should require them to think carefully or act in useful 
  ways, but the clues are there so they can be found. You should 
  certainly feel free to hit players up for skill checks not related to 
  obtaining vital clues, or for those sidelines and elaborations that 
  PCs will inevitably come up with to ease their path, but keeping 
  the focus on player decisions and tactics rather than hot dice is 
  important when handling the basic requirements for progressing 
  the adventure.
  When in doubt, two successes per PC involved makes for a good 
  success threshold, while the failure threshold works well at one 
  per PC. A challenge should generally demand more successes than 
  failures, as some helpful avenues will be immediately obvious to 
  the players. Finally, take a moment before you finalize things and 
  make sure you personally can think of at least as many helpful 
  things the PCs can do as are required for the success threshold. If 
  you can't come up with that many constructive actions that they 
  can take, you need to loosen up the challenge and provide more 
  avenues for useful activity.
  
  80
  nemesis, utterly indifferent to anything but the destruction of 
  those that dare to oppose them.
  Some villains can also end up offering inducements to the PCs in 
  exchange for them being just a little too slow to catch the antago-
  nist. Bribery of this kind needs to be carefully chosen as some-
  thing actually precious to the PCs, such as a captured comrade 
  or one-of-a-kind tech. Most players will tend to reflexively ignore 
  villain bribery, assuming that it's all either a setup for betrayal 
  or a trojan horse for some hideous consequence. If you're going 
  to make bribery a real temptation to the group, you're going to 
  have to know the players well enough to recognize the kind of 
  payment that will genuinely tempt them to look the other way.
  Setting the Hook
  You now have an espionage adventure- a weave of intrigue and 
  conspiracy with a cast of NPCs, an array of difficult challenges, 
  and a library of clues for the vigilant. All you need now is a hook 
  to point the PCs at the plot.
  At this point, pick a scene and decide how the PCs become suspi-
  cious of the scheme involved in it. Perhaps a intelligence analyst 
  at the agency picks up unusual signal traffic from a hostile rival, 
  or a street-level informant is passing on world of peculiar doings. 
  A precognitive flash might strike a psychic in the organization, 
  or files captured in a recent operation might hint at these newer 
  events. Whatever the cause, you need to be able to let the PCs 
  know that there's something worth investigating here.
  Keeping the Books
  With your adventure neatly generated and your scenes all sorted, 
  now is the time to handle the paperwork for the adventure. 
  You'll need to generate stats for those NPCs that are going to 
  need them, pull maps for those scenes that are likely to find them 
  important, and calculate rewards for the PCs that manage to pull 
  the mission off successfully.
  Experience rewards are relatively straightforward. The table pro-
  vided in the Stars Without Number core book lists the expected 
  experience award for a character of a given level for a single ses-
  sion. If the group required you to pull one or more failsafes 
  during the mission, their XP reward might suffer for it, down to 
  as little as a quarter of the recommended award for a group that 
  had to be carried through the mission.
  Operatives employed by a powerful agency with good equipment 
  facilities may not have much use for monetary rewards. An agency 
  that can casually equip its elite with anything short of a gravtank 
  tends to leave the PCs indifferent to questions of personal worth; 
  whatever they need, they can get. Still, even for the best-equipped 
  agents, it can be handy to have a personal fund for those expenses 
  they'd really rather not discuss with the agency accountants. In 
  the same vein, special equipment unavailable to them through 
  standard agency requisitions might also serve as a useful reward.
  For the agents who have everything, the most valuable rewards 
  tend to come in the form of greater authority and the favor of 
  powerful men and women. While it's a tacit assumption that the 
  Adventure Design Summary
  Pick an antagonist. This organization or NPC will be the 
  mastermind behind events.
  Select a target. It may be an element of the PC's agency, 
  or an allied NPC, or something the PCs might justifiably 
  be called upon to protect.
  Select a goal, such as Assassination, Infiltration, Kidnap-
  ping, Sabotage, Subversion, or Theft. Complex schemes 
  might involve multiple goals or targets, or give the false 
  impression that one purpose is planned when another is 
  actually the real goal.
  Select a method. The goal’s method table offers a list of 
  common angles for a given attack.
  Pick several Schemes off the goal's associated chart. 
  These are tactics the attackers are using in order to over-
  come the major obstacles to their success. Roll or pick one 
  NPC for each Scheme; this NPC will be the person who 
  is or was responsible for carrying out the Scheme.
  For each Scheme, establish a critical clue that advances 
  the PCs' understanding. Add a connection to at least one 
  other Scheme or NPC to each clue, so that every lead 
  points to at least one other element that must be discov-
  ered.
  For each clue, think of a way that the PCs could dis-
  cover it. Determine a challenge that must be overcome 
  to obtain the fact. Determine a failsafe method of getting 
  them that fact if they botch it up badly, along with a nega-
  tive consequence that comes with the failsafe.
  Connect each scene to one or more other scenes. Clues 
  should always aim PCs towards at least one other scene.
  Develop a climax scene, where the PCs resolve the situa-
  tion after having accumulated the necessary facts.
  Pick a scene to serve as the entrance into the adventure, 
  and arrange a hook that leads the PCs into that scene's 
  challenge.
  Do the final bookkeeping. Generate NPC stats, pull 
  maps, and decide on rewards.
  
  81
  group as a whole is deciding the course of agency policy, agents 
  that have proven their worth and good judgment might be given 
  priority claim on available resources. Agency elements might be left 
  constantly available for their use, and the brass might be willing to 
  stick the agency's neck out for the PCs if they insist on its necessity. 
  NPC subordinates might be detached to specifically support the 
  agent's work, ranging from a wet-behind-the-ears rookie intended 
  more as a secretary than an operative to a grizzled veteran who can 
  handle all the jobs that the PC is too important to worry about.
  Favors are also likely to be earned during the course of play, as the 
  PCs valiantly defend their allies and protect bystanders from the 
  schemes of rival cabals. These favors should be explicitly noted and 
  recorded by the group. It may be that calling them in could get 
  them a vital lead after their initial attempt botched, or it could open 
  an avenue to bypass certain challenges on the strength of an ally's 
  particular gifts. In the same vein, these people who owe the PCs also 
  make excellent means by which to pass along hooks and informa-
  tion leading toward their next adventure.
  Flipping the Script
  The process described above is intended to handle missions that 
  revolve around foiling the schemes of a rival cabal or hostile an-
  tagonist. But what does the GM do when the PCs are the ones 
  who want to make trouble? It's very likely that the group is going 
  to want to take the battle to the enemy after fending off an attack, 
  or incur a spirit of bloody-minded vengefulness after they fail to 
  protect a friend.
  All you need to do is to flip the process around. The PCs are the 
  antagonists, the target is whatever they're trying to harm, and the 
  goal and method are whatever form of mayhem they want to wreak. 
  Generate the schemes as normal and the obstacles that need to be 
  overcome. As the PCs investigate, they'll find these obstacles to 
  be the most significant ones between them and their desire; they 
  need to beat these challenges in order to get at their target. If they 
  successfully overcome them, they'll be in a position to strike for 
  the climactic scene where they attempt to enact their goal on their 
  chosen target.
  You can handle each scene in one of two different ways, depending 
  on your comfort with improvisation. In the first way, you map out 
  a specific challenge to beat the obstacle, taking into account the 
  group's abilities and resources. They may show unusual inventive-
  ness or peculiar judgment in beating this challenge, but you know 
  the general outline of what they're going to have to accomplish. On 
  the plus side, this tactic lets you develop the challenge in depth, and 
  minimizes the amount of improvised GMing you need to provide 
  for the group. On the down side, it also obliges the players to solve 
  the obstacle through this particular means, which can irritate a 
  group if they come up with some other solution more to their liking.
  In the other way of handling these challenges, you simply decide 
  how hard each obstacle should be to overcome, picking a success 
  and failure threshold as given in the sidebar on skills and challenges. 
  When the players enter the scene, present the obstacle to them, 
  and then just sit back and watch what they try to do to overcome 
  it. Every time they do something substantially useful toward that 
  end, add a success, and after each bad choice or failed skill roll, add 
  a failure. In this technique, you let the entire weight of coming up 
  with a solution rest on the players. Many will enjoy the freedom 
  of this technique and the chance to exercise their own wits and 
  creativity, but others might end up paralyzed by choice. It will also 
  be up to you to improvise places, NPCs, and situations that might 
  arise from their choice of tactics.
  Unlike reactive or defensive adventures, ones initiated by the PCs 
  do not need failsafes for their challenges. If the PCs try to overcome 
  an obstacle and botch it, then it's up to you to decide whether 
  there's any chance of them managing success despite the failure. If 
  their plans have clearly collapsed because of a misstep, you should 
  make sure the group understands as much so that they can start 
  pulling out before the angry minions or professional assassins find 
  them. Surviving a botched assassination attempt or escaping the 
  fallout of a failed kidnapping can be just as much excitement as if 
  the plot were a success.
  
  82
  Assassination
  Unlike most other types of adventures, a GM hasn't much flex-
  ibility about determining the progress of an assassination plot. If 
  the antagonists manage to kill the target, the PCs are liable to view 
  their efforts as a failure, so the events of the adventure lie between 
  the initial discovery of the plot and the ultimate death of the target 
  or ruin of the scheme.
  When planning an assassination plot, you'll usually need to build 
  in ambiguity about the source of the threat. Even if the antagonist's 
  cabal or backing is obvious, the exact vector of the attack should be 
  initially unclear. Plots should also be constructed so that no single 
  scheme's defeat will ensure the attempt's failure. If the PCs miss 
  any part of the plot, there should still be some small chance of the 
  attempt's success- and the fact that it ends up made at all is apt to 
  be acutely embarrassing.
  It can be difficult to build a good climax for an assassination plot. 
  If the PCs do well, the attempt might end up taken apart before 
  the target is in any real danger. In this case, you might want to 
  have the last functioning element of the scheme decide to go trigger 
  the attempt ahead of schedule, trying to make the kill before the 
  PCs can get to them. This, of course, implies that they are aware of 
  the failure of their colleagues. PCs who move quickly enough and 
  who manage to cut communications between the schemers might 
  be able to roll up the plot before the individual components realize 
  what's happening.
  1d20
  AssAssinAtion sChemes
  1
  Bribe the guards
  2
  Blackmail the guards
  3
  Replace the guards with pliant minions
  4
  Obtain a classified schedule of movements
  5
  Get access to the target's home or vehicle
  6
  Force a controlled alteration of their movements
  7
  Infiltrate their servants
  8
  Sabotage security communications
  9
  Force a change of vehicles
  10
  Force a dangerous environment
  11
  Quietly deactivate security measures
  12
  Shadow the target's movements
  13
  Plant capital crime evidence on them.
  14
  Tamper with security records
  15
  Activate a sleeper agent
  16
  Induce massive local disaster
  17
  Hire extra local muscle
  18
  Obtain security protocols and plans
  19
  Booby-trap something the target will use
  20
  Give an opening to another assassin
  1d10
  AssAssinAtion method
  1
  Sniping
  2
  Explosives
  3
  Poisoning
  4
  Psychic assault
  5
  Seduction
  6
  Suicide attack
  7
  "Accident"
  8
  Framed for a capital crime
  9
  Close-quarters ambush
  10
  Treacherous companion
  1d20
  AssAssinAtion nPCs
  1
  Oily fixer who knows everyone's price
  2
  Sinister blackmailer who has dirt on everybody of 
  importance
  3
  Master of disguise and expert infiltrator
  4
  Crack computer hacker
  5
  Cat burglar
  6
  Explosives technician
  7
  Mundane local with deep ties to the cabal or agency
  8
  Local telecom employee
  9
  Vehicle maintenance tech
  10
  Industrial engineer for a dangerous facility
  11
  Paramour with security access codes
  12
  Street urchin
  13
  Corrupt local security staffer
  14
  Expert forger
  15
  Deep mole in the organization
  16
  Power plant or chemical technician
  17
  Local legbreaker
  18
  Mercenary telepath
  19
  Malevolent technician
  20
  One of the above, meant to be sacrificed
  
  83
  Infiltration
  The goal of an infiltration plot is not to destroy or subvert an institu-
  tion, but to slide agents into it in order to abscond with information 
  or set them up as deep-cover moles for future mayhem. Infiltration 
  plots often revolve around tracking down the identity of a mole 
  before they can act against the agency. Failure on an infiltration plot 
  generally means that the mole has been given enough time to act or 
  enough warning to escape with useful information.
  Handling the failure case for infiltrations can be tricky. The group 
  has already gotten a hook pointing out that the agency has been 
  compromised and it's rarely logical that the organization would 
  simply throw up its hands in defeat after setbacks in the investiga-
  tion. If you intend to save the infiltrator for later, you can have 
  unsuccessful PCs transferred off the case, or "evidence" come to 
  light proving that it was a wild goose chase, or even "proof" that 
  an innocent agent was actually the mole. If you'd rather wrap up 
  the loose ends, the mole can make a very visible extraction from the 
  agency while taking along important secrets for their employers.
  1d6
  infiltrAtion method
  1
  Imposture of an existing agent
  2
  Convince them to recruit the mole
  3
  Bugging secure communications
  4
  Seduction of an unwitting official
  5
  A physical break-in to the agency
  6
  Sacrifice one mole to take heat off another
  1d20
  infiltrAtion sChemes
  1
  Replace an incoming recruit
  2
  Wipe incriminating evidence
  3
  Manipulate an agency record keeper
  4
  Frame a patsy for a security breach
  5
  Get access to comm equipment
  6
  Transmit the data offworld
  7
  Get the infiltrator safely offworld
  8
  Get into a restricted area
  9
  Falsify credentials
  10
  Biosculpt an infiltrator into an impostor
  11
  Telepathic interrogation of a victim
  12
  Deactivate a security system
  13
  Assassinate someone who knows too much
  14
  Frame another cabal for the intrusion
  15
  Copy a confidential database
  16
  Break the encryption on data
  17
  Take control of a communications link
  18
  Alter a director's orders
  19
  Release a captured agent
  20
  Fake a recruiting report for a mole
  1d20
  infiltrAtion nPCs
  1
  Innocuous master of stealth
  2
  Master forger
  3
  Gang boss controlling a back way in
  4
  Corrupt comm technician
  5
  Amoral smuggler captain
  6
  Expendable cat burglar
  7
  Clueless patsy employee
  8
  Face-changing street doc
  9
  Embittered ex-employee
  10
  Treacherous inside agent
  11
  Lovestruck pawn with skills
  12
  Construction boss
  13
  Demolitions expert
  14
  Guerrilla scout
  15
  Mercenary computer hacker
  16
  Bribed agency clerk
  17
  High-society patron
  18
  Incompetent department head
  19
  Gangster security tech
  20
  Idealistic and expendable pawn
  
  84
  Kidnapping
  Simply killing a target, while often gratifying, is rarely as beneficial as 
  a kidnapping. Subjects can be dragged back to a cabal's stronghold, 
  where whatever reticence they possess will soon be stripped away by 
  the tender attentions of the organization's inquisitors. Telepathic 
  probes, truth serums, brain scans, or simple methodical torture are 
  all guaranteed to break down a victim sooner or later if they can be 
  performed in a secure location.
  Kidnapping targets aren't always selected for their knowledge. Some 
  targets are chosen to compromise their loved ones. If an agent's wife 
  has been carried off by the Temple of Knives, how can her agency 
  trust that she won't be rendered highly susceptible to their "sugges-
  tions"? Agents with kidnapped loved ones can end up quarantined 
  and useless until some other team can confirm that the victims have 
  been freed- or permanently removed from consideration.
  Other victims are simply useful in manipulating people less subject 
  to agency discipline. A politician's family is a useful grip, as is a 
  noble's sole heir or the appointed successor of an important reli-
  gious leader.
  1d6
  KidnAPPing method
  1
  Lure the victim to a controlled location
  2
  Ambush the victim in public
  3
  Snatch the victim from home
  4
  Lure the victim out with a decoy
  5
  Hijack the victim's vehicle
  6
  Grab the victim while they're at work
  1d20
  KidnAPPing sChemes
  1
  Learn the victim's schedule
  2
  Case the victim's home or workplace
  3
  Ensure security is distracted
  4
  Jam the victim's communications
  5
  Set up the victim's extraction offworld
  6
  Enlist muscle for the snatch
  7
  Control the planned ambush zone
  8
  Acquire medical tech for a fragile victim
  9
  Prepare a false trail for rescuers
  10
  Acquire weaponry to defeat security
  11
  Plant explosives to hinder pursuit
  12
  Set up an accident to cover the snatch
  13
  Bribe security to be usefully sloppy
  14
  Get a medic to quickly strip any tracking implants
  15
  Frame another organization for the snatch
  16
  Arrange communications with victim's family
  17
  Induce an event that will make pursuit difficult
  18
  Arrange interrogation personnel or facilities
  19
  Plant a mole in the victim's social circle
  20
  Arrange secure holding until the victim is extracted
  1d20
  KidnAPPing nPCs
  1
  Brutal gang muscle
  2
  Bloodless professional killer
  3
  Mercenary physician
  4
  Spurned lover
  5
  Professional rival to the victim
  6
  Amoral fixer
  7
  Offworld slaver
  8
  Demolitions expert
  9
  Getaway driver
  10
  Obsessed stalker
  11
  Avenger of wrongs
  12
  Telepathic interrogator
  13
  Old-fashioned torturer
  14
  Backwoods guide
  15
  Smuggler who doesn't ask questions
  16
  Technician on the take
  17
  Servant of the victim
  18
  Compromised security staffer
  19
  Bounty hunter
  20
  Cat burglar
  
  85
  Sabotage
  Everything's easier when you have the right tools, and so many 
  cabals find it profitable to ensure that their rival's tools are broken. 
  Priceless one-of-a-kind pretech devices, elaborate intelligence facili-
  ties, ultra-secret databases that exist only in one instance- all of these 
  things are vulnerable to quick destruction at the hands of practiced 
  saboteurs. Simply using these resources in the course of an agency's 
  work is bound to expose them to some risk of sudden ruin.
  The elements that make up an agency are the usual targets for 
  saboteurs. Simple buildings and mundane equipment can usu-
  ally be replaced or substituted without great difficulty, but pretech 
  equipment and ultra-sensitive databases might not be replicable. 
  Beamgates, Black Codexes, and station houses positioned amid 
  hostile populations are all the sorts of things that can't be replaced 
  in a hurry. Most cabals coordinate their sabotage efforts to system-
  atically take out those portions of a rival's resources that are most 
  likely to hinder their other plans.
  Sabotage doesn't necessarily need to be a purely physical act. A secret 
  safehouse exposed to an angry population is as effectively destroyed 
  as if it were blown up. Discrediting a department's staff, forcing 
  a budget cut, or other indirect means of eliminating something's 
  usefulness can all be much more convenient to an enemy than the 
  application of brute force.
  When choosing a target for sabotage, it's preferable to pick an 
  element or resource that has been used before by the PCs. Losing 
  access to a beamgate facility is all the more painful when the group's 
  been using it regularly to drop into the middle of heavily-defended 
  cabal safehouses on the planet.
  1d20
  sAbotAge sChemes
  1
  Recruit a suicide operative- witting or otherwise
  2
  Acquire explosives or weaponry
  3
  Map the security around the target
  4
  Gain information on secret target vulnerabilities
  5
  Arrange escape route for saboteurs
  6
  Bribe or coerce security staff
  7
  Case the target's physical site
  8
  Locate a hidden target
  9
  Subvert journalists for an impending expose
  10
  Frame the target for an atrocity
  11
  Get access to the target's location
  12
  Frame another group for the sabotage
  13
  Find or create blackmail on the target's staff
  14
  Eliminate potential sources for spares or repair
  15
  Create a diversion with a different target
  16
  Arrange for the sabotage to cause major casualties
  17
  Arrange for the sabotage to look accidental
  18
  Activate a deep-cover mole in the agency
  19
  Force a loosening of security
  20
  Plant the sabotage on an unwitting tech or visitor
  1d8
  sAbotAge method
  1
  Explosives
  2
  Hacked control computer
  3
  "Accident"
  4
  Precision destruction of parts
  5
  Planned failure during use
  6
  Exposure to a hostile public
  7
  Force a funding cut
  8
  Discredit staff competence or loyalty
  1d20
  sAbotAge nPCs
  1
  Compromised security staffer
  2
  Maintenance tech
  3
  Human smuggler working a ratline
  4
  Architect with access to plans
  5
  Amoral computer hacker
  6
  Seducer for hire
  7
  Black market weapon seller
  8
  Expendable gang muscle
  9
  Zealous bomber
  10
  Clueless patsy
  11
  Designer of the equipment
  12
  Merchant of replacement gear
  13
  Expert cat burglar
  14
  Master forger
  15
  Unscrupulous private detective
  16
  Professional blackmailer
  17
  Corrupt customs official
  18
  Bribed politician
  19
  Rent-a-mob activist leader
  20
  Delivery driver
  
  86
  Subversion
  Killing an enemy is useful, but turning him to a cabal's service is 
  even more profitable. Subversion attempts revolve around persuad-
  ing or coercing members of a rival organization into obedience to a 
  cabal's directives. Most agents are highly dedicated men and women 
  who cannot easily be bribed into cooperation, but even the most 
  dedicated soul can be tricked or “encouraged” into cooperation.
  Subversion adventures should rarely be clearly labeled as such by 
  the hook or early scenes. If the PCs can easily identify the agent 
  or official involved, it's a simple matter to take them out of any 
  sensitive positions until the issue is ultimately resolved. A subverted 
  target inside an agency is only useful to the antagonist as long as he 
  remains hidden.
  In some cases, however, the target might be an outside politician 
  or person of importance, and the agents might end up tasked with 
  eliminating the blackmail material that would otherwise be used to 
  force the target into opposing the agency. Particularly cold-blooded 
  agents might choose to use the blackmail material themselves, or 
  else eliminate the problem by eliminating the victim.
  Subversion doesn't necessarily have to be a matter of direct entice-
  ment or coercion. It can also consist of setting up a false channel 
  of control, with handlers posing as figures of legitimate authority 
  or honest helpfulness "assisting" their charges with directives and 
  advice. This kind of subversion can take place in plain sight, with 
  some political adviser or noble counselor acting as the catspaw of 
  a more sinister cause. The challenge in these adventures consists 
  of finding undeniable proof of the adviser's dark connections or 
  eliminating him in some deniable fashion.
  1d20
  subversion sChemes
  1
  Dig up blackmail on the target
  2
  Funnel bribery funds untraceably
  3
  Snare someone with a seducer
  4
  Build a convincing front organization
  5
  Take control of a local political group
  6
  Control a target's long-lost family member
  7
  Arrange maltech medical help for a target
  8
  Conceal target's past association with cabal
  9
  Arrange communications channel
  10
  Show target how the agency is betraying them
  11
  Enlist a target's family member to willingly help
  12
  Conceal target's influence in helping the cabal
  13
  Frame a rival of the target
  14
  Arrange incriminating situation for target
  15
  Monitor all communications by target
  16
  Distract internal security
  17
  Emplace agents through the target's help
  18
  Create a problem only the cabal can solve
  19
  Move target into position of authority
  20
  Destroy ties between target and their allies
  1d8
  subversion method
  1
  Bribery
  2
  Some desperately-needed help
  3
  Seduction
  4
  Treacherous counsel
  5
  Political or career aid
  6
  Threats to target or loved ones
  7
  Ruinous blackmail
  8
  The target already is sympathetic to the antagonist
  1d20
  subversion nPCs
  1
  Biopsionic shapeshifter
  2
  Master forger
  3
  Corrupt agency clerk
  4
  Long-lost romantic interest
  5
  Sick loved one
  6
  Dangerous loan shark
  7
  Private detective
  8
  Underworld fixer
  9
  Bad influence from the old days
  10
  Well-equipped blackmailer
  11
  Deep-cover cabal messenger
  12
  Gambling creditor
  13
  Old "friend"
  14
  Professional muscle
  15
  Corrupt politician
  16
  Well-paid safehouse owner
  17
  Manipulative religious leader
  18
  Oily lobbyist
  19
  Polished courtier
  20
  True believer in the cabal
  
  87
  Theft
  Theft plots usually kick off after an object has been stolen but before 
  it can be smuggled offworld or beyond the reach of the original 
  owners. When assembling individual schemes for a theft, consider 
  how the object was located, how it was spirited out of its proper 
  place, and how the thieves intend to get it to a fence or their em-
  ployers. Most PC actions will revolve around following the object's 
  trail, so each scheme should provide a clue to direct them onward.
  Occasionally, theft plots can end up feeling a little too straightfor-
  ward, as at least one line of investigation has to lead to the object. To 
  help mitigate this, make sure that each scheme includes at least one 
  red herring. Players that follow that lead should end up being given 
  clear signs that the trail's gone cold, or else be routed back into the 
  next scheme by fresh signs they discover. Time spent dealing with 
  red herrings may be more than the PCs can afford, however, if the 
  antagonists are soon to get the object out of the party's reach.
  1d8
  theft method
  1
  An inside agent
  2
  Physical infiltration of the site
  3
  Steal it while it's in transit
  4
  Create confusion and swap in a copy
  5
  Psychic infiltration
  6
  Force its exposure and snatch it then
  7
  Grab it during a diversionary event
  8
  Steal many things to confuse the real target
  1d20
  theft sChemes
  1
  Obtain plans for the object's security
  2
  Create a fake
  3
  Find a fence for it
  4
  Find transport for it
  5
  Hide the object until it can be shipped out
  6
  Conceal the fact that it's been stolen
  7
  Publicize the theft to embarrass the victims
  8
  Integrate the object into some important tech
  9
  Transmit stolen data
  10
  Redirect blame for the theft elsewhere
  11
  Bribe guards
  12
  Blackmail guards
  13
  Activate sleeper agent
  14
  Blow up or physically bypass defenses
  15
  Deactivate security systems
  16
  Force the object to be moved
  17
  Kill the guards
  18
  Find the object's hidden location
  19
  Verify the object is not a decoy
  20
  Take the object to a specific person
  1d20
  theft nPCs
  1
  Master thief in retirement
  2
  Disaffected employee
  3
  Grubby urchin
  4
  Architect with building plans
  5
  Expert forger
  6
  Counterfeiter of goods
  7
  Cocky young burglar
  8
  Desperate street person
  9
  Mole in the security team
  10
  Well-connected fence
  11
  Pawn shop owner
  12
  Smuggler with a ship
  13
  Security staffer with severe debts
  14
  Ruthless killer
  15
  Private eye without a conscience
  16
  Demolitions expert
  17
  Security systems hacker
  18
  Gang boss who knows the turf
  19
  Corrupt local policeman
  20
  Fixer with blackmail information
  
  88
  An Example of Adventure Generation
  The GM and players have just finished their prelude session of the 
  campaign. After generating characters and building the group’s 
  agency, the GM ran the first agency turn of the game and allowed the 
  PCs to notice several hostile actions levied at the agency, including 
  an attack against their agency’s Spaceship element and one against 
  their Station on a neighboring world. After discussion, the players 
  decide to personally address the attack against their starships, and 
  the GM dices out resolution for the Station hit, which turns out 
  to be unsuccessful. The session closes with the players discussing 
  possibilities for their own agency’s actions next turn.
  Meanwhile, the GM needs to create an adventure dealing with the 
  PC attempt to foil the plot against their starship access. He knows 
  that the antagonist is actually an organization based on the same 
  planet- the Unseen Crown, a cabal of rebels and ideologues who 
  are using widespread discontent among the populace to provoke 
  an eventual mass uprising that they intend to control. With this 
  in mind, he knows that the Unseen Crown’s schemes will be big 
  on deluded partisans, manipulated zealots, and sinister circles of 
  powerful men and women working to methodically worsen condi-
  tions on the world.
  First, he picks a goal that fits with the type of conflict, and decides 
  Theft is a good, straightforward pick. The Unseen Crown wants to 
  steal the agency’s free merchant ship, the Lucky Seven. As the GM 
  has no special preference, he rolls randomly for a method; it turns 
  out they mean to steal it with an inside agent. A glance at the Stars 
  Without Number core book shows that a free merchant can be flown 
  by only one person in a pinch, so they don’t need more than one 
  minion aboard the ship to fly it out of the system.
  Next, the GM picks out the biggest obstacles to this attempt. If he 
  was feeling inspired, he could identify three or four major parts to 
  the heist, but he decides to make life easy on himself and rolls three 
  times on the Theft Obstacles table. He expects to have three players, 
  so every obstacle’s challenge will have a success threshold of six and 
  a failure threshold of three.
  The first obstacle is “hide the object until it can be shipped out”. 
  The GM reflects on this a bit, and decides it means that the Unseen 
  Crown needs to figure out some way of keeping the local naval 
  forces from simply springing on the free merchant as soon as it 
  lifts off against orders. To get around this, they’ve got a corrupt 
  spaceport administrator who’s swapped the Lucky Seven’s identifica-
  tion codes with that of another ship. The administrator thinks he’s 
  just facilitating some offworld smuggling, but the confusion will 
  buy the thief enough time to reach the outer rim and drill out ahead 
  of the local naval forces.
  The GM now needs to come up with a challenge for the scene- 
  some difficulty the PCs must overcome in order to learn that the 
  Lucky Seven’s identifier codes have been swapped by the starport 
  administrator. The GM decides that a local smuggling ring owns the 
  ship whose identifiers were swapped, and they’re convinced that the 
  administrator is setting them up for a sting. They’re looking for hard 
  men and women to go deal with the administrator, and the PCs will 
  need to convince the smugglers of their trustworthiness in order to 
  find out the real reason for their vendetta.
  The second obstacle is “blow up or physically bypass defenses”. 
  Nobody leaves a starship simply lying around for the taking, and the 
  Unseen Crown needs to make sure nobody in the vicinity is in any 
  position to stop the thief when he starts powering up the engines 
  without clearance. Knowing the modus operandi of the Unseen 
  Crown, the GM decides that a cabal provocateur has infiltrated a 
  local rebel cell, and has set them up to make a terrorist attack on 
  the starport intending to steal the ship. He’s filled their heads with 
  awful stories about how the ship is actually dedicated to govern-
  ment death squad operations and assorted unverifiable atrocities. 
  Of course, the provocateur has no intention of actually trying to 
  steal the ship; his group’s job will simply be to pin down the local 
  defenders while the Lucky Seven makes an “emergency liftoff”.
  The challenge for the second scene will have to do with the rag-tag 
  band of rebels the provocateur has assembled. Most of them are 
  well-meaning dupes, hopped up on conspiracy theories and per-
  sonal grievances. A few have been genuinely wronged by the world, 
  and some of them are simply interested in blood and excitement. 
  Only the most reliable have the hard details on when, where, and 
  how the attack will play out, and the PCs are going to need to 
  roll up the cell carefully. If the provocateur realizes his group’s been 
  flushed out, he and the true zealots will dive undercover, and there 
  may not be time to find them before the scheduled attack.
  The third obstacle is “kill guards”. The GM expands this a little, 
  deciding that it’s standard agency procedure to have at least three 
  people aboard the Lucky Seven at all times, including at least one 
  person capable of flying her. There are four naval pilots cleared for 
  this duty, and the Unseen Crown needs to make sure that its man is 
  the one aboard when it comes time to fly off. The easiest way to be 
  certain of that is to kill the other three pilots, and they’ve enlisted 
  a professional assassin to do the work. As soon as the third pilot is 
  dead and the mole has been put on round-the-clock duty aboard 
  the Lucky Seven, all will be in place for the theft.
  The challenge here is the assassin- someone very good at the job, 
  albeit with no interest in dying for any cause. The assassin favors 
  knives and close-quarters ambushes, and the first of the victims will 
  die on the sidewalk in front of his house. The players may or may 
  not realize that it was the victim’s status as an agency pilot that 
  got him killed, but if they don’t pick it up quickly they’ll almost 
  certainly clue in once the second pilot dies in similar circumstances. 
  Finding the assassin will require extensive street investigation and 
  may require deals with certain unsavory criminal elements- deals 
  that could come back to haunt them. Alternately, they might 
  choose to set up the remaining three pilots as bait to try to catch the 
  assassin in the act- the mole will be surprisingly calm about the idea.
  Having established the scenes, the GM now decides on the specific 
  clues and scene connections embedded in each. With the first, the 
  clue is that the starport administrator swapped the identifier of the 
  Lucky Seven with a smuggler’s ship. The connection for the scene is 
  that he also put a man in contact with the assassin. He can’t identify 
  the man due to the heavy layers of indirection between them, but 
  he can give the PCs the identity of the assassin he recommended, 
  though actually finding the knifeman in time to stop him is a dif-
  ferent matter.
  
  89
  For the second scene, the clue is that the provocateur has organized 
  the cell to make a terrorist attack on the starport to seize the Lucky 
  Seven, even though neither the provocateur or the rebels seems to 
  know the first thing about flying a starship. The connection is the 
  set of plans to the starport’s defenses they have, a set sold to them by 
  a smuggling ring who got them from the starport administrator. If 
  the PCs start investigating the smuggling ring, they’ll find out that 
  the smugglers are hiring muscle to hit the administrator and can 
  segue into that challenge.
  For the third scene, the clue is that the assassin was given three 
  names to hit- all but one of the four people cleared to pilot the 
  Lucky Seven. The connection is a datachip on the assassin showing 
  the results of his investigation of his employer. He wasn’t able to 
  track down his real identity, but it seemed quite clear that he was 
  affiliated with an angry lot of political activists who meet regularly 
  at a grubby bar downtown. If the PCs follow this up, they’ll start 
  to deal with the undisciplined outer membership of the rebel cell.
  The GM takes a moment to check the clues and make sure they all 
  add up to a relatively clear conclusion. If the PCs get all of them, 
  they’ll know that someone wanted everyone but one of the Lucky 
  Seven’s pilots dead, that a rebel cell planned to steal the Lucky Seven 
  despite the evident lack of a pilot, and that the starport administra-
  tor had swapped identifiers on the ship and directed someone to 
  the assassin who took out at least one of the ship’s pilots. It would 
  require a rather thick group of players not to begin to suspect some-
  thing amiss with the remaining pilot.
  The GM also bolts in failsafes for the scenes, to make sure the play-
  ers get the clues even if they botch the challenges. For the first, the 
  administrator will be killed by the smugglers and a routine audit of 
  his records will show that the identifiers have been swapped. As a 
  penalty, the planetary government will forbid all non-military lift-
  offs and landings for a month while they check the records for any 
  other falsifications, making it impossible for the PCs to use the ship 
  during that time. For the second scene, one of the rebel insiders will 
  get caught by the local security and the details of the plan will be 
  unearthed- but the arrest will push the plan into immediate execu-
  tion and the attack will happen just as the PCs are informed of the 
  clue. For the third scene, the third and final victim of the assassin 
  will manage to kill him before dying of his own wounds, leaving 
  the datachip to be discovered and analyzed only after the mole has 
  been installed aboard the Lucky Seven. The GM also decides that for 
  each failsafe that gets triggered, the PCs lose one-quarter of their 
  experience reward.
  The GM then ties it all up into a climax scene. If the PCs have 
  gotten all the clues successfully, they might have been able to stop 
  the plan before the starport terrorist attack can go off. When they 
  go to confront the pilot, he’ll seize a hostage and rant about the 
  innumerable iniquities and sins of the existing world order, and 
  how he won’t allow the Lucky Seven to be an engine of evil any 
  longer. If the PCs attack despite the hostage or flatly refuse to let 
  him escape aboard the Lucky Seven, he’ll go down fighting, trying 
  to make his death as inspiring as possible to his compatriots. Under 
  no circumstances will he actually hurt the hostage, though he’ll do 
  his best to try to get them shot by the PCs, the better to illustrate 
  their evil.
  If the PCs have been slow on the draw, the attack might be taking 
  place as they rush to the starport. Once there, they’ll have to get 
  past the unruly rebels, avoid being shot by the panicked security 
  personnel, and get aboard the Lucky Seven before it can complete 
  takeoff. If the pilot can’t get away, he’ll lock the controls to overheat 
  the engine before fighting to the death. If the PCs don’t shut down 
  the power core in time, the melting engines will ruin the Lucky 
  Seven’s spike drive and kill scores of rebels, security staff, and luck-
  less bystanders.
  Before the GM picks the hook to the adventure, he takes a last look 
  over the scenes and checks for any obvious courses of actions the 
  players might take that would completely nullify his preparations. 
  What if the players want to take the Lucky Seven offworld as soon 
  as they suspect there’s a threat against it? The navy either knows 
  about the identifier scramble or will discover it during the sudden 
  liftoff, and will ground all ships until they can verify that every code 
  matches every ship. What if the players telepathically probe the 
  pilot as soon as they get a vague suspicion about him? Let them 
  know that any telepathic interrogation of agency-cleared personnel 
  is a minefield of approvals and permissions, and it’ll be a week or 
  more before it’s granted. They can do it anyway if they choose, but if 
  they’re discovered there’ll be hell to pay. What if the players demand 
  an extra-heavy guard on and in the Lucky Seven? The pilot will plan 
  to vent lethal chemicals into the atmosphere recirculator during the 
  rebel attack.
  Now that he’s wrapped up all the loose ends and plotted out the 
  scenes, he needs to pick a hook. He decides to start with the starport 
  administrator. The PCs will learn through the grapevine that a local 
  smuggling ring wants the starport administrator dead, and is look-
  ing for muscle to make that happen. The hook is plenty clear to the 
  players, but it gives no real clue as to what sort of plan they’re going 
  to have to foil.
  Finally, the GM does the paperwork associated with the plot. He 
  generates random names for the NPCs involved, fleshes them out 
  with appearances and notable traits, and gives them some premade 
  stats. He pulls a few “mook”-type NPC stat blocks for average rebels 
  and smuggler goons. He sketches a crude map of the hangar bay 
  where the Lucky Seven is berthed, with a mind toward resolving any 
  combat that might take place there. He gives a few thoughts toward 
  the ambush sites that the assassin will pick for his three victims. He 
  picks a leader for the smuggling ring and sketches the likely meeting 
  locations and warehouse base of operations they use. And lastly, he 
  picks the experience reward for the PCs if they manage to defeat the 
  Unseen Crown’s intended theft.
  With all that accomplished, the GM now has an espionage adven-
  ture piping-hot and ready to roll out for the players in the next 
  session. After all is said and done, they’ll cap off the session with 
  another round of agency actions, and the PCs can decide whether 
  to respond to any further attacks or take their own initiative in 
  furthering the agency’s goals.
  
  90
  Special Rules
  There are certain genre tropes for espionage adventures that can 
  be tough to replicate with the usual rules of play. The following 
  optional rules might be worth adopting for those groups who find 
  them to their tastes.
  Sudden Takedown
  Swiftly dispatching guards from ambush is a time-honored practice 
  of spy adventures. While the sniper rifle in provides one way of 
  quickly dropping a target regardless of their hit point totals, many 
  adventure stories instead involve sudden knives or a blow from 
  behind. While many normal human guards will have so few hit 
  points that a single good hit will take them out, it can be frustrating 
  to a player to be so reliant on luck when it's absolutely crucial to 
  drop a guard before he has time to sound the alarm. For campaigns 
  that rely heavily on these elements, the Sudden Takedown rule can 
  be used.
  Whenever a PC hits a completely unguarded opponent, the victim 
  must make an immediate saving throw versus Physical Effect at 
  a penalty equal to the character's combat skill. If the save is suc-
  cessful, the victim merely takes maximum damage from the hit. If 
  the save is unsuccessful, the victim dies on the spot, or is rendered 
  unconscious if the attack was nonlethal. Characters get +4 to hit a 
  completely unguarded character with ranged attacks, and +8 to hit 
  with melee attacks.
  For purposes of a sudden takedown, a target is only "completely un-
  guarded" if they are unaware of the attacker, not braced for combat 
  and otherwise not on alert. It's possible to take down a guard stand-
  ing on post, or even one who is curiously investigating a strange 
  noise, but not one who is rushing to the sound of a fight or alerted 
  by some alarm. If the victim is watching his attacker a takedown 
  is not possible even if launched from surprise. Using takedowns 
  once combat has begun is also impractical. Once initiative is rolled, 
  everyone involved is far too engaged in the roil of fighting to go 
  down that easily.
  Group Stealth
  It's not uncommon for an entire group of PCs to need to sneak 
  into some location. Granted a sufficient number of skill checks, it's 
  almost inevitable that somebody is going to botch one, and that 
  can spoil the subterfuge for the whole party. To prevent the entire 
  party's success from hinging on the lowest common denominator, 
  it can be assumed that the best sneaks in the party are helping the 
  less gifted ones and choosing the routes least likely to give them 
  trouble.
  When using group stealth, a particular PC is chosen as the lead 
  guide. On each stealth check, assuming that he makes his own 
  check, he can negate one teammate's failed check for each level of 
  his Stealth skill. For example, if someone with Stealth-1 was leading 
  a group of three agents, he could negate one failed Stealth check 
  among his comrade so long as he succeeds on his own roll.
  
  91
  unKnown soldiers
  bACKgrounds And equiPment for oPerAtives
  The following pages include additional options in background, training packages, and equipment suitable for an operative. Most of the 
  equipment listed here is unavailable on the open market. Some of it is simply too rare or requires craftsmanship that can’t be easily found 
  at the corner armory, while other items such as the neurotoxins are usually outlawed for civilian use on any given planet. If an agency has 
  at least a little Legitimacy it can usually ignore the latter regulations, while a well-funded Armory element or simply large enough amounts 
  of Money can overcome issues of scarcity. The exception is in pretech gear, which cannot be purchased by an agency unless they happen to 
  be established on a world with a sufficiently high tech level or have a Pretech Labs element of their own.
  The training packages listed here may be taken by any class. All classes get the first four skills listed for the training package, reflecting 
  the basic aptitudes necessary for carrying out the role. Without at least a level-0 rating in each of these skills, the character probably can’t 
  reasonably manage the duties of that bureau. Experts and Warriors get the next two skills on the list, while Experts alone get the last two.
  Espionage Backgrounds
  The following backgrounds can be used by agents who wish to have a former life suitable for an elite espionage operative. Other back-
  grounds are perfectly acceptable as well, given that many agencies are forced by exigency and limited manpower pools to accept talent 
  when and where they find it.
  Academy Trainee
  Whether a raw Perimeter initiate or a newbie fresh from the 
  academy, you were formally trained in the basics of tradecraft and 
  the investigative skills expected of an agent. Most such trainees 
  go on to more advanced studies in the bureau to which they are 
  assigned.
  Skills: Combat/Any, Culture/World, Perception, Stealth
  Agency Researcher
  The Perimeter is always searching for signs of maltech develop-
  ment and the governmental agencies are always looking for their 
  next leg up on the competition. Everybody needs researchers like 
  you, the ones who know how to deal with the potentially lethal 
  unknown.
  Skills: Computer, Culture/World, Science, Tech/Any
  Agency Tech
  People like you kept the agency up and running, handling all 
  the technical details and paperwork that the ops could never be 
  bothered to manage. Maybe things are different now, but you're 
  still a past master at getting things fixed.
  Skills: Bureaucracy, Culture/World, Security, Tech/Any
  Chance Recruit
  You were just a regular guy, an ordinary man or woman just get-
  ting by as best you could... at least until the incident. Maybe you 
  showed remarkable talent, or maybe you just learned something 
  that had to stay in the family. Whatever the exact cause, you’ve 
  left that old life far behind.
  Skills: Culture/World, Profession/Any, Any two skills
  Foreign Agent
  They don’t like the agency back where you come from, but for 
  whatever reason, you do. You can pass there in ways a foreigner 
  never could, and the agency means to take advantage of your 
  unusual loyalties.
  Skills: Culture/World, Language, Persuade, Any one skill
  Former Soldier
  You used to be in the army, until you showed that you were just 
  a little too good at operational work to be left alone where you 
  were. Now you’ve been inducted into the agency, and they rely on 
  your muscle and your wits to keep your teammates alive.
  Skills: Combat/Any, Culture/World, Stealth, Tactics
  Former Spacer
  You were in the navy, once, until a particular operation gave you 
  a chance to distinguish yourself. The agency decided you were 
  too useful to pass up, and they convinced the navy to release you 
  into their service. Now you help these dirtsiders deal with the big, 
  scary universe over their heads.
  Skills: Computer, Culture/Spacer, Vehicle/Space, and either 
  Tech/Astronautics or Navigation
  Street Op
  Sometimes the best operatives are the ones nearest to the street. 
  Maybe your kind aren't often taken into the agency, but your 
  talents were too obvious to overlook. These guys are a little naive, 
  but the opportunities here are better than anything from back in 
  the neighborhood.
  Skills: Combat/Any, Culture/World, Culture/Criminal, Stealth
  
  92
  Training Packages
  These packages can be taken by characters of any class, and generally represent agents specialized in a particular bureau. All classes get 
  the first four skills listed. Warriors and Experts get the next two listed, and Experts get the final two. For players who prefer to take an 
  “adventuring class” background and shape it to suit, they should consider the first four skills to be the basic necessities of the position. An 
  agent without those skills might find a great deal of difficulty carrying out the duties of the position.
  Agency Assassin
  Some people just need to go away, and you've been trained to help them along. Whether the consecrated executioner of some neo-
  religious Perimeter agency or the grizzled triggerman for an unfeeling government bureau, you specialize in getting at people who 
  imagine themselves untouchable.
  Everyone gets Combat/Any, Perception, Steath, Tactics
  Warriors and Experts get Combat/Any, Security
  Experts get Athletics, Culture/Criminal
  Engineering Operative
  As skilled as an agency's R&D bureau might be, there's no time to call them in when a team has some alien device ticking away in front 
  of them and enemies hammering on the door. You've been trained in a wide array of technical skills, the better to support your team in 
  the field.
  Everyone gets Computer, Security, Tech/Any, Tech/Postech
  Warriors and Experts get Combat/Any, Vehicle/Any
  Experts get Science, Navigation or Tech/Pretech
  Face
  Some problems can’t be solved by a gun or a theft. Some difficulties have to be resolved by a reasonable, rational discussion between two 
  people. You’ve been trained to have those sorts of discussions, and to convince people that the very best thing they could possibly do is 
  exactly what you want of them.
  Everyone gets Culture/Traveller, Language, Leadership, Persuade
  Warriors and Experts get Combat/Any, Perception
  Experts get Bureaucracy, Business
  Infiltrator
  You get places you were never meant to go, and learn things that were never meant to be discovered. You're trained to slide past the most 
  sophisticated security protocols and defeat the most intricate systems of exclusion.
  Everyone gets Combat/Any, Computer, Security, Stealth
  Warriors and Experts get Athletics, Survival
  Experts alone get Bureaucracy, Persuade
  Limiter
  Sworn to the Bureau of Limits of a Perimeter agency, your job is to ensure that any artificial intelligences in the sector are braked and 
  sane. Ancient horrors have shown all too well what comes of an unfettered godmind, and you and your brethren will do whatever you 
  must to prevent such monsters from being birthed once more.
  Everyone gets Combat/Any, Computer, Security, Tech/Maltech
  Warriors and Experts get History, Tech/Postech
  Experts get Perception, Tech/Pretech
  Peacemaker
  The Bureau of Peace has always served the Perimeter as the watchers of governments, terrorist groups, and other potential seekers of 
  devices of planetary destruction. Somewhere there is always a hate hot enough to char a world, or ambition that would sacrifice a planet 
  to bring a sector under a ruler’s hand. The Peacemakers are there to ensure that any such plans or devices prove greatly disappointing to 
  their possessors.
  Everyone gets Bureaucracy, Combat/Any, Perception, Tech/Maltech
  Warriors and Experts get Combat/Any, Tactics
  Experts get Culture/Traveller, Tech/Any
  
  93
  The weapons below tend to be uncommon, and even on worlds 
  where their possession is legal for civilians, there are few vendors 
  of such very specialized armament. Blackout sticks in particular are 
  almost impossible to buy on the open market. Such potent pretech 
  devices are usually confiscated in summary fashion by whatever 
  local government first becomes aware of their possession.
  Blackout Stick: These pretech neurodisruption devices were origi-
  nally used by Perimeter cleanup crews in an attempt to contain local 
  panic and protect the anonymity of the hidden agency. They appear 
  to be short, club-like rods often disguised as some ordinary local 
  truncheon. A firm touch from the stick against a human victim’s 
  skin will force the target to make a save versus Tech or forget all 
  the events of the past hour. Not only are these memories erased, 
  but the victim will not be aware that they have been lost, instead 
  fabricating some plausible-sounding way the hour has been spent 
  as a false memory. The neural charge used to disrupt short-term 
  memory formation causes an inflammatory reaction along the nerve 
  paths, and thus a blackout stick will function on a target only once 
  every 24 hours at most.
  Dart Launcher: Available in both pistol and rifle formats, the dart 
  launcher uses specially-treated flechette ammunition to hit a target 
  with a dose of some poison, such as the toxins listed below. The 
  darts are useless against someone wearing a vacc suit or with AC 
  3 or better armor, as they lack the penetrating power to pierce a 
  full-body protective suit. Rifle-sized launchers cost twice as much 
  and have twice the range of pistols.
  Stingstick: Concealed as a walking stick, umbrella, string of prayer 
  beads, or even a substantial ring, a stingstick is designed to impart 
  a stored dose of poison to a target, popping out a small needle to 
  prick an unwary victim. When used against a target that suspects 
  no danger, the stingstick is automatically successful if the user can 
  touch the subject's bare flesh. The needle is treated with a contact 
  anaesthetic that masks the initial prick; the victim must make a 
  Wis/Perception check against the attacker's Dex/Stealth to notice 
  the jab. In open combat, the weapon is much less practical and 
  suffers a -4 penalty on hit rolls. A given stick can usually only store 
  one dose of poison, and appears to be a perfectly ordinary object of 
  its kind unless carefully examined.
  Agency Weapon Modifications
  These modifications can be made to a conventional weapon by any 
  sufficiently skilled artisan. Many of them are of distinctly less-than-
  legal nature on those worlds with more paranoid governments. Each 
  modification multiplies the item’s base price by the listed amount. 
  Items with multiple modifications add them together before multi-
  plying- thus, an envenomed boomerang monoblade would have a 
  x40 price multiplier.
  Boomerang: Applicable only to thrown weapons, this modifica-
  tion embeds small gravitic recoil cells in the weapon. After being 
  thrown, the weapon returns unerringly to the wielder's hand, as-
  suming nothing interposes. Once activated, the gravitic cells will 
  continue functioning for five or six minutes, but must be recharged 
  with a type A cell afterwards. An extremely rare psitech variant 
  Purifier
  Trained by a Perimeter agency as part of its Bureau of Purity, your duty is to discover and quell any maltech related to the disfiguring of 
  the human mind or body. Genetic slaves, biochemical conditioning, human beings transformed into tools for a mad religion's will- all 
  these things are anathema to the Purifiers, and you will ensure that they are uprooted and destroyed.
  Everyone gets Combat/Any, Perception, Tech/Maltech, Tech/Medical
  Warriors and Experts get Security, Stealth
  Experts get History, Religion
  Rogue Agent
  You’re no longer in the service of your original employer. Maybe you were a minion of a maltech cult, or one of their tormented victims. 
  Perhaps you belonged to the security apparatus of a brutal foreign world. Whatever the circumstances, you’ve left those days behind you 
  to find a better cause in the agency you serve now. Your former masters may still remember you unkindly.
  Everyone gets Combat/Any, Culture/Any, Stealth, any one skill
  Warriors and Experts get Language, Persuade
  Experts get Security, any one skill
  weAPonry
  Weapon
  Skill
  Damage
  Range
  Cost
  Magazine
  Attribute
  Tech
  Blackout Stick
  Primitive
  Special
  -
  5,000
  1
  Str/Dex
  5
  Dart Launcher
  Projectile
  Special
  40/80
  300
  5
  Dex
  4
  Stingstick
  Primitive
  Special
  -
  100
  1
  Str/Dex
  4
  new equiPment
  
  94
  of this modification tunes a delicate array of telekinetic receptors 
  within the weapon, allowing anyone with at least 1 point of the 
  Telekinesis discipline to use it as a boomerang weapon indefinitely 
  at no power cost. Cost: x10 for normal, x100 and TL 5 crafters for 
  psitech version
  Camouflage: The weapon is tooled to appear as the native manufac-
  ture of a particular planet. Laser rifles can be disguised as flintlocks, 
  monoblades as common bowie knives, or semi-auto pistols fash-
  ioned to appear as if they were issued by the local security office. 
  Weapons can be disguised as native weapons of the same general 
  dimensions. Cost: x4 
  Clouded Mind: An exceedingly uncommon relic of the years before 
  the Scream, Clouded Mind weapons have been carefully engineered 
  with a complex array of telepathic projectors. In the hands of a 
  normal person they are nothing more than an ordinary weapon, 
  but when used with someone with at least 1 point of Telepathy they 
  show their true worth. When the owner attacks with the weapon, 
  he may spend 1 power point for each witness within visual range. At 
  the end of the fight, those affected must make a Mental Effect saving 
  throw or mistakenly remember that the attacker was a completely 
  different person, usually the one whom they most hate or fear. Even 
  if such an attack is utterly implausible, victims will fabricate memo-
  ries and rationalizations to explain their impressions. Cost: x200 
  and TL 5 crafters
  EMP Scrambler: A supplementary type A power cell is required to 
  fuel the scramble bursts emitted by this weapon, and lasts as long 
  as one magazine worth of ammunition or one fight with a melee 
  weapon. These bursts wreak havoc on robot armatures, and success-
  ful hits allow the attacker to roll damage twice and take the higher 
  roll. Armatures with an onboard AI core are too sophisticated to be 
  scrambled, and are unaffected by the modification. Cost: x20
  Envenomed: Applicable only to melee weapons and projectile 
  weapons, envenomed weaponry must be designed as such from the 
  ground up in order to safely and efficiently deliver its toxic payload. 
  These weapons can fire envenomed projectiles or strike to poison 
  the target. Common agency neurotoxins include stunchems, black 
  echo, and shaker. These special toxin cartridges must be acquired 
  separately, each bullet or hit with a melee weapon using up one 
  dose. x30 cost
  Holdout: The weapon is very small or designed to appear as a harm-
  less ornament or article of clothing. Detecting its presence requires 
  a hands-on search of the subject or a security checkpoint's weapon 
  scanner. Even in that case, the user gains a +2 bonus on the opposed 
  skill check of Dex/Stealth versus the searcher's Wis/Perception. 
  Weapons larger than a stun baton or knife-sized monoblade cannot 
  be built as holdout weapons. The design allows for the weapon to be 
  fully loaded, but not room for extra magazines. Cost: x10
  Untraceable: The weapon is crafted to leave no evidence as to its 
  place of manufacture. Projectile weapons leave no traces on the 
  bullets or casings that can be matched to the weapon. By flicking 
  a toggle on the weapon, it can be set to self-destruct, chemically 
  dissolving it and its ammunition into a powdery gray dust in three 
  rounds. Cost: x5
  Combat Toxins
  Most toxins require special equipment to administer them effec-
  tively in combat, such as a weapon with the envenomed modifier, a 
  stingstick, or a dart launcher. All of these toxins lose their effective-
  ness when exposed to air for over an hour or to boiling temperatures 
  for more than five minutes. They are tasteless, odorless, and color-
  less, but poison-sniffer tech will point them out immediately. The 
  toxins listed below are only effective against humans, and normally 
  available only to military or governmental operatives.
  Black Echo: Toxicity 10, Special Interval, Virulence of 3. Black 
  echo is intended to provide a deniable assassination option for an 
  agency. Once poisoned, the first effects of the venom don't appear 
  for 2d6 hours. After that point, severe cardiac arrest is likely, with 
  checks coming at ten-second intervals until the victim is either dead 
  or throws off the toxin. Ordinary postech examination will show a 
  heart attack as cause of death, but a medic specifically looking for 
  signs of poisoning will find them on a successful Wis/Tech/Medical 
  check at difficulty 12. Pretech always detects the poison, and TL 3 
  medics have no chance of detecting it. Cost: 500 credits per dose
  Shaker: Toxicity 8, Interval 1 round, Virulence of 2. This powerful 
  neurotoxin produces excruciating muscle spasms in the victim. On 
  successful application of the poison, the victim suffers 1d6 damage 
  each round until the effects are spent or neutralized. While so af-
  flicted the victim takes a -2 penalty on hit rolls as well due to the 
  muscle tremors. Multiple doses of Shaker do not cause cumulative 
  effects. Cost: 200 credits per dose.
  Stunchems: Toxicity 8, Interval 2 rounds, Virulence of 2. Intended 
  to pacify kidnap victims and others best kept quiet, an affected 
  victim experiences no effects beyond a slight dizziness unless they 
  fail two saving throws against the chems before throwing them off. 
  Victims successfully affected immediately become dazed and silent, 
  and require guidance in order to move, eat, or perform any other 
  action. They make no resistance or action even in the face of tor-
  ment or death. This daze lasts for six hours before wearing off. Cost: 
  200 credits per dose
  Medical Chems
  Agents with access to a pretech lab might choose to carry these 
  sophisticated chem tabs on their missions. Prices otherwise assume 
  that they can be found on a world with a very advanced pharma-
  ceutical industry; ordinary postech planets cannot produce these 
  chems.
  Purge Tab: A thumbnail-sized skinspray tab, the purge tab is for-
  mulated to counteract numerous common chemical warfare agents, 
  including stunchems, shaker, and black echo. Chemicals that the 
  agency has not had time to analyze and study may ignore the tab's 
  protection. If applied within three rounds of the initial poisoning, 
  it grants the victim a +4 bonus on all saving throws against the 
  poison and gives a medical treatment a +2 bonus to beat the poi-
  son's Toxicity. The subject also becomes immune to these toxins for 
  the next five minutes. The powerful rush of chems is painful and 
  disorienting, however, and a tab user suffers 1d6 points of damage 
  from the tab. If the damage reduces them to zero hit points, they 
  
  95
  fall unconscious for five minutes before waking up with 1 hit point. 
  Cost: 100 credits
  Torpor Tab: A complicated cocktail of neurodepressants and sta-
  bilizing chems, a torpor tab is the chemical equivalent of a cold 
  sleep pod. Provided the subject consciously relaxes and maintains 
  calm breathing during the one-round onset of the drug, they will 
  swiftly slip into a state not unlike suspended animation. Oxygen 
  requirements are dropped to 2% of normal, the subject does not 
  excrete or appear to breathe, and their heart beats only once a 
  minute. Combined with skin chill and lack of autonomic response, 
  the subject appears to be dead to everything short of a careful 
  medical examination. For each dose applied the coma lasts for six 
  hours. Spending more than 24 hours a week in torpor is danger-
  ous, however, and each dose after that inflicts 1d8 damage on the 
  subject. Cost: 100 credits
  Velocitix: This powdery blue compound greatly speeds the envi-
  ronmental perception processing experienced by the user, allowing 
  them to notice details of their surroundings that would otherwise 
  escape them and rapidly integrate multiple mental inputs. It adds 
  +2 to any Wisdom-based checks made by the user for a duration of 
  twelve hours. The drug is dangerous, however, and can cause damage 
  to the user's optic nerves. At the end of its effects, the user must save 
  versus Tech. On a failure, the compound interacts negatively with 
  their nervous system, and they suffer partial blindness, taking -2 on 
  all visual Perception rolls and hit rolls. Postech neurosurgery can 
  correct the damage, but recovery from the surgery will take a week. 
  Cost: 500 credits
  Yesteryear: A chem much in favor with people who anticipate 
  incipient psychic interrogation, Yesteryear temporarily absorbs the 
  user in remembering the events of up to one hour before the chem 
  is taken. While the subject can still function while under the effect 
  of Yesteryear, they are incapable of forming complex plans or free-
  ing themselves from the constant introspection on events. Psychics 
  attempting to probe a subject affected by Yesteryear will get nothing 
  from surface thoughts except for memories of the hour before the 
  drug was taken, and even deep memory probes allow the subject a 
  +2 on their Mental Effects saving throw. The subject suffers a -2 on 
  hit rolls and -1 on skill checks due to the difficulty of focusing on 
  the present. A dose of Yesteryear lasts for six hours and costs 300 
  credits
  Espionage Gear
  The devices listed here are very difficult to acquire outside of the 
  intelligence community, and the pretech fabricators necessary for 
  building spy dust makes it a precious commodity even for those 
  Perimeter agencies that can still manage to create it.
  equiPment
  Item
  Cost
  Enc
  Tech
  Cranial Bomb
  3,000
  *
  4
  Personal Drone
  5,000
  2
  4
  Spy Dust
  10,000
  *
  5
  * These items weigh a negligible amount.
  Cranial Bomb: A popular means of ensuring loyalty, a cranial 
  bomb is an implant programmed to detonate on receipt of a coded 
  signal. Some varieties instead explode when a signal is not received 
  for a certain amount of time. The victim is automatically killed, 
  and anyone within three meters suffers 1d4 damage from the burst.
  Simple bombs are not difficult to implant, and can be inserted as 
  part of any surgical procedure which requires that the victim be 
  unconscious. The subject won’t even realize they’ve been implanted 
  unless they receive a medical scan. These bombs are relatively easy 
  to remove, requiring only a Dex/Tech/Medical check at difficulty 6. 
  On a check failure, the doctor must save versus Tech or the bomb 
  goes off, doing 3d6 damage to the surgeon. On a successful save, the 
  bomb remains in place but quiescent.
  Bombs can also be implanted more carefully, requiring at least an 
  hour and leaving it obvious to the victim that something has been 
  wedged into his or her brain. These bombs are very difficult to 
  disarm, with the check required being difficulty 9.
  Personal Drone: This small aerostat device provides eyes and ears 
  for a remote user. Fueled by a type A cell, this fist-sized drone can 
  fly up to 200 meters from the control unit, transmitting back 
  audiovisual information. The drone can key to any dataslab or com-
  mpad for control and transmission, and operates up to one hour 
  on a power cell. Its maneuverability is good, but not perfect, and 
  it cannot function well in enclosed spaces. The drone is no louder 
  than quiet conversation and is equipped with infrared sensors for 
  night viewing. If noticed, it counts as AC 2, but is destroyed by any 
  hit. A character controlling the drone can do nothing else if it is not 
  to be blown off station by even the lightest breeze.
  Spy Dust: A thumb-sized cylinder of pretech spy nanites, this 
  dust can be dumped out in an area up to 20 meters in diameter or 
  sprinkled over an object. Once keyed to a dataslab or commpad, the 
  dust will faultlessly transmit audiovisual of everything that happens 
  within line of sight of the area or the object for up to 12 hours. 
  The dust is impossible to detect short of hours of careful inspection 
  with postech security tools. Pretech sniffers can pick it up quickly, 
  however. The dust has a transmission range of 2 kilometers and lasts 
  for a year after deployment.
  
  96
  A
  Adventure Design Summary 80
  Assassin Plague 65
  B
  Backgrounds 91
  C
  Combat Toxins 94
  D
  Debilities 56
  Doomsday Cults 63
  E
  Eugenics Cults 52, 59
  F
  Filter Symbiote 65
  G
  Ghoul Cults 53
  Godmind Cults 59
  Group Stealth 90
  I
  Improvements 56
  M
  Maltech 51
  Medical Chems 94
  N
  Neural Cascade Catalyst 65
  New Equipment 93
  Combat Toxins 94
  Medical Chems 94
  Weapon Modifications 93
  Weaponry 93
  P
  Perimeter, The 7
  Perpetual Cell 65
  Personal Kinetic Shield 65
  Psychotropic Grenade 65
  S
  Skills and Challenges 79
  Special Rules 90
  Sudden Takedown 90
  T
  Theme Tags 67
  Training Packages 92
  W
  Weapon Modifications 93
  Index
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Stars Without Number/Stars Without Number (osr)/Adventures & Settings/SwN - Darkness Visible.pdf