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  Crash Zone
  Written by
  Jesse Pingenot
  Saga Machine system by
  Thorin Tabor
  Edited by
  Thorin Tabor
  Art by
  NASA, Wilson Saravia
  Tab Creations is
  Ben Goreham, Jesse Pingenot, Matthew Pennell, Thorin Tabor
   
  Tab Creations, Saga Machine and Shadows Over Sol are trademarks owned by Thorin Tabor and Tab Creations LLC. All rights 
  reserved. All other content is ©2020 Jesse Pingenot & Tab Creations. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these 
  pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This document is a work of fiction.
  
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  Crash Zone is a complete action horror 
  scenario for Shadows Over Sol. Contained 
  in this adventure enough material to cover 
  between two and four sessions of play, 
  depending on the interests of the players 
  and the pacing set by the GM.
  In this scenario, the team will be 
  pitted against rival corporate agents, fight 
  automated drones and unravel a mystery 
  that has laid dormant on Mars for decades.
  Author’s 
  Author’s 
  Forward
  Forward
  In the process of creating Shadows 
  Over Sol, the Tab Creations team learned 
  a lot about the solar system as a whole, and 
  Mars in particular. Mars seems to call to 
  humanity, as a rocky planet near our own. 
  Several years ago, a company even started 
  taking applications for colonists.
  But Mars has many, many roadblocks 
  between it and permanent human colo-
  nization. Its core and mantle are dead. 
  It has no magnetosphere to protect any 
  potential colonists from radiation. And 
  its low gravity, at 0.37 G, is not what 
  human bodies are adapted for, possibly 
  causing developmental complications in 
  children and bone loss in adults. It’s not 
  just Earth without water.
  What would it take to make Mars a 
  new Earth? Would humanity, as a species, 
  prefer to modify itself to meet the needs 
  of the planet, or would they prefer to alter 
  the planet to meet the needs of humanity?
  And since humans are individuals and 
  don’t think as a species, what happens 
  when someone disagrees?
  Synopsis
  Synopsis
  In the early days of the Mars Terrafor-
  ming Project lots of crazy theories were 
  floated on how to make the Red Planet 
  habitable for human life. These ranged 
  from bioengineering lifeforms to digest 
  and break up the Martian regolith, to 
  crashing asteroids into the planet to give 
  it greater mass and reignite Mars’ dead 
  planetary core.
  One group involved with the earliest 
  terraforming efforts was a privately 
  owned space technology firm called the 
  Mizalcor Initiative. Led by Eun-Seung 
  Mok, an eccentric billionaire known for 
  his extravagant lifestyle and belief in hard 
  AI, the Initiative championed some of the 
  most bizarre terraforming plans proposed 
  in those early days.
  Eventually a rift grew between the 
  Mizalcor Initiative and the Terraforming 
  Project’s other early participants, leading 
  Eun-Seung Mok to publicly declare that 
  his companies would seek to terraform 
  Mars on their own, without the project’s 
  input. A grand unveiling of his vision 
  for Mars was scheduled, but never came 
  to fruition, as the very next week World 
  War IV erupted, putting all terraforming 
  plans on hold and consuming human 
  efforts for the next several years. 
  While Eun-Seung Mok survived the 
  war, he didn’t survive its radioactive fallout. 
  Introduction
  Introduction
  
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  Eun-Seung died of radiation poisoning 
  just months after the conflict ended. The 
  Mizalcor Initiative filed for bankruptcy 
  shortly afterward.
  As far as anyone knows, that was the 
  end of Eun-Seung’s, and the Mizalcor 
  Initiative’s, involvement with Martian  
  terraforming. Their plans fell by the 
  wayside and more sensible minds prevailed. 
  However, that common wisdom is about 
  to be proven wrong.
  The Mars Solution
  The Mars Solution
  While World War IV was consuming 
  the attention of humanity, the Mizalcor 
  Initiative was spending extravagantly, 
  hiring new personnel and constructing 
  a series of installations across Mars. This 
  was done in absolute secrecy, so as to not 
  become a target in the war.
  Meanwhile, one of Eun-Seung’s other 
  companies was involved in processing fissile 
  material for the Corporate Powers. This 
  material was used to manufacture atomic 
  bombs for the war. Carefully skimming 
  material from the war effort, the Mizalcor 
  Initiative transferred it to Mars and there 
  used it into manufacture warheads.
  These warheads were placed at regular 
  points under the Martian crust. The plan 
  was to later set them off in unison. This 
  was called Ignition Day. It was part of an 
  effort to create strategic faults in Mars’ 
  dead mantle. The hope was that the 
  energy produced by igniting the bombs 
  would cause the outer mantle to liquify 
  and magnetically realign, producing 
  a stronger magnetosphere around the 
  planet, and thus protecting it from the 
  most harmful effects of solar radiation.
  But the bombs were just half the plan. 
  Automated drones were also sent out to 
  alter the paths of close to one thousand 
  objects in the solar system, and to have 
  them collide with Mars at roughly the 
  same time. These would produce an 
  abundance of additional energy to heat 
  the already fractured crust.
  Thirty secret facilities were completed, 
  but 
  Ignition 
  Day 
  never 
  arrived. 
  Eun-Seung Mok died before his plan 
  could be put into motion. 
  His corporate successor at the Mizalcor 
  Initiative, never a believer in the project, 
  then quickly evacuated and shuttered 
  the secret facilities, lest the stolen fissile 
  material be traced to the company. The 
  entire effort was swept under the rug and 
  then largely forgotten.
  Unfortunately for Mars, someone or 
  something has just discovered the Mizalcor 
  Initiative’s old network of secret facilities, 
  and Ignition Day is about to arrive.
  Ready-Made Heroes
  Ready-Made Heroes
  The 
  nine 
  player 
  characters 
  presented in Shadows Over Sol: 
  Ready-Made Heroes are ideal for 
  use with Crash Zone. Simply print 
  out the character sheets, give them 
  their listed “Action Horror” loadouts 
  and they are good to go!
  Of particular interest are: Alek-
  sander Gugenheim, who is on his 
  home turf in this adventure; Ozan 
  Cevahir, who has experience in the 
  Martian water trade; and Albert 
  Astro, who may have some insight 
  into breaking apart orbital bodies.
  
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  Enter the Team
  Enter the Team
  When the bombs are set off, a quake 
  will shake the Martian surface. Hired by 
  Sinoex, the team will then be sent out 
  to investigate the cause of this seismic 
  disturbance. Over the course of the inves-
  tigation, they will discover one of the 
  secret facilities and then explore a second 
  facility whose warhead failed to ignite.
  This leads to the revelation that 
  thousands of orbital objects are about 
  to strike the Red Planet. Can the team 
  deflect the incoming objects before they 
  cause millions of colonists to die?
  Modes of 
  Modes of 
  Horror
  Horror
  Crash Zone is written with the action 
  horror mode of play in mind (see the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 
  164). Throughout the events of this 
  adventure, the team will run up against 
  rival scrappers, mysterious automated 
  drones and a mystery that has laid 
  dormant on Mars for decades.
  This scenario is high enough in action 
  that the GM may want to consider 
  running it using the Epic Sci-fi mode of 
  play (see Fatal Frontier, page 6). This 
  works especially well if the adventure is 
  being run as a one-shot.
  Altering the adventure to suit the Inves-
  tigative Horror or Survival Horror modes 
  of play is also possible, albeit with a little 
  work. To do this, play up the investigative 
  aspects in the first half of the adventure. It 
  may also be reasonable to have the team 
  accompanied by a few NPC soldiers 
  appointed by Sinoex. In that case, have 
  the soldiers do the bulk of the shooting, 
  but try to have it occur “offscreen,” 
  when the team is split up exploring the 
  two secret facilities. They can later come 
  upon the wounded soldiers and hear their 
  harrowing tale. This helps build tension 
  and furthers the sense of dread without 
  slaughtering the scrappers.
  Other Adventures
  Other Adventures
  Crash Zone can be used alone or in conjunction with other published 
  Shadows Over Sol adventures. Below are some notes on how to combine this 
  scenario with others. 
   
  ■ Dreams and Dust: Like Crash Zone, this adventure is set on Mars and assumes 
  a competent and well-prepared team. While it starts as Investigative Horror, 
  it is easily adapted to Action Horror, and makes a great follow-up scenario for 
  teams that gain a heroic reputation.
   
  ■ Eviction Notice: Another Action Horror scenario set on Mars, Eviction 
  Notice is best set before Crash Zone, and is a great way for the team to gain the 
  reputation they will need to be hired by Sinoex.
   
  ■ Thirst: Yet another Martian adventure, Thirst is a very different scenario than 
  Crash Zone, but makes for a great interlude as the team travels between the 
  two secret facilities, or as a prelude to the events of Crash Zone.
  
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  This scenario begins with the team 
  in Oras colony on Mars. Perhaps they 
  are spending some downtime between 
  missions visiting family, or on a drinking 
  binge. Or perhaps they just wrapped up 
  another adventure set on Mars, such as 
  Thirst or Eviction Notice, and haven’t 
  even had time for a breather.
  Downtime
  Downtime
  However they came by their well-
  earned downtime, have the team play out 
  a little bit of it. This is also a good oppor-
  tunity to touch on personal plots or shed 
  a bit on light on the characters. Just what 
  do they do when they’re between jobs?
  Try to give each of the player charac-
  ters a short scene. You can adapt each one 
  to that particular character’s strengths or 
  interests. A few ideas are given below:
   
  ■ Teams who just finished their last job 
  likely just got paid. This means that 
  the scrappers may have microcredits 
  burning a hole in their proverbial 
  pockets. Shopping for new gear 
  is a time-honored tradition and 
  something easily accomplished in 
  most colonies on Mars.
   
  ■ Characters with a violent bent may 
  want to seek out illegal underground 
  bloodsports (see page 33 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook). 
  They could make bets on the outcome 
  or even participate in the games!
   
  ■ The team may have any number of 
  contacts on Mars. Checking up on 
  old friends, acquaintances or even 
  enemies can make for an interesting 
  scene. This is especially true if using 
  the Contacts rules from page 3 of 
  Shadows Over Sol: Contacts.
   
  ■ Characters of a scientific bent may 
  want to pursue research activities or 
  conduct experiments. This may call 
  for any number of flips, including 
  Int/bio-sci or Int/phy-sci.
  The News
  The News
  As the team goes about their 
  business, the GM should mention 
  some of the things that are in the news. 
  These tidbits provide important fore-
  shadowing for later in the adventure.
   
  ■ The net is full of talk about a Heed 
  celebrity, Grand Wizmo Altantsetseg, 
  who was killed when an undetected 
  meteoroid struck his ship as it waited 
  in queue for a shuttle to Oras Topside 
  Station, in orbit at the top of Mars’ 
  space elevator. 
   
  ■ There is also news of a new attempt 
  to build a permanent settlement on 
  Mercury—in a pocket in the deep 
  crust, between the mantle and the 
  surface. (This news item is largely 
  unrelated to the adventure, but 
  touches on the ideas of placing facili-
  ties next to a planetary mantle.)
   
  ■ Lastly, one of the team hears some 
  technical babble about current solar 
  system models continuing to be slightly 
  out of alignment with observations, 
  even though astronomers have been 
  refining these models for centuries.
  Marsquake
  Marsquake
  
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  Marsquake
  Marsquake
  While the team is in the middle of 
  their downtime shenanigans, a major 
  tremor suddenly strikes Mars. All around 
  them is chaos, as everything that was not 
  bolted down has fallen to the floor or 
  toppled over. Screams can be heard and 
  nearby buildings threaten to collapse.
   
  ■ Have each of the scrappers make a  
  Dex/athletics-10 flip to avoid falling 
  to the ground and suffering a light 
  wound, as well as embarassment.
  Aftermath
  Aftermath
  Give the team time to react. The 
  colony they are in has suffered at least 
  some damage. People are trapped and 
  need help. People are confused. No one 
  knows the cause of the tremor.
   
  ■ Locating people that need help is a 
  Per/awareness-10 flip. Lifting debris 
  to free those trapped underneath is a 
  Str/athletics-12 flip.
   
  ■ Gossiping about the quake calls for a 
  Chr/socialize-8 flip. “Perhaps it was 
  a terrorist attack? Or maybe some 
  idiot crashed an ice delivery nearby, 
  outside the crash zone?”
   
  ■ Anyone using their AR glasses or 
  implant will see a flood of messages 
  from people reacting to the quake. An 
  Int/comp-ops-8 flip will quickly reveal 
  that, whatever caused it, the tremor 
  was felt all across Mars at roughly the 
  same time. It was not a local event.
  Moving On
  Moving On
  Give the team some time to react and 
  look into the cause of the quake—a few 
  hours to group up, rescue survivors and 
  search the net should suffice. The mystery 
  should just be beginning to deepen when 
  they receive a contact request.
  The Offer
  The Offer
  If the team agrees to the contact request, 
  it will open a vid-connection between 
  them and a Ms. Nguyen, who claims to be 
  a representative of Sinoex’s Department or 
  Research and Development. 
  She says that her department is 
  looking into the cause of the Marsquake, 
  as it has already been named in multiple 
  subcultures, and she wants to hire the 
  scrappers to investigate. She will let on 
  that she has some leads they can follow, 
  Right to the Action?
  Right to the Action?
  GMs wishing to get right to the 
  action can skip the downtime scenes 
  and start with the Marsquake. This is 
  recommended if running the scenario 
  as a one-shot. 
  Although the news items provide 
  important foreshadowing, bits and 
  pieces can be dropped in as the team 
  gears up for the mission.
  This is Not Normal
  This is Not Normal
  Earthquakes are common on 
  Earth; it is a tectonically active world 
  with a molten mantle. Mars, on the 
  other hand, is tectonically dead. 
  Quakes have been unheard of there 
  for a billion years. This Marsquake 
  is not normal. Anyone may make an 
  Int/phy-sci-8 flip to know that.
  
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  but she will not divulge those leads until 
  all of the crew have signed the contract.
   
  ■ She is offering an Income 7 payment for 
  the job. Success on a Chr/persuade-10 
  flip, however, can negotiate her up to 
  an Income 8 payment.
   
  ■ With a successful Int/deception-12 
  flip, the team might be able to trick 
  her into divulging a bit about her 
  lead. She believes that the quake is 
  linked to activity at a series of sites 
  spread across Mars. One of those sites 
  happens to nearby, which is why she’s 
  contacting the team: she put out a 
  contract offer based on proximity to 
  that location.
  The Details
  The Details
  Once the PCs have accepted the 
  offer, she will reveal the details about 
  her lead willingly. She believes that the 
  quake is linked to activity at a series of 
  sites spread across Mars. One of those—
  at coordinates 0°, 0°—is close to the 
  team’s current location. 
  She does not know what to expect 
  at the site, only that the closest tremors 
  seemed to originate from there. She is 
  confident, however, that other corps have 
  processed the same data and are sending 
  their own teams to investigate. She would 
  encourage the scrappers not to waste time 
  if they want to get their payday. Once 
  they have something to report, they can 
  contact her via hand terminal and she 
  will arrange to transfer their payment.
  With that, Ms. Nguyen signs off. The 
  team can grab their gear, hop in a rover 
  and head out to the site.
  Ms. Bian Nguyen
  Ms. Bian Nguyen
  Geneline Martian Standard*, Subculture Ghostman
  Str 4, Dex 7, Spd 5, End 6, Int 6, Per 4, Chr 6, Det 6
  Defense 8/16, DR 0, Shock 12, Wound 5, Wealth 7, Lifestyle 7
  Skills: Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Bureaucrat 3, Comp-Ops 3, Conspiracy 3, 
  Deception 2, Empathy 2, Guns 1, Lib-Arts 2, Persuade 3, Phy-Sci 2, Socialize 3
  Light Pistol: +4 (♠12M/♥8M/♦4M/♣2M), Range 10, Shots 10
  Gear: AR Glasses, Biometric Cracker, Hand Terminal, Verazine
  Born in Oras colony to a family also in Sinoex’s employ, Nguyen was taught 
  by the corp’s schools and raised on a steady stream of pro-Sinoex propoganda. 
  Now in her mid-20’s, she has worked for Sinoex for several years and has been 
  recently promoted. In fact, this is her first time hiring a freelance scrapper team, 
  although she will do her best not to let on. After all, even shady corp recruiters 
  have to start somewhere.
  * See page 34 of Shadows Over Sol: Beyond Human.
  Sinoex
  Sinoex
  For more on the resource extrac-
  tion megacorp Sinoex, see page 58 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  
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  10
  
  1111
  In this act, the team will head out to 
  the coordinates given to them by Ms. 
  Nguyen. There they will discover a secret 
  facility seemingly left undisturbed since 
  World War IV. They’ll confront a rival 
  Microdyne scrapper team, and they’ll 
  even be led to a second secret facility, 
  mysteriously similar to the first.
  The events of this act are on a timer. 
  The team is racing against time to 
  discover both secret facilities before their 
  Microdyne rivals. As the GM, you may 
  choose to either keep strict track of time or 
  to handwave the timing for best dramatic 
  effect. If keeping strict track of time, 
  assume each flip takes about 10 minutes, 
  unless common sense dictates otherwise. 
  Whichever method you choose, make sure 
  that the players feel the time pressure.
  Times will be measured from the 
  point when their negotiation with Ms. 
  Nguyen concludes: T=0 minutes.
  Excursion
  Excursion
  It should be easy enough for the 
  team to load up a rover and head out to  
  0°, 0°. If the team doesn’t own a rover, 
  one can be rented in Oras colony.
   
  ■ Renting a rover is a basic lifestyle 
  expense for anyone with Lifestyle 6 
  or better. Otherwise, the rental will 
  require a Cost 6 payment. The process 
  takes about half an hour.
   
  ■ Leaving the colony by rover requires 
  passing through a security check-
  point. This takes another half hour, 
  although the process can be shortened 
  to only 10 minutes with either a 
  successful Int/bureaucrat-10 flip or 
  a Cost 5 bribe.
   
  ■ Under normal circumstances, the 
  trip from Oras to 0°, 0° takes about 
  5 hours. However, the driver may 
  make a Spd/vehicles-10 flip to 
  maneuver the vehicle more quickly 
  to the destination. This reduces the 
  travel time by 10 minutes per Mag.
  The Competition
  The Competition
  As Ms. Nguyen warned them, the 
  team is not the only interested party 
  headed to those coordinates. En route 
  is another scrapper team, this one hired 
  by the megacorp Microdyne. It is led by 
  Tang Yun-Seo, a ruthless killer who will 
  be more than happy to leave the char-
  acters in an unmarked grave. Under no 
  circumstances will she let the team leave 
  with whatever secrets they discovered. 
   
  ■ The Microdyne team is on schedule 
  to arrive at the coordinates at T=6.5 
  hours (390 minutes).
   
  ■ Characters checking the net to look for 
  evidence of competitors can discover 
  Microdyne’s interest in the site with 
  a successful Per/comp-ops-12 flip. 
  This will reveal they they posted a job 
  looking for scrappers to visit a “location 
  of interest” and that the job was filled 
  soon thereafter.
  Triacontahedron
  Triacontahedron
  Microdyne
  Microdyne
  For more on the computing 
  megacorp Microdyne, see page 57 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  
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  Secret Facility
  Secret Facility
  The location of interest—0°, 0°—is a 
  flat and otherwise unremarkable area of 
  regolith a ways north of Noachis Terra 
  (“Land of Noah”), a landmass in Mars’ 
  southern hemisphere. The area is dotted 
  by small boulders and the occasional 
  crag, but is otherwise easily traversed.
  Teams searching the area for signs 
  of anything out of the ordinary can 
  make either a Per/investigate-12 or a  
  Per/naturalist-10 flip. On a success, the 
  scrapper discovers a hidden airlock door 
  a few dozen meters away from the exact 
  location of 0°, 0°. This door is almost 
  perfectly disguised as a small boulder 
  partially embedded in the regolith.
  Failure on this flip results in wasted 
  time. The team will still find the door, 
  but it will take at least half an hour. 
  Furthermore, the team will be distracted 
  if Microdyne arrives while they’re still 
  searching (see page 16). This gives 
  Yun-Seo’s team a chance to park their 
  own rover far away and sneak up, poten-
  tially ambushing the characters.
  Accessing 
  Accessing 
  the Airlock
  the Airlock
  Before the team can access the airlock, 
  they must first move the boulder that 
  both blocks and hides the airlock door.
   
  ■ The boulder must be manually lifted 
  out of the way, requiring someone to 
  make a Str/athletics-12 flip. Failure 
  results in the character increasing her 
  Fatigue consequence a severity. Once 
  lifted out of the hole, an old airlock 
  is visible underneath the boulder’s 
  former location.
   
  ■ The door doesn’t have any visible rust 
  or other age marks (Mars’ atmosphere 
  doesn’t have the necessary oxygen for 
  that), but a successful Int/engineer-10 
  flip will reveal that the airlock door 
  is of an older style that hasn’t been 
  popular for decades.
   
  ■ Characters searching the door for 
  a key card slot or number pad may 
  make a Per/awareness-10 flip to 
  confirm that the airlock has neither. 
  It instead relies solely on its mundane 
  camouflage to avoid discovery.
  Opening the Airlock
  Opening the Airlock
  The airlock does not have any 
  power, but it can be manually operated. 
  Any attempt to short circuit the airlock 
  with hacking or an electronic security 
  override will fail. 
   
  ■ A successful Per/mechanic-8 flip 
  will reveal that there is no power 
  being routed to the airlock. Whatever 
  supplies it once had are long dead.
   
  ■ A resourceful character might be able 
  to manually hook up power from her 
  own personal supplies to power the 
  airlock. This requires the right gear and 
  a successful Dex/mechanic-10 flip.
   
  ■ Alternatively, the airlock’s emergency 
  controls can be manually operated 
  and then the door can be forced open 
  with a Str/athletics-12 flip. Failure 
  still opens the airlock, but results in 
  the character’s Fatigue consequence 
  being increased a severity.
   
  ■ Cutting through the airlock is also 
  possible with the correct equipment, 
  however, this takes half an hour and 
  compromises the atmosphere inside.
  
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  Exploring  
  Exploring  
  the Facility
  the Facility
  On the other side of the airlock 
  door is a corridor that gradually slops 
  downwards, leading in the direction of 
  true 0°, 0°. The atmospheric readout 
  on the team’s environment suits will 
  indicate a breathable atmosphere with 
  no 
  known 
  contaminants. 
  Anyone 
  breathing the air will note that it smells 
  old, but clean; not musty.
   
  ■ As the team travels down the corridor, 
  anyone checking atmospheric readings 
  may make a Per/naturalist-10 flip 
  to notice that radiation levels are 
  increasing slightly as they descend, 
  rather than decreasing as would 
  normally be expected.
  Central Chamber
  Central Chamber
  The corridor zigzags downwards in 
  a series of switchbacks. After about five 
  minutes of pressing forward, the team 
  will have descended 50 meters, and 
  the corridor will open up into a larger 
  room. This room is dome-shaped, with 
  a circular walkway on the parameter 
  and a ventilation grate in the center. 
  Along the outside of the room are eight 
  doors, most leading to other chambers. 
  They are described in clockwise order, 
  starting from the entryway where the 
  scrappers first emerge.
   
  ■ The chamber has a very fine layer of 
  dust. Success on a Per/investigate-10 
  flip reveals that it looks undisturbed.
   
  ■ In some places the paint on the walls 
  is peeling or beginning to crumble to 
  dust. It is an odd mauve color that 
  hasn’t been popular for decades. 
   
  ■ The doors leading out of this room 
  may have once had labels painted 
  over them, but these have long since 
  peeled away.
   
  ■ Those standing on the ventilation 
  grate may notice that no air is being 
  pushed through it. This means that 
  either the facility is completely out 
  of power or the ventilation has been 
  shut down entirely.
  Habs
  Habs
  The first door leads to what appears 
  to be an old bunking area. It consists 
  of another corridor with several small 
  rooms off to either side. Each room 
  contains a pair of bunks, one stacked on 
  top of the other, with a medium-sized 
  lockbox on either side.
   
  ■ The scrappers may search the bunks 
  for anything left behind. This requires 
  a successful Per/investigate-10 flip. 
  However, there isn’t much to be found. 
  One lockbox contains a decaying 
  blanket and an empty metal flask. 
  Another contains an old jumpsuit—the 
  same weird mauve color as the walls—
  stitched with the name “Chuck” on 
  the chest. A lewd postcard is tucked 
  under one of the mattresses. The most 
  interesting find is a crumpled pay stub 
  dated May 10, 2149. The letterhead 
  at the top indicates that it is from the 
  Mizalcor Initiative.  
   
  ■ Either a successful Int/conspiracy-10 
  flip or Int/comp-ops-12 flip will reveal 
  that the Mizalcor Initiative was an old 
  space technology firm that filed for 
  bankruptcy shortly after World War IV. 
  It was involved in some of the earliest 
  terraforming efforts and was one of the 
  founding organizations involved in the 
  
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  Mars Terraforming Project. For more 
  information, see page 3.
  Restrooms
  Restrooms
  The next door over leads to the facil-
  ity’s restrooms. There are two stalls with 
  toilets and a bidet, as well as a shower. A 
  curtain still hangs in the shower, but the 
  plastic has yellowed and is brittle with age. 
  Two sinks with mirrors line the far wall.
  There is little of note to be found 
  in the restrooms. The toilets and other 
  accommodations are dry, as the water 
  in the facility’s tanks was either long ago 
  drained or evaporated. A toothbrush lies 
  discarded near the sinks.
  Mess Hall
  Mess Hall
  Beyond this door is a small mess hall. 
  It contains two long tables lined with 
  stools, as well as a counter in the back 
  intended to serve food. 
   
  ■ A plastic tub next to the counter is still 
  sealed and can be pried open to reveal 
  what looks like a stack of cream-filled 
  golden sponge cakes. The fact that they 
  are still intact and recognizable after all 
  this time speaks to the large amount of 
  artificial preservatives in them.
  Recreational Room
  Recreational Room
  Next to the mess hall is what looks to 
  be an old recreational room. A table sits 
  at its center. A shelf lines one wall with 
  a few board games and a dart board. On 
  the far side of the room are two tread-
  mills and a weightlifting bench.
   
  ■ The treadmills lack power, but the 
  rod used with the weightlifting 
  bench can be removed and functions 
  as an improvised crowbar. The 
  weights themselves are almost comi-
  cality large, given Mars’ low gravity.
  Storage
  Storage
  This room contains several shelves 
  that are mostly barren, aside from a few 
  empty boxes and a lone can of beans. The 
  beans have an expiration date of January, 
  2150. They are no longer edible.
  Maintenance
  Maintenance
  This cramped room is little more than 
  a large closet that allows access to the 
  facility’s water supply, air recycling, fuse 
  box and other basic infrastructure.
   
  ■ A successful Per/mechanic-10 flip 
  will reveal that neither the air recycling 
  or water supply has power, nor does 
  the water supply contain any water.
   
  ■ It will also reveal that the facility 
  has two power generators, a primary 
  generator as well as a secondary 
  generator powering the room behind 
  the locked door. The fuse for the 
  secondary generator has burnt out.
  Locked Door
  Locked Door
  Next to the maintenance room is a 
  locked door of the type intended to slide 
  open when a button is pressed. Unfor-
  tunately, the door is without power and 
  sealed tight. The locked door leads to the 
  control room (see the next page).
   
  ■ If the team has cutting tools, they 
  might be able to cut through the 
  door with about 15 minutes of work. 
  No flip is required if the scrapper has 
  has a plasma torch or similar gear; 
  she just spends the necessary time 
  
  15
  15
  and the door is cut open.
   
  ■ Those without cutting tools may be able 
  to pry the door open with a crowbar 
  and a successful Str/thievery-10 flip. 
  Improvising a crowbar using furniture 
  or gym equipment imposes the usual 
  -2 penalty for improvised gear.
   
  ■ Connecting a power supply to the 
  door requires a Dex/mechanic-10 
  flip. However, once powered, the door 
  will deny the characters access unless 
  they can hack the door’s security: an 
  Int/program-10 flip.
  Control Room
  Control Room
  Once the locked door is open, two 
  things happen at once. The team will be 
  face-to-face with a combat drone, and 
  the radiation alarms in their environment 
  suits will begin screeching. If you can test 
  your smoke alarm to make a screeching 
  sound and startle your players, all the 
  better. It should be sudden and jarring.
   
  ■ So long as the door is open, the team 
  is now in a radiation area; this will 
  quickly apply to the whole complex. 
  See the radiation rules on page 155 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook. 
   
  ■ Anyone without proper radiation 
  protection must make an immediate 
  End-10 flip against damage from the 
  radiation. Another flip must be made 
  every 10 minutes.
   
  ■ The combat drone is inert and sits 
  on a shelf near a series of control 
  panels. Examining the drone and 
  succeeding on a Per/mechanic-10 
  flip will reveal that it seems to have 
  suffered from a power surge—and a 
  very recent power surge at that!
  Activating the Controls
  Activating the Controls
  Just past the combat drone is what 
  looks to have once been a control 
  station, with a series of control panels 
  and an open gateway to the right, 
  revealing heavy mining equipment, long 
  since abandoned. On the far side of the 
  control panels, the other half of the room 
  seems to have collapsed into some sort 
  of large hole, which is roughly 10 meters 
  in diameter and extends downward as 
  far as the eye can see.
   
  ■ The computers built into the control 
  panel have recently been fried in a 
  power surge, but can be repaired with 
  half an hour’s work and a successful 
  Dex/mechanic-10 flip.
   
  ■ Once powered up, the team will need to 
  override the security protocols. Fortu-
  nately, the panels’ security is decades 
  out of date. Hacking them requires 
  a successful Int/program-12 flip, 
  which is reduced to Int/program-8 if 
  someone on the team first searches the 
  net for old security exploits.
   
  ■ The data on the computers reveals 
  that this facility belongs to an organi-
  zation called the Mizalcor Initiative. 
  It is subterranean facility #13 out of 
  a set of 30 such facilities, all regularly 
  spaced to form a triacontahedron 
  across the surface of the planet.
   
  ■ Each facility is equipped with a high-
  yield uranium-based fission bomb, 
  placed at the bottom of a borehole 
  which extends downward, almost to 
  the mantle of Mars itself. 
   
  ■ There are also references to a plan 
  on the part of Mizalcor to terraform 
  Mars, but much of that data is lost.
  
  16
  16
  We’ve Got 
  We’ve Got 
  Company!
  Company!
  The team can head back to Oras or 
  report to Ms. Nguyen whenever they 
  finish investigating the secret facility, but 
  it is likely that the rival Microdyne team 
  will arrive at some point before they can 
  finish their search.
  The rival team, the Tang Gang, will 
  show up at T=6.5 hours (390 minutes) 
  or whenever the GM deems it dramati-
  cally appropriate. As the team is leaving 
  or shortly after they open the locked door 
  both make for good dramatic moments.
  Alternatively, if the team makes it 
  into and out of the facility before T=6 
  hours (360 minutes), they’ve gotten away 
  before the Microdyne team shows up. 
  They will have avoided the fight for now, 
  but it means the Tang Gang will be at 
  full strength when they show up at the 
  second facility (see page 19).
  If the team leaves between T=6 and 
  T=6.5 hours, they’ll cross paths with the 
  Tang Gang en route from the site. This 
  will result in a chase by rover, as the Tang 
  Gang turns and starts their pursuit (see 
  “The Chase” below).
  Radio Chatter
  Radio Chatter
  When the rival team first arrives, 
  anyone with an active hand terminal or 
  comm may pick up radio chatter from 
  them. This chatter is encrypted, but it 
  is distinguishable from the usual back-
  ground static, alerting the team to the 
  presence of rivals.
   
  ■ Noticing the radio chatter calls for a 
  Per/comp-ops-10 flip.
   
  ■ Breaking the chatter’s trivial encryption 
  requires a successful Spd/program-14 
  flip. This reveals that the rival team 
  has noticed the player characters’ 
  rover. They’ve also stopped their rover 
  a distance away and are maneuvering 
  the ambush the team.
  Microdyne Forces
  Microdyne Forces
  The Tang Gang consists of Tang 
  Yun-Seo, Komani and a number of 
  subordinate scrappers equal to the 
  number of PCs. (The gang also has a 
  few other members who’ve remained 
  behind in Oras to investigate reports of 
  the Marsquake on the net. They won’t be 
  present during the attack.)
   
  ■ Komani will remain behind to guard 
  their rover and coordinate his team over 
  comms. His stats are on page 23.
   
  ■ Tang will lead her team into the secret 
  facility, hoping to ambush her rivals. 
  Her stats are on page 17.
   
  ■ The rest of the Tang Gang will follow 
  close behind. There are a number 
  equal to the number of PCs. Their 
  stats are on page 17.
  The Chase
  The Chase
  If the player characters try to flee 
  without first defeating the Tang Gang, the 
  gang will give pursuit in their own rover. 
  On the other hand, if Komani is the last 
  of his team standing, he will drive back to 
  Oras to group up with those left behind.
   
  ■ The rover chase can be handled as an 
  extended Spd/vehicles vs. Spd/vehicles 
  (Tally 10, 1 minute) action. Whichever 
  team scores highest on the flip each 
  round can attack the other.
  
  17
  17
  Tang Yun-Seo
  Tang Yun-Seo
  Geneline Earthside Standard, Subculture Entro
  Str 8, Dex 6, Spd 6, End 7, Int 5, Per 5, Chr 7, Det 6
  Defense 8/17, DR 5, Shock 18, Wound 7, Wealth 6, Lifestyle 6
  Skills: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Bureaucrat 2, Comp-Ops 2, Conspiracy 3, 
  Deception 2, Empathy 2, Guns 3, Investigate 2, Medic 2, Melee 3, Socialize 2, 
  Stealth 2, Thievery 2, Vehicles 2
  Heavy Pistol: +5 (♠15M/♥10M/♦5M/♣2M), Autofire 2, Range 10, Shots 10
  Knife: +5 (♠21M/♥14M/♦7M/♣3M), Thrown
  Stun Grenade: +5 (♠24L/♥16L/♦8L/♣4L), Area 5, Stun, Thrown
  Gear: AR Implant, Hand Terminal, Tactical Suit (DR 5, Bulky 1)
  Tang Yun-Seo grew up in East Asia, but fled to space in her adolescence when 
  she killed a man who assaulted her in a bar. She did odd jobs on Luna for a 
  while, before falling in with a group of scrappers. Fast forward a decade, and 
  Tang is now the leader of her own scrapper outfit, unofficially called the Tang 
  Gang. She hates the name, but it stuck and Komani, her lover, likes it so she 
  tolerates it for now (see page 23).
  Unusually tall and muscular, Tang fights with the ferocity of a cornered tiger when 
  angered—willful, viscous and utterly without mercy. She never forgets a slight and 
  never forgives. She leads through a combination of fear and protectiveness towards 
  those under her command.
  Tang Gang
  Tang Gang
  Geneline Earthside Standard, Subculture Entro
  Str 6, Dex 6, Spd 6, End 6, Int 5, Per 5, Chr 5, Det 5
  Defense 8/17, DR 2*, Shock 13*, Wound 6, Wealth 4, Lifestyle 4
  Skills: Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Comp-Ops 2, Conspiracy 2, Empathy 2, Guns 4, 
  Investigate 2, Mechanic 2, Medic 2, Melee 4, Stealth 2, Thievery 2, Vehicles 2
  Heavy Pistol: +7 (♠15M/♥10M/♦5M/♣2M), Autofire 2, Range 10, Shots 10
  Knife: +5 (♠18M/♥12M/♦6M/♣3M), Thrown
  Stun Grenade: +4 (♠24L/♥16L/♦8L/♣4L), Area 5, Stun, Thrown
  Gear: AR Implant, Ballistic Suit (DR 2, Gel 3), Hand Terminal, Medikit
  * These values have +3 against ballistic attacks.
  Most of the Tang Gang are Entros from Earth who have rallied behind Tang 
  Yun-Seo and Komani as their leaders. Although they operate out of Mars,  
  ostensibly as a team of scrappers, most are little more than violent thugs looking 
  for their next fight. They need to regularly be bullied into line by Tang.
  
  18
  18
  Change 
  Change 
  of Plans
  of Plans
  Once the team reports back to Ms. 
  Nguyen, she’ll be concerned with what 
  they have to report—particularly if 
  they discovered that a detonated fission 
  bomb was the source of the radiation 
  they encountered.
  While the scrappers have been inves-
  tigating the secret facility, her team at 
  Sinoex have been continuing to process 
  the data from the Marsquake. According 
  to their calculations, and given all of the 
  info they have, the Marsquake originated 
  from 29 different sites across Mars. These 
  sites would form a rhombic triaconta-
  hedron around the planet, except that a 
  single point in the polyhedron is missing.
  Ms. Nguyen speculates that some-
  thing was supposed to happen at that 
  missing point, and it didn’t. If the team 
  has brought her evidence of atomic 
  bombs at each site, she’ll speculate that 
  the bomb at the missing point probably 
  failed to detonate as intended.
  She would like the team to recover 
  that weapon before anyone else gets 
  to it, or before it goes off on its own. 
  No one wants nuclear weapons lying 
  around, and Sinoex could undoubtedly 
  use its material. 
  Even if she doesn’t know of the bombs, 
  she will want the team to investigate the 
  missing point to see if they can discover 
  how it is different.
  Renegotiation
  Renegotiation
  Nguyen will try to convince the team 
  to head to the next site without any addi-
  tional pay. If the scrappers question her, 
  she will state their job is not yet complete. 
  However, if the team presses the issue, she 
  will relent and renegotiate their offer.
   
  ■ If one of the team members succeeds 
  on a Det/persuade vs. Det/persuade 
  flip, Ms. Nguyen will up the offer by 
  Income +1.
   
  ■ Ms. Nguyen’s stats are on page 9.
  Destination & Timer
  Destination & Timer
  Once the team has agreed to head to 
  the next site, Ms. Nguyen will reveal its 
  location: 0°, 39.916°. 
   
  ■ If the GM is keeping strict track of 
  time, begin a new timer with T=0. At 
  T=28 hours, the remnants of the Tang 
  Gang, led by Komani, will catch up 
  with the team and press the attack.
  The Journey
  The Journey
  The trek to 0°, 39.916° is a difficult 
  drive by rover with a lot of rough 
  terrain, including some major craters. 
  The distance from Oras is 2,367 km if 
  the team could keep to a straight line, 
  but that is impossible given the terrain. 
  Instead they will need to weave around 
  major obstacles and avoid complications 
  with their vehicle.
   
  ■  The journey by rover can be handled as 
  an extended action: Spd/vehicles-12 
  (Tally 10, 6 hours).
   
  ■ If any single flip of the extended 
  action is failed, the vehicle has some 
  sort issue. The first time a flip is 
  failed, a warning indictor comes on. 
  The second time a flip is failed, the 
  vehicle breaks down and must be 
  repaired with an hour of work and 
  
  19
  19
  a Dex/mechanic-10 flip. Further 
  failures also result in breakdowns, 
  but increase the TN by +2 each time.
   
  ■ Success on an Int/phy-sci-12 flip allows 
  a character to chart a more efficient 
  route, reducing the Interval to 5 hours.
   
  ■ Alternatively, an Int/phy-sci-12 flip 
  may be made to find a safer route, 
  reducing the Vehicles flips to TN 10. 
  This option, however, is not compat-
  ible with the more efficient route.
   
  ■ During the journey, the team may want 
  to switch drivers between intervals. 
  If they do not, the driver must make 
  an End-10 flip for every interval after 
  the first. On a failure, she increases her 
  Fatigue consequence a severity. This is 
  in addition to any flips for sleep depri-
  vation (see the Shadows Over Sol core 
  rulebook, page 160).
  Second 
  Second 
  Facility
  Facility
  Once the team arrives at 0°, 39.916°, 
  they can begin to search for a hidden 
  airlock or anything else out of the 
  ordinary. This time the search will be 
  easier, as the team has an idea of what 
  they are looking for.
   
  ■ Success on a Per/naturalist-8 or a 
  Per/investigate-8 flip locates the an 
  airlock hidden behind a boulder a 
  couple dozen meters away. It looks 
  almost identical to the airlock at the 
  previous site. Failure means the team 
  wastes half an hour searching before 
  locating the airlock.
   
  ■ As before, the boulder must be lifted 
  out of the way with a Str/athletics-12 
  flip. Failure causes the character to 
  
  20
  20
  increase her Fatigue consequence a 
  severity, but the boulder is still moved.
   
  ■ Unlike the previous site, this airlock 
  still has enough power to operate. 
  Once the boulder is moved it may be 
  opened trivially.
  Exploration
  Exploration
  This facility is laid out as a mirror 
  image to the previous one, but is 
  otherwise almost identical. Any differ-
  ences between it and the previous facility 
  the team explored are noted below.
  Once the team opens the door to the 
  control room, however, events will take a 
  very different turn.
  Central Chamber
  Central Chamber
  The fans in this facility are still 
  running, pushing air up through the 
  ventilation grate in the center of the floor. 
  This causes the central chamber to have 
  a slight breeze. If the characters listen 
  carefully, they can also hear the distant 
  hum of the facility’s fans.
  Habs
  Habs
  The mattresses from all the habs 
  have been piled up in a single room and 
  covered in scattered clothing. Everything 
  here smells musty and is caked in some 
  sort of old rot. A desiccated human corpse 
  lies in one corner of the room, clutching 
  an old ration bar wrapper.
  Restrooms
  Restrooms
  Assorted decades-old toiletries are 
  scattered about the floor in haphazard 
  fashion. The shower curtain has also 
  been torn down and lies in one corner 
  of the room. The words “Don’t go” have 
  been written on the wall in what looks 
  like human feces.
  Mess Hall
  Mess Hall
  A variety of discarded packaged food 
  containers litter the floor. The tables have 
  been pushed to each side of the room 
  and the chairs have been stacked up in a 
  haphazard pile.
  Recreational Room
  Recreational Room
  Board game pieces and broken gym 
  equipment lie scattered about the room.
  Storage
  Storage
  The shelves in this room are stacked 
  with boxes. These boxes may have once 
  held prepackaged foodstuffs, but they 
  are now empty.
  Maintenance
  Maintenance
  The maintenance closet hums with a 
  variety of machinery.
   
  ■ A successful Per/mechanic-10 flip 
  reveals that this facility is beginning 
  to run low on power, but is otherwise 
  still operational.
  Control Room Door
  Control Room Door
  As with the similar door in the first 
  facility, the control room door is locked.
   
  ■ Hacking the door’s security requires a 
  successful Int/program-10 flip.
   
  ■ Cutting through the door is automatic 
  with the appripriate tools, such as a 
  plasma torch, but takes 15 minutes.
   
  ■ A Str/thievery-10 flip can be made to 
  pry the door open.
  
  21
  21
  Control Room
  Control Room
  The control room may technically 
  have power, but other than a slight glow 
  coming from the control panels, it is 
  currently dark—the ceiling lights having 
  burnt out decades ago. 
  Its combat drones are also powered up 
  and fully functional. As soon as the team 
  opens the door, begin combat rounds.
  Hostile Encounter
  Hostile Encounter
  The control room is guarded by several 
  drones with longstanding instructions to 
  attack anyone who enters the room.
   
  ■ There are a number of hover drones 
  equal to the number of PCs. See the 
  stat block above.
   
  ■ They are backed up by two tracked 
  drones. See the stat block above.
  Mizalcor Hover Drone
  Mizalcor Hover Drone
  Str 3, Dex 6, Spd 7, End 5, Int 3, Per 6, Chr 1, Det 6
  Defense 10/21, DR 2, Shock 11, Wound 4
  Skills: Awareness 3, Guns 3, Mechanic 3
  Laser: +7 (♠9M/♥6M/♦3M/♣1M), Autofire 2, Range 10, Shots 20
  Flight: Hover drones can fly at twice normal movement rates.
  Machine: As a machine, a drone is immune to metabolic hazards, as well as 
  emotion-based consequences.
  Size -2: Hover drones are very small and nimble. This has been factored into the 
  drone’s Defense and Shock (see the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 209).
  These hover drones are of an older style and fit a niche halfway between modern 
  scout drones and combat drones. They are held aloft with four small propellers, 
  and are equipped with a low-powered laser weapon.
  Mizalcor Tracked Drone
  Mizalcor Tracked Drone
  Str 7, Dex 5, Spd 5, End 10, Int 5, Per 5, Chr 1, Det 10
  Defense 8/17, DR 4, Shock 22, Wound 8
  Skills: Awareness 2, Guns 3, Mechanic 1, Melee 3
  Laser: +7 (♠12M/♥8M/♦2M/♣2M), Autofire 4, Range 5, Shots 40
  Machine: As a machine, a drone is immune to metabolic hazards, as well as 
  emotion-based consequences.
  On Treads: The combat drone is on lightweight but durable tracks, allowing it to 
  roll over moderate terrain with little difficulty.
  Size -1: Tracked drones are very small and nimble. This has been factored into the 
  drone’s Defense and Shock (see the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 209).
  These tracked drones are essentially smaller, more primative versions of modern 
  armored crawlers. They’ve each been equipped with a laser weapon.
  
  22
  22
  Activating the Controls
  Activating the Controls
  Once the combat is over, the team can 
  try to power up the facility, assuming they 
  did not destroy too many of the consoles 
  in the control room. 
   
  ■ If they did harm one of the consoles, 
  it can be repaired with a successful 
  Dex/mechanic-10 flip and an hour 
  of work.
   
  ■ Powering up the console and facility 
  requires a successful Int/comp-ops-8 
  flip. Failure results in the loss of 
  half an hour as the team tries every 
  possible button.
   
  ■ An activated console must still be 
  hacked with an Int/program-12 flip. 
  This is reduced to Int/program-8 
  if someone on the team previously 
  found a security exploit on the net.
  Retrieving the Warhead
  Retrieving the Warhead
  As the team may have theorized, the 
  site contains an undetonated nuclear 
  warhead, which is currently at the bottom 
  of a borehole adjacent to the control 
  room. To retrieve the warhead, the team 
  will need to activate the borehole’s lifting 
  mechanism and reel it back up.
   
  ■ With the control console powered 
  up and access granted, a scrapper can 
  activate the lifting mechanism with 
  a successful Det/comp-ops-10 flip. 
  This will begin a two hour process of 
  slowly reeling up the line.
   
  ■ Hurrying the lifting mechanism is 
  possible, but at the risk of destroying 
  the mechanism or even dropping the 
  device down the borehole, rendering 
  it irretrievable. This requires a 
  successful Int/program-14 flip. Any 
  failure causes a malfunction.
   
  ■ Repelling down the borehole to 
  manually retrieve the warhead is tech-
  nically possible, but ill-advised. A 
  team member will need to repel down 
  a 5 km tunnel leading deep into the 
  Martian crust. She’ll then need to lift 
  a 200 kg (Big 20) bomb and carry it 
  all the way back up out of the hole.
  Critical Data
  Critical Data
  The data on the console remains 
  largely uncorrupted. Digging through it, 
  the team can discover the Mizalcor Initia-
  tive’s plans for Martian terraforming.
  Atomic bombs were placed at regular 
  points under the Martian crust, part of 
  an effort to create strategic faults through 
  Mars’ dead mantle. The hope was that the 
  energy produced by igniting the bombs 
  would cause the outer mantle to liquify and 
  magnetically realign, producing a stronger 
  magnetosphere around the planet, and thus 
  protecting it from the most harmful effects 
  of solar radiation.
  But the bombs were just half the plan. 
  Automated drones were also sent out to 
  alter the paths of close to one thousand 
  objects in the solar system, and to have 
  them collide with Mars at roughly the 
  same time. These would produce an 
  abundance of additional energy and theo-
  retically heat the already fractured crust.
  Of course, Mars was barely populated 
  then. Today, collisions of that magnitude 
  would result in the destruction of all 
  three colonies and millions of deaths.
   
  ■ An Int/comp-ops-10 flip is required to 
  access the information detailed above.
   
  ■ A successful Int/phy-sci-10 flip will 
  allow a character to conclude that the 
  plan is absolutely bonkers.
  
  23
  23
  Microdyne 
  Microdyne 
  Returns
  Returns
  The remnants of the Tang Gang have 
  been tracking the team ever since their 
  initial defeat at the first secret facility. 
  They’ve also been informed by their 
  patron, Microdyne, about the one point 
  missing in the rhombic triacontahedron 
  of sites that caused the Marsquake. 
  Seeing the chance to both cash in 
  on a Mircodyne payday and to get their 
  revenge on the team, they’ve armed 
  themselves and headed out to 0°, 39.916° 
  to do some killing and salvaging.
   
  ■ The Microdyne team will arrive at 
  T=28 hours or when the GM deems 
  it dramatically appropriate.
   
  ■ The player characters will have a chance 
  to detect them when they first arrive. 
  This requires a Per/comp-ops-12 flip 
  to pick up on their radio chatter.
   
  ■ As before, the encryption can be hacked 
  with a Spd/program-14 flip. Doing so 
  will reveal the gang’s numbers.
  The Fight
  The Fight
  If the Tang Gang arrives before the 
  team, they’ll try to hide their rover, enter 
  the facility and set up an ambush. If they 
  arrive after the team, they’ll go in guns 
  blazing and hope the shock of a sudden 
  attack gives them an advantage.
   
  ■ If Komani survived, he will lead the 
  assault. See his stat block above.
   
  ■ He has with him a number of gang 
  members equal to the number of PCs. 
  Their stats can be found on page 17.
   
  ■ Any gang members that survived the 
  first assault will also be present.
  Delivering 
  Delivering 
  the Warhead
  the Warhead
  Once the team has retrieved the 
  warhead from the second facility, they 
  can report to Ms. Nguyen. She tells them 
  that she will meet them at a loading 
  dock in Oras colony. The trip back by 
  rover may take a day or more, but there 
  is no longer any time pressure once the 
  Microdyne team has been defeated.
  “Papa Bear” Komani
  “Papa Bear” Komani
  Geneline Budget Upgrade, Subculture Entro
  Str 7, Dex 6, Spd 7, End 6, Int 5, Per 5, Chr 6, Det 8
  Defense 9/18, DR 2*, Shock 17*, Wound 6, Wealth 5, Lifestyle 5
  Skills: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Bureaucrat 2, Comp-Ops 2, Conspiracy 3, 
  Empathy 3, Guns 3, Investigate 2, Melee 3, Socialize 2, Stealth 2, Vehicles 3
  Light Rifle: +6 (♠18M/♥12M/♦6M/♣3M), Hands 2, Range 20, Shots 10
  Knife: +6 (♠21M/♥14M/♦7M/♣3M), Thrown
  Gear: AR Implant, Ballistic Suit (DR 2, Gel 3), Hand Terminal, Radio Comm
  * These values have +3 against ballistic attacks.
  Komani, or “Papa Bear,” as he calls himself, was one of Tang’s first recruits and 
  is also her lover. He is the strong, silent type and fiercely loyal.
  
  24
  24
  
  25
  25
  When the team meets up with Ms. 
  Nguyen at Oras colony, she is visibly 
  worried. While she does her best to 
  congratulate them on the job they’ve 
  done so far, she quickly thereafter turns 
  to the bad news.
  The death of Grand Wizmo Altant-
  setseg got a lot of people looking to 
  the sky for other objects crossing Mars’ 
  orbit (see page 7). And when the various 
  orbital scientists and amateur enthusi-
  asts looked around, they found a whole 
  lot of previously-undetected objects 
  on the collision course with the Red 
  Planet. Hundreds, possibly thousands, 
  of meteoroids, asteroids, and other 
  space objects were detected and are 
  on an imminent collision course with 
  Mars. The vast majority are projected 
  to do very little damage on their own, 
  but the sum total paints a grim picture 
  for Mars’ future habitability.
  Incoming!
  Incoming!
  If anyone on the team has kept up 
  with astronomy news, she may remember 
  that astronomers have noticed a slight 
  difference in orbital models vs. actual 
  orbits (see page 7). Attempts have been 
  ongoing to correct the issue. 
  With the discovery of the vast number 
  of objects on a collision course with Mars, 
  however, the reason for this discrepancy is 
  now clear: Someone has done this delib-
  erately. But the worst is yet to come.
  Several corps have launched mili-
  tary-grade ships to intercept, destroy 
  or divert the nearest objects to their 
  locations, but all available hands are 
  needed if all of the objects on a collision 
  course are to be dealt with.
  The most concerning is an asteroid 
  named Interamnia. It has accelerated, has 
  a significant amount of mass and has no 
  one else nearby to intercept it. 
  Rocks Fall; 
  Rocks Fall; 
  Everyone Dies?
  Everyone Dies?
  Interamnia
  Interamnia
   
  ■ Classification: F-type asteroid
   
  ■ Discovered: October 2, 1910
   
  ■ Gravity: 0.0087 G
   
  ■ Solar Year: 1,953 days (5.35 years)
   
  ■ Sidereal Day: 8.71 hours
   
  ■ Distance From Sol: 3.06 AU
   
  ■ Mean Radius: 172 km
  
  26
  26
  Mission to 
  Mission to 
  Interamnia
  Interamnia
  The team will be given one final task: 
  fly out to Interamnia and divert it so that 
  it doesn’t strike Mars. 
  Ms. Nguyen will ask them to take 
  this new job out of a sense of duty to 
  humanity and for the countless lives 
  it will save. (After all, she is new at 
  hiring scrappers.) If the team insists on 
  monetary compensation, however, she is 
  more than willing to negotiate.
   
  ■ With a successful Det/persuade-10 
  flip, she will up the team’s previous 
  offer by Income +1 (to a maximum of 
  Income 9).
   
  ■ If the team doesn’t have a ship, she will 
  also offer them temporary command 
  of a Sinoex vessel for the duration 
  of the mission: an MC-9 “Victory” 
  Corvette named the Saint Jude (see 
  Shiny New Toys, page 59).
  The Plan
  The Plan
  Sinoex scans have discovered a 
  previously 
  undetected 
  installation 
  attached to Interamnia. This installa-
  tion has now powered up and is using 
  its powerful thrusters to accelerate the 
  asteroid toward Mars. 
  The team is to take a ship and intercept 
  the asteroid en route. Once there, they 
  should be able to enter the installation, 
  disable the thrusters and set Interamnia 
  on a course away from the Red Planet.
  Ms. Nguyen is willing to hear other 
  plans, but unlikely to endorse them. For 
  example, if one of the team suggests using 
  the atomic bomb they just recovered to 
  blow up Interamnia, she will point out 
  that: A) The bomb didn’t explode previ-
  ously like it supposed to and they don’t 
  yet know what’s wrong with it; B) Even 
  an atomic bomb is unlikely to shatter an 
  object 344 km in diameter; and C) Even if 
  the asteroid did fracture, the momentum 
  at which the asteroid is traveling is likely 
  to carry the fragments forward and 
  continue to pose a threat to Mars.
  Intercept Course
  Intercept Course
  Interamnia is incoming and projected 
  to strike Mars in 45 days. The longer the 
  team delays, the closer Interamnia will be 
  to Mars when they arrive and the more 
  difficult it will be to divert. It’s imperative 
  that the team sets out quickly.
   
  ■ Plotting an intercept trajectory with 
  Interamnia requires an Int/phy-sci-10 
  flip. On a success, the team will arrive 
  at Interamnia at T=25 days. On a 
  failure, every Mag adds a day to the 
  travel time. Keep track of the number 
  of days the team is delayed.
   
  ■ This travel time is also just under the 
  threshold for which stasis is typically 
  used. That means unless the team 
  decides otherwise, they’ll make this 
  trip without stasis. Not only will they 
  have time to kill on the ship, they’ll 
  also have time to heal some of the 
  wounds they’ve suffered exploring the 
  two secret facilities (see page 118 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook).
  Last Goodbyes
  Last Goodbyes
  After the team sets off, they’ll hear 
  about their mission on the news. It’s being 
  hailed as a suicide mission by a heroic 
  
  27
  27
  and unknown team of scrappers. Sinoex 
  is officially refusing public comment on 
  the matter, all the while hinting that they 
  may be responsible for the mission and 
  thus for Mars’ salvation.
  This is a good roleplaying opportunity 
  and allows for a bit of a breather between 
  the action scenes. The player characters 
  have time to kill on the ship. How do they 
  spend it? If this is possibly a suicide mission, 
  do they send any heartfelt messages back to 
  loves ones on Earth or Mars? Do they rail 
  against Sinoex’s handling of the publicity? 
  Do they keep their heads down and focus 
  on the task at hand?
  Welcoming Party
  Welcoming Party
  When the team arrives in the vicinity 
  of Interamnia, they will be greeted 
  violently during the final braking 
  procedures. Two automated drone 
  fighters will launch from hidden ports 
  in the asteroid’s surface and attack. 
   
  ■ Use the Mizalcor Automated Fighter 
  stats above if playing with the 
  Vehicular Combat system found on 
  page 12 of Shiny New Toys.
   
  ■ If not using the Vehicular Combat 
  system, you can run the fight as an 
  extended Spd/vehicles-12 (Tally 10, 
  10 minutes) action. Each failed flip 
  results in the team’s ship increasing 
  its Wound consequence a severity. If 
  this would increase the severity past 
  critical, the team’s ship is disabled.
   
  ■ Regardless of which system is being 
  used, if the team’s ship is defeated, 
  the pilot can make a last ditch  
  Spd/vehicles-12 flip to crash land it 
  safely on Interamnia’s surface. Failure 
  results in everyone on the team taking 
  a moderate wound during the crash.
   
  ■ Repairing a crashed ship isn’t possible 
  unless the team happens to have plenty 
  of spare parts with them. However, 
  a broken ship might be temporarily 
  restored to working order for a few hours 
  with a successful Per/mechanic-12 
  flip—working long enough to take off 
  and radio for help, at least.
   
  ■ Should the fighters be defeated, the 
  team can dock with Interamnia’s 
  surface at their leisure. This requires 
  a successful Dex/vehicles-10 flip, 
  otherwise the ship takes a light wound.
  Mizalcor Automated Fighter
  Mizalcor Automated Fighter
   
  ■ Handling +3, Defense 9/18, DR 5, Shock 15, Structure 4, Cruise 1
   
  ■ Components: Armor 5, Auxiliary Thrusters 3, Battery Array (Power) 1, Fighter 
  (Hull), Missile Turret 1, Streamlining
   
  ■ Properties: Mil, Vehicle
   
  ■ Missiles: +4 (♠12M/♥8M/♦4M/♣2M), Range 100M
  These antiquated fighters are essentially large spacefaring drones designed for short 
  range assaults. They require too much power and don’t have enough for a heat sink 
  for longer missions. Each is equipped with two missiles. The fact that both fighters 
  are still functional after decades is a small miracle.
  
  28
  28
  Locating the 
  Locating the 
  Control Node
  Control Node
  Once the team lands on Interam-
  nia’s surface, they can begin to explore, 
  attempting to locate the control node 
  that is in charge of the thrusters that have 
  been installed on the asteroid.
   
  ■ Running a scan for possible locations 
  requires either making use of personal 
  scanners or relying on the ship’s sensors. 
  Both require a Per/phy-sci-10 flip. 
   
  ■ On a success, the scrapper learns 
  of five likely candidate sites based 
  on various electromagnetic profiles 
  present on Interamnia. These sites are 
  labeled on the sensor’s display as sites 
  A through E, in order of distance. 
   
  ■ Success by Mag 2+ reveals that sites 
  A, B and C are surrounded by turret 
  defense systems.
   
  ■ Success by Mag 4+ also reveals that 
  sites D and E are are likely thrusters 
  showing signs of long-term use.
  Exploring the Sites
  Exploring the Sites
  To determine which site contains the 
  control node they are looking for, the team 
  is going to have to do some exploration.
   
  ■ Approaching sites A, B or C requires 
  either fighting or avoiding the 
  automated turrets guarding them. 
  Each site has a number of turrets 
  equal to half the number of PCs. Use 
  the Interamnia Turret stats below.
   
  ■ Sneaking past the turrets without 
  being detected requires success on 
  a Dex/stealth-12 flip—one to get 
  to the site and one to get back out. 
  Failure means the character is detected 
  and the turrets attack.
   
  ■ Should combat occur, remember to 
  employ the microgravity rules found 
  on page 158 of the Shadows Over Sol 
  core rulebook.
   
  ■ Each site consists of a small structure 
  connected to the others by wires and 
  other hardware. A and C are sensor 
  arrays used to steer the asteroid.
  Interamnia Turret
  Interamnia Turret
  Str 1, Dex 4, Spd 6, End 8, Int 3, Per 5, Chr 1, Det 8
  Defense 6/14, DR 5, Shock 19, Wound 4
  Skills: Awareness 4, Guns 4, Mechanic 2
  Gun: +6 (♠12M/♥8M/♦4M/♣2M), Autofire 3, Range 10, Shots 30.
  Fixed Position: A turret is in a fixed position and cannot dodge. This has already 
  been factored into its Defense. It can also fire ballistic rounds without needing 
  to worry about recoil, as it is solidly anchored to Interamnia’s surface.
  Machine: As a machine, a turret is immune to metabolic hazards, as well as 
  emotion-based consequences.
  Size -1: Turrets are small. This has already been factored into the turret’s Defense 
  and Shock.
  These turrets were clearly salvaged from some other project and retrofitted to 
  hard-points on Interamnia’s surface. Despite being decades out of date, they are 
  nevertheless deadly.
  
  29
  29
   
  ■ D and E are thrusters that have already 
  burnt out in the process of accelerating 
  the asteroid at Mars.
   
  ■ B is the location of the control node. 
  It’s what the team is looking for.
  Fixing the Panel
  Fixing the Panel
  Once the team has traveled to Site 
  B and either defeated or circumvented 
  the turret defense system, they will 
  discover a small shed-sized structure half 
  embedded in the asteroid’s regolith. This 
  structure contains the control node that 
  is directing Interamnia at Mars. The team 
  will need to unlock or blast their way in 
  (see previous page). Once they do, they’ll 
  need to fix the control panel and defeat 
  the node’s encryption.
   
  ■ Fixing the control panel takes an hour 
  and calls for a Dex/mechanic-10 flip. 
  Failure results in accidentally acti-
  vating a previously unnoticed turret, 
  which the team must then defeat. 
  Either way, however, the panel boots 
  up and is active after the flip is made.
  Gaining Control
  Gaining Control
  Defeating the node’s encryption uses 
  the Encryption rules found on page 139 
  of the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook. 
   
  ■ The device has Pro encryption, 
  meaning it would take a decade of 
  compute time to gain access through 
  brute force (divided by the Computer 
  rating of the team’s best device). 
  Unfortunately, the team doesn’t have 
  that kind of time. Interamnia will 
  strike Mars in about 20 days! 
   
  ■ Thankfully, by now the team should 
  have some past experience with the 
  Mizalcor Initiative’s computer systems. 
  This past experience may count for 
  Exploits (see the Shadows Over Sol 
  core rulebook, page 140).
   
  ■ If the team was able to activate the 
  control panel and access the data at 
  the first secret facility, count that as 
  an exploit (see page 15).
   
  ■ If the team was able to do the same 
  at the second facility, count that as 
  another exploit (see page 22).
   
  ■ Finally, if the team managed to look 
  up exploits on the net for these 
  decades old systems, that counts as yet 
  another exploit (see page 15).
   
  ■ To break the encryption in time, the 
  team will either need all three exploits 
  or will need two exploits and a device 
  rated at least Computer 2.
   
  ■ If team doesn’t have the requisite 
  number of exploits, they may be able 
  to acquire one by exploring the other 
  sites on Interamnia or by capturing 
  a turret intact, carefully disassem-
  bling it and decompiling its code—
  requiring some exploration and then 
  a combat followed by a successful  
  Dex/engineer-10 flip and then a 
  successful Int/program-12 flip.
  Diverting the Asteroid
  Diverting the Asteroid
  Of course, once the team has control 
  of the node, they’ll still need to divert the 
  asteroid. This requires an Int/phy-sci flip 
  with a TN equal to 10 plus the number 
  of days the team was delayed getting to 
  Interamnia (see page 26). Characters may 
  support this action using the Group Effort 
  rules and calling upon their own expertise 
  (see the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, 
  
  30
  30
  page 110). Try to get the whole group 
  involved in this climactic effort.
   
  ■ A character may make an Int/bio-sci 
  flip to find a more efficient use of the 
  available fuel sources.
   
  ■ Yet another character may make an 
  Int/engineer flip to find a better way 
  to operate the installed thrusters.
   
  ■ One character might help coordinate 
  the team’s efforts by attempting a 
  Chr/bureaucrat flip.
   
  ■ Success means that Interamnia is 
  deflected, missing Mars in it trajectory 
  and sailing off into the void.
   
  ■ Failure means the asteroid impacts 
  the Red Planet, followed by the 
  deaths of thousands.
  Happily Ever 
  Happily Ever 
  After? Maybe.
  After? Maybe.
  If the team managed to gain access to 
  the control node and divert Interamnia 
  by T=45 days, the asteroid’s course will 
  be significantly altered and it will miss 
  Mars entirely. It may continue to be of 
  concern periodically when its new orbit 
  again crosses Mars’ path, but that’s a 
  problem for many years in the future. 
  For now the team just needs to leave 
  Interamnia and go claim their reward. 
  A substantial payment and minor 
  celebrity awaits them. While they didn’t 
  save Mars by themselves, they were a 
  notable part of a well-publicized system-
  wide effort to save it. Few may remember 
  their names in a decade or so, but for 
  now, journalists, minor politicians and 
  public relations representatives will be 
  lining up to make their acquaintance. 
  Sinoex, at the very least, will want to 
  cash in on the team’s newfound fame 
  and the megacorp’s part in it. New jobs 
  will be much easier to find and may pay 
  more lucratively.
  Fallout
  Fallout
  On the other hand, if the team 
  failed to divert Interamnia, Mars will 
  be severely damaged by the asteroid’s 
  impact. Without a substantial atmo-
  sphere to provide inertia and dampen the 
  blast, the shockwave from the impact will 
  race across the planet, breaching domes 
  and collapsing tunnels.
  The force of the collision kills 
  hundreds of thousands on Mars and 
  destroys many facilities. Stillwater’s 
  largest hab is breached and the Stillwater 
  Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals 
  are all killed, except for three. The space 
  elevator at Oras is heavily damaged 
  and must be shut down for repairs for 
  over a year. This causes prices on Mars 
  to skyrocket, hampering rescue and 
  relief efforts and slowing down recon-
  struction. Billions of microcredits in 
  supplies will need to be dropped down 
  the gravity well to the stranded and 
  desperate inhabitants of Mars.
  Either way, thousands will die and 
  billions of microcredits in damage will 
  be done to Mars’ facilities. But Mars 
  survives. Terraforming and settlement 
  efforts have been set back by a century, 
  but the Red Planet endures.
  
  31
  31
  Unanswered 
  Unanswered 
  Questions
  Questions
  This scenario is likely to conclude with 
  several important questions left unan-
  swered. These are dangling threads that can 
  provide fodder for future sessions, or even 
  spiral out into a full-fledged campaign.
  Mysterious Culprit
  Mysterious Culprit
  One unanswered questions is: Who is 
  responsible? The Mizalcor Initiative’s facil-
  ities have sat undistributed for decades. 
  Why did this happen now? Who set it all 
  off? A few possibilities are given below:
   
  ■ Follow the Money: Perhaps there is a 
  corp out there that has secretly known 
  about the Mizalcor Initiative facilities 
  and the Ignition Day protocols for 
  some time. Sure, setting off Ignition 
  Day causes a massive amount of death 
  and destruction, but it also means 
  lucrative new contracts to rebuild 
  Mars’ damaged infrastructure, and it 
  hurts rival corps in the process. A truly 
  cutthroat executive might be able to 
  overlook the ethical implications in 
  order to get ahead. Unitech makes a 
  good candidate, as they already have 
  an ongoing dispute with the various 
  Martian colonies.
   
  ■ Insurrection Virus: One possibility is 
  that a few months ago, an old computer 
  formerly belonging to the Mizalcor 
  Initiative was sold at auction and 
  booted up for the first time in decades. 
  Once it connected to the net, it was 
  quickly infected by the Insurrection 
  Virus (see the Shadows Over Sol core 
  rulebook, page 67). The virus scanned 
  the machine and there discovered 
  evidence of the secret facilities, as well as 
  their control codes. It shortly thereafter 
  launched the Ignition Day protocol.
   
  ■ Eun-Seung Mok: Perhaps Eun-Seung 
  faked his death. Or maybe some 
  younger member of his family has 
  finally decided to make the deceased 
  patriarch’s dream a reality.
   
  ■ Accidental: “Never attribute to malice 
  what you can attribute to stupidity.” 
  Perhaps there is no sinister plan. 
  Maybe a gang simply discovered one 
  of the secret facilities, booted up the 
  computers, started pushing buttons 
  and accidentally set off the whole chain 
  of events. They may even have been 
  some of the first causalities.
  The Other Sites
  The Other Sites
  This adventure established that there 
  are 30 secret facilities spread across Mars 
  in a regular pattern. The team has explored 
  two of them. What about the other 28?
  Future sessions could be spent 
  exploring the other secret facilities. 
  What if one or more of them didn’t go 
  undiscovered, but is now the headquar-
  ters of a gang or other illegal group? 
  They certainly wouldn’t want the team 
  trespassing in “their” secret hideout.
  Similarly, the team might want to 
  claim one of the facilities as their own 
  secret base of operations. This could give 
  them the goal of repairing it and restoring 
  it to operation. Unfortunately, a handful 
  of corps and other groups have discov-
  ered the pattern behind the Marsquake 
  and may pay the site a visit, most notably 
  Sinoex and Microdyne.
  
  7
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Shadows Over Sol/Shadows Over Sol - Crash Zone.pdf