EDIT: This Amber Zone is the Winner of the 2014 Amber Zone Contest
Requirements:
The characters should have some experience with using a Vacc Suit, preferably having one for each member of the party. Having a Belter and a Scientist in the party may also be of help, but the referee can easily add such characters, if needed.
Players’ Information:
The characters are on Altheon, a small, nearly airless low-gravity world that is home to several competing mining firms. One of the larger firms, Orbion, has brought the characters to a meeting room in its office facilities on short notice. The characters have been asked to bring their Vacc Suits, as time is a factor.
A tall, thin man dressed in what passes for business attire on Altheon greets the characters (introducing any NPCs necessary to the group). He introduces himself as Goren Valks, Chief of Operations Safety for Orbion. “We’re pressed for time, so forgive me for skipping the usual pleasantries,” he says without ceremony, gesturing for the group to take a seat at the holographic display table that dominates the room.
“As you may know, Altheon is an aggregate world, consisting of approximately one hundred accreted asteroids held together by gravity, for the most part.” The holoprojector in the table displays a three-dimensional map of the structure of Altheon as Valks continues. “Initial geological surveys indicated the presence of many industrial minerals and metals. However, as you may also know, forays into the planetoid found substantially more valuable ores, including lanthanum and incredibly pure mineral and metal crystals that are highly valuable to the scientific community.”
The display zooms into a portion of the planetoid, showing more detail of its internal structure in one particular volume. “Orbion employs a number of independent subcontractors to help us exploit the resources of Altheon,” says Valks. “This is necessary, since the skills to survey and extract the resources efficiently and safely are very specialized – typically only available from experienced asteroid miners. The miners are paid a handsome percentage of the finds of their surveys and the workers extracting those finds make some of the best money to be had on the planet.”
Valks pauses to look at the characters in turn. “The reason for this is that the work is incredibly dangerous. The internal structure of Altheon is constantly shifting as the asteroids continue the long process of accreting into a single mass. As this graphic indicates, there are numerous voids within the planetoid. Negotiating the interior is challenging, since gravity can vary considerably from one location to the next, and the entire operation is conducted in pitch darkness with few, if any reference points. The failure of sensing equipment combined with a sudden shift of the structure of the planetoid can leave a crew disoriented and trapped dozens of kilometers deep within the planetoid. Those working in tight spaces can easily be crushed by shifting masses and there is virtually no atmosphere inside the planetoid as well, adding to the dangers.”
The display changes to personnel files with body images of each person. “Three hours ago,” says Valks, “we received a distress call from Survey Team Bravo Four. They were doing mapping and survey work in a new claim volume, nearly 28 kilometers below the surface. They didn’t reveal the nature of the emergency before we lost communications.
“I need you to take one of the corporation’s G-Carriers to their location and attempt rescue of the team members, along with the recovery of their gear and whatever survey information they have acquired. The job pays one hundred thousand credits, and I don’t have time to engage in negotiations on that. I have the electronic contract awaiting your thumbprints right here. If you accept, you must begin right away. The four-person team went in with just 48 hours of oxygen. That was twenty hours ago and it will take you nearly six hours to reach their last known location.”
Altheon – Image by NASA – Public Domain
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