282. Cyclopes

Cyclopes were the foot soldiers of the TITANs. They were the closest thing the TITANs had to a conventional army, using our abandoned and captured military equipment against us in the late stages of the Fall.

Cyclopes got their name from the large wide-angle lens that serves as their face, but they are otherwise human in shape and size. Having a human form allowed them to navigate human environments, use human weapons, and drive human vehicles. Cyclopes used human weapons, crewed human vehicles, and even wore human exosuits.

Cyclopes can still be found patrolling the TQZ. They rarely have the chance to capture military equipment, but can often be found using recovered zone stalker gear, patrolling in small squads.

Mechanics

Cyclopes are robots [-]

Movement Rate: 4/20 Max Velocity: 20 Armor: 14/12 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Mobility System: Walker
Enhancements: Access Jacks, Enhanced Vision, Light Combat Armor

A cyclops AI typically has the following skills: Beam Weapons 50, Fray 50, Infiltration 30, Infosec 40, Kinetic Weapons 50, Perception 50, Pilot (All) 40, Seeker Weapons 50, Spray Weapons 50, Unarmed Combat 50

246. Accretion

The planet-wide dust storms of pre-terraforming Mars are becoming a thing of the past, but large and violent dust storms still occur. The winds that blow out of the Titan Quarantine Zone are particularly dangerous. Accretions are one of the most common associated dangers, along with static winds.

An accretion storm is not visually different from any other, but its red-brown dust is mixed with identical particles that stick to themselves and to some objects, slowly forming long, flat angular shapes jutting out at right angles. These are the accretions. They tend to form most often on materials with good electrical conductivity (including flesh), regardless of whether an electric current is actually present.

Accretions are dangerous only when disturbed. Despite their apparent sharpness they have no edge, but when touched disintegrate easily. Although harmless when still wind-blown, the particles of the disturbed accretions are small enough to work through skin and fabrics, and cause intense pain when inside the body.

Mechanics

Characters are affected if they touch an accretion or are nearby when many accretions are disturbed at once. Afflicted egos suffer -10 to all tests plus 1 SV per hour.

Medichines do not provide immunity, but will treat them after one hour. Synths and armored morphs are immune.

156. Limpets

Limpets are some of the least intelligent TITAN creations, with simple, hungry minds, but this has not prevented them from becoming the most deadly. Their tactic of ambushing in large swarms has claimed thousands of wanderers since the Fall. In sufficient numbers they can overwhelm even military vehicles.

Limpets are rough bowls approximately 5 - 10 cm in diameter. The interior of the bowl is lined with powerful muscles and a unique, semi-organic form of fractal digits. The exterior is a tough but flexible shell. They do not posses eyes or any other typical sensory organs, but sense t-ray and radar very well.

Limpets attack in groups, although they do not cooperate beyond an instinct to swarm. They will attach themselves to outcrops or bury themselves in the ground, and when a target comes within range, leap dozens of meters at them. If they hit their target, they use the outer ring of their fractal digits to attach themselves, while the inner core begins to disassemble. While attached they look something like the animal from which they get their name.

Mechanics

COG 5 COO 20 INT 5 REF 20 SAV 5 SOM 15 WIL 5
MOX - INIT 7 SPD 1 LUC - TT - IR - DUR 40 WT 8 DR -

Mobility System: Hopper (4/20)

Skills: Fray 50, Freerunning 60, Perception 50

Notes: Armor 12/12, Mobility System Ionic, Radar, T-Ray Emitter, Fractal Digits

An attached limpet does 1d10 DV per minute. They can be pried off with a SOMx3 test, doing 1 DV to the attached victim as the limpet takes tissue with them.

93. Static Wind

Mars is a windswept planet, and the TITAN Quarantine Zone is no exception. Mars' atmosphere, even after many years of terraforming, is thin, and wind rarely has the power to be dangerous, but in the TQZ, nothing can be taken for granted.

Experienced stalkers know to take note of the color and shine of any windswept dust in the distance. Too grey and too gleaming means a static wind, get out of its way. A static wind carries a massive static charge, powerfully shocking anything in its midst. The winds seem somehow faster than their mundane counterparts, and moves towards possible targets with an accuracy that is slightly higher than random. The TQZ's denizens are not immune: if wastewalkers, ny’knikiin or exsurgents are found dead, with no visible wounds, watch for a static wind that may still be scouring the area.

Scientists have speculated that static wind is generated by the damaged power systems of destroyed TITAN nanoswarms, but samples contain no more dead swarms than any other TQZ dust storm. Stalker common wisdom is that the winds are loose TITAN weapons, or perhaps a cleaning system. No one knows much for certain.

Mechanics

Static winds move quickly: characters can be caught within them for a maximum of 1d4 turns. Every character caught within a static wind is damaged as if by a stunner every turn.

83. Blood Coral

In small canyons across the TITAN Quarantine Zone there can be found patches of pale, perforated rock, grown into comforting fractals, with swoops and alcoves offering shelter. Only synths dare take refuge there, however. Upon sensing flesh the rocks' makers and residents begin to snake long, red tendrils from their holes to feed.

The tendrils of blood coral are treated as having fractal digits, capable of slowly disassembling their prey on a molecular scale, passing molecules down the tendrils, from hair to hair, to fertilize the roots. This rarely does significant damage, as the process is quite painful and impossible to ignore and so most victims will leave before real damage is done. The bigger threat is the holes the tendrils leave as they burrow through vacc-suits.

Mechanics

As with fractal digits, blood coral does 1d10 DV per 5 minutes.

Blood coral only reacts to biomorphs, which they are able to sense even through vacc-suits.