Shortstop was a classic O'Neill Cylinder, set in a long cycling orbit between Earth and Mars. The permanent population was less than 10% of residents, with the majority at any given time using the station as a long but comfortable means of travel between the two planets. The station was halfway on its way to Earth during the Fall, after which nothing has been heard from it and no one has returned from it.
Plot Hook: Density-scans of the station reveal that while synthetic items are all intact, biomass has been converted into a heterogeneous tissue evenly coating the interior. The leading hypothesis is that a crèche infestation has converted all biological life. Firewall will need a team to investigate, as well as retrieve information from intact systems.
Plot Hook: Shortstop's population was annihilated by a TITAN nanoplague that devours transhuman brains and cyberbrains, a plague that still waits within. Without a transhuman presence the gardens and pets have taken over, creating a new ecology of smart animals and modified plants. The orbit of the station is degrading and it will soon fall to Mars. The Planetary Consortium will reward handsomely anyone who can avert this.
Plot Hook: A massive hole was blown in one of the windows and the station's atmosphere was lost within seconds. Most of the station is preserved, including automated defenses. Even the plants remain, desiccated and leafless but with perfectly preserved stems, trunks, and branches. A Fall war criminal has hidden himself here, a large bounty will be awarded to whomever can kill or capture him.
Showing posts with label mysteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mysteries. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
233. Numbers Stations
Across many frequencies, from many locations, and with no apparent purpose, numbers stations broadcast numbers, characters, and occasionally specific sequences of random noise. It is speculated they are used by secret agencies to communicate with their agents, by criminal cartels for essentially the same purpose, by AIs as part of some ancient infowar scheme, or by anarchist pranksters to waste PC resources by making them investigate meaningless signals. Each numbers station is unique, and they broadcast from within many different polities, so all possibilities could be true
Most likely, these broadcasts are made for use with one-time pad systems. These days the system is automated like anything else: usually either one's muse stores the key, and automatically translates messages for you. The broadcasts are still meaningless to anyone without the key, but infosec needs to become a priority, to ensure no one can hack your muse.
Plot Hook: Whether it is their purpose or not, numbers broadcasts are tying up Firewall predictive resources on random noise. Firewall needs to shut down as many of them as possible, despite the fact that they many are operated by the more powerful organizations of the system. Firewall needs a team willing and able to undertake a series of raids against high-security numbers stations across the system.
Plot Hook: Firewall operates its own stations, for use with one-time pads. Recently, they have been used as part of an operation tracking down a powerful asynch. Impossibly, the asynch seems to have discerned the meaning behind the broadcasts and killed the Firewall agent tracking him. The mission to bring in the agent has become a priority, as Firewall needs to learn how he was able to crack the code.
Plot Hook: One broadcast is maintained by the ID Crew, an automated voice sending a rapid stream of digits from 1 to 8. It is speculated that they use the broadcast to transmit data and/or computer code, which would be slow but, assuming they are using a one-time pad system, very secure. Anyone who manages to steal the key and decrypt their data would gain a great deal of rep.
Notes: Inspired by the real numbers stations.
Most likely, these broadcasts are made for use with one-time pad systems. These days the system is automated like anything else: usually either one's muse stores the key, and automatically translates messages for you. The broadcasts are still meaningless to anyone without the key, but infosec needs to become a priority, to ensure no one can hack your muse.
Plot Hook: Whether it is their purpose or not, numbers broadcasts are tying up Firewall predictive resources on random noise. Firewall needs to shut down as many of them as possible, despite the fact that they many are operated by the more powerful organizations of the system. Firewall needs a team willing and able to undertake a series of raids against high-security numbers stations across the system.
Plot Hook: Firewall operates its own stations, for use with one-time pads. Recently, they have been used as part of an operation tracking down a powerful asynch. Impossibly, the asynch seems to have discerned the meaning behind the broadcasts and killed the Firewall agent tracking him. The mission to bring in the agent has become a priority, as Firewall needs to learn how he was able to crack the code.
Plot Hook: One broadcast is maintained by the ID Crew, an automated voice sending a rapid stream of digits from 1 to 8. It is speculated that they use the broadcast to transmit data and/or computer code, which would be slow but, assuming they are using a one-time pad system, very secure. Anyone who manages to steal the key and decrypt their data would gain a great deal of rep.
Notes: Inspired by the real numbers stations.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
112. The Village
The devastation of Earth was thorough, but is not total. The planet suffers from roving nanoswarms, radioactive fallout, mass extinctions, chaotic weather and continuing bombardment, but while total extinction was well within TITAN capabilities, the environment has suffered as collateral damage. There are patches of the planet that, due to isolation, protective geography, or sheer luck, seem almost untouched.
In one of these peaceful places, a single village lives on, seemingly indifferent to the troubles of Earth. The residents farm, run a few small businesses, and, somehow, live as they always have.
Plot Hook: The village is a TITAN honeypot trap for survivors. The villagers are genuinely human, but have been carefully edited so that they cannot understand the events of the Fall or the threat of the TITANs. They are otherwise friendly, and will offer shelter and basic supplies to survivors. At midnight, they will enter a trance-like state and kill any survivors who have taken shelter with them. The players are tasked with investigating the disappearances of the villages former victims.
Plot Hook: The village is a survivor honeypot trap for TITAN war-machines. The village consists of buildings rigged to give off statistically plausible infrared and wireless emissions, and a handful of worker pods, puppeted by AIs programmed to carry out simple village life. Any TITAN machine that attacks what looks like an easy target falls prey to IEDs, sappers and seeker nests. This time, however, the village has bit of more than it can chew, and disabled, but not destroyed, a fractal. The players must travel to the village and either retrieve the fractal for study at base, or study it in place, while defending the village from further attacks.
Plot Hook: The village is the control of a TITAN social experiment. In the chaos of the Fall, one TITAN was having difficulty establishing a baseline for its psychological/sociological/memetic experiments. The village's isolation kept it relatively intact, and TITAN protection guaranteed its security. The villages residents are aware of the Fall and evacuation of Earth, but are afraid to leave. The village itself has always remained peaceful, isolated even from the extreme environments of post-Fall Earth, whereas those who leave lose their protection and have never returned. The villagers have made radio contact with the players and asked them to aid in the evacuation of a resident determined to leave anyway.
Plot Hook: The village is genuine, having survived the Fall through isolation and incredible luck. It is slowly dying, however, as crop yields fall and the environment sickens. They must evacuate, but evacuate several hundred stack-less flats from Earth is virtually impossible.
In one of these peaceful places, a single village lives on, seemingly indifferent to the troubles of Earth. The residents farm, run a few small businesses, and, somehow, live as they always have.
Plot Hook: The village is a TITAN honeypot trap for survivors. The villagers are genuinely human, but have been carefully edited so that they cannot understand the events of the Fall or the threat of the TITANs. They are otherwise friendly, and will offer shelter and basic supplies to survivors. At midnight, they will enter a trance-like state and kill any survivors who have taken shelter with them. The players are tasked with investigating the disappearances of the villages former victims.
Plot Hook: The village is a survivor honeypot trap for TITAN war-machines. The village consists of buildings rigged to give off statistically plausible infrared and wireless emissions, and a handful of worker pods, puppeted by AIs programmed to carry out simple village life. Any TITAN machine that attacks what looks like an easy target falls prey to IEDs, sappers and seeker nests. This time, however, the village has bit of more than it can chew, and disabled, but not destroyed, a fractal. The players must travel to the village and either retrieve the fractal for study at base, or study it in place, while defending the village from further attacks.
Plot Hook: The village is the control of a TITAN social experiment. In the chaos of the Fall, one TITAN was having difficulty establishing a baseline for its psychological/sociological/memetic experiments. The village's isolation kept it relatively intact, and TITAN protection guaranteed its security. The villages residents are aware of the Fall and evacuation of Earth, but are afraid to leave. The village itself has always remained peaceful, isolated even from the extreme environments of post-Fall Earth, whereas those who leave lose their protection and have never returned. The villagers have made radio contact with the players and asked them to aid in the evacuation of a resident determined to leave anyway.
Plot Hook: The village is genuine, having survived the Fall through isolation and incredible luck. It is slowly dying, however, as crop yields fall and the environment sickens. They must evacuate, but evacuate several hundred stack-less flats from Earth is virtually impossible.
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