101 uses for a Planetoid Monitor built into an Ice world?

[Hopeless]

Have had my Traveller party discover a Planetoid monitor thats been built into an Ice world and am thinking of sub plots regarding it.

What I've devised so far is that it dates way back when humanity first reached the Spinward Marches taking the date from the mongoose sourcebook as how long humanity has been in the Marches.

Although there's evidence that some of it has been salvaged we're still talking a literal city buried under the ice thats has yet to be explored along with the monitor itself which is somewhat still operational.

Yet the Solomani Empire have left it alone, of the other nations only the Theocratic Consulate has made any effort to investigate this and that led to a battle about five years ago which the Empire won.

So whats your opinion on this?

What ideas creep into your head when you think about this?

Its an ice world with a breathable atmosphere apparently on the very edge of the inhabitable zone if that makes it easier... or is it?

 

[Myrm]

By monitor do you mean a system defence boat with massive guns, or a sensor system?

 

[AndrewW]

Rebel base on an ice world? Hmmm...

Perhaps there is some new denizens occupying part of the monitor or city.

Pirates have discovered it and are using it as a base? Though they haven't explored all of it.

The sensors detect something out there but can't identify it, but whatever it is it is heading right for the monitor (and the players).

 

[Hopeless]

By monitor do you mean a system defence boat with massive guns, or a sensor system?

By normally using a massive planetoid as the hull of a non-jump capable vessel, except this is built inside an ice world and designed to be nigh on invulnerable to assault... over a thousand years ago but yes it at the very least a powerful defensive shield... as for weapons well maybe none operational that is currently known about...

 

[2330ADUSA1]

What about a freakin HUGE ancient city with lots to explore, make it almost like a Ark in setting with Enclosed Bio-Domes and have ancient Alien Species in it and all sorts of stuff, but there should be a REASON why it was left abandoned and now forgotten. maybe the Ancients were some other speices that has become primitives now dwelling in the massive city. the sky is the limits what you could do.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Correctional facility?

 

[Hopeless]

I was thinking terraforming capabilities to explain the breathable atmosphere, the city was largely abandoned because its no longer inhabitable but that still certainly leaves whats underground as in either undetectable by starship sensors or up to this point left alone.

The backdrop is that 14 years previously the main means of travel between the systems was blown up making jump drives the only means of travel between star systems.

Kinorb is a purely mining colony thats lucked out in having a Gaian Medical Facility established in the system, the Empire barely keeps a presence in the system which is mostly because Macene is about a single jump distance.

Have been thinking about a prison facility but not in Kinorb... although it would explain why its been left alone for so long!

 

[RichardP]

How about a records archive - govts, corporations and even libraries gather huge amounts of records and need somewhere cheap to store them. If these archives are from severla hundred years ago, then they only needed to access them every decade of so. If the govt changed or the corp went belly up, the facility would be simply abandoned.

The other one is a toxic waste processing plant and waste dump - travellers eagerly break into sealed vault on to find radioactive waste etc.

 

[Hopeless]

How about a records archive - govts, corporations and even libraries gather huge amounts of records and need somewhere cheap to store them. If these archives are from severla hundred years ago, then they only needed to access them every decade of so. If the govt changed or the corp went belly up, the facility would be simply abandoned.

The other one is a toxic waste processing plant and waste dump - travellers eagerly break into sealed vault on to find radioactive waste etc.

Or worse still have no idea what it is and move it aboard their ship unaware it has to be kept in a cryonic state or it goes into meltdown!

Only problem with the archive is that it would have to be in a form that could survive for generations or if not remain in a decent enough state to be recognised as such after all it would be a waste for the PCs to locate such a treasure but to lose it before they realise what they've found seems a bit of a waste!

Hmm actually had a thought or two regarding such an archive and been thinking that it would be partly physical records and the rest stored in living repositories since you would need a librarian or two to sort the mess out!

Keep getting an image of the guy who played "Father" in the Beauty and the Beast tv series as a sort of holographic janitor for such a repository ala Warehouse 13 meets the one decent thing from Star Trek Voyager... might actually keep that but the toxic waste idea does hold a few interesting sub plots!

 

[RichardP]

if data was stored on holocubes then it should survive. So would paper records especially if in sealed vaults. The Travellers would initially find offices and reading rooms with appropriate computer consoles etc. to read the storage media. That gives them something to salvage / sell. Then they could find a holocube still in a machine that leads to something useful, and possibly the main archives with either robot janitor or your holo-librarian.

For the waste store - there could be a significant amount of processing equipment used to compress / treat / package the waste - again something for them to sell. They might even find crates marked recovered nuclear material - How many travellers would immediately thing of making their own warheads - only to find after severla hundred years the material has decayed to uselessness.

 

[Hopeless]

I remember a Star Wars novel involving Han Solo I think in the Corporate Worlds where they were on a treasure hunt only to discover that back then the most priceless items was a fuel supply that was obselete by their era!

Having a fuel supply only to discover its half life meant it was virtually useless might not go over well unless its because the bad guys stole their supply and are about to use it wipe out either the PCs or something else important to them!

At present I'm considering having the ice base become a permanent fixture in Kinorb becoming a new home to residents and perhaps establishing a new colony that will in the long run surplant the current miner's facility but for now might be used for a number of adventures least of all discovering its past and why the Empire keeps clear of the place!

 

[RichardP]

If its a waste dump, then initially there would be a no fly zone to prevent accidental impacts. Over time the reason for the no fly zone gets lost, especially if the place is abandoned, but the regs still say no flying in 5000 miles of point X.

 

[AndrewW]

I remember a Star Wars novel involving Han Solo I think in the Corporate Worlds where they were on a treasure hunt only to discover that back then the most priceless items was a fuel supply that was obselete by their era!

Han Solo and the Lost Legacy.

He had some war robots to play with as well.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Scientific outpost doing original, cutting-edge research into "things man was not meant to know"... and they discovered it.

 

[Hopeless]

Scientific outpost doing original, cutting-edge research into "things man was not meant to know"... and they discovered it.

And can so easily turn into an outpost that was so long abandoned that when it was in use again it wasn't noticed until the Empire came down to finish off the crews off some crashed Theocratic ships...

Got this image of the Empire sending down some seriously armoured walkers only for some to break through the ice into a deep crevasse beacuse they're too heavy or the opposition detonates some emp's to disable them before they can get into range of the shield generators...

Yeah been watching star wars too much!

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I was thinking monumental, still-powered, but long-disused rooms sealed off, full of vats in which unnamed things squirm.

 

[Hopeless]

I was thinking monumental, still-powered, but long-disused rooms sealed off, full of vats in which unnamed things squirm.

And that makes me think they or a rival group gets their hands on that series of remotes from Prometheus allowing them to chart out the interior of the area they're within... why do I keep getting Red Dwarf flashbacks in regards to what happens to these remotes?

A brief image flickers as the remote goes dead... after a moment one of those watching says,"Is that what they call something that has more teeth than the entire Osmond family?"

Then again this could easily be turned into a disused robot factory and they just reactivated it!

Hmm Prometheus had the revelation that there was a number of spaceships hidden within such catacombs...

 

[klingsor]

It has to be called Habakkuk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

Nice idea.

 

[Hopeless]

It has to be called Habakkuk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

Nice idea.

Ooh! Nice catch!
Freezing temperatures, effectively bullet proof, quite possible to be designed as reflective as well... oh I wonder how scary these can be?

I wonder there was an animated series set around a number of worlds with differences being elemental in nature with one called Rock, Fire, Ice, etc...

Ice Battle droids anyone? Sorry meant Ice Robots!