CRASH PRIORITY!
Tension?
The Tension level throughout this mission is at least 15, but that requires clarification. Security cameras are in place and functional, but due to Rex-I’s intrusion, they’re offline—they aren’t sending remote feeds to Internal Security HQ.
While offline, each security camera locally stores its last eight hours of surveillance. Destroy the camera and you destroy the recording. In such cases the only proof of a Troubleshooter’s treasonous activity would come from verbal and multicorder records. Cool!
The problem, of course, is ensuring you find and destroy all the cameras. Every location has at least one obvious, visible ceiling camera encased in laserproof plastic (energy armor 1). But as every citizen understands bone-deep, it wouldn’t be Alpha Complex without hidden cameras.
Troubleshooters can find hidden surveillance devices with a successful Stealth or Surveillance roll. But gaming the search in room after room can be a real pain if you’re not careful, so here’s a cheesy shortcut: If a PC looks for hidden cameras at any point in the mission, make one single 1d20 roll for that character. If the roll succeeds, and it’s lower than the current Tension level, the number rolled becomes the new Tension level for the rest of the mission. Assume the reduced Tension ensues because the Troubleshooter consistently finds hidden cameras, bugs and associated paraphernalia throughout the station.
If a PC later makes a still better roll to find cameras, replace the current Tension level with that new result.
Of course, it never hurts to mention surveillance devices now and then, even if the PCs have reduced the Tension level to insignficance. Anything to keep them twitching.
Entering the TUBE
(Tension level 15)
Don’t make the journey between outfitting and the DON Sector TUBE station too taxing on the Troubleshooters, unless they have been particularly cocky and unhelpful so far. They’ll have plenty to deal with when they arrive.
Upper access to DON Sector TUBE station lies in a centralized area surrounded by kiosks, booths and an INFRARED eatery. A wide corridor, tastefully decorated with HPD&MC infotainment wallscreens and enlarged security camera snapshots of smiling citizens, opens out into a lobby. The lobby, currently empty, has several rows of different clearance access points, though there is nothing for Clearance BLUE or above (such citizens seldom need consort with the masses on the TUBE).
Low-clearance citizens enter the TUBE station through narrow turnstiles surrounded by sensors. Tracking them are security camera pods underslung with bot-controlled twin lasers
and identity verification devices that would make a dentist’s chair look inviting.
Citizens with higher clearance enter through plush secure control gates, which take a quick tongueprint and swing open. Lower-clearance, armed security cameras mounted on gyroscopic brackets allow a full range of movement to easily target traitors trying to force their way through. Subtly draw the players’ attention to this by saying something like, ‘All the cameras here will track you if you misbehave.’
Once through the uncomfortable and embarrassing scrutiny of the turnstiles, the Troubleshooters see three access points to the lower levels:
An INFRARED funicular (cable-drawn capsule)
An INFRARED escalator
A Clearance YELLOW doorway leading to a flight of stairsRemember the three override sockets where the PCs have to plug their COIT? The first override socket is prominently located in the
wall between the funicular and the escalator. The other two are in areas 7 and 9 on the station map, described below.
When the Troubleshooters complete the first maintenance patch, Rex-I (in area 10) becomes aware of them. The triple patch, if fully completed, would neutralize his nanoprobes’ ability to alter the system and rob him of his chance to bring down The Computer. Rex-I won’t allow the Troubleshooters to foil him. Unfortunately for him, the initial firmware maintenance patch, as it battles the nanoprobe infection, delivers ongoing feedback to Rex-I’s nervous system; he’s snafued for quite a while, until the Troubleshooters discover him in area 10 on the map.
TUBE map
The numbered areas on the TUBE station map (see next page) refer to the following features:
1. Funicular: The funicular compartment
is a boxy 25-passenger capsule. A Tech Services sign touts the funicular’s fast and efficient access to the lower levels of the station. The compartment interior is spacious, about five meters square, with five rows of five seats in the center. The seats are heavily padded and have shoulder- and lap-belts. On seeing this setup, experienced PARANOIA
players doubtless feel impending doom: Troubleshooters will dive for a seat and start donning the safety gear.
By the entry door is a big red button marked PUSH. When someone pushes
the button, the doors close and there is a slight judder followed by a low hum of machinery. On the wall next to the door, a light-emitting display panel brightens to show the number 10. Carefully maintained machinery glides into gear, and the PCs feel a downward movement in the pit of their stomachs. The panel begins counting downward: 9, 8, 7….
Try to imply this is entirely routine. With no immediate screaming, the sound of machinery and the sense of movement, inexperienced Troubleshooters may be lulled into thinking the display is charting their descent to the lower level.
In fact, the display is a countdown to launch. The sounds and sensation of motion come from the capsule’s movement Before this unfortunate sabotage, DON Sector TUBE station had been on the verge of acheiving a remarkable record of nearly three traitor-free days.
29
PATCH JOB
On zero, the sense of movement and the low hum of machinery stops abruptly. Then the capsule plummets like a boulder dropped from a clifftop, accompanied by an unnerving screeching (of the metal funicular grinding sparks against the cable mechanism) and a taste of bile in the mouth. The drop to the bottom takes five looong seconds, during which time the PCs feel weightless. A Violence or luck roll, with appropriate attention to the less- than-relaxed atmosphere, may determine whether a floating PC manages to strap in before the capsule reaches bottom. Anyone who took care to strap in early, or succeeded in an attribute check by a margin of 5+, survives the experience shaken but otherwise unscathed. A late starter with a success margin less than 5 suffers an S2K (impact) strike. Anyone who achieved unaided flight suffers a breathtaking W1K impact that may test the funicular’s automated internal cleaning systems.
The funicular terminates (haha) at the main platform hall (area 4).
2. Escalator: The escalator descends 300
meters to the main platform hall (area 4). The two stair belts are separated by a wide central block.
These dull metallic moving stairs look ancient, with dents, slug holes and burn marks. The escalator controls are behind metal plates in the central block, at both the top and bottom of the escalator. The control panel under each plate is for maintenance access only; it records unauthorized tampering through a DNA scraping on the locking mechanism. The manual control is a slide with three settings: up, off, down. There is no local control of escalator speed, so the Troubleshooters are safe in that respect.
On the central block at the top is a metal plate with four pictograms. Beside them are instructions in large white capital letters on a red background:
WARNING!
Hold on to rail at all times Dogs must be carried Keep to the right No smoking
3. Stairs: The Clearance YELLOW stairs
behind the door should be well above the security clearance of any run-of-the-mill Troubleshooter. If the Troubleshooters choose to ignore the security classification, or the mission operatives have YELLOW Clearance, 20 flights of stairs lead down to the main platform hall (area 4).
Go-4 bots (one per PC)HPD&MC-assigned, asimovs inactive; Slugthrower, semi-automatic-10, Hand Weapon-10, Stealth-14, Other Skills-6; Semi- Automatic Slugthrower (solid AP, W3K), Serrated Tooth (S6K), Armored Shell (2)
Malfunctioning go-4 bots, which normally
catch stray vermin, patrol the stairs. Rex- I’s interference has totally screwed their vermin identification protocols, so citizens have become fair game. Troubleshooters may initially be confused when faced with the presence on the stairs of small cubes of pungent I-Find-It-Hard-To-File- A-Report-That-It-Isn’t-Cheese. After the PCs have descended three flights of stairs and passed increasingly large portions of cheese, go-4 bots attack everyone (one bot perTroubleshooter).
Go-4 bots are squat, stealthy work units usually employed to track down and utterly annihilate annoying vermin common to the food vats and maintenance ducts of Alpha Complex. The go-4 bots tote automatic weapons and powerful slicing teeth to handle particularly belligerent vermin. 4. Main platform hall: This is the main
area of the lower level. The funicular, escalator and stairs all end here (as may