Rust-Eater
Rust-Eater was a Confederation Science Bureau research Station designated CSB-1138, built to study Fold-energy harvesting in a stable Lagrange point deep in the Harlan system.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Armor | 5 |
| Defense | 18 |
| Docking Capacity | 0 |
| Faction | None (origin: Confederation Science Bureau) |
| Hull | 180 |
| Is Crawl | true |
| Population | 0 |
| Power | 3 |
| Role | Abandoned research station, Fold-touched derelict, crawl environment |
| Sensors | 1 |
| Signature | 0 |
| Size Category | Medium |
Notes
Adventure Hooks: A salvage captain offers the party triple rates to board Rust-Eater and recover the research data from the primary lab. He has been twice before; he is not going back., A Fold-sensitive individual in the party hears a voice from the station on approach. It knows their name., The Confederation wants the station destroyed: a demolition contract, straightforward pay. But when the party arrives, they find evidence that the station's Fold experiment was designed by a Family scientist who is still alive and wants the data recovered., A distress signal from Rust-Eater reaches a nearby station. The signal uses a Confederation encryption key that was retired thirty years ago.
Crawl Notes: Rust-Eater is a full crawl environment. The station's interior is a derelict/hulk in the LaGrange crawl tradition: darkened corridors, sealed bulkheads, depressurised sections, shifting layouts caused by Fold-touched spatial distortion, and remnants of the crew -- some dead, some changed, some still moving. The reactor room is the final set-piece. The station can be explored in first-person mode using the derelict/hulk interior generation system (specVoidWarfare section 6).
Faction Id: Independent
Lore: Rust-Eater was a Confederation Science Bureau research station designated CSB-1138, built to study Fold-energy harvesting in a stable Lagrange point deep in the Harlan system. Twelve years ago it went dark. Confederation salvage teams were dispatched twice; neither returned. The station was classified as lost with all hands and stricken from the registry. It still drifts there, running on emergency power, its hull scarred by micro-impacts and its transponder dead. Scavengers know of it. Few are foolhardy enough to board. Those who return -- and some do -- speak of corridors that shift between visits, a reactor room that glows with light that has no source, and a sound like breathing in the vacuum-adjacent sections. The station's original research into Fold energy may have succeeded too well: something got in, or something was made, or something woke up. The distinction does not matter to the crew of the next ship that docks.
Station Type: Derelict