Dreams of a Slumbering Cosmos
| MISSION BRIEFING |
|---|
| Long-range scans of this system have revealed a gas giant within the system’s “frost line,” too close to the star for such a planet to form naturally. We initially thought it might just be an extrasolar capture, which would be interesting in its own right, but closer scans have found indications of massive, solid structures deep within its atmosphere, far too regular in pattern to be a naturally-occurring phenomenon. Our scientists have speculated that this might be a “Jupiter Brain,” a planet-sized supercomputer. Whatever it’s computing remains a tantalizing mystery, since transmitting signals towards the sunken megastructures has failed to get the machine’s attention. We want you to venture into the atmosphere and take a closer look. This planet’s gravity well is quite deep, however, so you need to be careful to avoid diving beyond your crush depth. If we can recover even fragments of data, it would shed a fascinating light on both the machine itself and possibly even the people who built it… |
| MAP SETUP |
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 A) Player Deployment Area B) Crush Depth Threshold (place where shown) C) Atmosphere (see Special Rules) |
| MISSION PARAMETERS | |
|---|---|
| Objective | Collect Data: Collect at least half (round up) of the designated Mission Tokens (see Determine Useful Data). Then, the ships carrying those Tokens must retreat from the Federation edge of the board, to return that data to Starfleet scientists. |
| XP Reward | If at least half (rounded up) of the Mission Tokens are collected, each player receives 1XP. If all Mission Tokens are collected, each player receives an additional 1XP. |
| Retreat Options | Players may retreat from any Federation edge. |
| Mission End | At the end of Round 10, all remaining players automatically retreat. |
| Destroyed Players | These players gain 1 fewer XP (minimum 0). |
SUCCESS
Excellent work, Captain! Sifting through the data you’ve recovered will keep our researchers busy for years, or possibly even decades. There’s so much about this we don’t know, and with the readings you’ve managed to collect, it feels like we’re getting a peek behind the curtain.
FAILURE
It’s unfortunate that you weren’t able to recover anything useful, but perhaps that’s the reason why the builders sank their machine into a gas giant, knowing full well that the immense pressure would serve as an in-built defense mechanism against tampering.
| SPECIAL RULES |
|---|
Crush Depth: Place the Planet Token where shown, representing the crush depth threshold of the gas giant. Any ship that overlaps the Planet Token is immediately destroyed.
Data Node Setup: Take all 12 Mission Tokens and flip them number-side down. Shuffle them, and randomly place four Mission Tokens within each ring of the Atmosphere, equidistant from one another. Mission Tokens must be further than Range 1 from those in the next ring. These represent potential data nodes with packets of Useful Data that can be collected.
Determine Useful Data: For each player, roll a D12 twice. The results determine the corresponding Mission Tokens that must be found and collected. Re-roll any duplicate results.
Discovering Data Nodes: At the end of the Activation Phase, if a player-controlled ship is within Range 1 of a Mission Token, it may spend a Scan Token to reveal it. If the Mission Token represents Useful Data, treat it like a ship model with the following stats:
| Data Node | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Attack: 0 | Agility: 4 | Hull: 1 | Shields: 0 |
Establishing a Data Link: During the Combat Phase, player-controlled ships within Range 1 of a Mission Token may send out a modulated phaser pulse (i.e. attack with its Primary Weapon) to communicate with the data node and establish a connection. Once the connection has been established (i.e. at least one uncancelled Hit result is rolled), place the Mission Token on that ship’s Ship Card.
Atmospheric Pressure: At the end of the End Phase, roll one attack die for each player-controlled ship within the Atmosphere. On a Hit or Critical Hit result, apply the following effects:
- Range 3: The ship takes 1 damage directly to its Hull, bypassing any active Shields.
- Range 2: The ship takes 2 damage directly to its Hull, bypassing any active Shields.
- Range 1: The ship takes 3 damage directly to its Hull, bypassing any active Shields.