Oh brave new world, what wonders do you hold?
Though we dwell in the shadow of death, science marches on.
Tools may break, lives may be lost, but the quest for knowledge endures
The power of the mind can conquer anything.
In anticipation of the new deck builder and colonization game play, Exode is hosting a Planetary Challenge Contest. We were given a specific planet description and scenario and instructed to make the best colonization team we could for it. This is a very fun, if tricky, challenge. We do not have much information on colonization at this time, so there is a lot of guesswork and I have no clue how my team will fair. We are allowed to use any cards we know of, but I will only be using cards from my personal collection.
Planet H24
The destination planet H24 is relatively safe. Obviously nothing is truly safe when humanity is on the verge of extinction, but the situation here is better than most. It is a young planet with suitable atmosphere, water, climate and resources. The only planet side concerns are the lack of food and strange seismic activity near the equator. Settling the planet is going to require quickly developing a food supply and investigating the seismic activity near the equator. Something about it doesn't add up.
Another major concern is H24's sister planet. There are hostile aliens feeding off the radioactive surface. While they appear to be unaware of H24 they are practically right next door. I would not be surprised if the seismic activity had something to do with them. For all we know, they may have deposited a terraformer on the planet to warp it to their needs.
Origin
Since we are not taking the fight to them, but need to be stealthy, the origin choice is obvious to me. The Ark Scientist is best suited for exploring a relatively safe planet and properly utilizing the resources there. It won’t have as much firepower as the military, nor as much manpower as the civilians, but it will be able to understand the seismic activity and monitor the aliens.
Ship
For a mission of this importance, only one ship is acceptable, the Ark Ship “Orwell 1”. It has a suitable amount of crew and cargo space to be well prepared. It only has space for four passengers, but that’s all we need. A smaller planetary footprint is better.
Officers
First Officer Shen is very versatile and more or less mandatory to any build. He has medical, station, and warfare skills, so he can put up a fight and patch you up later. He is also well qualified to lead a squad to investigate the surface. In order to defend the scientists while they investigate the surface, he will be equipped with a Spartan Elite Suit and Rekatron SD. I would have preferred to give him heavier armor, but we don’t have the military keyword.
To assist Shen with his planetary investigation we will bring an Exploration Officer along. She has both spaceship and planetary skills as well as the investigation and speed traits. To increase her survivability she will be equipped with an Eisen Suit and Karper Heavy. The Eisen suit will help with her science and the Karper Heavy is one of the more accurate weapons so she should be able to put it to use if needed.
The final officer is a Research Officer. She is a very flexible scientist and will be crucial for understanding any discoveries they make. If required she can explore with Shen, but more than likely she will remain in one of our labs. Though for her needs she likely won't need it, she will be equipped with an Eisen suit and Karper Heavy as well.
Crew
Most of the crew is easy to choose, we are pretty much taking one of every science role. A Space Bioscientist and Life Searcher will work together to keep us fed. A Lab Scientist and Xeno Analyst will do more detailed research. The remaining three required a bit more thought.
Maintenance Staff is required to keep everything running. We may have a lot of knowledge, but they tend to be scientific specialists. Maintenance would be equipped with a Universal Fixer Suit just in case anything went wrong during the flight. A Welfare Specialist will help keep people happy and will likely be helpful with any interstellar communications we need to send.
The final crew member will seem the most out of place, a Special Infiltration Agent. She's an added layer of security, good with people, and has some sort of secret agenda to keep life interesting. In order to blend in, she would have an Eisen suit like the other exploration focused officers and a Good Morning from Rekatron.
Passengers
My personal collection of passengers is limited. I do have a Rebel General and Sh4rken, but neither properly fits this build. A dangerous passenger would likely live up to his name. Rather than taking a gamble or trying to broaden my teams, I decided to double down. Two Science Students and a fully upgraded Tech Expert. I would have taken two Tech Experts as well, but I don’t own enough to fully upgrade both. For my final passenger I’ll gamble on an Unstable Genius. Worst case scenario I’ll dress him up in a red shirt and send him scouting.
Unstable Genius picture edited with a "Star Trek" Red Shirt from Pixabay
Weapons and Ammo
In the interest of being prepared, everyone who can wield a weapon should. Anyone who can be equipped a weapon and hasn't been given something specific already will have a Firetalker. Thanks to my Rekatron contract I have more than enough to go around. Its not the most accurate or powerful weapon, but it'll do in an emergency. Also, every weapon, including those mentioned earlier, will be equipped with extra ammo. Everyone who has a Firetalker will be given Autoguided ammo since they will likely use less and can use all the aiming help they can get. Our three officers and Special Infiltration Agent will be given Defensive Ammo instead as they are more likely to want the extra clips.
Equipment
We do not have much in the way of equipment space, being able to carry a single item. Since we don’t know for sure what we will encounter, any extra knowledge we can receive will be useful. To that intent we will take a Federal Database. There might be some useful info there which will help us survive.
Cargo
Knowing the type of planet we will arrive on makes our cargo choices much easier. With our ship having seven cargo, we can carry up to 14 items. Since we know our destination we are able to specialize to survive. To get a jumpstart on our basic needs we’ll bring an X-Gen TR100 for energy and Strategic Foodie-Moodie. This will keep things flowing smoothly while we set up our prefabs.
We will bring biodomes for growing our own food. A Multipurpose Prefab upgraded for space will house a computer room for more focused research and have extra space for whatever the planetary situation demands. Additionally our Tom Custom will house Chemical Cuves for any chemical related research.
As an upgrade from living in the ship, we will bring a Happy Five. It will house most of our people and those who are unhappy because of sleeping outside can drink some of our Happy Soda. The last prefab we’ll bring is a Communication Array loaded with planet scan software. This will allow us to better track the alien activity as well better monitor our own planet to avoid any surprises. Worst case scenario it will let us send a distress call or warn other survivors of enemy activity.
The rest of our supplies will help us get our people out there exploring. We will bring two security drones to primarily use as guards although they can also be used to handle any threats which are two dangerous for a live crew. Initial exploration will be handled by planet scan and a helpful Little Buddy. Once we identify high value research targets, we will then send a crew of four in a Tom Explorator with a Drilling Machine.
That should let us establish a well prepared science colony. It should be able to deal with most surprises that arise, though it is unfortunately under defended. We will definitely want to ally with a military crew for added safety and to eventually do something about the aliens in the system, but that is a topic for another day.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and to finally looking at the other people’s entries!
Updated 7/5: Thanks to @digital-wisdom pointing out some errors and oversights on my part, I have updated the build a bit.
- Replaced the Smooty with a Happy Five. Its still not enough space for everyone, but its a good improvement.
- Shifted the interiors for the Tom Custom and Multipurpose Prefab to properly account for space.
- Added "Weapons and Ammo" Section