Into The Black II

A companion to Into The Black, a generation later.

Campaign Background

In Into The Black, the concept of the "jump-points" was confirmed; Intergalactic distances could be traversed instantaneously.

Seventy-five years have passed. Twenty-five years of R&D required twenty-five years of testing (during which a dozen adventurous volunteers were disappeared to dimensions unknown), and now, finally, the technology is being successfully utilized.

Mineral elements critical to the continued expansion of human civilization within the Eridani system exist in great and concentrated quantities in various star systems previously too distant to consider. Private mining corporations (including Zettacorp) have great motivation to exploit the richest deposits.

The United Nation's GEA controls the portal technology and authorizes private corporations' expeditions. A mega-portal near Searchlight can be configured (for a substantial fee) to connect to an infinite number of approximate destinations across millions of galaxies. Expeditions are accompanied by five million kilogram package of constructor drones and materials pre-programmed to create a return portal, which takes about a year to build and activate.

The UN now requires portal expeditions to bring along special sensors and a subcontracted team of licensed experts to assess whether materials encountered on distant planets is an alien synthetic material, rather than a naturally occurring galactic element.

Plot Setup

Zettacorp is headed to the Cosmos Redshift 7 galaxy to mine for tylium and other locally rare elements. Conforming with UN rules, they have subcontracted to a firm called ExpertSystems licensed to analyze materials and assess whether they are "alsyn", or alien synthetic materials created by now-extinct (it is believed) super-intelligences that once traversed the universe.

You are part of an ExpertSystems team.

The standard team deployment consist of:

• 1 Project Director
• 1 Engineering Manager
• 1 Security Manager
• 12 Engineering Specialists
• 6 Security Officers

You may be