| Biofuel Block
(from Crab Feces) | Fuel | Condensed, space-efficient fuel suitable for use in a bioreactor. Produced at the processor from a variety of source organics. |
| Biolab | — | Modifies your Adaptations. |
| Bioluminescence | — | Glow in the dark |
| Bioreactor | — | Rapidly decays organic matter and converts the biomaterial into power. |
| Biosampling Kit | Biosampler | Single use tool. Acquires biomods from local life. May lead to lucrative biopatent profit sharing. |
| Bioscanner | Scanner | Modified survival tool. Analyzes Axum technology and Protean biology to generate alien blueprints and biomods. |
| Black Hoverthorn | Fauna | Edible though insubstantial fish. Difficult to grip due to its unique electromagnetic propulsion. |
| Blackbox Distress Cluster | — | Signal source detected on HUD. |
| Bluemoon | Fauna | *Moliform semiluna* subspecies or morph. Blue. |
| Box of Holding | — | A box that holds fabrication overflows. Interact to take the items. |
| Bulb Floor Lamp | — | A crude attempt at form and function. |
| Bullethead | Fauna | *Panopliateuthis velos*, the armored squid dart. A swarm predator that attacks by ramming and penetrating its prey. Capable of *Caught script hook in allocated memory for command >> generate-databank "Bullethead" >> echo
\memory-carve -signature=0xSEABEEF5 >> restore-databank*
"I saw their eyes first. Bright yellow eyes, down the inside of the lava tube. I killed the motors and the floods, signaled Iso and Mel to grab the handholds, and held my breath. For a minute I thought we'd ride clean through. Then the current pulled the Tadpole into an outcrop and at the sound they all just—went off.
Like bottle rockets. Back and forth, up and down, everywhere. One of them lodged in the port hull just aft of the canopy and I saw, very clearly, that it was a squid, completely plated in armor. They hit you tail first, hard enough to punch into titanium. Incredible. Do you think they run on compressed air? Or do they burn something?
The hull alarm went off — I tried to blink the floods to confuse them — but Mel and Iso's blackboxes were already crying. The noise seemed to attract them. Apparently they like to get stuck in wounded prey and wait until you bleed to death, then go to work on your carcass. So by the time I got back to Habitat there wasn't much left of Iso and Mel for Iso and Mel to recycle."
—Tsewangiin "Ruby" Anar, "When I Didn't Die" |
| Bullethead | — | — |
| Camouflage | — | Become invisible to predators while not moving |
| Camp One | — | A partially disassembled and flooded corridor network.
-Human remains in the sediment suggest it was a failed habitat.
-Basic architecture suggest that the builders were working with a limited set of blueprints
-Signs of more recent rehabitation, with a larger blueprint set |
| Cavitation Muffler | Hydraulic Muffler | Reduces the noise of the Tadpole, making it less likely to attract unwanted attention. |
| Celestine | Mineral | Local source of radioactive Strontium. Burns brilliant red. |
| Celestine Deposits | Large Deposit | Large Deposit - Sonic Resonator / Drill |
| Celestine Nodes | Standard | Celestine (strontium sulfate, SrSO4).
A crystalline mineral and useful source of strontium. Celestine dissolves quickly in seawater, but certain microorganisms synthesize it as a shell or ballast.
Local deposits must be the skeletons left by dead colonies of these organisms. The colonies may have overgrown on an artificial strontium source, then died off when the source was removed.
Strontium (Sr), element 38, is a soft and highly reactive metal with applications in radiothermal power generation. Strontium on this planet contains elevated levels of Strontium-90, a highly radioactive, bone-seeking isotope which poses a long-term health risk to human colonists. Strontium-90 is only produced in nuclear fission reactions.
Assessment: do not ingest. |
| Cerathecan | Fauna | *Caught script hook in allocated memory for command >> generate-databank "Cerathecan" >> echo
\memory-carve -signature=0xSEABEEF5 >> restore-databank*
"Our PDAs point to organisms like the cerathecan and exclaim 'behold: the road not taken'. On Earth, seed shrimp are tiny slime-dwellers; on Proteus they grow huge. But just as easy life in our decontaminated bases deafens us to the call of Proteus, easy analogies blind us to the truth. The map from Earth is not only wrong, so is its basic dogma. Evolution does not follow roads here." —Anita Gottschall, *The Way Away Home*
*Exile cerathecan*, the horn-cupped exile. A mysterious carnivore and deposit feeder with no clear Earth analog except the tiny ostracod (seed shrimp).
1. Exile
A crustacean hidden in an upright, double-valved shell, similar to an oyster or clam. The crustacean pilots the shell through a central eye and periscopic ears, and feeds with a cluster of basal tentacles. A thruster in the shell's hinge (a region called the umbo) propels it forward.
2. Behavior and diet
The cerathecan grazes on the seafloor, plucking detritus and prey from hiding places. To protect the cerathecan's body from struggling prey, the interior of the shell is lined with a paralytic neurotoxin. The cerathecan's shell muscles are themselves paralyzed by this toxin — it cannot open without secreting an antidote.
3. Perplexing genetics
There are no genes in the cerathecan's genome to produce a shell. Genetically, the cerathecan is simply a large shrimp. The shell tissues contain a partial genome, without organs to sustain an independent life. Further investigation required.
Assessment: cryptic origins. The inner shell can be sampled for chemistry when it opens to feed. |
| CG - Anemone Hills | — | — |
| CG - Blighted Coral | — | — |
| CG - Graveyard | — | — |
| CG - Leadzone | — | — |
| CG - North Raceway | — | — |
| CG - Plateaus | — | — |
| CG - Shallows | — | — |
| CG - South Raceway | — | — |
| CG - Tufa Towers | — | — |
| Chap | — | Colony surgeon Sophie Boucher helped computational dynamicist Chap Sovann reprint into a new body.
-This planet is toxic to humans, but Sophie believed reprinting could slow the toxicity
-The colonists used special biobeds to improve their dexterity and endurance
Locate these biobeds to improve your toolbelt and inventory maximum. |
| Charismatic Slime | — | Similar to a syncytial slime mold. |
| CHBC Live Poster | — | CHBC Live Commemoration Poster |
| Cherimoya Chutney | Fuel | Intentionally prepared, human-digestible ration made at a fabricator. |
| Cherimoya Rotsac | — | Generates energy from sunlight. Reduced output at night or in deep water. |
| Cherimoya Rotsac | Flora | Full of sweet fluid. Resembles a cherimoya fruit. Edible, with some spitting. |
| Cherimoya Rotsac | — | Full of sweet fluid. Resembles a cherimoya fruit. Edible, with some spitting. |
| Cherimoya Rotsac Fruit | Standard | Standard - Break (Hand/Tool) |
| Chitin Layer | — | Take half damage from hostile lifeforms |
| Chum Cloud | — | Release a cloud of delicious bait to distract predators |
| Cicada Scrap Pile | — | Sizable debris bundle from the Cicada. No Fabricator Rights Management active - may be deconstructed |
| Cicada Wreck (Canteen) | — | A fragment of an AISV Cicada lander module, broken into two segments. Originally a deployable colony structure, including a canteen for relaxation and refreshment.
-Although pumped out and used as a worksite in the past, the canteen has flooded again
-Corrosion and weathering make it difficult to determine whether this lander deployed safely from the Cicada, or broke away violently
|
| Cicada Wreck (Empty Hold) | — | A fragment of a cargo hold from an AISV Cicada lander module. Most of its cargo was either removed or expelled.
-Corrosion and weathering make it difficult to determine whether this lander deployed safely from the Cicada, or broke away violently |
| Cicada Wreck (EVA Prep) | — | A large fragment of an AISV Cicada compartment, including an EVA suit locker for spaceborne construction.
-The presence of a compartment from the Cicada itself (rather than a lander module) suggests the ship may have broken apart violently
-Corrosion and weathering make it difficult to determine the exact circumstances of the fragment's arrival
-Tool marks indicate partial salvage has been attempted, but the tools are not of Alterra manufacture
-Acoustics indicate fragments of useful tools are present |
| Cicada Wreck (Lander Garage) | — | A fragment of wreckage from an AISV Cicada lander module, including a large garage.
-Corrosion and weathering make it difficult to determine whether this lander deployed safely from the Cicada, or broke away violently
-Garage was opened after landing so any surviving vehicles could sortie
|
| Cicada Wreck (Stairway to Heaven) | — | A fragment of an AISV Cicada compartment, including a descending emergency stairwell.
-The presence of a compartment from the Cicada itself (rather than a lander module) suggests the ship may have broken apart violently
-Seawater sampling detects a source of bloom virus beneath the fragment
A juvenile angel comb may have been trapped beneath the wreckage. |
| Cicada Wreck (Therapy Room) | — | A fragment of an AISV Cicada compartment, originally intended for atmospheric therapy.
-The presence of a compartment from the Cicada itself (rather than a lander module) suggests the ship may have broken apart violently
-Salvage work here was interrupted by violence
-Acoustics indicate fragments of useful tools are present |
| Climate Lab Complete | — | Continue self-directed exploration and colony development. Decrement your DEBT.
Risk code: sierra, andros, warrant-6. |
| Collector Leviathan | Fauna | Enormous cephalopod predator (tentatively *Tyrannoteuthis phobocoeus*, tyrant squid of fearful curiosity). Feeds on hard-shelled, heavily defended prey. Solitary but highly intelligent. Likely a deep-sea creature.
1. Squidlike body plan
The collector's body converges with Earth squid — a long mantle and several limbs attached directly to the head. The mantle is covered in plastic armor. Unlike Earth squid, the collector has four long hunting tentacles with dextrous claws. Its eight arms are small and grouped around the beak.
2. Powerful thruster
Two large spiracles feed a rear-facing thruster. These spiracles are separate from the four gills openings on the head, allowing the collector to separate its breath rate from its thrust speed. Two secondary hearts pump blood from the gills to the main heart.
3. Hard prey
An enormous beak (capable of tearing through plate titanium) and four dextrous tentacles tipped with sharp bioglass claws imply that the collector specializes in prying or tearing open heavily armored prey. Possible prey fauna include the coral crab and great jaw. The need to defeat armored, active prey may have evolved a curious and aggressive psychology.
4. Broadcast organ
This huge, many-chambered organ is a biological phased-array sonar. Multiple 'speakers' and 'ears' allow the collector to broadcast complex multi-part pulses. Dense innervation connects this organ to the toroidal brain; patterns of bioluminescence may be direct reflections of the collector's brain activity.
5. W-shaped pupil
In bright light the pupil creases into a W. This trait was present in Earth cephalopods, but its function was not determined before the Holocene collapse.
6. Abyssal gigantism
Organisms from the deep sea are often very large, a phenomenon known as 'abyssal gigantism'.
Assessment: hunters with varied and difficult diets are likely to be intelligent and inquisitive, and a predator's curiosity may appear to prey as arbitrary torture. Any small submersible or habitat is likely to draw the collector's interest. |
| Collector Leviathan | — | — |
| CollectorLeviathanRegion | — | — |
