Cutting Room Floor: Derelict

Originally published September 16, 2013

GURPS Handbook of the Planets Inputs: Personal user number 317; System number 12

Now we make our way into the second series of systems I designed.

A nameless white dwarf dominates this region of space. Like most of its kind, the death of its parent star destroyed any planetary bodies that might have circled it. A few stray asteroids and lonely comets circle this bright white dot.

Another object also circles it, a mass of cylinders and boxes with a large and mostly intact rotating ring. Ships of this sort haven't been built since gravitation manipulation technology matured. The exterior hull has been scraped clean by centuries of solar radiation as it floats in close orbit about the star. A weak distress signal can be picked up from the few bent and decaying antenna on the aft section.

A query of the derelict's computer identifies it as the Atlantis, a Magellan class vessel, launched on a deep space mission as part of the early wave of exploration. Before the war tore Earth and the solar system apart. Records indicate it was exploring systems along the Epsilon branch when the first fighting broke out. Presume lost or having joined the Exodus, it seems to have come to rest here.

Energy signatures show primary power is failing as the fusion generator runs out of fuel. Stellar radiation has long destroyed its auxiliary solar panels. There are no signs of hostile action though several shuttle pods are clearly missing. Life support is reading as functional but at minimal levels. The decaying AI indicates there are life forms on board.

At the current bandwidth it would take hours to download and read the ship's logs. Do you send a boarding party?

Game Aspects (using the Fate system):

Atlantis: Limited Power, Breaking Down, Primitive Systems

System Details:

White Dwarf: a dense bright hot cinder of a star. Roughly 3.6 billion years old.

Atlantis: the ship resembles a cylinder with a rotating ring around one end. Over 150 meters long and almost as wide, it is built of outdated metallic alloys and sports four (nonfunctional) laser turrets. Outclassed by the modern ships of the Terran system, it is still an impressive piece of human engineering.