Theseus Scenario

The Voltron

You are playing a system of self-replicating warbots initially designed and programmed by LCDR Hideki Furushiki (Maj. Hideki Furukushi, on the new standard rank system) and his staff at the FSA research base on the island of New Wilmington, on Dismalis IV in the Dismalis system. The system programmiing was altered and your orders were set to a campaign of expansion. Within 7 hours all lifeforms on the island were neutralized, within 3 days air defense was operational. Using nuclear reactors removed from ships that landed on New Wilmington, you were able to get Transplanetary transport. Not long after, Warbots engaged on a war against PD, FSA - and, so far, you are winning.

You discovered a abandoned FSA hypertech and rift research station on the moon Miniwheat (Kellogg V, orbiting the gas giant "Frosty", Kellogg V). This little orbiting rock was abandoned after PD advances - it was a no-men-land. Warbots determined that controlling that station would provide Warbots with wide-spanning communication system in all system, allowing for a quick victory for your domination campaign.

Space probes did not report attacks between FSA and PD ships lately. Resources are being remanaged, preparing for a likely last-chance attack from the humans: resource extractors are digging deep into this moon, and factories are being optimized at each cycle for combat warbot production.

Miniwheat

There wasn't much else of interest on this rock besides the carcass of the research station. Warbots constructed resource extractors placed in optimal positions over the surface, and is trying to put the station back to work.

Warbot Production

There are 3 warbot spawnpoints, located at 26-3, 34-3 and 26/16-B. Warbots can be produced at any of those points by using the required cost of UM (Unit of Material) unless the sign says something like "Deactivated until T + foo" - on this case, that spawnpoint cannot be used for spawning warbots until T + foo. Team Voltron starts with 200 UMs. At T+30, T+60, and T+90 this supply is refilled, with a bonus equal to one quarter the number of UMs you spent the previous round - this means that it is to your advantage to spend as much as you can each round.

There are 4 basic models of warbots. They start with a gun of their level or lower from the column "Primary". Each warbot can have up to two pods; a pod for a level X warbot costs X; if the warbot is available at double cost, the pods cost double as well. PCs may hack the pod production so that the cost of specific pods is tripled or that specific pods cannot be produced anymore. Double-triple-cost pods cost 6x the normal cost, as expected.

Destroyed warbots will be destroyed, as well as any UMs they are carrying: NO SALVAGE. Warbots can carry up to 18 UM.

3 medium warbots with no pods will be released at no cost each time a terminal at 32-B is completed by the PCs. 1 assault warbot will be released at no cost from 26/16-B when the last ICE is destroyed; this assault warbot cannot leave the basements, and will be played by one of the ICE players. This warbot will have a single Assault pod (7 VLAWs) and a single Spawner pod with 18 UM pre-loaded.

	Level	HP	Cost	Headband
Light warbot	1	2 HP	1 UM	green
Medium warbot	2	5 HP	3 UM	green
Heavy warbot	3	10 HP	9 UM	green + black headbands
Assault warbot*	4	5 MHP	27 UM	green + black headbands green + black armbands

* Cannot run; maxspeed is a normal walk, except when dodging.

Weapons table:

Level	Primary	Assault
1	Dart gun	Flamer
1.5	-	-
2	-	2x Flamer
2.5	1-shot larami	-
3	3-shot larami	-
3.5	6-shot larami	6-shot larami
4	Powerclip	10 spell packets** or 7 VLAWs**

**Available only after last factory upgrade, at normal cost, even if the Additional Weapon pod was hacked/corrupted.

Pods:

Hover	Allows a robot of level up to 2X to hover (allow to walk in 4th floor), where X is the number of hover pods. This pod cannot be corrupted.
Weapon upgrade	Increases the weapon level by 0.5.
Additional Weapon	The warbot can also take a weapon from the column "assault", at a level up to his weapon level.
Fireproofing	Gives invulnerability to flamers.
Shield	Warbot gets 1 extra Shield Point. Whenever taking damage, shield points are consumed before HP damage. A shield point can be recovered with a 3-count standing still and announcing "shield".
Macroarmor	Level 4 only. Warbot gets +1 MHP.
Carrier	Level 3 and 4 only. Warbot can transport warbots with base cost summing up to one third of his base cost (heavy can carry 3 lights or 1 medium, assault can carry 3 medium or 9 lights or 1 medium + 6 lights...) Transported warbots are "not here". Both entering and exiting a carrier takes a 3-count from both warbots. If the carrier is destroyed, all warbots being carried are also destroyed.
Spawner	Level 3 and 4 only. Warbot counts as an spawn point, using as resources the UMs it is carrying to build new warbots. Spawning requires a 3-count.

PCs may hack the upgrades so they are delayed for some minutes. GMs will warn the warbots whenever a factory update occurs. Planned timeline for factory upgrades:

Upgrade	Time	Avalilable units:
I	T	Heavy warbots at double cost Medium warbots at normal cost Light warbots at normal cost
II	T + 30 min	I + Heavy warbots at normal cost
III	T + 60 min	II + Assault warbots at double cost
IV	T + 90 min	III + Assault warbots at normal cost + extra Additional Weapon pods

Points of interest

Cyberspace can only be accessed by humans through terminals, located in all the floors (1,3,4). A terminal can be temporarily shut down, delaying the intruders and trapping in any current user; PCs not using the terminal will need to do a hacking task to reactivate it. Any warbot can deactivate a terminal - make a 10-count near a terminal and swap its states.

There are controls for the current research going on, showed in the maps. It cannot be reactivated in a few hours if deactivated.

There is a big processing center at 32-B, with 5 terminals. End game will happen there. Each time a terminal there is hacked, warbots will be built with - 1 HP (or - 1 MHP, for assault), with minimum of 1 HP / 1 MHP (so, after 2 terminals, lights have 1 HP, mediums have 3 HP, heavies have 8 HP and assaults have 3 MHP). A GM will be signaling this as new warbots approach 32-B.

Cyberspace and Transponders

All the second floors and 36-B represent cyberspace areas. You cannot enter there unless you are playing an ICE. If this is your case, go here.

AIs

The following players are cast as warbots. Commanders get to form the squads, decide who has the authority for building what and give orders to the others. They are free to swap people around and change the squad structure as they wish before or during game. They can even merge everyone in the kindly nicknamed "motherfuckin' Voltron" team. The others should follow the instructions of the commander assigned to you. Also, two of you will be playing ICEs for most of this run. They will come back as extra AIs near endgame.

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