OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Marks its position with a signal on your HUD. Useful as a warning, mapping tool, or reminder for further exploration.

Construct or deconstruct with habitat builder tool. Interact to rename signal. Pick up to carry.

BACKGROUND
The “Liuhe Deluxe” dual-mode radioacoustic beacon is a classic, robust navigational aid for pioneers. The beacon broadcasts a VHF radio signal above water and an acoustic pulse when submerged.

—Construct with builder tool to mark points of interest and navigational references
—Maintains neutral buoyancy with air bladders
—Rename or disable beacon remotely with PDA signals tab

“The 六和 Liuhe Deluxe: six degrees of precision.”

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Construct with builder tool. Pick up by handles to carry. Automatically feeds resources to nearby fabricators and habitat builders.

Can be mounted on hardpoints in vehicles and bases, adding extra storage space.

BACKGROUND
The best-in-class watertight storage enclosure for tools, resources, nutrition and miscellaneous belongings. Maintains neutral buoyancy, no matter how heavily loaded — 99% guaranteed. Communicates with your PDA to locate materials for fabricator recipes. So you can get back to doing what you do best: filling up more lockers.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Step into AEP suit legs. Wiggle hips while drawing suit up to shoulders, then insert hands into suit arms. PDA will automatically configure suit sensors and catheters according to your preference.

BACKGROUND
The Alterra All Environment Protection suit, or AEP suit (never APE suit), is a second skin for pioneers.

—Populated with latest Trans-System Federation nanotechnology to guard against bacterial and fungal threats (can be refreshed with licensed yogurt products)
—Bonds with the user’s body and implanted PDA to monitor vital signs, hydration and calorie budget
—Intuitive neural heads up display
—Gel layer protects against soft radiation and temperature
—Full-service skincare including rash suppression, pinch clearance and sore lavage. Lotions sold separately
—Scavenges dissolved gases from the pioneer’s blood to prevent barotrauma (the bends)
—Compresses body into ideal movement postures (at some risk to user modesty) and traps air to maintain neutral buoyancy. Suit surface can express microtexture to reduce drag
—Constant electrical and optical feedback optimizes biorhythms and helps manage health emergencies

The latest and most radical AEP designs include a suction pump on the wrist, which mates with an implanted shunt in the pioneer’s body to sample alien tissues. Please consult your onboarding waiver for the Advance Resilient Colonist Holobiont Infrastructure program (ARCHI) for technical details of adapting your body to alien worlds.

“All Environment Protection: the only starship you can wear.”

CHANGELOG: Removed “get a thicker skin” slogan after legal challenges regarding implied emotional control. The AEP suit does not offer mental health services or workplace counseling.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt or store in inventory. Use to regain health.

BACKGROUND
A satchel of emergency medical supplies derived from TSF Frontiersmen front-line trauma kits. The medkit is designed to self-apply: you never know when you’ll end up the last one standing.

Because blackbox implants and biobeds can provide long-term care, the medkit is intended to keep you moving and working long to enough to escape a dangerous situation or complete a difficult task. The kit supplies seals, painkillers, hemostatic dressings, temporary tourniquets, conformal splints, fluid transfusions, nerve bridges, needle pumps, spray flesh, stimulants, and other rapid effectors.

The medkit may aggravate long-term injury in order to achieve short-term performance. Health is equity, and modern medicine gives you the confidence to leverage that equity in the pursuit of success.

“The emergency medkit: now your health is a renewable resource.”

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Trigger to shoot to the surface.

Use alternate trigger to inhale 15 seconds of oxygen.

BACKGROUND
The reusable air bladder is a self-rescue and mobility tool for shallow water divers.

—Internal pump (the same unit used by the All Environment Respiration tank) stores pressurized air
—Trigger the unit to release air into bladders, inflating them to full buoyancy
—Maintain a tight grip while the bladder lifts you to the surface

If the diver strikes an obstacle (such as a cave roof) the unit will automatically halt its ascent to avoid trapping the diver.

Bite down on the relief valve to inhale stored air, providing around fifteen seconds of extended consciousness.

If you experience sharp joint pains after ascending with the air bladder, you are suffering barotrauma (“the bends”). Your AEP suit should correct this issue automatically. If pain continues, consult a medical specialist or a biobed for treatment options.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Follow HUD prompts. For a starter habitat, consult the following quick-start guide:

0. Collect titanium, quartz, and copper
1. Select the corridor compartment from the builder’s ‘Standard Elements’ menu and place it above solid terrain
2. Add a hatch to access the corridor
3. Build a solar panel to power the habitat’s oxygen generator
4. Enter your new habitat. Construct a fabricator and a storage locker
5. If blueprints are available, construct a room compartment to support a biobed and other key systems

BACKGROUND
The Alterra handheld habitat builder has been an essential tool of xenoscientists, colonists and emergency relief crews across 15 different trans-govs for more than 75 years.

Instead of prefab compartments, the Cicada’s habitat builders feature the new Scalable Scope feature set. Basic rooms and corridors can be expanded in four directions using the ‘Grow/Shrink’ command, allowing a basic workshed to grow into a multi-story habitat for an entire crew.

—Assembles raw materials and fabricated components into sealed habitats
—Automatically generates oxygen from seawater when powered
—Use the ‘Standard Elements’ tab to grow/shrink rooms and corridors
—Supports vital mission systems like the processor, biobed, and scanner station (floor space and power required)

Primary systems like oxygen generation and fabrication require power. Power is generated by generators like solar panels, and stored in backup storage units in case of generator failure.

“The Habitat Builder v7.5ScS: turning a colony into a home.”

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Hold active end AWAY from hand. Ignite. Hold or throw to illuminate a space, or toss away from self to distract attention.

BACKGROUND
A pyrotechnic flare to mark position, illuminate space, or distract predators.

The flare contains powdered metal and an oxidizer, both synthesized from trace elements (such as strontium, chlorine, oxygen and nitrogen) in normal fabricator feedstock. When triggered, the two substances combine, releasing light, heat, and gas. The flare does not need air to burn, but may ignite flammable atmospheres, such as hydrogen-oxygen pockets or methane.

Pioneers often prefer flares to chemlights due to their brightness and heat, which may intimidate or intrigue alien organisms. Rauli Isotalo, one of the Zezura expedition’s celebrity consultants, demanded that pyrotechnic flares be included in the default fabricator offerings.

Assessment: vital defensive tool. Carry always.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Aim to illuminate. Check battery levels regularly. Recommend carrying at least one spare battery.

BACKGROUND
4500-lumen broad-beam, select-spectrum lamp. Simple to fabricate. Invaluable at night or in caves. Safe to aim at fellow colonists, briefly.

Light is a common biological signal that may provoke reactions from alien organisms. Some of these reactions may be desired or useful. Some may not. Be careful where you aim your beam: meaning is in the photosensitive organ of the beholder. You may be posturing for a fight, calling for help, broadcasting your flavor, or even flirting.

The flashlight is not a substitute for sunlight and should not be used as a therapeutic or diagnostic tool.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Aim at damaged object and hold trigger. Replace battery when depleted.

Repairable targets trigger an icon in your HUD, prompting you to equip and use the repair tool. Common targets include Alterra vehicles and damaged Alterra starship or habitat components (such as doors).

BACKGROUND
The repair tool resembles an arc welder in the same way that the scanner resembles a flashlight: similar use cases, but with enormously greater sophistication and effects. The repair tool analyzes damaged systems, breaks up the damaged area with a high-temperature arc, and uses magnetohydrodynamic manipulation to guide the liberated material for fabricated repairs.

Originally invented to assist union-lifting efforts in electrical engineering, the repair tool empowers workers to take on tasks once reserved for an exclusionary elite.

“The Alterra Repair Tool: Get your fix.”

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Never remove. Scan everything. Scanning technology fragments will generate new blueprints.

Scannable targets trigger an icon in your HUD, prompting you to equip and use the scanner.

BACKGROUND
Alterra’s pride, the essential science and survival tool. In cooperation with a PDA, the spectral scanner can image and analyze anything a pioneer encounters. Ryley Robinson used a standard field scanner to discover and cure 4546b’s kharaa infestation, a feat of solitary survival unmatched in human history.

The scanner is a hyperspectral imager, integrating techniques from resonance enhanced Raman spectroscopy to Spiff muon tomography. The PDA then generates a best-fit theory from a corpus of past data. When generating names and databank entries, the PDA considers — but does not always respect — the user’s cultural background, educational accomplishments, and personal preferences.

—Scan fragments of technology to add their blueprints to your PDA databank. Multiple fragment scans may be required to synthesize a complete blueprint
—Novel species are assigned an easy-to-remember name and a databank entry populated with best-guess behavior, anatomy, niche, reproduction, and evolution (BANRE). Remember that this information is provisional. Alterra cannot be held liable for errors or mistakes caused by a mismatch between AI induction and real outcomes
—The user may run a self-scan to determine their own physical well-being, but this function is usually redundant with implanted PDA diagnostics and biobed scans
—Data gathered with the scanner can also be delivered to a higher-order artificial intelligence (such as Alterra’s Noetic Advisor) to generate advanced theory

“The Alterra Hyperspectral Scanner: it’s all you need to know*.”

*Intellectual property generated by use of the Alterra Hyperspectral Scanner (including but not limited to novel physical and biological theory, genetic and biomechanical applications, and licensing rights for charismatic species) is by default assigned to the user’s employer in perpetuity. Terms of contract may vary.

This modification to the sonic resonator replaces the original four-panel, solid-state phased array with a bioelectric feedback system based on Axum technology. It risks validating the beliefs of audiophiles who insist that analog sound has a special quality.

The new emitter array hosts bacteria, which grow fibers throughout the metal similar to those discovered in Axum rebar. These fibers respond to vibrations in the array, ‘listening’ to both incoming and outgoing sound with what is essentially an analog nervous system.

These fibers send reports to a bacterial network that replaces the original generic control unit. This living feedback system performs real-time analog computation to modify the resonator’s signal. This has two notable effects for the end user:

—The sonic resonator can now shatter materials formed by bacterial action, such as large resource deposits and hardened bloom cankers
—The resonator now emits a vortex ring: a self-reinforcing fluid flow that can be fired like a cannonball

Axum technology exploits areas of material and acoustic science which have never been explored in transgov space. A responsible colonist would not use these modifications. A successful colonist must.

Assessment: the resonator can now crack hardened bloom cankers.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Aim at target—such as a resource deposit or attacking predator—and depress trigger to charge a sonic pulse. Release to emit pulse. Against solid crystalline objects, release the pulse when the reticle closes to shatter.

Valid targets trigger an icon in your HUD, prompting you to equip and use the resonator. Common targets include large resource deposits and viral crystals.

This is not an approved Alterra product. This PDA cannot offer guarantees of performance or safety. Replace battery when depleted.

BACKGROUND
The Sonic Resonator is a modified propulsion/repulsion cannon chassis carrying a phased-array sonar. The sonar’s electronic and mechanical principles are simple and easily fabricated, but distinct from any known design pattern. Either the sonar was invented from first principles by a particularly brilliant colonist, or it was derived from nonhuman technology.

The resonator is generally nonlethal. Its pulse may deter attackers, but will not cause long term harm unless the attacker is a solid crystalline object. The exception is biomass infected by bloom virus, which the resonator is tuned to destroy.

Speculative development suggests several possible improvements to this device, perhaps culminating in a saser (an acoustic laser). Do not discharge towards other colonists. Hearing protection recommended for prolonged use.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Strike targets to shatter small resource deposits, cut samples, harvest material or drive off attackers.

Cuttable targets trigger an icon in your HUD, prompting you to equip and use the survival multitool.

BACKGROUND
A downscaled civilian version of the combat-tested SR3 Stryker switch-axe, which TSF Frontiersmen use to hack apart kharaa infestation.

The Frontiersmen learned that even hardened combat knives quickly lose their edge when wasted on sawing, prying, and percussive maintenance. Axes and hammers are more useful for breaking up resource deposits, and fine cut work like gutting or fiber-splicing can be left to fabricators.

Alterra applied these findings to produce the all-titanium survival multitool, which features a longer lever arm and a solid hammer/pry claw for hand mining. A sharp reverse edge retains the knife’s utility in cutting and self-defense (though this remains strictly a last resort).

Despite protests from seasoned pioneers, such as celebrity survivor Rauli Isotalo, Alterra has replaced the standard knife with the survival multitool in the Cicada’s basic fabricator offerings.

Although all fabricators are capable of producing firearms such as the P-PLUS, M39K and G70GX, these weapons are only licensed for trained specialists such as TSF Frontiersmen. In the hands of untrained colonists, evidence indicates that firearms are most likely to be discharged against other colonists or the self.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Equip to quick-access toolbelt. Active only when selected: extend arms into movement position. Replace battery when discharged.

BACKGROUND
A personal DPV (diver propulsion vehicle) for long-distance transit outside a submarine without constant finning. The arm-mounted form factor improves maneuverability in tight spaces and prevents pioneers from losing the DPV during stressful situations.

Not fully hands-free, but allows inventory management, item pickup, and routine touching/scratching. Do not throttle the Wakemaker until your hands are fully extended in the movement position.

Allegations that the Wakemaker is wrist-mounted so that it can steer expired colonists back to biobeds for recycling are ghoulish and false. User experience remains the design team’s north star.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Scan Axum technology to generate repair or fabrication blueprints. Scan living targets to unlock new biomods.

BACKGROUND
The Protean ocean contains huge amounts of dissolved metal ions and viral DNA. Protean life has evolved to use one to identify the other.

The bioscanner hosts metal-eating bacteria which produce a robust beet odor and trillions of metallic marker proteins. In the wild, these markers bind to viral DNA, allowing the bacteria to incorporate or reject it. In the bioscanner, these markers are broadcast to the target by the scan field.

—In living targets, the markers bind to Protean DNA, allowing the scanner to conduct advanced analytic biochemistry and generate new biomods
—In Axum targets, the markers bind to circuits, transistors, and bacterial fibers for functional analysis of Axum technology

The difficulty of analyzing alien biochemistries in digital simulation may have contributed to the extinction of the Architect civilization. Perhaps they lacked friendly beet-flavored bacteria.