Guide to Away Missions

=Overview= This is a general-purpose guide to utilizing the station’s research shuttle, a small ship on the surface level which is linked to an away site far from the station within the NDV Icarus’ defense perimeter. While the doors leading to it require bridge access, the shuttle itself can be accessed by anybody once on board, making it useful for leaving the station for whatever reason - as an antagonist, or otherwise. Often times, away-sites are very dangerous and require a lot of preparation and balls to take on. To save your own time, it’s suggested to do these missions with plenty of time to spare and a plentiful manifest, else you’ll leave the station unmanned and vulnerable in an emergency!

In away missions, authority over each mission is placed on the shoulders of the station’s research director, with the standard chain of command (with the captain directly above and all heads of staff remaining equal) still intact. It is very common to see research directors leading expeditions when they occur. It’s important to understand that away missions are always secondary to station operations - if they hinder them in any way without sufficient payoff, the whole mission may as well be a failure in the eyes of the company.

Before you leave:

- Away sites are presently tentatively canon and all interaction with them is to be treated as such. Ghost role interaction is to be treated like antagonist interaction.

- Away sites sometimes spawn special ghost roles, specifics can be found on the ghost roles page here.'''

The research shuttle
The shuttle itself consists of four rooms. The cockpit, the main compartment, the medical compartment, and the cargo hold.

In the cockpit, you can find an Icarus reading report that contains essential information regarding the away site. These usually aren’t very descriptive but can have important info like “massive biomass signals” hinting at exactly what you’d expect. In the center, you can see the helm control console - on it, the big fat “launch” button that will initiate the shuttle’s liftoff! Also there is an energy weapon recharger, one essential for prolonged missions when all you’ve got is laser weaponry.

In the main compartment, there’s a bunch of chairs, a suit storage unit, and ten spare oxygen tanks. These are handy as spares in case someone’s suit gets punctured while at an away site.

In the medical compartment, there are basic medical supplies for the obvious, and a sleeper to stabilize people in transit or remove toxic substances from their bloodstream.

In the cargo hold, there are flares, an oxygen tank to top off your air, as well as tools and xenoarchaeology supplies. A second suit cycler and oxygen tank dispenser is here as well, as well as a portable air pump, rations, and a synthetic recharger. These are all essential in any prolonged mission. The portable air pump is handy for establishing forward bases as well to provide pressurized environments away from the shuttle, often for situations calling for on-site surgery immediately or removal of suits.

The airlock is noteworthy in that it is very slow. It is important to not force it unless it’s at a low pressure inside, or else you’re needlessly wasting precious air that the shuttle has a dwindling supply of. If you vent all the shuttle’s air, only the portable air pump or the oxygen tank is able to refill what you’ve lost!

Preparation
Preparation before away missions on the shuttle varies massively depending on what you can expect from the Icarus scan found in the Research Director’s office or the research shuttle itself. As far as what to prepare, everyone involved should do their part in gathering essentials, sometimes including the following :

- Survival supplies, such as tools and efficient light sources.

- Medical supplies, especially emergency surgical tools.

- Engineering supplies, such as materials.

- Food and water.

- GPS’, and other tracking safety equipment.

- Radios.

Preparation often includes much more than this, with some research directors holding a “better safe than sorry” mindset and overpreparing massively. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and considering the danger of away sites, it is not too outrageous to bring armored vehicles and many weapons along for safety. Weaponry can be considered essential, but make sure to be as independent as possible - taking weapons directly from the armory could harm security efforts in the event of an emergency on station while you’re gone, for example. This gives research and robotics - and their notably powerful selection of manufactured killing implements - something to do in preparation as well, besides getting tools such as mecha-RCDs and drills ready.

Don’t linger on weapons, though, because there are plenty of clever ways to assist the mission with spare tools and manufactured assets from the station. From pocket flood-lights to advanced medical gear, anything is possible.

As for who precisely gets to go on the away mission, the director can choose from… basically anybody with an excuse, should their head of staff be okay with it or the Captain.. Get creative!

Departure
So you’ve arrived at your spooky away site. The most important thing to do is understand that, due to the inherent dangers of the mission, you must not split up without good reason. This word is not law, but knowingly venturing into the unknown, alone, was never a good idea anyway. Ways this could backfire are: getting eaten by giant space monsters, shot by some inhabitants of the designated away site, or tripping and dying on a pebble because your suit punctured. This isn’t the safety of home base anymore, and is more dangerous than that of the miner’s daily jobs - anything could be out here.

After understanding that, your first order of business is coordinating a team first and foremost. Everyone should be able to play their role - if you take one of every department, they’ll always get something to do in the majority of away sites, as is mechanically incentivized. With that said, don’t be afraid to shove security first, medical in the back, and have scientists survey everything the team passes by in-between - or, the complete contrary, depending on what you expect. The noteworthy part here is that there must be some cohesion, some degree of teamwork, or the whole expedition might just fall apart.