eden

The ship is a massive beast of iron rivets and flanges and tentacles. Its surface is bumpy and ugly. It's got a ripply blue-green tint to it, one that Tau recognizes as vaguely oceanic. He can see it from the elevator, with a comforting depth of transparent plastic and a nice safe distance between himself and the hangar.

### Street Encounters

1. A pack of 1d6+2 *intelligent "K-10" dogs* foraging for supplies. If they outnumber the PCs, they will attack or bully the PCs in exchange for food or medicine; otherwise, they will either negotiate or flee.
2. A *rogue security robot*. Although its weapons will not be online, it is capable of melee attacks. It will attack anyone found in a private area.
3. An *autonomous salvage robot* sent by someone in the city to gather supplies, take over computer systems, or perform some other task. It will attack the PCs if they interfere with its objective.
4.

## Infrastructure

### Power

Hubris is powered by a distributed network of fusion "cells". Neighborhoods and individual houses can be powered by fusion power plants. Hydrogen is supplied by bacteria.

Bioluminescent fungi for lighting.

### Computing

Buildings are controlled by Complexity 7 personal computers.

A holocloud is a special type of microbot swarm (see GURPS Ultra-Tech, p. XX). Only aerostat swarms can use this chassis type. Holoclouds are a TL10 swarm chassis.

RHO sits at the cafe. His sister is smiling at him. Finally he breaks down. "What? What is it?"

She grins. "It's your new look. You used to be such a bookworm. What happened?"

RHO shrugs. He reaches into his deck, pulls out a card, presents it. His sister flips it over in her hand, staring at it. "'Rho'? What's it mean?"

The warrior chuckles. "Red Herring Only," he explains. Meanwhile, his sister is tugging at the card. It stretches itself out, showing RHO's home page in higher resolution. She starts clicking through some of his videos.

Tau, and all the other kids on 15, know Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe can be found all over the city. He's friendly and wise, and he has gray hair, and he's always smiling. His voice sounds hollow, but Sky tells Tau that it's because he's a holocloud. You can't touch him, she explains, because he's not there.

He's a series of aerostats that hover in the air and paint themselves different colors at high speed. He doesn't have a solid body at all, it's just tiny floating zeppelins the size of a speck of dust.

RHO walks confidently down the Boulevard of the Seers. Around him, the other travelers in search of their own cathedrals or hovels move like the human current of an urban river. In the distance, the howls of engines warming up for take-off can be heard.

RHO hears a whining noise. He spins, spotting three glowing orbs darting right at him. *An attack! In broad daylight?* He reaches down, makes a drawing motion. A glittering sword of gold-white light springs into existence and he swings it at the first orb. It slices in half and vanishes abruptly.

The other two orbs energize themselves. RHO sees the blue aura surrounding them, knows to expect beam attacks. He darts forward. The beams miss him by inches, and he comes up under the orbs. His sword slashes again and again, and the orbs fall to pieces and vanish into nothingness.

The people around him are looking up and around. Some are confused; others are amused. Of course they don't care. Their cyberselves are probably low-grade and backed up on a public server. RHO can't afford such carelessness.

The Chaotician comes to my shop every day. And every day he says the same thing. You think someone who embraced the Wyld would at least vary his routine a little bit, but no, over and over, it's "want your fortune read?"

When he first came, I thought it was novel and interesting. I didn't know much about religion other than what I learned in church. I'd heard of the Privileged Symbol Experiment, but I'd never seen it done. My upbringing was fairly conventional. The Chaotician represented something new. I was curious. We talked.

We never talked long, because he always wanted to move on and try his luck elsewhere. After I got the gist of what he believed, things cooled for awhile. I guess the jokes started after that - "want your fortune read?" "let me guess, you foretell that I'll be disappointed with the fortune?"

Once I ran out of jokes, I just sort of greeted him. And he always just asked the same thing. He never left until I politely refused him. Even after I privately wished that he'd just take the hint, even when I just turned away when he came in, he never left until he got a refusal.

It would have been easier to just give in, except for what he asked for. He wanted a sample of our Dust.

Everyone knows the truth, but nobody really says anything about it. Honestly, I think most people like the Captain's wife.

When he brought her on board, nobody knew about it. He kept her secret, even from the officers. In this day and age, it wasn't the sort of thing people talked about.

I mean, if you had a sex android, you left it in the closet and brought it out when you were horny. After you were done, you cleaned up and put it back. You didn't make conversation with it. They could carry on conversation to a degree, sure, but they weren't *smart*. They weren't people.

I used to think the Cabal was a story they told. The "Iron Wolf" stories from the days of Solar Flame, with his gadgets and derring-do, were romantic and exciting. He'd sneak into the enemy base, shut down their computers, ravish their women and get away after completing his objective. The Cabal was scarier. You never knew who they were. You couldn't tell where they'd show up.