User Guide

UNITY PODS AND MONOLITHS
Before the Unity was destroyed, it released the Colony Pods of the seven fac-
tions and scores of robotic “seed pods,” carrying vital supplies and technolo-
gy for humanity’s conquest of the new world. Unfortunately, because of the
chaos in the last hours of the Unity, these pods were scattered at random over
Planet’s surface.
Many of the Unity pods became infested with indigenous life-forms and
opening them unleashes fungal blooms or mind worm boils. A few others react
unpredictably with Planet itself, triggering massive earthquakes. The majority,
however, continue to hold valuable resources such as units and information
from old Earth.
Far more mysterious are the monoliths, relics of a mysterious intelligence that
visited or inhabited Planet long before humanity’s invasion. The monoliths
possess amazing psycho-technical powers. They can completely repair units
that are damaged and even make improvements to those units’ performance.
However, a monolith can enhance only so many units before its mysterious
power is exhausted and it ceases to exist.
Monolith squares yield two of each sort of resource, regardless of the under-
lying terrain (until the monolith disappears).
Other relics of the past are the alien artifacts—mobile machines that seem to
be a form of computer. Artifacts can be linked to Network Nodes to discover
new technologies, or their power can be tapped to hasten the completion of
Secret Projects.
Most of the time, monoliths and alien artifacts are indistinguishable from
Unity pods to long-range sensors. Only by actually sending a unit into the
square to open the pod can it be determined if the pod is a useful gift from
the Unity, an alien relic, or a disaster waiting to happen.
PLANET
CHAPTER 3
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