While I had planned on presenting this all at once, I’ve decided to make this a two-parter (or maybe more).  Mainly because it turned out to be a bit bigger than I was anticipating.

I used this location in my on-line game.  For the game, all of my notes consisted of these three maps, and five paragraphs of notes including a partial stat block for the security robots.  Just writing up the room descriptions has ballooned to around 7 pages without the maps.  And I still need to write up all the stats for the robots and NPCs.  I always forget how much additional work is required to take something from your notes and transform it into something usable by others.

So this will take a bit longer than I had planned but in the end you’ll have a fun little location your characters can raid if desired.  In may game this was set on Laco but you could have another of these records vaults anywhere you want in your campaign.

For this part, I’ll be presenting the maps and room descriptions.  The other details will come in later posts.

Pan Galactic Records Vault on Laco

Nestled in the mountains to the northeast of Point Glass, the Pan Galactic Corporation has a records archive dug deep into the mountain to protect backups of all the data gathered by the company on Laco.  The vault houses hundreds of thousands of data cubes containing copies of data collected over the past 80 years of the company’s presence on the planet.  Content ranges from details on the Glass Pyramids, to data on local flora and fauna, to records from archaeology sites, and even detailed weather and climate data.

While parts of the data can be had at various locations around the planet, the only place where every bit is stored together is at the records vault and at PGC headquarters on Gran Quivera.  Because of this, PGC does allow a limited number of researchers access to the unclassified data in the archives.

 Exterior Compound

The main entrance to the vault is a structure built into a sheer cliff face in the side of the mountain. Surrounding this main building is a high (5m) wall topped by six guard towers.  Entrance through the wall is by a large gatehouse structure.  Inside the wall is the main building, a garage, and a power plant. A schematic of the external compound can be seen in the map below. 

1 – Gatehouse, wall, and guard towers – The gatehouse is a large enclosed structure with doors on each end.  It is easily large enough to accommodate an explorer or hover or ground transport.  Inside the gate house are several security cameras as well as a computer-controlled laser rifle, sonic stunner, and grenade launcher filled with doze and tangler grenades (10 each).  The weapons are connected to the complex’s power plant and have unlimited ammunition.

To enter, the outer doors open, the vehicle enters the gatehouse, and then the outer door closes. The driver is queried for passcodes for entrance via a terminal on a movable arm that adjusts for the height of the vehicle.  Once supplied, the inner door opens allowing the vehicle to proceed. 

If no proper codes are presented, security personnel in the main building are alerted.  If no threat is detected, the outer doors will re-open allowing the vehicle to exit.  If, on the other hand, the vehicle or occupants are deemed a threat, the outer doors do not re-open and the security personnel can use the weapons in the receiving area to disable the vehicle and incapacitate the occupants.

The outer wall of the compound is constructed of reinforced plastisteel and stands 5 meters tall and is a meter thick.  It is built into the mountain and completely surrounds the vault complex.

The guard towers stand an additional 5 meters over the wall and have access ladders on the inside of the wall.  Each tower contains a heavy laser operated by a level 4 security robot (see stats below). The heavy laser is powered by the compound’s power plant but also has a100 SEU powerpack as backup and can fire both inside and outside the compound.

The robots will respond to any threat against the compound and attempt to disable any vehicle deemed to be a threat that is attempting to leave the compound or escape from the gatehouse.  The robots are nominally controlled by the compound’s main computer but all PGC staff can override the computer commands.

For combat purposes, the walls, doors, and towers are considered to have 300 structure points.

2 – Garage– The garage is a single large building with two double doors on each end.  Any vehicle that can make it through the gatehouse can easily fit inside.  In addition to parking space, there is also a small work area with tools for field repairs and a small desk.

Whenever a vehicle is admitted into the gatehouse, the compound’s technician and robotics expert comes out to the garage to greet the arrivals and get their vehicle situated into a parking area and hooked up to recharge its parabatteries.

There are typically at least 3 vehicles here at all time:  two aircars and a ground car, all bearing the Pan Galactic Corporation’s corporate logo.  In addition, there could be up to five other private vehicles if researchers are visiting the facility.

3 – Power plant – This is the complex’s power source. It is a small generator situated over a natural geothermal vent.  The location of this vent was a major factor in selecting this location for the vault. It is a Type III generator capable of supplying up to 2000 SEU/hour,more than enough to power the complex. In addition, there are solar arrays on the roof that supply an additional 250 SEU/hour during the daylight hours.

The doors closest to the gatehouse provide maintenance access to the generator itself.  The other doors also provide maintenance access but are also the entrance to a small control room allowing the technician to monitor the status of the generator.

4 – Main vault building – This is the main vault complex.  There are windows on the side of the building on either side of the door.  The building is about 4 meters tall and built into the side of the mountain.  It extends dozens of meters into the mountain and then descends hundreds of meters into the bedrock of the area.  It is described in detail in the next section.

Main Level

This is the main level of the records vault where most of the staff and all visitors spend their time.  Every room on this level, including the hallways, have at least one security camera and an intercom panel.  Locations of the security cameras will be given in the room descriptions.  Unless otherwise stated, the intercom panel is located right inside the door.

1 – Main Entrance – This is the main reception area for the vault.  The room is well lit and relatively spacious.  It is divided by a desk (1a)behind which sits one of the vaults two security guards.  To the left and right are double doors that lead further back into the complex. These doors have level 3 security locks that key to the ID badges of the PGC staff.  There is another door behind the security desk.

When visitors arrive, the security guard calls back to one of the archivists who then come out and take the visitors back to the Research Room (area 7). 

1a – Security Desk – This is the work location for one of the two security guards on duty.  The desk is a about 1.2m in height and the guard sits on a raised chair behind it and has a computer terminal to work on.

Access to this area is via a door into the breakroom (area 2).  This door also has a level 3security lock.  The only way to get directly between the main entrance and the area behind the desk is to climb over the desk, there are no openings.

2 – Breakroom/Kitchenette– This is the main communal area for the complex.  It contains several tables and chairs as well as a refrigerator & freezer, oven and range, sink, microwaves, storage cupboards, and several vending machines. There is a security camera mounted in the lower right corner of the room (closest to area 8).

3 – Office –This office contains the desks for the two office staff and the computer &robotics technician.  The half of the room farthest from the door is separated by a wall and door into a private office for the vault’s administrator. The other two desks are in the main area. The door to this room is a level 2 security lock and the door to the administrator’s office has a level 3 lock.

Each desk has a computer terminal with access to all the information in the systems main computer.  The bypass security skill cannot be performed on these terminals.

There is a security camera mounted over the door to the storage room (area 3a) and an intercom panel right inside the entrance.

3a – Storage –This storage room contains a variety of office supplies and small electronics and computer parts.

4 – Office –This office contains four desks in an open plan.  The desks are for the security officer not manning the front desk (area 1a), and three of the site’s research librarians and archivists. 

Each desk contains a terminal that connects to the vault’s main computer.  Like the terminals in the other office (area 3), these terminals have full access to the computer’s systems.  In addition, the security officer’s desk has a second monitor that contains feeds from all the various security cameras around the complex.

4a – Storage –This storage room has a level 4 lock that keys only to the two security officers’ and the site administrators badges plus their fingerprint.  Inside is a small weapons locker containing

• 6 doze grenades
• 6 tangler grenades
• 2 laser rifles
• 10 power clips
• 2 sonic stunners
• 2 electrostunners
• 2 power beltpacks

5 – Restrooms– This room contains three restroom stalls that cater to the anatomy of the various Frontier races.  In the outer room are several sinks and paper towel dispensers.  There is a camera in the outer area to the right just in side the door that can see the sinks but not into the restrooms proper.

6 – Robot Storage/Workroom – This area is the robotics storage and maintenance room.  Along the wall are recharging and storage bays for eight robots.  Typically, six of the bays are occupied by four maintenance robots and two data retrieval robots.  Occasionally, the other two bays may be occupied by security robots.  The center of the room is a workspace for repairing and maintaining the site’s robots.  There is the equivalent of a robotcom kit scattered throughout the room. 

The door to his room has a level 2 lock that is keyed to the badges of the site administrator, the security officers, and the technician.  It will also open automatically for any of the site’s robots entering and exiting.  The security camera in this room is mounted in the corner opposite the door above the robot recharging bays.

7 – Research Room – This room has six desks with computer terminals along the walls.  Each terminal provides access to the computer limited by the passcode provided. This is where visitors to the vault spend their time working on their research.  The entrance to this room from the hall is not locked.  The security camera is located in the upper right corner of the room.

8 – Computer Room – This room houses the vaults main computer as well as a number of data cube ports allowing more data to be connected as needed.  The computer itself is arrange around the outer walls of the room and there are a dozen pedestals in the center of the room that can have data cubes set into them. There are two terminals to allow direct access to the computer in this room.

The door to this room has a level 4 security lock that only opens for the site administrator and the computer technician.  It will also open for either of the two data retrieval robots when they are bringing data cubes from the vault to be placed on the various pedestals in the room for the researchers to access.  The room contains two security cameras: one in the corner near the door and the second in the opposite corner.

9 – Hallway –This is the main hallway of the vault that connects the various rooms.  It has two security cameras located in the corners near the Robot Storage/Workroom (area 6) and the Computer Room (area 8)that can see everywhere in the hall.

10 – Security Lock – This room functions as an airlock to secure access to the vault.  Both doors contain level 3security locks that key to any of the site’s staff.  The doors will also open for any of the site’s robots.  Only one door may be open at any time and must be closed to open the other door.  This is a mechanical design and not electronic and cannot be bypassed.  Each door takes two rounds to open.

11 – Hallway –This long hallway extends from the Security Lock to the elevator that descends to the data vault proper.  It has a pair of armed security cameras as shown on the map. Each camera has a sonic stunner connected to the vault’s power grid and cannot run out of ammunition unless the power is shut off.  Additionally, there is a security robot sitting in the center of the hallway that will attack any non PGC staff that enter this restricted area.

12 – Elevator –  This large elevator connects the upper main level to the lower vault.  It takes two minutes to traverse the 200 meters between the two levels.

13 – Stairwell– This is a long flight of stairs that runs parallel to the elevator shaft connecting the upper and lower levels allowing for access and escape from the vault level in the case of a power loss or malfunction of the elevator.  It’s not so bad going down but coming up is a bit of a climb.

Deep Vault

This is where the records are actually stored.  This level is located 200 meters below the main level and is dug into the mountain’s bedrock.

1 – Elevator– This is the elevator access on the lower vault level.

2 – Stairwell– This area is the bottom of the long stairwell from the upper level.

3 – Hallway –This large hallway connects all the offices and data vaults on this level with the elevator and stairwell.  There are a number of security cameras armed with sonic stunners placed throughout this hallway to cover all the various locations. Like the ones in the hallway on the main level (area 11), they are connected to the vault’s power grid and controlled by the main computer.

In addition to the security camera turrets, there are three security robots that rove about the hallway patrolling the area.  These robots will attack anyone who is not a member of the PGC staff immediately attempting to incapacitate them.

4 – Office –This office contains a desk with a computer terminal.  In addition, there are four data cube port pedestals along the wall near the door. A security camera is mounted right above the door.  These offices are used by the PGC researchers working with the data.  They have direct access to the data in the vaults and do not have to wait for the robots to retrieve the data cubes.  They are also used when working on sensitive PGC classified information so that the data does not leave the vault area.  This office is currently being used by one of the vault staff.

5 – Office –This office is identical to area 4 although rotated 90 degrees.  It is currently in use by one of the PGC staff.

6 – Office –This office is a mirror image of area 5 and is currently unoccupied.

7 – Restrooms– Similar to the restrooms on the main level, this area is for use by the researchers working down in the vault.

8 – Data Vault 1 – The data vault room, unlike the rest of the complex, has 4m high ceilings instead of the standard 3m height. Most of the room is taken up by a compact shelving unit to maximize the storage space.  All the shelves in this room move on a series of tracks on the floor and access is only available to one set of shelves at a time.  A control pad on the side of each shelf allows for access, causing all the shelves to move to open up a walkway where needed. It takes 30 seconds for the shelves to move once activated.  They can also be moved by the main computer

On any given shelf there are rows of filing boxes that are coded and labeled.  The labels contain both a barcode, an alphanumeric code, and a short description.  In each box are the data cubes containing the data specified by the barcode.  A box will typically have from one to five data cubes inside.

There are four security cameras in each room, one in each corner.  They cannot see down into the open passageway between the shelves but can see everything in the area on either side of the shelves.  The doors to this room are protected with a level 2 lock that keys to any of the site’s staff and will also open for any of the site’s robots as well.

This vault is used to store all data related to the flora and fauna of Laco.

9 – Data Vault 2 –This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1 and holds all data related to the geology and climate of Laco as well as any astronomical data related to the Dixon’s Star system.

10 – Data Vault 3 –This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1 and holds all the socio-political data about Laco, such as information on the culture and other corporations, and all PGC corporate data.

11 – Data Vault 4 – This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1.  This data holds all the collected information on the Techrachs and related sites that have been collected on the planet.  The data on the Glass Pyramid activation will be stored in this vault.

12 – Security Robot Storage – This room is a storage and recharging station for the security robots in use around the complex. There are ten charging stations here. There are six security robots in the charging stations that can be activated by the main computer if a threat is detected.  The door to this room is locked with a level3 security lock that is accessible only by the site administrator, the security officers, and the roboticist.  The door will open automatically for any of the security robots.

Closing Thoughts

If you’d like a PDF version of this location, you can download the file linked below.  I’ll post updated versions of this as I add to it in later posts.

As usual, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, let me know in the comments section.