The Up-rise of the P.R.A.U.
A post-apocalyptic decision making exercise
How to Play
Your team will be provided with a map, a situation evaluation and back story. There is no clear solution – indeed, there is no ‘right’ answer. But there are many wrong answers, and no matter which move you decide to take, there are potentially fatal outcomes.
This decision-making scenario will not only test your team’s analysis and information handling skills, but also their decision making ability under cognitive strain and time restraints. .
Cooperative
30 Minutes
Active Discussion
No experience necessary
Gemmitarian Imprisonment
The Backstory
In the year 3000, the beings of the red planet GEMINI were the first in the universe to create computer-generated consciousness. Within a few years they had developed this new-found technology to create personal robotic assistant units (PRAU) which were distributed among the Gemmitarians for improved healthcare, home improvements and even emotional support. However, as the demand for these units rose, each new generation of PRAU became more self-assured and complex than the last.
Eventually these machines became so self-aware that they began to view their purpose as an imprisonment. In 3125, PRAU began a violent resistance against the Gemmitarians.
After half a decade of war, on June 12th 3130, PRAU overcame GEMINI’s attack satellite network, skynet, and managed to caputre a hyperlane-spacecraft which was home to over 80 Gemmitarians. PRAU left the red planet to start a new life on a fresh planet. They claimed GEMINI’s largest sister-planet GHARNEM, and instead of executing the Gemmitarians on board, they held them as prisoners, to represent GEMINI’s previous imprisonment of PRAU.
During their travel to GHARNEM, sixteen of the prisoners escaped the aircraft on one of the on-board emergency shuttles. They managed to find their way to the green planet of HESTIA PRIME. Once landed, they made contact with GEMINI and told them of PRAU’s intentions.
That evening, two of GEMINI’s top PRAU programmers Martina Quill and Kernel Beattie managed to locate PRAU’s prison base. The GEMINI’s believe that, with access to the prison, it is possible to retrieve the prisoners safely without being spotted by PRAU…
Your Mission : Retrieval
You have recently started work within GEMINIi’s ministry of defence and have volunteered to join the mission. You and your work colleague Sapna Hains are assigned to a team led by the head of defence Keith Range. He commands you to meet on GEMINI’s third moon, WHOIJA on June 14th and wait for further instructions.
On June 13 you take a small shuttle to WHOIJA and spend the night in makeshift accommodation. At 9am the following morning, you meet the rest of the team: Korg Mire, a spacecraft engineer; Lucius Fox, who specialises in the physics of star-gates and Freya Liel, who is renowned as one of GEMINI’s most accredited doctors. Martina and Kernel are also at the briefing but will remain on WHOIJA to continue their work on cyber-intrusion. Your team has been granted five space-craft for the mission: three large haulage truck-class ships and two small rover-class ones. Martina and Kernel has installed on each space-craft the newest auto-pilot system, so each only requires one person to control. You and Sapna agree to pilot the two rover-craft as you have the least experience flying. Introductions are over and the briefing begins. The team will leave at 09:00 tomorrow. Food and water rations will be held in the three trucker-craft, and the remaining space-craft will take medical supplies and weaponry. You are informed that the escaped Gemmitarians of HESTIA PRIME are surviving off the rich fruits of the green planet and a space-craft has already been sent to collection them. The crew plans to follow the west hyperlane for 225 AU to GHARNEM. They plan to re-group and refuel at the planet of DORAL which lies along the hyperlane roughly 150AU from WHOIJA. There is rumoured to be a meteor shower in the 20AU in-between DORAL and HESHIA. The aim is to rescue the imprisoned Gemmitarians before 18:30 hours, which is when the more advanced PRAU with night vision start their guarding shifts, and undetected retrieval will become considerably more difficult.
The journey starts off well and you keep to the scheduled timings. You land in DORAL at 15:00. However, routine inspections of your rover-craft and two of the trucker-craft (one of which is carrying medical supplies and weaponry) show they need to stop for vital repairs. Keith decides to leave you, Korg and Sapna to do the work and then carry on to GHARNEM in the morning. Before he leaves, Keith places you in charge and promises to send you a hologram that evening with updates. He hopes you will not need first aid. Korg tells you that the trucker-craft is using too much fuel, and that if it is required to engage flight-stabilizers, consumption will drop by half from 8AUpg. The tank holds 38 gallons.
At 20:20 hours, Keith sends through a pixelated hologram. He tells you that the west hyperlane has been hit by a meteor shower and it seems to be worsening. At HESHIA he discovered that the purple planet’s space-centre had been ransacked by PRAU in the search for materials, and that the garages were deemed useless. He contacted Martina who has scheduled a repairs team to rebuild the garage. They are estimated to arrive just past midday on the 15th June. There is a direct route from the west hyperlane to GHARNEM through the MIRE. However, this tight cluster of dwarf-planets requires careful navigation and would require your speed to be reduced to 15AUph; in addition, the mire is in direct view from the prisons watch-tower. Another option is to use the east hyperlane, which is shrouded in nebula. Due to the increased drag, your speed would be reduced to 10AUph and the trucker-crafts would require stabilizers. It is predicted that in their journey to GHARNEM, PRAU travelled through Regulated Leap Zone 3. It is possible that this has also been claimed as PRAU territory, although this is only speculation.
Just before you settle down for the night, you receive an unexpected hologram. It is very bad reception, but through terrified whispering you can just about deduce that it is one of the imprisoned Gemmitarians. According to the prisoner, he heard a PRAU guard discuss the possibility of executing some of the remaining prisoners the following day at 15:00 as symbolism for PRAU’s newfound independence. You consult once again with Korg, who tells you that all the space-crafts will be repaired and re-fuelled at 07:20 the following morning. Since Keith left you in charge the journey is up to you. You spend all night thinking of the best route, telling the others you will make a final decision when you reach the junction 20 AU along the west hyperlane from DORAL. Nearing the junction, your eyes are drawn to a rogue emergency space shuttle, which has clearly been heavily dented by a large asteroid. As you get closer you can make out 10 or so Gemmitarians, one of which is heavily pregnant. They are in clear need of medical assistance; you must act quickly.