Burning Horizon ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 CREDITS CthulhuTech and Framewerk created by Thanks to MATTHEW GRAU All our awesome fans and everyone on the CthulhuTech forums, yog-sothoth.com, rpg.net Written by DR. BOB ARENS, ROBERT GLASS, MATTHEW GRAU, BRUCE Special Thanks GRAW, STEPHEN MCQUILLAN • All of our Gen Con Storyguides – you know who you are. • Jonni Emrich, for rocking so hard one time it killed a guy. Intellectual Property Developer • The staff and volunteers of Gen Con for their commitment to MATTHEW GRAU the industry. Editing www.cthulhutech.com JONNI EMRICH, MATTHEW GRAU Forums, Information, & Downloads Art Direction & Logo Design WildFire LLC MIKE VAILLANCOURT 23321 SE 291st St. Black Diamond, WA 98010 Layout & Typesetting www.wildfirellc.com MATTHEW GRAU Black Sky Cover Art www.blackskystudios.com TY CAREY First Printing. ©2011, WildFire LLC, used under exclusive license from Matthew Grau dba Black Sky Studios. All Rights Reserved. CthulhuTech and Framewerk are trademarks and/or registered Interior Illustration trademarks of Matthew Grau dba Black Sky Studios, in the United States and/or other coun- TY CAREY, LUIZ NUNEZ DE CASTRO, ZACHARY GRAVES, tries. All characters, names, places, and text herein are copyrighted by Black Sky Studios, used by WildFire LLC under license. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval ALEX IGLESIAS, CHAD KING, MACIEJ JANASZEK, JEFFREY LAI, system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing BLAKE MCDERMOTT, MARK MOLNAR, ALEXANDER NA- of the Copyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published. References to the works of H. P. Lovecraft are from and remain in the public NITCHKOV, MOZY RYZEL, MIKE SASS, ADAM SCHUMPERT, domain. The Sandstorm logo is a trademark of Sandstorm Productions, LLC. MAREK TARNAWSKI, MIKE VAILLANCOURT, KIRSTEN ZIRN- GIBL WildFire Operations Management: FRASER MCKAY DISCLAIMER CthulhuTech is a game. It is a work of fiction intended as entertainment. Everything contained within is a product of imagination. None of it is real. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters, and themes. All mystical and super- natural elements are fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY This book is intended for mature readers. It contains dark and disturbing content and images. Reader discretion is advised. ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 Table of Contents 004 Fiction ................. Progenitor, Martyr, Savior: Part II CHAPTER ONE...welcome 008 FictioN ................. One Step Forward 012 Chapter One ................. Welcome 014 FictioN ................. For Julie 016 Chapter Two ................. Little Things 3 042 FictioN ................. Good in Theory 044 Chapter Three ................. Another Desperate Attempt 064 FictioN ................. Prisoners of War 066 Chapter Four ................. A Sort of Homecoming 090 FictioN ................. Relapse 092 Chapter Five ................. The Plague 106 FictioN ................. Helping Hands 108 Chapter Six ................. Hamstrung 124 FictioN ................. Survival of the Fittest 126 Chapter Seven ................. The Storm Down Under 141 Chapter Eight .................Appendices ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 8 One step forward... Out there, somewhere, something burned. ery time. Captain Saman- tha Masters was a mess, The void rushed past, though the stars barely moved. Balls a wet stain all down the of rock, then a giant asteroid field, then a small, cold, front of her. Field Mar- dark planet. shal Tilden knew instant- ly what had happened. Inside, things shrieked. Alien things. Shooting below the planet’s surface, flying creatures that looked something like “Captain, what did you terrestrial insects scrambled in panic. Fireballs bloomed see?” he asked. throughout the enormous cavern. Sam took a second to Something else was out here. catch her breath. “Pluto. Something’s happening, or • • • • • is going to happen, on Pluto.” “Captain! Sam!” Something shook her. The Field Marshal’s blood The world returned, as if flying back down a long tunnel, ran cold. “What kind of the vision receding. She was cold. She blinked her eyes and something on Pluto? The looked up at Lt. Kanwar. It looked like his eyes were going Migou can’t possibly have to pop out of their sockets. more reinforcements com- ing. What’s the status on “I’m good. Relax,” said Sam. the second Hive Ship?” She took a minute to take stock. A vision had taken her dur- Lt. Detenamo, Tilden’s ing lunch. Her forkful of barbecued pork smeared the floor aide, punched up the per- next to her and she quickly discovered why she was cold. Sam tinent data. “All sources had managed to dump a full glass of water into her lap. These show it is still on ap- things could be like seizures sometimes. proach.” Standing up, she began to try to mop the water off of her, “Get me feeds on Pluto. but it had already sunk into her clothes. She’d need a dryer. Tap the telescopic feeds Dryer, heat, fire. Her vision came flooding back. to get me the best pic- ture you can.” The Field Sam turned and ran out of the Officer’s Mess, pants still wet, Marshal got up and began napkin still in hand. to pace. Sam stood, wait- ing with baited breath. • • • • • It took a minute to cycle The War Room in Unified Force Command isn’t someplace many up all the resources to people get to see. Depictions in the media are only fantas- point at Pluto. The plan- tical creations and none were very close. It is one of the et was very distant and most important nerve centers in the New Earth Government, a all the New Earth Govern- place where the mortal races of Earth carefully planned their ment had left to monitor survival. the planet were optical and radio telescopes. Physically, it is what one might expect. A large conference table with advanced communications equipment, screens both Lt. Detenamo glanced back and forth between the screens, her above the table and on the walls, each filled with some sort attention deficit disorder once again working to her advan- of video or data feed, bomb-proof walls, and both physical tage. “All signs point to the planet being quiet, though and mystical security of the highest caliber. It was, simply there is some unusual activity on the radio telescopes.” put, the highest tech bunker in existence. Something rang in the back of Sam’s head. “That’s it,” she Sitting here, as he often did, was Field Marshal Anton Til- shouted. “Wait for it.” den. The gently-graying, charismatic career-officer spent a lot of his time here, analyzing data for that hidden prize. The young lieutenant kept her eyes flitting back and forth The staff of the War Room buzzed around him, keeping all the over the data. Then she stopped. “Something’s going on. I pieces in place that allowed Field Marshal Tilden and the can’t tell what, but something is going on.” other Marshals and Admirals to make the tough decisions. The ones that cost lives. Field Marshal Tilden rushed over to look at the screen. “What, though? Are the Migou building something? Have they Not that Anton wasn’t used to the War Room door bursting fired something?” The whole room exploded into motion, cen- open with urgent news, but it still made him jump almost ev- tered on the new stream of data from the dwarf planet. ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 Sam shook her head, letting herself smile just a little. “I Nothing more came. There was no further attack. Pluto seemed don’t think they’re doing anything, sir. I think they’re be- to go quiet again. It seemed anti-climactic. ing attacked.” “Do we have nothing new on the force?” asked Field Marshal • • • • • Tilden, his frustration apparent. Days had gone by. The War Room was in overdrive, trying des- Field Marshal Sanrkiene searched through the latest data. perately to figure out what had happened. All the hard work “The vessels were not Migou in construction. They appeared yielded few results. Pluto had indeed been attacked by an to be, from what little we have gleaned, more traditional in unknown force. construction.” For some reason, during all of this, Sam had insisted that Captain Masters hadn’t been paying attention to any of them. someone carefully monitor the second Hive Ship on its ap- Something cosmic pulled at her heart. Suddenly, it surged. proach. Given her abilities, no one questioned why and simply She slapped the table, startling the assembly. “Now. Now is complied. when it happens.” ???????? ????????????? (order #4003489) 188.4.86.0 Somewhere in the room, something insistent beeped. The junior opened up, and a landing ramp descended. Through the steam, officer assigned to Sam’s special project stood up and nearly something approached. Sam could feel the soldiers all around passed out. The room stood on pins and needles during the her tense, and she hoped desperately she hadn’t come to an- second it took for him to regain his composure. Overcome, all other blood-bath. Thankfully, something that appeared to be he could do was patch his feed through to the main monitors. Human descended the ramp – though not the kind of thing that caused the New Earth Government to relax. Fierce, armored There it was, in as much glory as the optics could give it, things began to descend, carrying assault rifles in a state a marble floating through space. A marble that spelled the of passive readiness. The armor they wore was not dissimilar end of humanity when it finally arrived. And something was to the armor worn by NEG marines more than a decade ago… indeed happening.