Franz's Plasma Tunneler (IF)
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| Hard Science-Fiction Setting |
Premise: A Jovian inventor wants a live test of his new plasma tunnel rig to “outrun refreeze.” It works for a few hundred meters—then the bore self-chokes, pressure climbs, and the rig starts to freeze into the ice. You’re the escort/test crew/rescue team.
Where: A cryotectonic fissure above a suspected reef-vault. Ferroelectric Ice XI pockets nearby. Radiation acceptable under the overburden.
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The Device (what’s on the line)
- Plasma Melt Head with shroud + suction, undersized condenser, and a half-baked vapor recirculation loop.
- Umbilical (power/data/brine) + inflatable liner spool meant to keep the bore open.
- Safety gaps: condenser margin too low; liner deploy lag; no secondary pressure dump; EM shielding skimped.
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Failure Cascade (run this like a timer)
- 200–400 m: Working — clean bore, liner deploying, decent progress. Minor ice rime.
- Warning signs — steam frost begins to sheet behind the head; suction load spikes; liner snags on a helical fracture.
- Choke onset — exhaust path narrows; head overpressures; steam condenses to slush behind the rig.
4. Fixation — slush freeze clamps the liner; umbilical tension climbs; head temperature oscillates. 5. EM ghosts — entering an Ice XI pocket scrambles telemetry/comms; static, phantom echoes, false depth. 6. Bad options — inventor wants a short thruster/pulse cut to “punch through.” If done inside: risk oxygen/organic pocket flash and shock-induced collapse. 7. Collapse/entombment — bore walls spall; ice creeps; minutes to hours before the rig becomes a monument.
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Complications you can drop in
- Ice XI discharge arcs to the melt head or suits; Aegis fields must stay off in the tunnel.
- Hybrid slime (warm-loving grazers) migrates into the bore; fouls filters; low-tox outgassing in confined space.
- Cryoshift — microquake kinks the bore; liner tears; umbilical abrades on a glassy ridge.
- Third party — a rival glaciospeleologist team shadows you to poach the seam/data; may sabotage or “help.”
- Jurisdiction — Earthforce observer demands shutdown (interdiction); noble patron orders you to continue.
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What actually saves the day (tools/solutions)
- Pressure discipline — tap a side-chimney up-bore with micro-charges/microwave lance to vent vapor before it freezes.
- Heat management — switch from plasma to hot-brine jet mode; keep a liquid film at the face; throttle to stop flash-freeze.
- Liner triage — cut and reseat the liner ahead of the snag; deploy a short sacrificial sleeve.
- EM sanity — hardline comms; optical tethers; power down noisy systems when crossing suspected Ice XI.
- Retreat plan — reverse-circulate warm brine; pulse the condenser; winch out on the umbilical before refreeze surpasses pull.
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Outcomes
- Clean abort — you stabilize, retract, and live to iterate. Gain data rights and a cautious backer.
- Punch-through — you risk the blast, survive, and reach a reef-vault (treasure/data), but you’ve contaminated the site and made enemies.
- Entombed — partial crew trapped; shift to a time-critical rescue with limited power/air and rising ice load.
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Loot/Finds
- Short Ice XI vein (sellable + hazardous), rare exotic-ice cores, hybrid biofilm enzymes, borehole telemetry (worth more than cargo), rival’s blackmail logs.
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NPCs
- Inventor — brilliant, reckless, underfunded.
- Glaciospeleologist lead — conservative, hates the shortcuts.
- Jovian knight (escort) — prestige at stake, Aegis useless underground.
- Earthforce observer — legal threat with a deadman radio.
- Rival crew chief — opportunist; will “help” if it puts them in your debt.
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Hazard Notes
- Ferroelectric Ice (Ice XI): valuable; scrambles radios/sensors; can hold dangerous charge → discharge arcs.
- O₂/organics pockets: rare; only go boom with a torch/thruster in a confined space.
- Aegis fields: keep off in tunnels; they couple to walls and make everything worse.
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Why run this It showcases Europa’s real fear: not monsters, but physics—sublimation, refreeze, EM ghosts, and human ego on a clock.