Psyche

Harker
Type: Rocky Moon
Satellite Of: Bromeliad
Gravity: .15 g
Diameter: 3275 km
Atmospheric Pressure: N/A
Atmospheric Composition: N/A
Surface Temperature (Mean): -60 C
Day Length: N/A
Orbital Period: 36 Days
Gate Access: Martian Gate (vis Psyche Station)

Bromeliad

Type: Terrestrial (Tundral)

Primary Star: M5V (Red Dwarf)

Gravity: .8 g

Diameter: 11313 km

Atmospheric Pressure: 1 atm

Atmospheric Composition: 65% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 6% CO2, 4% Hydrogen Sulfide, trace other gasses

Surface Temperature (Mean): -5 C (26 C in Volcanic Regions)

Day Length: 28.5 Hours

Orbital Period: 

Satellites: Harker

Gate Access: Martian Gate (vis Psyche Station)

The Harker/Bromeliad system is the classic example of "dirty little secret" exoplanets. It should be of intense interest to the public, and scientific data from it of utmost interest to all researchers - but it is incredibly unknown. The gate, now named "Psyche" for the station built around it, stood in the LaGrange point between Harker and Bromeliad. Harker is named after the Gatecrasher who explore the system first - and is a mostly unremarkable terrestrial moon, a rough analog for Luna. It has a decent amount of metallic and silicate elements which are drawn on for mining projects, and some water ice in frozen pockets which has been also utilized for settlers. It is not of major interest.

Bromeliad on the other hand, is quite interesting. A tundral terrestrial, slightly smaller than Earth with a slightly toxic atmosphere due to lots of volcanic activity - this geothermal heating is the only thing which keeps it remotely habitable on the far edges of its dim star's habitable zone. Most of it's surface is bare rock, or layers of water ice and other volatiles. But, large volcanic activity has cut through glacial zones in certain regions, in valleys, dormant or extinct craters, geothermal vents and hot springs and sinkholes. These regions, which give the exoplanet it's name, have a bearable (and hot even) temperature, enough humidity they have rain or mist and standing liquid water. And it is here that life has evolved on this planet.

Microbes flourish of course, both chemo and photosynthesising living in otherwise acidic or toxic pools, leeching elements from standing water or geysers, etc. While their biochemistry is slightly different, they do not lend any serious research opportunities to Transhumanity. Complex organisms do, and Bromeliad has them. Exoflora is decently diversified. Their structure and chemistry is sufficiently different from terrestrial plants most of them are indigestible to humans, but otherwise they're roughly analogous to Earth plants. Their chlorophyll analog is called "erythrophylla" because it is a majority reddish in color to our eyes, with slight tinges of orange. Many of them also process sulfur and other volcanic gas elements and secrete them to avoid toxicity, so they smell unpleasant and would be poisonous for even some of the local animals to eat. 

Initial surveys by probes launched from Harker or directly through the Gate did not indicate much interesting in the way of Exofauna. Almost all larger life on Bromeliad is semi- or fully amphibious. They exist in various pools and flows of water, or stalk overland from pool to pool, filtering microbes, eating the less toxic plants or even engaging in predatory behavior. They have a sophisticated DNA/RNA analog which makes them very resistant to diseases, parasites and carcinogens, and they have a slightly acidic biochemistry compared to Terrestrial life. Most of them are limbless or quadrupedal, or just have gripping forearms. While not considered aesthetically pleasing, they are similar enough looking to Earth animals for familiar names. Eelsnakes, Bromeliad Salamanders, Frog-monkeys, Craterskippers and Fanged Toads are examples of these identified species. Smaller life includes amphibious insect analogs, who pollinate or try and parasitize plant and animal life to survive. These can have between 4-8 limbs, and are exoskeletal, while the other macrofauna is endoskeletal - though they seem to be more like sharks with a cartilage-like substance providing most of their internal structure. 

This should make Bromeliad a prime place for colonization. With minimal mods or equipment, transhumans could visit to study the lifeforms, even see them like some kind of nature preserve or zoo. And the volcanic activity means there are valuable heavy metals in the crust to exploit, along with large volumes of water ice. And yet the Gate is mostly locked down, and there are no permanent settlements on the surface of Bromeliad. 

This is because of the other residents of Bromeliad. First discovered when a manned mission was sent to try and find a good place to set up an initial outpost by Pathfinder. Mission logs were heavily classified afterward, but if you know where to look, they can be found. The mission was wiped out to a man by an exofauna form now called "Psychovore". Pathfinder was ready to black out the address for a hostile alien life form, or possible TITAN activity, but this is where the Trinity Foundation stepped in. Officially, Trinity is a group dedicated fostering cooperation between Hypercorps in similar industries to promote the growth of the Planetary Consortium and it's Four-Point Plan. Their name is derived from their motto "Mind. Body. Soul.". But in reality, they are a shell company. Their majority stakeholders are all tied into Cognite, with the rest of their executive slots filled by people tied to corps like Ecologene, Skinaesthesia and NanoSys. 

Trinity vastly overpaid to buy exclusive rights to the Gate destination over Bromeliad, and used it to establish a largely unknown research base, Psyche Station.

Psyche

Station Type: Cluster

Allegiance: Trinity Foundation (Hypercorps) 

Primary Languages: English, Cantonese, Russian

Population: 1,200

Psyche is the variable configuration cluster habitat built by Trinity around the Gate, thus located in the LaGrange point between Harker and Bromeliad. The station's primary purpose is research and development, though it has some business elements and quarters for visitors to scope out Bromeliad, though they are rarely used. Officially, Trinity Foundation uses it as space for it's "cooperating hypercorps" to launch joint research projects based on unique conditions of the Harker/Bromeliad system. Again, the reality is that it is a black box lab, connected to major hypercorps, who can perform exotic research away from prying eyes, under conditions of total control. While the labs and their projects are frequently modified and rotated, ultimately a lot of their research is based on the data of the Psychovore species.

What Trinity has been able to determine about the Psychovore is that they are a complex, amorphous or semi-amorphous species, with usually dark coloration. Their internal structure is more advanced and complex than most other species on Bromeliad, and due to their external appearance many think it is similar to the Factors. However, their internal components and behaviors are different enough to posit they are not directly related. Additionally, Psychovores do not appear highly intelligent or sapient. They are called "Psychovores" because of their unique form of gathering metabolic energy. The flowery way to put it is they "feed on consciousness", but the most accurate way is to say that Psychovores gather metabolic energy by lethally parasitizing the nervous system. They invade and "feast" on brains and CNS systems (or analogous) and absorb neuroelectric and neurochemical energy. More complex organisms with larger brains like Transhumans have more of this energy stored and thus are more nourishing, and a more desirable prey. While feeding on less-complex organisms is enough to sustain them for extended periods, eating large entities means that they can initiate rapid cellular analog division - this allows them either to grow in size and complexity or to reproduce via fission, adding anywhere from 1-4 new forms. This reproduction is aesexual completely, and akin to the growth of a virus or bacterium - mutation and adaptation seems to occur naturally in response to environmental pressures. The worst part of the Psychovore is that appears naturally Asynchronous - that is it possesses what we call "Psi" abilities, in addition to flexible and adaptive biochemistry. Small Psychovores can create a psychosomatic "shock" in the target at a touch, and generate some kind of psychic field which provokes fear responses in large sophonts. Larger forms show more exotic abilities, able to lure targets toward them, or cause them to ignore the Psychovore from their perception. This element seems to be what peaked Cognite's interest. 

Thus, Psyche is built to contain and study these entities.

Psyche, being a large cluster, has all the normal functions you might expect from a space habitat. Given that primary access is via the Gate, there is a large central sphere built around it, which serves as a primary customs access point, with round the clock security and support shifts to move cargo and people. This area is immediately connected to central spar which provides primary support to the station's structures. Along this spar first is the Administrative modules, which handle all command and control stations, and house primary nodes for station infrastructure to be managed. They also have central security offices. It has a permanent residence of about 1200, and this number can balloon as high as 1800 for specific project rotations. This of course means quarters and support for all these people - mostly in the form of habitat modules just beyond admin, connected directly to the gate via transport tubes, some of which are lightly spun for lunar-level gravity. However, some labs have overflow or extra habitat modules attached to them so researchers don't have to go far from their projects. As expected from a group mostly backed by Cognite, the decor is surprisingly detailed and even gaudy - a Neo-Victorian stretching to Art Nouveau style.  

Beyond this point, access is all controlled, which has made it very hard for Firewall to examine the labs closer. Most of this data is based on reports and schematics back in-system, not first hand HUMINT. Access to areas beyond the public ones are handled usually by some form of two-step authentication. Station employees carry physical token IDs or have nanotat IDs which are matched to Ego ID data recorded in the central hab servers. Tokens and Mesh IDs are rigorously tracked by internal security, and logged by various sub-networks. Access points are paired with the Ego ID authentication, which means only authorized personnel with their proper entry materials can enter a given section, which is primarily done to prevent people from accessing areas off-shift or when they have been reassigned, but they cannot be accessed by just stealing the right token access cards. Infomorphs utilize Digital ID codes instead, which are checked when logging into or transferring to certain devices. Coupled with many isolated or outright air-gapped internal networks makes Mesh access also limited. 

General purpose of sections is originally related to Psychovore phenomena, but this has branched out into several covert research operations under these strict security measures. This is similar to the function of the Aten station in the Solar Corona in-system, but there is no involvement with groups like Direct Action, and minimal interference from Oversight. Instead, internal security is handled by an in-house Security division, and primary oversight comes in the form of (well paid) Pathfinder reps. 

The central spar sections are primarily infrastructural. Hooked into and extended from main habitation modules is public services modules, with medical and resleeving facilities as well as psychological care stations. Past them is mostly a network of storage modules and inventory management. From here a lot of repair and reconfiguration ops are run. Opposite side of the spar from Admin and Habitation is the primary infrastructure sections. First is Life Support, with primary water-treatment and atmospheric and environmental control modules, though sub-modules are embedded in various strands of the cluster. Past this is the Power Plant and Resource Refinement modules. Primary power output is a DPF fusion reactor, which provides power via hardened transmission lines or wi-tricity transmitters. Backup power is provided to individual modules by large nuclear batteries or supplemental solar, though solar efficiency is weak due to the dim local star. Resource refinement combines waste management with mining and harvesting operations conducted by ALIs and teleoperation on Harker. Access to these modules is limited to technicians mostly. Both ends of the spars are capped off with shuttle and drone bays, where ops can be launched to Harker and Bromeliad directly.

Out from the spar are the lab clusters. Many of them are designed to be reconfigurable and expanded or contracted as needed. They can also be jettisoned or quarantined easily in case of some emergency. While the exact labs and projects can vary at any given time, there are a few major internal departments which almost never fully close. 

• Exobiology is the largest and oldest - they directly study the Psychovores as well as other flora and fauna on Bromeliad. They make observations both on carefully contained "live samples" and surveys of the planet. They are also attempting to deeper understand their physical structure. Notable modules within this department include Genetics and Behavioral Analysis labs. There is also the "Paleontology" module, which is more like a Xenoarchaeology section - studying the history of Bromeliad to look for clues about the appearance of the Psychovores and the common theory that they are some kind of artificial bioweapon deployed by an earlier species. 
• Parapsychology is the next oldest and largest, but by far the darkest lab. Almost nobody knows what goes on there, other than reports back to Cognite indicate that their primary purpose is to study Psi phenomena. Originally, it seems like their purpose was to study the effects of Psi on transhumans, as well as detect and interfere with psi and asynchronous brain-waves as per the Psychovores, but has since expanded. They now appear to conduct research on Transhuman Asyncs and their capabilities, as well as run complex simulations on the limits of psi phenomena exhibited by exsurgents and xenofauna. As the only known way for transhumans to develop async abilities is to be exposed to certain strains of the Exsurgent Virus, this is deeply troubling research. 
• Neurogenetic Hardware Labs are a small, permanent and prestigious posting - which appears to be the open face of Parapsychology. Trinity promotes their work the hardest, which is mainly on development of morphs and cyberbrains to ever expand the transhuman limits. Covertly they also appear to be working on cultivating morph lines which are resistant to Psi. They have notable sub-divisions, an AI lab, a Forking lab and Psychosurgery lab. The AI lab seems to focus on standard AGI generation from neural maps or ALI generation from pruning to suit station needs and research tasks. Forking, however, is more dangerously experimenting with exotic fork-hives and merges into Transcendant forking. Psychosurgery works closely with Human Augmentation (see below) to perform skill grafting, scanning as well as developing new techniques and hardware tools. 
• Human Augmentation is the most volatile division. While almost always up and running, it's various departments are constantly swapping, closing and reconfiguring modules. It is probably one of the most active departments on Psyche. Their three primary wings are Implants, Pharmaceuticals and Software. The Implant group is self-explanatory, working on new ware, primarily bio and nano based on other researches. Primarily cognitive and sensory enhancements, but they also have built some mods from exotic xeno-life samples. Software is primarily focused on skillsofts, particularly exotic skills or knowledge bases. While high quality, many of these are esoteric, projects which couldn't survive normal working conditions at places like Cognite or Experia. They also work on software plugins and upgrades for infomorphs. Pharmaceuticals is probably the largest consistently, working on nootropics and supplements derived from xenosamples. They also are notable for the development of various Psi Drugs. 
• Remaining labs come and go as projects and funding run through them. Exotic Particle labs have opened and closed several times when they weren't cost-effective. The Planetary Science lab was opened at the same time as Exobiology, but was shuttered only months after and has never been reopened, but also never reconfigured. Resources from other labs and infrastructure are occasionally repurposed to construct Robotics or Nanotech testing labs. An "uplift division" cluster of modules tends to drift from major department to department as they focus on particular projects. The Computer Science lab was subject to some kind of accident and several modules were breached, after which it was quarantined and ejected, only to be stripped down to basic modules re-attached to other labs. And various scientists and department heads have "pet" modules which cover small personal projects, such as Astronomy, Quantum Physics, Linguistics and Memetics.