Bit Station
The first thing you notice is the navigation globe turning by itself while the station whispers, Bit, Bit, Bit.
The station called Bit is a derelict research platform that now serves as a hideout for alien scavengers and a wounded band of space pirates. Its locked laboratories, cramped barracks, and failing gravity systems conceal a dangerous experiment that is still awake. The party must explore before the station drops from orbit or its surviving intelligence opens every airlock.
The station smells of cold metal, stale breath, and bitter ozone. Dim amber strips flicker beneath translucent floor panels, while distant ventilation fans click like trapped insects and the hull groans whenever the station shifts in its orbit.
☠ Threat
Captain Oruq, a scarred space pirate, commands the station's remaining scavengers from the sealed command room. The alien signal has entered his thoughts and speaks through his stolen helmet radio, urging him to open the containment vault. If he succeeds, the signal will seize the station's engines, vent the lower decks, and broadcast a mind bending summons across the system.
History
Bit began as a small survey station assembled by the Meridian Survey Guild, whose workers shortened its official name, Boundary Instrument Terminal, after the first week. Researchers discovered a living signal within a comet fragment and built the library, shrine, and containment rooms around it. When the signal began answering questions, the crew fled, leaving the station drifting with its experiment alive.
Encounter Table
CRTwo pale scavengers in torn pressure skins follow the smell of warm blood through the vents.
A pirate lookout drifts through the passage in a patched suit, tethered to a wall rail by a fraying cable.
A ribbonlike alien slips across the ceiling, flattening itself whenever the lights return.
Rumours & Whispers
A dead station called Bit has begun blinking its lights over the moon colony every third night.
Pirates who board Bit return with new voices in their helmets and no memory of the trip.
The station's old crew hid a fortune in comet crystals behind a door that has no handle.
A child in the colony dreams of a blue altar and wakes with frost on her hands.
Something in orbit has been answering distress calls before anyone sends them.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Tavi, a blunt dock clerk who keeps finding the same signal in old cargo records
A merchant vessel reports that a station beacon has resumed transmitting a distress code last used by a survey crew missing for twelve years.
A rare star map lens worth 150 gp and legal salvage rights
Quest giver: Sahra Voi, an injured navigator found in a lifeboat near the station
A pirate crew stole a family heirloom from the characters' patron and carried it onto Bit Station during a failed raid.
The recovered heirloom and a small cache of pirate coin
Quest giver: Besh, a quiet child from the nearby moon colony
The station intelligence has begun sending dreams to local children, all showing the same three circles beneath a field of stars.
A protective charm made from the comet fragment, granting advantage on one save against alien influence
Corridor Notes
Thin observation slits reveal a starfield scattered with slow moving debris and the pale curve of a nearby world.
A trail of gray handprints crosses the walls, each print ending in three narrow claw marks.
Emergency lamps pulse beside sealed maintenance panels marked with shortened warnings such as AIR, FIRE, and DROP.
Loose tool cases drift a few inches above the floor whenever the station's artificial gravity stutters.
Turn Bit Station into a sheet
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