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What you need to know about Asphodel:
Asphodel is a barren, volcanic chunk of rock in space. The atmosphere is toxic and there is not enough oxygen to keep an ordinary human alive without some kind of filtering system or personal supply of air. The temperature ranges from hot to hotter, although nights in the desert areas quickly drop below freezing. Constant lightning storms in the volcanic regions produce interference, often causing communication problems and teleporter glitches. Asphodel is home to dozens of active volcanoes, lakes of molten rock, chemical geysers, etc, where the skies are black with ash and the ground is either barren rock or the crust of thinly solidified lava. These regions are also full of seismic activity and are generally considered the sole domain of the magmaworms, which begin their life cycle here.
The vast desert regions are broken up by rock formations and mountains that were once volcanoes. All of the structures on Asphodel, from landing sites to the carbon factories, are built in the desert regions out of necessity, as the volcanic areas are too volatile for permanent buildings. However, the desert regions are also the home of the adult magmaworms, which grow to immense sizes and are attracted to vibrations. The desert areas also suffer terrible sandstorms that can bury full size spaceships and scour living flesh. Adult magmaworms with their plate armored hides are one of the few living creatures that have no reason to fear a desert storm, and Hypatia's drones face a constant battle of rebuilding and excavating any facilities that remain above the surface.
Carbon factories are found scattered through the desert regions in a regular grid pattern. These huge industrial complexes are responsible for mining natural resources and also slowly transforming Asphodel's toxic atmosphere into something more readily capable of supporting organic life. They are completely automated, run and maintained and protected by thousands of drone workers and soldiers. Mining ships transport materials back and forth from the station and the carbon plants, and there are also industrial teleporters designed for moving mass quantities of material. These teleporters are highly dangerous to anything organic, as they are not built with the precision technology that ensures safe travel for organics. Nevertheless, there have been instances of living creatures accidentally or deliberately hitchhiking through the mass teleporters as well as stowing away on the mining ships, which has led to non-native plants and animals occasionally appearing in the tunnel systems.
The carbon factories are regularly stocked with resources like water and other materials, which makes them popular targets for Resistance forces raiding for supplies. The factories aren't entirely self-sufficient but they produce drones, mining equipment and military equipment onsite, and have some general laboratory facilities. Due to the interference from the atmosphere, Hypatia also does not have realtime control over the carbon plants and the drones the way she does over the drones and surveillance devices on the station. This is one of the reasons why the Resistance has been able to successfully evade her, as drone patrols vanish constantly without their being able to report back about what happened to them. The deeper tunnels also interfere with communication signals. While it is not impossible to reach the station network from the surface, it is easier near the carbon factories, more difficult inside the tunnels, and impossible during the frequent storms. Communication between wearables while in the tunnels is also going to be spotty and unreliable, unless the other party is still relatively close by. In other words, any given group of characters on a fetch quest in the tunnels will still be able to post to the network or contact other fetch quest groups, but the transmissions won't be reliable and sometimes may not work at all.
Every carbon factory has personnel teleporters linked to the other factories, but these become unreliable every time there is a storm. If a character has not gone through a teleporter on Asphodel and they happen to die, they will respawn from a teleporter back on Sacrosanct.
Between the factories are outposts, smaller security facilities that serve as early warning systems for worm sightings, Resistance attacks, and storms. Outposts are found on the surface and also in the tunnels, and depending on their size can be manned by a few drones or dozens. Most of them tend to get destroyed by worms, storms, or earthquakes, and the ones that aren't get raided by the Resistance for their weapons and ammunition. There are plenty of abandoned outposts in any given area due to this.
Linking the carbon factories are hundreds of subterranean tunnels, which are built with shielding against the extreme temperatures and also flooded with oxygen. The tunnels are large, illuminated, and well-maintained nearest the factories, with a smooth, flat bottom surface for vehicles and large enough to accommodate huge mining equipment and even ships. Some are equipped with automated tram lines, although few of them are still in service.
These tunnels quickly deteriorate as one gets further out, however, requiring any explorers to bring their own supply of oxygen and environmental suits that can withstand heat and cold. The roads break down into cracked chunks of rock and metal, impossible to traverse by anything with wheels, and there are tunnel collapses, pot holes large enough to lose a truck in, and even deadly vertical holes where a worm has tunneled up through on its way to the surface. In some cases, the constructed tunnels simply stop and continue the route via a worm tunnel, which may or may not have oxygen, heat shielding, or light. Abandoned mining equipment and even military equipment can be found along any of the tunnels, left behind after a worm attack or broken down. Some tunnels also support plant-life, both native and non-native, especially in places where resources like water or chemicals have been abandoned.
While there are hundreds of constructed tunnels beneath Asphodel's surface, there are thousands of worm tunnels. These tend to be smaller, winding tunnels with smooth but irregular walls, worn down by the passage of the worm's armored skin and its acid. While many worms take the easier route of burrowing through the loose sand of the deserts, they are perfectly capable of chewing through solid rock and/or steel with rows of crystalline teeth and an acid secretion in their saliva. They can secrete this substance from between their armor plates as well in order to ease their passage through solid rock, but tend to produce it more liberally from their mouths. When infuriated, they can also spit this chemical. While it won't immediately start dissolving everything it touches, it can still eat through armor and flesh and should be avoided or neutralized immediately. The younger the worm, the more potent the acid.
Magmaworms are attracted to light, noise, vibrations, and energy fields. They often come to the surface during lightning storms and some have been known to track swifter vehicles for miles, slowly catching up. Although they feed ala baleen whales, sifting through rocks and dirt for minerals, they will quite literally eat anything that can fit into their gaping maws. Between their size and their armored hide, they are incredibly difficult to kill and are a constant menace to any kind of drone operation on Asphodel. The Resistance has learned with some success how to avoid the worms, and one or two travelers in the tunnels are generally safer than a large noisy group or someone trying to cross open desert, where the worms move more freely.
