#40 Astrasilk Shipyards

Age: 84 Cycles

Hidden or Lost?: No

History: Not so long ago the Astrasilk Shipyards were known across the cosmos as the finest makers and servicers of interstellar craft anywhere in the known galaxies. But after a crippling infestation of spiders from Earth, the facilities have become a deadly maze, crawling with mutated astral chimeras waiting to devour whatever new prey falls into their web.

Built into a colossal web spun between a cluster of asteroids, the Astrasilk shipwrights were founded by a species of large (by human standards) arachnids. Their claim to fame was the titular astrasilk, a material produced by some gifted members of their species, and then mixed with a proprietary blend of mineral compounds to create a virtually indestructible polymer. The miraculous material could be used to enhance every corner of a craft from view screens to hull plating. In the hands of the Astersilk spingineers it was more valuable than dark matter.

However the famous operation collapsed with the introduction of a simple Earth spider that had stowed away on a ship docked for repairs. The unevolved arachnid made its way into a DNA resequencer, and quickly the animal arachnid mindurge spread throughout the facility’s occupants, erasing the intelligence of the Astrasilk arachnids. Within a cycle, they had reverted to massive feral spiders armed with strange mutations, indestructible webbing, and a voracious need to feed.

Agents of the Great Web were sent in to attempt to retake the station, but they have all fallen prey to the mutation. Those who have made it out report all manner of horrors, from ship hangers that have been converted to egg fields where new arachnids are birthed and only those with aggressive mutations are allowed to live, to feeding chambers where travelers are pulled limb from limb to be consumed by mindless, arachnid berserkers.

Even more disturbingly, all who have survived a visit to the overrun station report that for all the bestial chaos, they can sense a terrible mind behind it all. What the horrible intelligence might want remains a mystery.

Most smart captains know to avoid the Astrasilk Shipyards, but the deadly outpost still holds the last known recipe for that miraculous astrasilk, so pirates, scavengers, and even the Great Weavers themselves continue trying to retake the yards. They had better hurry though, because something is trying to find a way out.

1. Astrasilk Processing Hub

2. The Broken Lines

3. Feeding Chamber

4. Astrasilk Industrial Datacore

5. Chimera Egg Clutch

6. Derelict Cosmohauler

7. Communications Relay

8. Silk Production Hangar

9. Cavalier-Model Cruise Ship

10. Greaseworks

11. Astrasilk Recapture Base

12. Orbseer Station

13. The Parasite’s Length

14. Steelweaver’s Workshop

15. The Majordomo Cocoon

16. Asteroid PX-407B46

17. Universal Crisis Patrol Station

18. The Skittering Core