Aomori Terraforming Engines

The Engines

Aomori is the way it is today because of two things- House Reticulum and the Terraforming Engines. The exact origin of these titanic pretech engines has been lost to time, but most historians credit them to House Triangulum. In the ancient days of Aomori’s colonization, these twenty terraforming engines transformed the planet into a paradise suitable for human life, even aiding the Cygnus biologists in creating the planet’s original biosphere. They provided oxygen, stabilized the planet’s unstable tectonic plates, and had countless other benevolent effects.

Following The Scream, however, these engines began to malfunction or cease working altogether. Many of them began to emit strange and bizarre effects, including abnormal shifts in the local weather patterns or the behavior of local fauna.

Unpredictable Cycles

These various ongoing effects attributed to the terraforming engines occur during unpredictable, seemingly random cycles. When these cycles enter an active phase, inexplicable effects begin occurring in a radius of several miles around the engines. These active cycles can last for varying amounts of time, with the shortest recorded active cycle taking two hours and the longest cycle taking eleven months. During inactive cycles, these effects fade and the area around the engines return to their normal state.

Inadvisable Tampering

In the centuries following The Scream, House Reticulum has made numerous attempts to fix or salvage various malfunctioning terraforming engines. Though well intended, none of these attempts have ended well. Salvage teams quickly learned that the engines had been built with internal defenses. After dozens of disastrous forays into the engines, the leadership of Reticulum convened and made an agreement- the engines would be left as they were. Despite their odd new behavior, the engines still provided beneficial effects for the planet, and attempting to fix them was more costly than simply leaving them be. Despite the house’s ill-fated attempts at tampering, a few engines were affected by their endeavors. These engines have settled into a permanent active cycle, providing a constant effect on the area around them.

• The engine of Terrata Prime, which causes marine animals to beach themselves in a radius around the engine.
• The engine at Bonthi Khao Hai, which causes a near continuous storm and constant rainfall in the area around the engine.
• The engine of Gaia Delta, which causes the growth of MES active plants in the area around the engine.