Apollo 23: Base Diana

And here's my last post on Apollo 23. Focusing on the Setting of the adventure Base Diana.

 

Base Diana

Base Traits:
GOOD 

• Advanced Technology (x2)
• Computing Power
• Secret Base

BAD

• Alien Threat
• Unreliable Resource

The US Government started building Base Diana in the late 70's. Supposedly, the Apollo 17 was the last time man went to the moon, but in fact the missions continued in secret throughout the 70's and into the 80's. Modules for the construction of Base Diana were brought up throughout the 70's and the final components for the Quantum Displacement Field were brought on Apollo 22 in 1984.

Quantum Displacement Field

 The Quantum Displacement Field is the base's main lifeline to Earth. Simply by walking through the lines of mushroom shaped devices outside the base, you go from the airless moon to the desert of West Texas, a few miles away from Diana's Earth counterpart Base Hibiscus.

1. Main Airlock-  
 This is the primary entrance and exit to the outside, the main space suit locker is located here.
2. Communications Center -
The central computer and and main communication terminal to Earth is located here.
3. Medical Bay-
 The base has a fairly basic medical suite. Normally any serious medical cases are shuttled back to Earth via the Quantum Displacement Field. The Process Chamber for Professor Jackson's Alpha Wave Manipulator  is here as well.
4. Prisoner Receiving-
Any of the special prisoners are brought into the base via this access point, and taken to the lower level prison cells.
5. Quantum Displacement System-
The massive equipment that connects the Moonbase to Earth is here.
6. Section 9-
The supposedly empty section of the base is in fact the Talerian store house for people they have "Blanked" 

Adventure Hooks

Apollo 23 ends with the base being abandoned due to the loss of the quantum displacement field. Even so, the United States government has put a lot of effort into that facility, so it' seems unlikely they will simply leave it be. It's hinted in the story the facility eventually gets upgraded and repurposed as the penal colony featured in the classic series story Frontier in Space. So while the base may be temporarily uninhabited, it's likely to come back to life in the future.

• In a U.N.I.T. based campaign, when word about the facility gets out to other agencies, the US agrees to reopen it as an international outpost with multiple nations helping operate it. You could easily run a whole campaign around the idea of man's first tentative steps into space in the very hostile univers of Doctor Who.
• If the base is closed and has been that way for a while, what are these mysterious signals that are coming from the base now? A team of astronauts, scientists and hastily trained marines are sent back to the base to figure out what's happened.
• Maybe there really are Moonites and they are in league with the Rutan Host. So they may not be too thrilled about the humans taking up residence.