Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - a detailed room-by-room map layout and hazard guide for a derelict orbital station hosting a Shambleau infestation.

 ORBITAL STATION: LEKTRA-09 (DEEP-SPACE BIO-RESEARCH & RECREATION HUB)

Lektra-09 is a decaying, medium-class orbital habitat slipping out of a stable Lagrange point. The environmental controls are failing, coating everything in hot, humid moisture, crimson bio-gel, and suffocating neon haze. The station operates on low auxiliary power, creating severe visibility limits and fluctuating gravity. Note that this blog post picks right up from 

Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - Shambleau (The Neural-Erotic Parasite)

STATION MAP LAYOUT

                  +-----------------------+
                  |  [SECTION 4]          |
                  |  Sanctum of the Nest  |
                  +-----------+-----------+
                              |
                     (Crimson Door/Bio-Gel)
                              |
+-----------------------+-----+-----------------+
|  [SECTION 2]          |  [SECTION 3]          |
|  Bio-Cloning &        |  The Velour Bazaars   |
|  Sleeve Storage       |  & Opium Lounges      |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
            |                       |
   (Airlock Failure)        (Collapsed Bulkhead)
            |                       |
            +-----------+-----------+
                        |
              +---------+-------------+
              |  [SECTION 1]          |
              |  Aircon Docking Bay   |
              +-----------------------+

SECTION-BY-SECTION HAZARD GUIDE

Section 1: Aircon Docking Bay & Decontamination Airlock

The entry point for salvage crews. The airlock is jammed half-open, venting atmosphere at irregular intervals.

• Layout: A massive, pitch-black hangar filled with half-dismantled cargo crates, floating zero-g debris, and frozen atmospheric condensation.

• Primary Environmental Hazard — Vacuum Flushes: Every 1d4 combat rounds, an automated atmospheric safety override triggers. All unsecured characters must pass a DC 14 Agility / Power-Armor Check or be pulled 5 meters toward the decompression breach.

• Secondary Hazard — Hive Spores: Thin, thread-like crimson cilia hang from the ceiling. Touching them alerts the Shambleau in Section 4 to the party’s presence, forfeiting any chance of stealth.

Section 2: Bio-Cloning & Sleeve Storage (Flesh Vats)

A damp, clinical wing where reserve human vessels (Sleeves) were grown before the station fell.

• Layout: Rows of cracked glass vats filled with murky nutrient fluid. Dozens of vacant, skinless clones float suspended in the gloom.

• Primary Bio-Hazard — Burst Sleeve Swarms: Walking past compromised vats carries a risk. Damaged vats explode on a natural 1-3 on any movement check, releasing a Rogue Flesh-Puppet (a brainless clone corpse puppeted by Shambleau tendrils; Integrity: 15, Attack: Bio-Grapple +4).

• Tactical Opportunity: Contains 1x intact Thermal Purge Torch (High-intensity heat weapon; deals 2d10 Heat Damage, ideal for clearing tendril nests).

Section 3: The Velour Bazaars & Opium Lounges

The former luxury district for visiting smugglers and orbital elites. The air here is thick with sweet-smelling, psychoactive pheromones.

• Layout: A maze of curtained booths, overturned velvet couches, flickering neon signage, and rotting luxury decor. The floor is slick with crimson biogel.

• Primary Cognitive Hazard — Euphoric Atmospheric Pheromones: The air is saturated with Shambleau-secreted endorphins.

  • Mechanic: Characters without enclosed helmet systems or respiratory filters must roll a DC 15 Cognitive Check upon entering. Failure inflicts Dissonance (+1d4 Stress) and a -2 penalty to perception checks as hallucinations of lost loved ones or extreme comfort fill their minds.

• Environmental Threat — Slick Biogel Floors: Running or taking dodge actions requires a DC 12 Agility Check or the character falls prone, coating their suit in bio-matter (+2 chance to be targeted by Tendril Latch in future rooms).

Section 4: Sanctum of the Nest (Command Bridge)

The heart of the infection. The former bridge has been transformed into a pulsing, organic chamber made of calcified bone and writhing crimson tendrils.

• Layout: A wide, amphitheater-style room. The main viewport shows the planet below, illuminated by flickering emergency lights. In the center, atop a mound of drained, mummified crew husks, rests the Shambleau.

• Primary Hazard — Rooted Tendril Network: The entire floor count as hazardous terrain. The Shambleau can trigger Tendril Latch from any wall or floor surface within Section 4, not just from its main physical form.

• Station Boss Encounter: The Shambleau uses the captured station commander's half-drained body as its voice.

• Station Structural Hazard — Terminal Orbital Decay: The station's thrusters trigger mid-fight. Every round, the GM rolls a d6. On a 5-6, the room tilts 45 degrees into extreme artificial gravity, knocking loose debris and characters toward the cracking glass viewport.

ENCOUNTER LOGISTICS & OBJECTIVES

1. Secondary Objective — Station Core Override: A manual terminal in Section 4 can trigger an Orbital Decay De-orbit, sending the station burning up into the planet's atmosphere to purge the infection permanently (requires a 3-turn holdout defense).

2. Salvage Objective: Recovering the encrypted Mind-Tapes from the Commander's corpse in Section 4 reveals how the Shambleau was brought onboard—fetching a massive price on the dark transhumanist market.

The air in your cockpit smells of scorched copper and stale oxygen as the thrusters burst, matching speed with the drifting corpse of Lektra-09.

Out through the scratched transpari-glass viewport, the station doesn't look like a triumph of transhuman engineering anymore. It looks like a broken bone piercing the black void. It sits dead in low orbit, slowly tumbling against the sickly orange curve of the planet below. Its main solar arrays are shattered—splayed out like the ribs of a beached leviathan—and a faint, frozen mist of venting atmosphere trails behind it into the vacuum.

As your docking clamp bites into the hull with a heavy, reverberating THUD, the station's automated systems don't welcome you. There are no landing lights, no comm-chatter, no status ping. Just a solitary, dying emergency beacon pulsing a dull, rhythmic crimson through the gloom.

Through the airlock window, you can see into the docking bay. The gravity is dead, but the air inside is heavy, humid, and thick with a dim neon haze that shouldn't be there. Hanging in the zero-g, drifting like kelp in a stagnant pond, are long, thin ribbons of dark crimson thread. They cling to the bulkheads, the abandoned cargo crates, and the rusted control panels.

Your suit’s atmospheric sensors chime softly, spitting out a warning:

Atmosphere detected. Composition: Oxygen, trace nitrogen, high humidity... and heavy airborne organic particulates. Biological hazard warning.

A low, mechanical groan shudders through the floorboards beneath your boots as the station’s orbit decays just a little bit further. Whatever happened on Lektra-09, the station is dying. And as the airlock cycles open with a long, wet hiss, you realize the air coming from inside doesn't smell like machine oil or dead space.

It smells like ozone. It smells like velvet. And under all of it, the sweet, cloying decay of something long past rot.

GM Setup:

• Condition: Players must choose now whether to breach with Enclosed Helmets (protects against the initial air-borne pheromones, but limits sensory perception/awareness checks by -2) or Open Respirators (normal perception, but immediate roll against Section 1 Spores upon entry).

• Initiative: Have all players roll a Perception / Sensor Check before stepping off the ship to see if they notice the movement among the red cilia in the airlock.