Atmosphere: Breathable

Temperature: Temperate

Biosphere: No Native Biosphere

Population: Tens of Thousands

Tech Level: 3

Tags: Zombies, Cold War

Languages: Mandate, Spanish, English, Russian

Hush is a fairly grim planet, as much of the planet is seeded with nanotech mines that are sound-sensitive. Undetectable without TL 5 scanners, they have been swept clear in small areas that form the human habitations. Outside of those safe areas there could be a mine anywhere. The mines go off when they are exposed to sounds at around 90 decibels—talking is not enough to set them off, but shouting is. Moreover, the planet was colonized by not one but two one-ways [see below], and the two groups do not get along. Conflict between the two is limited by the mines, and the armies of Hush are both experts at producing extremely silent projectile weapons. However, these weapons are substantially limited in terms of damage, range, and rate of fire (many are bolt action at best). Their skirmishes also include various noisemaking devices—a scouting party can be entirely killed by hitting them with a screamer, setting off all the nearby mines.

The mines are incredibly problematic. First, they are stealthed and cannot be detected short of TL 5 scanning equipment, or literally touching one (which may also set it off). Second, when they go off they briefly de-stealth, followed by re-stealthing and teleporting to a random point within 10 or so meters. When they go off they spray nanites that, if they strike a living creature, rewire them akin to revenant wiring and use them to kill, effectively turning them into dangerous zombies (see below). The nanites have a tendency to penetrate even into the average sealed environment, and specially sealing a vehicle to be able to keep them out needs special care and costs about double the usual amount.

Those who have been affected by the mines take somewhere between 2-5 hours (1d4 1) to change. In that time the nanites modify them in a fashion akin to a combination of an induced coma trigger and revenant wiring. In the absence of stimuli they fall motionless. If they sense living creatures, however, they rise up. They fight until they are ‘killed’, and then 3d4 rounds thereafter, and must be physically disabled to stop them (requiring an additional 25 hit points of damage). Destroying the brain is meaningless with these horrors.

Clearing the mines is usually done with specially sealed vehicles, which blast noise to set the mines off repeatedly until their internal batteries are temporarily depleted (they are self-charging). At that point they can be collected and destroyed (usually with a mounted plasma projector). Clearing is arduous and takes a long time, making cleared land incredibly valuable.

[The "one-ways" are a feature of my setting--they're colony ships that are sent out and are designed to land on the planet and provide an initial base of operations, power plant, and other resources for a starting colony. They are capable of landing on a planetary surface, but not capable of taking off again. They're also not built to be refueled, and just given enough fuel to get them to their destination. So, they are literally one way trips. A great number of colonies are built around the husk of a one-way, or if they've grown enough, have their largest city around where a one-way was originally and was later salvaged/repurposed].