The Signal From Tolva

In space, no one can hear you scratch your head.

- Ian Evenden

THE PLANET TÖLVA has certainly seen some action. In addition to the recently wrecked frigate whose parts are scattered across its surface, there’s plenty of evidence of previous conflicts. Military bunkers are almost everywhere, and the remains of giant robots lie draped across the landscape.

Smaller robots swarm over it, too, and that’s where you come in. Drawn to the planet by a signal, you are patched into a Surveyor robot by a similarly cybernetic information broker, then left with a list of things to scan. Complicating matters are two other robotic factions: the Bandits and the Zealots. They exist mainly to harass you as you cross the eerie landscape, all broken rocks, angel-like insects, flying mantas, and areas gated by radiation, chemicals, or worse, which you need to level up to enter.