SHUTTLE AREA KINETIC EARTH
RESONANCE SYSTEM (SHAKER System)

CAUTION: Standing within 100 yards in soft terrain (or upwards of 500 on hard) when the SHAKER system is activated may result in extensive equipment damage or death. Minor skeletal breakage (including shattered teeth and other fractures) have been recorded at 50% of these prescribed distances. At 47% (using the shuttle as the epicenter), vascular tearing and organ shock are not unheard of. At 34%, all organics will shatter/tear, and only the highest grade cybernetics can hope to survive. For all intents and purposes, 30% is considered lethal.

* “Shake’n’Seek” is a playful (if deadly) reference to the fate of parties having perished after losing their shuttle transponder. The device is needed to locate a buried shuttle and summon it to the surface. Multi-year observation groups are particularly susceptible to transponder loss as natural vegetation often conceals the original landing site.

Known in expeditionary circles as the “Shake’n’Seek.”* The SHAKER System is a short amplitude, high frequency generator built into the underside of most First Contact shuttles.

It works by vibrating the particulate terrain directly beneath the shuttle, first cracking the surface through its landing appendages (point force), and then using the entirety of the lower hull as the vibration plate (dispersed force). This action allows the shuttle to “bury” itself into the planet’s crust. Scientists affectionately refer to the process as “ticking” a planet’s “skin.”

The SHAKER technology comes from a refined application of directional vibration mining techniques. The very nature of the technology makes the extra weight of structural reinforcements and shock negating materials a necessary evil. It also renders only a handful of viable shuttle hull shapes and internal housing mechanisms of all weapons and communications assets.

SHAKER is designed to burrow a standard shuttle 9.2m within 90 seconds (loose sand), or five minutes (solid granite). Actual depth constraints are determined by how much external stress the shuttle hull can withstand. SHAKER is known to vibrate through virtually any naturally occurring materials, though Audrium is a notable exception to this rule.