SHADE Unit — PROMETHEUS Construct

[GM EYES ONLY — Do not reveal the designation “SHADE” until Beat 6 / PROMETHEUS facility] Players encounter these as A.E.G.I.S. strike team agents in Beat 2. The designation and Eclipse connection surface only when the team reaches the black site.

At a Glance

Field	Value
Designation	SHADE — Synthetic Human Asset, Deterrence-Enabled
Type	Synthetic human drone — Eclipse PROMETHEUS black program
First Appearance	Beat 2 — The Press Room
Threat Level	Standard — scene complication, not a boss encounter
Public Read	A.E.G.I.S. strike team agents in full uniform

The Setup

The constructs arrive in A.E.G.I.S. strike team uniforms. Some uniforms are ripped. One has a dark stain across the shoulder that dried wrong — too dark, too uniform, more like a spill than a wound. The implication: they killed a real A.E.G.I.S. strike team and took their gear.

This is Signal’s staging. The constructs are not here to win a fight. They are here to create footage that Signal can cut and broadcast — footage of the new team looking reactive, outmatched, and dangerous to the public they’re supposed to protect.

Drive

To cause maximum visible chaos in a public space for as long as possible.

The Tell

Anyone who gets close enough — or rolls well on assess the situation — notices:

The flesh underneath damage doesn’t bruise. It separates.
The eyes don’t track independently. They move together. Like a camera adjusting, not a person looking.
No pain response. No flinch. Just recalibration.

The cameras at the press conference don’t catch this. The players might.

Villain Moves

Make it look worse. A construct grabs a civilian — not as a hostage, just to drag them into frame. Whatever the heroes do next looks dangerous, reactive, or excessive on camera.
Escalate visibly. When a construct marks a condition, it doesn’t slow down — it gets louder. Throws something large, shoves a podium into a crowd, cracks a wall. Each hit the heroes land looks like it’s making things worse, not better.
Mirror the threat. When a PC uses their power visibly, a construct responds with equivalent-scale destruction aimed at the same space — not copying the ability, just the consequence. Avi shoves a construct telekinetically; one throws a chair into the same section of crowd. Sterling pushes through a line of constructs; one drives itself through a wall of the press room. The camera can’t tell the difference between what the heroes did and what the constructs did. That’s the point.

Conditions (3 — Standard Threat)

Afraid
Angry
Guilty

They don’t experience these — it’s just the track. When the third is marked, the construct stops mid-motion. No collapse. No fall. Just stops.

Exit Condition

Three conditions marked, or targeted structural damage to the torso (the biotech core is housed there). A good assess the situation roll tells a player the torso is the weak point.

They don’t flee. They don’t surrender. They stop.

What They’re Not

Not improvisers. They execute their drive with precision, but they cannot adapt to the genuinely unexpected. Something weird — not tactically clever, just outside their programmed response set — produces a half-second recalibration pause. That pause is exploitable.

GM Notes

The scene’s success condition for Signal is footage, not the constructs’ survival. Even if the team handles them well, Signal can cut the footage to look worse. Reward smart play with a better position going into Beat 3 — not with Signal failing to broadcast.
Smart play looks like restraint. “Mirror the threat” punishes spectacle. A player who keeps their power use small, close, and contained — no big displays, no visible destruction — doesn’t trigger the mirror effect. Honor that at the table. It should feel correct to play it quiet here.
The constructs wearing A.E.G.I.S. uniforms is the first suggestion of Eclipse’s reach into institutional infrastructure. Don’t underline it. Let it sit.
The designation “SHADE” and the Eclipse connection are Beat 6 payoff. Do not surface them here.

Last updated: March 2026