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Apocalypse Dischargers
These rather bizarre artifacts are incredibly far ahead of any Galactic race’s technology to make: so much so, in fact, that at first glance they barely register as technological artifacts at all. Each one resembles a ceramic egg about two feet long, weighing about ten pounds; the Discharger is slightly cool to the touch, feels solid, and is impervious to pretty much everything. And ‘everything’ means everything. Somebody shot one into a star, once. It came out the other side.
Apocalypse Dischargers are given out by any number of typical, aggravatingly annoying Transcended Races: the items prevent apocalyptic events from taking place on individual worlds by releasing the appropriate, built-up narrative charge into a story that has plenty of high-stakes action, and possibly great tragedies… but will still fall well short of actually blowing up a planet. …No, seriously. That’s what mere mortals get told these things are.
Naturally, nobody’s really sure if the Transcended Races are telling the truth here, or whether they’re just having a joke at the mortal species’ expense. It is pretty clear, based on historical records, that anybody in the possession of an Apocalypse Discharger is going to have any number of insanely dangerous adventures… so there’s a certain sentiment common to star nations across the galaxy. To wit: to get those Dischargers off-planet, before they and their ‘owners’ muck up something. Safest thing to do, really.
Unless there is an apocalypse brooding on the planet’s surface, of course. Because you never know.