Pytheas

Pytheas is a TranStar mining and secret research facility built on the Moon. The moon base is the main setting to Prey: Mooncrash.

Overview
Pytheas sits in and around a crater on the moon's surface. Each of the three buildings are linked by a tram, and all four locations have an Escape Pod Bay. Overall, the moon base is composed of:
 * Crater: Mining and testing site covered by a protective dome. It has access by airlock to all other locations.
 * Crew Annex: Administration offices, Trauma Center, crew habitations and services as well as the moon base's shuttle bay for outdoor travels.
 * MoonWorks: Pytheas's helium-3 mine, refinery and machine workshop.
 * Pytheas Labs: Typhon research facility as well as the volunteers' cells.

Early History
In 1964, the United States established a moon base to provide raw materials for Project Axiom, notably for the construction of the new space station built around the Kletka. The original mining facility was located deep in a crater on the Lunar pole, permanently shadowed and surrounded by kilometers of ice. It sat on a vast network of cramped tunnels where Helium-3, hydrogen and platinum were mined. Miners were recruited through a government campaign, and despite terrible working conditions and frequent accidents, the promise of work on the moon still attracted miners and work continued for nearly 15 years.

In 1978, the mining operations were scaled back as the space station reached completion. The mines went dark, then six years later the remaining personnel were recalled and the base shuttered after the government put Project Axiom on hold.

TranStar
In 2025, the newly founded TranStar bought the moonbase and dubbed it Pytheas, with the intention of supplying resources for the refurbished space station, rebranded Talos I. The Crew Annex was the first addition, to improve living conditions for the personnel.

Five years later, Talos I was achieved and the mining operations scaled back. The mines still continued to provide helium-3 for the space station's superforge nuclear fusion reactor as well as sending resources to Earth by the means of its Mass Driver. Meanwhile, the Pytheas Labs were built to serve as research annex to Talos I on Typhon research. A dome was also added to the Crater to ease foot walk between the base's facilities and convert it into a testing field for the labs. To conserve secrecy, TranStar enforced communication restrictions outside Pytheas. Employees moving out also had their Neuromods removed and their memory wiped clean of the base's secrets.

In 2032, TranStar president Alex Yu named his cousin Riley as Director of Pytheas, to supervise the helium-3 refinery and Typhon research there, both necessary to Talos I. Three years later, unnatural moonquakes started to destabilize the mining operations. Meanwhile the labs, under Riley's new supervision, were concluding development of several projects, notably the Typhon Gates, Typhon Towers and Project Genesis.

On February 23nd, 2035, the Typhon breached containment and wiped out nearly the moonbase personnel, while Talos I suffered the same fate. Riley Yu managed to send off the base's data in a Vault Operator, which was intercepted by KASMA and sent to their operative Peter in a satellite spying on Pytheas. He retrieved its data through a simulation of Pytheas's last moments as well as Claire Whitten's KASMA Command Key to crash his satellite near the moonbase and board its shuttle to Earth, unknowingly bringing a Mimic with him.

Trivia

 * The facility is named after Pytheas, a Greek geographer and explorer.

Gallery
Pytheas