SCRAM

Emergency systems · SCRAM · "That… was close."

Lore: after 3,120 K the SCRAM button becomes available and the crew has about four minutes to bring the core below 900 K or the core explodes. The badge is called SCRAM Qualification — “That… Was close.” The backronym is “Safety Control Rod Axe Man”.

Availability

Once per player per match. Usable:

(a) as an Operations action while your core is in the Overheat band (2,400–3,110 K), or
(b) as a mandatory reaction the instant your core reaches ≥ 3,120 K — during either player’s shift.

Effect

Set your Core Temperature to 900 K.
Your reactor becomes SHUT DOWN with a Lockout of 4: four lockout counters. While SHUT DOWN: no Base Load, you cannot complete Power Orders, Facilities’ “SHIFT START: COOL” effects do nothing and your OPERATORS’ Exhaust: COOL abilities cannot be used (“nothing to cool”). HEAT still applies — the core can still be sabotaged. Reactor Hall’s Refuel is allowed.
At each of your Shift Starts remove 1 lockout counter, before Base Load. When the last is removed the reactor restarts (Code Bravo-8): set the core to 1,420 K if lower, and resume normal rules.
Cards can end the lockout early: the Shift Manager — “Code Bravo-8: when played, end your SCRAM lockout”. In lore only the Shift Manager or the Plant Director may authorise Bravo-8.
Reaching 3,120 K again with SCRAM already used is the loss.

The four-shift lockout is the four-minute window, and it is the cost that stops SCRAM being a free reset: four shifts of no Power Orders is usually the whole race.

Auto-fired

The Plant Director prints Auto-fired: if your reactor SCRAMs, discard Plant Director. In lore the PD is fired automatically on assassination or meltdown. If the Director was your Q grant, your Level drops at the same moment.

When to press it

Forced. Anything that takes you to 3,120 K with SCRAM available presses it for you. A SCRAM during the opponent’s shift still costs four of your Shift Starts.
Voluntary in Overheat. Sometimes right: your roster has no HAZMAT and would take radiation every Shift End; a Hostile Raid forbids orders for three shifts anyway; or you hold a Shift Manager in hand and can end the lockout the moment it lands (it requires BA, so check your Level).
Never when you are a shift or two from seven orders and can cool under 2,400 K with a Relief Valve Cycling and the pumps.

The Shift Supervisor interrupts the first time you enter Overheat to remind you the button exists.