[Sendaz]

Again no,  like we said the astral gateway allows mundanes to astrally project even though they normally can not. Their bodies are still left behind.

As for Alchera, that is a bit different situation. That is where an astral phenomena manifests on the physical plane and while it is there it has physical form.
When it goes away, people caught in it tend to be left behind, which can be bad it it leaves them hanging over an empty space up high.
There are tales of people disappearing with it, but nothing ever proven to date.

Now maybe if we get to ED level magicks which can open true portals then we could see something along the lines you are thinking, but I don't think we are currently at that stage yet.

[CitizenJoe]

Then you send astral projected plants and animals as food.  Then use Buttercup's wealth ability to create stuff on the other side.

You're either on board with the idea or you're not.  The fun thing is getting it to work without just making up something out of left field.  The theory is strange enough and secret enough and obscure enough that any GM could ignore it without comment.

[DeathStrobe]

Lockdown does have a project in MIT&T that created a teleporting gateway to ... somewhere on Earth while traveling through the metaplanes. I plan on using that as the way to get my runners out of Boston.

[Sendaz]

Then use Buttercup's wealth ability to create stuff on the other side.

That could well work for providing stocks at least.

You're either on board with the idea or you're not.  The fun thing is getting it to work without just making up something out of left field.  The theory is strange enough and secret enough and obscure enough that any GM could ignore it without comment.

But really the answer probably should come out of left field, if just a little bit. 
When you just throw down, oh X in the form of Buttercup has power Y in the form of Astral Gateway so it can do Z in the form of basically a teleport, but at the same time lots of entities have that same power Y and they can not do this that creates the question of why?  Because if AG is all you need, then you have to consider other spirits using it as well and all that implies. Or players who get control over a spirit with said power and how they may (mis)use this.

Maybe Buttercup uses an unique ritual or artefact (both of which plays well with the secrecy thing and also would make it much sought after if discovered) or maybe as she has grown as a free spirit racking up karma  and now through the spirit equivalent of initiating she has developed a new spirit power that had the AG power as a pre-requisite to develop. So you can build on what she has and still explain why it is new and exciting without that disconnect.

So it's not so much whether we are on board or not as we have toyed with a few concepts to create a bridge between two points, but we are just asking for consistency in your fluff & crunch.

Unless you are planning to write for CGL, then writing contradictory material may be a bonus/

[CitizenJoe]

I did stipulate an astral anchor that had to be carried on the space ship.

 The harder question is why she'd be interested in Mars.

[psycho835]

Perhaps she assumed it will be a safe haven when the Horrors arrive? Sure, we have already agreed that it wouldn't work, but SHE doesn't has to know that.

[CitizenJoe]

It is probably less important that Mars specifically works and more important that the general idea works.

Space has a whole lot of inhospitable planets out there.  If the Mars hop works due to an astral anchor and an artificial manasphere, projecting outwards will only open a gateway on habitable world's since they are the ones with working manaspheres.  That's the premise of the far future space opera game I mentioned.

[Reaver]

That's assuming your astral anchor survives the 18 months exposed to a -12+ Mana Void....

We have no idea if an astral contract can survive a Void for an extended period of time.

Remember, an astral anchor is made from.... MANA. And then you have taken that construct of mana and are moving it through a total absence of mana for an extended period of time....

From the description of what happens when you just astrally view in a mana void, I think your anchor would be destroyed by the long exposure to open space... You would need a heck of a lot of biomass to generate a manasphere for the trip, but I guess it would be possible, if expensive.   

[CitizenJoe]

Oh you definitely need some sort of artificial manasphere.  Due to mass constraints you'd need to bioengineer some sort of plant, likely algae, that is biased towards manasphere generation.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Silly amateur conspiracy theorists.  You don't need the astral anchor to be active during the entire trip there; you just need it capable of being activated once it gets there, which would be why you first build up enough of a mana pool (per se) to make it somewhat less-catastrophic to work magic, then send someone with the anchor who has experience working in such difficult environments.

And when you get down to it, isn't someone already researching (and claims success with) actual paired physical-into-the-astral gateways?  Move one of those to Mars, and presuming you know where Gate M is inside the Astral and how to get from Gate E to Gate M, you can suddenly cut an 18-month space trip into a two- or five- or even thirty-day astral combat convoy, and take a whole crapton of goods into Gate E and out of Gate M.  And suddenly you have "Mars, brought to you by EVO!!" and they essentially own the entire planet - and are terraforming it.

[Zolt]

And when you get down to it, isn't someone already researching (and claims success with) actual paired physical-into-the-astral gateways?  Move one of those to Mars, and presuming you know where Gate M is inside the Astral and how to get from Gate E to Gate M, you can suddenly cut an 18-month space trip into a two- or five- or even thirty-day astral combat convoy, and take a whole crapton of goods into Gate E and out of Gate M.  And suddenly you have "Mars, brought to you by EVO!!" and they essentially own the entire planet - and are terraforming it.

Loving this idea, definitely going to introduce EVO as yet another player in the Artifacts campaign I've been running - opening a gateway to Mars would sure make for a more exciting finale than Ghostwalker's little get-together in DC.

(Yes, we're still on Artifacts.. what can I say, we play slow and get sidetracked a lot).

[CitizenJoe]

Travel through the metaplanes requires an astral quest.  That means you can play some other game to simulate the quest.