Alien RPG: Dead Air (Near Earth Frontier)

MSV Tianlu

This post is really designed as an aide memoire for my players in my Black Signals Alien campaign rather than a pure narration/summary of the first session. The campaign is an episodic one which can be picked up again in the future, but discoveries made in this session will be important.

Readers are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Near Earth Frontier campaign setting, detailed in a previous post.

The PCs and NPCs participating in this session were:

• Capt Evelyn Shaw - commander of the Haimei, former US Colonial Fleet officer - NPC
• Dr Arjun Malik - Scientist brought in because of his expertise with machine learning and neuro-interface research - PC (Kelvin)
• Rosa Vega - Chief engineer on the Hanmei - veteran spacehand (and neo-goth) - NPC
• Lt Hannah Price - Security officer assigned to this mission by the Interstellar Transport & Recovery Corp - PC (Ben)
• Yusuf Qadir - Pilot from Mars, pragmatic and a little jaded - PC (Stefan)

Background

Lt (ret) Hannah Price was assigned by the ITRC to investigate the Tianlu, a medium range cargo hauler which went dark 16 days previously and had been found in orbit around Mars with its transponder turned off. Price was assigned Dr Arjun Malik to assist on the mission along with the recovery tug Haimei under the command of Capt Shaw. Stress was placed on not drawing undue attention to the operation, especially from military on Mars or rival corporate assets.

Fate of the crew of the MSV Tianlu

Tianlu was unresponsive and upon boarding it was found that the ship's AI NODE was functioning erratically. The crew were almost all dead. Captian Lin Yao was found in his chair on the bridge with a gunshot wound to the head although there was no sign of the pistol.

The ship's log indicated that it was on a mission to transport an uncertified and potentially illegal high-functioning AI called NODE. In addition it was carrying some kind of biological cargo in container 882-X which was subsequently found to be empty.

Science officer Dr Melissa Roarke was found dead in her quarters having decompressed her room from the inside. Her journal indicated that NODE was "re-writing its own kernel", and that she suspected it was being inspired by an external source, which she said was "something older. This isn't code; it's scripture."

Indeed the recovered personal log of Mateo Singh, the deceased communications officer, referred to NODE being able to read his mind, and that "Earth wasn't the beginning."

NODE has the capacity to turn hostile, as was evidenced by the death of the Tianlu's chief engineer Bruno Hayashi, who was found melted into the wall at an access panel, having attempted a manual reactor override which had prevented NODE from controlling the navigation of the ship.

NODE also used a cargo drone to attack the crew of the Haimei although with little succeess thanks to the marksmanship of Lt Price.

A sole survivor has been recovered from the ship, assistant engineer Dai Shun, who was found hiding in the freezing cargo bay and attacked the newcomers with a wrench. He was shot and badly wounded by Price and is now in intensive care and in an induced coma on Phobos.

The fate of Bruno Hayashi

Presence of Red Echo on the Tianlu

Thanks to some interrogation of NODE by Dr Qadir, the team learned that whatever had been in the mysterious crate was removed by an individual in a non-regulation military-grade suit two days after Tianlu went dark (via CCTV footage NODE had access to). This person has been identified subsequent to the mission by Lt Price as Samantha del Toro, an operative of Red Echo, an emergent paramilitary-technological syndicate, originally dismissed as a criminal data cartel.

According to classified information accessed by Price, Red Echo is now confirmed to possess military training, advanced AI integration protocols and partial access to "anomalous technology of unverified origin." Del Toro has previously been codenamed as 'Signal Hound' by ITRC intelligence. There is evidence that she tried to scuttle the Tianlu herself prior to her exit from the ship with the biological specimen (debris seen floating close to the Tianlu on approach).

Fate of NODE

The AI core was removed covertly by Dr Qadir who still has it in his possession. The official report to ITRC has been that the crew of the Tianlu were killed by an 'AI glitch' and possible enemy action. The cargo was compromised or taken by agents unknown - who also took/deleted the NODE program. This currently remains with Dr Qadir on Phobos and the other PCs may well suspect he has it, given that NODE was very much active - and trying to kill them - on the Tianlu.