We returned to our Alien campaign this week. Last time we left the player characters in the Helios Prospect 9 mining facility on Mars, trying to avoid infected miners and Red Echo mercenaries, and also trying to work out what was going on!
The characters active in this session were:
- Capt Evelyn Shaw, commander of the recovery tug Haimei
- Lt Hannah Price, security officer still attached to the Haimei (played by the GM in this session)
- Yusuf Qadir, pilot of the Haimei, native Martian
- Dr Naomi Vargas, xenogeologist assigned to Helios Prospect 9
Price, Shaw and Qadir were in the mine's communcations room along with the infected miner Havelock, who was becoming increasingly delirious. They were using the comms array to communicate with Rosa Vega, who was piloting the tug Haimei in close stationary orbit, trying to keep tabs on the mysterious ship which had docked with Helios Prospect 9's cargo ring in the upper atmosphere.
Havelock was handcuffed to a chair. Qadir then picked up another bogey on his motion tracker, coming into the operations area from the north. Price and Shaw deployed to ambush the newcomer, who proved to be a woman in a sealed mining suit, namely Dr Naomi Vargas, a xenogeologist. She had been hiding in an underground survey pod to avoid the infection. Vargas checked out on the mine's personnel database.
Vargas examined Havelock and confirmed he was infected with some form of alien parasite, a dormant organism from Mars' geological past. She suspected it had been disturbed by recent drilling activity on level 3, which she had been supervising. The parasite seemed to be spreading through Havelock's system and also influencing him at a mental level. She was not aware of any cure.
The group was hailed by Samantha Del Toro from the Red Echo vessel. Del Toro offered them a slice of the profits in return for unmolested access to the mine. She said she was keen to get a sample of the alien ore. The team decided to disconnect the comms link with the terrorist leader. They then contacted Vega again and asked her to get a secure communique off to the ITRC operations HQ to confirm their existing orders.
Monitoring of the CCTV cameras covering the lift shaft showed that two more armoured troopers were on their way down the shaft. The group moved to intercept them. A gun battle erupted in the shaft while the enemy was still on the ladder (good Agility rolls to get there on time from party members as they scurried down the dust-choked tunnels). One of the mercenaries was hit by SMG fire coming from below, lost his grip and fell, hitting his comrade who also fell. One of them landed on Price but she was not badly hurt.
One merc proved to be dead, but the other was just winded and was disarmed and handcuffed. The team returned to the comms room. The female merc was interrogated and proved to be a Red Echo operative. She admitted Red Echo wanted access to the mysterious red viral ore. She accused the party of being "tools of the corps" and "unwitting mooks." She claimed Red Echo would persevere in the end and liberate the solar system from the control of ITRC and its drones.
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| "You're all corporate lackeys!" |
A message came in from Vega on the Haimei confirming that ITRC wanted a sample from the mine. The mission orders stood, despite efforts at interference from Red Echo. Vega said the Red Echo ship with Samantha Del Toro on board was lifting off.
Vargas confirmed that the viral alien ore was contained in an area called Chamber 3. The team boarded a mining truck and drove this down the tunnels towards this location. They left the mercenary handcuffed in the communications room along with Havelock, who was becoming increasingly unstable as the virus took hold of him.
Reaching Chamber 3 they discovered that drilling had uncovered a wall of rock infested with odd red crystals. Remains of several miners seemed to be fused into the rock here, along with Dr Ren Xia, Vargas' superviser. She was still alive, barely, but babbling in an unknown tongue. Qadir was becoming increasingly stressed at this point.
As Vargas tried to make sense of what Xia was babbling about, the motion tracker picked up three more infected miners approaching. The group opened fire on them but Price found it more effective to ram them with the mining truck. All the zombies were eliminated by a mixture of gunfire and mining truck wheels. Luckily nobody hit the tanks of high explosive thermite fuel stacked against the rock wall behind the zombies...
The party decided it was time to leave with a crate of the ore, which they made sure was securely sealed. It was determined that they would leave the contents of the complex for ITRC to deal with as they saw fit. The group headed for the surface to be picked by by the Haimei and returned to Phobos. The team has recovered four SMGs and four concussion grenades from the luckless Red Echo assault group. These are now hidden aboard the Haimei.
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