Alien: Quarantine - Act1, Part 2 A Bad Feeling
Welcome back to Alien: Quarantine. This week we will see the world through the eyes of Dr Elena Sanchez, the exiled Xenobiologest currently looking for a breakthrough to save her failing career. Last we left our group they were flying to this structure that is causing the atmospheric issues.
Be sure to check out Act 1, Part 1 here!
Let's see how they go!
---
Wayland Yutani Personal File: DR Elena Sanchez.
Education: PhD in Xenobiology and Genetic Manipulation
Career History: Elena was initially hired by Wayland Yutani through the company's graduate program, displaying immense potential. While part of teams that achieved significant discoveries, Elena's momentum halted when she was promoted to Lead Scientist. Over a decade passed without any substantial commercially viable discoveries, leading Elena to resort to plagiarism in an attempt to make a breakthrough.
The issue wasn’t about the company's concern for stealing others’ work but rather the significant salary paid to Elena while she duplicated someone else’s efforts—something the company was fully capable of doing themselves.
Given a final ultimatum to make a breakthrough or lose everything, Elena opted to embark on fieldwork to a distant planet, away from the controlled lab environment. If she needed to resort to underhanded tactics, at least the company wouldn’t be scrutinizing her every move.
---
The atmosphere here is turbulent beyond belief. This flight feels like the worst roller coaster ride. We'd crash in five minutes if Susan weren’t at the controls. I'm no fan of androids and their emotionless eyes, but today, I'm grateful for Susan.
If it were just Susan and me, I'd be content, but General Manager Pam Sutherland insisted we bring that security consultant along. I’ve seen him eyeing me with those puppy dog eyes in the colony.
Now I’m stuck spending the next 20 hours with him. Great.
He's tapping his helmet. Some silly Marine greeting? He keeps tapping, then points at me. Embarrassingly, I realize my comms are off. I press the button to activate it.
"Hi! I, ummm, don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Vic, Vic Diem," his voice crackles over my helmet comms.
"I know who you are. You know who I am. Look, we're flying out to investigate this... whatever it is, and my job is to study it. Your job is to protect me in case there's danger. Is that clear?"
"Crystal," he mutters back. Harsh, but at least he gets the situation. This isn’t some "protect the girls and then we fall in love" scenario. I have a job to do, and then we go home. Simple as that.
Susan's calm voice interrupts as we hit a large air pocket. "Apologies for the rough ride. Atmosphere conditions are worsening as we near the disturbance. Hang on tightly until we land. I’ll circle above the disturbance before attempting to land."
I grip tightly, not wanting to embarrass myself by throwing up in front of Vic. I hate this planet.
How well does Susan pilot the ship around this disturbance? I regret not investing any points in her piloting skill now…
Susan - Piloting 0 - Agility 4 - 2 Successes
Luckily, Susan manages to stabilize the craft, which is a pretty subpar Cargo sled, and they catch a glimpse of whatever this disturbance is.
The circle Susan flies feels more like an upside-down figure 8.
"Oh lord, this is worse than an orbital drop," Vic says through the comms. I swear we're going to crash when suddenly, we dip below the low clouds and see something—a structure!
The structure is step pyramid-shaped and large, about the size of our atmospheric processor.
"Susan, why haven’t our satellites picked this up?" I ask the synthetic.
"Dr. Sanchez, as we’ve just experienced, this place is constantly buffeted by storms. We have very little topographic information from this part of the planet. I see a bit of flat land within walking distance of the structure; I’ll set us down. Please prepare for landing and extra-vehicular activity."
I check my seals and my suit’s status. Everything is green, but for some reason, I’m nervous. I've done surface walks many times, but this time feels different. This structure shouldn’t be here; its mere existence is wrong. It’s well-recorded that besides a small survey team, we are the first people to set foot on this planet. So if we didn’t build it, who did?
After a few minutes, we’ve safely landed, ready to make the trek to the shuttle. Susan believes she saw an opening on this side. I didn't see anything, but I trust Susan’s far superior eyes.
Stepping into the atmosphere of 49 Delta Capricorni is always jarring. Growing up under Earth's pleasant skies, I’ll never get used to the violent power of this planet. It’s as if it hates us. The walk to the structure is difficult and takes maybe three times as long as it normally should.
Up close, the structure appears different. Not perfectly cut stones, polished and stacked, but a rough pile in the vague form of a pyramid. The entrance to the structure is where Susan said it would be. It’s dark inside. Unnaturally dark…
Time for an air check! Always fun. Susan does not have to roll because she is not wearing a suit. Vic and Elena do have to roll. Their suits currently have 4 air supply. I roll d6s equal to their air and remove an air for every 6 I roll.
Luckily for them, I roll no 6s.
We flick on our headlamps, and Susan activates her flashlight as we cautiously step into this place. Strangely, I start thinking of it as a temple. Weird, right? But it just feels right.
What does Elena discover inside this structure? Let's consult the Starforged derelict oracle for guidance. I get a Cell with a recorded message. Interesting…
A light flickers in the corner of the room. An image appears—a hologram! It startles Vic, who instinctively points his bolt gun at it. Susan regards it with curiosity.
The image is distorted, and vaguely humanoid. As the hologram moves and gestures, long shadows are cast across the dark walls. Vic finally lowers his bolt gun. What a barbarian… I study the hologram intently.
Let’s see if Elena can discern any pattern from the hologram figure.
Roll - Elena - Wits 5 - Observation 3 - 1 Success. I'll push that roll and add stress for more success. No more success.
Using the Analysis skill, I’ll determine the age of the projector device. I’ll roll a D1000 to ascertain its age. (Never rolled a D1000 before, how exciting!) I roll 136.
Observing the rate of lichen growth on the machine and surrounding walls, I estimate this ship has been on this planet for over a hundred years! That’s well before any human exploration beyond the Sol system. I’ve made a discovery that will change the history of the galaxy!
This will elevate me to the ranks of the most famous and well-paid scientists. Not to mention the recognition...
I need to keep exploring, to convince this group to delve deeper into the construct, even if I need to persuade them.
“Hey…” I say cautiously. I can’t let them know what I’ve found. What if they try to claim they found it first? Another discovery stolen, I can’t live with that. “Hey, this projector thing. I think it's an invitation. Yes! Inviting us to come in further.”
Vic looks unconvinced, even through the tinted visor of his suit. “That doesn’t seem likely. Why don’t you let Susan look at that?”
Elena is going to try to manipulate the two of them… This is an opposed roll against both their manipulations.
Roll - Elena - Empathy 3 - Manipulation 2 - 1 success.
The other two need to beat 1 success on the same roll. Vic - 0, Susan - 2 Successes
Vic is convinced but Susan is not…
“No! Don’t you understand, I’m the scientist here, not you. No offense, but if something needs killing, you can get involved, I promise. But scientific discoveries are firmly my territory.”
Vic shrugs, “I guess you're the Doctor. Let’s go in deeper.”
Does Susan say anything? She knows Elena is wrong or at least not completely truthful. Synthetics can’t quite lie but they can often hide things. I’ll roll a straight Empathy (5) for Susan. Any success, and she calls out Elena. If she doesn’t achieve a success, she keeps it to herself. No successes. For whatever reason, Susan keeps her own counsel.
Susan stays quiet and prepares to go deeper into the construct.
Okay, let’s finish up with an air roll. Both Vic and Elena are good still.
---
Well, that is it for today! Check back next week for the conclusion of Act 1!
Support the Blog
Are you on Threads? Follow me at @croaker_rpgs. I talk about the blog, chat with other TTRPG creators, and have interesting conversations.
All RPG links to DrivethruRPG are affiliate links and if you click through and purchase something it will cost you nothing extra and help support the blog.
These are the books I used to write this blog. These are affiliate links, if you click any links on this blog and buy something from Drive Thru RPG, I get a small cut of the price at no extra cost to you. It will help support the blog and allow me to buy new and interesting books!
Comments
Post a Comment