Session 2

Back to Sessions

After a night of recovery, the group convenes at the marshal's office to meet with Noguchi. She tells them that the rescued xenobiologist, Jace Wynn, is being held in quarantine until they can ascertain any possibility of contagion. Further, she tells them that Frank Bishop is on guard at the mine and has the entire facility locked down to prevent anyone from entering or anything coming out, at least until a proper investigation can be performed. Finally, she mentions that the sample of black goo that Frank obtained is locked away, pending analysis by Jace Wynn. Rufus, who arrived at the colony overnight, is heavily interested in the sample and wants to meet with Wynn when he is ready.

She tells Bullock that the mystery of the missing cattle will have to wait, as they've received a priority distress call from Arceon station. Unfortunately, the transmission is garbled and incomplete, but they request the marshal and a small team of experts to investigate the disappearance of several of their brothers. The crew is given a half-hour to prepare for the short trip into space.

Maverick visits a Reed at his bar, asking him about his days as a Colonial Marine. He mentions seeing some possible dangerous action on Arceon and, after the incident in the mine, would feel better with some actual firepower. Reed takes Maverick into the backroom, pulls up a floorboard, and reveals his go-bag. He takes out an M41A pulse rifle named Veera and allows Maverick to borrow it for the mission, provided Veera is returned unharmed. Maverick heads to the *Otago* to prep the ship for flight, while unknown to him, Ricky has hitched a ride in the hovercraft. As Maveric goes about his business, Ricky sneaks into the *Otago's* cargo hold and hides amongst the cattle. The rest of the crew arrives, along with the colony's resident medic "Fixer" and a young but gifted mechanic named Elliot.

After a smooth takeoff, they settle in for a six-hour transit to the other side of Isca. Phillipe takes inventory of the cattle, looking for signs of sloppiness that he can tally against Chigusa. Instead, he discovers Ricky, who still thinks he's well-hidden. Phillipe lets the rest of the crew know, and they all let it go with a shrug. Unfortunately, it's too late to turn around to take Ricky back to the colony. Eventually, Ricky grows bored and reveals himself to the crew, basking in his perceived craftiness.

The *Otago* arrives at Arceon and interfaces with the automated landing A.I. They dock at the station's equator and are greeted by three monks in the landing bay. Two monks herd the cattle away to the grazing fields, while the last monk approaches and introduces himself as Brother Anthony. Brother Anthony tells them that several of the brothers have been reported missing in the past few days, though it's impossible to say how many since they don't have any way of tracking each other. He's not even sure of the station's population. He states the disappearances began three days ago, and the crew notes that coincides with the timeline of disturbances in the mine on LV-216.

He pulls Phillipe to the side and reveals that this all began when a mysterious container bearing the Weyland-Yutani logo was disturbed down in the old storage facility near the station's core.

Brother Anthony returns to the group to lead them to Arceon's core but is reluctant. The core is where the necessary evil of technology that keeps the station functional is located. Maverick locks down the *Otago*, and the group follows Brother Anthony deep into the station's bowels.

They pass through long wood-plated hallways lit by lights designed to look like candles. They enter rooms with hundred-foot-high cathedral ceilings. They pass by groups of monks who are entirely silent and actively ignoring the presence of outsiders. There are no computer systems, no electronics, and anything that should have been metal is instead covered with wooden plates.

They eventually come to a medieval-style portcullis. Brother Anthony touches a plate on the wall, and massive gears grind inside the walls. Finally, the portcullis lifts, allowing the group passage. He presses another plate inside to close the portcullis. He states this is the area that is usually off-limits.

They pass through claustrophobic hallways lit by dim fluorescent lights, noting that the air is humid and cold. They eventually come to a large open room lined with old-fashioned bookshelves. Phillipe reaches out to grab a book and watches with bemusement as it crumbles in his hands. Across the room is a large channel of dark and filthy-looking water. It is about 10 feet wide and can only be crossed with one slippery metal walkway. Phillipe explores the bookcases and finds several copies of a much newer book that has no place in a forgotten room in an old space station, the banned book Robert Morse's Space Beast. Making sure no one else is watching, he scoops all seven copies into his bag.

Meanwhile, Rufus takes a sample of the water and checks for contaminants. Ricky decides to perform his test and scoops up a handful of the liquid, noting a brackish taste and bits of mysterious debris. Rufus's diagnostic device notes the presence of biological life-forms and fecal matter. They also see a stream of blood flowing through the channel.

Brother Anthony tells them that the storage room is across the channel and through the large wooden door ahead. They are hesitant to continue until they hear a long, metallic scraping sound from the way they came in. Next, they see a large, insectoid shape in the dim light, mostly keeping to the shadows. The figure is blocking the way back but isn't approaching them. It stands motionless as they discuss what to do. Finally, they decide to cross the walkway, one by one. There are no handrails, so the going is slow and difficult. Elliot slips and falls into the channel, shouting for help as the current carries him away. They see a monstrous black hand reach up from inside the water and drag Elliot out of sight. After catching their breath, they continue through the wooden door.

They come out to an enormous spherical chamber housing the station's towering reactor and power core. A walkway juts into the open air in front of them, and another walkway leads around to the left. Brother Anthony states that the storage rooms are off to the left, but the group is interested in the computer terminals ahead of them. So they approach and access the station's mainframe, discovering a network of files going back to its construction over a century ago. Rufus also accesses the mainframe and finds recordings from a network of security cameras. He locates the recordings and plays back the file from Storage Room 3 several days ago. He and Phillipe see a monk who looks suspiciously like Brother Anthony accessing Storage Room 3 and then, after a moment reeling back out into the hallway and fleeing into the darkness further down the hallway. They cannot access the live camera feeds for most storage rooms, but the two they can access show piles of cattle and human corpses. The feed from Storage Room 5 shows several figures stuck to the wall, covered in some sort of black gooey substance, including Elliot.

They investigate the hallway, passing by closed storage rooms. Finally, they see the entrance to Storage Room 3 is open and looking inside. They see several containers bearing the Weyland-Yutani logo. However, what grabs their attention is that the storage room walls and ceiling are entirely covered with the same black gooey substance they saw holding Elliot to the wall.

The group agrees there are too many unknowns in those other rooms and focuses on rescuing Elliot. They enter Storage Room 5 and try to pry him off the wall, but the sticky stuff holding him there is hardening fast. After some initial difficulties, they are able to free Elliot from the wall. He's quickly revived with some smelling salts and helps the crew free the other four figures trapped in the room as well. After reviving the captives, they decide to return to the loading bay.

As they return to the hallway, they hear an inhuman screeching sound echoing throughout the underground labyrinth. They pick up their pace and make it back to the walkway leading around the edge of the core chamber. They see dozens of strange black creatures boiling up from the floors and climbing up the walls toward them at supernatural speed as they look down. They break into a run and make it back into the library with the creatures hot on their tails. The group easily crosses the metal walkway, just as the wooden door behind them is shattered by pursuing beasts.

The group blindly flees the library and into the corridor, retracing their steps back to the portcullis gate. They find the gate already open, and Phillipe pauses for a brief moment to hit the panel on the other side, ensuring the gate would come down behind the group. The sounds of pursuit have faded, but they race on regardless.

Arriving back in the loading bay, they find several dozen monks have crowded around the *Otago*. Some are staring at the ship in awe, others in disgust, and others in salvation. Leaving Brother Anthony and the four rescued brothers with the larger group of monks, the crew enters the ship and closes the bay doors behind them to discuss how to proceed. Marshal Bullock favors evacuating the monks and is willing to make as many trips as the *Otago* needs to get them all to safety. Some favor leaving and then coming back with a larger force to take care of the beasts. Others favor simply leaving the monks to their fate. But, considering Brother Anthony's hand in the events on the station, they decide at the very least to bring him along.

They leave Elliot in the care of Fixer and reopen the bay doors to speak with the monks, only to see Brother Anthony preaching to them of the coming of the Dragon. Knowing what he does about some of this facility's secrets, Phillipe calmly approaches Brother Anthony. He stealthily removes a pen from his pocket and, when he's close enough, tears it across Brother Anthony's chest. Blood sprays out, covering Phillipe and the monks. Before he can be accused of anything, Phillipe reaches out and yanks open Brother Anthony's wound, revealing mechanical servos and modules. Even Brother Anthony is shocked to discover he's an android. Gently leading Brother Anthony by the arm, the crew returns once again to the *Otago*.

The group briefly discusses again what to do about the beasts and the monks, and it is agreed that telling the monks would cause widespread panic and chaos. So Phillipe instead suggests that they offer to ferry any who wish to leave of their own accord, provided they sign a Weyland-Yutani standard transit servitude contract, of course. In the end, six monks sign the contract and board the *Otago*, with the others electing to continue their technophobic existence on the station, oblivious to the nest of monsters deep inside.

With Brother Anthony nearly catatonic and mumbling only about the Dragon, they restrain him and leave Arceon station. Unfortunately, a proximity alarm waylays them from their course back to LV-216, and they see the massive bulk of a warship drift into view, with the name *Sulaco* across its bow. The proximity alarm goes off again almost immediately, and another nearly identical warship appears from behind Arceon station, on a direct course to the *Sulaco,* this one named *Patna*. The *Patna* hails them, and a face matching that of Pyrite's resident android Frank appears on screen, demanding to know what they are doing there.