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From guest GM Chris comes our playthrough of the Alien RPG adventure, “Chariot of the Gods!”
Starring:
Vanessa Miller, Officer
Leah Davis, Pilot
Jennifer Wilson, Company Agent
Alarms blaring: Self-destruction in T-minus 10 minutes.
What the hell?
The heavily injured Captain Miller begins barking orders. She and Rye will huff it back to the ship to fix whatever’s going on.
Davis gives her space suit to Miller, as Miller’s was punctured and rendered useless by the alien attack. In turn, Davis takes the alien spore antidote that the Cronus’ doctor had on him.
Why didn’t he take it? He his head exploded into an alien as a result of his negligence, and Miller was now grievously wounded from the attack.
Miller turns her pistol over to Davis, and the Captain leans on the young Rye as they make their way up the ladder back to the ship.
The others have important tasks as well. The Cronus crew could still use medical attention after spending 70 years in cryo. The Montero crew needs more of the synthesized antidote to the airborne spores. And the air scrubbers still need to be fixed to make the Cronus more habitable.
Oh, and there’s still a nasty little alien running around somewhere.
Davis goes with the Cronus ship medic Flynn to the Medlab to gather more of the antidote.
Left with mostly the Cronus crew at the Bridge, Wilson quickly identifies their corporate liaison, a man named Lance Clayton. They begin quietly discussing what’s really going on here, and the importance of this task.
Miller and Rye make it to the umbilical tunnel that connects the Montero and Cronus. Unfortunately, it’s been sabotaged. Someone tried to detach the two ships, but mechanical failure left them still tethered, hooks and bolts rattling dangerously.
Miller’s suspicions are all but confirmed. Wilson and Cham were the last ones off the ship, and Cham would never jeopardize the ship like this.
Cursing, she tells Rye to get ready to detach it while she hobbles to MU/TH/UR, the ship computer.
Whatever Wilson did was far more effective at the software level. Miller is unable to get any answers or responses from the ship. Someone logged in with a higher authority shortly after they boarded, apparently set the ship to self-destruct, then locked everything out.
Even Captain Miller lacks the necessary clearance to stop it, and she flies into a rage of despair, shocking Rye.
Davis and Flynn arrive at the Medlab, and take stock of the horror show inside, including jars full of egg-like objects, vials of black goo, and large glass canisters with bodies of the head-bursting aliens.
Flynn points out the six antidote syringes and gathers them up as they explore the area. However, when the Cronus crew spots Davis returning, she has the antidote bag, and there’s no sign of Flynn.
What happened?
A message comes through privately to Davis from Captain Miller. The captain informs her that the ship is lost, and that Wilson has to be the culprit. They have to detach the Montero and steer it away so its imminent explosion won’t blow a hole in the Cronus.
Miller tasks Rye with detaching the umbilical on the Cronus side, while she takes to the Bridge. There’s a chance she can make it to the docking bay and onto the Daisy, the transport shuttle, in time.
Rye detaches the ship, and Miller flies. She’s not the expert pilot Davis is, but she gets the job done, despite her bleeding leg and elevated stress levels.
With the Montero on a safer course away from the Cronus, she gets down to make her way to the docking bay.
Unfortunately the pain in her leg is too much to bear, and she collapses to the ground, screaming out over the comm.
Davis cries out in alarm, and Cham grows upset. Miller reassures them that she’s going to make it (a knowing lie), but that Davis is in charge, don’t trust Wilson, and to watch over Rye.
As she says those words, the countdown completes, and the Montero explodes. Thanks to Miller’s final act, none of the Cronus is damaged.
But Captain Miller is killed, going down with her ship. (At this point, Eric takes over Kayla Rye as his new player character).
As Davis reunites with the rest, Rye comes hurtling down the airlock ladder. The young technician is crying and screaming, and immediately assaults Wilson, blaming her for the death of the Captain.
Wilson remains impassive, denying all wrongdoing (and even trying to deflect some of it on Cham).
Davis and Cham have to restrain Rye. Cham explains that he believes her, and will help take Wilson down, but right now they have to fix this ship or they’ll all die. Don’t let the captain’s sacrifice be in vain.
Rye finally comes down, but refuses to be anywhere near the two corporate agents.
In talking with Albert Johns, the Cronus’ secondary officer and current leader, the group realizes they have three tasks to get the ship operational:
- Fix the air scrubbers (which they’ve known about, Cham retrieved the filters last session).
- Check out the reactor (it’s been 70 years, the ship’s reactor needs some maintenance, badly).
- Repair the comms (requires going outside the ship in order to restore navigation).
None of the cryo crew of the Cronus are technicians or engineers, leaving these tasks to the surviving Montero crew.
Davis, who weirdly deflects that Flynn needed to lie down and rest in the Medlab, offers to fix the comms, taking Johns has a helper.
Cham and Rye, the technicians, tackle the other tasks, with Cham going to deal with the air scrubbers, and Rye delving deeper into the ship to reach the reactor.
Wilson also ends up with a task, as Valerie Reid, the marine who helped drive off the alien during the attack, begins exhibiting signs of distress and erratic behavior. Clayton believes it’s the result of decades of cryo sleep, and the two company agents escort her toward the medlab.
The four teams split up, finally exploring more of the Cronus. And shit quickly gets crazy.
While grabbing full space suits for their EVA walk, Davis and Johns find Ava, the ship’s synthetic, currently deactivated.
Davis remembers from the ship logs that Ava was malfunctioning, and deactivated herself. But that was 70+ years ago!
Calculating the risks, Davis uses the reactivation sequence learned from the Bridge to bring the android back to life.
Ava successfully boots back up. She’s clearly glitchy, but does have some terribly useful information about what went down. The alien artifacts, the spores, the monsters.
The one new critical piece of information: the antidote they created isn’t without a terrible side effect. It rewrites DNA, and has about a 66% chance of transforming the recipient into a frightening monster. That explains the messed up body they found earlier, with elongated limbs and a self-inflicted head shot.
Fan-freaking-tastic.
Meanwhile, Reid is freaking out a bit more, muttering to herself. Wilson and Clayton reach the medlab, and Clayton is able to disarm her.
They also find the dead body of Flynn, a gunshot wound in the back of the head.
What the hell!?
After bidding Cham good luck in the air shaft, Rye crosses over the dark, creepy docking bay catwalk into the stern of the ship. She opens the door to the reactor, only to find a nest-like pile on the ground, along with a space suit lying on the floor.
She radios in that she found something weird, and cautiously pokes at the body, which then begins to move!
What. The. Fuck!
Meanwhile in the medlab, Reid gives off a terrible shriek and swings her arms wildly at Wilson and Clayton.
The nightmare has only just begun.
Live post-session discussion:
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
RogueWatson 