Session 2: On the Hunt

We left our marines catching their breath, parked in the middle of the road on one of the quiet streets of the nearly empty colony. They take a while to calm their nerves and then head to the Eye of Oblivion in search of some information.

Much of the first session was spent with the characters trying to squeeze information from people who didn't have much of any. I wanted to pick up the pace. So, I moved Ivan Stolls over to the bar and, instead of a hard-eyed insurgent, made him a wheeler-dealer eager to trade info. Silva spun a pretty good tale about the operation against 61 Cygni being a feint, and the marines returning in force. In response, Ivan offered up what he knew about two of the AWOL marines.

In my version, after their meeting with the insurgents went badly, Wojcik was shot up and taken to the hospital by Reese. Reese's infestation made him overly paranoid and aggressive. He blew up the meet and was threatening people at the hospital until nurse Duncan knocked him out with a sedative and called the marshal to pick him up. 

Wojcik is still at the hospital. I've swapped her with Carvalho just because I'm thinking of offering an AWOL marine as a PC possibility and want to have male and female options.

Captain Eddie was at the bar, but the players ignored her. 

The players proceeded to the hospital. In addition to the wounded insurgent Fernando, I've added another insurgent named Netra watching over Fernando and Wojcik with Wojcik's pulse rifle. The players arrive at the hospital and disarm Fernando and Netra. They find Wojcik and Dr. Litvin and bust into the surgery room. They can see the worm in Wojcik on the monitor. 

At this point, rather than a chestburster, the worm in Wojcik bubbles up like a slimy egg in her mouth, and then it rises out of her mouth like a faceless white eel. Iona tries to blast it with the smartgun, but misses. The xeno-eel pounces and wraps itself around Iona's arm. Zmijewski manages to slice it off, but the acid will eat through most of Iona's armor. 

This little encounter has the desired effect. With a slight variation from the familiar chestburster (substituting a Prometheus black oil eel) the players realized that these xenos are different and may not work the way they expect. 

The characters proceed to the marshal station in search of Reese. They meet Deputy Dodds and Marshal Hyram. Dodds quizzes the marines about a trio of missing colonists that Jaell pulled from their lock-up 10 days ago. Mason and Silva go into the cells to check on Reese.

They find Reese dead in his bunk with his face and fingers missing (his chest is intact). While Mason is inspecting him, a xeno drops from the ceiling and pounces on Silva. 

I emphasize that the slick black alien isn't huge. It's maybe100 lbs and it's moves are a little awkward, like a newborn deer still getting used to it's limbs, but still very fast and savage. I'm using XX121 drone stats but instead of it's random attack set, I'm just having it slash away with 10 dice. After a bit of struggle, it rips open Silva, breaking her. She rolls 56 on the crit table. The xeno's tail whips around and shatters her spine. 

Mason empties her pulse rifle into the xeno, reloads and does it again, as the xeno tries to claw it's way through the bars of the cells. The xeno gets through the bars and pounces on Mason as Iona rushes through the door and disintegrates the alien with his smartgun. The acid melts some of Mason's armor, but otherwise, she's ok. 

Mason tries to do some emergency surgery on Silva. But she panics and can't keep a grip on her limited surgical tools. 

Suddenly, outside the marshal station, the colony is rocked by explosions. The railguns in the fort fire into the sky, but quickly go silent as Fort Nebraska is subject to heavy orbital bombardment. A UPP MI-222 Krokodil Dropship roars past, likely headed to the starport. The colony is being invaded. 

The end of our second session marks the end of Act I. 

Session 2 played on 4/15/2021