>> Incident at Muto Station After-Action Report
I had the great pleasure of contributing an adventure to Dissident Whispers, an anthology of RPG adventures created to support the Black Lives Matter movement. I cannot overstate the talent of all of the people that contributed to the project. The sheer quality of the final book is unfathomable, especially considering it was put together in just 10 days, and I’m very humbled to have been a part of it. It’s available now, and all proceeds go towards bail funds.
The adventure I wrote is The Incident at Muto Station for Mothership. I ran it recently for some friends, two of whom were new to Mothership.
Characters
- Dr. Vector Smith - Scientist - CEO of an anti-virus company turned hopeful biological-virus researcher, owner of the Vector II
- Boomer - Marine - Explosives expert and disgraced marine (these two facts are related), hired by Vector for protection, has given himself the rank of “Supreme General”
- BU-135 - Android - Vector’s loyal android, dark-blue faux-skin with bright eyes, very obviously an android
- Naomi Kisai - Teamster - The Vector II’s pilot, loyal to Vector only as far as her paycheck takes her
While traveling in warp to Dr. Vector Smith’s new research consultation, the Vector II receives a distress call from a so-called Muto Station out in a supposedly empty sector of space. BU-135 wakes the crew and together they decide to check out this mysterious station with no transponder that apparently wants to remain a secret. As they approach, their repeated hails to the station are met with silence, and they dock with caution. Inside the locked airlock, a terminal displays a strange message for visitors. After a quick hack by Vector, the crew gains entrance to the station.
The crew finds the station suffering from some recent conflict; they see shattered lights, bullet impacts, and blood smears but not bodies. Boomer leads the way, SMG drawn, as the rest of the crew cautiously follow. Boomer peeks into the Mess Hall to find it in disarray with a massive blood trail and decides to spare the rest of the crew the sight. They continue on deeper into the station, as echoing screams put them even more on edge. BU-135 investigates a severed black cable on the ground, only to discover that it’s actually some kind of biological tentacle with bits of brain on the end.
Boomer and BU-135 carefully investigate the crew quarters while Naomi and Vector stay outside and watch the hall. The Crew Quarters are mostly in tact, besides one room that’s been cut into and ransacked, and the pair start checking out individual rooms. They start with the quarters of a “Darien Jones,” where Boomer pockets a credstick as Naomi and Vector run into the Crew Quarters, yelling about a woman they saw in the hallway asking for help before running away. Boomer jumps into action and runs to investigate to find no sign of the woman anywhere. Vector, clearly on edge, decides the best course of action is to leave the station immediately. Boomer leads the way back, with Naomi cautiously watching the rear. As they approach the airlock, reinforced doors slam closed as an automated voice informs them the “Emergency Protocol” has been engaged. With no choice but to continue on, Boomer leads the way deeper.
Further into the station, the crew stumble upon an android, smashed to bits amidst a pool of blood and shattered bones. Vector uses his cybernetic scanner to learn that the android was running from the Science Lab and was struck from behind, and decides that they should first check the presumably safe Medbay. Vector extracts the surgery lasers from the autodoc in the Medbay and jury rigs them into BU-135’s hands. Outside Naomi and Boomer glimpse the pleading woman again before she retreats deeper into the station with a scream. Boomer briefly panics, and gains a new phobia: Ablutaphobia. He puts on a brave face as his employer emerges from the Medbay and they continue onwards to investigate the disappearing woman.
Following in her direction, they find lockers and a Decontamination room, which Boomer refuses to enter and instead keeps watch outside. Naomi, Vector, and BU-135 take stock of the locker room and find a punch-card labeled “SDS” and several hazard suits, which they put on. In Decontamination, the doors lock and the occupants are subjected to an unpleasant, stinging disinfectant foam spray for 30 seconds before the door to Specimen Storage opens.
Inside they find a large storage room containing many cryocrates, labeled with planet of origin and some sort of ID, making the assumption that this was some sort of storage for alien life. Among the crates is a dried pool of blood with scraps of skin and a keycard, which Vector grabs. BU-135 and Naomi decide they have seen enough and head back through Decontamination, while Vector’s curiosity gets the better of him and he proceeds alone into the Clean Room. He finds some sign of a struggle and a window that peers into the Science Lab. As he searches the area, the enigmatic woman suddenly slams on the Science Lab window while screaming “RUN!” Vector needs no further encouragement, and starts running back toward Decontamination as the window shatters behind him. He makes it to Decontamination with the assistance of a powerful blow from whatever is chasing him, and catches his breath during an agonizing 30 seconds as something repeatedly slams on the door.
Vector emerges from the lockers and yells for Boomer to unleash grenades at whatever is chasing him, which Boomer is happy to oblige with. The grenades go wild as Boomer is confronted with the cleaning powers of Decontamination, and the crew retreats before they see what the grenades have achieved. On the way to the Control Room, Naomi notices Vector’s hazard suit is covered with blood. The medscanner shows multiple human blood samples, none of which are Vector’s.
As they round the corner, they see the woman, sobbing, hands covering her mouth in the doorway to the Science Lab, and Vector immediately runs to the Control Room. Boomer, on high alert, takes aim at the woman, while Naomi and BU-135 approach cautiously, attempting to help. As they get nearer, she backs away slowly and they start to hear muffled screams, causing Naomi to retreat to the Control Room. BU-135 sees a tentacle wrapped around the woman’s neck, and reaches out to help as he crosses the threshold into the Science Lab and catches sight of a horrific massive of human flesh fused together by an alien parasite. Boomer suffers a panic attack as he watches the creature launch BU-135 into with a fleshy slam. As his heart gives out from stress, he empties a clip into the fleshy mass.
In the Control Room, Vector disables the distress signal and emergency protocol, and searches for door controls to close the Science Lab. He finds it as Naomi runs into the Control Room, which buys enough time for BU-135 to grab a grenade off of Boomer’s belt, scramble to his feet, and join his friends in the Control Room before the amalgamation of human flesh smashes through the Science Lab door in pursuit. Naomi finds a ventilation duct, which BU-135 cuts open with his autodoc lasers, while Vector attempts to complete the half-entered self-destruct sequence he found on a terminal. The amalgam starts smashing through the Control Room door as Naomi and BU-135 scramble into the vents. Panicked, Vector forgets about the “SDS” punch card found earlier, and instead tries to buy time for his crew to escape. He pops every pill he has, and charges at the amalgam as it bursts through the door.
Naomi and BU-135 emerge from the vents in the Medbay, and start sprinting towards the Vector II now that the emergency protocol was lifted. In the hallway, they spot the woman again, at the end of the hallway back towards the Control Room, and BU-135 immediately chucks a grenade in her direction, vaporizing her and slowing the amalgam. The two remaining crew members make it to their ship, while hearing the sounds of the pursuing horror, but manage to speed away before the creature can catch them (a critical success!).
The two put as much distance as they can between their ship and the station, but as they catch their breath (or at least, as Naomi does) they receive another distress call from Muto Station. Whatever that thing is, it’s still hungry for more.