5punk

This was run during Bead-Bash as a standalone scenario with semi-pregenerated characters. As a result we didn't have much in the way of combat characters, but we did have a damn fine looking crew, with almost everyone spending their advantage points on good looks. Set on a SLA Navy Ion Frigate on picket duty, our player characters form part of the 75-man crew:

Shada - Communications Tech
Roman - Plant Tech Chief
Grimmie - Medical Officer
Pnut - Mechanical Systems Chief
Pete - Electronic Systems Chief
Berk - Security Officer
Joose - Pilot

Chapter 1

Scene 1 - Contact
The scenario begins with the characters at their respective stations, when an alert goes out that a ship in distress has come out of super-light-speed nearby. Technical and medical crews start to prepare for a rescue while Joose wheels the ship towards the stricken vessel. The small ship starts to cartwheel through space, seemingly out of control. As Joose steers the warship towards the tumbling vessel, another ship drops into space. The computer flags it as a hostile DarkNight gunship - easy pickings for the characters' ship. Battle stations sound as Joose expertly puts the larger vessel into a Newtonian physics sideways slide so that the flank gunners can bring their 180mm quad gauss cannon to bear on the enemy. Undaunted, the gunship hurls itself at the cargo ship, pelting it with a hail of machinegun fire. The battle is short, but as a second volley of HE rounds hurtles towards the DarkNight ship it makes to escape into super-light-speed. It doesn't make it, torn apart by explosions from the salvo.

As the debris spins off into space the pilot is left mulling over the course of the gunship. Nobody else noticed, but the course it was taking as it started to accelerate wasn't an escape attempt, it was a suicidal ramming attempt. Also unknown to the rest of the crew, Shada's sociopathic Comms Tech had hacked the ship's inbound communications and hear the enemy ship's final message:

"Hold your fire, hold your fire! They'll kill us all!..."

Scene 2 - Boarding
Approaching the seemingly derelict freighter, the crew of the SLA ship prepare to board. Joose skillfuly manoeuvres the docking clamp into place and brings the other ship under control. Meanwhile, Berk and Grimmie wait in the airlock to deal with the crew in whichever capacity is required. Berk enters through the bullet-scarred hatch first and scouts the ship out. The hold is damaged and open to the vaccuum, while a smear of blood in the crew corridor goes ominously unexplained. The crew is found in the cockpit, swollen, pale and dead from vacuum exposure. Berk steals their furry dice and Grimmie checks them over. Wherever that blood came from, it wasn't theirs.
With the other ship secure, the bodies are taken into the nearby quarantine suite and Roman, Pete and Pnut go in to assess the damage. Roman and Pete work the inside of the ship (and Pete tries to work the inside of Roman's female character), while Pnut takes a space walk to check the hull. Those back on their home ship, meanwhile, find themselves suddenly locked into whatever room or corridor they are in as the bulkheads come slamming down and a depressurisation warning is announced by the ship's William Shatner-sounding computer. Seconds before, Pnut sees an explosion rip a hole in the side of the frigate from his position in space, a body in medical uniform being sucked out of it. Seconds later everyone realises that Pete's character and the computer sound remarkably similar. It takes a full ten minutes before the doors are opened again, but Pnut doesn't sit idlely by and skips over the the hole to peer in. Unfortunately his suit is too bulky for him to get back inside the ship, so he continues to float.

Scene 4 - Sabotage
Berk, Pete, Roman, and the now back aboard Pnut head into the wrecked quarantine suite to investigate. The room is the one the bodies of the freighter crew were in, and they remain there strapped to their gurney. Analysis of the explosion reveals that the compressed air system was sabotaged, although they can't decide whether it was the medical orderley who died who was responsible. As they each investigate in their own ways, Shada decides to start messing with the comms. Berk's security officer finally snaps when white noise is piped into his office, and heads up for a confrontation. Finding the room empty but the cupboard curiously ajar, Berk casually locks Shada in his hiding place.

Scene 5 - The Enemy Within
After a short rest and some crazy dialogue between Pete's character and the computer, who end up in some sort of compliment feedback loop, Grimmie heads up to the operating room to perform an autopsy on the bodies of the freighter crew. When he arrives he finds the room engulfed in flame and the guard who was watching the bodies dead. Again, sabotage is obvious and again there was overrides to the computer system.

Scene 6 - Manhunt
The crew is organised into search parties of those with alibis in order to winkle out the saboteur. As it happens, investigation is not required. After working slowly through their allocated decks, talking to the odd crew member they find, the team find their man when he opens fire on them from the cover of the water processing tanks. Berk, Pnut and Grimmie are hit and badly injured.
As Pete tries to stop the bleeding on Grimmie and Pnut, Berk ignores his wound and takes Roman to the balcony above. Outflanking their attacker, and with Berk shaking from the pain and blood loss, Roman takes aim on the oblivious gunman and nails him with a burst from Grimmie's pistol.
The ship's nurse, the only remaining medical staff, arrives quickly with Kick Start and stabilises the injured players. The dead shooter is found to be a fellow crewman.

Is there more?

Yep, I just ran out of time writing it. Chapter 2 once I've done my jobs.

Yup.

Sexiest ship in the galaxy.

Was Scene 3 a song and dance routine?

Chapter 2

The characters wait in the briefing room for the Captain, when the lights go out and William Computner announces

“Critical plant failure, fusion lockdown in progress, vessel on backup power.”

Scene 1 - Close Encounters
Sat in the dim emergency lighting, the characters quickly decide they need to move, but find the door to be locked. No matter, Pnut hacks it in a jiffy and it pops open. The ship is quiet, but they expect trouble. To the left is the bridge, to the right the armoury. Berk takes the initiative and leads them towards where the guns are held. The door is locked. Again, Pnut sets to work and the door pops again. He looks up with a satisfied smile that turns to horror as he faces a wild-eyed armourer pointing a submachinegun at him. An extremely lucky dive is the only thing between him and a burst of 10mm hollow point rounds, the same kind as the one that nearly killed him earlier. Sensing the armourer is scared rather than hostile, Berk begins to negotiate. Meanwhile a female crew member comes staggering down the corridor. Pete, smooth talking womaniser that he is, rushes to help. The girl looks up to reveal a bloody face and a crazy expression. Before Pete can react she leaps at him and lands a well-placed blow, breaking his jaw and knocking him flat. Berk turns and puts her down with a couple of shots from his SMG, and Pete fights through the pain of his injury to persistently protest against the dead girl's action.
Back to the armourer, the encounter with the crazy crew-member convinces him that the characters are on his side and he lets them in. He's still shakily pointing his gun at them though, and Berk dislikes this. Walking over and putting his gun to the armourer's head point blank prompts the terrified crew member to open fire again, but luckily for Berk he's inside his shooting range and the burst passes over his shoulder. A quick punch and Berk brings him back to his sense. Then, stocking up on a couple of armoured space suits and a handful of guns, they leave the trigger-happy armourer to his fate.

Scene 2 - Take me to the Hospital
With Pete's head bleeding from the hugely powerful punch he recieved, they decide they need to get him to sick bay and get some drugs into him. Even though it is only a level above them, though, they realise they have many doors and an elevator shaft to negotiate. They press on. Not far along they encounter another lumbering, bloody figure while raiding a quarantine suite in search of medical facilities. There's a brief discussion on whether to shoot him, but Berk gauges that this one is simply injured rather than psychotic. As Grimmie sets Pete's jaw using the makeshift medical facility in Quarantine, Berk's instincts prove correct and they drag the delirious crew member to safety. Then leave him there and carry on. It takes several more doors and a couple more attacks from psychotic - and super-strong - crew before they decide they're going to need more than medical attention if they're to survive. They make the decision to head to the engine room and try to get the ship's power back online.

Scene 3 - Abandon Ship
As they slowly move through the corridors, Pnut hacking door after door, they note an increase in distant gunfire and screams elsewhere in the ship. It seems like there are other survivors of whatever has happened. However, it's a louder sound that gets their interest. A rumble, followed a few seconds later by a boom felt through the deck, followed by the ship being rocked by a silent explosion. They all recognise the boom as the ship's guns firing, and something outside was destroyed. They can only assume for now what it was.
Continuing, they reach the engine room as another explosion is heard. They reach the generator controls after a few more fights, and Roman sets to work restoring power. As he does so the rest of the characters realise that they are very close to the crew bunks, and the wide corridors offer no doors for protection. Soon enough they are rushed by a mob of maniac crew, but cut them down. With not a lot else to do, they analyse a third explosion. The rumble is, they now suspect, escape pods launching. Someone is destroying them using the ship's own guns as they launch. As Roman restores power they make communication with the gunnery room, where a terrified but not homicidal gunner answers in a somewhat uncooperative way. Unfortunately, with the restored power the doors all open again and their conversation is cut short by screaming and gunfire from the other end.

Scene 4 - Escape
The characters begin to argue over the next course of action. Grimmie wants to escape, but nobody can be sure the escape pod won't be destroyed. Roman wants to blow the ship by overloading the auxiliary reactor, even in the knowledge that he will need to sacrifice himself to do it, but the others think it would take too much time as they would also need to reach the opposite end of the ship to fire the laser and overload it. As they discuss their options, the corpses of the crew they gunned down start to rise again in horrible, twisted forms. Those who are armed open fire again, while Grimmie makes a run for the elevator. The risen corpses are much harder to put down, but they do go down. In the meantime Grimmie is running for the escape pods. All looks bad when a crazed crew member leaps after him, his armour slowing him down, but a shot from up ahead takes the thing down. A security officer is stood among the escape pods clutching a gun in one hand and a cannister of some kind in the other. Grimmie goes to thank him when the security officer opens fire on him. Grimmie ducks and return fire, but the officer hurls his cannister into a pod and runs. Grimmie wonders for a few seconds what it was before an explosion reveals all. With only three pods left, Grimmie makes a run for the nearest one. In a hail of fire he dives inside and hits the launch button. The acceleration launches him away, and he briefly sees the ship peacefully and silently drifting in space, before the broadside cannon opens fire.
The rest of the crew hear the escape pod explode and decide they need to clear out gunnery and get out of here. Luckily it is not far away. Following Grimmie's path they meet little resistance. Heading down a deck the elevator door opens directly onto the gunnery deck. The officer at the controls barely has chance to reach for his pistol before he is riddled with bullets from the characters. They can escape, but conscience is getting the better of them. Directly below them is the ammo magazine, and a large amount of explosives. Pnut offers to jury rig a shell to set the whole thing off. He can do it on a timer, but insists the rest of the crew get to the pods in case he fucks it up. They elect to stay and protect him (as well as stopping anyone else manning the guns). With the fuse set they bolt for one of the remaining escape pods. Bursting away from the ship, an explosion tears off the fore gunnery section and spews debris and atmosphere into space. They have escaped, and the ship is crippled. As they drift they wonder if rescue will come, and if maybe it's better that it doesn't. And as a final thought on the infection which slaughtered the crew, someone notes that Pete was injured by one of the infected.

deject wrote:Was Scene 3 a song and dance routine?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE[/media]

RIP Medical Officer Doctor Daneeka. She did it for the luls*.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/ ... aneeka.png">

* And to escape a sex-pest.