Scene 1: What are you waiting for?

Hadley’s Hope, jointly funded by Weyland-Yutani and the United Americas, has a "them and us" feel to it, with any visiting corporate folk looking down their noses at the colony’s laborers. Despite this, the colony has been developing well. There’s opportunity aplenty—and risk aplenty, too.

Four days ago, a wildcatter named Russ Jorden was brought back, infected with something. He died, and some snake-like parasite disappeared into the guts of the base. Security has had no luck catching the thing, and somehow more people were infected. Rumor has it that some of them have died, and that there are more of these snake-things than Supervisor Simpson is admitting to. Simpson spoke over the intercoms, calling for calm.

Crisis or not, you have a job to do. Twenty-four hours ago, you headed out on a maintenance run to Processor 9, happy to leave base until the crisis blows over. Ten kilometers out, Singleton’s tractor gave up the ghost. A nasty, mechanical crunch told you it wasn’t going any further. Calls back to Hadley’s Hope got a cursory response: you were told to wait, and they’d get to your little problem when they had the time.

While you waited, you got to talking about the crisis and the Weyland-Yutani corporate shuttle that arrived right before you left. The shuttle carried an inspection team led by company agent Miranda Reynolds and her chief scientist Theodora Komiskey. Sigg relayed something he’d overheard—a hushed conversation about the shuttle being quickly and quietly readied for departure. Reynolds and Komiskey are likely the only two who can authorize its use, and the only two with the access keycards needed to use it. For all you know, it was Reynolds who ordered Jorden out there in the first place. It’s not right for the Weyland-Yutani reps to just skip out and leave you—the workers—to clean up this bloody mess! If things go bad, why shouldn’t you get those keycards and get away instead?

A day has passed, and you’ve still heard nothing. All further attempts to contact Hadley’s Hope have been fruitless. No one is coming to help. The only communications you pick up on are garbled, panicked even. There’s no option but to walk back, and see what the hell is going on...

You've been stuck in this damn tractor for what feels like an age. It's cramped, it's none too warm, it smells...

To pass the time, each of you stuck on the tractor takes time to tell a few stories to the others.

Players, please each give us a story from your PCs past, something you can imagine they'd be up for sharing with the group to pass the time. Could be something funny, or scary, or really tedious... you chose :)

Looking carefully through the contents of the tractor, Sonny finds all manner of junk, but almost none of it of any use. Discarded food packets, a couple of rusty bent small screwdrivers, gone-off food, some paper plates...

But then, to his total surprise, in one of the lockers at the back, he finds... a cat?! It's Jenny, one of Hadley's Hope's colony of kitties. A cute medium-sized tabby-white. It must have crept in there very recently - it's clearly hungry and unhappy but healthy and at the moment noisy and purring and meowing. It takes a shine to Sonny as soon as it's able to get out of the locker, rubbing up agains him, looking for pets, and meowing loudly - for food, probably...

Working together you are able to get the tractor up and running again!

The engine doesn't sound great - you expect it needs a proper strip-down and maintenance before it becomes reliable again, and you aren't sure how long it'll keep running. You have the feeling there are some fundamental problems with it that you can't fix quickly, and certainly not out here and in these conditions.

It's heavy going moving over the surface of LV-426, or Acheron as the colonists now call it. Rocks frequently crumble, rubble and rocks being pushed around by the frequent severe storms, making it pointless to maintain paths or tracks between locations. Because of this, while faster and safer and more comfortable than walking, the tractor isn't fast - managing a speed something like 5-10 km/hr.

The ride back is uneventful. You make several repeated attempts to re-establish audio contact with the colony, but apart from a single garbled panicked transmission, you hear nothing further from them.

It's not pretty - but still, it is a relief when you are able to make out the shape of Hadley's Hope in front of you through the rain and the low cloud.

You bring the tractor through into the nearest entrance, the West Airlock. This lock is away from the main body of the base, and the door is big enough for you to drive the tractor inside. Vehicles can be serviced here away from the constant storm.As you get out of the tractor - very glad to be out of it, after having been cooped up for so long - you hear a distant voice talking over the intercom. It’s obscured by static but you can make out the following:

"This is an emergency message. All colonists must immediately assemble at the main storeroom on the sub-level for safety."

After several repeats, the message cuts off with an electronic screech.

Inside the service structure around the West Lock, now that the message has stopped being repeated from the intercom, there’s no noise except the soft hum of the colony air circulation and heating systems - and the squeal of the wind outside. This ready room is big, with metal benches and mesh-framed lockers. The lighting here is always dim - and today is no exception. The place has a dusty and disused smell about it. There is a horizontal sliding door - currently closed - that would open into the colony proper. The intercom station is by the door.

There is also an elevator here which leads downwards into the three sub-levels. The main storeroom referred to in the message is on sub-level 1.

There's no response from the intercom following Macwhirr's attempts to hail and get a response from the command centre. Only silence.

A couple of moments after Macwhirr finishes her attempts to raise command, you all hear a gunshot, followed by a lonesome scream, echo through the ventilation ducts.

You have no sense at all of the direction these noises came from - they might have come from anywhere, given how the ventilation ducts are interconnected and run all across the buildings.

Sonny rummages around in the lockers that line the West Lock and finds 3 sets of heavy work coveralls (Armor Rating 3). What does Sonny do with them?

The elevator called by Holroyd can be heard shuddering as it rises up to Level 1 i.e. the level where you are all standing. The elevator arrives and after a moment the doors slide open. The car is empty, and there is room for all of you to enter if you wanted to travel all at the same time.

Your party makes its way quietly into the elevator, and one of you presses the button to send it down to the floor below, to Sub-Level 1.

There is a frustrating, nerve-wracking difference between your attempts to move stealthily, speak quietly, and the jarringly-loud clanking of the elevator as its door closes, and takes you down to the next level.

The door opens into the vehicle unloading and cargo bay - one of the larger open spaces in the colony. The sub-levels of the colony are always dark and smelly. In this space the smell is grease and chemicals and damp fabric and a hint of mould. The ceiling here is high, to enable work on top of the biggest vehicles run at the base - Hannah's tractor is one of them.

There is one other tractor in here, of a similar model to Hannah's - but you can see that its motor has been removed from it. The motor lies in several pieces on the floor nearby.

The lighting down here isn't working well - several of the overheads are burnt out, and others are flickering irregularly, causing shadows to come and go.

Emerging from the elevator, in the same wall is a doorway that leads to a corridor towards the mass housing and the main storerooms - which is where the recorded repeating message was telling you to assemble for safety.

In the far left corner of the room, as you emerge from the elevator, is a large door that leads towards the vehicle bay and the ramp that leads to the main vehicle entrance.

Apart from a dripping sound, and a flapping tarp, you hear nothing but the sounds of your own breathing, and your hearts...

You make your way down the corridor towards the entrance to the mass housing and storage section. As you get closer you can hear the air purification system running much faster than usual, and you can smell smoke coming from ahead of you. You can also smell... chaos...? Death...? A smell of bodily fluids, growing stronger as you approach - but mixed also with an acrid smell that dominates in your mouths, noses, eyes, and throats over the smell of smoke.

As you come up to the door, you can see that it's partially closed - but not completely. A leg is protruding out into the corridor, and seems to have stopped the door from closing completely.

And in the corridor ahead of you - if you were to keep moving straight ahead and past this door, there are crimson drag marks, and many speckles and some thick lines of what looks like blood leading down the passage.

As Singleton comes to the door, she can see through into the space beyond.

And what she sees is even worse than she might have imagined. She sees mayhem and chaos and slaughter and blood. So much blood. Everywhere.

The room has been destroyed. The door she sees ahead of her has been torn apart. Ceiling and floor and air vents have been shredded. Some mutilated bodies - some torn-off-seeming body parts - can be seen strewn around the room. And more - many more - drag marks - up walls, across the floor. In the floor, there are several sections that seem to have melted. Still fizzing with some kind of liquid - an acid? - around the edges. She can also see smoke from several smouldering fires.

Janice stands just inside the doorway, trying hard to hold it together as she looks around at the appalling scene. As she tries to concentrate on what she hears in the room.

The only movement she sees is the smoke from the smouldering fires, the drips and streams of water that are coming out of some presumably damaged piping in the ceilings.

The only noises she hears sound like the occasional shifting of the fires, the sound of that water, and the hum of the air purification system.

It's getting harder and harder for Janice to keep it together here - nothing in her life has prepared her for the horror of these interminable minutes as she moves through this space, the living quarters, hunting for some sign of life. Confronted by one appalling tableau after another.

But there is not a single survivor alive amongst these ruins.

The colonists clearly made their last stand here. They had tried barricading doors against something - a something that clearly ripped those doors apart.

They seem to have gathered what weapons they could from across the colony to try and protect themselves. After spending ten minutes or so searching through this part of the colony, Janice walks out with some salvaged weapons in her hands - one each of:

- an M41A Pulse Rifle
- an M4A3 Service Pistol
- an M240 Incinerator unit

She didn't find any reloads for any of them, however.

You make your way back the way you came, and climb up the ladder. Your nerves are on edge, the occasional flickering lamp casting wavering shadows that loom suddenly large against the walls around you.

Everyone's weapons are being held at the ready, waiting for some sign of whatever it is that destroyed so many of your fellow colonists... But there is no sign or trace of what that might have been...

You come out into Level 2, into the Corporate Offices of Block C2. You emerge at the end of a short corridor, which continues to your right as you emerge from the steps. Directly ahead of you is the Administrator's Office, at which point the corridor turns to the right.

You know that if you followed this corridor, you'd come to the Command Crew Quarters (Block B2) - including an office, an operational ready room, and an armoury. However, you also know that this block is keycard locked for command personnel only - and none of you are command personnel.

Sonny approaches the terminal. ‘Let’s see if I can get this to open…’

‘I can try and hack that terminal… ‘

Singleton makes her way quietly into the office. It's typical corporate desk jockey fare in here - seems like even the colony supervisor doesn't get anything fancy when it comes to décor and furniture.

Reynolds is sitting quietly in her chair, facing away from the door. Her head is down, and looks like she may have fallen asleep.

In the ceiling of the room, a small ventilation grill has been battered free, and the vent itself is twisted as if whatever exited it could barely fit through the space.

Despite there now being three of you in the office, despite Macwhirr speaking to her, Reynolds remains unmoving in her chair.

Singleton pushes herself up against the wall as she moves deeper into the office - keeping as far from the air shaft as possible.

As she moves around so that she can see Reynolds face, she's confronted with yet another moment of horror.

Reynold's neck and face are a bloody mess. There's a hole in the centre of her face - Singleton can see some light at the base of the hole. It looks like something blasted through her face from the front, and then went clean through Reynold's skull and out the back. The light Singleton sees is filtering through the hair on the back of Reynold's head.

And it seems like something has ripped open Reynolds neck - some kind of razor-sharp ripping motions have left it a mangled ruin.

A Weyland-Yutani lanyard hangs around what's left of Reynold's neck, a keycard hanging from the end of it.

Singleton reaches into the morass of Reynolds fluids - and solids - that lie around the keycard. As she takes it in her hands, she can feel that it is cracked, and broken. She knows from experience that a card in this state is very unlikely to work any more.

As Singleton reaches in for the card, she notices a small hand-held comms device on the desk, spattered with Reynold's blood. A light on it is blinking, which means that another device is attempting to take a call through to this device.

A voice comes out of the device in response to Holroyd's question:

"Yes! Goddamnit! Reynolds? Is that you? It doesn't sound like you... But... Yeah... Why didn't you answer me before? I've been trying to reach you for ages! What the hell is going on here...?!?! Everything here has gone to shit!"

Those who hear it - it's fairly loud, this person isn't trying to be quiet as they talk into their own device - recognise the voices as that of Dr Komiskey, the Weyland-Yutani scientist who recently arrived at Hadley's Hope together with Reynolds.

"What? JESUS!!!! Reynolds is dead???!! What...?? What happened to her...? I... I... we were going to get out of here... together... CHRIST...!!!?! But... then... you've got to come and get me! Now! I'm trapped!!!"

"Come and get me, Holroyd - was that your name? - come and get me...!!! This is a fucking DISASTER... Come and get me! We can get out of here together...! I'll help you. I'll help you get out of here too... But hurry! I have to get out of here!!"

The person on the other end of the communication device replies to Holroyd,

"Yes! Yes! I have a keycard! You're right, the only way out of here is on that shuttle and so yes! You need me! You need me to get you out of here! Because I have the keycard....!

The pitch of the voice is rising, so is the volume, and after saying this there is a pause, while you can hear the person on the other side of the device panting hard...

The voice resumes,

"I'm in the MedLab! Please. Come and get me out of here...! Then I'll take us all to the shuttle and we can get the hell OUT OF HERE...! Please!!!"

Lights in the room - and in the corridor it opens into - flicker a couple of times, stay on for a moment, and then go out. There are several seconds of total darkness. Then a set of very dim red backup lighting fluorescent tubes flicker on - and continue to flicker. You now see your surroundings wreathed in a dull blood red slow intermittent strobe. It's now much harder to make out any details, to see what's going on around you.

In the blood-red dimness, the panicking, loud, voice coming through the communication device continues to beg you to come and save them, to promise to get you out of here.

Those of you still in the office with the dead body of Reynolds in it hear something from the ventilation system. It sounds like something crawling through the vent, banging against the metal. It isn't particularly loud, almost as if it is partly sliding along against the metal of the vent. The sound is getting rapidly louder.