The Truth About The VaD

The team arrives at Subhadra only to find the research station deserted

Short Summary
The date is May 27, 3200. The current mission is to take Dr. Omar Ibn Sa'id and his research equipment to his research station Al'Farabi on Subhadra. The party arrives at the station and sees black plumes of smoke and heavy structural damage everywhere. The party descends from the Swan Song, walks up to the research station, and sees that it is completely closed up by blast doors. Piani goes up to a nearby comms tower and downloads some encrypted information, uploading it to the Swan Song for later. Mr. Sicarian shoots the door control panel and the blast doors in front of the party open up. As they head in, the party is met by a gruesome scene. There are dark stains of blood everywhere, plasma burns on the walls, and a strong smell of antiseptic. There is also no power to the entire building. The party questions Dr. Sa'id, who asked to remain on the Swan Song, about what had happened. The doctor says that he doesn't know and Piani explains to Pi what a lie is and tells it to broadcast “We know you're lying” across the inside of the ship. The party gets to to the administrative office. The office seems to have not seen too much fighting like what has been observed so far in the rest of the research station. Piani finds a USB stick from Richardson Scientific, Higgins finds a couple of bottles of bourbon, and Mr. Sicarian and Viktor decide to go check out the armory. The armory is vacant of all weapons, although there seemed to be a large amount of weapons stored there at one point in time. The two of them stumble across a small hologram of a Chinese woman singing in mandarin next to a man who had previously committed suicide. Mr. Sicarian notices that after the man had taken his own life, something had taken the upper-half of his face with a blade. The entire party then heads to the labs. In the labs is a large amount of hardened blue flame-retardant foam, several morgue tables, multiple glass specimen containers, and a sealed door that reads “access restricted.” Requiring power to open, the party heads outside to the power station. On their way, they start to hear a faint hum in the distance. The team continues towards the power station and is met by a fully functional electric fence. Mr. Sicarian blows a hole in the fence and the team makes their way to the power station. They then hear a more powerful hum and from above them, standing on top of a building, is a car-sized insect that notices the party and starts charging after them. The praying-mantis/cockroach-looking insect puts up a good fight, injuring Mr. Sicarian and hitting Piani with a mental Psy-wave before being killed. The party goes down into the power station and turns the power on. The previous faint hum turns into a faint rumble as Pi says, “[Truth] Something is coming.”

Detailed Summary
The date is May 27, 3200. The team's current job is to take Dr. Omar Ibn Sa'id, an Arab Professor from Anaximander University, and several crates of his equipment to the planet Subhadra in the Stavrou System. Subhadra is known to contain a few small research stations, be home to various smugglers looking to hide, and house an insectoid race known as the V'ad.

The research station that the crew is going to is named Al'Farabi and it is home to around thirty people including scientists and their families. The team arrives in the Stavrou System with empty fuel tanks and broken scoops but Sa'id says that he can fix up the ship and refuel their fuel tanks upon arrival to the research station. As they reach the research station, the scene is not what they expect. There are black plumes of smoke, signs of large structural damage, and the docking bay is in no condition to land on. Piani Pic makes a scan of the station and notes to herself that there is no radiation (from heavy weapons) nor any immediate bio-signatures. While looking for a safe place to land the Swan Song, the crew takes note of the research station's comms tower which seems to contain a lot of extra non-regulation star-base equipment that shouldn't be there for a mere research station. Viktor Kovacs ends up landing the Swan Song approximately 1km (.62mi) away from the main building. The crew decides to go check out the station and leave Sa'id behind, of whom is being oddly quiet and sweating a lot.

When the team departs from the Swan Song, they notice that the environment surrounding them is very hot with a heavy concentration of smog in the air, even with the high winds. Piani and Mr. Sicarian head up to the comms tower while Wilbur Higgins III and Kovacs head out to the main building. Higgins and Kovacs arrive at the research facility and take note that all the windows are closed by heavy metal storm shudders and there are closed blast doors. Viktor tears off the panel to the blast doors and starts randomly pushing numbers on the keypad to futilely try and open the doors while Piani pathetically attempts to open the power box on the side of the comms tower with a rock. Mr. Sicarian sees Piani doing this and steps in, ripping the lock off without trouble. Piani looks unimpressed and pulls out her comm pad to link up with the comms tower in an attempt to download the encrypted data stored within and upload it to the Swan Song. Afterwards, Piani and Mr. Sicarian head over to the rest of the party at the blast doors, and after seeing another failed attempt at opening a door, Mr. Sicarian pulls out his rifle and shoots the control panel opening the blast doors. Upon the doors opening, the party is greeted by a gruesome scene. There are dark stains of blood everywhere, plasma burns on the walls, heavy structural damage, and strong smells of chlorine. Venturing in, the party decides to head towards the administrative office. Viktor questions Sa'id, whom is on the Swan Song, about the chlorine odor that the party is smelling. After an obvious lie with the story of an automated cleaning system, Piani tells Pi to send out a whisper within the ship that says "We know you're lying", while also explaining to Pi what the meaning of a lie is and when to use it.

The party arrives at the administrative quarters and it seems to be just a really messy room without signs of fighting. Higgins sees a hard drive on a desk and quietly pockets it. Piani finds a USB stick that is labeled from Richardson Scientific which is an independent research organization from the research facility that they are at now. Higgins scavenges some revolver rounds and finds some bourbon (x3) and decides to share some drinks with Piani. While they drink, Mr. Sicarian hears a quiet voice coming from the armory and decides to go check it out with the assistance of Kovacs.

Upon arrival to the armory, there is a scene that is portrayed with make-shift barricades, large pools of blood, and bullet holes everywhere. It seems like this armory would contain a lot more guns than what would be expected from a research station such as this. The previously quiet voice is a little louder coming from a shut armory door. Mr. Sicarian opens the door and sees a small hologram of a Chinese woman whom is singing in mandarin. Something even more unsettling that holds most of Mr. Sicarian's attention is a large pool of blood with legs sticking out behind a counter and a pistol laying in the blood. After closer inspection, Mr. Sicarian deduces that the cause of death was probably a suicide, however after the suicide was accomplished, something had taken the upper-half of this person's face with a blade. There is also a strong smell of sulfur. Mr. Sicarian and Kovacs meet back up with the rest of the party and they all decide to head down to the labs.

When they arrive, they are gingerly greeted by closed metal doors. Mr. Sicarian then does what he has done to doors ever since arriving at this research station and proceeds to blast the doors open in one shot. In the lab, there is an unexpected scene. There is fire-retardant hardened blue foam everywhere, several morgue tables, multiple glass specimen containers, a large central drainage port in the floor, and an unmarked and sealed door that reads "access restricted" at the far end of the room. After seeing that the party won't be able to open these doors in the same manner as the ones before, the team decides to go to the station's main power hub and attempt to turn it on. Sa'id suggests a generator control station south of the docking bay, separated from the research station.

While outside heading towards the power station, the team begins to hear a faint hum of what is presumed to be the V'ad insectoid creatures of the planet, thought to not interfere with humans. The team decides to continue on with the mission like normal with hopes that their weapons will be enough for any hostile V'ad they encounter. As they reach the power station, they are greeted by a currently powered electrical fence. Not as noticeable, the team sees movement on top of the foremost building. Taking note of this, Mr. Sicarian blows a hole into the fence to allow them to continue on, all the time hearing an increasing humming sound. The party then notices a 'car-sized' shape charge towards them.

The team makes a bolt for the door. Mr. Sicarian starts to fire shots off at the incoming shape. In the meantime, Kovacs and Higgins try and open the jammed door in front of them and succeed. The shape then lands in between Piani and Mr. Sicarian with Piani being furthest from the building. At a closer look, the creature looks like a cross between a praying mantis and a cockroach. Dropping remnants of a past meal onto the ground and with a blue mouth, the V'ad attacks at Mr. Sicarian. Piani goes to move around the creature to get closer to the party. Kovacs shoots at the creature once, hitting it in the face, before running down into the building like a frightened Dr. Zoidberg. The team tries to combat this bug with their weapons but the weapons seem fairly ineffective due to the thick carapace that surrounds the insect. After successfully hitting the creature, Piani gets hit by a powerful psy-wave emitted from the bug that resonates large amounts of pain, but thankfully Piani is able to mitigate the psychic onslaught. After being battered, the V'ad creature launches off the ground. As he attempts to fly away, Mr. Sicarian takes one last shot and incinerates it to pieces, entrails flying everywhere, reminiscent of something out of the old Men In Black movies. Higgins makes a selfie of him and the recently splattered bug and uploads it to Spacebook.

Reaching the generator room, Kovacs interfaces with the main terminal and powers up all the power around the research facility. At the connection of the last H-cell, a loud emergency alarm starts blaring all throughout the compound. Piani succeeds in turning off the alarm after a few minutes. Now what was previously a faint hum has turned into a faint rumbling. Piani gets a message from Pi that says, "[Truth] Something is coming."

Crew Status

 * Casualties: Mr. Sicarian - minor injuries
 * Passengers: Dr. Omar Ibn Sa'id

Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity: 17/20
 * Malfunctions: Fuel Scoops - Offline
 * Malfunctions: Sand-thrower - Offline

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime: Theft of data from Al'Farabi

Business

 * Credits Acquired: 0 credits
 * Credits Spent: 0 credits
 * Jobs In Progress: Investigation of research station Al'Farabi
 * Jobs Completed: None
 * Debt Paid On Swan Song: 0 credits
 * Current Debt On Swan Song: 742,120 credits