Humanity's foray into space had not been an easy one. Faulty untested technology, shady and secretive corporate employers, deadly aliens with strange abilities, mysterious artefacts that drive you insane, rogue AIs leading rebellions, and horrors from beyond space itself coming to kill everyone - and that was before they met the rest of the galaxy.
The Long Sleep (Mothership RPG/Mass Effect)
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1: The distress beacon and the derelict
Like all trashy holonet films, this one began with an abandoned spaceship blasting out what probably was a distress beacon.
The ship was solidly built - as far as Mortis Ledar could tell. It was a blocky, asymmetric mess of a wreck that had been scarred with a massive gash through the right side of the hull. Scaffolding was hastily assembled and engineers poured over the craft, some shining lights onto and into the massive tear that likely killed the crew.
The a Turian patrol had found it nearby Relay 314 - and assumed it'd came through from the relay network.
On a closer inspection, that was incorrect. The ship had no detected eezo readings at all, and the technology base was entirely foreign, for the most part. With no eezo to utilize, the technology had diverged radically in ways that made the ship facinating.
"The shape implies that it is not designed for atmospheric landings," Ico Lann said, taking reports from engineer's omni-tools and sensory equipment. "Not dissimilar to Quarian - yet it's nothing like their ships. No-huh. lifesigns detected, but they're faint."
"Well, that'll be interesting," one of the two male Turians who was with them remarked. "We're going to breach from the hole in the ship - it's large enough to fit two Krogan in it."
The group of two Salarians, an Asari, and four Turians made their way up into the scaffolding around the ship, and collectively peered into the massive gash across the derelict. It tore through the hull and into what looked like a communual shower room, and then even further into a hallway behind it.
Two of the Turians went in first, and then helped the rest through the tear carefully. Mortis noted the wires and pipes through the hull were damaged. Electricity, water, air supply and possibly hydraulics.
The darkness of the ship required them to turn on their lights.
"Eerie," the Asari commented. "What do you think hit the ship?"
The female turian of the three shrugged. "I want to say Pirates, but they'd have salvaged the ship afterwards, usually. So not that, at least."
"Who knows, Vartia," Ico sighed. "Maybe they got into an argument?"
"It appears that they didn't win," the Asari quipped. She looked around, and tried the door by the handle. After a fale start, she managed to work it with a pull to the side. "The hallway is spacious. Do we split up or go together?"
Vartia looked into the hallway. It was wide enough for four people side by side, and the lights showed there were yellow and blue leading lines on the walls. It split three ways.
She pointed at Mortis and a turian, Ico and the Asari, and then the second Turian. "We split up. Mortis and Solus - take that route. Ico and Keyalia can go this way. I will go with Derian. Keep coms open."
The aliens split up, searching the small ship.
---
Solus followed Mortis as he paced through the hallways, took notes, scanned whatever panels and markings on the ship he could see with his tools, and muttered to himself.
"Binary electronics, it seems that this species may use a base twelve system from the keypads, or maybe a base nine with three utility buttons? We passed by a closet - just cleaning materials. They should have brought a- Oh, here we go."
The door Mortis found led to a canteen. Food was on the table and floor. He scanned it. "Levo-Proteins. Tough luck, Solus."
Solus snorted with annoyance. "Figures." He swept the room. "Looks like they left in a hurry."
"You think there's escape pods? I didn't see any from outside."
"Well, the room doesn't look spaced," Solus replied, lifting a slice of rotten meat from a metal tray. Probably. He made an estimate from the size of the mess hall. A crew of four was in the kitchen, but the mess hall had room for ten, at most. "The Lifesigns?"
Mortis thought about it. He was opening cupboards and looking at the boxes and cans of food he pulled out. "Likely. Maybe they're hibernating? Or in hiding?"
"Could be more members of the crew, or slaves, or pets, or even an infestation." Solus mused. "We don't know until we find the source."
Mortis looked at the food and opened a package, pulling out crackers wrapped in a package. "I doubt it's an infestation. Oh, this is some kind of hardtack."
"Don't eat the alien food, Mortis."
"I'm not stupid, I'm just looking around. The labels, warnings, instuctions, other tidbits - You can piece together so much just from the mundane," He held the package out, pointing at an emblem. "See that? It on all the food here, and the cooking array, and the chairs. This is a corporate ship. Not only that," He turned it over and pointed at various instructions in four languages, "There's multiple languages. You can see because this one uses different characters from the rest, and this one occasionally uses different characters, too."
The Turian nodded as if he understood. "So what does that mean?"
"Well, It mostly means that there is a severe lack of translation tech in whatever civilisation this ship came from - and perhaps a lot of induviduality."
So they were not at all lke the Turian Hierarchy or Batarian Hegemony, as far as Mortis could guess. Still, there were holes. He sat down on aeat in the darkened ship, not even an emergency light - the power was redirected by force, and nobody wanted to mess with it, yet.
He tapped some cutlery off the table and then said what was bugging him while Mortis was busy poking at some cooking machine that used a very dangerous capacitor, from the ombi-tool scan results.
"How sure are you that that logo on everything isn't, say, a government symbol?"
Morrtis hummed in thought at that. "You do have a point there, Solus."
They got back to exploring the ship.
---
Vartia took stock of the Medical Bay she'd wandered into. It had all the classics - bandages and gauzes, chemicals that could be drugs and antiseptics, displays of the alien's body - models and pictures. It had a little toy figurine of some haired alien whose head bobbed when tapped on a desk. There was even a picture of the person who'd be behind it. Vaguely Asari, if they had brownish-yellowy skin and exceedingly long fur on top of their head instead of cartilage. Omnivorous teeth, five digits on the hand.
Fasciniating.
She looked at some of the pills, scanned them, and was slightly interested. "Huh, that's a mix of Levo and Dextro-proteins."
"They do wierd things," Derian mused. "Pretty primitive for a medical station, ain't it?"
"It is, but this is an iolated species with a vastly different techological base. Every race has had some gaps."
She put the pill bottle down on the desk, and then poked at a display model. "Do you think-"
Keyalia - the Asari - buzzed in. "Hey, I found our aliens. There's a few in some cryogenic pods."
Vartia buzzed in. "How many?"
"Four. Huh, they kinda look like Quarians. Some spots though."
"Or Asari," Ico said. "Get over here soon? I'm pretty sure the power is mostly going to these and the distress beacon."
They made their way over to where Ico ad Keyalia were - and say the Cryogenic bay. Twelve pods at a maximum, four active and occupied. They looked like Quarians and Asari - like the models and photos showed. Different skin colours on them - which was interesting.
But those were questions for Mortis to ask - he was the researcher for this scenario.
"You know," Kaylia said with hesitation, "How exactly do we open these up without freaking them out?"
"Good point," Mortis said. "It'd have been much easier if they were dead."
The ship was solidly built - as far as Mortis Ledar could tell. It was a blocky, asymmetric mess of a wreck that had been scarred with a massive gash through the right side of the hull. Scaffolding was hastily assembled and engineers poured over the craft, some shining lights onto and into the massive tear that likely killed the crew.
The a Turian patrol had found it nearby Relay 314 - and assumed it'd came through from the relay network.
On a closer inspection, that was incorrect. The ship had no detected eezo readings at all, and the technology base was entirely foreign, for the most part. With no eezo to utilize, the technology had diverged radically in ways that made the ship facinating.
"The shape implies that it is not designed for atmospheric landings," Ico Lann said, taking reports from engineer's omni-tools and sensory equipment. "Not dissimilar to Quarian - yet it's nothing like their ships. No-huh. lifesigns detected, but they're faint."
"Well, that'll be interesting," one of the two male Turians who was with them remarked. "We're going to breach from the hole in the ship - it's large enough to fit two Krogan in it."
The group of two Salarians, an Asari, and four Turians made their way up into the scaffolding around the ship, and collectively peered into the massive gash across the derelict. It tore through the hull and into what looked like a communual shower room, and then even further into a hallway behind it.
Two of the Turians went in first, and then helped the rest through the tear carefully. Mortis noted the wires and pipes through the hull were damaged. Electricity, water, air supply and possibly hydraulics.
The darkness of the ship required them to turn on their lights.
"Eerie," the Asari commented. "What do you think hit the ship?"
The female turian of the three shrugged. "I want to say Pirates, but they'd have salvaged the ship afterwards, usually. So not that, at least."
"Who knows, Vartia," Ico sighed. "Maybe they got into an argument?"
"It appears that they didn't win," the Asari quipped. She looked around, and tried the door by the handle. After a fale start, she managed to work it with a pull to the side. "The hallway is spacious. Do we split up or go together?"
Vartia looked into the hallway. It was wide enough for four people side by side, and the lights showed there were yellow and blue leading lines on the walls. It split three ways.
She pointed at Mortis and a turian, Ico and the Asari, and then the second Turian. "We split up. Mortis and Solus - take that route. Ico and Keyalia can go this way. I will go with Derian. Keep coms open."
The aliens split up, searching the small ship.
---
Solus followed Mortis as he paced through the hallways, took notes, scanned whatever panels and markings on the ship he could see with his tools, and muttered to himself.
"Binary electronics, it seems that this species may use a base twelve system from the keypads, or maybe a base nine with three utility buttons? We passed by a closet - just cleaning materials. They should have brought a- Oh, here we go."
The door Mortis found led to a canteen. Food was on the table and floor. He scanned it. "Levo-Proteins. Tough luck, Solus."
Solus snorted with annoyance. "Figures." He swept the room. "Looks like they left in a hurry."
"You think there's escape pods? I didn't see any from outside."
"Well, the room doesn't look spaced," Solus replied, lifting a slice of rotten meat from a metal tray. Probably. He made an estimate from the size of the mess hall. A crew of four was in the kitchen, but the mess hall had room for ten, at most. "The Lifesigns?"
Mortis thought about it. He was opening cupboards and looking at the boxes and cans of food he pulled out. "Likely. Maybe they're hibernating? Or in hiding?"
"Could be more members of the crew, or slaves, or pets, or even an infestation." Solus mused. "We don't know until we find the source."
Mortis looked at the food and opened a package, pulling out crackers wrapped in a package. "I doubt it's an infestation. Oh, this is some kind of hardtack."
"Don't eat the alien food, Mortis."
"I'm not stupid, I'm just looking around. The labels, warnings, instuctions, other tidbits - You can piece together so much just from the mundane," He held the package out, pointing at an emblem. "See that? It on all the food here, and the cooking array, and the chairs. This is a corporate ship. Not only that," He turned it over and pointed at various instructions in four languages, "There's multiple languages. You can see because this one uses different characters from the rest, and this one occasionally uses different characters, too."
The Turian nodded as if he understood. "So what does that mean?"
"Well, It mostly means that there is a severe lack of translation tech in whatever civilisation this ship came from - and perhaps a lot of induviduality."
So they were not at all lke the Turian Hierarchy or Batarian Hegemony, as far as Mortis could guess. Still, there were holes. He sat down on aeat in the darkened ship, not even an emergency light - the power was redirected by force, and nobody wanted to mess with it, yet.
He tapped some cutlery off the table and then said what was bugging him while Mortis was busy poking at some cooking machine that used a very dangerous capacitor, from the ombi-tool scan results.
"How sure are you that that logo on everything isn't, say, a government symbol?"
Morrtis hummed in thought at that. "You do have a point there, Solus."
They got back to exploring the ship.
---
Vartia took stock of the Medical Bay she'd wandered into. It had all the classics - bandages and gauzes, chemicals that could be drugs and antiseptics, displays of the alien's body - models and pictures. It had a little toy figurine of some haired alien whose head bobbed when tapped on a desk. There was even a picture of the person who'd be behind it. Vaguely Asari, if they had brownish-yellowy skin and exceedingly long fur on top of their head instead of cartilage. Omnivorous teeth, five digits on the hand.
Fasciniating.
She looked at some of the pills, scanned them, and was slightly interested. "Huh, that's a mix of Levo and Dextro-proteins."
"They do wierd things," Derian mused. "Pretty primitive for a medical station, ain't it?"
"It is, but this is an iolated species with a vastly different techological base. Every race has had some gaps."
She put the pill bottle down on the desk, and then poked at a display model. "Do you think-"
Keyalia - the Asari - buzzed in. "Hey, I found our aliens. There's a few in some cryogenic pods."
Vartia buzzed in. "How many?"
"Four. Huh, they kinda look like Quarians. Some spots though."
"Or Asari," Ico said. "Get over here soon? I'm pretty sure the power is mostly going to these and the distress beacon."
They made their way over to where Ico ad Keyalia were - and say the Cryogenic bay. Twelve pods at a maximum, four active and occupied. They looked like Quarians and Asari - like the models and photos showed. Different skin colours on them - which was interesting.
But those were questions for Mortis to ask - he was the researcher for this scenario.
"You know," Kaylia said with hesitation, "How exactly do we open these up without freaking them out?"
"Good point," Mortis said. "It'd have been much easier if they were dead."
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Yes, because it's really hard to make just one! Most of the time, the process is chirality-neutral. And if that means half the drug has no effect (which is far from guaranteed), then you just double the dose.
Fun fact: At some point in the past there was a drug, which unfortunately I don't recall the name of. This drug worked quite well… for a while. Eventually, the output of one factory stopped working as intended, becoming basically placebo.
Then another. And in a remarkably short period of time, all of them.
It turns out that the drug only worked in its Levo form. Worse yet, the Dextro version of the drug somehow catalysed the conversion of its Levo form into more Dextro. Ice-9 style conversion, in other words; you could also call it a prion disease.
In any event, it's no longer possible to make this drug.
So on the one hand, I had to look up Mothership and Google tells me it's sci-fi horror. And being in a horror setting is going to suck no matter how you cut it.
On the other hand, at least some of the issues presented are solved problems in Mass Effect (like experimental untested spaceship stuff), and for some of the things that aren't solved you can apparently deal with them with conventional weapons and work tools, which ME tech has a substantial advantage over. So this Mass Effect crew actually has a pretty good chance at being the big damn heroes.
On this third mutant hand I suspect came from space radiation: some of those issues don't sound solved, or easily shot at, and even the ones that are might still be difficult to deal with cause otherwise it wouldn't be a horror RPG. We also don't know much about the ME crew; if they aren't military or military-adjacent they might not be packing enough heat.
Sounds neat!
On the other hand, at least some of the issues presented are solved problems in Mass Effect (like experimental untested spaceship stuff), and for some of the things that aren't solved you can apparently deal with them with conventional weapons and work tools, which ME tech has a substantial advantage over. So this Mass Effect crew actually has a pretty good chance at being the big damn heroes.
On this third mutant hand I suspect came from space radiation: some of those issues don't sound solved, or easily shot at, and even the ones that are might still be difficult to deal with cause otherwise it wouldn't be a horror RPG. We also don't know much about the ME crew; if they aren't military or military-adjacent they might not be packing enough heat.
Sounds neat!
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
That's because Earth is mixed levo and dextro. One of the things you run into a lot with Citadel species is they come from worlds where the ecosystem is exclusively levo or dextro. There might be species with opposed chirality venom or poison for extra kick, but those are rare. Humans would be able to survive eating almost any species' rations in Mass Effect, which is a trait unique to humans. Even Krogans would get sick - even possibly die - from eating Quarian or Turian food, but Humans would be fine unless the food contained something toxic for non-chirality reasons.
One good example of chirality is a popular cough syrup formula sold in the USA. Dextromethorphan polystirex is a timed release cough suppressant, one example being the brand Delsym, which is highly effective at what it does, without major side effects, and not too bad if someone manages to overdose. The reverse chirality version though, levomethorphan, is a painkiller five times stronger than morphine, five times easier to OD on, and much more likely to kill you than morphine if you do.
That's on humans though - there's no predicting how other species will react to it without careful testing, even among Earth species. Many drugs are like that. For example, catnip has well-known effects on cats, but for humans it's just a mild muscle relaxant, to the point many people put it in tea blends.
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To be fair to Mass Effect, it literally devolves from Space Opera to Space Horror over the 3 games, even if it never ends up making homages to The Thing or Aliens.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Yes, but let's be frank, humans like putting neurotoxins in their food to spice it up a little. All mammals have massive poison tolerance by land animal standards, but humans take it to eleven.
And the Addams family multiplied even that by 11
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
Not only that, but we took one of nature's more potent chemical weapons, said "That's shit, I can do better!" and created the goddamn Carolina Reaper, then proceeded to eat it for fun.
Human poison and pain tolerances are rediculous.
Edit: Well, someone went and bred a pepper even worse. Dragon's Breath is reportedly hot enough to kill a human. So uh, yeah.
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