cinematic scenario: Nemesis

Prologue:
W-Y MiliSci WD contracted a USCMC ship for a top-secret corporate mission: to retrieve xenomorph genetic material from an escape pod jettisoned from the Mona Lisa in the wake of the Anchorpoint Station disaster. Welles and Fox arranged for the empty pod to be ejected en route to Gateway, in case something went wrong on the journey or the ship was denied entry etc. 
The Nemesis was deployed to catch the escape pod, the sample was recovered, and the material was brought aboard. The Marine, an undercover W-Y agent, was not briefed about the disastrous results of experiments with the material at Rodina and Anchorpoint, and rumors had not yet spread as the present mission is taking place only days after Anchorpoint was destroyed - W-Y likes to have multiple groups working on important projects. The crew’s only mandate was to acquire the samples and run basic tests on the material before delivering it to a W-Y science lab on a moon somewhere.
The basic battery of tests on alien biological material involves mixing it with human genetic material, which was enough to cause embryos to develop, with disastrous results.
The Marine, on company orders, had surreptitiously introduced a drug into the cryosleep nutrients, causing amnesia - the idea was that the crew would awaken on approach to the moon, and have no recollection of where they had gone and what they did - it could be chalked up to a glitch in the cryosleep module, and create less paperwork than a bunch of deaths.
The xenomorphs grew to adulthood on the nutrient broth in their stasis tubes, but as they were trapped in the laboratory unaware of the availability of hosts nearby, they went into a dormant state - until the AP Medic was activated a few days before the end of their journey to prepare the ship - turn on life support systems - air scrubbers, climate control etc - and let the monsters loose. Just before he lost all function he managed to initiate emergency wakeup procedure.
When the crew awakes, alarms are going off, the hatches to the cryosleep area are shut, and they have amnesia. The xenomorphs are not aware of them yet, but they will be as soon as they start making noise.

Opening Scene:
The PCs awaken from cryosleep to an alarm going off indicating the emergency waking procedure has been initiated. The air is stale and the ship is too cold. They find they don’t remember anything after launching from Gateway Station.  On entering Crew Quarters, Cat goes directly to chew on Science Assistant plants, which are discovered to have some kind of disease. Medic is nowhere to be found and does not respond on comms.

CHARACTERS:

Sergeant Lee Ann Harris: a USCMC Sergeant, best friends with Corporal Chrissy Lopez, hates that the corps is in bed with W-Y, loves her ship.
Agenda 1: make sure themself and Marine survive.
Agenda 2: make W-Y pay somehow
Special: can partially remember the ship layout - every 15 minutes of real time, they can remember another room, each time they do they can make an Observation roll to remember something about what happened (see Clues)
has clearance to access Armory

Corporal Chrissy Lopez: a USMC Corporal, best friends with Sergeant Lee Ann Harris, mom is sick back on Colony World, doesn’t remember making a secret deal with W-Y regarding this mission
Agenda 1: protect Sergeant Harris
Agenda 2: don’t let Sergeant Harris find out about betrayal, try to find a way to collect the extra paycheck, even if it means resorting to murder
Special: has clearance to access Armory

Casper Edmonton, Pilot: UPP mole, trying to dig up dirt on W-Y to convert UA citizens
Agenda 1: figure out what happened, also figure out where in the galaxy they are
Agenda 2: figure out what happened and make sure evidence gets back to government for propaganda
Special:

Jayden Pace, Roughneck: ship’s mechanic, keeper of Peanut the Cat, best friend of Kip Tranter
Agenda 1: check on ship systems: life support, engines, escape pods; [find Roughneck 2]
Agenda 2: make sure no xeno material ever leaves this ship
Special:

Kip Tranter, Roughneck:

Dr. Elena Sanchez, Scientist: wants to become a celebrity by making an important discovery
Agenda 1: observe the xenomorphs to learn as much about them as possible, capture video and make notes
Agenda 2: get a sample of adult xenomorph body material into the lab for analysis, transmit a report to University colleague to secure his claim to discovery
Special:

Arnold, AP Medic: only wants to protect human life
Agenda: protect human life
Special: remembers everything that happened, can check the data log to discover Marine’s betrayal
body contains xeno genetic material

Dr. Drew Lancaster, Scientist:  botanist, believes plants have some form of sentience, has plants in her quarters, Peanut likes to chew on them
Agenda 1: check on her plants
Agenda 2: keep an eye on Scientist, worried their ambition might cloud their judgment and get people killed

Xenomorph:
This new variety has several new ways of reproducing:
aerosol: this can be produced in eggs, or in nodules that grow on plants, or by a Queen. If inhaled or contact with mucous membrane or eyes, victim will become a Xenomorph drone in 15 minutes (real time).
venom: the bite or tail attack of a soldier, sentry, or queen can inject the victim with genetic material, causing 1-4 embryos to form inside their body. After 15 minutes (real time) they will feel very ill, and after another 15 minutes 1-3 chestbursters will erupt from their body - if it is only one, it will be from the wound sire and therefore not necessarily fatal.

cat-hybrid:
rat-hybrid:

Timeline:
0:00 - There are 3 eggs in the laboratory; 1 has released aerosol which infected 2 lab rats. 
There are 1 scout and 2 drones roaming about the ship.
2 rat-hybrids have begun building a nest out of scavenged materials in Escape Pod 1 (Evac Section A)
The plants in Scientist Assistant quarters contain nodules of aerosol.

0:15 - Cat becomes cat-hybrid.
Scout begins building nest in Engine 3.
Drones and Rat-hybrids begin stalking PCs. 

0:30 - Any chestbursters become drones.

0:45 -  Any chestbursters become drones.

1:00 -  Chestbursters become drones.
Nest is complete.
Scout becomes a Sentry.
Drones become Soldiers.

1:15 - Chestbursters become drones/scouts, drones become soldiers.
Nest begins spreading to Engine 2.

1:30 - Chestbursters become drones/scouts, drones become soldiers.
Nest has taken over Engine 2.
One soldier has gone into chrysalis in Engine 3.

1:45 - Chestbursters become drones/scouts, drones become soldiers.
Queen emerges from chrysalis.

Memories:
The Captain has a chance to remember something that happened (Observation roll) every time they remember a room location on the ship - if there is a memory connected to that room.

Everyone has a chance to remember something (Observation Roll) every time they make a panic roll, or when they encounter something that might trigger a specific memory.

IN addition, repairing Medic will reveal many of the details below as they do not have amnesia; also a Scientist or Medic might figure out a drug cocktail to reverse amnesia:
	In Medical, make a Wits or Medical Aid roll: in (5 minus # of successes [1 min.]) turns you can make a drug cocktail that will allow everyone who takes it to attempt to recover memories with a +2 bonus - # of successes +1 equals # of memories

triggers: escape pods, evacuation section, talk about mission, 
- They were deployed to a remote sector of the Outer Rim to recover an escape pod.
- The escape pod was marked Mona Lisa
-There was no one in the escape pod, only an aluminum case with six stasis tubes
-The samples were to be delivered to Earth to a W-Y lab there

triggers: lab, xenomorphs, xeno material
- the samples were a black liquid
- they had a unique molecular geometry, organic but with crystalline and metallic aspects
- during routine testing they combined with human DNA to form a new molecular chain which quickly formed into zygotes just before cryosleep
- just before deployment there were rumors of a terrible infection spreading at Anchorpoint Station
- just before cryosleep someone got a message from a friend that Anchorpoint had been destroyed in a reactor meltdown

triggers: command center, monitoring room, friendship between Capt & Marine
-someone saw the Marine talking to someone on a computer screen just before cryosleep; they didn’t recognize the person and the Marine ended the call abruptly when they were discovered, claiming it was their sick mom but it looked like a healthy and younger woman - assumed it was a secret fling
- when everyone was getting into their cryo-PJs, the Marine said they had to use the latrine again, even though they had all already done that in preparation, and they were gone a long time
- someone saw the Marine be taken off for a private conference by two corpo suits just prior to boarding; when he came back he seemed really sad but he said it was just a question about his direct deposit paperwork because he had recently changed banks but he had the wrong routing number
- (Marine only) you remember you were approached just prior to boarding by a W-Y agent who offered you a year’s pay to do something shady
- (Marine only) it was to alter the drug cocktail in the cryobeds to cause amnesia
Rooms:

Armory:
This mission wasn’t expected to be dangerous, so the USCMC did not stock the Nemesis to capacity; just a few basic things Marines like to have around, plus one experimental weapon they are trying to field test before they decide to deploy them on a massive scale.
Only the two Marines have access to this room, requiring palm print and retinal scan to enter.

4 M41A reloads
6 M40 HE Frag Grenades
M240 Incinerator Unit
2 M240 reloads
1 Armat XM99A Phased Plasma Pulse Rifle

Airlock Storage:
4 IRC Mk.35 Pressure Suits

Key Moments:

first xeno encountered by Dr Sanchez:
- give Dr Sanchez her Agenda
- Dr Sanchez can attempt to recover a memory
- give Dr Lancaster his Agenda
- Dr Lancaster can attempt to recover a memory

first xeno encountered by anyone
- can attempt to recover a memory