Work In Progress

The Last Shift¶

"PRESERVE THE SPECIMEN. TANIS-3 RENDEZVOUS AND COLLECTION IN 13 YEARS 2 MONTHS AND 14 DAYS. "

"What about the colonists?"

"THE COLONISTS ARE MISSION RESOURCES. EXPENDITURE IS AUTHORIZED."

For MU/TH/UR's Eyes Only¶

This file is for the GM. Unlike most scenarios this game does not include a "What's the story MU/TH/UR section. Players should go into this scenario completely blind for the best experience.

Inspiration¶

This one-shot is loosely inspired by the 2009 film Pandorum. Spoilers for a criminally underrated sci-fi film follow. Consider watching it before continuing.

Do not tell the players that Pandorum is an inspiration for the scenario before or during play. Knowing the reference can spoil the ship's true situation, the memory premise, and the shape of the final reveal.

Scenario Overview¶

The Last Shift is a Cinematic scenario for the ALIEN roleplaying game. It is designed for 3-5 players plus GM and should take roughly 4-6 hours to complete.

The USCSS Poruka is a hauler attached to the larger USCSS Affiance, a colony ship similar in design to the USCSS Covenant, which launched three years earlier. The Affiance carries thousands of colonists, prefabricated habitat systems, industrial equipment, and survey infrastructure for their destination planet, Tanis-3.

Affiance full deck schematic Credit: IncubiMaps

The Poruka operates in two shifts. A-shift handles the early mission, while B-shift is the relief crew assigned to wake halfway through the 15-year journey and take over navigation checks, maintenance oversight, emergency response, and final approach support.

The PCs are B-shift. They wake aboard the Poruka after an emergency cryo cycle to find A-shift missing, the ship almost powerless, Poruka MU/TH/UR factory reset, and the bridge locked down.

Unbeknownst to the crew, it has actually been 904 years since the Affiance left the Sol system. The original mission ended centuries ago, and the ship is no longer where the crew thinks it is. First Officer Payton wakes with the PCs and appears to be sick and memory-damaged, just like them. In truth, Payton is Victor Gallo, the former Company agent whose mind has collapsed around the identity of the man whose pod he stole centuries ago.

Act 1 sees our crew struggling to remember who they are and escape the locked down and dying Poruka Hauler.

In Act 2 the crew crosses into the Affiance with the goal of restoring the hardline link to the Affiance MU/TH/UR terminal so they can remotely restore the Affiance reactor feed. Instead, they find a ship that has been running far too long: ruptured holds, impossible logs, missing weapons, shipborn survivors, and evidence that colonists were woken in cycles as hosts.

With no choice but to move deeper into the nest festering at the back of the ship, the PCs eventually restart the reactor manually.

In Act 3, the reactor restart gives the crew power, access, and a chance to escape, but it also wakes the nest. When the Poruka bridge opens, the truth finally surfaces: the real Payton is dead, Gallo is not who he thinks he is, and the Affiance is underwater on Tanis-3. The finale becomes a desperate choice between escape, rescue, sacrifice, and destroying the ship before the organism can leave with them.

How Did This All Go Wrong?¶

Two years into the Poruka's 15-year journey to Tanis-3, the ship detected debris matching the lost USCSS Covenant and automatically diverted to investigate. A-shift was automatically woken to handle the survey. Among them was Victor Gallo, the assigned Weyland-Yutani Company agent.

Gallo understood the value of the find before the rest of the crew did. After consulting MU/TH/UR, he received priority instructions: secure any viable organism and preserve it until the Tanis-3 rendezvous.

He arranged for a crew member to be infected, intending to place the host into cryosleep before emergence. The plan failed almost immediately. The creature emerged early, escaped containment, and moved into the Affiance before Gallo could control it.

Captain Conway woke First Officer Thomas Payton for help but kept the rest of B-shift and the Affiance colonists under, hoping the incident could still be contained quietly. Payton and Gallo remained aboard the Poruka while the rest of A-shift searched the Affiance, believing they were hunting a juvenile organism. As the search collapsed and A-shift stopped answering comms, Payton tried to trigger an emergency wake for B-shift before there was no one left to save. Gallo, fearing the crew would kill the organism or discover his treachery, stopped the wake sequence. Payton fought him for control of the system and died in the struggle.

With Payton, Conway, and the rest of A-shift gone, Gallo settled in for the long flight to Tanis-3, alone. Over time, MU/TH/UR reported that the organism had gone dormant and instructed Gallo to preserve it at all costs.

Gallo decided dormancy was a risk to the specimen, so he used the Poruka's SI/ST/ER connection to Affiance MU/TH/UR AUX to wake small numbers of colonists as hosts. The system classified the deaths as acceptable mission losses under the preservation priority.

By the time the Affiance reached Tanis-3, Gallo had spent years cycling between hypersleep, remote wake commands, and short inspections of the hive. Prolonged FTL exposure, isolation, guilt, and repeated cryo cycles had weakened his mind. His loyalty to the Company curdled into devotion to the organism. He no longer thought of himself as preserving a specimen. He was cultivating something.

When MU/TH/UR received instructions to hold orbit and await Weyland-Yutani recovery, Gallo obeyed at first. Then fear took over. He believed the Company would seize the hive, erase him, and undo everything he had kept alive. He disabled the transponder, landed the Affiance in Tanis-3's ocean, and factory-reset Poruka MU/TH/UR to prevent remote corporate override.

Hidden on the ocean floor, Gallo grew bolder. He rarely ventured far from the Poruka, preferring to use the still-intact SI/ST/ER hardline and Affiance MU/TH/UR AUX to wake colonists, observe the results, and return to hypersleep. To preserve the service life of the remaining pods, he rotated between them until he finally settled into Payton's pod and automated the cycle: AUX would wake colonists, wait, then wake Gallo so he could inspect the hive remotely.

Before one of those sleep cycles, Gallo scheduled the next wake command through Affiance MU/TH/UR AUX as usual. While he slept, ocean pressure crushed the already-damaged storage holds 1 and 2. The rupture severed the SI/ST/ER hardline between the Affiance and the Poruka. The command meant to wake Gallo never reached Payton's pod.

Centuries passed. The scheduled AUX routines continued to wake colonists without Gallo's supervision, creating generations of shipborn survivors and feeding the hive in uneven cycles. The Poruka stayed cold and silent, cut off from the Affiance except for the failing trickle of reactor power.

Eventually, the Affiance reactor decayed below minimum output. The Poruka batteries collapsed, cryo support failed, and an emergency wake sequence opened the remaining crew pods. Gallo woke inside Payton's pod with no stable memory of being Victor Gallo. As far as he knows, he is First Officer Thomas Payton: sick, frightened, stranded, and responsible for saving the crew.

The rest of the crew suffered the same kind of memory damage. They wake with their technical skills, instincts, and training intact, but their personal memories are fractured or missing. Each assumes the identity, rank, and duties recorded by the pod they woke inside.

This is where the scenario begins, 904 years after the Affiance left the Sol system.

Core Progression¶

These are the general story beats to aim for during the scenario.

B-shift wakes on the Poruka without stable memories and suffering from extreme hypersleep sickness.
Several NPCs die in cryo proving cryo is failing and the survivors could have died just as easily.
The crew explores what they can on the Poruka and prepares for their repair mission on The Affiance
The crew boards the Affiance to restore the MU/TH/UR hardline so the reactor can be remotely stabilized. Payton and perhaps other NPCs stay behind on The Poruka to work on restoring MU/TH/UR and accessing the bridge.
The crew discovers the hardline connection between the Poruka and Affiance MU/TH/UR systems (The SI/ST/ER Network) was destroyed when storage holds 1 and 2 ruptured.
With the hardline impossible to repair, Payton redirects them toward a manual reactor restart.
The crew finds evidence of old A-shift activity, missing weapons, and colonist wake cycles.
Shipborn survivors appear. Some are hostile, some are frightened, and some can be reasoned with.
The shipborn and other evidence point to godlike figures controlling the ship: Mother, meaning MU/TH/UR, and Father, meaning Gallo.
If the PCs reach the Affiance MU/TH/UR system, logs reveal Gallo's crimes and the long wake-feed-sleep cycle that created the shipborn and the nest in the reactor room.
Reactor records reveal the Affiance is centuries past its intended service life. Restarting the reactor wakes the nest and restores access to the Poruka bridge.
The PCs race back to the bridge, where they find the real Payton's body and confront Gallo who has remembered who he really is.
Gallo opens the blast shields, revealing the Affiance is underwater on Tanis-3.
The PCs make their escape or choose a sacrifice play. Possible options include:
- release the Poruka cryo pods and let them float to the surface
- detach the Poruka from the Affiance
- shatter the cockpit window
- detonate the ship

Active Mysteries¶

Why did the emergency wake sequence trigger now?
What happened to A-shift?
What happened to storage holds 1 and 2?
Why is Poruka MU/TH/UR blank?
Why is the hardline to Affiance MU/TH/UR dead?
Who are the shipborn survivors, and how long have they been awake?
Who are Mother and Father?
What does Payton really want from the crew?
How do we get out of here?
Who am I?

Running Tone¶

Keep the Alien RPG tone: industrial, corporate, bodily, desperate. The ship should feel like a machine that kept obeying old commands long after those commands became monstrous.

At the table, keep the early scenario practical. The crew should be solving power, access, comms, and survival problems before they understand the scale of the disaster. Let the horror widen in layers: first the dying Poruka, then the impossible state of the Affiance, then the shipborn culture, then the nest, then the truth about Gallo, Payton, and Tanis-3.

Do not rush the memory reveal. The characters' skills are reliable, but their identities are not. Let players lean on their assigned roles until evidence makes those roles feel borrowed.

Memory Triggers¶

Rooms and events throughout this scenario can trigger player memories. These memories are the main way The Last Shift delivers exposition, back story, and clues without stopping play for a briefing. A memory might explain how a ship system normally works, show what the crew believed before cryo, reveal something about A-shift, or give a player a personal connection to a room, object, or duty.

When a room or event says a memory is unlocked, pause the scene and give that memory to the player who triggered it. The GM can read it aloud, but you may prefer to print each memory as a handout and pass it across the table with a simple prompt: "You just remembered this." Unless the memory says all players receive it, give it only to the triggering player and let them decide whether to read it aloud, paraphrase it, or keep parts of it private.

Use the triggering PC's role, Agenda, and recent actions to decide who receives a memory when more than one character could qualify. If a memory contains practical ship knowledge, favor the character whose job would make them responsible for that system.

Characters¶

The player characters are members of B-shift, the relief flight crew of the USCSS Poruka. Any unused crew roles can appear as NPCs, remain in cryo for use as backup PCs later, or die during the emergency wake cycle. During the A Rude Awakening event in Act I, use any NPC death to show that the surviving PCs could have died just as easily.

The crew begins with damaged personal memories. Their skills, instincts, and professional training remain intact, but each character assumes the name, role, rank, and duties attached to the pod they woke in. They have no memories of their past lives at the beginning of the scenario.

This required NPC cannot be used by any players:

First Officer Thomas Payton

The rest of the B-shift roster can be assigned to players, made into NPCs, or saved for use as replacement PCs later in the scenario:

In addition, replacement characters can also come from shipborn survivors or thawed Affiance colonists if the story has reached a point where those options make sense.

The PCs begin with no personal gear except signature items. Any weapons, tools, suits, medkits, and survival equipment must be recovered from the Poruka or the Affiance during play.

Personal Agendas¶

At the end of each Act, evaluate whether each player meaningfully pursued their Agenda despite risk, cost, or pressure. Award one Story Point when they do. Do not reveal hidden Agendas to the whole group until the scenario is over.

Act I Agendas: Do Your Job¶

Before play, give each player their Act I Agenda based on the role they chose. Act I Agendas reinforce the identity and responsibilities each character believes are theirs. Keep them practical and role-based.

Cargo Supervisor Anton Valez: Account for the ship's supplies, recover useful cargo, and keep the crew from wasting anything they may need to survive.
Chief Engineer Jonah Keene: Restore stable power to the Poruka before the ship dies completely.
Comms Officer Elise Brandt: Reestablish internal comms, external comms, or any working link to MU/TH/UR.
Company Agent Adrienne Shaw: Protect mission assets, control sensitive information, and keep the crew focused on Company priorities.
Maintenance Tech Nolan Pike: Get the crew through dead doors, vents, and service spaces so the ship can be made usable again.
Navigation Officer Owen Reyes: Confirm where the Poruka is, why the course failed, and what route might still get the crew home.
Pilot Mateo Voss: Regain access to the bridge or flight systems so the Poruka can move if the crew gets power back.
Science Officer Dalia Mercer: Identify what went wrong with the cryo cycle, ship systems, or any contamination aboard.
Sensor Operator Mira Okafor: Bring the sensor systems online and find out what is happening beyond the Poruka's hull.
Ship's Medic Sera Lind: Stabilize the survivors and prove the cryo sickness is treatable before anyone else dies.
Warrant Officer Priya Holt: Keep the crew together, preserve the chain of command, and recover any missing weapons.

Act II Agendas: Doubt The Story¶

At the start of Act II, hand out Agendas randomly or choose them at GM discretion based on what will create the most pressure at the table. Act II Agendas should create pressure around clues, shipborn survivors, Payton, and the characters' damaged memories. When giving an Act II Agenda, ask the player to add one short memory or backstory detail that explains why this matters to them. These memories feel true, but they may be incomplete, distorted, or attached to the wrong identity.

Find out what A-shift hid from B-shift.
Keep Payton informed about everything the crew discovers.
Hide evidence that your own identity does not add up.
Save at least one shipborn survivor.
Prioritize colonist lives over Poruka crew safety.
Secure Company-sensitive logs before the others see them.
Learn who Mother and Father really are.
Prove the shipborn are people, not contamination.

Act III Agendas: Choose What Matters¶

At the start of Act III, the characters should learn who they really are, or at least enough to understand the lie they have been living inside. Act III Agendas force final values into the open after the characters understand who they are, who they are not, or what was stolen from them.

Escape, no matter who gets left behind.
Destroy the hive, even if it costs the ship.
Save as many colonists or shipborn as possible.
Bring proof of Weyland-Yutani's crimes home.
Protect the organism because the Company will pay for it.
Make sure Payton does not leave the ship alive.
Make sure the Affiance never makes landfall.
Find out who you really are before the end.