1×04: Day Four

• The massive … thing descending from the sky passes over the now stopped truck and heads in the direction of the immense crater that was a large section of Cody, Wyoming, hours earlier. Tentacle-like things emerge from it and meet similar ones now reaching up from the crater. To the horror of those in the truck, the tentacles combine and the larger craft appears to dock … or at least that’s what they hope it’s doing. Soon after, the ground shakes and hundred of missile-like things are launched from the alien construction and vanish over the horizon in all directions.
• Pressing on to the south with Chandler acting as a scout on his ATV, Reece angles the truck toward a known ranch where he wants to regroup and figure out their next steps. They find the ranch empty of people and spend a few minutes confirming that there are no surprise bodies lying around. After finding none, they turn toward examining the corpse of the bug they took with them from the firefight earlier. It is quickly determined that this thing is only superficially a “bug” as it seems to be a mixed up mess of numerous different species…
• And then, to their surprise and horror, the corpse begins to move!
• Burroughs and Heinlein react first and unload on the body to ensure that it stays dead; when it seems to pull something from his belt, Heinlein, thinking it is a grenade, soccer kicks it away, then turns to cover his son. It does not explode, however, and several of the team decide to investigate it in more depth. They discover it seems to be a smaller bug of some sort but it has been smashed so its functionality is unclear.
• There are four survivors in the truck, three of whom are injured. Curtis Washington is a local deputy and has a head injury; Sandra Hart is a rancher with a broken arm; Shane Reddy is from out of town and was on vacation – he is the only one uninjured; and then, there is Robert Little, whom John has little respect or interest in. Robert immediately seeks out alcohol and begins guzzling it. At the same time, Sandra begins pestering the team for a return to Cody to rescue her husband who she saw being abducted, by the bugs; when it is properly pointed out that the team needs more people and a lot more guns, Shane mentions off-hand that he knows a guy who is a prepper with actual machine guns and rockets.
• John and James go apart from the others along with Julie’s body. Together, they assemble a small cairn of rocks over her while John gives her a traditional Arapaho funeral service. Reece discreetly joins them and uses this as a way to momentarily allow his grief for his parents to come to surface. Robert is noticeably absent, which John notes with some fury.
• Upon discovering a diesel-fueled ranch truck that still runs, the team load up the two functioning vehicles up with spare supplies before finally crashing for several hours. When they depart the still empty ranch, Heinlein pauses long enough to free the animals, much to the approval of Reece and Sandra, both of whom have ranching backgrounds. Along the way, overhead, they observe a pair of Air Force jets engaging against one of the bug craft much to everyone’s pleasure, but this turns to despair when both jets are easily shot down.
• They press on to Meeteetse where they discover the locals are trying to determine their next course of action. Some Cody survivors have managed to stumble their way into the town, so the locals are aware of the attack in some capacity. Here, Curtis and Sandra intend to remain behind due to their injuries when the team depart, intending on heading west to Jackson where Shane’s prepper friend resides. Heinlein is all for leaving Robert as well, but young James asks the drunk to accompany; unwilling to let his son down, John snatches the bottle out of Robert’s hands and warns him in a low voice to get his shit together or Heinlein will bury him somewhere in the desert. He isn’t joking.
• At dawn, they set out again, leaving the diesel-powered truck behind. They head south for some time until they note a crashed … pod of some sort in the yard of a house. Realizing that this is one of the things launched the previous night, the team decide to investigate further, leaving behind Shane, a now sober (and freaked out) Robert, and young James (who is wearing Burroughs’ second-chance body armor). Advancing tactically, they discover the house has been broken into and is filled with some sort of strange secreted resin. Inside, they discover at least one person who is stuck in the resin … and then, strange critters start lunging out of the darkness to attack! The team withdraw, though Chandler tears the survivor free. Outside, Pratchett-Wells goes into full-on medic mode and stabilizes the mortally wounded man. Deeming the house a lost cause, the team pull back to the truck and ATV.
• They press on to Thermopolis where Burroughs debriefs the local authorities who are ignorant of Cody’s fate; the badly injured man pulled from the house is given over to local medical experts. Not seeing anything else they can accomplish here, the team mount up again and head out. They pass through Shoshoni some time later, pausing long enough to update the local authorities in the same way.
• Upon reaching Grandfather’s house, John and James enter alone, knowing that the crotchety old man probably won’t react well to a bunch of strangers on his property. They find him in the basement, sitting in his chair and mummified. It’s another loss for John and an unexpected one at that. He brings the others in to let them know and have Pratchett-Wells check out the body to ensure it isn’t foul play; the EMT looks over Grandfather’s body and theorizes that this is due to a massive dose of radiation.
• At about that moment, James speaks up: Grandfather’s “no-no room” is unlocked. John steps into the closet to investigate and is momentarily blinded by a flash of light. An electronic voice speaks, using a foreign language that John does not recognize; the back of the closet slides open, revealing … an advanced-looking control panel in a bunker of some sort.

Player Notes:

• The delay in this recap is entirely my fault. I was feeling lazy.
• Well … crap. John was expecting to get a data dump from Grandfather … and now he’s dead! It’s been a tough couple of days for Heinlein (and Burroughs too, since he lost his parents the night before. But he doesn’t count since he’s not writing these!)
• I was fully expecting facehuggers in that house because Gigermann has an unhealthy attachment to the Aliens franchise.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.