If there appears to be no immediate threat, Raia helps the others with the searching of crates, though never strays too far from them.
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Revvy and Qaru each find a flashlight, but the others don't see anything of real use.
Daph-9 and Qaru see a mass of feathers up on the scaffolding just in time, and can both act in the surprise round.
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A flashlight... While useful, not exactly what one could call an interesting discovery. But the glimpse of mass of feathers is more promising. Is this the creature they were looking for?
"Enemy is about, in darkness lurking
And in size, great indeed."
Qaru moves away from the beast, hoping to lure it into a more open area.
You now notice a shimmering skin-like coating of mystical force that covers its body, something you did not see on the cameras.
Suddenly, a feather releases, like a harpoon aimed at Qaru. It grazes him, drawing blood but it doesn't look too bad.
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Revvy takes out his light reaction cannon and starts to pump out bullet in the direction of the thing that's attacking us
..but in his enthusiasm he pulls the trigger waaay to early and ends up shooting a round into the floor.
He then takes a few steps to the side and takes cover behind the crate he was...uhm..liberating of it's contents.
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Qaru was only slightly bruised, but seeing the size of the feather-come-harpoon, he knows it could have hurt a lot. So best try to put this beast down fast.
"Large beast, and terrifying.
Still small, in scale of stars"
With his free hands, Qaru starts to work his magic. Through his connection to the stars, he channels the energy of celestial bodies. Three shooting stars fly out from his hands, striking the feathered beast.
Squee hits the target, but then the shimmering field crackles with energy, and disapears as the energy arcs back right at Squee!
Daph-9 and Revvy just can't get clear shots and miss, but Qaru's force missiles strike true.
It fires another harpoon quill at Qaru.
Raia does the same, seeing that the force missiles appear to be working.
And that is enough to drop the creature!
As soon as you defeat the feather stalker, a contingent of station security moves into the warehouse to start removing cargo and freeing up the space for the Exo-Guardians. As this occurs, Zigvigix emerges from behind the cordon line to congratulate you on a successful extermination. And the shirren praises and commends you for your strong team spirit.
Zigvigix presents you with a set of basic iridishell armor, a pair of incendiary grenades I, and 400 credits.
"I apologize for the lack of credits we can offer, but have fun with the grenades! Don’t blow yourselves up—I like you!"
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Your last mission is for the Wayfinders. The Wayfinders’ transitory nature precludes them from having a single stationary headquarters on Absalom Station. Instead, the Wayfinders operate out of the Master of Stars, an enormous starship that is part of the Armada orbiting Absalom Station. The Master of Stars is currently undergoing extensive repairs, obsessively overseen by the Wayfinders’ leader Fitch (a female ysoki technomancer). A Society shuttle takes you out to the orbiting ship.
The station’s Armada can be seen from the shuttle’s view screen as it takes off, gleaming figures standing out against the emptiness of space. The Master of Stars immediately stands out from the rest, as
layers and layers of scaffolding obscure its hull. Tiny lights flicker among the metal beams as distant figures weld plates and heat shields to the ship’s exterior. The shuttle smoothly glides closer until it reaches the starship’s docking bay, slipping through the magic field that keeps the hold pressurized with breathable atmosphere. As the shuttle doors open, a small drone flies in and pops up a holoscreen, displaying a harried-looking ratfolk.
“Finally, fresh meat!” the ysoki exclaims over the screen, sounding pleased. “Name’s Fitch—pleasantries over, time to get to work. I had some trouble earlier with the lights flickering on the ship, and now both the lights and computers have suddenly gone out on E-Deck. No idea what’s causing it, but you work this job long enough and—” Fitch’s attention flicks to something offscreen, and she shouts “Kirkath! The welding torch is not a toy! You wanna go in the toddler’s pen with the other kids?”
She snorts dismissively before continuing, “Sorry, some of these little ones would cut off their own heads if I let them. Anyway, it could be some lunkhead screwed up the wiring, but that’s a pretty big system failure for a simple electrical short. I’d prefer to send in some people with combat training to scout it out, just in case someone or something is sabotaging the ship. If it’s nothing, great, get the power back on if you can. If there’s something suspicious, use your comm units to report in to me. I’ll give you the access codes, so— Selicha! If you touch that panel I will staple you to the hull!”
The screen on the drone cuts out, then flashes to display the ship’s schematics and the passwords for the computers on E-Deck.
The E-Deck is in total darkness when you arrive, making the first order of business to restore power to the lights and the cameras prior to entering the area.
Raia takes a look at the computer systems to try and determine the cause for the faulty lights. "I can't imagine that this task proves to be too difficult for us."
Scattered barrels and boxes line the lowered floor of this storage chamber. A thick bulkhead to the port side leads farther onto the deck, while a similar bulkhead to the aft connects to an arterial hallway that runs the length of the deck.
Raia squats down and reaches out her hand to the children "Hi there, little ones, what are your names? My name's Raia. Can you tell us what you're doing here? Do your parents know where you are?" But she comes off very creepy, not unlike a kidnapper.
"WAAAAHHHHH!" They run and hide.
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"Let them be." offers the android. "As long as they stay out of the way and don't disrupt the machines, it's not our problem."
She promptly finds a terminal to begin their work.
-Posted with Wayfinder
As Daph-9 begins working on the computer terminal, she sets off a trap. A fire extinguisher sprays in her face.
One of the children snickers.
Squee easily finds them, but they seem rather panicked.
Raia is a bit puzzled as she sends the kids screaming "What was it I said? Hmm, I have little experience with children, probably best if I keep quiet around them"
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Barely managing to step out of the way as the extinguisher explodes, the android states flatly. "Well that was close."
Her eyes begin shooting back and forth from one side to the other for a moment. A Whirrr emanating from the crature.
"From this new information, I suspect something on this level wishes us harm. Be careful."
Taking a moment, she inspects the console to determine if it is safe to work on now.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Yes, it is now safe. The trap was rather crude. You are able to access the computer. You find evidence of an alien species on this level, and find a video log. The children in here were playing with it. You can see the alien was small and non-humanoid, and it did not respond to any standard language, leading the children to assume it was animalistic. They decided to keep the alien as a pet and hid it in the adjacent room. The alien began meddling with exposed ship cabling and other internal ship components, causing the power outage.
"Hmm let me take a closer look at the video. Maybe I can figure out what that little creature is."
This area consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the fore room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral. A crack leaks fluid from the fourth capsule, which displays a foot-wide breach near the bottom. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal. The alien fiddled with the thermostat, making the environment extremely cold. While not damaging, the temperature has caused ice to form along the floors.
Raia can tell you that this creature has never before been seen, or at least documented. But based on her observance, she can tell you the creature resembles a tailless horseshoe crab. It also flies, and it has unscrewed one of the ceiling light fixtures and slipped through the socket.
Daph-9 and Squee are able to pinpoint its path, and you are able to lure the creature out.
It appears that the alien woke up after a long period of stasis and is starving, feeding on the ship’s power systems.
"Hmm, though I'm not exactly sure what type of creature this is, it does seem to be carbon based. I'm sure any rations we have at least wouldn't cause it any harm. It's worth a shot."