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Booker Broadshaw isn't the most likeable man. His cocky attitude earned him a few enemies during his tours with the Stewards, and he's damned lucky that his skill at the helm at least matches his braggadocio. That hasn't kept a few jealous jocks from trying to take him down over the years, of course, and some with more lethal methods than others. His steady hands have seen him through dozens of sorties, dogfights, firefights, and more than a couple of duels.
He cuts a handsome figure in his military spacer's suit, if a bit of an unkempt one with a three-day old beard, dark tousled hair, and (more often than not) an unfiltered cigarette hanging from his lip. The laser rifle he carries has seen plenty of use, and the impeccable condition of the weapon suggests that the man clearly knows his way around a gun. Anyone foolish enough to cross him might soon learn the hard-earned truth of that expertise.
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R.1.G.5. (or RIGS) is an Android with purple-hair and with light purple circuitry for veins. It was enslaved by Vesks and Humans long ago (where, not sure) and used for careless evictions, shaking down innocents, y'know, bad things. Known to be a good shot, R.1.G.5. was able to escape during the Android Rebellion and came to Absalom Station to join the Starfinder Society so that its talents can be used for good (read: not-bad) things.
R.1.G.5. is also known to be a prominent vidgamer thanks to the soul that is in its body (which was a highly touted vidgamer). You hear an occasional "BOOM! Headshot!!" while practicing in the laser rifle ranges.
Gig Razorbyte is a scruffy looking whitehaired ratfolk who was the synthesizer technician for legendary keyboard wizard, Thrull Magnar, from the supergroup, Shock! Without, the skill and technical expertise of this small ysoki, Shock would never have hit their legendary status and if truth be told, they would have simply sounded like crap. Now that Shock has broken up and is no longer on tour, Gig Razorbyte is ready to have his own adventures!
Each of you has your own reasons, some noble, others... less so, for coming to Absalom Station. It's been a long road to get to the station proper, but you finally found your way in. A member of the highly respected Starfinder Society has agreed to get you on board the station, and even set you up with a job. You're not entirely sure what the life of a Starfinder Agent entails, but it seems like it could be a good gig. Your contact is a friendly and avuncular dwarf named Duravor Kreel. He's asked you to meet him at Docking Bay 94.
Packing up your gear and jumping aboard the shuttle, you make your way over to what will hopefully be an exciting and fulfilling new life.
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Dunklezahn is an imposing figure, standing head and shoulders above most others. He maintains a generally stoic demeanor in all of his interactions and does little to dissuade others of their prejudices, as he considers most others's opinions irrelevant. Raised on stories of glory and battle from the Silent War and later the unified war against The Swarm, Dunklezahn left the Veskarium seeking his own glory and honor so that he may one day return home with his head held high and claim a place of great standing amongst his people.
Outside of battle, the one other occasion that Dunklezahn shows his enthusiasm is for cooking. One of his initial jobs on his way to the Pact Worlds was as security on board a tramp freighter. The crew had been making due with ration packs and Dunklezahn decided he wanted something more. He tackled what little the ship called a galley and found he quite enjoyed cooking for the crew. Destroying something that was alive, rebuilding the constituent parts into something new and amazing, then seeing it all destroyed again as it is devoured by the eater brought him unexpected pleasure.
Torin Janzi is a med school dropout who's dabbled in all manner of academic pursuits. He likes to say this has made him well-rounded when in fact it's been mostly about him not having to get a job. He's done a little bit of everything to get by — much of it illegal — and isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty. Or bloody. He likes blood. As long as it's someone else's.
In fact it's a not-entirely-unforeseen set of circumstances that has brought Janzi here. There's a black market for body parts, and someone has to make deliveries of those, er, specimens. It pays well, and as long as you don't ask too many questions getting repeat gigs is pretty easy. Unfortunately, Janzi isn't the type to not ask too many questions; curiosity is both a blessing and a curse. Pursuing "other opportunities" aboard Absalom Station was prudent, and potentially life-saving.
Hack-It is short even by Ysoki standards. His grey fur and dark clothing are well-maintained, showing his meticulous nature. He lived on Akiton all his life, ostensibly doing work as an electrician. In reality he's a whizbang hacker who operated as a small time information broker, trading secrets for favours, creds, and new pieces of tech. It's this disdain for other people's privacy that got him in trouble with dangerous elements, so he made himself scarce at left home for Absalom Station. In his mind the Starfinder Society is a perfect cover, allowing him to lay low and wait out this heat.
Not a very physical specimen, Hack-It used his knack for machinery to cobble together personal protection in the form of a hover drone he calls Sputter (who sounds like THIS). Although it has saved him on numerous occasions, the outlaw mechanic constantly badmouths it. Despite this, Hack-It will often tinker with it, endlessly trying to make it not suck.
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The brightly lit docks of Absalom Station are abuzz with activity as travelers bustle by, preparing to board or disembarking from starships bound to or from any of dozens of worlds. Brash and swaggering starpilots, scurrying ysoki mechanics, and expectant colonists mingle with enigmatic kasatha mystics, hard-faced asteroid miners, imposing vesk mercenaries, and more, creating a microcosm of the abundance and variety of life in the Pact Worlds. New arrivals meet friends, loved ones, or business contacts, and are whisked away into the humming activity of daily life on the vast space station. Beyond them, ground crews tend to the docked ships, and dockworkers in mechanized cargo lifters load and unload freight and baggage. A sharp tang of ozone hangs in the air—a byproduct of electrical discharges from the docked ships—but underneath, the station’s atmosphere has a slightly used aroma. The docking bay’s deck plates thrum beneath your feet, though whether it’s from the passage of innumerable feet or the vibrations of the station’s power conduits and air recycling systems is impossible to say.
You see Kreel waiting for you in the middle of the docking bay. He is pretty obviously the dwarf you've seen on the vids. Kreel is tall and lanky for a dwarf, with a bristly, iron-gray and gold beard and deep-set eyes beneath bushy eyebrows. With his patched and stained coat, the dwarf looks like just another dockworker, but a badge bearing the symbol of the Starfinder Society stands out on his chest. Kreel checks the computer he’s holding and looks up to scan the crowd, he doesn't notice you though.
You notice two groups of people on the fringes of the docking bay furtively taking up defensive positions among stacks of cargo crates and machinery... something's not right...
You don't recognize the outfits, but you know gangbangers when you see them.
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Hack-It steps off the Okimoro and takes in the crowd. His nose sniffs and twitches as the new scents assault his senses. He pulls up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the protective layer of a second skin as well as his custom rig. He punches a few buttons on its neon display, sending Sputter flying upwards.
The drone scans the area, its visual optics capturing data, returns a moment later to the nervous Ysoki.
"Alright, what did you see?" Hack-It asks.
The drone issues a few breathy beeping sounds, a slight echo following each intonation. It sounds like Bo-de-do-dee-doop
"I know the place is filled with lifeforms, you glorified circuit board with wings. What about Blinkgnaw or his mooks?"
More beeping sounds issues from Sputter. Although it sounds exactly the same as before, Hack-It understands it differently.
"Fine, fine, you don't know." Hack-It replies, irritable. Useless. And the dwarf over there?"
Again it replies Bo-de-do-dee-doop
The mechanic punches it, momentarily knocking the drone back before it resumes its placid hovering. "'It's a dwarf'. I know it's a dwarf. I swear, you're in need of a serious AI upgrade."
Hack-It inputs some commands into his custom rig, setting the drone to hover over his right shoulder. "Okay, let's go meet him then," he says, walking over to the dwarf.
While Janzi is normally all about letting things happen to people who aren't him, he also knows that the dwarf is part of how he expects to survive until his next gig comes along, so if these gang members are gonna jump him, he's best make sure that dwarf makes it in one piece too. He carefully picks his way through the crowd toward the Society dwarf.
Booker pauses atop the boarding ramp from the Okimoro and takes a long drag on his cigarette, taking in the sights of the dock. Though bustling, to him Absalom Station doesn't seem all that different from some of the more crowded spaceports of the Diaspora, or even some of the busier cities on Akiton. Less rust though.
Spotting the dwarf in the crowd, Booker takes another puff and wends his way over to him. "Kreel, is it?" he grunts. "Booker. Booker Broadshaw. You've got work that needs doing, I'm told."
Gig scurries over to the dwarf. "Are you Kreel of the Starfinder Society? I'm Gig." The white haired rat folk replies without waiting for the dwarf to answer his question. "I've heard of your organization. I mean the Starfinder Society. Isn't that who you work for? I used to work for a star named Thrull. Thrull Magnar? Have you ever heard of him?" The Ysoki keeps on chatting nervously. "He really is a star. He plays a really mean keyboard. I'm surprised your Starfinder organization hasn't found him yet. He really is famous. I suppose you must look for other stars instead. Stars with hot gases and stuff. Things like white dwarf stars. I mean stars that are not like you. I mean, I know you are a dwarf, but the other kind of dwarf. The kind with less gas. I'm not trying to say you have gas, but even if you did it is most natural. You just don't want to let it out near a Vesk..."
Gig chatters on nervously getting himself into a classic awkward position where he inserts his foot into his mouth.
Booker looks from the android to the ysoki and shares an almost inaudible chuckle with himself. The 'droid at least looks like it can handle itself. The ysoki on the other hand... if this is indicative of the typical Starfinder agent, he might have to rethink this whole thing. There's better money to be made elsewhere than to earn it listening to endless nervous prattle.
He takes another draw and watches with detachment how the dwarf plans to extricate himself from the torrent of conversation.
As Gig speaks up to introduce himself, Kreel looks over and his eyes meet Gig and the others. He smiles wide and waves.
You only get the spell off long enough to note there are thoughts, but before you can hone in...
From both sides the docking area erupts into laser fire!
The docking bay lights up from the shots!
Surprise Round:
R1G5: Go
Torin: Go
Hostiles: TBD
Round 1:
R1G5: TBD
Dunk: TBD
Torin: TBD
Hack-It: TBD
Hostiles: TBD
Gig: TBD
Booker: TBD
Looks like crossfire, and it looks like little regard for ANYONE as some are shooting over your head.
Yeah it looks like West Side Story in here, the gang members on the left are fighting with those on the right, and they don't care about collateral damage. Unfortunately, Kreel is DIRECTLY between the two.
Janzi blurts out before he realizes what he's said. He bounds into the crossfire, dodging here and there, trying to get to Kreel.
Torin and R1G5, heedless of danger, rush into the mad storm of violence!
Lasers fly! A single errant blast from an azimuth pistol strikes Kreel clean in the chest! The older dwarf drops from the shot, his body in the no man's land of the deck.
One of the thugs on the right wearing an orange arm band and haphazardly dressed, takes a blast.
Two thugs on the left (noticeably better dressed), the two closest to you, also take hits.
Unfortunately, not a single gang member drops.
Round 1:
R1G5: Go
Dunk: Go
Torin: Go
Hack-It: Go
Hostiles: TBD
Gig: TBD
Booker: TBD
Orange: 4
Red: 3
Green: 2
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Seeing the firefight open up, Dunklezahn takes a quick moment to assess the situation. Normally, he'd stay out of it. Seeing Kreel, his potential future employer, drop makes him reconsider. They had a preliminary agreement of employment. As such, an attack on Kreel, even if inadvertent, would require at least a proportionate response to secure the area to be able to triage Kreel's wounds.
Dunklezahn hefts his battlestaff and charges one of the gang bangers.
Double move.
Dunk gets into position. The vesk cuts an imposing figure... and easy target.
Round 1:
R1G5: Go
Dunk: Move
Torin: Go
Hack-It: Go
Hostiles: TBD
Gig: TBD
Booker: TBD
Orange: 4
Red: 3
Green: 2
Janzi races up to Kreel and drops prone, trying to grab the dwarf on the way down. Get down! This lot won't care who gets hurt as long as they win! And then he watches as the dwarf gets shot and his dreams of untold riches go up in vapor.
Seeing Kreel get dropped, Hack-It curses. He angrily starts punching commands into wrist console that is his custom rig.
Sputter activates, swivels in the direction of one of the troublemakers (green), and a targeting light on a mounted Azimuth pistol illuminates.
Bo-de-do-dee-doop
"Yes, I'm sure! Light him up!"
Bo-de-do-dee-doop
"I don't care that they don't identify as a known threat! I'm not about to ask for introductons. Shoot him!"
Bo-de-do-dee-doop
A red laser lances out from the hover drone towards one of the armed men.
Hack-It then pulls out an old, mechanically-driven semi-automatic pistol. He checks that it's loaded, then shakes his head irritably. "What a great start this turned out to be."
Torin moves in to the smoking dwarf. Hack-it scores a solid hit, "The kings have back up! Light them up!" is the immediate response.
R1G5 also lands a direct hit, faking his target out to score a better opening.
Lasers fly! The gang on the right ignores you in favor of their foes, but the other gang spreads their fire out.
hit for
MISS
MISS
hit for
Cover!
Cover!
Round 1:
R1G5: Hit
Dunk: Move AoO if you'd like versus Black.
Torin: Move
Hack-It: Hit
Hostiles: ATK
Gig: Go
Booker: Go
Blue: 10
Orange: 4
Red: 3
Green: 4
By Yaraesa's name, what's going on? This looks worse than that incident at the Odeon when Shock decided they would play a concert entirely with music from their latest recording, Zapped in the Name of Love! I mean, who could blame the fans, but even so. . . I better do something!
Round 1
Gig begins moving his hands in graceful gestures that seems to tap into a source of unseen power and with a thrust of his hands, three arcane bolts blast out and unerringly strike the green gangster.
"You leave that poor ratfolk with the junky drone alone, you big bully!"
Gig's mind focuses and the triple magical missiles come screeching forth, and all three slam into the gangbanger. The thug gargles as he falls to the ground.
Round 1:
R1G5: Hit
Dunk: Move AoO if you'd like versus Black.
Torin: Move
Hack-It: Hit
Hostiles: ATK
Gig: 1st Kill!
Booker: Go
Blue: 10
Orange: 4
Red: 3
Booker growls audibly, looking sharply from one group to the other. His teeth clamp onto his cigarette for safekeeping. "A little too like the Belt, actually." Taking a running slide for the cover of some nearby barrels, his rifle slips into his hands with an accustomed ease.
He skids to a stop in position, exhales, aims, and fires.
Bo-de-do-dee-doop
"I know! Only I'm allowed to say you're a junky drone." Hack-It pauses, then adds, "He did kill the thug though, which is more than I can say you did."
Booker's shot wings the gangbanger, but doesn't drop him unfortunately.
Hack-It's banter actually gets a few snickers from other people in the bay who are staying out of the fight, but too curious to flee.
Round 2:
R1G5: Go
Dunk: Go
Torin: Go
Hack-It: Go
Hostiles: TBD
Gig: TBD
Booker: TBD
Blue: 11
Orange: 4
Red: 3
"Alright, time to get yourself blown up," Hack-It says to the drone. He takes full control of it through his custom rig, having it fly towards trouble.
The drone acquires a target and fires off another laser beam from its mounted laser pistol.
Torin desperately looks over Kreel, hoping against hope to find any sign of life and trying to pretend the smoking hole in his chest isn't really there.
Please don't be dead, I can't go back there... pleasedon'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedeadpleased on'tbedeadpleasedon'tbedead...
Sputter flies up and just barely grazes the thug, who looks like he's going to turn and run after that hit nonetheless!
Torin's fears are realized, the dwarf is dead.
R1G5 tricks the thug who zigs when he should have zagged and shoots the man cleanly, dropping him.
The grungy thug mistakenly assumes Dunk is on his side, but the vesk soundly smacks the daylights out of him.
"HALT! EVERYONE STAY WHERE THEY ARE!"
An amplified voice calls out, but few listen. The surviving thugs dash off the way they came. The rubberneckers come out from behind crates to look around. The entire bay smells like fire and burned circuits.
The source of the voice becomes clear a moment later. It's station security!
Emergency medical services follow a few minutes later to assist the injured. Security personnel question witnesses and take their statements. "What happened here? Your weapons have been fired. Explain!"
Even as you give your statement, the medics confirm that Kreel is beyond help.
"Hey. I asked you lot some questions!" Your attention returns to the immediate.
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Dunklezahn steps forward.
Sir, we have just arrived, disembarking from the Okimoro there. We were meeting with that dwarf, Kreel. He is a representative of the Starfinders and our new employer. As we made to approach him, gunfire erupted between what appeared to be two rival gangs. We moved to intervene so in an attempt to eliminate the immediate threat to our employer, who had been caught in the crossfile and then to ascertain the extent of his injuries.
Janzi looks up from the dwarf, tears on his face. He's dead! HE'S DEAD! He wasn't doing anything but waiting here for us greenhorns, and then the guys with the orange armbands on this side started shooting at the well-dressed preppies on the other side and HE GOT SHOT FOR BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME OH THE HUMANITY LASHUNTITY AND YSOKITY OF IT ALL!
Hack-It hangs back as much as he can without looking like he's going to bolt, even though he really wants to. His only contribution is to say, "What the Vesk said."
He spends some time looking over these strangers who were also going to meet with Kreel, studying them. He's not sure he likes them.