Jink manages to keep pace with the dwarf and his crew, but Nilan and Blask fall back as the dunes throw off Nilan's navigation.
Blask gets a shot in on the dwarf driver, and Nilan is close enough to hear the stream of obscenities coming from the driver. He goes to crank the wheel, which slips comically out of his hand thanks to Caloo, sending the buggy into a slow drift.
The crew in the back all panick slightly. The kasatha who had his shot overcharged before returns the favor, weaving a spell on the gun of the ysoki who boosted him a moment before, which the ysoki levels at Jink now, spraying Jink with deadly, magically-charged bullets. The vesk casts a spell as well, firing a spray of magic missles at Nilan off in the distance, evidently having the same idea as Caloo.
Dwarf: -20 HP
Kasatha:
Vesk:
Ysoki:
Actions: Caloo, Nilan [-10 dmg], Jink [-25dmg], Blask, Glitch [-18dmg], Kindu, Zhor
Glitch keeps in hiding, but has Kitty fire at the dwarf.
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Zhor, satisfied that he has staved off the worst of Glitch's wounds, looks aghast at Jink as he takes a supercharged blaster bolt.
"Dammit you idiots! Keep your heads down!"
He goes over to Jink and presses his hand on Jink's wound. There is a sizzling sound and the smell of cauterizing flesh.
Kindu stands slaps the rollover bar in frustration as the other vehicles pull away from Nilan's buggy. "I have a plan! Get me as close as you can to their buggy!" yells Kindu to Nilan, holding his pistol at the ready.
The tentacular thing has fully unearthed itself behind Nilan's buggy, and it is huge. The thing rears nearly 30 feet in the air, and while it takes a moment to orient itself, it begins chasing after the buggies with increasing momentum.
"Hold on!" Jink shouts.
Nilan says Can do! to Kindu and he floors it.
As Glitch brings the buggy in close to ram the other one, Caloo releases a small blast of caustic energy at the dwarf trying his hardest to maintain a grip on the steering wheel.
"Hold on!" Jink shouts.
Nilan comes over the dune with his squad just in time to see Jink crash his buggy full-tilt into the dwarf's buggy. Unable to grip the wheel, the pilot and his passengers all whip about the vehicle from the impact. Jink bounces the car neatly off, barely hurting their car - the dwarf and company, however, begin to yell as smoke pours out of the engine of their buggy.
In the chaos of the attack, the creature arrives, first bringing a huge foot down near Nilan's buggy before crashing towards the two collided vehicles.
The creature just misses the three vehicles, but it's monstrous bulk struggles around for another pass.
Dwarf: -24 HP
Kasatha:
Vesk:
Ysoki:
Enemy Buggy: -7 HP
Jink Buggy: Undamaged
Nilan Buggy: Undamaged
Caloo's shot goes clear over the jeep as the creature's attack rocks the entire area - and worse, the thing is completely unidentifiable to Caloo. This is clearly not a creature as nature or science ever intended, but something worse, something stranger.
Actions: Caloo, Nilan [-10 dmg], Jink [-21dmg], Blask, Glitch [-18dmg], Kindu, Zhor
We aren't gonna stick around to see what that thing can do! Hold on! Nilan shouts as he guns it some more, trying to put distance between them and the creature.
Blask loads another high capacity round in the chamber of Jink’s cumbersome sniper rifle. He can only see the huge “foot”, cone with inches of the buggy and even his eyes go wide. He’s seen lots f fu**ed up sh*t before, but even this is a first of the battle hardened warrior.
He takes aim at the dwarf’s buggy Ashe sees smoke start to pour from the engine. He’s hoping a well placed shot will disable the engine, allowing the monster to have a free lunch while they escape.
Glitch changes weapons and shoots at the passengers of the dwarfs buggy.
When the enemy comes within range, Zhor concentrates and throws a bolt of mental energy at the enemy driver.
"Enjoy the migraine!" Zhor chuckles.
Caloo screams as the huge monstrosity stomps down nearby.
That is enough to trigger a memory in your mind - stories about strange and depraved cults that worship huge tentacular beasts like this as gods and heralds of even worse creatures that live in the spaces between stars. You can even identify that this creature, with it's tree-like physique and distinctive bulk, is associated with the Outer God Shub-Niggurath.
Actions: Caloo, Nilan [-10 dmg], Jink [-21dmg], Kindu, Blask, Glitch [-18dmg], Zhor
Jink decides that now is a good time to be further away from here than he currently is.
His wheels spin and kick up fans of sand as he pulls away.
"This beast belongs to Shub-Niggurath, one of the Outer Gods! Drive faster!!"
Caloo fires another energy ray (acid) at the dwarf driver.
Blask's shot isn't able to hurt the buggy more than the ramming already has, and Glitch's spraying flames doesn't seem to harm anyone inside the buggy. Caloo would have scored a hit on the dwarf, but the jostling of the buggy causes the ray to miss.
The pilot struggles to grab the greased-up wheel but is unable to get his hands on the wheel. He gives a shriek.
The crew, panicked by the ramming and the monster invading, begin firing wildly.
The shots strike true - Zhor takes a flesh wound , Nilan takes a graze , but poor Glitch takes a shot through the shoulder and falls unconscious.
Kindu takes the opportunity of Jinks' ram to leap into the other buggy! He strikes a heroic pose and gives a salute to you all as he releases the energy his solarian training has been powering up.
With a burst of energy, Kindu erupts in the middle of the enemy jeep, causing shouts of shock and surprise from the other combatants.
As Jink and Nilan take off away from the firefight, another set of tentacles bursts from the ground. The first beast stays to assist it's brethren in the slaughter. The roar of the engine and the sound of the wind means you quickly are out of earshot of the slaughter.
"Dammit Glitch! What did I tell you?"
Zhor leans over and pokes his finger in Glitch's wound.
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Nilan doesn't let off the accelerator until he's well away from the creature.
What in Zon-Kuthon's black balls was that all about?
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Glitch lies behind the drivers seat, his tongue hanging out.
Scrambles stands, panting, on the back of Nilan's jeep. Everyone's comms crackle as he barks, "That was F***IN' AMAZING!! Did you see the size of that monster?? And Kindu's look when he jumped off - that crazy sonovab!~#% knew he was going to die!! Iomedae's Sainted Breastplate, that was amazing!!" He then turns off the camerabot and turns back towards Nilan and Blask, no sign of the previous sentences' energy or enthusiasm. "See, that's an example of the witty banter the audiences are looking for, none of this "Strong Silent" s!$& or hokey Akitonian Gunslinger schtick." The skittermander seems completely unfazed by the carnage he just witnessed.
Everyone's comms blink with an incoming message on the ghost program.
Hey, you all just had an APB put out for your capture?? "Armed and Dangerous, Approach With Caution, Reward Given DOA"??? It's saying you're guilty of some sorta murder here in town? Do we need to retalk our employment terms??
-Longshot
WTF, BLASK!!! You got city police gunning for you, and you're running side jobs?? you better have the creds to cover expenses, up front, if you think I'm giving you any help. you eat enough as it is, I'm likely to gain credits if I turn you in myself
"Do we still have a show, with our 'Hero(TM)' gone?" Glitch asks as the skittermander recaps the scene he missed.
He groans, as he turns to read his comm. "What kinda s+@& is that?" Glitch pulls himself up on the seat and starts working his computer to find who put that out and based on what.
Blask doesn’t have long to think about the DOA payment as his comm dings again. He takes a quick read, and his expression turns to deeper levels of anger and being pissed off.
Well FU*K! Not only is some jobber putting a bounty on my ass, BUT my actual employer is now up my ASS! First things first, gotta track down the source of the bounty, and then BREAK their face. Then I gotta deal with the real boss. She’d turn me in for few extra credits, that’s for sure. She’s even more cutthroat and ruthless than me...and that’s saying somethin’.
After a few moments he turns to Glitch, So, what a*$!~%~ put a bounty on us? I wanna break their face cause of this!
He hands the sniper rifle back back to Jink, I owe ya a few rounds, of both ammo and liquor
F
"Somebody owes me some armor without holes in it." Jink replies.
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Everybody's gonna get what's coming to them... Nilan promises
First we gotta figure what we're gonna do here, we could cut and run I guess? But the spaceport's gotta be covered. If we separate, well we might get away singly, but we'd be a helleuva lot easier to kill.
Nilan reaches out a hand to the others Partners then?
"Does it say what we're wanted for?" Zhor asks. "I swear I didn't do nothin' this time!"
"It didn't seem like there was a lot of law on this planet. Maybe we can hide out until things blow over. Or take out the jackwipe that put our names in there."
"As soon as I get a name, we're going to wipe the floor with that person." Glitch comments, obviously riled up.
"I don't understand. We captured Padre and his barathu associate and delivered them to the Peacekeepers. Why do they think we murdered someone?"
"Wrong question." Glitch objects.
"You have to ask, who wants to get rid of you."
"Then you ask how you can be faster at getting rid of that one."
"And then lastly when all that is cleared and your accuser is taken care of, only then you go to the officials. And only if you care about your reputation, and can't simply switch identities."
"Were were you raised, that you think telling 'it wasn't me' does you any good."
"Well of course we got a show, as long as I got footage and a camera," Scrambles says, sounding offended. "I mean, we're probably not getting picked up by the Aspis anymore, but..."
He groans, as he turns to read his comm. "What kinda s$+$ is that?" Glitch pulls himself up on the seat and starts working his computer to find who put that out and based on what.
As Glitch tries to access Goldnet and scan the infosphere, the app turns up some sort of error screen with some animated meme of a space goblin slagging a server room. Goldnet is unable to verify your account information - please see an Aspis technical service team for assistance.
Everyone's comms blink again with another message from Longshot, this one with an attachment.
That was close - it was trying to pull locational data, and I don't think that's going to work out too well for you. Delete Goldnet, use this instead - it'll get you onto the sphere privately and securely. The attachment, labled Masker-Aid, seems to be a web browser, and the tech-savvy among you aren't able to detect any nefarious .
Assuming Glitch is willing to use the app, it's fairly easy to discover what the APB is about. The story is all over the couple of sites that report news in Prosperity - the shocking murder of an Aspis television producer, evidence pointing towards washed-up action star Kindu Rassi and his associates, and the Peacemaker manhunt throughout the city for them. You recognize the photos of the victim - Shurami, the lashunta woman that offered you all the job as Kindu's protection.
Glitch's deep dive is able to pull up some additional information, too - a data scrape reveals social media accounts of some of the station reporters, announcing that the tip to the news came from "sources in Highestrise" - meaning Aspis employees. A little more black-hatting reveals some quickly decrypted messages between the news stations and Aspis employees, detailing how the Peacemakers were dispatched when Shurami didn't arrive at work today, and her body being discovered in her apartment - cut by a blade of some kind. The news coverage has a lot of video, presumably from Scrambles' work over the past couple of days, of Kindu swinging around his glowing blade. "God, they're doing a terrible job splicing those shots," grumbles Scrambles, peering over Glitch's shoulder at the video.
Finally, one last message between two Aspis employees gets flagged by Glitch's search. It's encrypted at financial-grade levels, but after a few fiddly minutes, Glitch is able to crack it.
Subject 207321 given to the handlers for the 'shoot' with the action star. Release the info to Peacemakers and news crews at 1000 hours.
The sending address is a meaningless string of numbers - likely disguised somehow - but the receiving address is one Mogden Draal.
Another chime as everyone's comms go off - one last message from Longshot.
I wasn't planning on this, but seems like it might be time to meet. Attached are a set of coordinates.
"That's that." Glitch says as he sends his computer to sleep. "Can we take a break somewhere? I need some rest and a band aid or two."
S'a good idea Glitch. Let's find a spot and take a breather, take stock of what we have, and what we do next.
If not Nilan will scout around, using the buggy, for a spot that is semi secluded and won't be easily seen from above.
So the downside to being out deep in the desert is that there's not a lot of natural cover. However, Nilan does come up with a clever solution after checking through the exploration buggies' trunks - the buggies come with some tarps, so Nilan spreads those over the top of the buggies and recruits everyone to throwing sand over the tarps to provide cover. All in all, they serve as decent sunshades and blinds for a few minutes worth of rest.
Nilan kicks his hat over his head and takes a short nap.
Let's take a short rest, then head on over to meet with Longshot.
Blask checks himself over and is quite shocked that he doesn’t have any bullet holes or claw marks in his tough flesh. He is so used to taking punishment that injuries come second nature to him.
Lets try and catch a few moments rest, but not too long. I suppose that there will be all sorts of buttons trying to collect that bounty on us. We gotta get the outta this place, but I ain’t the best at being stealthy
Glitch too lies down to get some rest and ge trid of this feeling to be completely depleted of energy.
As Glitch rests, Zhor heads over. "I can do something about those wounds if you can sit still for ten minutes," he says.
Zhor places his hands over Glitch's wounds and concentrates, entering a trance.
"I always thought, that if I'd end up in the hands of a vesk, it would be me getting strangled. I'd have never thought that It'd be such a pleasant experience." Glitch tells, as his wounds close and the pain disappears. "Thank you very much."
The APB and the resulting reward is coming straight from the Aspis Consortium themselves, with the tipline they've set up seeming to go through the Peacemakers organization that Kindu was briefly tenured with.
As the group rests, Caloo pipes up. "It sounds like Longshot may be the only friend we've got. Unless any of you have friends you don't think are willing to turn us in for some creds from Aspis--I say we get to these coordinates as soon as we can. Where are they leading us, anyway?"
Caloo pulls up whatever map system he can find on the infosphere to figure where these coordinates are.
"I still don't get it. Aspis Corporation doesn't lift a finger unless it can make a credit. Why go after us? I can't see it being worth anything to kill us."
"Maybe this Longshot guy can tell us."