"What the heck was that?"
Val is unphased by the Attack, but still moves into position to attack with her sword.
Jayla moves closer, so she has a better aim at Meyanda.
Xaikon flies up to shoot over the cover and lets loose an arrow.
not a crit.
Alaros?
Seem our gunslinger is absent. He shoots at her. landing a glancing blow.
She is surprised to see her weapon has no effect on Valeria. She takes a 5 step back and cast a spell targeting Valeria with a spell instead.
Casting searing light.
your go again sorry for delay I knew I was waiting for someone to post but didn't realize it had been so long.
Xaikon seeing her shot did penetrate the android, she notches another arrow to fire.
Were still missing folks. Alaros and valeria.
Val moves in and swings
"Sister, before this ends in either side's demise, tell me this,
where do we originate from?"
Badly injured the android woman refuses to submit. Unleashing a burst of negative energy. will dc 15 for half.
"I serve Hellion to the end. There will be unity. The new age will come." she replies.
Jayla merely responds with a cold answer.
"Then maybe we'll have to extract an answer, if you prefer demise."
Val attacks again
She goes down.
While remaining hovering, she moves about scanning for any more danger.
Jayla puts back her bow, then stands in the relaxed stance.
She walks up to the fallen Meyanda and squats.
"A waste, to blindly follow something so illogical."
She turns her head to Val.
"Could you part with that for a moment?"
A glowing ball of light appears in the middle of the chamber.
It speaks while fluctuating in brightness. "Greetings I am the shipboard VI of Habitat module 43 of the starship Divinity. I am called Vigil. With the cease of function of designate captain and no other living crew on board I am allowed by emergency protocols to interact with on-board non-crew intruders. Emergency repairs are required. The power core is unstable and without emergency venting this facility will be destroyed in a catastrophic overload in exactly 33 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes and 18 seconds at the beep....BEEP. If you are willing to effect repairs I can instruct" it is silent and waiting for a response.
If Val lent Jayla her axe, the job goes faster, otherwise Jayla uses a dagger....just a bit messier.
Looking at the body of her fanatic 'sister', Jayla cuts off her head.
She checks if the pistol is still hot, so she could fry the flesh closed.
When the others would look, she holds the head in front of her like shakespeare's skull.
"She was a risk without option of reason, she declared so herself.
I would know my origins, she seemed to know more of the topic, but chose to remain silent.
Thus, i'm taking collatoral, until i find means to discover my past's secrets."
Xaikon watches Jayla take off the head, becoming rather interested when seeing no blood, seeing plenty metal parts. For Jayla and all the other androids they came across are still strange constructions.
She speaks to Jayla, "You believe the head still retains the memories. Just have to figure out how to retrieve them."
Hearing the glowing ball speak, she looks at Jayla, "Do you understand what the glowing thing is saying", while pointing her hand in it's direction.
Jayla nods.
"It is notifying us on the instability of the energy source.
It will destroy itself in 33 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes and 18 seconds at the previous heard beep. It however offers instructions to prevent this, to repair the damage."
"So we have time to fix it, right?"
"Yes."
Jayla would cut from Meyanda's outer clothing to create a makeshift bag to hold the head in.
"AI, what are the instructions for avoiding the destruction?"
"Critical system repairs are required to prevent explosion. A core shutdown is required. Error. Security protocols require admin access. Only a living crew member can initiate a core shut-down....Looking for alternative...Emergency venting also requires admin access....Searching...Emergency venting could be manually activated by damaging several critical subsystems. Explosion would not be prevented but delayed for several decades. Warning area with subsystems have become flooded with lethal levels of radiation. Suggest sending non-organic workers to complete the task...Searching...No functional worker capable of completing the task is on-board. An organic with proper protection could complete the task or a sacrifice may be required." replies the VI
Xaikon looks puzzled at hearing the VI speaking, "Jayla, I hope understand what it is saying"
"It reports we do not have the right permission for some actions.
Searching for alternatives, it presents us the option of damaging critical points within. The explosion would not be averted, but delayed for several decades.
Literally speaking, this ranges from 3 to 9 decades."
When the AI mentions radiation, Jayla halts briefly.
"..it now states there is a high concentration of 'radiation', which i speculatively presume to be a lethal environmental hazard.
Either someone enters the specific area wearing protection and does the job slowly, or someone goes in without it and does the job faster, most likely to perish from the radiation."
"I don't understand most of what was said, but I'm guessing the route will be dangerous."
So what to do you do?
return to town?
"The question to ask is if a delay in fixing it, shortens the life of the fix?"
"Affirmative, activating the fail-safe closer to meltdown would diminish the time until overload. Not enough data for exact timeframe."
"AI, where are the protectives stored?"
Scanning...none are currently detected by my sensors but two are listed in inventory.
Xaikon decides just to walk about looking at stuff in the room while Jayla retrieves needed information from the VI.
"None detected, 2 listed as stocked.
...AI, what is the % of chance, that those suits have been taken by crew no longer aboard this place.?"
calculating...12% chance they were taken by crew...63% they were taken by non-crew salvagers..25% chance they remain on board but are in damaged section were sensors no longer function.
"Awaiting response"
Secondary effects from radiation deal Strength damage at a much slower rate than most poisons. This secondary effect ends only after a character succeeds at two consecutive Fortitude saving throws to resist secondary radiation damage. If a character has Strength damage equal to his current Strength score, further damage dealt a secondary effect is instead Constitution damage.
[Radiation Level][Fort Save][Primary Effect][Secondary Effect]
[Low] [13] [1 Con drain] [1 Str damage/day]
[Medium] [17] [1d4 Con drain] [1d4 Str damage/day]
[High] [22] [2d4 Con drain] [1d6 Str damage/day]
[Severe] [30] [4d6 Con drain] [2d6 Str damage/day]
Jayla relays the information.
After which she pops a different question.
"If the explosion is to be averted, and we have time still, why not look for protection suits on our travels?"
"If they are in the area, we should look for them and get the problem solved quickly, so there is more time in the future to fix the real problem."
"Make sense to collect the gear as we go along. Does it mean we can repair the torch?"
"It means we sabotage an already malfunctioning contraption.
The danger will be stalled, but will happen eventually."
.....
"AI, are any other life signs present within the hazardous areas?
If not life, has there been signs of movement of non-living, such as mechanical contraptions or units? We must ascertain the potential of other units intend on preventing the repairs."
Jayla inquires to ascertain as much as she can, recalling the medi-bay robot and the multi armed creature with its undead brethren.
With nothing more to do here for the moment you return to the town of Torch and relay what you have learned to the council.
They are worried of course but they are confident the situation can be fixed. Their main goal seems to be not to prevent the explosion however but to reactivate the venting system as soon as possible.
"Let's go and see if we can find one of those protective suits..."
"You intend to go down there again?"
Jayla's slightly puzzled, behind her neutral demeanor.
"I did not say where to find one of those suits, as we could check the merchants that travel about."
"For our best chances at reactivating the flame would be to get the little girl back to undo what she did."
The council members point out that the most likely place to find a lead about the scavengers and pirates would be to go to scrapwall a salvager settlement north of here.