The Starfinders return fire on the gangers at Elina's encouragement, but only the gnome manages to land a shot.
The struck ganger winces, fights on--attempting to strike the gnome that struck him.
He lands a solid blow on the gnome and threatens to do the same to the other Starfinders nearby.
Hiding among the underbrush, the other ganger unleashes a volley of fire on the nearest Starfinder, Deloran.
Another unpleasant jolt surges into the human Starfinder!
Fourth Round of Shootin'
Ganger (red) -9 HP
Ganger (purple) -17 HP
Ganger (yellow) -3 HP
Zip -12 SP
Zap
Elina
Deloran -8 SP
Hach
Tchisk
The force of the half-orc's blow instantly drops the ganger to the ground.
Fourth Round of Shootin' Cont'd
Ganger (red) -14 HP
Ganger (purple) -17 HP
Ganger (yellow) -3 HP
Zip -12 SP
Zap
Elina
Deloran -8 SP
Hach
Tchisk
Elina points out the remaining ganger. The ysoki's shot misses, but the human returns fire in kind.
The half-orc is eager to run up and swing at the guy.
Fourth Round of Shootin' Cont'd'er
Ganger (red) -14 HP
Ganger (purple) -17 HP
Ganger (yellow) -5 HP
Zip -12 SP
Zap
Elina
Deloran -8 SP
Hach
Tchisk
The gnome and drone each miss, Zip having done so, as Hach seemed to anticipate, because of the cover obscuring the ganger.
Feeling secure behind cover the remaining ganger unleashes a volley of fire on a Starfinder.
The ganger's confidence in his protective surroundings making him surprisingly accurate as he fires on the famed radio celebrity!
Fifth Round of Shootin' Begins
"Staying in the cover? That's not going to help you." With one hand still dragging his large rifle behind him, Hach strides towards the last one and swings again with his baton.
The half-orc strikes the last ganger squarely in the head. Still standing, barely, the ganger now looks ready to run--his confidence in his surroundings having suddenly drained.
Fifth Round of Shootin' Cont'd
Ganger (red) -14 HP
Ganger (purple) -17 HP
Ganger (yellow) -11 HP
Zip -14 SP | -6 HP
Zap
Elina
Deloran -8 SP
Hach
Tchisk
PC Status:
Zip -14 SP | -6 HP
Deloran -8 SP
The last ganger drops from the ysoki's parting shot.
The party has sufficient time to rest.
Ceren seems unperturbed by the gangers’ appearance, seemingly confident that you work at falsifying her death should throw off any likely investigations into her whereabouts.
Once the party provides the elderly hacker with the information pertaining to the new identity that you created for her, as well as any tomato plants you chose to bring, she gives you all a broad smile. "A new life!" she says, "Jubair will be so excited. This is the most alive that I have felt in ages!"
As the wizened woman begins to depart to find Jubair and go into hiding, she pauses for a final glimpse back. "Thank you all for your help. And you can tell the android who sent you, that I'd be happy to return the favor should she ever require my...'skills'." The woman then turns to depart down the path further into the park.
Shortly, thereafter, you receive a comm message from Historia-7. "Thank you for your help." the android notes. "Ceren appears now to be sufficiently comfortable enough in her new identity to risk a return to public life. Guidance has been notified that your task has been completed."
At the half-orc's urging, you head toward the Arms in order to catch a shuttle out to the Armada where the final faction leader resides aboard the Master of Stars. While en route, you are greeted by rudimentary courier robot.
It unemotionally presents a gift box to you before speeding away. Within the gift box you find a standard datajack and 200 credits. In addition, the box also contains a frostbite-class zero rifle. A simple electronic message from Historia-7 indicates that the datajack is a token of thanks from the Dataphiles and that the old—albeit out-of-place—rifle is an acquisition of Ceren’s that Jubair found while cleaning out the family storage unit.
Once at the one of the many docks located in the Arms of Absalom Station, you manage to secure a shuttle. 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 shuttle operator notes that theMaster of Stars is currently undergoing extensive repairs.
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.
Using the working lifts and maintenance tunnels, you are able to reach E-Deck. The doors on E-Deck are closed and do not automatically open without power, but since the magnetic seals on the doors are also disabled due to the power loss, you are able to force your way through.
The area is dark, making the first order of business to restore power to the lights and the cameras prior to entering the area.
This section, like the rest of E-Deck, is a heavily underused section of the Master of Stars, consisting of various primary access corridors and adjoining chambers. Most side rooms are crew quarters or communal living spaces—far less important locations due to the recent shortage in personnel.
Even with power restored, most of the starship’s cameras remain off. However, you can see within one of the viewscreens that there are two human children hiding in an empty storage room, not far away.
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”Finally, something in my wheelhouse. . . “ Zip says as he moves over next to the Ysoki. ”Here, let me help you out, these old 238 Bulette class ships have a kinda wonky power grid. Worked on one back in ‘92.”
”There Tchisk. I dunno why I even helped you. You’re a real crackerjack mechanic, y’know? If everyone was as well trained as you I wouldn’t have a show” Zip says.
”Hey, look at that,” the drone says. ”One of the cameras is working again-look, two human kids were just sitting in the cargo bay in the dark!”
”Well gee, that’s bad. They’re probably scared. We should figure out what’s going on!” Zip responds.
The children on the camera's viewscreen seem to be approaching near hysterics. Though they seem unwilling to move from behind the crate where they are huddling, the sounds of their panicking cries increases. Indeed, the sound of their cries has reaches such levels, that they can be heard through the closed door of the storage room.
The noise makes finding the nearby storage room quite easy. Though the door is closed, it does not appear to be locked. Though you have sufficient strength to now pry the doors open, obviously would have been too heavy for the children to open after the power had been cut.
Upon viewing the interior of the room, 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.
You are clearly aware of the presence of two human children that you had earlier seen on the deck’s camera system.
The children are surprised to see you at first, but also look quite relieved, particularly when the human starts speaking to them.
"I-I'm Lan" the young girl responds to the large Starfinder. "And this is my brother, Si." She points at the boy. He appears reluctant to speak and keeps glancing over at a closed door nearly opposite of the one the party entered.
The boy seems conflicted about something, but he clearly wants to keep you all away from the other door.
"Our dad works on this ship." Lan announces. "He's an engineer. So, it should be okay if we're here right?"
"I mean--he did drop us off at the 'Kids' Area'," she continues, "but no one ever said we couldn't explore..."
The boy, Si, interjects, "I-I'm going to be an engineer, too, someday. I'm pretty good at fixing things and putting things together. This ship still needs a lot of work, so I thought I'd help! That's good, right?"
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Zip goes up to them, a worried expression on his face. Being a gnome, he doesn't really need to take a knee to see eye to eye to them, but he still tries to explain the situation in a way that they can understand."Listen, Si, Lan, I'm glad you wanna work on ships. I used to do that too. But it's real dangerous down here, alright? These 238 Bulette class ships can get real finicky, er, I mean hard to repair. We lost lighting, what would have happened if we lost gravity or worse stuff? Plus messing around with live electricity and plasma without the proper tools, well, it can really hurt. Now I know you're just trying to help, but I think you'd better stay with the other kids. At least until you've taken some Engineering outreach classes at the very least."
The words of the gnome and human seem to put the children at ease, but the coarse words of the half-orc make them jump.
The boy, Si, looks briefly at the half-orc, then turns his gaze to the gnome. "I didn't mess with the door, I swear!" the kid protests. "At least not too much. I just has reset the sensitivity on the ship’s fire extinguishers--so it would off if someone gets too close--attempt to open the doorway. It shouldn't hurt anyone. Just hose 'em with a few gallons upon gallons of fire retardant foam."
"We just wanted to make sure that everyone was safe." the girl, Lan, interjects, before adding, "Besides, no space monster is going to eat us. She doesn't even have teeth."
Si gives a quick glance over at his sister, putting a finger up to his mouth in a gesture indicating that she should hush.
"Um, you're not going to tell anyone that we were here, are you?" he asks, trying to change the subject.
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Deloran gets to work on the door
"I'll have this fixed in no time."
When he is finished he turn to Lan, "What do you mean She doesn't have even have teeth, who are you talking about? I am asking because I am a xenoseeker and love to meet new life forms. Do you have an alien friend here somewhere? I would love to see her. And maybe I could be friends with her as well."
Deloran readily disables the trap on the door that the boy, Si, had set. The boy appears visually impressed by how readily the Starfinder does so.
"We were playing with Floatie." Lan explains as her brother looks on, her shoulders slump as she realizes that she has given away her secret.
"Zoomax!" Si corrects, glaring again at his sister. "HIS name is 'Zoomax'. We agreed on it."
"HER name!" Lan shoots back. "Is Floatie! She's a girl and, no, we didn't agree. YOU wanted to call her 'Zoomax', but I think that 'Floatie' is a much cuter name." The girl glares at the her brother.
"Zoomax is in there. He's in the ceiling." Si says, pointing to the room beyond the door.
"SHE!" Lan again corrects.
A cold mist begins to bellow from behind the door where the trap had been set. The air is frigid.
The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal. Frost and ice covers many of the features in the room, including the floor.
Above the floor, about 20 feet away, is an unscrewed fixture from one of the ceiling lights. It is possible that the creature could have slipped through the socket.
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”Huh.” Zip says while turning on his environmental protections. ”Zap, wanna take a look in there? You’re better in the cold than I am.”
Zap opens the door and peers inside.
”Condensation has formed some really slippery ice on the floor in here.” he reports back. ”I think it escaped into the light fixture? Someone who’s good at tracking animals or piloting might be able to figure it out. So not my brother!” quips the droid.
”And not my brother!” Zip quips back.
Zip falls flat on his face on the ice but manages to turn himself over on his back and shimmy into the room as if he were working on the underside of a hover vehicle. He makes liberal use of handholds on the walls to propel himself along; it is not dignified.
”Yeah, I see where it entered the fixture. Given its trajectory and the vents on E-deck of these ships, I estimate it’ll wind up somewhere——-“
Zip can discern that the creature, must have been heading southward through the ceiling, but he knows that more analysis or information is required to determine just where it ended up.
"Come out Floatie I have some food for you.
"His name is Zoomax!" responds the cry of a boy from the other room.
The human Starfinder takes note of the surroundings and, following the gnome's suggestions of the direction the creature must have flown, concludes that the creature must behind an exposed panel of ship internals.
Once uncovered, the creature is shown to resemble a blue, tailless horseshoe crab, albeit one that seems to hover quietly in the air. While apparently hungry, it does seem to have much interest in the offered rations. Instead, it seems more drawn to the ship’s power systems. Feeding it may prove to be tricky.
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Still on the floor, the gnome scrunches up his face in thought.
"Well gee, it looks like it feeds on electricity. Or at least, it does some of the time . . ." Zip ponders to himself.
"Hey, remember that time we had that infestation of electrovores? We were able to do that thing?" Zap suggests.
"Hey yeah, that's not a bad idea," Zip says. "If we set up a battery, get a couple of loose wires so Floatsie Zoomax can complete the circut and feed, then shut off power to that area of the ship, it should come out and try to feed on our battery. Then we can take the creature wherever we want, to the xenoseekers most likely, I'm sure they have a safe way to take care of the thing. Here, let me get to work. . ."
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DC 5 is less to Exnoseekers: "You are trained to seek out, identify, and interact with alien life-forms. Reduce the DC to identify a rare creature using Life Science by 5."
"Lets build a box or create first and then we can put it's food inside.
"I don't see anything offhand that can be used, you might need to make something while I keep it here."
Pulling out his partly used power clip he tries to feed that to Zoomax.
Working together, the party discovers the best way to feed the alien, which you surmised, must have woken up after a long period of stasis and was starving. Deloran's sacrifice a battery’s worth of electricity was enough to lure the creature back to sleep.
With the alien source of the problems now contained, the party is free to contact Fitch and/or the guardian of Si and Lan.
You are put in contact with their father, Kieu Kein, who explains that his is one of the ship engineers. With his wife missing in the Scoured Stars incident, he brings his children onto the ship during work hours and leaves them in a specially designated children’s area. Obviously, the children did not remain there today and when he had discovered this fact he was worried sick about them. He is so grateful that you rescued his children that he offers you a mk 1 ring of resistance.
You are requested to report to the bridge of the Master of Stars. There, Fitch thanks you for discovering the source of the problem on E-Deck and for expertly handling the creature's humane capture. She notes that engineers can move back into E-Deck and fix the damage done. Fitch turns the alien over to an assembled team of experts in hopes of learning more of the alien’s language and culture. The satisfied ratfolk even gives you each a pat on the back for a job well done.
As a further reward, Fitch provides you with a credstick with 400 credits on it. The Wayfinders’ leader thanks you for your diligence, but is quick to get back to work on repairing the ship.
Upon following through with their stated plans, the party receives a summons from Guidance. Back at the Lorespire Complex, the intelligence once again presents itself in a holographic form—this time taking on the appearance of a wizened male korasha lashunta—to congratulate you all.
"Confirmation has been received from each of the four faction heads, which provided you with assignments." Guidance notes. "You are each to commended for your successful completion of the tasks provided. In the aftermath of the Scoured Stars incident, the Society is in need of skilled agents more than ever. The manner in which you have completed your Commencement duties is demonstrative of your potential as new Starfinder field agents. Undoubtedly, you will each be called upon in the future to once again employ your talents in benefit of the Society."