"I *uh* mean *eh*-" Leila starts but luckily they get distracted. Well, Astri gets distracted, but that was what counted really. Hmm... Though she wouldn't mind being a bit distracted herself to take her mind off goblin minds splattered inside space suits. Oh no I really don't want to think about that! Brr...
"Hey you said you saw someone?" Leila chirps as she stoves away the slate and then bounces towards the eastern tunnel. Discreetly. Well trying at least ... "Pass me the rifle and maybe I can spot it with the scope!"
Through the scope Leia spots a human sized humanoid in a spacesuit floating away. The spacesuit is different from the ones the miners ore which is odd. As Leia wonders about this the figure suddenly turns and Leia finds herself staring at a space helmet that is completely cracked and open to the void.
Worse that that underneath the jagged remains of the helm is a carbon grey human skull locked in what looks like a scream; to the side of the teeth Leia can see the tendons of the spectre's cheeks stretching and squashing like so much useless gum as the jaw works up and down and she can almost hear the silent wail as the empty sockets flare with a purple light that leaves after trails as the figure, thankfully, turns away and drifts north and out of sight. Dark hair bunches and spills out of the side of the helmet as it disappears.
As the figure floats away Leia can see that it actually *is* floating. It has no legs and its arms extend into skeletal hands that taper off into fingers that look more like claws.
Leia's sharp mind works overtime and comes up with a label for what she has just seen. Driftdead. This is what happens when a mortal dies in the Drift overcome with an emotion so negative that it's bound to the Drift and unable to go to its final judgment. She doesn't know anything more about these things but the stories say they hate the living.
"Brrrr!" The entire halfling vibrates in a shiver. As carefully and as slowly as she dares Leila backs up and returns to the party, pale as a distant star. At first she looks almost paralyzed but she quickly starts blabbing again. "I-I think I saw a ghost. Spectre. Ah-h whatever! A Driftdead; they are worse horror stories then the corpse-infesters. Someone marooned in the Drift left to die until there's only the hateful soul left! And it is *here*! *glup* Let's try not to find it again! And and and that Holy Fusion Seal! Put it on something quickly! Just in case..."
Prospero-4 accepts the spare battery from Astrianna, With one fluid motion he swaps the old battery from his laser rifle to the new one. "I do have an extra battery myself, but this will be useful as well. I have found a way to increase the energy output of powered weapons, thus benefitting from greater penetration and tissue damage. Unfortunately, this method is not the most efficient when it comes to battery consumption."
The android considers the half-elf's words about the aeon stone, and it would make sense. An android doesn't need to breath, and with the stone providing all needs of sustenance, the assassing could be stalking here for ages. "If she indeed was the pilot of the necroglider, why she was attacking us? I hope the datapad will give us some answers."
--
"Driftdead?" Prospero-4 turns towards the direction Leila is pointing his new rifle. He squints his eyes and tries to see it himself. "Sounds ominous. Can you target it? Drop it before we would have to fight it up close?"
A shrug is all Astrianna has for Prospero's uestions about the android assassin. "I'd like to know that myself! If someone hired her, they probably should have spent waaaay better. We're worth at least two assassins, wouldn't you think?"
She tosses the aeon stone back and forth between her palms in zero g before offering it to Prospero as well. "In any case, you want this stone? You don't seem as attached to Mama Fat's Jerky as me and Leila are. "
Astrianna listens to Leila's description of the figure she saw floating around the east tunnel with increasingly furrowed brows. By the time the halfling is done, Astrianna's face looks like a puckered grape.
"Wow. That sounds WORSE than the Akata. How about we don't go that way until later. Or not at all! The machined corridor looks are more interesting, and doesn't have obvious, killer ghosts." She expounds, digging the Holy Fusion seal from her bag and tossing it to whomever wants to attach it to their weapon.
"Eeeeeeeh I'm not sure. If that was the thing floating trough walls; why wouldn't it float trough bullets too? And it snuck out of sight ... Let's just not go that way for now and keep our eyes open!" Leila replies to Mr 4. "Yeah, much worse then the Akata. Or assassins. Or most things really ..."
"Hmm I have heard that it might be possible to trap them in a vacuum... Or did Spook-Busters lie...?"
The group makes its way towards the metal doors to the south, to get to them they pass one more cavern made out of the rough rock of the asteroid. It wasn't visible from the earlier cavern but, here, there are scattered body parts floating completely still in zero g with most of them hugging the walls, ceiling, or floor. Scattered bits of blood look like oddly shaped rubies as they sit suspended in mid air. A quick check of the body parts confirms that these are the former miners turned void zombies that have been meticulously dissected by... something...
A credstick contianing 470 credits and a depleted azimuth laser rifle and needler pisotl float admist the eviscerated body parts.
At the south is the incongruous door Astrianna had spotted earlier. It seems way more like what you would expect to find on a space station, rather than in the middle of an asteroid.
The scattered bits of blood continue as the group passes into the chamber that looks more like a room on a space station or starship. Rather than the unfinished rock of the asteroid, the walls, floor, and ceiling ar clad with finished sheets of some polished, metallic substance, along with components of unrecognizable equipment. Panels on some of the walls flash with lights and mysterious symbols, and an almost infrasonic hum of unseen machinery pulses through the walls.
Pretty quickly there is a choice, go back in the direction they came from (left on map) or deeper in (right). The red jewels of floating blood continue like a macabre trail deeper into the rock.
As the group passes into the gleaming metal corridors, they find themselves falling down onto the floor with a gentle thump. Whatever machinery is still active also seems to be powering the generation of artificial gravity.
Eww... The floating blood was a bit too morbid for Leila. It started to feel like the Eoxian embassy again. But she soon made an even more terrible discovery. The gravity was coming back! That meant no more bouncing or bounding leaps. She would have to walk again *sigh*
"Oh well. Should we double back a bit?" the halfling points towards the door on the left side of the room. "Just in case we have to run from the ghost!"
"Wicked." Astrianna mumbles over their comms as they happen upon the grizzly scene, floating to a stop and hanging on to a nearby wall.
She tap her holo-comm display and zooms in with infrared vision, capturing the morbid ife-rubies suspended in air. The camera slowly pans over the dissected bodies. "Ugh. It's getting more gross the longer I look at it. You think that ghost did this? Talk about the vengeful dead.."
She unzooms her rig and pushes off the wall, following the others towards the door. Distracted by the scenes of gore and the fact there is clearly some manufactured materials inside of a floating space rock, she doesn't notice the gravity field in time.
Having expertly piloted a course to fly right between the doorframes, Astrianna lands on chest as the g forces overtake her. "OOF! S@&+, are you kidding me? This place has gravity?"
Groaning dramatically, the half-elf picks herself off the floor, brushes off some space dust that made it past her kinetic barrier, and looks around. "This looks like the set of a B-grade horror trid... can anyone read these symbols?" She unsteadily walks over to one of the panels to inspect it.
Without even looking, Astrianna dismissively waves a hand in Leila's direction. "Really? We just found this place and you want to go back the way we came? Boring. We should go deeper."
All Astrianna can figure out is that these are *not* symbols in any language that she has even seen. And she's seen quite a few on the comments of her vids even if she can't understand them.
Astrianna puts some tags on her video feed and snaps some stills of the symbols. She planned on figuring out where they came from once she had access to the infosphere. "I personally know 6 languages and have studied dozens of others... and I've never seen anything like these symbols. Crazy stuff."
Another timestamp is added onto the video feed: End second video here. Three parter baby!!!
"But the ghost ..." Leila starts bit quickly switches track. "Did you say mysterious symbols?! How did I miss that! Damn even silly aliens write their stuff too high up..."
Mumbling about the tall-folks lack of consideration for the properly sized the halfling heads over to also inspect the glyphs. The only thing stopping her from pushing her nose against them were the visor on her helm. And, you know, her (lack of) height. Somewhat redundantly she asks Astri "Make sure to record them!"
"Double back? Why would we do that We came to investigate this rock, and it's certainly getting more interesting now. Onwards, I say."
The group elects to move deeper into the rock and turn left (from their perspective) and walk into a room that seems torn between two worlds . The South eastern half is an unfinished rock wall much like the zero g caverns they floated and fought through while the north eastern portion is finished with the same ceramic-metallic plating as the corridor where the gravity became active again.
A complex control panel is built into the north wall but right before that stands a bipedal robot that is a dull maroon in color with faded red lights pulsing slowly on its chest and limbs. Its armored plating is vaguely chitinous in appearance while it's elongated head reminds you a bit of an Elebriran or a Kasatha.
What's obvious is that this robot's design originates from nowhere near the Pact Worlds. None of you have seen anything like it.
It creaks to life and advances, its chest plate opening up to reveal a weapon.
The group springs into action before the robot can though.
Round 1
Astrianna walks slowly, capturing detailed footage of the strange rift betwen the metallic plating and the unhewn asteroid. "This is so weird. It's like whatever this place was and the rock fused together or something?"
She turns her head and looks directly at the strange figure in the room, stopping in surprise and rising her pistol in a two-handed grip. "The hells is that? Gods I hope it's not some alien sex robot. Maybe it's sent- SHEYLN'S T@~& IT HAS A WEAPON KILL IT!" The half-elf yells, squeezing the trigger on her pistol in a panic.
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Cool! Leila thought to herself as the odd machine sprung into life. Scary and potentially lethal but cool.
If an effort to distract the thing while she brought her zapper to bear Leila quickly made a directed broadcast of all the adds Astri had gathered on her vlog. That ought to bluescreen anything!
"Very interesting... We might be dealing with completely alien technology here." Prospero-4 observes the robotic figure, as it shudders into movement.
"Almost a shame to be shooting it, we can't be sure it is hostile. But perhaps it's best to be safe, and study it from it's remains"
Following Astrianna's lead, the android opens fire on the unknown robot.
While Astrianna, Leia, and Prospero all miss the strange new foe badly, Fianh is able to land a glancing blow on the robot.
While Leia has no idea what kind of technology powers the robot. She guesses that one robot isn't all that different from another. They are vulnerable to very well aimed attacks as well as electricity.
The robot retaliates with the arcing electrical weapon that is integrated into its chest. It goes wildly wide. Honestly the robot seems like it has not been maintained at all for many many years.
Having his first go wide, Prospero-4 decides to forget careful, overcharged shots, and start firing with greater speed.
Round 2
Astriianna can see the afterimage of the electrical attack burned into her retinas. She decides she does not want to get hit by that.
Laying her (borrowed) pistol over her forearm, the half-elf channels the instincts of her ancestors and places a well-aimed shot directly into one of the robot's optical ports.
Halfway there! Leila told herself. While her barrage of weird supplement infomercials seemed to be taking their toll on the robots aim (and sanity?) her shot were certainly not. After all you needed to actually *hit* to exploit any weaknesses! "Most robots are weak to electricity! And losing important bits!"
Prospero's second s&*% pings off the robot's carapace while Leila misses as well. Astrianna however fires a bullet right through one of the eye sockets and the robot jerks back as sparks appear in the damaged eye and smoke start to waft out of it.
Fianh follows Prospero's lead and fires two bullets at the machine. One of them scrapes one of the robot's legs while the other misses.
The robot responds to these attacks by firing a jolt of electricity into the room that hits everyone of the team in the crowded corridor. Fianh, Leila, and Prospero are able to dodge the worst of the arcs but Astrianna, gloating over her wonderful shot gets shocked by the full extent of the blast.
Round 3
Astrianna pumps her fist in the air as the robot jerks back from her well-placed bullet. Unfortunately, this became a vertiable lightning rod for the arc of electricity fired by bot.
Thankfully her suit's enviromental protection shields take the brunt of the damage, leaving her with only a small shock. "Oohhh yeah." Involuntary escapes from her mouth, her body shivering from the electricity popping across her skin. A languid smile briefly curls across on her lips. Maybe I need one of these... adjust the voltage...
"Uhh." Warning alarms from her suit snap her back into reality. Astrianna clears her throat, turning to retreat. "My shields got fried, I'm moving back! Keep shooting! You've almost got it!" She moves past the rest of the group, out of range of the electrical arc.
While everyone else is distracted, she modifies her suit's environmental controls to circulate extra air across her flushed face.
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Astrianna had not been stretching the truth in her attempts to encourage the group. The robot did not, in fact, look like it was close to being destroyed as it advanced.
But Prospero-4 fires a laser shot that sears right through the robot's other eye socket. The red glass like viewport cracks and splinters from the force and shards of it drop to the ground and a brief flash of flame can be seen frying the ancient construct's internal circuits.
The robot is rocked by the hit but continues to try and target its assailants until a further shot from Prospero right into its chest sends it stumbling back on its four mechanical legs.
It tries to lever itself up but a final bullet from Fianh causes it to finally collapse.
Astrianna lets out an excited "WHOOP" over their comms as Prospero blasts its other optic out, followed by combinations of other cheers and excited noises as he and Fi dissect the machine with projectiles.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" She squeals, loud enough that even Prospero could understand her with his volume turned down.
Confidence restored, she strides past the group and towards the robo, giving it a good swift kick in the chassis. "Yep it's dead."
The half-elf stands triumphantly over the robot, hands on her hips. "I need to recharge my shields in case we run into anything else this nasty. How about Prospero and Fi investigate this 'bot while Leila and I look over the control panel in the meantime?" She proposes, already making her way over to the northern panel the robot was (presumably) guarding.
"Yeah!" Leila quickly agrees and scurries forward to examine the broken robot. The halfling was bouncing with excitement as she crawled all over it. "I mean it's obviously a lot more alien then the atakas! And who really made this station slash hideout? Or what it is... Ooooh maybe we should haul the robot back and see if we can't salvage the memory banks!"
Then she realized there was something else Astri had said after the important bit (the awesome part) and she stopped herself to look around a bit more. Ooooh shiny! "Yeah let's have a look at that console! Maybe it works! Maybe it has an explanation. Ooooh a video diary - that would be awesome. 'Secret Base: Our mission ...' Heh. Maybe? Let's hope so!"
Leila tries her best to figure out if the console is intact and safe-ish to operate. Then of course how to turn it on without activating any self destruct thingies or making loud ghost-attracting noises.
Astrianna records Leila literally crawling all over the downed robot because it's hilarious. "Oh, we're taking it with us. Can you imagine the reaction of the technophiles back at the Spire? Bringing back alien tech? They'll love us!"
Meeting the halfling at the console, Astrianna looks around for a box or something for Leila to stand on. "It should be a universal rule to make monitors and sentient-computer interface devices height adjustable... Not excusable, even for aliens."
She watches as Leila fiddles with the controls, but she's not focusing on the computers side. Instead, Astrianna is more interested in the symbols and foreign language. "Every time you press a button or symbol it should do something, right? We might be able to piece together some words or concepts the symbols correspond to.
Astrianna turns to look at the observer bot and finds that it is in very bad shape. The electrical discharge from the old robot had damaged the bot badly but not quite terminally. It lists to one side and it seems like one its stablization thrusters is damaged. The red eye of its camera is spared though.
In the end all computers, even alien computers from who knows where, work on the basis of input and output. Leila knows this and is able to use her know how to access the unfamiliar controls found in this area of the Drift Rock with aplomb.
She doesn't understand any of the symbology or messages that are being flashed at her as she goes through menus and screens and tables of options.
Neither can Prospero or Fianh or Astrianna. Maybe the facility is a giant power source? Some sort of spaceship? A habitat module of some sort?
Leila is fairly certain though that the computers were once a part of a larger network, she keeps on running into what should be links to other computers or control modules which respond by flashing the same alien string of alien symbols in flashing colours. The best guess is they are an error message something along the lines of "DEVICE NOT FOUND". Leila is able to clone everything she can find into her own device though. Maybe someone else will have better luck deciphering the strange new language?
Deciding that there is nothing else that can be gleaned from the computers for the moment the group proceeds down the north tunnel that leads out of this room.
The tunnel curves 'east' into a grotto with a vaulted ceiling and a smooth stone floor. The sprawling cavern has the appearance of a primitive shuttle hanger or landing bay-an impression reinforced by the presence of a starship taking up the majority of the space. Only the western wall is finished with the ceramic-metallic plating found elsewhere in the complex; the remainder of the cavern is hemmed by natural rock walls. Huge doors stand in the eastern wall of the chamber-doors easily big enough to accommodate the starship parked in front of them. Of more immediate interest, however, are the two human bodies splayed on the floor just inside the western doors, their internal organs spread artfully on the floor around the corpses.
Ah the four of you hear of you in your heads, as an alien though pattern imposes itself on your brains Have more morsels come to play?
Astrianna looks directly into the red eye of the observer bot's camera, squinting with one eye as she does so. "Wow, I'm surprised the lens isn't cracked. This thing took a walloping." Stepping back, she watches the bot painfully list about, but ends up shrugging. "It'll just start screaming at us if we try to fix it. Hopefully it doesn't get damaged any further and cause the Hippocampus to self-destruct or something."
The half-elf documents all her guesses as to what the symbols mean based on Leila's input, but every time she tries to prove it nothing happens. Frustrated, she suggests they move on and let some nerd at the Starfinder Society figure it out instead. "They live for this stuff. A brand new alien language? The linguists will flip."
They travel through the hall, Astri's gun ready for the next killer whatever, but instead of being struck by any flying bullets she's instead struck by the starship suddenly appearing in their view. "Wooowww look at that! It's- oh gods more torn apart bodies. Ugh. They're arranged like the ones we saw-"
For once, Astrianna suddenly goes deathly quiet as the alien consciousness stalks into her mind.
A few seconds pass.
"Um, did... the rest of you hear that? Did.. it call you morsels too or is it just particularly attracted to me?" She says over their private comms, and it wasn't sure if she was serious or not.
Hello? Who is this? Astrianna thinks back, unsure of how to communicate with the foreign mind.
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"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Leila confirms over the comms that she had indeed also heard the voice. The halfling waves her gun around at nothing in particular, really wishing that whatever *that* was had just kept quiet and left them alone so she could take a better look at that spaceship instead. Yeah she was really not happy with this twist. "Aaaaaaaaaaa!" aaaaaaahhhhhhh!! "hhhhhhhh!!" hhhhh....!
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Fascinating...
Of all the strange encounters on this rock, finding a starship within it's wall is the most impressive. Focused at the starship, Prospero-4 would have failed to notice the bodies on the floor, if not for Astrianna's shouting. While those are not the first bodies to be found on this rock, it's always unnerving to see them dissected like that. The android takes a firmer grip on his rifle. He does not sense much throught the heavy gloves of his battle armor, but still, holding the weapon close does feels oddly comforting in these eerie halls.
Prospero-4 is about to start carefully approaching the corpses, when he hears... something. He taps quickly through the comm channels, trying to figure out from which the voice originated. And only a while later, he realizes the voice did not come through the comms, but directly into his mind.
"I heard it." Prospero-4 replies, when Astrianna brings it up. And judging from Leila's reaction the halfling heard it as well. "I am not particularly good judge of character, but is it safe to assume anyone calling others as 'morsels' should be considered hostile?"
Things might get ugly soon...
There are just too many telepaths Astrianna thinks discarding the train of thought in her head. Heck on her own planet her mother's people are the only major species that aren't telepathic. The Formians and Lashunta that share Castrovel with the elves are both mind communicators. It's an incredibly common communication evolution especially in void dwelling species, or any species that lacks vocal cords for obvious reasons (the gaseous Barathus for example). Quite a few planar outsiders are able to communicate telepathically also. No, telepathy doesn't narrow the field down at all.
What does narrow the field down is the bizarre creature that seems to phase through the ship and into view as Astrianna tries to establish mental communication.
It stands on two legs, and that is all that is not horrifying about it. Tan, leathery skin the color of puke stretches over the legs onto a torso that bulges with sinewy muscles. Two arms protrude out from here along-with with large wings primary made of skin that is stretched very very thin Below a powerful and lengthy serpent like tail lashes about.
Most terrible though is what sits on top of the creature's neck. It is nothing more than a worm like protrusion that ends in a circular maw filled with what seem to be razor sharp fangs. This worm head jerks about to focus on Astrianna.
Who are you? To come into my lair and question me? The questions are for me to ask and your bodies will provide the answers along with susstenance.
There is something chillingly wrong about the way it draws out the last word in your heads. There is a sensual hunger to what the alien being is communicating in you that is sending chills up Fi, Astrianna, and Leia's spines. Prospero-4 notes that the objective of the creatures regarding the four of you is very likely to what it seems to have already accomplished with the dissected and dismembered organs littering the place.
The ship is a Sanjaval Vagabond a common (though somewhat outdated) model of a starship known for its toughness and dependability.
None of you have any idea what this being is. At all.
"Ewww..." The Akata at least had some redeeming features, but this one? Nope. Probably not even in a C tier trid! On the bright side at least she had a direction to point her gun in.
Astrianna shakes her head as she tries to figure out what the creature is, only to have it shockingly materialize right in front of her.
She resists the urge to immediately train her pistol on it like the others, instead lowering the gun towards the ground. "I'm going to talk with it." Astrianna says over their private comms, a tone of stubbornness entering her voice that indicated she was not going to be dissuaded.
Thanks to the abundance of telepaths on her home planet, she mentally communicates with perfect fluidity. I am Astrianna Sparacello, Starfinder. We don't provide many answers with our guts ripped out, so how about we chat for a bit instead? I give you some answers, you give me some. I'll start. Your "lair" was towed out of the Drift by the miners you "sustained" on. When their ship appeared within Pact World space with none of them on it we were sent to investigate. Your turn- Who are you and how did this rock from the Drift your lair?"
Astrianna looks like she's concentrating really hard, given how deeply her brow is furrowed. She hoped to disarm or at least pique the curiosity of the creature with her unabashed attitude towards the dissected bodies and the general situation.
The worm headed monster's head continues to focus on Astrianna.
The Drift.. what you call my birthspace... but there I had to go out to hunt. Here I wait and prey comes to me. You. Are Different. From Others. They just scream like short one. You.. talk... I will feed on you last so you may continue to amuse. Interesting to see if in the end you will continue to talk or else if you too will screeeeaaammm.
Astrianna's jaw tightens in response to the worm-heads thoughts. Oh, you're MUCH too kind. She thinks sarcastically, before her brainwaves emanate a blast of concentrated aggression in an attempt to put the creature off-balance. I talk because you don't scare me. This isn't going to end well for you.
Her private comm flares to life after an unusually long silence for her. "It says it was born in the Drift, and it really wants to eat us. I don't see it peacefully integrating into society and deciding to settle down in Drifter's End with a nice Purple Worm it met at the Xenarium." The half-elf's voice is tense, and her pistol is held in a white-knuckle grip.
She gives the usual order, flicking her gun upward and training on the creature. "Kill it!"
True to its word 'Mr.WormyHead' moves in to attack the group before the group can react and its head darts down to tear at Leila. The halfling's armor is no match for the razor sharp teeth and it's torn through ike paper as the fangs sink into the tender flesh underneath.
Different.... sweetter.. the words come into the minds of the others as it tastes of the halfling.
"Ow!" Leila winced as the creature sunk its teeth in her apparently delicious flesh. As quickly as she could she tried to slip away from that thing, focusing first and foremost on keeping as much of herself still attached. And then squeeze off a couple of darts. The halfling buffet were not free - and certainly not all you could eat!
Just as he assumed, only possible outcome was battle. But even if he had mentally prepared for this, the creature's sudden movement took Prospero-4 by surprise. He opens fire, but fails to line up the shots with the enemy.
3 leia, 9 fianh
The worm thing jerks back from Leila's pea shot attack, it seems the pulse caster hurt it more than the halfling would have expected. Prospero's attacks all miss the creature.
Fianh dodges away in a show of acrobatics and fires a shot that embeds itself deep in the creature.
The creature ducks away from Leia and pursues the human woman who hurt it so, it manages to guess correctly on how the acrobatic daredevil will dodge and takes a harsh bite out of her.
Human, so many humans its tone seems dissapointed, as much as you can figure out its alien emotions anyway.
"Many? Only one human here..."
In-battle thinking ran mostly on his exocortex, Prospero-4 is left puzzled by the creature's version of set theory. But the electronic brain shuts quickly down all non-combat oriented thought-processes, and android concentrates firing at the hostile alien.
Round 2
Mr. Wormyhead's startling speed puts Astrianna on the defensive, and instead of shooting she irritatingly micromanages the situation.
"Come on Leila, if you can bag this thing I'll give you the rest of my Mama Fats jerky!" Austrian nah shouts over their coms, inticing the halfling with the most succulent of rewards.
"Prospero, you're shooting like a full-auto gun turret with Tourrette's Syndrome! Aim first, then pull the trigger!" Her criticisms would likely continue until more bullet wounds appeared on their foe.
Yeah! Maybe you should just have stuck to jerky too! Leila thinks aggressively and takes this opportune moment to put some space between her and that *uh* something. And then put some shock-rounds in its back (she guessed at least?!) "Take that! Zap it!"
Fianh stumbles back from the monster and fires at it. Her single shot barely misses the monster as it turns its worm head towards Prospero.
One human now it transmits its thoughts to Prospero-4 Fed on many before you came. I crave... variety. Your thoughts taste... different it starts to move towards the android easily shrugging off the laser fire directed his way before it stops and spasms once as Leia's pulsecaster lands a good shot right on the side of its neck.
Its involuntary jerk subsides and it abruptly changes course and rushes back at the halfling. STOP STOP STOP STOP! it screams in all of your heads. It really did not seem to like what Leia did to it. Its sharp teeth descend on the smallest member of the group and latches on for a long while yanking her to and fro like a cheap plastic doll before she manages to free herself.
I WILL TASTE YOUR SCREAMS FOR HOURS FOR THIS! YOUR FLESH AND SUFFERING WILL ASSUAGE MINE it shouts just in Leia's head.
Round 3
Astrianna wishes she could get the damn thing out of her mind. She couldn't think with its constant prattling and screaming!
Regardless, she forms a plan after seeing the creature's negative reaction to electrical attacks. She jogs over to Prospero, drawing the Arc Emitter they had found earlier.
"It's the Arc Emitter, take it! Just don't shoot Leila! Well unless you set it to stun first! Then she'll only be pissed, not dead! But I definitely want that thing dead so shoot carefully instead!" She explains at length while Leila is getting tossed about like a keg at a Dwarven frat party.