Vek’s companion spark turns his own fists as blue as the holograms as he spins about. ”Apparently the ‘ghosts’ are unhappy with our presence,” he states as heat causes ripples in the air around his hands.
"They are living holograms," Prospero-4 states, immediately recognizing the creatures. He continues by giving his companions a brief summary on the tech-ghosts abilities.
The android was really excited about the new scattergun, up until a few seconds ago. Now, in a small room together with his whole team, fighting foes that look to be quite incorporeal, firing spreads of pellets doesn't sound such a good idea anymore.
So instead, he points the arm-mounted sonic gun at the same hologram Vek was already attacking, and fires a couple of blasts.
Prospero knows them to be incorporeal and have standard construct immunities. They aren't known for anything other than their hard light physical attacks as far as offense goes.
One interesting thing however is that the holograms are bound to their faulty projectors. Destroying or fixing them is the only way to truly end the threat otherwise they reform a few hours after being dissipated by direct attacks
Round 1
"More like dead holograms!" Astrianna exclaims while whipping out her laser pistol, which she prepared for this exact situation.
"Really though, kill them." Is followed with a theatreical deadpan as she pulls the trigger on her gun and shoots a beam of magically-enhanced ghost-destroying photons at the hologram attacking Vek.
With an exaggerated swoop, Cueta lifts her doshko from her back and strides towards the nearest hologram. Ghosts or holograms, they might as well be the same thing as far as Cueta was concerned. But, she was going to discover something today - whether or not a well-placed doshko to the face would hurt.
Inhaling, Cueta hefts the doshko above her head and then swings it down with a whoosh, grunting with the effort.
"That's so *cool*!" Leila exhales with a squee. Now if they only weren't trying to kill them!
2d10 + 18 ⇒ (3, 4) + 18 = 25
2d10 + 16 ⇒ (6, 6) + 16 = 28
While Astiranna's shot goes wide, Vek, Liela, and Prospero get one good shot in each on the guardian hologram. Cueta gets a clean sweep with her weapon that passes harmlessly through the 'ghost'.
How Dare you.... the mayor of this city I will PROTECT... who come to me for guidance.. vengance!
The official looking hologram keeps jabbering as the two keep landing hits on Vek.
Round 2
"City? You're mayor of a bunch of ruins, you malfunctioning glow stick!" Oh yeah, that line was going to print some T-shirts.
Taking aim over her left forearm, she tries to put another holographic hole in the guard accosting Vek.
Lacking other, effective combat options, Prospero-4 keeps concentrating the Streetsweeper fire on the guard hologram.
Glad that he has their attention, Vek flicks the switch on his force field. As the familiar brown hum surrounds him, he calls to his companions, ”At least they’re none too bright!” He holds up his own glowing fist for comparison and grins.
Question answered, Cueta drops the doshko and flexes her fists. Reaching out to her patron, Cueta's scalp tingles as starstuff flings from the pilot into the hologram.
Next question in Cueta's science experiment: Are holograms/ghosts immune to starmagik?
Leila fires another shot at the pesky hologhostgrams. Take that!
Leila, Prospero, and Astiranna land one hit each. Cueta does as well, her magic ripping holes in the martial hologram with seemingly full force. It reacts as if it really is being hurt and, as the image starts to jump and distort in spasms of static, the image starts to show bloody gashes and the face contorts in the appearance of pain.
Still though the first thing the guard does is lash out at the spellcaster in melee range with an attack of opportunity. The hard light attack hits, and the guard follows up with another hit that hits the human also.
The talker on the other hand continues concentrating on the Vesk though it responds to what it can understand of Astrianna's garbled translation.
RUIN? You dare call.... seat of the Found... center of... learning... Kish... a RUIN? Istamak's glorious history... critical... struggle against the hateful sivv.. barbaric... ali..al..stranger!
Another blow of the enraged mayor's fist connects with the Vesk's armor leaving behind an noticeable dent.
With the “guard” distracted, Vek steps around the holograms and lets loose a mighty attack. ”Keep focusing fire,” he grunts.
Round 3
Astrianna can't help but talk back to the hard light construct, even if it is little more than a malfunctioning program. "Pffft, have you seen the Kish coming through here? They wear rags and think you're a ghost! It's been centuries since this ruin was a center of anything but survival and isolation."
SHe continues to put holes in the "mayor's" unifromed companion in an attempt to bring it down.
Ignoring the hologram's battering touch, Cueta screams, part rage and part will, and continues unleashing her starstuff at the figment, fists clenched, light flinging rapid-fire from her body.
"At least they aren't trying anything but punching Cueta!" Leila observes as she tries to place another round in the pesky holograms.
Shooting holograms feels... unlogical. Even if the energy weapons seem to be able to affect them slightly. But holograms are projected from somewhere, and there should be quite massive amount of data flowing into such device. So Prospero-4 engages his exocortex to scan the room for the projector.
Instantly, the android's wireless scanner and visual processors turn his vision into bright glowing streams of data, where he tries to locate the source of these holograms.
A barrage of fire from all sides leaves the guard hologram reacting as if it's been riddled with bullets. It gets one final swipe off on Cueta before the blue light image bursts apart in large pixels and fades away.
Leila's blast is redirected to the mayor whose immaculate suit starts to look a little torn.
HOW DARE... Insult... special needs... guidance!
The image continues its tirade. Astrianna seems to be making it madder and madder as two of its fists land very heavy blows on the Vesk.
The sudden disappearance of the guard helps Prospero's internal scanner track the sudden slowdown in computing activity to a group of projectors at the south end of the hall, where the rest of the holograms continue their pantomime. Next to the temporarily disabled projector Prospero notes another that is behaving very erratically compared to the ones displaying the other holograms.
Status. Vek being hit by mayor/holo. Small area so a single move action away from everyone for melee, no cover for range. Round 4 party up
Damage Tracker
Vek: 43 damage + 19 -7-5 +22-7 [ooc]Sorry I forgot the 5 temp hp before, it's here now!
Cueta: 18 damage
Holo mayor: 24/2 damage
Holo guard: Magic missile dissipation
Round 4
"Special needs?!" She shouts back at the hologram, regardless of whether or not the comment was meant for her. "I'm going to reprogram you to be dumber than a abacus! Then we'll see who is special needs!"
With the guard-o-gram dissapated into nothingness, she focuses her attention on Vek. He could look a little more spry for the audience. "Hey, look alive! We have a sun-gun to destroy, I can't have you getting beat up by some tech ghosts."
"Ha-*cough*" Leila swallows a laugh and tries another round at the remaining hologram!
Astrianna’s encouragement spurs Vek back into the fight. Shaking his head, he swings his fists in a rapid one-two uppercut. The heat makes ripples in the air that trace each hand’s path, hopefully captured in full slow-motion detail by the captain’s ever-present cameras.
Having located the projector, Prospero-4 forms a connection to the buildings wireless network. He engages the intrusion protocols from his exocortex, and works out the route to the projector. And there, he simply cuts off the power feed, hoping to make end of the aggressive holograms.
More seconds tick by, more starstuff flings from Cueta, motes of light streaking from her body and thudding into the hologram. Sweat beads on the pilot's forehead, her teeth grind against each other: Cueta can feel the connection between her and her SOTLY wavering, the tether that binds them fraying as she demands more and more.
The mayor's impeccable holo suit and symbols of office are starting to look very tattered as hits land on it from Ceuta, Vek, and Leila. For a change it does not respond to Astrianna's jibes. Instead its head swivels around to stare at Prospero-4 as soon as the android just manages to penetrate the surprisingly effective security of the projector. With his exocortex and him working at full speed Prospero's penetration algorithms would have displayed a progress bar going to 25% full if he had need to waste precious processing cycles on such visual UI crutches!
The mayor/holo screams in wordless rage and swoops away from Vek to pound on Prospero-4 with what certainly feels like desperation!
More seconds tick by, more starstuff flings from Cueta, motes of light streaking from her body and thudding into the hologram. Sweat beads on the pilot's forehead, her teeth grind against each other: Cueta can feel the connection between her and her SOTLY wavering, the tether that binds them fraying as she demands more and more.
"NO!" Vek races after the hologram, trying to push it away from his android companion and put himself between the opponent and the technician again. Not again - I won't let Mekkon VI happen again! The white-hot fire of a solar flare trails behind him, whipping forward as he slams into the malfunctioning piece of technology.
"Please keep the hologram occupied. I am trying to shut down the project, and this needs concentration." Prospero-4 says, taking a guarded step away from the raging hologram.
The android adds his effort to the hacking, in addition to exocortex. He engages a brute force attack on the subsystem's authorization protocol, while exocortex is injecting malicious code into the data feed.
"You can shut them down?! Why didn't you do that in the first place?" Even Astrianna expected her question to be rhetorical in nature; still, as the star of this show, she had to say SOMETHING.
The target scene was getting a bit hectic, and for extra accuracy the half-elf sticks out her tongue and gently bites on it before taking a shot at the "mayor" with her laser pistol.
Vek's swipe at he android misses completely and his subsequent desperate bullrush carries him right through the incorporeal hologram leaving only minimal damage in his wake.
The multiple lines of attack that Prospero engages in on the source of the hologram rather than the projection itself that eliminates the threat. The corrupted AI is unable to ward off the android's surgical penetration of its defenses and the workings of the projector are laid bare to him. With a simple switch the energy powering the projector is shut off and the image does not even have a chance to scream again before it vanishes just before Astrianna's shot goes through it and just after her commentary.
The blue glow of the rest of the holograms remains though shaking their heads and wagging their fingers at the group. Their logic seems to have identified the group as being unruly children and react accordingly.
Now that Prospero has time he can identify the places where, with an hour or so of work, less with Leila's assistance, the corruption in the AI could be repaired. Alternatively the projector could be physically disabled permanently. The same is true for the guard's projector which is in the process of recreating the defeated guardian holo in about an hour or so, confirming what the group knows about Living Holograms.
With time to pay attention to the shrine the less technically inclined members of the group. It is a small thing surrounded by the murals of the holograms and covered with small effigies created from wire and metal. Among them is an obviously far more technically advanced device.
The recording server of the message is discernible as well through the source address portion of the data crystal's header which isn't completely virtual but seems to contain the geo spatial coordinates. It's corrupted so it can't be pinpointed exactly with just this crystal, but it seems to be in the North West portion of Istamak.
The language translation application is getting better and better with more exposure to this archaic/advanced form of the Kish language.
Sighing as the hologram winks out of existence, Cueta unclenches her fists and flexes her jaw, causing her ears to pop from the build-up of pressure.
"Nicely done, Prospero, yeah?" the pilot says, wandering over to the remaining holograms and then the altar. Picking at the wire effigies, Cueta frowns.
"I don't think we should kill their gods though, chinney. Bad mojo, killing gods, even if they are just holograms. We should be able to finish what we're doing here before they come back, yeah?"
"Someone... could get hurt though," Vek comments from where he sits winded and propped up against the wall. "And those... kish don't have... armor like ours."
"There is a data crystal among the junk on shrine," Prospero-4 points out, and activates the projector on the crystal.
"Cheif.. officer... Securitech. Our... receive.. message.. your... I assure you we take your security... with the... seriousness... After all you are our biggest cus..cuss..patron... A copy of key for your lock resides with us but still... Foundry... only accessible physically, the audio recording plays.
"There was also a set of coordinates within the crystal. The data is corrupted and it is impossible to extract the full coordinates from this device alone. Best guess for the location is in the North West portion of Istamak."
Then, he quickly loses his interest in the data crystal, as there is a bigger system to manage.
"The aggressive holograms are a result of a corrupted AI in the local network. While we could simply destroy the projectors to prevent the holograms from re-emerging, I believe reprogramming the corrupted parts would be a more sustainable solution. Leila, may I have your assistance in the repairs?" The android continues by describing the process of re-coding a neural network to scrub the corrupted parts. But, in truth, the actual work isn't very complex. As it is very common for starships' on-board AI's to accumulate some amount of faults during long voyages, it is pretty much a routine operation for mechanics to scrub the corrupted parts away.
There is, as they say, an app for that.
Astrianna spins her laser pistol on her index finger a few times before holstering it, and immediately looks around to see if anyone noticed her cool flourish. No one even comments on it, which makes her frown, turn around, and start walking towards the shrine of junk.
On the way, she looks at the tuting holograms nearby, and the vlogger blows a very professional raspberry their way, complete with mocking hand gestures.
Prospero's wireless systems activate the audio recording on the data crystal before she can even get to it, and Astrianna picks it up while it was still transmitting the ancient message. After it ends she presses the activation switch again, listening to the message in silence.
"Securitech? How bland. There's a company named "Securitech" in every single jurisdiction of space that has seperate copyright laws. Talk about peak culture, yeesh. Center of learning my left asscheek, which is the elven half by the way." She pockets the data crystal and starts poking around while the eggheads reprogram the projector's AI. "I wonder what the Foundry is... I hope the coordinates lead to its key, and the Cult didn't already find it somehow."
After a little while she hands Cueta a small hand-held recording device. Well, more or less shoves it in her hands. "You don't look too busy. Record me talking about everything we've discovered about the Kish culture up until this point while I stand in front of the shrine, I think this will be a huge hit on the xenoanthropology section of Utoob. I mean, look at all these props!" This was all said as she messes with the various effigies laying around. "I think this one is supposed to be fertility symbol! Maybe someone had a crush on one of the holograms!"
"Mm!" Leila makes a vaguely generic agreeing noise and sits down to poke around with the holograms. Maybe they would actually have something helpful to say after being fixed? And in the meanwhile she could ponder the great question - was Astri's ass actually that asymmetric that one half could be identified as elven? And how would she ever confirm without getting chased around with a rolled up newspaper?!
"Pretty sure that one's a fertility symbol, yeah," Cueta says, hopping up onto a desk so that she can both rest and film. Holding the recording device in one hand, Cueta sits and closes her eyes to rest, trusting that Astri won't move too much out of frame.
"You should get a drone for this, chinney?"
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After resting, repairing, and generally tidying up the group engages in a museum tour in the reverse order that the curators intended.
First the holographic displays in the next section of the hallway depict performers and creators of various forms of art. A trio of kish in formal costumes leap and spin gracefully on a stage, another sits in front of some kind of instrument and tinkers away at the keys as if trying to perfect a melody, and a group of patrons stand in an art gallery admiring a sculpture of metal and glass. The displays repeat their animations every few minutes, and a large touch screen stands in front of each display.
The next section features animated holographic displays of manufacturing and other industrial work: a miniature version of a gas-mining vessel scoops up clouds, a kish in a jumpsuit stands at the console of an automated production line, and another sits at a large workbench performing delicate repairs on a small technological item, their face comically distorted by a large magnifying mirror. Like those before, these displays loop every few minutes, and each display features a large touch screen.
Animated holographic displays along the walls of the final... or first... section of the twisting hallway depict the planning and construction of a huge city among the clouds: alien architects manipulating three-dimensional electronic blueprints, an important-looking figure standing on an open-air cloud barge and pulling a lever that starts large construction machinery in the background, and a handful of industrial painters putting the finishing touches on a building. The animations loop every few minutes. A large touch screen is mounted in front of each display.
And that brings the group back to the room right in front of the entrance where the dead snake like creature molders.
Astrianna walks through the displays of the museum, making sure to comment on everything even if it wasn't warranted. No need for dead air!
As they reach the end of the row of holographic displays, she watches the figures build the platform a few more times with her arms crossed over her chest. "Well it's very clear that not only did the Kish not originate from this planet, but they must have had a highly advanced civilization in this solar system to pull off building a flying city dedicated to the science and the arts. But this was the only significant concentration of life in the entire solar system!"
The half-elf lifts a hand and taps the bottom of her helmet as if she were stroking her chin. "What wiped out the their society? Why are these the only Kish that survived? Is one of the planets in this solar system a bunch of rubble and ruin from a long forgotten intersellar war?"
Suddenly, Asrtianna spins and points a finger at Cueta, who had been bullied into holding the camera for a while longer. "Tune in next time to find out! Like, subscribe, and don't forget to check out our merc store! Leila plushies are back in stock! Watch your notifications to get up-to-the-second updates on our adventures, Astrinauts!"
She leans forward and blows the camera a kiss, briefly fogging up her face display. "Love you all, bye!" With that, the bubbly excitement is wiped away like a bug off of a windshield and she snatches the camera from Cueta. "Okay you're free to go, thanks." Is said off-handedly as she stuffs the camera back into her bag.
Turning to the first display in the series, the vlogger starts poking at the touchscreen. "All of this technology and materials had to come from somewhere. Maybe I can figure out where the Kish's home planet is at from this panel. If not, we can ask the holograms once Prospero and Leila have them repaired."
Pressing her palm against the touchscreen causes the image of the industrial work to freeze up. One of the hologram's mouth works but only an unintelligible stream of garbled static comes out.
Backtracking to the second display, the touchscreen prompts the kish in the jumpsuit to stand up and start monolouging.
Pressing it again causes it to start up the exact same monologue again.
Pressing it a third time does the same thing. A side effect is that the translation software gets better and better at deciphering the words until it's pretty close to perfect.
The glory of the Kishalee empire, spanning so many worlds, is a testament to our industry and our stalwart nature. Istamak is a shining jewel of this empire, extracting the inexhaustible resources of the gas giant below to create boundless opportunity in times of peace, and to grease the engines of war when the stranger alien dare to attack us and deny us our rightful place! We are the largest of our brother-cities around this planet and our Foundry is a research facility as good a place of learning as any of the Universities in the central sectors! We were instrumental in fighting the hated siiv, buttressing our brave soldiers with our industry and research. Do you have what it takes to be the future workers and scientists of the Kishalee and add to the glorious history of Istamak and the Kishalee?
The touchscreen in the arts section causes one of the causes the musician to get up from his instrument and come closer to peer at the group.
Oh my, not wearing hides? Weelll that's simply delightful. I know Istamak is a dump of a mining town bereft of any culture but the disgusting brutes that have been tramping through here the last little while have been simply revolting. You're not from the Foundry are you? The endless talk of comic heroes and dungeon dice games from that set is if anything more terrible than what the brutish miners get up to. I despair for the minds of the little children!
Finally the repaired mayor alongwith the other politco holograms just attempt to turn the subject back to how amazing Istamak is, has been, and will be.
"Huh. You know if they were actually wiped out - or trying not to be - making a doomsday weapon seems pretty reasonable." Leila concludes as she absentmindedly looks at the musician hologram. The one that uh seemed to be actually talking to them. That one. With a blink she took a few steps to the left and right to see if it tracked her properly. "The 'Foundry'? No, we're Starfinders. Not from *ah* around here really. Hey I think we have some music files if you'd like to talk and trade a bit? Something new and strange?"
Ah well something new and strange would be quite welcome, even if it is coming from fil... ah... xenos. I'm supposed to be telling you about all the wonderful works of art that this floating provincial backwater have produced, but let me tell you, other then some stunning paintings incorporating billowing shapes of verdant red, it is all swill.
Like Leila, Prospero-4 becomes very curious about the hologram that is seemingly talking to them. Is it just a prerecorded trick, or it it guided by true AI and sensors...
"I would be interested to know what happened here. To Kishalee in here? And who do you mean by disgusting brutes tramping through here."
Oh all the miners coming through here, speaking in their barely understandable jargon The hologram says with a hand gesture that seems to indicate disdain. They seem to be so proud of their kiddie craft wicker works. I take great delight in telling them exactly how disgusting and unworthy they are. Why I've driven off some of them in tears!. The ones who go on I hear chattering with the mayor who's only too happy to coddle them and give them 'sage' advice. Bahah!
Cueta frowns. She was quite happy watching a supers trid and playing dungeon dice games (the games in fact, were a big source of entertainment on the 9, where most folk were simple water farmers and didn't have a home theatre system).
Shrugging, she leaves the hologram nerd and approaches the mayor. "Oi! You get any strange visitors recently? Also, what happened to this place? It used to be a bit nicer, yeah?"
Strange? the mayor holo, now jubilant and expansive says. Other than yourselves? Ho. It is strange to see uhrm.. xenos.. guests in a place as important to the Kishalee empire as Istamak but I am sure you have been invited to marvel at the Mighty Works of our Grand Empire, of which Istamak is a crucial part. Yes, Not only are we an instrumental part of supplying the empire with the rare minerals from the gas giant below but we have some of the brightest minds of the galaxy here as well. Have you been to the Cloud Lookouts? Have you partaken of our fine dining complete with live entertainment as amazing as anything even the central sectors can offer? Istamak is truly a place not just to work! But to vist and play as well for all Kishalee!
Cueta's survival skills actually doesn't detect any signs of recent violence other than their own in the museum.