Astrianna makes a face at the animal abuse- not about the abuse itself, but she knew saving that critter was going to score SERIOUS views. Flipping her cyropistol up from its holster and firing from the hip in one smooth shot, she instructs everyone over their coms. "Focus fire on the nearest cultist! Protect the furry thing!"
Vek says nothing, but the sudden blaze of heat radiating from his glowing fists leaves little to the imagination on how this vesk feels regarding abuse and torture.
Cueta's patron acts before the pilot can. Light pulses once outward, before setting into muted, shimmering shell overlaying Cueta.
The cultists are armed with a variety of sharp blades, and what look like disintegrator pistols and grenades.
Leila's hacks produces a burst of sound that causes them to jump. As they turn around Prospero and Astrinna fire a single shot each, hitting the closest cultist dead on.
That one responds with laughing maniacally and charging the group. He ends up right next to Cueta, but his wild swing with his blade misses her.
The second one fires at Astrianna. The stream of acidic liquid drenches the vlogger, putting severe strain on her light armor suit.
The final one hefts a grenade and throws it right in the middle of the group. Or he would have if his aim wasn't off. The ensuring blast only hits Vek, Leila, and Prospero, and does minimal damage.
The little animal takes the opportunity to scamper off towards the western well, away from the corner where the cultists had trapped it.
”Shall we focus fire?” Vek’s voice is as calm as ever, but his words abruptly become faster as the haste circuit kicks into gear.
Cueta's longsword flashes in the compound's dim light, the motes from Cueta's star armor refracting around the room, discostrobe-like. Cueta's slash, unfortunately, is less impressive, as the cultists easily ducks under the pilot's thrust.
"Yes! Get them!!" Leila coughs as the blast almost engulfs them. She dashes off to the side, just to make sure they aren't all clumped together. Then - time to get revenge for that poor fluffy critter!
"Ow ow ow ow ow." The vlogger complains and shakes her arm, still feeling the heat of the molecular disintegration through her suit's many layers.
"Can't focus fire if there's nothing left to focus!" Astrianna quips as Vek absolutely obliterates one of the cultists. She swings her pistol to take a shot at Leila's target. "On Leila's target! Gun them down!"
These cultists can take a pounding. Vek's two heavy punches leaves the lead culsist still upright and grinning.
The furry thing takes the opportunity to run full tilt from the west wall, straight south. It leaps over the melee and as it sails over the cultist, a final burst of sonic damage finally puts him down! It's a great shot that won't even take much editing from Astrianna... maybe slow mo as the small beast is in mid leap while the cultist right below is getting blasted in the head.
Astrianna and Prospero shift their focus to one of the other cultists and she gets hit by one hot and one cold shot. That doesn't deter her from drawing her blade and charging at Vek. She misses though. Her pistol wielding sister in arms follows suit and charges Cueta. Her swipe misses the human as well.
"Oh, sick!" She comments as the furry thing makes an incredible shot on one of the cultists before fleeing the scene. "You will be missed, furry thing. You were cooler than anyone could ever have guessed." That scene was going to at least need a promotional poster.
Whipping her pistol to the next target, she fires a blast of supercooled liquid at the wounded cultist. "Next one, cultist sorbet coming up!"
Cueta stabs at the cultist in front of her, and then, pulling the sword back, brings it around in an overhead chop. She grins as the second swipe finds its mark, maniacal in her look, dogged in her attack.
It was nice to hear Astri being on team cute critter for once, even if it probably just was for show! Motivated by that thought Leila looked to send another cultist into the afterlife. Pew pew!
Vek continues his assault on the cultist in front of him, mentally deactivating the haste circuit to conserve the device's limited battery.
Astrianna's shot lands on one of the culists just as Ceuta's overhand chop embeds itself deep in the cultist's neck, turning her into a gurgling mess as she drops into a puddle of her own gore.
Leila turns her attention to the one remaining cultist who gets a sonic blast right in the face, staggering her as Vek's fist smashes into her once, and then, twice. The second punch sends her hurtling dead onto the ground next to the other two.
On each of the cultists the group finds the following gear:
golemforged plating III with grim trophies and weapon spikes [tactical knife]
liquidator disintegrator pistol with 2 batteries (20 charges each)
two incendiary grenades II
sintered longsword
The room itself has some ancient looking kishalee spacesuits in one corner, some broken down hoverbikes in another. There are a few spots of blood where the furry thing had been hurt as the cultists played with it. An empty room, perhaps a coat closet is in the southeast.
The one door north leads to a dusty corridor, the only sign of anything haven't disturbed it are the recent grease marks and dust tracks left by other cultists. Loud and rough arguments echo from further in the complex. It seems like the Devourer cultists do not expect to be disturbed and hadn't noticed anything of the short and brutal fight that had just concluded at the entrance of the building.
There are three doors north and two doors heading south off of the corridor, not including the one they just entered by.
Cultists fall about the group as if they had sprayed an insecticide among a swarm of mosquitoes. "Now that's efficient!" Astrianna comments, spinning her pistol on a finger (in full view of her camera, of course) before holstering it without looking.
As they go through the loot, she pockets a few grenades and stuffs the lighter weapons into her bag. No one was going to convince her to haul around some golemforged plating.
"Do you think they just have fights like that all the time and are used to it?" The vlogger comments as much to her feature viewers as she does to herself and her teammates. She added a note to the current recording to add some text that said "leave your opinion in the comments!"
"Well this is usually the part where I would ask the chat which way we should go, but considering we're in a previously lost artificial galaxy with absolutely zero signal boosters, setting up a stream here would be on like... a week long delay at a barbaric 480p." She claps her hands together, clearly unconcerned about making any noise.
"So! Let's start with the closest north door, mostly because I don't want to be boxed in by angry cultists from our rear. Remember, shoot anything with spikes!" Astrianna walks over to the nearest northern door, and she has both her pistol and a shock grenade in her hand.
Her foot connects with the door, and as it flies open she yells inside. "TIME TO DIE, B~+!%ES!"
Leila looks around for the fuzzy critter, but it was understandable if it wasn't around anymore. Poor thing! She hoped it would make it. Her eyes lingered a bit on the broken down hoverbikes - she had always wanted one - but now didn't seem like the time for a month long restoration project. Maybe after they'd saved the universe?
From the loot pile she'll nab the pistol for her small arms collection. Useful to have options!
"All right! First north! Let's kick some more cultist ass!" the halfling feels that Astri's plan is remarkably sound.
Vek nods in agreement, rolling the fallen cultists off to the side so none of his companions accidentally poke themselves on their oversized armor spikes. Incredibly unwieldy for any kind of formation fighting, the vesk thinks to himself, memories of boot camp in the Veskarium surfacing briefly.
Astrianna bursts through the door and is met with a landing and a small set of steps leading deeper into a large chamber.
It's lit only by the bluish glow of a single monitor across from the southern door. The other computer consoles that line the walls are dark. A circular platform of some unknown technology is affixed to the floor in the center of the room. The view outside a window in the western wall is completely obscured by thick jungle foliage.
There are no cultists around.
Leila looks around and scratches her head. "Looks like a control room! And one of the computers seems to be on!" she chirps as she quickly heads over there to poke it.
Vek keeps an eye on the doors, taking up a guard position near the corner of the room. "Don't let yourself get too excited and forget to be cautious," he warns. "They might have left a virus or some other defenses in place."
Astrianna deflates at the lack of suitably exploitable cultists in the room, instead putting away the grenade and joining Vek in watching the door. "Tell me when you get it working. Hopefully it's chock-full of exposition!"
"Very well, I will start analysing the computer system. Please stand watch for any enemy activity."
After his words, Prospero-4 just stays still, the huge laser still in his hands. But whereas his body is motionless, his wireless receiver is already busy engaging the handshake protocols on the local systems.
He starts the intrusion carefully, looking for any signs of nasty surprises and countermeasures.
The incredible amount of time the group had to spend going over a seemingly endless number of kishalee data crystals back on Istamak pays off dividends now as Prospero quickly manages to remotely access the ancient tech before Leila can even start to do so manually.
While doing so Prospero, in conjunction with his exocortex, is able to detect an alarm countermeasure lying in wait of the unwary within the system and dismantles it. The active control panel really only has one function available, which is to power on the systems in the room. Prospero activates it.
All the computer systems that were previously dark flicker and shine as they come to life. The platform near the center of the room does the same and a luminescent holographic projection manifests above it. Within seconds the light coalesces into a tall, regal humanoid form that resembles the images of the ancient kishalee found on Istamak. The figure is dressed in garb that appears to be a mixture of military and scientific outfits that seems to disappear into the glow of the circular dais at the figure’s feet.
The holographic figure stretches out an arm and starts speaking strange, spidery syllables with the rapidity of purpose. The group's universal translator tech, heavily trained by this point on Vulgar and Classic kish, kicks in and the group hears the hologram say:
... gone mad. His neural stability had degenerated and he kept raving about something called the Star-Eater. I confined him due to these critical errors, but now he is out, and I am in here! He and those who helped him must be stopped.
There is a brief pause.
From your attire, I assumed you weren’t allied with those cruel marauders. Please tell me you aren’t with them.
Astrianna is trying to think of a tune to whistle, but by the time the first note has come out of her pursed lips the holographic display has flickered to life.
She doesn't even have a moment to put together a string of surprised expletives before the figure in the middle of the room starts talking.
The half-elf, who is a self-described prodigy in learning languages old and new, actually turns off her translation software because it was blabbering a bunch of stuff she didn't quite agree with in her ear.
"No, we're not with the cultists." Astrianna replies in classical Kishalee, which is broadcasted from her suit's speakers. "In fact, we're here to stop them from activating the Stellar Degenerator, so I am going to assume we're allied in this goal."
She makes a calming gesture that she had picked up from the other Kish, and breifly wonders if that matters to a holographic AI. It probably did, somehow. "I'm Astrianna Sparacello, and I'm going to need you to slow down and start at the beginning. Who are you, who did you trap, and what can you tell us about this compound that will help us stop the... Star-Eater marauders, as you put it."
The hologram's body language shifts, seeming to ease as Astrianna responds in a language she understands.
I am Osteth. I was one of many who monitored this facility, protecting its secrets, so, very very long ago, more than any, we realized what was happening when communications from our superiors faltered and then gave out. We decided that someone had to maintain this facility for the forseeable future to keep the Stellar Degenerator locked away and Eltreth, another scientist, volunteered to digitize his consciousness and stay here as an eternal guardian. Then I did too, I did not want him to be lonely...
Osteth pauses, overcome with emotion. All was fine until a few centuries ago when he started to speak of nihilism and the end of all things. I paid it no mind but a few centuries ago he started to prattle about the glory of some being called the devourer. I trapped him in these servers hoping to find a way to improve the stability of his neural network but then just a few cycles ago when the marauders came down blasting with a speed that caught me off guard. They freed Eltreth, who in turn turned my trap on me and confined me here. This is the control structure for the demiplane prison we constructed for the superweapon. I did what I could before I was trapped to slow down Eltreth and the marauder's progress in opening up the demiplane, but I fear it's just a matter of time...
Oh thank the gods, some exposition. I thought I was going to have to write up something myself in a cut-away to get this to all make sense, and that would definitely turn some people away. Astrianna thinks while Osteth rattles off some excellent dialogue. The vlogger needed to keep her talking for at least another 5 minutes, then she could edit the footage together later.
"The Devourer, also known as the Star-Eater, is kind of a god, though more a force of debatable sentience really, and often said to be the spiritual manifestation of entropy. It is worshiped by those that wish for the end of all things in the material plane." She makes a face, which, if she had a inward-facing suit-cam (which is a great idea!) would have definitely made someone in the galaxy laugh. "I'm curious how Eltreth even learned of The Devourer, considering you have both been isolated in this artificial system for what... millennial? Another mystery."
She claps her hands together, and smiles. "But good news! Not only are the cultists delayed because they're missing a particular component to open the demiplane, but you and I are on the same side on this. Our particular skillset involves giving the marauders the deaths they seek, so how about you instruct my brainy companions here on how to free your consciousness from this prison, and together we can stop the demiplane from being opened and re-capture Eltreth or whatever it is you want to do with them. It sounds like to me they have been corrupted, but you have a several thousand years on me when it comes to knowing their particular disposition."
"I didn't know e-ghosts could become fanatics ... Ahh sorry if that's uh lifeist." Leila commented and noticed that Eox had indeed rubbed off a little on her. Brr.
"How would we go about trapping Eltreth without doing too much harm - if that's possible?"
Osteth relaxes a little bit more as Astrianna give the hologram some much needed good news. Ah, my destruction of the control circuitry in this facility did earn us some time then. I also reinforced the protection of the robotic entities maintaining this facility so they will be very hard for even Eltreth to subvert.
Osteth makes a gesture and a map of the facility appears floating before the group, she gives them all a summary of the purpose of each room. You cannot free me from here, or confine Eltreth again. You must access the sequestering subprogram from the main operations room. The area marked C8 glows. This should initiate an exchange of my core programming and Eltreth’s. Beware, though. Eltreth has probably installed countermeasures, and among the marauders are shadowy... beings. More evidence of corruptive forces we never knew to safeguard against.
Astrianna looks over the map of the facility, squinting briefly. "What happens when we exchange your programming for Elreth's? You'll be in control of the facility, and the ability to open the demiplane? What happens then? I'm guessing because you've been guarding this for... a long time... the entrance to the Stellar Degenerator can't just be closed off forever. I mean, have you been maintaining this facility just case someone wanted to use it, or to keep others away from it?"
She waves a hand at the countermeasures and shadowy beings. "Oh that will be no problem, they die like anything else."
Cueta scratches her head, a deeping frown gracing her face. "Wait, so our big bad enemy is a digitized consciousness?"
Nothing good ever comes from digitized consciousness. I mean, didn't anyone watch the trid Upload?
Least I can relax a bit while the eggheads do their thing.
"Beware, though. Eltreth has probably installed countermeasures, and among the marauders are shadowy... beings. "
Or not.
Resting her longsword on her shoulder, Cueta turns towards the hall leading to the main operations room. "Right, then. Let's go. Vek and I'll do the punching, while y'all do the... computer punching."
Cueta thinks a minute and then finishes her thought. "And Astri yells."
"*Snort*"
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I have given much thought on how to deal with Elreth and the Stellar Degenerator in the cycles since I have been trapped... but it is all academic if I am not freed. We will talk when the threats have been eliminated.. but before you go. A gift, the only one I can provide. A portion of the knowledge of my fallen civilization to give you experience to buttress your own talents and abilities.
Osteth gestures and beams of light shine into the eyes of the group from her outstretched hands, the technomagical rays play across the iris of each person imparting pure data right into their consciousness before they can even blink. AS they do and shake their heads they find new memories. Memories of themselves living and working as Kishalee citizens of the Kish Empire at its height.
Astrianna remembers conducting politics at the highest level in council chambers, street rallies, and in boudoirs.
Cueta, remembers training and fighting as a warrior priest in Kishalee temples, under starlit skies.
Leila, remembers delving into digital schematics and creating blueprints as marvelous machines are built in front of her according to her directions.
Prospero, feels himself linked to the grand computational engines without which the empire would not have been possible and communes with their programming as they evolved and morphed to grow ever more sophisticated.
Vek, remembers poring over maps and manning fortifications as he personally leads the forces under his command in throwing back aliens of all kinds from threatening the kish.
There, I do not think your brain stems can handle any more. I pushed as much as I dared. Osteh says.
"So we must be physically in the operations room to access the sequestering subprogram? The network isn't routed from here?"
After his question, Prospero-4's gaze turns blank as the wireless protocols start testing the local network.
"And the countermeasures- are they within the software or something more tangible?"
This room is a prison, so yes the network is shielded from here, I am afraid I do not know the exact nature of what Eltrerh has been doing but reverting the process that has trapped me and freed him would take three seperate subroutine executions and overrides to process. Here are the instructions...
"I... woah. That was *weird*. Not bad though ..." Leila looks around the room with newfound recognition. Simply knowing the names and specs of these things - ancient relics - made her shiver.
"Oh. Do you want help with that Prospero? Can chip in some wet processing power!" While she may not have code in her lifeblood, she did have her pocket computer and some tricks up her sleeve!
Astrianna blinks several times after several hundred yottabytes of information are beamed directly into her brain. "I suddenly have very strong opinions about how taxes were collected in the Kishalee empire." She points at Osteth. "We're going have a chat about that later. But for now, we're going to deal with your cultist problem."
A glance at Propsero tells her he's off in electron-land playing with bits, so she moves to guard the door with Vek and Cueta. "I'd really appreciate it if you didn't use the term "wet processing power" again, Lelia." The vlogger says while giving a dramatic blanch.
"*Ahem* I'll admit it feels a bit mushy right now, but I'll try to resist the urge!" the halfling reassures Astri (and the viewers!).
Cueta runs her tongue over her lips, savoring the phantom taste of the Kishalee's tree-sap sweet concoction. Trees on the 9 were by and large scarce, and when they were found, they were craggly things, stunted by the planet's unending sun, and acclimatized to eeking out a precarious existence on the sides of cliffs, oases, and the carefully manicured gardens of the super-rich.
"Fooking maple syrup though," Cueta says, licking her lips again. "Can we take a few trees with us?"
Vek snaps out of the memory of a dozen battles, only some of them his own. Never commanded a thousand soldiers like that, he thinks to himself. Don't know if I want to again. Er... Rather than ponder the philosophical quandaries bouncing around inside his skull with so many other new thoughts, he opens the door for Cueta and Astrianna and follows behind them.
The group moves into the control room but the ancient door hitches forcing Cueta to have to push it aside with a shoulder shove. The result being the cultists in the room have ample warning that someone is coming in.
The door Cueta enters from is on a raised platform, on the eastern end, past many computing devices and screens is a raised dais on which stands a swirling mass of shadows, deeper and darker than the smaller shadows flanking it. As soon as Cueta takes a step in the deep cloud of darkness raises what seems to be a limb and shoots out a ray that hits Cueta square in the chest. Cueta is able to fight most of the chill that settles on her, but it still leaves her feeling very very tired.
The pair of lighter shadows, detach themselves from the deep shadow and rush at the group. One goes after Cueta, and the other attacks Prospero who is one step beind Cueta. Neither of the shadows are able to get through the leading pair's defenses however. They look very very similar to the shadows they fought with upon the Jangly Man's ship.
Also lounging around the room are a pair of cultists who jerk into gleeful activity. FINALLY, something to DESTROY one of them roars and both of them start firing at the Cueta and Prospero.
Only one of their shots land however, on Prospero, shorting out the android's forcefield.
"These shadow creatures again. Are they originating from that larger shadow entity?"
Many targets to choose from, but which ones are the most important? For the moment, Prospero-4's sense of self-preservation overrides any larger tactical decisions, and thus concentrates his fire on the shadow creature next to him.
Once the reactionary shooting is done, the android's mind calms to allow more tactical thinking.
"Captain. Orders for target priority?"
Leila shoots one of the closest shades for now. Take that!
"Is that how shadows work?" She asks, rhetorically, though she suspected Prospero would answer her after the fighting was over. Squeezing through the door and stumbling into the room, she stops her momentum with a hip against the railing of the platform. A grenade pops off of her belt from the impact, which she nabs from the air, primes, and tosses behind the clustered shadows. A second later the kishalee device erupts in a storm of electromagnetic waves that cause the visual feed of her recording software to throw up warnings.
"Deal with these shadows on us first, we need to get into the room!" She instructs, pointing towards the one Prospero just shot.
Cueta gasps as the blast of shadow chills her soul. The pilot physically shakes it off, but the chill lingers, sapping Cueta's strength. No time to think about that, though - first and foremost, the shade in front of Cueta needed to be dealt with.
* –1 penalty to AC, attack rolls, melee damage rolls, Reflex saves, initiative checks, and Str– and Dex-based skill and ability checks
Starlight Form (Su):
* Your body sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius
* you gain the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance)
* a creature that ends its turn adjacent to your starlight form must succeed at a Fortitude save DC 18 or be blinded for 1 round.
* you gain the ability to fly as per the flight spell (spell level 3rd or lower).
Lesser Resistant Armor (80 minutes total):
* DR 5/— that protects against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage
Vek pauses for a moment, starlight swirling around his fists before igniting into blue flames. With a roll of his shoulder, he charges towards the captain's indicated target. "If we clear out these things here out first, we'll have more room to maneuver." His voice, calm as ever, crackles slightly in the Starfinders' comm units from the electrostatic radiation coming off his hands.