Inspired of the ease of controlling the robot, Prospero-4 moves closer and tries to override the cultist android. It's different kind of programming, but programming nonetheless.
A peal of laughter rings out over their comms when she hears the hijacked robot tell it how it is. The vlogger quickly recovers, but she has to appreciate Prospero's sudden humor. She had clearly trained them well!
"Take out that android! The cultist one! I actually like Prospero!" Astrianna says as she moves forward, whipping out and training her pistol onto the most dangerous target.
Cueta grits her teeth as the Ysoki's taser courses through her, her vision tunneling. Focusing in on the Ysoki, Cueta lifts her sword, and then again, emphasizing each swipe of her sword with a yell.
The fatigue of the day might be getting to Vek as he is is completely unable to get past the android's formidable defenses.
Leila's slip and slide maneuver however completely catches her off guard and a deep slash seems like it connects. The rage that passes over her face at this development seems to completely throw off whatever Prospero was attempting.
Astrianna's shot goes wide.
Cueta's second attack manages to pin down the squirrely ysoki for a lot of damage. He almost managed to evade though.
The pain from the deep stab seems to throw the ysoki off and his waving weapon misses Cueta.
The very angry android turns way from Vek, dropping her rifle and starts straight up punching the halfling. Liela is barely able to get away from one, but the other smacks her
Also the ysoki squeaks in pain as he shuts his eyes against Cueta's brilliance.
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Vek almost instinctively seizes the opportunity as the android turns her back on him, but pauses for a moment. Blue flames begin to dance on his glowing fists, and as he opens his eyes the same flame seems to dance within them as well.
And so we burn once more.
In a burst of supernatural speed, the vesk punches at the android's back and jabs at her neck. Sunlight explodes from the effort, surrounding him and the other Starfinders once more in an uplifting radiance that pushes them forward like hydrogen plunging into the core of a star.
Not surprisingly, the android's programming was completely different from the robot's, and Prospero-4's overload attempt was in vain. Better to deal with the enemy the old fashioned way, then.
Using the Vek's gift of speed to his advantage, Prospero-4 moves into the room and into a better firing position. His exocortex is working hard to track all the targets in the battlefield, and calculate the firing windows past his allies. And once he has clear line, the artillery laser starts blasting.
"I want that android on the ground, shoot shoot shoot!" Astrianna instructs the team while firing off another carefully aimed beam of heat-stealing particles at the android cultist.
The ysoki squealing and blinded, Cueta presses her attack, confident that the others will end the enemy android's life in short order. Vek's light sweeps the room, a different star energy than Cueta's, but familiar in its way, and welcome. Cueta's light pulses as it takes in Vek's, and the the wisp dances through the ysoki, ruffling the rodent's fur with tiny arcs of starlight.
"*Oufff*" The armour was holding and Leila shrugged off the strike with a small grunt. "If you can't even squish me how are you even going to end the world?" she taunts and dives low, trying to ram her short knife into the side of her foes knee. Bring them down to her level!
Cueta's first attach hits the staggering ysoki, but her second misses, but only because the ysoki ducks back to run away. That gives Cueta the chance to land a hit that draws a lot of blood, The Ysoki is still able to stumble away and fell out of the room, past the pistol wielding Astrianna and rushes straight north at full speed while still holding his eyes.
A lot of hits land on the android. Filthy.. Biology.. Infested. Universe.. deserves.. nothing.. but nullification. she spits. That is most important and jets away, making for the containment field separating the control room from the inner workings of the artifical asteroid through which the bots had come.
Leila isn't able to react in time but Vek brings his fists down in a hammerlock slam right on the Android's back as she tries to speed away. The sound of her metallic spine cracking in twain echoes right across the room and she lands with a thud on the floor bent in a completely unnatural angle right down her middle. Her eyes, cold with hate before now hold the empty look of death.
Status Bottom of Round 4
Vek 115 damage, force-field 6/10
Cueta: 63 damage.
Leila: 21 damage
"You have biological parts, idiot. Pretty sure they're dying right now." Astrianna gets in one last jab before Vek's jab crumples the andriod's spine.
Spinning around commically as the Ysoki runs past, Astrianna uses the power infused in her by Vesk to chase after the fleeing cultist. "Leila, pick up that control board and tell me if that's what we're after! Prospero, with me, we're putting down that cultist!"
Lifting off the ground, Cueta flies through the doorway following the ysoki, starmotes shooting from her body. The motes streak through the air, finding their way unerringly into the back of the fleeing cultist.
Vek’s feet dig into the ground as he bounds off with star-like speed, his massive frame weaving past his smaller companions gracefully as he chases after the fleeing cultist. ”May the end you pray for find you painlessly,” he says as he catches up, jabbing twice in quick succession at the tiny ysoki.
"Affirmative, captain!"
Moving with the same astonishing speed as the others, Prospero-4 joins Astrianna's side to put a finishing blow to the ysoki cultist.
Cueta, Vek, and Prospero all land hits, ending the ysoki's flight in a bloody skidmark on the control facilitiy's previously dusty floor, now marred by a lot of cultist corpses.
Looking over the consoles of the computer center allows the many experts of the group to quickly unblock the second moon's control system from connecting to the facilites on the rest of the artificial solar system.
Osteth appears as soon as that happens, obvious relief in her words.
You have done it? Is the threat ended?
Astriana is laboriously going through the cultist android's personal items when Osteth pops into the room. "Oh yeah. We've saved the day I think it's safe to say!" She announces cheerily while trying not to get stuck on some nasty looking spikes that seem to cover everything the cultists interact with. "We have the control board and hopefully that was the last of the cultists we have to deal with in the system. Where do you want us to take the board again? Back to your physical location?"
Leila helps stack the loot into a pile and starts fiddling with her HalfPintTM shrink spray. "Mm. If this is the only thing that lets them blow up the galaxy we're totally fine!"
Yes Oseth says. Now that all threats have been contained or eliminated, I could even repurpose foundry facilities to recreate the board needed, but it will be far more efficient just to re-use one and the one you have from the second control facility should be perfectly adequate. Meanwhile I will begin preparations to open the demiplane containing the Stellar Degenrator. As you may imagine, this is not a simple process.
The trip back to the first moon takes the same amount of time as the trip to the second and the group is able to rest and recover.
The first control moon, circling the first star, is very much the same as the team left. Except that the cultist corpses from before have been piled up outside the main facility and truly truly sink as these truly ugly carrion flies buzz around over them.
Inside a robot under Osteth's direction trundles up to to retrieve the control board and moves into the depths of the control moon's inner workings to replace the one Osteth had managed to sabotage before being trapped.
Are we ready? Osteth says. Once the process starts, it cannot be reversed. It really was not built to be an on/off switch as it were.
The vlogger's spirits couldn't be higher as the group makes their way back into the control facility on the first moon. She doesn't even acknowledge the pile of corpses outside of the building, probably because she doesn't give a damn.
"Well friends this is about to be the end to a terribly exciting adventure. We were famous before, but now? They'll be talking about us for hundreds of years. No thousands. We'll be legends! Can you imagine the things they'll say we did? And most of it will be true! Re-runs of all the trids and animations and cosplay competitions will become a classic and cherished bonding point between family units." She chatters away until they are inside, and hands off the control board to the robot.
Suddenly quite serious, Astrianna holds up a finger to Osteth. "Before you start the process are you capable of scanning the system for any other vessels? A full-system scan would be great, but if you could specifically target wherever this demiplane is going to open would be ideal. You see, we're fairly sure there is another group after the Stellar Degenerator, and I suspect they're waiting for us to do all the work and then slip in as soon as the plane is opened."
Of course, scans are being conducted constantly, even small vessels such as yours are identified. It is only because of Eltreth's sabotage that the cultists were able to approach, and in the choas of their takeover the reconnaissance was not reinitiated. I am not so lax in security measures however.
Once all the loot is gathered and carried to the ship, Prospero-4 takes a moment to study the Android's datapad. Although he suspects it will be mostly insane ramblings, but who knows if there's a bit of useful information in there as well.
Vek nods, brow furrowed with worry. "How will we return from this demiplane?" he asks. "Or will the entrance stay open until we are finished? And what can we expect to find in there? What else besides the device was sealed inside?"
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Prospero is correct, there is nothing in the android named Null-9's datapad that the group does not already know. The Devourer cultists were consistently one step ahead of the group but the group had caught up in more ways than one.
Oh you will not be going into the demiplane. Osteth explains as some flies fattened on devourer corpses float lazily around. The Degenerator will be coming out of the demiplane and into our plane of existence. How would the five of you destroy it by going into it? No we will turn our self-defense systems onto the weapon and destroy it that way, even though it will take a while, or perhaps you can enter it and set it's piloting parameters to auto pilot into one of the twelve stars that control the game. If you have any other suggestions then I am willing to consider it but either of those two will work.
So saying Osteth spreads her hands.
The consoles surrounding the PCs begin to glow blue. Several monitors begin showing views of the interior bores of the other controller moons. Traces of the same blue light limn the circuitry along the walls and the army of maintenance bot on screens.
A moment later, the building shakes and all the monitors switch to perspectives from the planetoid’s surfaces pointing toward the skies. In each, different angles of a colossal tear in space forming can be spotted in the distance. The fiery red of the planar gate contrasts with the inky blackness of space in a display that is both beautiful and awe-inspiring. This all happens within the span of 20 minutes.
Looking at the consoles, the technically inclined can see readings about the phenomena. The circular opening to the Stellar Degenerator’s demiplane has a diameter of half a million miles and is currently stable. The massive vessel within has a conical shape and is mostly built from a material the PCs have never encountered or heard of (though parts of it are encased in rock, as if it were built into an asteroid). The superweapon is over 100,000 feet long and has a mass of over 50,000 tons. It gives off a faint energy signature, not much more than a docked starship, and it has a small amount of its own gravity.
This is the Stellar Degenerator and it emerges from the rent in space like a slowly awakening titan of unimaginable death and destruction.
"You're bringing it here?! But the Corpse Fleet could-" Astrianna was too slow to provide any objections, and instead (surprisingly) shuts her mouth to witness the emerging of the Stellar Degenerator. She orders Pumpkin over the wireless to fix the exterior cameras onto the phenomoma- this was a once in a millenial event and she wanted the highest quality footage possible.
"Are you coming with us, Osteth? If we're going to pilot that thing into a sun you would be the best one to consult on how to do it." She asks, though she still hadn't considered exactly how they were going to transport the AI, let alone what to put her in that would have the needed processing power for a nearly sentient AI.
The vlogger wrinkles her nose and turns in place for a moment. "Where did all the flies go? Oh, they're... dead?" She kneels down and picks one up by the wing. "You know, that's not really a good sign. I don't like that."
"The energy readings are far beyond anything I have seen before." The normally calm Prospero-4 sounds quite awed, witnessing the gate drawing energy from the stars. And the actual emergence of the superweapon is no less impressive sight, either.
"You think the self-defense systems would be able to destroy the Stellar Degenerator?" the android asks Osteth, and tries to get a good scan of the weapon. He doubts any weapons under capital scale would be able to scratch an installation of that size. Of course, he hasn't seen much of the gate's defenses, so it could surprise him.
"Is there a way to turn the weapon against itself? Harness the power to self-destruction?"
--
Then, wondering for a moment what Astrianna doing, he then realizes the significance of the sudden death of flies.
"Scanning for radiation," he says, putting the analysis up to the display.
"Balls," Cueta says, an awed gasp escaping her in a whispered word. "Maybe we're all going to die after all."
Pushing that thought aside - this seems to be the purpose she's been kept alive for, after all - Cueta scowls as the flied drop to the ground. Reaching out to the thing within her, her passenger, Cueta offers a quick plea for some insight about the flies.
"Woah! That's pretty cool!" The halfling gasps and stares at the screens. She tries to take it all in - that things was huge! And hmm perhaps 'cool' wasn't the right word for a existence ending doomsday machine? "Uhm. I mean impressive. Scary. Awe ... Aweful?"
"Ramming it into a sun would be quite the sight ..." And it would give her an excuse to get aboard that thing and poke around a little. That wasn't too much to ask was it? Juuust a tinsy little poke.
”That might not be the best choice given the size of that structure,” Vek replies slowly. ”Even the stars themselves can be shaken from their orbits, as this very weapon was designed to do.” As everyone else starts staring at the flies, the warrior looks around the room warily. Not more shadows...
The weapon's destructive potential isn't inherent, it comes from it's ability to siphon the energy away from a star. I suppose we could use that on one of the suns and find a way for that energy to feedback into itself but it seems simpler...
As the scientist/hologram responds to Prospero, Cueta frowns as she focuses on one fo the dead flies indicated by Astrianna. The feeling of wrongness that has been plaguing her for a while suddenly comes into sharp focus as she suddenly realizes the problem.
No sooner has Cueta has the revelation that a cavalcade of alarms start sounding around the control room. Lights turn a crimson red and Osteth's expression changes completely as she waves her arms around and a multitude of virtual floating screens appear.
Each shows long rang visuals of macabre bone sculpted ships twisted into grotesqely beautiful shapes seemingly popping into existence right in the system. They just keep coming and coming and coming.
By all the stars in the cosmos What are those things? And WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM? Osteth shouts, honestly it's almost a shriek. Activating self defense systems, all self defense sysems. They're headed straight for the Degenerator!
It's easy for the group to realize that these are Eoxian designed ships and they are coming in a a mass coordianted drop out off the Drift. For so many to come in at the same time so close to the artificial system is a truly stunning accomplishment. It takes the resources of a full armada of very well trained soldiers to pull off something like this.
Some of the screens show capital weapons emerging from beneath the surface of the Gate of Twelve Suns’ controller moons, and the system
is now filled with laser fire and destructive pulses of gravity from the cosmic strings at the center of each.
A truly massive and truly ugly, veritable city of bones becomes the focus of many of the visual screens. The assault on the ancient system seems to be forming around it as a spearhead. And while it seems to be slowed it keeps advancing towards its prize as inexorable as death itself.
Image: The head of the assault
Music: Opportunity Strikes
The blaring alarms cause Astrianna's head to jerk upward, the forgotten fly dropping from between her fingers. "Aw, hells." Escapes her mouth as the instantly recognizable ships start dropping out of the drift. "I told you this was going to happen! I knew they were just waiting! It's the Corpse Fleet, gods it might be the entire Corpse Fleet. They're coming out of The Drift, the same way we got here."
Astrianna rubs her hands on the outside of her helmet and slaps the surface a few times, as if trying to stimulate some kind of thoughts. "We have to go. Osteth, I need you to focus on slowing down the approach of those ships as much as possible. Try to focus fire on their capital ship.
She waves to the others to start moving, then begins to jog out of the room. "Move it! If they beat us there we'll all be wishing we turned into undead when we had the chance!"
"Double balls," Cueta says, frown deepening as the fleet pops into view. "Probably the least of our worries, but the flies were never alive, chinny? Dead, undead flies."
Blinking, Cueta shakes her self into action. "So we're running then?"
"Yeah that's bad!" the halfling gasps and turns around to dash back to the ship. Didn't even have the time to look at the spectacle! Hopefully Astri was taping it...
"Pumpkin! Please prepare for takeoff as soon as we're back!" she opens a com line to the ship and tries to save a few precious moments.
Vek had heard about this fleet from the other Starfinders, but seeing it was another matter entirely. Wordlessly he turns from the display and follows the captain back to the ship. Let’s hope there’s some internal defenses here we could activate against that capital ship, he prays.
"You're joking, we were being spied on by UNDEAD FLIES?" Astrianna responds to Cueta as they run back to the ship. It pissed her off, but she had to admit it made a really good show.
You don't... understand.. Osteth says, attention diverted by all that's happening with her the only entity in charge. Smaller ships are appearing in all relevant parts of the gates. I cannot hold them all off... the second moon's defenses are already compromised and I estimate it will fall in a matter of hours...
As she says this and the group rushes outside the truth of her words are confirmed as the loud thrum of a landing ship can be heard. Emergeing from the command center they can see an Eoxian ship, that looks like little more than a troop transport has managed to get past the orbital defenses of the first control moon.
With little regard for the kind of safety the living require, the hatches of the ship open and what looks like a squad of marines disembark. They look geared up and very professional.
"Gods, how are they so fast? They must have dropped out of drift nearly on top of the moon!" Astrianna complains over their comms as the group rushes out of the room. "Get out there, we have to protect our ship and Osteth!"
As soon as she has line of sight on one of the marines her pistol appears in her hands to take a potshot at their vanguard. "Get in there! Show them they landed on the wrong damn moon!"
Prospero-4 struggles to keep up with the others in his heavy armor, so he is little late to witness the disembarking undead. It has been a while since they've come across with the Corpse Fleet, but the android doesn't have very fond memories of the encounter.
"Captain, you orders? Rush them or ambush them here?" he voices the question on the group's private channel.
Then realising how close The Sunrise Maiden is to the undead, he adds the on-board AI to the channel.
"Pumpkin, arm flak throwers. Disengage safety protocols, and prepare receive target lock."
"Oh no! Pumpkin!!" Leila cries out in alarm. She draws her arc pistol, because out of her small arms it was the one that might reach, and dashes forward. As she overtakes Astri she leaps and hits the dirt, hoping a smaller profile will provide some sort of protection at least. Then - try to zap the closest!
Cueta flashes with light, and lifting off the earth, surges forward, drawing her longsword as her shadow flits across the ground beneath her.
Vek pops his neck to activate the haste circuit, then ignites his fists and races into the fray. "Guess we're testing out this armor the traditional way," he says through the team's comm units, though his tone doesn't make it clear whether this is a joke or not.
Astrianna *hit
Leila *hit
Vek *crit
Cueta *miss
Prospero *hit
Vek * miss
Astrianna *hit
Leila *miss
Astrianna
Leila
Vek
Prospoer
The two shots from Leila and Astrianna hit the marine first to disembark. Large chunks of flesh are frozen and then shocked off but it keeps moving as if it feels no pain, which it probably doesn't.
It, along with the rest of its seven squad members move off the ship and take cover behind the legs of the ship itself. Leaning out of cover they fire what look like acid darts with incredible accuracy. They are spreading out their shots but they prioritize Astrianna, Leila, and Vek. Astrianna gets hit twice (2x15), Leila, and Prospero once, (12 and 15) and Vek gets hit with a very well aimed dart that really strains his armor (31).
Leila frown as one of the darts scores a glancing hit. "Ouchie!"
She leaps back onto her feet to close the distance and get some revenge! After which she goes prone again.
"Pisscuits, they sent real marines down here." Astrianna complains as acids splash over her armor and already begin degrading the various seals and filters meant to keep out the really bad stuff.
"Get on my target, we can't be wasting time like this!" She instructs while hustling forward and firing another shot to hopefully take down an attacker.
[ooc]Standard Action: Improved Get 'em and pistol shot on hurt marine.[/oo]
Maybe he has been watching too many sci-fi flicks on infosphere, but Prospero-4 somehow expected marines to be bad shots. So he is quite surprised by the enemy's accuracy, and decides to head for cover.
The android activates his haste circuit, and dashes to the foliage, opening fire as he goes.
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Sword raised in front of her, Cueta points it at the wounded marine and streaks towards it, aiming the longsword tip, like a spear's point, at the corpse's neck. Cueta finds herself surprised to hear a subconscious whirr escaping her throat, as if she were a child imitating the zooming of a subsonic fightercraft.
"Rrrrraaaarrrrrrrrr."
Vek likewise races across the ground, though he does so without the flying woman's sound effects. His blazing fists leave afterglow streaks in the air as he moves with supernatural swiftness, swinging once at the injured soldier. Rest easy - your time has come...
Even though Leila misses her attack, Astrianna and Prospero are able to land one shot each to bring the injured marine down.
Cueta and Vek redirect their charge to the second closest undead marine and, bereft of cover is socked and slashed hard. They coolly drop their rifle and hits out at the enemy that is not blazing with a supernatural light with their gauntlet.
Neither attack hits.
The remaining 5 remain in cover from their ranged foes but redirect their attacks to the melee warriors that have charged into their midst. A veritable hail of darts fly at Cueta and Vek.
Two of them hit Cueta, and three hit Vek.