"I have a feeling the enemies we will face from now on are much more dangerous than before." Prospero-4 says, observing carefully at the meditating figures.
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"Why do this ship have vents? Did they have it built by some wholesale ship yard that didn't know their customers were undead?" Astrianna questions the design choices that led to their current infilration route even as she drops down from it.
As they prepare to enter the hallways leading to the command center, she pulls out an ancient spellgem recovered from the Temple of the Twelve on Castrovel. This artifact was probably worth millions of credits to the right person; so naturally Astrianna smashes it against her forehead while yelling out the name of the spell contained within.
"SEE INVISIBILITY!" Is what an experienced spellcaster says as a spell gem explodes into dust against her helmet and imbues her a sight beyond sight.
The appearance of the monks causes the vlogger to bark a sudden laugh. "Oh noooo we're going to have to fight museum curators now, they going to lecture us to-" She was cut off by a choking sound, and for a brief moment there was only blissful silence for the rest of the group followed by racking coughs.
"I take it back, kill this freak!" The captain commands while whipping out her cyro pistol. She notices Vek is struggling to breathe and gives him a swift kick in the tail plate. "LIVEN UP! The gods-damned galaxy is depending on you, soldier!"
Vek snaps upright as Astrianna barks an order, his left hand instinctively reaching across his chest in a salute. “Captain!” he answers, then catches his breath from where it had been hiding for a few seconds of eternity. “Engaging.” Fists ablaze, the vesk rushes across the room.
Prospero-4 nods in agreement to the attack order, although the gesture remains hidden within the power armor helmet. The android plants his both feet firmly and presses the artillery laser against his hip.
He marks the monk pointed by Astrianna as his target, letting the targeting computer in his brain adjust his aim. And then he blasts.
"*Cough!* Bleh." the halfling yelps and draws her weapons. She tries to spot their foes, but it's hard to see much over the commotion. Luckily this wasn't a very uncommon situation at her home turf - and this place was close enough for her to apply her experiences here. With a resolute breath she dives under Cueta and tries to stab the undead solarian from underneath! As she strikes she slaps the "close door" button to pinch the undead foes. Hah!
Cueta shuffles her legs, adopting a wide stance as a pair of tiny hands pushes at her from behind. The pilot new instantly what Leila was attempting - they'd recently watched Attack of the Horrific Half-dead Halfling Horde after all.
Bringing her sword above her head, Cueta slashes twice at the nearest enemy.
Oh no! Too bright!! Oh cruel irony, just like the creatures she was emulating ...
The flames surrounding Vek’s fists may pale in comparison with Cueta’s brilliance, but at least they’ve taught him not to stare directly into the light.
The Initial charge from the monks would have been enough to destroy most beings, but this group has dealt with threats even more awesome than they. Everyone who attacks the monk on Cueta lands at least one hit and it goes down under the harsh cavalcade of attacks.
The bright line from Ceuta that suddenly blazes forth is only resisted by Vek as both the remaining monk and Leila are dazzled by the brilliance.
The monks seem to realize something and their attention snaps onto Cueta.
The blinded one unleashes an awesome flurry of attacks against Cueta but it is unable to get through her defenses. The other remaining monk however slaps an alarm button on one of the consoles next to it and then charges in for a flying kick that does land.
Cueta feels some sort of pressure point being poked as the kick lands on her breastbone and for a moment feels like she's being robbed of her connection to her mysterious patron but she's able to fight it off and only takes physical damage from the attack.
"That was cool!" Leila chirps in the moments between stabbing the monk and realizing the brilliant light made it hard to see much of anything. Uh oh. Uhhh ... Caaaarefully the halfling backtracked her steps until she was reasonably sure she was behind Cueta again and waited for her eyes to readjust.
"Alarm has gone off. I believe more opponents will be here shortly." Prospero-4 states the obvious. He waits for instructions to focus on a particular opponent, but as none comes, he picks to monk who looks to be blinded by Cueta's powers.
Cueta swings her sword twice at the blinded monk, hoping its clouded vision makes it an easy target. Bloodless cuts appear on the undead warrior, Cueta grins.
Vek likewise swings at the blinded creature.
“Can you isolate the signal or block the alarm somehow?” he asks, voice unusually calm.
"You know, I took a few self-defense classes. I have a mean telescoping roundhouse kick. Cueta, try this one! Ki-ya!" Astrianna is obviously talking to her future viewers, and even does a few sloppy kicks while Cueta takes blows from an elite undead martial artist. It was infuriating, but also invigorating to see such nonchalant confidence in the face of incredible danger.
She gets distracted by the artifacts around the room as they beat the icor out of the last monk. "Well, if they already set off the alarms maybe we should rescue a few Eoxian artifacts of cultural significance! Ohhh my goodness we could have a entire ceremony where the Starfinders return these artifacts to the Eoxian Ambassador. On top of saving THE GLAXAXY that would be an incredible PR boost!"
Another monk goes down under a cavalcade of attacks. The third seems completely nonplussed by this and moves through Cueta and Vek with such twisted grace that there is no opportunity for an attack and rushes past Leila and Prospero to arrive in front of Astrianna.
Everyone feels a violent twisting of gravity as the monk passes by like a wraith. Vek and Cueta fall prone because of it but everyone else is able to keep their feet, though it feels like their innards have been rearranged..
Which means Astrianna's amateur trivid kick gets caught by the leathery undead monk and she gets smacked in the face by a contemptuous backhanded.
Worse Cueta and Vek, from the floor, see the tattered robes and sandals of another one of the monks flip down to the artifact display area from the left balcony. More enemies are coming in from deeper in the room!
The sudden shifts in gravity causes Prospero-4 to falter and look for a new footholds, but the frame of his power armor keeps him standing - only slightly bruised.
The monk is now too close to fire with a cumbersome weapon such as the artillery laser. So the android shifts the harness to move the weapon out of the way and smashes his powered and armored fist into the enemy.
“More hostiles incoming.” Vek pulls himself back onto his feet. “Neutralizing this threat first.” In a blaze of starlight, the vesk launches himself at the dark monk.
"Uh." Astrianna reacts with genuine surprise as her telescoping roundhouse kick is caught by a monk who was not there one second before. The backhand gives her head some nasty whiplash, though her kinetic dampeners take the brunt off. "Yee-owch!" She exclaims as she rips her leg away, pistol-hand clutching the side of her helmet.
A tactical knife suddenly appears in her hand, and she grins at the monk. "You mad?" Is taunted over her external speakers as she steps around it with surprising grace, thrusting the knife low to distract it from Prospero's massive powered fists.
"Yeez!" Leila flails her arms uses the gyroscopic effect to remain standing. This was just like when that gravity unit malfunctioned back home! She was picking socks our of her AC for weeks ... "Dammit! Either it's on or off! Pick a lane!!"
Seeing another monk approach - and the last one attacking them all when they were clumped together - the halfling decides to dodge away from the mess rather then get scrambled again. "Take this!" she haphazardly fires a salvo of rounds towards the new foe, seeking to distract it for just a moment.
Cueta lifts off the ground and hovers a foot in the air. Starlight streaks towards the newest enemy, and Cueta readies her sword for the creature's approach. It wouldn't get through the doorway as easily as the last one.
- and the target is knocked prone.
The group shifts to take care of the two threats that appeared. Prospero's metallic power fists deliver two heavy body blows to the monk and Vek's charging smack smashes right into the side of the monk's head.
Those three hits might have been enough to kill it, but Astrianna's opportunistic side stepping knife slash certainly seems to be the actual killing blow however... slicing the undead monk's head off at the neck in the opposite direction from the way the head was twisting thanks to Vek's glowing smash. Another monk down.
From the other direction, Leila's tricksy shot seems to hit the monk right where its nostrils would be causing it to stumble and shake its head.
Despite the devastating sonic attack the latest monk launches itself at Cueta but isn't able to get through her defenses.
While this is happening, from the direction this fourth monk had come from, jetpack in two more foes and one MORE monk.
One is a incredibly well equipped ghoul, and the fifth monk is sticking close to a truly monstrous looking undead Vesk. The head is a Vesk skull stripped of all flesh and empty eye sockets that opens up to a long tongue that lolls and lashes out like a living parasite. As it waves it seems to lock eyes with each of you with an eyeball surrounded by pincers at the end of it.
Maybe worse is the armor that is deliberately opened at the ribcage down to the lower belly showcasing entrails that bulge and shift as the Vesk hefts an autobeam rifle at the group.
Cueta knows everything instinctively about ghouls, this one is far far more powerful than a regular one though and it fires a shot right at Cueta. Hitting her with a plasma shot right in the center of her armor.
The very large undead Vesk on the other hand unleashes fully automatic laser hell on everyone he sees in front of him, which is the entire group plus the monk that's engaged with Cueta.
Only Leila is able to dodge out of the way of the attack and only Prospero's armor is able to turn it away, everyone else, including the hapless monk, gets hit by the flood of fire.
The entire ammo clip spent the Vesk casually drops the incredibly expensive weapon to the ground and gestures to the group in a come hither motion Starfinders, on the verge of being wiped out as a credible force in the galaxy. It shall be a pleasure to help push you and your group off that particular ledge
The final monk tosses back some sort of spell ampule and sticks to the side of the Vesk like a loyal bodyguard.
"More enemies. Which one is the priority target?" Prospero-4 sends in the groups internal comm channel.
The Vesk Mohrg seems particularly dangerous, or it could also be just a big ego of the creature. For now, the android thinks it's best to finish what they have started, and focus on the monks.
The one monk has suffered greatly fire both from Prospero-4's group and the monk's own, and the android is not going to let him go off any easier.
He grips again his artillery laser, turning it towards the damaged monk. He fires the great weapon from his hip, but the targeting systems help greatly on hitting the target.
Astrianna lets loose a pleased cackle as her knife bites into the monk's neck, ripping through its leathery skin and cutting clean through the bone. "Oops! Now who am I going to ask about these artifacts?" She laments as the monk's head rolls off owards a corner of the room.
The half-elf looks at her ichor-smeared right hand and knife with dismay. "Ugh, where am I going to wash all this off at? Gross."
The faint sound of jetpacks reach her ears through her suit's speakers, and she looks up in time to see the ghoul and Mohgr fly into the room, and her pleased express shifts to a frown as her team is peppered with laser fire.
A laser beam deflects off a shimmering field surrounding her arm and punches a scorching hole the size of her fist into the nearby wall. With an air of bravado, she doesn't even look at where the beam went.
"You must be the keynote speaker!" Astrianna says with a chipper smile to the newly arrived Corpse Fleet officer. "You're here to tell us all about these artifacts, right?" Her pistol drops from her hand, the sound of the plastic casing hitting the floor barely making it over the den of fighting in the already near-airless environment.
"We Starfinders just love listening to dusty lectures about old relics..." The grenade in her hand seemed to somehow appear mid-throw, and it sailed over the heads of her frontline warriors and hurtled for the Mohr's chest.
"Focus your attacks on the ghoul! It has too many toys and I don't like it." She tells her comrades after the kishalee grenade temporarily slows the subatomtic energy of everything within its raidus.
Leila takes a sweet moment to savor her hit. Before the hail of lasfire interrupts her taunting. "Got your nose!" Pew. Felt a little better about their semi-doomed quest to save the galaxy now ...
When the trio has made their introductions Leila dives for whatever cover is available, going Prone as she does. And when Astri calls out the target she responds with her sonic gun, hoping for a repeat performance!
Vek moves swiftly back to Cueta's side. "Time is of the essence," he observes calmly before striking the monk with enough force to send bits of glowing fire flying through the air. The motes of sunlight twinkle and fade as they touch the undead surface of the ship, but twinkle and shine when they land on the armor of the living.
"Yes," Cueta says, lifting her sword. "Let's punch through this one and get to the heavies." She brings the sword down on the monk twice. "What does it feel like, living your whole unlife only to be cannon fodder?"
Astrianna's grenade causes an incredibly odd effect on the three undead hanging back, but unfortunately they all seem to shake out of it. Cueta misses her attacks on the monk in front of her, but one of Vek's punches lands, leaving it clinging onto unlife by the barest of threads, whcih Prospoer's barrage promptly snuffs out.
Leila is able to land an accurate shot on the ghoul and it does seem to have caused some real damage.
The ghoul responds by shifting her aim and fires a single line of plasma fire that htis both Cueta and Leila!
The last monk sticks close to the Mohrg's side, tossing back another ampoule. The Mohrg, for it's turn tosses a grenade right in the middle of the very tightly clustered group.
IT must have been a VERY expensive grenade becuase the shock burst that radiates out from it covers the entire group with an incredibly violent burst of light. Astrianna, Prosper and Vek are able to avoid the worst of it, but Cueta and Leila take the full burnt.
Her movement enhanced thanks to her solarian comrade, Cueta charges the ghoul, faith welling in her that her passenger wouldn't have kept her alive this long just to have her fail at this crucial moment. Faith it occurs to the pilot, mind turning her thoughts over idly even as her sword rises and falls, is the act of denying reason, and knowing things will work out regardless.
While it was not the most comforting thought to anyone lacking faith, it served Cueta's purposes just fine.
Vek absorbs the light around himself and launches himself after Cueta towards the ghoul.
Astrianna sees the grenade coming and dives behind Prospero. Good thing, too, because the android seemed to get positively scorched. Still, the batteries on her armor start sending up warning on her HUD, and she knew it was time to spread out in case any more grenades came their way.
Hustling it over to a pedestal, the vlogger draws her laser pistol and sets it against her hand still holding an ichor-covered tactical knife. She squeezes off a single shot and the gun's external speakers let out a cartoonish PEW, just as programmed. "Keep it up, that ghoul is toast!"
It is somewhat unusual for Prospero-4 to get hit a lot, so this bombardment is a new sensation. Still, the android seems to escape the worst of it.
According to the captain’s new orders, he changes his target to the tech ghoul. It only takes a microsecond for the protocol to lock the new target and then he is already firing full burst with the laser.
Leila tumbles to no avail. Blast it! With a wince she dips out of cover again to shoot the ghoul. While keeping her eyes open for some nice piece of cover to hide behind that wasn't quite in the blast zone.
Cueta and Leila miss their attacks, it doesn't really matter though as Vek slashes into the ghoul.
Then Astrianna fires a shot that not only lands right on the ghoul's damaged faceplate but seems to cause some defect in her armour with dozens of sparks flying everywhere, a flaw that Prospero promptly takes advantage by firing a pair of shots right through the gaps in the torso that do significantly more damage than they feel like they should.
Essentially the ghoul seems to liquify from the middle and sort of... decomposes into the armor and starts to ooze out of it in chunks. It's a good thing there's no smell in the airless atmosphere.
As the ghoul falls the remaining two charge forward, the undead Vesk isn't really talking anymore and he comes in with his tongue flailing at Cueta. IT latches on and manages to pierce through her armor and she feels a numbing sensation come over her that she manages to fight through the pain.
The bodyguard rushes in with unnatural speed to flank Cueta with their charge and hits out with a massive flurry of attacks. Three solid punches hit and... finally.. Cueta falls.
Astrianna gets some gnarly footage of the ghoul melting inside of its own armor. Cool!
It was less cool to see Cueta get punched to death. "Damn it Cueta, not again!" The vlogger yells as she sees the pilot's vitals go critical in her HUD. At least this would have some great drama potential later.
"Monk!" Her next target is called out, which she paints with both a laser pointer and a much more deadly, flesh-burning type of laser.
A very satisfactory series of shots leaves Prospero-4 wondering if he overdid it with his optimizations to the artillery laser. But a quick analysis of the ghouls demise leaves the android to the understanding the melting result was mostly a result of Astrianna's shot - although the exact details of it are still left unknown. Still impressed, he sends a thumbs-up emoticon to the half-elf's feed for good teamwork.
Unfortunately, the laser's battery indicator displays quite clearly it's time for a small reloading break. He takes a fresh battery from his utility belt and replaces the used one in his weapon. While the artillery laser is feeding new juice and powering up, he aims his wrist-mounted crossbolter at the targeted monk, and hurls out a massive titanium bolt.
Struck by the most unpleasant deja vu Leila cried out "Cueta!" over the comms. But she'd be fine this time, just like always right? Right?! The halfling steeled herself, intending to do everything she could to make it so. And a start was to remove all these creepy dead!
Vek grimaces as an alert starts chirping in his helmet. Cueta… Acknowledging the captain’s order, he takes a deep breath and rushes into the fray.
Vek steps to threaten both remaining enemies. Perhaps not coincidentally this means he is standing protectively over the prone Cueta who had just been flanked and taken down.
A barrage of attacks from the whole group leaves the monk staggering and almost, but not quite truly dead; seems like whatever pottion it drank gave it enough staying power to not be killed in one round of focused attacks.
Instead it lets a flurry of blows on the target right in fornt of it, Two of the attacks actually get through, one of them fritzing out Vek's beleaguered force field again and the other causing just a bit of damage
The true purpose of the attack though is to buy the monstrous undead right behind Vek just enough of a distraction to really hit home with a multidue of attacks. The tongue lashes out and tries its best to punch through Vek's armor while two powerful slams rain down on him from above.
Service even in death. He says to Vek You... understand.. don't you cousin?
Vek feels a numbing sensation from the tongue, but is able to push it off.
“Service to what? To the death of all sentient life? You would doom the universe to a slow death of entropy in the name of service?” Vek swings at the monk beside him, voice eerily calm. “Without living creatures, where will new undead come from? Every destruction will permanently reduce the population. This is not a well-thought plan. I would have expected better from a servant of the Veskarium.”
Astrianna replies to Prospero's thumbs-up emoji with incredible speed. A hand-drawn image of the half-elf with a winky face pops up on his chat, delivered through a series of quick hotkey presses on her wrist-mounted comm unit.
She leaves the last monk to Vek, turning her laser pistol onto the hulking undead. "Those your last words? Choose carefully, the galaxy will be watching." Her laser pointer paints the target for Prospero's aiming software while she yells out to vek. "Protect Cueta! We're almost through this!"
The halfling furrows her bows and makes a grimace that may have been fierce and frightening on someone larger then a child. Get that toungey creep!