Fully charged
The Aphelion laser sends update to Prospero-4's targeting uplink, that the battery change is complete and the weapon is again fully functional.
The Mohrg is already painted as the new target, so the android just points the artillery laser to the right direction and starts shooting.
The monk crumbles away and Vek turns to hit out at his final foe. He fails to hit and the Mohrg dodges out of the way of Leila's attack as well, Prospero, howver lands both of his shots causing some damage.
Ah cousin. I serve Damoritosh! The tongue writhes, flicking at Vek. When I was brought back I realized he granted me two lives to serve him! What matter whether it be the Veskarium or the Corpse Fleet. I have brought him Victory after Victory after VICTORY!
With each plea to trumph the Mohrg lashes out first with his tongue then with a fist, both which Vek is able to parry, but the final swing is a two handed slam on Vek's arm. Vek can feel it shattering underneath his armor causing him incredible pain. It's going to be moment to moment whether he can fight through it!.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
"And that is your blind spot, soldier. You think one great victory over the entire universe will be enough to bring you Damoritosh's favor."
"But then what? What victories can you offer when everything is dead and silent? Who will you struggle against?"
"Your shortsightedness is alarming, soldier." Even with one arm hanging limply by his side, the living vesk's words are calm and tinged with both sadness and disappointment.
Astrianna is looking down the sights of her laser pistol at the scene before her- Vek, horribly injured and standing over the unconscious body of Cueta, doesn't let up against the self-righteous undead and delivers another blow that would rip a cheap door off its hinges.
Damn. She thinks while pulling the trigger on her laser pistol, sending a new firing solution Prospero's artillery laser that passed by Vek's useless arm.
Maybe I should give Vek a raise. The update to the rest of the team's HUD was delayed by a full second, enough time for Prospero to get off his shot, and then pinged Leila's information feed.
Prospero-4 fires into the melee. Together with Astrianna's firing solution, the android's targeting computer times the shots just so they miss Vek, but hit the mohrg.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We get paid?! Leila blinked once and twice. Oh, that did explain her extra stocks. Truth to be told she had been happy with a % off the merchandise (that's where the real money was after all! Plus she was still looking forward to that promised doll)!
Inspired by this and her companions heroic speech (just don't think to hard about that one!) the halfling draws her dagger and slips in behind the morgh, in a flanking position. Heroic backstab!!
I was Ghurd Nashal and am Ghud Nasha again. When all is dead, cousin, and silent.. when the skeletons have fought the ghouls and the ghouls have fought the vampires and the vampires have fought the monrgs, and all is dust, then I would rest Ghurd says just before Vek smashes him overhand on the skull with his non broken hand so hard that the momentum of it carries the mohrg down to the ground where Vek basically fist slams Ghurd onto the floor of the Empire of Bones so hard it leaves a dent.
Dazed he looks up. So many years... only two defeats unavenged... but if you destroy Sevoroux... then it will be only one... listen.. he's a caster... invisible... if you defeat him then in the battlefields of the hereafter....
He's silenced by a final blast from Prospero who's able to needle his shot through everything in between onto the hard to hit prone form of Ghurd Nashal.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Astrianna lowers her pistol when Ghurd Nashal stops moving. "Huh, did they just help us? Must have really hated this Sevoux guy."
Then, as she is wont to do, theh alf-elf starts giving orders. "Prospero, close and lock the door we used to come in. You get bonus points if it will still open for us. I don't want any surprises." She fises aroud in her bag of holding and starts tossing medical supplies onto the floor in front of Liela. "Patch up Cueta and Vek, I'm not fighting any invisible spellcasters without them."
She turns to sweep her emerald green eyes over the various artifacts around the room. "Meanwhile, I'll be busy doing some archeology."
This is the loot:
Ghoul: freebooter armor III, buzzblade dueling sword with 1 battery (20 charges), yellow star plasma rifle with 2 high-capacity batteries (40 charges each), personal comm unit
Ghurd: advanced iridishell (white force field [15 HP]), shock grenades III (2), tactical autobeam rifle with emptied high-capacity battery (40 charges), bridge key card, cybercontrol command key, system-wide comm unit
For the artifacts, there are four so that will be four rolls. You have the choice of a stone, a spear, a pair of sapphires, and the skull. You'll need to roll for each, so which one would have been your first?
Looking into the other rooms you see C2:
Three rows of computer displays take up the center of this room, with additional control panels lining the fore wall.
Monitors line the port, starboard, and aft walls, showing various decks and grav-train corridors of the ship’s interior and the Gate of Twelve Suns, as well as the position, direction, and possible firing arcs of dozens of armada ships in the system. Heavy doors are set into the fore and starboard walls.
Looking at the sensors the tech minded of the group realize that the Empire of Bones has moved closer and closer to the emerging Stellar Degenerator and that the ancient defenses of the system have basically given out in the time you've been onboard. The patient caution of the undead will probably be satisfied of the safety of claiming the prize very very soon.
C3:
This elegant room has smooth, bone-white walls and redstained wooden floors. A large table apparently carved from a single enormous slab of stone takes up much of the aft section of the room, with a blank computer display hanging from the ceiling nearby.
Smaller stone pillars topped with black glass tabletops, each surrounded by several smaller chairs, are scattered throughout the rest of the room. A countertop that runs along the port wall and around the corner along the fore wall holds delicately formed crystal goblets and what appear to be food dispensers.
Vek stands in silence for a few moments as the morhg crumbles to pieces before him. Astrianna's voice sounds over the comm, but her words don't register. The void holds Vek's consciousness for a moment, his pain lost in the face of his cosmic insignificance.
May you find your peace this time in the Beyond, cousin.
Vek still hasn't decided whether the thought is a prayer or a curse before an insistent alarm pulls him back to his body. Blinking a few times, his eyes finally register Cueta's prone form and his mind realizes that she is not moving. Quickly he kneels down, picking up some of the medical supplies haphazardly strewn around the floor and opening sterilized packets of medi-gel to spray into the holes in his copilot's armor.
Leila ponders if they really were number two, but decided it didn't matter. Not when Cueta was like this at least! She kneeled down, adding her own medkit to the puddle of supplies. "Right. I'll help you patch this. Careful now, half this stuff is creepy Eox brands ..."
After that final shot, Prospero-4 scans the surroundings for any new enemy activity, and then lowers his weapon. It seems this fighting is over for now.
"Sevoroux - have we heard this name before?" the android wonders out loud. But Astrianna was right, Ghrud seemed to have something against this Sevoroux, whoever he or she might be.
While the others focus on brining Cueta back from the brink of death, Prospero-4 starts securing the premises. First, as per captain's orders, he locks the door behind them.
The important thing about the skull isn't actually the skull itself... it's the 24-inch-long metallic centipede covered in runes interwined with it.
It's a runeworm.
When it is placed near your ear (or a similar orifice), it animates and enters your body. Once inside you, the runeworm intertwines with your internal anatomy and releases an arcane virus that rewrites and improves some part of your body’s function. It functions as a mk 2 synergizing symbiote, which is able to increase an ability score by 4. However, it is so advanced that it can instead upgrade any mk 2 personal upgrade already in your system to a mk 3 personal upgrade, increasing the ability score bonus from +4 to +6.
The sapphires are the eyes of an inevitable. When you hold one of the eyes in one hand, you can control the other as a spy drone. You see what the flying eye sees through the eye you hold. However, if you place the gems over your own eyes, they burrow into your skull and replace two of your eyes (destroying the optic nerves of any additional eyes if you have more than two eyes), functioning as a long-range darkvision capacitors augmentation. You can still send out one eye as a spy drone, during which time the eyes do not grant you darkvision. When the eyes aren’t embedded in a skull and aren’t in use, a reddish mist slowly coalesces around them.
The spear and the stone... well the spear is a purely tech item while the stone is a purely magic one... maybe someone else can figure 'em out.
"What the hells." She murmurs over chatter as she realizes the nature of the objects. "These aren't sacred cultural artifacts, they're incredibly potent body modifications! This is a runeworm..." A finger is jabbed at the clear container covering the construct. "And these are eyes of an Inevitable." Her finger shifts to the sapphires. "They have some huge undead goands to be keeping the eyes of an Inevitable. You'd think it would just attract more of them."
Astrianna can't figure out the other two, but just shrugs and starts walking towards the nice looking room with the tables. There was a buffet! "Anyway I'm going to grab a snack. Leila, when you're done pumping Cueta full of anaphylactics or whatever, take a look at that spear and stone."
C3 is definitely an incredibly fancy dining area for entertaining guests. The food dispensers can dispense all manner of flesh, a dizzying varieties of blood, and with a little bit of digging, even a pretty decent diversity of food for living folks. How the living would get in into their feeding holes when their breathing orifices don't work well in airless environments is a bit of a mystery but the thought is nice.
Both C3 and C2 have a door to the north which can seems like it can be unlocked with GHurd's bridge key card while his cybercontrol command key can probably fully control the computers in C2.
Leila takes a quick moment to wipe away the Cueta and Eox-med-kit ichors from her hands. Then her eager paws grab a solid hold of the liberated relics and looks them over, cross-referencing to her archive of B-tier action movies. Unending well of knowledge that one!
"Uhum. Hmhm. Hmm..."
vs DC -5*
vs DC -5*
Theme Knowledge (1st Level)
You have trained yourself to have few presuppositions about the foreign devices you uncover. Reduce the DC to identify rare, ancient, or alien tech by 5. Engineering is a class skill for you, though if it is a class skill from the class you take at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to Engineering checks. In addition, you gain an ability adjustment of +1 to Intelligence at character creation.
"Oh, come on. No feeding port accessibility? This is lifeism right here." She complains at the food dispensers. "And I really wanted to try this freeze-dried dire boar patte." With a sigh and a shrug, the vlogger continues her wandering to the room with rows of monitors lining the walls.
Scrunching up her nose at the veritable slew of data scrolling across the screen, she whips out the cybersecurity card they picked off of Ghurd's cold, re-dead corpse and slots it into the card reader. "Hey, Prospero." Her voice comes in over his personal comms. "When you're done with the door come take a look at this, I think you'll like it."
If the android comes to investigate, he will already find her attempting to access whatever security measures control the display cases in the adjacent room.
"Yes, captain. The door is secured." the android affirms, and moves to investigate whatever the half-elf is talking about.
The rows of computers are an impressive sight - and their placement here could mean access to far more secure controls than the networks they've encountered so far.
He glances over Astrianna's shoulder, and sees the her seeking access to the security measures.
"Captain, these systems could control the whole of this ship. If I may..?"
The spear has enough Iomedae imagery on it to classify as a holy book. It almost definitely belongs to the Knights of Golarion.
It is a golden spear with a ruby blade and functions as both an inferno flame doshko and a white star plasma caster. It holds one ultra-capacity battery, which powers all uses of the weapon. Switching the weapon from melee functionality to ranged functionality (or vice versa) is a swift action.
The stone is a warlord stone. Holding the collected memories of an ancient alien general. This mk 3 ability crystal can increase any one ability score by 6 if you spend 1 hour communing with the item, as fragments of the ancient alien warlord’s psyche flood your mind and body. Its magic is then forever spent.
Ghurd's cyber key allows Prospero to very easily access all the systems available from any of the terminals in the room.
He discovers an authorized user, which he now is, can command all the cybernetic zombies running the various sections of the ship to perform the engineer and science officer roles of the Empire of Bones, and to use up to two of the four +10 bonuses available from the ship’s computer.
Prospero has total access to the command link system and, he and Leila can perform engineer and science officer actions as they see fit... their commands can be overridden though by the bridge though Propsero realizes, which lies just one door away. Starting to issue commands would give away that they have overtaken cybercontrol anyway.
The multitude of sensors and readouts and logs tells them that the Empire Of Bones has moved significantly closer to the portal to the pocket dimension opening in the center of the system. It seems like the ancient defense systems are falling under the might of the Corpse Fleet and there is very little left keeping them from gaining their prize.
Cueta lifts her healing staff from her pack and taps into its mystical power, sighing as its warming light closes her wounds. Next, she looks over the display case holding the spear - were there alarms? Closing her eyes, she lets her passenger reach out, testing the mystic defenses of the case as well, searching for any wards placed along its perimeter.
There are no traps, it seems there was no expectation of anyone daring to touch these treasured trophies and so it is easy to remove the glass any way you wish to access the treasures displayed within.
Having prepared the group enters from one of the doors heading deeper in into.
They find a dais in the center of the large room they enter supporting an imposing throne-like chair with a computer console just in reach. Metron deep recesses are located to the port and starboard of the dais, and walls of holoprojectors that stretch down from the ceiling surround each. The projectors fill the pits with three-dimensional holograms of the local space, all focused on the Gate of Twelve Suns, and a massive cone-shaped megastructure sitting in a section of nonstandard space beyond the Gate.
Three floor-to-ceiling windows show the stretch of space in front the vessel. Rows of chains sit in front of bank of controls adjacent to the windows and most of the port and starboard walls. Curved walls cut off the port and starboard corners of the fore walls; each has a door set in it. Three more doors are spaced along the aft wall.
A tall, very imposing figure, clad in deep purple, stands at the dias with their back towards you, gazing into the view the projectors provide him of the prize. Only their smooth skull is visible, along with a staff that crackles with so much power that the sword strapped to their waist seems like decoration. The star ending weapon that you have been chasing ever since you were roped into the conflict between the Hardscrabble Collective and Astral Extractions... seems like that was years ago.
Did I not tell you, Nashal The figure says in Eoxisan without turning around, for those who don't speak it, the translation modules of your suit translating in real time. That I was not to be disturbed under any circumstances? Before tilting their skull to the side as it recognizes something. The stench of life reaches me even across the airless voice.
They turn and the dead white glow from their eye sockets gaze into each of yours. Perhaps I should have been a mite less forceful in my instruction. The Starfinders who led me to the Corpse Fleet and Eox's total victory refuse to recognize when their part in the story has ended I see. Most impressive
It speaks to how commanding the quiet and calm being is that it seems far more dangerous than the absolutely hulking monstrosity that seems to be an amalgam on undead flesh and powered armor that stands to attention behind them, wielding what should be a two handed weapon in each arm (a massive shock rifle, and an egually huge two handed hammer) with ease.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Astrianna watches Cueta with keen interest as she lifts off one of the glass cases covering the spear. She zooms in dramatically, expecting their pilot to explode or something; it was basically a meme at this point, and the vlogger was going to capitalize.
(Un)fortunately(?), nothing happens, which makes Astrianna realize something else. Free stuff! She runs over to the nearest display case and pushes the glass top over, sending it carrening to the ground. "I've seen Speed-E marts with better security." She comments before scooping up the Eyes of the Inevitable and putting it in a pocket.
They enter the room in formation, though Astrianna is in the lead; she needed to get good footage of them breaching the bridge. She keeps her head-mounted camera focused on the figure in purple while her hovering drone records different angles of the interior before flying up towards the ceiling for a isometric view of the room.
She politely lets the staff-wielding undead finish their monologue before replying in seemingly complete sincerity. "Oh, no problem buddy. Glad to know we helped. We're always trying to help the less fortunate." Astrianna says in galatic basic despite speaking fluent Eoxian.
"Hey, have you ever heard of an alphabet grenade?" There were suddenly two orbs in her hands of Kishalee origin, bouncing up and down in her palms. "If they go off-" The orbs were already in the air in the middle of her sentence. "-it could spell disaster." The two grenades had perfectly timed electronic fuses and don't even bounce when they hit the ground and explode.
Instructions come quickly over their personal communications. "Spread out!" Is said with a dramatic sweep of her arms. "Cueta, find Sevoroux and end them, I bet they're here somewhere. Everyone else, shoot purple-cape and do not engage corpse-hulk there alone."
Vek shakes his head as the twinned explosions rock the bridge. I could have sworn she just said not to engage in melee. I must have misheard her. Rather than waste time clarifying, the vesk lights his fists on fire - possibly for the last time - before hurtling through the aftermath of the grenades to punch the hulking monstrosity.
"-it could spell disaster."
"Is that a 'pun'?" Prospero-4 asks, having never heard of an alphabet grenade, and not quite knowing what to expect of upcoming blast.
But with the explosion going off, the android understands the talks are over, and it's time to focus on the fight. As per captain's orders, he locks the purple caped figure as his target, and starts blasting his his artillery laser.
Leila replies to her android friends question with a nod. "Yes, the highest form of culture. After B-trid one lines of course!"
Seeing as they were going in with guns blazing the halfling didn't want to be left out. Sonic pistol at mr cloak!
Astrianna watches Cueta with keen interest as she lifts off one of the glass cases covering the spear. She zooms in dramatically, expecting their pilot to explode or something; it was basically a meme at this point, and the vlogger was going to capitalize.
(Un)fortunately(?), nothing happens, which makes Astrianna realize something else. Free stuff!
While Astri and the Eoxian trade barbs, Cueta's passenger takes over, bringing divine symbols and fragemented words into the pilot's mind. Turning off her comm unit, Cueta repeats the syllables, drawing corresponding runes with a gloved hand, and sends her mind out, linking it with her comrades, and then the grenade goes off, and its time to send these undead back to where they came from.
Cueta's body bursts with light and she lifts into the air, away from her colleagues, in search of enemies seen and unseen.
You can transform yourself into blazing starlight as a standard action. Your body sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius, and you gain the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance). At 7th level, a creature that ends its turn adjacent to your starlight form must succeed at a Fortitude save DC 20 or be blinded for 1 round. You can maintain your starlight form for a number of minutes per day equal to your mystic level; this duration does not need to be continuous, but it must be used in 1-minute increments. You can forgo the ability’s concealment and blinding aspects to instead simply shed light, though this still counts against the ability’s duration for the day.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pathetic the purple robed figure snarls as probably the equivalent of a yearly salary of some poor slob from the Spike on Absalom station lands at his feet. They completely ignore the temporal disruption grenade but do seem to be affected by the regular one.
Leila's shot and one of Prospero's laser blast also rattles them terribly doing real damage while Vek lands a very solid punch on the hulking monster behind them.
They slap a button on the console behind them as a response before waving their staff and going invisible! To everyone who doesn't have countermeasures against that of course (please specify your source so I can track lol).
The affect of the button is terrifying. From all parts of the room glowing portals start to form and out of them start stepping what seems like an unending legion of the undead monks from the previous room.
One...
Two...
Three..
Four...
And more....
emerge from all corners of the room and it seems the group is going to be overwhelmed by the defenses the master of the ship has arrayed around them.
The Fifth emerges *right* behind Astrianna but.. what emerges from the portal is NOT an undead monk. Their armor seems to be far more that of some sort of stealth operative.
And what they do isn't attack but dramatically drive a spike of some sort into the ground of the deck. It is obviously some sort of tech as it penetrates the ground and the top unfurls like a flower and spins, emitting some sort of technomagical field that spreads out to cover the room and prevents any other portals from forming, wiping out those who had just formed, leading to undead body parts flopping bloodlessly onto the ground in places.
Then they say very clearly on broadcast.. making sure that Astiranna's recording equipment picks up the general transmission, in slightly Tianese accented Common. Eox defies you, Corpse Fleet Traitor! Your violation of the Pact will not go unpunished.
The figure turns slightly towards Astrianna. And it's Fianh Jim visible under the faceplate , through her skin seems gray. She grins and says in one of the very old private channel that the original group used.The Ambassador made me an offer I could not refuse, yes? Now let us add corpse sans head to our belt together.
Then she jets towards one of the emerging monks, slapping Prospero on the back as she passes and managing to twirl to dab Leila before engaging one of the four monks that made it through with deadly blades flashing.
Sevoroux's voice sneers out in an internal room channel Fine. I'll kill you all myself!
The Gatecrasher drops the massive arm cannon he had and opts to brings down his hammer two handed on Vek's head. The blow crashes into Vek, getting through his formidable defenses to cause some damage.
The three monks not engaged with the sudden saboteur shift to engage different targets. One heads to flank Vek, the other engages Prospero, and the final goes after Leila.
Only the one attacking Leila is able to get through while the attacks of the other bounce off some really astounding armor. The one attacking Vek in particular seems to have crunched one hand against Vek's armor and it lolls uselessly at the wrist.
"Ohhh that's a lot of portals..." Astrianna says to herself as the magical waypoints begin to open across the room and monks begin to march out. She jumps when one opens right next to her, readying to draw her knife to take a swipe.
But instead of a musty combat-trained libarian, she is face-to-face with the slick aesthetic of some very expensive stealth armor. Watching the figure place their transmitting, Astrianna sees the portal wink out behind them and spins on her heel to look at the rest- all gone!
Thanking Calistria her drone was able to catch the top-down view of everything happening at once, she turns back to the figure to see Fianh Jim's ashen face staring bac at her.
"WHAT! FIANH!" Astrianna cries dramatically, tears nearly welling into her eyes. This is the best finale ever... We have to make it back, the galaxy must see this masterpiece! She thinks while simultaneously typing out a note on her wrist-com to maybe edit out all instances of her shit-talking Eox and how they were probably behind the Corpse fleet. Oops. Oh, and to send the Ambassador something nice.
Sniffing back some mucuous in her throat, Astrianna draws her hailstorm pistol and levels it at the distant hulk. "The gang's all here. LET'S DO THIS!" She pulls the trigger, sending a bolt of cyrogenic fluid across the room.
A miscalculation - I had thought that was an illusion. Vek pushes through the shame of such a tactical error, pausing for a moment to focus his mind before punching twice at the hulking bodyguard.
"Oh! FI! You're alive! Err.. Dead! *Uh* HERE!! That's close enough. You've missed so much! We've missed you so much too!!" The halfling grows misty eyed as their old pilot pops out from nowhere. Such an amazing turn of events almost takes the edge off the monk trying to beat her to a pulp!
With a shit eating grin Leila slipped away from the monk and threw a shot at the hulk. Surely with *two* pilots they'd steer this ship into oblivion right and proper!
"Fianh Jin!? This is most unexpected, but welcome. It is good to see you again." Unarguably, this was a turn of events Prospero-4 hadn't calculated. With the old friend and bunch of monks in the battle field, the exocortex needs to work extra hard to calculate the outcome projections.
With Sevoroux gone invisible, the android isn't sure if the captain's previous orders still stand. Everyone else seem to focus on the bodyguard, so Prospero-4 decides that is the best course of action right now. Trying his best to ignore the monk beside his, the android takes aim at the hulk and triggers the artillery laser.
Gripping the golden spear, Cueta hurtles through the air, tip of her weapon seemlingly aimed at nothing. She could see Severoux in a way, the villain both there and not there.
Astiranna barely misses the hulk with her shot.
Vek's second punch lands flush against the monster.
Leila and Prospero's attacks land as well, though Prospero pays for ignoring the monk with a hard attack on the side of his cranium.
The monster is really really hurt, but he's not destroyed yet!
Cueta's patron allows her to see through Servox's magic and she flies at him. Her attack is parried though.
You'll have to do better than that, the former wielder of the weapon was a much better combatant than you, Nothing of yours will be worthy of adding to my trophy case
Servox sneers at Cueta before stepping back out of her range and waving his staff. A line of shimmering force appears between him and Cueta, cutting the room mostly in two.
One one side is Cueta, weapon in hand staring at the necrovite admiral on the other side.
Astrianna, Finah, and Prospero are on Cueta's side along with two monks and Fianh.
On the admiral's side is Leila, two monks, Vek, and the undead hulk.
On Cueta's side
Fianh Jin and the monk dance like in a martial arts movie. the monk draws first blood in the fight!
Heartened by the successful attack, Prospero's monk unleashes a flurry of attacks that would have destroyed most people. They all bounce off Prospero's armor though.
On the admiral's side
Leila is pursued by the monk on her, not fast enough to get in an Attack of Opportunity the monk is able to keep up to land another kick on the halfling.
The monk on Vek goes into a full flurry and has a little bit better luck than Prospero, one attack goes through.
The hulk slams their hammer down hard on Vek, it would have missed, if Vek had not been just a bit distracted by the monk pounding on him from the flank. His forcefield starts to sputter back to life.
Waves of stellar light radiate off Vek, dashing themselves against the invisible wall and infusing the vesk and halfling with speed. Dancing to the side, the warrior calmly swings glowing fists at the hulking bodyguard.
“I have a means of bypassing this, but it will take a few moments.” The vesk’s voice is steady, not betraying his injuries.
The wall of force suddenly bisects the room, and Astrianna immediately checks to ensure her drone hasn't been cut in half. Thankfully it was operational and on her side of the room, but its whole "wavy transparent" aesthetic was just not going to be a crowd pleaser. Maybe an electric green? Some lightning effects?
Pounding her fist on the wall dramatically, she says over their communications. "I'm going to need a fix for this ASAP, Vek! Crush those nobodies and get us over there!"
Cueta snarls, prodding the wall with her spear before lifting off the ground and flying south, towards the nearest door, her words scratchy and distant over the open comm channel. "Your actions say different, Severoux. Drop the wall and come take the spear again - if you're not too scared."
She didn't expect that Severoux would fall for such an easy bait - instead, Cueta would need to take the long way around, buffing herself as she went.
* fly 12 metrons
* Energy resistance 10 acid, fire, electricity
* darkvision 12 metrons
* Mindlink
* Superpowers: You can transform yourself into blazing starlight as a standard action. Your body sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius, and you gain the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance). At 7th level, a creature that ends its turn adjacent to your starlight form must succeed at a Fortitude save DC 20 or be blinded for 1 round. You can maintain your starlight form for a number of minutes per day equal to your mystic level; this duration does not need to be continuous, but it must be used in 1-minute increments. You can forgo the ability’s concealment and blinding aspects to instead simply shed light, though this still counts against the ability’s duration for the day.
"Most unfortunate..." Prospero-4 states, witnessing the wall of force separating the groups. Also, there goes his target, so he needs a new plan of action. The new variables are already fed into exocortex, and the cyberbrain is giving him different options.
"There should be a route to the other side through the computer room. Although it is not the fastest way." he says, although Cueta seems to have reasoned the same and is already moving. While the main target is on the other side, the android decides to not to leave Astrianna and Fianh alone with the monks. He activates his haste circuit, takes a lighting-fast guarded step away from the monk, and shot at the undead menace in retribution that blow he took.
Leila wiggles out of reach from the monk again and shoots the back of the hulk. She wasn't sure how to deal with the giant force field just yet; but they'd figure something out! Or Vek would by the sounds of it ...
Vek's first punch knocks the hulk to the ground, hammer falling from their grasp.
Astrianna's yelling continues to make everyone feel better. After all if her squishy self is still alive things must be going well right?
Both of Prospero's blasts hit the monk hurting them quite a bit.
Leila redirects her attack to the only visible enemy left on her side of the wall of force, which is one of the monks (Vek monk? Leila Monk?), her attack hits.
Cueta speeds around, and ends up at the threshold of the server room and the command room just in time to see Serovox move to hover over the downed corpse of the hulk and raise his staff to summon the immense necrotic energies surrounding everyone. Her hackles raise as the foul magic flows *into* the hulk and the large body is forced back to life, jerking like a puppet. The hulk's head rotates to stare at Vek as they pick up their hammer (free AOO to Vek).
Fianh and the fourth monk continue to do their dance, the monk lands another hit Fianh not doing too good!
Vek's monk moves around to get a flank again and ties to punch again. (Vek can choose to take the AOO against this one instead of the hulk.). The punch lands and doesn't do much more than cause Vek's forcefield to sputter again, but that's probably the goal.
The two other monks, one on each side of the force wall, change tactics. They move so they have two of their adversaries in front of them and exhale a cloud of nothingness over, Prospero, Astrianna, Leila, and Vek. Just like before all of them suddenly find it much harder to breathe.
Which doesn't matter to Prospero since he doesn't breathe anyway but, for the other three....
they all fight it off, forcing their lungs to fill with precious oxygen despite the monk's attempting to force their manner of undeath onto them.
Vek exhales as the hulk falls, then inhales again when it rises to unlife. I had thought undead creatures were destroyed upon their second death… Was that thing alive? Not spending too much time thinking on it, the vesk dances back out of the attempted pincer maneuver and strikes twice at the risen bodyguard. This time, though, the light surrounding his fists seems cold and distant rather than bright and hot like it usually is.
While the events in the other side of the wall of force look quite unsettling, Prospero-4 decides its better to remove at least one monk from this end of the room.
He keeps the target locked for his cannon, and keeps blasting.
Astrianna is watching Fi get the undead beat out of her, and decides it would be better if her star surprise of this particular climax (and the current body standing between her and the monk) was still fully functional.
She also kind of liked Fi. Good people, that pilot.
"Prospero, we need to help Fi! She says while whipping out her cryo pistol and firing a shot at the martial arts display going on in front of her.
Astri's encouragement filters through Cueta's comm, and the pilot flings herself forward tip of the spear pointed at Severoux's back. Cueta's passenger flutters, agitated, inside the pilot, forcing words from Cueta as she closes in. "Hi there. We're back. Time to meet your second death, berker."
* Energy resistance 10 acid, fire, electricity
* darkvision 12 metrons
* Mindlink
* Superpowers: You can transform yourself into blazing starlight as a standard action. Your body sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius, and you gain the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance). At 7th level, a creature that ends its turn adjacent to your starlight form must succeed at a Fortitude save DC 20 or be blinded for 1 round. You can maintain your starlight form for a number of minutes per day equal to your mystic level; this duration does not need to be continuous, but it must be used in 1-minute increments. You can forgo the ability’s concealment and blinding aspects to instead simply shed light, though this still counts against the ability’s duration for the day.
Leila will focus on her own monk for now - hopefully she could deal with this mook quickly and then help Vek! With a cough she takes a small step back and peppers it with her autopistol for a change of pace!
Vek smashes into the hulk as he starts getting up and then lands another hit after stepping into relative safety, doing a LOT of damage to the massive figure who looks... more haggard... than before.
Prospero's twin blasts are able to put one of the monks down.
Both Fianh and her monk parry each other's attacks in their deadly dance, but Astrianna's blast does a little bit of damage to the distract undead.
What is the purpose of fighting with honour, yes? Fianh notes to Astrianna in thanks on a private comm.
Cueta's attack is dodged by Sevorox who whirls around to face the threat he had managed to block for a bit.
Only one of Leila's attacks gets through the monk's rapid deflections.
Servoox floats back from Cueta's attack and his staff pulses, an aura of fatigue envelopes the Eoxian commander out ot a distance of 6 metrons, enveloping Cueta, Leila, and Vek. Cueta and Leila are able to fight it off but Vek cannot, he feels bone tired.
But Sevorox is not done. He raises his staff and suddenly, to Cueta, his form becomes blurry. He's invisible to everybody else of course.
Leila's monk follows her like a cat on a mouse and hits her again with a hard kick.
Vek's monk, again, moves to flank, provoking an AOO from Vek. A fist strikes out agaie, at the same time as the hammer from the other side comes crashing down again.
If it wasn't for them surrounding him Vek *knows* he would have been able to avoid the strikes, he knows it, but it's precious little comfort as both blows connect.
The monk takes care of the forcefield. The big hammer takes care of the pain.