Digdig's swings of the assault hammer fail to produce its intended result, as the drone moves to close in on the back-peddling ganger.
Blacklock grabs the vesk's attention with his near flawless pistol trick, only to misfire the shot past his head and into the wall behind him.
Knowing that Hatchbuster will fight to the death, Ferani flees into the next room.
Alpha-83 moves to pursue Ferani, stopping to fire the Pulsecaster at one of the thugs as he does so.
The posture of Gryggax changes from beginning to communicate with Chiskisk to aiming his laser rifle at Hatchbuster once Ferani flees the room.
I should give chase, but let me aid Blacklock first, and then I shall chase after her to negotiate a confession.
Ferani
Breaker,Gryggax,
Hatchbuster, Guards
Buzzsaw, Blacklock
Breaker's quick shot hits the nearest ganger as he curses the situation. Gryggax's laser rifle nearly ends Hatchbuster with a burning hole to the center of his chest. The agony seems to fuel him into taking one last risk and quickly launching a frag grenade between Gryggax and Breaker in a reckless move.
Shocked and astonished, the guards duck managing to sustain only minor injuries from the blast.
Weary, Hatchbuster manages to dodge the light shrapnel coming his way.
Angry, the gangers make attacks against their nearest targets.
The top guard fires at Boris.
The middle guard fires at Digdig.
Alpha-83's pain receptors flare as the metal shards pierce his body, then he shuts them down so he doesn't notice them.
The ganger’s shot at Boris is a direct hit, but his colleague is not so lucky. After shooting at Diddig and just missing the drone, Digdig’s hammer decimates the ganger in front of him, dropping him onto the floor in a lifeless heap.
Boris’ attack on Hatchbuster is rushed and parried by the exhausted vesk. Emotions of sadness and anger well up in his eyes.
The explosion was finally loud enough to alert the nightclub that all was not right inside. Crowds of partners begin running for the doors screaming. Those in a daze, wander aimlessly around the dance floor.
Ferani has escaped into the next room.
Deciding his compatriots can handle the nearly defeated Hatchbuster and the remaining ganger, Breaker continues his pursuit of Ferani into the next room.
Gryggax aims the strange laser rifle in a very familiar and comfortable manner before taking a shot at the remaining guard and heading after Ferani.
I'll bet Digdig could have handled this, I should have run after Alpha-83.
Flanked, Hatchbuster takes what may be his final attack on thie threatening dwarf with his feared assault hammer. The weapon comes down hard upon Boris’ shoulder, nearly crushing it with a loud Thwack!
The remaining guard takes aim at Gryggax hoping to return the favor with his blast. His desperate shot fails to achieve its intended goal, leaving the guard to fight in what may be the last moments of his existence.
Boris’ blow lands nearly synchronized with that of Digdig. The drone’s blow had dropped the ganger quickly and without much reaction from the victim, almost as if the scrubby human had an “off” button.
In contrast, the dwarf’s retaliatory strike drained the life from the much-feared vesk in a loud and dramatic manner. The death cry of a creature, the cracking of bone and the blood spray from where the pressure of the strike was too much for the structure of Hatchbuster’s skull for his tough vesk skin to contain provided a fitting end for such a violent creature. The armored hulk of a brute went down in a fury of spasms, spilling blood out onto the storeroom floor.
The room was quiet. The club had quieted down considerably. There was one piece left to solve the puzzle and she was in the next room, alone with Breaker.
Gryggax activates his personal comm and makes a call to Chiskisk, informing him of the situation and that they are preparing to close in on Ferani Nadaz. He moves quickly into the next room, adjacent to Breaker and prepares to negotiate a surrender.
"Ferani, surrender and your life will be spared!" He exclaims.
”So, Ferani, if you wish to avoid death, how much did Astral pay you to kill Duravor Kreel?”
Surrounded by the still hardy and fearsome intruders, coupled with the loss of Her loyal and trusted friend Vrok Hatchbuster, Ferani weighs her options and begins to see reason. Perhaps she can live to see another day and sometime in the future, seek revenge against this group of unexpected disrupters.
“Alright, alright. Listen, if you can promise me a safe surrender to station security, I’ll lay down my pistol and detonator,” Ferani bargains in a somewhat defeated tone.
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"There was enough killing today. I say we bring her into station security after we look this place over for any evidence. And we'll need to take all yer weapons and gear for the time being."
Boris will look around the office for anything interesting, whether it's contraband or any documentation of what the Downsiders are up to.
"Ferani, this was by no means a direct assault on your organization. We simply wanted to know why the Downsiders killed Kreel? We only came here looking for answers, not trouble. Perhaps there is a power forcing you to do this against your will? A sinister force perhaps? Please let us know why your gang did this."
Gryggax pleads while having his comm online with Chiskisk.
"We can surrender you to station security, but you must answer our questions about the assassination of Duravor Kreel. We aren't particularly bloodthirsty or vicious, but we do need these answers."
Ferani puts the pistol to her head realizing that perhaps she may be able to stifle the investigation. ”I guess you will figure it out regardless. Especially since you got this far. I’ll promise you this, if I survive the retribution of Astral, I will be coming after you. It may take many years, but I will have revenge... Yes, we were paid to take out Kreel and dissuade the Starfinders from poking around where they don’t belong. Stewards are bad enough. We were hired by Astral to press Hardscrabble, who as you probably know hired that weak Level 21 outfit in retaliation. Good luck on your journey, you’re going to need it.”
Chiskisk announces over Gryggax’s comm unit that he caught everything that Ferani mentioned. He continues,”Stop by and see me after you heal up, I have a little something for you.”
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Boris is making sure to pick up all the weapons that these gangers have.
Boris sees what Blacklock is going to do and speaks up. "Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a few thousand volts shot right into that one's brain pan. But Blacklock, there's gotta be cameras in here somewhere. It looks bad enough that we came here and caused trouble; but Starfinders got lawyers to sort that out. But I don't know if the Starfinder's are gonna be able to explain away you killing her execution style on video. I say we just grab that key from her, get that storage locker open and hopefully get out of here before the authorities arrive."
Breaker lifts up his wrist computer and begins tapping, seeing if he can pick up any camera signals.
Gryggax reaches his hand out quickly to wave it in front of her face from where he stands. ”This may alleviate the tension caused by our current situation, Gentleman, “ Gryggax utters calmly as he draws upon his mysterious connection to put Ferani in a trance.
How about a peaceful end for once.
Before Ferani can react to Gryggax's outstrecthed, spell-casting hand, she is stunned by the shirren's quick utterance and hand motion.
Boris rips the necklace with the digikey from her neck like a string of pearls.
Chiskisk comms to mention that he was able to record her confession and station security will be arriving shortly. he recommends that someone bind her while she is dazed.
Boris opens the sealed door easily and discovers a small room with a neatly organized range of things.
One holoskin
One auto target rifle with five magazines of long arm rounds [10 cartridges each]
Two incendiary grenades
Two mk I serums of healing
One quick release sheath armor upgrade,
500 UPBs
8 credsticks holding a thousand creds each
Breaker realizes that they are under surveillance from a security system hooked up to a monitor inside the room, placed on Ferani’s desk.
Blacklock’s grocery sack is big enough for most of the smaller items, but not all of the weapons from each ganger.
Chiskisk comms back to remind you to report back to him as soon as you are up to it. He says that you may want to claim your “reward.”
Walking over to Ferani's desk, Breaker sets about attempting to erase the security footage of their fight. "Gryggax, bind her for station security, please."
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Boris will set his backpack on the ground so that other people can fill it up or strap things to it. Being a burly dwarven lad, he knows that he can handle a heavier rucksack that most.
"Throw whatever ya can in that ruck sack. We should get these weapons off the streets. Whatever we don't need we can sell or melt down for the UPD."
Boris will jack in and assist Breaker with deleting the footage. "Not trying to step on ya toes, Breaker, but it never hurts getting two sets a eyes on something."
Breaker and Boris successfully wipe the recordings of what just took place, including the fight outside.
Blaclock was equally successful in gathering all of the useful goods including the gangers' pulse casters, Ferani's pistol and and Hatchbuster's heavy rifle.
Before Gryggax figures out how to bind her without cord or manacles, station security shows up to secure the area. Luckily, a different officer arrives than the one at bay 94.
The head officer inquires, "What happened here?"
”You know what? I don’t really care. It appears that no one else besides gang members were harmed,” the security agent replies sarcastically, but truthful. ” I need to put something in my report, I’ll just make it up. Looks like self-defense to me, “ He adds.
Chiskisk sends a van to the sector to pick up the crew and return them to Lorespire, where SFS maintains a small, but effective med lab. Chiskisk pays the SFS reward, 1500 creds to each of the new recruits and they are awarded with an official SFS holo badge. After you are bandaged up, he provides transportation back to the Moon Phase Hotel. He also provides you a connection at Stellar Surplus, where active SFS members enjoy a ten percent discount on all weapons.
Nearly a week goes by with little mention of the incident at Bay 94 or The Fusion Club, but the drift rock is consistently in the news along with the court battle between Hardscrabble and Astral. Oddly enough, there is no news story about the connection between Astral and The Downside Kings.
One week later, a tengu with slick black feathers and silk robes catches you coming into the lobby of the Moon Phase.
”Greetings, I apologize for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Garlen Po, and I am the proprietor of this establishment. I did not realize until yesterday that you were VIPs. I would like to offer you suites for the same price as your economies, “, he offers.
“You must certainly be important to be receiving this” the tengu states as he hands the beautiful silver envelope to Blacklock.
Looking at Gryggax, Garlen Po offers the same deal to him as well.
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Boris spends most of the week off working on Digdig. He finally gets the third arm working and installs a speaker on the top of its body.
"I guess Digdig coulda been talking this whole time. The AI's got the processing power to handle language software. We'll see how it goes. If he gets annoying, I can always take the speaker out."
Digdig waves his weapon arms about his head as he stomps from side to side! "NOW THAT I'VE BEEN UPGRADED, PREPARE TO BE EXTERMINATED MEATBAGS! HA HA HA! JUST KIDDING! EXTERMINATING YOU WOULD BE A VIOLATION OF MY PROGRAMMING!"
Boris sighs. "Like I said...I can disable the speaker at any time."
Gryggax remains curious about the gap in his memory, but is temporarily distracted with his newfound wealth and position within the Starfinder Society. After the fight at the Fusion Queen, he needed that week to recover. Laser burns and fragmented metal left scars on his waxy chitin.
After an unusually fast recovery in the med lab, which was equally surprising in its efficiency, Gryggax was drawn first to the archives to try and find something that explained his mysterious connection with the cosmos. He needed to know more about where this strange power came from. That mind thrusting force that he recalled only using once, a very long time ago to protect an innocent creature. He learned to meditate upon this connection routinely.
Oft times, Gryggax would become enthralled with the research at the biotechnology lab within Lorespire. The technicians there were charmingly confident in their developments, so much so that Gryggax decided to try some of their creations. He took to the Gill Sheath easily enough, but controlling the fire-producing wyrmling gland was a different story. One that nearly left the lab in charred remains save the quick response of the extinguishing system.
A healer there sold him a crystal that he was instructed to meditate upon, a practice that had become routine. As promised, it seemed to clarify his connection to not only the cosmos, but to all of the living things around him granting the shirren greater clarity into his strange powers.
Stellar Surplus did indeed outfit Gryggax with an upgraded suit of Carbon Skin armor. The finely woven threads adding greater protection than the old and worn second skin that had taken such a beating. He also picked up five pairs of binders to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to bind Ferani.
The archives had just scratched the surface of his piqued curiosity into the nature of things and wondrous technological developments unavailable to him on Castrovel.
The void left by his memory gap still plagued him. He couldn't stop thinking about it. How did he get so good with a laser rifle? Where did it even come from? Shooting it was another form of meditation for him. It happened almost subconsciously. He wanted to learn more about how it worked and now he had acquired another one. Perhaps his role in this crew of SFS adventurers would reveal more in the future.
Blacklock, eyeing the exquisite design of the metallic envelope recognizes that it is from the official office of the Absalom Ambassador from Eox.
Gryggax took the first opportunity that he received to introduce himself to his fellow new recruits.
"Greetings, my name is Gryggax, or that is what it says on this club anyway," showing the odd and primal instrument of shirren origin.
"I don't know why I set out to Absalom Station in the first place, but I had an invitation from the Starfinder Society and a very large gap in my memory. I am currently suffering from some sort of amnesia, I think. Perhaps I will find my answers during ghis journey with you."
Gryggax appeared alarmed. Or as alarmed as a shirren can appear. He had witnessed both Digdig and Boris in battle and was truly frightened by their strength and brutality. While maintaining an affable manner towards all creatures, Gryggax was a bit intimidated by the dwarf and his drone. He didn't let his slight disdain for artificial intelligence influence his opinion of them, and responded half-jokingly to the drone's outburst with a nervous quip, "It seems that machines were created to replace life, so that is sensible."
Gryggax nods in respect to the tengu and his offer, accepting it of course.
With a curious tilt of the head he inquires, "Blacklock, what does it say?"
Alpha-83 was hardly seen during the week off, having spent the time in his room with a supply of computer parts he'd purchased at Stellar Surplus. Upon emerging, its wrist computer was far more powerful, with a specific secure module for the data they'd collected on Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble. The module was set to wipe if someone incorrectly tried to access it too many times - a prudent security measure, to be sure.
It had taken the time to also upgrade its armor and its Android frame a bit - the recharged Pulsecaster it had taken from the club was now ensconced in its thigh, where the weapon could easily eject and shoot into its hand.
Alpha-83 tilted his head at Blacklock's letter, and at Gryggax, before looking at the pair of them. "Whom might this be from, and why do you think they did?"