Arcalinte vomits into his helmet, and immediately hits the filters to clear it.
Sydney noticeably flinches at the sight and moves further away. Gross. Oh, no - I think I can smell it. Sydney dry heaves, sticking out her tongue.
Sydney pulls out her azimuth laser pistol and stands behind Isu, "I got your back - six - whatever you big guys say." Her finger is curled around the trigger and pointed towards the closed door of the bridge. Her black pleather jacket is pulled tight over her shoulder blades, making the curved arch of letters RELENTLESS easy to read. Sydney nods her head upwards at Isu, motioning that she's ready.
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"You can sometimes use your tongue to clean your faceplate after puking, Arc," Ted lifts his arms in a spacer shrug. His days as a youth doing backspace asteroid mining had taught him a lot of practical lessons very quickly; You survived or you didn't.
He tossed his top in the air and prepared to unleash its stored energy on whatever lay behind the door.
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Spectre had remained to the rear of the group, calculating the odds of what he was about to say being acceptable to these chaotic and nearly indecipherable humanoids.
"If the group is to choose a leader, it should consider me. My programming will ensure that whatever choice I make will be the most profitable. Further, because I care so little for what any of you think, you can have confidence that I will be a neutral arbiter of any issue."
His head swivels toward the sickened Solarian.
"As a third point of recommendation, I have never done that."
“So you are – were – a pirate, Grix? What did you steal and who did you steal from?”
Grix wiggles an antenna in Sydney's direction, a motion that somehow brings to mind a wink. He rasps out "Plenty of time for stories later!"
"Well, that settles our course for us. Though we better be careful...someone could have set this up to force us towards the bridge and funnel us towards a trap."
Grix nods, bringing his pistol up. "One of those Eokhsians maybe? Definitely not goblins or akhatas. That's too smart a plan for them." When Arc starts looking visibly sick, Grix shakes his head in a very human looking display of dismay. "I was hoping it'd takhe longer. Anyone have a med-khit? I khould try to treat Arc to help get those akhata juices out. If not we'll have to do it the sekhond we get bakh to the station."
Syndey wishes everyone would stop commenting on Arc's puke. She's feeling queezy just dwelling on the subject. Syndey is still has her azimuth laser pistol out, ready to shoot.
His head swivels toward the sickened Solarian.
"As a third point of recommendation, I have never done that."
"Tin can has a point." Sydney does a hitchhiker's thumb back towards Spectre. "It's usually people, not machines, who make mistakes."
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"Let's table the leadership discussion until we're out of a combat zone," Arcalinte replies in a slightly peeved tone.
He waits for the others to be done fussing over him before he speaks again.
"You think antibiotics will take care of this? If we have something that can treat this so I'm not fighting at less-than-peak performance, I'd be grateful."
Grix moves in behind Arc, curious to see what the bridge has in store. "Don't worry Arc, if this rusty rig of a ship has a medikhal bay, once the power is bakh on we khan treat you there. And yes, antibiotikhs really will help! They do magikh these days!" His antennae droop "Well, not akhtual magikh, but khlose enough."
He looks out into the bridge, checking for any traps or unusual features.
With Arcanite's condition Solaria keeps away from the man as he throws up into his suit and looks very green, her face cannot keep from grimacing. "What's wrong with him, did that creature really do that to him....eeehhh!!" The revulsion she feels is written all over her face as her antennae twitch almost uncontrollably. She moves quickly behind Isu and the other strong fighters in the party. "Isu, lead on now, if that's good enough for you leadership then great. Let's get things back to normal on this ship if we can, or at least as back to normal as possible. Then we can look for a medical centre for Arc, he needs it. We should be as quick here as we can, to get him back to Absalom Station and some real medical treatment." A mild panic is lurking in Solaria's voice, as she takes out her pistol, not wanting to be caught without some kind of protection, though her companions offer her the best protection. See looks around nervously.
Isu opens up the door to the bridge. Revealed on the other side is another dimly lit room with a wide, transparent aluminum (tm) window stretching across the forward wall. Twinkling lights in the distance are all that can be seen of Absalom station and the ships of the Armada surrounding it. A bank of controls is set before the window along with four secondary seats plus a fifth chair, clearly intended for the vessel's captain.
Arcalinte catches a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye. More akatas. He is able to yell out a warning just as the beasts leap to the attack.
Three of the beasts infest the bridge but only two of them are able to get close enough to attack, the third snapping behind them. One of them misses but the other hits the flat-footed Isu.
=== Perception ===
Solaria = 16
Grix = 16
=== Initiative ===
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=== Attacks ===
Sydney is the last to act in the round, "this ship is infested!" She raises her azimuth laser pistol but then remembers the earlier fight. Sydney whips out her static arc pistol and aims it at the green akata. "They don't breathe. Fire doesn't hurt them. Are these things weak to anything?"
Seeing the akata attack once more, Solaria takes careful aim and fakes a shot at the creature. "Hit the one on the right , it looks to be unbalanced."
CLEVER FEINT As a standard action, you can fake out an enemy within 60 feet, making that enemy open to your attacks. Attempt a Bluff check with the same DC as a check to feint against that enemy (though this isn’t a standard check to feint, so Improved Feint and Greater Feint don’t apply). Even if you fail, that enemy is flat-footed against your attacks until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, the enemy is also flat-footed against your allies’ attacks until the end of your next turn. You can’t use clever feint against a creature that lacks an Intelligence score.
Taken from Bluff Skill - Feint
The DC of this check is equal to either 10 + your opponent’s total Sense Motive skill bonus, or 15 + 1-1/2 × the opponent’s CR, whichever is greater. You can’t feint against a creature that doesn’t have an Intelligence score, and you cannot take 10 or take 20 on a Bluff check to feint.
If more than one condition affects a character, apply them all. If effects can’t combine, apply the most severe effect. Link
You take a –2 penalty to ability checks, attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, and skill checks.
You cannot run or charge; you take a –1 penalty to AC, attack rolls, melee damage rolls, Reflex saves, initiative checks, and Str– and Dex-based skill and ability checks; and you reduce your encumbered limit by 1 bulk.
Grix recoils at the unpleasant surprise of more akatas. "Even more of them! Khareful they don't bite y-" He's interrupted by an akata sinking its jaws into Isu "Ah well, we'll treat that soon Isu. Don't you worry." He levels his pistol at the akata Solaria is distracting and delivers a pair of shots while looking over at Spectre's choice of weapon.
To Spectre's comment he rasps out, hoarsely shouting over the report of his pistol "Maybe Arc khan give you his old weapon to borrow?" Briefly stunned by the accuracy of his own shots, he continues with "Or you khould takhe this super lukhy pistol!"
Arcalinte: longswrd, miss
Grix: TSAP (purple), double hit, 6 + 5 dmg
Isu: Dbl attk, 1 mis, 1 crit (green), 9 dmg
Spectre: move and draw grenade
Solaria: clv feint (purple), success
Sydney: Arc Pistol, Nat 1, Miss
Ted: rng tch, miss
Solaria distracts the akata on the right, letting Grix land a couple of solid blows against it, while Isu slams the one on the left his his assault hammer. Energy weapons and spells blast forth but splatter harmlessly against bulkheads.
The pair of akatas at the door continue to lunge madly at Arcalinte and Isu, jaws slavering rivulets of blue goo across the threshold and their armor. Fortunately, their teeth find no purchase and the goo is (mostly) harmless.
Solaria thankful that others have taken the front, tries once more to unsettle the akata with a clever show of pistolry, as she throws the pistols twiddling in the air in a blur of motion as it spins round and round before catching it again in her hand an quickly taking aim. The akata sees the twirling pistol out of the corner of his eye and is momentarily distracted. "Quick, the one on the right is watching my pistol and not you. Kill it now while you have the chance."
As a full-round action, Sydney tries to Trick Attack (link) the green enemy with her small arms weapon. Sydney flips her gun in the air and catches it, hoping to distract the akata. "Hey! Squidface!"
Nope
== Back at the end of Round 1 ==
Isu's assault hammer splattered one of the akatas into a puddle of goo. With its kin dispatched, a third akata charged forward into the hatchway and lunged at one of the warriors at the front, missing.
Grix keeps up his own assault. After all, the sooner these monsters were dead, the less healing his allies would need.
Arcalinte: Longsword, hit (purple), 7 dmg
Grix: Double TSAP, one hit, 4 dmg
Isu: Cleave. Hit orange, 12 dmg, hit purple, 5 dmg
Spectre: Grenade, hit, 4 dmg
Solaria: Clever Feint, purple, success
Sydney: Trick Attack, fail, attack (green/orange), hit, 2 dmg
Ted: delay
Isu, Arcalinte and Grix continue their physical assault on the last two akatas, aided by Solaria's taunting and distraction of one of the beats, while Sydney and Spectre support with weapons and grenade fire. The wounded akata falls quickly under the assault while the last, bludgeoned and injured, finally succumbs as the THUMP of the grenade's shock wave ripples through your suits and the deckplating beneath your feet.
Some of the displays on the bridge have cracked or even shattered from the grenade blast, but otherwise the consoles appear to have withstood the worst of the blast.
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Arcalinte breathes a sigh of relief as the fight ends with seemingly little ill effects, apart from the computers, though at this point Ted's recklessness was something to expect.
He looks over Spectre's shoulder at the computers.
"Check to see if there's any security recordings or crew logs too. You may not care, but any information we can get will probably be of interest to the Hardscrabble Collective."
"Oh, and lookh to see if they had medikhal facilities. Anything still in the khargo holds? Any sekhret pakhages that we'll 'know when we see them'?" Grix hovers over Spectre's shoulder, sometimes extending a claw to point at interesting things on the screen.
"Rekhords, journals, anything likhe that would be worth a lot for our skhull-boss."
Solaria enters the bridge of the craft after the others, the brain of the dead ship. "Yes, list, lists. There will be an inventory, everything at the hotel was recorded, beds, visio-holographics .... everything. Grix is right, they will have all that stuff recorded. Not only that a floor plan of the craft, would be helpful too." She walks slowly looking round at the whole of the bridge, trying in each chairs in turn, the pilots chair, the navigators chair ....
She keeps away from Arc, embarrassed by her inability to help the sick man, she smiles weakly whenever he catches her eye. She joins Spectre and with her insight into the working of humanoids, she seaches underneath and around the computer desk, looking for anything that will help in getting into the computer. She plugs her datapad into the console, and runs a discovery program to prod the system for ways to access the data. "Spectre, try using the index port accelerator code 6DE5 to access the captain's log, ship mapping and inventory. We, the organics need to find medical help for Arc."
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" You may not care, but any information we can get will probably be of interest to the Hardscrabble Collective."
Spectre looks back over his shoulder as he continues his attempt to access information on the terminal.
"To the extent I am possible of 'caring,' I find this information very important, inasmuch as it can be utilized to maximize our credit return for this endeavor. I believe you and I are of an accord."
Sydney holsters her gun and approaches Spectre and Solaria to assist in checking out the ship's vitals.
"I like big explosives as much as the next gal, but maybe we should avoid throwing grenades on ships." Syndey frowns, "It's hard to pilot something with a gaping hole in the hull. Something about aerodynamics," Sydney shrugs and stuffs her hands in her jacket pockets. Despite her comment, she doesn't seem to care that much about the hunk of metal - formerly a ship.
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" You may not care, but any information we can get will probably be of interest to the Hardscrabble Collective."Spectre looks back over his shoulder as he continues his attempt to access information on the terminal.
"To the extent I am possible of 'caring,' I find this information very important, inasmuch as it can be utilized to maximize our credit return for this endeavor. I believe you and I are of an accord."
"I'll take small victories where I can get them," Arcalinte replies.
He smiles back at Solaria when she looks his way, and a little color comes back to his face.
With the battle having subsided and a few moments to breathe, you realize in the corners of this room are numerous resinous shards.
Spectre interfaces with the computer systems and, with the assistance of others, is able to peel open the Acreon's records and files. As he does so, the monitoring robot from Ambassador Nor rolls into the room, a camera mounted on an articulating arm taking in the scene and studying the bodies of the akatas before swiveling back to observe Spectre and the others. As it goes about its business, it does manage to stay out of the way and relatively inconspicuous.
The first thing Spectre is able to access is the environmental controls for the vessel, including the ability to seal the airlocks, pressurize the interior with a breathable atmosphere, and adjust the lighting levels. He is is able to access an engineering schematic for the vessel but it appears outdated.
After a few more minutes, he is able to pull up a few logs in a secured portion of the ship's computer.
The logs detail the discovery of the Drift Rock, the crew’s initial exploration of the asteroid’s surface and the strange “geodes” they found there. The captain then states that the crew was under attack from monsters that “hatched” from the geodes they brought back to the ship (the description of the monsters matches the akatas). The next entry is more hurried, and the sounds of combat are audible in the background. “There’s something else--it came from the rock!” the captain reports with more than a trace of panic in his voice. “We’re getting overwhelmed! I’m going to open the ship to vacuum—maybe that’ll slow them down!” The log’s final entry was recorded in engineering (far aft area) and shows the captain in his space suit. “Purging the air didn’t work. I’ve set the autopilot to continue on to Absalom Station, but we’re abandoning ship. We’ll fall back to the rock and try to regroup there. Acreon out.” There are no further entries.
Grix, not knowing much about computer systems, takes a look around the bridge and peers with curiosity at the shards. "I thinkh I've seen these before somewhere. It's on the tip of my antennae..." He shakes his head as the thought eludes him.
Once Spectre starts retrieving all the juicy details, he rejoins the rest. "Geodes? Did these shards khome from the drift rokh? Very interesting!" He gives them another glance "So the akhatas khame out of those things and started attakhing! And then something else too? Why did they retreat to the rokh? It should have been less safe there, right?"
Unsatisfied by the logs he continues "The khaptain here needed to learn a thing or two about good rekhords. These are very vague. Maybe we need to go to the Rokh to get to the bottom of this."
He peers at the Eoxian drone "But of khourse we should kharefully search this ship to makhe sure everything is in order, yes?"
"That's interesting, I've never seen anything like these shards before, I wonder where they came fom..." Solaria pokes the resinous broken pieces.
.... then after Spectre finds the logs..
"You could be onto something there Grix about those Akata, but first we should find the cargo in case there is anyting in the hold that might help with Arc, he's still looking a bit worse for wear."
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When the atmosphere and pressure are at normal levels, Arcalinte removes his helmet and begins cleaning the insides of it.
"Maybe they figured that if all the akatas were in here, there wouldn't be any on the Rock itself. Though Isu might have a better explanation, given he understands battle tactics better than I do. Isu?" he asks.