Isu and Arc lead the way across the surface of the Drift Rock, their hands finding enough convenient crevices to pull themselves over its surface. As they look around, they're both able to confirm that which Spectre observed from the bridge computer of the Acreon : while there are plenty of small, narrow crevices (too small to squeeze into, and likely too shallow), there aren't any impact craters!
Unfortunately, the traversal proves distracting enough to Arc that he doesn't spot anything new beyond that. He's far too concentrated on keeping a solid grip of the asteroid without accidentally pushing himself off into open space.
Solaria stops her enjoyment of traversing the rock for a moment, to take a look around at the scenery and skies, her eyes wide and smile on her face. Her antenna twitch excitedly inside her skin suit. As she contacts Arc up ahead of her with her lashunta abilities, he hears her voice inside his head, "Isn't this wonderful." As she looks around, she remembers the fight with that other ship, it crashed onto the rock, as thinks about it she talks to Arc again, her voice directly speaking to his mind. "Do you think we'll find the remains of that ship we fought with, we should keep a look out for that."
Arc and Solaria continue searching and not 5 minutes after Solaria's comment about the downed ship, she locates its mangled remains off in the distance. As you approach, you notice that the ship is irreversibly damaged: its fuselage is burnt and twisted, its weapons systems blackened by laser discharges and torn by the crash landing, and its engines clearly exploded post-crash. Nevertheless, the cockpit seems to have stayed mostly whole. When you peer into the cockpit, you notice that there is no pilot, dead or undead.
About 25 feet from the crashed interceptor, Arc spots a 5ft wide opening in the surface of the Drift Rock, and when he looks at it in more detail he notices that it becomes a cylindrical shaft descending down into the dark, airless interior of the Rock.
As Ted and Spectre bandy words back and forth, Isu leads the way into the roughly cylindrical shaft into the Drift Rock. Very quickly, he's happy to have the light from his armor, as the interior of the long straight tunnel is incredibly dark.
Though the tunnel appears roughly hewn, it is quickly clear that it's far from natural. It is far too straight without any kind of deviation. After a little less than 100ft of pulling yourselves through the tunnel, you glimpse the sight of a fork in the tunnel up ahead. The tunnel in this area suddenly degrades to a far more natural looking cavern.
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"This is the best part about zero G. This one will consider this wall to be my floor. What is up? What is down? It is whatever you want it to be."
Isu normally carries a grenade in his third hand, but he puts it away. Using two arms, he slowly pulls himself along the wall. His other two arms still hold his longsword and assault hammer.
Isu can't get a good grip on the wall and keeps drifting off. Giving up, he uses his boots to anchor himself on the wall and slowly walks along it. To someone who considers the actual floor to be down, he must look pretty comical, sticking straight off the wall.
Arc and Isu find more secure footing using their armor's magnetic boot clamps, but maneuvering this way proves to be slower going. They take the right-side divergence in the tunnel and find that it quickly turns them around 180 degrees.
The tunnel opens up into a large, roughly spherical cavern, dominated by a free-floating boulder at its center. Loose rock and gravel float freely around the open space, but not so densely as to impede movement. Arc's extremely keen eyes spot two abnormalities in the chamber: what looks to be a robotic limb extending from a hiding place behind the boulder, and the barest tip of a sniper barrel extending from the other side. The sniper barrel is trained at the mouth of the tunnel.
--
COMBAT INITIATED!
Whoever was hiding behind the rock clearly didn't expect to be spotted, and assaulted, so easily. The grenade sails past the boulder, strikes the back wall, and bounces off slightly before exploding in a dim burst of flame! The tip of the rifle jerks back into full cover with such speed that it's clear someone was hit back there.
You've made your presence known, so it's only a matter of seconds before the mystery individual behind the rock comes out to take you on. Nevertheless, you're quick enough to act first!
|||| Round 1 ||||
Spectre
Solaria
Arc
Isu
??? Enemy
Ted
Bold may go!
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When Arc notices the sniper, he gently grabs Isu by the shoulder.
"We're not alone here," he whispers. "Sniper."
He blinks in surprise when Isu opens the battle with a grenade.
"That got their attention!"
Then he turns back to the others.
"Look alive, Starfinders! We've got a hostile!"
After that, Arcalinte advances into the room, trying to position himself to get a clear view of their enemy.
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Isu moves as the fastest speed possible he can go while maintaining connection to the ground.
"Who are you? Are you the one who tried to shoot down our ship? Why"?
Upon reaching the enemy, Isu strikes out with his bottom right hand... the hand that is usually suspiciously empty. This time however, it is clear what is there...a venom spur!
that surely misses.
Isu moves around the boulder and spots a humanoid (seemingly an android) in dark green armor, wielding a sniper rifle in both hands. Huddled up next to the humanoid is a roughly humanoid drone with climbing claws and a built-in rifle.
Solaria her feet clumsily stagger along the rock floor, her arms flailing to give her balance, but the weightless environment of the cavern gives her no help. Unused to anchoring her boots, she follows the others towards the internal cavern. Stopping a behind the rocky outcrop behind Isu, she the rock hides her from the sniper. Isu hears in his head "Take him alive, he may be able to give the names of his paymasters."
--
--
Arc and Isu lead the charge, clomping along the walls of the cave. Isu's quick speed gets him in position to stab at the green-clad android with a concealed venom spur, but the android pulls themselves towards the rock and dodges out of the way. Arc attempts a pincer movement and attacks the drone with his longsword. The blow connects, sending a chip of polymer off towards the back wall.
Spectre and Solaria advance forwards as well, catching sight of the battle in progress.
The android focuses their attention on Isu, narrowing their eyes at the venom spur and the kasatha's other weapons. With a swift motion, they coil their legs against the huge boulder and push off with alarming speed! With a flip in midair that distracts Isu the android lands feet-first on the back wall. They raise their rifle up and fire a shell at the kasatha, piercing his armor!
The drone holds in place, anchored to the boulder, but swivels its rifle around to fire at Arc. . The shot flies way past Arc and richochets off the walls of the cave over and over, until it embeds itself in the boulder with a puff of dust.
|||| Round 1+2 ||||
Ted
Spectre
Solaria
Arc
Isu - 12 damage
Android
Drone - 3 damage
Bold may go!
Solaria continue to use the hand grips to move into the room to better understand the position in the fight. Her antennae twitch as Isu hears in his head, "The universe watches a great warrior in battle, a kasathan, be that warrior." Isu feels a power enter and he feels a bit better.
As a standard action, you can signal a single ally within 60 feet.
That ally ignores one condition of your choice until the start of your next turn, chosen from the following list: confused, fascinated, fatigued, shaken, sickened, and staggered.
While your ally doesn’t suffer the effects of the condition during that period, the condition is merely suppressed, not removed, and its effects resume at the start of your next turn. The condition can still be removed with spells, technology, and other effects as normal.
At 6th level, add the following conditions to the list: cowering, dazed, exhausted, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, and stunned.
At 12th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to remove the condition with this ability instead of suppressing it. You can’t remove a condition with a permanent duration in this way; if you attempt to do so, your attempt fails but you don’t lose the Resolve Point.
---
With Solaria's inspiration, Isu shakes off the sickness long enough to land a blow with his stinger! While it pierces the android's suit, the android grits their teeth and seems to shake off the venom that was injected.
Spectre follows up with a clear shot at the android, his laser rifle scorching the green armor and causing them to writhe in pain. Arc's quick slashes with his longsword both swish through the air.
With the android backed into a corner, they switch their rifle to only one hand and tap a button on their armor. A holographic projector suddenly activates, creating a trio of replicas that swarm around the android's position.
The drone mindlessly attempts to attack Arc again, firing its rifle. Assuming the two attacks from Isu and Arc don't manage to destroy it, the blast catches Arc right in the faceplate.
|||| Round 2 + 3 |||
Ted
Spectre
Solaria
Arc - (possibly 10 damage, see above)
Isu - 12 damage
Android - 9 damage, 3 mirror images
Drone - 3 damage
Bold may go!
Solaria seeing the three images tries to give everyone a better shot at hitting the android. She enters the androids head and speaks, "Your situation is hopeless, lay down your weapons and you will live. Your tricks won't help you." As she says this she takes out her pistol feinting a shot at the android.
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.
As a standard action, you can use Bluff to feint in combat, enabling you to treat your opponent as flat-footed for your next attack against it before the end of your next turn. 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.
The two bolts of force spin off the floating top and easily strike true against the android!
Solaria successfully distracts the android with a clever feint. Isu connects against the drone with his attack of opportunity He then misses with his assault hammer against the android but swings in with the longsword, somehow managing to guess which of the quartet of androids was the real copy! His attack slashes a gouge through the thinnest section of the android's armor, cutting in deep.
The android clutches at their wound as their armor quickly reseals (though not before a rush of blood-analog globules can be sucked out into the void of the room!). They see the writing on the wall and release their rifle from their hands, raising both hands into the air.
Solaria hears a pained-sounding mental response of "Shit, I surrender! Not worth dying over this job if I don't have to." to her earlier demand.
The drone doesn't seem to have gotten the surrender message.
|||| Round 2+3 continued ||||
Ted
Spectre
Solaria
Arc - (possibly 10 damage, see above)
Isu - 12 damage
Android - 23 damage, 3 mirror images, disarmed/surrendering.
Drone - 10 damage
Bold are up!
While Isu makes his request over open comms, Arc swings in with two accurate slashes of his longsword! While the first cut is shallow , the second has the solarian plunging the blade into the mechanical innards of the drone. A couple of short-lived sparks and a spasm of its climbing limbs are its final actions.
Out of Combat!
Over open comms, the android calls out "Looks like I don't have to. The thing was a pile of junk anyway." and turns its head from side to side regarding your group. "Well, I've well and truly screwed this job up, haven't I."
Solaria moves over to the android, "An intelligent choice." she says, a tinge of relief in her voice. "If this is just a job for you, then you have a paymaster or similar. It is in your interest to let slip the names of your current employer and tell us what you instructions were exactly?"
The android relaxes a little and you get to see that behind its visor it has feminine features. She responds to Solaria with a relieved "Glad to see you're a more reasonable sort. I'm happy to tell you, but there isn't too much to tell." She deactivates her flickering holographic clones.
"I was hired for this job by someone calling themselves Vex, who said they represented a company called Apex Point Industries. And before you ask, yes, I've checked both of them. Apex Point is just a shell company and Vex is obviously a fake name. I never met them in person, but they offered a hefty sum of credits in exchange for destroying an unarmed shuttle on its way to this damned Drift Rock. They also specified that I was to clean up any survivors if necessary."
"Of course, your little shuttle was packing heat. Vex probably planned to play me from the start." Her expression twists into a scowl.
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Spectre listens to the android as he looks impassively at the destroyed drone.
"I am familiar with dozens of variety of revenge," the droid says. "Perhaps we might be an instrument to assist you in obtaining that, but more details would be required. Is there anything else you might share regarding your employer?"
"I was planning on hitching a ride on that half-derelict Acreon out there once you all shoved off. Or barring that, hunkering down until someone picked up my signal and came to my rescue. Maybe neither would have worked and I would have starved out here." She shrugs "Only Ibra knows. But I've made it out of tighter spots before."
She kicks some of the floating drone wreckage away from her "I'd rather lie low until I drop off their radar than hunt for revenge. People and corps that hire me have a taste for cleaning up loose ends when things go wrong." She crosses her arms. "Don't know much about them anyhow, what with the shell company and all the secrecy. Any number of corps could have found some reason to want you lot to be blown to pieces."