His heavy laser at the ready, Retsiji advances into the apparent derelict vessel. Even though the airless interior transmits no sound of his passage, those near him can feel the reverberations of his footfalls through the deck plates.
Paeon nods to his comrade his breath briefly fogging a portion of his face mask as he moves forward behind Kris,
He does his best to keep watch for danger,
He reaches out telepathically to Kris,
{Watch your footing, cant afford an error out here}
As you enter the vessel you find artificial gravity is still functional, supporting Noah's analysis that there is still power to run essential systems and possibly restore life support and atmosphere to the ship.
Surrounded by machinery, this long chamber stretches across the width of the ship.
This is clearly the Engineering Section of the ship. All of the Acreon’s main engineering functions should be operated from this room, which also contains a tech workshop expansion bay.
The ship’s power core can be accessed through maintenance panels in the forward wall.
Kris creeps in, with Paeon stealthily shadowing her steps. Retsiji on the other hand makes no effort to keep quiet, as his heavy footfall announces your collective arrival...
An arrival that is answered:
From the Port/Left Side an outlandish growling hiss emits from the dim light, one that is answered by a sister call to the Starboard/Right of your position.
Your respective innate visions locate two creatures resembling hairless blue lions rising from a slumber. Dozens more thick tentacles quiver and twitch where its mane should be, and twin tentacular tails whip in belligerence.
With another angry hiss their bio-luminous eyes blink and focus upon you..
Blue Meanies
Paeon
Retsiji
Kris
Ed
Noah
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Earlier
{agreed}
{"We're in the main engineering hub, Noah 2-0 the engine core is accessible thru maintenance panels in the forward panel.....what was that!?!? ...Skit! we have a problem. Retsiji, left side"}
not one to wait and ask this thing questions, Kris snaps off a shot at the creature on the left.
I seem them. Both sides! Noah says as he draws a bead on the left most creature and fires.
In his excitement his aim is off and the bolt goes wide.
Retsiji whirls to the right and fires, snarling.
Kris identifies the area as the Acreon's Engineering Section just as a stereo of menacing hisses emit from the emergency lit gloom.
She responds by firing off a shot, which finds its mark - briefly illuminating the strange creature, but does no damage...
The beast resembles a hairless blue lion. Dozens more thick tentacles quiver and twitch where its mane should be, and twin tentacular tails whip in belligerence.
While Noah's attempt is high, wide and handsome, the same cannot be said of Retsiji who blasts the other with his heavy duty laser. Despite nailing the creature dead-on, the effect seems somewhat stymied...
Terrifying predators that dwell in the vast void of space, akatas make their homes on asteroids, comets, and dying planets, hibernating in cocoons for countless centuries. When a meteorite carrying an akata colony crashes onto a planet or another astronomical object that can support life, the akatas awake from their cocoons to seek out suitable hosts for their young. A typical akata stands 3-1/2 feet tall and weighs 400 pounds.
The creatures are immune to cold, disease, poison and starvation.
Additionally they are deaf, relying on Blindsense and scent to track their prey. The creatures are resistant to fire, but susceptible to salt water.
Akatas reproduce by implanting their parasitic larval offspring in humanoid hosts; this infection they cause, known as void death, functions as a disease and transforms its victims into undead void zombies.
The cocoon an akata can create around itself is composed primarily of the starmetal noqual. One bulk of noqual worth 500 credits can be harvested from the remnants of an akata cocoon.
Akata 1 (LH): 18/18
Akata 2 (RH): 13/18
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MONSTERS! Ed informs the others which isn't particularly helpful.
Akatas! They live on meteorite and hibernate in cocoons until planetfall when they wake up and attack, looking for suitable hosts for their young. And those lasers don't seem to be hurting them much if at all. Wish I could remember more.
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Hosts?! Ed asks, shaking so badly that can hardly fire his arc pistol.
;
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Paeons vision is temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of laser fire but he quickly comes to his senses. Moving quickly to the port threat it appears Paeon intends to slap the beast before his stellar mote flashes in dark brilliance as his sword appears in both hands,
The normal darkened motes of Paeon's eyes begin to flare as he attunes to the light,
Akata 1 (LH): 11/18
Akata 2 (RH): 13/18
Paeon advances and in a furious attack, rents open a deep wound on the Akata! The star-beast emits a shrill screech, then leaps at its tormentor needle jaws snapping;
:
:
:
:
The enraged Akata voraciously chews into Paeon's leg and hip inflicting deep wounds!
Give me a DC10 Fort Save please chief.
The other Akata rushes toward Retsiji, scrabbling over the metallic floor of the ship maw agape ;
:
:
... its teeth scraping on the big vesk's armour, but causing no harm.
Retsiji switches his laser to his left hand and aims a punch at the attacking akata.
Paeon reels as the space-cat assaults him,
As Paeon rushes the space lion, Kris follows him step for step, drawing her survival knife, turning the flat back and forth to catch any light coming off the instruments and emergency lighting.
{"hopefully I have it's attention, now bury it captain"}
Reloading quickly, Noah fires again at the same target.
Retsiji changes tact and smashes the Akata attempting to chew on his armour. The creature reels from the vesk's heavy blow, straight into a cross bolt from Noah that buries itself deep into starbeast's shoulder. Badly injured the Akata's body ripples flashes of angry and pained red...
At the other end of the Engineering Section Kris attempts to distract the other space lion, but it seems to intent on continuing its Lashunta meal, its eyes glowing hungrily at its primes for another attack.
Akata 1 (LH): 11/18
Akata 2 (RH): 1/18
Too nervous to shoot straight, Ed calls down the ethereal wonder of Desna to calm him and lets Her power flow through to his finger tips. A trio of shooting stars whiz out, arcing around Retsi to unerringly strike the creepy creature.
The Lashunta's generations of war seem to fuel his movements,
Untold years of war, bred into his genetic composition, guide his sword. The darkness of the mote in sword form suck what light there may have been in the area away briefly as he strikes.
Paeon's eyes flare brilliantly with the light of dual stars,
The badly wounded Akata barely has time to snarl at its antagonists before Ed's celestial bolides vaporise it into a blue hued mist!
Across the ship Paeon dishes out his own brand of photonic pain, carving his blade into the star-beast.
Akata 1 (LH): 6/18
Akata 2 (RH): -8/18
The surviving Akata form ripples in bioluminescent anger, its eyes flaring and jagged maw glowing brightly as it continues to snap at Paeon...
:
... but fall short of the Solarion this time.
Kris continues to harass the Akata yet that's about all it is, harassment. "Hmm, I need something with more punch that this."
Noah loads and fires again, moving as necessary for a clear shot, but fails to find one.
The big vesk stows his laser and draws his reaction rifle. "Kris! GET DOWN!"
Kris' nails the creature with another shot that fails to damage - the laser's energy almost dissipating upon its blue hide.
Noah attempts what might have been a wildly ambitious trick shot, with his bolt ricocheting off a panel and screeing across the metal flooring.
Retiji is more methodical, changing weaponry and bellowing for his companions to clear the way...
Akata 1 (LH): 6/18
Akata 2 (RH): -8/18
Paeon continues to swing, the heat of a thousand stars begins to radiate from his body as he does. An unfamiliar sensation overcomes the Solarion.
Blinding light streams from his eyes, and mouth as he lets loose a piercing cry which fades to nothingness in the vacuum of space.
Between Retsijii's warning and the scary glow radiating off the stellar cat that was coming from Paeon, Kris dives to the floor, ducking under the explosion.
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Ed keeps his distance from exploding party members.
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As the remaining Akata maws at Paeon the Solarion begins to glow with the intensity of a reborn star.
In response the creature ripples in panicked iridescence as the stellar energy rips its form asunder, before vaporising it in a blinding glow!
As the glow around Paeon ebbs, you all gaze around the Engineering Section of the Acreon
Scattered throughout the chamber are fragments of a strange resinous material...
You successfully identify the fragments as being Noqual - a starmetal; one of several precious metals mined from asteroids and scattered worlds throughout the universe.
Noqual looks somewhat like a pale green crystal, but can be worked as easily as iron or steel. Its crystalline structure gives it a strength that belies a surprisingly low weight. Additionally the cocoon's of Akatas are laced with noqual as a result of their Drift existance...More importantly, noqual is strangely resistant to magic.
The fragments contained within this area add up to 2 Bulk in volume with a total value of 1000CR.
Your collective eyes also notice several stacks of UPBs (Universal Polymer Bases) throughout the tech lab and engineering stations.
Universal Polymer Bases, also known as UPBs, are units of flexible crafting materials also used as physical currency in locations where credits are either uncommon or undesired.
They are the basis for most technology. Each UPB is a tiny multifunction component, not much larger than a grain of rice, capable of being configured to act as a brace, capacitor, circuit, diode, fastener, insulator, lens, modulator, pipe, resistor, and dozens of other constituent parts. UPBs can even be spun out into fabric, broken down into component chemicals, reconstituted into new chemicals, or supplemented with base materials (such as dirt or sand) to form massive braces or walls. The right combination of hundreds or even thousands of UPBs can create everything from a comm unit to a laser weapon to powered armor. In their raw form, UPBs have a bulk of 1 per 1,000 UPBs, though when aligned and configured they can easily take up less bulk, and when configured for a specific purpose that calls for a minimum size and bracing (possibly combining them with inert materials), they can have a higher bulk.
UPBs are so ubiquitous that they are usable as currency in many major settlements and trade hubs. While credsticks are a more convenient and secure way to carry value, UPBs have the advantage of direct utility and untraceability. They are a popular way to pay smugglers and criminals, but they are also useful for trade missions to systems with UPB technology that don’t use credits as currency. The value of the credit is based on the economic utility of a single UPB.
Lying haphazardly beneath one of the Engineering consoles you spy a Tactical Arc Emitter. Checking the rifle reveals it has 12 charges remaining.
Twin panels allowing access to the vessel's Power Core (and the ship beyond) sit unopened...
Ooh!Noqual! Ed indicates bits of crystalline metal in the resin. It's a star metal with anti-magocal properties. I think the resin is from these creatures' cocoons. And look, Krisseven. Theres an arc rifle over there.
Retsiji only has eyes for the exits, in case more of them show up. "Kris-7, Noah, Ed. Tell us more about these things. Now that you have some time to look them up."
Paeon makes his way back to his companions, his gait unsteady as he recovers from the discharge.
{Apologies... I have not yet experienced the stellar phenomenon of the Solarion's. It is.. invigorating. Please lead the way while I recover.}
Agreed. Noqual. Noah says, agreeing with Ed. Both useful and valuable. Quite rare. We should also gather this Universal Polymer Bases, or UPBs, as much can be constructed from them or they could be exchanged for credit. Noah sums up as he advances and retrieves the Tactical Arc Emitter. And there is this.Checking the battery he notes 12 charges. Should be quite useful against these fire resistant, and therefore laser resistant Akatas, should there be more. Retsiji, I have already recounted what I know about these creatures.
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The vesk's nostrils flare, and the spines of his crest raise. "I'm not asking what you remember. We have a minute or two. Query the ship's database."
I shall endeavor to comply. While I do this, try to close the exterior doors and see what can be done about restoring the atmosphere.
I am not sure I have a good channel here.
Kris doesn't seem to be following the back and forth about the akatas and makes a rookie mistake when she tries to access the ship's mainframe computer "Better than mine".
However frustrated she was with the lack of damage generated by her pistol in the previous encounter, she sets to work stabilizing the ship and bringing it's systems back online. Checking to see that the air is breathable before nodding to the others it's safe to remove their face shielding. Hitting a button she opens the doorway to the right, "Shall we?"
What is quickly apparent via the data-consoles in this section, is that they perform a more monitoring function - tying back into the Ships CPU and Mainframe.
A schematical breakdown of the vessel is displayed, showing power routes, maintenance monitoring etc for each location. , however direct access to which is located in the fore Bridge Section ().
Between Noah's computing skills and Kris' engineering acumen they are able to engage the vessel's Life Support diagnostics and initiate stabilisation.
Noah deduces that it will take 3 minutes for the Acreon's life-support protocols to re-pressurise the ship fully.
Your success allows the ability to remotely close (or open) any or all of the doors on the ship, including the airlock hatches. A maintenance alert flashes showing one of the crew cabin's has a malfunctioning door. Lighting onboard can also now be manipulated increasing the light level throughout the ship to normal light if required.
Turning up the lights. Restoring the atmosphere would have put anything waiting for us on alert already This will take a couple minutes.
Retsiji nods. "Can you lock the doors while we wait?"