ROUND 6
Fingernipper continues to rally the troops, whilst Startoad's AI guided hand lays down more surpassing fire!
Uttering a gurgling roar, the Garaggakal lands beside the vocal ysoki, before hungrily snapping at him with its lamprey maw;
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It latches on tearing at the Envoy's armour and furred flesh!
Meanwhile aboard the relative comfort and safety of the Sunrise Maiden Ed's search for the ignition switch is fruitful and through blind luck canny spacer knowledge he engages the ship's power-core. In the distance, the vessel begins to flicker to life as systems engage...
Seated in the Captain's chair you are assailed by the sparking to life of consoles and dash before you. A H2UD (Holographic Heads Up Display) appears before you of a swirling sun, before a warm feminine voice speaks:
<GREETINGS. WELCOME ABOARD THE SUNRISE MAIDEN. PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF>
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Unhappy to be moving closer to the space worm Noah will cast his last Magic Missile spell.
ROUND 6.5
Noah returns to the fray blasting the Drift Wraith with a duo of energy bullets that elicit a shrill scream from the creature!
As the Drift Wraith lands near him to feed upon Fingernipper, the fatigued Solarian moves to meet it, slashing with his solar blade...
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... cutting open a deep wound in the fell creature's rubbery hide!
ROUND 7
The Garaggakal roars in pain and fury, before casting a baleful eye toward the wounds that litter its body...
At Ed's request, the HUD scans the shirren, then addresses him;
<GREETINGS CAPTAIN SKZZRRR'ED'KL. WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO ASSIST. MY SENSORS INDICATE SEVERAL LIFEFORMS WITHIN PROXIMITY. USING ONBOARD WEAPONS SYSTEMS TO ENGAGE THEM WILL RESULT IN 87.99975% OF THEM EVAPORATED. DO YOU WISH ME TO FIRE?>
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The mechanized goblin continues to rain lasers at the beast, the feminine voice coming from it yells. “This creature will not die, retreat may be the option of survival!”
He then turns and starts to run to the ship.
Startoad's shot careers off the Drift Wraith's hide, but he does not register as the cygob bolts toward the Sunrise Maiden...
The ship's AI is silent for a second as it processes the myriad of permutations to Ed's questions;
<VESSEL MOUNTED WEAPONS THRESHOLD CANNOT BE DIMINISHED. AM UNSURE OF WHICH LIFEFORM IS THE DESIGNATE: GURGLEKILL. OPENING FIRE WOULD MEAN A 87.99975% PROBABILITY THAT GURGLEKILL IS EVAPORATED. IF THIS IS AN ACCEPTABLE DEATH FACTOR? SMALL ARMS ARE LOCATED IN THE SHIP'S LOCKER - AREA 4. DISPLAYING VESSEL SCHEMATICS FOR YOU NOW...>
<YOU ARE CURRENTLY LOCATED IN AREA 1b CAPTAIN SKZZRRR'ED'KL.>
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"Hey! Now's not the time for a tactical redeployment. More shooting, less running!"
Following his own advice, Nipper lines up a shot:
ROUND 7
Nipper continues to rally his depleting forces, but the call to arms effects his own accuracy and his shot goes wide.
With a gurgling mew the Garaggakal suddenly lurches toward the westward wall and phases through the solid structure... akin to a ghost or wraith!
Suddenly the cavern sits momentarily silent, save for your collective breathing and the distant hum of the Sunrise Maiden powering up..
From your vantage point in the corridor you suddenly see the Drift Wraith re-emerge from the plated wall then continue through the doors into D8
Noah raises his weapon and readies to fire on the Garaggakal should it show itself. Is it gone? He is too afraid to believe its true.
ROUND 7
While the Garaggakal has apparently phased from the combat, you notice Noah remains with his weapon trained back down the entry corridor...
The ship's Holo-AI pulses brightly as it processes the instructions:
<HAPPY TO COMPLY. IF YOU EXIT THE BRIDGE AND PROCEED TO AREA (4) YOU WILL FIND WEAPONS LOCKER. CURRENT INVENTORY IS: 1 x DAZZLER FLARE RIFLE; 2 x PULSECASTER PISTOLS & A UTILITY WELDER. INITIATING ANNOUNCEMENT TO EXTERIOR LIFEFORMS NOW...>
As you ponder your next moves a tinny voice emanating from the distant vessel echoes throughout the chamber;
<ATTENTION ALL COMPANIONS OF CAPTAIN SKZZRRR'ED'KL. HE REQUESTS THAT ALL NON-LIFE-SUCKING-SPACE-WRAITHS BOARD THE SUNRISE MAIDEN IMMEDIATELY SO DEPARTURE CAN BE FACILITATED BEFORE IT RETURNS. THANK YOU.>
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As the baddy disappears Paeon's stellar mote retreats to its usual globe shape. He takes a quick look back at the ship, his comrades and the area.
Too tired this time...
Paeon shuffles his way to the 'safety' of the ship.
'Better get movin before that thing decides to walk straight into this ship with us.'
Startoad continues to back up covering for Paeon’s movement knowing the disease is taking its toll. “Retreat toward the ship, our chances of survival have quintupled with it leaving.”
Noah, covering the rest of the crew slowly backs towards and then onto the new ship. This crate is pretty old. Let me take a look at the controls. What weapon systems are on board?
You all file onboard the Sunrise Maiden through the main airlock and immediately are met with Ed who has opened an equipment/weapons locker .
As you enter, the same voice that hailed you can be heard on the ship's tannoy system - its voice light and feminine:
<WELCOME ABOARD THE SUNRISE MAIDEN. CAPTAIN SKZZRRR'ED'KL IS CURRENTLY AT LOCATION 4.>
Ed waves as soon as he sees his companions. The ship doesn't think it's a good idea to use the weapons systems inside, but we've got a dazzler rifle, pulsecasters, and stuff in the locker. Grab something in case guglekiller or killer Clara show up and let's get out of here!
Ed looks for a spare battery for his arc gun and hurries back to the bridge.
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Paeon salutes Ed casually as his order is bellowed,
'aye aye!'
He follows Ed to the bridge.
More curious than is probably good for him, Nipper chances fate and moves to investigate the now discarded corpse.
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Startoad once on the ship runs to the bridge looking for a gunner’s seat to man one of the weapons. Pulling the cord from his skull to tap into the weapons system to vaporize the gurglekill if it pops up.
Startoad settles into one of the vessel's two gunnery stations and jacks in.
Your AI immediately begins to converse with the Sunrise Maiden's counterpart.
<GREETINGS C.I.C.A. MY DESIGNATE IS D.A.W.N. DO YOU WISH ME TO ALLOW YOUR HOST TO ACCESS THE MAIDEN'S WEAPONS ARRAY?>
Ed indeed finds a spare battery, noting there are 2 more in the stores. Alongside them also sits an almost empty box of Med Patches and a lone Counteractant, Tier 1 that may aide Paeon.
You check over the corpses, noting that both have been systematically dissected and their entrails laid out in almost uniform fashion.
Both unfortunate souls bear Acreon crew badges identifying them: TOLLIVER-22 whom you know to be the vessel's Android Science Officer and BARG VOLSH - the Acreon's Lashunta Able Crewman.
Neither bear any items of note, however your keen eyes and canny whiskers draw you to a larger cache of unusual art objects and valuables mixed with bones and skulls that the Garaggakal has collected from myriad prey over the years while hunting in the Drift.
Ranging from bizarrely unsettling to delicately exquisite, these samples of exotic fine art and fossils are worth a total of 2,000 credits to Drift historians and art connoisseurs.
You will however need assistance in shifting them onboard...
Noah investigates the pilot's station while pondering We still must pick up Clara-247. There was the disembowelled corpses we found and the lair of this creature that might yield further return if we believe it has truely fled. A negative possibility had just occurred to me. We would not want to lead the Garaggakal back to Absolom Station...
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Ed grabs his new discovers, changing out the battery. Look, Paeon. I found some reactant. Try it. It may stop you from becoming a space zombie.
D.A.W.N.? No known entity exists with this designation, I am curious to your purpose DAWN? And do let the organic access the weapon systems, the enemy we encountered just before is highly dangerous and the ships weapon systems have the highest probability of success against it.
Startoad stands looking at the console trying to understand and figure out the weapon systems before looking over his shoulder shouting out.
“We leave soon? No want to die by gurglekill”
Fear sharpens Ed's focus. Yes, Startoad. Let's go! Noahtoo, run the engineering diagnostics. I'm driving and we're NOT STOPPING until we get to the station. Paeon, Nipper take a look around. Make sure that Clara and the gurglekill aren't already onboard! Ed takes the helm.
Ed, you are not thinking clearly. We absolutely must retrieve Clara-247 before departing. I will hear of no other plan.
Paeon salutes Ed,
'Searching the ship!'
Paeon begins searching the ship for any stow aways are bad baddies!
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Nipper pokes his head into the ship:
"Hey boys! There's a bunch of shiny doodads out here. They might be worth a pretty penny, if anyone wants to help me move them into the hold."
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Shiny Doodads? Ed hesitates.
I shall assist. Noah volunteers and moves to do so.
Noah exits the sanctity of the Maiden to pick over the loot discovered by Fingernipper
The Maiden's turrets swivel ominously as Startoad gets to grip with the various operations of the weaponry...
Noah is busy moving things.
Ed draws his arc pistol and moves to the boarding ramp to anxiously watch the loot recovery.
Paeon grabs the Counteractant and downs it through a shaky arm,
After downing the counteractant Paeon moves to help nipper bring in the goods.
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Startoad busy figuring out and playing with the new equipment doesn’t seem to do much besides swivel the turrets.
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Nipper's whiskers twitch and his ears are on a swivel, as he and Noah start loading up the hold.
Paeon imbibes the serum, and he feels the niggling burning in his veins subside... upon examination he can no longer see the bioluminescent ripples under your skin.
As the big Solarian exits the ship to assist the others...
Leaving the ship you look for the Ysoki and Android likely attempting to lug loot. Something in the distance catches your eye, and you make out a humanoid figure moving toward Nipper and Noah...
As you begin to load the grisly lucre with Noah, you clock Paeon exiting the ship and making his way toward you both. As you turn your attention back to the cache, you make out a humanoid figure moving toward you and Noah...
Noticing the approaching figure, Nipper points it out to Noah.
"Heads up. We've got company. Friend of yours?"
Noah looks up and tries to identify what Fingernipper is talking about.
The cloaked figure is a feminine humanoid, perhaps an android... more interesting is the sniper rifle she's packing. A weapon that is trained across the cavern towards where she just crept from...
Paeon moves up to where Nipper and Noah are.
'Careful now, company...'
Paeon shouts out to the figure,
'That's far enough! Who are you?'
It is no so much the figure Paeon recognises, but the voice when she addresses you in a low dry tone;
"Tel' domah. The lashunta. Funny meeting you here Solarian. You do indeed have company. Big and ugly due south from us..."
She swings her sniper rifle barrel in that direction to accentuate the point.
Following her aim, in the distance you see the monstrous form of the Garaggakal phasing back through the wall...