"To the Tequila Sunrise! No, wait, to the Iron Maiden! Huh, oh, no, that's not it. But it's something like that." Maxim attempts to sit on the vacuum cleaner, assuming it is a small robocab.
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"Iron Maiden? Excellent!" Imagine yells as she begins to air-guitar.
Then she tries to sit next to Maxim, but only succeeds in pushing him off the narrow-and-pointy cleanbot(tm).
"Ugh, the bartender called us a dwarf-cab. Let's go normal a one for find people," she states, dragging Maxim in the general direction of the exit.
Isabbella takes a photo of the two and runs it through a picture search in the interwebs. There is no connection to any particular ship found, but a fan blog entry of a female fan working for the Starfinder Society, fawning over Maxim Petrovich joining the Starfidners. "Good enough." she tells herself and orders a cab.
Once it arrives she ushers Maxim and Imagine out of the bar and into the cab, sending them off to the Lorespire Comples to drop them at the door of the Society.
At the destination the issue of paying the cab arises. "That's five credits." the speaker of the robo cab tells.
Maxim squints at the Starfinder Society building and rubs the stubble on his chin. "I feel like I should know this place..." he mumbles.
"But I don't. However! I do believe in the interconnectedness of all things. Therefore, that vacuum cleaner delivered us here for a reason. We only need to unlock this building's secrets to know why." He begins stumbling toward the entrance.
Somewhere else in the universe Dirk Gently feels a chill run down his spine.
"We were here this morning Maxim Petrovich." Boreal says, as she walks down the sidewalk towards the two. "Nobody was at the Maiden when i got back so I thought you might be here."
"I think you two should sleep this off..." Boreal says as Maxim stands catatonic in front of her, seemingly incapable of responding to her. She hoists Imagine onto her shoulder, grabs Maxim by the back of his collar, dragging him behind her, and makes her way to the Sunrise Maiden.
As she walks through the airlock she drops Imagine into the corridor and slumps Maxim against the wall of the corridor outside his quarters.
"EH-RK! Are you here?"
Maxim lounges against the bulkhead, enjoying the coolness of the alloy. "Coolness," he mumbles. "Nobody says that anymore..."
Eric replies in the affirmative. He's been overseeing the myriad of upgrades being done to the Sunrise Maiden.
With everyone aboard EH-RK goes tohrough standard departure procedure with Absalom Station Control and brings the Maiden into space. There he runs an extended check of all systems. After that is successfully finished the course to the Nejeor system is set and the Maiden jumps into the drift.
You can never exactly tell how long it takes to get there, but the expectation is to have a week or so of uneventful drift travel. Usually there isn't much to happen there. If you don't find pieces of destruction machines of galactic dimensions or meet one of the few inhabitants that actually live in the drift.
But by pure chance - or was it the update to the improbability drive for the ship - another space ship approaches and tries to contact the Maiden on a communication channel. It is sent as video message for maximum effect. A humanoid encased in a space armor that covers everything, with only a single red round glowing thing in the face, where it would be between the eyes for humans is seen and the voice where one can't tell where it emerges from that creature tells in a condescending tone: "Attention, Pact Worlds vessel. This is the Azlanti Star Empire vessel Fearful Symmetry. Surrender immediately, and you will not be harmed. In fact, you will have the immense pleasure of becoming another small part of the empire’s vast populace. Refuse and we will be forced to turn you into space dust. This message will not repeat."
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Imagine spends the week in space trying to sober up, and taking her hand at the pilot's conn. Though she is slow to start, something inside of her is woken at the task, and soon she is executing complicated maneuvers within tolerable levels of danger.
Does someone wanna respond to this or should I look for big red buttons to push?' Imagine thinks at the crew.
"Our name is on the side of the ship... Would it kill you to use it?" Boreal asks sarcastically to the air.
"Perfect timing! My subscription to Soap of the Month Club just ran out and I was wondering what to do with myself. Now we can join your big deal. By all means, I say! I would love to know how I can get a suit of that beautiful armor you're wearing. Tell you what, I will happily sign my life away. Just come on over and we'll give you the Sunrise Maiden welcome."
Eric doesn't quite roll his eyes at the crew's response. He does however begin powering up shields and weapons.
Humanoids: Battle stations now would be prudent. We will attempt to outrun this foe.
"You couldn't try deception just this one time? Can we at least get a look at their ship to see what we're up against?"
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'Oh, we're doing lying now? Okay, I can do that,' Imagine thinks at the crew, stepping up to the viewscreen before anyone can stop her.
"You Azlanti are ALWAYS threatening when you should be on your KNEES and THANKING us for saving YOUR hides. AGAIN!
I am Alanna WhiteAngel, High Admiral of Starfinder Society and WE have LEARNED that -the- CULT has finally assimilated the Last of the Twelve and we are the ONLY ones that can stop them!
Now get the unless you consider having the entire universe sucked into a giant sanity-blasting world-eating No-srsly Great Old One your idea of a HOT NIGHT!"
'The Starfinders use navy ranks, right?' she telepathically asks, a bit too late.
The pilot of the enemy ship tries to get behind the maiden at 12 hexes distance.
Humanoids: The Azlanti ship is trying to acquire a target. I repeat. Battle stations are the most prudent course of action.
Maxim shakes off his disappointment at not getting to at least try to fool the Azlanti through some kind of ruse, and slides behind the Engineering console.
"Ooh! Hey Imagine - someone was actually getting their shit together while we were passed out drunk. Sunrise Maiden actually has a full bar now!" He fires up the schematic and reviews the upgrades, then frowns.
"Balls, false alarm. Just some new weapons and crap. Bummer. Alright, Eric, here's some extra gas."
Eric is going to continue to place the Sunrise Maiden in an advantageous position. (Depending on positioning, He'll either head for the rear of the craft OR he'll attempt to gain AC)
In principle the Maiden is not slow, and with the power boost even faster. As of now you don't know exactly what the speed of the Azlanti ship is. But as the knowledge about Azlanti ships is mystic lore at best, they can't be too slow.
The maiden tries a run out the enemy ship. Which works for now, as EH-RK surprised the enemy pilot.
But a launched torpedo follows the maiden at exact the same speed.
The azlanti ship follows at slightly lower speed.
Maxim continues to Divert auxilliary power to propulsion.
+2 speed if successful.
If we just want to run away, when can we engage the drift drive?
The torpedo following the sunrise maiden explodes as it is hit by the barrage shot by Imagine.
The azlanti ship follows the maiden for another two days, but due to the effort of EH-RK who doesn't need any sleep and Maxim who knows how to stay awake for a two days party, the distance can be kept. And once the Maiden drops out of the rift, the pursuer is gone.
You exit the Drift very close to the sixth planet of the Nejeor system, a nine-planet system with a yellow dwarf sun. A scan of the area reveals some basic information about the system. The first two planets actually share a single orbit, though one is always on the opposite side of the sun from the other; both are hot, rocky wastelands. The third, sixth, and eighth planets are gas giants, each swirling with a different color of gas. The fourth planet is dotted with petrified forests, and the fifth planet has a multitude of active volcanoes constantly spewing ash into the air. The seventh and ninth planets are both cold and lifeless rocks. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh planets are the only ones with moons, which have varied compositions.
On fist sight, only the sixth planet seems to contain life. Well, all might contains some strange sort of gas feeding bug hiding in the depths or something, but the typical signs of intelligent life using modern technology are only emitted by the planet nearby.
A more thorough scan of the planet reveals that there is something large floating in the mass of gas.
Maxim runs analysis on the planetary gas composition at the altitude of the "something large" and exports it to the lab, cross-referencing it against known commercial applications and companies that either extract or manufacture with it.
"If it matches anything," Maxim explains, specifically to EH-RK, "we could say we're with AssCorp on an exploratory mission. If they don't try to kill us first."
On closer inspection the shape becomes visible and it seems to be a floating city. The city is crumbling in places, while other areas are overgrown with trees and other plants. The energy signatures that would normally come from a settlement of that size (energy from a power plant, wireless signals, and so forth) are weak and erratic. This city is millennia old and that age is the cause of much of the decay (as opposed to it having been destroyed by some outside source). Checking for a place to land you find there is only one safe place where they can bring down their vessel: an emerald-green landing pad on the outskirts of the city. All other possible landing areas in the metropolis are either unstable or are covered in impenetrable thickets.
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Imagine makes a great snorting sound that can only come from an unexpected laugh. "Ha! Asscorp! Or what about The Butt Company? Or maybe Twerk and Tinkle, LLC? Oh! Oh! I got it! I can be PussyGalore and you can be Master Bates and we're here to deliver a big package!"
Imagine just starts snickering, forgetting why they are there.
Maxim scans the landing zone for signs of complex life forms.
Eric looks on as the two go back and forth.
Humanoids: We were lucky to outrun that Azlanti ship. Let's get to ground before it finds us.
EH-RK steers the Sunrise Maiden to the only 'operational' landing pad. The ship touches down on the Emerald Landing Pad, that juts out into the clouds in the southeastern corner of the city. Like much of the rest of the city, the pad appears to be made of a thick, barely translucent crystal. A vibrant-green lichen grows along the underside of the pad, which makes the lone intact pad resemble an enormous slab of emerald. The pad can accommodate a Large or smaller starship, though the equipment that would be used to repair or refuel a landing vessel disintegrated or was scavenged long ago.
The majority of the pad is open to the sky; the thick clouds of Nejeor VI swirl lazily below. An archway stretches above a 10-foot-wide walkway that joins up with walkways from other landing pads, leading into dockmaster’s building. A holographic sign stretches across the archway;
Maxim glances at the sign. Whatever it says probably wouldn't make sense to him even if he could read it. He wonders briefly how a hologram sign would have power, when nothing else in this wasteland seems to. Almost like their arrival is expected.
He is mindful of his footing, lest the vegatation cover a hole in the archway.
Some strange lookin ghumanoids come up from under the platform and open fire with their archaic weapons.
Guess I'll just wait my turn.
Eric stands ready, as soon as he notices the approaching creatures he darts away from them and into whatever cover he can find...drawing his sniper rifle as he gets some distance between himself and the attackers.
One of the kish aims at Maxim and shoots him with a bow. The arrow deflects at his modern space armor, without dealing any damage.
"We come in peace!" shouts Maxim to the aboriginals. He raises his arms in what he hopes is a non-combatitive gesture.
Photon Attuned 1.
"And if you don't let us come in peace, we will leave covered in your blood!" Boreal roars
As the crew of the maiden sends mixed signals and they don't understand the words anyway, they keep shooting. This time at Boreal.
Stellar Rush then Bull Rush into the Kish that shot at me.
fire damage.
Photon attuned x2.
"Covered in your blood it is then." Boreal dashes towards the nearest bow wielding native and brings her new doshko around in a smooth swing.