Maxim has that feeling, like something interesting is about to happen that will change life in the universe as we know it. He swings gleefully with The Morning Star.
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Down from the Sky.
Into the fight.
Heart full of RAGE.
Bringing thunder and glory.
Dropping from the sky with a whine of angry STEEL and a thunderous BLAZE of jets comes a large man in blood-red battle armor. Thick feet in heavy boots of WAR crack the earth but the touch the ground O briefly before the towering man of war CHARGES at the doughty snake.
Huge ham-sized fists FLAIL at the large reptile like heavy metal slugs fired from the main gun of a passing dreadnaught.
A straight right jab from a mitt encased in a crimson gauntlet seems but poorly sent and a lightning-fast left hook follows up, giving the snake no peace or rest.
"Greetings to you," the big man rumbles out, the light playing off shiny red designs in his elegant armor. "I am Sergeant First-Class Gorn Steelbreaker, Alpha Company, Sword of Light.
And I'm here to rescue you."
Maxim misses the serpent. The snake takes the hit from the surprise out of the sky and turns on the hunk of meat immediately.
Maxim observes a large humanoid falling out of the sky to attack the big snake. Stranger things have probably happened.
Imagine takes a step back to watch how she is being rescued. "That's really nice for a change. We should offer this sergeant a cookie once he is done saving us."
Boreal brings her weapon down on the serpent.
Gorn Steelbreaker is a bit challenged, when entangled in flesh. He tries pounding the snake, but his ability to move is seriously hindered, by the snake winding it's body around him.
Maxim uses the lack of attention on him to cut into the smake and Boreal too cuts into the beast.
All strength leaves the critter and it slides to the ground. Gorm stands in a pile of snake.
"Well, as far as rescue attempts go, that seemed awkward. But what the hell, you attacked the thing that was attacking us, and that's a welcome change from how it usually goes. Welcome, Gorm. What's your story?"
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Gron bends down and picks up the snake's head, crushing it in his fist of steel to make sure it stays dead.
"The Starfinders fashion themselves the only organization in the 'verse that is fit to take action upon impending doom, but that is not so," Gorn rumbles, letting the snake's squashed skull fall to the ground and shaking bits of gore from his hands. "My order, The Order of the White Angel, will also move hand to action when the need arises. Even if the Starfinders too are moving--especially if the Starfinders are moving.
They do what they can."
Gorn moves out of the coil of dead snake the surrounds him, pulping its corpse in his heavy metal tread.
"We do what is necessary."
He moves over to Imagine and takes her hand; it appears diminutive in his massive gauntlet as he raises it to his helm and kisses it lightly. "I would gladly accept a cookie, were it served by you, milady."
He lets her hand fall and turns, chuckling deeply.
"I know what your mission is...but who are you?"
Maxim observes the interation between Imagine and Gorm. It is a very curious dynamic.
"How in the Void could possibly know what our mission is, if you don't know who I am?" he asks, able to resist the old-fashioned courtesy of shaking one's hand, but not the pull of his own massive ego. "What is the Order of White Angel, exactly?"
"Well, maybe someone broadcast the mission through all of the known universe and beyond?" Imagine suggests in that shouldn't-it-be-obvious tone.
"And we don't act like the brightest candles on the cake if every nutjob and their half-breed dog got a headstart on us or catches up on us that easily."
Imagine ponders what to make of Gorms comment about cookies before she adds "Those cookies aren't served."
"I can throw you a cookie if you're a good boy, or you can nibble them form my toes if you're a bad boy."
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Humanoid Newcomer: You are neither White, nor an Angel. Eric says matter of factly
Humanoids not new: We should check to ensure that he is not some mad cultist.
Human Imagine: No offense meant.
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Gorn starts to slowly walk in a circle, examining everything, looking at the sky. It's as if he expects the unexpected.
"I was on a long-range patrol mission. Xur is gathering his Kodan armada--not that the 'Finders care--and I was keeping an eye on them when I got flashed a wave that some civvies stumbled on an extinction-level event and needed some help with the SPC.
I didn't get names, just descriptions. One book-worm looking human. Check. One 'bot. Check. One delicious female. Check." He stops to give Imagine a wink that can only be called salacious while he devours her with his eyes before re-starting his slow orbit.
"You don't -need- to give me names, but I warn you I can be quite literal with it. AS to your questions:
Robot, you seem literally to have something wrong with your literal chip. The White Angel name is just nomenclature, not an all-inclusive description.
And how would you check that I'm not a cultist? Instead, see to the tactics. If I wanted you dead, I would have -attacked- you while you were getting your asses kicked by that snake, instead of helping to defeat it.
But you're probably only programmed for etiquette and protocol, so I take no offense either."
He stops turning and looks into the distance. He sniffs, frowns, and keeps going.
"And Booky, or do you prefer Wormy? Anyway Book-ster, if the Starfinders are the eyes and ears of the forces of Good, then the Order of the White Angel are its hands and will--the 'Finders might find it, but someone has to pull their fat out'a the fire when things get hot.
Take spies. You ever wonder how easy it was for all of you to be embraced by the 'Finders? You show up, give 'em some dog-and-pony story, and then poof they give a decoder ring and welcome you into the fold.
You don't think the forces of Evil could exploit that?
The Order sees to it that the 'Finders stupidity doesn't get the best of them. One of my first assignments was 'dealing' with a fire cult that ingratiated themselves to the 'Finders by starting fires, and then, after enough damage had been done, putting them out.
Naturally, after they were dealt with, the Starfinders took all the credit."
He frowns again at the sky. "Whatever you were doing we should be about doing it. The local kak might've been frightened off, but they'll soon be back.
And in greater numbers."
Maxim turns to Boreal. "Are you gonna let this guy talk to you like that?"
"Whatevs. Historical museum, eh? This outta be a riot." Maxim enters the building.
"He didn't give a derogative description of me. Knows what's good for him. You fight for your own honor." Boreal replies with a shrug.
Humanoids not new: We should check to ensure that he is not some mad cultist.
Human Imagine: No offense meant.
"None taken. I agree that one mad cultist is enough for this group. Don't want that verbal brute to make himself comfortable in MY niche."
After Gorm finishes, Imagine adds "As I understand from your exhaustive - or should I say exhausting - introduction, you're out to eat me? You're sure you don't bite off more than you can chew?"
She follows Maxim into the museum.
A welcome hologram activates, showing a sweeping panoramic of the city. The image is of how the city looked in its prime, but is now full of glitches. A voiceover (in Kishaleen) accompanying the image is audible.
"Welcome to…" The audio becomes garbled. "…Istamak, shining city of progress! Come…" Static obscures several patches of the next few sentences. "…to witness… living history…" The music playing under the words increases in volume for a few moments, drowning out some of the voice. "Don’t hesitate to ask questions… and come again soon!"
Then the voice starts all over again.
The murals continue in this room, this time showing smaller figures in the streets of a stylized city looking in reverence toward a large archway to the west leading into a wide, dark hallway. There is a small counter in the northwestern corner, and a number of dusty shelves and empty hooks occupy the eastern side of the room.
"They have some power here," Maxim observes. He checks the counter, looking for light switches or the like, and inspects the room generally.
If he does not find anything of note, he does not hesitate to ask the recorded voice, "How do we turn on the lights?"
The hologram doesn't react to being asked. ButMaxim notices a number of nearly hidden indicators in the drawings that point toward a disguised panel in the wall near the ticket booth. The panel swings open easily, revealing a large breaker switch. Flipping the switch powers up the building, also opening the electric sliding doors that lead further in.
Animated holographic displays along the walls of this section of the twisting hallway depict the planning and construction of a huge city among the clouds: alien architects manipulating three-dimensional electronic blueprints, an important-looking figure standing on an open-air cloud barge and pulling a lever that starts large construction machinery in the background, and a handful of industrial painters putting the finishing touches on a building. The animations loop every few minutes. A large touch screen is mounted in front of each display.
"Who are these people, and where are they now?" Maxim asks the holograms. He tries to make sense of the touch screens.
Failing that, he begins pushing objects on the touch screens methodically, left to right, top to bottom, and observes the result.
While maxim plays around at the display another hologram appears behind him. It looks like an angry specimen of the original people inhabiting this place. As he turns around to see the new arrival, the hologram hits Maxim in the face. And it feels painfully real.
"This museum is crap!"
The jerk is quick and your also your attack moves just through him.
Eric takes cover and draws his sniper rifle. He watches for "real" enemies...
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"Hehehe," the behemoth laughs as the hologram hits the nerd who seems content with being called whatever since he refuses to part with his name. "Looks like these displays hit -back-, Bookworm."
Still, a call to battle isn't something that you just ignore, and Gorn starts moving forward with increasing speed. "This seems like my kind a' place."
Gorn turns on the projector on the wall and reduces it to electronic garbage. The scenery of the founding of Istamak disappears, but the hostile kishaleen stays.
Boreal tries to hit the thing, but her doshko goes right through it with no effect.
Imagine decides that being somewhere else, while Gorm saves them again would be a good idea. Before disappearing arounbd the corner she calls back "Consider how you will explain to the kish that you trashed their holy place, before you hammer it to pieces!"
The hologram - which seems to depict some kind of official from the town this museum is about - hits maxim again.
"Imagine, where the f$%@ are you going? Can you inflict some pain on this thing? Or heal me, or anything!"
Maxim doubles his efforts against the hologram monster.
Photon Attuned x1.
Maxim cuts into the hologram making it glitch shortly.
Boreal drops the doshko and grabs the big gun.
Eric fires his sniper rifle at the "hologram"
It is unreal, how quick the lologram can evade the attacks. And it also continues to work on Maxim's face. But Maxim denies that this time.
"Hey Gorm, maybe you could just bring the whole building down and we can sift through the wreckage for whatever it is we're here to find."
Ha!
Photon Attuned x2.
"There is no honor in collapsing a building on your foes." Boreal objects. "But there is also no honor in letting some hologram do your fights."
She is not really engaged in that fight, as it lacks everything that makes fighting interesting for a vesk.
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Gorn stares nonplussed at the nerd. "That would be a lot of work, Bookworm. You sure you up to that?
Besides, I saw something in chicky-baby's shirt that I want right now."
Gorn leaves the room and an annoyed feminine "Hey!" can be heard.
Gorn returns with a Corona laser pistol and takes aim at the hologram.
This time the group effort to set some limits to the hologram - especially to its lifetime - are much more successful. But despite that it is still far away from disappearing. A glitch here and a white noise there, but all in all it's still up to the fight.
EH-RK shoots again the historical enemy.
But the hologram is pretty single minded. It simply punches Maxim again and again.
EH-RK shoots again the historical enemy.