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While Maxim shouts and rants for All Comers to try and take a shot at his title, Gorn again settles himself down. He tucks into a ration packet of freeze-dried soy-fruit and a self-heating packet of REALmeat*.
*REALmeat contains no actual meat.
After ten minutes he feels well restored from the fight with the dwarf. He unceremoniously dumps the dwarf's gear into his carryall and stomps along toward the next obstacle to their mission of saving the universe.
"I know, right? These homicidal robots have no sense of courtesy."
Gorn steps forward and activates his fresh Haste circuit. His body -sings- with a flood of energy and losses himself in a flurry of blows at the main android, seeking to end this soon.
"You know they only call male-mimicking robots 'androids'. Since you're obviously a chick you're actually a 'gyndroid'" he taunts at the construct. While punching it.
The bot is quickly dispatched between Maxim and Gorn. The other robots refrain from joining the fray and shoot from halfway between the group and the android.
Voxx leaps at a nearby drone, plasma sword flashing...
Imagine gets bored and the smartassery of that robot annoys her. So she decides to see how that one reacts to a little intrusion into her head.
She casts a spell at the android.
Voxx charges with much motivation but little precision at the maitenance bot, which simply swoops to the side, stabilizing in the air again after the missed strike.
But Imagine gives her a substantial headache, even though the Android is less susceptible to that kind of magic.
The bot lashes out at Voxx.
Encouraged to see Imagine join the fight, Maxim lunges for the next bot and takes a couple whacks at it.
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Gorn keeps moving to the edge, trying to work the flank and open up a line of attack on the gynodroid.
"Anyone know what kind of robots these are? Are they actual combatbots? Or are they just janitor roombas that somebody re-programmed because they didn't have anything better on hand?" he asks rhetorically as he activates his Force Field and continues the punching.
Gorn is on to something, and that this one bots beats him up with a dustpan and brush is a strong hint that he might be right. But they are very sturdy janitor bots. It takes all of Maxim's attacks and another hit from Gorn to take one out. The second one is not so lucky and will take not much more after Gorn does some cold moulding on it.
The remaining bot hits Gorn with a wrench of appropriate size.
The gyndroid shoots Gorn too.
The bot's attack scratches against Voxx's armor and he laughs, You'll have to do better than that, bot-boy!"
He slashes his sword against the bot's metallic frame...
Seeing the face of the smug gyndroid distortet in pain sparks joy in Imagine, and she repeats the action. "She's getting a headache faster than an unwilling partner asked for sex."
Voxx swing his sword in a very wide arc cutting into everything on the way. He stops just in time to not cut into his companions who give him THAT look. Another bot is left as scrap metal and the recycling process for the next one has started.
The android continues to give Imagine joy.
The maintenance bot beats Voxx with a wet cloth. It's high tech and very painful, but still.
The bots with the computer hardware delivery come into sight beyond the force field.
"It's hard to get good help these days."
With Gorn smashing one bot, Maxim goes after the other, landing a solid hit.
Fully Photon Attuned.
Gorn smashes the last bot to pieces.
Maxim moves the short distance over to the other side of the room to attack the android, but she (or is it it? Or apache helicopter?) isn't as easy to hit as the janitor bots.
The android agrees to go into a melee clinch, but also has no luck.
Through the entrance another combatant joins the fight. A wannabe punk rock ysoki with a jetpack. She starts firing randomly at people.
I missed it with a crit?
Much to the surprise of everyone it becomes painfully clear - especially to the android - that Maxim has an extra stab up his sleeve. This makes her reconsidering punching that guy in the face. She decides to leave, using her jetpack (no Aoo). Flying through the force field, she meet swith the janitor bots that bring the new controller card.
With willing melee opponents suddenly in short supply, Voxx sheaths his sword and pull his scattergun out, shooting at the flying ysoki
Imagine follows the android as far as necessary to keep giving her headaches.
The android shakes off most of it.
With the bots blown to bits, Maxim focuses on kicking Android butts.
But biffs badly.
"Balls!
While Gorn ponders his options with no one in punching distance, the Ysoki fires around. The android dives for cover in the greens of the planet.
When the Android returns to earth Maxim rushes in for a swing.
(Haste Circuit for move + full attack)
Maxim runs through the force field to the great outdoors and through the shrubs he almost reaches the adroid. But the plants in his way that get to feel his wrath have to bleed.
Voxx runs after Maxim, trying to get to the android...
Voxx plows through the undergrowth towards the android, but doesn't reach her. But he manages to create a swathe, that the others will benefit of.
Gorn leaps into the air and grabs that annoying Ysoki at the leg, pulling him down. The android takes to the air again and dashes back to the building.
Maxim dashes back to the building in pursuit of the android.
Imagine shoots her last high level mind thrust at the cyborg as soon as she comes into range.
The android is hit by a short cramp and then flies on totally relaxed on a straight line and into the wall. There she is redirected and crashes into the floor where she mops a bit around, before the movement comes to a halt in a corner. With the jetpack still running at full thrust.
Seeing everything is lost the ysoki dashes - jet powered - out of the room towards the hangars.
Maxim takes a break after all the shooting stops. "Alright, let's get what we came here for and put an end to this."
"I guess that's those controller cards?" Imagine tells while checking the 'pusle' of the android.
The gear the android has is not really interesting to Imagine, but the typical bulge a credstick makes in a pocket catches her interest. A quick check makes her eyes go wide. "Our next visits to the bar are backed with a proper budget now. That cult is definitely not lacking funding."
With everything of worth and especially the controller cards taken, it goes back to controller moon one. There is no more resistance on the way to the Sledge Hammer. But in the hangar a problem arises. the door for the ship won't open.
Some cursing and hacking later, Maxim manages to overwrite everything that hinders the door to open. The ship of the cultists is still in the passage on the way outside. Going after them in close proximity, the crew fires everything, as soon as the rock cave hangar lies behind them. The enemy ship, lacking half the crew is no match for that and seconds later it drifts disabled through space.
As the group returns to Osteth, and show the controller boards, she guides them through the installation. With that done, Osteth starts the process of opening the entrance to the demiplane.
But that doesn't work as planned. "My friends, something is terribly wrong. Thanks to the gate’s advanced age, several microprocessors across the controller moons’ core facilities are failing. Unfortunately, I have already initiated the subroutine to open the demiplane. My calculations predict that unless something is done in the next few minutes, a catastrophic chain reaction will destabilize the system’s twelve cosmic strings and cause each and every one of the suns to be pulled into the center of the system. Such a collision would result in a massive supernova... and the Stellar Degenerator would remain safe within its demiplane!" The consoles around the room begin running a series of simulations at rapid speed, all of which end with flashing red screens—except for one. "Yes. I think I have it. If I split my consciousness across the twelve controller moons, my own programming could provide the necessary corrections for our plan to proceed. But I will not be able to pull myself back together. It will be the end of me. Permanently." Osteth nods. "This is the only choice. The rest will be up to you. You must promise to destroy the Stellar Degenerator, no matter what happens!"
Osteth's holographic form dissolves into lines of code and the consoles surrounding the PCs begin to glow blue. Several monitors begin showing views of the interior bores of the other controller moons. Traces of the same blue light limn the circuitry along the walls and the army of maintenance bots. A moment later, the building shakes and all the monitors switch to perspectives from the planetoid’s surfaces pointing toward the skies. In each, different angles of a colossal tear in space forming can be spotted in the distance. The fiery red of the planar gate contrasts with the inky blackness of space in a display that is both beautiful and awe-inspiring.
"Welcome at the gate of the twelve suns. Here have the weapon to end the universe. Don't do anything stupid." Imagine paraphrases what's happening. "How about a joyride?"
Maxim settles back into the captain's chair on the bridge of the Sledgehammer. He should have sprung for the deluxe seat with the cup holders and the ergonomic lumbar support with the heated massage. He regrets spending all that money on weapons systems now, since they will likely not be going toe to skeletal toe with the Omenbringer afterall.
"Well s*@#," he mutters, avoiding the broken spring jabbing his leg. "These cultists can cram it. Let's punch them in the teeth, wreck the doomsday device, and be home on Absolom before bar close. And if we only accomplish one of those things, I vote for the bar.
"Voxx, take us in."
"I'll start the pregame. You want your martini stirred or shaken?" Imagine asks on her way to the replicator.
Voxx pilots the Sledgehammer towards the giant red opening to the doomsday machine. Looking at the consoles, you can see readings about the phenomena. The circular opening to the Stellar Degenerator’s demiplane has a diameter of half a million miles and is currently stable. The massive vessel within has a conical shape and is mostly built from a material the you normally don't find in space ships - or anywhere else for that matter. Parts of it are encased in rock, as if it were built into an asteroid.
You recognise the stuff as being the same as the rock that the dwarven mining ship pulled out of the rift. The superweapon is over 100,000 feet long and has a mass of over 50,000 tons. It gives off a faint energy signature, not much more than a docked starship, and it has a small amount of its own gravity.
The Stellar Degenerator has no obvious docking bay or landing pads. Circling the rock you find the place where the part that appeared at Absalom Station is missing. To enter there, a space walk is necessary. Voxx steers the ship alongside as close as possible for Maxim and Imagine to hop over.
Once on the mega weapon through an open corridor it is like a deja vu. Like your mind fills the missing parts with what you explored back then. And with all the new knowledge gained, things start making sense.
The weapon is not of Kishaleen design. This becomes abundandly clear as you approach a closed door and it is labled in strange signs. As you recognize one of them - kishaleen - you can tell that someone put translations on the original design.
As you stand before it Ostreth transmits each of you a code. With that everything opens easily and you learn that almost all operations need two people to activate them. And the thing is huge. Luckily you find a device similar to an elevator that helps to bridge the vast distances on this thing.