Still feeling a little sick, Chaali's attempt at striking the drone fails.
The drone easily dodged Chaali's energy sword attack, and retaliated by firing a polymer net at the Vukii...
... and entangling the templar in the strong net. (Spoiler=Chaali)Chaali, you are Entangled in a polymer mesh net. DC 27 Strength to break, or deal 10 damage with your energy sword.
As Fraejia maneuvered past the drone, she let her guard down, resulting in being caught unawares as the drone moved, nearly slamming into her.
She easily dodged the hovering robot and was able to position herself behind the drone, giving her an unimpeded strike against it. Her claws sliced into the drone, cutting through it's armor like paper. Even as the drone took the damage, it could be seen that it lived up to it's purpose and was slowly repairing itself.
Struggling against the net now ensnaring him, Chaali tries to slash it with his energy sword. "Frell," he says in frustration.
Successfully free from the binds, Chaali stretches and growls: HHHHRRRRAAAA!
Xim stays focused on the robot, and shifts so that someone else can take the flank with Fraejia. He is ready to react if he is attacked and takes tactical command,saying "Terz and Kunga, Fraejia gave us a chance. If we are all on opposite sides it can't target us all at once... We are going to have to work together to take this thing down. Everyone, aim for the joints! Joints are harder to repair. death of a thousand cuts...Together WE CAN DO IT!!"
Kunga moved through the door and tried to position himself opposite Fraejia so that they could divide the drone's attention between them. When he was in position, he fired a quick burst from his freeze ray.
+2 more to attack for flanking if applicable
Emboldened by her success and her allies hemming the drone in, Fraejia drops her pistol and use both claws this time in the hopes of ripping the thing apart.
Terz moves to a spot where he can hack the droid.
Inspired by Xim's courage-inspiring speech, Kunga focuses and takes aim with his zero pistol, intent on stopping the drone before it causes his companions more harm. As he fires, time seems to slow down for everyone as the bolt of cold energy effortlessly pierced the metallic shell of the repair drone. The energy froze all of the key internal electronics and servos, shorting out the repulsor engine of the drone and dropping it to the floor. All of the lights and sensors slowly faded as it lay crumpled on the floor.
With both threats neutralized, the group now had time to recuperate and catch their breaths for a few minutes.
Trailing her fingers along Kunga's arm briefly, "Nicely done Kunga." Fraejia then picks up the remains of the drone and and stores them in her pack, "This might be useful someday." She then proceeds to check the room.
Terz stows his axes and picks up the rifle again looks it over. "We need to keep moving. Hopefully we can find access tunnels to the dock."
"I am under onus to you, Fraejia, for the compliment, but I am under even greater onus to Xim for the inspiring words he spoke. I have not heard such a fine speech since Sartok the Beguiler convinced my tribe to wear our underpants on our heads. Now that our path is clear, let us do as Terz suggests and make our way to the docks." He was ready to lead the way forward once everyone had caught their breath.
another +1 to avoid surprise
A thorough search of the corpse reveals a masterwork workbelt (with two rolls of ion tape, a pair of grippers, a white access card, and a zipstick. In a pocket you find a credchip with 453 credits. The heavy wrench is bulky enough to be used as a heavy mace (same stats).
As the drone is far too heavy, and conspicuous, to remove as a whole.
Little else can be found in the room. The door to the left remains open, but the other two are still closed.
On the door opposite of the hub sits a sign bordered in yellow and black stripes. No door handle is present, but an access card reader can be found next to the door. Unfortunately, it appears to be out of power.
The door to the right is unmarked, and is actually slightly opened.
"If someone wants to try it, the drones skillchip can likely be removed, might be worth something or of use someday." Giving up on trying to pack the drone away, Fraejia goes to check the door. Looking over the door and card slot, Fraejia tries to find a way to power it up again.
"Skill chip eh? One can never have to many skills." Xim pulls of the cowling and attempts to remove the skill chip from the drone. If no one else takes the loot from the mechanic, Xim will.
"Pjolak the Multitasker would disagree with you, Xim, if having an overabundance of skills had not led to his early demise. That is a tale we must save for another time, however. First let us escape this wretched prison. Does anyone have a spare power pack we can use to open the doors? I have just one left," said Kunga, pointing to the pack powering his zero pistol.
Frowning slightly then giving a sigh, "We can use mine, I don't really need the pistol anyway." With that, she takes the pack from her pistol, re-holsters it, and connects the pack to power the door.
"Before we gradually disarm ourselves, let's check out that open door. We are in a maintenence bay. We should be able to find some power somewhere.." Xim strides to the partially open door and peers in. Gun and sword at the ready.
"That will leave you defenseless, will it not?" said Kunga, holding his semi-automatic pistol by the barrel and offering the grip to Fraejia. "Take my pistol if you need a gun."
Putting the pack back in her gun, she re-holsters it again and moves towards the aforementioned door. As she passes Kunga, she looks at the weapon he offered her. She cups his cheeck with one hand and he can feel her fingers lengthen with ice and become unbelievable sharp, "I am never unarmed so long as I live." She leans in and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek that feels like an ice cube caressing him and lets go, continuing to the door.
Kunga shivered at Fraejia's frosty caress and icy kiss. She is some lady! he thought as he followed her to the open door.
another +1 to avoid being surprised
Noticing the displays of affection between Fraeija and Kunga, Chaali closes his eyes, recalling his first kiss, many years ago. Then, he realizes he hasn't seen any attractive Vukii in his recent travels. Shaking his head to clear the thoughts of reminiscence, he calls dibs on the zipstick and ion tape. "One can never have too many of these handy things!"
"This place seems safe, but we must hurry to find a way out."
Kunga fell back a step. He was intimidated at the prospect of initiating a mating ritual with Fraejia. A woman like that was likely to chew him up and spit him out, or chew him up and use the nutrients to provide for their offspring. Either way, he was determined to resist her feminine wiles. He took a moment to take another look around the room. If the credchip or the white access card were still unclaimed, he would pick them up and put them in his pocket before proceeding into the next room.
Looking through the open door Xim says, "Fraejia, You probably want the grippers, Yes? If not, be a dear and grab them anyway. Tools are probably our best asset in an escape attempt... speaking of, how does the powercell of the repair droid look? does that have power to jump the card reader?"
"A good idea Xim." She picks up the grippers and hooks them to her pack.
The maintenance room was surprisingly immaculate, considering the state of the rest of the floor that you had experienced. The room was roughly 30 feet to a wall, with workbenches and computer consoles lining one wall and six personnel storage lockers lining the opposite. Unlike most things on this floor, the electronic locks on the lockers were self-powered and in working condition.
On the workbenches, various tools necessary for the maintenance of the floor could be found, including:
- Two pair of grippers
- a flashlight
- a box of six commsets all linked to each other
- a chemalyzer
- two black e-picks
- a radiation detector
- six small batteries
- a zipstick
- and three rolls of ion tape
A first aid kit and a fire extinguisher could be found next to the entrance. Inside the first aid kit, you find:
- two Grade I hemochem injectors
- one cureall injector
- one cardioamp injector
- two brown nanite hypoguns
- a trauma pack
- and a Mark I skillchip (Heal)
None of the computer consoles have any power supplied to them, much like everything else on this floor.
A small tablet computer is on the floor under one of the computer consoles. It is still working, and it has a log of recent events entered in it in Deruteian.
The last Logfile was dated two months ago.
The power cell from the droid was barely working, but it does seem to have enough power left to activate the card reader.
Kunga took a headset and put it on. He handed another headset to Chaali and made sure both were switched on. "Testing. Chaali, can you hear me?"
He left the rest of the new-found supplies for the other escapees, except for the ion tape and the zipstick, which he quickly stuffed into his backpack. You can never have too much ion tape.
Also picking up a headset as well as the e-pics, radiation detector, and the small tablet computer. "I will leave the flashlight and batteries for someone who needs them. Does anyone have the skill to use the first aid kit?" She puts the headset on and activates it, 'Can you hear me?'
"You are coming through good and loud." said Kunga, who was standing next to Fraejia at the time.
"Well,"Chaali says to Fraejia, "I do know how to use a healing kit. They don't call me Doctor Thaalosso for nothing!"
He chuckles, then studies the log entries from the tablet computer. "Fascinating..."
Terz looks over Chaali's shoulder at the tablet. "They are testing some cyborg creature. Lets not open any doors labeled science lab."
"We just killed a cyborg creature," offered Kunga. "Perhaps that is what they were referring to. Let us be careful and do as you say in case there are more of them. What else does the writing say, Terz? I cannot read this language."
When he finally gets a chance, Xim translates the document as well as he can. As he translates he muses aloud, "Humn. My guess is that the author of this chronicle is the cyborg mechanic we just dispatched... This text lays out that they got locked in this facility when something got out of the science labs. It says.. bio-mechanical creature, interesting, because as far as I know, we were in the science labs, and we saw nothing. Perhaps it was a different lab.
Then when they tried to escape up the shaft in the Power junction, that door that we are thinking of opening. Good news is that it leads to the docking bay for sure. Bad news is that when they opened it, a gas was released that killed first the woman, then transformed the mechanic into something risen. Based on that, she may have been transformed too.
If my guess is correct it transformed him into that creature... and it may be doing the same to us even now. Doctor Thaalosso, do you think you could use the chemalyzer in that medkit to identify what that gas is?" He puts the tablet down, "And it may also mean that even if this station is abandoned, there is at least one or two more creatures in here with us."
Before moving on, Lazarus takes a comset. He gathers up all the tools in one place and tries to find a bag to put it all in. Maybe in one of the personal lockers.
Terz looks again and his eyes go wide. "Oh yeah the gas. . . guess that's important."
The lockers are all locked, requiring a code entered via a small console on each locker.
- A filter mask
- a battery pack (for the filter mask)
- a tool belt
- a pair of grippers
- one roll of ion tape
- a zipstick
Going to the lockers, Fraejia begins trying to pick the locks on them to see what is inside.
Looking into the lockers that Fraejia had just opened, Kunga grew very excited. "More ion tape!" He did a happy dance, then stuffed his backpack with even more ion tape and zipsticks. He took a mask and a battery pack for himself saying, "This should help with the poison gas."
"Perhaps Kunga, good to take I'm sure." Lazarus takes a mask, batteries and one roll of ion tape and a zip stick for his utility belt. "I'm just afraid that we are already infected. I shall see if the Doctor needs any help identifying the gas. "
"I shall call upon you if I require assistance,"says Chaali. Holding the chemalyzer, he tries to detect poison in the air. Beep, Beep "Ah, the good old days with the bleeps, the sweeps and the creeps!"
Chaali held up the chemalyzer's probe to each of his companions, and each one ended in the same result. Some form of contagion, unknown to the chemalyzer's vast knowledge banks, had indeed infected everyone. The chemalyzer detected small traces of it in everyone, but given the condition of the mechanic recently fought, even the smallest amount of exposure could result in an unfortunate end.
Before the implications could sink in, the intercom flared to life with maniacal laughter and a voice all-too-familiar to each of you.
"I see you have discovered my... handiwork. I do hope you are enjoying my little game here. To make things more interesting, I offer you this little tidbit of information. Consider it a gift... The cure for your little... infection... is deep inside the the Science Lab on your level. I have unlocked the door for you as well. You can escape if you wish... I certainly won't stop you... but be aware that there is no other cure for what you have... and it IS 100% fatal, I assure you, and it is also 100% contagious! Oh, and do say hello to my other creations while you are in there. They have been lonely these past few months."
Xim freezes at the sound of his creator's voice. "Why? Why are you doing this to us?"he gibbers. Lazarus starts turning in circles irrationally, in case something is coming from behind them, or from the ducts... or from behind the desk. "WHY!?!?!"