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I would beg your indulgence for a brief delay in your escort to the ambassador. We are in the middle of ascertaining the fate of the crew of the Acreon as part of our duties to the Starfinders. We should be done momentarily, as the ship has just been secured. If you could give us a few moments more, we can be underway shortly.
The Eoxian nods, clearly comfortable with the Vesk's approach to the situation.
"Excellent soldier, see to it. At least someone here knows which end is their arse and which is their head."
Commander Eskolar locks eyes as she begins to put herself back into stasis. Clearly she's looking to see if anyone objects...
Janzi waits patiently until the Commander secures herself away, then looks askance at Dunklezahn. I had this covered, Dunk.
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Dunklezahn looks over at Janzi. We were in the wrong. Own up to your mistakes, learn from them, and don't repeat them. No sense digging ourselves a deeper hole by trying to lie our way out the one we were already in.
And my name isn't Dunk. None of you get to call me that yet.
Dunk then sits down for a minute and starts cleaning off his battlestaff and armor.
Hack-It mutters about being chastised for something that was, as he saw it, not his fault. "The thing practically popped open! I just wanted to know what we had, since the Ambassador saw fit to protect his little ship and take away an escape route from us at the first sign of trouble. So now we know what's going on. That's helpful."
The ysoki wanders off, still muttering but now to himself. "If anyone else cared about intel, my life would be so much easier..."
Speaking of intel.... the ysoki remembers that there was a fair amount of it in the ship's log...
A sudden smile spreads over Hack-It's face. He heads off to the bridge of this space station, sits himself back down, and begins looking through its logs and databanks.
Hack-It tries again to work his way through the security that remains, with the intent granting himself read permissions.
Hack-it finds that there's nothing left anyway for countermeasures... so he takes his sweet time brute forcing it. Eventually he gets a copy for himself.
Patting his custom rig, the hacker says, "Not my finest work, but it'll do. People are going to want to see that footage though..."
Gig watches and listens intently, trying to determine if this new ambassador will be a friend or foe.
Gig is oblivious during the entire exchange.
Booker opens the door to the goblin's makeshift prison. As soon as he opens the door he sees the goblin quickly shove something under the bed, "Here for treasure! Not here to be cat food. Thought it was going to be easy pickings. Instead everyone's guts are everywhere!"
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So to recap, the crew took on some geodes that turned out to be akata eggs. In addition to that, something came over from the drift rock, likely that larva-mouth thing we first encountered when we came on board. The crew was overwhelmed and retreated to the drift rock. As far as we know, they might be still there, dead or alive. We need to be sure either way.
We ready to do a little space walk?
Hack-It nods. "I've got the logs to corroborate that too if we don't find any bodies. Either way, mission accomplished."
About the goblin he adds, "And can someone make sure that thing doesn't steal anything? Nevermind, I'll do it."
When the party is done with the goblin, Hack-It punches commands into a console and makes sure to lock it in whatever room it's in.
Booker is happy to let the vesk be the one getting down to look under the bed. He keeps the laser pointed at the gobbo. "How did you get here?"
As Booker interrogates the goblin, Janzi focuses on it (detect thoughts).
Dunklesahn retrieves a few things while the goblin shouts at him for being a dirty little thief. Unfortunately, it's not much, about 100 UPBs of various things that are largely worthless on their own.
Zanzi detects next to nothing out of the goblin; burn, fart, stab, steal, repeat....
"We hid on the ship that towed this one. Then we jumped out the door and snuck aboard. Stupid stupid cat invested dumb ship."
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I say we load up our ship with everything we need before heading over to the rock. If we need to make a hasty exit for any reason, I'd like us ready to go and not have to come back for anything.
Dunklezahn will help move the crate, any ore we're taking, and whatever else onto our ship. Once done, he's ready to explore the rock.
Not one to leave a spare credit behind, Hack-It helps take anything of value over to the Hippocampus. "Do we have to take the goblin too? It can rot in that room for all I care, unless someone can think of a use for the wretch?"
Can't leave him behind — he knows who we are. He doesn't elaborate, but Janzi's mind is clearly made up.
"Damn. Ok, fine. Let's confine it in a small, empty room."
"Whadja you find in the crate?" Booker asks once Hack-it reseals the goblin's prison.
"You found WHAT?!" Booker is flabbergasted at the news of a Corpse Fleet admiral. "You mean one o' them f@@!ers that tried to shoot us down on the ride over here?" The soldier grinds his teeth in agitation. "That's it. I'm shoving that crate out the airlock. We never found any crate. Hack-It, kill the vids, wouldja?"
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Dunklezahn steps in front of the crate, battlestaff in hand.
What attacked us was a Necroglider. We don't know who was piloting it, and we don't know who hired or ordered it to attack us. Keep your $h!t together, Booker, and stop jumping to conclusions. There's nothing connecting that ship to the ambassador or this officer. If you're still inclined to space the crate, you'll have to go through me to do it.
"Don't think I wouldn't," Booker spits. "Only Eoxians use necrogliders. ONLY. EOXIANS. Meaning," the soldier snarls with growing acerbity, "that either your friend the Ambassador's government or your friend the Corpse Fleet cuckoo sent it. Take yer pick. Don't be an idiot. There's reasons why the Corpse Fleet's outlawed throughout the Pact Worlds."
This whole thing is smelly. I don't like any of these parties. But someone out there knows that the Fleet Admiral is the package, and if we show up without that package then... Finger's going to point at us. We'll have some serious heat, I bet. If we can figure out what the game is though, maybe we can one up them?" Hack-It, for his part, actually tries to stand between them. "Think, guys. What's the angle here?"
Janzi has been only half paying attention to the conflict, but Hack-It's words stir something in the lashunta. The rat has a point, he pipes up. Why would Ambassador Nor be interested in a crate that contains Commander Eskolar? We were specifically told not to open it, which suggests he knew what — or rather, who — was inside.
Janzi is silent a heartbeat, then continues. He needs her without anyone in the Pact Worlds knowing, so he sent us. He looks pointedly at his companions. Cos we're expendable.
”I think if we were supposed to bring that ambassador back in an unopened box that is now open, we could get in serious trouble and even lose our jobs as Starfinders! Did you guys realize that this was the package we were not supposed to open?”
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Well, Gig, maybe you should have thought of that before you and Hack-It went snooping around the crate to begin with and got us into this mess.
And, so what if Eoxians are the only ones to fly Necroglider? The ambassador wants us to retrieve the crate. He's not going to then try to kill us on the way to do that. He'd wait until he has the package. He's not my friend. He's our employer. She's not my friend. She's the cargo we were hired to deliver. You're being the idiot here, Booker. You don't know $h!t. So stop acting like you just solved the mystery of where Absolom went and start acting like a professional and do your job.
Janzi, of course, we're expendable. You're surprised? Every soldier is expendable in the eyes of those in charge. We're a means to an end. That's why it's important we watch each other's back and make sure each of us makes it through to the end.
Now, I just met you jerks. I don't know any of you any better than I know that goblin in the hold. The Starfinders say you're my squad. Fine. While we're working the job, I'll do my best to make sure we all make it to pay day. I'm even starting to like some of you. You've all shown that your capable at what you do. But I'm going to do the job I was hired to do and I'm not going to compromise the job on hunches.
We have questions? Ask the ambassador when WE DELIVER THE CRATE. Now let's store the crate on the Hippocampus and go rescue that crew.
That ship has already left the station, Janzi says to Hack-it. And I'm really thinking that losing a job is the least of our worries. Or is death okay with you?
Booker's scowl deepens. "Who do think they're gonna look at when they find out a Corpse Fleet whackjob got brought into Pact space? Is this job worth rottin' in a prison for twenty cycles?" He swivels to jab the finger not holding a trigger at the two ysoki. "And don't think this ain't your fault. YOU decided to stick your rat noses where they don't belong."
The veteran heaves his artillery weapon onto his shoulder. "You want to do shitty an' illegal things, you do shitty an' illegal things. I never saw no skeleton in that crate. You can carry the damn thing aboard if ya want, I ain't helping. And I'm leaving as soon as the engine is warm."
He heads directly to the pilot's chair and fires up the Hippo.
What do you mean, you never saw what was in the crate? It was right ther— oh. Janzi, finally understanding, lends a hand to the crate. Dunk's right, this was the job. Let's finish the job while try and save our own skins as we go along.
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Dunklezahn moves the crate, by himself if he has to, onto the Hippocampus.
As he turns to leave, he shouts over to Booker, You can sit and sulk all you want, Booker, but if you leave before we get back from checking out the Dead Rock, I'm gonna come hunting for you. Be sure of that.
Dunklezahn then moves to the airlock, checks his gear and armor, then exits the ship, with whoever is willing to come, to investigate the Dead Rock for the missing crew.
The party loads the crate onto the Hippocampus and prepares to head to the rock itself, hopefully to find out the ultimate fate of the crew...
The Drift Rock seems to be nothing more than a small, nondescript asteroid. Scans show that the asteroid has no atmosphere and NO GRAVITY and is primarily composed of rock and metal. Strangely, the sensors can pick up no additional information, as if the Drift Rock itself is interfering with the sensor readings...
You notice one unusual feature: one side of the Drift Rock seems to have been sheared cleanly off, as if it was once part of a larger planetoid or celestial body.
"I'm surrounded by a bunch of horses who prefer their blinders on," Hack-It mutters, tossing his hands in the air. Nevertheless, he gets admiral and the crate onboard.
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Hack-It curses at the lack of sensory data. "Get ready for some zero G, folks."
"You ain't the first tough-guy to threaten me, lizard. The rest o' them are dead. Keep an eye on yer forked tongue." He suddenly laughs at the mental image of the vesk attempting to actually look at his own tongue. "As fer suggestions, I suggest you crawl yer way out o' yer own ass. Now let's do this thing, we got crew to find."
"There's a cave entrance, over by that rocky overhang." Hack-It points to the area in question. "I say start there.
Sputter makes some beeping noises. "Yeah, I know. Any of you find it interesting that one side of the Drift Rock seems to have been cleanly sheared off. Like by a giant laser or something?"
Booker looks at his huge gun. "I didn't do it."
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There you go again, Booker, opening that yap of yours. Look, you racist piece of crap. I hear you call me or any of the others by anything other than our names, we're going to have a major problem. And you insult me like that again, we're going to have a major problem. We're supposed to be a team and you respect the guys watching your back. Get your act together and start acting like a professional.
Dunklezahn shoulders his battlestaff and follows after R1G5 into the cave.
A dead humanoid body floats in this cavern. If you were hoping for good news about the crew, this isn't it.
The corpse is that of a human male. It’s still wearing an estex suit with a patch that reads “ACREON,” identifying it as a member of the mining ship’s crew.
You know that the man was not infected with the akatas’ void death.
Didn't die from the blue thingies, Janzi says after inspection.
"No? Then from what?" Hack-It pulls out his semi-auto pistol, immediately jumpy.
Booker chuckles at the big alien. "We already got problems, vesk," he points at the floating body rotating in the flood of headlamps. "Nagging like an old woman ain't gonna help you none. I'm old enough to remember when my kind was killing your kind because your kind couldn't leave well enough alone. So cut the crap, Mr. Professional, before you trip over yer 'moral high ground.'"
He looks carefully at the corpse. "Prob'ly killed by whatever 'something else' attacked the Acreon after the akatas. Keep an eye out."