"Its a shame the guardian had to fight us. It was nice to face somebody polite for a change. But now that he is dead, do you think that maybe we should keep his weapon? I mean, I'm not sure that he is going to be using it now that he is dead. I bet that we could get something for it."
"What a stupid idiot," Hack-It says, kicking dirt at the dead elf. "You think you're so righteous, with your dumb, inflexible code. Well fat lot of good it did you. Instead it make you pick a fight you couldn't win with people who didn't want to fight you. And that same code prevented you from actually keeping out the bad guys!"
The ysoki walks away from the dead elf, muttering. Sputter follows behind him, almost seeming concerned for it's maker.
"What a stupid idiot," Hack-It says, kicking dirt at the dead elf. "You think you're so righteous, with your dumb, inflexible code. Well fat lot of good it did you. Instead it make you pick a fight you couldn't win with people who didn't want to fight you. And that same code prevented you from actually keeping out the bad guys!"
The ysoki walks away from the dead elf, muttering. Sputter follows behind him, almost seeming concerned for it's maker.
Booker rifles through his gear as Gig suggests the same. His armor is ancient elven battle armor (archaic). The only item of note is the least gluon crystal he had.
Janzi looks at the fallen elf, genuine sadness on his face. I haven't regretted killing a damned thing on this "paradise" of a hellhole planet, until now. With a sigh, he trudges toward the building, completely ignoring any valuables on the body. Just leave it. Let's get this over with.
R1G5 skulks around, finding nothing and eventually focusing on the door. Thanks to sophisticated preservative varnishes and the extensive metalwork crisscrossing them, the ornately carved wooden doors leading into the temple have just barely survived the ages intact. Finding nothing, the android opens it.
From its floor to its curved ceiling thirty feet above, this entry hall is covered in sweeping arcs of constellations marked with delicate lines and numbers at regular intervals.
With Tahomen defeated, you can inspect the comm unit his team carried here. The system is massive, only capable of being moved by several strong people once it’s been broken into smaller components. Even with the comm unit disassembled, you can boot up the system’s computer and access its unsecured communications log. Tahomen has dutifully purged his correspondence history leading up to this expedition, but you can still determine that the comm unit logged a call and significant data upload about 3 hours earlier.
Two duo also hacked the comm unit’s tier-2 computer. With has access to the system, you read Tahomen’s recent communications. The correspondence relays many of the same conclusions you learned in the temple, but with more sinister certainty: Tahomen posits that the 12-star constellation—the Gate of Twelve Suns—opens to a demiplane that hides an unspeakably powerful superweapon. The cult leader believed that the Drift Rock is a tiny fragment of this “Stellar Degenerator,” broken off when a portion of the demiplane was torn away and added to the Drift as a result of Drift travel. Tahomen also recommended that the Cult of Devourer apply as many resources as possible to find the Gate of Twelve Suns—and the Stellar Degenerator— before anyone else does. In addition, you learned the approximate coordinates of the location Tahomen transmitted his messages to: a stretch of several hundred asteroids in the Diaspora.
Finally, you managed to hack into the financial fund he'd been using to finance the operation. There are 2,000 credits in the account.
Having thwarted Tahomen and his Devourer cult, you can continue exploring the Temple of the Twelve as much as you like with the rescued Professor Solstarni. However, the troubling implication that the Gate of Twelve Suns might provide access to a weapon of almost unimaginable power like a Stellar Degenerator—not to mention the fact that the Cult of the Devourer is keen on the weapon and is actively looking for it- still remains.
Whether or not the Stellar Degenerator is real, the Cult of the Devourer could use this information as a rallying cry to attract more recruits to the cult and inflict greater atrocities in the name of their uncaring god.
Returning to Qabarat with Dr. Solstarni in tow, Professor Muhali is relieved to see her colleague in one piece, and university officials offer each of you admittance and free tuition to the school for up to 3 years in thanks for your service. Alternatively, you can choose to accept a “research grant” of 1,000 credits from the university in lieu of a scholarship.
Once back, the Professor FINALLY helps you with your original request, translation.
It takes some time (time enough for you to rest, relax, shop, practice, and learn.) But eventually, the good professor comes back with a rather dry result.
"This is utterly and completely fascinating," Solstarni excitedly explains. "I've been able to gather that the equipment in that room was designed to operate minor subsystems of some larger structure or device, though the control room was no longer connected to that structure. The exact nature of the missing structure remains a mystery, though references to systems such as “Backup Power Transmission,” “Maneuvering Thrusters,” and “Auxiliary Fire Control” hint that it may have been some sort of space-based weapon system. In addition, the data revealed that these systems and the control room itself were incredibly ancient—possibly even millions of years old. In fact, it appears that the Drift Rock really isn't just an asteroid that was repurposed as a control center, but that it was a part of the larger structure that was designed and artificially constructed at the same time as the machinery and controls here. And if all that is true, then the hypothesis of the superweapon might actually be more than simple conjecture."
With a breath she finishes, "This is literally universe altering news."
"We are so screwed."
"Best be gettin' our butts to the Diaspora, then," Booker states matter-of-factly. "Can't be lettin' nutjobs get ahold of a superweapon."
He considers Hack-It for a moment. "Well, not nuttier nutjobs, anyway."
He fires up his comm and sends a secure transmission to Chiskisk: [i]Got Drift Rock text translated. Not a rock. Part of an ancient superweapon ripped from demiplane. Cult of Devourer hunting for it. Giving chase. Objections?[/ooc]
The Starfinders worked over time:
Booker gets on the comm with Chiskisk.
Chiskisk impresses upon you the gravity of the situation. It's signature refined enthusiasm transforms into anxiety and near panic at the prospect of the Cult of the Devourer finding a weapon like the Stellar Degenerator, and with alarm, the shirren agrees to your plan of finding the cult’s base in the Diaspora so the Starfinder Society can determine just how much information the cult has and how its members might be planning to act on it. " if you can find the Gate of Twelve Suns and the Stellar Degenerator first, such a major discovery would be an achievement of historical proportions, for both you and the Starfinder Society." In any case, Chiskisk requests that you keep them regularly informed of your progress. Finally, given the situation’s dangerous nature, Chiskisk offers to reward you for your efforts. Chiskisk has arranged for a rendez-vous with a Starfinder ship with some upgrades. Funds are tight, but there are some liquid assets available. Hopefully the Society can send you credits upon your success.
Janzi looks at Hack-It. Are you planning a lot of special modifications to the Maiden yourself? he asks. Cos if you are, there's still time to find, I dunno, any other ship...
Stepping back aboard the Maiden for the first time in weeks, Booker dumps a huge pile of loot in the cargo bay. Surveying it all, he is of half a mind to take the whole thing to a junker.
Disintegrator Pistol
Available as pistols (small arms), rifles (longarms), and cannons (heavy weapons), these powerful weapons are often referred to by the more scientific term “high-energy proton decouplers,” as they produce streams of energized fields that corrode and break down matter much like subatomic acid would. However, since their effects appear to turn metal to slag, plastic to vapor, and flesh to goo, they’re commonly known as “disintegrators.” Devourer cultists particular revere disintegrators because the weapons slough away their enemies’ flesh. STATS HERE
While the rest of the crew is picking through the weapons, armors, and other gear, Booker piles all the credsticks together and sorts them. After some quick math, he wires 1040 credits to each crewman's account.
Seeing as they are about to go chasing a Cult across half the Pact Worlds, Booker places an order for a Signal Booster drift engine to be fitted on the Maiden. His pull with University resources is enough that he also gets an upgrade to the ship's computer and shield generator.
After giving his weapons a thorough cleaning, he steps into the galley and catches an enticing whiff of whatever the vesk is up to. Both ysoki and the lashunta are there, forks at the ready, while the android is assuredly in the HAC killing time with some vidgame. "You loafers about ready? Time to hit the Diaspora, I'm thinkin. Let's fire 'er up!"
The Sunrise Maiden sets a course for the Diaspora, with a quick rendez-vous with a Starfinder supply ship. Dunklezahn and a larder stocked to the brim with exotic food options from Castrovel, guarantee good food for the trip.
The trip stays quiet. Chiskisk sends not only supplies, but workers who quickly upgrade the ship and send you on your way.
Hack-it spends some time searching the sphere for information on the Diaspora. A vast asteroid belt, the Diaspora was formed when the twin planets Damiar and Iovo were destroyed by an unknown catastrophe millennia ago, long before even the Gap. The fractured remains of these two worlds spin lazily in their new orbits, and though there are more than a million celestial bodies with diameters greater than a mile within the Diaspora, all are spaced far enough apart that they rarely collide with one another. Most of these planetoids consist of formless chunks of rock or ice, though a few still hold traces of the civilizations of Damiar and Iovo. Some have just enough gravity – or technological assistance – to hold a thin atmosphere, while others are devoid of breathable gases. Dust and tiny pieces of stone and metal float between the asteroids, occasionally posing a threat to ships passing through at speed.
It's also the home of the mining collective you helped out, The Hardscrabble Collective.
When you return to regular space you arrive at the "Field of the Lost". A bleak sight greets you on the Maiden's screen: irregular chunks of rock and ice and occasional ominous fields of green and blue floating through an empty void, with a vast field of stars for a backdrop.
You notice a few peculiar blips on the starship’s instrument panels that indicate irregular movement in your vicinity—another ship lurks nearby!
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R1G5 slams another vidgame controller down as a pop-up appears on the game screen. A message pops in to everyone's comm unit.
"Just when I was getting the hang of this level!11!!1! Janzi, there's bogey up ahead! Can you talk with 'em? Everyone, let's be prepared in case we throw down. If we do, make it quick! Gotta get passed this level on Invaders from the Drift."
The ship is a dubbed The Rusty Rivet, and is a Nebulor Outfitters Starhopper.
This ship is affiliated with the Free Captains, a group of pirates who claim parts of the Diaspora as their own.
Those are Free Captains markings. Pirates. Ah well. Everyone in the Pact Worlds gonna die someday. Might as well be theirs.
Janzi pauses a moment, then opens the comm. Hi there, Free Captain ship Rusty Rivet! We come in peace!
Janzi shuts off the comm with a grimace. Well-armed peace, which will surely come in handy...
The response is a strong female voice in Common, "This is Alera Okwana of the Rusty Rivet. You came to the wrong place. you might be flying a ship as old as my grampa, but don't think for one second we won't blast you out of space. I think you're toast. Convince me otherwise."
I'm sure I don't know your grampa, Janzi says with patience, and I doubt he'd be happy with your disparaging remarks, but since I don't know him I don't suppose I'd be able to let him know anyway, so no harm done.
Why can't we be friends, though? Even if I don't know your grampa. He's probably a fine fellow. And the Sunrise Maiden is equipped with a meson cannon and a particle accelerator, besides. So I imagine you won't want to mess with that.
Gig takes his time off to crank the Sunrise Maiden's polyphonic stereo system. Jumping up and down air playing his favorite keyboard solo from Thrull Magnar's Live at the Odeon album, Booker interrupts him.
"Don't Starfinders ever get any downtime. This job really seems to require a large time committment!"
"Hey folks, I think we're dealing with pirates. Oh . . . you figured that out!"
"Yeah gramps. I'll take my chances." The comm cuts off abruptly.
Captain (Torin): Orders?
Science Officer (Hack-it): Action?
Engineer (Gig): Action?
Pilot (Booker): Piloting check. If you don't beat this roll, execute your turn:
Gunner 1 (Dunklezahn): TBD
Gunner 2 (R1G5): TBD
Science: None
"I knew I shoulda gagged him," Booker says, glancing over his shoulder at 'gramps.' "Let's rumble."
BOOM
Both ships give it their absolute best, but Booker is the better pilor by a wide margin. The Rusty Rivet pushes it
Captain (Torin): Orders?
Science Officer (Hack-it): Action?
Engineer (Gig): Action?
Pilot (Booker): Piloting check. Win
Gunner 1 (Dunklezahn): TBD
Gunner 2 (R1G5): TBD
PUSH IT!
Science: None
Divert +2 Speed
Gig jumps to his engineering station in a moment and continues his air keyboard solo onto a panel of dials and knobs.
Gig will Divert Power to the engines (to boost our speed by 2).
Hack-It will attempt to scan the pirate ship.
Janzi encourages Dunk's shooting. Shoot better!
"Whoa," Booker inadvertently mutters, surprised by the kick his engines give. "Alright then!"
Inspired by his own skill, Booker tries something daring right off the bat. SUCCESS
The Sunrise Maiden streaks straight for the Rivet, careens just under its pilot's nose, and executes a sharp button-hook to bring 'round the starboard torpedo launcher.
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As the Maiden shoots past the pirate, Dunklezahn lets a missile fly. Booker's expert flying brings the ship around and Dunklezahn is able to get his crosshairs dead center on the ship. He pulls the trigger back and can see the ammunition count down as a stream of bullets slam into the pirate ship.
Nice flying, Booker!
"Ha!" Booker barks a laugh. "Easy as pie. Not bad shootin' either!"
Hack-it scans their systems, quickly digging deep and coming up with a ton of detail: The Rusty Rivet is a medium explorer with 4 lifeforms aboard. It's got a speed of 10 with good maneuverability. It's got an AC and TL of 13. It's got 65 HP and Shields of 15 on all arcs. It's got a 150 PCU engine, with at least a light particle beam on the forward arc.
Booker's piloting is so much that R1G5 almost falls out of his seat, but Dunk is in his element, with Janzi encouraging him!
Dunk's missile slams into the shields and blow a chunk of hull. The flak thrower does a tonne more damage!
Captain (Torin): Orders?
Science Officer (Hack-it): Action?
Engineer (Gig): Action?
Pilot (Booker): Piloting check. If you don't beat this roll, execute your turn:
Gunner 1 (Dunklezahn): TBD
Gunner 2 (R1G5): TBD
Act as Science: FAIL
Science: None
FAIL
FAIL
16
Science officer & Pilot Glitching (-2)
Janzi hops back online. There's more where that came from, he says matter-of-factly. Your call.
"Listen, mate," Booker broadcasts to the other ship, "I can tell your pilot's tryin' his best. But he's just gonna get outclassed."
The light laser cannon strikes the Sunrise Maiden for
Booker barely feels the lanced laser. He checks the shields and sees that they have barely been dented. "Bit off more 'an they can chew. Idiots."
He swings the ship around behind the pirate vessel, clipping into view of its port gun and giving the gunners another run with the big missile launcher.
for +2 AC/TL for this round