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Venture-Captain Arvin stands before a hologram of a planet that appears to have been ravaged by some disaster; there is very little water and no obvious greenery. “Greetings, Starfinders,” he says, without turning. “You are looking at Elytrio, a newly charted planet in the Vast. While you might dismiss it as a lifeless rock at first glance, it still has mysteries to plumb. The starship that discovered it was attacked by some kind of orbital defense system when it got too close; the vessel didn’t have the firepower to respond, so the crew made a prudent retreat. But we Starfinders don’t let these sorts of things go.” He pauses before continuing. “I’d like you to take a starship, travel to Elytrio, and discover all you can about it. If you find any inhabitants on the planet, do everything in your power to make peaceful contact with them. If the place is deserted, try to locate information about who might have built those defenses. Once you’ve got something interesting, report back to me here at the Lorespire Complex. Any questions?”
"Initial scans were too brief to get too many details. The other Starfinders did report trace amounts of radiation in the atmosphere, so there is a distinct possibility the planet’s current appearance is not entirely natural - meaning life. There was only a single satellite in our only encounter. I know that isn't a lot of specific information, but it's all we have.”
"We don't have anything of not on record Noble-44. Good, now get out there. Stay Safe. Let's learn some stuff."
With that, the Venture-captain calls down to the shuttle bay to alert them.
He mutes it briefly to look back, "Which ship do you want, The Drake or the Pegasus?"
Raia looks about, her antennae twitching to and fro as she tries to avoid reading the surface thoughts of everyone in the room, and finally relaxes a bit when she gets to BUD-33, who has zero surface thoughts to read. Are we shooting only to defnd ourselves? she asks Arvin, or to gfind out how capable the defense system is?
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"I can captain the ship," Gideon intones. "But steering is not my strong suit." He glances at Noble-44. "You look like you might have the aptitude."
"Firepower is my preference, given the known defensive systems. A subsequent expedition can further our initial assessment... once those systems are offline."
The Starfinder team settles into the Drake and prepares to take off.
Captain: Gideon
Pilot: Noble-44
Science: TBD
Engineering: TBD
Gunner 1: TBD
Gunner 2 TBD
From the Discussion thread, with additions:
Raia is +7 in Engineering and +9 in Computers. She can do either Science or Engineering pretty well.
Spacey's mystic is +5 in Diplomacy and +2 in Piloting. His Diplo is 2 lower than Gideon's, but Gideon is probably a better gunner.
Captain: Spacey
Pilot: Noble-44
Science: Raia
Engineering: TBD
Gunner 1: Gideon
Gunner 2 TBD
So where does BUD-33 go?
A small robotic drone intercepts you as you depart from your briefing. The floating drone projects a holoscreen in front of it. The source of the transmission is Fitch, the leader of the Wayfinders faction!
The drone projects a holoscreen with the image of a confused looking ysoki child, whose head is quickly pushed out of the screen by an older ysoki woman. “Fitch from the Wayfinders here. Sorry about Kirkath popping on the screen; kids always like the holoprojectors. Anyways, long and short, I hear you’ve been assigned to explore Elytrio. First contact is important. Need to make a good impression. Wayfinders specialize in this sort of thing, so I wanted to offer some help! The drone has a translation module strapped on its back. It’s not as reliable as some magical solutions you might have, but if you’re in a pinch for communicating, it might help!”
True to her word, there's a Tetrad certified translator
It takes days to make the journey through the Drift to Elytrio.
The trip is mostly uneventful, though you pass a ysoki salvage barge named Clutter Collector. The ship’s captain, a ysoki named Winks opens a communication link to talk to you, more out of boredom than anything else. She thanks you for any conversation you engage in before having to end the link an hour later as her ship moves out of range. After re-entering normal space, your vessel is less than a few hours’
travel from the destination.
As you approach Elytrio, your comms suddenly squawk to life, filled with a crackling robotic voice in an alien language. The tone of the message is strident...
You recognize it as a warning signal.
“Unknown vessel: turn back or be destroyed.”
Subsequent recurrences of the message stutter and distort like a corrupted audio file, eventually cutting off with a loud burst of static. Simultaneously, a hemispheric vessel—an orbital drone platform—comes into view from behind one of the planet’s moons. It approaches your starship, and while it has no visible weapons, it does emit a ring of red light from the edges of its flat bottom hull...
"It's a warning. Is now a good time to tell you that Captain Spacebolt never let me pilot the ship? He would just make me rub his shoulders while he did it."
I see, says Raia, nodding as she rubs her chin. And how did that make you feeeel?
Warning eh? I don't like that red eye looking thing. I thought this place was supposed to be empty?
Can we scan the drone to figure out if it has weapons and the like?
Noble-44 sets up the device, but unfortunately it only repeats the same phrase, not enough to work the translator...
Raia is distracted by BUD-33 on the couch and is only partially trying to scan.
The scan.... doesn't go well. The audio from the other ship turns frantic.
The platform is part of an automated system and is completely unoccupied.
Captain (Gideon): Orders?
Science Officer (Raia): Action?
Engineer (Raia): Action?
Pilot (Bud-33): Piloting check. If you don't beat this roll, execute your turn:
Gunner 1 (Noble-44): TBD
Gunner 2 (Spacey): TBD
It's an automated defense system! Raia says in realization. Totally unmanned!
Raia scans the alien ship and manages to get a couple of ratings. AC 14; TL 13; HP 70; Shields basic 40 (forward 10, port 10, starboard 10, aft 10)
Spacey's shot with the coil gun is a direct hit! Metal and composites fly off the hostile ship.
Gunnery
Gunner 1 (Noble-44): FIRE! (+2)
Gunner 2 (Spacey): Hit
Ship: 14
Noble locks on with the missile launcher and fires! It explodes on impact, leaving the ship quite damaged.... but not out yet.
Captain (Gideon): Orders?
Science Officer (Raia): Action?
Engineer (Raia): Action?
Pilot (Bud-33): Piloting check. If you don't beat this roll, execute your turn:
Gunner 1 (Noble-44): TBD
Gunner 2 (Spacey): TBD
Ship: 32
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"Captain Spacebolt called me his lucky charm, but he also made me go into rooms before him in case they were trapped or there was an ambush."
"You know, he wrote all those stories about him. I had to edit them, because he wrote at a 3rd grade level. A 3rd grader with no concept of spelling or punctuation."
BUD-33 brings the ship in closer, pointing it towards the two drone thingies.
[dice=Computers]1d20 + 9
I'm assuming that's a scan?
Another missile hit on the main ship! The damage is severe, and the hanger doors look mangled. It'll likely be a while before it can launch another drone.
Meanwhile the drone attacks the port flank of the Drake! for , severely weakening the port shields.
Captain (Gideon): Orders?
Science Officer (Raia): Action?
Engineer (Raia): Action?
Pilot (Bud-33):Piloting check. If you don't beat this roll, execute your turn:
Gunner 1 (Noble-44): TBD
Gunner 2 (Spacey): TBD
Ship: 47