Goodness, she's rather rude... Caloo thinks, eyeing the ysoki as he hops into the cab and waits for Blask's introductions.
Blask’s eyes go wide for a moment when the voice speaking matches that of his boss. He then see the pet Android and gives it an equally cold and calculating stare, much like usual.
For F*!# sake! It just had to be you?!
Everyone, my primary boss, Slivvy. And the Android doesn’t speak...I think. My boss here can be quite the cold, cunning BI*CH if you cross her. We have yet to find any of the others that crossed her in years past should that be any indication of threat or power level
He pauses for a moment, That about cover the basic monologue?, Blask asks with a close-lipped snark in his tone.
He takes a deep breath, collects his thoughts once more and glares at his boss. Even though he’s not stupid, he refuses to show fear.
So, how are you connected in all this bulls*it goin’ down? I know you ain’t the shot-caller cause I would have been dusted days ago? And I KNOW you ain’t here just to be a ‘nice- guy’ cause I’ve worked with you longer than a day. So, what’s your angle?
So, how are you connected in all this bulls*it goin’ down? I know you ain’t the shot-caller cause I would have been dusted days ago? And I KNOW you ain’t here just to be a ‘nice- guy’ cause I’ve worked with you longer than a day. So, what’s your angle?
Slivvy doesn't talk directly to Blask, instead turning to the android at her side. "Aw, look at the balls on our little lizard, T! Did you know that vesk could grow balls like that? Miracle of f***in' life, isn't it?"
When she turns back towards Blask and the rest of you, the light tone is gone. "I don't have the faintest idea what sh*t you've stepped in, Blask, and I don't give the faintest sh*t either. I'm here because my employee and my investment have both been missing for days, and I have product to ship. I kept an ear out on the underground networks, because I know you're a brute, but you're no idiot, so you're not going to get caught without a fight, but you still gotta get around. Going dark for days like that though - not bad work, with so many of you."
"So it's like this - just because you're off exploring your homicidal side doesn't mean my business ain't gotta work too. I need a pick-up tomorrow. I'll keep an eye on the comms, do what I can to keep you out of trouble - but I need a pilot tomorrow. You can bring your friends too if you'd like. But if my shipment isn't picked up... well, I'm sure the Peacemakers would be interested in my information on you. Does that make you feel like bein' a little more... agreeable?"
Nilan says Well. You've got us. What makes you think you'll keep us... his hand rests on his holster.
Blask snarls at Slivvy and her mechanical pet.
Heh, that’s the cold-hearted Ysoki I know so well. What the hell we grabbin this time? I know you ain’t gonna tell me sh*t for specifics, but any special gear we need?
As far as the rest of them, it’s their call. THEY aren’t employed by you Slivvy, Jink and I are. Usual terms of pay; half now and half after completion?
"Employed is a term he uses quite loosely." Jink mutters under his breath to Glitch
"Less talking and more driving please." Glitch demands, while checking the surroundings for any peacemakers or other unwelcome visitors.
"Yeah I should be free tomorrow... nothin' I can't move around, anyhow."
Nilan says Well. You've got us. What makes you think you'll keep us... his hand rests on his holster.
As Nilan touches his holster, the android draws a microfusion rifle and sets in in his lap, pointing it in Nilan's general direction - though with a weapon like that, direction isn't exactly a priority. Slivvy chimes in. "T is on very strict orders not to get plasma all over this nice cabbie's vehicle. Now I can rescind those orders whenever I damn well please, so let that dictate how 'got' you feel, hmm?" The ysoki flashes a charming grin at Nilan. "Template wanted to bring along his scattergun - he does love that thing - but I felt that you all were too smart to need that much deterrant." The android then also draws a snubnosed scattergun and holds it next to the plasma rifle. "Oh! Look at that - naughty bodyguard brought the scattergun anyways. So if you want to make a f***ing move, we can choose whether to slag you or perforate you. Thoughtful guy." She pats the android on the face - the android keeps staring malevolently at Nilan.
Heh, that’s the cold-hearted Ysoki I know so well. What the hell we grabbin this time? I know you ain’t gonna tell me sh*t for specifics, but any special gear we need?
"Standard fare - bring the delivery to the ship out of orbit, bring their materials back, don't open any of the boxes. Nothing f*cks up the abysium like blowing up in some curious idiots' face."
As far as the rest of them, it’s their call. THEY aren’t employed by you Slivvy, Jink and I are. Usual terms of pay; half now and half after completion?
"Yeah I should be free tomorrow... nothin' I can't move around, anyhow."
Slivvy smiles again. "Well, looks like your friends like credits as much as you do - musta been some real money in that pretty little Aspis girl's death, huh? You get half when you show up to the ship tomorrow, half when I get my materials."
"Less talking and more driving please." Glitch demands, while checking the surroundings for any peacemakers or other unwelcome visitors.
Slivvy smiles at the other ysoki. "Aw, pet - don't get your tail in a knot, we've got a good driver up front there. Ain't that right, Jitran?" She leans forward, lowering her voice. "Some kinda ooze thing, came to us from off-planet. Don't go in for a handshake unless you've packed a towel, but it drives like it's got more arms than a xill."
Nilan decides discretion is the better part of valor. He scowls at the two criminals, but then moves his hand off the holster.
I'll pilot the thing. What are we taking up there?
"Well, looks like your friends like credits as much as you do - musta been some real money in that pretty little Aspis girl's death, huh? You get half when you show up to the ship tomorrow, half when I get my materials."
"Not that I don't have a need for credits, but we had nothing to do with the lady's death. We're being framed!"
"I won't mind helping out Blask and Jink for a share of the payout, though."
"No you won't." Jink says looking at Nilan. He is a lot more forceful than usual, what Nilan said has obviously gotten under Jink's skin.
"Have fun with your business. You'll find me at our target point. I'll call myself a cab that actually works." Glitch tells while getting off the ride.
Slivvy smiles again. "Well, looks like your friends like credits as much as you do - musta been some real money in that pretty little Aspis girl's death, huh? You get half when you show up to the ship tomorrow, half when I get my materials."
"Yeah, I never even heard of that Aspis chick until they said we killed her."
"Not that it matters on this dung heap of a planet. So... just how much is 'half,' anyway?"
"Have fun with your business. You'll find me at our target point. I'll call myself a cab that actually works." Glitch tells while getting off the ride.
"No need, handsome - we're at my stop anyways." Slivvy taps the partition and the vehicle glides to a halt. "You'll be in our deliveries ship - Blask and my rat here can tell you about it - and no thoughts of 'oh boy suddenly we have a ship' or you'll find that there's worse groups than the Peacemakers gunning for your asses." The ysoki slides out of the transport, and the android reholsters his weapons and follows suit. "Tomorrow. 800 hours. Don't be late," the ysoki calls through the closing hatch.
The partition opens up, revealing a humanoid-sized amoeba sitting behind the wheel. "Sorry about the priority drop-off there, valued customers - your fare has been refunded as an apology, and awaaay we go!" The thing is annoyingly cheerful.
Sure... Nilan says when Jink gets all weird
As they step off the transport he tells the others
Well, we've stepped in it now haven't we?
"If you mean that we stepped in a fresh steaming turd, then yes. I agree." Glitch tells.
Interestingly enough, despite the feeling that you're in some deep s**t, as you step out of the hovercab you can't help but think that this is definitely the cleanest part of the city you've been in so far.
In fact, it seem so clean because it doesn't appear to be inhabited yet. You're standing in a whole block of prefab apartments, rather similar to the block that Shurami lived on, but here there's no additions or graffiti or trash yet - just the unadulterated units.
As Glitch takes a look at the coordinates, it appears that the building on the corner is the location - and the signal is coming from about 400 feet below you.
Glitch scans the area for an elevator or some stairs or signs reading Down to hell.
Welp. Best to just push on. Wait for our moment... Nilan taps his sidearm to illustrate the point.
Nilan heads for the building in question
"Underground, eh? 400 feet down sounds like a long way... too far down to be a part of these buildings. Why would they dig so deep? Has to be one of those tunnels like the other one we found."
The party fans out and begins checking out the first floor for a way down. Elevators indicate that you're on the ground floor... and no "basement" or "maintenance" or any sort of below-ground indicators in the elevators. These were either built at ground-level, or dropped straight down, orbital deployment style.
There's a few ground-level apartments that you wander through, but the only room that has any furnishings seems to be some sort of rental office. There's a bunch of posters showing the joys of living in an Aspis rental - a vesk using the fitness room, a squad of young ysoki in a game room, a kasatha in the kitchen - as well as a desk with a locked computer and a few filing cabinets (also all empty).
"If someone were here, we could rent a new home." Glitch tells. "No annoying neighbors yet..."
"Hmm...either whatever is underground is totally disconnected from this, or they've done a decent job of hiding it. Maybe we can find something on that computer, if we can get it unlocked."
Caloo rolls over to the locked computer and gives it a shot.
Caloo gets into the computer no problem, and with a little bit of digging is able to find that this computer has some saved scripts in a nest of otherwise empty folders - and running them opens a command terminal and runs a output command to -
With a CLANG! a trap door underneath the desk drops open - must have just been held by an electromagnetic lock - and there's suddenly a dark shaft descending down. As you watch, running lights flicker on, revealing a ladder heading down as far as any of you can see.
Looks fun. Nilan quips as he begins descending down the ladder.
Glitch checks on the script and the mechanics of the trap door to see if it will stay open or if it will trap them in the dark.
"Good thinking, Glitch." Caloo makes a point of memorizing the trap door's location in relation to the other objects in the room, in case they need to find it again and can't open it the same way...
The door has no shutting mechanism - literally just a low-tech trap door with an electromagnet to keep it closed - but with a snip of a wire or two, Glitch ensures that the door will stay open.
The shaft descends down 400 feet, and everyone is feeling the oppressive claustrophobia by the time you reach the bottom. A few feet down, wires comes out of the ground and are cabled behind the ladder down the shaft - apparently someone needed electricity down below as well.
Affter what feels like hours but in reality was simply just a few harrowing minutes, you arrive in a concrete bunker-style shaft, only a few feet long, that then opens into a massive cavern. Directly outside the shaft, a little island of light against the massive darkness of the cavern - it almost looks like a surreal parody of an office, with a trio of desks set up and construction lights centered on the the desks. It makes a discombobulating juxtaposition - these tidy little office set up on sand and rock, with nothing but darkness beyond.
On each desk sits a computer terminal, all wired into cables that have followed you down the shaft.
Caloo activates the flashlight built into his comm unit , then casts psychokinetic hand to lift it and begin moving it in a circle around them to get an idea of what is in the immediate darkness.
Glitch closes the application, and locks the computer. He goes in last and closes the trap door to hide their intrusion.
Arriving at the cavern office he looks around and decides to redirect the lighting. He turns the construction light to point outside to get the cavern lit up.
Caloo and Glitch work to shed some light on the situation. The cave goes on beyond the range of either the flashlight or even the construction lights - though turning the construction lights reveals what seem to be stalagmites off about 100 feet away, though it's difficult to be sure, as that's just on the edge of the dim light.
Glitch doesn't percept anything except the slow, continuous drip... drip... of water off in the distance.
"Does Kitty have night-time sensors?" Jink asks Glitch
"No." Glitch replies.
He takes a closer look at the computers.
"How about a torch?" Jink asks, obviously not comfortable with the expanse of the cave.
"Can you pick up the direction of the signal?" Zhor asks.
Zhor keeps an eye out for anything unusual.
Glitch checks again where the signal comes from.
"What century did you crawl out from?" he asks Jink. "Of course Kitty has some flashlight built in, but that would make it an easy target."
"I would rather Kitty be an easy target than any of us."
"But you need no light for scouting. Neither do I. Caloo also looks comfortable without light." Glitch replies without looking up from the screen. "And with the light we have now, we get a decent warning from everyone coming in, and we're no longer in the spotlight. Let's take it one issue at a time."
Nilan says I'm guessing those computers arent what we are here for...
Nilan checks out the scenery.
Nilan says I'm guessing those computers aren’t what we are here for...
Nilan checks out the scenery.
Glitch checks again where the signal comes from.
It looks like the footage that has been recorded has been being sent to the first computer - the signal is strong and close.
[Glitch] takes a closer look at the computers.
Glitch goes down the line of computers in order, checking on the data contained within.
The first computer is the one that had been receiving footage from the wireless camera. There’s months worth of footage here, all of Shurami’s apartment and her coming and going - looks like it goes back to Shurami’s arrival on-planet, way more visual information to parse than would be practical. What you can see, though, is footage of the murder itself - looks like the creature you fought did the murdering. Just like when you fought it, it simply suddenly appeared within the living room, stalked over to the bedroom… The rest is a little too gruesome to describe. The elf you fought then came in, apparently to plant evidence - you see him with gloves on, doing things with swabs and whatnot.
Also on the first computer is a message - like the message you saw back when you were in the desert, the sender is a long string of random characters, so behind some frustratingly-simple-yet-effective random address generator. The message reads:
Take our guest and take care of the leak. The footage has been destroyed, so we’re contained internally - stay at the leak’s apartment and see if the contractors try to return to there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The second computer doesn’t have any access logs to it in months - looks like this one was set up and then left by the main user. All it contains is another of those messages from a random character address:
The griggorim need assistance destroying the last hold-outs of their enemies. One of theirs is to join with Samyiel to work above - you will be dispatched to assist them down below. Show no mercy, expect no quarter - we need the griggorim to succeed for our plans to come to fruition. We’ll get you a ring of sustenance to avoid the logistics of supplying you down there - take care of your own weaponry and armor needs through Tomaska.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The third computer, unfortunately, is not so easily accessed - Glitch and the rest of the party completely do not notice the shock panels cunningly disguised into the touch pads. With a CRACK!, a surge of electricity jolts out of computer, attempting to fry Glitch.
,
"Gaaaaaaaaaah!" Glitch screams while shakking through his whole body. Then he falls over backwards all tensed up in this position with his arms in typing position, slightly smoking.
"Dammit! Glitch, you okay?" Zhor goes over and looks at Glitch's hands.
"Are they referring to Shurami here as 'the Leak'? So she leaked some sensitive information? But what?"
"And I'm guessing we're the 'contractors.' But wait... it says 'return to there.' We were never there before! So that has to be someone else they were looking out for, doesn't it?"
"Woah!" Caloo exclaims in surprise as Glitch falls on his back, trembling.
"Gaaaaaaaaaah!" Glitch screams while shakking through his whole body. Then he falls over backwards all tensed up in this position with his arms in typing position, slightly smoking.
"Are they referring to Shurami here as 'the Leak'? So she leaked some sensitive information? But what?"
"And I'm guessing we're the 'contractors.' But wait... it says 'return to there.' We were never there before! So that has to be someone else they were looking out for, doesn't it?"
A little bit of digging through the archived footage shows that one of you did visit Shurami's apartment, in a way - looks like your former companion Kindu visited Shurami's apartment and, uh... well, their relationship seems to have become more than just professional. You get some insights into precisely how athletic he was. Might be that the sender thought that Kindu was still accompanying you when the message was sent.
Caloo is able to quickly take down the shock pads now that they've revealed themselves - though you do need to sweep a little ysoki fur off of them - and the computer doesn't seem to have any additional protections on it.
The information on this terminal consists of reports on a shocking number of biotechnical experiments, centered around recreating something that keeps being referred to as "the Bridge." One large set of files consists of hundreds of thousands of experiments, some being mere hours in duration and others being days long. It appears to be some sort of fusing of existing biological material into a single functional organism.
A second large set of files is cross-referenced heavily with the first set of files - this appears to be an inventory of the biological material used in the experiments from the first section. Over and over again, listing of various limbs or organs: "Front left limb from griggorim drone - given voluntarily." "Bladder from griggorim brute - given voluntarily." "Cranium from griggorim psionic - given voluntarily." The records reference pictures that are not included in this set of files - must be that the files were transferred here from somewhere else and condensed for space.
The smallest group of files is simply labelled "Original Sources." It appears to be scans of some sort of analog tome, page after page in an alien language, with pictures of strange machinery and star maps - though the most recently accessed files are pictures of a creature. One that you have unfortunately seen before.
Glitch stays on the ground and leaves the checking of files to the others. Once he feels better, he get up and looks around.
Kitty helps with that.
The cave surrounding you remains quiet and dark, undisturbed by any movement you can detect.
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As there is nothing to see in the cave Glitch goes over the files again.
Walking up and down he monologues the findings. "Essentially we are in a big mess."
"We got contracted for work - one by Shurami, an Aspis Consortium rep and two, by Longshot who is self employed as far as we know. Also some of us have to do jobs for Slivy."
"Shurami is now dead, because she worked on something else than producing entertainment for the easily amused. She was only helpful for a short time and mostly to Kindu as the footage suggests."
"Longshot is some paranoid conspiracy theorist, who pays us to find out what is behind all that s%@& on this planet. So far she has been most helpful, as she pays and provides some support on the communication infrastructure and background intel."
"Slivy is just a pain in the arse. Once we get some decent equipment and an overview of this s&~!hole, we should cut all connections to that one."
"Somewhere underneath that s#&# with Shurami sits some evil mastermind. Who creates monsters out of griggorim parts. And uses these monsters to have people killed. Like that ugly thing that dwarf set free in front of the camera and the one at the apartment. As Shurami was killed for not keeping her mouth shut, she was in on that stuff."
"Also there is a war of kind, that the griggorim need to win for that secret organization to succeed. Whatever that means. And their agents are willing to die for the cause - as pointy ears demonstrated - and the griggorim voluntarily give body parts that any sane person wouldn't even consider giving while alive."
"I'm new to this planet. Does anyone know what a griggorim is?"
Glitch has an idea and starts to dictate a message. "To Longshot. Found out what killed our show producer. And someone waited there. Seems she was part of something bigger and got killed for being an information leak. How about you tell our multi-armed camera monster to hand over all video material that he has and do some AI search of it for interesting scenes with our dead ex boss. Maybe we find some contacts. As a reference take the pics from the news about the dead pointy ear guy that 'fell' out of her apartment or the crew of the dwarf from the last shoot in the desert."
He proofreads the message, corrects some errors and sends it. "S~#*ty human centered voice recognition." he curses under his breath.
Then he checks the computers again. For anything special about the hardware, cabling from and to, power, network, cooling, unusual chips, superficial hardware that wouldn't belong there normally, drives that are of different size on the os than what the hardware reads, processes that don't belong to the os, like special scanners, keyloggers, programs that phone home, whereever that is, crypto chips, inaccessible areas in the file system, files with unknown filetype for proprietary applications, ...