Guess you ain't had enough respect youngin. Nilan mutters.
Nilan winces in pain from the bullet wound in his side.
Best we get gone fast enough... He likely had friends, and we ain't exactly in the best shape yeah?
If Nilan's allies take longer than afew minutes searching the place, he'll rest and recover a bit.
"What kind of proof do we need of this to get paid?" Glitch asks Kindu.
"Well... they were filming the whole thing, weren't they? 'Cause I don't think Padre here can do another take."
Zhor looks in the hole and then turns to the prisoners.
"So... what's down there?"
Glitch facepalms himself. "Of course. Maybe a closeup of his stupid face as relief after the grand shooting?" This business is not what he is used to. "I guess Vesk with Abadarcorp-Garments is proof enough."
Taking the weapon from kitty, Glitch joins Zhar at the entrance to the basement.
Shuddering as the universal energy he tapped into slowly bled off, Kindu let out a sigh and looked around. "Please tell me you got all of my epic lines, Scrambles," he said with a tired grin. The wounds gathered during the fight slowly filtered through the draining adrenaline and caused him to hunch over slightly. Giving a grunt, Kindu walked over to the hole in the ground that Padre hand called down into and looked over to the others. "Once more unto the breech, then?"
As Kitty runs the pockets_empty.exe protocol on Padre, it uncovers a key card.
Shuddering as the universal energy he tapped into slowly bled off, Kindu let out a sigh and looked around. "Please tell me you got all of my epic lines, Scrambles," he said with a tired grin.
"Got 'em! Working on that close-up!" yells Scrambles' voice from up above. He's strapped himself to the cambot, which is clinging to the scaffolding while the skittermander runs a second set of cameras on some sort of snaking contraption that undulates in on Padre's face.
The kids look at one another before answering Zhor. "That's the rooms where we sleep when we're on shift," one of them says. "Padre keeps... er, kept a few of us on in case there was trouble. Fat lotta good that does him now."
There are lights strung down there, but it looks like below isn't part of this structure - while up here is metal and plastic and prefab, you're seeing stone and dirt down below. The ladder leading up looks like it was made of rebar welded together.
"It's worth taking a look." Glitch comments and sends kitty in.
Kitty climbs in but without using the ladder, clinging to the ceiling of the cave.
Caloo inspects the various toughs that were shot down to see if any of them still live.
As Kitty climbs in, Glitch sees through the camera that 'cave' is not precisely the right word. While the floor is dirt, the walls are masonry - stone carved into blocks and engraved with some sort of hieroglyphics that you've never seen before. Any signs of modernity are clearly from the toughs and Padre - lights screwed into the stonework and wires strung along the ceiling.
...Or not.
Caloo notices that Padre is still breathing very weakly. He does some quick work with his medkit to stabilize him so he doesn't bleed out. He then rolls back outside and drags the unconscious barathu inside, leaving him on the ground not far from Padre.
"What are we going to do with these two?"
"Looks like this warehouse is built on something else. Is architecture that short lived here?" Glitch tells the others. "And it looks like no more dangers lurk beneath."
Nilan hops down into the "cellar"
Nilan gives a low whistle Well. This is pretty big. There's not supposed to be old buildings here.
Nilan calls out to the conscious toughs Hey. This always been here? What do you know about it? Nilan gestures at the masonry.
Ask teenagers about old stuff. Glitch shakes his head.
"Maybe it's from an earlier stage of the colony?" asks Zhor. He follows Nilan down and looks around.
"Hey, Scrambles! Make sure to get this shot of me patching up Padre! I bet they'll like the gore, and they'll start to love me, the good doctor!" he says as he works on the gaping spear wound that Zhor put in Padre. "That was a great hit, by the way, Zhor!"
"Yeah, e'er since we blew that hole in the floor. We was gonna make a basement - found one instead," one of the more alert kids yells down. "Don't know the writing, though, it's all kasathan to me."
Scrambles rappels off the cambot and zooms in on the patch job Caloo is inflicting on Padre, while cambot toddles over to the hole and starts taking video of the group down below.
"All this fancy technology and we still put money in safes." Glitch comments. "If you paint the wall in green and the writings in pink flourescent paint and put some blacklight in it would make a great setting for a club.
"Hm..." Zhor says as he looks over the writings. "This is old. Hundreds of standard years. Maybe longer. Maybe from before the gap, and drift travel."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Nilan nods at Zhor Yeah. Looks it. Wonder why the Apsis Corp never mentioned anything about this.... Take the creds and lets get out of here. And delete that from your goddamn bot before someone tries to "tax" us. Nilan finishes, looking at he camera operator
"Can do, boss!" Scrambles says happily as he jacks a datapad into the cambot and starts to delete footage.
The rest of the warehouse is paint and superficial vechicle enhancements - the sort of thing to make a speeder or a hovercycle suddenly not match a police description. The most valuable things are the combat gear - and obviously, the giant pile of credsticks.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Who gets what of the creds?" Glitch asks as a lump sum would improve the entertainment possibilities of the evening tremendously.
Nilan divides out he Creds and he smiles.
Buy a few rounds eh? This vid star business is gonna pay well yeah?
Nilan will head off to make a few friends and buy some drinks. Best to get to know the city a little, and the seedier side of it the better.
You are well connected to shadowy secrets and back-alley deals, and you both know about key players and have handy skills of your own. Reduce the DC of Culture checks to recall knowledge about the criminal underworld by 5. Sleight of Hand is a class skill for you, though if it is a class skill from the class you take at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to Sleight of Hand checks. In addition, you gain an ability adjustment of +1 to Dexterity at character creation.
Nilan will spend up to 100 credits on drinks, friends, trying to learn more about the local criminal scene. He's trying to build some contacts.
+0/+6/+5 depending on what you decide GM
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Glitch checks on his computer for the kiddos hacked phone, if that is somewhere around here. He bags his share of the credits. "Wanna come for a meal and a little tech talk?" he asks Jink. He decides to follow Kindu to his place. A filmstar knows for sure where the good hotels are. And now that Glitch has money, he is going to have some comfort, fine food and a drink.
After it is clear where he will stay for the night he does some shopping. A canister of petrol for his new gun, some magazines to get to know the local 'culture' and some a little more extensive book about this planet's history as lecture for the night.
After a nice plate of quality cheese with grapes, bread and wine he retreats to his room. Out comes the toolbox to make a few changes. Kitty gets the pistol and glitch the laser pistol. "Daddy can work magic with that, so I get it. I know it sucks from a stealth point of view, but you'll get you another laser-pistol as soon as we come across one."
Jink shrugs his shoulders at Blask and moves to follow Glitch. He spends most of his creds buying UBPs while glitch is shoping, but makes sure he leaves a decent sum in sticks.
Blask doesn’t even try to figure out the glyphs. His education came via his brawls and fights...not books. His culture was fighting, and surviving. He looked at the youths who threw their lives away for Padre.
Padre...what an interesting series of events. A small time man for a local gang, who bit off more than he could handle. Blask would make sure to remember that so he didn’t suffer the same fate.
Padre, wasn’t big time. Think of him as a minor luitenant in a local group. He wanted more power and cash, and made a bad play for it. I’d be more worried about who knew and let it go down. Sh*t like this doesn’t go down without prior notice
Blask shrugs at Jink, have fun
As they looked around the strange room underneath the warehouse, all Kindu could think about was one of his movies. "This almost looks like the ruins they made for my movie Ruins of Terror, where I played an archaeologist hunting down mystical artifacts for the museum I worked for," he said, studying the writing on the walls. "I'll definitely have to bring this up with Shurami the next time meet."
Making their way out with prisoner in tow, Kindu turned to the rest. "I would like to thank you all for your assistance today. Truly we make a great team, and I know that I can count on all of you for any future trouble we come across. Now, let's go turn in these two miscreants and celebrate a job well done! First round's on me!"
The evening passes by more or less in a blur - after the party follows Kindu to drop Padre and his barathu lieutenant in Peacemaker's custody (a slightly dingy building with an only semi-interested red-skinned human working the desk), they follow him to the hotel bar. Apparently, the Aspis Consortium is investing in Kindu - the hotel is nice by any standards, and after a day in the Prosperity worker's district, the retro vibe of dark wood and warm lighting really drives home how the other half lives.
Nilan insists on hitting some dive bars 'to make the credits last further,' so anyone else that stays out drinking past the nightly blackout finds themselves in a couple of seedy locales. To Nilan's credit, his credits do go further there, down to even ingratiating him with some locals.
After a few more shots, his tongue loosens even further. "I try to keep my head down for the most part, you know," he says. "No one likes to take a hit on a contractor, right? Might need 'em later. But there's been a couple of folk like me gone missing after jobs lately - not big jobs either, little things like insurance scams or smash-and-grabs, nothing to go and piss off the big guys. So you gotta ask yourself - what'd they find out? What'd they know? Makes me wanna get myself off of this hunk of rock and find somewhere with a little more legitimate illegitimate work. Hate not knowing the rules around here."
----------------------------------------------------
At some point during the night...
Watching the shootout footage from Scrambles - you did some great stuff here! Lotta ensemble work too - we'll see about trying to direct them to make sure the star stays in the limelight. Anything come up out there?
How was your day on set? Anything interesting happen?
I thought LS had an eye on us. I can't believe LS depends on text messages to stay updated.
#Got Padre and found out that Kindu's hotel is much better than mine. Will move in here.
Glitch texts back. But with his interest peaked he also texts Scrambles
#You're done editing the footage? I'd like to see what kind of show you're making of it. Can you send a preview?
After the shopping, the party, and the mech work on kitty, it is late enough to call it a day. He locks himself in his new comfortable hotel room, with kitty watching it from the wall besides.
Jink basically enjoys not being broke, but does call it a night relatively early. Feeling like you nearly died twice in one day is enough to tire anyone out.
Surprised but delighted to get a message from the beautiful Shurami while relaxing in his suite, Kindu was quick to reply. 《I haven't had this much fun since shooting Killer Maws 5! While I wish that I had more limelight, I have to admit that I'm still getting used to real, non-staged fights. But, practice makes perfect, as my old vocal coach liked to say!》 Thinking back over the fight, the strange hieroglyphics under the warehouse popped into mind. 《One thing does stand out, though. Do you know of any old ruins under the city? The group we fought were digging a basement and came across a room filled with strange writing along the wall.》
Nilan nods sagely at Early Bird, he exchanges info. Good to know. Good to know. I'll keep my head on a swivel, you do that too. Nilan eventually makes his way back to where the others are staying the next morning
Nilan replies #Nothing much. Found em, beat em, dropped em off with you lot#
Nilan attempts to send encrypted messages to all his companions #Don't talk about anything except the job. There's rumors of contractors going missing. Let's not be those guys. Fill you in the details when I get to you#
That chat app pops open again - looks like it has group chat capabilities, as your mysterious benefactor has included all of you on the chat. While you can see each other's names, the originator remains "LS".
How was your day on set? Anything interesting happen?
Zhor frowns as he looks at the message.
He types:
Were we sposed 2 b on set? Was on location 4 hole day.
Surprised but delighted to get a message from the beautiful Shurami while relaxing in his suite, Kindu was quick to reply. 《I haven't had this much fun since shooting Killer Maws 5! While I wish that I had more limelight, I have to admit that I'm still getting used to real, non-staged fights. But, practice makes perfect, as my old vocal coach liked to say!》 Thinking back over the fight, the strange hieroglyphics under the warehouse popped into mind. 《One thing does stand out, though. Do you know of any old ruins under the city? The group we fought were digging a basement and came across a room filled with strange writing along the wall.》
P.S. Previews are already favorable so some bonuses trickling in. Got a bonus for you.
The message comes with another 400 credits attached.
Glitch texts back. But with his interest peaked he also texts Scrambles
#You're done editing the footage? I'd like to see what kind of show you're making of it. Can you send a preview?
Scrambles sends back a copy of the NDA he had to sign, a small treatise on why, ethically as a cameraman, he can't do something like that, and a link to a torrent where you could, if you were so inclined, find information like that in a way that would be completely untraceable to both leaker and downloader if someone just so happened to have leaked the footage uncut and in hi-def.
Nilan attempts to send encrypted messages to all his companions #Don't talk about anything except the job. There's rumors of contractors going missing. Let's not be those guys. Fill you in the details when I get to you#
Traditionally it's considered rude to try to encrypt someone's app against them. I'll let it go this time, as this is obviously a trying time for you.
But seriously, that's good, high-quality intel. Keep it quiet, and keep you and the others safe with it.
The Group Chat
Glitch: Got Padre and found out that Kindu's hotel is much better than mine. Will move in here.
Nilan: Nothing much. Found em, beat em, dropped em off with you lot
Zhor: Were we sposed 2 b on set? Was on location 4 hole day.
LS is typing...
LS: lol it's a figure of speech. isn't location a set? idk
LS: LOL at 'dropped em off with you lot.' you fishing for info? no dice, cowboy
LS: Finding some of the uncut footage off on the 'sphere now - I was just interested in your take on things. Superstar seems a little... direct when combat breaks out but that's not what we're looking for. Keep watching.
The connection has been closed.
Then, each of your phones chime as 300 credits from an unknown account arrive. You also each receive your 100 credits from the Aspis payroll department for the shoot yesterday.
Blask stays out with Nilan as he needs a few beers after getting punched in the face, ribs, face again...and getting shot at occasionally. He doesn’t drink in excess, but he’s got a good buzz going on with the help of his credstick, and Nilan’s dice bars.
Hmm, I’ve been on Prime for a lotta years and never saw heard about the Pink Bunny Bar. Their beers ain’t half bad either considering the makeup of the water. I’ll have to remember the joint[/b]
He wakes up the next morning, to look at the new message.
[i]Hmph, smartass contractor. Interesting to me, nope. I’m used to getting shot at and punched in the face...comes with the job of keeping Jink breathing
#Just getting punched in the face and shot at. Normal day for me I suppose. Drinking helps ease the pain though.
He smiles as he sees his credstick light up.
At least I’m being compensated for all this. I bet Jink is having a hay day over all the credits flowing his way. Last time I got paid this well, there was a knife near my throat soon after. Gotta remember that, don’t have blind trust, lest I wanna die
Out comes the toolbox to make a few changes. Kitty gets the pistol and glitch the laser pistol. "Daddy can work magic with that, so I get it. I know it sucks from a stealth point of view, but you'll get you another laser-pistol as soon as we come across one."
Caloo notices that Kitty has a tactical pistol instead of an azimuth laser pistol now. He tosses his azimuth laser pistol to Glitch. "Here. I've picked up how to shoot an energy ray with practically no magical expenditure at all, so I won't be needing this anymore. The range isn't as good yet, but I'm working on it."
He then demonstrates by shooting 4 rays in succession after he finds a place long enough that his 30ft range falls short of hitting a wall or something else. The rays are acid, cold, electricity, then fire.
"Thanks. Maybe next time I tell you about my plans first. Would have saved me some work." Glitch replies.
"I learned a new trick, similar to what you did to Kitty's weapon at the lantern post. But it works only on battery powered devices, so I needed one for me."
"I received payment for yesterday. You got an idea what we could use in the time to come? It's not enough to buy something big, but who knows - maybe there is some gimmick that would make our life easier." While talking Glitch already starts to exchange weapons on Kitty again.
Nilan goes out searching for an armorer to make some upgrades to his weapons.
Zhor blinks as he looks at his comm unit.
983 credits? Not bad for a day's work! They must have liked the bit where I licked my spear.
Zhor stumbles down out of his room , haphazardly throwing on his armor.
"Where can I find armor mods? Looking for Thermo goggles."
Later on that day, Shurami messages you all.
Hi crew! Things are looking good so far - Scrambles has been cutting footage and the focus groups are testing favorably, so we'll keep the group dynamic we've got going so far.
Doing something new for tomorrow's shoot - we're going to set up some outside-of-the-wall exploration for you all. Normally, exploration parties wind up being pretty boring, so we're working with some biologists to give you something to show off your skills against - we'll call it a surprise discovery for the viewers.
Best of luck!
-Shurami
《Please let me know if they find anything, sounds like a fun little mini-series. Hidden Depths of Prosperity. And thank you for the bonus, this will come in handy. I look forward to the coming adventure, I'm sure it'll draw in the audience we seek. In other news, are you busy tonight? I was thinking we'd celebrate filming the first episode together.》
With some funds and a noble hotel at hand, Glitch decides to do something against that sewer rat smell that doesn't go away since he was stuck on that flying coffin on the way from Absalom Station.
He orders the full package: bathing, washing, conditioner, fur trimming, massage, exotic drinks and the five course menu afterwards. He invites Jink to join him in this activities.
Jink joins Glitch, his fun slightly marred by the thoughts of cost and fears of what will happen when the money runs out again.
"Why'd you end up here?" Jink asks after a while.
After they drop off Padre and the barathu with the Peacekeepers, Caloo searches the infosphere from his comm unit for a biotech surgeon to get some work done...
Caloo texts the surgeon, {can you install a venom spur tomorrow morning?}
He has a few drinks with everyone, but declines the extended night out with Nilan, opting instead to get to the hotel for a full night's sleep.
Early the next morning he goes to the surgeon's place of work. He hands over 625 credits and then spends some time talking with the surgeon about bantrid anatomy, focusing in particular on the hand-like appendages, as it is in one of those that the venom spur will be implanted. Two hours later, Caloo rolls out of the surgery, testing the extension and retraction of the stinger as he goes. This works great! The surgeon did a pretty nice job.
Caloo meets up with the others as soon as they're ready to get started on their next expedition.
"Well, I needed some vacation. My face appeared on a footage where it shouldn't have and I wasn't in a mood to explain that to certain persons." Glitch replies to Jink. "And as it turns out, this spot wasn't a bad choice."
《Please let me know if they find anything, sounds like a fun little mini-series. Hidden Depths of Prosperity. And thank you for the bonus, this will come in handy. I look forward to the coming adventure, I'm sure it'll draw in the audience we seek. In other news, are you busy tonight? I was thinking we'd celebrate filming the first episode together.》
Shurami texts back almost immediately.
That sounds like an amazing idea! I know the perfect place - candelit, elegance and class, right across the street from my apartment if we feel we need a more private place to collaborate...
The evening goes by however Kindu chooses - Shurami seems committed to giving her star the star treatment.
After they drop off Padre and the barathu with the Peacekeepers, Caloo searches the infosphere from his comm unit for a biotech surgeon to get some work done...
Caloo texts the surgeon, {can you install a venom spur tomorrow morning?}
Early the next morning he goes to the surgeon's place of work. He hands over 625 credits and then spends some time talking with the surgeon about bantrid anatomy, focusing in particular on the hand-like appendages, as it is in one of those that the venom spur will be implanted. Two hours later, Caloo rolls out of the surgery, testing the extension and retraction of the stinger as he goes. This works great! The surgeon did a pretty nice job.
Caloo meets up with the others as soon as they're ready to get started on their next expedition.
Caloo spends the day with a shop run by a vercite biotechnician Gene and his barathu bio-designer Jay'x. The pair of them are eager to talk shop with the bantrid and get a chance to enhance such a unique species, and Jay'x in particular insists on showing Caloo 'this one's babies,' showing him the vats and jars where unfinished, undeveloped bioadaptations are still growing. The two give him a warm farewell, telling him to stop back if the nanite healing on the implant presents any trouble, and to come back for any future enhancements - or just to swap stories.
------------------------------------------------------
After the rest of the party recovers from their night of 'team bonding' and pursuing their own interests, they meet the next day at the coordinates Shurami passes to them - the gates leading out of Prosperity. Scrambles is already there, glowering at a second crew in Aspis jumpsuits, who have a large crate perched atop an industrial hoverdrone. "Folks are gonna see how fake this thing is first opportunity," gripes the skittermander to whoever will listen. "Lab monsters and imports always read fake on screen, whichever suit up in Highestrise thought this would work is dumber than an ellicoth with a head wound."
A dwarf from the crew barks a curse and hurls a disposable cup of coffee at the skittermander, who dodges behind his cambot and makes a rude gesture from three of his hands. "And they didn't even give me professionals to assist," Scrambles says dourly.
"What exactly did they bring in that box?" Glitch asks Scrambles, while kicking the coffee cup away.
"A**holes wouldn't show me, even when I asked," Scrambles grumbles. "No idea. Aspis don't skimp, though, so I bet it's something exotic-like, something that'll raise pulse."
The dwarf barks something to his crew in Terran, and the group sullenly responds with deliberately-paced activity.
Nilan keeps a wary eye on that crate.