Seeing her robotic companion fall down to the ground torn and broken, Recorva falters for a moment. Her rifle lowering slightly, she looks at the inactive form, before snapping her gaze back to the mining construct that felled him. "You'll regret that you did that, you ancient collection of scrap." Raising the rifle at the construct, she quickly fires off two shots.
Xio shouts words of encouragement to Damonkayo, inspiring the vesk.
Damon leaps upon the robot, ripping out vital components with his claws. Recorva scores two hits, and while the first laser doesn't seem to harm the robot, the second burns through the hole that Damon left behind, frying its internal cicuitry! Stef scores a glancing hit, then Shabad zaps the robot with her pistol.
Sparks fly from the badly damaged robot, but it still is able to turn towards Damon and attack with its drill and magma blade! It scores a hit with the fiery blade, though the tough vesk resists most of the damage.
Her decoupler pistol having proved ineffective, Xio draws her sword instead and moves up to engage the robot. As she goes, she digs the tip of the sword into the ground and flicks loose earth up in front of the bot's singular eye to distract it.
Moving slightly to avoid hitting the Vesk that's chosen to rip the thing to pieces with his bare hands, Stefani takes careful aim with her plasma fork.
Knowing that her laser shots are having minimal effect, Recorva will move over to stand next to Shabad. Reaching out and touching the Android's pistol, she says "Make this shot count," before channeling a burst of power into the weapon.
"Dammit, Damon!" Stefani shouts out as the vesk jumps at the bot. She pulls her shot at the last minute, trying to avoid the aggressive solarian. "Tell me before you do s~#% like that!"
"Why? you want me to save you a piece?" The vesk grunts as he's struck by a red-hot blade, but he takes it in stride. "Come on, you tin can! Hit me like you mean it!" He goads the unfeeling robot as his claws tear at the gaps in its thick plating.
Shabad fires her lightning pistol at the nearly destroyed robot, hoping to disable it fully.
Damon punches the robot again, scoring one hit, then Shabad unleashes a supercharged lightning blast! Electricity plays across the robots body as numerous components explode within it. It slumps over, destroyed!
Your comms crackle and you hear Romi's voice coming through them. "--copy? We have suffered only minor injuries in the fall. But there seems to be no easy way back up to you. We will press on and try to find a tunnel that intersects closer to the signal's source. Do you copy?"
"Yikes! That was intense," Shabad exclaims as the robot slumps into inactivity. "Thanks for the extra energy, Recorva. I gotta learn that spell."
"Anybody need immediate medical attention, let me know. Otherwise, I want to look this thing over and see if we maybe could reprogram it and repair it and use it to help us get where we need to go."
"These weapons should come off, but I can't find the release mechanism. I'll help someone else figure it out if you want." She looks at Recorva as she says this.
She eventually looks at the damage done to Rain. "My spells can eventually get him up and running."
When Romi's message comes over the comms, Shabad tries to connect. "We copy, Romi. We've got a mining robot we're trying to repair, but we may have to just look for another way down. Glad you're okay."
Stefani slings her longarm over her shoulder and attempts to assist the doctor in disassembling the robot, but very quickly determines that the task is beyond her meager skills.
"We should keep moving. Leaving them down there by themselves is a bad idea. We need to find a way down."
Damon frowns at the decommissioned mining bot while he picks circuitry from between his claws. "For such a big rig, it didn't hit nearly as hard as I thought it would." A twinge of disappointment in the vesk's voice seems to condition the smoke still rising from his injuries.
"We should keep moving. Leaving them down there by themselves is a bad idea. We need to find a way down."
"I agree, but we also need to ensure we're properly equipped and not runnin' ourselves into the ground. I think we should wait for Doc and Recorva to pick over this mess."
"Well, Stefani and Damon are probably the only ones who could use either one effectively in combat, although this Screamer sends out sonic energy in a cone that can hit multiple targets in one attack out to sixty feet or so. That magma sword does a lot of damage. I think Stef or Damon could put to good use. But since Damon's got to catch his breath anyway, let's see if we can take them with. If nothing else, they're worth a lot and assuming we get out of this, it may be our only paycheck."
"A paycheck is always nice," Stefani says with a grin. "If we can pull it out of there, I'll carry the screamer. It's a heavy sonofab@*@&, but probably worth it."
Xio stows her weapons and slinks over to the mining robot, where she plants a foot on it’s chest and tries to pry out the weapons.
Even with Shabad’s help, the parts stay where they are, and she looks over at Recorva expectantly. ”This ‘bot does not wanna give up it’s weapons.”
"Here, let me hold that," the soldier says, climbing up on the disabled bot and bracing her feet and pulling.
With Recorva's and Stefani's assistance, Shabad is able to remove the weapons from the robot. After taking a few minutes to rest, you try to lock back onto the comm signal and navigate deeper into the mines.
Almost another hour passes as you traverse the treacherous tunnels. Romi attempts to check in with you every so often, but most of their messages only come through as garbled static.
Several transmissions come through in rapid succession, and a while you can't make out the words, the android's tone has notes of urgency. Finally, the interference lifts enough that you can make out the latest message. It isn't a good one.
"I am sorry. So sorry. We... we ran across some unusual life-forms. Oozes. Highly aggressive. Indigo-13 is dead. I am trapped. I... I do not believe I will be alive when you arrive. Please, for my Indi, stop whatever is happening here. You must go deeper! Please." A weapon discharge punctuates the end of the communication.
A few minutes later, you spot dim lights ahead. Approaching them reveals a structure that might have once been a barracks. The northern wall is built into the rock and features a set of automatic doors and broad windows that look into a lounge.
Outside the structure, you notice two large puddles of a tarlike substance.
Once the mining construct is felled, Recorva walks over and crouches down next to Rain. Knowing that she will be unable to cast her mending spell on him to any effect, she quickly reaches down to connect his computing system to her custom rig, backing up his mind and personality. Then, when she notices the others attempting to remove the weaponry from the opposing robot, whe will move over to assist them. Once done with that, she says "Since we are taking a short rest anyway, I can spend some time to restore a minimal amount of functionality to Rain. Once he is back up and able to walk again, he and I should be ready to go. When we go, he can probably carry one or both of these weapons, so as to not weigh down anyone else."
Keeping her rifle at the ready, Recorva glances at the two puddles before looking at Shabad. "Any idea what those puddles could have been created by, Shabad? Romi said something about oozes, but you are the most knowledgeable in that regard among us." She then turns her attention back to the puddles and their surroundings, keeping an eye out for any dangers.
Recorva's sharp eyes catch subtle movements through the windows of the dimly lit barracks. A patch of shadows seems to quiver slightly. It's likely that at least one more ooze is lurking within...
Shabad peers at the puddles from a safe distance. She switches Tok's scanner glasses to see into other parts of the spectrum, zooms in on the puddles as best she can, records the scan, and then plays it back, looking for clues.
"They are definitely ooze related, perhaps remnants of the fight Romi and Indigo-13 apparently had. Let me study these scans and maybe I can tell more."
"If so, then maybe I'll get to try out the new toy," Stefani proclaims, her eagerness evident.
"Okay, the IR scan tears it. These are Void Oozes or what's left of them. They are from the shadow plane, attracted to open interplanar portals and to areas where the barriers between dimensions are weak. If Romi and Indigo-13 were killed by these things, it will have made them stronger, as they grow when exposed to the death process. If they are still there, they will be drawn to us like electrovores to an overloading transformer. So aim true, hit hard, and stay alive."
Shabad swaps out the battery in her sheet lightning pistol for a fresh one. Then she waits for the more tactically astute to lead the way.
"Oozes. Great." Damonkayo hefts his microfusion rifle, checking that it still contains sufficient charge. "I'll take point and try to light up the place. Stef," the old vesk gestures at her new toy, "that thing's gonna make a mess in there. Don't hold back." Damon's grin shows at least three cracked or missing teeth.
The automatic doors slide open as Damon steps forward. The puddle of shadow shudders and forms a lashing psuedopod as the void ooze senses the presence of living creatures nearby!
"Now let's take this baby out for a spin and see what she'll do," the soldier says with a grin as she points the screamer at the shadow ooze.
Shabad holds her hands up and states a few arcane words. Her hands fill with spheres of magical energy. She blows on them, which propels them at the ooze with surprising speed, swerving around Stefani and striking the writhing tentacle of shadow.
Stefani's shot blasts the ground next to the ooze, but Shabad's trio of missiles slam into it.
The ooze slithers forward and attacks Damon, but fails to hit him! A few moments later, a second one emerges from the eastern hall and closes the distance to the vesk.
"Stupid thing's got more of a kick to it than I thought it would," Stefani says, taking a firmer grip on the heavy weapon. "Let's try that again."
Xio carefully lines up her pistol with the far ooze, but pulls her shot at the last second and directs the blast at the closer one instead.
Shabad delays her attacks, waiting for a clear line of fire.
Damon leaps into the air as thrusters light up across his armor. Scraping against the ceiling , the vesk does an aerial cartwheel just before landing on the opposite side of the oozes just in time to blast them with his plasma shotgun.
Dashing into the room, Recorva positions herself behind some of the barrels in the room. Aiming her rifle at the ooze closer to the doors, she quickly deactivates the safety measures of her weapon. Allowing more power to go into the weapon than standard, she fires.
She then sends a short command to Rain, telling him to stay out of the room for now.
Doing as Recorva says, Rain steps to the side slightly in order to give the others better lines of sight on the two oozes.
Shabad moves to stand behind Rain. ”Xio, would you have Rain break that window? If those oozes don’t move I can bolt them from here.
"Not immediately, as his processors would be unable to catch up in time. Give it a few seconds, however, and he should be able to at least try."
"Not immediately, as his processors would be unable to catch up in time. Give it a few seconds, however, and he should be able to at least try."
Shabad takes a moment to make sure her camera specs are recording the fight.
Damonkayo takes a hit as he jets over the oozes. The top ooze takes significant damage from attacks from the vesk, Stefani, and Recorva, though the other one escapes harm for now.
The oozes attack, missing Damon but hitting Stefani twice. Their touch carries the chill of the void, and shadows threaten to numb their targets' senses!
"So cold," Stefani stammers out as her hands twist on the controls of the heavy weapon.
"Gah! No..." Damon shivers, reflexively drawing his solar armor closer to his skin. As it condenses, waves of warmth spill over the room, but it doesn't seem to help the vesk. "No!" Frightened and angry, Damon blindly fires his rifle in the same direction as his last attack.
Aiming at the same ooze as before, Recorva fires off a single shot from her current position, before concentrating on coordinating Rain's activities.
At the window, Rain will activate his hammer, before swinging it at the window. If his first his is successful in breaking the window, he will move out of the way of Shabad . If not, then he will swing a second time in an attempt to break it.
As the window shatters after Rain put his hammer down, Shabad aims her pistol and sends a bolt of lightning arcing through both tenticles. Just before she fires, she yells, "Bolt on the way!" unaware two of the fighters are unable to hear.
Though she's unsure what kind of senses these oozes have to confuse, Xio tries to get their attention by banging on the rock face behind her before firing off another shot.
Rain smashes the window open without much effort. Unfortunately, all of your attacks miss the oozes, whether due to poor aim or bad luck! The oozes take advantage of Damon's and Stefani's numbed senses, hitting the vesk once and the pirate twice!
Aiming carefully at the same ooze that she has attacked so far, Recorva once again bypasses the safeties of her weapon to pour more power into her shot.
Shakily holding one of the sonic pistols (that had been aquired from the pirates) in one of his manipulator arms, Rain aims in the direction of the two oozes. As he fires however, rather than trying to damage the oozes he is attempting to provide covering fire for Stefani.
The pirate is ready for it this time and steels herself against the frigid attack.
"Eat waves of death, slime!" she barks back at the creatures before activating her heavy weapon again.
The shapeshifter pauses her attack to fix Stefani with a too-wide grin. "Wipe the floor with that pile of slime!