Tool draws his knife opens the door. frack it !!! ready to stab anything on the other side of the door.
Tool opens the door. A wide transparent aluminum window stretches across the forward wall of this control room; twinkling lights in the distance are all that can be seen of Absalom Station and the ships of the Armada surrounding it.
The room is also home to 3 medium sized chunks of noqual.
There is a computer system for control of the ships day to day needs in the room as well. This is clearly the bridge so also is home to all the typical flight stuff but, but it has no crew or dead bodies.
tool checks for anything odd out of place or strange . Tool also examines the noqual of anything odd. tool wonders why these are here and not in a storage bay or something.
You found some of it in the engineering bay as well. It hasn't been just in storage areas. The only thing that seems odd about the stone itself without entering and studying the stone, the only observation you make is that the stone is oddly round and smooth. All the pieces you have found so far have been small shards of smooth stone.
"Those 3 rocks are probably eggs containing more akatas. Getting close might trigger them. We should try to drag one out and examine it with the door to the others closed. That way, if it hatches, we are splitting them up. Hux, can you send Jib in to roll one out? Tool, stay ready to close the door if they hatch."
i'm ok with that plan as long as noon has any objection.
As Dahlia acknowledges Alim's struggles without drawing too much attention to his ailing condition, Alim physically shrugs. As he does, he seems to relieve himself of what can be assumed to be a heavy emotional and mental weight, because Alim seems to stand a bit taller and more assured as he slowly moves himself to the back of the group. Alim draws his semi-automatic as instructed, and does his best to keep his eyes wide as Tool bursts through the door to the last room.
Alim perks up a bit as he hears talk of a weird object, and finds himself feeling useful. Still feeling slightly embarrassed about asking to be placed in the back of the group, Alim seeks to repay his gratitude by offering up his potentially useful knowledge from his years of study. "Please, may I look at it? I wonder if I can gather anything from looking it over for a moment..." Alim stiffly walks up to the doorway, and examines it from several feet away, to see if looking at it jars any memory from his studies.
As the others stare for what seems like 30 hours to Dahlia, she decides to take some action herself. Drawing her pistol, she takes careful aim and shoots the center rock.
The rock takes a hit and for a moment, nothing happens. Then the rock bursts open. It was hollow and an akata was inside!
Katara was ready for it though and gets to act!
Katara fires his rifle in an attempt to draw its attention.
Katara manages to hit the enemy with his gun, but it seems unaffected by the blast. But it sure seemed to notice the group standing in the door way. The akata moves up to Dahlia, and tries to take a bite from her. It does sink it's teeth into her causing damage but also may lead to her being diseased.
Alim, really struggling with these bites, hears Dahlia rush from the back of the group to the doorway where Tool is standing. He hears a gun shot, and then creaking and shattering of something... And before he realizes it, another Ataka is rushing towards them!
Alim, struggling to keep to the back due to his illness, shakily gets in front of Hux, and grabs for his pistol. He however fumbles with his gun, as he realizes his fingers are stiff, albeit too late. He fires an awful shot through his comrades towards the beast. Alim sighs a breath of relief, knowing none of his comrades were hurt due to his awful shot...
Hux shoots though obstructed by the party.
Jib stabs around dahlia.
Dahlia shrugs off the infectious bite and withdraws to give the beast room to advance so they can trap it.
Tool stabs at it from behind the door
Katara moves up to the beast while drawing his sword, once close enough he takes a swipe at it.
Hoping to make up for his blunder at the start Katara strikes much more wildly hoping to make up for it with multiple strikes.
The akata takes a shot right to the eyes from Hux, but shockingly, it seems unharmed. The blast even caused it to catch fire. The distraction is enough to let Jib get a nice jab at the beast's ribs.
Alim misses miserably against it unfortunately. But all the ranged attacks means that the akata doesn't see Tool sneaking up for a sneak attack! Sadly, Tool just barely misses it but left it so surprised that it doesn't see Katara charge in with a long sword and he manages to cut it open.
It retaliates by taking a bite at Katara. It sinks its teeth deep into him as well.
Katara makes another clumsy swing this round but follows it up with a nasty slice hitting some internal organs. It is clear that the Akata is on the brink of death.
Tool stabs at it
In the heat of battle, Katara shrugs off the attack from the Akata without feeling any ill effects.
Dahlia takes another shot at the beast (through traffic) with her pistol.
Tool manages to surprise it yet again. It never saw it coming and it gets stabbed to death. Luckly the dying sounds of the beast is loud enough to mask the sound of Dahlia's gun, so no one really noticed how much she missed by.
Tool hides again ready to close the door and kill the next one to hatch
"I think I can shoot in and then drop back to let the next one out. But I may need to rest a bit after that bad bite." Dahlia says.
Seeing that battle is done, Alim draws to the back of the group once again. Shaking his head from his awful shot, he looks around at his comrades who came away unscathed from the Ataka's bites. "You are both very lucky to have escaped the disease that those beasts hold... Please stay mindful to your proximity to them... History has shown that most escapes like that happen on sheer luck... And I do not wish for your luck to run out..."
Standing behind Hux again, Alim addresses the group. "It is clear I am not worth much during these battles... I will stay back here for this next fight..." Alim looks at Dahlia. "I believe the plan you had was a smart one. Why don't we all rearrange ourselves to be ready for the beast, and Tool can shoot or throw something at the beast's cocoon to wake it. That way, we can all ready ourselves for when the beast comes through the door, and then Tool can close it into this hallway..." Alim pauses for a moment, trying to catch his breath from his long-winded statement. Once recomposed, Alim continues. "I think you all fought valiantly just now... Thank you..." Alim looks back at the room. "Once we have cleared these two remaining cocoons... Tool and Hux should try rummaging through the computer systems to see what they can find, and the rest of us can scope out the room... See if we can figure out what happened to the crew..."
Alim, comfortable with his position in the hallway, waits to hear what his other comrades think, and waits for them to all get into position before moving...
Dahlia shoots the cocoon and as expected, it shatters and an akata breaks free. What is unexpected is that the other also shatters.
The akata to act runs into the hallway and Tool closes the door behind it leaving the other trapped in the room. The one in the hallway manages to take a bite out of Jib.
Trying to keep Jib at full fighting capacity, and being down a little herself, Dahlia channels energy to heal them both.
jib unleashes a flurry of attacks on the akata.
Hux gives jib a full round action knowing his attacks are insignificant.
Katara attempts to cut open the beast in front of him
As soon as the Akata come out of the door was Tool cloes the door and plunges his knife into the Akata before he even knows Tool is there.
Alim, hearing the beast charge into the hallway, draws a deep breath. Raising his gun, Alim steadies his hand, and does his best to aim at the raging Ataka. With a slow, controlled exhale, Alim fires a round from his gun, praying to the Universe that he wouldn't hit any of his comrades, and that he might still be of some use...
Jib really messes this thing up! He swings 3 times but only hits twice. The first swing makes for one of the most gory thing that many of you have ever seen. Jib follows it up with another brutal hit making the creature inches from death. Tool manages to surprise it again, but his attack doesn't land. Luckily, because of that surprise, Alim is able to land the killing blow against the Akata. While all of this is happening, Dahlia heals the group.
The hallway is now empty but you know that there is an angry akata on the other side of the door.
Taking aim with her pistol, Dahlia attempts to corner the beast with a shot over its head.
Alim prepares himself for the charge of the incoming Ataka.
tool hides off to the side again waiting to be told there all ready and he will open the door again.
The group gives Tool the "all ready" sign and he presses the button to open the door and crouches down, hoping to not be seen.
As soon as the door is open, shots fire at it from Dahlia and Alim, though none seem to hit. Dahlia seems like she missed on purpose though.
The enemy doesn't seem to of noticed Tool as it charges into the room. It once again targets Jib since he is right there. But Jib is ready and cuts it pretty badly
Katara also takes a slice at it with his longsword. And cuts it open really badly! But it returns the favor with a bite to Jib.
Seeing it can not infect the robot and how badly Katara hit it, the akata sets its sights on him!But Katara is well armored and its teeth can not break through!
Tool waits for for the Akata to come through the door. When it dose Tool lunges at it with his knife.
Tool manages to stab it and that is enough to drop the final akata. The bridge of the ship is now cleared and every room seems to be empty. In this room you find 3 bulk of noqual in total. You now know that the stone is actually produced by the akata to make cocoons.
The only other thing of interest in here is the computer.
Once its clear Tool goes goes up to the computer and gives it a good once over. Tool isn't sure why there would be traps on the computer but then why would these creatures be here. Once Tool feels it is safe he goes to work hacking the computer. Looking for any information that may help them.
Tool searches the physical computer and everything seems fine. He gets to work on hacking the computer and easily breaks into the basic functions of the ship. This allows you to remotely close (or open) any or all of the doors on the ship, including the airlock hatches, and repressurize the ship . You can also control the ship’s lighting, increasing the light level throughout the ship to normal light if you wish. You also learn that there is a firewall that holds more secure data. Due to your expertise, you learn that this firewall is protected by a lockout countermeasure.
As soon as you figure that out, Hux takes a try at it and after a few minutes of work, he breaks through the firewall and disables the countermeasure. In the secure section of the computer you find lots of information that is not really important to you and doesn't make much sense such as mining manifests, maps, charts, and so on. But among the files, you find the crew logs.
The logs detail the discovery of the Drift Rock, the crew’s initial exploration of the asteroid’s surface and the strange “geodes” they found there. The captain then states that the crew was under attack from monsters that “hatched” from the geodes they brought back to the ship. After killing a bunch of them, you recognize these monsters as the akata. The next entry is more hurried, and the sounds of combat are audible in the background. There’s something else—it came from the rock! the captain reports with more than a trace of panic in his voice. We’re getting overwhelmed! I’m going to open the ship to vacuum—maybe that’ll slow them down! The log’s final entry was recorded in engineering and shows the captain in his space suit. Purging the air didn’t work. I’ve set the autopilot to continue on to Absalom Station, but we’re abandoning ship. We’ll fall back to the rock and try to regroup there. Acreon out. There are no further entries.
That is pretty much all you find of interest on the computer.
Tool well looking through the info on the computer tries to find a log to tell him what was in the box the undead wanted us to bring him.
There is nothing in the computer in reference to the box that you can find. You are unsure if it is because of the weird code (you are able to figure out most of what is being mentioned but the exact items moving on and off the ship are not easily determined) that the manifest is kept in or if it is because it is not included.
Alim looks at the final Ataka, as if staring through its being. He is frozen, lost in thought, as everyone moves into the bridge and searches around. Looking from the most recently killed Ataka to the other two in the hallway area, Alim slowly looks around the ship, as if really seeing it for the first time. The lights on here flickering, the feeling cold and desolate... Alim wondered why he hadn't noticed it early.
Alim slowly shuffles into the room as he hears Tool and Hux find the clips from the crew members. Hearing the desperation in the captain's voice as he describes the attack of the Akata on the ship, Alim slowly shakes his head. However, when Alim hears the captain say they were abandoning the ship and were going to the rock, Alim's head snaps up to the screen, and sees the Captain's face mixed with panic, strength, and concern before going blank. Alim's eyes remain fixed on where the screen was just playing the clip and Tool sets to work trying to find out more information on the box that Ambassador Noir requested.
Upon finding nothing, Alim turns slowly to the group. His eyes are glued to the floor, not making eye contact with anyone as he speaks. "I... I do have fear for what is on that Rock... Finding out the Captain and Crew brought these 'geodes' off of the Rock... And now knowing they have fled to it... And after our own experience here with them... I do not believe we are properly equipped to fight them as we stand now..."
Alim slowly, deliberately, straightens his back, to pull himself up to his full height. For the first time since the fighting began, he looks like the Alim everyone knows him for. He takes his time, making eye contact with each of his comrades as he continues. "Based on our history with these beasts, and seeing what the Crew has experienced, we are not currently in a place to bring a proper fight to them... Nor are Hux and I in the best of health. I suggest we do what we can to explore the ship and search for any more history or stories that this ship can give to us to help us better prepare ourselves for what may come next... We should gather the box that Ambassador Noir has asked us to bring to him without question... And then we should head back to the Station for a bit... While we are there, we can split up what we have found and sell what we do not need... Hux and I can work on mending ourselves... And everyone can take some time to better equip... Since I know that I personally do not like fighting with guns... I will need to meditate on it a bit... while healing..." Alim pauses, clearly winded from his short speech. He looks around at his comrades to hear what they have to purpose. As he waits, Alim glances around the ship, to see if he can detect any other clues or information that isn't found on the fancy technology box.
Alim is unable to find anything more that is relevant to mission. But while he is exploring, you receive a call from Zo! Hello there big shots! WOW are you guys intense! That was some exciting stuff! I can't wait to see what the public thinks of this. Soooo I just cut the feed but I am still recording just in case you stubble upon something exciting or at the very least, so we can make a few teasers. So let us talk sequel. Part of the mission you agreed to do was also to explore the Drift Rock but the Acreon was a bit more intense than I anticipated. I am good with us taking a break, but how long of one do you guys think you will need? I need to start promoting the sequel episode. But also, we do not know what happened to that crew, and leaving them on the rock for longer than we need might bring bad publicity for both of us. What are you guys thinking?
Alim flinches slightly when Zo!'s phone call comes it. The loud, enthusiastic sound of his voice echoes off the dreary hallway walls.
Alim turns from his searching, and addresses Zo!. " I do not know what my comrades wish to do going forward, so I speak for myself presently. I... I am wounded, as is Hux. Personally, I would like permission to be granted for our return to the Station until we are both in better health... Because I am unsure how long it will take to heal, I do not want to place a time on it... I do understand that the crew is currently... Or was on the Drift Rock, so I would not like to leave them for long, either... But I cannot serve them well while I am in this condition..."
Alim looks to his comrades for their input, but all the while Alim wanders towards the room that holds Ambassador Noir's box within it, hoping his comrades will follow.