Iseph focuses their fire on Suits target, choosing to risk staying where they are a little longer to fire off two shots.
Quig and Scout make short work of the two goblins standing out in the open, blood slowly blooming from bullet holes in their space suits as they drift to the ground. Obozaya tries a little too hard and just barely misses one of the goblins. Iseph fires two rapid shots at the red-suited bully on the catwalk, scoring a minor wound.
The goblin curses and fires back.
The bully manages to score a solid shot, burning Iseph's arm.
Combat! Round 2 (Bold may act)
Obozaya
Iseph (-6)
Red (-4)
Navasi (-4)
Yellows
Keskodai
Raia
Green
Quig
Navasi shoots out the eye of the gree-suited goblin. The two yellow goblins, noting the swift demise of their companions, drop their rusty laser pistols and tumble over themselves trying to climb down the scaffolding. Once they reach the floor the raise their arms, shouting, [b]"Par-day! Par-day!"
The remaining larger goblin snarls something at them.
Hearing cries for mercy and only seeing one target left, Raia runs out into the open and takes a shot at the remaining hostile goblin.
"Leave those two be! We can sort out their honesty later," she calls out. No need to spill the blood of those who wish peace! They may even be able to help us!
Unfortunately, her split focus isn't enough and the shot strikes a stray piece of wreckage, causing loud reverberations to course through it.
________
Quig moves up, still taking cover.
He remotely gives some commands to the drone.
The drone flies up, still taking cover.
It fires at the goblin up top.
Obo moves out into the opening making his way to the steps. He looks up at the goblin at top and pulls the trigger.
The drone rises upwards and shoots the bully goblin in the leg. While he is reeling from that wound, Obozaya steps out into the open, turns, lines up her shot, and removes the goblin's head from his shoulders with a cannon mortar.
The two remaining goblins throw themselves on the floor in front of you. "No kill! No kill! We sorry!"
One of them peeks up from the floor to check to see if you're about to execute them. "You let live. We tell you secrets."
Obo moves up to the goblin and growls, "Better start talking"
Kesko knew that fighting wasn't his strong suit, so he managed to save his battery. He ran forward with the others, ready to help with influencing the prisoners however necessary.
It takes some time convincing them to tell you anything worthwhile to you--either because of the language barrier, their intrinsic nature, or both--but eventually you are able to steer them on a useful track.
"Flaming ship smash hanger! All go boom!" one goblin explains.
The other reluctantly adds, "Our glowing green god stopped giving us miracles."
"So wire-shaman Gutproud Techtalker--may he rest in pieces--brought us to salvage parts from flaming ship," the first continues. He points to the magnetically sealed doors of the command center on the catwalk. "Gutproud sealed away in glowing green chamber to commune with green glowing god."
How doe we get into the glowing green chamber
"And what else can you tell us about this green glowing god?" Sounds like something is pulling the wool over these creature's eyes...
"Oh! The great glowing green god all powerful! Glowing green god opens doors, turns lights on and off, cleans air, warms rooms, and makes poo-poo disappear!" the goblins say in reverence, interjecting over one another as they list the myriad ways in which the glowing green god makes their lives easier.
"Shaman Gutproud enters glowing green chamber when glowing green god stares into soul of Shaman Gutproud," a goblin answers Obozaya, indicating what appears to be a retinal scanner on the command center door. None of you--including Scout should he fly up to that level--sees anyone inside the command center.
"Even the poo-poo eh?" Iseph says with a smirk as they shake their head. "Can you get us in there? Or do we need to hack it?" They rub their arm where the shot burned them before looking to their colleagues.
"I don't know about you, but I'm pretty curious about this green god."
Raia stifles a little laugh as the goblins explain the miracles of their new god. "I'm more interested than ever! Let's see what we need to do to get in. Care to lead the way Quig? Iseph? Sounds like your area of expertise!"
She waits patiently to follow her technologically minded friends to the investigate the door.
"Cer-ton-ly!"
Quig heads up the stairs and checks the door for traps or locks.
If he finds nothing, he'll open the door.
"Oh no! We no shamans! We die before great glory of great green god!"
It actually takes Quig two tries before he manages to override the retinal scanner and unlock the magnetically sealed doors to the command center. The doors part with a hiss.
A soft glow radiates from flickering computer screens, washing the various and numerous workstations under a film of light the color of sea foam. The constant hum of electronics floods the room, enhanced periodically by several nagging pings from blinking console alarms.
The east side of the command center is a green-screened mainframe computer terminal. Occasionally, sparks shower the area from thick cables sprawling from underneath its exposed bulk. You see two blistered, green goblin feet sticking out from under the cables and a charred hand reaching lifelessly toward the ceiling from between the coils.
"Be careful touching anything," Kesko whispers as he sees the crispy goblin in the room.
"How sad... What a wretched way to go..." Raia says quietly as they begin to explore the area.
________
"Alright, well, let's see if we can get these computers back online. I know a little bit about technology but I might need some help here, Quig you can probably give some pointers, yeah?"
Iseph moves toward the consoles, stepping around the dead goblins and tries to get to work.
"Put the wahoosit over in the thingamabob over there."
Kesko moves over and adds a couple of words, hoping his expertise shined through.
Aid another Computers
"I'll see if I can get it to function at all!" Raia says as she begins typing away into the mainframe.
Iseph and Quig make short work of repairing the damage to the mainframe that the crashed Archer caused. Once that obstacle is removed, the terminal reboots and then requests a 7-digit code for access. However, Raia and Keskodai do not even bother with identifying the login and simply hack directly into root access, bypassing all countermeasures and firewalls in a way that makes it look easy.
With root access, Raia is able to remotely link the terminal to her communication unit.
Access allows her to :
Turn the lights on and off
Unlock and lock any sealed door
Silence any alarms (including the annoying ones in the command center)
Pinpoint the source of the mysterious signal (the computer indicates that it is through the elevator doors on the other side of the catwalk and down to the basement level)
Adjust the ambient temperature between 66 and 78 degrees F
Root access allows additional options :
Lights Out: Turn out the lights
Strobe: Cause the lights to rapidly alternate between on and off for 1 round, causing anyone not expecting it to be dazzled for 3 rounds (this only works once in a given situation)
Up, Up, and Away: Temporarily turn off the artificial gravity (1 round)
Terrible Truths: Play audio logs over the loud speaker (currently the party does not have the necessary logs to gain the effect)
"...since I have control over the computer, does that make me the new glowing green goddess?" Raia says, giggling a little at the thought.
"It looks like the signal we are looking for is originating from the basement level of this compound. I'll silence all the relevant alarms to help mask our travel. I'd also like to lock all the doors and put us in control of the area. Any objections?" she asks, looking at each party member.
"Raia, pick a door and let's get moving. I know there'll be more of those awful goblins waiting on us," Kesko whispers as he looks around.
"How about those double doors that the big goblin was standing in front of?" Once they are in position to enter it, she unlocks the door.
A thick plume of steam rolls out from the freshly opened doors. After a moment, the steam evaporates, revealing a marked transition into an entirely different area—a section of an entirely different starship. Where the hangar bay had straight lines and smooth plastic walls, this elevator has exposed cords and wires in varying dark shades such as charcoal and umber.
A singsong voice greets Raia in an alien tongue. Soft lights wash over a smooth, wet surface at the elevator’s southern wall. Scores of holographic glyphs appear in three spiraling patterns foreign to the Pact Worlds.
Quig glares quickly at the glyphs. "Wonder what language it is..."
"I have just the thing!"Raia exclaims as her eyes light up, interested in this new language. She begins to weave an intricate spell with the aid of her technology.
________
Iseph frowns as they enter this new starship but says nothing as they wait for Raia to do her work.
Raia steps into the elevator and performs her personal style of magic. The runes seem to make a little more sense to her and the function seems to be a combination lock or pass code of some sort. She understands that she needs to select one rune from each of the three wheels.
"It's making more sense, but... ummmm... I think this is the combination?" Raia stutters, not entirely confident in her abilities to produce the right sequence.
"Mind if I take a peek? I've always been good with puzzles..."
Wisdom check
Quig lands his drone in the elevator. "Big elevator, huh?"
Iseph tries to help Raia figure it out but grunts in anger.
"I can't make heads or tails of this. You think you got it Kesko? be my guest."
Raia concludes that, given how long this structure has been floating through space and how much debris it has accumulated, it may very well have reset all codes to the factory default. She tries select the rune that looks closed to a zero for each of the three wheels. Whether her assumption was correct or not, the code appears to have the desired effect.
The doors close on you, and the elevator rockets downwards, causing you all to float momentarily. It then swiftly decelerates and dings upon stopping.
The elevator doors open into a rectangular storage room that shares the same design as the hangar bay above. A mesh grating just beyond the western elevator door overlooks stacked crates below. An adjacent set of stairs descends to the floor. A second set of stairs continues to a separate, stone chamber to the east.
A little nervous, Raia holds her pistol at the ready and waits for one of the more combat inclined of her friends to step in before following them.
Obo smirks, she then places her auto target rifle on full auto. And leads the way into the unknown hall.
Quig pulls out his weapon once again and the drone starts flying to keep up.
Kesko takes a spot towards the back of the group, ready to bolster them as necessary.
Nothing happens as Obozaya leads the way out of the elevator. All seems quiet from your perspective save for a distant electric hum of energy coursing through conduits. The main room is filled with storage crates stacked two high , and all of them show signs of having been pillaged (probably by goblins).
"See anything of use? Looks like it's all been pretty thoroughly looted. What about that light over there?" Raia asks as she cranes her head trying to see it. "Can we go that way first?"