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When the Xill bursts out, Raatchet exclaims, "Whoa there big, ugly, and (I ain't gonna lie) scary! Couldn't resist the two-for-one deal?"
Upon seeing the Xill bite Grinds, Raatchet yells, "Hey! NOBODY gets to grind on the nerves of my favorite monstrously large (and equally scary) insectoid buddy, EXCEPT for my copy of Star Sugar Heartlove! Eat this!! RAAAAAAAAA!!"
Raatchet lets out a roar (which, let's be honest, is more of a little rat squeal although Raatchet thinks it's intimidating) as he overcharges his rifle, discharging an unusually intense laser beam toward the Xill (which probably misses).
Even as Max shouts encouragement, Stiehle's shot barely misses the Xill, who seems pre-occupied with Grinds. The xill leans toward Grinds and seems to kiss the Haan on his shoulder! Fortunately, the Haan's biology seems hostile to the egg the Xill was implanting into him!
Delea's spell seems to wash over the Xill, but cannot find purchase on its alien mind!
Raatchet's shot misses by a hands-breadth as the Xill ducks behind the chair!
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Grinds is not to keen on creatures trying to copulate on the first date.
Where's the courtship! I demand romance before I carry anyone's eggs!
Grinds then takes the force baton and force it into the creatures maw.
He then quickly realizes he doesn't know the statistics for such a weapon and just uses his armored mandible to the things chin!
He then looks over to Raatchet And I refuse to copulate to the tones of that wretched 'music'
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"Music? Good idea, Grinds!"
Raatchet flips a little switch on his belt and Star Sugar Heartlove immediately blasts from his custom rig's speakers with an unusually elevated amount of bass. 'Those subwoofer upgrades were TOTALLY worth it!' Raatchet thinks to himself.
"Grinds, not only do we now have a background battle anthem but if this song puts the Xill in the same mood as you, it'll stop trying to...uh...copulate. You're welcome!" Raatchet momentarily shudders at having used Grinds' name and the word 'copulate' in the same sentence.
"But then again, Delia mentioned it's a juvenile, so pop music probably puts it IN the mood...sorry! Hey, if it's a juvenile and it's attracted to you, Grinds, does this make you a Xill teen heartthrob?? If we market you just right, we'll make MILLIONS!!"
Raatchet makes these statements as Grinds' armored mandibles relentlessly beat down on the poor Xill...
Grinds' fists land hard and the Xill rocks from the punches. It hisses something in a hellish tongue, then in broken Common. "Food must stop!"
Max's shot hits the chair again, while the Xill hisses and dances with Grinds.
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Stiehle barks laughter with a definite nervous edge as he watches the strange and unnerving gyrations of the creature as it tries to... what exactly with Grinds? "My Gods Raatchet, you never stop do you?" The operative darts past Max and the ysoki, trying to get a bead on the xill's back as he fires another shot.
vs EAC
electricity
vs DC 20 + Target's CR
Stiehle's shot also goes wide!
The Xill howls and bites again at Grinds!
But Grinds is not as unprepared as before and fends the thing off!
Raatchet's shot hits hard, burning a small hole in the Xill's shoulder, who hisses in pain and rage!
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Grinds lacks the sort of facial features he would need to become slack jawed at Raatchet's antics so instead he is left with an involuntary twisting of his facial tendrils
I Refuse! IrefuseIrefuseIrefuseIrefuseIrefuseIrefuseIrefuse!!
Grinds takes his fist back once more and unloads once more on the Xill, wishing beyond all wishes that the situation allowed for a white furred Ysoki to be on the receiving end of this.
Little Ysoki, you can not objectify me like this.
Once again Grinds lashes out, but only one fist lands, cracking a rib on the creature, who hisses. Delea's magic lashes out, but again can find no purchase on the thing's essence!
On the viewscreen, the storm is almost engulfing the ship and the hair on the back of your necks rises!
Round 3:
Buff-Bot, Stiehle
Bad Guy
Delea, Raatchet, Grinds
Stiehle's pistol barks and the xill cries out as a burn erupts on his chest!
Max's shot just misses the writhing xill, who hisses and lashes out with its bite and several tools, including a laser pistol it uses as a bludgeon, clearly not accustomed to its use.
for piercing damage!
for damage!
for damage!
However its flailing attacks find no purchase!
Grinds hits the creature hard with one of his swings, while Raatchet and Delea's shots rip holes in its hide. It reaches out toward Grinds for a moment in a gesture that is either threatening or tender, then topples back into the ruined corpse of the pilot, both bodies hitting the ground with a wet THUD.
The bridge is quiet, while the storm's hypnotic lightning gets closer and closer...
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"Nice shot Delea! You need to do that more often! And wow Grinds, it was really into you until death did you two apart!"
Despite missing out on the potential glee to be derived from debating whether the Xill loved or hated Grinds, the storm on the viewscreen brings practical reality crashing to the forefront and Raatchet says, "Welp, time to move!"
Raatchet will grab the hard drive and attach it to his rig, downloading a copy into his custom rig as we get moving. Later, when a copy is done and if we're still on this ghost ship, Raatchet will hand the original hard drive to Delea for safekeeping.
Raatchet takes a quick glance around to see if there are any other interesting items on the bridge...
...then asks, "To the captain's quarters? Or is it time to abandon ship?"
Other than the bodies, a silk Kasathan mouth scarf, probably that of the dead pilot, is the only thing of note.
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"GRAB THE DATA AND THE SCARF, HAND ME THE KEYCARD. WITH THE GHOST CONTAINED WITHIN THE SUIT, IT SHOULD BE QUICK TO RETRIEVE A KEEPSAKE FROM THE CAPTAIN AS YOU FINISH THE DOWNLOAD. DELEA, ATTEND TO HE-WHO-GRINDS-BLADES-INTO-DUST'S WOUNDS, STIEHL PLEASE ACCOMPANY ME, WE SHALL NEED TO MAKE HASTE TO SECURE THE DESIRED KEEPSAKES FROM EACH MEMBER PRIOR TO THE STORM ENGULFING THIS CRAFT."
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Stiehle nods. "Listen for us though, we'll call if we run across that kasathas ghost outside of its suit." The operative follows the android out into the hallway and takes up a position next to the door when Max opens it. After taking a moment to look for traps, he'll slip into the room.
to search for inside of Captain's Quarters door when Max opens it - mostly for traps but also for anything of particular interest
The keycard slides into the reader and the door opens with a soft whoosh. The smell that hits you is full of iron and ozone.
The signs of struggle are visible throughout this room. A single bed in the northwest corner of the chamber is torn, with its comforter halfway on the floor. A nearby bed table and desk are in similar disarray, covered with shattered glass and hunks of broken ceramics. A pool of blood covers the southern floor, adjacent to the chamber’s sole entry point.
A lifeless kasatha in a suit of battle harness powered armor lies on the floor. The armor glows with a barely visible force field that projects around the armor at a range of about one foot, and a cable on the floor leads from a starship battery pack (identical to those found in the engine room) to the base of the suit.
You all feel the hairs and cilia on the back of your necks begin to rise as purple and blue sparks start popping from the walls like static electricity!
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"DO NOT TOUCH THE BATTERY, LEAVE THE GHOST CONTAINED. THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS VEHICLE AND PROXIMITY TO THE STORM SHOULD DESTROY THE GHOST. FOR NOW, SECURE ANYTHING OF MONETARY OR SENTIMENTAL VALUE AND FALL BACK TO THE BUTTERBALL."
Max will take direction from Stiehle in what to recover, and move everything quickly back into the Butterball's airlock along with the other trinkets found earlier. Once he has done so he'll shout out "ALL SECURED. ONCE EVERYONE IS ABOARD I'LL BEGIN THE PROCESS TO CYCLE THE AIRLOCK."
Leaving the starship battery plugged into the force field that the Captain inside to contain the restless dead, you head back to the airlock as multicolored sparks begin to form on the metal walls and bulkheads, your hair standing on end. The other turret drops down and explodes in a cascade of blue lightning as the airlock closes and cycles!
Once on board the Butterball, you disengage and punch the engines, speeding away as the Kasthan ship is fully engulfed and explodes in a series of small explosions that rock the ship as the blast wave impacts your shields. However, with quick thinking and reactions, you're able to make it away and safely into the Drift!
The journey home takes day, and you are soon back at Absalom Station. Ziggie is waiting for you as you dock and meets you outside the airlock. He walks you back to his office, making small talk, but it's clear he's bursting to ask questions. Once you're safely at HQ, he seems to explode in a series of questions about what happened on your mission.
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On the flight back, Max recites a few more lines of 'poetry' as he re-enters his 'detective' vocal cadence. He takes a careful inventory of the accumulated items, along with who they were likely owned by.
~~~
As they walk from the airlock back to Ziggy's office, Max engages in small talk just a bit longer than would be considered acceptable, clearly missing the cue. Finally, with some more... obvious prompting, he gets to the point.
"An intriguing mystery indeed. But the facts presented themselves to us as we made our journey through the ill-fated ship. That is of course, after obtaining access to said ship following an honorable duel with the Veskarium Vessel Honorbound, the crew of which also sought salvage of the Struggle's Scholar. It appears as though they received a clue indicating that the Scholar possessed something which could help with their war against the swarm."
He pauses to let that information sink in, and to let others weigh in before continuing.
Ziggy nods and gestures for you to continue.
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On the derelict ship, Stiehle moves swiftly to the bed as something catches his eye. A hidden compartment pops open and the operative quickly surveys the items contained within. His eyes linger for a moment on the holo photo viewer and he takes a quick look, his face impassive as he pockets the items swiftly so as not to waste any further time in getting off the ship. "You know that's right." He comments to Max as he carefully eyes the suit and the body inside as well as the forcefield surrounding it. The sacrifice of the captain is brought home hard as he thinks on the photo in the viewer, and Stiehle turns away, wiping at his eyes with his sleeves as makes for the safety of their own ship.
Once they are aboard The Butterball, he lays out the items he found, quickly determining that there are 500 credits on the stick. Stiehle grins at Raatchet. "That'll be you a few albums of that sugar pop music you seem to like." But then his grin fades as he picks up the holo viewer. "Though I think maybe we should find this Kieran, if we can. The credits belong to him. Or her. And maybe some closure about their parent as well. They died a hero, and never did get to take that shore leave celebration with their child."
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A day later, back at Absolom Station, Stiehle picks up the narrative, grinning as he speaks. "That vesk ship was no match for The Butterball! We were spinning them all over the place trying to catch us. The Pegasus class is a good ship, even if its weapons aren't particularly big."
His expression sombers a bit as he goes on. "The derelict ship was on the edge of some kind of storm... Delea can probably give you better details on that. Needless to say, we had to move quick if we were going to investigate before the storm overtook her - and us! There were signs of violence on the ship when we boarded, a lot of blood smeared between the Captain's quarters and the crew's training room. We found a personal log that indicated something terrible happened." He hands over the log for Ziggy to look over as they continue to talk, if he'd like to do so. "The Captain sacrificed their life to stop... whatever this Yotto had become. Some kind of incorporeal creature, it seems. Whether her transformation had to do with that alien creature we found, I couldn't say..."
Ziggy accepts the log, looking at it. "Did you recover personal items? According to the records for the ship, the crew requested their personal items be returned to the Idari. Please, continue."
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At mention of the Honorbound duel, Raatchet perks up.
"Oh yah! We whupped that Veskarium ship's scaly lizard tail! Stiehle was flying our tasty Butterball in circles around that ship all 'ZOOM ZOOM' like!" Raatchet uses his left and right hands to mime spaceships flying around each other.
"Then Max used his super x-ray spy equipment to see what was going on in the ship. He said to Grinds, 'There's a vesk eating a banana in the ship's pantry but the banana was peeled THE WRONG WAY!! Lock on target!!'"
"Then Grinds, who was head-banging to Star Sugar Heartlove playing over his personal speakers at volume pumped up to one kazillion, said 'Awwww hell naw!!' and Grinds then pew pew'd away at the ship's kitchen with direct hit after direct hit until the vesk ship said 'No! Not our bananas!'" Raatchet shoots the air around him with finger guns.
"Then Delea, who's the most normal person on the ship (after me, of course) reached into our minds and told us what she really thought of us all...ahem...in a completely platonic way, of course!"
"And me...well I just kept hitting the 'I WIN!' button until we won! EPIC!"
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As Stiehle describes the ship, Raatchet chimes in.
"Oh yah, that ship was baaaaad mojo!! Haunted ghost ship, Ziggy, I tell ya!! Dead bodies, all over. Ninja ghosts slicing and dicing all throughout. Lights dying and flickering. Blood running through the ship's pipes. Aliens inhabiting corpses and bursting out at you. That place was a death trap! It wasn't all bad though. Grinds came THIS close to finding true love." Raatchet holds his his thumb and index finger a couple millimeters apart from each other. "Someone tell Ziggy about Grinds' admirer!!"
"But yes, it's sad what happened to the crew. And we did recover their personal items along with some cash that should probably go to their loved ones. I'm not entirely clear either on what turned that crew member into a ghost or how exactly that Xill alien got on board or what happened to the crew's android crew member. Still all a bit of a mystery."
Raatchet hands over the personal items he picked up (I believe it was the scarf and toy model).
Raatchet looks over at Delea, cocks his head to the side a bit, raises an eyebrow and without further expression, mentally communicates back to Delea, Uh...you were telling us all how good we were and encouraging us to do better and letting us know you had full confidence in our abilities. I'm one hundred percent sure it was all in a platonic, professional context... Did I say something wrong?? Raatchet pauses for a second when a look of realization washes over his face... Oh....oh no! Me and my big mouth! Maybe I should say something more to Ziggy to clarify! Raatchet turns back to Ziggy and opens his mouth about to say something....
Ziggy collects the crew's effects, shaking his head. "I will see these returned to the Idari and their families. You have done well, both in retrieving the effects and ending the Honorbound battle on good terms! Were you able to recover the ship's data? Perhaps it will finally allow us to solve the mystery of the loss of Sangoro's Bulwark."
"Ah! I will send this to Historia-7 immediately! I believe her Dataphiles will be able to break the encryption and provide us with answers!"
“This is the first shred of truly good news that the Exo-Guardians have had in a long time! My many thanks for all you have done in securing this important data. Now, there is another important matter I wanted to bring up."
“Prior to the Scoured Stars incident, I was part of a group of loyal friends, like the team you’re all a part of. Right before that dark event, I bought some tickets for my friends and me to a major upcoming concert. It was going to be our big outing—a capstone to all our missions together. Now, all my friends are trapped or lost in the Scoured Stars, and who knows how long it will take before we find out what happened there. The concert is coming up in a few months, and I wanted to extend an invitation. No promises or anything; you might be on assignment, and field missions take priority. If you are free, though, I would be honored if you would join me at this concert. Think of it as a remembrance for my lost comrades and a celebration of a new generation’s camaraderie."
“Oh! I just realized that I should invite Historia-7 too! Okay, well, thanks again. I should get going!”
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Looking slightly sad that the mission has come to an end, Raatchet's ears turn up in excitement upon hearing of an upcoming concert. "Sounds great! Everybody who's in, raise their hands!"
Raatchet raises his left hand and before he can protest, Raatchet uses his other hand to grab Grinds' hand and raises Grinds' hand as well.
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Stiehle grins at the Ysoki, then turns back to Ziggy. "Count me in. I'll find a way to get there if I can." The operative bids farewell to the crew of the Butterball. He hopes his next assignment will see him teamed up with others as competent and entertaining as these. He laughs aloud at the antics of Raatchet as he heads out the door. Time to make some extra coin on that high fantasy vidgame that he'd grown fond of lately. Maybe he'd run into that LoungeLizard2X2 and give him some payback for that last encounter they'd had. Stiehle was certain it was a vesk behind that annoying little blue-haired gnome that swooped in to steal his kills...
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Grinds stand silently as the group discusses with Ziggy.
Between all of the pranks played by Raatchet and his barely concealed contempt for his own faction head, the poor Haan is just out of stamina for this whole situation.
But for just a small moment, when the leader discusses the loss of his team, Grinds seems to soften, if only just a bit.
I must decline this invitation to go to this erm..'concert'. But if you have need of a team to go into deep space and destroy randy teenaged Xills, you may call on me