|
When Historia-7, the leader of the Dataphiles faction, uncovers the first hints of a conspiracy operating against the Starfinder Society, the PCs must assist her in uncovering the truth. Sent to a corporate space station orbiting the Pact Worlds' sun, the PCs must earn favor with the hedonist son of a corporate CEO to gain access to the confidential files Historia-7 needs. However, the PCs are stuck in the middle when this corrupt dilettante's proclivities and shady associations emerge to thwart the Starfinders' covert infiltration.
Content in The Solar Sortie also contributes to the ongoing goals of the Dataphiles faction.
|
The door to the meeting room slides open. For a moment, your catch a glimpse of an arthropod standing outside the room. With a soft shht, the door slides closed again, before immediately reopening. This time, the creature hops over the threshold, an exhilarated smile across its face.
'YES! I will answer the Societies call!' rings out the minds of all in the room. Pausing a moment to take in the view, the shirren looks around, it's mandibles clacking with a sickening giggle.
Noticing it's alone, the creatures face falls momentarily before it begins sitting in each chair, one at a time. Finally, it stands and returns to the second chair it'd tried. 'This one seems fun! Oh making decisions are just grand.'
Clad in a full suit of armor, helmet included, a strange black orb cirlces about it's head. Seemingly absorbing all light, it silently goes round and round. A pulsating gauntlet covers the things left hand as it taps a button to slide the face shield open.
'Oh, I do hope my new friends show up soon. This will be such a grand adventure. Historia-7 I think was the one to summon me this time. Never worked with her...him...it? before.'
|
The door re-slides open moments after the Shirren ponders if his new allies will arrive to reveal what look like the legs and lower torso of a set of armour. An awkward scene then unfolds as the being inside the armour attempts to make its way through a door obviously too small for it. His first attempt is to merely duck a large insectoid under the frame and try to squeeze through to no avail. With an embarrassed wave to the Shirren occupying the room, the Haan then attempts to shuffle in sides way again with no success, his 15 foot pike catching the frame. Sighing in frustration and slight embarrassment he drops to the floor and wiggles on a 45 degree angle like a worm and finally makes egress into the room.
Clambering to his feet and dusting off his heavy armour Haan holds out his hand to the individual in the room. "Hello, I Haan Christian Anderson, and hate doors. Who you?" His voice is deep and gruff like one would expect from his species but at the same time projects an almost childish like curiosity and lack of grammatical mastery.
His eyes briefly scan the room and he lets of a disappointed sigh noticing none of the chairs will support one of his prodigious size and stature. Not wanting to be a bad Haan he leans against the wall while awaiting a response and the arrival of the rest of the Starfinders.
|
|
Eyeing the creature with intrigue as it struggles to enter the tiny room, the shirren giggles.
'Well met! I'm Xochitl T'zek but most call me Show. You can call me what you like.' rings out in the haan's head.
'What's your specialty? I like to get up close myself...for some reason, it seems that makes it easier for my friends to hit our foe.'
|
|
Having finished rearranging the multi-hued hairlike spikes extending from his Abdomen Haan looks up a the question. "I call Xo" he chuckles at his clever joke before continuing holding out his pike, "Put pointy in bad. If bad far, make bad close and put pointy in"
Now that the large creature has moved to converse those in the room will notice a small portion of the left side of his head is indented and seemingly missing mass. Old scars and stitching marks still remain visible and a slow drip of ichor oozes from it. This seems to be the only visible wound on the individual but perhaps the heavy golemforged plate covers more?
|
An android female with purple eyes wanders into the room and looks surprised to find the two others there. She looks down at a datapad and then back up. If she's intimidated by the two imposing Starfinders, she doesnt show it, though she does seem a bit lost.
"Is this correct? Floor 34, subsection Gamma, corridor 3, room 34H81? I'm supposed to meet designation Historia-7 for further instructions. Neither of you fit the descripton parameters. If this is the correct location, what is your purpose here?"
|
|
The Haan looks down at the robotic lady, "This where we met His..tor..ria 7", he seems to take his time pronouncing her name like it was a very taxing thought process. "Guess you teammate for what she want".
Feeling his answers are adequate the Haan starts to pick out the equivalent of belly lint from his chitin plating, pausing to sniff at it before flicking it across the room towards an empty corner.
|
|
'I do believe this is the right place.' broadcasts the shirren, digging out a datapad. 'Yep. Right here says we meet the leader in this room.'
Stashing the device, it manipulates its mandibles in a strange fashion...sides raised up, middle pointed down...if you squint hard, maybe it's smiling? 'As for my purpose? I seek out new and exciting species.'
Xochitl eyes the haan's actions with intrigue, tapping in a few notes in its datapad. 'So, is it normal for those of your kind to groom in such a fasion?'
|
|
"Teammate? Ah, yes, to collaborate on objectives. Acceptable."
Her face suddenly shift to a wide smile. "Welcome! I am designation LA64397F. Many have taken to calling me 'Ella' and you may do so as well. New species will posses much new knowledge which should be catalogued when possible! I find that prospect desireable." She looks back and forth at them with her smile.
|
|
Yet another android enters the room. He looks distinctively human, except for his very pale skin, and tattoo-like circuits have not activated for now. He calmly looks at the rest of the Starfinders, although he seems particularly intrigued by the haan. He then moves to one corner, allowing a 6-legged spider-like droid to follow along.
In a measured and almost formal tone, he introduces himself. "Good day to you. My name is Mnamae-6, a serving doctor at the Tsukuza Hospital. T771-4 is my creation." The pleasantries done, he steps back and waits. Patiently.
|
|
Haan shrugs at Xochitl question, "Dunno been long time since last saw other Haan".
Turning to Ella, Haan waves "Heloo Ella, i Haan Christian Anderson. You ever met Haan before?"
"You make robot spiders? he asks turning to Mnamae-6, "Bad guys stand no chance if you can make nightmares real!". While putting up a brave front you can see the Haan has moved to the opposite side of the room of the droid.
|
|
Ella cocks her head to one side as Haan speaks to her. "I have not. Your species is relatively uncommon, and I have only been activated for 1 year, 2 months, and 14 days -- Absolom standard. However, I know some of the Haan. That you are here means you are likely an outcast, yes? Your people do not harness technology. Yet you do. Why?"
She turns to the android who has entered. "Designation Mnamae-6, acknowledged. Designation T771-4, acknowledged." She bends down to greet the small drone with as much enthusiasm and interest as any of the others.
|
|
A human steps in, brushing confetti off his suit, and takes his time to glance around the room. Now that's what I call a party. Ooh. What do we have here? He smiles as he sees his fellow companions, wondering what mayhem they'll go through this time. A lot of new faces today. That's alright. New comrades equals new friends. He offers his hand to each of them before introducing himself.
"Good day everyone. The name's Mobius. Mobius Caslan," he says with enthusiasm. "I am so looking forward to working with all of you."
He sees the spider-like creation on one corner of the room and approaches it with high interest. "Wow! This is a masterpiece right here. You must be proud of yourself," he remarks to Mnamae-6. "I find it a challenge to program and AI such as this. This is remarkable!"
He then gestures to his temple and he introduces his creation. "Forgive my excitement. I forgot to introduce my companion. This here is M.I.C.H. I built her after graduating my biology major and had her augmented in my brain with a group of respected mentors. For now, I can only comprehend what she's saying, but a few more credits and I can work on developing her speech."
With that, he finds a comfortable place to wait for the rest of the party.
|
|
Haan Christian Anderson turns his immense body towards the first android to arrive, "When outcast... learn to adapt, though put trust in trusty Haan pike". He whirls the 10ft pike in a few patterns before halting, belatedly realizing its a rather small room. Slaming his pike butt to the floor he looks abashed, "Still not use to small rooms though..."
Fortunately for the Haan a human walks into break the tention, "For so many in your race i see so few" he says slightly confused. "You take head injury like me too?", he asks pointing to the humans head giving what you can only hope is a smile, "Sometimes i hear voices too"
|
|
Ella nods. "Adaptation is necessary." She looks at Haan's pike though and frowns. "Poor choices in adaptation, however, will result in natural selection of members."
She turns to Mobius. "A neural interface is high quality. Melding biological strengths with technological ones can produce superior results." She seems to give an approving nod.
|
|
'I don't think I've ever traveled with so many machines before' considers the shirren, as it tries to follow the conversations. Sporadically, it notes something new in its datapad as it watches the interactions.
'Melding bio...OH!' rings out in the heads nearby. 'Speaking of, another of my choices lately...Had some work done on my throat! It's quite fun. Can you tell?'
Pausing a beat, Xochitl continues, 'Yeah, had a gland put in. I spit acid now! Isn't that fun?'
|
|
The efficient hum of machinery fills the Archive’s Cortex. Projected images and text flit across multiple screens positioned around a raised swivel chair occupied by Historia-7, leader of the Dataphiles. Historia-7 swipes a finger to clear the feed and speaks without preamble.
“My sources indicate that you are the most efficient and capable team the Starfinder Society currently has for my mission. I sincerely hope you do not prove this claim erroneous. I recently detected a discrepancy in the Society’s data logs. As you may be aware, my primary objective has been decoding information regarding the Scoured Stars incident. Before the incident, my predecessor, Historia-6, and other Society members extensively investigated several corporations as well as the Scoured Stars system. Much of their knowledge was lost to us. A recent ally, a skilled hacker named Ceren, uncovered multiple data links from what remains of my predecessor’s research leading back to a corporation known as the Arch Energy Consortium. When I compared these findings to our records, I found no mention of this corporation, and all data related to Arch Energy Consortium was somehow deleted from our records. My worst-case scenario is being realized: our data has been tampered with.”
Historia-7 unhooks the neural cables from her neck and massages the attachment sites. “I require additional information about this corporation. Arch Energy’s CEO, Ilia Tamm, has enough security resources and paranoia at her disposal to make a direct infiltration inadvisable. The weak link in this proverbial firewall is her son, Envar Tamm. His proclivities make him very suggestible, and I hypothesize that resourceful individuals could convince him to provide the information I seek."
She looks at each of you with a sly smile.
“Envar routinely attends gladiatorial fights on Arch Energy’s corporate space station, Brilliance. It will take you some time to reach
Brilliance from here. During your journey, I want you to create false identities. Meanwhile, I’ll make sure that you’re entered into one of these gladiatorial matches as contestants. From there, you’ll need to get Envar to grant you access to his mother’s computer records. Acquire any data related to the corporation’s board of directors. Above all, this mission demands subtlety, as Envar has quite the media presence.”
She gazes at each of you. "Any questions? And please select your spacecraft with care, remember your aim is to avoid discovery."
|
|
"Historia-7, acknowledged." Ella gives a deferential nod towards the android. Ella is suddenly finds herself nervous meeting Historia-7 in person. It was an odd sensation. Why should she experience anxiety now?
Her cybernetic brain tries to focus on the facts of the mission rather then be sidetracked by sill sensations. "You mentioned Envar may be suggestible. What evidence is there of this character trait, and what factors will allow us to exploit it?"
"Do you have a profile and image of Envar? If he is the key to data access, we should know as much about him as possible."
|
|
The Haan looks like he is thinking hard on a response to the comments of others, but is interrupted by the arrival of the leader of the dataphiles. Listening intently, those looking at him will notice he is experiencing something akin to verbal indigestion at the large words, he waits for the second android to finish before responding.
"Playing as Gladiator not hard for one like me," for a moment it looks like he is about to twirl his pike but at the last minute things better of it, ", but not sure others can do same. Maybe can be my coaches? People who help me with harder words?"
He pauses for another moment, "So bring back data on another computer not original right? Hmm does boy like to fight or just watch matches? Maybe someone could sit and watch with him to get to know better?"
|
|
"Envar is a celebrity, albeit a minor one." reminds Histora-7.
"You can search him up in the infosphere without any difficulty. Famous for being famous and having a rich mother. I think he was featured on "Life Styles of the Rich and Idle" two seasons ago."
She turns to Haa. "He is a lover not a fighter. Won't dirty his own beautifully manicured hands. But he loves watching a good bloodbath."
She thinks over the solider's words a bit longer.
“Once you gain access to Ilia Tamm’s computer, a capable computers expert should be able to locate the appropriate files. I am not entirely sure what you will find, so download anything secure and return it to me. If you are unable to extract the files on-site, removal of the computer’s storage module will suffice, but it will alert Tamm to the security breach.”
|
|
Mnamae-6 He rests his hand on T771-M4, a very human-like gesture he has picked up unknowingly recently and is not conscious of it. He listens respectfully to Historia-7's briefing, nodding his head mechanically at the right places. It has been sometime since he first met her during his commencement, and he is pleased the Ceren, the elderly woman rescued, has proved useful for the Starfinders. Still, he is clearly concerned over something, and it shows clearly on his face.
Withdrawing his hand from his drone, Mnamae-6 gives his faction leader a bow, before expressing his concern. His voice carries the right modulations you would expect of any live humanoid, but ... something is still off. "I have some small skill with manipulating computers. I can only hope that would come in useful in accessing Tamm's computers. And I trust that would be needed as well in creating our false identities? I am afraid, however, should we be challenged, I do not possess the necessary talents to outwit those who are suspicious."
Mnamae-6 ponders for a few computational cycles, then queries. "To infiltrate well, it would be useful to have more information of Brilliance." For fear of being disrepctful, he does not complete his request, leaving merely the hint of what he would like to find out from Historia-7.
|
|
As you chat, some of you realise you may already know a little bit about Envar.
Envar owes his position within the company entirely to nepotism, and while he has an elevated level of security clearance and a matching salary, his mother employs a host of assistants to limit his influence on the corporation—and her bank account. On Brilliance,however, Envar usually travels unsupervised. Ilia Tamm and her public-relations team try to cover upEnvar’s addiction to transdimensional pesh, but leaked videos of Envar’s drug-fueled antics occasionally slip through the cracks. One of the more popular videos depicts Envar nearly crashing a solar yacht in an attempt to impress the shirren icon Magisterial Chef Ghornak Ryzcech during his visit to Brilliance.
"Which ship will you be taking?" asks Historia-7
|
|
'Envar...Envar...' considers the Shirren. 'Oh! That's the kid that likes the Pesh stuff. Crashed a yacht I heard to impress a shirren once.'
Thumbing it's mandibles a moment, Xchoitl adds, 'Really doesn't like to get bored, but has nearly unfettered access. Likely he won't be supervised aboard the station either.'
Glancing towards Haan, it adds 'I may not look like much, but I can hold my own in a fight. I've been looking forward to using my new augment too. Though...I'm reallly not much use around computers.'
|
|
Ella frowns. "Envar appears to be very unreliable. He should not be trusted with secure access. However, his mother's error provides an avenue for us to exploit. If we impress him, he could be willing to share his access with us."
She cocks her head to one side unnaturally. "What can you tell us about the gladiatorial contests? My research shows traditionally those can have several types of parameters. Some are one on one battles, while others may be group contests. Some see who can land the first injury and others could be to the death. Nearly all are for perverse entertainment value."
|
|
Mnamae-6 freezes momentarily, accessing the wealth of memory stored in his memory positronic brain. "Hmm, pesh. There might be something useful that I had once accessed from the Interweb in y research of the effects that has on organic beings. A vague blog post claims that Envar owes a substantial amount of credits to the ysoki gangster Razor, who is known to be the leader of a crime organization funded largely by the drug trade. Likely to fuel his Pesh habit. Razor is known for her brutal methods of extracting credits from those reluctant to pay. Razor often uses gladiatorial matches to recruit hired muscle, and she plans to attend the event on Brilliance. She intends to collect Envar’s debt after the fight."
He ponders on this information. "If we offer him protection, that could provide opportunities to gain access to his computer records."
|
|
Turning to the smaller bug Haan smiles, "Oh what new aug...augmant do?" the word seeming to get away from.
Haan's eyes kind of glaze over as the rest of the group discusses matters in a more complex way then he is comfortable. He seems to visibly shut down for the duration of the conversation, much like the old age robots when recharging. Once the Dataphile leader mentions Team vs Team he seems to recover and asks, "Maybe enter as group will get attention? If not normal maybe he see as special show?"
The Haan stops for a moment and seems to be thinking, "We get in trouble for killing in ring?"
"Haan not care which ship as long as it big enough to fit me" he adds as an after-thought.
|
|
"Space monster?" Ella grins widely. "That sounds entertaining! We could catalog it up close and personal. And then bring it down hard."
As quick as she showed interest in the monster though, he face returns to a flat profile. "Once we have secured the data, are there particular files we are to obtain? What information on Arch Energy do you seek?"
|
Out of the corner, a figure throws back his outer cloak and advances forward to engage with the group, holding his hands high and wide to indicate non-hostility.
"Hoy spacers!" he barks to get everyone's attention. "Just a fellow Starfinder, along for the ride. Just been scoping out the convos to get the lay of the land."
::Goose holds his pose until assured nobody gets jumpy.::
|
|
Mnamae-6 boards the craft, with T771-M4 in tow. He methodically studies the ship to familiarise himself with it. More at home in dealing with living creatures than with machines, he nonetheless instinctively finds his place, being almost one himself.
He commenting to no one in general (again a humanoid habit he has picked up unconsciously in his years in the hospital) in an almost whimsical tone, "I have spent countless years stitching up wounds to save lives. Seems that this time, I am tasked to actually take one in the gladiator." He falls silent for a good time, pondering through the multitude of moral implications, but ultimately, it fails to compute. He instead turns his attention to the computer, and after a separate brief computation, crafts an identity for himself. And hence was borned Wumin Roku, the sharpshooter bounty hunter who scours the stars for his prey, protected Tilly the 6-legged combat drone, his very own creation, by his side.
|
|
With a start he stops his pike's descent towards the creepy shadow mouse in the corner, "You startle Haan, good trick!", and pats him, probably too forcefully, on the back.
Haan boards on the Drake happy to see there is plenty of space for his hulking form and even his pike. Remembering they are suppose to be undercover the Haan looks around worried at the rest of the party, "Haan not good at computers or pretending... can someone help?"
|
|
Mobius Caslan boards the Drake and tries to check out the engineering bay as well as the pilot's station. He then moves to one corner of the room and begins tapping into his exocortex.
"Alright M.I.C.H., we're going undercover for our next mission. Let's make a new identity and try to forge me some fake ID's."
|
|
Ella boards the ship and works at her station meticulously. She hacks an interface into the nearest AbadarCorp secure credit transaction server. She begins by creating false credit accounts. When these are detected, she piggy backs on the fraud detection algorithms and performs a midstream hack of the identity verification data to secure credentials on that server. Once she has those, it's a simple manner of creating a profile for a Zetra-12, an aspiring and talented gladiator created on Eox for vid shows.
She goes on to create multiple accounts for Zetra-12, back dating many of those accounts to form a sense of history for the android identity.
|
|
Goose falls in step with the others aboard the ship, bringing along a small 'away' bag of supplies and gear.
After preliminaries and cordial small talk, it seems everyone gets to work on their false identities. Hearing someone needs help, Goose tracks down Haan.
"Oy mate!" the ysoki exclaims as he approaches Haan, keeping clear of the boisterous teammate's impressive reach.
"Need a 'and with ya disguise, eh?" Goose sets to work on producing a worthy ones.
|
|
'AH!' cries out Xochitl telepathically as 'Goose' steps out. 'Welcome! Are all your race like that?' Without waiting a response, it jots a few notes down in its datapad.
Climbing aboard behind his companions, the shirren scurries about the cabin looking from one console to the other. 'Oh! It's all so bright and colorful!' rings out in the head of those around.
Ultimately settling at one of the gunnery stations, it smiles and watches the others get busy with their identities. 'Oh, I needed one too, huh? Um...well I can try, but not good with computers and lieing isn't great either... Mind givin me a hand?'
|
|
Disguises set, the team flies the Drake towards Brilliance. You arrive and docks the Drake, and are met by a customs officer who asks "Who are you and what are doing here?"
One of the security officers nearby comes forward. "These are the Gladiators for this afternoons fight. They almost missed it. You'll need to let them through or there will be hell to pay..."
|
|
You are led through the station and a number of security checks down to a large arena.
The nearby sun blazes against a backdrop of inky space through the transparent ceiling of the arena. The glare obscures the faces of the roaring crowd crammed into bleachers towering above the floor. Overhead, six suspended holoscreens loop images of the arena. Metal pillars rise like jagged teeth from the bloodstained arena floor, and an announcer’s voice booms, “Are you ready for some carnage?” The crowd echoes the refrain as the silver metal door to the east grinds open.
A couple of the guards suggest "Make it look good. The Audience is in a bit of an ugly mood today."
The arena itself has a number of pillars that you could stand on or do acrobatics around.
|
|
With some trepidation, which hopefully doesn't show on his face, Mnamae-6 steps forward into the arena, trailed closely behind by T771-M4. With each step he takes towardst he pole, he is rapidly computing through all the various options he has in attempting to impress the crowd, but the majority of them end with them falling flat on his face, or the audience laughing him out. When he finally reaches the role, he concludes that he has only one real option, his drone. A few quick taps into his left forearm gives him direct control of T771-M4. "Behold Tilly, my creation. My dangerous creation," he intones emotionlessly.
The six-legged drone turns to face the pole, and very methodically stabs each of them into the structure as it lifts itself up the pole, scurrying up it 90 degrees. It swivels itself upright when it reaches the top, balancing precariously on the narrow top, pausing long enough for dramatic effect. And leaps off!
Before it hits the ground, however, there's a sudden explosion of movement as a long pike burst out from within the body of drone, plunging deep into the pole, arresting the fall of the drone just as suddenly as it had leapt off. Again, it allows itself to hang there dramatically for a while before it pivots itself perpendicularly from the pike until its six legs again finds purchase on the pole's surface. It then again methodically scurry down, coming to rest beside Mnamae-6.