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The Starfinders find their respective places to take cover. Madrigal calls out, trying to convince the would-be attackers that their supposed saviour is actually a con-man.
"SHUT YOUR FOUL MOUTH! YOU LIAR! LIES LIES LIES! THAT IS FAKE NEWS!" The female voice roars out from the front entrance, clearly belonging to someone of quite hulking build.
When the minute is up, again her voice booms out. "You had your chance to surrender! I will ship your corpses off the planet!" Through the front door rushes in an ysoki armed with laser pistol. What draws your eyes, however, is the large shobhad standing approximately 12 feet tall, carrying a hunting rifle in two of her four arms. Although she is still outside the bar, her hulking form is clearly visible over the batwing doors.
Almost immediately, Hakrinag, Hudathan and Alice fire their weapons at the leading ysoki. While the android's shot smashes into the door above his head, the two vesks fire with deadly aim, taking down the ratfolk with twin blasts, leaving an unconscious smoking figure on the floor.
The shobhad growls at seeing her follower fall. "Useless fool!"
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Hudathan fires a pulse from his heavy laser at the shobhad. The blast takes out a large chunk of the batwing doors and smashes into her chest. Just as it hit though, Hudathan feels a sudden mental connection between him and her, and his chest starts to also burn with pain. Gritting his teeth, he tries to fight off the mental invasion.
Growling in anger at the vesk, she however turns her attention to Eli, the nearer enemy. She takes a defensive step away from Eli then summoning her mental resolve, she fills Eli's mind with waves of mind shearing energy!
With everyone's attention at the front door, no one notices another ysoki step into view at the back door, especially not Albans crouching behind the bar. Caught completely flat-footed, he takes a laser pistol shot straight into his back.
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Albans yelps in pain and drops his newly poured drink as stinging heat washes over his back. He spins around to face his attacker, "Blaggard! Didn't your mother teach you to introduce yourself before shooting someone!?" He snaps off a quick pair of shots with his sidearm in retaliation :
"Oh, and the name's Albans, by the way."
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Hudathan's alien psyche confounds the shodhad's mental retaliation, and the mental mirroring fails to take hold. Eli through pure grit and willpower, resists a large bulk of the subsequent mental assault, although she feels as if she's been put through a brain grinder.
Madrigal runs up and dives for cover beside the Alice android, but not before she calls out words of encouragement to her team. Alice readjusts her target from the fallen ysoki to the hulking figure behind the door. However, despite her advanced tracking system, the swinging batwing doors catches her rifle shot at the wrong moment. Hudathan's face similar fates - one laser shot flies out into the Akiton atmosphere, while the other blows a big chunk out of the doorframe. Hakrinag's shot follow suit, blowing a big hole through the right door.
Eli, however, lifts her pistol over the intefering doors and fires at near point-blank range at the giantess. As the bullet smash into her shoulder, almost immediately, a mental connection forms between the two of them and Eli also feels a searing pain in her shoulder!
Albans, angered by the loss of his drink, swings around and fires twice at the offending ysoki. The first bullet smashes into the floor in front of the ratkin, but the second punches into its stomach. It screeches in pain.
The ysoki quickly returns fire with his pistol, burning a painful gash in Albans' side. It then quickly ducks behind the door, out of sight of the Starfinders.
Meanwhile, the shobhad growls at Eli. "This shot is nothing. How do you like mine!" Again, she sends another overwhelming psychic force that pounds into her mind. Then, using similar tactics, as if coordinated between the two, the four-armed humanoid also moves away from the door, out of direct sight except for Eli. If she's still standing...
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Hudathan sighs. What is it with my people and the rushing? He calls out to his fellow vesk. "Hak, though we are the superior race, there is no reason to flaunt your strength."
Without moving his feet, he turns at the waist and squeezes off a shot at the Ysoki in the storeroom. Hitting the doorframe, he curses.
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"Sonofa-!" Albans yells as he is hit with a second laser beam. "Yeah, you best run!" he shouts at the retreating ysoki. "Hakrinag, just in time! I have him on the run!" Albans says, clamping a hand over his blistering arm. "I'll go help out at the front door. Time to show that Shobhad what real magic looks like." Albans then runs around the bar and crouches behind the table with Madrigal and Alice.
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Eli's face goes blank for a moment. She notices a warm, copper-tasting fluid on her lips. She looks down and realises her nose is bleeding. She looks back at the shobhad: "Stay put. I'll come back in a jiffy ram our ship up your behind."
She leaves her baton on the ground and runs to hide behind a column, breathing heavily. Once she arrives, she wipes her face with her forearm and checks the damage - half of her lower face and her wrist are crimson-coloured.
"Not good...", she mumbles to herself.
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Despite the multitude of mental assaults, Eli's mental stubbornness helps her ward of much of the attacks. They still nonetheless leave her weak and on the verge of collapse. Fearing more from where those came from, Eli wisely chooses to retreat, seeking cover behind a pillar. At the same time, Albans with much gumption hands the rear of the bar to Hakrinag and races to take cover behind the upturned table beside Madrigal and Alice.
Hakrinag charges out the back door, and stops as soon as he sees the ysoki just about 10 feet away. The ratkin squeaks in terror at the sight of the rampaging vesk and quickly raises up his pistol. Before he can fire though, Hudathan fires a shot at him, but with the awkward angle through the door and his fellow vesk in the way, the laser blast in the door frame, showering Hakrinag with splinters. The ysoki quickly fires back at Hakrinag with two shots in rapid succession. The first smashes into the towering reptilian's chest while the other blasts a whole in the wall beside him.
The shobhad appears back behind the batwing doors, lifting her hunting rifle over the doors. Before she can take a shot, however, both Madrigal and Alice, who have been waiting for to appear, fire of their shots one after another. Alice's laser shot only just manages to grace her hair. Madrigal's round, however, scrapes just over the door, and punches into the towering female's chest. Almost immediately, she feels a twinning of minds with the shobhad and a burning sensation starts welling in her chest at exactly the same spot that her foe was hit.
The shobhad is swaying somewhat from the many wounds she has taken. However, she remains defiant and takes a shot at Madrigal in retaliation. She manages to catch her just before she ducks down to cover, and the bullet tears a wound across her neck. "You will not lay your hands on our saviour!"
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Albans, sick of getting shot at and the general poor treatment he'd received since the party tried to leave (And on my own homeworld, no less!), angrily starts muttering and waving his hands around in the air. "Let's see, a simplified six dimensional tensor to model the local plane-time..." He grits his teeth in pain and concentration, dropping his usual facade of dignified calm and refinement. "...apply a shortest-path algorithm to find the best path from me to her..." He furiously draws matrices in the air with one hand while counting with his fingers on the other. "...and apply the resulting vectors with a small application of arcane energy in the local ether!" At that moment, a pair of colourless force bolts streak through the air toward the shobhad, visible only by the refraction of light in the air where they pass.
"Oh! And carry the one!" Albans shouts a moment later, causing a third bolt to manifest and target the shobhad.
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In the backroom, with a near-maniacal glee, Hakrinag turns his humongous reaction cannon onto the small ysoki. Staring down the barrel, primal fear rises in his eyes. Short-lived though, as two powerful rounds pounds into him, smashing him into skin, blood and fur.
Madrigal calls out to her allies, focusing their efforts onto the shobhad, but that turns out unnecessary. Albans, reaching into an extradimensional plane, pulls out a series of magical bolts and sends them towards the shobhad. They zap into her unerringly, shocking her already badly wounded system, and she falls onto the floor, unmoving.
Going through the bodies quickly, you find on the shobhad a second skin armor, a battle staff, a hunting rifle with 5 rounds, a circlet, a gem and assorted bangles and charms that you estimate are worth 300 credits. The ysoki are wearing second skin armors and both were carrying azimuth laser pistols.
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After it's all over, Eli walks over to pick up her baton, and fastens it to her belt. She stands over the shobhad's body, brandishing a knife and obviously in thought, repeatedly looking over the humanoid.
"Guys, I will need a few minutes.", her lips and chin still red, and blood dripping down from it, forming crimson droplets on her suit.
"So - can a girl get a drink around here? Something to ease the pain, at least...", she asks loudly, looking for Tasch and Thron.
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Thron is still snoring away on the bar countertop, completely oblivious to the raging bar fight that had erupted around him. Seeing the various burnt marks within the tavern, you realise that it might not be that uncommon an occurence here in Tasch. All other occupants are absent, however, including the bartender so Eli helps her to some liquor behind the counter. That works more wonders that any healing serum could.
The Starfinders catch a breather while Hudathan stands guard by the door. The street is quiet, as in its occupants are waiting with bated breath. Occasionally, a head pops out from a nearby building but as soon as Hudathan is spotted, the figure retreats rapidly again. Otherwise, the Starfinders are unmolested.
Once rest sufficiently, the team presses on, following Thron's earlier directions out of the small town. The town is surrounded by rolling red hills, many with tunnels pierced into them. You realise that without Thron's guidance, you would be hunting through mines and mines for weeks! The particular one though that Thron said Talbot is in looks no different from the rest, except that after some examination at the entrance, there are clearly recent movement in and out. As you enter, you see a string of overhead lights provides dim light throughout the mine.
A sloping ramp descends to the west, made of hard-packed red dirt that shows signs of heavy vehicle traffic. The ramp opens into a large square chamber with rough walls. A metal track runs along the ground from a passage in the west wall and then turns north, ascending a five-foot ramp and then running along the north wall until the track terminates. A pair of metal lockers stand in the southeast corner, and a heap of ore is piled to the southwest. Across the chamber, a tunnel exits into a T-junction.
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As for Tasch, I was under the impression there are two people behind the counter. Thron and one other. Or did I just misread something again?
"Aaaah. Thanks. That does the trick. Is that morphine? DAMN! This is better than the aspirin I usually use for this stuff.", Eli takes a breather and stretches on the bar while the serum does its thing. Possibly a powernap, even. When you wake her up, she claims to have felt better, but it will do for now.
"Hang on. Where did the AbadaCorp folks go? Cowards..."
"No wonder the place is broke. Look at all those mines. Some prime real estate opportunities right here.", she comments.
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As it becomes clear things will remain boring, Hakrinag sits with his back against the bar and cleans his cannon. Thoughts far from the minor injuries he has sustained, he doesn't even notice them when the task is complete. "Let us be on our way then."
In the tunnel, he takes a moment to examine the tracks. "These were made recently. Consistent with the weasel's arrival on this rock too..." he mutters. While the rest of his crew looks around, he heads straight for the lockers and tries to open them.
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Albans takes a moment to examine the loot:
"The circlet is a mindlink circlet. It lets you communicate telepathically with others who are nearby."
"I'm not sure about the gem though."
After that, he limps back behind the bar and finds a bottle of high-proof whiskey. After a few gulps to numb the pain, he pours the rest on his back and arm and wraps the cleanest dish towels he can find over the wounds.
After taking a breather, Albans reloads his pistol and wanders over to the bar's till. Sighing, he inserts his credstick into the the machine and transfers 12 credits to the bar's account.
"Those tracks are for automated minecarts. Lets try not to get run over while we're here."
"Hmm. I expected more activity around here," Albans says, drawing his pistol. "Which way should we go?" Thinking about what they're after, he takes a moment to cast detect magic and scans the room.
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Albans scans the room for anything mystical in nature, but nothing surfaces in this area.
Hakrinag checks the lockers but finds them locked.
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Alice 002 examines the sight before them. She takes longer than the others and ultimately offers little that wasn't known already. "From my assessment, Talbot has been mining and carting unrefined thasteron to be shipped out by a transport vehicle."
The android approaches Hakrinag from behind and peers over the vesk's shoulder. "Let me try. I have downloaded protocol for this."
Alice picks up the engineering specialty tool kit and examines the contents.
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"Well that's a useful protocol. Breaking it open would have been more fun, but results are results," he says with a shrug. "Anyone still injured? We've got a medkit in here."
"Tin can, can we ride those carts or do they only go the direction we came from?" he asks Alice with a glint of mischievousness in his eyes. For a moment, he has the mental image of Swarmbait and himself riding upon a mine cart, guns blazing, as they bear down on their target. "...the Veskmobile..." he says under his breath, barely audible.
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Hudathan hears Hak, chuckles, then finds himself in this midst of the same fantasy. "The Veskmobile... " He looks at his companions slyly. "If someone must take the thankless job of murdering everyone in this cavern by firing heavy guns from the side of a moving rust bucket... I volunteer. " A huge smile spreads across Hood's face.
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The tracks appear to be still in rather good condition so Alice deduces that if you come across any functioning mining carts, the veskmobile could very well be a reality.
After retrieving the items in the lockers, the Starfinder presses on, hunting for their prey. Coming to the T-junction, the right passageway go deeper into the mine. With thick, trackless dust and failing lights, it is clear that no one has gone down this way in a long time, maybe even a year or so. So instead, the party turn down the left passageway instead.
This passageway leads into a rectangular chamber with rough-hewn walls. A metal mine-cart track runs parallel to the passage and enters the room before ending abruptly. Tools cover a table against the east wall, while a pair of metal lockers stands in the southwest corner.
The lockers contain mining uniforms and binders of material safety
data sheets. A mine cart in an obvious state of disrepair lies adjacent to the tracks.Alice examines the cart, but to the disappointment of Hakrinag, it is clearly inoperable and likely take quite some time to repair. Without nothing of interest, the Starfinders back out the chamber and head west.
The wide passageway is braced up in the centre by a ceiling support pillar, requiring the team to go around it on both sides. Just as Eli and Hakrinag pass it, however, Eli's sharp ears hear a faint sounds of a panel sliding aside. A quick glance to her left reveals a mounted laser rifle emerging from the west side of the pillar!
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"That would be quite the sight," Albans says of the Veskmobile. "One to tell the grandkids, if we live long enough to have any."
"It's all very nice that we're such an altruistic group," Albans says as they walk down the hallway, "But in my experience it isn't the good guys who decide when the talking ends and the shooting begins." At about that moment, Eli warns the group about the laser and Albans takes cover if there is any to be found. He falls back to the previous hallway if there is no cover. "Case in point!" he shouts, trying to get a look at the device without exposing himself to its line of fire too much.