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A young human in her early twenties with bright red hair comes in for the briefing a bit early. Her flightsuit is unzipped to her waist with the arms tied there like a makeshift belt below her crop top. The suit, top, and her whole upper body are covered in little smudge marks here and there like she just got done working on an engine. She has her comm unit in one hand and is almost absentmindedly scrolling through the infosphere on it as she waits for others to join her.
Once the rest of her Starfinder team arrives..."Oh hey there! I'm Kaylee! I love ships and vehicles and engines...and well ships most of all. I can build 'em, repair 'em, write code for 'em, or fly them too if you need me to!"
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"Greetings, lovely Kaylee! I am Mustachio Marino. I know what you are thinking... Doesn't he look familiar? And yes, I do. I do look familiar. Because you have undoubtedly seen "Undead Lover of Eox" in which I play one of the said undead lovers, Bruno. I am happy to inform you, Kaylee, that I have been selected by the Starfinders to accompany you on this mission. With me as the leading man, we are sure to succeed!"
Mustachio whips off his rather ridiculous plumed hat and bows. In the process, his antennae are exposed, clearly identifying him as a Lashunta. Mustachio is tall and confident and handsome, and certainly wasn't trying to hide his heritage. He just really likes the hat.
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An android in a female form walks up to the group. She is dressed in a tight fitting suit, with a large datapad in her hand. Before greeting the party, she pauses and looks at the pad. Yes, it appears I am in the correct location. Time to review my companions. Her eyes look up from the information and take in the Starfinders for the first time. Her eyes and blue circuits light up at the familiar sight of Mustachio. "The Green Sniper! I am shocked at my good fortune!" She practically runs up to him and shakes his hand repeatedly. "I am so happy to see you again, I brought my copy of your film for an autograph!"
After a few more minutes of adoring, she turns to Kaylee. Hmmm... long hair and bare stomach. Female. "Hello! From your appearance, I would guess you are either a vagrant or a mechanic. I am glad it is the latter. I am Breq Torren, esquire. If we get into any legal troubles during our mission today, I would be happy to assist you with them."
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A fierce looking vesk with horns circling the top of her head like a spiked crown stalks into the room. Her scales are a mix of mottled black that never reflects light and bright white that almost seems to glow. She is well muscled and just under seven feet tall. Clearly a warrior.A glowing orb of bright white light hovers around her, following her wherever she goes.
With a wide, reptile smile, the vesk stalks forward. "Greetings companions! I am Julakesh Starfist! You look at least half-competent! Wonderful! If you're each a quarter as capable as I am we'll be a formidable team!"
Apparently she considers this a compliment.
"I hope this mission will provide us some honour! My last one was barely worth the effort."
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Kaylee smiles and happily greets everyone as they arrive especially seeing as everyone seems to be part of the Wayfinders, grinning at each.
To Julakesh she speaks in the Vesk language!
To Breq, "Yep! I'm a mechanic! I hope there's no legal problems...usually I fly so fast that I'm gone before anyone gets the ID of the vehicle that hit them..." She winks and giggles at that "Kidding! But glad to meet you in case I ever run into something like that!"
And to Marino, "Hm...undead lover... Wait! You were a fighter pilot in that Captain Flash movie!! OH MY GODS I loved that vid! I even took this ship I piloted once and did some of those rotational spin maneuvers like you guys did in that one fight scene!!" (She fangirls a bit hard in Marino's direction)
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Mustachio grins broadly as Breq walks in the room. "Friend Breq! The best imitator of the Strawberry Machine Cake that there ever was! What an honor for you to be on my team again!" But as she mentions the Green Sniper, Mustachio stammers a bit and gets red in the face. "Ahem... now Friend Breq, remember that wasn't my most favorite role. The whole... shooting myself in the head bit... not entirely proud of that.. ahem."
Mustachio glows as Kaylee recalls Mustachio from one of his earlier films. "Ah! A fan of "The Adventures of Captain Flash and his Drunken Bros"! Yes, it was indeed a tremendous film. And myself, as Starfighter Pilot #6, did a smash up job, especially when I smashed into that frigate while drunk. I think I make a great drunk actor. Especially when I am drunk! "
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A male shirren clad in dark plated armour strides into the room, antennae trembling. He carries a full-faced helm tucked beneath his arm. Tall for a shirren, he is only slightly above average height for a human or lashunta.
Joining the group, he regards his new companions with multifaceted eyes, waiting for an opportunity to introduce himself. He speaks aloud when the moment presents itself, mandibles moving and clicking in a manner some may find disconcerting. "Reportinhk for duty. I'm Chk'tarlsh," he introduces himself. "Many prefer to call me Charles," he adds telepathically.
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Julakesh laughs loudly. "Oh! I forget most races are blind and cannot tell scaled humanoids apart! I am female, Breq!"
She laughs again, deep and booming, apparently thinking Breq's hilarious.
"Greetings Charles! You'd best state your gender aloud. This one--" she gestures at Breq "Cannot tell the difference!"
She laughs again.
To Breq, she says, "Yes! Battle will bind us!"
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Oh, dear. I have done it again. Vesks are so... confusing. The android's circuits flare in emotional distress. "I am so sorry, ma'am. My mistake, I am sure. " Breq looks over at the newcomer. Oh, no. Not again. Hopefully this newcomer will introduce herself with a pronoun. The android stands perfectly still, afraid of making another social error.
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Venture-Captain Arvin stands before a hologram of a planet that appears to have been ravaged by some disaster; there is very little water and no obvious greenery.
“Greetings, Starfinders,” he says, without turning. “You are looking at Elytrio, a newly charted planet in the Vast. While you might dismiss it as a lifeless rock at first glance, it still has mysteries to plumb. The starship that discovered it was attacked by some kind of orbital defense system when it got too close; the vessel didn’t have the repower to respond, so the crew made a prudent retreat. But we Starfinders don’t let these sorts of things go.” He pauses before continuing. “I’d like you to take a starship, travel to Elytrio, and discover all you can about it. If you find any inhabitants on the planet, do everything in your power to make peaceful contact with them. If the place is deserted, try to locate information about who might have built those defenses. Once you’ve got something interesting, report back to me here at the Lorespire Complex. Any questions?”
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As Julakesh listens to the mission briefing, she narrows her eyes.
Pru-dent? What is this word..? The vesk wondered. In-hab-i-- Gah! Why must these Starfinders always use big words? And they speak so fast!
Suddenly she grinned.
Peaceful contact! Yes! This she understood!
Wait? Peaceful? Ugh! More making nice words at weak beings!
"Did the defences that scared away the cowards who came before us have big guns?" Julakesh asks with interest. "Will it be a glorious battle?"
THAT would make this mission honourable! Maybe powerful beasts stalked the wastes! Yes! Weak beings always loved it when you saved their lives!
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The lawyer furrows her brow, intent on the presentation. "So, are we getting a fast ship to dodge and weave past these defenses? Or are we getting a gunship to deal with it in a more direct fashion?" The android looks over at Julakesh. "Some of our group may prefer that option." She smiles, not showing any preference to either option.
"Did the last ship manage to get any scans of the planet? If we are dealing with orbital defenses, finding the correct place to land may be hard. " She goes to her datapad, intent on looking up any useful information on Elytrio.
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"A starship! Yes! I call dibs on captain. Here, here. I'm passing out copies of my CV, you can clearly see on it that I have met all the prerequisites in the acting world for taking on the Starship Captain role. Please? Pretty please!"
"And once we get there, I will gladly take on any and all negotiations with friendly or hostile entities. Why, when I played Bodyguard #2 in the film "Isu Greelax Gyte Goes to Absalom", I was a bodyguard to a negotiator. The negotiator gets himself brutally assassinated, of course, but I was glowering in the background the entire time during the negotiation scene. Learned a lot from that role."
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The redhead grins broadly at Julakesh and greets the others when they arrive then gets quiet for the briefing.
Kaylee seems to hone in on the talk about the defense systems. "Ooh! Did the ship get any vids? Anything about the tech or capabilities of the defenses? Range? Speed? ...also who names a planet something weird like "Elytrio" if it was just discovered like...super recently?" She suddenly turns to Breq and whispers "wait...if we go to a new planet that hasn't been discovered yet on a Starfinder mission can we legally name it ourselves?!?!"
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Julakesh smiles broadly at Breq. "Yes! Guns! A ship with many guns is needed!" She slaps Breq on the back as if she understands whats important.
Julakesh eyes the talkative man. "Yes. Captain seems a good position for a soft man like you. You seem to have no other skills that words." She nods and smiles, clearly thinking this is a compliment.
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Breq looks at Kaylee, puzzled. "You would be right, Kaylee. Per Code 674 Section 4.7.2, Part 16, the discoverer gets all naming rights unless the planet was previously inhabited. " The android continues to look at her datapad, however. "Unfortunately, we will not be the first. It appears that previous expedition was a group of Pathfinders who died several planets later in their voyage. I do not think we should dishonor their memory by renaming their discovery. "
Breq turns stiffly to Jula and replies. "I can vouch for the Captain. He can be quite inspiring. Especially when he recites the Leading Man's monologues from previous shows he has been on. Personally, I am better suited to the science lab or the engineering quarters. However, I can pilot and man a turret almost as well. " She shrugs, noncommittal.
We didn't get too much information on the planet, I'm afraid Arvin explains, Initial scans were too brief to get too many details. The other Starfinders did report trace amounts of radiation in the atmosphere, so there is a distinct possibility the planet’s current appearance is not entirely natural.
As for the orbital defense platform, we have reports that is launches some kind of robotic vessels. That's all we know at this point, the previous vessel retreated before any harm could be done.
As the group departs, a small robotic drone intercepts the adventurers upon departure of the briefing hall. The floating drone projects a holoscreen in front of it.
The drone projects a holoscreen with the image of a confused looking ysoki child, whose head is quickly pushed out of the screen by an older ysoki woman. “Fitch from the Wayfinders here. Sorry about Kirkath popping on the screen; kids always like the holoprojectors. Anyways, long and short, I hear you’ve been assigned to explore Elytrio. First contact is important. Need to make a good impression. Way nders specialize in this sort of thing, so I wanted to o er some help! The drone has a translation module strapped on its back. It’s not as reliable as some magical solutions you might have, but if you’re in a pinch for communicating, it might help!”
As promised, the back of the drone has a hidden compartment, holding a Tetrad certified translator.
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In the hangar bay, a Society ship is ready and waiting. I can't really tell from this distance whether it's a Pegasus or a Drake. (But you probably have better eyes)
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The journey through the drift takes a couple of days ( to be precise)
Halfway through the journey, the vessel passes by a salvage barge, whose captain hails the crew. A comm's screen opens up showing a grizzled Ysoki, who hails the crew over the sound of Akitonian-based Y-metal band Testhasterone playing over speakers in the background. Howdy, fellow drifters. This is Captain Winks from the Clutter Collector. Nice to see some fellow truckers out here, those swirling colors get to you after a while. The ysoki continues the conversation for a while, but never bothers to turn off the screeching sound in the background. When the ships are about to move out of range, we signs off with a final Well, it's been nice talking to you. Have a safe trip, and just keep on truckin'!
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When the vessel arrives at Elytrio the comms suddenly squawk to life, Filled with a crackling robotic voice in an alien language. The tone of the message is strident, and repeats over and over again.
That sounds like a warning, for sure.
Attention unknown vessel: turn back or be destroyed.
Subsequent recurrences of the message stutter and distort like a corrupted audio file, eventually cutting off with a loud burst of static, much like the end of some of those Testhasterone songs the Ysoki played earlier. Simultaneously, a hemispheric vessel comes into view from behind one of the planet’s moons.
The vessel looks to be fully automated
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Julakesh eyes the drone in confusion.
"Yes! We will make good use of this... thing!" she answers.
Clearly she has no idea what a tetrad translator is.
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Julakesh seems exceedingly pleased the entire trip. She often sits quietly near a view port, after turning off artificial gravity to that room. Floating around with the glowing orb she seems surprisingly at peace.
When socializing, Julakesh continues to be loud, proud and boastful. Although not a very clever soul, she shares plenty of tales of battle and war from her time as a soldier policing Vesk-6, or from her previous Starfinder missions.
Upon being hailed by the ysoki, Winks, Julakesh introduces herself proudly, and asks after what kinds of mighty battles the Clutter Collector and her crew have been involved in.
Julakesh offers her condolences to the ysoki for enduring a life without honour.
Julakesh listens with glee and claps at the most violent parts of her tale.
Julakesh shares a few exciting tales of her own with Winks, before letting someone else take over the transmission.
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Ally - None
Faction - Wayfinder's Champion
Personal - None
Promotional - None
Social - Faction's Friend
Starship - Hero of the Stars
Slotless - Welcome to the Starfinder Society Boon: Tattoo of the Starfinder, Marked Field Agent (Society Subdermal Graft Augmentation), Star Sugar Heartlove!!!, Starfinder Insignia
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As the voice crackles over the ships speakers, and the strange object floats into view, Julakesh whoops and hollers.
"YES! A WARNING!"
Laughing madly as she hops into her seat, Julakesh gets the guns ready to fire.
"TO BATTLE, FRIENDS! IT IS TIME TO EARN OUR HONOUR! AHAHAHAHAAA!"
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"I believe you are right. Seems like the defenses are still turned on. We best get to battle stations. " Breq takes one more look at the enemy mother ship.
"I can't tell if it is manned or not. Either way, we must defend ourselves. Not the best way to introduce ourselves to a new civilization, but Fitch will forgive us. " The android walks to the science lab and preps the scanners. Intergalactic laws or not, if any of my brothers and sisters are enslaved on that ship I must do my best to free them. Let's hope there are none.
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Chk'tarlsh exchanges greetings with his fellow Starfinders and, aware of the difficulties many species have with the finer points of shirren biology, he confirms for Breq that he is indeed a he. Settling in for the mission briefing, he listens intently, logging important information in his personal comm unit as it arises.
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During the trip, Chk'tarlsh keeps busy familiarising himself with the ship's weapons systems and engine room, tending to his own equipment and poking about in the workshop area.
He is attentive during conversations with his fellow crew, asking questions about topics that arise and generally showing interest in what is being shared. Sharing tales of his own, he makes reference to growing up on Verces, his leaving home to subsequently bounce around performing odd jobs before securing training with a mercenary group.
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His antennae twitch rapidly upon hearing his companions discuss the nature of the transmission.
Unaware the vessel is unmanned, he says aloud, "Let ush ssee what kind of welkhome they have planned." He then dashes off to man either a spare gunner station or to lend what support he can with engineering.
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Kaylee totally lets the others handle the translator thing from Fitch and hops in the pilot seat almost without thinking about it, pulling a set of green-tinted safety glasses like you'd find at a pre-energy-weapon-era firing range over her eyes with a grin as she settles in.
She leans her pilot's chair way back to look at Marino upside-down-like. "Looks like some sort of automated defense thingie. Looks like there won't be anybody over there to use your stirring speeches on , captain."
Faction - Wayfinders champion
Social - Faction's friend
Starship - Loaned ship: Sunrise Maiden (only if everyone else wnats to use it though otherwise none here)
Slotless - Marked field agent
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Mustachio taps the microphone that broadcasts across the Sunrise Maiden."...is this thing on... testing, testing.. ah! Ahem!"
He then speaks up louder, and more confidently."Starfinders of Absalom Station! My brothers and sisters. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Starfinders fail, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of space-goblins and shattered laser guns when the Age of the Pact Worlds comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear in this good galaxy, I bid you stand, Starfinder heroes!"
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Kaylee giggles a little bit from the pilot's chair at the speech
but resists the urge to tell Marino that she can't pull hotshot maneuvers from the pilot's chair standing up. Instead she slips on the top of her flight suit and zips it up before strapping in to the soft leather seat she's been able to enjoy only a little bit before, setting her feet on the controls for the directional thrusters and plugging her personal comm unit into one of the i/o ports to let her AI interface with the ship more easily, her hands flying over the rest of the controls.
"All panels are set for combat maneuvers, captain! She's ready to kick it into high gear any time!"
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Breq stares into her scanners and mentally prepares to fight a platoon of evil robot drone space ships. Suddenly, she smiles as she has an idea to lighten the mood. Breq's voice echoes over the coms and into the helm. "Captain! We have a problem! I forgot my copy of your latest film! Do you think it's too late to go back and get it? "
>This is RZMR, your onboard computer. There's currently a hostile ship detected. Shields are up and fully functional, all components are functioning within specified limits<
The enemy vessel closes in slightly on the pathfinder vessel...
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This is RZMR, your onboard computer. Current status report:
RZMR: Red alert status active for 0 seconds (round 1)
RZMR: Aft shields hits (BPSA: 15/15/15/15
RZMR: No damage to report
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Enemy status
Main platform
RZMR: Shields (0/0/0/0)
RZMR: No damage
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Mustachio
Brew
Chk'tarish
Kaylee
Choppy
Julakesh
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