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"Hold on!" calls out Gunnz as everyone is hurled forward in their seats. The Pegasus's engines scream in protest as they change direction of thrust and the ship backs off from the accumulated drones.
"Firing solutions available for forward and turret on the platform, and the port guns on green!" she calls out with barely concealed glee.
Before the drones can do much further damage, Shelldrake and Sirion manage to score direct hits, both on the power core. The core sparkles brightly, seems to settle down, then explodes with a soundless bang, leaving the mothership as an inert husk.
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Descending into the planet's atmosphere, RZMR spring to live and helpfully proclaims <Warning: elevated levels of radiation detected. All soft-tissue being are at risk of harmful mutations, hair loss, growing third arms, and not requiring a reading light when consulting literature at night. Prolonged exposure is not advised, though levels are below those deemed critical by the starfinder field manual.>
Further elaboration reveals that radiation levels are indeed elevated, but not necessarily harmful.
While most of Elytrio shows little sign of life, the ship’s computer picks up a large energy output from what appears to be a fully functional city in the southern hemisphere. These readings indicate the city has a level of technology that is comparable to that of the Pact Worlds (albeit slightly outdated), and that the city contains life forms of some kind.
As the ship decsends toward the city, again RZMR comes in with a helpful remark <Warning, city is encased by a powerful force field. Direct contact would be detrimental to all physical manifestations present on board. Sentient being without available backup might be irrevocible lost as their inferior chassis decomposes in the baking sun.>
Moments later: <Suitable landing spot detected.>
The ship lands a short distance away from the edge of the force field, in a barren, but stable zone.
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"Good job on taking out that defense platform people. That was some fancy flying and about half the time some nice shooting out there...let's just not mention the times we missed firing on what's basically a big non moving pile of metal in our reports."
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After sealing his environmental seals in his armor - which hopefully will protect him from the back ground radiation - Savoy steps out of the ship and takes a look around
"The place seems barren, but stable to me"
The drones are small, but not small enough to load onto the Pegasus. The orbital platform can be explored though.
Of particular interest is the tracking system, which contain algorithms that, though dated, may be of interest to shipbuilders back at Absalom station.
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"LEts see if we can scoop up some of the debris for future analysis" suggests Gunnz.
With the ship landed, Gunnz becomes somewhat quieter. She dresses in her armor, and makes sure her pistol is fully charged.
"What a wasteland." murmurs the woman as the first emerges.
She cautiously looks around. "So how do we get through the force field?"
Suddenly, there seems to be somthing stiring in the sand close by.
There's a creature coming in, and it's closer than it appears.
A strange, mutated creature, the head of a lion, but body covered in scales, appears, looking for an easy snack.
---(Surprise round - only if you made the perc. check)---
Sirion
Savoy
Shelldrake
Gunnz
---(Regular)---
Sirion
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Sand Brute
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Gunnz
Shelldrake
Savoy
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Sirion indentifies the creature and roars at it
"Hello friend, it seems your mother had an affair with a snake!
Sirion shrugs as the animal roars back "Seems it is determined to make lunch out of us, we can't have that happen"
The elf stands back, confident that the team can handle this creature.
RZMR busies itself with preparing proper admonishments based on the teachings of the great Razmir when the bipeds inevitably return in utter failure of their mission.
Sirion hits the creatur with a mind thrust as it advances up the rocky outcropping.
---
Gunnz
Shelldrake
Savoy
Sirion
---
Sand Brute (6)
---
Savoy creates a jet of sand as he misses the incoming brute, but Gunnz manages to hit the creature from an unseen side. Sirion retreats, and Shelldrake fire the artillery.
The creature lets out a deafening roar, which is quite haunting indeed.
---
Gunnz
Shelldrake
Savoy
Sirion
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Sand Brute (15)
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The sand brute takes a beating from Shelldrake's and Savoy's shots, then gets shocked badly by Gunnz. Sirion adds a powerful mental blast, which seems to short-circuit the creature, as it slumps down into the sand.
As soon as the creature is put down, several insect-like humanoids emerge from the sands. They are armed with odd-looking arquebus style weapons. ()
They don't seem to be hostile.
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LEVEL 2
ITEM TECHNOLOGICAL
PRICE 500
BULK L
This elaborate datapad has several additional audio receptors to capture nearby sounds. If you don’t share a language with creatures you encounter, you can activate this device to collect basic linguistic information. The device requires 10 minutes of observed conversation to gain enough information to operate.
The device then acts as a rudimentary translator. It does not allow you to converse with creatures with whom you don’t share a language, but it can relate very basic information. Examples of statements the device could interpret would be: “come with us,” “lower your weapons,” or “leave immediately.” The device cannot parse proper names, including personal designations or the names of items and places. Some extraordinary complex or obscure languages might not translate clearly with this device.
A Tetrad certified translator has 10 capacity and 1/hour usage.
The creature makes a clicking and sometimes guttural sound.
The language sounds similar to the one transmitted by the orbital drone platform, though simpler and more guttural.
The leader repeat the same phrase over an over again, raises her hand and puts her rifle on her back, stepping closer with every iteration of the same sentence.
As Gunnz points to the sky, the leader stops his repeated sentence, and instead says 수빼시프?
Savoy tries to convey his friendly intentions, and the leader steps forward and seems to make some kind of inviting motion, urging the adventurers to follow him. The translator finally clicks into motion and translates the words of the creature into the rough meaning "come"
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While following Savoy tries to get more words out of the leader by pointing at mostly random things - I assume that other then the creature we just killed and some sand and stones there's not much here to point at - and telling the words in common while waiting for a reply to feed the translator with more options.
Sirion takes a while to record biometric data on the sand brute, after which the party sets out for a thirty-minute trek, away from the city, until they reach a series of caves.
Dozens of beetle-like aliens crawl in and out of the many caves that dot the face of this otherwise drab cliff. Most of them are dressed in simple leather frocks, while the few with crude weapons are covered with sturdier armor. A small garden filled with sickly plants is visible o to one side, next to what looks like the opening to a well. A handful of children sits in front of a pair of older aliens, who are both wearing brightly colored necklaces. They appear to be either telling the young ones a story or teaching them a lesson.
The enclave lets out a friendly cheer upon seeing the alien scout group, but the cheer dies down quickly as soon as the party comes into view.
There is an animated conversation between the leader of the scout party, and what seems to be a high official in this enclave. The official eventually clacks his mandibles and gestures for the adventurers to come closer. The translator device let out some contradictory message spanning the spectrum of trust, friendliness and suspicion, before eventually settling on mild distrust
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After consulting the translator Savoy tries to get a feeling of his surroundings to validate that the machine is working
Savoy telepathically contacts Sirion
"Anything you can do to make those plants less sickly? I assume that that would get them to like us more"
Savoy tries to see if the well is actually supplying the plants with water
The creature click and hiss, and the translator lights up with *welcome*, *come to cave* and *ritual*. The party is beckoned to follow.
The interior of the colony's cave is spacious, with plenty of natural handholds leading up to other tunnels into the cliff. A large bonfire burns in the center of a cleared-out space, providing light but making the cave quite stuffy. As the party steps inside, it seems as though the entire tribe is converging here.
Many of the creatures are carrying drums and assorted instruments made from stone. A few moments later, they begin playing a stately tune and the remaining creatures face each other in a couple of straight lines. The colony erupts in a formalized processional dance.
Their is clearly an air of expectation for the adventurers to join the dance.
Shelldrake does her best, but didn't quite observe all the subtleties of the dance, while Gunnz has no problem - she looks as if she was born doing this.