Quonx dodges the stickybomb grenade, her fur remaining largely unharmed. She says, bewildered, to the robot, "No one would like their pets to be treated this way!" She then attempts to shoot again, hoping to finally get a decent shot in, since it seems she's been fighting these robots for weeks.
Quonx begins considering whether it might be more useful to begin hitting the robots with her laser rifle, instead of shooting them.
Nako doesn't want to damage the cell if he can help it
Tonkona ducks and covers from the sticky bomb and rises, the adhesive stuck to his fur but not impairing him, like a phoenix from sticky ashes. "Stop! Being! Unhelpful!" he bellows while trying to batter the grey robot.
Gazigaz yells out "Good good Tonkana! Not get the Yellow robot, gee?"
He then carefully aims his pistol and levels a shot at the bot.
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The remaining robot shoots at Mokaya twice, hitting only once.
With swift melee strikes and energy blasts, the skittermanders destroy the remaining robot easily.
Together, you open the cage and release Nako from captivity. You hear a voice coming on the intercom; it is feminine and soothing, but sounds artificial.
“Attention passengers, this is M2, your ship’s artificial intelligence. Scans indicate that a handful of pets have escaped their cages and are running loose. If you spot one of these errant animals, please contact the nearest porter robot. Thank you.”
Quonx begins looking to see if there's anything that can be salvaged from the remains of the robots, particularly either their weapons or at least their batteries.
Having gathered whatever she can, she glances out into the hallway. She points at the door at the end of the hallway. "The scan showed weird energy in the center of the ship, so maybe in there. And life signs were on the starboard side" she pauses and points to the door on the right, "so maybe there. But not for sure, because the ship's got a couple of levels, so it might be on the other level."
"If there's injured, we should go to the starboard side and rescue them!" Dakoyo suggests earnestly.
I agree on rescuing the injured, but not in a hurry, I still need a 10 minute rest from that meteor storm. After the short rest, assuming the rest of the team isn't in a hurry and is okay with it, Nako walks up to door number 3 and listens at the door
"If we find that woman, I am going to help her remember that we are not pets!," Tonkona says cheerfully and swinging his doshko purposefully. The fight seems to have improved his mood.
"Gree! First we help the people, then we find the mean lady."
"Dakoyo will help with all six while Quonx makes with the engineering to pry open the door!" the skittermander physician says as he grips one side of the door with all six hands and pulls.
...failing to accomplish much besides groaning and grunting.
Move aside weakling, you have various other jobs you can help out with, but this one is for a strong person
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Dakoyo pushes with all his might against a wall panel that isn't actually part of the door. Nako, on the other hand, puts all six hands on the door and wrenches it open, to the sound of some gasps and exclamations of surprise from the other side.
Smooth wooden flooring and paneled walls give this chamber an air of elegance that is immediately countered by the obvious mess and rank smell of body odor and other foulness. In the aft part of the room is a bar made from real mahogany. In front of the bar are several stools and behind it is the non-functioning husk of a bartender robot and an unmarked door. Half a dozen tables and accompanying chairs are pushed against the forward wall to make room for makeshift cots.
A tall, lithe, damaya lashunta woman with dark orange hair down to her shoulders is crouching behind a table next to the door, a laser pistol clutched in white-knuckled hands. A dirty skinsuit is tied around her waist and she is wearing just a tank top on her upper torso. "Skittermanders!" she exclaims in surprise as she sees what just opened the door. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Behind the bar, a series of sentients are also crouching, their heads now poking up as they hear the lashunta. Among them are several humans, a pair of shirren, and one each of a kasatha, a ysoki, an android, and a bleachling gnome. All seem terrified, and each has a knife, a cooking implement, or a broken table or chair leg held as a makeshift weapon. On a cot in the corner, a male human lies unconscious. Dark red stains on his clothing and makeshift bandages made from tablecloths indicate he has been injured.
"We're here to rescue you! Does anyone need medical attention?" Dakoyo asks, pulling out several syringes full of medicinal fluids of various sorts. "We're also looking to rescue our big boss. Have you seen her?"
"No really! Honest and true, Nufriend!"
Makoyo tries ti convince her by recapping their journey so far very quickly and in one breath...
"We came here to rescue our boss, but then the machine woman thought we were pets and the bad robot helpers attacked us. They even put friend Nako in a cage! They were NOT good helpers at ALL! So then we broke the robots and came here wherw Quonx friend said there were lifes signs, thinking maybe Boss was here. But door was jammed, so Nako friend help unjam it. We didmt find Nakonechkin Boss, but we found room of people to help" He pauses for just a second to catch his break before enthusiastically concluding..
"And helping is what skittermanders do BEST!"
Quonx looks around the room, then toward the lashunta woman. "You are hiding barricaded in the bar on a derelict ship. I think you need a lot of help. The ship is broken, right?" She begins twirling tools from her various kits around in the four arms that don't hold her laser rifle. "I can fix it! Just lemme know what the problem is."
"We're salvagers. So if this is a cruise, and we mistook the ship for a floating loot pile... Well, I think you should be checking out what the refund policy is. I can help if you want!"
"Right! We're not working for the cruise line," Dakoyo interjects. "We skittermander partners of big boss, Nakonechkin. We came to rescue big boss, but you look like you could use help, too!"
He wields his syringes encouragingly.
I recommend you all stay in the room until the problem is solved, too many robots running around
Gazigaz walks in with is arms out stretched in a show of non violence. ”Gazigaz here to make nufriends. Where be big boss, grumpy vest? The robots think skittermander be little pet friends but no we be rescue friends!” He walks closer to the lashunta to give her a hug then thinks maybe he should talk first.
”What happening here? Gazigaz and friends thought this ship floated in space and was abandoned. Do you need help. Gazigaz and friends put in all six to help you, gee?”
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After some enthusiastic words from the skittermanders, the lashunta relaxes and holsters her weapon. "Thank you, yes, we do need assistance. Over there in the corner -- Locke needs help if you can. Locke Linter, he's a crew member. He went out to try to fix things when the AI went bananas and got hurt. My name's Voryna Kopalli, I've been kinda trying to hold things together here."
Tonkona hefts the doshko. "Will nufriend do better with the injury cut off? Or should doctors make him work all better?" He looks to some of the more medically-inclined skittermanders for guidance.
Quonx heads over, giving the medics room to do their work, but grilling Locke with questions.
"What went wrong with the AI? Where did you try to access it? How'd you get hurt? Did it send robots to put you in a cage, too? What other security features does it have? What's with the weird energy signature in the center of the ship? Where's your captain?"
Mokaya approaches the injured man. "Check your peepers Quonx friend. This nufriend is unconscious." "No problem! Dakoyo and I are medical helpers! We'll have him right as rain in no time and then you can ask questions. Now, lets see what the problem is."
"Do not worry," Dakoyo says to the lashunta as he heads towards the injured crewman. "Tonkona is not doctor. Dakoyo is doctor and will help get our nufriend up on all six!"
He looks over the makeshift bandages and first aid that has been applied and clicks his tongue while shaking his head. "Very rudimentary attempts. Dakoyo surprised this man is still alive given the barbaric treatment that he has received thus far."
The skittermander digs through his pouches with two of his free hands, looking for something useful. He takes out a serum of healing and injects it into his patient.
Quonx looks up from her datapad, which she was preparing to take notes. "Oh. So he is," she says to Mokaya.
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Voryna tries to answer as many of Quonx's questions as she can. "No idea what happened with the AI, it just started acting erratically and sent robots to force us to do what it thought we should do, mostly 'relaxing' by taking sedatives and falling into induced comas. When the crew tried to shut it down, the robots attacked them -- it's like a bad holodrama on the infosphere! We've been barricaded in here, living off self-cooking meals and booze for the last week."
The serum works quickly, and the human wakes up suddenly, groaning in pain but alive and able. He sits up, rubbing his back. "My thanks, um... don't know your name -- I don't think we had any skittermanders on board. Must have found us drifting, hmm? M2 -- that's the AI that's supposed to run this ship -- seems to have decided our previous course wasn't 'relaxing' enough. It diverted us into an empty sector and started forcing people to do things it thought were relaxing, but caused lots of problems. Most of the crew have either been drugged into comas or killed at this point. The captain, Alazea Dawnt, is probably among them. She and I were trying to shut down the AI but it used a security robot to attack us. She went down and I was badly hurt. Barely made it back here.
"Security features? Well there's some robots, sounds like you met some already. I hope they didn't hurt you? Not too bad? I don't know about the energy signature, but maybe it's something to do with why the observation deck is so dark. We use dimmer crystals in there normally but it was so dark I could barely see my hand in front of my face."
Quonx nods. "No problem, human nufriend. Skittermanders have big-good eyesight." She pauses. "Still ... if anybody has a flashlight or something?" She glances around.
Nako strength checks open room 3
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The other door turns out to not be locked.
Wooden panels line the walls of this cozy room, and an emerald green carpet covers the floor. Two wooden tables, each adorned with a deck of shiny playing cards, are surrounded with comfortable chairs. Two digital dart boards hang on the forward wall in the other corner. A holo-billiards table, its holographic balls glowing serenely, occupies one of the aft corners. A closed cabinet stands in the final corner of the room.
"Oh, this room looks fun," Dakoyo says, starting our excitedly but then sliding into disappointment, "but nobody to help."
I gree. We should move on
Gazigaz gives a friendly wave at all the nufriends as he leaves and says ”We go make M2 nufriend too. Gazigaz love making nufriends!”
Gazigaz walks around the room playing with all the objects. He picks up a dart and throws it at the dart board. It sticks in perfectly and then starts wiggling and coming back right at him. He screams and ducts as the dart slowly flies over head and sticks into the opposing wall. ”That scary flying needle almost took my eye! Gazigaz not like that. Who want to take the dart. Might be good against meany robots!
Tonkona stares at the dart with wonder. "I can throw that at meany robots," he says dreamily. He begins to pursue the dart around the room, throwing it and catching it. "Unless a friend wants to use it more," he says guiltily, offering it back to the others.
Quonx shakes her head at Tonkona. "I don't need it, no." She looks around. "This looks like a fun room. We should come back here when we've helped fix the ship." She eyes holographic billiard table longingly.
She heads down the hallway toward the door into the center area and checks to see if it is unlocked.
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The door is not locked, and opens easily.
This circular chamber contains two rows of reclining seats curving around a central space. The ceiling appears to be made from a dome of transparent aluminum, but panels covering the outside of the dome block the view. Four pedestals, each topped with a large chunk of onyx, are evenly spaced around the outside of the room. Doors lead forward and aft.
A cloying darkness seems to cloak this area. When Nako or Tonkona shine their flashlights ahead, their illumination is much dimmer.
Gazigaz will walk through carefully looking around for anything. ”Sad there is no view of the stars. Gazigaz loves seeing the stars.” As he walks he makes sure that his cloak flows nicely and doesn’t rub against any dirt or dust.
He goes to inspect the pedestals with onyx. If he can see his reflection in the onyx he will adjust his hair.
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Gaz sees no reflection in the onyx, as if it is absorbing, not reflecting, the light.
As Gaz walks into the room, you all hear clicking and scuttering noises from elsewhere in the darkened dome. They sound like immense insects or other verminous beasts, but you can't see anything.
Tokona
Dakoyo
???
Nako
Gazigaz
Quonx
Mokaya
Quonx glances around the room, trying to locate the source of the clicking and scuttering noises. "Those dimmer crystals aren't helpful. They're mucking up the laws of physics. Science won't solve this, so magic friends get to work on shutting the crystals down, and we'll help keep you safe." She readies her survival knife in one of her hands, while holding the laser rifle at the ready with another two of them. Her eyes dart around the room, her targeting computer trying to get a lock on a hostile.
"Oh, no!" Dakoyo cries. "It sounds like someone's real pet is lost in the dark. Dakoyo will turn off the magical light siphons."
Looks like those stones are creating some kind of portal. Should be easy enough to shut down! Dakoyo and I can take care of it no sweat!
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Dakoyo manages to manipulate the energies of the onyx pedestal and deactivates it. This part of the room faintly brightens, though the other three crystals still hold sway over the light levels below the dome.
The scuttling increases in volume, and to the horror of the three 'manders inside the room, they feel creatures like solid shadows climbing up their legs to bite at their torsos!
Quonx shrieks. Her exocortex immediately begins calibrating, attempting to track the target as she swipes her survival knife toward the creature that attacked her.
S
"Oh no you don't! Nothing hurts Tonkona's friends!" yells the skittermander. He charges forward and swings his doshko at one of the critters threatening Quonx.