You examine the surrounding area and find traces of the ship's crew. At least one of them climbed the nearby building. The rest set a temporary camp and then left after a time heading north
Damn, that thing was trying to eat me alive! Thanks for bailing me out Odo! And they say size doesn't matter..." Quig chuckles
"No need for thanks Quig - maybe next time I should go in front?" - the Vesk nods - "I say we track these guys - strength in numbers and all that" - Oderon ponders, looking around at the team.
"Now might be a good time to send Scout to have a look, hey Quig?"
Scout checks the roof of the house but finds no more clues, whoever went up, probably went down the same way.
The only thing of reference he can see up there is the city ahead
"I say forget about the building - if no one is up there to ambush us then we are good for now I guess" - Oderon looks around.
"If we are done here, then time to haul ass - I say we follow their tracks north, and try to team up if we can - agreed?"
Sounds good. Whoever went up there probably did so in order to scout and then rejoined the main group hading North.
As we move North I will keep an eye out for tracks, to make sure we stay on the group's course.
The group moves along a deserted road until suddenly their comm units crackle to life and they hear a voice saying, —I repeat, all squadrons form up on Inter-Region Highway 12. Brinnoa is being fully evacuated, and we have to defend the civilians while—, before the transmission cuts out.
With the map they've hacked earlier, the group is able to locate the highway, it's about an hour away from where they are, heading towards the city
"Quig, are the tracks going in the same direction as this Inter-Region Highway 12?" - Oderon inquires.
They are, towards Brionne...
I'm guessing we're bound to either find the squad from the ship or whomever is rushing to defend Brionne's evacuation.
Sounds good either way, if it wasn't for the fact we probably lost the prisoner forever by now...
"And the fact civilians are probably being shredded to pieces by swarm drones" - Oderon adds.
"Lead the way then Quig, and lets hustle up"
The group moves for about half an hour before they start to see movement. The highway is packed, a lot of people are moving out of the city, cleary refugees running from something.
As you continue towards Brinnoa, along the highway, you see a military camp up ahead with SDF banners.
The sun has fully risen, and hundreds of aerial and ground vehicles are fleeing Brinnoa both on and above the road in the early morning light. The sounds of weapons fire can be heard in the distance, drowned out only by the screeching of the ramjet engines of fighter planes passing overhead to join the battle above the city. Even from this distance, Brinnoa looks like a disturbed hornet’s nest, with Swarm vessels engaging with the aircraft of the city defense.
Several SDF soldiers stand by the road, waving vehicles forward in a slow procession, curtly answering questions from evacuating citizens and repeating that civilians should proceed to Reos City, several dozen miles to the south.
Moments after you arrive you hear a familiar voice Hey, it's the Starfinders! Glad you've made it!. Greeting you is Jathela, one of the surviving elves from your ship.
"Well, well, well" - Odo chuckles and moves ahead to greet Jathela - "Good to see some of you managed to get out of there alive" - he looks around - "We heard on the comms the town is being evacuated - need an extra pair of hands?"
She looks around with a concerned look This is a mess! We've stumbled into the middle of a war. Captain Brymenor is speaking to the vesk in charge, trying to find a place for us
"Where is she?" - Oderon looks around.
Up ahead - she points to the middle of the makeshift camp.
She then lowers her voie and approaches the vesk Any news on our... guest?
Well met Jathela. How many more of you made it out?
As for our guest, I was just wondering if you knew anything...
We had a second radar blip that was probably his escape pod but we found yours first.
Greeting - she salutes Quig but her face turns somber Only four of us made it, it was terrible.
To answer your other question, I don't know where he is and honestly I don't care. The mission is a bust, I just want to get out of this damned place
"I am going to check in with the Captain" - Oderon nods at the others, then moves off toward the tent, looking for Brymenor.
We've just arrived a few hours ago. We're still trying to sort out what to do but personally I want to kill some bugs - She looks to the city, the sound of combat clearly heard even from this distance - It's being evacuated, I thing it's lost
Oderon advances through the camp and eventually finds the Captain. She's talking to a vesk who sometimes interrupts the conversation to shout some orders to passing soldiers. He looks familiar to you
"Good" - Oderon muttered to himself, and approached the Captain and Jaldamarrak.
He kept a distance, but placed himself as to be seen/noticed.
Quig wants to get a feel for the situation and has Scout do a flyover, to see what he can see.
No particular direction or interest, just get a bird's eye view of the situation to see if there's anything of interest.
Captain Brymenor recognizes Oderon and calls him to the conversation
This is one of the starfinders I was talking about, I told you they would find their way here. Well met Oderon - she points to the other vesk - This is Major Jaldamarrak of the Suskillon Defense Force, he's in charge of this unit here
The major greets Oderon with a grin extending his hand The swarm will have to bring a lot more bugs now with another vesk on our side
Quigonius lokks at his rig, its screen showing Scout's view. This operation is a mess, located in an interception of several highways there are huge lines of vehicles converging here. Most of them are moving out of the city but there are also several people on foot leaving their cars to escape the traffic. This only causes more confusion and several soldiers are trying to keep the flow going
"Good to see you well Captain Brymenor" - he greets the elf with a nod and a smile - "We had been looking for you and your lads since our pod crashed"
The major greets Oderon with a grin extending his hand The swarm will have to bring a lot more bugs now with another vesk on our side
Oderon's chest visibly puffs at the compliment, and he immediately returns the greeting by offering his own hand - "Whatever we can do to help - it is an honor to finally meet you Sir! Venture Captain Arvin has always spoken highly of you major Jaldamarrak. May your scales never dull" - he adds with a customary Vesk expression.
Quig never liked crowds, he always feels lost in them. He figures it's best to get involved somehow to gain some focus and moves towards the biggest traffic clog.
Guys, if you need me I'll be over there, see if I can help.
When he gets there he gets to work hacking cars left abandoned on the road and moving them along until there's a chance to park them off road.
At the mention of Arvin, Jaldamarrak asks How is that old grunt? We go way back, since the first Swarm invasion A particular loud explosion in the city gets him back on track Anyway, we'll have time to catch up later. Look, I know starfinders aren't soldiers, but we're really in need of more hands to try to slow them down. We need to give these evacuees as much time as we can before the critters come flooding out of the city. Can I count on you?
If he's successful, he goes to the soldier that seems the most focused on the traffic and gives it to him.
Here you go sir, see if this helps any. Just push here and speak into this.
He then starts to work on it, maybe the sound system from that car will help...
|
Let's see if we can help anyone in the middle of all this chaos!
Meanwhile, I want to help whoever I can try to get people to not abandon the cars and help them leave as fast as possible.
I can try diplomacy and/or bluff depending on what is more appropriate.
Some of the lines can be:
"Stay in the car, a little further and it will be much faster by car than on foot."
or
"They are sorting everything up ahead, you will start moving in to time."
or
"if you leave the car in the middle of the street others behind you may die trying to excape"
1d6 is only for bluffing
With a flick he sends the coordinates to your datapads
He pats Oderon on the shoulder - Go get'em - then he turns to a group of soldiers nearby - What are you doing standing here sniffing each other's butts? Get movin' there are bugs to kill!!
Captain Brymenor nods to Oderon and leaves See you on the other side
The rest of the group manages to accelerate the flux a bit, with Navasi convincing people to calm down and some guards speakers suddenly flaring with increased power
"I have just met with Major Jaldamarrak - he is the one in charge of the forces here" - Oderon approaches first Navasi, pulling her along to join the others - "And the one captain Arvin asked us to contact" - he adds - "So gents, and milady, the Major needs our assistance to take the fight away from the civilians, and allow them time to escape with at least a modicum of safety"
Pulling out the datapad, he points out two dots on the map - "We go and engage the bugs here, and the castrovelians engage them here. And we should get moving sooner, rather than later" - the vesk continues - "Quig, find us the best route there, and a defensible position? Maybe some bottleneck or something - up to you"
"All ready?"
The group moves out and as the chaos calms down, the sounds of battle ahead become clearer and closer and they see several large Swarm
vessels enter the airspace around the city and begin to land on the outskirts.
As they come nearer to the marked spot, Navasi goes scouting ahead
The area was a farming field but its fences are destroyed and large craters and hastily dug trenches mar the landscape.
The only movement he sees are more soldiers hunkering down in some trenches to the East
"Damn... Look at that" - Oderon stops for a moment, staring at the many Swarm vessels surrounding the human settlement.
After a while, he pings the woman on the comms - <Navasi? Report>
Navasi sends his location to the rest of the group
<Ok boys, let us meet up with Navasi - you don't want to keep a lady waiting, right?> - Oderon chuckles over the comms.
<Quig, you found us that defensible position yet?> - he adds
As the group makes defensive preparations, they hear and see explosions to the north, as a large Brinnoan skyscraper is engulfed in flames and begins to topple over. Shortly afterward, a shadow moves across the landscape as a massive structure streaks across the sky above, billowing a trail of smoke.
The comet like structure strikes the hills to the north of Brinnoa.
There is a massive flash of white light followed a few seconds later by an ear-splitting explosion. A cloud of dust envelops the region for miles in a matter of minutes.