"A grandma ship for Captain Grandma," Zadie joked, reaching up to lay her hand on the starship's outer plating affectionately. "You think it will start up okay after all this time? The lack of atmosphere ought to have protected the parts from corrosion pretty well. Needs a new paint job," she noted, with a grimace. "White, red, and blue? La-ame."
"I wish she'd indicated whether we hold joint tenancy, or tenancy in common" John grumbles, though there is wide grin on his face even through the pain. "If you don't mind I might just sit over here and stabilise. If I see anything, I'll shoot it. The rest of you can start loading the artwork... but it might be worth checking it still flies first."
Kamiya was already moving towards the Sunrise Maiden to check it out. "I would love to see if this thing still flies!" However, she stopped in her tracks and jogged back to John. She dug in her bag and hands a healing serum to him. "It's my last one but you earned it." She then turned and practically skipped back to the ship, her body unable to contain its excitement.
"The rest of you can start loading the artwork... but it might be worth checking it still flies first."
Robert groaned as he forced himself to his feet, enticed by the thought of all the information gathered from the ship's past missions that was doubtlessly stored in its databanks. Who knew where it had been, what marvels had been recorded by its sensors?
"You sure you aren't going to bleed out on us?" Robert asked. "I figure you earned your part of the pay the hard way. We need you up and about." 'So that you can continue taking bullets for me,' he added, in the privacy of his thoughts. "Let me take a look."
"The first thing I'm going to buy." John announced "is better armour. Big, thick, heavy plates of armour."
Oriana nodded in agreement. "Yes, definitely. I didn't realize that life outside Idara would be so violent!"
"Life is a struggle of survival, from bacteria to people," Robert murmured distractedly as he sprayed coagulation agent into Jonh's wounds before applying patches to the holes in his suit. "A fight over terrotory or resources. Over mates or safety. Over idealogue or principles. The reasons hardly matter. Today we were stronger, cleverer, more desperate than those who stood before us. Although I do perfer to watch natural selection of this kind from a holoscreen, rather than participating."
Kamiya was already moving towards the Sunrise Maiden to check it out. “I would love to see if this thing still flies!” However, she stopped in her tracks and jogged back to John. She dug in her bag and hands a healing serum to him. “It's my last one but you earned it.” She then turned and practically skipped back to the ship, her body unable to contain its excitement.
John was touched, but limped after Kamiya. "Keep it." he said "Robert did a good job on me, and we've got a way out of here now. If something happens we might need it to stop someone being fragged."
He called out to the others as they headed towards the ship "Listen up! We're going to do this by the numbers. There might be more Akata, or Driftdead, or... or anything. We do this by the carefully. Methodically. In formation. Room by room. Head in, get cameras on rooms and then eyeballs. Check everything. We're close enough to a way out that I don't want us to get careless. A kill here would be embarassing."
He looked at Robert, and sent a silent text. "Goblins?"
Action 1:
"Alright. Captain Grandma, we may have a fight on our hand coming out of here, given that we had a fight coming in. I suggest we check everything is functional, assign crew to the same roles, load up and get ready to head out. We can get our stuff from the other ship, or we could tow it. Do you have a preference?"
'They'll keep,' Robert sent back, busying himself inspecting the artwork lying around the thing's nest. "Yes, that sounds suitably martial to impress any timeless horrors lurking on the ship into bowel-loosening terror," he said aloud in answer to John's action plan. "Let's do it by all means." For the android had a point about not taking any chances, now that they thought they were in the clear.
The goblins were not the main concern as far as Robert was concerned. They had already met and killed anything on the Rock that seemed inclined to attack them on sight, the goblins had provisions for days and unless they decided to salvage the ship's environ systems to the ground, they'd be safe and snug of the Acreon for the time being. Assuming they got this ship going and got into contact with the Station's officials - via the Armada if nothing else - and shared what they had learned, the government would likely get off their collective asses and send in a science team to verify the story. And at some point, Robert expected the two goblins would be collected from the ship. Or not, and they starved. It really made no difference.
John was touched, but limped after Kamiya. "Keep it." he said "Robert did a good job on me, and we've got a way out of here now. If something happens we might need it to stop someone being fragged."
Kamiya didn't feel like going back to get the serum so she used her telepathy to speak to John. No you keep it. Or give it to Oriana. You two seem to need it more often.
The lashunta was about to enter the ship when John cautioned them to search it together. She stopped and waited for the others, "So is that your offer to take point? How about we start with the bridge? That way we'll also know if the Sunrise Maiden will fly."
John thought for a moment, and sighed. "I will take point. In which case your offer is much appreciated. If we continue to work together, we should probably budget for a certain allowance of medical consumables." He nodded "To the bridge then."
"If I'm wrong I'll buy you a beer. John - who had never had a beer - answered.
OOC: the ship is 'safe' and can be used to get back to Absalom Station, which is where I assume you are all going next.
As you guessed, this will be your home base so there will be other times to discuss/explore the ship and what it can do.
I intend to recap later today.
Questions?
Game on!
When they were all assembled back on the bridge of their new ship, Oriana finally allowed herself to smile. "Sunrise Maiden. Our maiden voyage with her. Shall we keep the name, or rename her? And what about that paint job you were mentioning, Zadie? If you don't like white, blue and red, what colours did you have in mind?"
"Black," Zadie replied, gesturing dramatically, "or maybe really, really dark purple! And... I've never seen a sunrise through a real atmosphere, but I think there's supposed to be gold or orange involved? Those could be the accents. I've never heard of a red, blue, and white sunrise," she concluded on firmer footing.
"I've never seen one either. Not in real life - I saw a vid of one once. It wasn't that incredible." John added "Maybe black with an orange glowing woman? If we could turn off the glow to run dark it might be useful. Or we could use the engines as the sun?"
Technomancer 3
RP +0
HP +5 (class)
SP +5 (class) +1 (Con)
BAB +1
Fort and Ref save +1
Skill points +4 (class) +1 (human) +4 (int)
one point each to: computers, culture, engineering, life science, mysticism, perception, physical science, prof: academician, prof: mathematician
Techlore +1
Feats: Great Fortitude, Spell Focus (bonus), Weapon Specialization (Basic melee weapons, small arms) (bonus)
Spells known (1 0th, 1 1st) Detect Affliction, Flight
New spell slots: 1st
Action 1
”Black, blue, orange… doesn’t matter to me,” Robert said, shrugging his shoulders. ”No-one’s going to rely on spotting the ship with the naked eye, and colours won’t make much difference to sensors, unless you are going ballistic and enemy’s trying to spot you with passive sensors only. The only place people area really going to see the paintwork is when the ship’s docked. So go wild.” Robert knew he could always edit the artwork out with his implants if it turned out to be too garish to his sensibilities. ”But if you are taking votes, deep black or blue with golden pinstriping would be nice.”
Action 2
”All told, she seems to be in a remarkably good shape,” Robert said, looking up from the engineering console on the bride. He had been running basic diagnostics on the ship’s systems the moment they had established it was safe, with no enemies lurking in the shadows or crawlspaces. ”A bit low on reactor mass, but for something that’s been abandoned here for decades, and not properly shut down for the long haul before, she’s a beauty. Wouldn’t want to try out the Drift engines before we have time to perform some maintenance – the ship sure needs some attention and spare parts. But she should be good for the trip home.”
”So let’s get to planning. I say we first warm up the comms and give our friend in the Armada a call. This place is still under quarantine, and the one ship that had the diplomatic clout to fly in and out left without us aboard. So I’d rather have a permission to leave, rather than just taking off and trusting the Station Sec to ask questions before blowing the ship into little pieces. We should have enough evidence to get the science types on the Station salivating and begging for someone to authorize sending a team here. And the good Captain might have enough friends and political capital to get someone on the Station side listening to what we have to say.”
”And once we do get back on the Station, we need to have some words with a certain ambassador and how we liked his little ship flying into the sunset the moment his package was on it and we were away. It might not be a breach of contract but it should be made clear we have some feelings about the way it was handled.”
Retraining is fine. Just keep your PC within the rules.
I would take another language now. You'll level later and be able to take it at later levels if it comes up again.
Questions?
Game on!
Action 1:
Shall we keep the name, or rename her?
Kamiya looked up from the piloting controls, slightly startled by Oriana's question. "The name should stay the same. I believe it's bad luck to rename a ship once it's been christened."
So let’s get to planning. I say we first warm up the comms and give our friend in the Armada a call. This place is still under quarantine, and the one ship that had the diplomatic clout to fly in and out left without us aboard. So I’d rather have a permission to leave, rather than just taking off and trusting the Station Sec to ask questions before blowing the ship into little pieces.
Kamiya considered their options before asking, "But do they have eyes on us? If we were to fly the Sunrise Maiden back to the Station, would they really know that we came from the Drift Rock? How would they know we came from the quarantined area?"
Action 2:
Kamiya ran and took cover as the small recording bot that was following them around began to buzz and whir. Staying hidden where she was she asked, "Ummm, guys? Why's it doing that? Is it going to explode?"
Kamiya considered their options before asking, "But do they have eyes on us? If we were to fly the Sunrise Maiden back to the Station, would they really know that we came from the Drift Rock? How would they know we came from the quarantined area?"
”Were I to declare a quarantine, I’d make damn sure I have eyes – or rather, sensors – on it 24/7. Doesn’t need to be a human operator monitoring things, after all,” Robert said. "A government does need to enforce its edicts, after all, not just ask people to pretty please do as they say."
Alarmed, Oriana also moved back from the bot. "That thing's not dangerous, is it?"
”That, or it’s trying to communicate with us, having spontaneously evolved into sentience, or it’s indicating it’s doing something it was programmed to do after certain criteria were fulfilled. Since it’s here to record our activities for our employer, I could lay some bets on who set those criteria and what it might be doing, unless it is here to save the Ambassador a few credits by killing us before he has to pay us,” Robert said, taking a cautious step back just in case, even though he was personally betting on the last option.
”Were I to declare a quarantine, I’d make damn sure I have eyes – or rather, sensors – on it 24/7. Doesn’t need to be a human operator monitoring things, after all,” Robert said. "A government does need to enforce its edicts, after all, not just ask people to pretty please do as they say."
"They didn't know about the goblins," Zadie shrugged, "or Clara, apparently. Pretty pathetic quarantine."
"They didn't know about the goblins," Zadie shrugged, "or Clara, apparently. Pretty pathetic quarantine."
"The goblins said they spacewalked over from another ship passing by the quarantine zone - ballsy, I give them that, and quite stealthy, as spotting two smaller-than-human sized objects that don't have much in the way of emissions isn't exactly easy," Robert grunted. "And Clara... someone paid her to attack us. That same someone could have paid for certain people to look the other way."
You may take 10 on computers.
Questions?
Game on!
Kamiya ran and took cover as the small recording bot that was following them around began to buzz and whir. Staying hidden where she was she asked, "Ummm, guys? Why's it doing that? Is it going to explode?"
Alarmed, Oriana also moved back from the bot. "That thing's not dangerous, is it?"
”That, or it’s trying to communicate with us, having spontaneously evolved into sentience, or it’s indicating it’s doing something it was programmed to do after certain criteria were fulfilled. Since it’s here to record our activities for our employer, I could lay some bets on who set those criteria and what it might be doing, unless it is here to save the Ambassador a few credits by killing us before he has to pay us,” Robert said, taking a cautious step back just in case, even though he was personally betting on the last option.
"It's transmitting data," Zadie frowned, "back to the ambassador, I'd guess. Maybe he just received his package and decided to see how we got it? And if we survived?" She waved with faux cheerfulness into the drone's camera. "Still alive, your worshipfulness ... no thanks to the ship you sent us here on," she added under her breath.
Level 3:
+1 BAB
+1 Fort
Expertise Talent: Cultural Savant
Weapon Specialization: small arms
Feat: Skill Synergy (Piloting and Engineering)
Skills (9 per level)
Acrobatics
Culture
Diplomacy
Engineering
Medicine
Perception
Piloting
Sense Motive
Adding - Computers
+6 HP
+5 SP
Action 2:
"Looks like ensuring it did not have all the data was wise." John suggested.
Level 3:
+1 BAB
+1 ref
Gear boost (Armored Advantage; +1 to KAC when wearing armor)
Weapon Specialisation (basic melee, advanced melee, small arms, long arms, heavy weapons, sniper weapons). +1 lvl in damage. +1/2 to small arms or operative.
Feat (Diehard)
+7 HP (to 25)
+8 SP (to 24)
+5 skills
* Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Intimidate, Profession, Computers
When it became apparent that the little bot wasn't about to self destruct, Oriana frowned under her gele. "I intend to have some stern words with the ambassador. He has not treated us honourably."
Question: for sidereal influence, it says it's for non-combat situations. Does that include starship combat? I was thinking that diplomacy is a great one for me, because it would give me a bonus while being a captain. But if it doesn't count for starship combat, then it's no good. But I'm betting it does, because it's not like I get my gravity weapon during starship combat. Thoughts?
It's not clear but I'm wiling to let you do it.
However, you are going to have to have the skills ready because you need to meditate for 1 minute to activate this and you may not have that in all starship combat (you may be surprised).
I think you need to meditate in the morning and choose a skill if you want to avoid that situation.
I see that everyone posted their level up info; did everyone reflect that info on your sheets? I need to update my combat spreadsheet...
Recapping now...
Questions?
Game on!
I see that everyone posted their level up info; did everyone reflect that info on your sheets? I need to update my combat spreadsheet...
"Hey, Captain Grandma," Zadie said to Oriana, "no hurry about it, but I'm going to need that battery back for this other gun." She waggles the static arc pistol. "Someone should make use of this generator upgrade, too; once we pick up more batteries, we can always be charging." She sounds immensely satisfied at the prospect.
"The f!!~!" Zadie blurted out when the Eoxian ship showed up on their sensors. "Where did that come from? What are the odds Moriko Nash had a run-in with an Eoxian and they've had an APB out on the Sunrise Maiden all these years? If we can raise someone in the skeletal shark," she advised, "I'd drop the Ambassador's name early and often and hope they've heard of him."