Blax-9 leans around the corner and fires on the skeleton.
"Stupid skeleton heals self. We move back and draw it out?" Lasereater asks as he fires his laser pistol.
Bast will fire again
To Hit -
Damage -
Can you do ranged disarms in this game?
Val'nor asks himself "Why am I in the front lines?"
You send a volley of firearm shots at the skeleton leader. Lasereater and Vast clip it, while Blax-9 lands a lucky shot.
Armor smoking and punctured from the barrage of hits, the leader aims and fires its pistol at Bast. The supercharged slug barely misses his head and blows out a large chunk of bulkhead behind him.
;
The leader then retreats into the engineering section and hits the panel, closing the hatch.
Blax-9 runs to the edge of the necrotic field and turns to the others. "Anyway we can shut this down? If not, I'm going in."
Computers - (I do speak Eoxian)
Val'nor shakes his head "Sorry, sorry, I had a disconnect from my brain there."
"I think the aura is coming from the Engines, is there anyway to shut it down from another area? Otherwise, let see if there is another door into this room."
Lasereater eyes the field skeptically, "Purple glowy stuff for deaders. Half-shanks get more like 'em if he goes in?"
He looks up the hall, "Lookie look in deez rooms first? Brings out da deader captain to us?"
Blax-9 nods and leads the way back down the hall to the other room. ”Aye, let’s see if we can draw ‘em out.”
He opens the nearest door and steps in.
Val'nor shrugs and follows the others
The door directly across from the cargo hold entrance is partially jammed. When you try to open it, it gets stuck after a few inches. Through the gap, you can see what remains of a central state room. It has been ravaged by battle damage -- any furniture or terminals have been turned to slag or spaced.
Moving to the north, you pass two gunnery stations on your way to the bridge. The bridge remains mostly intact, though sparks are raining from shorting wiring in the ceiling. A general alarm tone is emanating from the captain's terminal.
"Nice maneuvers back there," a hoarse whisper says from the pilot's seat. There, what remains of the pilot sits, immobile. Its left arm is blown off, and a broken spar has completely severed the lower half of its body. Its head has the elongated Elebrian skull, bald, and you can see its skin is pale and papery. It stares with eyes that glimmer in icy white motes. "If I'd had a full-up ship, you'd be the ones in pieces right now." It chokes a coarse laugh, and you notice it is holding an exotic pistol in its one hand, but has not raised it to fire.
Val'nor is startled by the pilot"You fought well, we are sorry things happened this way."
He then walks to the Nav. Computer, keeping an eye on the pilots gun.
Then he plugs in his datapad to download the data.
Blax-9 walks up with his rifle ready. "You fought well indeed. What's your name? How did you end up here?"
He points back towards the aft of the ship. "How do we shut down that necro field?"
Val'nor works on the computer system. With a few keystrokes and swipes, he successfully bypasses the security.
"Parikk," the pilot replies. "Thanks for asking." He glances at your insignia and groans. "Starfinders... I told them that damned ship was bad news, but Yaren and Exegara insisted." He shakes his head. "Now look at me. This is what I get for listening to their blasted Corpse Fleet propaganda."
To Blax-9's question, he adds, "That's not a field, its energy leaking from the power core. No way to shut it down -- you can only destroy the core."
Just then the general alarm turns into a more urgent klaxon. A computerized voice sounds out over the ship's speakers.
"Looks like Yaren doesn't want you to take the ship," Parikk chokes a laugh. "What's left of it, anyway."
"Dead shanks tells us where Starfinder ship was!" Lasereater hops into the man's lap to stare him in the eye.
Parikk stares back with his cold, glinting eyes. "Some desolate rock in some nowhere system of the Vast. Exegara called it 'Ulmarid', but that might mean 'bospor dung' in some odd tongue she knew."
"Coordinates should be in there somewhere," he says nodding towards Val'nor. "But you might want to hurry."
Blax-9 nods his thanks at Parikk. "You done well telling us that. Rest in peace."
He then turns to the computer console. "Get the coordinates Val'nor and let's get out of here."
Val'nor wipes his brow as discretely as he can. He then says 'You bet, piece of cake'
'Hey Bast or Laser, can you give me a hand reading this entry'
"No, no, no. Computers steal words from head. Lasereater too smart for tricky long shanks."
The little goblin moves to look at the terminal but not the screen. He looks for obvious data storage.
"Lasereater rip out data da ol fashion way?"
"You flew very well considering the damage that was already done to your ship, this is a good death, do you want me to end your suffering?"
Eoxion - "Well it looks like the self destruct has started" glancing at Parikk,
Computers - Override the self destruct?
Val'nor quips at Bast, who's doing his own thing on a second terminal, but manages to decipher ship's the archaic filing system and access the recent nav logs. He acquires the coordinates of the Endless Threnody's last jump, in the proximity of the Ulmarid system.
Bast, for his part, tries to shut down the self-destruct protocol, but that function is completely isolated to the captain's terminal in engineering.
"Nah," Parikk replies to Bast's offer. "I'm comforted by the knowledge that Yaren is about to get his." He pauses a second, then adds, "Though he's probably trying to take your ship as we speak..." The undead pilot flips his pistol over and offers it, grip-first. "Here. Take it and send that bastard my regards."
Bast takes the gun and gives Parikk a salute, "I'll make sure I kill him with this gun, and he'll see it coming"
Blax-9 leads the way back to the ship. "Let's get out of here!"
Ok, Val'nor secures the datapad, and puts it in his backpack. He moves out behind Blax. Val'nor also readies his weapon.
"Dead ship go BOOM! Fire in space!!" Lasereater laughs as he skips out of the room.
Bast checks the pistol, a 6-notch Forked Pistol in good condition.
Plasma builds up and arcs between the two long, notched tines of this pistol, amplifying in power as the stream travels the length of the weapon. Forked pistols are named for the number of notches in their plasma-generating forks, as each notch contributes to a more powerful blast.
Damage: 1d3 Fire and 1d3 Electric
Critical: Burn 1d4
Range: 30 ft
Capacity/Usage: 20/1
Special: Boost 1
You leave Parikk and the bridge behind, moving quickly back towards the cargo bay and your tether. The necrotic energy field has expanded several meters further from the engine bay. You peer around the hatchway and see the armored skeleton, Yaren, there as expected. The damage you inflicted earlier seems repaired, and it looks like he is trying to sever the tether but it remains intact, for now. Yaren spins as you near, brandishing a laser pistol in one hand and magical power in the other.
"You will die here, Starfinders!"
Val'nor Yells 'Holy Crap, stop! Hands off that cable!'
"Parikk sends his regards!"
Bast will use a full round attack to attack twice
To Hit -
Damage - Fire/Electric
To Hit -
Damage - Fire/Electric
Init -
Bast steps up and fires the fork pistol, clipping Yaren across the shoulder guard. Val'nor rushes into the room, firing wildly at the undead.
Yaren stands his ground, firing back at Bast.
;
;
Lasereater reaches up and grabs Blax'a weapon and flips some devices on and smacks it a couple times.
"Half shanks waits a minute. Donts miss."
Bast will attack again using a move action to target Yaren again
To Hit -
Damage - Fire/Electric
Total Damage - Fire/Electric
Burn Damage -
Blax-9 delays, "Your goblin magic had better work."
He then moves in and fires.
Lasereater slaps some iffy-looking tech onto Blax-9's rifle, but the result is impressive. Blax-9 moves up and fires, nearly getting knocked prone by the weapon's recoil, and the impact punctures a massive hole through Yaren's armor. The undead recovers quickly, but Bast fires the forked pistol again and hits the exposed spot perfectly. Yaren's screech fades into a sandy whisper as his body burns away into ash.
The computer voice declares in Eoxian that 1 minute remains until self-destruct. The necrotic energy field expands a few more feet.
Anything worth looting from the ashes before we get on our ship and GTFO?
Val'nor checks the tether to see if it is intact. Then he moves to look into the door to the north.
Blax-9 shoulders his weapon and lights up a cigar as he returns to the ship. "Nice work Lasereater. You all right."
Bast scoops up the few objects lying in the ashy pile of Yaren's remains -- a pistol, sword, and ring. With the klaxon and computerized voice growing more and more urgent, you make a break for the Loreseeker. Just as Bast is punching the thrusters and pulling away, the Endless Threnody explodes with a dull thump and shockwave of purple-black fire!
You exit Drift space and return to normal space in order to reset your drives. When you do, you find that 9.5 days has passed since you left. The comm light immediately starts to blink, and the screen indicates a waiting call from Sarigar back on Absalom Station.
"Well shit, that isn't good..."
Bast leans over and answers the comms
Bast keys the comm. A spinning image of the Starfinder logo appears for a minute before the link connects and the logo is replaced by a holographic Sarigar. It crackles with static every few seconds, but the words come through mostly unbroken.
"You are well. Good, I am relieved! I expected the journey could take yet another week. Have you located the Corpse Fleet ship?"
"We found them, they were trapped in the drift, we managed to board them and found the information you requested"
"They did self-destruct the ship before we could find more information but we got what you needed."