It began as a dull day aboard the Clutch, Nakonechkin Salvage’s only ship and your home for the past year or so. Your boss, the vesk Nakonechkin, brought the ship out of Pact Words space and into some of the void beyond, looking for derelict space stations or the remains of forgotten starship battles to pick through.
Suddenly, with a buzzing chime, the ship’s computers registered a starship drifting in the region. Nakonechkin rushed to the captain’s console and initiated a scan. An image of the target ship appeared on screen: a large, ornate green starship with brass accents. It looked abandoned and ill-suited to be so far from the Pact Worlds.
Nakonechkin quickly pulled on his space suit and grabbed a set of all-purpose tools. “This looks like an easy enough job. You lot stay here and keep an eye on the Clutch. Try not to ‘repair’ anything while I’m away. I should be back in a couple of nanoseconds.” He nodded curtly and cycled the airlock to float over to the derelict ship.
Two hours have passed since Nakonechkin departed, and he isn’t responding to your communications. Something must have gone terribly wrong—and Nakonechkin might need help!
As soon as Captain Nakonechkin began his space walk to investigate the ruined starship, Gazigaz, skittermander fashion icon and First Mate of the Clutch, took his position at the Con in the captain's absence. As time drifts slowly by and no word comes from the captain, Gazigaz grows concerned that his captain is in need of help.
His flips the controls on the captain's seat to rotate it around and addresses the ship's resident technology expert. "Mister Quonx," he says, stroking his immaculate beard with one of his six hands, "Please perform a scan of the ship. Perhaps--our captain is in trouble."
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Nako begged to go with to watch his back, but as he occasionally does, Captain Nakonechkin seemed unconcerned about the little salvage mission and shoo'd her away. Intent on not letting him down, she took up her spot at the guns and started scanning space for trouble. As the first hour and a half passed, she found herself focusing more and more on the derelict ship, ears twitching for any sound from the comms.
Unable to stop herself, LL (lower-left) started tapping out a basic rhythm on the finger-drums encircling LR (lower-right).
*tap tap, tappity-tap, tap tap*
She looks up at her fellow helpers, "hear anything from Captain? I'm just... worried." With the result being a no, she zero'd the weapons onto the ENEMY SHIP THAT TOOK HER CAPTAIN no no we don't know that he's probably fine and just behind metal that won't let his signal out.
*tap tap, tappity-tap, tap tap*
Time passes and she looks around at the non-plussed Skittermanders, aren't they worried? Can't they tell that something is wrong. I SHOULD HAVE FORCED HIM TO TAKE ME WITH HIM.
*tap tap, tappity-tap, tap tap*
Finally as Gazigez speaks she sighs in relief, "yes yes, sensors. Check him. I'll get ready to go." She hops to her feet, checks her weapons are secure and snaps up her armor clasps. She slips her helmet on and clips the rebreather into place, completely covering her head except for a small slit showing twitchy eyes. Her voice cracks onto the comms, "ready to go, say the word."
*tap tap, tappity-tap, tap tap*
Quonx liked it when the captain was away. Less organic noise. More time for building things. Experimenting. One such experiment was almost at its apex, a delicate contraption of spare parts soddered in just the right locations. But at Gazigaz' order, Quonx jumped in her seat, letting the gizmo slip from her grasp and crash to the ground in all of its component pieces. "Argh!" she screeched, before looking down at her work, and exclaiming: . She turned her gaze to Gaz, hurt feelings evident. My experiment, you meanie! is what she thought. But what she said instead, in a miserable tone of voice, was "Okay. I'll brush this off the floor later I guess."
As the captain heads out, orders to stay put given, Dakoyo wanders over to the view port. 'No need to worry. Captain smart...be back in nanosecond...' he considers as he stars off into space.
Time passes...suddenly his companions begin to use their face-holes to make noise again. Turning around, the mystic frowns. "What's the worry...he only just le..." trailing off as he notices the luminescent time device on the wall, he shrugs. "Well...I guess I spaced out again. But just look at those stars! I think that constellation looks like a serpent holding a boar..."
As the others seem wholly uninterested in his thoughts, a flash of disappointment crosses his face. Watching the others scurry about, as Quonx peers across the open space towards the opposing ship, Dakoyo raises and eye.
"Uh...why not use the computer to scan? I think it'd be able to tell you more than just looking through the porthole..."
"Oh no," Gazigaz shouts as Quonx drops her beautiful experiment and it falls to pieces. "Your pretty-thingy broke! Must fix the pretty-thingy! Where did the captain hide the astroduct tape?" Gazigaz leaps down off of the captain's chair and hurries back to the storage compartment, where he begins digging through crates and containers, trying to find something to repair Quonx's ruined device.
Equipped with the sensor data, you have only one option to reach the Emerald Empyrean: a space walk.
The space walk should be a simple procedure. Your armor will protect you from the void of space. Once outside of the Clutch, you can hook yourselves to that ship with tethers (for safety) and then push off toward the Emerald Empyrean.
The two vessels are a few hundred feet apart, so it should take no more than a few minutes to float between them.
Unfortunately, as you begin to drift toward the derelict, a micrometeor storm passes over the two vessels with you caught in the middle!
Pointing at the sensor data, Nako pokes at the aft airlock. "That is our entry point, let's go help the Captain!" Nako hops to it and heads towards the airlock. Her comms crackle, "check, check, all ready to spacewalk?"
Cycling the airlock once her fellow skits are in, she leads the way across.
Completely focused on the target airlock, she doesn't notice the meteors sneaking up on them and they slam into her suit. "Everyone okay? Anyone need help?" If her allies seem to be okay , Nako grits her teeth against the pain and pushes on towards the aft airlock.
Seeing the meteors speeding towards them as they he follows his companions across the gap, the skitter fails to realize the danger. "Sooooooo pretty" he mumbles to himself.
"OOF! Well that smarts! I'm...I'm ok" he acknowledges, ensuring everything he'd previously had was still attached. "Yeah...I'm still in one piece."
Quonx quickly bended down onto her console, bringing up the initial scan of the derelict ship. Her eyes quickly panned over the old information, as Gazigaz attempted to fix the broken assembly. The Emerald Empyrean. Classification: heavy freighter. According to the transponder code, a property of Trendsetter Excursions. As her many fingers danced around the UI to reset the scan parameters to try for another pass, this time as a higher resolution, her mind put the pieces together. Modified transport. Likely pleasure barge? Only a company from Vercite would call itself something that stupid.
As the sensors spooled up, she brought up a display of the ship on the main screen. The only ways to enter the ship were through two airlock doors, one on the port side near the aft and one on the starboard side near the fore. However, with the forward airlock apparently completely sealed shut, only the aft airlock was accessible. Unknown error: Fore airlock non-responsive. What is that supposed to mean?
"I think captain Nakonechkin went through the aft airlock. I mean, probably. I mean, the other one didn't respond to our distress systems ping. So it's super stuck."
In a moment of curiosity, she pulled up the technical specs for ships of that class. Forward-facing heavy weapon; small turret weapon; Gorgon-class thrusters... And in another flurry of activity, she pulled up the latest energy map of the wreck. "Thrusters are active! I mean, idle, but they are still spooled up and ready. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, something bad has happened to the captain, I can feel it!" And as if to prove her point, the new scan completed, and overlaid itself on the technical map. "ARGH!" exclaims Quonx as she stumbles from her seat towards the airlock. And perhaps with good reason: the scan now showed about a dozen life signs aboard the derelict, which captain Nakonechkin missed on his initial scans. Most of them were concentrated in an area around the ship's aft, starboard side. Of even greater concern: Nakonechkin’s life signs were still visible, but the display indicated that the vesk was in a semi-conscious state, with his exact location flashing all around the map. Even more troublesome, an additional anomalous energy signature is detected in the ship’s center.
"WE GOTTA HURRY! IT'S GONNA EAT THE CAPTAIN! OR DECOMPILE HIM INTO BASIC POLYMER CHAINS! OR ..."
"...LIQUIFY EVERY ORGAN HE HAS! BUT I'M NOT GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN!" finally finished Quonx, in her litany of ever-more implausible, excruciating death scenarios for captain Nakonechkin, as she began her space walk towards the other ship.
About halfway through, her heartbeat began to go down. "Ok. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe Desna is smiling on us, and everything is OK." She turned to motion her companions on, when out of the corner of her eye she saw the approaching micro-meteor shower. "DESNA WEEPS! DESNA WEEPS! REALITY SUCKS! AAAAAARGH!!!!"
With how agitated the skittermander has become, she somehow manages to unconsciously tumble out of the worst of the cloud of meteorites.
"Ahh! Look out, friends! Bad bad meteors are coming to hurt us!"
Once Quonx starts rattling off her usual litany of anxieties, Nako selects the engineer's comm channel and mutes it, this'll take a while. I'll just wait till she stops flailing about and that usually means the end of her rant.
Annoyed after missing the probable warning and being hit by the meteors, she sighs and flips the comm channel back on. "Alright, tighten it up there. Let's get that airlock open before another pack of rocks attacks."
Quonx slowly approaches the airlock, and looks for the emergency override panel. "This will be fine. It'll all be fine. All we need is to get in and get out. And it'll be fine! Heh. Heheh. It's fine."
Half of the skittermanders are pelted with meteorites, while the other half manage to avoid them by some divine protection.
The cruise ship’s outer airlock door is marked with a large Trendsetter Excursions logo (a golden rocket blasting out of a glass of sparkling wine). Quonx finds that--probably unsurprisingly and definitely fortunately--that skittermander brute strength is not sufficient to tear open the airlock and depressurize the leisure ship. However, the access panel has a helpful button reading "OPEN."
This square chamber has little in the way of furnishings, and the walls and ceiling are a clean white, while the floor is a silvery metal. Four cages are stacked in the two forward corners of the room. A heavy door leads into the airlock to the port, while a flickering holographic sign reading “Welcome Guests” floats over the door to the starboard.
Three observer-class security robots float about here, buzzing and humming to themselves. When you enter, they scan you with a horizontal beam of light.
“Error! Pets must be placed in approved carriers before boarding the Emerald Empyrean. Initiating containment protocols.”
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako
Observer Bots (red, yellow, blue)
Dakoyo
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"Oh! Oh! Oh! He came through here! The captain! Oh! Oh! Quick, let's get in!"
"LET'S GET OUT!!! LET'S GET OUT!!! I'M NOT A PET!!! AAAAAHHHRG, STAY AWAY!!!" barks an alarmed Quonx, who sets her azimuth rifle at it's highest setting, and then turns the dial past its max. It looks as if she has been tampering with the equipment again, voiding the AbadarCorp warranty.
Quonx blasts one of the robot's eight arms off, but, like skittermanders, it has more.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako
Observer Bots (red, yellow [-9], blue)
Dakoyo
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Very offended by even the notion that they are considered pets, Nako charges the one missing an arm while screaching, "WE ARE NOT PETS! WE ARE HELPER ANIMALS!!!" Proud of herself for using a term she read about once, she obviously has no understanding of what a helper animal actually is.
She draws her Ember Flame Doshko while moving and brings it down in a large two handed slash at the robot in front of her.
for
"Oh no! Friends! Don't attack our wonderful metal nufriends! They just don't understand!" Gazigaz is alarmed by how quickly his companions have turned to violence against these robots. He turns and bows in apology to the robot his friends had attacked.
"I am sorry, nufriend, that these quizqarak meanies attacked you like that! They were just afraid. Please, we are not pets. We are helpers like you! We are trying to help our captain. Do you know where he is?"
The damaged robot just barely manages to endure the doshko strike, it's thermal plating holding strong. It tries to grab Nako--ignoring Gazigaz's attempt at reason--but appears to not realize that one of its arms is missing. The remaining two robots rush towards the unruly 'pet' and try to grab him. He narrowly avoids the grasp of one, but the other catches him as he flips out of the way.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako (grappled)
Observer Bots (red [grappling], yellow [-9], blue)
"Oh my. Our nufriends are not friends after all," Gazigaz says sadly as he draws his pistol and moves further into the room. "Alright then, friends, go get that one who is holding Nako!"
Watching as the events quickly unfold, Dakoyo cries out "Hey, we not pets! Pets are furry and cute and..." trailing off as he looks over his companions, he frowns. "Well...maybe a couple of us are pets...If we let you crate the pet friends can the rest of us pass?"
Slowly, his mind begins to comprehend the scene as he cries out "Hey! Yous playing too rough! Let her go!"
Spotting a piece of debris, he jerks his head towards the grappling duo sending the debris sailing towards the red robot.
Quonx begins to hyperventilate as the robots close on Nako to "pet" her. "LETERGO, LETERGO, LETERGO, LETERGO, LETERGO!!!!!" she yelps, leaving only a two star review and overcharging another shot into the red robot, which leaves the barrel looking like it could use an extended vacation.
LL and LR clasp together, knuckles popping. "HAHA! I've got you now robot! Little did you know that I was the top wrestler in my class! ARRRGHHHH!!!"
She attempts to reverse the grapple and take charge.
The loose water dish flies across the room, clattering against the wall. The robots take no notice.
Quonx blasts an unused arm off of the robot entangled with Nako. Nako, meanwhile, grabs on tightly to the robot, which will make it rather difficult for it to put her in a crate. It tries to shove her inside one, but instead loses its grip, leaving one arm dangling with a skittermander attached.
With the red skittermander in hand, so to speak, the other robots head to corral the other 'pets.' The far robot ejects a grenade from a port on its head. The missile lands in the middle of the entrance and splatters quick-dry adhesive all over the skittermanders and the robot with Nako dangling from its arm. It does manage to dodge the glue somehow.
The other robot fires a stunning beam of energy at Gazigaz, but it flies over his shoulder.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo (DC 10 Reflex vs. Engtangled)
Gazigaz (DC 10 Reflex vs. Engtangled)
Quonx (DC 10 Reflex vs. Engtangled)
Nako (grappling)
Observer Bots (red [-8, grappled], yellow [-9], blue)
She exclaims at the robot, "HEY! THAT ISN'T NICE! It'll get in our fur and take forever to clean out. Not COOL!" She drops her grip of the robot in front of her and brings her flaming Doshko to bear again in an upwards slash.
for
Quonx deftly avoids getting glued to the floor, screaming and firing her weapon back at the yellow one, pressing the "purge heat" smiley-faced button as she does so.
"Okay, we tried being nice. But you won't be our friends. Come on, everyone, get the nasty red one that won't let go of Nako!" Gazigaz levels his static arc pistol at the red robot and fires, a beam of electricity arcing toward the bad bad robot!
Nake drops off of the robot's arm and swings his doshko at it. Several bolts and springs fall off of it, but it is still functional (barely). Quonx's gun coughs and spews more smoke than heat, but the ray does hit the target.
Gazigaz is not so lucky with his aim.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo (DC 10 Reflex vs. Engtangled)
Gazigaz (saved)
Quonx (saved)
Nako
Observer Bots (red [-16], yellow [-12], blue)
Narrowly avoiding the glue, Dakoyo tugs his needler pistol free. "You guys not be playing fair! "
Taking aim, he sights in the big mean robit and squeezes the trigger. "Now quite this nonsense and let us save our captain and ....there was somethin else too..." Rubbing his chin with a free hand, his eyes light up "OH YEAH! Salvage the good bits of this here ship! You be slowing us down mean friends."
Dakoyo shoots a dart into the most damaged robot, and the poor, abused droid falls to the ground in pieces.
The two remaining robots try their best to shove Nako into a cage, but the little, red warrior refuses to be put in the corner!
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako
Observer Bots (yellow [-12], blue)
Nako unleashes her fury, "STOP TRYING TO GRAB ME YOU DAMN DIRTY APE ROBOTS!!!" Swinging her flaming Doshko around wildly, she slashes both up and down at the robots.
for
and
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"Good job! We helped Nako break the red one! Now get that yellow one that is damaged. Help end his suffering!" Gazigaz shouts encouragement as he moves into the room toward the corner with some of the crates and cages. "Oh, and spread out!"
"THEY DON'T SUFFER, THEY'RE CRAZY MACHINES!!! LEAVE HER ALONE! BAD! BAD ROBOTS!"
With a nod to Gazigaz, Dokoyo moves into the room. Carefully staying out of reach of the robits, he settles behind a crate.
"Yeah, you see? We break other friend. You no stop we break you too!"
Taking aim, he fires another needle, this time at the yellow mechanical being. "You ok fuzzy Nako?"
Nako spins in place, apparently wielding her doshko defensively (because it doesn't come anywhere near the robots).
Quonx strikes the damaged robot, overheating its circuitry. It clatters to the floor, non-functional.
Dakoyo's luck runs out, and he fires a dart into an empty cage.
"Naughty pets," the last robot intones as it tries--and fails--to push Nako into a cage.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako
Observer Bots (blue)
A slight blush forms, only visible as a reddening of her ears. Nako mutters, "I uh... meant to do that. Scare them maybe?"
Focusing back on her training, she slashes her weapon at the robot again, this time hopefully less wildly and then steps back into the corner.
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"DOWN! GO DOWN!! LEAVE HER ALONE!" yells Quonx, still panicking at the realization that there is still a foe that could cage them.
Her shot goes wide, striking a pile of pet crates and leaving a hole through most. The smell of burnt polystyrene fills the air.
"No no no! Shoot the blue one, not the wall!" Gazigaz levels his own weapon at the remaining robot and takes his shot.
After a flurry of zaps and flashes, the robot looks rather minimally harmed. Nako and the robot continue their silly dance as the skittermander proves far too swift for the droid.
Combat! Pet Corralling Gone Wrong! Bold may act.
Dakoyo (if you want to slip your missed turn in there, you can)
Gazigaz
Quonx
Nako
Observer Bots (blue) -4
So the fight continues, both physically, mentally and metaphysically. Wait, what does metaphysically mean? Is that like super physical? I'm totally that, haha! HAVE AT YOU!!!
An intense look of concentration comes on the muscular skittermanders face, almost to the point that you can see the gears turning in her head. She breaks out of it and slashes again at the robot.
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Quonx jumps, startled by Gazigaz's voice. "AAAUGH!" Her shot goes wild, frying one of the lighting fixtures in the bay.
"MOAR BLASTING OF THE BLUE ONE!!!" Gazigaz shouts wildly as he fires his weapon again.
Nako delivers a powerful blow against the remaining security robot. Quonx demolishes an overhead light. Gazigaz manages to blast out the robot's eye and internal computer. The droid falls to the ground beside the others.
A soothing, feminine voice suddenly plays over the Emerald Empyrean's intercom, "“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.”
With the security droids destroyed, the door next to Nako slides open automatically. It leads into a corridor with three other doors.
Trying to get a clear shot at the mechanical fiend, Dakoyo almost pulls the trigger several times...stopping just short of firing as his fuzzy friend steps back in the way. "GRRR Can't get a clear...." *THUD* "Oh, well that works. Good job everyone! We all good? Ready to go get boss man?"
Turning his head sideways, he listens to the voice intently. "What? Those mean robits let some pets loose? We best keep an eye out! No telling what them richy folk keep as pets." he advises the group.
Seeing the corridor open, he slides towards it and waits. "I've seen this movie. The purple one always dies first! Nako, after you."
Nako taunts the robot for a split second, "NOT PETS!!!"
She quickly turns to the door, pushes past Dakoyo and runs into the corridor yelling, "CAPTAIN! YOU OKAY!?! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE YOU!!!"
Checking the first door she comes to, she rips it open and...