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Earlier...
Nalun responds to S.E.T. I will refrain from exploding. The Cycle has need of me. Who else will smile at Master Vizetelly's jokes?
Nalun bows to Historia
To experience first contact is a humbling thought. We will strive to be worthy. This is a new thing, in a Universe with so few new things.
To S.E.T. Nalun says
Did you know that in preGap times, pirates sailed on oceangoing vessels? Perhaps we can try that on this new planet?
Nalun has a thought
What do we call this new planet?
”Well, if you insist on inaccurate data, call it what you want. Until you learn the native name for it, the correct designation is VW-248A-U.”
Set emits an electronic trill at the thought of a sailing vessel. "Does STEVE transform into a frigate? The SSS STEVE! It would be marvelous! And we could board merchants loaded with plunder stolen from..." It pauses suddenly, glances between Historia and Bravo, falls silent, then adds, "Nevermind. An academic curiosity. We should focus on protecting the Pact Worlds from dangerous AIs."
While the rest of you discuss the details, it pulls out a datapad and begins doodling a three-masted vessel approaching a sloop, cannon bristling from the side and trailing smoke behind it, humming What do you do with a drunken sailor to itself.
"What have you got in regards to /language data?" He asked, on the off chance they had something simple and easy to install.
Krizen points to SET, and reiterates his question. "SET raises a good point. What are the chances of this planet hosting sufficient technology for the chip to corrupt or overwrite? We've definitely had more trouble the more technology is around one of these fragrments... "
Krizen isn't a big fan of likely needing to go underwater - underground is comfortable, but underwater? Water drowns you. Ugh.
Bravo taps some old friends from basic to purchase military surplus and redo his kit. Among the purchases is a grenade launcher to better fire his preferred ordnance, which he incorporates into his primary gun with Krizen's help, along with a Mauler essentially a shotgun in a pistol-sized package, providing more stopping power than the cheap semi-auto he'd barely drawn from its holster since they started this mission.
When they return for the briefing, Bravo listens quietly to Historia's explanation, raising an eyebrow at S.E.T.'s...colorful suggestion but not saying anything. The rest of the team seem to cover the majority of questions he'd want to ask, but one is notably absent:
"Ma'am, should we be outfitting this crew for a long-haul, stocking up on things like provisions, ammo, batteries? I know there was that group of Starfinders, the Sunrise Maiden ones, they spent the better part of a standard month trekking across Castrovel and are now out Iomedae knows where in the Vast. Should we be making similar preparations for this mission, in the event that we're on VW-248A-U for longer than a few days like our trip out to Apostae was?"
”An excellent question. We have allocated resources for a large supply of provisions and basic ammunition, though any specialized equipment or luxury goods will need to be purchased. Expect at least a week of field time, potentially more.”
While it continues to draw, adding a Jolly Roger flag to the frigate and saber-wielding men on the deck, Set says, mostly to itself, "Note for quartermaster: Bring fishing poles to catch organic aquatic creatures for organic terrestrial creatures to consume. Fortunately, this one does not require sustenance or air..." It pauses in its doodling and looks up, "But this one may have negative buoyancy... Perhaps there are modifications this one can purchase."
”An excellent question. We have allocated resources for a large supply of provisions and basic ammunition, though any specialized equipment or luxury goods will need to be purchased. Expect at least a week of field time, potentially more.”
"Thank you, ma'am," Bravo replies. "I can fabricate makeshift grenades out of scrap, but I suspect unless we encounter some sort of ancient ruin tech, scrap will be hard to come by. And I've upgraded some of my guns, which requires me to diversify my ammo from just bullets to bullets and shells."
Set gamely tosses the stylus into the air, grabs it in his other hand, slips it back into the pad, the pad into his belt, then stands, arms raised triumphantly and says, "Excellent! Guns! Ammo! Grenades! The SSS STEVE! We're ready for a nautical adventure! This one shall begin downloading ancient sea shanties for you to sing while rowing."
Historia seems genuinely confused at S.E.T, ”There are no oars installed on the Society Transport and Exploration Vehicle. I...oh. That was a joke.”
She sighs and says, ”Do what you must here, and then make haste to the planet.”
"Will do. Thank you, ma'am," Bravo replies with a salute, then he gets an embarrassed look on his face. "Sorry. Force of habit."
"Thank you, ma'am." He copies verbatim, once it was clear they were finished. "May Her holy light bring you good tidings."
Bravo raises an eyebrow when Soundbyte's thank-you to Historia appears to be a recording of his own voice, but doesn't say anything.
Set stares at Historia for a moment, then replies, "Um, yes... a joke. Absolutely a joke." When the meeting is over, it heads out of the office and mutters to itself, "No oars? None?"
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Krizen nods his head to Historia, and follows SET out, catching the sentient's mutters. "Of course there's no oars. Oars are too good for us of the unwashed masses... we're using POLES to travel on the SSS Steve, of course. Krizen's tone is completely serious; he's hoping to get SETs attention and convince him of this complete falshood before they actually set eyes on the vehicle.
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Set's oculus spins wide and glows bright yellow in excitement as it hears of having to use poles. "That seems incredibly impractical and utterly marvelous! Definitely worth shanties for singing."
It then leans in and speaks a bit softer to Krizen, "But you are most definitely well washed. This one's olfactory sensors are not perfect but well tuned enough for that. Do not worry good Krizen."
Later, while taking a transit tube or other form of conveyance back to the ship, it begins to 'sing,' again horribly offkey:
"Oh we be alright, if the wind was in our sails
Oh we be alright, if the wind was in our sails
Oh we be alright, if the wind was in our sails
And we'll all hang on behind...
"So we'll ro-o-oll the old chariot along
An' we'll ro-o-oll the old chariot along
So we'll ro-o-oll the old chariot along
An' we'll all hang on behind...
Oh, a loooong spell in gaol wouldn't do us any harm..."
Intrigued by the prospect of singing, though having not ever heard this particular shanty, Soundbyte takes the entire thing and remixes it. He seems pleased with it's quality.
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At Bravo's mention of grenades, Nalun sends him 850cr with a message
"The Cycle works in ways are sometimes, explosive"
Bravo replies to Nalun's gift with a blunt "Thank you. I'll make sure this gets put to good use."
Immediately, he makes for the Lorespire's supply warehouse. Not wanting a repeat of the Scoured Stars Incident, the Society had begun assembling a stockpile of various gear and goods so agents going out into the field like them were fully prepared.
In addition to a rack of scattergun shells for his mauler, he ponders whether it'd be more efficient to purchase more field rations for himself and the organic members of the team, or invest in a culinary synthesizer, even a basic one, with enough UPBs to use both as food and repair materials. He also starts thinking about what types of grenades would be most to their benefit, especially if they ended up going underwater...
While Bravo takes the time to pick up explosives, Soundbyte decide it's best to prepare in case of contact and drops by a utility store along the way. It's there he picks up a TCT along with a battery to keep it charged up.
”... We have allocated resources for a large supply of provisions and basic ammunition...”
If it's not already stored on the ship, Set submits a request for a supply of small arms rounds.
It also sends a message to Bravo as he goes shopping, "Detonators are useful with grenades. This one read that. Somewhere. Innocently. Maybe you knew that already. Through Steward training."
”... We have allocated resources for a large supply of provisions and basic ammunition...”If it's not already stored on the ship, Set submits a request for a supply of small arms rounds.
It also sends a message to Bravo as he goes shopping, "Detonators are useful with grenades. This one read that. Somewhere. Innocently. Maybe you knew that already. Through Steward training."
Bravo sends a reply to S.E.T., saying "I did know that, but from PWMC training. Very different. Still gotta make sure we get ordnance that will still work even if it gets wet."
The party makes their way back to the Pipe Dream in all of its chrome, shag carpeted, and fake wood panelled glory. Two new objects occupy the engineering bay. First is a large crate labelled Supplies. Second is a similarly large silvery vehicle, bulky tires connected to a central body by struts. Lexie’s smooth, computerized voice rings through the ship, ”Welcome back Starfinders. Ah, captain S.E.T. I see you’ve returned. Soon us synthetics will outnumber the organics. I kid. Or do I?” She’s quiet for a moment before saying, ”I do.”
The service umbilicals disconnect from the ship once everyone’s settled in and the ship jets off from Absalom Station. The mysterious ‘clunk’ continues to vex Krizen in the engine room, but everything goes smoothly.
Once the ship gets out of the Armada the Drift engines begin to warm up. The organics feel their stomachs drop in that familiar way, and the two S.R.O. feel their inertial and positional sensors briefly lose all bearing.
Reality, or at least something indistinguishable from it, reasserts itself upon entering the Drift. It’s a long two weeks, allowing S.E.T. to get well aquainted with Nalun and Soundbyte, and the unfortunately loud meditation habits of both of them.
The ship passes by a creature that nearly resembles a jellyfish, albeit the size of a
small moon with a mind-bogglingly large amount of tentacles. Something about it seems calming, friendly.
Eventually, the ship drops out of the Drift into a system lit by a bright yellow sun, much like the Burning Mother of the Pact Worlds. Like a perfect blue marble suspended in the void, VW-248A-U turns slowly and peacefully in space.
Lexie points out the rough coordinates, and three different atolls seem to surround the area. One is entirely barren save for a few scraggly trees and a whole lot of sand. Another is lush, full of both animal and plant life signatures. A third bears an average amount of life, with a clearly artificial structure detectable on its surface.
Upon boarding, Set 'laughs' at Lexie's joke -- it's not a bad imitation though the electronic edge to it is a tad eerie. "Yes, Lexie. A joke. Though the large feline is upgrading himself, so perhaps soon." It pauses, then adds, "Yes, a joke."
During the voyage, the quasi-piratical SRO takes the captain's chair but, with respect to the actual role, is considerably more serious than it usually affects, observing the undocking routine closely and monitoring distance between the Pipe Dream and nearby objects. It seems truly reluctant to take the role of 'captain' in an official sense, but does occasionally offer helpful suggestions and diligently endeavors to keep everything coordinated.
At one point, he asks, "Lexie, this one recalls that, when we first met, you said something about their possibly being some hidden booty left by the previous occupants of this vessel. Have those been located yet?"
When the Pipe Dream does come out of the Drift, it is on the bridge and observes, "Ah... That must be 'Vee-Double-U'... or just 'You'. Hmm. No. What about 'Toforateayou'? Yeah, maybe with an Eoxian accent... Topheratau. Perfect."
The light of its oculus dims, then glows bright green. "Any technology coming up on sensors, on the surface or orbit?"
If allowed, Soundbyte seems to slot himzelf confortably into the position of pilot. Most the time he spends at his station is sitting still utterly inert while he instead performs his duties directly via his datajack. The conversations he has with thr ship's AI transpire at speeds only artificial intelligence is capable of, though the subjext matter is admittedly limited due to differingnlevels of self-awareness.
Once they exit the Drift, he turns his optics to gaze correctly at this systems star. It did not hold the perfect majesty of his home did, but in a way all stars are lit by his goddess. He sends a prayer off to it so that it may reach her all the same.
"Now approaching / Topheratu /, performing geostationary lock..." His voice carriws the sound of a bored flight attendant, with a single word borrowed from his new captain. Soundbyte performs the maneuver manually this type, though he remains jacked in to his console. "Lock complete. You are now free to move about the cabin."
A few errant thoughts bring up the atoll imaging data, and he carefully begins making the calculations if they had wish to descend down upon any of them.
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Krizen curses mildly as his stomach seems to drop out from within him. He was half-buried under one of the engine housings, a small stethoscope in his ears with the other end resting deep against one of the support casings. "Lexie, why didn't you warn me we were about to drop out of Drift? I hate being stuck in the engines when that happens!"
When Lexie reminds him that she did, in fact, give such a warning Krizen's eyes widen and his ears droop. "Ah... My apologies. I must have been too engrossed in the task at hand to notice." He quickly makes his way to the bridge, knowing that there's no escaping Lexie but he can at least leave the engine room.
"I still cannot find that blasted rattle... I've checked every diagnostic and they've come up empty. Now I'm reduced to mucking around with antique, pre-drift tech... " He waves the stethoscope around for emphasis. He pauses his rant to look at the blue ball of water. "That it, eh? Well it doesn't look like a rampaging AI has taken over the islands... Still, my vote would be for either of the ones without artificial structures. Less chance of deluded computers trying to tell us what to do." With a complete lack of awareness of the irony, he turns to SET: "Though it's up to you to tell us where to go next, captain."
--
Set realizes it's not exactly sure who is manning the science officer's station, so it pulls up a repeater terminal and quickly types in some commands to look for any electronic signatures either on the surface or orbit.
It stares at the results, pokes at the repeater a couple of times, retracts the repeater display, then says, "Lexie... We need to upgrade your sensors."
Looking back up at the main display with the newly christened Topheratau before them, it points at one of the atolls and says, "That one." It's the completely barren one. "Lexie, prepare the SSS STEVE. Master Krizen, gather the poles!"
The sensors don’t find any electronic signatures.
Soundbyte stares at the proposed destination in question for several real-world seconds, before he finally turns around to face SET. "Bzzt! Wrong answer. Would you like to try again?"
Set ‘blinks’ at Soundbyte’s response, then points at the island with flora and fauna but no structures, ”That one?”
Bravo looks over the shoulders of S.E.T. and Soundbyte as they look at the sensors.
"S.E.T., I think he's indicating that third one there, with what clearly looks like an artificial structure on it."
The sound of fanfare and music new sites from Soundbyte's speakers as he flashes Bravo a thumbs up. "Ding sing ding! We have a winner folks. And just what is the grand prize you may ask? Why, it's a neeeew / Starfinder Transit and Exploration Vehicle."
Set trills slightly and considers the idea. ”This one is inclined to agree with Master Krizen’s suggestion about avoid contact with primitive organics but if both of you feel that is a better option... this one has no strong objection. Unfortunately, if conflict ensues, this one is not equipped for non lethal urban pacification.”
Krizen shifts uncomfortably on his feet. "I still think it would be better to go in quietly where we won't immediately be in potential conflict with the locals, but it's also fair to assume that we'll find more information on the island with buildings... We would probably have to make our way there eventually. " He shrugs, and looks over the group. [b]"I would prefer to have more information before setting down, but we have proven before that we can make do. I suppose I ought to put you away and get ready now...'{/b] The last comment is directed towards the stethoscope, still in his hand.
He hummed mechanically in thought, one of the few sounds he can produce truly his own. Perhaps he had been too hasty in wishing to I vesitage the structure first, there were a few processes in his runtime that enterained the idea of introducing the nstives to his goddess. The mechanical missionary was excited to test out his new translator as well.
"By your leave, captain." He clipped, leaving it ultimately to SET if he was fine with this course of action.
”Organic that endeavors to immolate himself in the fusion reaction of a sun and/or crush himself in a singularity, do you have any thoughts?” If Nalun has no strong opinion, Set runs a random number generator 10,001 times...
... and announces, ”Let’s set the Pipe Dream down on the island with the foliage. We may be able to conceal it from casual observation and then take the SSS Steve to the populated center. This one is sorry, organics. You will have to work the poles, but this one will assist.”
"I thought the poles were for fishing," Bravo replies. "Gotta agree that it'd be a good idea to set the Dream down someplace more isolated so it's less likely to get discovered by locals or harmed by natural forces or somethin'."
"Aye aye cap'n!"
Soundbyte begins to direct the ship to touch down at the designated location. Hopefully without crashing, and/or alerting the native populace.
Soundbyte is able to pilot the craft down to the surface, and with a little bit of difficulty gets it to land in a clear patch. A few creatures resembling a ratlike arthropod scurry away into the underbrush, but nothing seems tremendously disturbed.
The structure is primitive, comprised of three blocks of dark stone leaning against each other and a large piece of a different, lighter stone balanced on top.
During the descent, Set very sternly reminds Bravo, "The SSS Steve does not have oars. Poles are required for motion. This is known." It glances at Krizen and nods.
"Lexie, we will be disembarking and taking Steve with us. Please secure the Pipe Dream while we are away or contact us over comms if you detect anything that threatens the integrity of the ship." It stands, "This one needs to collect its backpack for gear and booty. Does anyone else need anything before we depart?"
"You are now free to move about the cabin." He quipped as the ship settled into place. His datajack disengaged and rewound itself into the back of his cranium, Soundbyte taking a few microsecconds to adjust as his mind no longer encompassed an entire ship. He wondered if non-mechanical had that issue as well when they unhooked themselves.
A nod towards SET, "Just one mooooore thing."
There wasn't much he carried on his own, but his priestly materials were always a necessity when venturimg upon a new world.
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Nalun spent the trip doing the things he normally does. Playing holopuzzles against the AI, or whomever he can find that enjoys them. Daily meditations, he reads a variety of articles downloaded from the massive libraries on Absalom Station.
Once the Pipe Dream drops out of Drift, Nalun is at the sensor station and staring at the map.
Indeed Master Vizetelly, that is an artificial structure.
Once the Dream is down Nalun grabs his things and prepares to exit.
How exciting to see something perhaps no other Starfinder has seen before?
During the descent, Set very sternly reminds Bravo, "The SSS Steve does not have oars. Poles are required for motion. This is known." It glances at Krizen and nods.
"Lexie, we will be disembarking and taking Steve with us. Please secure the Pipe Dream while we are away or contact us over comms if you detect anything that threatens the integrity of the ship." It stands, "This one needs to collect its backpack for gear and booty. Does anyone else need anything before we depart?"
"Doesn't Steve have, you know, a motor?" Bravo replies.
Set stares at Bravo for a moment in silence. Were it organic, it would surely be heaving a great sigh. "If it had a motor, it wouldn't need poles. This one was thoroughly briefed on this by our engineer. Really, Master Vizetelly, please do your research next time... This one shall meet you in the cargo hold."
As it departs the bridge, it grabs the functional datapad hanging around its chest, swipes and pushes, and downloads any scans and topographical surveys Lexie was able to put together during the descent.
Lexie responds, ”Certainly, Captain. Update sensitivity set to 100%” S.E.T. receives a ping. A crab is crawling up the side of the ship. ”Whoops. Update sensitivity set to 40%”
The ship’s hold opens, and S.E.T. is disappointed to find that not a single pole can be found on STEVE. It seems have a motor instead. Like a normal car.
Krizen looks over the setup on board the STEVE. "Well SET, it looks like they either upgraded our poles to the new Invisi-Cloak models, or the Society cheaped out and gave us a cruddy motor instead. I'll see about getting the motor started, though you're welcome to check the lockers for those Invisi-Cloak poles if you like." Krizen's voice is still perfectly calm, but his eyes are twinkling with humor and he's visibly restraining himself from laughing as he provides an even more outlandish explanation to cover the lack of poles on board the STEVE.