Krizen is able to remove the armor fairly easily. While wrangling the armor off the skeleton, a rectangular square of black plastic slides out of the pocket of the skeleton, a bit of writing in an unknown language on it.
Bravo watches Krizen remove the armor and looks over his shoulder at the plastic.
"Name tag, you think? I think we can safely say this guy was part of the original crew rather than a modern explorer with bad luck."
Whatever it is, it should probably go with the armor. Krizen makes sure to snag that as well.
Set pauses when Bravo observes that a rest may be in order, then looks down at his armored carapace and sees where some acid is slowly eating away at some metallic pieces. "There are times I really dislike fighting organics. So messy. And those didn't even have any proper loot." It utters a metallic sigh and goes about cleaning off the goo.
Kneeling on the deck, Quitch prays silently to himself. With the first two fingers from each hand, he touches the middle of his forehead. His slow and even respiration is loud through his nostrils. After about five minutes he rolls to a standing position.
”What is the custom for death in the Pact Worlds? I imagine we sould take the human corpse back to the ship. What of these two? Leave them here to float in the vacuum of space, exposed to the sun?”
The doors slowly slide open, revealing a large and bulky power generator, barely humming with life. There is also a stairway to one side leading upwards.
"Funeral customs really depend on the god you worship. And honestly we've no idea who this poor guy's gods were. And we don't really hold funerals for animals unless they're pets," Bravo says in response to Quitch's question. When the doors open, he moves to the front of the group again.
"Taking point."
After disabling his flashlight, Set moves up as quietly as possible and examines the engine room, looking for any other sign of contamination or claim-jumping trouble-maker.
If he doesn't spot or hear anything, he will begin to move up the stairs.
Krizen also disables his armors lights. He pulls his pistol back out, readied and reloaded. He stands behind S.E.T., letting the SRO travel ahead and scout but ready to back him up if needed.
”Understood, Bravo,” Quitch replies to his question’s answer. He watches the human pass through the double door, followed by SET and Krizen. He waits a moment then follows about three paces behind. He carries his pistol pointed at the floor. He puts his left hand on the wall, feeling for vibrations.
At the power generator, he casts Detect Magic wondering if the device is at all magical.
The generator is nonmagical. The party heads up the stairs, ending up on a platform above the generator room. There are two doors, one set of double doors and a single door. However, Bravo hears something strange beyond the double doors. It sounds like snippets of speech, sighs of despair and moans of anguish.
The SRO glances past Bravo down the platform and sees the pair of doors. Speaking quietly into its integrated comm, it says, "Looks clear... Amazing this vessel still has any power. Perhaps it was caught in some sort of stasis or portion of the Drift where time flowed differently. Regardless, where do we think the booty is? Door number 1, or door number 2?"
Bravo holds up his fist to halt the group.
"Potential hostile behind the double doors. Gibbering and upset. Most likely either undead or crazy," he informs the others quietly.
Krizen looks curiously at the generator as they go by, wondering how long it has been running in this derelict ship.
Seeing Bravo's signal to halt, Krizen clears his safety and prepares for trouble.
Quitch nods in understanding to be quiet. He keeps his pistol pointed at the ground, but now holds it in both hands.
Bravo waits for an okay from the rest of the group before opening the double-doors and shining his flashlight in.
Set nods, "Door number one it is." It takes a position on the opposite side of the door and waits for Bravo to open it.
"Everyone ready?" Bravo asks quietly.
The generator is nonmagical. Krizen finds no clear indication of exactly long it's been running, the engineering consoles completely indecipherable. However, there is what seems to be an error message indicating the time since the last system check and the number of years is clearly visible as being five digits.
The doors open and two humanoids can be seen within, milling about aimlessly. Each seems human, though made of thick ropy strands of a slimy green substance. They look up with eyes filled with deep sadness before beginning to howl with rage.
"Open fire," Bravo says as he does so, shooting the closest creature he can see.
"Gods, this is like a bad horror vid-game."
Gah! More green!!!
Bravo's rifle hits the creature and it shrieks in pain. It staggers forward and lets out a low, pitiful moan. The other lurches toward the party, leaving wet smears of goo that quickly dissipate, as if it didn't quite belong in our dimension.
The S.E.T. resists the sensation of fear from the thing's approach. A tertiary subroutine speculates that this might be an undead crew member, but the security and survival protocol's take priority. "Pharasma seems to have lost another. Let's speed this soul along, hmm?" It raises its pistol, feints as if to shoot in one direction, then aims and fires at the thing.
Quitch moves to the side of SET and fires once at the closest green-coiled humanoid. ”What are they?”
A problem! Shoot now, talk later!
Krizen sound panicked as he yells out, firing wildly at the approaching enemies.
The moan doesn't phase Bravo as he takes another shot at the monster he'd hit previously. The faster one went down, the easier the other would be.
Bravo's shot hits the creature squarely in the chest and it loses any structural integrity, collapsing to the ground in a heap of goo before it quickly dissipates into nothingness. The other creature shambles forward, swinging a goopy fist at Bravo. However, it slides off his armor, though leaving a bit of a smear of extraplanar glop that quickly vanishes.
Bravo steps back down the stairs to get a clear shot in at the monster.
Bravo makes a guarded step five feet back and then shoots.
With Quitch behind it, Set had no option to retreat. Which was fine. Taking the survival knife in its other arm, the SRO waved the blade in front of it then tried to stab the slimer.
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Krizen eyes look around with a wild glint, if anyone had taken the time to look closely. Just die already!!! He fires another round at the remaining monstrosity.
Craning his head around SET’s body, Quitch casts Daze on the remaining creature. The risk of crossfire outweighs the potential lethality of this enemy, he thinks. His left hand gestures at the creature while his right hand grips his pistol.
Bravo's rifle, yet again, takes down the slimy green monster and it falls to the ground, rapidly disintegrating.
Set stares at the monster as it collapses, looks at the knife in its own hand, back at the monster, the knife, then at Bravo. "This one thanks you for timely dispatching the creature. The survival knife was decidedly not aiding in survival."
Set then tries to examine the room and, if not finding any obvious sources of danger, enters.
"You're welcome," Bravo replies. "Poster Boy's more effective than you expected, huh?" he asks with a smirk.
He takes a look around as he follows after S.E.T. into the room.
Quitch’s whiskers twitch, ”Who is Poster Boy?” he asks as he surveys where the extraplanar beings disappeared. ”What would you call those? When I write up my report, it will help if I know their name. Maybe Lexxie can help. It must have some files detailing species and beings.”
Bravo looks back and raises an eyebrow.
"Quitch, I'M Poster Boy. S.E.T. made a joke about how I look like I walked out of a recruitment poster for the military, and I was saying that I proved in this fight that I'm not all talk, no action."
Krizen looks over at the banter. If it makes you feel better, I never doubted how effective a recruitment poster could be. Why else would they put so many of them up, hmm? Krizen’s playful, slightly quaking tone makes it clear that he is joking, and also that he is not focused solely on the conversation - still on edge after that horrifying moan.
I’m glad that’s over... those things were creepy!
Nothing is immediately dangerous in the room. There's nothing of incredible interest, though the kitchenette unit contains a drawer full of small plastic packets, marked with bright colors and writing in the same unknown script as the generator console. There are two doors, one to the left down a short hallway and another to the right.
Bravo shrugs at Krizen's words.
"I'm a soldier and I'm kinda pretty. 'Poster Boy' was inevitable at some point. At least it's better than all the 'boner' jokes I had to put up with in Basic. Thanks, though."
While the others search the room, he takes a position by the other door, waiting for them to be ready to move on.
"Don't eat those," he comments when they discover the plastic packets.
”Oh I understand now,” Quitch says. ”I didn't hear it say that. I must have been too intent on my prayers or...” he looks around the area vaguely and shrugs.
The ysoki takes two of the packets and puts them in a cheek pouch. ”I don’t plan on eating them, but analyzing their food would teach us more about them.”
”Lexxie, can you hear me? Are there any vessels approaching?”
Krizen also grabs a handful of packets and stores them in his pack. I agree with Quitch; these aren't for eating, but I am sure some scientist with the Society would love to analyze them. If not, someone else will pay for them, so... win/win!
Bravo shrugs.
"I've known ysoki who carry friggin' grenades in their cheek pouches, I think you'll be alright as long as you don't break the sealed packaging. Though, no offense meant, I've always wondered how you guys do that without gagging on the taste or something."
Set moves through the room and peers around the corners at the intersection.
Lexie responds calmly, "No, the coast is clear." S.E.T. doesn't see much through the open doorway, only the crumpled remains of the airlock door and another hallway, likely connecting to the door the party found on the landing, the smaller one next to the double doors.
[b]"Well, NBs and gentlemen, shall we enter the cockpit?"[/ooc] Bravo asks.
S.E.T. trills softly to itself, musing, then says, "The coast is clear. Normally, if this were a standard boarding action, this one would agree to secure the bridge first, to prevent the vessel's command crew from activating defense measures or a distress call to prevent... liberating... the vessel." It pauses, glances at Bravo, thoroughly aware of how absurd its last utterance was yet refusing to admit it, then continues.
"However, those... considerations do not seem to apply in this instance, although we may have other hostile life forms that could continue to threaten us. This one suggests securing the other sections before proceeding. Perhaps the port side, first? Perhaps with this threat secured we can also examine the engine room more closely, too."