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Hish tosses a (sheathed) knife to Ears. Do we suppose the coveralls are to protect the machines from us, or us from the machines? they muse wryly. Guess it's best to be safe either way...
They try to quickly find a coverall in their size and pull it on. It's rare that being a shirren has advantages when it comes to other species' clothing, but this case might be one of the exceptions!
It is a bit odd at first but the coveralls manage to fit onto humanoids form.
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Azara could do no more than Hish and much less than Gwin and Ears when it came to opening a door.
So, though he is quite curious about what is on the other side, he keeps a watch the other way. It's quite possible there's some kind of security protocol, after all and messing with this door may activate some kill subroutine in this warehouse full of drones.
Gwin determines that the control pad does open the door. He also finds a small static emitter built in to deliver a shock to whoever opens the door. He makes quick work of disabling it and presses the correct command to open the door.
Four pillars, each covered in glowing circuitry, break up the floor of this chamber. Though slightly out of date by modern Pact Worlds standards, the four power generators in between the pillars nevertheless hum with energy. The room is illuminated from below, and doors lead east and west.
Moments after you enter the room, two bay doors in the North East and North West corners, revealing robots. These robots are shaped a bit like ghibrani's.
The robots vocalize something. You recognize some of[ the what it says, and it sounds like what came across the speakers on the drake before the drones appeared.
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Azara isn't one for standing back, most of his abilities focused on getting close and doing some damage. But he hasn't forgotten the pounding they took by the platform and, until the bots prove they have ranged weapons, he's glad to use whatever advantage he can.
Hish has a good idea, though and he pulls out the crown. "What do you think? Someone to talk to them, or someone who knows how to deal with machines?"
He draws his pistol with the other hand, ready to fire if the bots make a wrong move.
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"He who hesitates gets lost," Azara says, donning the crown. At least it will let him understand the robots when they warn him before shooting him down.
"Greetings. We have come to implement repairs. Please take us to the Mainframe," he says, boldly striding into the other room and addressing the robots.
Unfortunately for Azara, the robots repeat the strange warning and the eyes begin to glow. And lets loose a pair of the beams fire towards the solarion's direction.
Combat Tracker
Bold May Act
Hish
Azara
GM
Ears
Gwin
Patterson
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"Though peace and understanding are spoken in whispers throughout the universe there is one refrain - violence, violence, violence," Azara says, ducking away from the robots' first shots.
As the familiar rush caused by violence courses through him and gives him a connection with the forces that power the solar system, he bursts into stellar flames.
He rushes the red robot, pulling the mote of star stuff from between his antennae and forming a razor sharp ankh with it.
Red: 15/20
The reddish robot slams a limb into Azara.
The blue tinged robot moves about the perimeter of the room.
Azara misses with the solar weapon.
Gwin manages to clip the robot.
Hish manages to catch the robot off guard and it takes the shot to a important part of its body.
The shot it took from Hish throws the construct off and it misses the solarian.
Hish gets blindsided by the laser and takes some damage from the superheated light.
Red: 5/20
Blue: 18/20
Agents GO
Patterson's supercharged shot blows the bot up on contact.
One of the storage slots that held one of the ghibrani guardbots contains a set of equipment left over from the ancient living ghibrani soldiers who operated out of this area. The set includes an ember flame doshko, two shock grenades II, and a set of casual stationwear armor.
The temperature of this narrow room is a few degrees warmer than the previous chambers. Racks of computers line the walls, with tiny lights blinking and hard drives audibly whirring. A single terminal stands opposite the only door to the west, an input prompt flashing serenely.
A PC who succeeds at a DC 13 Computers check an log into the terminal.
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"Nice shot, Patterson. Good work, everyone. Azara, I'd like to see that explosion again some time when I've got instruments. Fascinating." Ears comments.
He briefly looks over the robots for signs of regeneration, muttering, "Standard boring security 'bots, only interesting because of their age. Got to remember to get some samples later."
Then the ysoki turns to the generators, "Power tech!" He starts poking around the generator sets. In a few minutes he has the covers off and has inserted his head into the heart of the machinery. "Gwin, come take a look at this!"
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Even before Azara consciously knows he's out of danger, he knows he's out of danger as the symphony of the stars abruptly deserts him. The phontonic energy that he'd built up within himself disappears in an instant.
He's no help with any of this kind of stuff, so he joins Patterson in standing guard while the rest of the crew go about figuring out the techy things.
The power stops fluctuating in the building and hopefully this is mirrored in the city as well.
Once inside the computer room, it takes Ears less then a minute to get to what he was looking for, which is a lot of information. Which he downloads to his data pad.
Just over 300 years ago on a planet in the Vast, a race of insectile humanoids called ghibranis engaged in a brief but deadly nuclear war between several of its now-forgotten nation states. Prior to their cataclysmic conflict, ghibranis paid their respects to an aspect of Damoritosh—a god of war most commonly worshipped by the vesk in modern times. This worship shaped the race into a strong coalition of militarized states, with religious servants of Damoritosh in key advisory positions. The war that destroyed most of the ghibrani race occurred only decades after the Gap, as the addled state of the world’s leaders in the Gap’s aftermath only exacerbating existing tensions.
A small percentage of ghibranis survived the devastation. A powerful force field spared the metropolis of Arkeost the brunt of the nuclear war, but subsequent radiation carried by shifting wind currents wracked the city. Many died, but a sizable population endured. The ghibrani leaders knew the city didn’t have sufficient resources to support all the survivors, so after much discussion, they purposefully engineered several additional minor disasters to trouble the populace. The leaders then seeded rumors that an angry Damoritosh was responsible for this “divine” punishment and devised the creation of a false deity—Mother Touloo—who promised salvation to those ghibranis who gave up the comforts of civilization. Agents planted within the populace spread this false religion, leading a sizeable contingent of ghibranis into the wastelands. Meanwhile, the leaders of Arkeost and their closest family and friends remained behind.
Over the following centuries, very little contact occurred between the ghibranis who chose to live in the wastes and those who stayed in Arkeost, though both remained acutely aware of each other’s presences. The passing years, as well as healthy doses of lingering radiation, caused a physical division to occur between the two factions. The ghibranis in the badlands lost the use of their wings and developed hardier exoskeletons; they became known as “husks.” Those who lived within the surviving city kept their wings, but became thinner and more fragile; they are known to the husks as “membranes.”
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Ears samples the data stream as it downloads, and he comments on the bits that catch his attention. Toward the end he sums up, "A nasty bit of work that. Looks like the Husks were hard done by."
"Telling them might cause a spot of trouble here. Dredge up some genocidal resentment. On the other hand, everyone deserves to know the truth, and they all seem well-pacified. Reconciled to their differences. Perhaps they can work through their issues."
"On the third hand, what an interesting opportunity for sociological experimentation. Particularly if we tell only the Membranes. Will they use this knowledge and the restored power grid to better the Husks circumstances?"
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"Lies are a poison that kill slowly," Azara says.
"It is not right for the Membranes to reap all the benefits of their ancestors technology. They must be given the opportunity to share it with all the facts before them and the Husks must be given the choice of sharing in it with the knowledge that their ancestors helped develop it."
"We can only hope knowing how their planet became like this will guide them away from following in their ancestors' footsteps."
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Patterson nods slowly in response to Azara's comment. "You're a Wayfinder, hey? This first contact stuff is what you sophonts train for. You may be right that they'll take the news better from us--people who have eaten their food and helped them--than they would from some band of offworld strangers. Particularly when they realized that we had kept silent...." He pauses, still thinking, then comes to a decision. "You've talked me around, Cap'n. Tell them all...but be ready to bug out if they turn hostile."
The PCs are granted another audience with the Most Elevated. The council is thankful if the PCs repaired the generator, and they are surprised to learn the actions of their ancestors. However, as they are quite comfortable, they see no reason to change the way they currently live and positive that the husks probably feel the same way. They vow to uphold the tradition of keeping the Mainframe area taboo. When Klarima escorts the PCs back to the force field to open an exit for them, she seems a bit distracted. “You have given me much to think about, new friends,” are her last words to them.
Returning to the husk enclave, Alomir and Koseemo are understandably upset to hear that their religion is fictional. While the husks are not upset with the bearers of this bad news, they ask to be left alone to process the information. Dystane is the most visibly angry at the disclosure, and she and her hunters begin taking stock of their weapons.
Back on Absalom Station, Venture-Captain Arvin appreciates that the PCs chose to do something with the information they discovered, but he doesn’t assure them that they made the right or wrong decision. Depending on which faction knows that the other faction also knows, the membranes might be prepared for the husks when the inevitable revolt comes!
If the PCs return the historical records of Arkeost to the Lorespire Complex, even if they didn’t successfully log into the mainframe themselves, they succeed at their mission and each earn 1 Fame and 1 Reputation for any factions associated with their current faction boon, regardless of what they did with that information.
If the PCs establish good relations with both the husk and membrane ghibranis (as detailed in Husk Enclave and A Most Elevated Dinner), they each earn 1 additional Fame and 1 Reputation for any factions associated with their current faction boon. What the PCs do with the secrets they discover in the mainframe does not affect this success condition.
If the PCs completed the secondary success conditions, they impress the Wayfinders faction. Each PC earns 1 additional Reputation with the Wayfinders faction, in addition to any other Reputation earned as a result of completing this scenario.