"Nice one," Mal replies sarcastically. "Alright, looks like we got what we could find in here--we'll call this our 'finder's fee' when we get back--so let's get moving. Everybody ready to roll?" Once again, the captain takes up a ready position and unholsters her pistol.
"On my mark, Mr. Soloroh. Ready...mark!"
Lih moves to the door, doshko in hand for whatever may be behind the door.
He hesitates for a.moment looking at the control panel.
"Can someone get that, please"
"Wait." Verne holds up a hand. He picks his way among the debris and overturned lockers. "There's an unopened compartment over there." He gives the opening an experimental tug to see whether it's locked or not.
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The compartment opens at Verne's tug. Within, the android finds a static shock caster rifle and two shock grenades II.
Mayhem, already moving for the door, stops short in his tracks as Verne pulls the heavy-duty rifle out of the hidden trove in the wall. His mouth open, the soldier moves slowly towards Verne with his arms held out.
"Oh my," Mayhem says in wonder. "That is the most beautiful gun that I have ever seen." His attention briefly flits to the grenades and he jumps a bit. "OH MY. Those grenades are beautiful, too!"
Jarix is a bit jealous, but then realizes that he's happy to have big armor and big gun to keep the attention off of him.
Mallura's attention, too, is drawn back into the locker room as Verne pulls out the newly discovered armaments. "Oh! Those are lovely, aren't they? Hm...okay. You all help yourselves to these. I'm happy with my incendiaries." The captain pats the small pouch on her hip containing the grenades, then turns her attention back to the door. "Now, let's see if I can get this thing unlocked without immediately opening it..."
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As Mallura begins cross-cutting wires, the door to the next room opens unexpectedly, revealing a large but bare circular room with several computer screens and databanks lining the inner walls. Chairs jut out from some of these computerised desks; from behind one of those chairs crouches a medium form strangely-haloed in blue flame, its dark grey-skin cracked and charred. The drusnock aims a rifle at the entrance to the chamber and fires at Mal along with the two combat sentries flanking the door.
"You were warned," the Exile pronounces flatly in a metallic back-of-the-throat voice.
A barrage of sonic blasts rips through Captain Mallura's form, her body flopping to the floor like a rag doll.
From her position in the room, the strix sees the shots fell her captain and reacts towards the nearest hostile creature that she can see, firing three bolts of magical energy at one of the sentry drones.
Well, shi-! is the last thing that comes to Mallura's mind as three sonic blasts bombard her and send her, sprawling and unconscious, to the floor.
Lih will enter the room, doshko in hand, and come toe to toe with the closest drone.
He will then bring his doshko down on the construct.
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With a crunch and a sizzle, Lih's tactical doshko slices into the sentry drone still smoking from Nat's three quick force missiles. Amazingly, the sentry's single red eye remains intensely glowing. The other drone turns its firepower on the korasha lashunta, firing twice.
One of the sonic blasts richochets off of Lih's new squad class armor, but the second shot takes him in the head. Mayhem races through the doorway, eager to get off a shot with his new rifle!
Unfortunately, the shot misses wide.
JD moves through the door with his pistol raised in both hands. He takes a step to the left side once he's entered the room, opposite Mayhem.
He brings the drone D into his sights and fires.
"The creature appeares to be in an advanced state of the light-pop disease-" Verne's explanation trails off as his captain skids along the floor in an explosion of sonic energy.
Verne strides into the room and unholsters his pistol.
Let's hope I can get a clear shot off this time.
Jarix moves up using the doorway as cover. He takes a shot at the exile before looking down to see about his captain.
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Verne's blast from his pistol pings off the side of the XO Comp sentry drone, scoring its side. Jarix's shot just misses its intended target.
Nat races forward and crouches down by the fallen captain, hypoderm spray in hand.
"I've got the captain," she calls out to the group.
Lih strains against the pain in his skull. He rushes forwards towards the Exile and strikes out at him with the doshko.
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Lih shakes his head clear and races at The Exile with his doshko, skewering it painfully in the shoulder. The XO Comp murder-bot sentry drone turns and fires two shots in rapid succession.
The first attack on Lih takes the soldier in the back, pitching him forward in a heap on the ground. The XO Comp re-focuses its second attack, firing on the trigger-happy astrazoan.
Mayhem takes the sonic blast to the mid-section, responding with a smile as he powers up his new rifle.
"That tickles! Here, let me try!"
The electrical blast from Mayhem's new gun rips into the drone, scrambling its circuits. Its single red eye remains fixed and open.
JD levels the pistol at the exile that destroyed Sh-Ux and fires.
Verne takes a quick glance at JD and follows his lead.
A shame we can't reason with the diseased lightshark anymore.
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JD's shot clips the wounded drusnock, but Verne's shot from the other room misses wildly. The Exile rages and advances from behind its chair.
"You've ruined so much, and yet your ends will be so meaningful as they will signify my rebirth!"
The drusnock's eyes glow brightly as it gathers mystical energy about itself and blasts it towards JD, Mayhem, and Jarix in a scintillating cone of force.
The overwhelming force blasts the three crew members backwards into obstacles and walls.
JD and Mayhem bounce off the computer panels lining the circular walls to the room and land on the floor. Additionally, both the mechanic and the astrazoan get the wind knocked out of them, but notice a curious burning sensation to their breaths this close to the flame-enwreathed native.
Jarix returns to his cover and fires at the drusnock.
Mallura lets out a long low groan as she comes back to consciousness. Seeing her friends laying on the ground around her, however, she remains still for the moment.
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Jarix tags the advancing drusnock with a shot as he slides back next to the doorway. The captain stirs and wakes. Almost immediately, Nat is at her side.
"It's ok, darling. Let me give you something to make you feel better," the strix says as she administer a hypo-spray to the captain.
The sentry drone XO Comp advances upon the prone form of Mayhem and brings its heavy claw down on the astrazoan!
The heavy claw falls with a sickening crunch on Mayhem's torso. The astrazoan yells out in pain and alarm and tries to scrabble/tumble away from the menacing XO Comp mechanical.
Mayhem tumbles out of reach of the drone to a standing position. The unwieldy nature of his gun prevents him from taking a shot, unfortunately.
JD drags himself up from the floor with a grunt to a standing position again.
"Score is 2 to 1 for drones between us, κώλος. I'm going to exile your brains from your skull."
He raises the pistol in one hand and fires at the exile.
Verne curses under his breath as he surveys the scene.
Out of energy myself, good thing I packed before the trip.
He runs over to Lih and administers a healing serum.
With her crew around her, and with Nat's help in healing her somewhat, Mallura feels confident enough to get back to her feet and grab her weapon.
Jarix continues to use the doorway for cover and to hide before jumping out to shoot.
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Jarix jucks around the door frame, but his shot misses wide.
Nat concentrates on the drusnock, a small furrow in her brow.
She breaks her concentration and yells out: "Verne! Use those blasted grenades, honey! It's now or never!"
The sentry fires on Mallura.
Mallura takes a shot to the head.
Verne runs up beside Mal and launches one of the aforementioned grenades between the ailing lightshark and the drone.
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Verne heeds Nat's advice, hurriedly drops their pistol, and pulls and tosses one of the new grenades in a rushed motion. The small metal canister floats, almost in slow motion, end-over-end past a screaming Nat, a reeling Mal, and a desperate Jarix all stuffed in the doorway, over the crumpled and bloodied bodies of Mayhem and JD, plinking down onto the ground between the remaining XO Comp drone and the Exile as its tiny central eye flashes red in rapidly-accelerating succession.
The light-shark turns to the grenade just as it blossoms in an eruption of electrostatic energy that rips through the XO Comp mechanical with the ease of a child removing wrapping paper from a present. The Exile himself loses chunks of flesh in the blast and topples face-down onto the metallic floor of the chamber to lie still.
"Are we taking this one alive?" Jarix stands ready to put a final shot into the drusnock.
”That’s the way, Verne,” Mal shouts as the grenade rips through both the remaining sentry drone and the commanding light shark. Following up on the sudden shift in the crew’s favor, Mal rushes into the chamber, pulls back the hammer on her pistol, and fires.
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Captain Mal answers Jarix's question with a bullet to the back of the head of the fallen drusnock. Unfortunately, the bullet triggers a fiery explosion from the corpse of The Exile that scorches Mal and Jarix.
Verne tends to JD, the most severely-wounded of the party, using his considerable medical skill to keep the mechanic stable until the remainder of the adventurers wake up.
In the aftermath of the fracas, the crew accesses the command centre computer (a wholly simplistic process, demonstrating how The Exile managed to do it) to discover the cause of the downfall of Colony-753: a disease referred in the colony journals known as the Stardust Plague. A description of the disease sounds awfully familiar to Light-Pop.
Nat is further able to access an official AbadarCorp portal on the computer system. A large and gilded (if not archaic) Abadarian symbol appears on the screen. Nat looks around hesitantly before activating the button. As she does so, a curious golden haze coalesces in the room into the form of a short, iron-skinned horse surrounded by flickering light, a preternatural intelligence glittering in its metallic golden eyes.
An image of the creature (Slide 4)
"Blessings from the Master of the First Vault, prosperity and stability be forever yours. I am Nopher of the Orsheval, servitor to Abadar and messenger from your employers at AbadarCorp. It has been registered that you have discovered the full story of the failure of Colony-753. This will help us all. More specifically, this fulfils a portion of your official contract as per my office as adjutant. You are hereby authorised to take for your personal use or reward any item remaining here at former Colony-753. I bear further instructions in your official employment."
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"There exists an AbadarCorp colony named Madelon's Landing on the planet of Nakondis in a system further on in the Vast. You will be transporting a load of supplies on behalf of the corporation to the colony. Due to the perilous nature of traveling into the Vast, you will reap profit beyond your contractual obligation for the completion of this mission. The head administrator, a lashunta priest of Abadar named Madelon Kesi, is to pay you all 7,000 credits upon delivery of the supplies to the colony."
Nopher continues after a brief pause.
"The auxiliary cargo compartment in cargo bay C aboard AbadarCorp Vessel MRM3500 has now been accessed. Within this compartment can be found the referenced supply materials. The coordinates for travel to the Nakon system have been programmed within your ship's computer. I am bound to remind you all of your legal and divine obligations as laid out within your official contracts. So it is judged."
And with that, Nopher dissolves into a cloud of golden dust.
Waking up from unconsiousness for the second time in the past few minutes, Mallura struggles to sit up. "Ugh...I feel like I just got run over by a renkroda," she groans miserably as she rubs at her forehead.
She gingerly stands back up, wincing as bruises, burns, and aches wrack her mind with pain. "Is everybody back up?" she asks, looking around at her crew. She mentally checks off the members of her crew as she sees them go through the same painful motions she had, until her gaze falls on JD. "Damn. He's had a pretty rough day, huh? Anybody have another healing serum?" The captain moves over to JD and looks over his wounds. "I don't know anything about healing, but he looks in pretty bad shape. Verne, keep an eye on him, alright?"
With her crew getting back in order, the captain joins Nat at the computer terminal as she activates the systems and calls forth Nopher.
"Fantastic," she replies dryly at the news that part of the contract has been fulfilled. "And what instructions do you have for us, Nopher of the Orsheval? Shall we go throw ourselves into a black hole next?"
"There exists an AbadarCorp colony named Madelon's Landing on the planet of Nakondis in a system further on in the Vast. You will be transporting a load of supplies on behalf of the corporation to the colony. Due to the perilous nature of traveling into the Vast, you will reap profit beyond your contractual obligation for the completion of this mission. The head administrator, a lashunta priest of Abadar named Madelon Kesi, is to pay you all 7,000 credits upon delivery of the supplies to the colony."
Nopher continues after a brief pause.
"The auxiliary cargo compartment in cargo bay C aboard AbadarCorp Vessel MRM3500 has now been accessed. Within this compartment can be found the referenced supply materials. The coordinates for travel to the Nakon system have been programmed within your ship's computer. I am bound to remind you all of your legal and divine obligations as laid out within your official contracts. So it is judged."
And with that, Nopher dissolves into a cloud of golden dust.
"Tch! Pre-recorded. Well, at least they seem to have anticipated our success here, so it wasn't neccessarily intended as a death-trap!" Mallura stands pensively as the AbadarCorp sigil slowly revolves on the screen. "Still, I haven't heard anything about this Nakondis. Any of you?" She turns to her crew, searching for any insights they might be able to supply.
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In a small room just off the large main command centre, you find the remnants of The Exile's living quarters, including a large stack of metal plates smeared with seemingly-random swaths of colours in varying patterns.
Additionally, you find 500 credits worth of UPBs stacked neatly along one wall of the small chamber and a single credstick bearing the mark of the Bank of the First vault that holds 300 credits.
You spend the rest of your time at the abandoned colony site poking through uninhabited and desolately bland rooms that appear largely untouched by the passage of time. Apart from an occasional Abadar Key symbol adorning a wall, not a trace of the colonists remains. A medical bay is a welcome find in the compound; within its stores you find two doses of sprayflesh and an advanced medkit. You also find a locked cabinet built into the lower half of the medical gurney in the centre of the room.
Mallura picks up the metallic plates in the Exile's quarters and looks over them casually...
"Eh. Not for me," she says, dropping the plates back on the desk.
She then moves on to the rest of the outpost, and finds herself in the medbay, where she quickly finds the locked cabinet, looks surreptitiously around to see if anyone is watching, then tries to pick the lock on the cabinet. "Let's see how well I remember how to do this..."
"Come on... come on...." the captain twists her tweezers in the lock for a moment, trying her best to get that final turn to unlock the cabinet, but she just can't manage it. "Fleem! Thought I had it. Oh well, let's see if someone else has better luck." She calls out to her crew and directs their attention toward the locked cabinet.
Jarix wakes up, "Somebody remind me not to do that again."
"A message just for us. Makes me feel like they really care."
"I guess he got bored sitting in here all alone."
Jarix gives the cabinet a kick while Mal is working on it.
About JD: Jarix has a mk 1 serum of healing. JD is welcome to it.
JD opens his eyes to see Verne and Jarix tending to him. With their help he sits up and surveys the damage.
'Thanks for the help guys. Jarix, looks like I owe you a healing serum too. Next rounds on me." He lets out a heavy sigh of exhaustion and pain. "I think I need a few days off after today.
He rests for awhile while the crew explores the rest of the colony structure.
When briefed about the communication and their new job, JD recognizes Nakondis immediately. He leans back in his resting position.
"We're going to the Nakon system? I've been through there before. Nakondis is the second planet from the sun. Forrest planet, if I recall correctly. Whole surface is just thick with it, except near the equator where it thins out. Gravity is more standard than this rock we're on, but if you didn't enjoy the lightning storms here, you won't like Nakondis when it's foggy. All the water on the planet is stored in the ground, so there's no oceans. Sun's real close too, right, so when the ground warms up the fog raises out of the ground and can cause some pretty wild electrical storms that can do some damage to ship systems. Days are long there too, so plenty of sunshine.' He grimaces at the memory of being shocked by the electrical storms on the way to their current location. "Sounds like more fun in our future"
When informed of the UPB find, he spends a few minutes going over the stash. To the captain he reports "There is plenty here to repair the ship before we take off again, and a good supply for the future. Once we get back I'll need about 5 hours and I can get it patched up."
After some rest he pokes around the remains of the XO comps for salvage parts, as well as parts from the laser turret that destroyed Sh-Ux. He also slips into the the medical bay when noone is watching.
Got to be some pain pills around here somewhere
He examines the locked drawer with the dent in it.
It pops open, revealing the "four separate translucent cases housing five gem-like stones with metal latticework on their surface: two pink, one blue, and one green"
He frowns at them. They don't look like drugs. He returns to the crew with them. "Anyone know what these are?"
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