"I don't know much about wiring and circuits or a starship but I'm can sure fit into small spaces so if you need someone to crawl around down there I can sure help. I know these guys are pretty swell in combat so I'm sure we can handle anything that may be down there for yah!"
Slowly turning towards her companions, "Any of you any good with computers?"
As you navigate to E-Deck, you find that the area is in complete darkness, though gravity is still thankfully functional. As everyone turns on their flashlights Zaknar is able to find an access panel. He thinks, with a good enough roll, he could maybe get the lights and camera back on.
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Akkedis makes a sound somewhere between growling and hissing, which may be laughing, "A valid point Zaknar, walking past death once in a day is exhilarating... Twice, foolish. Or a prerequisite for Starfinder service?" The sound continues for a few more moments, as Akkedis gives Zaknar a friendly jab to the shoulder.
Akkedis taps the case next to Zaknar, "I believe we may want to use your non-lethal weapons again. If there is a sabotuer taking it alive may be more valuable to Fitch than just elimination." Akkedis takes the Pulsecaster rifle if Zaknar and the team agree.
It takes Zaknar a few minutes to reroute power, but he does manage to get lights back up and running. On a security monitor next to the access panel, he finds that most of the security cameras are still down, but a few of them are operational. One shows two human children lost and very frightened in a cargo bay not too far from where you are.
Scattered barrels and boxes line the lowered floor of this storage chamber. A thick bulkhead to the port side leads farther onto the deck, while a similar bulkhead to the aft connects to an arterial hallway that runs the length of the deck.
With the lights on it is easy to catch sight of the two kids that are cowering together in the corner. They look very scared at the sight of a whole bunch of aliens (many of whom they have never seen before) showing up out of nowhere.
"hello young ones!" Trae approaches with arms wide open, ready to offer a hug or try to disuade any hostility they may feel from seeing many new people approaching them, "What have you guys been up to down here? Playing with anything you shouldn't be?"
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GalDCCII turns on her new disc, and plays it so the track can be heard in the whole of the room. She taps her foot and hums along quietly.
Not wanting to frighten the lostlings any more, the dwarf stays back from the conversation and instead moves toward the door leading further into the deck. She inspects it for signs of danger while the conversation begins, careful to stay far enough away to not activate any motion sensors it may have.
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Zaknar smiles but says nothing as he rubs his punched shoulder.
"But of course Akkedis. Getting a liking for the Zeizerer style are we?" Zaknar says while gesturing at one of the cases with one hand for a moment. He then resumes his work with the wiring.
Upon first seeing the small humans Zaknar gives a quick eye roll and then he perks up. He grabs one of his cases, opens it up and pulls out a pistol. He then moves to the middle of the room, kneels down, and offers out the pistol in their direction with a charming smile. "Why hello little humans. I have something for you to try out should you answer a few of our questions. A toy as it were. Come on out now and you may even be able to fire it at the ysoki."
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Gulkyn stays quiet during the conversation up to E-Deck. It was bad enough getting beat down by the feather stalker, let alone talking about it.
Upon seeing the children on the screen he mumbles, "Great, children... can this day get any worse?"
He lets the others take the lead once they enter the room, and joins Dee Cee Cee in a search of the room.
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As Zaknar moves to the children Akkedis grins, "Their weapons are acceptable, I feel their choice in broker is much better."
Akkedis peers around the corner as the others engage the children, "I am not good with hatchlings. They are too... Fragile. I do not wish to frighten them, are they well?" Once the children are calm and comfortable with the team, Akkedis moves in and begins helping search the room.
"Do the cameras show us other rooms? Can we asses if the room integrity has held?" Akkedis asks leaving the question open to everyone.
GalDCCI, Gulkyn and Akkedis look through the room and notice that there is one other exit that leads to (if the sign is to be believed) "E-Deck Auxiliary Computer Control. The rest of the room looks like it might have at one point been a staging area or maybe a meeting room, but is currently used for storage of damaged, destroyed, or outdated ship components.
Akkedis seems to think that the ship is fine except for the fact that the lights were out.
The Children are initially even more afraid of the scary halfling lady with the big gun, but Zaknar manages to calm them down after a minute or so.
The two children start talking to Zaknar so fast (and they interrupt each other so much) that it is hard to get a clear answer from them. It seems that they are afraid of getting into trouble and keep revising their story to make themselves seem as innocent as possible. Something about playing hide-and-seek down here when the power went out? Or were they asked by their dad (who is an Engineer on the ship) to get a power cell from down here? Or did they take a wrong turn and get lost?
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Akkedis looks over his shoulder, "Hatchlings shouldn't lie to elders, their teeth and claws will fall out... What or who is in the other room little ones? We don't want to have to tell your father and Fitch you were naughty." He tries to fix a firm, admonishing stare at the children but is hesitant to overly frighten them.
The kids look at each other pencivly and then shout ”Don’t!” when Zaknar asks someone to open the door. They sheepishly explain that they set up a trap on the door for, uh, reasons.
The children, scared and admonished beyond reason, begin bawling and blubbering. Though their tearful confession, you are able to make out that they found a new 'pet' that could do all sorts of 'cool' thing. It was nice and didn't hurt them, but they were worried that if grown-ups found out they would get in trouble. So they kept it down here and brought it food and water. They set up the trap so that it wouldn't escape. While wailing and crying they tell you how to disable the trap (just a bunch of fire extinguishers set up to spray the person with industrial-strength fire retardant, no damage) and beg you not to hurt their new 'friend.' They think it might have gotten bored and caused the power outage, but they are sure it didn't mean any harm.
After being appalled by the Zaknar telling the kids they might be able to shoot at her, Trae watches as Igna and Zaknar intimidate the kids into telling what the trap was. Thinking quickly Trae casts Charming Vaneer on herself and she scurries over to help calm the children down.
"Shhh, Shhh, it's okay. Now no need to cry! Can you tell us why you set the trap? Is your friend dangerous? Has it hurt you? Tell us all about it."
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After the children reveal there's an unidentified creature on the other side of the door, Akkedis moves up and switches his weapon to stun. He waits for the children to tell Trae and Igna everything they know about the creature. All the while he keeps a close watch on the door and any other entrances that may lead to the next room...
"We will do our best not to injure this creature, but we cannot allow it to continue to damage this vessel," Akkedis tries to reassure the children.
(You guys can easily undo the trap now that you are told about it and how to disarm it. The kids already told you that they put the trap in place to prevent the creature from escaping.)
Opening the door (after de-traping it) reveals:
This area consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the fore room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of
bioluminescent coral. A crack leaks fluid from the fourth capsule, which displays a foot-wide breach near the bottom. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal.
Upon seeing the chamber you can immediately guess what has caused the power drain, as there are large holes in the bulkhead, where you can guess the creature burrowed into an out of the electronic innards of the ship.
Additionally, everyone's suits' radiation alarms go off as soon as the door is opened. It seems that the chamber has been flooded with low levels of radiation. Not enough to be life threatening (unless you spend, like a week in there) but enough to cause discomfort if something isn't done.
Okay, I want hazard bonus to this month's pay, Igna thinks.
She moves up to the door, and pokes her head in...
[dice=Perception]1d20+2
A bit cautious of what could be ahead, Trae stands back behind her companions and consoles the kids until they stop crying.
Once her hardier companions have made their way through the door, she follows behind. Watching closely as she watches people enter the room and looking at her surroundings as she enters the doorway.
Assuming I'll need to roll one once I get closer.
Igna feels sick to her stomach for a moment but manages to power through it. The insides of the control room are a mess with holes where some creature has buried into and out of the walls of the ship.
Outside, you think that with the appropriate knowledge of biology or physics, you might be able to jury-rig a way to mitigate the effects of radiation for a bit.
First, make a fort save (Igna passed)
Then you can try to track the creature with either a sense motive check to see what it is looking for, or an engineering check to figure out where it would have had to bury through to cause the damage it did.
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Igna looks around, a bit worried at seeing the radiation levels displayed on her armor's sensors.
She wonders about all these holes, but cannot make much sense of all this...
I would imagine that all have armor, which would protect from this if they seal their armor up?
Igna cannot make heads or tails of the burrowing pattern in the walls. It seems like it'd be a tight fit, but the halfling surmises she could just try to follow the trails with an acrobatics check, or she could call on her friends to help.
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Akkedis keeps the Pulsecaster on hand as he powers up his armor's environmental protection systems. Once the systems are online he moves into the room.
"I am able to tolerate the radiation for now. Inga, Gulkyn, you can step out until the issue can be resolved. Keep the children clear. I will try to locate the creature until then," Akkedis begins moving through the room slow and cautiously so as not to startle the beast.
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Zaknar holsters the pistol he was offering the children into a nice looking holster with the Zeizerer symbol fancifully emblazoned on it. He then sighs as he straightens his tie which causes his suit to shimmer for a second, looking more like old school archaic armor, before ending with a simple looking fish bowl like globe surrounding Zaknar's head. He walks into the next room with an impatient look on his face.
He then looks at the damage slowly and carefully.
Trae will enter the room after Zaknar.
"Huh? I don't see much? What do you guys think is in here?"
Gulkyn and GalDCCII become fatigued from the radiation (Sorry! I didn’t write the scenario!).
Meanwhile, Zaknar figures out where the creature must’ve burrowed through to cause the damage it did and eventually manages to find the little guy in a nest it’s created in the wall. The creature seems scared.
Akkedis calms the creature down enough to coax it out of its hidey-hole and everyone can head back to the upper decks when they want.
After clearing off of E-deck, a Fitch has a runner come up and meet you. The runner informs you that Fitch is grateful for your assistance but is in the middle of crucial repairs right now. He has authorized the PCs get paid 400 credits and even offers you a ring of resistance.
Piling back in the shuttle driven by the hyperactive but bored Halfling, you are soon off through the armada headed back towards Absolom Station. As you are en route, a call comes in from Radaszam, the Acquisitives faction head.
The comm channel open to reveal a stark, dimly lit room. The chamber is bleak and expressionless in its emptiness—no vanities line its smooth black walls, and no signs of use mar its smooth black furniture. The only occupants of the suite are a bug-eyed tadpole wriggling in a glowing blue aquarium and a reptilian vesk seated behind an onyx desk. “The new graduates,” he greets, in a
low and pleasant voice. “Good day. I am Radaszam, though, I should hope you already knew that.
“I trust you are aware of our Society’s traditions, so I will cut to
the point. I have a minor situation that needs resolution. One of our members, a human named Laboni, had a rather public altercation with a junk scavenger from the Spike. You might be more familiar with the scavenger than I, actually; he is a ysoki who fancifully calls himself Ratrod. I am told he runs a popular racing competition
that has, hmm, several hundreds of thousands of viewers on the station’s infosphere. For some reason, Laboni felt the need to tell him that any ‘real’ mechanic could easily beat the garbage that Ratrod and his associates slap together. Now that Ratrod has issued an infosphere-wide demand that she race him and prove it, Laboni doubts she can back that claim up.
“Embarrassing, isn’t it? Not really the sort of troublemaker that suits our Society. Perhaps she would be better suited to the bottom of a trash compactor... Well, we cannot afford to throw her out, not after so many Starfinders were lost in the Scoured Stars. Besides, we can’t let people think we are so weak that we can’t control our own members, or that we cannot stand up to a scrapyard junker. No, I would like you to assist Laboni in winning this race. Show our detractors that even the least of our Society is not someone to be trifled with.”
He looks at you like he's half-expecting a few questions.
"Does anyone know anything about these races? Have you guys read about what they pilot? If we have any chance at helping Laboni win we'll probably need to fix up her vehicle?"
Trae shys away as she knows nothing about engineering or piloting.