Rain moves along behind and underneath Recorva, running along the edge of the room as he enters.
Shabad stops shooting and concentrates on making time. She looks ahead to see if anyone stands in their way to their ship.
Xio leaves the shooting to those who are better at it and sprints down the hall, right on the doctor's heels.
Damon's supernova scorches the guests as he fall back, then Stefani takes each one out with a shot from her plasma fork. The rest of you hustle along the Loop towards the docking bay.
As you pass by Green Fields, you can see that bodies litter the park, and the waterfall runs red with the blood of guests and staff. Several more corrupted guests lurk within the park, and they come charging at you, screaming and howling!
The foliage nearby rustles and suddenly the half-elf Vorilynn leaps out, shrieking, numerous bloody wounds across her body! You have but a split second to react before she is upon Shabad and Xio!
"Stop!" Xio shrieks, holding up a hand to warn Recorva and Shabad not to attack, and stows her pistol in a display of peace. "We're not corrupted! Our ship is just down the hall. Come with us!"
Vorilynn hesitates, and the terror in her eyes is now apparent for all to see. Xio holstering her weapon convinces the half-elf, who quickly murmurs the words to a spell and conjures a cloud of fog around you. "This will only last a few minutes," she shouts, wavering unsteadily on her feet. "We have to... Have to get away..."
"You heard the lady, folks! Keep moving!" Stefani shouts out she gets closer to the main group. "We've got somewhere to be and it ain't here!"
You race through the doors of the docking tunnel and into the bay that holds your ship. All of the upgrades you requisitioned have been installed, and it will only take a few minutes to get her ready to fly!
Recorva quickly runs to the bridge, getting into the pilots seat and beginning to cycle the engines on. As she goes through the powering on sequence, she half focuses on ensuring that Rain gets to a safe position. As the others filter onto the bridge, she calls back "Can someone scan the area, see if there are any ships nearby? If there are, we may need to explain why we're leaving the quarantined station."
Stefani stows her weapon and drops herself into one of the gunnery stations, powering up the systems and bypassing the start-up self-checks.
Shabad stops running and brandishes her junksword, ready to attack the half-elf if she tries to attack Shabad. She is relieved when Vorilynn turns out not to be corrupted.
Shabad takes her place at one of the computer consoles and feeds in the parameters to do the scan as soon as the ship clears the docking station.
Shabad's scans don't reveal any information. Perhaps the station's bulkheads are interfering with the sensors.
Vorilynn sits heavily in one of the spare chairs on the bridge. She wraps her hands around her knees as she sobs quietly.
As you wait for the engines to warm up, a few more corrupted guests rush into the docking bay. They start banging on the bulkheads of your ship, but fortunately, they're unable to do any real damage. After several minutes, the engines roar to life and the doors to the docking bay iris open, ejecting these unfortunate victims of the shadow signal into the inky void of open space.
You pull away from the asteroid upon which New Elysium is built, but you don't get far before two patrolling security vessels approach. Your comms crackle to life. "Attention, Spirit of Lady Lonilai. You are in violation of quarantine procedures. Return to the docking bay at once!"
Before you can explain yourselves, one of the vessels fires a blast from its gravity gun at your ship, followed immediately by an unnerving cackle. It's clear that the shadow signal has corrupted even those outside of the resort as well!
"Time to put these new upgrades to the test. Everyone hold on, I'm going to try and keep these guys at range for now." Recorva then engages in some evasive maneuvers, whipping the ship around in a tight starboard turn, ending with their starboard shields facing the two security ships.
"Who do you want on science and engineering, Cap'n?"
“Doc, you take engineering. Vorilynn.” Xio raises an eyebrow at the traumatized woman and points at the science station. “Can you try to scan those ships for us?”
The astrazoan approaches the captain’s chair, beginning to look tired and a little gooey as they stab at the communications panel, opening a channel to the other ship. ”Just so you know, we’re about to blow you and and this asteroid to pieces,“ they say witheringly, far beyond the point of trying to reason with those corrupted by the shadow plane.
Vorilynn looks at Xio, and a moment passes before she registers the captain's words. "Yes. I, uh, can try..."
The half-elf taps the controls and basic information about the ships shows up on your screens.
Harp and Lute
Ringworks Sentinel
Medium explorer; Speed 8; Maneuverability good (turn 1)
Complement 4
The enemy ships manuever around to give chase, heading straight for your ship. The voices of their captains fill the comms. "Cease your hostilities and stand down for boarding," the first says. "Ha ha ha! There is no escape! The queen of shadow comes for you, and your screams will be a sweet symphony to her ears!"
"The big prod's mine this time!" Stefani crows as Persistence and Diplomacy power up, tracking the Harp.
"Scream yourself, A&@*+!*!" she shouts out.
"Scream yourself, A*!~@%@!" she shouts out.
"What she said!" Damon aggressively slams the LAUNCH button, firing a tactical nuke on the tail of Stefani's attack.
Shabad jumps to the engineering console and begins moving power around like an experienced casino dealer throwing cards to the players. Anything not providing a combat essential function went on standby and energy-plump electrons trundled off to the thursters, weapon capacitors, and auxiliary computing power.
With the extra power, the scan reveals more information
Harp and Lute
Ringworks Sentinel
Medium explorer; Speed 8; Maneuverability good (turn 1)
Complement 4
AC 20; TL 19 HP 65
Shields medium 160 (forward 40, port 40, starboard 40, aft 40)
PCU Value 175
Stefani fires the particle beam, burning through the Harp's forward shields and scrambling its sensors. Damon's missile narrowly misses his target!
The Sentinels open fire, battering the Lady with their gravity guns. Your starboard shields falter as you sustain some hull damage. Worse, the guns tractor beams activate, locking you in place!
The Lute moves closer, keeping its tractor beam locked onto your ship.
DC 22:
Shabad continues her furious concentration, as the ship rocks and shudders from the gravity assaults. She sends some more power to the shields and continues to divert power to the engine and weapons. "Come'on, Lady. You can do it," she encourages the ship, laying a gentle hand on the hull for a moment.
"Recorva! Get us out of their tractor beam!" Xio snaps, leaning forward and gripping their chair intensely.
Pushing their engines to maximum output, Recorva struggles against the gravitational beams holding onto their ship from the opponents vessels.
Vorilynn balances your shields across all quadrants, bolstering your starboard defenses.
The Harp diverts power to bring its forward shields online. As both ships move a bit closer, they perform evasive maneuvers.
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"Mwah-ha-ha!!" Stefani cries out as she continues to fire at the same ship. "Eat fiery hot death, skuzballs!"
"..with a side of lethal gamma!" Once again, Damon follows Stefani's shot with a nuclear torpedo.
The Harp fires flak as the missile approaches, detonating it before impact!
The flak launcher destroys the second missile as well. Both enemy ships hit with their gravity guns again, but Stefani's precise shot rips the Harp apart, sending two halves of the ship sparking and hurtling in different directions through space!
Not only are you locked in place again, but your power core is malfunctioning!
Gritting her teeth, Recorva continues trying to escape the hold that the Lute has on the Lady. She pushes the engines as far as they can go, twisting the ship around in the tractor beam to try and escape.
"Yes!" Stefani crows, pumping her fist in the air as her target shatters into debris. "That's five credits to me in the pool!"
"Xio, meet me in the engine room. This may take both of us to patch up!" Shabad yells on her way to try to fix the engines.
Shabad races around the engine room, trying to restore essential functions with the tools at hand. Every time she manages to get one system function, another gives way and her swearing goes unheard over the popping of plasma coils and the crackle of shorting wires.
Vorilynn struggles with the ship's computer systems, unable to balance the shields
The Lute diverts more power to its weapons as it holds position, preparing to open fire again!
"Your turn, Lads!" the redhead calls out, firing again.
Stefani takes down the Lute's forward shields and grazes the hull with her shot. Damon's missile is once more shot down by the enemy's flak thrower. It fires at will upon you, blasting your hull with focused gravity and shards of flak! Alarm klaxons start to blare as electricity crackles over the bridge's consoles.
The enemy ship remains in position, ready for the kill...
Shabad’s struggles valiantly to hold the engines together long enough to allow Recorva to power away. But she needs help to coordinate the repairs. The plasma power polarizers keep shorting out just as she needs to get to the controls to boost the power and the heat keeps her from getting to the power junction box. She cools the plasma induction coils but before she can get back to the power controls, a leak leads to another build up of heat.
"Make it happen, Shabad!" Xio grimaces and braces herself as the ship shudders and crackles around her. "Try reversing the polarity of those plasma emitters!"
Recorva attempts to break free of the tractor beam once again.
Breaking free, she turns the ship, putting them in the line of fire of the second missile launcher in the port side.
As Recorva spins the ship, the enemy charges up their weapons!
"C'mon ya big dick stand-in!" Stefani snarls at the weapons console. "Give me a huge wad this time!"
Vorilynn fights the ship's computer system and finally succeeds at rebalancing shields, bolstering your port quadrant.
The enemy ship opens fire, but this time Recorva manages to dodge the gravity gun's beam. Its flak thrower dapples your shields but only slightly. The enemy gunner manages to shoot down your missile again, but Stefani's shot from the particle beams completely wrecks the Lute's power core! Plasma vents into space as the enemy ship is on its last legs!
Your comms crackle with maniacal laughter. "Soon, Dark Lady! We are coming for you!"
The enemy ship continues to hold position, lining up another shot.
Shabad uses every trick she knows to keep the engines functioning. In all the smoke and noise, she's having trouble even diagnosing what needs fixing, but she throws herself at the challenge, her face smeared with grease and her hair singed from sparking control panels.
Finally free from the enemy ship's tractor beam, Recorva pushes the thrusters as she zips forwards, keeping the opponent in their port side as she moves to be behind them.
The enemy ship re-balances their shields as their weapons power up again. But insane laughter comes over your comm system again as the Lute's guns fire randomly into space, the enemy gunner temporarily overcome by his madness! Now is the time to strike!