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Burn mutters while mentalizing a reply to Chk'tarlsh, "Gotta admit they're too stupid to think about how they're getting back to the surface. But now's not the time to mention that."
Confident that these two are only slightly more dangerous than Therseis, Burn slings his reaction cannon over his shoulder and steps out from behind his cover. He holds his hands out and does the twirly thing.
"You fellas would fit right in in the Pact Worlds. AbadarCorp would love you."
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"You fellas would fit right in in the Pact Worlds. AbadarCorp would love you."
"You bring us to Pact Worlds? Real?" The two copaxis looks slightly taken aback, and starts discussing animatedly between themselves.
"Hmm, they seem to have forgotten that I can understand." Therseis whispers. They gesture for you to stay silent while they listen in. Soon they crack a smile. "It seems that they are worried about... how do you call it... fleecing you for too much. They have been here for weeks scouring the place and other than an ancient weapon which they are not sure even still works, they have only found a sealed container which they have not yet dared to open. If it turns to to be worthless and they extorted 300 credits, they fear angering you. Especially if you can indeed bring them away from Tabrid Minor." Therseis speaks the last part with a faint sorrow in his voice.
Soon the pair finish their discussions and turn back to you. "Oh-kay! You give 50. And bring we to Pact Worlds! We give what we find! What you say?"
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Burn is surprised that the copaxis took his intended compliment as an invitation. Guess that's why Savoy does the talking and I should keep my mouth shut.
When the scavengers renegotiate the monetary end of the deal, Burn smiles and shrugs. "Cheaper than ammunition."
"Therseis, what's the government line on emigration?"
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"Therseis, what's the government line on emigration?"
"Hmm, I don't think there are written laws on that as yet, seeing how there hasn't been a need for it so far. But in joining the Pact Worlds, this must have been something the Government would have to have expected." Therseis looks at the two copaxis with almost a sense of envy. "They would just be the first, I guess."
"It seems we have a deal"
"Yes, yes! Good, good!" One of the copaxis reaches out their hand and receives the cred stick, recognising it for what it is. They then gesture you to follow them into the broken down tower. The surrounding buildings have all collapsed and even this one is not a terribly good state. However, you can deduce that it used once to be a much taller and more imposing structure. Therseis studies it in admiration. "This must be some observation tower - filled with scientists to study the planet below, the weather around, and the skies above. How magnificent it must have been once!"
Now, however, the tower itself is simply a hollowed-out shell. The two copaxis do not have any tents, but there are a few sleeping pads, cooking supplies, and personal belongings stashed against the walls. At the base of the tower, where it is protected from the elements, the scavengers have piled up whatever seems might have value. Going through the pile, you find much of the items badly broken and faded, requiring many years by trained archaeologists to make sense. However, the copaxis hand you a container sealed in clay that is still completely intact. They explain in broken Common how they found it buried under a stone marker. The intention of burial is lost as all writing on the marker has completely faded.
After satisfying yourself that it is not trapped in anyway, the Starfinders break the seal and find a well-preserved journal sealed within.
In the background, Therseis looks on with anticipation, very curious to find out what the journal contains, yet not wanting to intrude on your investigations.
The two copaxis also hand you a strange ancient weapon that they had found.
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Archaius scans the journal. "This would seem to corroborate our earlier finding that the copi were on the verge of drift technology centuries ago. However, some scientists thought it a danger and sought to prevent the discovery from reaching the population at large. How ironic. By trying to bury the future, the author only served to delay it, causing near irreperable harm in the process."
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Savoy scratches his head
"I'm sure this makes sense...to someone. That someone isn't me how ever"
After accepting the strange ancient weapon Savoy asks the 2 extortionists if they want to wait here for pick-up when we leave the planet or hop along in the shuttle each visit we make and then wait outside while we continue our explorations while mentioning it might be dangerous since we don't know what we will be facing, huge monsters or violent copaxi....making it clear that people who use guns to get what they want are not to be trusted to be left by themselves in our shuttle.
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"No. We look only here," the copaxis reply.
The Starfinders board the shuttle together who Therseis, who although curious, makes no attempt to look at the journal the Starfinders have found. Chk'tarlsh pilots the craft to fly over what appears to be an abandoned university.
"My team has has already explored much of the university’s campus. However, one area we have yet to explore is that massive open-roofed stadium on the north side of the campus. Whenever we approached the arena, unbearable headaches forced us to turn back. None of us have been able to identify the cause." Chk'tarlsh lands the craft the safe distance from the arena and Therseis asks to stay with the shuttle as he is unable to approach.
The round, open arena stands at the edge of the abandoned university. Tiered seating areas once provided space for hundreds of people to observe the spectacles that took place in the large central playing field. A faded mural at the entrance to the stands depicts a dozen copaxis flying among black spheres; some of the copaxis carry short rods, and others pass fist-sized cubes to one another.
Detritus litters the outer stands, but all the litter closer to the centre has been pulled into the field by ten floating black spheres, each five feet in diameter. The spheres float in erratic patterns, crisscrossing the arena in a series of ellipses. As they float and spin, debris orbits the spheres, lazily flowing from one to the next. Several intact objects float amid the debris, including a few books, weapons, and other items. They look ancient but rather well-preserved, likely from being held in orbit around the spheres all these time.
As the Starfinders edge slowly closer towards the centre, the pull of the spheres get stronger and stronger. Any closer and you would be pulled in as well! But looks like the only way to retrieve those objects would be to jump right in.
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"Everyone hold on. Let's think about this before doing something that's going to get someone hurt. What do we really need to accomplish?"
"Archaius, Savoy, Ivan, any idea what's going on here? What if we just blasted a sphere?"
"It looks like it was some kind of game. Copaxis must have been able to get in and out, but did they need magic to do it?"
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Chk'tarlsh surveys the scene, looking for signs of the cubes, rods or a power source.
Approaching as close as feels safe, he throws the weapon as far as he can toward the centre and against the orbit of the debris.
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"Not sure how the shuttle or enginesh will be affected... Could give it a try, if no one hash a better idea?" Chl'tarlsh says uncertainly as he considers the option.
"I have ssome alloy cable we can put to usse, too," he offers. "Had been half thinkinkh of tyinkh mysself to ssomethinkh and takinkh a closser look..."
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Burn starts searching through the ruins of the stadium but he finds exactly that - ruins. He does not find any controls for the floating black spheres, if there were any in the first place.
Chk'tarlsh fails to find signs of rods, cubes or power sources. At a loss what to do, he withdraws his starknife and flings with all his might towards the centre of the stadium. Before it gets very far, however, it is caught by the pull of one of the spheres, and very soon, join in the random orbits of the debris.
Archaius stares at the black spheres at great length and is almost certain that they are formed by coral-like growth, somewhat similar to what forms the copaxi, but much more densely packed. And they could still be alive!
While flying over and possibly through the stadium area to catch the items would be possible, with the strange gravitational pull exerted by the spheres, it will likely be challenging .
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Chk'tarlsh watches as his star knife is pulled into orbit of the spheres along with the debris. When his observations of the orbital path fail to reveal any insights, he waits for the weapon's path to bring it closer and loudly speaks a word in Shirren, returning the weapon to a gloved hand.
"I could try to fly the shuttle over for us to collect some of thosse artifactsh," he says. "But firsst, it might be worth ush takinkh a closser look at thosse spheresh. I'm willinkh to volunteer."
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"It's funny all this stuff orbiting the spheres, but nothing hitting them. You'd think the orbits would have decayed and all the stuff would be plastered to the sphere surface."
Archaius takes a closer look at the spheres. "I believe these spheres are graviton-attuned like solarions! It seems almost certain that they are formed by coral-like growth, somewhat similar to what forms the copaxi, but much more densely packed. It is quite possible they could still be alive!"
"Perhaps if we tried communicating somehow?
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After studying the orbits of the ten spheres and the various debris floating around, you see that while an object might at times be eventually drawn to the surface of a particular sphere, the complex gravitational pulls exerted by the other spheres would soon pull it off into orbit again.
"Therseis, do the copaxis have any big spectator games? Maybe something played on an obstacle course, or where the players fly? How about any stories like that?"
"Spectator games?" Therseis sound perplex by the sudden question. "Yes, we have quite a number. A particularly popular one involves two teams of fifteen on each side charging towards the opposing side, flinging aside opponents with their antlers. It is increasingly frown upon for being barbaric, but still remain popular among the masses. But flying, no. Personal flight devices have only been invented a number of years ago, and still unreliable. Did you find something?"
Meanwhile, Archaius fails to find anyway to communicate with the graviton-generating copis. They seem to be as sentient as corals, i.e. not at all.
Finally, at a loss for other options, Chk'tarlsh leaps directly into the pull of spheres! He is immediately grabbed by the gravitational field and starts orbiting around. Throwing the starknife earlier turned out to be of help as it helped him partially figure out the motion of the various objects and himself. He manages to grab some, and before crashing into a sphere, twists himself mid-air to be caught by the pull of another and floats away...
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"Oh! A game! I desire to play the game!" Zez'ka squeals. "I will come help you catch th artifacts friend-Chk'tarlsh! We will make a great team! Certain!!"
Despite the stupidity of the idea, Zez'ka leaps into the arena, trying to angle herself towards her fellow sports-fan-shirren, so they can launch each other around the arena to score many, many points by collecting artifacts. "Teamwork!"
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Zez'ka decides that she can't leave the other shirren to have all the fun. She, too, leaps into the stadium after Chk'tarlsh. The two of them practically swim through the air, sometimes grabbing items by themselves, sometimes coordinating their effects to slingshot each other past spheres. In almost no time, they have managed to grab all the items that appear of interest. Along the way when they fly near the spheres, they confirm what Savoy had discovered earlier, the black spheres are made of highly concentrated and graviton-enhanced copi.
The two shirrens swing themselves around the pull of one of the black spheres and fly through the air back towards the Starfinders, landing in a rough tumble but otherwise unharmed by the experience. As a group you sort through the items recovered. Of particular interest is a book.
The two shirren also found a set of spark polarity gauntlets and a z-boson crystal shard.
Therseis' voice comes over the comm system again. "Burn, I am not sure if you received my last transmission. Did you find something?"
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Burn hurries over to the shirren, checks them for wounds.
"Sheez that was ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy. You two are incredible. "
***
"Sorry, Therseis, we were a little busy. Chk'tarlsh and Zez'ka jumped into the floating objects to recover artifacts. I thought we were going to lose them in there. We'll rest a bit, then come back to the shuttle."
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Landing in a rough tumble following his aerial acrobatics, Chk'tarlsh's body lays motionless on the ground. A moment later his torso begins twitching as though in the midst of a mild seizure. Should anyone approach, they soon hear the sound of faint laughter.
Rolling over onto his back, the shirren drapes an arm across his eyes, laughing out loud, chest and shoulders heaving with his mirth.
"That wash AWESSOME!" he exclaims, antennae quivering.
Pulling himself into a seated position, he turns to find Zez'ka, his mandibles parted in what can only be a grin. "I'm glad we chosse to be recklessh."
A strange expression passes over his face and he cocks his head to one side, regarding the female shirren a moment before hurriedly looking away and standing.
Making his way over to Burn, he scratches the back of his head, hands still trembling from the ruah of adrenaline. Shrugging, he looks around at the rest of his companions, mandibles parted in a sheepish grin, and says, "I couldn't think of anythinkh elsse to try."
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Landing in a rough tumble following his aerial acrobatics, Chk'tarlsh's body lays motionless on the ground. A moment later his torso begins twitching as though in the midst of a mild seizure. Should anyone approach, they soon hear the sound of faint laughter.
Rolling over onto his back, the shirren drapes an arm across his eyes, laughing out loud, chest and shoulders heaving with his mirth.
"That wash AWESSOME!" he exclaims, antennae quivering.
Pulling himself into a seated position, he turns to find Zez'ka, his mandibles parted in what can only be a grin. "I'm glad we chosse to be recklessh."
A strange expression passes over his face and he cocks his head to one side, regarding the female shirren a moment before hurriedly looking away and standing.
Making his way over to Burn, he scratches the back of his head, hands still trembling from the ruah of adrenaline. Shrugging, he looks around at the rest of his companions, mandibles parted in a sheepish grin, and says, "I couldn't think of anythinkh elsse to try."
"It worked out. So when we report to the VC, tell him it was a brilliant stroke of intuitive genius."
Giving the book a quick perusal, "Mr. Kenyon, here are the rules to the game you inquired about. It's rather quite revealing. It would seem that the copaxis had some innate magic in the not too distant past." Archaius goes on to point out the details sequestered in the pages.
"Interesting. Sounds like a great game. " Burn completely misses the more important implications of magic copaxis.
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This game? Crazy, same as all th' strange tidbits we've picked up on. Outsider's perspective, sure, but these are quick changes."
"Yeah, this game. It's awesome. You saw what Chk'tarlsh and Zez'ka did in there. We could all fly. Imagine zooming around in there, manuvering, playing the game. It'd be better than flying a ship -- a pilot's dream. Maybe I'll come back after the mission's done, just to try it out. "
Before we get back to the shuttle, Burn tries to establish the historic timeline --
"So about three hundred years ago, a magic using copaxi ruling society lives on the flying cities. They fly, play awesome games, and have android slaves. Then the Signal hits. The robots get religion, the techno-savvy start to get ideas. There's revolution, mage-ocide, and a slide into barbarism which the copaxis are only now coming out of, mostly because they've established a heavy handed conformist authoritarian government. Meantime the world is headed for ecological disaster. Poor people on the surface are desperate enough to try crazy schemes to earn a little cash."
"More recently there's contact with the Pact Worlds. The government wants our help, gets worried that the mage-ocide will look bad, and decides that a recent revolution looks better than one 300 years ago. So they fake the scene at the academy."
"Have I got it all straight?"
"Do we want to tell Therseis all that? I'm definitely telling him about the game and the weapons. He's been pretty accepting when we've found something against the party line, and he's been open with us. I'd say tell him the whole thing."