"We're no murderers," Theskell screams back, limping from the blaster fire she has taken already. She turns and recklessly charges through the door into what Chk'tarlsh can now see is a workshop of sorts.
The walls of this room are covered in metal boards with equidistant spacing for hanging tools. A workbench juts out from the western and northern facings of the area. A cylindrical container, guarded by cage of glowing red lasers, rests along the eastern wall. A large steel door exits to the south, while a smaller door to the north has a single one-way peephole looking out into the alley outside the house.
To his horror, Chk'tarlsh sees Theskell move toward the cylindrical container and type in a quick command on her datapad. The laser grid shuts down, and Theskell turns to scream back at Chk'tarlsh and his companions. She doesn't see that the walls of the container are also descending, however, and a large shimmering blob is spilling out toward her. "IF YOU WON'T LEAVE US ALONE, THEN YOU'LL SUFFER JUST LIKE AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
Hearing the commotion from the workspace, Mr. Philt rushes down the hall. When he sees the strange creature attacking Theskell, he shouts in alarm and fires his pistol at it.
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Given their efforts to take Vrisken alive, Chk'tarlsh swats at Theskell with the side of his hammer as he takes advantage of the opening left as she retreats into the room.
Following the shirren into the room, he positions himself in an effort to draw some attention away from the others, and swings his hammer at the ooze with all his might.
Laniakea cautiously advances and waits for a foe to emerge from the workspace, her pistol trained on the door ahead.
Roddy moves in and sizes up the new foe, which he recognizes as an Assembly Ooze. Knowing that this foe isn't likely to surrender, he switches to a weapon useful for deadly force.
Hank moves in as well, and his military training directs him by instinct to attack the ooze. His shot strikes the creature, the bullet plunging into the ooze and popping out the other side as a Strawberry Machine Cake branded anklet.
Tolmu and S9 both move toward the action as well, but Chk'tarlsh gets up close and personal with the ooze, risking a retaliatory strike from the creature as he gets into position and leaves a hammer-shaped indentation in the gelatinous creature.
Chk'tarlsh easily avoids the opportune strike.
With more opponents surrounding her all the time, Theskell cautiously moves toward the back door and fires off one last shot at the ooze through a desire for self-preservation.
The scorch mark of her laser blast sinks into the ooze's surface, then seems to spread, until the entire creature has turned a charred black. With a final sound like a rusty beam sagging under too great a weight for it to support, the ooze collapses into a pool of inert goo.
"There," Theskell screams, "It's done! I destroyed it. And Vrisken is probably dead. So just...take me. I give up." She throws down her pistol in surrender, falls to her knees, and begins to weep inconsolably.
With the threat neutralized, Mr. Philt begins to question Theskell and, if you wake him up, Vrisken. They reveal that the family bought the assembly ooze, which had been smuggled onto the station by an unknown third party. Theskell attempted to rewrite the ooze’s programming to create augmentation components to save their business. This resulted in the ooze consuming Kinnakt, their host partner, and producing the flawed biotech components. Records and billing statements identify the remaining carriers of the corrupted biotech; Mr. Philt offers to pass this information along to the authorities so that any recently augmented individuals can be saved, or their bodies destroyed.
While Theskell is being questioned, some of you set about investigating the workspace further. You find that, upon destruction, the assembly ooze disgorged 800 UPBs of material. In addition, the room contains
an engineering kit and a hacking kit, a spell gem of invisibility, a spell gem of mirror image, and a minimal speed suspension augmentation--Theskell reassures you that this one was crafted by hand, not through the corrupted assembly ooze.
With the crises concluded, you return to the Lorespire Complex to report in. While Venture-Captain Arvin is disappointed that the augmentation technology isn’t reliable or reproducible, he is glad you were able to deal with the biotech monstrosities and prevent the creation of any more.
Given your abundant assistance, AbadarCorp is grateful to be spared the negative publicity that might have been generated by a former shop from the Open Markets being the cause of all these horrible deaths and injuries. The corporation is smart enough to not take credit and gives the Starfinder Society all the prestige associated with solving the missing-persons cases. To this end, Mr. Philt sends each of you a personal thank-you message, with the implication that you may be considered for future operations on AbadarCorp’s behalf.
Finally, soon after you all file your reports, several halflings make inquiries about joining the Starfinder Society, apparently inspired by the way you all helped save Maija and even paid for her replacement augmentation procedure. This much-needed boost in recruiting helps put you in Arvin’s good graces and even earns you a personal commendation from First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo!
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After receiving the commendation from First Seeker Elsebo, Roddy gives his erstwhile companions a lopsided grin. "Hey, not a bad day of work, am I right? Saved Maija, took out Theskell and Vrisken without any extra deaths, and survived a cyber-zombie onslaught. All the crazy stuff that I've been through on my show, I never fought a cyber-zombie. Nobody's gonna believe me." He chuckles, then glances down the hall, where an exasperated-looking lashunta stands with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. Roddy turns back to the others and chuckles. "Speaking of which. My producer's here. I think she's got a bounty for me, so I'd better get going. The Holonet never sleeps!" He gives a wink and a casual salute, and struts down the hall toward the lashunta, whistling cheerfully.
"Ya know," he can be heard saying as he disappears down another corridor, "I think I'm getting the hang of this whole 'Starfinder' thing..."
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Hank nods in reply to Roddy, "Yeah we worked well together. Sorry ta see you go."
Once the others have left he spends a few moments reflecting on the mission, realizing where he excelled and where he needed to improve himself.
Well, I am sure there will be future missions I will be called to take on. But for now...I need a drink...
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"One might call this one a cautionary tale," S9 hefts her sniper rifle, checking her armor for holes. "Don't mess with assembly oozes or you just might create freak exploding cyber zombies." The shirren smiles widely and clicks her mandibles in celebration. This was a success, and everyone - well, every Starfinder - made it out alive.