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My thought with destroying everything was that the corporation who is running this might just send some more pawns to take care of stuff here. I want it to be as large of a reinvestment as possible. But there will be time to destroy stuff after we apprehend the doctor. Anyone else have any restraints? I forgot to pick up some more.
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Neither Spinjack or Farvenzi have binders on them. They do have a wide variety of weapons, grenades and credsticks however. Yay!
Slowly coming up the path that you just followed (i.e. not from the station, but from out in the wild) you spot Dr Monsylkis slowly huffing through the snow, her hands full of botanical samples.
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Fionne grins at Medrik "WELL NOW WE SURE AS HECK KNOW WHO YOU LIKE BETTER BETWEEN ME AND HUD, HUH? THANKS MEDRICK!" She follows by waving away the serum from Speck "NAH, I'D HATE TO WASTE IT."
When she sees the Doctor coming in from the wilderness, Fionne whispers loudly to Hudson "HUD, SHE AIN'T COMIN IN TO AMBUSH US, HOW ABOUT WE HEAR HER OUT?"
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The doctor continues up the path until she gets to the generator, and then spots the large patches of blood on the ground. Looking alarmed she quickly uses a wrist coms unit.
Over the sound of the generator you have no idea what she says, but the way she talks makes you think she is having some difficulty or other communicating.
Interestingly the wrist coms you have from the guards and their leaders don't seem to be telling you anything, almost as if they were operating on another frequency.
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Hudson is watching the doctor, and, seeing the strange business with the comm units, he turns to his comrades to say that-- but his eyes bug out as he does a double take: "WHAT THE...!"
He is amazed by how the shot to Jackojare's face changed the soldier.
What's with all those TEETH?!
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Fionne looks unimpressed by the Doctor's reaction "NOT JUST THAT DOC. WE TALKED TO THE NATIVES, THEY'RE WAY SMARTER THAN YOU THOUGHT. THOSE GUYS ARE SAYIN YOUR PLANT EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN DRIVIN THE WILDLIFE CRAZY. I BET YOU'D KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT THAT?" She sticks a hand on her hip. "OH AND YOUR SECURITY GUYS THOUGHT THEY'D ZIP OUR MOUTHS SHUT AND LEAVE US AS DEATH WORM FOOD!"
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The doctor looks thoroughly confused by the accusations.
"I think you are mistaken. I know Farvenzi can be a little stand-offish at times, but he wouldn't attack anyway. As fpr the locals... they are really quite simple with no real grasp of technology. Ethics committees... I also think you are mistaken. We are on a humanitarian project here, feeding the masses."
She looks at the bundle of local plants. "I can't think why the locals would think our plants would be driving anyone crazy... are you sure they didn't slip you anything? I mean, put yourself in my shoes for a moment. "
She shivers.
"No sense in freezing out here, let us head back to the station and I'm sure we can make sense of it, and maybe get some care for Farvenzi and Spinjack."
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The doctor advances and tries her coms unit, nothing comes out on any of the guards.
"Well, it would make sense for them to use their own security frequency." she says a little uncertainly.
"Most of us don't want to get woken up at 2am by a guard spooked by a snow beast. Still, surely they would have a channel open to listen to us if we needed help.."
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"Milady," Speck adds on sarcastically as he follows along back to the station, "I am sure there would be surveillance cameras around here, no? You might want to review them. And see how we were ambushed." Of course, he is not mentioning how the Starfinders were planning on ambushing them. That is besides the point. He does keep an eye out though for quick access back to the ship should things go south. Further.
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"Well, we can certainly review footage once we are back at base" agrees the doctor.
The footage shows the whole ambush, and from the doctors face you can see she is horrified by the encounter.
"Oh my... why, why would they do that?"
Her horror only intensifies as you demonstate the false shell in the computers and the true data about the addictive properties of the plants she has been breeding.
"But this is terrible. My research! It was suppose to feed millions, not create planets full of addicts. Why would they do this?
No, my research is important. Now I know of these side effects, they can be worked around."
[ooc]If you want to convince her to leave, I'm going to need some skill checks and nice prose! I need a check on each of these:
Bluff (to weave conspiracy theories or make claims without evidence),
Diplomacy (to appeal to Dr. Monsylkis’s benevolent intentions or convince her to see reason),
Intimidate (to threaten Dr. Monsylkis with legal or
physical repercussions for her work),
Life Science (to point out the negative consequences of her experiments)
If you have specific evidence, include it with your posts (each piece of evidence can be used only in one check). Pick who is going to lead each, and feel free to make aid-anothers (only if you are trained in life sciences for that check though).
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Hudson lets the others try to convince her, but chirps in now and then:
"Now that you don't have any head of security, people will start looting, you better get out of here while you still can!"
"It would be for the best for you to work around the side effects off planet, in a controlled environment where you know people are not tampering with your results. We can help you find that place."
Hudson looks down Betsy's barrel, that so happens to be aimed at the good Dr.. "Accidents happen... in bad places like these!"
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"DOC, THERE ARE FOUR-LEGGED FELLAS OUT THERE SUFFERIN' RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU GUYS MESSED UP. MAYBE YOU'D BE ABLE TO FIX THINGS, BUT IS IT REALLY RIGHT TO KEEP PUTTING THOSE POOR INNOCENT FOLK AT RISK FOR THIS? YOU KNOW IT AINT. MAYBE THIS WORK HAS A PLACE, BUT ICEFRONT AINT THE RIGHT PLACE FOR IT." Fionne chews on the end of a stalk as she lays out the same thoughts she's had about the Abadar-corp loonies back home.
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She switches gears when (probably Kasza) goes for a bluffing or intimidating angle. "AND WHO KNOWS, MAYBE SOME A THOSE CRAZY ANIMALS HAVE ALREADY ESCAPED ICEFRONT, STOWED AWAY ON A SUPPLY SHIP. THEY MIGHT BE WRECKIN HAVOC BACK IN THE PACT WORLDS, AND IT'D BE YOUR FAULT DOC!"
"ONCE THE STEWARDS CATCH WIND, WELL-" She takes the stalk out "AIN'T NO CHANCE YOU'RE GONNA SERVE YOUR TERMS HERE ON NICE COZY ICEFRONT."
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If possible, to help make the plight of the Izalguun more immediate to the Doctor, Fionne will take the Doctor in person to the edge of their territory and request to Naarma that maybe seeing the sick izalguun (either in their camp or out in neutral territory) might be a good way to convince the Doctor to pack up and leave.
Hopefully that'll count as 'specific evidence' for the Diplomacy check.
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Bluff attempt:
"Doctor, It is likely that your research has already been shipped offworld to a large pharmaceutical interest. It is highly unlikely that you'll ever receive recognition for any of it. The fact that our dragonkin friend here was so quick to attempt to remove us indicates a lack of fear of reprisal and friends in high places. It would go much better for you in any legal situation if you were shown to have ceased your efforts, returned the local ecology to its original state, and worked to aid those affected, inadvertent as it may be, by your research."
If intimidate is required:
"Doctor, once the Society hears of this you can be SURE that there will be repercussions. Both the Wayfinders and the Exo-Guardians are going to want to throw the book at you for the impact to the local fauna." " We were forced to combat two large specimens, and terminate them in the process. This will not look good for you. You will have a hard time proving you were unaware of the situation as the head of research at this station. You will likely lose all research privileges at any reputable facility, and any future employment opportunities, except for the kinds of groups Farvenzi and company were selling your research to. We can aid you, but ONLY if the efforts stop here, and now. We will be able to vouch for you changing to remediation as soon as you were aware of the issues, but only if the weather generation is shut down, and but a small number of current plant samples are destroyed. The remainder will be used to formulate antidotes, and a few will be returned to the Society so that your remediation efforts can be validated, but parties with a lack of personal stake in the matter."
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"Sigh, delusional much?" Speck cocks his head to one side, glaring at the good doctor. "You mind?" He gestures at one of the computer terminals but before she has the chance to agree or otherwise, he is already typing away. Satisfied he has found what he wanted, he spins the terminal dramatically around to show her. "Have you not noticed that some of the “desired plant phenotypes” you are trying to isolate amount to organic workarounds of common antibiotics patented by pharmaceutical companies? Look at this one. It is almost identical to the breakthrough development introduced by Frozen Trove Labs six years ago that allowed Frozen Trove to upset and subsequently monopolize a major niche in the prescription drug market. You can't be that blind!"
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"But this is terrible!" cries the doctor. "The ecosystem here disrupted, and still starving millions on ice bound mining worlds."
She wrings her hands "And the charity I worked for... being manipulated by such corrupt interests. Who are these Wayfinders and Exo-Guardians who are talking about? I'm not sure I want any books thrown at me. I just wanted to do good. And it was such a good position..."
Shaking her head, she sighs "But the damage here... it is too much. You are right, we do need to pack up and leave."
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Look, I liked you before we found out all the evil you have been doing. I am not a very good read of people. Like the person you are pretending to be, my first goal is to always do good and help people. This makes it hard for me to know when I am being manipulated, but things here seem odd for me. I think your best bet will be to turn yourself in and let the people who's job it is to figure out if you are lying or not do that. If this all was accidental, I am more than happy to write you a letter of recommendation to work for the society. We are an actual organization that often does good. Some times things get messy, but I have never seen them do anything like this. Do we have a deal? I want you to be innocent, I truly do. Medrick looks at the rest of the group as this is the most emotional and talkative in a non scientific way he has ever been.
[ooc]For roleplay reasons, Medrick would not attempt a bluff or intimidate here.[ooc]
Regardless, we do have a job to do here still. Do you think we should leave the doctor here to pack her things, leave her here handcuffed, or take her with us when we go to the natives? I am inclined to take her with us... though I would worry about her safety.
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Medrick is completely oblivious to Hudson's meaning. You put more faith in her than I do. You would let he walk about unrestrained? What if this is an act? He pauses but I am sure you are smarter with these tactics than I. Let us go inform our native friends that the research has been put to a stop.
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"I did save you from those aliens... if you would care to remember." smarts the doctor.
You head back to the natives and explain the research team will be leaving. Narama is grateful. She provides you a handwritten starchart bearing a black X over a small moon four orbits away from this systems sun. "You will find the relic you seek on a secret facility hidden inside the moon." After providing details on exactly where on the moon to go she adds "The facility was designed to ensure the relic was never found, so you should proceed with caution."
She still appears worried. "I'd very much appreciate it if you could keep our level of technological sophistication to yourselves. We are embracing a simpler life style these days, and would prefer not to be bothered.."
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To Naarma, Fionne shrugs as she says "MY MOUTH'S SEALED, THANKS FOR THE DIRECTIONS. OH YEA, YOU WANNA EVER PLAY SOME MORE OF THAT DISCUS GAME GIVE ME AND HUD A RING, RIGHT?" She gives the izalguun a lazy wave as she turns to head back to the spaceship.
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Later on, Fionne nudges the Doctor before leaving "WHATCHA PLANNIN TO DO AFTER THIS DEBACLE DOC? GO BACK AND GET ASSASSINATED FOR FAILING FROZEN TROVE'S BIG CEO?" She hoists her cannon across her back and stands looking up Doctor Monosylakis with a hand shading the glare out of her eyes.
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"I won't say a word about and your kind, Narama. I probably cannot pronounce the name of your species anyway, so your safe. But Betsy will regret your enhancements..."
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"Doc, you should just concentrate on frozen dinners. Maybe open an ice cream parlor on Absalom Station."
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While I think I believe your innocence, I think the only way to wash your hands of what happened here is to give your story to the law enforcement. If you do that and are found to be absolved of your crime, I would encourage you to put an application in to the society. Put me down as a reference. I think it would be wonderful to have another scientist who is working for the good of everyone on our team. What do you say?
To Narama, You have been helpful to use, so I see no reason to break your trust. I will not put it on public record that you are anything more than primitive. That being said, if we find ourselves in this region again, can we count you as allies of our organization?
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"Yeah, well, guess you are useful for that," Speck replies grudgingly. He had almost forgotten about that episode with the strange starship. But that is a mystery for another time.
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"I see. If you wish this to be a secret, who am I to impose." He then turns to look at the stars. "But are you sure you don't want to go out there? And see what the universe has to offer?"
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The doctor sighs "I really don't understand why you keep bringing up FronzenTrove. I've already told you we are a research institute that was set up by Winterharvest. And as for 'turning myself in' - I'm not exactly sure who I would be turning myself in to, or for what purposes. I will however report Spinjack and Farvenzi to the Winterharvest authorities. There is no real jurisdiction here, I guess we could leave them at Absalom station, but here in the Vast we are outside the laws of the Pact worlds."
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Back with the natives Narama looks reluctant. "I would prefer that off worlders just avoided here to be honest. However if you are in need of aid, you may be able to get it here."
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The trip back to Absalom station is without incident. The longer the trip goes on, the more interested Dr. Monsylkis becomes in the Starfinder society...
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We have reason to believe that the Frozen Trove hijacked your research. I think they are the reason that Spinjack and Farvenzi were did was that Frozen Trove either secretly owns Winterharvest or Winterharvest has been infiltrated. I am sorry, but if I were in your shoes, I would not trust that orginzation at all. I know some wonderful data collectors, I can call in a favor and see if they will look into the this Winterharvest to get you some answers. That might be an easier thing to get to happen if you join us. Medrick gives the doctor a hopeful smile.