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"Oh yes. Those places can be more than a little rough. Thankfully many of the concerts have settled down over the years. Years ago I recall getting out of more than one overly energetic concert with my whiskers unsinged."
"They have plenty of rations here. I'm not sure how much I would trust them, but maybe something among them can give us a better idea of when this place was left. I find it strange they would leave all this food, no matter the quality, lying about if they weren't forced to leave."
Teka will also start to pear into the southern areas
Teka opens the door, revealing what appears to be a work in progress? This hallway complex looks unfinished, as if the outpost had been in the middle of an expansion when it was abandoned. Sections appear ready to be turned into rooms, and building supplies rest stacked in corners. The stairs appear under renovation to make them broader, and cables and pipes are incompletely installed in the stairwell’s ceiling. The supports allowing for construction have long since collapsed, causing a cave-in that blocks the way down.
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Teka happily follows along with Gunnz's recollections giving idle commentary of shock and agreement as she recalls this last man. She helps OP-1 with looking about the first layer of the rubble.
"While I would be more than willing to wait a day to see Istorvir's magic to study the crystals, I rather not try to push out to tomorrow what we can finish today. Those consoles have places to fit the crystals, that might make them some classical storage. Maybe if we place them it will tell us the answers we are looking for."
If there is no disagreement Teka will give another look at the crystals and consoles before connecting the two.
The collapsed stairwell has nothing of note.
Inserting the crystal into the slot causes the console to power up. The display is entirely in goblin. There are 4 files stored on the computer, however they are protected by a firewall.
Each of the 4 files describe a specific planet.
Black Iron Palace, a massive, heavy metal world with high
gravity, far from its sun.
Cauldron of [data corruption], a planet still in its primordial soup stage.
Citadel of Veils, a fortress world hidden in a nebula.
Emperor’s Graveyard, a planet bombed into extinction to
become a tomb world.
The data makes clear that the empire used these crystals for their interstellar travels, each crystal acting as a map of sorts for a listed location. Cross-referencing these four names with the Starfinder database provides a match, although their names are very old-fashioned and a literal translation from Goblin. The four locations are located in the Vast. Three of these are located in what is now the territory of the Gideron Authority or that of the Marixah Republic. The fourth, the area with irrecoverable data corruption in the name, falls under neither nation’s jurisdiction.
With that, it appears that you've uncovered everything of note within the ruins. With a quick stop to take the gems off of the wards for later research (given that the threat has now been neutralized) you're able to return to Venture-Captain Arvin with a large collection of information and trinkets that may help to learn more about the Hobgoblin empire in the future.
Over the trip back, Istorvir is able to identify the crystals as Helldrive Crystals - devices used to power pre-Drift faster-than-light travel during and before the Gap. Few groups outside of the Hellknight orders utilized Helldrive crystals, so their presence here is a noteworthy discovery about the defunct hobgoblin empire.
Upon your return to Absalom Station, Venture-Captain Arvin welcomes you all and eagerly hears about your mission, while Society data archivists immediately begin work analyzing the recovered data and any associated relics. He’s especially excited that there appears to be more to explore at the site on lower levels, positing that there could be any number of priceless historical discoveries just waiting to be found. With luck, the area will survive the siege... and perhaps merit another trip in the future.
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"It looks like you were right Gunnz, this attack seems to be them trying to reclaim the bits left of their former empire. Maybe they even wanted this data, in which case, following their nasty bit of fire they gave us, I'm happy to let Historia-7 find someone to sort through it."
"I'm grateful for you all letting an old one like myself join you for this escapade. I'm looking forward to getting back with my grandchildren for a bit, share some of stories and pictures I took, and especially take a nice nap. I would be happy to travel alongside you again. Whether it is back here or to some other place among the vast. You are all wonderful heroes."
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Istorvir clears his throat, "Actually, the Republic also has a population of hobgoblins, so the Authority does not have a specific racial claim to these sites. I'm excited to compare these referenced locations with locations that we are aware of. Surprisingly the ideal is to not already know about these locations."