"A sparring opportunity sounds intriguing! When are you expecting to be back in or around Absalom Station? I'd be interested to see how a water-adapted people fight, and to compare Muncher to the full-auto rifle I pulled off an Azlanti corpse." Hermena hoists her AG rifle off her back to show the kalo via the video transmission.
"I know you're not keen on talking about your mission, but could you at least tell us who patronizes your work? Are you representing the Kalo race at Absalom Station, or are you private contractors?"
Suulhu-Huur is circumspect, "You know how missions are, sugar. Some are quick; others are drawn out. And sometimes Drift travel is upstream; other times, down. Goddess willing, we'll be back inside three months. When we get back, the VCs may ship us out again. We're a special asset for the Starfinders -- not many can swim the flood or depths like us. "
On the subject of weapons, Ushuul is enthusiastic. He goes on about adapting his gun for underwater use. He is more than willing to get in on the sparring challenge too.
Allugoth deflects the questions about patrons, representation, and contracting philosophically. "Bubbubbul. All beings represent themselves. It's others who ascribe our characteristics or worth to larger entities like the Starfinders or the kalo race. Whoommbeblu, Likewise, we are all private contractors, although I prefer to use the term free agents, if we are not slaves. We are all free to take or leave our assignments, and our compensation is not always in the credit the Society affords us."
Two days into the Drift the Promise is out of radio range. The kalo's last transmission is swallowed in the background static. Two weeks later you pick up the beacon's signal faintly. It takes another week to triangulate and travel to the beacon's location. As you close in you find the beacon surrounded by a number of asteroids.
these asteroids hold molten stone.
From the other side of the asteroid field, another starship approaches, heading toward the asteroid field at top speed.
This ship is ablaze on either side with three bright-red thrusters, which are reminiscent of the energy blades of a plasma doshko.
The thruster emissions are decorative and not functional.
The side thrusters are a representation of the symbol of
Damoritosh, the vesk god of conquest, duty, and war.
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Hermena frowns and sits in the turret launching station. "I can get by in the wild pretty well, but I'm not savvy enough with computers or machines to be of much use with the scanners."
Her frown deepens when Hellih reveals the strange starship's thrusters are not actually functional. "I can understand the occasional decal, would anyone waste time and resources adding an entirely decorative set of thrusters? Wouldn't it just make the whole ship less useful? Maybe the 'thrusters' are masking something else... Captain, any chance we could hail that ship and see if the crew is more reliable than the outward appearance?"
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Kai came onto the science office r station even as the others were banging around at it like monkeys with sticks.
"Why didn't you guys wake the science officer when we got to the derelict instead of monkeying about with my systems. You better not have have reset any of my configurations."
Within a few moments, Kai had run his diagnostics, then the scans - appropriately this time. He sat back with a smile on his face.
"Those asteroids have cores of molten stone. That's very unusual isn't it? Usually you need a lot more mass to generate the pressures needed to have molten cores."
"Wait a minute! New contact bearing 053, 46 units spinward. Looks like it might be converging on the derelict ship as well. We may have a race, ladies and gentlemen!"
As soon as the new ship is close enough, Kai ran a full-power scan of its systems. In the era of space warfare, it was the equivalent of staring someone up and down while obviously trying to undress them with your eyes.
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Based on size, internal structure and composition, these obsidian asteroids are unstable. If targeted and damaged (AC 5 and TL 5), they would explode and damage (4d8) adjacent ships.
The ship's transponder identifies it as the Honorbound with Vesk registry. She is a medium transport, speed 8, turn mode 2, crew of six.
AC 14; TL 14 ; PCU 130
HP 70; Shields basic 40 (forward 10, port 10, starboard 10, aft 10)
Among other weapons, she's packing a gyrolaser in her aft arc.
She responds with a scan of her own.
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Kai quickly relayed all that he had learned about the asteroid and the oncoming ship to the others and then began flipping switches and concentrating on the upcoming combat. He wasn't certain it was going to come to that, but better safe than sorry. He pulled up a checklist on his datapad to refresh his mind, then loaded some scripts to improve the sensors and refine their results.
The other ship returns the hail with video, the screen shows a big toothily grinning (?) Vesk.
"Hello, this is the Honorbound. I am her captain, Yuluzak. We are tasked with gathering salvage in this area, and lay claim to the signaling beacon and any associated equipment.
"Are you Starfinders? I have great admiration for your explorations."
"Are you all shy? I promise not to bite. Any Vesk speakers on board? Surely anyone who knows the conqueror's tongue will be bold enough to speak. "
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Hermena scowls, attempting to address the rest of the crew without alerting Yuluzak. If they are laying claim to Struggle's Scholar, this could get ugly fast. Maybe we could leverage his respect for the Starfinder Society by saying we're tracking the distress signal on the Society's behalf? Scholar was one of ours, after all. If that doesn't work, we could try to argue right of first refusal since the ysoki scavenger sold us the distress beacon coordinates much earlier.
"Starfinders, how interesting! As I said, we've been assigned to salvage anything of interest to the Veskarium in this sector. What are you doing out here in the far reaches of the Drift?"
"Then we are at an impasse. I am honor bound to recover the beacon, and I don't expect Starfinders to back down easily. It looks like a trial for Damoritosh's favor."
"Such a contest need not be fatal. I propose a few simple rules, suitable for an honorable trial between friends."
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On the closed intercom channel, Kai said, "Yeah, let's disable these idiots and be going. I'm sure our little band of ne'er-do-wells can handle anything these guys could throw at us."
Opening the channel to the vesk once more, he said, "Bring it on, scaly. We're not about to back down from this. We have our own honor to uphold!"
Yuluzak offers these terms for the combat.
• The combatants will not intentionally target the life support systems of their enemy.
• The combatants will abstain from targeting the rear arc— warriors should face the enemy head on.
• Combat is over once an enemy starship is crippled.
• Each captain can surrender at any point during the duel.
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"Seems reasonable enough, and it certainly beats a protracted fight over the beacon that could cause Struggle's Scholar to be lost to the chaos of the Drift. If we establish a plan for getting the losers home despite their crippled ship, then I'm game." Hermena looks over to Captain Alzandre and awaits orders.
"And deprive my crew of glory and the favor of Damoritosh?! I think not."
In the background a ragged cheer rises. "Damoritosh! Glory! And conquest!"
Yuluzak twists aroundto look over his shoulder at his off-camera crew. Then he turns back to the camera.
"Contest is inevitable. With these rules there is a good chance we will still part as friends in combat."
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"... what a dumb rule .... Don't shoot at the rear arc ... if you are a good warrior, then you will not allow it to happen." says HK
Hellih responds: "Yeah, I hear you HK. Patterson, I will move more power to engines!"
You can hear through coms that he already started to work on it.
Phase: Engineering
Action: Divert power to enginees
"Patterson! You have more power, use it well."
"And good luck to you! With your permission, I'll leave the channel open."
Yuluzak's attention turns off screen. He begins to exhort his crew in Vesk.
Apparently eager to test their weapons against yours, the vesk ship turns left to follow Patterson to the edge of the asteroid field and a clear firing lane. She turns to face you directly and opens up with a pair of laser cannons. At this range, her shots narrowly miss your hull.
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Steev's shot flares on the Honorbound's forward shield.
Hermena's shot lances through the Honorbound's forward shield, and raises a cloud of debris where it strikes the hull.
The screen image of the vesk bridge shakes a little. Yuluzak spares a moment from urging his crew on to say , "Nice shooting, Starfinders." He quickly returns his attention to his own crew.
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"Good work gunners, keep it up. I'm going to maintain focus on the engines, so if you can get through those shields and hit a critical area, we might just be able to stop her in place."
Kai turned back to the computers just in time to realize that his elbow had hit the control to cancel his tracking scripts. The computers flashed blankly back to their default settings, and he scrambled to reload his custom scripts.