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The dome has grown brighter with that new star blooming in the sky above and the roar building in the air!
The transmission cuts out-- as a high intensity laser burst shatters the dome!
And laser blasts strike the nearby area.
Normally a starship should not be able to achieve such an accurate strike, so you imagine that the beacons you found were here to guide the shots and allow the orbital attacks some degree of precision.
Luckily, you seem to have deactivated all the beacons, or at least enough to render the blasts innaccurate.
None of you are wounded--
--and none of the guests are killed - only some wounded from the falling glass of the dome.
Though relieved there are no casualties, Zafeldrin is distraught: "The lodge's mainframe is destroyed! They wiped out my data backups!
You must locate the starship that received the data transmission, and recover the information.
Not only is it a terrible loss, but an enemy could learn the identities and locations of Starfinder agents and outposts using what’s in there, using that to target more of our colleagues.
Go go go... I will handle taking care of the injured here."
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"The signals boucing from the starship were a way to prepare their assault. I should have understand that... well, I guess it's time to deliver my gift."
Drakzul looks at Zafeldrin and nods at the dragon silently apologizing.
Drakzul looks at what remains of the lodge. Is there a way to use the data transmission to locate the starship with computers or should they hop on the Drake and track the white dragon with it ?
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Id is exceptionally chipper in his dialogue with the suspicious rhyphorian, leveraging his allies' charm to grease the wheels. Once the dome collapses, however, Id springs into action. Quick, to the ship! We gotta take out that freighter before someone gets killed! I just KNOW Frozen Trove is behind this!
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You leave the crushed Lodge, and rush to the docks and prepare your starship for launch after the attack.
Upon arriving, you see that Zafeldrin has notified the dock crews, who are already working quickly.
You see that various crews mill around their vessels, upset that the spaceport people suddenly abandoned their work to rush to your vessel.
You realize that you must have impressed Tefarian, for you see that he must have pulled the workers from other starships to expedite your launch.
When you enter your starship, you see an incoming transmission.
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The transmission accepted, the white dragon’s visage appears once more.
She clutches at her display, choking in disbelief.
“Still alive? No. No!”
She quivers with rage, the display cracking under her grip, before calming herself and regaining her placid composure.
“It doesn’t matter,” she declares. “Now I know your hiding places, your secrets. Come face me and die or stay there and live, while I hunt down your comrades!”
You may interact with her as you get the Drake fired up and travel toward her starship.
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The transmission accepted, the white dragon’s visage appears once more.
She clutches at her display, choking in disbelief.
“Still alive? No. No!”
She quivers with rage, the display cracking under her grip, before calming herself and regaining her placid composure.
“It doesn’t matter,” she declares. “Now I know your hiding places, your secrets. Come face me and die or stay there and live, while I hunt down your comrades!”You may interact with her as you get the Drake fired up and travel toward her starship.
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Drakzul seethes with anger.
"Listen, white and shiny. If Pharasma couldn't get ahold of me, no overgrown lizard can."
He puts himself in the engineer seat and tries to divert power to help scanning for the dragon's ship.
"No need for the pyrotechnics, if you're looking for a fight, I'm coming for you. If you try to hunt the Society, you've choosen your adversary poorly, Dretch. Frozen Trove's not dealing with backwater planet life forms this time. Agression will be met with appropriate response. Think again. I'll give you one chance, send us back all the stolen informations and surrender or i'll drill my foot in your albino scaly a.."
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Goose looks over at Drakzul and a manic grin spreads across his face.
He mumbles, "He said a$$." and starts to chuckle.
The ysoki then starts repeating the word in every language he knows.
Ysoki, Akitonion, Vesk, Eoxian, Aklo, Castrovelian, Ghibrani, Aquan, Bretheden, Goblin, Vercite, Jinsul, Draconic, Elven, Sign Language. An equal opportunity insult, just to be thorough.
:D
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As Drakzul taunts the white and shiny dragon, making Goose chuckle, before the Ysoki launches on a multilingual insult fest... the wyrm answers, in a fury:
"Id-Sinitis, I will rip your cheap cardiac accelerator out! And get at your family...", enumerating where you kin lives. "You stole from me... hurt me... ruined my career. Did you think you could do whatever you like and take whatever you want without consequence? Ha! You all will suffer...", and she gives some information on your specific family's belongings and such, she will plunder.
"And you, Mon Tavvi, a.k.a. Goose, your chameleon skin will not be able to hide you. I know where you live...", and she pursues with your lodging locations and addresses. [b]"“Have I not made my intentions clear? I’m going to destroy your ship and take your life... Talk? I want to hear you scream. IN ALL THOSE LANGUAGES!"
"AND YOU! Drakzul, I'll rip you so dead you'll go back to being a living Vesk before I kill you again...", and she gives details of how you died and became a Borai. [b]"Your sins come back to haunt you. But I, Norys will suffice, to defeat you!"
Huckle Jim feels relieved he was not part of this expedition.
It seems she does not know about him.
Drakzul on engineering, and Id piloting, you draw closer.
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Space Combat map here!
__________________________
The Drake flies up, and you see that Norys waits in low orbit in her starship.
It appears on your screens as the Diamond Glow, a ship with a large bridge nestled under the forward weapon system, with blisters of shield projectors and weapon mounts circling the round hull.
The plating glitters with a white chitinous sheen.
You have risen up to low orbit, and realize you are in the middle of a shipping lane, with some freighters moving out from the busy planet--
--and some starting to descend towards the planet.
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Space Battle
________________
The Drake's alarms go off, as you arrive away from the Diamond Glow.
You see that with all its weapons, and the fury the White Dragon is in, diplomacy is probably not an option.
Thus you all rush to your .
You must conduct this fight while freighters are moving towards you on both sides...
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Always a fan of the Metal Gear Spaceships holovid series, Goose recognizes the Diamond Glow as a custom variant on the United Interfaith Engineering Hiveguard starship frame.
Since shirren technology originated as an almost entirely biological enterprise, the ships resemble shirrens in many ways. Smooth, shell-like hulls guard blisters of eye-like windows and clusters of thin, protruding weapons and sensor arrays. While the Swarm (and thus, by extension, shirrens) learned to incorporate more conventional industrial processes as it overwhelmed and consumed other races, it never quite lost its instinctive desire to model its creations upon itself.
Shirren ships are known for their dependability and versatility, and they can often be found retrofitted with accommodations for non-shirren races. Still, not every mechanic likes dealing with a ship whose components might bleed or shudder when operated upon.
Shirrens may prefer peace to war, but they still remember the terrifying capabilities of their former slave masters, the Swarm.
The United Interfaith Engineering destroyers employ much of the same technology to create swift, deadly warships that can be operated by a small crew.
Drakzul starts moving around like he had more arms than a skittermander, and is squeezing things out the Power Core you never thought possible.
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As Goose starts to scan the enemy vessel, and fumbles around with the Drake's buttons, he realizes that the Diamond Glow has scrambled its transponder codes to hide the starship’s identity.
Goose scratches his head: should he simply scan the vessel to know some information, or should choose to spends his short time to decipher the transponder instead of learning other information...
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Goose didn't realize how much the dragon rattled him, causing his normally deft fingers to fumble. He uses that feeling to steel himself and focuses on the task at hand.
Seeing the irregularity, he opts to focus on the scrambled transponder. "What are you hiding?" mumbles the operative as he focuses on solving the riddle.
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As Goose starts to scan the ship, he changes focus, and manages to unscramble the masked transponder.
Goose retrieves the information on his comm unit, and checks the numbers against his registration database and... oh?
The Diamond Glow bears a Frozen Trove registration!
Meanwhile, Drakzul does his massive multi-Divert.
Just then, you hear a YELL come through you ship's comm.
Norys, the White Dragon, is seething as she taunts you.
"I WIELD THE POWER OF WYRMS AND THE MIGHT OF INTERGALACTIC MEGACORPS!
And I SHALL see you all DESTROYED!"
But, nevertheless, Id, though shaken, mans the pilot's joystick, and has the upper hand on the enemy ship.
Enemy ship that moves... slightly forward.
It also seems to bob and weave... was that an attempted evasive stunt?
If so, it sure did not work.
The freighters move away and to the planet, but all move closer to the fight.
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Id's evasive maneuvers are quite elegant, as he moves the Drake up.
Just as Norys turns off the comm she had opened to taunt you, you hear her yelling at her crew: "Idiots! See! That's how it's done. You better pilot better and stop let--"
And then the battle starts in earnest.
Huckle Jim fires the forward particle beam, using the computer, but, shaken by Norys' taunting, his fingers shake at the last moment-- and the beam fires wide.
The enemy's port gunner fires a light laser cannon, that is well aimed-- but did not take into account Id's evasive maneuver!
But the turret gunner swivels the flak thrower, and aims it really well!
The flak dents your shield, but does not pass it and damage the shield... lucky you, since it would probably have damaged some system.
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Goose tracks these short-range transmissions, and determines that Norys has armed three automated light freighters with arc missile systems.
Goose manages to see which ones these are.
It seems the armed freighters each have one forward heavy torpedo launcher.
Having succeeded at the scan action on the signal, Goose recognizes that the specific freighters under Norys’s remote control still have civilians onboard.
Goose sees how he might try to seize control of one of the armed freighters and fire a missile, or else permanently disable the freighter from firing again.
____________
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Goose let's loose on some more choice swear words.
"That stupid worm laid a trap for us. We've got incoming missiles. Brace for impact. I'll try to divert them but it'll take some time so do what you can do buy me some!" shouts the tiny ysoki.
Goose diverts his attention on the second ship (ship #2), attempting to hack the freighter and commandeer the missile system.
If successful, Goose will point the missile right up the dragon's a$$ (i.e. rear flank).
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Id evades also, flying again to line your forefront with their portside.
Huckle Jim fires up close with the particle beam and hits, blasting through the shields, and damaging the hull!
Goose manages to hack into the firing system of the freighter, the number 2, and the missile zips along and detonates against the forward quadrant of the enemy vessel.
It too blasts the shield apart, and damages the hull.
The enemy vessel then obviously used the same freighter to fire another missile... leaving only one in it.
The missile hits the port side of the Drake.
At the same time, the light laser cannon fires and hits your forward--
You can imagine how Norys is yelling at the poor gunner.
--and the turret swivels and hits your forward with the flak gun...
Drake's shields are at 7/25 port ; 16/25 forward.
The freighters keep on moving.
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• make one of the three freighters unable to fire missiles during the whole starship combat
• control the missile firing of one of the three freighters, and fire a missile using your gunnery check during the gunnery phase
If I controlled ship #2 before, do I still control it or do I need to make a computer skill check again?
Also, what if I try to get the last missile off #2 while the dragon does too - who gets it?
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No, you still "control" it.
The idea being you hacked in and have access to firing. So you can fire again.
Meaning you could fire from two, and still try to hack another ship and either prevent it from firing for good, or "open" it for you to be able to fire from later.
Also, what if I try to get the last missile off #2 while the dragon does too - who gets it?
I thought of that too... and have to figure out what to do.
I imagine it would be something like a contested Computers check or something of the sort.