First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo has summoned you to a mission briefing in the Lorespire. The meeting room turns out to be one of the larger ones, with daraki-wood paneling and several full-immersion holoprojectors. She was really going all out on this one. After you are all arrived and settled, she began.
“I appreciate your punctuality, as the lives of many Starfinders may depend on you. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you about the Scoured Stars incident.” Her eyes turn toward a large golden field in the hologram within which most of the Society’s agents are believed to be trapped. “But I’m glad to share that we’ve finally found a lead. Evidence from the library world of Athaeum suggests that eight groups departed the Scoured Stars in ages past, and that eight relics were removed following the same trajectories. My predecessor’s studies about one of these relics is what led us into the Scoured Stars, but I think if we can track down some of the people connected to the other relics—or, better yet, get our hands on a relic ourselves—we might find a way past this barrier.”
Elsebo waves a hand over the projector, and the entire hologram rotates; she then fans both her hands out to zoom in on a planet in the Vast. “Our closest guess as to where we might find some answers is here. Based on what I could find, it appears to be an unclaimed planet the Pact has labeled Icefront. There are no known civilizations affiliated with this planet, but its atmosphere supports life and it’s not far off the likely flight path of one of the eight escaping groups. I want you to take a ship to Icefront and find whatever you can about where this relic might be hidden. More importantly, see what you can dig up about the people the relic seemed to be chasing. Any questions?”
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Senesdar sits back in his chair, crossing his highhands as he puts his lowhands on the table in front of him. His lowleft hand is clearly noticeable to be a cybernetic prosthesis, made of a dull black and silver metal structure. Looking to the first seeker, he speaks through the green bandana over his lower face. "Do we know if there will be any noteworthy dangers where we are heading? Perhaps details of the planet's makeup or lifeforms?"
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A small female halfling walks into the meeting room a few minutes early, perusing something on a data tablet. "KS, I know that you prefer the decimal system, but it is so outdated. A good infosphere search can get you the digital ones, and Royo even allowed RFID's on the physical copies...once it was explained that this will allow us to track who has what book when he eventually wants said book. So let's drop that and go back to figuring out what items were burned exactly in the Athaeum...maybe we can reconstruct some of the lost knowledge with some of our other books."
Sitting down and patiently waiting for Luwazi to enter, Janilla pours through what little fragements of information she got on Hellknights and such.
Once everybody comes in and Luwazi comes in, Janilla turns on her data tablet to record, just in case she forgets something that was mentioned in the briefing.
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" Ahh, yes the Athaeum, I so enjoyed talking to Albryan. I am certain will want to go back there, and I am honestly amazed we got Royo off that library. All the books, scrolls and items. Some quite amazing, and some mind boggling. With that information, you are hoping that this one planet....Icefront...might have been visited by one of these groups? Was there any information from Athaeum about the groups, or what these relics were? And Icefront sounds like it will be a cold environment....and if so, I might want to make certain I pack more Hot Hand hand warmers."
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A small ysoki dressed in a grease covered set of coveralls walks through the door with his attention focused on a data pad. His hands are the only thing about him that seems clean - perfectly so. As his fingers play over the screen like a master pianist, he looks up nods at everyone while absentedmindedly forgetting to offer his name, before refocusing his attention back on his datapad.
Fixit listens carefully to the briefing before tilting his head in consideration.
"Do we know anything more about this planet? Or the people we are looking for?
I suppose we can scan the planet before we land but it would be nice to know what we were getting ourselves into."
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An attractive, well coiffed human male pipes up from the back of the room.
"Hello everyone! I'm so pleased to be on this mission with you. I'll be mainly acting as a practitioner of medicine on this journey, but I'm not afraid to use my arc pistol if needed! Please keep in mind that I am available at any time should you need medical advice or assistance."
Changing his attention to the briefing, he asks, "should we be expecting any trouble at this planet? I'm concerned that there might be an unfriendly greeting waiting for us."
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Smiling brightly at Dr. Morvius's comment, Janilla says, "Dear sir, when have you known the Society to send out out somewhere there ISN'T trouble? I went to a library, and almost got burned to a crisp...after reading something I shouldn't have, and almost going insane. At this point I always go in prepared for about anything including the culinary disposer to be tossed at me."
“The Pact Worlds’ databases didn’t offer much since Icefront is so far off anyone’s sensors, but we have some basic specs. The planet has a normal atmosphere, lots of fresh water, and abundant plant life. It spins and orbits its sun slowly, so I’d guess that it has extreme seasonal temperatures, but otherwise nothing particularly noteworthy. The file even states that there are no likely deposits of valuable mineral resources. That makes sense, since that’s what Pact Worlds surveyors tend to focus on. I’ll forward the file to you, so you can prepare.”
“Any information about the relic and its potential whereabouts would be of great use. If there’s native lifeforms on the planet, then they’ll be your best chance. On that note, you might want to make sure you have some means of communicating with a new species. By this point in your careers, I assume you’re capable of that.”
"Any more questions? If not, let me know which ship chassis you want to take with you and I'll have one brought out tot he docks for you. Good luck, Starfinders!"
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Another ysoki comes hustling into the room, leaning on a staff as he hobbles along through the door. His long robes flow around him smoothly, but his disheveled fur and crooked whiskers show that he is not in his best state.
"Beg yer pardon there, Madam First Seeker," the elderly ysoki drawls, "The lift was out an' I got turned around a bit and then got stuck behind a morlamaw what thought that she was in line fer somethin' or other...ah, I don' know! Anyway, sorry I'm late!"
The ysoki straightens up and looks around at the holograms, his keen eyes searching the scene for a moment until he finally seems to piece things together. "Alrigh', so we're headin' to this here planet ta follow up on one of the relics what shot outta the Scoured Stars? Good! There's a lotta good folk waitin' for us in there. Let's get to work! I don't suspect we'll be doin' a lotta survey work from space, so let's go in armed!"
With a click of his staff on the floor, the ysoki finally turns to the rest of the team, "The name's Chikasa, by the by! Good to know ya!"
By common consent, Luwazi orders you up a Drake, the Founder's Fury and you set off for the docks, stopping to get a few necessary items along the way, and chatting about which role you would each play in the crew.
Chikasa, Creed, and Janilla all receive a notification of file transfer at the same time. Looking down, you see an incoming message file from your old pal Ykris, with a CeriCore Labs seal emblazoned on it.
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"Interesting. Got a little more information on the corp Frozen Trove Labs. They do genetic modifications," Janilla shudders a little, " for industrial and commercial use, though they have had legal issues. They have been investigated and such, rumors of illegal experiments and clandestine locations not being reported to the governments and such. Apparently their legal team is first rate though, and so is their security details. Both showing little mercy to either trespassers, spies or protesters. And oh, yeah, the corp is ran by an old white dragon."
[b]"I have a bad feeling that we need to walk carefully on this mission, or else we might cause the Society to gain some powerful enemies here."
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"Yeeep," Chikasa nods slowly at Janilla's assessment, "Old Aralydio is a tough customer. Hardly as kind to employees that might prove problematic as he is to outside 'threat'. Tell ya what, though, ya deal with one evil corporation, ya've dealt with em all in my experience. We go in quiet and don't get too tangled up with the guards and what not, we should be just fine."
Icefront is quite a ways into the Vast, a distance that would have been infeasible to travel in pre-Drift days. As it was, it was nearly three weeks - 19 days - of being cooped up in the Founder's Fury before the nav computer signaled your imminent exit from Drift space. At the signal, each of you ran to your assigned stations, not knowing what to expect.
The displays all showed a zoomed in representation of the planet that is still some distance away. The milky-blue marble seemed cold, even from the viewprt, though despite its name, Icefront didn't look to be completely covered in ice and snow, with a thick green belt in around the equator.
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Janilla sighs as the group once again suggested that she pilot the group to their destination. She always wonders why her race is always seen as the predominant ace pilots. She always shrugs, as she knows her skill in piloting is minor compared to her brother....he could fly circles around her.
Shrugging to herself, she does realize though that her skills with engineering and computers--while decent--compared to her friends here are next to nil. So, it was either fly the ship, or command it, or sit and be bored unless called to be a gunner.
At least she has something to do for the next few weeks as they slowly go through the drift. The ship doesn't require her attention 24/7, but there are enough oddities in the drift to make it require her to be on call if 'weird' pieces of their--or other--planes show up. She once read in the reports that some of the Society even saw pieces of the Elemental planes of fire, earth and even air here in the drift.
Muttering to herself one day while idly watching the drift go by..."Maybe I should talk to Royo about this....has anybody done a through enough research on what the drift is doing to the planes......each time a ship transitions the drift, a piece of another plane gets pulled into the drift. Has these items been cataloged enough..."
Fixit was manning the computer station as you came out of Drift space, and he immediately scanned the surrounding area before scanning the planet. Icefront has intense weather patterns across its surface, with heavy snowstorms in the south, and rain in the north. An unusual amount of storm energy is being emanated from a cold snap in the southern hemisphere.
The scanners show signs of dense concentrations of plant and animal life, even at the extreme latitudes. From the airwaves, Fixit picked out a holographic projection of the native intelligent species, known as izalguun. The computer projects that approximately 40 million izalguuns live on the surface of the planet, with a low level of technology and hunter-gatherer lifestyles.
As the ysoki is relaying this info throughout the ship, a transmission comes in. The starship’s video screen shows a strikingly pale female humanoid face with short-cropped black hair and black bulging eyes. You recognize the creature as a verthani a native of the Pact World planet Verces.
"Hello starship Founder's Fury. I am Dr. Monsylkis, head of the Icefront research station. May I ask your business in our system?"
"I don't know. This planet is currently off limit to foreign investors or explorers."
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The research station's head looked a bit contemplative for a bit, then said "That authority would be the natives who live here. We have set up a research station in a part of the world that they are not currently using, with a very strict limitation on who is allowed planetside. I suppose if you are here just for scientific explorations...I maybe able to get permissions."
"Wait! What is that? Who have you brought with you?"
Dr. Monsylkis was drowned out by electronic squawks and squeals as jamming interrupted your conversation. Ship sensors lit up with news that an unknown starship was emerging from Drift space and locking weapons on your Drake. Klaxons blared and flashing lights warned everyone to get to battle stations!
"Diverting power to the sensors. Let's see what this thing is!"
Chikasa flipped a few virtual switches, and Fixit's sensors lit up the area with additional power.
The enemy moved in straight ahead, it's posture definitely one of aggression.
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Helm Phase (Pilot)
Janilla--still grumbling a little being put into the pilot seat...she isn't her brother after all--decides to do some evasive maneuvering to keep the opposing ship guessing on what vector she is going to settle on.
AC=21, TL=21
"This thing is coming at us. I will do my best to keep our forward guns facing it. You two should be able to light it up!"
In answer to Creed's statement, a heavy laser beam reached out across the intervening space, pulses of light flashing the little dust and ions floating in space. The beam barely missed your ship. A heavy missile screamed out across the distance as well, this one connecting solidly with the front shields. Klaxons blared and the ship rocked as the forward shields went down and missile debris peppered into the ship. Unlike standard debris, though, these seemed to keep boring into the hull with a high-pitched whining noise.
In return, Saryn fires off a missile shot, but he didn't wait for a full lock and the missiles spread out into the black ocean. Senesdar had a steadier hand, laying his laser cannon perfectly onto the incoming ship and reducing its forward shields considerably.
Shields light 70 (forward 0, port 15, starboard 15, aft 20)
HP 83/85; CT 17
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"Well, so much for the new paint job," Chikasa calls out over the whine of the boring missile debris. "And what in tarnation is with that noise? Did they hit us with nanites er somethin'?"
Shaking off his curiosity, Chikasa works on pulling power from non-essential systems and diverting it into restoring the forward shields. "Let's not take another hit like that if we can, eh Janilla? Shoot! And here I thought you halflin's was supposed to be all-stars behind the wheel!"
As the captain calls for more shields, he turns his head and narrows his eyes, "Son, I ain't Fixit! He's over there, on the S.O. station. You call me Chikasa!"
Please move the icon on the map. The yellow triangle indicates forward
Shields light 70 (forward 7, port 15, starboard 15, aft 20)
HP 83/85; CT 17
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"What do we know about this ship Fixit? The more info I have on it's speed and maneuverability might mean I can deal with it easier."
Janilla puts the ship into full reverse. Trying to keep the forward weapons and shields (...Hint hint for Chikasa...) facing the enemy.
With that Janilla easily makes the ship float backwards...keeping the forward arc facing the enemy.
The ship before you is a completely unknown type, and your scanner results have come back with some strange numbers. You don't know how much to trust them, but they are:
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"Chikasa I am doing the best I can! IF you wanted an ACE pilot you should have asked my brother. And besides that...I REALLY dislike flying in loops...it makes my stomach sick. Keep those shields up...I figure we better keep them in our foward arc, it's where our best weapons are."
With that...she looks around for a barf bag, and decides to have her comp give a little more oomph to the shields...
Fixit's next set of scans focused on the weapons:
The enemy ship moved sluggishly forward, trying to keep your Drake in weapons range. Your weapons pound the enemy, stripping its forward shields and penetrating deeply into the interior. Fixit's scans lit up with a flare of ions, indicating a hit to the power core.
Your shouts of excitement are cut off as the whine from whatever the initial missiles left behind caused even more hull damage, despite the shields being up. External monitors showed small drones eating away at the hull. The monitors flared as another direct laser hit, dropping the shields and going into the hull plating. It was immediately followed by another heavy missile hit, and the ship shuddered as your own power systems took a beating.
Shields light 70 (forward 0, port 15, starboard 15, aft 20)
HP 59/85; CT 17