Inside the building, none of the robots up on the catwalk respond to Ordyt's overtures, instead steadily continuing their work. Bel on the other hand does manage to get a response of sorts. Her technopathic link gets a stream of high-frequency feedback returning to her, pitched hums that sound somehow vaguely irritated despite being in a language unknown to her.
Mari examines the robots up on the catwalk. She doesn't recognize them as any kind of robotic lifeform that exists outside of the sun, though again they have features in common with anacites. She's able to deduce several features of these creatures that she dubs 'Reclaimers'. They have strong claws that can grab and lift things weightier than they are. They can feed materials of likely a wide variety of types to their grinders, which seem to be able to reduce that material to the grey liquid that fills their tanks. Most likely, they're capable of wireless communication and are dependent on sunlight.
---
As Ordyt and Flint start looking around the room, you all hear an uneven whirring sound from the west. Spinning around the corner is a squat, vaguely humanoid purple robot with a bulbous head, two arms and a large tank-like tread in place of legs. Although its tread is damaged, the creature darts among the rubble and machinery as it rushes in your direction. Another robot, a Reclaimer like those up on the catwalk, pursues the smaller construct. Another Reclaimer skitters in from the southern entrance, trying to cut the fleeing robot off. Both reclaimer bots spit globs at the smaller automaton, anchoring it with sticky strands, binding it to the floor and nearby machinery.
As the bigger robots close in, the smaller one struggles, chirps frantically, and then emits a low drone.
Rushing over to what appears to be the "Speaker Drone", Flint draws his blade and hacks at the goo holding this robot in place, saying on both his communicator and what passes for 'aloud' in this strange atmosphere, "We can't have you recycled before you even talk to us, can we? Let's see what we can do about that goo."
"Um, captain? Could we get the injured one away? I'd rather not smash any more of these robots if we can help it...if the Brass Dragons invaded they're the aggrieved party here."
"Excellent idea, Ordyt, make it happen if you can," replies Flint quickly.
Sammad peers over the side of the building, lets out a small sigh, and then starts to lower himself down towards the others with the aid of Flint's grappler.
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Belmarniss raises an eyebrow at the response from the repair bots.
"They responded to the technopathic message, so they seem to at least be sapient, we just have to get past a language barrier to establish proper first contact. For what it's worth, I think they said something along the lines of 'go away and let us clean up this mess you made.' And I think we'll oblige them."
As the new robot emerges and seems to be trapped, Belmarniss raises her sword.
"No language barrier here, that's a clear display of distress. Let's rescue that adorable little automaton!"
Flint gets in there and hacks away at the sticky goop. He manages to free the humanoid robot up enough that it can continue fleeing, but the goop leaves it moving quite slowly. To Ordyt's eyes, the humanoid robot looks quite heavy despite its smaller size. At the very least, picking up the bot would leave him too encumbered for his jump jets to lift the pair from the ground.
Sammad makes his way to the lower level. Simultaneously, the reclaimers turn away from the humanoid robots and face your group. A burst of static and noise rises and falls across your comms, patterns repeating and agreeing with one another. The reclaimers up on the catwalk also turn toward your team and halt their tasks.
----
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Without any preamble or further warning, the reclaimers start to attack! First, the reclaimers up on the catwalk point themselves down at your group and fire large globs of grey liquid that solidifies on contact. Splashing bursts catch the four of you out on the open floor.
Bel and Mari dodge the bursts, but Flint and Ordyt suffer the indignity of being coated in sticky grey liquid that hinders their movement.
Meanwhile the red and blue reclaimers skitter forward and reach out at Flint and Bel with long extending claws. Bel manages to block the incoming claw, but Flint gets caught in the pincer claw and grabbed.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (11 dmg, entangled 3 rd, grappled)
Bel
Ordyt (entangled 4 rd)
Sammad
Atra's Crew (one with 8 dmg)
Pink Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Green Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Yellow Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Blue Reclaimer (lower level)
Red Reclaimer (lower level)
"Nothing like jumping right into the thick of things" thinks Flint as the reclaimer robots suddenly turn on him and his allies. "Get to the roof if you can" he barks at the speaker drone.
The light in his eyes continuing to brighten, Flint wills his entire body to burst into flame (plasma sheath), hoping it will help burn away some of this goo. Then, seeing the grinder integrated into the reclaimer drone, Flint attempts to escape the claw before it can try to feed him to that gruesome mechanism.
Thinking quickly, Ordyt swaps his grenade launcher for the gravity-gun, moving to back up Flint and hoping to keep the reclaimer-bots at bay without hurting them too badly.
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Belmarniss holds her junksword before her and a circuit-like rune appears on it, glowing and making the weapon vibrate with power!
Then she strikes at the reclaimer who just tried to grab her!
"Get to the roof if you can!" she says using her node, repeating Flint's words. "Friends there!" she adds, hoping even if it didn't understand the words, it understood the tone.
Flint struggles within the reclaimer's claw, unable to escape. Meanwhile, Ordyt readies to fire, and Bel steps in to land a solid blow against the red reclaimer, denting its casing.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (11 dmg, entangled 3 rd, grappled)
Bel
Ordyt (entangled 4 rd)
Sammad
Atra's Crew (one with 8 dmg)
Pink Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Green Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Yellow Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Blue Reclaimer (lower level)
Red Reclaimer (14 dmg, lower level)
Sammad strides into the room as he hears the sounds of combat...seeing Bel strike a blow against her adversary, he turns to Atra's crew and points to the robot grappling Flint. "Captain's in peril-you three, help me take down that robot!" He then unsheathes his pistol and snaps off a quick shot at it.
"Don't worry, Cap, I've got your back!" Mari shouts, designating the offending machine and snapping off a shot of freezing energy, that comes closer to taking off the human's ear than to its actual target.
---
The more humanoid robot struggles against the grey fluid slowing it down, but manages to get about halfway across the room, rolling toward the east.
The pink reclaimer stays up top and fires another goopy blast down, this time splashing over two of Atra's allies. They're both quick on their feet and avoid getting entangled. The green reclaimer skitters down along the catwalk and partway down the ramp until it can reach its extendable claw over and reach for the nearest of Atra's crewmates. It grasps the blue one, crushing tight and holding on.
The yellow reclaimer clicks and clacks down the catwalk as well, almost reaching the lower level before grasping out at Flint with its claw. It crushes his leg hard, but doesn't also start grappling. The blue reclaimer raises Flint up into the air and then shoves the solarian into its whirring grinders.
Flint manages to struggle just enough to avoid being pulped immediately, but the whirring grinders still chew into him . After the attempt, he pops free from its claw.
The red reclaimer attempts to grab a hold of Bel and manages to get under her guard. Its grabby arm crushes her torso and it clamps down, grappling her.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (31 dmg, entangled 2 rd)
Bel (13 dmg, grappled)
Ordyt (entangled 3 rd)
Sammad
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 13 dmg and grappled)
Pink Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Green Reclaimer (lower level)
Yellow Reclaimer (lower level)
Blue Reclaimer (25 dmg, lower level)
Red Reclaimer (14 dmg, lower level)
His eyes flaring with solar power, Flint swings his burning solar scimitar in a powerful arc at the blue reclaimer tormenting him, then steps away carefully to the east, hoping the robots will somehow lose interest and allow them to retreat. Getting this goo off of him would be a bonus too, though he grimaces as the stuff just stays stuck to him and interferes with his movement.
Bel sends a jolt down into the body of the reclaimer grappling her. The lightning causes smoke to rise from its chassis, but doesn't quite finish it off. Flint's scimitar slash cleaves right through blue's core, sending up a spray of grey liquid as the robot falls.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (31 dmg, entangled 2 rd)
Bel (13 dmg, grappled)
Ordyt (entangled 3 rd)
Sammad
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 13 dmg and grappled)
Pink Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Green Reclaimer (lower level)
Yellow Reclaimer (lower level)
Red Reclaimer (32 dmg, lower level)
Okay, that could've gone better. Her first target downed, Mari turns in time to see one of Atra's crew getting grabbed up by another of the machines. "Hey! Help him!" she yells, trying to shoot the reclaimer down before it can eat the poor bastard.
"Captain! That ugly red one's got Bel!" Giving up on the hope of resolving this without inflicting permenant damage, Ordyt stows the gravity pistol and draws his hammer. Shuffling over to the nearest robot thanks to the sticky goo still gumming up his armor, the oread raises the maul overhead and brings it back down.
-
Meanwhile, Atra's other crewmate fires at the red reclaimer attacking Bel and misses. The humanoid bot continues to slowly try to escape the scene.
The pink reclaimer drops down from the catwalk level onto a piece of machinery and then from there to the ground. It turns from Mari to the member of Atra's crew with her, as though evaluating targets... and then it reaches past both of them to grab the humanoid bot! Its claw arm crushes the humanoid bot's chassis, cracking it in multiple places.
The green reclaimer draws Atra's ally in and attempts to grind the unfortunate soul into grey fluid.
...but the woman lives to see another day.
The yellow reclaimer surges forward with its grabbing arm extended and snaps it hard around Flint. The arm lifts him into the air, leaving him all but helpless. Meanwhile, the damaged red reclaimer tries to feed Bel to its grinders. She avoids being pulped by kicking and striking hard enough to free herself, but the teeth still manage to partially chew into her.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (41 dmg, entangled 1 rd, pinned)
Bel (23 dmg)
Ordyt (entangled 2 rd)
Sammad x2
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 24 dmg)
Pink Reclaimer (catwalk level)
Green Reclaimer (19 dmg, lower level)
Yellow Reclaimer (lower level)
Red Reclaimer (32 dmg, lower level)
Flint grimaces against the pain and holds his flaming solar scimitar in front of him, trying to fend off the grinding reclaimer mechanism. His eyes now finally fully alight, he grabs the pincer holding him with his free hand and bursts into glorious sunlight, frying away the goo entangling him and giving the bot the full taste of an his blazing ire!
, DC 17 Reflex for half damage.
"Oh no, chewing up destroyed bots is one thing! Chewing up live organic people?! Not okay!" Ordyt channels his outrage and alarm into a succession of heavy hammer-blows.
Bel has less luck against the red reclaimer.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (8 dmg)
Flint (41 dmg, entangled 1 rd, pinned)
Bel (23 dmg)
Ordyt (entangled 2 rd)
Sammad x2
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 24 dmg)
Pink Reclaimer (lower level)
Green Reclaimer (37 dmg, lower level)
Yellow Reclaimer (15 dmg, lower level)
Red Reclaimer (32 dmg, lower level)
Feeling a bit queasy at the idea of the sight of the machines trying to eat her comrades, Mari keeps sending shots downrange at her target in an attempt to finish the damn thing off.
-
Sammad moves up and fires at the red reclaimer menacing Bel. Both his shots connect and take red out as well! That leaves Atra free to fire upon yellow, blasting a solid chunk of metal out of it with a well placed shot. Her crew fire upon pink and deal some minor damage.
The pink reclaimer attempts again to grab a hold of Mari. This time the claw closes quite solidly on her, grabbing tight
The yellow reclaimer tries to tear Flint apart with its grinding teeth, but he manages to kick and writhe hard enough to slip free after only a short while.
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol (16 dmg, grabbed)
Flint (50 dmg)
Bel (23 dmg)
Ordyt (entangled 1 rd)
Sammad
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 24 dmg)
Pink Reclaimer (9 dmg, lower level)
Yellow Reclaimer (31 dmg, lower level)
Finally free of both the goo and the grasp of these dangerous bots, Flint turns on the Yellow reclaimer droid with the barest hint of fire reforming in his eyes. Slashing twice with his solar scimitar, he says, ”Steady, everyone, we have almost put them down.”
"I'm coming, Mari!" Ordyt cries as he shuffles across the scrap-strewn floor, hampered by the sticky goop.
"Don't let it eat me!" Mari yells, trying to wriggle out of the machine's grasp.
Sammad smirks as he takes out the reclaimer menacing Bel, then switches aim to the one attacking Mari. "Let's help out our mechanic, now. With me!"
-
Atra and her team send a barrage of bullets at the reclaimer, and while they aren't quite as well placed as some of their earlier shots, they further damage the robot.
The pink bot rather single-mindedly tries to reduce Mari to pulp by dragging her into its grinder. She's able to struggle free before she gets too badly cut up.
With only a single badly damaged foe left, you're able to focus fire. Between hammer slams, sword slashes and a hail of weapons fire, the final reclaimer falls!
Combat Over
|||| STATUS ||||
Marisol (25 dmg)
Flint (50 dmg)
Bel (23 dmg)
Ordyt
Sammad
Atra, red icon
Atra's Crew (green with 8 dmg, blue with 24 dmg)
As grey goop dries and crumbles off Ordyt and Flint, it also crumbles off the small semi-humanoid robot. The small robot halts in its flight. It swivels back to regard your group for a long moment. Several clicks and buzzes from it echo in your comms devices.
After another long moment, it trundles its way back toward your group and starts to drive in tight circles around each of you in turn.
Breathing heavily with a multitude of bumps and bruises but no critical wounds, Flint, says between deep breaths, "Good job, everyone. Let's pull back before any more of those nasty Reclaimer Bots show up. If we can get back up to the ship with this communication drone, we should be able to gain some intel while we catch our breath."
On the comms, he asks, "Belmarniss, can you communicate with the drone we rescued, maybe convince it that since we, you know, preserved its continued functioning, it should join us back on our ship where we can protect it?"
The battered captain looks to head back up on the grappler once everyone else has gone up, as the mechanism clamped on his belt will coil the cable up as he ascends.
"There might be something worthwhile here too, Captain. You sure we don't want to search a moment while we're here?"
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Belmarniss nods as the fight winds down, checking her comm and looking down at the little drone.
"Greetings..." she says through her node. Then she points at herself. "Belmarniss." Then she points at the drone, expecting it to hopefully reply with a name or at least unit designation...at least in a way they'd be able to understand.
"There might be something worthwhile here too, Captain. You sure we don't want to search a moment while we're here?"
Looking at Ordyt and considering, Flint says, ”That works too if someone keeps a lookout for more of those Reclaimer bots.”
After taking a minute to recover from her near-blender experience, Mari's roboticist streak takes over and she quickly appears at Bel's side, examining their rescuee.
"Who's this, then?"
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With Ordyt and Sammad able to stand guard for the rest of the group, you have a moment to take a brief rest . All throughout this time, Bel tries running the robot through introductions using her technopathy node. For a while, all she gets in return is a variety of different types of harsh noise, most of which is replicated by her comms equipment. Marisol recognizes that the robot is some kind of light-weight messenger or transport model. She knows it isn't armed, but the specific design doesn't have a clear analog among anacite robots.
While this is going on, Ordyt is able to examine the equipment within the manufactory. He notes that the vast majority of the destroyed robotic remains within the facility comes from robots with a similar model to your new friend. He also notes that the machinery here appears to be either broken or powered down. It appears to have previously been capable of some kind of wide-output manufacturing.
After about 10 minutes of trying, Bel hits a breakthrough. The robot's crackling and chirping suddenly hums and then sounds like a guitar being tuned. Then, from each of your comms devices, you hear "Greeting. Speaker SOL-653 has survived to another cycle due to your intervention. Query: What manner of beings are you."
Idly watching Ordyt poke about in the machinery, he considers what the whole facility might be for.
...and he has no idea.
"I am a human," replies Flint on his comms, adding, "and Star-Knight Belmarniss Rycast is our pilot and the one we have to thank for finding the translation matrix. Sammad is our ambassador, Ordyt is our enforcer and healer, and Marisol is our engineer and all-around technical whiz."
"And who are what is a SOL-653? What happened here to destroy so many robots and cause them to turn on each other?" asks Flint of the robot.
Mari drifts away from Bel while she works on establishing communications with the robot, heading over to check out the dilapidated machinery before returning to dress the injuries of Atra's crew. Once that's done, she sits down to take a breather herself.
The small robot whirrs and boops as Flint explains, then answers "This sophont's designation is Speaker SOL-653. SOL-653 must not be reclaimed, as Speaker has valuable life data for Core assimilation."
To his second question, it answers "SOL-653 does not carry official record of what occurred within this sector to result in the destruction of many mobiles. However, cross-reference with personal records suggests Visitor-Sophont-Collective #2 likely cause." It whirrs for a moment then continues "Visitor Details: Several burning mobiles and one elemental-and-protein-based mobile capable of higher reasoning."
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"Success!" Belmarniss says, half to SOL-653 and half to Sunspy. "We've made successful First Contact with a sapient resident of Noma!"
Then she gives 653 her full attention.
"We are explorers from the surface of this star. This 'visitor-sophont-collective' you describe are enemies of ours, whom we have pursued here. They mean harm to the peoples of this star's surface, and presumably to your Core as well. Can you tell us more about this 'life data' you've obtained and why it's important? Maybe we can help you deliver it. Obviously we've got a lot of questions regarding your home and...um...collective? but I imagine there'll be a time for interviews and synthropology later."
As Belmarniss is excitedly making first contact with the speaker drone INSIDE THE SUN, Flint pings Sunspy with the message, ”Make sure you are getting all this for the Deep Cultures archives. Feel free to back up with Popoko as well—we are witnessing history being made before us.”
For once saying nothing aloud, Flint takes a breather and looks on Belmarniss with pride and admiration for both her technical expertise and her enthusiasm.
SOL-653 turns to face Sunspy briefly before answering Bel "The Core is the origin, it cannot be harmed." From the delivery of the statement, Bel gets the feeling that the little bot means (or at least thinks) that it's not possible to harm the Core. As Bel continues her questions, it adds "Designation function: Speakers continue function through multiple cycles to gather individual sophont perspective on experiments. Life data includes sum total of experiences, for assimilation to Core calculation matrix. Experiments cannot improve if data sets remain incomplete."
"SOL-653 must return to Core. Visitor may aid in this task. Speaker internals, including navigation equipment, no longer fully functional."
"Is the Core here in this city? Or somewhere else?" Ordyt asks as he sets down another tank of polyfluid with a grunt of effort. "And do they know where the, ah, fire/protein beings went?"
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SOL-653 turns to face Sunspy briefly before answering Bel "The Core is the origin, it cannot be harmed." From the delivery of the statement, Bel gets the feeling that the little bot means (or at least thinks) that it's not possible to harm the Core. As Bel continues her questions, it adds "Designation function: Speakers continue function through multiple cycles to gather individual sophont perspective on experiments. Life data includes sum total of experiences, for assimilation to Core calculation matrix. Experiments cannot improve if data sets remain incomplete."
"SOL-653 must return to Core. Visitor may aid in this task. Speaker internals, including navigation equipment, no longer fully functional."
"That won't stop them from trying," Belmarniss replies. "We, of course, would be happy to escort you. What experiments do you do during these cycles? How come those other sophonts were trying to get you? From how you're talking it sounds like they weren't going to escort you to Core."
After finishing his rest, Flint stands up and stretches, moving his sore joints around a bit to work the flexibility back into them.
"Good thinking, Belmarniss, and let's keep up the questions along the way. Hopefully this path will lead us to some answers--both for us and the unfortunate residents of this bubble," responds Flint, preparing to move again once they are ready.
Mari helpfully supervises while Ordyt is lugging the polyfluid canisters around. "Its navigation is down, so it may not know where the Core is."