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Gunnz, seeing their escaping foe close in front continues to keep the engines set to '12'. The whole Drake starts to vibrate with the whine of the supercharged engines running well above their safety settings.
"And here is one for the Jinsul out there!" she calls out, a slightly manic tone in her voice, as the music changes, yet again.
The Drake continues to shake as Gunnz puts it through another series of evasions that cause overhead lockers to crash open, spilling unsecured contents, half eaten burger buns, and the toys of more than one of Fitchs offspring all over the ship.
At Desha’s request, Teddington finally gets some of the front shields back.
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"Go Princess. Hit it with the antimatter missile. We'll see if any of their drones shake off onto their own ship eh!"
The music selection changes again. No Strawberry Machine Cake this time though.
"Not so good for dancing too sorry" she apologizes over the intercom.
When the enemy ship passed by you, Princess Dh'Qa gave it a kiss with your Particle Beam. They did not enjoy the experience.
Power Core now Malfunctioning
Weapons now Glitching
Port Weapons
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Round 3
You get some tactical assistance from another Starfinder vessel in the area.
Remote Assistance from Aid Token, +2 to all rolls.
Enemy Engineering: 1d20 + 11 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 11 - 4 = 15
Captain encourages Teddington on Engineering, he successfully restores some of the shields in the front.
Jackojare tries to mystically extend the range of your weapons but does not succeed this time.
Their pilot pulls some evasive maneuvers as they race forward and at the last moment turns their starboard side to you.
Drake evading.
Drake shields:
Forward 10
Port 25
Aft 25
Starboard 25
Sensors glitching, -2 Science Officer actions
Engines glitching, -2 Pilot actions
HP 65
Heavy Plasma Torpedo 3
Let’s have you re-roll it. That keeps things together.
RetConning something always makes things a little messy, but I didn’t want to deny you the shot.
This time the enemy point defenses fail to take out the incoming missile! The coilgun and the torpedo both slam into their starboard shield, destroying it.
A gyrolaser and coilgun fire at you. In spite of the evasive maneuvers, both hit. They barely manage to get through the shield Teddington had restored, doing damage to the hull and damaging your engines!
engines
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Round 4
Drake shields
Forward 0
Port 25
Aft 25
Starboard 25
Sensors glitching, -2 Science Officer actions
Engines malfunctioning, -4 Pilot actions
HP 62
Jackojare has given the pilot a prediction of the enemy pilots actions, granting a +2 to initiative.
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Okay, Chief mate
Maintenance Panel Access (Engineering Phase)
You start ripping open access panels, turning secured valves, and manually bypassing safety systems to help the engineer get more out of their systems when they take the divert or overpower action. Attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier). If you succeed and the engineer also succeeds at their check to divert, they can provide the normal benefit from divert to two different systems instead of only one. If the engineer instead succeeds at their check for the overpower action, they can choose four different systems to divert power to instead of three. In either case, no system can benefit twice from the same action.
If you fail your check by 10 or more, you overtax the ship’s systems without adding any useful capacity, and all engineer actions performed this turn take a –2 penalty.
Jackojare tears into the Maintenance Panel, ready to split off power to a second system.
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Gunnz sighs as sparks fly from one of the circuits she removed the fail-safe fuses from. "ut oh", then realising she is on open mic.
"That is the title of our next bit of music."
Even as she tries (and fails) to evade the coming particle beam, she still has time to flick onto the next track
"Right, lets see what this puppy has left in her."
With the whole Drake shuddering from the overtaxed engines Gunnz still manages to pull off an impressive set of twists and turns that hopefully can keep the jinsul gunners off target.
Somewhere back in the Drake's kitchen a locker crashes open and the breakfast cereal spills out... everywhere.
Corrected status of your ship.
Drake shields
Forward 2
Port 25
Aft 25
Starboard 25
Sensors glitching, -2 Science Officer actions
Engines glitching, -2 Pilot actions
HP 65
The enemy continues on its course for most of the distance, then it turns to face you!
Teddington has no luck getting more power to the shields this time.
Both weapons hit, disabling the Jinsul vessel.
Their ship disabled, the Jinsul crew abandons the ship immediately. You enter the abandoned vessel and find its mainframe. Grabbing the data drives, you return to the fleet. Venture-Captain Arvin is glad when he hears that you prevented them from reporting, and even more delighted when a tech team tells him that the coordinates of the Jinsul headquarters were on the drives. He is forwarding the information to the rest of the leadership so they can perform a threat assessment on striking the site.
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<<< aggression >>> elation >>> victory at last >>> concern >>> this victory did not come easy >>> we should find a better niche to contribute to the hive's efforts <<< Overcome by some insectile instinct instinct Dh'Qa broadcasts telepathically while slumping in her "seat" for a moment.
Radaszam’s already imposing vesk figure appears extra threatening as he looms over a bound jinsul on his starship’s bridge. “Let me introduce you to my guest, Teskrkah, a jinsul who claims to have betrayed her teammates—those teammates being an assassination squad sent to kill me. Now, I don’t know what to believe, so I want you to figure out the truth here. I have some bigger fires I need to put out at the moment, so I’m handing this off to you. I’ve programmed the computer to translate for you if you need it. Remember, we’re Starfinders and not depraved killers, so don’t torture this pitiful creature. Just get what information you can from her. Engage the ship’s autopilot once you’ve gotten her to talk and it’ll bring you right to my location.”
Radaszam then leaves the ship and the captive in your hands, taking a shuttle back to his own starship and returning to the main fleet. Upon Radaszam’s departure, Teskrkah violently struggles against her restraints for a moment, then slumps into the chair with a series of mandible clicks.
The computer registers the clicks as a language and translates, “Dhurus, though an abominable curse on my people, seems set to mount you atop its flagship, as it did to the great heroes we once followed.”
You hear a series of clicks which the computer quickly translates into “What would I get in exchange for cooperation?”
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"Well.. I could play you some awesome Strawberry Machine Cake!" offers Gunnz, putting on the Sweetest Sounds in the Universe(tm) for the jinsul to enjoy for a few moments.
"But I think you want more. To be honest, the best you can expect for the next week or so is a cell, bland food and your life. After that... well, after that we can see. "
She thinks for a moment, swaying on her feet as she does so. "You tell us you betrayed your colleagues. Can you tell us why? What made you turn yourself in?"
She tries to access the computer to get a view of any security footage of the incident itself.
"Here it is, why not talk us through what you did, and why you did it."
You are in a standard interrogation room. There are cameras recording what happens. You would guess that someone is watching the video stream live, but given how busy everyone is that is not guaranteed.
The Jinsul is bound to a chair. There looks to have been some engineering done, since a normal chair really wouldn’t work with their physiology, but the Starfinder Society has hosted all sorts of aliens, finding a way to do this would have been pretty easy.
There are chairs for each of you, a table with a computer interface, and Princess Dh’Qa contacted the med team to get some sort of scanner.
The security information that Gunnz finds shows that the incident is still under investigation. They have not determined how the Jinsul were able to get on the ship. What they do know is at one point the internal security alarm went off and caused bulkhead doors to slam shut. This Jinsul was on one side of the door, the rest of their team the other. The rest of the team fought until killed. This one surrendered immediately.
It is clear that whatever it may think of your group, it considers Dhurus a blasphemer.
Teskrkah also finds Teddington slightly amusing with his attempts at intimidation.
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Desha telepathically communicates what she has learned of Teskrkah's disposition to the rest of the group, then moves from her position near the door. She slides a chair across the floor to sit directly across from the jinsul and sits down, staring deeply into a few of the creature's dozens of eyes.
"You know," she says in jinsul, "Your people are pretty impressive. You start out in your own system, develop a society that stands alongside any of the Pact Worlds, and then, when you get the chance, you strike out into the unknown and find new worlds to call your home. Some of us have been to Rax, you know. I wouldn't call it a beautiful place, at least not by my own standards. But I'll be damned if the strength of the jinsuls is not on display there."
Desha leans back in her seat and looks at Teskrkah for a long moment in silence, then goes on. "But Kadrical--and his lackey, Dhurus--just couldn't let you alone, could they? They needed you back to prove to themselves that they were strong. That's why they came running after you. And then Dhurus mounted your divine heroes to the prow of his starships and dragged you back here. Don't let him. You've escaped once before. You can do so again. This is an opportunity for you, Teskrkah. Do not fail your divine heroes. Do not shame them with your weakness by surrendering to Dhurus's will. Strike back against his blasphemy. Help us. Help the Starfinders to bring Dhurus to his knees!"
More clicks, that get translated to “Would your group even be able to do anything with it if I give you the information?” They obviously don’t think you could at the moment.
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Desha shoots up from her seat, knocking over the chair she had been sitting in. ”Cam we DO anything about it?! Let me show you just a little bit of what we can do, Teskrkah!” She takes a step closer to the jinsul and reaches out a hand t lay on his head.
Inside Teskrhah’s mind, a series of scenes play out, showing a number of successful Starfinder missions, culminating with Desha’s own rescue from the Scoured Stars. As the final image of exploding jinsul warships and grimly victorious Starfinders fades, Desha steps back again. ”And that last one was when we were on a retreat. This time, we’re on the offensive. Don’t misjudge us. We will be victorious.”
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Gunnz sighs. "Like this is not really my scene.." she sighs.
Pointing to the jinsul she directs its attention to the security video and asks "Teskrkah - why were you on the other side of the door? And did you trigger the alarm so the team would get caught?"
She thinks a bit longer "Also, how did your team get aboard the ship. We can't seem to find your arrival... I'd be very curious about that, as I'd hate to think of jinsul strike teams boarding the rest of the fleet... think of the chaos they could cause."
More clickity-clack gets turned into intelligible speach.
“Our team was trained at infiltration and you depend too much on technological devices for sensors. Machines are easy to fool.”
“The team’s actions would have served Dhurus, making my actions are a strike against that blasphemer!”
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"Easy to fool? I don't think so. Look at these readings. That's you. See, elevated stress hormones because you're in an uncomfortable situation. And you're exuding some rather interesting pheromones, very distinct. You're not really going to sneak up on any proper guards smelling like that." The princess sniffs haughtily.
It doesn’t take a translator to figure out that Princess Dh’Qa angered Teskrkah.
Still, the translation is informative. After a few angry words about the inferiority of the Pact Worlders and their tech, she reveals that she learned of the Starfinder leadership's locations from a nelentu double-agent from the Kreiholm Freehold named Tsimtsara.
The translator has barely finished translating that when Teskrkah goes into convulsions. A disembodied voice booms out “NONE BETRAY ME!” as Teskrkah's body violently rips apart in a surge of divine energy. The energy then coalesces into two jinsul-shaped demonic entities.
Orange immediately opens its mouth and a gout of flame roars towards Princess Dh’Qa! She is able to evade it.
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Orange
Desha Doash
Teddington
Princess Dh’Qa
Red
Gunnz
Jackojare