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A cheerful verthani technician finishes installing a holographic display in the meeting room as Venture-Captain Kunoris Vex eagerly watches over his shoulder. Outside, through the meeting room’s primary window, a pair of gnoll gardeners tend to part of a sprawling hydroponics facility built around a crashed cargo pod. In the larger ship landing area, an excited yeti with grease-caked fur leads a group of confused mechanics through trust fall exercises.
As the technician finishes, Venture-Captain Vex rushes him out the door and ushers those remaining to sit.
“Starfinders! Please, come inside and sit. We’re almost settled in here. It’s starting to feel like a proper lodge and not a war zone.”
He smiles warmly and offers to shake everyone’s hand or equivalent appendage before gesturing to the conference table.
Vex activates his wrist-mounted comm unit to activate a display on the table, first showing Salvation’s End and then the long hall of vault doors contained within it.
“We’ve continued our exploration and examination of the numerous vaults contained within this moon, but the guiding intelligence behind them remains an enigma. To date, the vaults have contained different social experiments involving simple or ancient societies, but recently we intercepted signals from a vault and detected the presence of Pact World and Veskarium communications. The transmissions use encryption patterns our people did not recognize. I’d like you to review them, if any of you have skills at deciphering such things."
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Charli spends some time making tea for everyone: the verthani technician, the rowdy yetis and gardening gnolls, and of course Kunoris Vex.
"Kunoris! So good to see you again! Is Sparklemane coming too?" Charli looks around hopefully for her unicorn friend. "Another trip to Salvation's End, and I wanted to make certain we were ready, so I brought tea!"
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Charli's cheeks turn pink as she dives for the holographic announcer device that was hiding in her null-space tea cart, and turns it off. "I'm sorry. My assistant, Trusty, packed my cart today for me. I'm sure having random advertisements is his idea of a joke!" She takes a deep breath, then she sets up the rest of her cart. "What tea would you like this time? Castrovellian Contemplation, Akiton Red, Vercite Vanilla or one of my Brethedan Bubble teas? I also have a sugary honey tea for those who like their drinks extra sweet."
"Now... let's see who else is here before we take a look at those communications."
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Coming into the room is a male vesk carrying a gym bag emblazoned with a logo. He is just a bit shorter than you compare him to the rest of his kin but makes up for that different in well honed muscle.
It looks happily as he takes a moment to study the trust fall exercises before turning full attention to the room. Once he does he gives a laugh and raises his arms as he proclaims, "Charli! It is wonderful to have a chance to work with you! Especially here. I remember seeing the casting of what happened here on Salvation's End. It certainly seemed exciting, but broadcasts always try to make things seem bigger. I'm looking forward to testing our muscles against anything lurking in there while we see about deciphering this message!"
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A white ysoki with brown points and ruby eyes enters. He has mystical tattoos on his face, one of which surrounds his left eye.
“Charli! Ivok! So nice to see you both!”
Looking around, he says “Wow! A lot has changed around here since Zo!’s show.” He gives a curious look at the gnolls.
Going over to Charli’s tea stand, he asks for an Akiton Red tea.
Looking towards the big Vesk, he asks “How have you been?”
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Ivok extends his arms out Neon as he cheers, "Neon! It feels as though it has been ages since I've seen you in the flesh!"
"I've been doing very of myself but it has been a constant struggle." Recalling the past months Ivok stretches his neck and arms in an attempt to loosen himself. Running between the studio, promotional events, and endless meetings. I would have never thought I would get such a good workout outside the gym!"[/b]
Ivok finishes with a pose flexing his arms for a moment before thinking more on the Starfinder briefing. "Also kept up with all that business following up from the Scoured Stars. Those also burn off many calories with all the ... less than friendly sparring we get into. I admit I'm happy to leave that business mostly resolved and turn to something new and exciting here!"
"How about you? How have you been doing while out of view of the holocam?"
As the show has increased in popularity, and budget over the last few years Ivok has changed his programming from a focus on strength training to include more cardio and other exercises beyond those for building muscle mass.
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Gesturing towards Charli, he says “My last mission was with Charli. Quite the experience it was, too!”
“Since then, I’ve been reviewing the technical specifications on some equipment, deciding what to get. Also been invited to a few different vidcasts. There is a lot of people speculating about the Jinsul. Talked about their history on one channel, went over what we know of their ships for a different one.”
Seating himself and taking a sip from his tea, he turns to Venture-Captain Vex. “I would like to at least look at the comm traffic. Although I don’t know the Vesk language, we have others that can help with that if needed.” He nods towards Ivok and then Charli when mentioning others that could help.
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Coming into the room is a male vesk carrying a gym bag emblazoned with a logo. He is just a bit shorter than you compare him to the rest of his kin but makes up for that different in well honed muscle.
Using a bad Schwarzenegger, he bellows "I'll pump, you up!", after which he takes several selfies using different poses.
As everyone stares in disbelief at the bad acting and gratuitous picking on poor Ivok, the hologram and other magics disperse, revealing a tiny ysoki with mottled tan fur.
"Hoi Ivok! Hoi chummers. Got you good, eh Ivok! Long time no speak. Staying warm, eh brother?" speaks the tiny ysoki excitedly in a rapid-fire staccato. "How's the exercise vid business going, eh?" he asks the imposing vesk as he takes a seat.
"Oh, is that Akiton Red?" asks the ysoki as he reaches for it. "Is it the real stuff?" he asks suspiciously. "Real dirt from Akiton and everything?" he continues with his inquiry before stopping.
"Oh, I'm Mon Taavi. But my friends call me Goose. Nice to make your acquaintance and all." he says to Charli as he's holding the tea packet, clearly waiting for a response.
As he waits, he looks around and spots another ysoki. Mentally he does a quick assessment and determines it to be the famous Neon Ten. Hallo fellow!" he offers in ysoki before switching back to common. "The famous Neon Ten, eh? Nice to finally meet you."
Goose then snags the signals from the Venture Captain and begins running a few encryption breaking routines.
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Ivok cracks a grin as Goose puts his disguise on full display and gives a laugh after seeing the illusion dispelled. "It is great to see you Goose! I've seen a great number of imitators, but few with the your skill. You might want to be careful though," Ivok says gesturing toward the camera. "My manager has been aggressive about taking down, how would she put it, 'media damaging my brand'. She does a good job and I certainly wouldn't to make it harder."
"Speaking of which I've been excited to throw myself into videos once more than promotional events. The Starfinders I've been training have gradutated and I'm putting all my muscle into new videos. Just finished a series showing exercises in higher gravity planets and looking forward to do a set showing how to prepare for underwater travel. As much of a run around it is, it is great to finally be putting what I've seen to work!" Ivok stretches with pride and a wide grin recalling his work.
"What about you? You seem to be doing well, although I admit, with your holograms I don't think I could tell the difference!"
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Ivok looks toward Neon and answers without hesitation, "Yes, I had a chance to work with Goose on a mission landing us on an arctic world. They did good work and I'm looking forward to seeing what other tips I can learn."
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Charli claps at Goose's disguise. "My assistant Trusty has been teaching me some disguise, actually. He's quite good." Then she pauses as her comm unit pings. "Wait. What?" She shows the comm unit grumpily to Neon Ten. "Trusty's sending me an intern from the advertising department to accompany us. Why? Is it plague your boss day?"
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Venture captain Vex clears his throat.
"The signals?" he suggests.
"Meanwhile I've got another team working on them, but sometimes an experienced hand can be quicker... and more accurate."
Tapping at his wrist com, the venture captain offers you all a smile. The door slides open to reveal a hover-trolly with a steaming pot on top of it and a half dozen delicate looking cup and saucers.
"Tea while you work?" he asks, offering to pour.
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Goose shows extreme interest in Ivok's story, happy to express happiness in his friend's pursuits. "Exciting times for you Ivok! Me? I've been busy doing some research, dabbling in some dubious pursuits and, like most of us, been battling those pesky Jinsul scum!" offers the ysoki, showing true displeasure and even a hint of anger at the last mention of the invading alien warrior race.
"Picked up a few nifty trinkets along the way. Oh, yeah, and fought a freakin' dragon! It was huge!" shares Goose excitedly, even jumping up and stretching his tiny arms out wide to show the size. Quite humorous, really, considering Goose stands at around three feet.
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Ivok kneels on the ground to get a closer look at the readouts from the displays. "If you can push around the signal so I can get a good read, I can help translate while you work. I'll leave you the space at the computer though; I may be a fast runner, but on the computer I move at a crawl."
Ivok tries his best to offer his own knowledge of Vesk to the number of fluent speakers in the group.
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"The supplier... ahh.. this particular brew come from the Mukfurs. I really shouldn't inquire too closely as to where the source their flavors from. It probably wouldn't enhance the experience." sighs Vex, Vexed.
The team gets together, pooling resources, skills and the occasional tipped cup of tea. Soon the picture presented by the communications becomes much clearer. Clear as tea. There are at least four separate transmissions that you manage to (mostly) deciper.
Vex shakes his head after reviewing the transmissions. “We haven’t seen anything this modern coming from a vault before. We’ve also picked up increased activity from the facility’s automated drones around the areas of this vault. We need to find out what the facility’s intelligence is doing and what’s happening in that vault. I don’t want to find out too late it’s been simulating attacks on Pact Worlds facilities.”
Kunoris Vex gives a broad smile as he brings up a display of the lodge’s signal facilities. “Fortunately, I can send you in with support this time. We installed a new communications array, and it should be powerful enough to function within the vaults. If you need information, advice, or emergency support, you can reach me on your comm units. For now, head into the vault, find out what’s going on inside, and be ready for anything!”
He gazes around the team. "Any last questions?"
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"Wow. Heavy stuff. Bummer, eh chummers?" offers Goose as he quickly reviews the communications.
Goose begins to assign vectoring subroutines to the listed locations, dates, names and other bits of data extracted from the data they were able to crack open and peruse.
"What do you guys make of this?" asks the operative.
He stops and looks up when the Venture Captain shares the summary of the mission. Goose chafes a bit at the interruption, eager to solve the puzzle laid before them.
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Ivok gives a grunt as he processes the transmissions. "Could this be running simulations of the Swarm in there if we are pulling from the past? If there are I'm ready to test my strength against them. Any idea of what we will need to fight going in there?"
"Have any idea how many people are living in there?"
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"That is a good question Ivok. There were a lot of dwarves in their section, but I never heard the final count."
Looking towards Vex, he asks "Of the explored areas so far, what was the highest population?"
Looking again at the transmissions, he notes "The transmissions mention unknown attackers. It also looks to me like there may be some censorship of communications."
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The silent shirren sitting at the back of the room finally speaks up, his voice quite raspy and nearly a whisper. "Does this Erith and Yon referred to in these transmissions ring a bell? Just wondering if anyone knows anything about them.
Quirk is dressed in his old, out of style overcoat, though his usual cheerful red fez is not atop his head. His chitin appears discolored, as if Quirk might be ill.
He clears his throat. "Could I have some of that tea? Perhaps the Castrovelian."
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"Firstly, access. There’s ground transport waiting below in the tunnels. Keep those comm channels open and transmit visual data if you can; I’ll be actively monitoring your progress. It’ll be almost like getting to do field work again. I’m so excited!” enthuses Vex.
Turning to Neon he adds "We've updated our communications relays, so I should be able to stay in touch with you while you are in the vaults. That said, we have no idea how many people may be in there. The vaults we have examined so far have varied considerably in size. Mostly the population has been small, but some have had hundreds of beings in them."
To Quirk he adds "We have no records of Erith or Yon. So can't help you there, but I'll put a team on it to see if we can drag anything up for you."
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Charli pours Quirk's tea, and then takes Quirk aside. "Quirk... Is there anything I can do for you? You appear to be suffering from some sort of planar distress. If you were a gnome, I would suspect that you were bleaching." She glances up at him, raising an eyebrow. "No matter what we face in that vault, I suspect that it will be vivid, and that may be just what you need to center yourself. Breathe in life. Breathe in adventure and companionship. You need to retie your connection to the material plane. That's my prescription, anyway."
Then she turns to the others. "These messages are disturbing. It's time we investigated."
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Vex escorts you to an ATV, piloted by a dwarven driver. "Stay in touch." he offers, as a final word, as the driver sets off itno the mail hallway.
It takes a couple of hours, but sooner than expected the dwarf pulls up near a maintenance hatch. A narrow walkway extends from the hatch through a crevice that goes up and down for as far as they eye can see. You spot hundreds of drones performing maintenance activity. "This is much more than normal" admits the driver.
Up ahead the walkway ends in an open airlock. Hot air can be felt coming from it. All around the airlock you see a massive array of what must be holo projectors pointed inward..
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Ivok moves up and watches the massive array of drones at work as he asks the driver, "Have the drones attacked you or anyone else yet?"
Spending a moment the soldier examines a number of the gauges, running a hand to clear dust and ambient moisture. "This hydraulic pipes are carrying a lot of power, more than I could be a match for. There is enough muscle here to move at least a small city."
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Neon quickly assures the driver “These drones aren’t designed for that.”
“The model is different than we usually see in the Pact Worlds, which is likely why Ivok asked about them. It is always a good idea to check the protocols on unknown drones.”
Admiring the scale of the engineering, Neon asks their dwarves driver “How rapidly does the machinery here move the inner vault, and have you measured how far it can be adjusted?”
Crossing the narrow walkway, Neon looks down. “I really should buy a drone sometime, it would allow me to better explore some of the areas they send us to!”
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Neon smiles at the dwarf. "Yes, was quite the situation your people were in. I'm glad we were able to get you out of there. Just wish we knew more about who set all of these vaults up!"
Looking to Quirk, Neon replies “I would guess it is the difference between Pact World robotic designs and who ever built this place originally.”
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While the others focus on the obvious, Goose tries to take in the rest. The operative inspects the holoprojectors that are facing inwards. He takes readings and imagery, comparing it to other projectors, including his personal one, in his relational database.
As the others take readings and offer their findings, the ysoki just nods in agreement.
"Yes, time to investigate. Something is amiss but it is doubtful we'll find the answers here. That is unless we want to capture one of those errant drones and do some more digging." offers Goose with a smile on his face.
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Much to Charli's chagrin, the Poshkettle Tea advertising intern arrives in time to ride on the ATV with the others. "I'm Spoons! Don't worry," the young ysoki wearing Poshkettle Tea says. "You'll hardly know I'm here!"
As he notes the heat, Spoons mutters advertising slogans to himself. "Gentle Sentients, after opening dangerous vaults in overheated moons, reward yourself with a nice glass of Poshkettle iced tea! So refreshing!"
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Ivok follows Neon's assurance of the driver's safety as he gestures to the drones, "Neon is right. I'm still getting used to various drones and feel it is best be safe as I start this exercise!"
"Thank you for taking us here and can't argue with you wanting not throw yourself into the prison. I'm thinking anyone in there may feel the same as you. We will see about freeing as many others from this place. If you can keep us informed about anything the drones we would be bolstered by you spotting for us!"
Ivok takes the lead as he moves a claw through the holographic projection and readies to head in once everyone is prepared.
Calling into Spoons's comms is a woman's voice who echoes with an minor electronic reverberation. "Kaladyne here, I'll be serving as your pit crew today. I've spent the last few hours indexing and tagging the broadcast from one of the previous Starfinder excursions into here to put you on the starting line ready to go as you delve into there. It looks like Akiton was referenced in this communications. No clear time period so I'm pulled as much of the planet's recent history as I could."
"I'll be monitoring this comms so I'll try to cut away the excess information holding you back as you acquire more infomation on the ground."
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You hear Vex through your coms unit. "Onto it Chrali. Look spotting there. I have an investigation team heading down to look at those drones now. Be a couple of hours away, but we'll leave no stone unturned. Or drone uninvestigated. On vault unopened. You get the picture."
With little left to do but head through the airlock.... through you head.
Rocky, red desert terrain stretches to the holoprojected horizon. The familiar stars of the Pact Worlds system sparkle in the evening sky, mixed with the twinkle of light on enormous starships and other manufactured craft orbiting above. Conical volcanic peaks rise up in the distance, one in particular dwarfing the other landmarks. A closer peak draws attention though, only a short walk away, structures and lights along its western slope.
"Yeap, that looks like Akiton all right" chimes in Vex.
The air quality is better than normal for Akiton.
If you made that check and also make a DC 30 life sciences check..
The improvement as consistent with years of atmospheric regeneration efforts. Such efforts halted after the thasteron economy collapsed, shortly after the advent of Drift travel.
Spoons is startled when he gets the communication from Solar Step Productions. "Oh, this is so cool! I get a support team!" Then he scans. "Not only does this look like Akiton, this looks like we're about 300 miles northwest of the Volcano Eeha!"
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Charli raises an eyebrow as Spoons gets to work. Maybe he'll be useful afterall?
"Uh-oh. We've got trouble. Do you see that enormous Veskarium orbital defense platform in the stars above? Ivok, what's up with that? I thought the Veskarium rarely position such satellites outside of space they formally claim." Then she mentally kicks herself. "Oh, right. This isn't the real Veskarium. It's a fun house mirror version, just like everything else on Salvation's End."