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The Commander nods approvingly.
"Excellent. Good hunting!"
Despite Suskillon and Chuuva being relatively close to one another in physical space, there are few Drift beacons near either system, placing them both in the Vast. Consequently, your journey through the Drift
takes days.
Your ship exits the Drift some distance from the Chuuva system’s third planet, Ilemchuuva, but long-distance scans can make out the distinctive features of Swarm starships in orbit around the planet. Fortunately, the Swarm vessels don’t notice you right away, but you will still need to plan your approach carefully.
DRACOS realises that the continued Swarm presence here is... unusual.
The Swarm typically abandons planets within a few days, or weeks at most. Given the reports that the Swarm had targeted the Chuuva system several months before Suskillon, this continued presence suggests that the Swarm has a particular interest in this system — in Ilemchuuva in particular — beyond its primary drive to consume...
You are able to use Ilemchuuva’s moon, Chatchamiq, to slip closer to the planet without attracting notice.
From this closer vantage, you gain your first real glimpse of what has become of Ilemchuuva…
An assortment of insectile ships occupies the space around Ilemchuuva. A massive Swarm battleship anchors the flotilla, while smaller picket ships dart back and forth along regular patrol paths. Beneath this flurry of activity, the surface of the planet bears scars of devastation obvious even from orbit. Visible lava flows and fissures glow on the planet’s nighttime side, while the sun’s gentle light reveals fast-moving storm fronts roiling across vast expanses of desolate land colored a single, unbroken shade of dusty gray.
DRACOS recognizes the battleship as a dreadlancer, an incredibly dangerous vessel that would likely destroy your vessel, and the smaller ships are altipherons, used primarily as patrol and escort ships.
Fortunately, DRACOS can spot a few gaps in the Swarm’s circuit when the dreadlancer is on the far side of the planet. With careful manoeuvring, you might be able to slip past the patrol and stealthily land on Ilemchuuva’s surface.
[ooc]To do so, you would need to make a DC 20 Engineering check to power your ship down to emergency power only, leaving only artificial gravity, life support, scanners, and rudimentary thrusters active. Thereafter, you need to make three DC 26 Life Science, Sense Motive, or relevant Profession (such as soldier) checks to bypass the blockade.
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After drifting through the cordon, DRACOS is able to power-up the ship's systems, and carefully take it down to the planet's surface.
The rolling terrain below has been stripped of virtually all vegetation, leaving only dry, powdery soil drained of nutrients and moisture. Cracks and crevasses slice across the landscape, some bubbling with fuming lava and others reaching deep within the earth, the land between these ravines is pitted and scarred from acidic rain and erosion. Standing in sharp contrast are tall, lumpy spires of hardened clay that poke up from the desolated ground like gnarled fingers, as well as the bloated abdomens of colossal Swarm creatures half-buried in the earth and belching clouds of dark, greasy smoke into the stormy atmosphere.
Using information provided by Commander Najiri, you locate Uudz on one of the planet’s larger continents, south of a massive depression that was once a lake. The city bears the scars of intense fighting, in addition to the damage wrought upon the planet’s surface as a whole. Few buildings are left standing: some show signs of direct fire, and others have crumbled as though their foundations had given way. A massive chasm separates the western third of the city from the remainder, the ground to the east now somewhat higher than the rest. Even from the air, it becomes clear that the Swarm ships patrolling the planet’s airspace are not the only guardians remaining—a casual glance at the city shows Swarm patrols in the fragmented remnants of the streets. The city’s spaceport has taken particularly harsh fire, and its landing pads are now utterly unusable piles of rubble.
With nowhere to land in the city, you have to find a site stable enough to land, elsewhere, eventually ending up several dozen miles southwest of the city, just as an acid rain squall passes through the area.
Just as you are disembarking, the ground begins to tremble, and a literal swarm of dozens of Swarm Dredgers (the creatures that Rico and DRACOS fought back at the start of all this) crests a hill, backed up by a pair of heavily muscled creatures that look like bipedal, winged, insectile rhinoceri!
DRACOS recognises these as Swarm Escutchides.
The Dredger Troop surges forward!
"Well, s&#$..."
Rico opens fire...
...searing a few components, and setting them alight!
Swarm Dredger Troop (-7; Burn 1d4)
Rico (-)
DRACOS (-)
Swarm Escutchides (-, -)
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Every single one of DRACOS' shots misses.
The two Escutchides surge forward...
The Dredger Troop then envelops Rico and DRACOS!
...and the fires enveloping them go out.
Rico...
"Aaargh! Get OFF!"
...fights them off, backs away, and fires...
...searing a few components.
Swarm Dredger Troop (-11)
Rico (-11)
DRACOS (-11)
Swarm Escutchides (-, -)
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This time, DRACOS hits, splattering countless Bugs, but there are still plenty more where they came from...
One Escutchide goes after DRACOS, and the other pursues Rico.
The Dredger Troop chases after DRACOS...
Rico blanches, backs away, and tries to help himself...
...but misses.
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchides!
Swarm Dredger Troop (-34)
Rico (-11)
DRACOS (-11)
Swarm Escutchides (-, -)
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DRACOS misses with his pistol, but his X-Gen Gun is murderously effectively, blowing away numerous dredgers; the Troop is looking almost done-for.
The Escutchuides move to threaten their chosen targets...
Rico dodges, but DRACOS is gored, and knocked prone!
The Dredger Troop chases after DRACOS...
Rico blanches, backs away, and tries to help himself...
...and hits!
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchides, yet again!
Swarm Dredger Troop (-64)
Rico (-11)
DRACOS (-59)
Swarm Escutchides (-5, -)
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DRACOS' frantic bullet-spray takes out the Dredger Troop!
The Escutchuides keep harrying their chosen targets...
DRACOS is comprehensively pummelled, and Rico takes another hit.
Rico blanches, backs away, and tries to help himself...
...and misses.
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchides, yet again!
Rico (-22)
DRACOS (-108)
Swarm Escutchides (-5, -)
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DRACOS' electrical discharge severely wounds the rhino-beetle!
The Escutchuides keep harrying their chosen targets...
Having to charge after him, results in DRACOS' foe missing, but this time, Rico is knocked flying.
"I would love to, but I am a little busy right now!"
...and misses.
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchides, yet again!
Rico (-37)
DRACOS (-121)
Swarm Escutchides (-5, -38)
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DRACOS' pistol shot leaves his target barely standing, and he succeeds in hitting Rico's foe once, which causes it to snap its attention over to him...
He is then charged by both, but only one is in range to actually hit, and it misses.
"Thanks LT!"
Rico staggers to his feet, and takes a pot-shot at DRACOS' heavily-wounded foe...
...and takes it out!
"Yes!!! I still got it!"
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchide, yet again!
Rico (-37)
DRACOS (-121)
Swarm Escutchide (-5)
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DRACOS' volley leaves the Escutchide barely standing; nevertheless, it stubbornly chases after him...
...and knocks him prone.
"You tag 'em, I'll bag 'em!"
Rico takes another shot...
...and now it looks like a stiff breeze could take it out!
"Awww..."
At this point, from up on a nearby high ridge, shots ring out, distracting the Escutchide, yet again!
Rico (-37)
DRACOS (-134)
Swarm Escutchides (-65)
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DRACOS stabs the Escutchide through the heart, and it collapses to the ground, spasming.
Rico grins.
"One for you, one for me; seems fair!"
As you are dusting yourselves off, you are approached by a trio of humanoids...
“Seems obvious you’re not with the Swarm,” says the shirren woman, slinging her rifle over her shoulder and raising the visor of her dusty, acid-scarred armor. Behind her, the haze clears enough to reveal a centipede-like creature and a heavily augmented android, both similarly armed and armored. “That makes you friends of ours. I’m Etchiax. Who are you lot, and what brings you to this wreck of a rock?”
|
DRACOS salutes.
"I'm Lieutenant DRACOS of the SDF, and this is Sergeant Rico, also of the SDF. We're the Roughnecks. We've been sent here by the SDF to retrieve some intelligence that we believe might be vital to our own efforts to kick the Swarm out of our system - a Professor at the local university may have a lead on an ancient Hylaxian site, and we need to either find him, or his research."
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The shirren nods thoughtfully.
"Fair enough. I'll take you back to base, and you can talk to the Exec." She then nods to the bolida, and the android. "Those are Kokan and Queue. We're with Clade Company, a bunch of freedom fighters who are determined to make the Swarm pay for what they have done to our planet!"
After introductions have been exchanged, Etchiax suggests the group move underground and head to the Clade Company base. Not only is there is strength in numbers, but as she points out, “an enemy of the Swarm is a friend of Clade Company,” and they can all use all the help they can get. She also notes that Clade Company can probably help with what you are after, too, as they’ve been monitoring Swarm activity on the planet since the first attack. Etchiax knows Clade Company’s
leader, Hescamu, will also want to meet you, and can do a better job of answering questions than she can.
Etchiax leads you to a chasm a mile away, then down one side and through a series of winding underground tunnels. Before they head underground, the shirren warns you to activate the environmental protections of your armor, mentioning that toxic heavy-metal fumes sometimes permeate the caverns.
The damage inflicted by the Swarm is clear even here; what appears to have originally been an extensive organic tunnel complex has been massively altered. Some tunnels have collapsed, while others have been filled with hardened lava. At one point, Etchiax halts the group’s progress at an intersection as a fissure opens in the tunnel in front of them, spewing magma up from the floor. The shirren then backtracks a bit to take a different route. Further along, a deep, bone-aching thrum grows, shaking the stone and earth around them for nearly a half-mile of the journey before fading into the distance. Etchiax explains that their path brought them near one of the Swarm’s extractor imagoes working to siphon resources, such as petrochemicals, from deep within the planet’s crust.
During this 2-hour-long march, Etchiax is happy to talk about herself. Though she had some experience working as a security guard in her youth, she was working as a starship mechanic at the Uudz spaceport when the Swarm attacked. She collected a few dozen survivors (including Queue) and managed to dodge Swarm patrols by hiding in the city’s sewers, where she modified her exocortex to better defend the group of survivors. Not long after, Hescamu’s crew of bolidas stumbled across her ragtag band, and Clade Company grew out of that partnership.
----------------------
After the difficult but not particularly dangerous journey, the party emerges into a series of larger caverns. These chambers are obviously inhabited; a backup generator thrums quietly, powering a few LED strips, above which the chatter of people and the clatter of boxes and equipment being moved around can be heard. This bustling encampment
resembles nothing so much as a military outpost combined with a refugee camp. The inhabitants are a motley crew—mostly shirrens and bolidas, but also a handful of formians, a few large haans, and a smattering of others, including several humans, a pair of vesk, a korasha lashunta, and a half-orc.
Nearly everyone wears armor and carries a backpack and some sort of weapon, even those engaged in tasks as seemingly innocuous as preparing a meal. The overall tone of the encampment is fairly grim—not so different from what you faced when you first arrived at Fort Gallant on Suskillon.
A murmur of activity goes up as Etchiax leads the party into the cavern, turning into enthusiastic greetings and surprised exclamations directed towards you. A few minutes later, a bolida wearing a scuffed suit of segmented armor scuttles toward the group, gesturing with several pairs of limbs and twitching their antennae — one broken off to be shorter than the other — with enthusiasm. Etchiax introduces them as Hescamu, the leader of Clade Company.
The bolida welcomes Etchiax, Kokan, and Queue by name, clearly relieved that they’ve returned safely, and then turns their attention to Rico and DRACOS.
“You’re either foolhardy or hells-bent on something to have come to this planet. But it’s pretty clear you don’t like the Swarm any more than we do, and you’ve proven you’re competent folks. My name’s Hescamu, and we’re Clade Company.” The bolida gestures around the cavern. “What’s your business here on Ilemchuuva? Maybe we can help each other out.”
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DRACOS salutes.
"I'm Lieutenant DRACOS of the SDF, and this is Sergeant Rico, also of the SDF. We're the Roughnecks. We've been sent here by the SDF to retrieve some intelligence that we believe might be vital to our own efforts to kick the Swarm out of our system - a Professor at the local university may have a lead on an ancient Hylaxian site, and we need to either find him, or his research. If you had any leads, or intel on the university, that would be extremely useful."
He then nods.
"What do you need help with?"
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“We’re pretty much everyone who’s still alive on this part of the continent. We’re hoping we can keep ourselves safe until the Swarm leave, and then we’ll be able to rebuild...” Hescamu trails off, and Etchiax picks up the explanation. “There’s more damage than we thought at first. Rebuilding is going to be tough, and we can’t even start until the Swarm leaves. So for now, we’re hoping to fight back enough to become a stinger in their shell and encourage them to leave sooner. Besides, we don’t have any ships, so we don’t have a way to get off-world.” The bolida perks up at this last observation and shakes their head. “No, no,” they say. “We’re prepared to wait, so we’ll wait ’em out.
However, there is a problem with that - the Swarm extractor imagoes across the planet’s surface are siphoning resources from deep within the planet. The extraction causes quite a few problems underground — aside from the obvious issue of resource depletion — most notably a significant degree of tectonic instability that results in lava flows and eruptions, fumaroles and gas vents, tremors, and similar problems. Their drilling also releases tremendous amounts of sulfuric exhaust, leading to the frequent acid rainstorms that have further ravaged the surface.
The area around the university, in the northwest section of Uudz, has been a hotbed of Swarm activity, but I'm not sure why. I don’t know anything about the professor, but you should ask around, as someone in Clade Company might know more.”
The bolida then brings Hescamu brings you to a side chamber of the company headquarters and calls up a holographic map of the city. Much of the Swarm contingent left on Ilemchuuva is crawling all over Zessh University, which makes your mission a dangerous one. Furthermore, the western side of the city has been plagued by severe instability as a result of a nearby extractor imago’s excavations. Sinkholes have been appearing across the area, and Hescamu is fairly certain it’s only a matter of time before the entire area collapses, likely destroying any information you are looking for. To tackle both problems at once, Hescamu proposes a daring plan: an attack on the nearby extractor imago, drawing the Swarm’s attention away from the university and making your mission easier. Even better, disabling or destroying the imago would reduce the tremors and instability of the area, which would also make a strike mission into the university safer and quicker—to say nothing of limiting the ongoing destruction of one of the only cities left standing on Ilemchuuva. The extractor imagoes are extremely large, however, and attacking one externally would likely have little effect. To truly take down one of these behemoths, a strike force would have to infiltrate the creature itself, using the access pathways Swarm components use to control the things, and disable it from within.
Hescamu builds upon the plan by proposing members of Clade Company guard the exterior of the extractor imago while you conduct the raid, ensuring that the party won’t get overwhelmed when the imago starts calling other Swarm components to its defense. Hescamu rubs their secondary arms together enthusiastically as they talk, clearly excited by the opportunities your presence and skills have provided for the freedom fighters.
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DRACOS nods thoughtfully.
"We help you, and in so doing help ourselves. Sounds like a win-win situation! We need to rest for the night first, though - the 'welcome' that the Swarm gave us *really* did a number on us."
He then starts asking around about the Professor...
...and encourages Rico to use another healing serum (or two).
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Asking around, DRACOS finds a young host shirren named Jadvata, who graduated from Zessh University a few years ago. Jadvata reveals they’d had an anthropology class with Galchak and can describe where the professor’s office is in the main academic building. While Jadvata admits they were not particularly fond of that class, they recount admiring the collection of relics in the professor’s office, including one particularly impressive weapon that seemed like it might have been blessed by Hylax.
Meanwhile, Rico injects a pair of serums...
...which leaves him feeling a *lot* better!
The following morning, Hescamu assigns a Clade detachment to accompany you, with Etchiax as the lead. The shirren woman approaches the assignment with enthusiasm, glad to have you working alongside the company and excited about the upcoming mission.
The extractor imago Hescamu has targeted is located south of Uudz. While it isn’t particularly far from Clade Company’s headquarters, overland travel is exceptionally dangerous and all but guaranteed to attract the attention of the Swarm patrols near the city. Instead, Etchiax plans to lead you through an extensive series of underground tunnels, which will avoid the Swarm’s direct attention but makes the journey significantly longer. She advises that you ensure you’re prepared to be gone for at least 2 days, plus however long you might need to take within the imago, including not only rations and water, but also fully charged environmental protections.
The Clade Company strike force consists of Etchiax, Kokan, and Queue, along with four other Clade members (three shirrens and one bolida). During the journey, these freedom fighters help keep watch and navigate, as well as converse with the Roughnecks — sharing and comparing war stories between Ilemchuuva and Suskillon being a favored topic. Etchiax explains that once they reach the extractor imago, the Clade fighters will create a distraction to allow you to access the creature. While you are carrying out your mission in the imago’s interior, the strike force will keep any additional Swarm components from helping the extractor, while also scavenging equipment and supplies from the region. As soon as the imago is disabled or destroyed, all of you can beat a hasty retreat back to the tunnels and the company base.
The tunnels the party travels through are largely vacant but still far from safe. Fumaroles, tremors causing cave-ins, and the occasional magma leak combine to make the journey to Uudz take a full day of marching. Sulfuric exhaust from the extractor imago’s drilling have permeated these tunnels, making much of the air similar to a toxic atmosphere, and requiring those who breathe to keep the environmental protections of their armor active at all times. At the end of the first day, Etchiax informs you that the group should rest up, as you are nearing your destination.
------------------------------------
Only a few hundred yards away, a massive insectile carapace rises into the smoggy sky. The thing resembles a starship-sized tick, its head plunged into the cracked earth and its abdomen so swollen with the planet’s petrochemical resources that its spindly, spine-covered legs hardly graze the ground. Plumes of caustic smoke spew from vents along its back, coalescing into a heavy haze that obscures detail even at this close distance. The creature shudders and waggles its appendages, gluttonously shoving its narrow head deeper into the ground as the terrain underfoot heaves and an immense gout of odd-smelling exhaust churns into the sky. Even at this distance, the temperature is noticeably warmer.
Etchiax points out a series of small openings on the extractor imago’s abdomen and explains in a matter-of-fact tone that these spiracles are what allow the creature to breathe, and as such provide access into the imago’s interior.
The Clade Company strike force plans to enact their distraction at a semi-intact building approximately half a half mile away from the extractor imago, drawing the Swarm’s attention. So saying, the Clade Company squad launch an explosive missile at the designated building, and then head off to harry the Swarm components that come to investigate...
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Past an initial snug aperture in the imago’s carapace, thick fibrous flaps part to reveal a narrow, fleshy tunnel with ridged walls. The air is thick and moist, sighing and shifting in a near-constant breeze as the massive creature draws breath. The spongy surface underfoot leads up an incline to a sheet of glistening membrane at the tunnel’s end.
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DRACOS successfully coaxes open the door.
The entirety of this chamber pulses with a slow, regular rhythm. The source is clearly a massive, throbbing knot of fleshy sacs and tubes protruding from the floor in the center of the room. Pools of thick, oily liquid collect in the southern corners of the area, surging and
sloshing in time with the beat.
Of more immediate concern, however, are the two Swarm Components that spin around in alarm!
DRACOS isn't sure what one of them is, but recognises the other as a Swarm Effigene.
The Effigene concentrates, putting some pep into the step of the other Component, which charges forward, and full-attacks!
Fortunately, it only scores a glancing blow.
Rico tries to assist...
...lightly scorching the Component.
Swarm Effigene (-)
SC (-5)
Rico (-)
DRACOS (-)
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DRACOS takes it out with a pistol shot.
DRACOS realises that the organ in the floor is part of the creature's heart - damaging it would slow down, but not kill, the massive creature, and would alleviate the local seismic activity... but it would also cause the creature's spiracles to clamp shut as a reflex action, trapping you in here until it is killed.
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This area branches off into several cavernous tunnels, the walls and ceiling lined with countless pulpy nubs. A foul liquid trickles along these protrusions, collecting in a channel at the center of each tunnel’s floor.
There are also two Swarm Escutchides in this room, who react violently to Rico and DRACOS' intrusion!
"Damn! More of these rhino-bastards!"
Rico opens fire...
...scoring a direct hit.
Rico (-)
DRACOS (-5)
Swarm Escutchides (-8, -)
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DRACOS severely injures one of the escutchides, but it stubbornly chases after him, as does the other one...
...hitting twice, and pushing him into one of the rivulets again...
...but it doesn't eat through his protections.
Rico blanches, and fires...
...immolating the severely injured one, causing it to collapse to the ground, quite dead.
"Huh! Kill steal!"
Rico (-)
DRACOS (-37)
Swarm Escutchides (-)
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The hard, chitin-reinforced walls of this chamber narrow to the west, eventually tapering to a series of impassably small ducts. Still more narrow apertures open in orderly rows across the walls and ceiling, with the largest being a series of membrane-covered panels in the fleshy eastern wall. The atmosphere in this area is thick with swirling fumes and is far hotter than the rest of the creature’s interior.
There are also three balls of bright green protoplasm oozing along the ground in this space...
...which DRACOS recognises as Thermophilic oozes!
DRACOS (-63)
Thermophilic oozes (-, -, -)
Rico (-)