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A small shop somewhere in the Downlow. A bright neon on the outside shines: 'Hellih gunsmith'. The workshop inside is rather small and cluttered with different parts and mechanisms. A rather small and slim android with blue skin is hunched over a bench as he is working on something. The person looks like it went through a lot, his skin has scars and bruises, his artificial blue eyes are focused on a piece of weapon that it holds in both hands. His right arm looks normal but his left is a bit a prosthetic and looks like made for a Vesk. It is a bit bigger with 4 fingers. It does not hinder his ability to work.
In the background plays music. The gunsmith puts the gun down and takes out a cigarette that they put in its mouth.
They turn around and say
"Ok Julz, the pistol is ready. It required a bit of calibration. And no, you don't have to pay. The next time scrappers come to you with weapon parts send them my way. But don't send me Gorg he is only selling garbage."
A smiling Vesk, wearing a wife-beater, nods, takes his gun, and leaves the shop.
The android lights his cigarette and grabs his belongings. They close the shop as he heads towards Starfinder HQ. Hellih looks nervously around him, he lived his whole lived in the Spike you may never be to careful here...
Hellih walks to a waiting room and checks his comm unit. On his head instead of hair lights thin artificial strings glowing with green light.
"Looks like the right place. Still 20 minutes maybe I will grab a coffee."
Twenty minutes later, the group is led into the room of LuwaZi Elsebo.
A massive table-like hologram projector rests in the center of the darkened briefing room, its surface generating a three- dimensional depiction of the galaxy. Nominated First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo stands cross-armed while surveying the starscape before her, her frame illuminated by the hologram.
“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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"Of course. I have to be on time eventually...then again since we are coming straight from Athaeum it was a bit easier." Altorin laughs as he replies to the First Seeker.
"Icefront...that sounds terribly cold, the name wouldn't happen to be a joke? What can we expect from the planet?" he asks.
A few of the members are already familiar with Altorin, but for the others he is a stocky transitional ryphorian. His beige fur while typically shaggy...has been shaved down a bit shorter and you can spot quite a few spots of burnt fur. His Lashunta Ringwear is bound by glowing orange fields of energy and a living xenolash writhes about on his belt.
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A formian, bedecked in a hulking suit of armor adorned with Hellknight sigils stands in silence, a thousand yard stare greeting anyone who introduces themselves to her. She smells as though she hasn't bathed in a month, however her gear is immaculately cleaned in some places and rubbish in others. Every joint is polished to a shine, yet the grime that covers the non-functional portions, such as decorative imagery and unused mounting points, is left in place.
"As you command. I shall honor you as I honor Queen Jadnura with my obedience."
Well, you are partly responsible for the intelligence that makes this mission possible Elsebo nods to Altorin.
Icefront, yes. The Pact Worlds’ databases didn’t offer much since Icefront is so far off anyone’s sensors, but we have some basic specs.
Contrary to what the names implies, 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.
A message from Ykris arrives:
Dear Starfinders: Some of my Society contacts let slip that your leadership has been doing homework on Icefront. You’re not the first to take an interest in that planet. My colleagues at CeriCore Labs recently looked into applying for corporate research rights on Icefront, but we had to delay the project because lobbyists from Frozen Trove Labs pushed us out. Frozen Trove is a leading competitor of ours in the field—although they work more with genetics than cybernetics—and they are pretty ruthless, even by dragoncorp standards. Their science is top-notch, but lots of our R&D folks say that nobody stumbles upon that many “breakthroughs” doing honest work (I know our legal department hates dealing with them.) If your travels do take you to Icefront, keep an eye out for Frozen Trove: their scientists are some of the best, but their management is hostile and very protective of their property.
Altorin knows that Frozen Trove Labs is a Triaxian megacorporation that develops genetic modifications for commercial and industrial use. Frozen Trove’s scientists are among the best in the business. Working for the company is considered a prestigious and lucrative scientific career, and Frozen Trove often sets the pace for innovative genetic engineering. The corporation’s CEO is an old vicious white dragon named Aralydio.
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The furry mountain takes a chug of strong black tea with heaps of sugar and a few odd leaves in it whilst tapping away on his datapad to confirm a few thoughts.
Culture
Life Science
Physical Science
"Everyone packing their cold weather equipment then?'
"Last planet I was on couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to do with the weather, but geez when it got cold it really knew how to ruin your afternoon"
"So what exactly are we supposed to be looking for down there? Do we have more on these relics?"
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Fexia looks Blinky up and down, then her eyes go blank for a few moments as she accesses the computer in her pack via the datalink connected to the base of her skull.
Identify species... found... Koala... fetch details... found r/copypasta/Koala_Rant... processing.
She pauses and shakes her head and mutters, "I am most certain that cannot be accurate."
Blinky knows a thing or two about the wildlife and the geophysics of the planet:
Fresh water in all phases covers the planet of Icefront, likely supporting robust ecosystems year-round. Given the widespread availability of food and water, it’s unlikely that most of these creatures would interact with humanoids unless they were blatantly aggressive or edible.
The planet’s humidity and slow orbit suggest long seasons with severe weather including heavy rains during the summer and regular snow during the winter. This seasonal climate resembles that of Triaxus.
Luwazi answers: Any information about the relic and its potential whereabouts would be useful. 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.
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A dedicated seven-seater has been prepared for the group, the automatic doors opening with a welcome... as each crew member board. The ship leaves Absalom station and enters the drift.
The whole journey takes days, mostly eerily silent.
Finally, the vessel arrives in the star system home to Icefront
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Fexia will purchase a spell gem of Comprehend Languages which will get quickly handed off to Oddman or Altorin should the need arise.
"It would be prudent to learn about each other, primarily specialties, strengths, and weaknesses of each of us prior to our arrival at Icefront. A soldier who relies on the wrong ally for a task is at fault for failure just as much as the ally who fails to accomplish it. I am Imperitor Fexia, liason of the Karnos hive, representative of the Hellknight Order of the Scourge, servant to the lost Queen Jadnura. I am trained in heavy fire support, hand to hand combat, and manipulation of advanced combat equipment."
She keeps her gunnery display at the corner of her eye as she speaks.
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"Another Hellknight! We had one on our last sortie too...a bit quiet but was glad to have her! I have a connection to the very life-force inside us which would make me a great nurse but I ain't fond of sitting back, instead I use it to keep myself up and keeping anything that threatens us down." says Altorin over the ships comms, you also hear the crack of the xenolash.
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The bear waves massive paw from the cockpit of the Drake "Blinky Bluegum, friends call me 'Bamboozle'. Spend most of my time on Akiton. Can't say I'm much of a negotiator, prefer the great outdoors myself, the only thing I negotiate is the tough desert sands. There's a lot of history and hidden life on Akiton and I take various interested parties out in the sands for myriad research projects - people wanting to look at the many species of cacti, grasses and shrubs whose roots dig deep - usually to find aquifers and sources of water, and others scientists and adventure tourists wanting to look at some of the ancient wrecks, or even prospect for easy thasteron deposits. Occasionally we get the Ysoki scrappers needing a guide as they hunt down a payday"
"Anyhow, good in the cold too, so should be good to help you get around on a frozen planet. If push comes to shove then I'm happy to do some shoving too - can use most weapons, but generally I find when some smart-mouth thasteron prospector gets cheeky in an Akitonian bar I prefer the old 'left, right, goodnight' rather than all this shooting business. Then again, if its really pretty, or really ugly, DON'T TOUCH IT"
During the journey, Oddman makes regular scans of the colorful surroundings. The mystic picks up the odd contrail of cargo barges, passenger shuttle, veskarium cruisers. Nothing special.
Upon arrival at Icefront, the scanners show intense weather patterns across the planet’s surface, with snowstorms in the southern hemisphere and rain in the northern hemisphere, as well as dense concentrations of plant and animal life.
Oddman manages to bring up a holographic image of a six-limbed creature. In his estimate, about 40 million of these inhabit the planet. They are large creatures, with binary posture, that seem to possess some form of archaic technology and live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
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Suddenly, the blips-and-bloops of the scanning machinery are interrupted with the shrill sound of a hailing signal.
The starship’s video screen shows a strikingly pale humanoid face with short-cropped black hair and black bulging eyes - a verthani, one of the native sons of the planet Verces.
Greetings, unknown vessel. the Verthani female cordially greets the ship, This is Dr. Monsylkis of the Icefront research station. Your vessel signature seems to be of the Pact Worlds. What brings you to this planet?
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Hellih makes himself comfortable on the ship. Whenever seated he plugs in some wires from the ship into his right arm. When his allies begin to share their stories he was running diagnostics on the ship and fixing some software malfunctions.
"My name is Hellih and I am a gunsmith. I have my own workshop in the Downlow. It took me quite a while to move my shop there. Previously I worked on scrap yards, and I had some episodes in Pipetown." He lists his cigarette and turns on the ashtray that isolates Hellih air from the surrounding and sucks the smoke away.
"I lived my whole life on Absalom Station. When it comes to the mission I am a capable engineer and this beuty is my gem. " he points to his customized rifle
"Modified barrel that allows for adjusting the beam size. Increased capacity, additional lenses that allow for better focusing of the laser. With a bit of Kalos engineering, this weapon fires underwater just as good as in the air." you can see the body of the rifle to be thicker and bulkier, the barrel of the gun is more massive than in similar laser rifle.
You can tell that Android is really proud if his weapon.
When Verthani calls them out on the comm unit Hellih simply watches the conversation.
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Fexia glares at the Verthani on the display. She considers her options... opens her mandibles... then closes them again. She repeats this process 4 times before she finally hits the mute button. "Queen Jadnura has informed me on numerous occasions that in your world there are hives within hives, and queens for each. I will require your assistance to discern corruption within these hives... and then I will excise it with extreme prejudice."
With that she flips her com system back to open and responds to the Verthani in the traditional manner of name, rank, and serial number. "Fexia, Imperator, 4249-704"
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A red skinned hylki joins in the meeting, but seems to stay silent through out it, giving everyone a distracted greeting, halfaway smiles for the people he recognizes, a business card for those he doesn't and giving a curt and absent minded bow and greeting to Luwazi. He then quickly sets up a recording device on the table and sits down to furiously type something on his personal comms. "Need to finish this holonovel as soon as possible or Earlarch, my editor, will be wearing my skin!" He occasionally mutters something about 'library' or 'hellknights' but for the most part seems to be a thousand light-years away.
The card read Ceolor Xhusha, Adventurer and Holonovelist! Author of such wonders as Around Verces in Eighty Parsecs and An Akitonian Abroad Phone... On the back is a seres of instructions on how the card can be tapped against a device to automatically transfer the information to your contacts and gives credits for a free copy of one of his holonovels.
Ceolor stays like this for the first few days on the ship, holed up in his quarters and only coming out for food and occasional exercises. After five days there's a giant sound of a sigh of relief from his quarters that echo throughout the ship and he slumps out of his room, actually seeming present for the first time this mission.
"Finished! Earlarch won't be skinning me alive this time. We'l have to see if he has any edits he wants but for the most part the hard part is over! Hellih! Wait you were on this mission? I hadn't realized... Oh and Oddman and Altorin too? Oof I really was out of it wasn't I?"
He looks over at the two new faces and pauses for a moment, "Uhhhh, Did I ever introduce myself? I feel like I might have, buuuutttt I might not have as well. Anyways, I'm Ceolor Xhusha, traveler, adventurer, and holonovelist." He looks over at Fexia for a moment and then gives her a smile. "Hello! Is that a Hellknight symbol there? So what led you to be a Hellknight and a Starfinder?"
He also gives a small look of shock over the koala. "Well Aren't you a giant unit! You spent time on Akiton and the bars there? Ever had a Shobhad Knucklebuster?"
"I'm competent with gun and am never really without one seeing as this," he stops as a small ball of black the same as the depths of space, marked by an occasional distant star-like light passing over it pops into existence. He reaches up and grabs the mote, then starts to pull the black substance extends and warps from the single unmoving point, forming into a perfect replica of a 267 Magnari Pieceworks Azimuth Laser Rifle. "...can double as a weapon!"
With a bit of food in him and some conversation, Ceolor retreats back to his room and listens to the recorded briefing.
But sadly can't seem to recall much of use.
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Ceolor looks up at the screen with small amount of surprise. "Hello there! As Altorin and Blinky here said, we're just a small group of people tracking an archeological lead that we believe might be here. Anyways, would it be a problem if we landed?"
Dr. Monsylkis answers Fronze Trove? No, we here on a research grant funded by an agricultural development nonprofit called Winterharvest. Have you heard of them? We have quite a research program out here, but so far we haven't covered archaeology. Is that your area of expertise? Pray tell me more of your reseAWAA
The signal is suddenly interrupted by static noise, soon replaced by the blaring of an alert siren:
WOOP! WOOP! VESSEL CLOSING! UNKNOWN SIGNATURE! WOOP! WOOP!
As the vessel enters visual range, it looks like a sea- urchin-like starship ringed with multi-segmented, tentacle-like appendages each tipped with three-pronged thrusters, weapons, and manipulative tools. It doesn't match any known ship blueprint.
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Round 1 report
Damage report: 0 hull damage. shields fpsa 20/15/15/20
Target 1: 0 damage====
Round 1
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Ship movement (order to be determined):
Bogey
Drake
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Turret: coilgun (4d4),
Turret: high expl. missile (4d8, 5 left)
Forward: Coilgun (4d4)
Forward: heavy laser (4d8)
Aft: Coilgun (4d4)
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Everyone is up!
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Round 1 bogey piloting: 34
Round 2 bogey piloting: 27
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Ceolor settles into the captain's seat, the mantle of leadership mentally chaffing. He gives his head a shake and looks at the current battle situation. "Right, we've got a competent team here, and we can certainly handle anything the enemy will throw at us!"
He looks at Blinky first, "Pilot Blinky, might need to get a lid on your tea there. I should have a spill proof zero-g container here somewhere, give me a second and I'll toss it over."
"Altorin, that looks like a first rate prophecy... Opp look the enemy is moving already!"
"Imperator and Oddman, Keep the guns hot and get ready to fire!"
Finally he turns to the last person, "But Hellih, I want any and all information you can scan from the enemy ship. You've got the skills, me and the computer backing you."
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Hellih puts his cigarrete down and take off his jacket. His hands begins to push buttons on the console and his custom rig still blinks from being connected to the ship sensors.
He looks through at the ship.
"That is odd..."
"Using long-distance scanner see if it gives us some information. Those scanners don't seem to be useful..."
Hellih performs a quick scan of the vessel, encouraged by Ceolor, and finds it to be a lot slower than the drake, but otherwise quite similar. ()
Altorin helps Blinky by foreseeing the movements of the enemy. Blinky makes good use of the slow vessel by just backing away from it.
The enemy slowly moves in, until a blast of coilgun fire lights up the sky over Icefront, just barely missing the drake. A bright flash signals the launch of a special missile, dark and sleek. It blasts the forward shield and shatter into many pieces of shrapnel. Alarmingly, the shrapnel pieces seem to animate and start eating away at the hull!
Oddman and Fexia fight fire with fire, and their shots are both on-target, the mystic gun ripping into the front shields, while the Hellknight's heavy laser blasts a big chunk out of the front hull armor.
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Round 1 report
Damage report: 5 hull damage. shields fpsa 0/15/15/20
Target 1: 9 damage, shields fpsa 0/15/15/20
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Round 1 outcome
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Ship movement:
Bogey (Speed 4; Maneuverability average (turn 2); AC 17; TL 17 HP Max 85; PSU 130)
Drake
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Turret: coilgun (4d4),
Turret: high expl. missile (4d8, 5 left)
Forward: Coilgun (4d4)
Forward: heavy laser (4d8)
Aft: Coilgun (4d4)
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Captain - Ceolor - Encourage Hellih
Magic officer - Altorin - Precognition
Pilot - Blinky - Backing off (success)
Science officer - Hellik - Scan (18)
Gunner (T - AC) - Oddman - 21 -> 8
Gunner (F - HL) - Fexia - 24 -> 19
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Round 2
Drake moves
Drone moves
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Everyone!
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Round 3 pilot roll: 34
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Ceolor looks over the scans of the enemy ship and then the readout on thier own ship. "Looks good, crew. We can hit them harder than they hit us! Now let's make sure we keep firing at the same arc if possible."
"Altorin, double check we have an idea of when the enemy is going to move. Blinky, great job on the defensive flying pattern there. Imperator, Oddman, fire away please."
He doucle checks the read out and then grimaces some as he notices the mini drones attacking the hull. "Damn, those look bad. Hellih, switch to engineering and get those things off of us, now. We won't last long if there's no way we'll last long if those things keep eating away at us."
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Hellih feels the hit when the torpedo shreds their front shield.
"The front shield is fried! Running diagnostics to assess the damage" says Android as he turns silent for a moment. Suddenly he rips out the wires from his custom rig, open the seat-belts and rushes towards the engine room.
He grabs the toolbox on his way there.
"The torpedo carried some drones that are destroying our hull!"
Ceolor tries to encourage Hellih, but is having an off-day.
Hellih releases the positron valves of the graviton decoupler, causing the matter coupling of the shrapnel to revert. The hull looks a lot cleaner after the operation.
Fexia does a quick visual scan of the UFO, and points out the weapons system that looks like a variant of a high explosive missile, adapted to launch the dark rockets that hit the craft just now.
Blinky carefully points the front toward the enemy vessel, taking care not to move too close. Altorin provides prescient guidance.
Oddman fire the mystic projector, and eats into the rapidy closing enemy. Just enough to reduce the regenerated shields to zero, it seems.
Fexia shows no mercy, and launches a missile at the closing vessel, just as the mysterious enemy itself fills space with gun fire and projectiles.
The bridge rocks as the dark missiles hit, and the 360-degree viewtrons start sparking and glitching. More worryingly, a woop! woop! signals a problem with the engines - which seem to be outright malfunctioning!
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Round 2 report
Damage report: 43 hull damage. shields fpsa 0/15/15/20
Target 1: 31 damage, shields fpsa 0/15/15/20
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Round 1 outcome
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Ship movement:
Bogey (Speed 4; Maneuverability average (turn 2); AC 17; TL 17 HP Max 85; PSU 130)
Drake
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Turret: coilgun (4d4),
Turret: high expl. missile (4d8, 5 left)
Forward: Coilgun (4d4)
Forward: heavy laser (4d8)
Aft: Coilgun (4d4)
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Captain - Ceolor - Encourage Hellih
Magic officer - Altorin - See future
Pilot - Blinky - Flying carefully
Science officer - Hellik - Shake it off!
Gunner (T - AC) - Oddman - 17->7
Gunner (F - HL) - Fexia - Scan and Shoot 24->22
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Round 3
Drake moves
Drone moves
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Everyone!
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Round 4 pilot roll: 34
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Ceolor nods at Fexia and pulls up the controls for the missile turret.
"Sounds good, Imperator! I'll take over the turret. Uhh, Blinky, if you don't have any better ideas, could you shake the drones eating away at us off, or place us right on the bow of the enemy ship? Helih, can you handle the drones or help Fexia? Altorin, you have the comms if you feel like inspiring someone!"
Fexia and Hellih disappear into the engine room, while the ships rocks and plods along. Not long after, the annoying woop! woop! siren stops, and the ship picks up speed again.
Blinky makes good use of that speed, diving straight for the enemy ship. For a moment, it looks like he's about to ram the alien vessel, but at the uplifted koala makes a barrel roll, momentarily coming eye-to-eye with the enemy pilot () before flying on.
Captain Ceolor takes to the gun, and fires a spray of missiles from close-by, leaving a trail of explosions as blinky flies on, while Oddman manages another hit with the mystic weapon.
The enemy ship seems to try some maneuver, but a faulty engine leaves it effectively dead in the sky. The gunner brings a single coilgun to bear, the pellets of which slam into the rear shield.
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Round 4 report
Damage report: 43 hull damage. shields fpsa 0/15/15/3Target 1: 59 damage, shields fpsa 0/15/15/20
weapons, engines, power core glitching
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Round 4 outcome
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Ship movement:
Bogey (Speed 4; Maneuverability average (turn 2); AC 17; TL 17 HP Max 85; PSU 130)
Drake
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Turret: coilgun (4d4),
Turret: high expl. missile (4d8, 5 left)
Forward: Coilgun (4d4)
Forward: heavy laser (4d8)
Aft: Coilgun (4d4)
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Captain - Ceolor - Gunning
Magic officer - Altorin
Pilot - Blinky - Flyin by
Science officer - Hellik - Patch engines
Gunner (T - AC) - Oddman - Gunning
Gunner (F - HL) - Fexia - Patch engines
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Round 5
Drake moves
Drone moves
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Everyone!
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Round 4 pilot roll: 34
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[b]"We're goi g to have to bring our front around soon enough as that is where our main guns are... so if that had some shields it would be good.