Tariana puts a hit on the Joro.
Reflex
The joro is not so quick this time, after being rocked by the meaty blow.
Will
Once again though, choirs and boardgame thoughts stymie Celly.
FJ 25
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Seggas gives a small frown as she gets blocked from a clear shot and knowing her terrible aim, instead lets her experimental bio-signature scanner show her exactly where best to inject Tariana instead to maximize her quick growth scales. She lines up a shot and then readjusts as the program suggests before firing a quick bolt into the vesk's back. "This should make your scales extra thick for a few minutes. If you feel itching or a sudden urge for egg shells that is perfectly normal. If you feel anything else, let me know! I want to record the results."
She smiles some as she proves once again that her targeting program is useful... if only it didn't take 10 minutes of scanning an unmoving yet conscious person she could make a killing (literally AND figuratively.)
The joro dances backwards out of reach and then runs out the far door chuckling, goading Tariana to give chase...
R3
Celly
Seggas
Skorp
Tariana
ENEMY
FJ 25
Skorp lobs a grenade!
Ref
The Joro looks very injured now!
FJ 30
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Seggas rushes around the side of the room up to where Skorp is standing and peers around the corner before deciding that she probably needs to keep this Joro from running further and sprinting closer as she takes a hand off her gun and draws out a small stick with a button and a tiny electrical discharger on the end.
Celly runs out into the obvious ambush.
The Joro steps in - smiling - and chops at her.
Attack Vs KAC
Damage
Another small-sized mechanical Joro flashes her with a compliance ray!
Attack vs EAC
Damage NL
R4
Celly
Seggas
Skorp
Tariana
ENEMY
FJ 25
MJ
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Supremely tired of this Joro's shenanigans and attitude, Skorpahlich strides into the intersection to stand next to Seggas. He stares at As**oleJoro and flips through realities searching for that one he'd used on the gremlins - the blender dimension. He opens the portal and a stream of metal and glass slivers burst forth into Jac**ssJoro's face.
Skorp rips a hole in time and space, pins and needles appear and lacerate the Joro - he looks super shocked!
AOO on Celly
Attack Vs KAC
Damage
Celly gets tagged on the way out.
***
Seggas shoots.
Burning the Joro.
***
The bleeding Joro hurls a disk back at Skorp
Attack Vs KAC
Damage
The mini-Joro flashes Tariana with a compliance ray!
Attack vs EAC
Damage NL
The Joro then collapses and dies, bleeding out on the ground.
***
With the Joro defeated, checking through the rest of the facility is easy, and the last defences are easy enough to overcome.
You find a couple of areas of note.
Neural Processing Plant
A massive, complex device comprised of interconnected tubes filled with blue-green gas and numerous small computer monitors running rapidly with changing lines of code occupies the eastern wall of this room. Two pipes funnel the gas into hemispherical turbine filters with pipes connecting to the ceiling. Two large containers of a different gas flank the western doors, along with a large multi-monitor computer interface set into the northern corner. Glass windows set into pairs of sliding doors to the north and south reveal separate chambers with cylindrical pods and drainage grates in the floors.
This room synthesizes the consciousness of the vault’s clones, a process that integrates mixtures of vaporized neurotransmitters with fantastically complex computer code made accessible to bioengineered neurons via rare ssarlithine gas. The small monitors on the eastern processing device relay the lines of code being linked into the gaseous compound at that juncture, but the interface in the northwest corner displays all the codes being programmed into the clones. A checking the computer system you recognize an error. The automated artificial personality development displayed on the interface programmed its “End > Start New” concluding sequence into an “End > Copy > Paste > Repeat” concluding sequence, creating hundreds of duplicate clone personalities that in turn initiate duplicate biological structure protocols. This interface doesn’t appear to have a point of
connection for hacking the system, and its language resembles the code found on interfaces throughout all the Salvation’s End vaults.
Biomass Processor
Gallons of reddish fluid swirl within a giant vat dotted with small dials and computer screens. A large tube protrudes from the vat and extends into a collecting chamber beneath a steel grate to the west. A second vat filled with a light green gas stands between two starship-grade sealed containers, the thick glass barriers rimmed with black-and-yellow striped motifs to indicate caution. Tubes from each vat enter each of the two secured chambers, where they combine into a dark green semigaseous gel. A vacuum tube pulls the gel into a vent at the back of each chamber.
The machines in this room shape new clones by mixing malleable biomass distilled from deceased organisms deposited into the western device and then piping in neural programming gas from the Neural Processing Plant to the finished biomass. The small monitors on the western tank display gene sequences, target vital signs, and monitor the proportions of organic compounds contained inside the vat, while the eastern vat’s monitors rapidly filter through artificially generated neural codes for memories, skills, temperaments, and other cognitive imprints contained within the stored gas. Examining the computer system you find that the target organic compound proportions in the western vat are all identical and indicative of an adult human, while the neural codes in the eastern tank are all nearly identical.
***
You gather enough data from the computer and First Joro’s datapad to confirm the nature and scope of a plot to repurpose the nonhuman clones’ biomass. You also find evidence that First Joro succeeded in “remaking” several individuals already, meaning that some of the Joros you have met probably were originally other types of clones.
***
As you emerge from the clone production complex, you find a large crowd of concerned Joros assembled alongside the non-Joros who fled the sports bar during the CommanJoros attack. "Hey! What's going on!?" they ask anxiously, clearly worried about how events have transpired since the Starfinder arrival.
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Skorpahlich also yields to their Diplomat in Training. But before she begins speaking, he whispers to her.
"You know what the Eoxians did to me. They also never told us that the Silent War was over. I don't know if it would have changed anything, but she... we deserved to know the truth. Don't sucra-coat this, as horrible as it is."
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Celly just nods.
We have just uncovered a conspiracy against the non-Joros of this area she says as she displays the evidence gathered. We were sent here to to investigate, and I have to regrettably report that the perpetrator was killed while resisting arrest.
She then goes on to tell the story of what happened before describing what they found in the facility.
She then waits for the inevitable barrage of questions.
Doing your best to avoid startling the Joros too badly, an existential crisis is sparked in a handful of Joro clones as they question whether they’re really Joros at all or were originally non-Joros repurposed into Joros.
The community of Joros numbering in the high hundreds are completely perplexed, but they eventually agree that 'things need to change' - but as they voice their new thoughts a voice comes over the vaults loudspeakers, “Community vault test 341 completed. Sterilization and reset protocols commencing in 24 hours.” - there is a sudden silence as the vault production facilities begin grinding to a halt.
The Joros look extremely worried now.
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I .. believe it is time to leave Celly says. If you'll just follow me please ... in an orderly fashion of course ... we can get you out of here - unless you'd rather stay and see what happens ...... which I know I do not want to
She smiles at the Joros etc.
Come with me ..... I know a really safe place
She steps towards the place where they entered the vault, projecting a thought to her companions.
It is going to be really interesting explaining this to the Venture Captain. she 'paths
And if any of you require counselling after this, my office door will be open. But, as far as I see it - as long as you are happy in whatever body you wear, then that is the main thing. she says over her shoulder
You take the opportunity to get far enough outside the vault to talk to Venture-Captain Kunoris Vex for further instruction. Kunoris expresses a strange mixture of bemusement and confusion upon hearing about your expedition and sends assistance to help evacuate all the clones before the vault performs its reset.
"Congratulations for learning as much as you did. Clearly there's something wrong with the guiding intelligence if it’s performing tests of this nature."
The Joros begin the process of trying to adapt to a whole new post-vault world, perhaps beating a line to Cellys door to help unpack the new reality...
/End!
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Some indeterminate time later, Skorpahlich sits alone - as always - at a hostel in the Diaspora. Flipping thru the entertainment feeds, he comes across a whizdisk tournament featuring teams of gnolls, yetis, Joros and even an official Starfinder Society mixed-species team. He lets out a deep and long groan, rolls his eyes, and quickly changes the channel.
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Seggas, upon hearing that many of the Joros fear that they might have not started life as a Joro, gives a wicked grin and small evil cackle. She LOVED working outside the jurisdiction of the Pact Worlds. So much less yellow tape and legal retaliation was minimal.
As they lead the Joros out of the vault, she makes sure to loudly announce that any Joros fearing that they might have been something else at an earlier stage in life, should come and see her. She might, MIGHT, be able to still find old genetic markers one way or the other all for the low-low price of testing a harmless, temporary, skin-pigmentation-altering retro virus...