Chase activates her energy shield moments before the grenade explodes, absorbing the force of the blast. "Bastard!" she grunts, dusting herself off.
When she sees the comm history, she curses even more creatively. "Eline! I knew my b&@!+y sister would hold a grudge. This won't be the last retaliation from her, I'm sure. If I ever see her again, I'm gonna punch her in the face. She has a very punchable face."
"I'm more concerned about how quickly he found us." Ben says with a frown. "Once we get back we need to double, triple and possibly quadruple the ship for any trackers."
"Could you do some scans please sweetie?" He subvocalises to Carrie.
"Anyway, we still have a job to do folks, so let's get this cattle rustled up and move on nice and quick!"
Boots is caught flat-footed by the explosion and is blow off her feet. Grumbling curses as she brushes herself off, she adds "Edge isn't gonna let this just fade away, are they?"
Talah catches Ben looking over the gear and says "Hey Cap. If ya gonna keep takin' the shots fer us, might ya put on that golemforged getup? Chase can attest to it prolly protectin' ya better."
With a smirk and a wink she adds "Definitely gonna slow ya down though. You been skippin' too many leg days."
She quickly gets to work helping with their payday as best she can.
"I can provide a serum if you are suffering from deficiencies in your leg muscles, Captain." Katherine offers helpfully, having still been some distance away when the grenade went off. "I certainly agree that we should finish the job as soon as possible. I do not want these... animals befouling our ship for any longer than strictly necessary!"
Seeing no-one really hurt, she returns to her enercycle and mounts up, hoping that the rest of the job can proceed without any more messy distractions.
Penny also stays away from the bleeding-out cow boy, having no interest in saving him and knowing that the others with loot him with great efficiency.
"Or you could just start exercising. Too many days just plugged in and chatting with our dear Carolyn." she smiles her own advice at Ben. Then her brow wrinkles in thought "'As close to us as possible' has me worried. We should hurry I think."
You quickly divest the deceased nuar of his gear and round up the few defrexes that have wandered further down the ravine. After another hour of dirty work, you've managed to corral the beasts into the Oliphaunt's enhanced cargo bay. After setting the enercycles to 'Auto-Return' mode and watching them zoom off toward the horizon riderless, you close up the ship and prepare to leave.
"Ben is still bleeding! Why is Ben still bleeding, Doctor Hamilton!" Carolyn-5's voice echoes within the relatively small space of the ship's interior as you enter. "My records show at least twenty seven various oaths that physicians take regarding treatment of their patients. I find it highly unlikely that you didn't take at least one of them."
"I'm fine Carrie." Ben says soothingly as he re-enters the ship, although admittedly still limping. "It's not serious and we needed to get the cargo onboard first. I'm sure Katherine will be patching me up forthwith."
As if in answer to Ben's question, Katherine assesses Ben from behind, looking intensely up and down his whole anatomy before stating, "To your quarters Captain. You need some extra support for that leg for at least a couple of days to ensure you can continue to walk on it with your usual swagger. I'll come help create a support bandage for you."
"I've scanned for nearby threats, Ben, and determined that, with a 99.32% probability of success, there are no nearby threats," Carolyn-5 declares as Katherine treats his injuries. "Doctor Hamilton, it appears that you are using the Barnes method of suturing. Are you aware that the C-ksttsh method has demonstrated a 0.04% improvement in regards to possible infections? Perhaps that would be the preferred method?"
Boots runs through the pre-flight checklist with Penny poking and prodding the entire time and soon you've left Vesk-2 and spun up the Drift engine to make your way to Vesk-3.
Only a few moments after shifting into Drift-space, however, Ben and Katherine notice the level of noise nearby in the cargo hold from your 'passengers' increases drastically. The ship is filled with howling, barking, and scraping at the walls. The sound of distressed predators builds to a terrifying volume before tremendous, deafening explosions reverberate through the starship.
"Ben! Something is ..." Carolyn-5 announces before the lights flicker and flash as some sort of pulse follows the explosions, scrambling the ship's systems. On the bridge, Boots watches as her controls vanish entirely as other displays flash and then fade to darkness.
Another crash follows and Ben identifies it as the doors to the cargo hold giving way under a wave of panicked defrexes as they spill into the main hall, stampeding into the ship proper.
Chase winces as the explosions rock the ship. "Dammit! Boots, what did you do?" she shouts over the comms.
After performing swift diagnostics in the engine room, she says, "All clear here. I'm going to check out the arcane lab!" She heads that way, ready to punch any defrexes that might be in the way!
Chase steps through the twisted door into the arcane lab to find choas inside. The beasts have knocked over containers of sensitive arcane reagents and damaged magical equipment, releasing harmful energies. The magical chaos further fuels the herd’s panic, and the defrexes rend and claw each other amid the confusion. The magical aura that pervades the area washes over Chase's mind, dulling her senses.
"Damn it!" Ben curses. "I'm heading for the cargo hold! Remember not to kill the cargo if we can avoid it!"
"The bridge is undamaged. And as far as I can tell, Talah did nothing wrong." her voice coming over the comm sounds almost pained to have to admit that. "Where do you want us, Captain?" Penny feels like the best would be for her and Talah to stay in the cockpit, well herself especially, but will defer to captain's orders.
Chase grits her teeth and resists the arcane energy. She gets back on the comm. ”There’s a crazy defrex disco in the arcane lab! Penny, come here and use your mojo to reverse the whammy!”
As Ben moves into the enhanced cargo hold another explosion rocks the ship. The distinctive sound of the airlock cycling fills the chamber as the airlock computer fails. The air is pulled from the captain's lungs as the atmosphere begins to rush out into the void of the Drift.
The protective bubble from his second skin suit pops up, protecting him from further environmental effects, but the defrexes obviously don't have that benefit as they begin gasping for air. With a grinding sound, the safety protocols of the ship kick in and the inner doors to the hall attempt to close. While far from perfect, the seal they make is enough to keep the rest of the ship from losing its atmosphere.
The explosions have also disrupted the delicate balance of hybrid tech inside the cargo hold, causing space-time in the chamber to expand and contract repeatedly. Ben and the defrexes are compressed and stretched, almost like being pulled into a black hole.
Penny considered a moment about saying she was asking the captain, and hence that would allow her to stay in the safety of the cockpit, but a crazy defrex disco in the arcane lab sounded really bad. "Okay, I'm on my way." the blonde SMALLish quartermaster stands up straight, fusses with her uniform for a moment (like that mattered to the defrex) and said with a bit of worry to Talah "Wish me luck"
Opening the door, the animal sounds and smells wash over the crew, a choas of herd animal flesh. Flashing another look back to the pilot, Penny is away. In the hallway, the animals crash this way and that way, thankfully in the other way than Penny manages to be. Then she opens the arcane lab.
The woman immediately gets stepped on, then again, and again, but she manages to only scream really loudly a few times. Covering in mud (she hoped) and limping she gets next to Chase.
"Oh, that is rather pleasant." she breaths in the swirling rainbow of magical auras. "Lavendar and... Peanuts?" the dulling auras calm her very ready to panic mind, and she gets to it.
Reaching out with her mind she tracks the parts of the magic that is feeding off of each other. Feeding, expanding, calming, then... poof, everything fizzles, and their minds are their own again. "Almost a shame." she tells the mechanic with a shrug. "We might have been able to sell that. If it wouldn't have destroyed us that is."
Ben may not be a master of any particular skill but when he needs to he sometimes remembers the important and with a little help from Carolyn he rips out the damaged transformer and risks electrical burns to twist the remaining wires into a crude circuit. Chase is going to yell at him later when she has to fix it properly, but the airlock works and the null space settles back into its normal dimensions, so he'll be alive for the yelling and that's good enough.
Chase gives Penny a high-five. "Alright! I'm gonna check the science lab next!"
The engineer heads into the corridor--
--and immediately gets trampled, stomped, and bit by the defrexes. Cursing and bleeding, she stumbles into the science lab, finding it hard to concentrate on looking around thanks to her extensive injuries. "Son of a b+@+@!"
What Katherine has been up to that involves arm-mounted lasers is anyone's guess. That particular question comes to Chase's mind as she dodges aside as two of them fill the science lab with burning light.
Chase rolls and spins through the room, though the lasers still singe her. She comes up by the power source, the panel on her arm popping open as she accesses her custom rig. She gets to work, and in moments, she has disconnected the power source for the lasers.
"WHAT!?" Boots shouts in response to Chase's accusation, "Me? I done nuttin' and can't see nuttin' up here! I'm blind! Chase get me power back!"
Ben, taking a moment to think like a saboteur, decides to head for the upper levels, working up to the turret if he doesn't find anything wrong with the galley and the rec suite.
And he doesn't...
Penny decides the cockpit would be a place to spend the rest of this horror show, even if it involves spending her last moments with Talah.
Chase barely manages to avoid being trampled as she moves to check the airlock.
Katherine follows behind the Captain, as he heads off trailing an unfinished bandage. "Captain, I did not dismiss you yet!"
Speaking out loud to the ship, Katherine cannot help but sound bitter. "Yes, I know that method is mathematically better but it is also slower and clearly the Captain does not appreciate lack of speed. Carolyn, how about you report on what is happening for us all rather than watching everyone apparently lose their heads in chaos?"
Penny is moving back towards the bridge when she's confronted by a defrex that's clearly in pain. It steps forward to lash out at an acceptable target for its discomfort, but is prevented from doing so by ...
KA-BOOM!
... exploding, showering the small woman with blood and gore. The hall lightstrips flicker and flash as the pulse of energy that accompanies the grisly display washes through the ship.
~~~~~
Carolyn-5 is strangely silent in response to Katherine's complaint. Following Ben through the halls, the doctor joins the captain in staring at the hover lift as it rises and falls in a jerky and unpredictable motion. It takes a couple of tries before they're able to ride it to the ship's upper level.
Reaching the entertainment suite, they find the holo-gear fully engaged and four characters from the popular children's trivid Skittersoldiers: Nufriends of Destruction taking shots at a number of defrexes that have unfortunately found their way here via the malfunctioning hover lift. The holo system must have also sustained damage in whatever pulse accompanied the initial explosions, because the shots the holo-figures are firing are doing real damage to the beasts. With new targets, though the grinning characters turn their weapons on Ben and Katherine.
"What the hell are y'all doing to my ship!?" Boots shouts as she treis to get caught up. She dashes down the corridor, doing handsprings and flips as she dodges obstacles along the way.
She joins the others in the entertainment suite and quickly goes to work on the console in an attempt to help fix the simulation.
"That ain't right. Hang on!"
Penny sputters in shock. Dripping bits of what once was a degree, she can do nothing else for a few moments other than stand still. Then the cockpit door opens and a flipping Boots erupts on the scene and then... Is gone.
It woke Penny out of her shock so she rushes to the cockpit again. Leaving a trail behind her.
"Katherine, distract them!" Ben calls, before diving between two defrexes and pulling off a service panel.
"Damnit, I'm a red-shirt, not an engineer!" He mutters, tracing the main power relay into the sub-conduit and then reversing the polarity with a short burst from his sonic screwdriver (never leave home without it!).
The holograms fade away, leaving only a number of angry two ton mammals to deal with...
Whether it's Boots' skill or Ben's sonic screwdriver, in any case the holographic figures flicker and then vanish.
~~~~~
With most of the malfunctions dealt with, it doesn't take Chase long to re-initialize the systems to bring the ship back under control. The Oliphaunt is damaged, but nothing that can't be fixed. Just as you herd the last of the escaping creatures back to the cargo bay, the door to the goblin's quarters opens and the trio burst forth with weapons ready.
"Where is dey!" Goog demands, waving his weapon around recklessly. "We blast 'em into bits!"
A burst of static comes over the ship's internal systems, followed by, "... affecting the ship's ..." as Carolyn-5 manages to finish her previous warning. "Oh. Adjusting. My apologies, Captain, for the unplanned downtime. I did not realize that the creatures we were transporting were explosive." she says in a contrite voice. "I will attempt to be more proactive in the future."
As far as the exploding defrexes are concerned, after checking the cargo hold and discovering the ... remains ... of four of the creatures that died in that spectacular fashion, Katherine does a quick examination of the remainder of the herd. Her conclusion is that the beasts had all been infected with swarms of malicious nanites. While having a relatively short lifespan and now inert, they were most likely responsible for the chaos.
The message from the nuar sniper's comm unit regarding getting as close to you as possible now makes more sense.
"Nanites. Why does it always have to be nanites?" Chase mutters, shaking her head. "Well, I think everything should be safe now. Not it for cleaning up the mess!"
Seeing Penny dropping with defrex guts, the engineer smirks. "Well, I'm willing to help Penny get clean. Care for a sponge bath, love?" She gives the mystic a bawdy wink.
Penny's eyes are drawn to Chase's bawdy wink, for a moment hesitates about something, and then just shakes her head "I'm showering." she turns toward the showers but then says over her shoulder "and I hate your sister."
”Join the crowd!” Chase shouts to the retreating Penny.
A hint of a smile can be seen on Penny's lips before she turns her head away again and disappears to get ungory.
Katherine shows a remarkable lack of concern for viscera and gore as she takes samples, apparently more excited by getting some of the nanites than she is repulsed by bodily fluids. Having gained her samples however she delivers them to her lab and then promptly returns to her room to change her clothes - proving that even the most unexpected temporary aberration in behavior will revert under normal conditions.
"If anyone needs me I will be in my lab." She announces to no-one in particular, but Carolyn at least will be aware.
When Boots finally sets her eyes on the gore, she unfortunately adds to the mess by allowing Penny's last mean to present itself to everyone once more. Unable to control her gag reflex, Boots vomits before running quickly out of the room leaving her mess along side of the other.
=====================================================================
Pact Worlds Date: 321-08-28 AG
Location: Vesk-3
Ship Ident: COM-UPYOURSEJCORPXXX
Current Mission: Defrexes Delivery
=====================================================================
After two days of dealing with grumpy defrexes and annoying goblins, you finally exit Drift space in orbit around Vesk-3 - the drop-off point for your restless cargo. Following the given coordinates, you easily locate Skitterhaven Ranch and land in an open field not far from a pasture-surrounded barn.
After releasing the defrexes into the pasture, you make your way into the barn where you meet Adani and Karm face-to-face. They count the creatures you've brought and seem quite delighted that you've managed to succeed in spite of the challenges.
As you're negotiating the final payment, Chase notices the large barn door leading outside slowly moving. Through the opening a grotesque tendril with sharp teeth reaches towards Adani.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
"Chase, this better not be your sister again." Boots says warily, slipping her pistol into her hand and firing at the tendril.
"It's certainly as ugly as her!" Chase replies. She shoves the door open with her shoulder as she moves to attack the owner of the tendril!
"Kind of looks like you... before your first cup of coffee, of course." Penny adds to the banter as she focuses her mind on the tendril, not certain it has a mind, but why not.
"Get behind me, gentlemen!" Ben says firmly. "Now get that thing ladies!"
"Penny, that looks nothing like her. Perhaps you are missing your morning coffee or you might need your sight checked?" Katherine adds in a matter-of-fact tone before firing at the tendril with a particularly nasty akaline substance.
Katherine's shot hits home and the tendril flinches as the substance begins to course through its flesh. Ben takes a shot as he attempts to move the farmers behind him.
"Gentleman?" Adani exclaims. "It's okay, dear," Karm says in a concilitory tone. "Not everyone is able to distinguish gender in pahtras."
"Are you suggesting that I don't present as feminine as I should" she says, rounding on the skittermander. "Not at all, dear. How about we let them deal with ... with whatever that is."
Penny's attack waltzs through the creature's mental defenses, causing it to stagger enough for Boots' follow-up shot to splatter violet blood across the barn door.
Chase steps up shoves to door aside to reveal the owner of the long tendril. Like most natives of Vesk-3, the thing has eight limbs, four of which it stands on putting it slightly taller than her. The other four limbs look to be for grasping - two of which hold a primitive looking spear. The tendril comes out of the creatures abdomen. The engineer doesn't seem intimidated as she punches it square in the face.
In response, the things snarls back at her and shoves its spear into her belly.
There's a scream from behind Ben as another of the beasts drops from the rafters above and stabs at Karm with its own feeding tendril.
"Karm!" the dark-furred Adani yells out.
Round 2
"Augh!" Chase grunts as she is impaled. Ignoring the pain, she calibrates her Fistigons and delivers a double rocket punch to the critter's face!
"Bother." Ben says when another monster pops up. "Need some help over here!"
"What?" Penny looks back at their employer being gutted. "No!" the quartermaster yells at the potential loss of credits. Slamming her mind into the offensive tentacle beast.
"Chase! Stop movin' all clunkity like Ben does and hit tha damn thing!" Boots calls out just before the Fistigons go to work on it.
"Hoooooee! That's ma girl!" she shouts out in response to the mechanic's punches, feinting and then firing on the creature as well.
Since her biohacks have clearly been highly effective Katherine turns on her heel, loads a second dart coated in nasty alkalis and fires at the new creature.
Katherine is now two for two with her needler rifle as the second creature is tagged with one of her concoctions. Ben follows up with a rifle shot that sprays more violet blood across the barn floor. The new opponent demonstrates a stronger will as it resists Penny's mental assault.
Boots trims the original attacker's ear and Chase follows up with a punch to the bestial face, reducing it to a mash of meat. It collapses in a twitching heap.
The remaining creature flings its obsidian-tipped spear at Ben, but it bounces off his new golem-forged plating II with no effect.
Round 3
Chase dashes up to the second beast and punches!
She spins herself around in a circle!