First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo steps forward to her podium addressing the Starfinder fleet. “Starfinders, after two years of hardship following our devastating first foray into the Scoured Stars, we now stand taller than ever and are back to fighting form. Today, new recruits rally beside experienced agents and rescued veterans, coming together to form the most resourceful, prepared, and skilled organization the Pact Worlds have ever known. This newfound strength comes not a moment too soon, for the threat within the Scoured Stars is unlike any we’ve ever faced: a hostile military force known as the jinsuls, committed to our complete destruction. Stopping the Jinsul Hierocracy will challenge us more than anything we’ve done before, but what I’ve seen from our agents these past two years assures me that we are more than up to the task! Your orders will arrive shortly; for now, gather your equipment, finish your preparations, and send any messages you wish before we reach the Scoured Stars.”
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Hundreds of Starfinder agents hustle throughout the loading docks aboard the ever-impressive and newly refurbished Master of Stars, the pinnacle of the Starfinder fleet. Junior agents hastily pack every docked starship with weapons, armor, spare parts, and provisions, while technical staff runs diagnostics on starship armaments and senior officers finalize flight formations and supply routes. Many Starfinders’ faces are dark with uncertainty, but the fiery resolve burns in their eyes.
Venture-Captain Arvin, a damaya lashunta man, emerges from the shifting crowd of activity, his expression hard with repressed concern.
“It seems fate has made soldiers out of explorers. We’ve always prepared our agents to navigate danger and violence, but never anything like this. Still, there isn’t another organization in the Pact Worlds that I would trust more with this daunting task.”
He pauses for a moment, then shakes himself back to attention. “Right, much left to do! There are still a few specialized tasks remaining that you might be able to help us complete.”
As he finished all of your comm devices begin to ping, those who shirk certain technologies are able to find hard copies from a few of the staff.
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Whiskey Bot 8000 beeps and boops as their 8 robotic limbs carry them into the room. An anti-grav mini-fridge follows along.
" Greetings fellow Pathfinders, not only am I a fully equipped pathfinder I am also an excellent bartender and can provide for your libation needs. "
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A tall, tawny-skinned young man with a shaved head and a million-credit smile gives Whiskey Bot a companionable slap on the back in-between strapping down the battered green plates of his Golemforged armor over his muscular frame. "You may be my new best friend, chooba," he quips. Despite lacking the reddish hue most of his fellow humans picked up, his accent clearly marks him as a Trencher of Akiton. "Roddy Glasz," he says by way of casual greeting. "You mighta seen my vids. Soldiering isn't what I normally do, but in some ways, it's pretty similar. I guess violence is violence, when you get down to it." His brow furrows for a moment as he contemplates that, but he quickly recovers his boyish grin. "Not sure what help I'll be outside muscle and a pretty face, but I'll do what I can, yeah?"
Once he's strapped up, he checks his pulsecaster pistol to make sure it's loaded, then flexes his arms and legs to make sure the armor fits properly. Once satisfied, he nods. "My other Starfinder gigs thus far have been pretty wild. I helped make first contact with the Ghibrani." He grunts a mirthless laugh and makes air quotes. "Well. 'Helped.' I was mostly useless. They put me in the gunner's seat on the flight there, and let me tell you, I am not a very good shot. All thumbs," he adds, wiggling his thick, gauntleted fingers. "Still, what a ride! I may have been completely out of place, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Not every day you take part in a first-contact! Hell of a start to my Society career, let me tell you."
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Whiskey-Bot 8000 leads the way to the supply mustering location in a nearby cargo bay as the group talks to one another. Other Starfinders fan out in all directions as things get under way.
Zigvigix, leader of the Exo-Guardians, sits before an immense cargo bay filled with crates of supplies. “They say an army marches on its stomach, but it also fights with guns and ammo! Can you take a look at all our gear to make sure it works and then load it onto the ships? Just try to keep the explosives separated from the food, please. We don’t want to have that mistake happen again!”
As he finishes he request points at Roddy with a smile and twitch of his antennae, "Especially you Mr. Roddy Glasz! You know the drill. No pressure!"
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A kasatha with what appears to be a set of armored chef whites saunters into the room. "Alright supply sounds just up my ally. I can make a SPAM Parmesan that will make you forget that its a war crime HEEEEY! Ok lets see what we have here for materials" I havn't gotten out much to be honest. Did a bit of work following up on a crashed Starfinder survey team, but that's about it.
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As the group struggles to make much headway with the hangar full of supplies on their own, together they are able to assist in loading up one of the starships.
Zigvigix walks back over and nods approvingly but his mandibles chitter out a "*Tsk Tsk*" as he uploads a reward to your devices that plays a Strawberry Machine Cake tune as it arrives. You can see the leader of the Exo-Guardians antennae dancing to the beat.
"That should prove useful as we head into our mission. Sometimes weapons are a necessity and you can have some of the best when working with the Exo-Guardians. Keep up the good work and see where else you can help out." he says as the group heads off.
"OH AND DON'T GET DRUNK ON DUTY!" he calls out.
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With no objections, the WB8k quickly heads off towards the central control room to the hangar complex towards the Acquisitives meeting point on the map.
Radaszam, leader of the Acquisitives, overlooks a large holographic map of the Scoured Stars system, overlaid with smaller, more detailed maps of terrain on specific planets. “I don’t know about you, but I’m keen to take this fight to the jinsuls on their home turf. We have topographic data collected from our last foray into the Scoured Stars, plus some information on fighting styles our agents have reported from past jinsul encounters. See if you can make sense of it all and formulate a plan of attack.”
He then looks at the group and squints his eyes, "Make sure you become acquainted with one another too. You will be watching each others backs when we get there. Bond while you work through this so I don't have to send a recovery team after what is left."
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Lexicor nods and sets to work trying to extract any relevant information.
Cooperation and a balanced set of skills will increase our odds of success by a considerable margin. I will spare you all my derivations unless you are interested.
From a cultural aspect of the records...
And any specific biological elements of note....
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A staunch, rather angry looking dwarf walks in, her dark vestements and dark looking weaponry hinting to her life of service to both deity and the mines. "Let's get on with this, yeah? And the name's Elfa. Amberridge, if you must know."
She approaches the stores, as directed by Zigvigix and looks over them, "Reminds me of my time on the Sledgehammer and on asteroid AA-126D in the Diaspora. Coming upon the trappings of technologies gone by really gave me more of an appreciation for the mysteries that Eloritu still hides from us."
Elfa moves up to the information Radaszam offers to them to look through, trying to see the hidden meaning behind it all.
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Roddy scans through any data the Starfinders already have on the jinsul, specifically looking at city distribution maps, combat histories, common troop formations, and social and military heirarchies.
"Never really been in a war before," says absently while he works. "Took down Datch, but that was against one person, not an army. She did have an obscene number of traps, though." Just recalling the iconography of Lao Shu Po that had been everywhere on her ship makes his jaw clench, but he quickly composes himself and gets back to work.
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Elfa is able to quickly point out some misplaced cargo with her past experience as the group is getting ready to leave. Zigvigix looks absolutely thrilled and sends along another quartermaster credit.
Before WB8k even gets a chance to offer his own tactical advice and stories, Radaszam is already fairly thrilled.
"Seems a few of you have already been through the fire. This shouldn't be too different. I expect different tactics from these beings but you can clearly operate on a high level. Now I believe there are more tasks to be done, where are y'all headed to next?" he asks after finishing going over a bit more tactical advice and also sending you away with a certificate to get one of the upgraded ships.
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Your ship is directed to an Acquisitives command ship orbiting the planet Callion-2 where you meet Radaszam once again. His ship is in pristine condition and has representatives from multiple mercenary groups discussing in the hallways. Radaszam’s already imposing vesk figure appears extra threatening as he looms over a bound jinsul on his starship’s bridge.
“Let me introduce you to my guest, Teskrkah, a jinsul who claims to have betrayed her teammates—those teammates being an assassination squad sent to kill me. Now, I don’t know what to believe, so I want you to figure out the truth here. I have some bigger fires I need to put out at the moment, so I’m handing this off to you. I’ve programmed the computer to translate for you if you need it. Remember, we’re Starfinders and not depraved killers, so don’t torture this pitiful creature. Just get what information you can from her. Engage the ship’s autopilot once you’ve gotten her to talk and it’ll bring you right to my location.”
Radaszam doesn't give much time for questions before he departs the command ship on a personal vessel to return to the other leaders. Teskrkah struggles against the bindings before giving up with a few clicks of her mandibles. The nearby computer terminal whirs into motion, translating the noise.
“Dhurus, though an abominable curse on my people, seems set to mount you atop its flagship, as it did to the great heroes we once followed.”
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Whiskey Bot comments "[bigger]*BEEP* *BOOP* Unless pleasant beverages are required I find my functionality in this situation limited.*BEEP* *BOOP*"
Whiskey Bot pauses and then speaks again "*BEEP* *BOOP* Perhaps they will be helpful. The right beverage has been known to loosen tongues. *BEEP* *BOOP*"
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Roddy nods at Radaszam's warning against torture. He'd mostly expected as much, but it's still nice to hear it stated overtly.
Once the venture-captain has left, he takes a seat across from the jinsul, arms crossed, and considers her. "I wanna believe what you told Radaszam, that you're here to help. The last thing I want is to be paranoid. But you gotta understand, chooba, this is a war, so precautions gotta be taken." He uncrosses his arms and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Why don't you tell us why you're here, and we can go from there, yeah?"
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Lexicor studies the traitor, calculating the optimal approach to glean information.
Interesting that willful inebriation may be our best tool in this situation.
He waits to see the effects of the bar-tender bot and the flow of information. If possible, he will cast telepathic message to place a word here or there to support the dialog.
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The jinsul is hesitant at first, furiously clicking mandibles but unable to turn away from the offered beverages due to the restraints. Translation finishes: "Poison? These are tricks?" but the creature eventually relents. It takes quite a few drinks but it appears to loosen the tongue of the creature a bit.
Translation whirs as the conversation continues, "Tell you why I am here ? To help you and get away from that Dhurus! Why am I tied up?".
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Elzar responds in accented Jinsul, "You're tied up because our first encounter with your people involved them shooting at us in space. Thats how most of the subsequent encounters went as well. We are trying to make sure we can trust you. Let me see if I understand what is going on here correctly." El'zar goes to release the restraints unless he allies stop him
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The Jinsul seems at ease but doesn't provide much more information to the group...but a moment later the creatures body begins to convulse and shiver. A disembodied voice echoes out, "There will be no betrayal!", and two creatures erupt from it's body and killing the host.
The two demonic creatures quickly lash out with jaws filled with jagged teeth attempting to clamp down on Elzar and Roddy. Their surprise entrance catches El'zar off guard but Roddy smacks his away.
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The appendages of Whiskey Bot 8000 quickly pull out the rifle but their aim is slightly off as the laser bolt flies into a nearby chair, singing the leather.
Lexicor and Roddy quickly dispatch the remaining enemies with a forceful punch and a barrage of force missiles.
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A few of Radaszam's Acquisitive agents offer to clean up the mess while you head back to the fleet or to your next target.
"Shame it never spoke anything useful...we might be in trouble if all of those things have demons bursting out of them. Let us clean this up while you handle more important things."