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Zephyr kicks your ship into a spiraling pattern back to the landing bay. The rest of you discover how to detach the jinsul assault craft, and set it adrift. Approaching your mother ship, you see dozens of the squat pyramidal jinsul spacecraft attached to her flanks like so many ticks.
On the landing deck, you spill out of your small ship. You're ushering your refugees out of the ship when you hear Jadnura's voice over your comms. “Starfinders, there’s likely to be fighting in every part of the ship, but it is important that you defend Deck 13. That area contains auxiliary control and all the most critical systems. Sensors indicate the jinsuls have attached a ship and unloaded a boarding party behind our defensive lines. Do not let them take over auxiliary control! Defend it at all costs!”
You hurry to auxiliary control.
"Back to the mothership then. Let's smash some more jinsuls." Harlan tries to see if he can get a gauge of the threat based on the ship's scanners while Zephyr gets the ship moving.
Expecting the worst, Harlan readies himself for unwelcome surprises. He casts extra sense (2nd) on himself, followed by fluid morphism (Cha), followed by taking out a vial of toxin to hold at the ready. He stays behind the other three. "We ready to hunt them, or let them come to us?"
"That hallway by the elevators should give us room to shoot, then we can fall back to the auxiliary control room if needed," says Zephyr, dragging chairs to form a low barricade behind the door openings.
"If they aren't here yet, we can try and get some more cover," says Zephyr, preparing to do a bit of exploring.
"Yer right. They could be swarmin' in from either side." Harlan grunts. The sound of skittering claws on deck plate gets him fiddling with his pocketwatch, waiting for them to show their mugs.
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A third jinsul rounds the corner steps past the first two and levels the business end of a hollow metal tube connected by a metallic hose to a large tank on its back. Fire blossoms at the vanguard while the other two jinsuls charge.
Although blocked somewhat by the corner of the lift, flames swirl around the far wall of the small chamber and engulf Never. The pain is enough to throw off the aim on her taclash counterattack, and the two charging jinsuls get inside her guard. They rear and blades of their second pairs of legs slash at her! One rips into her armor. The other, into the lift's door jamb.
It looks like Never's in a tight spot.
... F; critical burn 1d6)
... S; critical bleed 1d6)
... S; critical bleed 1d6)
Zephyr shoots at the green Jinsul as it is standing far enough off to the side that the bulkhead is behind it and not his ally.
Harlan focuses on the same jinsul being assaulted by Zephyr. He snaps a barrage of magic missiles at it!
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Zephyr and Harlan come to Never's aid with some well-placed shots and magic missiles. Although Zephyr's laser seems to dim as it hits them. The green jinsul's back right leg folds under it, but it keeps fighting.
Navasi knows a good thing when she sees it, and selects the same target. Her zero pistol leaves a rime of frost over a rapidly cooling corpse.
Your time to celebrate victory is short. Another, larger, jinsul skitters into view, and turns swiftly left toward the control room. It's armor has large spikes. A massive cryo weapon is clutched in its hand. It rushes into the room, obviously intending to bring the Starfinders there into melee.
... C
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Never furiously counterattacks the jinsul menacing her. Swinging the whip to advantage is difficult in the small space, but she manages a small gash against her foe.
...
...
The yellow jinsul paints Never and its fellow in flames. The targeted jinsul shields Never, and seems unfazed by the fire washing its back.
... F; critical burn 1d6)
... S; critical bleed 1d6)
... S; critical bleed 1d6)
”I really need to pick up some kind of close combat weapon,” mumbles Zephyr as his shoulder-mounted laser indexes up out of the way.
The android swings twice with his powered armor fists at the blue Jinsul before him, pounding away at the creature’s tough carapace.
Harlan's confident that Zephyr can fend off one jinsul, so when he hears more claws coming down the corridor he decides to focus on the one engaging Never. He sends his next volley of magic missiles at the red jinsul.
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Harlan's missiles slam home and Never's jinsul looks wobbly on its feet.
Zephyr's jinsul rears to bring the sword-like blades on its middle legs to bear against the android. Simultaneously it swings it's heavy rifle toward Navasi and Harlan. Its confidence in being able to fire on the less armored party members seems well-founded. The leg-blades slice into Zephyr's armor and bite deeply. The android's internal systems register a sudden and continuing drop in fluid pressure.
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 273
You take the listed amount of damage at the beginning of your turn each round until this condition ends. Your bleeding can be stopped with a successful DC 15 Medicine check as a standard action, or through the application of any ability that restores Hit Points. If you take two or more bleed effects, you take only the damage from the worst effect.
"This one!" Navasi steps aside and and fires wildly at the jinsul. "Zephyr, let him in and we can try to flank!"
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
(S;
... C crit damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
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A leg here, a leg there, Never leaves oozing dismembered jinsul parts on the deck.
Flamethrower jinsul steps forward and futilely tries to cauterize its fellow's wounds, and Never's, with gusto. All he does is create a wall of alien fluid steam for Never to emerge dramatically through.
... F; critical burn 1d6)
Gasping at the savage wound, Zephyr sets his nanobots to repairing his bleed, then takes a guarded step back. He orients the laser at the creature and aims to superheat it so it explodes from its shell!
Not wanting to let his allies get all the glory, Harlan waddles around the console he's been using as a barrier and casts a particularly fiery spell. He briefly transforms himself into a jet of flame and blazes through the yellow and blue jinsuls! A cloud of toxic smoke follows his path, particularly settling around yellow.
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Zephyr recovers nicely and blasts the big jinsul. Harlan explodes into a comet-like trail of fire and toxins. He dashes through both jinsuls.
The blue jinsul follows Zephyr (carefully) and slices visciously downward at the android with a legblade. The blade cuts less deeply thsn the last slice.
Good to her word, Navasi fires on, then closes with the jinsul. She takes a brutal backnhanded slash on the way in.
Turbocurarine
Source Character Operations Manual pg. 127
Level 3; Price 260
Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude DC 14
Track Dexterity (special); Frequency 1/round for 4 rounds
Effect Progression track is Sluggish—Stiffened—Staggered—Immobile; no end state. Immobile victims can continue to attempt a saving throw each round as a full-round action to revert to stiffened.
Cure 1 save
Sluggish
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Reflex saves and Dexterity-based ability checks, attack rolls, and skill checks; the DCs of her spells and special abilities decrease by 2; and she becomes flat-footed.
Stiffened
The victim loses her Dexterity bonus to her Armor Class, and she can’t take reactions.
Staggered
The victim is staggered but can take purely mental full actions.
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
... [dice= damage] 1d6 + 4 [/dice[ C crit damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Zephyr takes a guarded step to move into flanking position, then lashes out with his powered armor fist at the last remaining foe!
With the nearby jinsul sliced apart by Never, Harlan is cleared up to send another trio of magic missiles up at blue and hopefully finish it off.
"Barely breakin' a sweat here." Despite his words, Harlan is visibly sweating quite a bit in his heavy armor.
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Three magic missiles are not enough to put the jinsul down.
Rarrrng! Navasi draws and activates her buzzblade. She swings it overhead and slashes diagonally downward. The jinsul deflects the blow with a casual backward sweep of a leg blade.
Checked by impact with Navasi's blade, the backward sweep turns into a viscious thrust at Zephyr, closely followed by a scything sweep of the other legblade. Zephyr receives another warning about degraded skin integrity.
... (S; powered
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
Counting on his nanites to stop any bleeding, Zephyr ignores his wounds and swings heavily at the Jinsul he flanks!
In the unlikely case that Zephyr's deadly swings fail to take out the remaining jinsul, Harlan sends another volley of missiles at it with a flick of his finger.
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Zephyr's fist cracks the plating around the jinsul's bulbous head. LIke its companions it collapses on the deck.
Navasi hits it with a shot from her plasma pistol just to make sure it stays dead.
Your comms flare to life. It's Jadnura. “Our combat ships have bought us some breathing space. We're bringing in the last of the transports and should be preparing our Drift jump out of here shortly. But it’s not over yet—a jinsul commander along with an elite cadre of their soldiers has just boarded our carrier, and is headed toward you on the starboard side. You’ll need to defeat this potent foe and continue to defend auxilliary control. We’re almost ready to escape the Scoured Stars and just need you to buy us a little more time. Show no mercy, show no fear everything depends on you!”
"A commander, eh?" He looks to his three injured allies "We can mince 'em just as well as we did the rest. I've got a little something special for 'em." He draws another vial of turbocurarine and repositions in anticipation of a starboard assault.
Zephyr's nanites continue to do their job (will be a total of 10 healing over 10 rounds, should be on round 3 now).
In the meantime, he runs and gets one of the beds in the room the the port side and starts dragging it over to form a more effective barricade. "A little help, please?" he requests, hoping to make a low barrier he can shoot over from the port bridge door (orange rectangle).
"Remember, if we need me to juke the ship to try and make them fall down, hold onto something," he adds.
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In the moments before the big bug reveals itself, Never pops a serum of healing to regain a bit of lost stamina.
"I wish I had a beer instead!"
She stays close to Harlan where she can offer some protection for the technomancer to use his spells, which have been much more effective than her taclash. Tidbit crawls up from her breast pocket to have a look but she taps it back down.
"Not yet."
Zephyr positions himself behind the bed barricade and prepares to shoot incoming Jinsul. He slams a healing serum and ensures his artillery laser is fully charged.
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Harlan flips his pocketwatch across his gloved fingers as he waits for the most opportune time.
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Navasi pitches Never another healing serum mk1.
Again you hear the clatter of insectile foot-claws on deck plates. A jinsul rounds the corner. It looks like a twin to your last foe. Harlan doesn't judge the moment opportune enough, but it has no such reservations. It hiss-clicks and charges the technomancer! A Legblade slashes at Harlan, but he manages to pivot aside.
A second jinsul, smaller, but armed with a big plasma cannon comes through the bulkhead door on the first's heels. Seeing Never's lash flick out, it skids to a stop and unloads the cannon at the vanguard. Never is less lucky than her halforc friend; she takes the full brunt of the blast.
Jinsul Blue
Jinsul Green
Zephyr -86
Never 16 damage - serum roll if she drinks it
Navasi -32
Harlan
... (S; critical bleed 2d4)
... (E & F; critical burn 1d8)
Zephyr draws a bead on the green jinsul and opens fire with two blasts from his artillery laser!
Quietly his nanites keep going, healing 1 hp of damage (fast healing 1, 6/10 rounds used).
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Never tags the jinsul as it passes, but it shrugs off the blow. Then she follows up by closing in and flaying its backside. It dodges the next attack uncannily, but can't quite evade the third.
Zephyr barely lances two shots past the corner and into the green arrayed jinsul in the hall.
Navasi doesn't have a target. She vaults the barricade and advances to the corner of the short hallway to Auxilliary Control where she flattens out against the wall with both her pistols held by her shoulders pointing upward.
Jinsul Blue (-40)
Jinsul Green (-34)
Zephyr -85 (4 rounds of healing left)
Never 16 damage - serum roll if she drinks it
Navasi -32
Harlan
[/ooc]
Harlan eyes the positions of the foes and takes a careful, guarded step back to get some distance from those leg-blades. Snapping his watch shut, he sends a rippling temporal distortion out to catch the two nearest jinsuls.
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Harlan slows two jinsuls. A third (red) comes round the corner and fires on Never. (18 damage)
The big blue jinsul cuts through Never's defenses. (20 damage)
Darkness swirling around it, the Green jinsul steps toward the control room and seems surprised to bump into Navasi.
Navasi backs up a step and fires at the jinsul at point blank range. "Get this one!" She misses in her panic.
... E & F; critical burn
1d8; 20 ft. line, unwieldy) or
Zephyr fires twice at the green Jinsul again, wondering why all the organics were fighting from in front of the barricade. Still, he felt motivated somehow by Navasi’s plea.
Harlan sees that the foes are sluggish, but he's running low on the kind of magical fuel he'd like to use to take advantage of that. Instead, he falls back on his magic missiles, firing them at almost point blank at blue .
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With foes on both sides, Never's reduced to counter-punching just to fend them off. She's off balance and just can't get in a wounding strike.
Meanwhile Zephyr, unhindered by considerations like saving his fricking life and inspired by Navasi's eloquence, calmly lances two devastating laser shots into his target. Despite the obvious damage and the creature's flinching recoil, Zephyr doesn't think he inflicted the full measure of pain.
Harlan blasts away at blue.
Navasi , a little more calmly now, steps back and shoots green in a concentration of visual receptors. "Kill this one"
[ooc] DID IT AGAIN! At least I got a little back this time. WIll finish when I have more time.
[dice= acrobatics]