"You brat!" Chiaiese exclaims and spins on the nearest money with her knife.
**Computers Stunt: Dirty Trick Whenever you attempt a Computers check as part of your stunt and strike and succeed, you can cause the target to gain one of the following conditions until the start of your next turn instead of the flat-footed condition: deafened, off-target, shaken, or sickened (your choice).
causing Sickened condition to Blue.
The nearest creature expires under a hail of gunfire, along with Chiaiese's strike.
The creature in front of you once again arcs electricity toward Chiaiese.
1. Yellow (-2)
2. Anton
3. Chiaiese (-2)
4. Red (DEAD)
5. Orange
6. Thak
7. Neap
8. Yoro
9. Black
10. Blue (DEAD)
Yoromishtali can see where the creature is going. Perhaps it is overconfidence in his abilities or a dismissal of these creatures’ abilities to organize an ambush, but he rushes after the thief in a way he wouldn’t do against a more intelligent appearing foe.
When the vesk is near the creature, he swings the rifle butt again at the creature.
Yoro moves forward and whacks the creature who stole his comm unit, knocking it out of the tree.
Neap placed a punishing hit on one of the creatures, killing it.
Thak hits one too, though this one just squeals and runs into the tree line.
Yoromishtali searches for his comm. ”These guys are annoying. Hopefully the colony keeps them out. Thanks for your help. Everyone alright, ready to press on?”
He looks at the unconscious hobgar. ”No honor in killing a sleeping foe, especially an animal.”
|
His aim follows the last target back into the trees, with his finger light on the trigger.
I don’t trust you, monkey. But you don’t deserve to die just for being yourself… and being annoying.
When he’s convinced that the monkey will stay in the tree to lick its wounds, Thak reloads the pistol, slides it back into his holster, and recovers his knife from Chasey.
“Yoro, did you get your comm unit back? Anyone else lose anything to them?”
Cubber is still watching the target in the tree. “Grrrrr.”
Thak pats Cubber’s head and gives him some ear skritches to calm him down. The growl softly goes away.
“You aren’t kidding, Cubber. Electro-monkeys that steal stuff? Weird ships from a ‘we love war’ civilization? This trip is getting a little too interesting. Keep watching the trees while we walk and let me know if you see something.”
“Yip.”
As you continue, the path narrows. The mist remains thick, and the heat and humidity is oppressive (though your armor's environmental protections may mitigate that somewhat).
You continue to take note of wildlife in this forest, though thankfully, the monkey-like creatures aren't coming anywhere near you right now. What you do see seems to be mostly insects and birds.
Chiaiese would prefer to at least take a few notes on the moneys they encountered, but the mission has taken outsized importance, and they must move quickly.
Yoromishtali says with a nod to Thak, ”Yeah, I recovered it.”
Later, as the path narrows, Yoromishtali’s eyes continue to look into the canopy above, suspecting more of those creatures to attempt to steal some more things from them.
Yoro is the first to hear a strange language being uttered up ahead.
Through the mist you see three...no...four...figures moving carefully down the path. You can't see much, other than they are humanoid, and they appear to be armed.
Yoromishtali doesn’t know what language they are speaking. For the moment they don’t appear to be aware of his group’s presence, so he can’t gauge if they are colonists or those responsible for the drones.
”Hide,” he whispers as he moves into the trees, sliding the rifle to his left side as he grabs his doshko with his right hand.
|
|
Hearing Yoro’s instruction and seeing the oncoming group, Thak steps off the path to gain some cover from the trees. He draws his knife and crouches, watching the group approach.
He whispers into the comms to alert the rest of the party. "Armed group on the path. Scatter."
“Shh-shhhh-down,” he softly commands Cubber. The squox silently flips around and disappears into his pocket.
What if they're friendly? Chiaiese thinks. Quietly, she retreats into the foliage.
As Thak, Yoro, and Chiaiese take cover, the four well armed and armored figures that are barely visible through the mist suddenly pause, then there is a flurry of orders. Though you can't understand their language, the tone is brusque and staccato.
1. Yoro
2. Anton
3. Thak
4. Blue
5. Neap
6. Chiaiese
7. Black
8. Red
9. Yellow
|
|
Looks like a we-love-war welcoming committee. Let’s see if I can throw one of them off a bit.
Hearing the unrecognized language, Yoromishtali is fairly certain a fight is imminent. If they were the colony’s defense force, wouldn’t they be speaking Basic? He doesn’t bother with stealth, pushing through the bushes and branches of the trees. Before he knows it he’s within striking distance of an individual. He raises his doshko above his head, baring his fangs, and shouting a battle cry. If it is a colony defense force, they can laugh about it later.
Thak gets the attention of one of the humanoids, and he seems to pause as he decides what to do.
Yoro rolls up to face off against these humanoids, but they really don't seem alarmed by your demonstration.
|
"Hold on, Viv. It looks like Yoro is telling a joke. Oh, yeah, I've heard this one. The punchline is 'Yeah boss, but that bucket kept getting farther and farther away!'"
His totally accurate interpretation of Yoro's yelling done with, he moves up next to Chiaiese's hiding spot. "Wow. This is tense, huh?" he asks a bit sheepishly. Still, he didn't want to be the first one to start the shooting, so he watches while building a temporary wall out of some fallen branches, a few leaves, and a pair of dirty stabilizers he found under a rock.
Viv continues to watch the action.
One of the humanoids levels his rifle, racks a round into the chamber, and fires at Yoro.
All of the humanoids yell and scream desperate orders in a language none of you understand.
We're in initiative. Bold may go. I modified the initiative order slightly to make this a little easier. Round 1.
1. Yoro (-7)
2. Thak
3. Blue
4. Anton (delayed, with barricade)
5. Neap
6. Chiaiese
7. Black
8. Red
9. Yellow
Chiaiese is reminded of the deep valley runs in the jungles of Castrovel where she and Rilynn would go to camp and train. It seemed like fun then. This was decidedly more dangerous.
Best not to leave the outcome to chance, even if it meant spending all her spells and having none later on.
|
|
"Oop, here we go. I guess they don't wanna talk after all. Alright, Viv, light 'em up."
Again the guns pop up from their cupolas. Again as the targeting AI takes precedence in the small drone's programming, whatever kernel of the original personality that lies buried resumes a place of prominence.
"True happiness stems only from duty," it intones as the air is filled with gunfire.
Between Chiaiese's and Neap's magic missiles and the very accurate hail of gunfire from Anton and Viv, several of the soldiers yell out in pain. One falls over .
One of the soldiers pulls a pistol and fires it at Yoro.
The other soldier goes for his knife and attacks!
Bold may go. I modified the initiative order slightly to make this a little easier. Round 2.
1. Yoro (-7)
2. Thak
3. Blue
4. Anton (with barricade)
5. Neap
6. Chiaiese
7. Black (-8)
8. Red
9. Yellow (dead)
Yoromishtali snarls as the bullet hits him. Taking a deep breath he holds his doshko for a moment horizontally across his body. He changes his stance, one foot sliding back as he shouts something in Vesk.
A spin and his doshko seeks the body of the nearest soldier.
|
|
So much for negotiation… time to take some gloss off this armor.
Thak steps onto the path and darts across to take some pressure off Yoro and distract the enemies from the rest of the team. He draws his skipshot pistol with his free hand as he goes.
“What are nice targets like you doing in a forest like this?”
"Grrrrrrr!"
Yoro cues up the soldier near him and hits! Thak is not as lucky.
One of the remaining soldiers cocks his rifle again and fires in a well-disciplined manner.
1. Yoro (-7)
2. Thak (-6)
3. Blue
4. Anton (with barricade)
5. Neap
6. Chiaiese
7. Black (dead)
8. Red (-5)
9. Yellow (dead)
With two down, Chiaiese decides to conserve her spells and makes a run to engage the nearest foe in melee, ducking just in to the undergrowth to give herself a small edge of concealment.
2x move.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE...
Following another deadly salvo from Anton and Viv, the soldier near Yoro expires.
The remaining soldier sneers, draws his knife, and prepares to attack Chiaiese.
1. Yoro (-7)
2. Thak (-6)
3. Blue
4. Anton (with barricade)
5. Neap
6. Chiaiese
7. Black (dead)
8. Red (Dead)
9. Yellow (dead)
|
|
Let’s make him an easier target for the team…
Yoromishtali strides past two of the fallen soldiers while he raises his doshko. The vesk yells a battlecry as he swings the doshko towards the enemy.
The final soldier crumples under Yoro's blow.
”Well done, Thak!” Yoromishtali salutes his companion. ”Your distraction allowed me to get a better attack angle. Thank you.” The vesk slows his breathing and feels the pulse at his wrist. After about thirty seconds of that, he looks at his injury.
”Anyone else hurt?”
|
|
Thak watches the last soldier crumple, then moves forward to check ahead in case more soldiers are coming. He knows from experience that staying alert at times like this gave him time to make sense of the deaths and helped him stay out of the dark places in his mind.
”Well done, Thak!” Yoromishtali salutes his companion. ”Your distraction allowed me to get a better attack angle. Thank you.”
He glances back to Yoro and returns the salute. “Thank you. Combat isn’t my specialty, but I can be very distracting when I try. And you handled that doshko beautifully. A practiced blade draws blood with honor. Well done — and well done all! I hope I got that Vesk proverb right.
“I took a shot to the arm, but it’s small… a few minutes rest will fix me right up. Now let’s have a closer look at our attackers and see what we can find out. Didn’t someone say they knew about these people, the Alzami? Amtaszi? I know it ended with an ‘I’… ”
He leans down and holds out his arm. “Cubber, look-look.” The squox hops out of his pocket and almost runs down Thak’s arm, sniffing and nosing into most everything it can find.
Thak and his Squox first search the perimeter of the area, finding nothing but alien vegetation.
A closer look at the soldiers reveals them to be human uniformed soldiers. They all wear the same armor, and are armed in a similar manner.
All of them have severe, though not necessarily unattractive, faces. Their hair all features a distinctive widow's peak.
Yoromishtali grins and nods in appreciation of Thak’s use of the vesk proverb.
He examines their weapons and armor, noting the materials, the apparent durability, and differences between what he knows from the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds.
When he hears Neap’s word the vesk hisses. ”Azlanti?!” he echoes. He takes a deep breath and clenches a fist. ”Decades ago, they attacked a vesk colony. I’m so glad I --” he looks down at the camera attached to his armor. He lowers his head and groans.
”Dull claws! I forgot to turn on the camera.” He takes a few breaths as he attempts to calm down. After half a minute, he shakes his head, laughing. ”Well, I hope the next combatants we face know Azlanti martial arts. My camera will be ready.”
Thankful for the succession of encounters to be over, Chiaiese smooths her armor and joins the group around the fallen adversary.
"Indeed." A cursory look validates Neap's conclusion, but as the Pact Worlds have kept their distance from the Star Empire for a very long time, she kneels beside the humanoid for a closer inspection.
Theme Benefit: Xenoseeker, Life Science
You are trained to seek out, identify, and interact with alien life-forms. Reduce the DC to identify a rare creature using Life Science by 5.