[SFS_Aerondor] 04-03 Battle for the Beacon (level 5-8) (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Venture-Captain Naiaj surveys the group with her characteristically grim expression. “Today, we launch two missions to investigate the continued malfunction of many Drift beacons in the Vast. I believe your counterparts are boarding the Master of Stars for their own briefing as we speak. " She says.

“As you know, for the past few months, Drift beacons have been going dark throughout the Vast, which has, in effect, reduced the size of the traversable universe. As Starfinders, it is our duty to protect these beacons, as they represent new roads
to travel and new knowledge to unearth."

She waves, and a projection appears on her desk: a sector of space, long stretches of the unexplored Vast dotted with small settlements, and in the center, a red dot that indicates a Drift beacon. “This Drift beacon has been operating sporadically for several weeks—shutting down, then becoming targetable again before winking out entirely. We’ve determined that it’s a good candidate for investigation. This mission also presents an opportunity for a test flight, considering that only starships of our newest experimental model, the Azata, seems to be able to navigate toward so sporadic a signal."

“We’ll be issuing you an Azata for this investigation. Your task is to navigate to the beacon, investigate the cause of its malfunctions, and repair it, if possible. Once you’ve returned, we’ll compare the results of your mission with the results of your sister mission and see what we can learn about why these beacons are shutting down. Understand?”

Sefel's antennae rub together as he considers the facts of the briefing. As always, he only has more questions.

With the reduction in our beacons, would it be correct to assume that we're losing contact with some agents, and that some are even becoming stranded without communication? Are there any Starfinder agents that were recently near this beacon and now lost? If so, we could keep a lookout for them!

“Hello, everyone! I’m doctor DuQuesne and it’s a great pleasure to be working with you all. I joined the society only a couple of months ago, so, after a lifetime of working in a corporation in Akiton, this is all quite fresh and exciting!”. DuQuesne is an older halfling, with a gentle smile and calm demeanor, wearing casual clothing. He goes around the room shaking hands or equivalent appendages.

------

"How ominous! I hope we can solve this before it spreads too much!" he comments, after the VC's presentation.

"Hi, Doc, I'm Mahari," the perky female halfling greets Doctor DuQuesne. She's unusually tall for a halfling, somewhere between halfling- and human-sized, and dressed in a smart business suit. "What corp were you at on Akiton?" she asks appearing to simply be making small talk. But when she gives him her contact info, he sees: Mahari Jones, Corporate Espionage, so it's more likely that she's fishing for contacts and insider info.

At Naiaj's mention of the Azata, Mahari visibly perks up. A new experimental ship? To test drive? Oh, the joy! And all that performance data I could use in my Manticore, too, maybe. This is gonna be fun! she thinks excitedly.

"Ooh, Sefel, that's a good point. I hope no one's stranded out there. I know what that's like, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy." Of course, what she really means is that she'd wish for worse things on her worst enemy, but stranding is still pretty bad.

"Boss, are there any settlements near this beacon? Doesn't look like it from the map," she says as she stands on her tip-toes to peer in at the holo display. "Should we be on the lookout for other species? Any reason to suspect espionage from a nearby planet? I mean, it's what I'd do if I wanted to keep people away from my territory."

A towering izalguun fitted with an extraordinarily high-tech backpack wordlessly takes in the briefing. He nods and begins looking up specs for the experimental starship on his wrist unit incorporated into his armor.

"There are various settlements out in the vast. They do tend to locate near drift beacons for obvious reasons. We don't have any records of one, but that is hardly surprising. Most start small and try to keep a low profile to stop pirates or large mega-corps moving in on them." says Naiaj.

"Any other questions?"

In the room was standing also a tall figure with four arms. His long and hairless head is wrapped in a piece of clothing of color dark red. His robes are of the same color covering his Vesk Brigadine. His four arms are crossed on his chest as he listens to the briefing. His clothing carries an emblem of his family a four-armed dragon.

"My name is Vecro Asynti from the House Khadil. As much as I love to test the experimental ship I am a bit worried about using an untested ship. Do we know why the beacons have stopped working? Is something destroying them?"

"We don't know why they are failing... that is one of the reasons we want you to go and try and repair this one. Find out what you can about what is happening to them. And the Azata is not _experimental_ This is just its maiden outing."

I guess not. We'll be on the lookout when we head out there. Sefel remarks.

You secure yourself in to the very new quarters aboard the Azata. Several of the chairs still have plastic covers on them, and the whole ship reeks of "brand new".

The toilets are even lacking graffiti.

Anyone doing anything in particular to amuse yourselves on the drift trip? There is a good array of vidgames and digital books that seem to have come from Naiaj's personal collection. This is also time to confirm your starship roles

At the briefing...

A heavily armed and armoured shirren enters the room. Clad in a matte grey suit of overlapping metal bands, he strides forward, the hilt of a long sword peeking over a shoulder. He gently lowers a sizeable rifle bag to the floor, removes his full-faced helm and tucks it casually beneath an arm.

"Venture Captain, thank you for assigninhk me to thish mission," he announces, mandibles clacking. "It ish alwaysh a pleassure workinhk with you."

Turning to his fellow agents, the shirren nods, antennae twitching as he introduces himself. "I'm Chk'tarlsh," he says aloud. Although many prefer to call me Charles, he adds telepathically, a hint amusement evident.

"Ah, Vecro! It'sh good sseinhk you again," he adds, glimpsing the familiar face.

Chk'tarlsh settles in for the briefing, listening intently to Naiaj's instructions and the astute questions from his companions.

Aboard the Azata...

Chk'tarlsh examines the new vessel with the excitement of a child on Feastday. Antennae waving, he sits - and swipes through the UI - of each of the stations in turn.

Finally, he settles into a vacant seat at the gunner station.

During the voyage, he happily chats and joins in vidgamed with any who wish to do so.

Daata silently explores and examines the starship, placing hands on all the frame walls, before settling into the science officer's chair. He appears more than entertained digging into the details of the maiden starship, but also entertains himself with some whittling using his axe.

DuQuesne looks dismayed at the awful options for weapons, hoping they don't have to actually shoot at anything with these toy guns.

I'd take a Pegasus over this

Chk'tarlsh finds he has to take the bubble-wrap off a couple of the UIs. Looks like nobody has tested them yet. Lets hope the shake-down mission doesn't reveal any flaws.

He finds the collection of video games extensive, including a number of favorites and a few brand new ones. Riftleaper is an especially engrossing tale of being lost in the drift and involved jumping from debris pile to pile, with rift portals appearing at random intervals to take you to new levels. Though how Naiaj got that he is not too sure, as it is in pre-pre release at the moment. Sounds like she has Contacts.

In spite of his best efforts, DuQuesne discovers that the armourments for the Azata are not a joke, but actually what has been fitted. Maybe the EMP cannon has situational uses, but his suspicion is that the fit-out was done by someone selecting the least-cost components, not someone who had to rely on the weapons for survival.

Daata however finds the computers to be excellent, and the auxiliary libraries to be most helpful and well selected.

Sefel first walks to the engineering station, and running his hands along the nice chair surveys the instrumentation available to him. He then wanders to the back of the ship searching for the extra parts storage, in case something should need to be cobbled together at the last moment.

He greets his teammates via his limited telepathy.

I'm honestly more of a software person, but I suppose it's fun to play with parts on a brand new ship! How do the rest of you find the accommodations?

"Well, diplomacy shall be our finest weapon in this journey!" suggests DuQuesne, in a cold sweat.

Hoping for some shieldless azlanti drones in our future

Mahari makes a show of being nonchalant about the new ship, but inside she's just itching to dig into its capabilities. Reaching the cockpit, she tears the plastic sheeting off the pilot's chair, settles in and makes all the necessary adjustments, (Lumbar support could be better, but it's okay, she decides). She gets clearance from Traffic Control and takes her shiny new toy out for spin. Literally. For which she is chided by TraCon for performing stunts in congested space. Pffft. Whatever!

Out in the Drift, with the ship on autopilot, she goes crawling about looking into all of the Azata's nooks and crannies. Sometimes a little too literally as she pops out of a ventilation shaft and startles Vecro. "Sorry, big guy," she says with a smile as she easily extracts herself from an air duct that's clearly way too small even for her halfling frame. Standing in the passageway, she looks down at her technical maintenance worker's uniform and is honestly surprised at how little dust and dirt is on it after having crawled through the vents. "Yep, that's the sign of a new ship," she laughs. Wiggling her pointed ears, her uniform instantly shifts into common everyday wear of stretchy pants and a loose top. "Have you found the mess room yet? I could use a bite to eat," she asks the kasatha.

The days, and weeks pass. The monotony of the drift is... monotonous.

Luckily the games collection is first rate. The reading material is also good and varied. There are up to date chronicles from agents. There are reference books. Even some literature. Someone amongst the high brow reading of "The old Shirren and the Drift", and "The Slyph in the Sycamore" you also find a copy of "Twice dead, three times the charm?" a pulp novel of dubious quality.

Almost a month after entering the drift you finally return to Real Space (tm).

Seconds before the blurred colors of the Drift finish resolving into the distinct forms of objects on the Material Plane, the Azata’s proximity sensors begin to beep on the starship’s control panel. The mechanical, buoy-like Drift beacon fills most of the image presented on the viewfinder. A battle-scarred starship equipped with a large turret sits on one side of the viewfinder, its patchwork hull skillfully cobbled together from mismatched salvage and spare parts. Its weapon is trained on the other ship nearby: a small, deep purple shuttle with two fresh blaster burns on its flank.

If you want to scan the ships as you arriv, Science could you give me a pair of computer checks (don't forget the +2 bonus from the Azata). One for the shuttle and one for the more heavily armed ship.

"The comfort of the accommodationsh and quality of onboard ssystemsh are better than I am accusstomed to," Chk'tarlsh replies to Sefel. "However, the armamentsh are... dissappointinhk," he adds, his excitement somewhat diminished as he peruses the specs of the factory fitted weapons array..

"Well," he says with a shrug. "It'sh not like it'sh the firsst time they've asshked ush to tessst out ssome new conccept in the field. Likely won't be the lasst."

"I'll jusst keep my riflesh closse by, in casse we need more firepower," he says, laughing.

Vecro enters the ship and puts his belongings into the crew quarters. He checks the station, looks into different rooms, and checks the weaponry. He is puzzled by some choices, but he knows that it is not the sword that winds the fight.

During drift travel he plays games with others, his favorites would be fighting games. But as he plays Vecro more often punches air with his two other hands than he uses the pad.

Some time he spends meditating and physical exercises. When he got to see the books and saw Twice Dead, three times the Charm, kasatha said

"I think I read some book of that author Shokil, it was Sgt. Smith bites a bullet. But on that ship, someone removed the ending of that book. Maybe I can find it here."

When they leave the drift Vecro sees the situation and turns on the radio

"Unidentified warship, this is Azata class explorer, do you read me? We are Starfinder agents in an official mission, are we interrupting in something?"

Sefels sighs audibly as they exit the drift into an obviously tense situation. He engages his telepathy as usual.

Daata, what are you picking up on those two ships? Vecro is buying you time for thorough scans.

Just going to pause for a moment to give Daata a chance to scan if it wants to. I know it is still the weekend in the States, and not everyone can post over the weekend.
@Vecro - Busted :-)

Mahari was always a little tense during the exit from the Drift, as one never knew who or what would be waiting on the other side. Her right hand on the 3d stick and her left on the multi-axis throttle, she restlessly tapped her bright pink fingernails in anticipation of what they'd find.

She was actually just a little relieved that it was only a small-scale battle in progress.

I mean, at least it's not a space shark, or an ancient psychotic godling, or a black hole, or a .... Maybe better stop there and focus on the situation.

She taps the view control to get a better look at the two ships and waits for the experts to let her know what they're up against.

Sorry, long weekend.

Daata wordlessly sets to work on the scanners, zeroing in on the two craft.

Computers (scanner): 1d20 + 20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 20 + 2 = 33
Computers (scanner): 1d20 + 20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 20 + 2 = 32

Daata works his old brand of not-quite-magic on the Azata's scanners, getting full readings on both the ships.

The shuttle is a class-5 shuttle with a single life form aboard it and a transponder that identifies it at "The Chronicler". Currently it is disabled and just drifting in space. That said, there is a large concentration of electrical energy - indicating an additional engineering bay has been added to the shuttle and is currently busy. From the radiation signals, it doesn't look like either repair activity or a jury-rigged life support system.

The other ship identifies as the Revolution Runner. It is an explorer class starship with five life forms aboard. It has a turret mounted gravity gun which can act as a tractor beam. Technical specs translate across to giving it AC 22, TL 19, HP 65, SP 80and core PCU of 175.

As you make the call to the Revolution Runner, you also receive a transmission from The Chronicler.

Decision time, you have a few options. You can talk to them one at a time (pick who you want to deal with first), both at the same time on a shared channel, or both at the same time on private channels. If you opt for both at the same time on private channels, you must nominate which of you will be working each channel. While you can share information, you need to keep to your own channels.

I propose to talk with the Chronicler first then with Revolution Runner.

Chk'tarlsh brings up a video feed from the forward weapons systems to better inspect the two vessels. For the time being, he leaves the targeting systems and armaments offline, ready and awaiting the command to open fire.

I am happy to do the same as Vecro proposed.

Mahari turns in her seat to look back to where Vecro is sitting. "Go ahead and comm them if you want. Or let DuQuense do the talking. But do me a favor, and if you want to lie to them, leave that to the pro's," she finishes with a wicked smile and a wink.

When the time comes to do the dices, either Diplomacy or Deception I will refer to others. Mahari has like +gazilion of Diplomacy bonus

Vecro nods to others and opens private communication with the Chronicler

"Class-5 Shuttle The Chronicler, do you read me? This is Azata Class Explorer, We are Starfinder agents on an official mission. We saw that you are drifting, is everything ok?"

Chronicler first works for me.

Daata turns his large head to the captain as the comms line goes live on the vidscreen.

"Hello? Hello? Oh gods, please tell me you are not more pirates!"
Says the somewhat agitated voice.

Sense motive checks and maybe a diplomacy to help calm them down would be helpful skills here.

"Hey, hon, No, we're not pirates," Mahari says calmly and evenly, even as she thinks, Not today, anyway.

"Are you okay?" she repeats Vecro's query.

Diplo: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (17) + 17 = 34

"No. I'm not okay. I came here to try and fix this dodgy drift beacon, and then while I'm off my ship, that blasted dreadnought shifts in from the drift. And well, my ships VI detect it as hostile and engaged its combat protocols..I just want to get out of here. The sooner the better."

Sefel listens intently to the Chronicler's inhabitant.

I knew we'd find someone out here who'd been cut off from communication! I just hope he's not bait for the bigger ship...

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6 welp...

Chk'tarlsh listens carefully to the exchange over the communications channel as he continues inspecting the vessels on the gunnery station displays.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Neither Chk'tarish and Sefel are able to make out much about the person on the other end of the coms link.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

Vecro listens in, but his simple-hearted nature makes it hard for him to hear lies in the words of the stranger.

I hope Oscar will have more luck with that roll

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 7 + (6) + 1 = 29

DuQuesne tries to get a read on the Chronicler's single crew.

DuQuesne thinks the person, who introduces herself as Accordant-Contemplator-16 sounds like they are telling the truth. At least from their perspective.

Guess I should have made those as secret checks, ah well.

Daata finally speaks, his voice surprisingly soft for a creature of his size. "Maybe we can ask the other ship for a tow using that tractor beam? Or are those the pirates this Chronicler was referring to?"

"Let's ask them about their side of the story, and later mediate between both - we used to solve a lot of employee disputes that way! Though some ended up with both being fired..."

Mahari turns back to the controls and looks pensively out the viewport, tapping her fingernails on the joystick as she thinks.

"Did you guys catch what that pilot said. The Chronicler's ship VI 'detected it as hostile and engaged its combat protocols.'" she quotes Accordant-Contemplator-16. "On its own. Not a bad thing normally, but in this case, that might have set off the Revolution Runner's own defenses."

"I think what we have here is a failure to communicate that led to an armed standoff."

Deciding that DuQuesne's idea is on the right track, she triggers the external comms.

"Revolution Runner, this is Azata Explorer, We are Starfinder agents on an official mission. Do you copy? What's your status?" she asks the bigger vessel.

<Chronicler>
"What... you're talking to those pirates too? I'm outa here..."

<Revolution runner>
"Took your time... Azata. That dodgy ship opened fire on me. We've got problems in there here parts, and I think that ship is part of them..." comes back the communication.
"I just need to work out if you are in league with them..."

You're going to need some kind of skill check here to have them willing to talk with you.

Sefel's antennae nervously rub together as the second set of voices appear over the comms. He waits to see how "the faces" handle this.

Oooh. This is going to require your best verbal massages DuQuesne and Mahari!

Diplomacy, aid: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

"Revolution runner, we are starfinders wishing to learn what has happened here. I will think before I speak and I will listen before I think. We just want to learn what is happening before drawing conclusions or taking actions."

DuQuesne sharpens his Sense Motive-ness:

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 7 + (5) + 1 = 26

DuQuesne thinks the Revolution Runner is also genuine, but very worried and a bit trigger fingered. If things go south in negotiations with them, it is likely going to mean laser fire at dawn.

<Revolution runner>

"Took your time... Azata. That dodgy ship opened fire on me. We've got problems in there here parts, and I think that ship is part of them..." comes back the communication.
"I just need to work out if you are in league with them..."

"Runner, we hailed you as soon as we exited the Drift. We're Starfinders. We're not in league with anyone, just a neutral third party trying to sort out what's been happening to the beacons. We found you two in an armed standoff, and we'd just like to lower the tension a bit, and then get to fixing the beacon."

She pauses to let that sink in with both sides.

"Looks to us like that little shuttle's VI engaged its defense protocols automatically. Maybe Runner was just on a strange vector and it thought you were a hostile. If no one has any hostile intent, then let's just all power down our weapons and maybe we can actually help each other."

Diplo, Aid from Vecro : 1d20 + 17 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 17 + 2 = 28

Chk'tarlsh could try to Aid, and DuQuesne can auto-aid

"We'll go first as a gesture of good will," she says with a wink to the crew.

Bluff : 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (11) + 20 = 31

Flipping the comms to OFF, then double-checking the switch position to be sure, she asks Daata and Sefel to mask or fake that they've powered down the weapons.

Sefel nods and turns to his console.

Is that something that can be done with an engineering check? If so...

Engineering: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (2) + 17 = 19

"Shootinhk othersh tendsh to be a poor way to make friendsh,"Chk'tarlsh says aloud to Mahari over the comms. "I'd prefer to make our introductionsh in a more constructive way."

Diplomacy (Aid Mahari): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

Not sure if this is actually a thing, but should you allow, Chk'tarlsh will try to use his Gunnery skills to help embellish the fake powering down of the systems.

On cue, Chk'tarlsh nudges the gunnery controls, dropping the barrels of the guns and turrets marginally off-target, in an attempt to enhance the appearance of the systems shutting down.

Gunnery (Aid Another?): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31