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Marari recalls attending a rather boring lecture on other-planar creatures in which it was postulated that crystals could also evolve sentience given their self replicating nature. One interesting thing that came from it was that they might be especially susceptible to fascination effects due to the resonance of their crystalline nature.
She spins forward distracting the orange creature and landing a vicious blow.
Vecro then advances on the trapped creature and finishes it off.
Status: Bold may post;
Daata; (has a round of preparations available)2xwill vs 11&13 damage and off target
Crystals
pink
Security bots -
DuQuesne 19/36SP; immune to orange shriek.
Sefel - 12/30sp; immune to pink shriek.
Chl'tarish -43/54ps;
Mahiri; 43/52sp; immune to pink and orange shriek
Vecro - 23/40sp; plasma sheath; immune to pink shriek
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Daata tosses his hand axe at the remaining crystal creature but misses.
The defence robot, faced with the crystal creature and Daata's drone just targets the crystal creature. But without effect.
The crystal creature screams mentally again
Status: Bold may post;
Daata; 12/36SP; will DC16 vs 12 damage and off target.
DuQuesne 19/36SP; will DC16 vs 12 damage and off target.
Sefel - 12/30sp; immune to pink shriek.
Chl'tarish -43/54ps;
Mahiri; 43/52sp; immune to pink shriek
Vecro - 23/40sp; plasma sheath; immune to pink shriek
Pink Crystals
Green Security bots -
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Oh, I remember a lecture at New Kasath U. That professor was soooo boring. I'm glad she wasn't my target that day; she was soooo weird, all into that new age stuff about dancing with crystals or something like that. But I don't think that'll help us now.
Mahari informs her teammates of what she remembers from that shudder-inducing class, then zips forward and slides in behind Mikey before firing.
But the drone bobs slightly in the low grav at the last second, and she jerks her blaster to avoid hitting it, throwing her shot way off target.
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The team turns their combined might on the remaining crystal creature. Blasts echo off it, but it still remains standing.
Status: Bold may post;
Sefel - 12/30sp; immune to pink shriek.
Vecro - 23/40sp; plasma sheath; immune to pink shriek
Pink Crystals - 45 damage;
Green Security bots -
Daata; 0/36SP;
DuQuesne 7/36SP;
Mahiri; 43/52sp; immune to pink shriek
Chl'tarish -43/54ps;
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The pink crystal continues to resonate at a painful frequency.
The blue bot fires at it again, unsuccessfully.
Status: Bold may post;
Sefel - 12/30sp; immune to pink shriek.
Vecro - 23/40sp; plasma sheath; immune to pink shriek
Mahiri; 43/52sp; immune to pink shriek
Daata; 0/36SP;
DuQuesne 7/36SP;
Chl'tarish -43/54ps;
Pink Crystals - 58 damage;
Green Security bots -
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Chk'tarlsh shies away from the mental barrage. Steeling himself, he pushes through the assault and focuses on the remaining foe.
"Vecro, hold itsh attention," the shirren calls. "I'll sslip around behind it."
Dropping his rifle, Chk'tarlsh dashes forward, drawing his long sword as he moves. Skirting around the creature, he glides in behind it, opposite Vecro, and slashes at... a hamstring?
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And under the combined assault the final paraforan, for that is what they are called, falls.
It is a trivial matter to take remote control of the remaining security robot and put it into an inactive state.
Outside you hear that the Revolution Runner has driven off other similar but larger creatures. The Runner sends over a package to the Azata as a thank-you for the help with the beacon.
Then, with a farewell you can return to Absalom Station. Captain Cleo promises to look you up next time she is on the station, but for now wants to get back to her colony.
Returning to Absalom station is, as always, much easier. It only takes a day, during which time you can heal up from your battle with the strange creatures. A couple of days later you are summoned back to the Lorespire complex for a debrief.
Oddly the debrief is handled by Celita (the android leader of the Dataphiles) with an SOR named Kalix-MX "Representing the Exo-Guardians, and very pleased to meet you. Yes I am!" he beeps.
“Have a seat, Starfinders,” Celita says and smiles, though the smile doesn’t reach her eyes. She sits and fiddles with the datapad on her desk. “I was pleased to hear about the success of your mission. However, I’m sad to report that your sister mission wasn’t quite so fortunate.”
With a wave of her hand, Celita projects a video above her desk—a video of a planet exploding, of Starfinder vessels fleeing, and of a mysterious fleet appearing and attacking. She speaks in a detached voice as the video plays. “During their investigation, they found evidence that someone had attacked and either kidnapped or killed almost everyone in the New Hope settlement. They filled the mines with explosives. We were too late to stop them. They destroyed the entire planet. We had to retreat.”
“Many are missing, including the leader of the Exo-Guardians, Zigvigix,” says Kalix-MX from beside her. Celita flinches at his words, but quickly regains her icy composure. “We are still investigating the matter.” “We may be facing something terrible, Starfinders. That’s why I wanted to question you directly—I need to know everything that you discovered while you were on your mission,” Celita says.
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Mahari looks up from the comm she'd been reading. An "acquaintance" of hers "sent" her a mission report from that very same mission to New Hope. Well, technically he didn't send it to her voluntarily. She'd hacked the comms unit of the stuffy Stewards Officer and was getting his internal Steward's reports auto-forwarded. Nice guy, sooooper hot, but not the sharpest shiv in the prison, as they say. She'd been reading the report as Celita debriefed them.
"It sounds like it was a complete s%&~-show out there," she says as she sets the Steward's report aside. "I'm not sure what we can add. We ran across two ships at the beacon: The Revolution Runner out of Dyu-Taras, with Captain Cleo at the helm, and another one, the Chronicler crewed only by an entity that identified itself as Accordant-Contemplator-16. The latter had some funky radiation and electrical readouts, but they weren't very friendly and bolted shortly after we arrived."
She pauses to take a sip of the caf she'd picked up on the way to the brief.
"Once DuQuesne defused the situation," she continues with a smile and nod to her fellow halfling, "we were able to access the beacon. I downloaded the activity logs and error reports, and Sefel found some weirdness in the code. He got the beacon back online, and we were immediately attacked by some drift-native crystalline beings. They also attacked the Runner ship. We couldn't communicate with them and had to put them down in self-defense." She sends the error logs she downloaded, and "accidently" also forwards the pilfered Stewards report to the Dataphiles leader.
She takes another sip of the caf. I'm not going to that kiosk anymore. The barista makes 'em too weak, she decides before wrapping up.
"The Azata flew fine, but the weapons loadout is totally suboptimal. I'm taking my... I mean... a Manticore class ship next time. But other than all that, a pretty normal little Society gig, right boys?"
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Vecro stands during debriefing, he was sitting during flight back. This all feels off.
"What agent Jones said is correct. However, it all feels off. Someone disabled the beacon, the ship Chronicler had their automatic defense systems recognize Revolution Runner as a threat and started shooting. We had to negotiate between them to not let the thing escalate. The arrival of crystalline beings was also coincidently aligned with our actions. "
Vecro looks at Celita
"However did it, they could have destroyed the beacon, but they didn't. I believe it was some sort of distraction for something else."
"Were we lucky in identifying those ships?"
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Celita looks at the provided code with interest.
"“nything that has the potential to take out a Drift beacon must be treated with the utmost care, so it could take days or even weeks to properly analyze this code while following the correct security protocols. It could be a corrupted file or some type of targeted malware, but speculation is pointless.”
Kalix-MX listens with interest to Vecro's thoughts about the non battle at the beacon. "Sounds like you handled that well. Better a cold war than a hot one."
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Celita shakes her head. “It’s unclear if the attackers destroying the planet meant to make a direct attack on the Starfinders or if the group was just trying to cover their tracks. However, considering how quickly a new fleet of attackers appeared on the scene, I hypothesize that this was a coordinated attack.”
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Celita nods towards Sefel's unasked question. “That operation, headed by Zigvigix and Fitch of the Exo-Guardians and Wayfinders, respectively, was concerned with scouting the edges of the affected Vast. They visited Siygess-4, which hosted a Pact World settlement known as New Hope. Their mission was more exploratory, whereas your operation was a more straightforward investigation and repair.”
Kalix-MX responds to Daata “The disappearance of Zigvigix has been taken as a personal attack by many of us Exo-Guardians, and the faction is torn with regards to how to respond. In the meantime, a veteran copaxi Exo-Guardian, Ixthia the Unbreakable, stepped up to take over for Zigvigix. I fully support their leadership. The search for Zigvigix and the other lost agents is ongoing, though it hasn’t turned up anything yet. The most disturbing thing about the attack is that the hostiles used technology similar to what Starfinders have access to. What that means, we don’t yet know.”
Suddenly, a loud alert sounds through the Complex.
“EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. UNAUTHORIZ—”
Then, with the deep sigh of a generator powering down, the alert cuts off, and all the lights in the room flicker out. The projection of the starfield, the exploding planet, and the mysterious fleet all disappear from Celita’s desk, and both Celita and Kalix-MX fall into stunned silence. Kalix-MX’s eye lamps glow yellow in the dark room.
“That’s... not how the emergency alert system is supposed to work,” Celita says after a tense moment. “It shouldn’t be able to cut out like that. Once an alert is triggered, it continues until override codes are entered.”
“I’ll investigate,” Kalix-MX replies and steps out to the hallway, heavy footsteps fading in the distance as he heads further into the darkened Complex.
some kind of digital attack on the Complex.
You notice all your comms units are down, and unable to make any connections.
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"The Lorespire Complex has a backup generator, but it requires manual setup. I can deal with that. "
She turns a hard look at the rest of you. "Make sure the perimeter of the Lorespire Complex is secure. It is imperative that you protect the Archives and Guidance at all costs."
She pauses on her way out. "Hacking our network is nearly impossible from a distance, I think the attacker is present in the complex, and has their eyes on the our most well-protected assets... Get to the perimeter."
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Vecro with one hand reaches for his mote, it begins to spill on top of his armor. But Kasatha at the same time grabs his armor and chains into his hand.
"If they penetrate the Lorespire Complex we will protect it. Keep your eyes open without communication this will be chaotic..."
Vecro says a short pray to Eloritu to guide them
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The team quickly gathers gear and heads toward where the action is.
MX stands with a large hammer resting on his shoulder. Beside him stands a tall and graceful SRO unit, its posture bent and hands crackling with technomagical energy. Kalix-MX’s eyes, which glowed a cheerful yellow before, now burn a brilliant orange.
“IT’S-YOU,” shouts Kalix-MX, in a strained voice that is not his own.“I’M-SORRY-IT-HAS-COME-TO-THIS-SO-SOON-AFTERWE- MET.”
The SRO beside him pounds its chest, and the high-pitched sound of a shoulder cannon powering up echoes across the empty courtyard. “I-HOPE-YOU-WON’T-GO-EASY-ON-ME,” Kalix-MX says, before he hefts his hammer and charges!
There is something wrong with them, neither Kalix-MX nor Makepeace would act this way under normal circumstances.
Status: init, if you beat a 24 then you may post an action
Sefel -
Vecro -
Mahiri;
Daata;
DuQuesne
Chl'tarish
flying drones init 24
light blue
dark blue
purple
Kalix-mx (red) - init 22
Makepeace (pink) - init 20
combat drones - init 17
green
orange
brown
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Chk'tarlsh greets Celita and Kalix-MX on arrival to the debriefing. Initially, he listens intently as his companions recount their findings, occasionally chipping in a contribution of his own, and the Starfinder leaders update them on the current situation. However, the news of his faction leader's disappearance rocks the Exo-Guardian, and he grows increasingly agitated as the meeting continues.
As the alarm blares, Chk'tarlsh draws his rifle and falls in with his fellow agents, departing for the perimeter as directed by Celita.
"Kalix-MX, what's going on? What did you find?" he asks his fellow Exo-Guardian.
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The three hover drones dash foward and up, laying down laser fire against Vecro, Chl'tarish and DuQuesne.
Status: bold may post
Daata; - init 23
DuQuesne - init 23
Sefel - init 22
Kalix-mx (red) - init 22
Chl'tarish - init 21
Makepeace (pink) - init 20
combat drones - init 17
green
orange
brown
Mahiri; init 16
Vecro - init 15; 35/40sp
end of round 1
flying drones init 24 (flying 15' up)
light blue
dark blue
purple
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Daata and his drone damage the first of the flying drones, but it is still up. Sefel meanwhile charges up his weapon. It looks fearsom. If only he can hit with it.
Status: bold may post
DuQuesne - init 23
Kalix-mx (red) - init 22
Chl'tarish - init 21
Makepeace (pink) - init 20
combat drones - init 17
green
orange
brown
Mahiri; init 16
Vecro - init 15; 35/40sp
end of round 1
flying drones init 24 (flying 15' up)
light blue
dark blue - 19 damage;
purple
Daata; - init 23
Sefel - init 22; weapon supercharged.
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The team concentrates fire on the blue drone. Two more squirts of acid and smoke starts to pour from it. The drone is still up and active, but looks to be having distinct difficulty maintaining altitude. Surely one more shot will finish it off.
Kakix-mx charges forward, his hammer humming with power as he swings at Daata.
The hammer deflects from the mechanics armour.
Status: bold may post
Chl'tarish - init 21
Makepeace (pink) - init 20
combat drones - init 17
green
orange
brown
Mahiri; init 16
Vecro - init 15; 40/40sp; fire/5; electricity/5;
end of round 1
flying drones init 24 (flying 15' up)
light blue
dark blue - 33 damage;
purple
Daata; - init 23;
Sefel - init 22; weapon supercharged.
DuQuesne - init 23
Kalix-mx (red) - init 22
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Spotting the SROs and clustered drones, Chk'tarlsh drops his laser rifle and, reaching behind his back, swings around a heavy blaster.
Planting his feet wide, the shirren takes the weight of the weapon in both arms, carefully lines up the blue drone.
"For Zziggy!" he calls, discharging a bolt of crackling electricity in the damaged drone's direction.
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|
It's systems finally overloaded, the blue drone crashes to the ground, while a jolt of electricity arcs over to the purple drone as well.
The second SRO, Makepeace, steps sideways and gestures. The air around Daata starts to rapidly condense, with the impurities being purged out of it, landing on the brave Izalguun.
The acid clings around likely doing more damage in the future.
The other drones surge forward
While small, their built in pikes have impressive range, cutting Vecro a couple of times.
Status: bold may post
Mahiri; init 16
Vecro - init 15; 28/40sp; fire/5; electricity/5;
end of round 1
flying drones init 24 (flying 15' up)
light blue
dark blue - 33 damage;
purple
Daata; 25/36 SP; (more acid damage to follow) AOO available on Kalix
Sefel - weapon supercharged.
DuQuesne -
Kalix-mx (red)
Chl'tarish - dr 5/slash; cold/5;fire/5;
Makepeace (pink) - init 20
combat drones (have reach)
green
orange
brown