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Rainbow-colored lights dance around the glittering asteroidtemple known as Songbird Station, one of the premier performing-arts centers in the Pact Worlds. Zigvigix nearly presses their eyes against the starship’s viewscreen as they watch the station come closer, their antennae vibrating with a visible excitement. “Look! There it is!” Zigvigix’s telepathic voice exclaims with a high-pitched psychic punctuation that resembles a mental squeal. “I’m so happy that all of you were able to come! I know this was short notice and that everyone has been so very busy lately.” The last remark seems sincerely directed toward the other occupant, the android Historia-7. After a long moment, Historia-7 nods in acknowledgment of Zigvigix’s words.
“When my friends were trapped in the Scoured Stars, all I had left were these tickets to remind me of what I and the Starfinder Society lost,” the shirren continues, clasping their hands together to keep them from shaking. “It means so much to me that those seats didn’t stay empty. I can’t think of a better memorial for my loyal comrades than to attend this concert with new friends and new Starfinders, to show everyone what the Society has gained!
“Wow! I hope that didn’t make everything awkward! Don’t worry, you haven’t replaced anyone!” Zigvigix reveals a set of palm-sized discs, which activate to create 3D images of a diverse group of Starfinder agents. “It’s the best I can do for them now, but we’ll all watch the concert together, just like we planned. Afterward, I’m going to take them to meet the band. Strawberry Machine Cake always sends holoavatars out to interview some of their fans after their concerts, and they post all of the most interesting pictures and stories on their band page! If I asked, I’m sure they’d offer a shout-out to my missing friends... and to the Starfinder Society as a whole, to let everyone know we’re still here!”
They look to the screen. “Oh, it looks like it’s our turn to dock. I should get back to the comm.”
Zigvigix then excuses themself steps out to pilot the shuttle, leaving the PCs alone with Historia-7.
“Starfinders,” Historia-7 says, without preamble. “I understand most of you are here for the revelry of the concert, but I must confess that it was not my motive for joining you and Zigvigix. There is a person of interest on Songbird Station, a human man named Hira Lanzio, whom I believe to be connected to a conspiracy involving the Scoured Stars. I require a group of Starfinders to briefly detain Hira Lanzio so that I can conduct an interrogation on this matter. I hope that you might be amenable to helping me with this task. So long as this mission is carried out cleanly and with precision, I do not foresee this interfering with your presence at the actual concert. It would also be efficient if Zigvigix remains unaware of this secondary objective—there’s no reason to ruin their much needed relaxation time.”
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A compact human man in brightly colored lashunta tempweave armor grins at the android. "I think we can do that, hey? I'm James Patterson the Sixty-second, give or take. Mostly I shoot at things, but I'm pretty quick in hand-to-hand." He carries the sorts of hand weapons an operative might use, in addition to a heavy laser, a plasma rifle, and a pulsecaster rifle. "I'm also a fair pilot...not that I expect to use that particular skill set on this mission."
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A small six-armed creature is standing in the room. When he comes in he gives a guy to Ziggy and Historia-7 (even despite her trying to say no), then he does the same thing to each and every other agent
"I am Buddy Jabo, and I've been dreaming of this moment for ages. I am a drummer, you might have seen my videos and I wanted to meet Strawberry Machine Cake for years! If they would tag me on social media that would bring my popularity into the stars!"
He looks at Patterson and observes his weapons, he himself carries a hidden soldier armor and a set of two heavy guns: Hailcannon and Radcannon.
"I like weapons, my favorite is my hailcannon but now I have this bright new radcannon. On the shooting range it felt great!" says small Skittermander clearly speaking a lot and being full of enthusiasm
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A human woman in close fitting red and black retro-futuristic armor swivels around in her chair tapping on a computer mounted on her forearm. "Liked, followed, and subscribed... Nice to meet you buddy. I do some streaming myself, I had thought of doing a piece on this concert, but after my last few assignments I kind of want to just enjoy the trip. hopefully Historia's assignment won't be too much of a downer. If you like weapons, you should check this out." She draws her laser pistol and holds it in the palm of her hand. "i was gifted this duing a mission to Elytrio. It's amazing that the thing is in such good shape. It's not as powerful as some of the cannons I see you've got, but it still packs a punch."
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While Ziggy is still present with us:
Kaylee is a human in her early twenties with bright red hair. Earlier during the flight she's had her comm unit in one hand and has been almost absentmindedly scrolling through the infosphere on it. But when Songbird Station gets closer, she turns her reconfigurable clothing into a brightly colored sundress, programmed to synergize with her armor, fading that gear's colors into a more subtle flesh-tone.
"Hi everyone! I'm Kaylee! I love ships and vehicles and engines...and well ships most of all. I can build 'em, repair 'em, write code for 'em, or fly them too if you need me to! Makes me wonder why I'm here, since I'm not getting to fly anything..." She shoots Ziggy a clearly-playful pout, but give Patterson a big, interested smile when he mentions piloting, too.
"Oh, and Simon says hi too. He'll be keeping an eye on things too!" She waves her personal comm unit, which if you look at closely you might notice appears to be custom-built and very much more high-tech than a standard phone or data pad.
She smiles at Nadia, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at an oddly primitive-looking rifle that still looks like it packs a punch. "I also made friends on Elytrio!"
After Ziggy leaves and Historia-7 gives her briefing, Kaylee looks a little saddened, but quickly focuses. "Right...got that, Simon?" muttered to her comm unit, which gives a little, annoyed-sounding beep. "Simon wants me to ask, do you have a holo or picture of Hira, so we can make sure we don't tackle the wrong person?"
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Nadia knows that Strawberry Machine Cake is a holoavatar sugar-pop band that has recently exploded in popularity across the Pact Worlds and beyond. Tickets to their Songbird Station concert have been a hotly sought-after commodity, to the point that several highprofile cases of ticket theft, fraud, and scalping have been in the news in recent weeks.
Kaylee asks around on the shuttle and finds out that The band recently installed a high-powered force shield to keep over-enthusiastic crowds off the stage, after the band’s manager was nearly trampled by fans attempting to reach the band during a station layover.
She tracks down the ships engineer who is also a fan. He reports in whispered tones that the band’s holoavatar projector is rumored to be one of the most sophisticated in both the Pact Worlds and Veskarium, routinely accomplishing feats that many would have considered impossible with current hologram technology. The band has a staggering amount of legal protections in place to keep anyone from accessing or studying their equipment, leaving their
performance secrets a mystery.
Historia-7 sighs. "He has been very cagey. Reports have him as a male human, wears nice suits and dark glasses." She eventually finds a picture -"Put together by an artist based on interactions and suspected camera footage."
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(It says "see slides," but I can't click it)
There is a slight flutter as someone resembling a giant deathshead moth drops from the ceiling and lands on a chair. He flutters his wings to reveal his presence, but otherwise moves very little.
"Any particular place we should try to approach this person?" the kiirinta asks telepathically.
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Kaylee nods to Iskakii's idea. "You're probably better at it than I am, but Simon and I would be happy to help."
"Hmmm." Maybe we can pretend to have found something of his and get someone who works on Songbird Station to page him, or even better tell us where he is so we can bring it to him? Ooh, maybe see if a food vendor there can make a cake and we tell station security we're delivering him a surprise birthday something or other and they help direct us? If we had more time and enough frosting I could probably build one of those cake-looking things dancers jump out of at parties, but we're about to dock, so..."
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And with a smooth move, the shuttle docks.
First off, Iskakli tries to connect to the local infosphere. The firewalls pretty solid, especially with a band like SMC playing. He does however determine that there have been a number of power disruptions on the station over the last hour or so. Lots of "don't panic" messages.
Nadia then has a go at it. She manages to find an address that is registered to a Lanzio.
Looking out the shuttle doors, a sea of pink and red fills the theater lobby of Songbird Station as fans of all shapes and sizes loudly cheer and wave handmade signs above their heads. Bright-pink spotlights illuminate the gigantic posters of the band members that plaster the walls, and upbeat music blasts from speakers on the ceiling.
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Kaylee grins and uses her comm unit's camera/video function to check her hair and makeup. "Getting ready to turn on the charm, check!"
She gives Patterson a playful frown when he "threatens" to turn on his environmental controls. "Ohh come on! Take in the sounds! We thought we were coming to a concert, right? Aren't you going to make us stand out walking around with armor seals on? ...Speaking of which, anyone got a null-space chamber or something so we can be walking around without the usual Starfinder-mobile-arsenal thing on our backs?"
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Oh my, what a crush. The crowd is dense and working your way into it takes a bit of time. Once there, you have little chance to do much but slowly go with the flow.
After a few minutes members of the team... well, members apart from Iskakii feel various tugs at their belts and a high peeping sound. Looking down you see three tiny cobra-headed girls, all wearing bright pink dresses. They wave up at you and look hopeful...
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This is just what I needed, Saeron thought, stretching as she woke from a mid-flight nap.
Smiling, the slender lashunta looked out the viewing portal to take in the view as they approached Songbird Station. She laughed, the blue spirals flecked across her brow and cheeks showing bright against her pale skin, the corners of her eyes creasing, at witnessing Ziggy's response of pure delight.
Saeron looked around the cabin, sharing the moment with her fellow passengers. They were all unknown to her, but seemed pleasant enough. And Starfinders, too, judging from how they carried themselves.
"I'm Saeron," she introduced herself. She adjusted her satchel self-consciously. "Pharmaceutical R & D. Botany, really. Oh, I vidlog, too." she adds, modestly.
Historia's introductions confirmed her suspicions about her fellow concert-goers. So, it's not going to be all pleasure, after all. Well, as missions go, it could be far worse. Memories bubbled up of a shambling horror within the caves deep below the frozen wastes. She squashed them back down.
Distracted, she missed most of the briefing's finer details. Her earlier joy diminished, she forced a smile back into place as she follows her fellows on to the station.
The hum and buzz of the milling throngs bring her back to the moment as she shuffles and dodges through the crowds.
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Buddy goes with the others, his environmental seals are also turned on, and he does not mind the feeling of the crowd. He gives few hugs to some overexcited strangers, sharing their excitement.
He stops and looks at the snake-headed girls "Are you nufriends in need? Like in that song: `Nufriend in need is nufriend indeed.` You looked like ones. Can I help you in any way?"
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The little girls peep happily at Nadia and Kaylee. There is a third one looking sad, making little jumps to try and see what is going on.
You are not in the main auditorium yet, rather still on the semi-circular concourse that runs around the outside of the station.
Those of you who are not familiar with the band have time to absorb some information about them from various promotional posters. I've added some extra information to the side deck.
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Slender and petite, the anxious Saeron works hard to keep from losing her companions in the crush of beings. Due to her preoccupation, it takes a little while for the insistent peeping to register.
"Oh, hello there," she says, when she finally notices the trio. Resting her hands on her knees, she leans over to be more of a height with the girls.
"I see," she says, smiling. "Well, I'm hardly the tallest here, but I'd be happy to help you. Are you here alone?"
She glances around the crowd.
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Saeron gets no sense of anything other than excitement from the little Nagaji.
They peep in excitement and wave to each other, enjoying the view from your (relatively) high up position.
And with your (small, but hefty) burden, you continue down the corridor, flowing with the crowd and swaying to the sweet sounds until you stop! as
Saeron barely avoids tripping over a small robot that is lying facedown on the floor.
The push of the crowd starts to build up as you stop moving.. The little najaji girls wriggle with excitement as a new song comes through the concourse sound system.
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"I read about such droids on the Your Drummer website, they aid in setting up drum sets for the bands. " says Skittermander looking at the robot as he tries to pick them up and move out of the way towards the wall.
"Excuse me, Skitter coming through, makes some space, let the little guy some space to breathe"
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As the helpful Buddy tries to lift the robot to its "feet" he notices the front has been painted red. There is a large datapad for the face, showing an anxious looking person on the other side. "Thank you, thank you. I don't know what I'm going to do. I so wanted to go to the concert, but had my leave cancelled. So I sent my bot, but he keeps getting knocked over!" wails the female yoski on the other end.
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As the helpful Buddy tries to lift the robot to its "feet" he notices the front has been painted red. There is a large datapad for the face, showing an anxious looking person on the other side. "Thank you, thank you. I don't know what I'm going to do. I so wanted to go to the concert, but had my leave cancelled. So I sent my bot, but he keeps getting knocked over!" wails the female yoski on the other end.
"Ahhh!" yells Buddy clearly startled and he drops the robot again. He turns it around
"So you couldn't get leave and you have hidden inside the robot? How could that help? Or you are a robot and pretend to be an Ysoki? Look in here everyone can be whoever they dream of, but this disguise is not very good. You are lacking a tail. "
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"Yes!" wails the yoski behind the screen.
"I had my ticket and everything, and then *they* cancelled my leave. hrump. So I sent tele here in my place so I could at least watch..."
The pressure of the crowd eases as bit as a number of other folk stop to watch Nadia at work. She manages to improvise a stabilizer from a nearby rubbish receptacle.
"How about you add springs to its feet!" suggests some wit from the crowd.
"Then it could jump a bit to get a better view!"
The yoski's eyes brighten up. "Oh my...do you think you could do that?" she asks.
The yoski, introduces her self "I'm Diwata. And I must say it's a pleasure to 'meet' such helpful people. Most of my colleagues here at Diaspora are less forthcoming in their aid."
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Nadia stretches her fingers and gets ready to give it a try."all right dearies lets see if we can make this happen."
Nadia makes exaggerated power armor sound effects as she stands back up with the young nagaji on her shoulders. She then gestures to her other technologically inclined allies.
"Take a look friends then we can give them a test run."
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A nearby sofa, that someone thought was a good idea to bring to the concert is coerced into surrendering some springs. A little engineering and repurposing of some redundant motors and Tele is now totally Spring-Enabled!
"Oh thank-you so much" says the Diwata.
"That is so kind of you. Not often we meet helpful folk like you. Let me know if I can help you in return!"
A nearby pack of Skittermanders hears the word "help" and descends on your all looking hopefully around for someone in need of aid. Alas and alack the crowd is unneeding.
"In the meantime, here, let me give you something for your trouble." says Diwata, and Tele ejects a cred-stick. A quick check shows that Kiwata is seriously rich, that's 2000 big ones.
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"Lanzio? Yeah, sure do. Lanzio consulting. They do some of the best work out here. I was trying to get him interested in working with us, but he didn't want to talk with me." she pouts.
"I was going to try to meet him in person but... stuck over here... " she sighs.
"Let me dig it out for you."
She quickly reads out an address on the station for you.
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Kaylee would definitely help with the ysoki's bot, and would blink a little bit at the address but waits until we're in private before saying anything.
"Anybody else find it weirdly convenient that we happen to run into someone needing help who just happens to have the exact address of the guy we're looking for?"