/dot in!
The past week was grueling for new recruits. Venture‑Captain Suulhu‑Huur was adamant that Starfinders need to be prepared for anything and put you through a series of training missions on the oceanic planet of Arniselle, sometimes back-to-back and without warning. But you survived and succeeded, and not only are you headed home for some well-earned rest, but you’ve managed to slip in a treat along the way: a stop to attend the last day of this year’s HACTexpo—the show that announces some of the best holographic amusement chamber games. The week of training meant you missed the opening ceremonies and the biggest announcements, but there’s still time to try out some new game demos and maybe even score some last-day deals on new tech.
Err@r's calm demeanour becomes more and more animated as the time for the HACTexpo draws closer. "Did I ever mention I once swiped the source code for GenSlice7, rewrote it to make the pedestrians look like jinsuls, and then uploaded it *as* the original in the store interface--all within 24 hours? Good times. Can't wait to see some of these 'developers' in person. I'm guessing half are half-wits, and the other half maybe a quarter."
Down the hallways walks Vlaka, her long grey and white fur is shining nicely and she sniffs the air as she walks. The ship is dead silent, with no sound of any kind only a bit of tremor from the engine indicating that they are still flying. She smells the android which means that he is again over-excited, she though that their kind should be less emotional.
She walks into the mess hall and looks at Error lips, reading what he is saying, then she responds
"I don't know about the half-wits, their emulation solution to other senses is impressive. Formians reported that their tremor sense feels exactly like real, they are using neural transmission to do that."
She signs as she speaks, always looking at who she is talking with.
The small, but loud for of Gliko can barely contain its excitement at making it to HACTexpo. "I totally thought I would miss it this year. And my fans were so disappointed. "
Gliko's 'vines' flick around it, immitating their hosts excitement. "The coders for Cal to Honor are certainly not half wits. " it adds. "One of my best games. I think they may be releasing a remake of it... and with luck we will be there to play it first!"
"We'll be checking out all things related to Champion Squad!" exclaims Chox, the typically quiet bolida. "Captain Aeroks is our hero and the entire reason we joined the Starfinders!"
And just like that, their excited outburst ends and they reverts to the more quiet, shy persona you've gotten to know during the recent training missions. Chox pulls out a Champion Squad comic and says quietly, "We'll be in our quarters."
Chox balls up roly poly-style and rolls off to their room.
"Sorry," Err@r says, his apology-circuits activating. "That did come out pretty harsh. Guess I got too excited. I'm sure there'll be some good folks there to talk with. I've heard good things about Cal to Honor."
The moon where HACTech has its headquarters and expo center comes into sight on the viewscreen. A splash of the distinctive lights of civilization illuminates a spot on the otherwise bland and featureless rock. The starship’s comm unit crackles—but instead of landing instructions, it emits a piercing screech. An accompanying haptic alert vibrates chitin, bone, and the ship’s bulkheads. The vidscreen flashes red, and emergency lights flash throughout the ship. It’s an emergency distress signal!
The screech ends, replaced with a tinny, frantic voice interrupted by bursts of silence and static that’s automatically transcribed on the vidscreen. “Anyone hearing—smess—help! Everything’s—haywire, the software—out of control, digitizing—if we don’t—the entire moon! Please one—help!”
At first it seems like another unannounced training exercise—but a quick scan confirms the signal’s validity, and it’s coming from the HACTexpo!
"Ohhh... I wonder if it is a new immersive simulation? Does anyone remember going into one?" asks Gliko.
"If not... it sounds like they need some Heroes down there. Just like in the new Doshko Legends games. Ohhhh... I wonder if we helped if they would let us play the pre-release?"
Chox rolls into the room just in time to hear the distress call.
Upon hearing the message, Chox stands a bit more upright and declares valiantly, "Like Captain Aeroks, the adventures of a Starfinder never end! We've been looking forward to some R&R but there are people in need of our help so we're gonna do the right thing by heading down there to lend a hand, right?!?
"Any clues from scans as to what is the problem? And any safe places to land nearby?"
Chox examines the moon via the ship’s vidscreen and sees an increasingly strange sight. The terrain surrounding the HACTech expo center is flickering with impossible static, while digitized asteroids that have no business being there appear from nowhere, flying across the vidscreen before vanishing into a burst of pixelated color. Across the moon’s cratered surface, jagged patches of digitized terrain appear as pits of lava and rivers of colorful bubbling liquids that start and end abruptly.
A bizarre mix of static, lo-fi loops of high-energy technopop, ominous chords from a simulated pipe organ, and an unending cackle of over-the-top villainous laughter flood the comm frequencies, all cutting in and out unpredictably. Scanning the moon with the ship’s sensors results in contradictory outputs: the moon is both completely fine and not there at all.
"Oh... those instruments are not going to be very helpful for landing.... I played Space-Sim-23 a while back... I recon I could stick land the shuttle... shall I give it a go?"
Ritta spots other jumping at the distress signal and only then she sees the glowing screens. She jumps on her seat and puts the headset on, more for the mic than actual speakers.
"I can barely drive a car, so don't count on me while landing this can."
She looks at the moon and wonders what is happening "Maybe this is the expo, the simulation is them showing something new..."
The starship begins its descent to the moon with Gliko piloting.
Asteroids hurtle through the space lanes, tumbling ominously while well placed dramatic lighting sets them in sharp contrast to the darkness of space and the surface of the moon behind them. Here and there one flickers, fading out of existence while others manifest at the edges of the vidscreen. They seem too perfectly crafted to be real; any asteroids this close to the moon ought to fall to the surface rather than zipping around dramatically. With a ship‑shaking jolt, one of the strange rocks nicks the starboard weapons turret, setting off proximity alerts across the bridge. Strange as they are, these asteroids seem plenty solid. Time to take evasive action!
***
Each of you can choose an action and describe how you are helping, but a single skill or attack roll should be used by only one character.
Dodge the Asteroids: With a successful DC 16 Piloting check, a PC can navigate the ship through complicated evasive maneuvers to avoid the asteroids.
Shoot the Asteroids: A character can blast the rocks apart using the starship’s weaponry with a successful ranged attack roll against an AC of 16.
Hack the Asteroids’ Code: By scanning the makeup of the asteroids, a PC can disrupt the code to lessen their impact with a successful DC 16 Computers check.
Plot a Safe Course: By analyzing the asteroids’ paths and discerning patterns in their movement, a PC can plot a safer course between them with a successful DC 16 Perception check.
Push the Engines: With a successful DC 16 Engineering check, a PC overcharges the ship’s thrusters to charge through the asteroids as fast as possible.
Help Another Character: Instead of taking an action themself, a character can help another character by encouraging them using Diplomacy or reminding them of the dire consequences of failure using Intimidation. With a successful DC 15 check of either skill, the character receiving aid gains a +2 bonus to their check or attack roll, but they can gain this bonus only once.
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Gliko jumps into the pilots seat. "Oh boy! They never normally let me into this seat in the real shuttles..."
His eyes scan the shuttle dashboard. "Man, I don't think they had this model in Space-Sim-23... but it looks similar to the Cougar... "
He grabs for a control stick and pulls back hard, trying to avoid the asteroid that was glitching directly into the shuttles path!
"Oh no.... this was set up for a Left Handed Pilot!" shrieks the little plant, his vine/tentacles all over the place in terror.
With the mission in full swing and lives on the line, Chox comes out of his shell (figuratively) and demands performance from his teammates!
"Confirmed--these asteroids are computer generated somehow! Let's see how they handle a little virus I've been working on . . . for academic purposes."
Ritta looks at the asteroids, she breathes in and out, then analyze the movements of the asteroids trying to find a safe route.
"Here is the safest route that I could find, given the circumstances."
Gliko is shocked to find it is the left-handed model and struggles with this despite having eight arms. Chox manages to give some guidance which turns out to be invaluable. The ship navigates the course identified by Ritta, and just as a rogue asteroid is about to ruin your day it is edited away by Err0r!
You land safely, and make your way to the Expo building.
Dim, flickering lighting extends along the walkway from the spaceport to the expo hall, but the vidscreens lining the hall seem to be working just fine. Each flashes between advertisements for various HACTech products and clips of high-octane animated action scenes from the Champion Squad comic book series.
Chox will take point in front, with his curve blade in hand.
Obviously excited, Chox exclaims, "Champoin Squad!! Oh once we clear up whatever is going wrong here, we gotta come back and see what Champion Squad products or merch is still available!! Right guys?!?!? ....guys????"
Once the initial excitement wears off, Chox falls back into mission mode and looks around.
"Is it odd that the lights are flickering but the vidscreens are still working okay? Other than that, everything looks clear to me..."
Chox is just plain excited.
While watching the Champion Squad clips you notice that they all end just as the villain stands poised to clinch victory over the heroes.
"I remember when I first played champion squad.." sighs Gliko, who is slinking along at the edge of the corridor, trying not to be seen.
"I didn't find the gameplay that immersive, although the graphics were pretty good."
Ritta looks at the screens but fails to see anything of significance. "I don't think I saw that version of Champion Squad, I liked more where they had latex suits."
She follows the footsteps of Chox, who is leading
"There are some cool mods for Champion Squad," adds Err@r as he trails along.
An android with a friendly face and a neat HACTech polo flickers into view in front of the doors. “Welcome to the HACTexpo!” Their words appear over their head in a subtle subtitling system. “Registration and Will Call are just ahead. If you’ve pre-registered, you’ll find the expo hall to your right, and you—”
The android’s voice dissolves into a screech of static as their image flickers and scrambles. The light resolves into a different figure, a male gnome wearing a jester’s outfit, complete with belled hat. He waves an enormous pair of scissors and picks up where the android left off. “—won’t stop me this time, Champion Squad! I’m going to create the greatest game the galaxy has ever seen, and everyone will know the Hardlight Harlequin created it!” He concludes with a burst of shrill laughter that grows in intensity until it threatens to rendflesh in addition to eardrums!
...the projector begins resetting itself to run again!
Slipping to a nearby projector, Gliko takes out a toolkit. "I can hack hardware as well - helps sometimes with the harder levels to have a bit of a boost.."
***
With the hardlight projectors on the greeter trap now disabled, you press on.
Ahead looks like the registration desks and will call.
A shirren peeks out from behind facto leader peeks out from a desk and gestures for you to approach. Her HACTech shirt has her name Shikaska embroidered on it. Several other worried faces can be seen hiding behind the counter, other registration staff and visitors.
"Help at last! We're saved! Have you disabled whatever that thing is at the door?"
"I recognise that figure... it is the Horrible Harlequin from Champion Squad !" squeaks Gliko. "Really tricky... although... in the game he is human, not a gnome."
As Gliko approaches the desk vines fumble around for the entry pass.
"The jester-holo projector? Sure, dealt with it just like in Grand Theft Spaceship-XXIX. You are free to go... after you scan us in of course."
"Of course!" Shikaska looks at you a little curiously, as though it isn't really necessary, handing you a pass and a showbag of merch to complete the transaction "It's all gone haywire in there though, but more people are trapped inside and could use rescuing, I think it's the CTO's software glitching"
"Sounds like a great opportunity. And, we'll save the day too!"
Luckily, Chox is able to avoid taking the full sonic blast!
"Okay, something definitely not okay is going on!
"But... but... but... that was the Horrible Harlequin?!?"
Chox turns to the rest of the party, "I know things are bad and lives are at stake.... and we'll rescue the innocent for sure..."
Chox practically squeals in delight, "But GUYS!! We're the CHAMPION SQUAD!!!"
Chox turns back to Shikaska, "Can you describe the floor layout to us, where people are holed up and where is the CTO? We're Champion Sq... errr... we're Starfinders and dontcha worry. We'll get to the bottom of this and get everyone out!"
"Sure, here, a map of the expo is in your attendee pack" the shirren fishes out a map.
"I don't know where the CTO is"
"I'm not sure what is going on here, but you see, HACTech is a relatively small company compared to corporate giants like AbadarCorp, and though we are well known for several popular pieces of holographic technology and VR games, we aren’t an industry leader. Jaype Meriandrew, the company’s Chief Technical Officer, had a plan to change that"
"He’s had several teams working day and night for months to create the most realistic HAC - holographic amusement chamber - simulation ever, blending tangible hardlight projections with bleeding-edge VR technology to create an experience that truly blends the physical and virtual. Working with code from HACTech’s most popular game, Champion Squad - based on the comic book series of the same name, Jaype believes he has succeeded. He planned to unveil his simulation in a surprise reveal at here at HACTexpo as the show is open to gamers and reporters alike to garner buzz for upcoming releases."
"In reality, however, Jaype’s program has had minimal testing. When Jaype launched his program at the height of the expo, it interacted with the myriad other pieces of technology connected to the hall’s network and caused a cascading failure the likes of which has never been seen before. Then the explosions started and things got wild, and here we all are"
Err@r looks carefully at the map, and then offers to his allies "There's a back door out of the washrooms that will put us near the Doshko Legends booth. We could then sweep clockwise with our flanks secured. What do you think?"
"This truly is a surprise, who would have thought that working day and night on a piece of software could bring unexpected outcomes..." speaks Ritta with a bit of sarcasm
She looks at Error reading from his lips and nods her head, she reaches for her mote of energy and shapes it into a reasonable size bat.
"Ohhh this is like the plot in Hard-Core Hacker, season V!" exclaims Gliko. "Whats the bet the CTO cheesed off a hacker on the team with his schedule and they put something nasty in."
It nods to Err@r. "Sounds like as good a way in as any."
He looks around. "But I don't see the washroom entrance here..."
"Oh, it's right over . . . uh . . . . hmmm..." Err@r's blushing circuits activate. "Did I mention I'm better with computer schematics than actual maps?"
Chox says, "Okay, clear out people and figure out how to counteract Jaype's untested doomsday program. Got it!! Shall we get ready to move out?"
Gliko nods at Chox's suggestion, as it slips into the shadows, vendorware "hoodie" pulled over its "head".
You open the doors, the HACTech expo hall has descended into chaos.
Intermittent illumination flickers through the broad, open space as the industrial lights spark and flare unpredictably. The various displays and booths for HACTech games and partner companies are abandoned, but holoprojectors and vidscreens vie for attention throughout the empty room.
Far stranger, the scenes shown on screen seem to be spilling over into reality: enormous batlike creatures shriek and swoop through the hall from a gothic-themed booth in one corner, while a group of soldiers in Pact Worlds–branded military armor dash along one wall, shouting commands to one another while artillery fire blazes around them. In some areas, the floor glows in bright, blocky patterns, walls display pixelated textures that shift abruptly, and otherwise mundane objects flicker in and out of reality between bursts of static. The smell of burnt electronics pervades the air, and the noise of the different displays is punctuated by the occasional pop or sizzle of frying circuitry.
The hall showcases a raised platform with enormous holodisplays surrounding a holographic amusement chamber with transparent walls, so the user is visible from the entire hall. The displays now show a surprisingly realistic rendition of four superheroes dashing toward a space station’s power core, where a colorfully dressed villain laughs maniacally, one hand on an enormous lever. Captions on the screens mirror his words. “You’re too late, Champion Squad!” the villain cackles, throwing the lever. “The galaxy’s best game has already begun!” An instant later, the display scrambles into static and starts the loop over from the start.
Ritta looks around, she turns towards others "Maybe one of you should call out if there is anyone hiding"
"I think the game has it right." whispers Gliko.
"We need to cut the power to those holoprojectors." it says, even quieter.
"But how?"
"What would Champion Squad do? Rush into the place, fists on their hips, posing dramatically? I could do that!"
"It seems a lot of the problems are revolving around the Champion Squad game. So how about we head in that direction first? And YES!! Fists on hips with dramatic poses!!!" says Chox.
Before moving in and while moving within the expo hall, Chox will yell out, "HELLO!!! Starfinder rescue team here!! Is anyone here?? We're here to assist!!"
Gliko uses the moving shadows and distracting lights to slip into the room, in as unnoticable manner as it possibly can. Hoodie up!
The little non-leshy slips towards the champion squad corner.
As Chox advances, three ghastly winged creatures straight out of the Necromancer vidgame series swoop out of the related booth towards them.
It turns out these may have been digitised versions originally, but these ones are now very real!
Chox
Err0r
Gliko
Ritta
ENEMY
R1
Ritta
Err0r
Chox
Gliko
ENEMY
Ritta moves in she puts her second hand to the baseball bat and swings at the bad guy
Just before the weapon swings past the enemy, it morphs into a hatchet.
Gliko lets out a "Peep" of excitement.
"It's even better than the game!" it squeaks, trying to emulate the hero of Necromancer V - from behind the safety of an advertising banner.
Chox takes a guarded step to try and give a clear shot for his teammates, then swings with his blade!!