Her expression tightens with the revelation through the coms, and she holds up her needler this time. This creature, whatever it was, needed to come down quickly so they could get to the others!
Dr. Yusil's dart hits its target.
Enervated and reeling in pain, Rudo makes one more desperate attempt to down the enemy.
In a stunning reversal of their previous luck, Legion-12 sends a lethally accurate blast of hungry nanites at the illithid.
As Legion's nanintes hit the creature, it falls onto its knees on the floor, and then forward; it struggles for a second, then stops moving.
The pain in Clausius' head subsides.
Phan turns to run, heading to support the others.
"Come on, we can't waste anytime. Lives are on the line!" She says, making to follow. She could only hope that Williams was misreading the crewman's vitals in the rush of battle.
Shaking his head, Rudo gathers himself... Thanks for taking care of that... intense.
The security commander heads after Phan, swapping batteries in his laser pistol as he went.
Heading through the complex, you find the rest of the crew engaged with another of the creatures in a smaller room. This room appears to be some sort of laboratory, a large slab in the center surrounded by intrusive-looking tools of some sort. The slab itself is covered in dried blood.
Near the slab Crewman Jordan hangs off a large metal device from the ceiling piercing his chest. Crewman Klein is on the ground, her thick brown hair matted with blood.
Lt. Williams and Crewman Fuller stand near the entrance of the room, firing their weapons. The creature has taken a decent amount of damage already.
Initiative:
Illithid:
Rudo:
Yusil:
Legion:
Phan:
Fuller:
Williams:
Her brows knit tightly as she saw the brutal scene before her. It seemed that Williams wasn't misreading the situation in the least. Even still, she'd do whatever she could even amidst a hopeless situation.
Legion moves in, striking once again with brutal strength and deadly accuracy as they say, "Chances of victory are increasing exponentially."
Legion's hit is devastating for the creature, indeed. It is now barely hanging onto life, according to Yusil's scanner.
The creature reaches out, and with one tendril-like finger, flips a toggle on a control board. Suddenly, the entire installation hums heavily; something seems to have been activated.
Rest of PCs/NPCs may act.
Rudo rushes the creature, reaching out with his polarity gauntlet... What did it do? An alert... or worse? Self-destruct?
It's obvious he's still affected by the earlier attacks.
"These things seem psychic! Dr. Yusil, mind taking a look at the mechanism?"
Rudo manages to finish the creature off, with Phan's help.
Dr Yusil notes from her scan that Crewman Jordan is, indeed, dead. However, Crewman Klein is very much alive, though currently bleeding from the ear.
"Looks like some sort of Drift Comm, but I can't be sure; it's got some very odd components. Doctor, when you're done with your medical duties, I could use your eyes."
Rudo reluctantly looks up at Crewman Jordan, a pained look in his eye. Yeah... and how do we get him down?
She grimaced, turning away from the gruesome imagery for now. "With dignity and poise, as we do any officer."
Kneeling by the woman, she took care to identify if the bleeding as either cerebral in nature or related to the human's delicate ear structure. As a Dokkaran medic, she was well aware of how dangerous psionic attacks were on someone's brain. There was still only so much she could do without going into surgery, but what damage there was could be mitigated.
"While my species is adept at what they consider 'sorcery', I've never encountered technology that interfaced like that before. Perhaps in our ancient past, but I'm not an archeologist." She explained to Legion as she worked. "Still, I'll take a look at it as soon as I'm done. Afterwards, we may wish to get moving. That might've been an alarm, or warning."
"A reasonable position. Do what you do best."
Crewman Klein should live, in Dr. Yusil's assessment. She's likely survived a powerful psionic blast, which might well have lasting medical consequences, but not too severe. Klein seems unusually psychically durable.
Rudo and Phan manage to retrieve Jordan from the scythe-shaped equipment he's hanging on and lower the body reverently to the floor.
Once Klein's dealt with, Yusil heads over to help Janessa figure out the console.
Physical Science DC 20 to determine what's going on.
Yusil can tell there's a psionic component to the communication; it's like the Drift Comm signal is a carrier for a telepathic feed. She's never seen anything like this technology. The signal is still sending, currently.
"Well, it's still transmitting whatever it was meant to be transmitting. I'm not sure if I can shut it off, but..." Hedging her bets, she places her hand on the same spot the hostile had.
Yusil intuitively knows what movement to make on the panel to turn off the device. In a second, the installation's hum goes back to a low murmur.
She flexed her fingers a few times, examining them with open-aired curiosity. "It seems I may've stopped it for now. Whatever 'it' was, exactly, I don't know."
Incoming comm from Guangzhou (via relays):"Captain's requesting status report, Alpha Team."
Rudo sets security personnel on watch and begins to careful retrieve them hanging crewman.
"Status pending, Guangzhou. We're...finishing up some things."
A review of the rest of the facility has turned out no more information; though you can retrieve data from their database, it's encrypted in a heavily alien way. It will take some time to decrypt the data.
No more of the creatures are to be found.
Hours later, in the Guangzhou ready room with the results of your investigation of the alien facility in hand...
"Now that we've dealt with our dead and injured, I've got an update from OSF Command. We're being recalled, effective immediately. Command is going under the assumption that the communique transmitted from the alien facility was hostile, and that this area of space may soon be a dangerous place for us to be."
"Once you've broken camp down below and gotten all your crew members in your departments accounted for, I want full reports from all of you. Lt. Clausius, work up a threat analysis based on your combat experience below. Lt. Williams, get to work on decrypting that alien transmission. Doctor Yusil, please assist Sciences in their decrypting work as your duties allow. I'd love to have that encryption cracked by the time we reach Terra."
With that, the mission to Ross 154-beta has ended, and the Guangzhou streaks off toward future adventures...
End Season 1
Level up!
Sitting in the recreation center, the Doctor was currently pouring over an actual physical nook. A cover made of chitin, mycelium fiber pages, and dark ichor for ink. If one wasn't able to ite dirty from the language alone, it was undeniably of Dokkaran origin. She'd only had a few of these traditional keepsakes from home, yet this one held a particular place in her heart. It was a book of stories meant for young children, full of fantastic tales and aesops meant to teach lessons.
Currently, she was looking over it in a more academic sense. Their recent interactions with pisonically attuned technology has left her curious of the more 'arcane' aspects of these tales. Perhaps there was a time when her own people could perform such technological feats, but it was hard to pull fact from fiction.
Oren approaches the good Doctor and waits for a good time to interrupt.
Doctor, what exactly happened down there? Rudo... Lt Clausius seems spooked. It's not like him. She seems worried.
Her sttention wanted, she smoothly slid in bookmark depicting brightly colored cartoon animals of some variety. Her face twisted as the brutality imagery resurfaced in her mind. "The short of it is we seem to have more enemies in this sector than just the D'Naki. We encountered some form of bipedal molluskoids below the surface, both of them were psionically inclined. Possibly a species wide trait, I've yet to fully analyze my readings."
Tapping her the hard cover of her book, her frown deepened. "They attacked him mentally, and not soon after we found of one our men killed in a... Brutal manner. It's not something one just walks away from."
He wouldn't talk about it, he's all clammed up. Blames himself, I'd guess.
Thanks for the update, Doctor.
It's at that moment Rudo walked in heading towards the vending machine, grabbing a bite then approaching.
Doctor, Oren...
Realizing Oren got the download from there good Doctor, he opens up.
Losses are sometimes inevitable, it doesn't mean they don't hurt... Losing a colleague and friend.
This is bigger than that, the level of brutality... It's obscene as far as I'm concerned. Like kicking someone in a wheelchair or assaulting a... child. Someone simply not equipped to defend themselves.
Their minds are akin to hot knives and ours... butter. Give me the D'naki any day.
"Mm." She acknowledged, absently continuing to tap her book. In her years of service a number of wounds mortal and otherwise had passed over her operating tables. What she'd seen down there had been awful, she knew, yet there had been worse things she'd had to stomach in the past. Not that such words would offer a man like Rudo any comfort.
"We live in a cold dark universe, as a Dokkaran I could tell you that better than most. It's the people we share the flickering embers of warmth that make it all worthwhile. At least, that's what my husband would tell me before trying to seduce me into bed." She offered, a smile teasing at the edge of her mouth.
"Rudo, ma'man, don't go getting stale stuff out of the vending machine. I got you."
Adelstein runs back around the counter and comes out with a paper bag filled with something, and a small container of cheese sauce.
"Here you go. Fresh-fried tortilla chips and homemade nacho cheese."
Legion-12 found themselves unusually shaken by the encounter with the psychic beings. The brutality which with they had treated their crew brought back...memories. Dark memories. Memories of a time that Legion had thought they'd forgotten.
What's more, they felt that they had not prepared themselves enough for the exigencies of command. Leading by example and action along couldn't work anymore. They needed at least some sort of rapport with their crew.
They wouldn't let any more of the crewmembers under their command befall the same fate as the ones that the illithids had taken.
First up, sparring and rapport-building with the security officer.
"Officer Claudius, once you have concluded your business, I would like to speak with you. Be prepared for some sparring."
Rudo nods to the ladies, himself sighing Thanks both.
Downing the extruded protein bar from the vending machine, Rudo grabs the proffered fresh chips with a grateful nod towards Adelstein then wheels around to address Legionn-12.
My business... he indicates the chips. ...won't take long. Sparring? Now, you're talkin'... see you at the fitness center, ASAP.
He's in no mental state to be sparring... guess I'll go watch him get his butt kicked. His bruised ego will need a friendly face. Shaking her head, she heads out towards her quarters.
Six Months later...
Terra, also known as Earth. A large blue-green orb hanging against a backdrop of a thousand stars that now seem threatening.
Much has happened in the last two months, at here on Terra at Space Force HQ, and across the Concord. The initial Illithid communication sent out from Ross 154-b was translated by Lt. Williams, Dr. Yusil, and the linguistics specialty team. The transmission was, roughly, a call to arms. The cold war the Illithid had been waging in secret was about to escalate.
The Guangzhou was put in for several upgrades, most notably an upgrade to a high yield particle beam on her front-facing cannon, as well as Dokkaran-designed Psionic Shields, intended to prevent against Illithid mental attacks during starship combat.
Lt. Krema Reginald-Zretaden, the new Chief Engineer, has overseen the refit, and in his spare time, has been following as much information as he could about the fascinating Illithid language.
08:19 hours, Eastern Standard Time.
Guangzhou Engineering
In Scene: Lt. Reginald-Zretaden, Legion-12
The two of you have been working to finalize all the upgrades and complete system test examinations for the last several weeks. Finally, you're preparing, along with the rest of your team, to shuttle back to Terra for the remaining 3 days of leave.
Legion-12 checks over the last few instances of engine output reports on their datapad, "All systems seem nominal. Excellent. Good work, Lieutenant. I have made it a point to increase my engagement with crewmembers, looking for optimal returns on rapport. Let me see," they flick through their datapad, switching from system monitoring to a list of corporate icebreakers, "What is you favorite childhood memory?"
They scowl, realizing they would be unable to answer the question if asked, "Disregard that. Inappropriate question. Hm, what has been your favorite experience while serving with Space Force?"
Lt. Reginald-Zretaden opens their eyes, no longer focusing on interfacing with the engines. He was particularly non-standard looking for a Vesk, requiring the aid of a powered wrench at times to actually turn some of the tighter bolts. Although still bipedal, they walked far more like a raptor than a human, using their long delicate tail to aid in balance, as well as a third useful gripping appendage. During their time working together, Legion-12 would have been able to observe many of the cybernetic enhancements that Krema had outfitted himself with, of particular note being the exocortex and custom rig that the Lt. had crafted, allowing him to near constantly interface with the ship, and other mechanical devices nearby. They are rarely seen outside of their armor, a heavier duty than the standard uniform. Legion-12 could probably calculate that part of this is due to the advanced mechanical systems built into it. Everything about the Lt. screams efficiency, and their armor seems to help them with it, even if it physically slows them a little bit.
Krema opens their mouth to answer the first question, but seems thankful for the transition over to the second question. "Excellent work on your end as well, Legion-12. It clearly states in the Space Force manual on page 113 Section A, subsection 36 that camaraderie between shipmates is an essential part of establishing a ship that functions at peak capacity. Trust and rapport are essential to creating such an environment. I have been lax in my duty to foster such an environment, and as such, I thank you for the reminder."
Having realized that he failed to actually answer the question, he responds, "During the start of the war with the D'naki, I was stationed in a system of strategic importance. There, I was given the position of quartermaster, and the job of outfitting and maintaining the base fell to me. I was proud to report that my ability to calculate and fill out the appropriate paperwork was reliably 1.287 seconds faster than the automated systems, and approximately 3% more accurate to the needs of the base, to say nothing of the time saved when it came to recalibration of needed goods." Krema seems to be quite proud of his ability to complete bureaucratic paperwork at a breakneck speed without sacrificing accuracy. "Unfortunately, I calculated that another could do the same work as I could to a... satisfactory level, and requested that I be stationed to a position that another could not fill as easily, as to better serve the Star Force. Personal gratification should come second to providing important service. That is why I ended up here, in fact," he finishes.
"What about you Legion-12? What has brought you the most satisfaction while serving the Force?"
They crack a rare smile at Krema’s appreciation for efficiency, ”Your commitment to maximal efficiency is commendable. If you are so inclined, you may dismiss with addressing my rank in casual conversation. I, too, am committed to efficiency, but I am only where I am due to prowess in combat. Unless we find ourselves out in a combat situation, I have no use for titles. Odd as it is to find one of my viewpoint within the military, but I see hierarchy as a relic of more primitive times.”
They pause, adjusting their light armor. Extremely lithe and somewhat muscular, their body bears scars from many battles, even a few from where cybernetics seem to have been removed.
”Well, much of my time before serving in the Space Force has been memory-scrubbed and classified, so my frame of reference is more limited than most. Nevertheless, my second tour of duty is a particular highlight of mine. My ship was engaged with a group of D’Naki privateers when a small squad of saboteurs in a modified shipping container were detected en route to the ship. Their scanners would have picked up any life support systems, so due to my lack of any need to breathe I was dispatched with nothing save for a combat knife, a set of thruster jets, and a dozen detonator charges."
Legion-12 laughs slightly, "The look on their faces as I blasted a hole in the side of their vessel was memorable."
Meanwhile, planetside...
In Scene: Dr. Yusil, Oren Knightgale
Terra, New York Space Port, morning
New York Space Port, near Governor's Island in the bay off southern Manhattan, has not been a functional starship facility in several decades. The functions it previously served are now handled by a larger facility built from scratch in the Catskill Mountains a hundred miles north. Instead, the former Space Port is now, essentially, Earth's largest amusement park. Easily accessible by high-speed rail from anywhere in the tri-state area, the NYSP has dozens of square miles of shops, rides, entertainment venues, restaurants from nearly every culture and subculture within the Orion Concord, and more. If anyone in the Concord does something for fun, you can find that thing here.
Dr. Yusil and Oren have met for breakfast, planning to enjoy one of their last days on leave;
yesterday, you were given notification that you'd been returning to Guangzhou duty soon. Janessa Williams is supposed to join you later in the day, after returning via shuttle from visiting family in Arkansas.
The good doctor was only half interested in the pancakes she'd ordered earlier. While the taste had remained unchanged from the heavenly fluffy texture along with the perfect bits of dark chocolates from years prior, her mind was stuck firmly in the past. How frankly Dokkaran of her to reminisce about old times long gone. One could do to take from a Samsaran's point of view, always looking forward while honoring their past.
"I can't believe these prices! Absolutely outrageous, I knew we shouldn't have come here. This place is far too comercialized."
"Ah lavender, just wait until you take a bite. Trust me, the flavor is to die for. Absolutely worth the price of them stealing your wallet."
"I told you to stop calling me that, it's insulting..."
"No, it's adorable."
She took cut off another piece, savoring the taste as it melted in her mouth. Just as perfect as she remembered. "Are you enjoying yours, Oren?"
Lt. Reginald-Zretaden cocks his head looking at Legion-12. "Acknowledged. For brevity's sake, you may refer to me as Krema, or Lt. Krema even in the field, unless a senior officer is present." He seems somewhat aghast at one of Legion-12's remarks.
"Isn't it highly against regulations to tamper with the memories of any sapient creature? And were androids not given sapient status over 50 years ago? If you would like help drafting a formal complaint on your behalf, I would gladly aid in rectifying such an injustice." Lt. Krema seems to be quite worked up about this, pacing back and forth. "Half of our war against the Illithids is born of that universal right!" He taps the side of his head and seems to calm down considerably.
"I apologize. Your exploit involving the D'Naki ship is both humorous, and highly courageous. It is not my place to comment on if you feel a crime against your personage was committed."
As if waiting to be asked... I'd usually go for something sweet... well, everything sweet!
But, Rudo has been on me for eating healthier. Small frame, small mass, diet should be optimized, high protein, blah, blah... you know how he gets when he's on his soap-box.
Oren dug into a heap of eggs and bacon and was saving a short stack for dessert - yes, butter and syrup!
Sipping her cappuccino from an over-sized cup, she looked over it's rim to the doctor. It's actually not bad, but it's the company that counts.
Where'd you go off to? You seemed far off for a bit. Everything alright?