Venture-Captain Arvin summons you for an immediate briefing in his office at the Lorespire Complex on Absalom Station.
Venture-Captain Arvin stands up from behind his desk. “Welcome Starfinders. As time is of the essence, I felt the interruption in your routine was warranted. Please take a seat.” Venture-Captain Arvin gestures to the chairs in his office. He folds his hands behind his back before continuing.
“This morning I received an official contract from the Marixah Republic. The republic is a small starfaring nation located in Near Space. They have been involved in an ongoing conflict with another nation in Near Space, the Gideron Authority, but the conflict between the two powers has recently escalated. A few days ago, Gideron sent a scouting flotilla into the Acalata system, where the republic has several mining colonies. The Marixah settlements detected the incursion, and they fear this event might be the precursor to a contained invasion of Acalata, so they’ve begun evacuating their settlements and operations within the Acalata system. During the evacuation, the republic identified several sites of archaeological interest. The contract we have with the republic is that we are free to explore the ruins on the planet Sansorgis. In return, we provide aid in the ongoing evacuation.”
Arvin sits down at his desk and pulls out a small stack of datapads. “I have secured diplomatic documentation for all of you, establishing you as investigators from a neutral party. There are two sets of documents.” Arvin carefully hands out the small datapads and then holds up a second, larger datapad bearing the Pact Worlds emblem.
“Keep those datapads with you at all times, as they could save your life if this conflict escalates. Your individual documentation on the smaller datapads should suffice, but if not, this larger pad contains several documents granting you a measure of diplomatic immunity by the authority of the Pact Worlds. It’s something the Society rarely invokes, and you should only use it if the situation is dire—by which I mean your starship is about to explode or you’re being boarded. That level of dire. Its use could potentially draw the Pact Worlds into this conflict, something we would rather avoid. I know this is a lot of information to take in, but I don’t want to send you to a potential warzone unprepared. I have also sent a small info package regarding the situation to your comm units. Your preferred starship will be transferred immediately to the docks. Unless there are any questions, please pack as quickly as you can. The window of opportunity on this mission is short.”
Culture or Diplomacy
A different Culture or Diplomacy
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"Elian Neubeck, Neutech Industries," says a human in dark glasses as he looks over the datapad, "Ignore the rumors about our new line of cosmetics; they've never been proven to cause worse than second-degree burns. My mother says that while I'm obviously great at advertising she thought I should pursue other interests for a while to broaden my horizons. So I've joined the Starfinder Society.
"Anyway... Neutral third party, got it. I'm good at that."
"I dunno much about anything, honestly..." he says lazily, before sitting up and adding more decisively, "I can confirm everything everything Zarzucket said, except for the stuff about the bloodthirsty starship captains--though that certainly fits with the military coup. Also, I suspect the ruins we're looking for might be hobgoblin ruins. There used to be a hobgoblin empire in that area."
"Oh, and--" he winks, though most likely nobody notices because of the sunglasses, "--I have a reputation with the starship engineers. They should take good care of us."
Travel to Sansorgis takes days through the Drift, and the journey is mostly uneventful. Once the Drake exits the Drift near Sansorgis, the ship computer gives off a warning: a solar particle event known as a proton storm is occurring in the system.
As you approach Sansorgis, a Gideron Authority starship blocks your approach to the planet and hails you.
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"Proton storm," says Elian, sending his screen before sending his analysis to the others' comms or stations, "and why don't I do it?"
He takes the ship's comms. "Hey there, this is the Starfinder Society starship uh Diving Drake. As I'm sure you're aware, we're a neutral party here to investigate some potential sites of archeological interest in the system before they're at risk. Scheduled to visit Sansorgis?"
You receive a transmission displaying a muscular female hobgoblin in a stylized military uniform. "I am Captain Odrakor of the Gideron Authority starship Susumu’s Sword. Depart the system, or else we will seize your starship in the name of the Gideron Authority."
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"Captain Odrakor is it? I am Professor Telgan of . What is your first name good sir so that I can include it for the Journal of Xenoarchology, also the name of your commander please. We are here to catalog the ruins on Sansorgis as quickly as possible before there are any mishaps with missiles or such that wipes them out. I want to make sure if we are prevented from doing our job, that the proper person be tried for war crimes." Telgan said as he started to quote the specific rule of warfare that applied to antiquities and ancient sites.
"Your ruins are not my concern. Depart the system immediately. You will receive no further warnings."
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Making sure that the communication system was not transmitting, Telgan shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the rest of the group. "Looks like we will have to make a run for it if we want go get to the planet. I would suggest that we use the Proton Storm to help protect us from any tracking weapons. Maybe run parallel to them?" he suggested.
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"Sure, sure," says Elian, switching his microphone back on.
"Of course Odrakor babe, you're the boss. Let me just get you my diplomatic credentials so you have that for when you file your report. Mmmm. This technically just names me, though the rest of the crew has the same documents--except for the identifiers, of course. Do you want us to get you the complete set, or will one suffice?
"Pity about the hobgoblin ruins. I mean, they aren't really our ruins--we're were requested here because we're a third-party, remember? But it's such an important piece of the history of hobgoblin military conquests. well, I guess we really don't know that. Since we can't get down there to confirm it, it's possible somebody just saw a weird rock and got overexcited.
"But I'm sure you know what's best. That's why we were looking to find someone who could help direct us, after all--we're outsiders. Not even quite sure which planet we were looking for anyway."
Elian waves away any attempt by the ship's computer to tell him which planet it is.
"Your credentials have been noted, logged and lost. Now prepare to be boarded."
Round 1 - engineering phase and pilot initiative
Diving Drake
Susumu's Sword
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You manually adjust additional thrusters and bypass safety systems, shouting for your fellow crew members to brace themselves for a stomach-turning tactical maneuver. This bit of risky co-piloting might overtax the starship’s turn radius, but it can also help the pilot get significantly more maneuverability out of the vessel when the crew finds itself in a lurch. Attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier). If you succeed, the pilot can make one turn during the round as though the maneuverability of the starship were improved by one step. This has no effect on a ship with perfect maneuverability. If you fail your check by 10 or more, you overheat and temporarily degrade the effectiveness of the starship’s maneuvering thrusters, causing the ship’s maneuverability to worsen by one step for the rest of this round.
Maintenance Panel Access (Engineering Phase)
You start ripping open access panels, turning secured valves, and manually bypassing safety systems to help the engineer get more out of their systems when they take the divert or overpower action. Attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier). If you succeed and the engineer also succeeds at their check to divert, they can provide the normal benefit from divert to two different systems instead of only one. If the engineer instead succeeds at their check for the overpower action, they can choose four different systems to divert power to instead of three. In either case, no system can benefit twice from the same action.
If you fail your check by 10 or more, you overtax the ship’s systems without adding any useful capacity, and all engineer actions performed this turn take a –2 penalty.
Manual Realignment (Helm Phase)
Manual realignment of the ship’s sensors to better focus on an opposing starship can help the science officer get better results when using the ship’s sensors to glean information about the other vessel. Attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier). If you succeed and the science officer also succeeds at their check to perform the scan action, they receive one additional piece of information, as though their result were 5 higher. If you fail the check by 10 or more, you knock the sensors out of alignment altogether, and no check to scan can be attempted this round as the system recalibrate.
If no one wants a hand, I'll default to gunner on the weak gun. We want someone good on the missile launcher.
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"Y'know," says Elian calmly as he starts connecting his station to different systems, "given the Gideon Authority's reputation for captains with poor reasoning and military discipline--" he doesn't bother closing the communication channel "--I half expected her to attack us as soon as I started talking even though I was offering to comply. The other half hoped she'd be reasonable, of course, and reconsider or at least decide to defer to someone else. Listening and then attacking us when we agree to comply? I think I'm actually offended that someone like that can be a captain."
To be fair, Elian knows the Starfinders weren't likely to actually follow through on his offer.
"Maybe a little smarmy, but I hardly said anything that wasn't true."
He's prepared to stay where he is and help keep the others organized (and maybe needle Odrakor a bit), but he's also looking to see what systems they're claiming so he can fill any problematic gaps. He knows his way around a starship pretty well, even if he prefers being an idle passenger.
Elian gets the jump on the enemy. Susumu's Sword tries to come up on your port side.
Round 1 - all phases
Diving Drake
Susumu's Sword
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"Their ship is faster than ours, but their pilot is less skilled obviously. If you want to fire missiles, we should probably try to avoid those storms--I can move to intercept."
Elian takes the Drake on a wavy path that brings them closer while keeping the Sword in front of them. No diving, though; that'd be too obvious.
Hopefully it'll make it harder to shoot at them, too.
Telgan boost the engines, and Elian uses them to go nose-to-nose with the Gideron ship. Nalotrunos misses with the coilgun, but Kerathi's missile punches through the shield and damages their hull.
Sususmu's Sword takes two shots at the Starfinders, but neither connects.
Once again, the Diving Drake is the more maneuverable ship. However, the enemy flies past the Starfinders, striking with their ramming prow as they circle.
Round 2 - all phases!
Diving Drake (-7 HP)
Susumu's Sword (-9 HP; shields: -10 ???)
Zarzucket gets only a basic reading on the enemy ship at first, but recalibrates the scanner and produces a much more detailed picture of the Susumu' Sword.
The following information is revealed:
SUSUMU’S SWORD - TIER 2
Medium explorer
Speed 8; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 14; TL 12
HP 46/55; DT —; CT 11
Attack (Port) light laser cannon (2d4)
Attack (Starboard) light laser cannon (2d4)
Attack (Turret) coilgun (4d4)
Power Core Arcus Heavy (130 PCU)
Shields basic 40 (forward 0/10, port 10/10, starboard 10/10, aft 10/10)
Complement 6
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"They want to get behind us... Two can play at that game, but we've already damaged their forward shields, and--hang on," Elian glances at Zarzucket's report, "They don't have a forward weapon? Then I should--whoops. I mean, everything's fine just not quite as tight a circle as I intended there. Thanks for the engine boost."
Telgan gives the engines a little boost.
Elian brings the ship around to the enemy's starboard, but the maneuvers are a bit predictable.
Kerathi puts another missile into the side of the Gideron ship.
A cascade of explosions leads to damage to their weapons on the opposite side.
Nalotrunos spends more time congratulating her than lining up his own shot.
Susumu's Sword misses with its other shot.
Round 3 - engineering phase and pilot initiative
Diving Drake (63/70 HP)
Susumu's Sword (38/55 HP; shields: forward 0/10, starboard 0/10; port weapons glitching)