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Luanna doesn't recognize their specific features but she knows from her survival training she underwent while a youth in military school on Triaxus that small creatures often are bothered by high frequency sound. "Could one of you mechanics types project a high frequency sound at them? That might drive them away. Something in the 17 kHz range?"
Luanna suggests using a screeching noise, and Anock delivers. Whether its natural predators, or just aversion to whiny sounds, the noise does the trick, and the Diathas scurry off to find easier, less noisy food.
On the ground, the group finds three mk 1 serums of healing and a dermal stapler. The items only have a faint spoiled cherry goo smell.
Ahead, the maintenance area has been converted into a chaotic workspace. Posters of scenes taken from the Starfinder Chronicles decorate the wall, featuring satellite images of alien ruins, starship specification sheets, and pictures of famous Starfinders. The intermittent panel lighting has been supplemented by strings of fairy lights that hang from nearly every wall and ceiling. Every surface (including the floor) is strewn with glitter, art supplies, food wrappers, tools, partially assembled or dismantled machinery, and half-finished crafts. The area smells like a machine shop, chemical lab, cafeteria, and art studio all rolled into one, with the distinct note of Big Cherry Goo-Gurt dominating the complicated olfactory landscape. The mechanical hum of the station and the gurgle of pipes provide background noise, but otherwise the entire place is quiet.
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"Good work, Anock. That did the trick."
Regarding the found items, "I suggest Little, Mizzrym', Sneaker, and Collector decide which three can carry one of these serums, in case we get into a fight and Anock and I cannot deliver healing in an emergency. I'll put this dermal stapler in my medkit, but, Anock, if you see a use for it, let me know. It can be used to stop bleeding like so," and she demonstrates to everyone how to inject the staple into a bleeding wound. "It can also be used to treat other types of wounds with equipment in the medkit."
"Anock, which way next?" Luanna can think of things to do, but she hopes to keep Anock happy by asking instead of stating the obvious.
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Anock is just about to distribute the items when Luanna steals her thunder anticipates her. To calm her indignation, she repeats to herself: A good leader doesn't chew someone out in front of everyone when they're trying to do a good job. A good leader doesn't chew... Once she's sure she can speak respectfully, she gives Luanna a condescending gracious nod. "Very good, Luanna. It is wise to ensure that everyone on the team knows how to use life-saving devices. Now, before we move on, we should thoroughly search this...station? Nest of filth is more like it. Get to work, everyone. We need clues." Anock stands in the least gross spot and surveys the area and her worker bees.
Luanna takes a moment to distribute items, while Anock leads the search. Ever careful, the shirren finds that somebody left a trashed dance club holoprojector here. It looks kind of dangerous, because the sound system is intact and heavily modified.
Down in the hallway, three robots, apparently built out of scrap metal parts are scurrying about, and when they spot the party start emitting sounds that are a mix of greeting and commands Hello. Must. Clean. Mess. Shoot. To. Clean. It looks like the robot's idea of cleaning is using pulsecaster pistols.
[ooc]Start of combat, Collector can act!
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Collector
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Bot
Bot
Bot
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Anock
Sneaker
Mizzrym
Little
Luanna
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Radaszam cares deeply about cross-promotion Collector Rides on Winds thinks aloud. Perhaps he rejected these designs as unsuitable for similar reasons? A spurned graphic designer looking for revenge?
Their speculation is cut off as some very unorthodox ‘cleaning’ bots point weapons at them. Reacting back, Collector reflexively draws and fires their own pistol shot at one while taking cover around the corner.
for
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"Hmph. I never understood the obsession with permanently swollen lactation glands." Anock sniffs.
Luanna looks down at her relatively large glands, which are mostly non-functional fat until pregnancy changes things. "I'm sure there are features in a shirren's physiology that drive other shirrin wild that those of us of a more mammalian persuasion cannot understand. It's all part of evolution and the need to reproduce."
"What now?" she says as the 'bots rumble closer.
Collector fires a stray shot at the robots, who return fire from the corridor. One one them malfunctions as it does so, halting movement and erupting in smoke, but the other two
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Anock
Sneaker
Mizzrym
Little
Luanna
Collector
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Bot (DOWN)
Bot
Bot
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Anock notes with smug satisfaction how Luanna yelped and fled at the first sign of trouble. I'll show her how it's done. Calmly, she directs her nanites to form a cloud alongside each of her allies, then forces them to surge near Collector of Winds, or whatever their name is. There's a brief disturbance in the air, almost like visual static, as the nanites coalesce around them. "There. Now you'll begin healing spontaneously, Collector."
Almost lazily, she draws her azimuth laser pistol. She's definitely *not* going to duck for cover (yet). A leader can't lead from the back.
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Appreciated Collector says as Anock spreads out nanites that start to mend their damaged elements. They also take note of Luanna's look of concern. The strike wasn't bad. Just a 'clip'. Better safe however.
They look down the hall as they fire again, focusing on the same target as the others. If they get somewhat closer - to us and to each other - I can do something a bit more explosive.
for
Luanna dives for cover, but Mizzrym is unfazed and starts blasting the robot, while Anock helps Collector and draws her pistol.
Little blasts the same robot as Mizzrym, whose voice starts distorting, M..ust.. cle-e-e-an.. It's smoking, but still operational.
Sneaker draws, and Collector adds another shot on the smoking robot. It looks like it only need a little push now.
Bolts of electrity shoot forth from the robots, whipping up pieces of paper and globs of goo-gurt, but also hitting Collector.
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Anock
Sneaker
Mizzrym
Little
Luanna
Collector
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Bot (DOWN)
Bot - Blue (10)
Bot
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Seeing Collector's new wounds are still not life threatening and trusting the Nanites will slowly help as well, Luanna edges out until she can see one of the dangerously clean-cut robots. She concentrates and two star-like motes of light circle her head for a moment and then dart like shooting stars toward the robot, blasting it with magical forces.
Shooting stars and laser fire starts flying left and right, and soon enough the damaged robot explodes, followed quickly by the other one who lets out a last Clean.. Bzzzt as the power fades.
Well, it sure looks like this is somebody's base of operations...
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Luanna sees no one with any serious wounds, but she keeps her medkit handy anyway. "That was exciting," she says. She has been in relatively few combat situations.
Then she watches Little tend to the trapped area. She hopes to learn computer programming soon. In fact, she plans to take some time after receiving her payment for this mission to take more classes and learn things that can make her a greater asset to any team effort.
As she watches, she comments, "Two data points don't really make for a trend, but that tee-shirt design featured robots or androids. Here we have robots. I suspect someone tinkered with their programming to make them more than a clean-up crew. So are we dealing with some kind of AI or android resistance group?"
Little works on the holo-projector, which was in fact dangerous, but it seems due to recklessly poor programming rather than malicious intent. If triggered, it would have played about an hours worth of Verces deep bass (which is very deep), in the span of about six seconds, complete with bright flashing effect. That would have been dazzling, to say the least.
The group finds some sort of sleeping niches that would be enough for 8-12 small creatures, and other than that an incredible chaotic mess of stuff that wouldn't make sense to anyone but the persons in charge of it.
In the end, the main piece of information is a pinboard with three items in particular that stand out:
- An invitation to an event in the Skyreach Room, where Venture-Captain Naiaj is scheduled to make a presentation to a group of dignitaries in a few hours.
- A manifest from the Lorespire Complex mess hall indicating the arrival of a special order today.
- A brochure from the First Seeker Ilystre Memorial Museum mentioning some of that First Seeker’s more notable deeds.
There's also a set of microgoggles and a banged-up but functional datapad with a folder called 'DORNE SECHMATICS' on it.
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Collector waits in Anock's cloud for a few more seconds to let the nanobots continue to seal their suit before going to acquire one of the shirts for themselves while Little handles the trap.
Peering over the pinboard, the thyr asks I haven't heard of any incidents involving Naiaj yet, have any of you? If she had been pranked already I suspect it would be common knowledge - the Captain does not seem to sort to take jokes in great humor.
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"Right! So, we need to warn Venture-Captain Naiaj and whoever's in charge of the mess hall. We'll figure out the connection to Ilystre Memorial Museum in a bit. Little, figure out the mess hall's number and give them a call. Luanna, you call the VC. I suspect your bedside manner will be appreciated. Everyone else, let's make sure there's nothing else in these tunnels before we head back to get in these miscreants' way!" Whether or not Little and Luanna comply, Anock assumes they'll make sure the job gets done, and pats herself on the back for excellent delegation skills.
Luanna makes a call to Naiaj, but the ringer goes to video-mail. VC Naiaj shows up as 'do-not-disturb', and Calendar information shows 'in a meeting, free in four hours'.
The folder 'DORNE SECHMATICS' contains some files that look like poorly organised, downloaded schematics of delivery drones.
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"We are going to have to warn VC Naiaj in person," Luanna informs the group. "I'll try contacting an assistant to see if we can get them to interrupt to give the VC a warning."
"Wait a minute! I think think 'DORNE SECHMATICS' is really drone schematics. I'll bet this is a clue." Sneaker's grin is so wide it threatens to split his head in half.
"Yeah," Luanna says in reply. "Either very bad spellers or dyslexic and lacking in any spell check. That would seem to rule out AI."
Luanna tries working the administrative assistants to the VCs to get the word out that a prank on VC Naiaj is incoming. She recommends the group start heading to the closest potential target while she works the comm unit. She also recommends (if Annock doesn't) others call the mess hall and the museum to warn them not to accept drone deliveries for a while.
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"I've never met goblins, but look at the mess, and the bunks, and consider how crazy this whole thing is. It sure matches their rep. What do you think?"
"From what I've heard of goblins, I think you're right. I wonder if there are any goblin Starfinders. Let's stop by the mess hall and alert the staff there to watch out for suspicious drone deliveries and then proceed to the VC Captain's meeting."
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If Anock pats herself on the back any harder, she'll get a repetitive motion injury. It's so satisfying when a team excels through great leadership. "Good work, team. Let's get walking." A good leader delivers judicious praise while encouraging continued work ethic.
She starts ahead of the group. When it comes time to choose a direction, if she chooses wrong, she plays it off as stepping aside to allow someone else a chance to lead the group for a while.
Little finds the contact for the mess hall on the infosphere, giving him the option of either filling out a response for ("we'll get back to you within two days!") or a phone number ("for common, press 1. Castrovelique, touche 2, Kasatha, drucken sie die 3. [Long telepathic silence], per il Eoxian, premere 5, Для vesk натисніть 6, 아키토니안의 경우 7번을 누르세요, リフォリアンの場合は8を押してください, fyrir apostan ýttu á 9 eða deyja")
Turns out the mess hall is located quite close to the museum, but technically it's the closest area of the three. Looks like all of them will need you to visit in person.
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One of the beating hearts of the Lorespire Complex is the mess hall kitchen. Serving three meals a day to one of the most diverse collections of sentients in the galaxy is no small task, and mess hall workers constantly innovate menus to better meet the demands of hungry Starfinders, while doing their best to keep up with the latest cuisine trends in the ever-evolving food scene on Absalom Station. There eating area has a friendly sign DICEBOT serves food only, clean up your own mess!
The Lorespire Complex’s mess hall kitchen is normally a busy place, even in the off periods between meals, but now sits strangely empty. There is a smoky haze in the air and a smell that blends pickles, salted meat, chocolate, caramelized sugar, and a mixture of potent spices quickly overwhelmed by the smells of burning. An industrial sized pot bubbles over alone on the cooking range. Open ingredients littered across the prep area hint at the pot’s ingredients—chips, crackers, various meat jerkies, sweet pastries, pickles, salted nuts, and chocolate bars. The molten brown liquid spills over the sides of the pot, bursting into flame as it touches the cooking appliance below.
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"Looks like they got here first."
The verthani steps forward to take the pot off the burner, remembers the dico holo-projector trap, and has a quick look around before reaching for heat controls.
"Awgh! That's nasty. DOn't come closer." Little switches off the heat and slides the pot to an empty burner.