Dirk Gently stumbles slowly into the Acreon engineering room. His Three Blue eyes are drawn to the unusual alien specimens squatting squarely secure in their situation.
Thankful for his environmental protections being activated, the Holistic Detective begins investigation of the engine room, while keeping his electric pulse on the two stationary creatures....
At the sight of the creatures, Sparks draws his ember pistol and switches the safety off. He moves slowly, trying to make as little hard contact with the floor panels as necessary, in case the creatures sensed vibrations. He worked his way to a position where he has a clear shot at the creatures and watches for signs of activity. His heart is racing.
15-0-10 pauses when it see the dormant creatures. It subtly repositions itself to be more between the rest of is group and said creatures, it's shield held at the ready.
Everyone files out of the airlock into the engineering bay and takes a look around. The... sleeping... creatures do not seem to react to the play of your lights over them and the area, having curled up into a position that resembled sleep. The nearby screens are dimmed, asleep due to the current setting of the power core.
What does catch your attention by virtue of them seeming out of place are shards of a pale green crystal somewhat scattered about near the shelves on either end of the bay. An estimate of the quantity as you pan around puts it at a couple bulk worth, perhaps. Under the consoles immediately before you, the handle of a weapon can be seen, likely having fallen there.
You are the only source of activity in this dimmed bay. The creatures do not move as if they are breathing, but neither do they appear to be dead.
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15-0-10 stops near one of the odd crystals and looks it over, though it avoids touching it for the moment.
If the group has any control over what the recorder drone looks at, Sparks directs it to record the dormant creatures without getting too close.
Dirk Gently stumbles once as his attention was taken for some moments by the odd curvature of the shards of a pale green crystal somewhat scattered about near the shelves on either end of the bay.
Curious.
The Espionage Specialist begins scooping up samples for study.
After collecting some samples, Dirk walks over to the computer terminal to determine how to get more juice out of the system....
The engineering bay itself is long and wide, but not so wide that passing by the dormant creatures was something that could be done with a wide enough berth to stay out of arm's reach. Passing nearby did not seem to elicit an immediate response, letting the pair focus on identifying the starmetal. Dirk approaches as well, keeping a wary eye on the sleeping creature before gathering the shards up to return to the engineering computer.
15-0-10 is able to identify the light greenish crystals as Noqual, though the full details of the information seem to be incomplete.
Zephyr and Sparks remain by the airlock, the Observer drone at a midpoint between everyone, surveying the area.
It is a twitch of motion that gets the attention of Sparks, the tentacled mane of the blue-skinned creature slowly shifting as it seems to be waking up, 15-0-10 is close enough to see the sickly yellow glow return to where its eyes might be as it starts to uncurl.
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Sparks is torn. He wants to open fires as his worst fears seem to be coming true. But he knows that these creatures may not be hostile and with the whole thing being filmed for posterity, he does not want to make the Starfinders appear to be the kind to shoot first and ask questions if any sentience remains.
He instead points his Ember pistol at the nearest moving creature, prepared to open fire at any hostile behavior.
(range 30 ft.)
You use the scroll wheel on your mouse
Here is what it looks like.
Maybe describe to GM what you would like to do.
Dirk closes his three blue eyes....
.... somehow sensing (probably his Blindsight electricity telling him) that those two seemingly dormant alien species are no longer being nice and dormant, the Electricity begins sparking about the Eyes Wide Shut Holistic Detective.
When you enter resistance mode, you gain 1 resistance attunement point and become resistance-attuned; you’re treated as being graviton-attuned for the purpose of determining your stellar revelations’ effects. While you’re resistance-attuned, you gain damage reduction 1/—
Dirk's hand seemingly of its own volition is suddenly holding his Lunar weapon.
Dirk's feet are then seemingly Striding to interception track between any of the no longer nice and dormant alien species and his crew.
If anyone (or any alien species) notices the Dirindi having his eyes closed, they may or not care, depending on expectations and desired outcomes....
15-0-10 orients its shield toward the creature near it and... yips. It holds oddly still, all three of its cameras fixed on the creature.
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: Eyes caught by the languid movement of the once-still form, Zephyr reaches out to his mote, the lines of a blacklight pistol in his hand as his body starts to hum. Around his edges, the light seems to bend just slightly.
The uncurling form gets its feet under it and stands, its eyes sweep across the bay, orienting on the approaching detective as if in consideration, its jaw opening to show a maw of very pointed teeth. Deceptively fast, a lunge covers the remaining space between them, trying to take a bite out of Dirk!
Its seeming disregard for 15-0-10 leaves its side open as it moves towards the more... fleshy members of the group.
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Seeing the creature approach Dirk with its teethy maw open for business, Sparks fires at it. A white hot projectile streaks at the monster.
(range 30 ft.)
15-0-10's shield flicks out at the end of its 'tentacle' to bludgeon the now obviously predatory creature.
It chases close behind its enemy and attacks again.
The bloodied Holistic Detective begins to reach out to Touch the rude alien creature! Electric charges race about his hand!
The Dirindi blinks.
He then Tumbles away from the obviously elusive alien species!
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The minimal gravity of the ship almost makes the motion of Zephyr aiming seem like it is being done underwater, as a streak of light the color of the middle of the accretion disk impacts the creature, the light almost seeming to splash against its skin as it recoils from the shot.
The disengagement of the Dirindi detective deters more damage dealt, an aborted attack instead aimed at the articulated annoyance and its accurate anatomy!
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15-0-10 whips its shield into position to block the creature's attack, then snaps it forward to bash its foe in the face.
Sparks takes a steadying breath, taps his good luck orrery sphere, and steps purposefully toward the monster attacking 15-0-10, drawing his assault hammer as he goes. He strikes at the abomination.
The creature collapses, battered to its finish.
With the possibility of the creature being a threat removed, it is much easier to get a look at it, the blue skin being remarkably resilient, and the teeth equally as sharp as its claws. Whatever lingering impulses that have not faded cause twitches in its mane of tentacles, making the not-quite constant movement disturbing to see out of the corner of your view. The yellow light in its eyes has faded, so unless it is remarkably resilient beyond death, it is, in fact, dead.
Another of these creatures is curled up on the opposite end of the engineering bay, unmoving. The Engineering console is adjacent to Dirk, and though the detective Dirindi was injured, he still stands. It might be possible to bring the ship up to full power, if needed.
Restoring full life support would require sealing the ship from hard vacuum, however. Preliminary scans did indicate that the other two (port and starboard) airlocks were also open.
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Dirk Gently looks suspiciously at the sleeping twin of the previous alien abomination auspiciously absent from attendance.
Someone shoot it.
The Solarian then maneuvers to within 10' of the sleeping alien and...
...tiptoe....tiptoe.... tiptoe.....
Source Tech Revolution pg. 30
When you’re fully resistance-attuned, as a standard action, you can cause all creatures within 10 feet of you to become fatigued for 1 minute, and any creature that’s already fatigued becomes nauseated for 1 round (Fortitude negates). Creatures affected by this ability must expend twice as many charges as normal when operating items powered by batteries. After you use this revelation, you immediately become unattuned. Energy sink functions as a zenith revelation for the purposes of abilities that reference them.
"Dirk! Are you okay!? Say something! Say TACO!!"
Dirk surreptitiously steps suspiciously close to the other blue tentacled hazard in the opposite end of the bay, and a tentacle twitches just as the detectives drastic discharge drains the small area around him for just a moment. The color and lights flicker nearby, briefly dimming the area around him.
The creature, tentacles writhing more as it uncurls, the sickly yellow eyes glowing as a slightly uncoordinated attempt is unsuccessfully made to bite Dirk as it gains its feet and closes with him.
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Dirk seems to be panicking....
When you enter resistance mode, you gain 1 resistance attunement point and become resistance-attuned; you’re treated as being graviton-attuned for the purpose of determining your stellar revelations’ effects. While you’re resistance-attuned, you gain damage reduction 1/—
Dirk's hand seemingly of its own volition is suddenly holding his Lunar weapon.
The shaken Dirindi reaches out to touch the unnerving alien!!
The Dirindi looks a bit sheepish....
Whether fortune fleeting found that moment favorable, or the energy that was momentarily drained was delivered directly at the right moment, the end result is a skewered blue body abutted atop Dirk's shoes, deceased.
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His heart racing, Sparks steps back from the fallen monster and then takes in Dirk's devastating attack to finish off the third. "Someone should attend to Dirk's wounds. No telling what kind of diseases these things might be spreading. "
Since he has no medical skills, Sparks examines the creatures and looks at the shards of noqual.
Without any other skill in medicine, Zeph goes to see if the Damage to the Deranged Dirindi had really Dawned on Dirk. He also looks for a medpack.
Looking a bit sheepish, the Holistic Detective begins fiddling with the Engineering control panel.
Restoring full life support would require sealing the ship from hard vacuum, however. Preliminary scans did indicate that the other two (port and starboard) airlocks were also open.
As he is tapping, tapping and typing, typing, Dirk begins to feel a bit less...injured.
The Dirindi looks quite fresh.
15-0-10 carefully looks around the area. Seeing no further threats, it slightly relaxes its stance and goes to assist with re-starting the power.
After a minute or so of thorough checking— it would not do to have the restart ruined by a trap in the system– Dirk is able to bring up the entire system from standby. Rooting around inside, he is able to determine that the door controls could be triggered from here, as well as the life support brought up so that everyone is not reliant on the life support of their suits. It is not quite as simple as flicking a switch, but it can be done. The log of the system access looks like the doors were initially opened from here, with the system going into its low-power mode after a set amount of time.
It was more like three switches to close the doors, verify integrity, and bring the life support up, if that was the desired outcome.
In the corner beyond the danger Dirk deftly dispatched, another collection of those grayish-green shards that 15-0-10 had noticed on their entry. Additionally, it seems that 300 UPBs remained in the still-functional tech lab that was part of engineering. Score!
"I know it's not our job to interpret all this, but it looks like these things may have started as eggs made of star-metal. I wonder if the airlocks were opened in an attempt to have the overpressure blow some of them out into space, like they always do in the movies. Might be worth a scan of the area the ship was when the doors opened, if we can determine that."
After the life support and normal air pressure is restored, Sparks opens his life support shield around his face and inhales the air.
"Reminds me of a spoof of space adventure movies where a scientist--not wearing a space suit, mind you--exits his spaceship on a strange new world, inhales deeply and then exclaims, 'Good, there's oxygen.'"
"Fortunately, I have no need to breathe," 15-0-10 says in its most robotic voice. Switching to a more natural, inflected tone, it continues, "It seems we've cleared everything in this area, should we continue deeper into the ship now?"
Dirk's nimble fingers dance upon the keyboard like an '80s break dancer
We should be clear to...yuppers, Sparks. Good of you to test my work so quickly....
Having dodged that particular misstep, the perspiring Dirindi follows the lucky brenneri and SRO.
He seems to be whistling.....
"Well there's a merry tune ... thank goodness there's air to carry it! Shall we?"
"Let us go forth!" 15-0-10 proclaims in what is definitely a copy of the voice of a famous vidgame hero as it leads the way around the reactor and deeper into the ship.
This long corridor seems to run most of the length of the ship from bow to stern. Signs of battle— bullet holes, scorch marks, and droplets of blood– are clearly visible on the walls and floors. A small body in a space suit lies sprawled on the floor in the middle of a junction in the hallway. With the lighting restored and the ship sealed, it is not difficult to make out the markings of the bridge at the far end.
15-0-10 cautiously advances towards the likely corpse. "Cover me," it asks of its companions as it does.
Sparks keeps his pistol ready and advances just behind 15, watching for hazards and beasts ahead. He is conscientious about checking the ceiling as well as the floor.
Sparks is not handling the pressure well at this point.
...and the whistling stops.
The Espionage Specialist immediately upon viewing the dead body, the blood splatters, the bullet holes, the scorched marks, the half eaten candy bar, pulls out his Projectile propulsion pistol, Strides bravely (one may even say courageously) across the long, long, long corridor to stand on the other side of said dead body to cover Spark's professional performance of perfectly placed paw....
Psst...pass me that candy bar please, partner.
The Dirindi looks serious.
Sparks nearly jumps a foot in the air. He was looking at the ceiling thinking about a movie about explorers in a derelict spaceship where the horrifying monsters dropped from the ceiling.
He looks at Dirk and down at the objects on the ground which he had not noticed so busy was he looking at the ceiling. He glares at the specialist in so many things and returns to following 15 toward the bridge.
15-0-10 leaves the doorway to advance down the corridor, stopping just at the edge of the first intersection, as the hallway crossing the latitude of the ship. To their left, just inside the hallway, is another one of those creatures that was previously dispatched in the engineering bay!
Like the others, this one was also curled up on the floor of the ship, in some sort of resting? Sleeping? state, though unlike the others, the tendrils that comprised a fair amount of the body were intermittently twitching or shifting slightly. This one seemed closer to waking up than the others were.
Dirk, able to make out the details of the small body down the corridor is also likewise stopped mid-stride as he skirts around 10-0-15. The hallway to the right is thankfully clear, though both hallways lead to airlocks, and judging by the markings on the wall, cargo bays. That is absolutely a Prime-Line ProtoBar* that looks to have fallen from the dead... Goblin? at the next intersection.
Sparks spots it just as 15-0-10 does, but is momentarily stunned by the request of the Dirindi detective.
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15-0-10 snaps its shield around between itself and the sleeping creature. "There is another sleeping creature here," it quietly states in its robotic monotone.
Dirk Gently stumbles a bit at the sight of yet another alien dozing off in the corridor (while chewing on his familiar candy bar).
The Holistic Detective begins taking aim......
Sparks creeps forward as quietly as possible, placing his feet gently with each step to minimize vibrations, trying to get a view of the monster and a clear shot. His pistol is aimed at it.
Zeph also has his guns out, given that the sun's out