The Espionage Specialist walks his fingers about the control console copying the officer's logs and sending them to their contact at the Starfinder Society....
Preparing for what you are going to encounter is the easy part. Having faced six of them already, the feeling of nerves is lessened, replaced with a resolve, and a plan. It is easy enough to have yourselves registered as crew with all the necessary permissions, so that any ship commands such as doors and other potentially locked items are a non-issue.
Just the aliens. These may be the last on the ship, for that matter.
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15-0-10 takes up position at the door, its shield fully deployed and ready.
If anyone has skills in medicine, it might be a good idea to do regular checks for everyone who got injured by the monsters, in case they carry a disease or inject parasites when they bite.
Sparks prefers the back rank so he can shoot first and forget about asking questions other then "Are the dead yet?" But he can take a front rank if everyone else wants the same thing.
Dirk nervously takes the front line. The Holistic Detective is carrying his pistol (pointed at the door)...
Dirk does seem prepared to Breach and Clear the door, once he is given the signal...
The Espionage Specialist Sneaks into the chamber as the door slides open...
Dirk appears to be shaking as his paused position possibly pursues planking.....
Partially paused in the doorway, the door-skilled detective looks in to see shelves and crates, stacked neatly, though there are two crates stacked in the left of the room that he cannot see through, however.
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15-0-10 swiftly darts into the room, sees one of the creatures just as it passes the first crates, and turns to confront it by smashing its glowing shield into its face.
Dirk nervously follows 15-0-10 further into the room. The perspiration participant parks pathetically perfectly 15' away from any particular party pooper aliens.
Dirk shakily aims his pistol at the same alien species that his braver companion bashed!
Phooey!
Sparks takes a deep breath, grips his pistol tight in one hand and his assault hammer in the other, and advances into the room until he sees the blue terrors. He begins to attune his electrical powers as he moves and then fires at the beast hiding behind a crate.
(range 30 ft.)
Prepared for the fight, the cargo room is breached, and the creatures are swiftly engaged. For the speed in the party's engagement, the creatures are quick to respond, awake and alert like the others on the bridge. Teeth find purchase on 15-0-10, and on Sparks, though it does give Dirk a good line of fire. Zephyr, assists Dirk with aiming, providing guidance on which part of the creature tends to move the least.
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C1 (5)
C2 (4)
, P
, P
15-0-10 aligns its shield towards the creature that just hit it and continues trying to beat it in the head with said shield.
Sparks shifts to put the beast between him and his allies and tries to bash it with his assault hammer, hoping to prevent any more bite wounds.
Dirk seems surprised his shot found purchase!
Bend it like Beckham!
The Holistic Detective takes another shot at the same alien!
The electric pulse sparking off him seems almost ready to...
Anyone else think they look Fatigued soon?
Energy Sink (Su)
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.
The creatures are silent except for the sounds of their claws on the deck of the ship, and the echoes of their snaps at 15-0-10 and Sparks. Foregoing any probing, the two redouble their assault on their targets, the shield of 15-0-10 serving well to prevent harm, but Sparks does not fare so well, its teeth scoring some damage against the Brenneri in the exchange. Zephyr continues to encourage and advise Dirk, unable find a good line of fire into the room and the combat within.
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C1 (5)
C2 (10)
, P
, P
15-0-10 continues focusing on the creature in front of it both defensively and offensively.
"It may be unnecessary and, indeed, dangerous to us in the longer term to do so unless you can arrange to affect only our foes," it says clinically to Dirk.
The bite bruises Sparks but doesn't yet draw blood. It gives him additional motivation to put it down quickly. He brings his electrical attunement up another notch and strikes again with his hammer.
He does better this time, getting a sense of how it defends itself.
Looking a bit disappointed, the Holistic Detective takes aim...
The Holistic Detective takes another shot at the same alien!
Caught between a hammer and actually accurate shots from behind, the creature that Sparks had engaged is done for. The one currently boxed in on all sides again attempts to fight through its position, making no headway against its containment. The height of the boxes is an impediment to those by the door, as the stacked boxes are both a boon and bane for containment and line of fire, respectively.
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C1 (5)
15-0-10 continues to beat the surviving creature with its shield while keeping said shield between it and said creature.
Sparks shifts position slightly and sends his sparking mote at the remaining beast.
Target: 1 creature within 30 ft.; DC 14 Fortitude save for half damage
Dirk nervously takes his buttocks around the corner to get a better view.
The Holistic Detective takes shot at the same alien!
Through coordination and an incredible amount of damage brought to bear in a few seconds, the second of the creatures falls. Upon inspection of the large room, contains a small science lab, compact mining equipment, and collected rock samples from the Acreon’s prospecting mission.
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"That went much better than our previous battle," 15-0-10 comments, using its robotic-but-inflected voice.
It starts nosing around at the equipment, seeing if there's anything of immediate interest to their investigation.
Sparks checks himself and finds no actual wounds. He spends a bit of time fiddling with his orrery until he catches his breath.
Then he starts poking around the crates looking at what is in the room, letting the video drone capture the contents. If necessary, he extracts individual items to make sure everything gets catalogued.
Dirk Gently seems frozen in place. The three-eyed Dirindi blinks repeatedly. A bit of perspiration beads upon his forehead.
This feels like a set up....
He absently reloads his pistol...
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Looking around at the equipment, samples, and other items stored in this cargo room, nothing seems out of place from a mining standpoint. The samples are cataloged, labeled with the time, date, location, and coded with a surprisingly efficient index. All at least appears to be in order here— aside from the now deceased strange blue creatures. There are more shards of that greenish resin scattered around the cargo hold, a significant amount, if gathered.
There is also a flame pistol that seems to have fallen in an out-of-the-way area, practically under one of the shelves by the door, almost blocked by the boxes against the wall
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Dirk Gently is seen staring hard at the out-of-the-way practically under one of the shelves almost blocked by the boxes flame pistol....
"I've got a pistol, Sparks says, patting the still warm ember pistol at his side. "Once everyone's rested, let's check another cargo hold. We should be able to finish the ship area soon and then maybe eat and sleep and prep to go out to see what that drift rock has to offer. These eggs likely came from it, brought inside without realizing what they were."
He will consolidate the shell fragments with the others found earlier.
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"If none of you are lacking in firearms, I could make use of that weapon, as I tend to fight at very close ranges where a flame-throwing pistol would be of most utility," 15-0-10 states, still in its more robotic voice.
It swaps to a 'noir investigator' voice. "Your theory's good there, Sparks. That's probably what killed the vics. Except... that message made it sound like there was something more than just the low-lifes we've killed already."
It returns to its robotic-but-inflected voice. "Finishing with the ship and then investigating the rock is a logical course of action."
Clearing his throat, the Holistic Detective begins to pace the bridge.
Are we eliminating the possibility of perpetual parasites possibly being perfectly placed out there ...
His voice trails at the end.... spooky like ...
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Traversing the corridor to the other cargo hold that was shown on camera, opening the door reveals no surprises. The Acreon’s port cargo hold contains much of the ship’s supplies. There is extra food and water stores, replacement air filters, spare parts, and the like. There is also a shipping container approximately 8 feet square, addressed to the Eoxian Embassy on Absalom Station. The container is sealed and has no manifest detailing its contents.
Sparks uses a text message on his comm link to state, "we will have to discuss how to handle that crate the Eox ambassador asked us to get to him.I'm not sure how we will do that, but that is a discussion for another day."
He otherwise does as he did before, opening each crate, removing the contents if need be to get a video of each item for the drones.
15-0-10 gives Sparks a slight nod before moving to help inspect the cargo.
In the middle of it working, a message pings all your comm units. A glance shows that 15-0-10 is the sender.
It should be fairly simple to message the ambassador and move the crate. Are we intending to do so? Perhaps more advance discussion would have been wise.
Also inbuilt communication units are superior, you could easily get some installed to make up for your organic bodies' unfortunate lack of the same.
Dirk examines the contents of the crates with 15-0-10 and Sparks. The Dirindi snaps his fingers at the unregistered eox crate.
This may be the exact crate the Ambassador asks us to secretly retrieve. Should we open it for security reasons of course?
Dirk examines the contents of the crates with 15-0-10 and Sparks. The Dirindi snaps his fingers at the unregistered eox crate.
This may be the exact crate the Ambassador asks us to secretly retrieve. Should we open it for security reasons of course?
"and/or integrity reasons, absolutely. Would be best to know what the task is that we've been asked to complete, right? 'No questions asked' is a little more lower decks than I would think we want to get into. Let's see what this is."
Sparks makes sure the drone capturing the expedition is off examining something in the other cargo room before saying more about the 'package.' "The ambassador asked us to do something I expect would be illegal, which risks both our reputations and that of the society. I feel no obligation to facilitating smuggling it to him. But in case it's something innocuous, let's see if we can check out what's in it. It might have some bearing on what happened here, after all. Let's just do it without the drone seeing."
Dirk Gently slowly begins circling the mystery crate. The Espionage Specialist walks around and around. His Three blue eyes scanning the mystery crate for just the right....
Eureka! I've located the exact area weak to breaching.
Dirk digs desperately directly for his Engineering kit. With a smile and a gleeful yelp, he begins tooling about the box....
Stand back. Just in case there is a ferrous ferret feeling friendly. It's happened to a college of mine. Dreadful to witness.
15-0-10 simply stands back and watches warily in silence. It's a little eerie how perfectly it can hold still when it wants to.
Inside the shipping container, you find inside a smaller transparent polycarbon plate capsule that looks much like a coffin— an impression only heightened by the capsule’s occupant, a skeletal humanoid figure with an elongated cranium wearing a military uniform. Even more surprising, the skeleton suddenly opens the capsule and stands up!
The figure looks around, a bit uncertain, as they see all of you. "Greetings. I seem to be at a loss, here. You four do not quite seem the mining type."
15-0-10 tilts its head slightly. "Are you unaware of the battle that took place upon the ship?" it questions in its more robotic voice. "I would have thought it loud enough to overhear."
Sparks jumps back when what he thinks is a corpse behaves like anything but. He recovers quickly remembering the destination of the crate. "Are you aware the crate you are in is supposed to be delivered to the Ambassador of Eox?"
They stop their visual examination of the cargo hold to look at Dirk, then 15-0-10, and finally Sparks, clearly unfamiliar with where they were currently located . "I have not heard much of anything. My current... accommodations are rather well-sealed and quite restful, if one has no need of the usual comforts."
Indeed, a look at the container can see that it is well-made, and when sealed offers a significant amount of insulation against outside disruptions, if the thickness of the sides of their container is any indication. That the container was itself in another container for shipping would see it very insulated.
Sparks' question elicits a positive response. "Ah, I do believe that was my intended destination. Are you hired couriers? I'm sorry, my manners have abandoned me. I am Hebiza Eskolar, well-met."
"We're mostly here to ascertain the fate of your original transportation, seeing as they're all dead, and not the undead kind," 15-0-10 says in some kind of gravely voice. "I'm 15-0-10, and we were informed your container was bound for the Eoxian ambassador. I take it that's still your intention?"
"This ship suffered an attack and emerged from the Drift near Absalom Station towing a mysterious rock found in the Drift. A dispute arose as to whether the owner of the Drift rock, as it's come to be called, is the minors who found it or the company who hired them. We were contracted to determine what happened to the ship and check out this Drift rock. We have learned that some kind of eggs were found on or in the rock and when brought on board hatched. The creatures who emerged appeared to have killed the crew, although we are still investigating a possible other assailant. We think we have killed all that were hatched and still active. We were asked to try to get you past the customs folk and to the Eoxian Ambassador, although we are not sure how we can do that. As this doesn't involve you, if you choose to return to your ... container, you may do so. We would be interested to know how you got on board and why you are being introduced to Absalom Station in this unorthodox manner."
Dirk Gently is seen staring hard at the not dead fellow that they found inside the decently sealed crate, box, container.
When Sparks begins expounding upon their recent deeds, the Espionage Specialist begins tearing up his notes.
Not even close!
If one were to peer unobtrusively down at the thrown and torn papers, that one's eyes would reflect back to them mostly drawings of the 4 of them, but dressed as various marvel superheroes....
Dirk absolutely nods to Sparks' testimony and terms to the truly tough thing....
They incline their head slightly, considering the group in turn before responding, tone measured rather than dismissive. “Your account is clear, and I appreciate the diligence. It seems the situation has been... untidy.”
A brief glance passes over the container, more out of habit than concern. “As for myself, I am, as stated, a consigned passenger— handled under specific arrangements. The particulars are not especially interesting, I’m afraid, and tend to invite unnecessary complications when discussed outside the proper channels.”
A faint pause, then a polite half-smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes, wrinkling their skin in a manner that may be unsettling, if just for the appearance. “I would not wish to distract from your present work, nor place you in an awkward position with customs or your employers. It is sufficient that I am expected, and that the appropriate parties are already aware.”
A small, courteous gesture is given toward the container. “If there is no immediate need of me, I believe it best that I return to my accommodations and allow you to conclude your investigation unimpeded. Should your duties bring you into contact with the Ambassador, I expect we will be properly introduced then.”
They dip their head again, a touch warmer this time. “You have my thanks for your professionalism.”
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Each of you hear your comm units ping as 15-0-10 speaks. "I believe that would be best, yes," it says, in its more robotic tones. "Keeping our recording off for a long period of time would be suspicious, and I rather doubt you wish to be recorded."
Sparks shrugs. "Works for me. We have more to do here."
He struggles to think of what one wishes an undead miltary officer about to retire to a coffin, so he just waves awkwardly. He feels in his pocket for his orrery.
Dirk Gently slowly begins to be not tongue hanging out with a crazy look to his tightening tendons in his neck once the...chap returns to his ...confines.
I want a raise.