Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to follow Navasi's advice as the pirate she pointed at is already down.
Chk Chk, Echo, and Iseph's turns.
Initiative:
Chk Chk (AC 17, 18/18 HP)
Navasi (AC 16, 16/16 HP)
Echoes of Strange Beauty (AC 16, 18/18 HP, Vitality Network 10/10)
Iseph (AC 18, 12/18 HP)
Orange Pirate (AC 8-16, -7 HP, bloodied, pistol battery 8/10, Taking Cover)
Dr. Kulkorr (AC 16/17, 24/24 HP, parry)
Blue Pirate (AC 8-16, Taking Cover)
Jock (AC 18, 22/22 HP)
Iseph nods at Navasi as they reload, and about to aim Red, but Red is no more, so they choose another target, back to Orange.
vs Orange Pirate
P damage
precision damage
◆ Reload
◆ Aim
◆ Strike
Seeing Isepsh wounded, Chk Chk reaches out to them through their shared comradery to soothe the androids' wounds.
Then they pop out to fire another blast of painful catharsis at the nearest remaining target.
for
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Echo trills happily as a pirate is eliminated before flying forward. The shadow of their many tendrils jerks unnaturally before ripping itself out of the floor to swallow the remaining enemies.
◆ Fly
◆◆ Grim Tendrils vs Orange and Blue
void damage. Targets that fail also take 1 persistent bleed damage.
Iseph's shot misses.
Chk Chk's spell hits, though. The pirate reels, but this time doesn't fall.
Both of them resist Echo's spell decently well, but the more injured one collapses anyway.
Success, 2 damage.[/ooc]
Kulkorr's turn.
Initiative:
Chk Chk (AC 17, 18/18 HP, Vitality Network 4/10)
Navasi (AC 16, 16/16 HP)
Echoes of Strange Beauty (AC 16, 18/18 HP, Vitality Network 10/10)
Iseph (AC 18, 18/18 HP)
Dr. Kulkorr (AC 16/17, 24/24 HP, parry)
Blue Pirate (AC 11-16, -7 HP, bloodied, pistol battery 8/10, Taking Cover)
Jock (AC 18, 22/22 HP)
There's only one pirate left. He swears and takes a shot at Iseph before falling back behind the doorway into the cargo hold.
All PCs' turns.
Initiative:
Chk Chk (AC 17, 18/18 HP, Vitality Network 8/10)
Navasi (A4C 16, 16/16 HP)
Echoes of Strange Beauty (AC 16, 18/18 HP, Vitality Network 10/10)
Iseph (AC 18, 16/18 HP)
Dr. Kulkorr (AC 16/17, 24/24 HP)
Blue Pirate (AC 11-16, -7 HP, bloodied, pistol battery 6/10, Taking Cover)
Jock (AC 18, 22/22 HP)
The pirates all wear estex suits. They each carry a phase cutlass, a laser pistol, a spare battery, and two frag grenades--all commercial-grade.
They also each have a credstick, totalling 60 credits between them.
A holographic projector over the bar activates, and an image of a smiling blue skittermander in a sailor's hat appears. “Hi nufriends! Wow-ee that was some stellar shooting! I knew you were right for the job!” The holographic skittermander tips its cap. “I’m Captain Concierge, the Nova Rush’s incredibly clever virtual intelligence! Think of me as your best pal and a direct connection to the ship. I was made by Vidia Vane—the original owner of this fine starship. But Vidia’s not around anymore and I’m not so keen on helping Captain Firestorm. I’d rather help you! So, how about it? Shall we liberate the Nova Rush from pirates and get out of here?”
Never one to say no to extra weaponry, Navasi snags a pistol with a spare battery.
She regards the hologram cautiously.
"I certainly would not say no to that suggestion..."
“After the missile launcher got jammed, Captain Firestorm sent some of her crew out onto the bridgeway to repair it. Crane malfunction coupled with a comms failure took ’em out. Lucky for you! Brinn’s not so bad. They’re in the munitions room—you’ve got to crawl through one of the alien heads in the rec room to get there. The rest of the crew is on the bridge with Captain Firestorm. There’s also Polly, in the upper cargo hold. She’s a snitch, but I kind of like her. She might be useful with the overloading engine, if you can convince her to switch sides.”
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Making use of the material on hand, Dr. Kulkorr grabs of the 10 (after Jock) remaining frag grenades, handing the rest out 1 each to Chk Chk, Echo, Iseph, and Jock, and bundling the credsticks, hands those to The Leader "Navasi, was it?"
And nodding to his new crew, prepares to defend the Nova Rush!
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Echoes floats over the corpses, probing them a bit with their tendrils before ultimately deciding there was very little of interest on them. When the hologram appears, they observe it with a cautious but curious intensity.
"I believe that consulting Brinn would be our best next move, after all I would expect no one else better to know the ship then an engineer.
"I agree. Let's keep moving." Iseph is ready to find Brinn.
"I assume you project yourself anywhere with projectors in the ship?" they ask the skittermander virtual intelligence.
“Excellent!” Captain Concierge exclaims with a clap of his holographic hands. “To liberate Nova Rush you’ll need to seize the bridge. That’s upstairs, at the fore. But we’re also under attack! You might wanna fix the overloading engine and the jammed missile launcher if you want a fighting chance."
The hologram points at one of the large monster heads on the wall. "That's actually the entrance to the munitions room. It's not really a 'secret' passage, but it is something that people don't have to go into all the time, so Vidia decided to tuck it out of sight. Brie is in there, I think.
"I can project in a lot of places, but I’ve gotta turn my attention back to the bridge—lots to do if we’re gonna survive! Any other questions for me before I do?”
'Firestorm's other pirates' Chk Chk vocalizes for the computer projection. 'Do you know where they are on the ship right now? It would be best to avoid another confrontation until we have more allies.'
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"How about we get to the munitions room and offer to help fix the missile launcher in exchange for getting this Brie to switch sides?" Jock suggests. He moves to the animal head.
When Captain Concierge said he would have to crawl through the alien head, at first he though it was a bathroom for non-humanoids. He also thought there was cheese in the munitions room until he remembered some humanoids name their children after foodstuff.
He stows his cannon so his entrance does not make the crew in there assume he's there to attack.
"Polly's in the upper cargo hold. I believe the rest are all on the bridge right now. We are under att--" This last line is interrupted by a loud crashing sound. The room shakes, and a half-empty glass on the bar tips over and finishes emptying itself. The lights flicker, and Captain Concierge's holographic image flickers and disappears with a small pop.
Jock crawls through the oversized alien mouth. The munitions room is crammed with coils of starship-grade munitions that run through the ceiling to feed the machine guns. Brinn lays in a hammock, pointedly ignoring the blaring alarms with headphones.
Glancing up, they sarcastically remark, “Shouldn’t you be gutting the captain by now? She’s on the bridge.”
When Kulkoor opens the reactor access door, he finds a cramped room that contains the engine and reactor. The reactor is sparking and overloading!
A glitchy-looking Captain Concierge appears, projected from the reactor’s control panel, and warns him to be careful.
Navasi takes a crack at repairing the engine.
Chk Chk stands back as the enovy and vesk work. He observes them warily however, ready to mend any shocks that they might suffer.
As Navasi works, there's a point where the floor shakes again, along with a spark of electricity. "Oooh, shocking!" says Concierge; this is not particularly helpful.
Navasi is unharmed though, avoiding the bolt entirely. She also manages to get the engine patched and back in order.
"Well done to that." Iseph commends Navasi's repair and not being electrocuted simultaneously.
"We need to fix the missile launcher next." Iseph tells Brinn.
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Echoes follow Jock to ensure none of the party is alone at a given moment. "The sooner we fix the engines and launcher the sooner that we may uh...'gut the captain' as you say. An activity I am almost looking as forward to as leaving this vessel." Ready to aid incase their friend needs some help convincing.
"Doesn't seem likely to matter." Brinn barely looks up. "And it sounds like you've already got the engine working. You can tell by the vibration of the walls." The room shakes, and something heavy tips over. "I didn't mean that vibration. Missile launcher's just jammed, anyway. Anybody can fix that, but the crew members who tried got knocked into space by the crane malfunction--I'm not going out there! Polly might help."
"Come on, Brinn - we could certainly use your help, too!"
"You've already fixed the engine," says Brinn sheepishly, "I don't know what else you want me to do. Here." They hold out another key card to Navasi. "This one wouldn't open the brig, but you're already out of there. I don't know if any other doors are locked right now, but if they are this will open them."
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"Brinn" Dr. Kulkorr coughs "Is there a chem lab on the ship?" he holds up his Zero Cannon "Or perhaps an armory where I might find additional canisters?"
Even if there is no such place the android knows to resupply, our shinyscaled hero brandishes the large implement, and prepares to follow the party into the bridge.
"Let's use that to check any rooms we come across. And who's Polly?" Iseph asks, just to make sure they’re looking for the right person.
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Echoes watches with pleasant amusement as the squad fixes the engine before Brinn could help. What capable teammates, however that does leave the missile launcher. "Regardless whether next we want to recruit Polly to our cause or slay the captain on the bridge. We will need to move towards the upper deck."
Brinn points at the munitions being loaded overhead. "Munitions in here are for the starship weapons. Nothing for portable weapons. Closest to a chem lab is the medbay. There's some ammunition in the lower hold, though. Polly's an electrovore. She's probably hanging out in the upper hold; you'll need to go through their to get to the bridge or the jammed launcher anyway. Oh! You'll want to extend the bridgeway so you can get to it. The control room's on this level, but as far from this room as you can get, in the rear on the port side." They wave a hand vaguely in that direction.
The central cargo hold is mostly clear, with the bulk of the cargo stored in the adjoining port and starboard holds. A catwalk with metal guardrails is raised 15 feet above the floor and accessible via ladder. The port stairs lead to the upper deck, and have an industrial, open design and metal guardrail. As promised, the cargo hold contains a commercial autograppler, 50 feet of cable line, 50 projectile ammunition, 3 commercial chem tanks, and 5 commercial batteries.
Navasi happily takes 10 spare bullets, and one of the batteries.
'The control room to get to the bridgeway.' Chk Chk clicks in understanding. 'Thank you Brinn. You have been kinder than required, and that is always seen and held. You should get to a safe place if not accompanying us. Regardless of Firestorm, the ship's attackers are nothing to be taken lightly.'
Iseph bags some 20 projectile ammunitions, fills the magazine, and loads it back into the weapon.
"Maybe this will come handy," they also grabs the commercial autograppler if no one takes it, along with the cable line.
The control room has windows overlooking the ship’s aft and camera displays that monitor the exterior. From here, someone can control the exterior cargo crane or extend and retract the accordion gangways on the upper hold. Anyone who examines the cameras notices the starboard forward missile launcher is jammed but could be repaired by someone standing on the starboard external bridgeway.
Echoes finds a doll that looks like Captain Concierge in one of the cabinets.
"Alright! Now we know which missile launcher needs to be repaired!"
'Excellent work Dr.!' Chk Chk clicks.
Looking at the launcher through the camera, he cocks his head.
Iseph remains stealthy while they work on fixing the launcher.
The party makes their way to the upper deck. From the top of the stairs they have access to the port bridgeway--but the damaged weapon is on the other side. To get there, they'll have to go through the upper hold first.
The upper cargo hold is empty, with metal grating for a floor. Doors in the port and starboard hull each lead to the external bridgeways. When these doors are opened, an enviro-seal automatically forms over them, preventing decompression of the starship while enabling the passage of physical objects, including people.
While empty of cargo, there is a large creature here. A red, snakelike creature with bat-like wings, covered in spines.
"You're not crew members," she says, sitting up as soon as she notices someone approaching, "I should probably tell the captain. Or electrocute you." After a moment's pause, she adds sarcastically, "Do you have a preference?"
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Outwardly, Echoes floats calmly as the the two parties face off. However, its shadow twitches in anticipation of an upcoming conflict. "Fighting would be most unwise for your health, perhaps we could convince you of another path. After all a cunning opportunist such as yourself...may recognize the changing tides of fate." The mystic articulating the last point by gesturing pointedly at the conflict occurring around the ship.