Reeve rubs the back of his head sheepishly.
"Breakin' an' enterin' aint my part of the racket mates, sorry!"
He does see if maybe he can find any controls nearby that would open the door, it's a new civilization, but wires is wires, innit?
A telepathic song emerges from the crystallized remains of a once majestic creature, bound for deep space with destination unknown.
“Poor soul. Rest in the knowledge that you are now free,” Ziggy intones,bolstering the Starfinders.
Strike Noir keeps banging on the door until it comes open.
There are smudges on the floor here similar to the other rooms, but there are also computers that may provide helpful insights. The keyboards are in the same strange language, so the Starfinders will need to decipher it using Society or some other method. Once that has been completed, a character can use Computers to find the useful information.
Martin can't make heads or tails of what he's reading.
"I mean, one of us has got to be able to figure this out right? Who designs a keyboard like this!?"
Reeve participates at the same level as everyone else so far.
"These looks somewhat similar to a language in an old book I read."
Strike and Torla make enough sense of the keyboard to use it. Now someone needs to actually access the data in the computer.
The Starfinders see and hear a jumble of activity played back. The security monitors show a telescope array monitoring a rogue moon that’s rapidly approaching their host planet, causing tidal instability and gravitational fluctuations. There is a lot of alien chatter and panic. The name “Garako” is repeated out loud with dismay as people run for shelters or evacuation shuttles, and then the feeds cut off.
This room also contains a tactical field scientist’s toolkit and two commercial fire extinguishers.
Ixthia the Unbreakable pings the team’s comm units. “Starfinders, I need you to take a break from your explorations. Now that the drop pods have gotten our field teams embedded in the subsurface, we can start ferrying in scientists and analysts with their gear. Head back to your landing zone and meet up with them there.”
Once the Starfinders arrive at the designated coordinates, they meet the scientific team and their shuttle, which landed through the openings made by the drop pods. They ask the team for help with three tasks: offloading equipment, escorting them to their destination, and preparing their gear.
Offloading Gear: The PCs can attempt an Easy Athletics or Piloting check to physically bring the gear or use remote vehicles to carry it, a Standard Diplomacy check to coordinate everybody working together, or a Hard Intimidation check to whip everybody into shape and get things moving faster.
Escort Duty: The PCs can attempt an Easy Survival check or Scouting Lore check to look ahead for danger, a Standard Perception check to stay on-guard, or a Hard Stealth check to keep the group moving quietly enough to not alert any hostile creatures.
Preparing Gear: The PCs can attempt an Easy Crafting check or appropriate Lore check to construct everything quickly, a Standard Thievery check to use some tinkering shortcuts, or a Hard Deception or Performance check to distract the scientists with pleasantries while they do the work and the PCs kick back a bit.
If nobody wants them, Martin will take a fire extinguisher and the field scientist's toolkit, but will happily cede the toolkit to someone who can make better use of them than he can.
To help offloading gear, Martin cheerily talks to everyone to keep them organized and together!
While helping escort, Martin does his best to keep his inexperienced eyes open...
When it comes time to prep the gear, Martin tries to take a bit of a shortcut...
Strike attempts to do all the task at once! And seems to be distracted, his logic circuits cannot access so much RAM at once!
Mec-03, Martin, Strike and Rattus have no problem getting everything unloaded. The Starfinders still have work to do on the remaining tasks.
Reeve and Torla still to go, plus the notes above.
Reeve gets to work, he helps pilot some of the remote vehicles to get the scientists their things from the button layout is weird for him and and it's not as smooth as he's like.
Scouting though is his jam, and he takes point looking out for danger and identifying areas that might be best to avoid.
With the the scientists safely secured on location, Reeve puts on a little benefit concern, amping up the distortion and playing in a low brown noise register to keep the scientists focused and on task while they set up camp.
As Starfinder teams set numerous geophysical impactors in motion simultaneously, their combined waveforms begin to create a dangerous positive feedback loop that makes the entire moon shake.
The scientists appreciate the additional help, but seem disappointed that the Starfinders could not complete the other tasks assigned to them. They move on to their next assignment.
“Hello, Starfinders!” Ziggy exclaims. “There’s a team of technicians who could use a few extra helping hands to conduct a seismic survey. Would you please go and assist them?”
the technicians explain that Fitch sent them to perform a seismic survey of the moon so that a 3D map can be generated to better guide the Starfinder teams. Dozens of techs have been sent down, armed with heavy impactor gear. They continue to tell the agents that the help they need is extremely easy, just some manual labor and analysis, but there is some risk—if too many teams let their equipment run for too long, or if the moon’s structure is too brittle, it could risk causing moonquakes.
The impactors can be operated in two different ways, either piloted remotely or physically operated like oversized jackhammers. Starfinders wishing to use the impactors can attempt an Athletics, Acrobatics, Computers, Piloting, or Survival check. Each character can make up to two attempts, stopping at any point.
"Alright mates give me one of those impactors." Reeve takes control of one and reviews his notes from his early surveillance of the area.
"If we're looking to do a seismic survey I know exactly where you want to look." Between his earlier notes and his mystical connection to soundwaves, Reeve manages to get a decent chunk of the survey done on his own.
"That'll do ya, I'm not gonna drive her too long cause the last thing we need is a moonquake."
Martin comically picks up one of the impactors and tries it out...
...and surprisingly doesn't make a total fool out of himself?
Torla does her best to operate an impactor, and hopes it helps.
Strike lends a hand to Reeve
Likewise, this android calculates the risk and waits.
Analyzing the data can be performed with a Computers, Nature, or Survival check, or an appropriate Lore (such as Physical Science Lore) check, or a harder Diplomacy check to encourage the techs to focus on the data.
Done with the impactors Reeve climbs onto a desk to peer at the data over the shoulders of the researchers. He struggles to get a full picture but offers his own insights as pieces information together.
Martin encourages everyone to share their data and upload everything to the cloud for better workflow optimization!
The Starfinders begind their analysis, but there is still work to do. Strike and Torla still to roll.
Fitch sends an emergency broadcast to all teams over comms.
“Starfinders! The moon is about to impact a metallic planetoid in Preluria’s outer ring at high velocity. Stop what you’re doing immediately and head back to your drop pods for extraction!”
The other Starfinders can't figure out anything else.
Back aboard the Master of Stars, Starfinder agents congratulate each other on a job well done as everyone files back into the briefing theater on the command deck. Fitch paces furiously up and down the balcony, dodging a pair of ysoki children playing on the bridge with practiced ease as she pours over mission reports, even as the holographic view above the room shows the moon flying ever closer to impacting the metal-rich planetoid at the edge of Preluria’s rings.
“This can’t be right,” Fitch mutters. “The magitech signature is there, and evidence of the missing and destroyed places, but there’s nothing pointing to a superweapon. I have a bad feeling about this…”
Suddenly, alarms begin to blare all throughout the starship. As everyone watches with rapt fascination, the moon slows down just before impact—a feat that should be physically impossible. Then, the moon begins to “open” along several seams crisscrossing its surface and substrate, revealing a fiery red-hot vortex near its core that rapidly rips the metallic planetoid to shreds in mere seconds, while also raising a fiery energy barrier all around it.
As the visceral display of destruction ends and the moon closes up again, it changes course, accelerating from a full stop as it heads deeper into Preluria’s rings, still wreathed in a fiendish glow. Fitch responds immediately. “That’s no moon, it’s a creature!” She shouts, commanding the Starfinder fleet to give chase.
Ziggy examines a series of readouts, and nods. “You’re right, it’s… it’s
alive! It ate the whole planetoid in moments.”
Ixthia’s fingers fly across the controls of one of the sensor suites. “Its new course is heading directly for Pikora 317… that planetoid has over 20,000 inhabitants. They’ll never be able to evacuate in time, and our weapons won’t make it through that fire shield!”
Fitch confers with the senior agents for a minute, then sets her jaw and looks over the gathered agents. “Right…new plan. We’re going to redeploy you back to that thing. Your drop pods are covered in its magical signature, so we think they’ll punch through that fire shield. Your task is to raise havoc and cause whatever kind of destruction you can in order to bring down that fiery aura. Once its down, our fleet can pound it into dust. Failure means the people of Pikora 317 will be eaten by a flying rock, and that’s not an outcome I’m willing to accept! Let’s move, Starfinders!”
The drop pods expend the last of their fuel making a second deployment. This descent is much more turbulent than the first, with the small viewports full of fire and ash as the craft breaks through the shielding aura around the target. A violent crash signals the landing, and as the doors swing open, a red glow fills the cavern ahead.
Stony, bat-like creatures emerge from the lava to attack the Starfinders.
Round 1 - bolded may go
Rattus
Strike
Green
Pink
Reeve
Mec-03
Torla
Martin
Yellow
Red
Blue
Strike moves forward into the heat of it, and prepares his strike!
Rattus moves and double-taps the enemy to the south.
Strike Noir finds a slightly cooler spot and hacks at the red-tinted creature.
Some of the pink creature's wounds knit together. It goes after Rattus.
The green-tinged enemy approaches Strike and slams into him.
Round 1 - bolded may go
Rattus (-5 HP)
Strike (-4 HP)
Green
Pink (-5 HP)
Reeve
Mec-03
Torla
Martin
Yellow
Red (-6 HP)
Blue