Kezarr's page

"Just to clarify that there was no misunderstanding - were not going to shoot our way through that on a one after one basis, are we? We got something big at hand, once we know where to aim it at, right?" Glitch inquires.

Early Bird gives Glitch a long and measured stare. "This is a rescue mission, right? Traditionally you try to have survivors for one of those. But..." He gives a meaningful pat to a bulge on on inside pocket of his suit. "If it doesn't look like anyone's making it out, I have a way to send a real clear message, if that's what you're talking about. Be prepared and all that."

The door ahead is unlocked, and opens into a small intersection - there appears to be some sort of dormitories ahead, without a door, and a bathroom to the righthand side. The hallway proceeds to the left, and seems to descend at a pretty steep angle.

Botting Nilan

Nilan moves forward, shooting from behind Blask and dropping the android in front of him with a carefully-placed shot.

Survival Trick: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32
Trick Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 8
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Damage: 2d4 + 1 ⇒ (4, 2) + 1 = 7

Android 4 drops off of the catwalk with a leap and moves behind cover in one of the alcoves, taking a careful shot at Blask.

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Jink, robbed of his target by Nilan, nevertheless draws a careful bead on the remaining catwalk gunman and lands a precise shot on the android.

Android two jumps off the catwalk as well and begins backing towards the door, firing as he goes.

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28
Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Crit Damage: 1d4 + 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + (3) + 2 = 8

Blask Fort, DC 15: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Another shot to the face - at this point, you can see icicles forming on Blask. He does not seem to be slowed at all by this development, though.

Because the enemies moved, I've half-botted Kitty/Glitch - Kitty wouuld need to move to get a shot, so taking the 1 point of overcharge off.

Caloo shoots for the running android, Blask charges the one taking cover, and Kitty and Glitch stride forward spraying covering fire - Android 4 goes down to Glitch, and Kitty scores a hit in the back of discombobulated #2.

5-AM and the other AAF members follow suit, faces stoic despite the carnage. "I've never seen anything like this before," 5-AM says with a steely, resolved voice. "I won't say everyone is always jumping for joy to see us, and I've had some struggles from andorids that were really in it deep - but nothing like that. These guys were acting like pros." He nudges one of the dead androids with his foot. "I'm sorry we were too late," he mutters quietly to the corpse.

Botting Nilan

Nilan tries to spray sparks, aiming for a glancing shot off the wall to harm #1 - followed by a bullet while the foe is distracted. The shot strikes home.

Survival Trick: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (12) + 16 = 28
Trick Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Damage: 2d4 + 1 ⇒ (4, 1) + 1 = 6

Androids 1 hits Blask like a dervish, ducking and swinging in entirely unpredictable ways - their arms and legs become a blur. Android 4, meanwhile, sprays shots of freezing cold at the vesk.

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

The vesk, used to battle, allows the more accurate attacks to be absorbed by his armor while he dodges the more flail-y attempts.

Jink's shot goes wide, skittering away into the darkness.

Android 2 tries to maintain the focused fire on Blask, dodging and weaving like the others as he fires.

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Crit Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Blask takes a freezing cold blast of energy to the face, feeling his jaw go numb and the crackle of ice upon his eyes.

Black Fortitude Save DC 15: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Blask has undoubtedly suffered worse, though, and powers through, suffering no additional ill effects.

Caloo fires at 1, who drops like a puppet with the strings cut.

Blask can't get a bead on the standing android, whose whirling attacks are disorienting, for the first hit - but by dodging the first swing, it puts the android directly in the way of the vesk's second attack. The android's head snaps back from the powerful clawed uppercut.

The android doesn't seem to flinch from Blask's powerful blow, engaging in the same deadly whirl as his dying comrade.

Stealth Trick: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33
Trick Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Again, though, the blow connects with Blask's armor without hurting the vesk. And then Glitch lands a solid scorchmark across the android.

Nilan
Android 4
Jink
Android 2
Caloo, Blask [-8 sp]
Android 3 [-22 sp]
Glitch

Nilan drops back into the hallway.

From the catwalk, two of the shapes drop to the ground - Caloo doesn't need much science at all to identify them as androids. They advance towards the party, various machine tools in hand trapping Blask and those behind him in the hallway.

Android 1 and 3 are on the ground, 2 and 4 remain on the catwalks.

Meanwhile, the two that have not dropped down advance along the catwalks, drawing some sort of pistol as they move.

Nilan
Things 1, 4
Jink
Thing 2
Caloo, Blask
Thing 3
Glitch

Caloo Bot: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Glitch Bot: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28
1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27
1d20 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15
1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

Nilan and Caloo both manage to notice something other than a feeling of overwhelming dread - movement on a catwalk above the dark room.

Blask: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Glitch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Jink: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Nilan: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
Caloo: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
1: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
3: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
4: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Nilan, Caloo surprise round actions, if you would (move or standard, no full - so no trick attack)

Nilan
Things 1, 4
Jink
Thing 2
Caloo, Blask
Thing 3
Glitch

The crew cautiously descends down the stairs into the darkness of the facility - though thankfully everyone's natural abilities or enhancements allow them to see in the dark. Rounding the corner to where Glitch and Blask typically would hand off supplies to the workers, there's one drastic thing different - one, the automated lights do not turn on as you descend. And two, the flashing red light in the area seems to indicate that some sort of alarm may have been triggered during the 'mishap' at the door.

Perception checks, if you would be so kind.

I'm fine - radiator blew, but it was a 14-y/o junker of a car, so it came time to get a new-to-me car. Definite upgrade, and got a real nice price, so marking it as a win.

And then I had a 17-hour day at work getting all the robots packed up for a show in Chicago. It's been a week.

I'll pull together a post at some point over the weekend and get things moving again!

Hey everyone,

I don't think I'll be able to move things along for a few days - my car broke down while running work errands for a trade show we need to be packed for tomorrow.

Things are busy.

I'll try to get back on in the next couple of days and advance things along!

Nilan Reflex: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
Jink Reflex: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Nilan and Jink, both with their supernatural reflexes, dive out of the way and manage to take no damage from the jolting electricity.

Double evasion - nice!

5-AM and the other androids aren't as lucky - one of them takes a sizable zap and staggers back, but isn't dead yet.

Glitch takes a peek inside and sees that the recharge rate on the electricity is about a minute - so Glitch hurriedly disables that. (Taking your previous engineering/computers roll)

With that, the door opens, revealing dark steps into the ground.

Added you to the map. Going to use the AAF more as set-piece than pawns so not adding them to the map.

As the drill enters the pad, Glitch suddenly has a shocking revelation about the joy of after-market additions - there's a sudden *POP* and an arc of electricity shoots out of the pad, through Glitch, and arcing to the rest of the party.

Electricity Damage, DC 13 Reflex for half: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 6) = 20

It looks like Slivvy is also familiar with some of the flaws of this particular model... and took it upon herself to upgrade the system.

No perception check before drilling into the door?? For shame, gamers! :P

Approaching the door, it clearly has a keypad that presumably controls entrance.

Feel free to give me whatever checks y'all are hoping to make.

The squad of you synchronize timepieces with the AAF and split up, preparing to attack the facility.

You arrive at the Fevercore property line without any trouble, emerging from another of the 'substations' that Longshot directs you to within a block of the place. The neighborhood is quiet - looks like it's a few hours before dawn.

The "assault" hits a snafu early - you arrive at the door at the same time as 5-AM and his trio of AAF agents. He shrugs sheepishly at you. "All clear on the southern side?" he quips. "No resistance to be found - cut our way through the fence and here we are. So... all together then?"

There isn’t much to the facility site from the vantage of the small gate built around it. A concrete walkway leads west behind a twenty-foot-high chain-link enclosure. The gate to the enclosure is padlocked to dissuade normal transient foot traffic. East of the landing pad is a heavily fortified bunker entrance constructed of concrete and steel. The bunker is octagonal and thirty feet wide on all sides, with a heavy steel door on the south side.

don't forget small arms! Always good to have an option to trick attack with in close quarters :)

I'll take your silence as tacit approval of the plan to take down Slivvy. :)

With 5-AM on board, you all retreat back to Longshot's lair to discuss the actual assault.

From the surveillance footage Longshot provides, Fevercore looks to be a pretty secure operation - it looks like the mine and the administration are combined into a single facility, and descending into the facility is done through a single secured entrance. Jink and Blask are able to confirm a little more, but not much - when they were hauling 'cargo,' they would enter through the entrance and take the magcrates into a sort of entrance chamber, dropping off the magcrate with Slivvy's creepy android workers, taking their credsticks, and going - they don't know what else is further in the facility. There had been a keypad with an entrance code on the door, but Slivvy's likely changed it by now.

Added the map as Glitch and Jink can describe it to you. Let me know if there's any questions!

Ugh I'm a huge flake when it comes to responding to Discussion... I'd grab a high-tier armor and a lower-tier weapon upgrade/side-arm. Operatives really don't hurt for damage output with the Trick Attack damage (as long as they can hit), and one thing I've noticed in Starfinder is that the ability to survive the damage curve is the real game-changer, over damage output - monsters do so much damage that a boost in armor really adjusts the survivability of fights.

Longshot tilts her head at Glitch's question. "I mean, that's gonna vary from vendor to vendor, I'd think? I'd think that they're reliant on the cheap lab foods from the Aspis, just cuz most of the little rooftop gardens don't make enough food for a commercial endeavor, but maybe if there's enough of them that pool resources and shares together, then..." She begins making some sort of inscrutable business analyses on her screen. There are lots of spreadsheets and graphs.

----------------------------------------------------

When you make it to the food market to meet with the AAF, things are crowded and lively - species running the full gamut of Pact Worlders and beyond. You eventually find 5-AM loitering outside of a stand where a mangy-looking pahtra is hawking some meat substitute called "I Can't Believe It's Not Ysoki" - though, again, given the state of his little food tent and the way he keeps glancing at Glitch and Jink, you wouldn't be shocked to learn that it Actually Is Ysoki.

After hearing your plan, 5-AM agrees that now would be an excellent time to take down Slivvy.

Broadly, you've made a close enough ally of 5-AM to receive his aid for a standard attack on the Fevercore plant - is there anything specific you want to ask of him?

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26
Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 14
Sense Motive: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9

Longshot and Scrambles both go dead silent at Glitch's joke, staring at the ysoki. "He's kidding, you idiots," sayz Zhor from his corner. The two visibly relax.

-------------------------------------

5-AM accepts the meeting request and suggests a place on the fringes of the city, less a restaurant and more a food market where different entrepreneurs can try their luck. "It'll be quiet away from the established stalls, where the start-up tents are."

Light update, home sick today and typing is a lot of brainpower.

Longshot seems to take Glitch's request seriously. "Nooo, I haven't found any nuclear material down here... though I suppose, if we got really desperate and needed it, we could try... well no, that could be disastrous if it went wrong..."

Zhor pops his head in from a nearby room. "If it's all the same to everyone else - maybe let's not build nuclear weapons where we're sleeping?"

Longshot sighs. "Yeah, he makes a good point. And I don't think the walls are thick enough for us to make a nuclear lab without building radiation shielding too."

"Or, you know, blast shielding?" Scrambles calls from the culinary synthesizer, where he is brewing himself, apparently, three cups of coffee simultaneously.

"Oh no, we're WAY too close for blast shielding to do anything if we made the bomb right," says Longshot, laughing at the suggestion in a mildly disconcerting way.

The wife and I are headed out of town tomorrow, so feel free to talk up any plans, preparations, or questions you have about attacking Slivvy. I'll check in when I can and we'll begin the infiltration and attack next week!

Longshot accepts one of the martinis. "Yeah, this is a lot better than the paste it used to put out," she says suspiciously, her googles whirring as they zoom in to examine the glass. "Yeah, you can head to the left corridor there, I think there's a junk chamber that you can swing that around."

So I'm hearing one vote for Slivvy... does anyone else have an opinion or want to do anything in preparation? Or are we just going for Slivvy?

Longshot does not have anything that she can think of at the moment. Partly because the GM is super-tired and can't think of anything additional.

Glitch's repairs have rendered the food processor functioning as new, though some of the, erm, "after-market" add-ons give it a bit of a junk yard mad science look to the whole thing, given that most of the new chassis is from Longshot's spare parts collection. At this point, you can get some pretty solid meals out of the thing - and it makes a pretty decent stew, though if you think too long about what the "meat" is then it's way less appetizing. Treat your mechanical nemesis as a Mk II culinary synthesizer for all of your attention to it.

Let me know what you want to pursue next.

Glitch makes quick work of refitting everyone's weapons and armor.

Any party thoughts on where to go next? You can cross of Slivvy, you can try to infiltrate Highestrise (the Aspis headquarters), track down Ren Obo (geophysicist presumed dead but Caloo caught him working at a deepsim entertainment facility in town), reach out to Longshot and the AAF with a plan, take your profession ranks and start businesses in town under aliases... whatcha wanna do?

Lol! Never seen it, but it does appear as if there may be similarities - especially in the creatures' hunting habits.

You see Longshot's eyes grow large, amplified by the distsortion of the ever-present goggles she wear. "Ooooh. That makes perfect sense! And if that's the case, then clearly that means that the reptoids can't be in charge, they can't see in pure darkness, but..." The halfling darts away to her section of the lair.

Scrambles sighs. "She's been like that all day. Whatever you're doing has gotten her all riled up."

I'm assuming we're doing a fade to night and resting for the evening - let me know what you want to do with the downtime (for example, engineering checks to retrofit the armor and weapons [DC = 10 + 2 × the item's level]). Also, great time for the party to discuss what they're going to do next!

Glitch is actually able to pull the whole data set into his datapad, and delete the images - that'll slow down any digital attempts to track you.

You leave the skeleton-filled room behind and continue through tunnels for a few hours, walking for miles through the tunnels. The empty nature of the tunnels seems more sinister now - you wonder how many of the intersections you pass through are "Cleaned" sites.

You arrive back at Longshot's lair tired, but Longshot runs to you all as you enter. "What the hell was that, huh? Looks like those Aspis snakes are covering something up - knew it! I've been crossreferencing the photos with downloaded data sets of known humanoid species but no matches - what a discovery! What do you think they're doing down here?"

Scrambles walks past, towing a knot of tangled wires behind him on some inscrutable task. "She's been ready to burst with questions for hours now," he says in an exhausted tone.

whoops, typo - there are teeth-marks on the bones, but the creatures you can see in the photos have normal humanoid omnivore teeth.

And if you want to leave, you can journey through here and keep trying to navigate to Longshot

Caloo takes a long hard look at the bodies. This is not a ritual - these creatures are sprawled across one another, outstretched as though reaching for things, curled into compact balls shielding other, smaller skeletons - almost as many different deaths as there are bodies.

On a number of the bodies, though, you can see corrosion on the marrow and needle-thin teeth - the same sort of teeth as those blind, acid-spitting creatures that attacked you in the tunnels earlier.

Worse - the bones seem to be recent, maybe a week old. Not long enough for flesh to rot away naturally...

Nilan takes a look at the computers and datapads.

It looks like these datapads are tapped into the same server that the drones were uploading their photos too - there's a great close-up of Blask in full-blown vesk battle mode right before one of them cut out - but there's also other file trees in an info module over this one. This file cluster is named "Descending Door, Quadrant B52"

A few other folders show additional scenes like this one, labelled things like "Chasm and bridge, Quadrant H11" "Hallway Skirmish, Quadrant B74," or "Barricades, Quadrant C42." The folders are full of pictures of more skeletons - but the Barricade photos show full corpses. The humanoid creatures are a dark purple in skin tone, and have the same basic stout muscular build that Stamper was based on - four feet-ish tall, backwards-bending legs compared to those of you with legs, strong muscular arms with three thick finders. The faces the camera does focus on have light blue eyes but no nose, and the wide mouths are all open in rictuses of fear or pain.

There's also a database attached of "Discovered Sites" - "Descending Door" is listed as "Cataloguing" under status, while "Chasm and Bridge" and "Barricades" are listed as "Cleaned" and "Hallway Skirmish" is listed as "Cleaning." The rest of the database, dozens of sites, are all also listed as "Cleaned."

The lights flooding the place seem to be for the done photo shoot - there's no signs of other construction equipment, though the portable workstations seem to have datapads in a couple places.

Glitch and Kitty again pair up to dispose of one of the bots, and Blask lifts another one high for Nilan to shoot. As Blask drops the robot onto the skeletons, the cavernous room goes silent.

Feel free to investigate the room based on the description here, let me know what skills you are employing and I'll get you what info I feel is fair.

Bots for Caloo and Jink

Caloo and Jink both gang up on the nearest bot.

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (1, 2) + 2 = 5

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Caloo Fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Jink Fort: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Both shots connect, leaving the thing fluttering about in clear distress.

The wingbot retorts with it's own laser shot at Caloo.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1

The shot isn't able to hit the bantrid through his armor.

Glitch
Bot 5
Nilan, Caloo, Jink, Blask
Bot 2 [-12 hp]

Botting Nilan

Fortitude: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

Trick Attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (6) + 16 = 22
Trick Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 8

Attack: 1d6d20 + 8 ⇒ (19, 6, 19, 2, 8) + 8 = 62
Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 4) + 2 = 10

Nilan grits his teeth against the trill and fires into the roof, dislodging a stone that crushes the wingbot underneath.

Which bot does Blask kill: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Glitch
Bot 5
Nilan, Caloo, Jink, Blask
Bots 2

Pick a number: 1d5 ⇒ 4

Glitch and Kitty focus fire on robot #4 and it drops to the ground in a shower of sparks, glowing lightly from the laser damage.

Bot #5 begins to sound a shrill sonic sound, attempting to incapacitate the party.

DC 9 Fortitude Save or be sickened for 1d3 ⇒ 3 rounds.

Glitch
Bot 5
Nilan
Bot 3
Caloo, Jink, Blask
Bots 1 &2

I'll reorganize events chronologically in a wrap-up post, let's just have everyone open fire.

Blask calmly steps up and demolishes the interrogating bot - a single smack of the claws is enough to make it pop in a shower of sparks - but at that point the other 5 bots whirl around, lasers springing from their chassis. "Hostiles detected - queue containment protocol!" they announce in near-unison.

No time to whip up a map, and this fight is pretty tactically straight-forward - the ground is difficult terrain due to the bones, so there's no guarded steps or charging. The room is otherwise empty of cover or quirks. The robots are all flying.

Bot 1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Bot 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Bot 3: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Bot 4: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Bot 5: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20
Blask: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Glitch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Jink: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Nilan: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14
Caloo: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

1 is Glitch, 2 is Bot: 1d2 ⇒ 1

Glitch
Bot 4, Bot 5
Nilan
Bot 3
Caloo, Jink, Blask
Bots 1 &2

Oh, most definitely.

The party seemingly has no qualms about heading directly and uncritically toward the light, so in another minute, the hallway you'd been following opens into a large open space.

This chamber remains the same 10-foot height, but there's wiring and cables powering construction lights and a few portable workstations. Carpeting the floor of the room, a menacing number of skeletons lie across the ground.

As you watch, a crew of 6 small robots or drones flies around the room, stopping to take photos from different angles. One of them peels away from it's task to zip to the doorway where you are.

"Intrusion detected. Present identification," the robot demands.

"I guess even with no radiation reading we should get some detector and protective clothing if we want to explore that." Glitch tells and moves on towards Longshot's lair.

The way to Longshot's lair is through that door... but for the sake of keeping things moving I'm going to pretend that I had made that clear in the previous posts.

Engineering: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34

Glitch picks the lock on the door easily and cautiously steps through the doorway, trusting that everyone's built-in radiation shielding will protect you. The hallway extends out into the darkness as far as you can see.

After about 5 minutes of walking, you can see light ahead.

Glitch is reasonably certain that this is the type of door that could be used to contain radiation - heavy metal, reinforced at least two or three times over, even using the standard AbadarCorp signage that all the big companies buy in bulk to standardize. It's a textbook retaining door.

Hey Longshot. What's this? Glitch messages their contact with a photo of the door.

Longshot shoots a reply back.

Strange, that's what that is. I'm scanning records and whatnot, I'm not seeing any higher-than-usual background radiation from readings taken in the area... We haven't mapped that area yet, but I assume it's leading to more of the undercity tunnels.

Glitch hurriedly opens the padlock before Blask starts vesking and entering. Everyone is able to slip down the grate and into the substation.

As everyone crams in, you see the same worked stone as the others - but there's a doorway down here, a steel one set into a heavy-duty steel wall.

WARNING - HIGH RADIATION BEYOND, announces a sign on the door.

I meant to answer this, but got home yesterday and nearly promptly fell asleep. I'll do a quick dig tonight and give my analysis, but from what I've seen (local player uses a halfling sniper), it mostly comes down to a -20 penalty to stealth to try to remain "stealthed" as you're shooting at someone from behind cover/concealment.

Yeah, I'll allow it :)

The party moves quickly away from the merrily burning convoy and to the substation that Longshot had referenced - but upon arriving there, there's a hefty padlock on the grate, unlike any of the substations you'd encountered before. The sound of the sirens sounds closer than before.

Engineering check to jimmy the lock

...I can't come up with a good reason that a charge cloak or a ring or a serum wouldn't be usable, so I'll errata my ruling to "no weapons or armor," but the other gear should be usable.

Going to try to get up a post tomorrow, but my job is nutso right now, my parents are in town tonight, my inlaws are in town tomorrow, and I'm spending Sunday at a local con to catch the Starfinder Society special - so if things slide, I hope you all have a restful and happy weekend!

Work's nuts - one engineer is out with a pregnant wife and the flu, and we have some huge deadlines due Friday, so there's a good chance I'll be dark for a couple of days.

Also, forgot to add the mooks' gear to things you can claim:

Squad leader had officer ceremonial plate, carbon steel curve blade, tactical x-gen gun

Mooks (x3) each had vesk brigandine I, diamagnetic storm hammer, ag assault rifle, tactical rail gun

As Blask and Jink grab their own pieces of gear out of the van, Glitch opens up a grenade box and tosses his own grenade into it. The resulting explosion rocks the van, spraying anyone who doesn't take cover in a spray of broken glass and metal, and the air is suddenly filled with falling debris and gently floating burning scraps of estex suits and stationwear.

Your comms light up with another message from Longshot.

Security closing in on your position from the south and east - you can't come back the way you came in. There should be another underground electrical substation about two blocks north - if you head there, you can cut back through the tunnels and I'll try to nav you back here. It's not one of the areas the bots have cleared, though - be careful.

Black digs both claws through the squad leader's armor and into his stomach, lifting the hobgoblin up. The Aspis soldier keeps staring down the vesk, even as his struggles grow weaker and blood begins to trickle out of his mouth - and then Caloo's shot completely burns away the leader's head. The body goes limp in Blask's claws.

A quick search of the squad leader reveals a key card carrying override codes that the party is able to quickly use to turn off the automated transport and open the van. Inside is a small army's worth of gear - low-grade things, but lots of them. Further in the back though, there's some real fine pieces... But something about the form factor of the gear is strange, and none of it seems to fit your hands or bodies.

This can be resolved with an Engineering check - just means that the gear is not usable as-is at this moment.

Off in the distance, the wail of sirens can be heard growing closer.

Each of you can find one 4th-level piece of gear, one 2nd-level piece of gear, and any 1st-level equipment you feel would fill in gaps in your characters. You're not able to unpack and carry all of the gear, as that would take too much time and it sounds like your presence has been noticed.

Blask delivers a pair of punishing blows to the hobgoblin, whose smile washes right off his face at the attack.

Nilan runs around the statue, catching the last standing mook by surprise and placing a round in his back. Either Glitch and Kitty manage to pull of a miraculous shot through the statue, and the mook falls.

Tactical Rotating: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Trick Attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (12) + 16 = 28
Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (3, 2) + 2 = 7
Trick Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 6

Caloo, deprived of grunts to shoot, instsead misses the boss.

The leader trickles blood out from between his pointy teeth. "Damoritash will celebrate the day you arrive in his legion, vesk," the hobgoblin spits as he drops into an attack stance.

Attack: 1d20 + 9 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 9 - 4 = 23
Damage: 1d8 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Attack: 1d20 + 9 - 4 ⇒ (6) + 9 - 4 = 11
Damage: 1d8 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

A strong downward slice leads to a finishing blow at neck-level, but Blask takes the first hit to be ready to bat away the second attack.

Jink, Blask [-36 sp, -1 HP], Nilan [-21 sp], Glitch, Caloo [-22 SP]
Squad Leader (red armor) [-34 sp]

Jink-Bot

Jink rolls over a to get a better shot on the guard shooting at Nilan, but the chaos of the fight makes it hard for a proper snipe. The shot goes wide.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Mooks 1 tries to stand toe-to-toe with Blask, swinging his hammer violently.

Full Attack: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (3) + 7 - 4 = 6
Full Attack: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 7 - 4 = 22

Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

One hit connects, spraying blood from the bullet wounds with the impact.

Mook 2 keeps trying to pursue Nilan, firing bursts from the assualt rifle.

Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

The guard is zealous, darting up the steps of the plaza, trapping Nilan against the statue with weapon-fire and scoring a hit on the Akitonian.

Blask, though, tears apart the foe facing him with a swipe of his claws. He steps forward to threaten the squad leader, stepping on the gurgling, dying guard. (assuming you'd want to 5-foot step to face him)

Nilan-Bot

Nilan knows that discretion is the better part of dishonor, and ducks and dodges around the statue, firing as he goes. He can't quite fool the man, but there's still plenty of value in un-tricky shooting - he lands a shot on the grunt and puts the bulk of the sculpture between him and getting shot more.

Tactical Rotating: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Trick Attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17
Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 3) + 2 = 9
Trick Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Mook 3 gives a panicked yell at the attack from behind and opens fire, a spray of bullets at Glitch and Kitty.

Automatic attack, firing at Glitch and Kitty.

Attack Glitch: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
Attack Kitty: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Kitty would have taken a few bullets, but the cover from the shrubbery protects the drone - and then with a spray of overcharged laser-fire, Glitch and Kitty waste the third mook.

Caloo fires at the available target of the squad leader but isn't able to land any damage.

The squad leader, at Blask's bravado and proximity, gives a wide cruel grin and draws a long, curved sword. He doesn't seem intimidated by Blask's show of force - if anything, the hobgoblin looks excited. "Vesk know a thing or two about battle, don't they, big man? What do you have to teach me?"

Attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17
Damage: 1d8 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

The attack comes suddenly, and powerfully - but the adrenaline coursing through Blask from Caloo's injection gives him just enough of an improved reaction to duck under the attack. The hobgoblin snarls.

Double-botting Jink

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Another sniper bullet bounces off of the squad leader. "Can someone kill that gods-cursed sniper??" yells the hobgoblin.

Mook 2 continues to try to pursue Nilan, taking up a defensive position at the corner of the sculpture and firing around.

Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Another bullet grazes the gunslinger.

Initiative:

Blask [-27 sp], Nilan [-21 sp], Glitch, Caloo [-22 SP]
Squad Leader (red armor)
Jink
M2 [-9 hp]

"Let's waste some battery." Glitch suggests and shoots again with overcharge, Kitty doing the same.

[dice=Shoot]1d20+7;1d4+3+1d6
[dice=Shoot]1d20+5;1d4+3

Glitch does +3, so Mook gets 2 more damage from last round

I still screwed up because it should have been +1, but what am I missing to add the additional +1? Small arms Weapon Specialization adds half relevant level, so I'm seeing 1d4+2 - where't the extra +1 damage coming from?

As all hell breaks loose, Caloo jabs Blask with a restorative, giving the vesk a surge of nervous, flighty energy +1 AC.

The squad leader swings his x-gun at Nilan, the gunslinger's nonchalant attitude not being enough to fool the hobgoblin. The creature grins widely as a spray of bullets flies at the human.

Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23
Damage: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

The shots find home - Nilan has to throw himself against the statue to avoid being ripped in two by the shots.

Botting Jink
Jink curses loudly from the roof and takes a shot at the hobgoblin.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

The bullet richochets off of the hobgoblin's armor, and he laughs loudly.

The mooks dive into action - the first charges Caloo (no provoke from Blask as he hadn't moved yet) swinging a hammer, and the second opens fire at Nilan with his assualt rifle.

Mook 1 Melee: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Mook 2 Shot: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Caloo takes a ringing blow from the hammer, but Nilan's sheltering in the statue from the leader protects him from the mook's fire.

Blask socks the newly-adjacent guard good, but isn't able to get through the armor he's wearing. Nilan pops out long enough to take a shot but again, isn't able to get through. (@Nilan - no trick attack on the surprise round since you only get single actions for a surprise round.)

The third mook gives out a yell. "Oh god, they're everywhere!" She raises her rail gun and tries to draw a bead on Blask.

Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Blask is nearly able to get out of the way of the shot with Caloo's enhancement - but only nearly. He takes a grazing wound.

At this point, Glitch and Kitty pop out from behind a publically-appointed shrubbery and shoot Mook 3 in the back. (11 EAC is actually a hit - since your stealth was high enough that they were flatfooted against you.

Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Caloo steps back, cooly drawing his new corona pistol and landing a shot on the mook who charged him. The squad leader looks around for a moment before yelling "It's the fugitives, buckos! Whoever doesn't kill one buys the first round with their share of the reward money!" The hobgoblin steps forward, the x-gen gun makes a whining sound as it charges up, and Caloo and Blask are struck with a hail of bullets!

Attack Caloo: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
Attack Blask: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

Damage: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Initiative:

Jink
M1 [-7 hp], M2
Blask [-16 sp], Nilan [-7 sp]
Mook 3 [-12 hp]
Glitch, Caloo [-22 SP]
Squad Leader (red armor)

Blask decides to stick with Caloo to give the bantrid some back-up, and Jink takes his sniper rifle and finds a spot of roof that will give him sight lines throughout the plaza.

As the truck rolls in, the guards are apparently on edge - one of the humans is complaining loudly. "Look, the whole thing stinks. Why isn't there like, an underground rail? The city's big enough for at least a flying taxi, right? All this wheel traffic is really killin' my feet, man."

Everything very suddenly goes pear-shaped. The hobgoblin leader walks right past Blask and Caloo, barely pays them any attention - but he's watching the rooftops and peering into alleys supiciously. "Suspicious target, on the roof! Eyes up!" This almost distracts the guard who was giving Blask and Caloo the hairy eyeball - key word being almost. The truck is close enough that Blask or Caloo could dart in front of it - but looking inside, it doesn't appear to have a visible driver, maybe it's autonomously navigating? The guards all begin to bring their weapons up.

I'll take surprise round actions from everyone - no need to wait for initiative order, I'll adjust things in a round-up post.

Initiative:
Caloo
Squad Leader (red armor)
Jink
Mooks 1 and 2
Blask, Nilan
Mook 3
Glitch

Should be coming from the south entrance to the plaza.