Zeph Zonda's page

"Aye, captain," Zeph said.

A casual observer would not think she was doing anything by watching her monitor, but she was programming the sensors using her data jack. She made occasional grunts as she hit problems. Eventually, she said, "I can't do it! The plasma keeps affecting the sensors and forces me to reset. Every time I do that, it means I have to reprogram the sensors."

Shasta had to change routes to get out of the center of the swarm to compensate and the Wintermourn caught up.

Zeph stared at the glowing creatures, transfixed for a moment. "I've never seen them before. They're beautiful."

Then she remembered she had to scan the area before the pilot could advance to the planet. She concentrated and a moment later had the scan data. "No sign of any other ships in the area. Either the Wintermourn beat us here or they're still in the ..."

Her screen indicated passive scanners detected something worth investigating. "Hold on. Something. Son of a spark! Their just arriving too."

Zeph ran toward the drift engine. She had to pick her way through the junk littering the ground until she got closer to it. She scampered the last 30 feet, just getting into the mouth of the opening where the top had been removed. She saw Shasta just finishing her computer work. "How can I help?" she yelled above the noise created by the winds and crackling electricity around the manifold leak.

Zeph moved away from the creature, yelling, "That's a ligntning elemental! Electricity won't hurt it!"

She drew shards of junk in from another universe and caused it to explode just behind the elemental. The junk ripped through it, disrupting the arcane energies that kept it going.

When Zeph entered the address into the computer to get a view of the area and information on the location, she said, "Uh, Captain? This docking bay is for ships bound to or from Eox."

Zeph spoke next. "I don't know much about these things, but my gut tells me we should take the ship while we have it. We can get some better weapons and armor and take jobs in out of the way places and deal with what comes."

Zeph was out of spell energy and she knew her pulsecaster pistol would not harm a construct, so she drew her semi-automatic pistol and shot twice. Neither shot hit, however. She hated the noise and recoil of the pistol, causing her face to screw up in a scowl.

Zeph moved closer to get the monitor into range of her spells. Standing next to Benny, she made another techno explosion next to the monitor, sending shards that cut through it. It was not expecting the blast and took it full force.

Zeph slipped down the hall and up to Orion's side and drew heat from an adjacent universe and concentrated it on the two guards. The guard battling Shasta overheated and collapsed, while the entangled one managed to dodge a bit and miss some of the worst of the damage.

Zeph emerged from the break room into the east hallway and conjured an explosion of junk that drove shards into the dustar robot, nearly incapacitating it.

As Emersohn and Zeph were about to leave, Zeph noticed a picture on the desk. It appeared to be Eline with her parents and a dark haired young woman. Zeph did a double-take and looked more closely at the young woman. "This is Scherzo!" She took and picture of the picture with her comm unit and made a mental note to ask Scherzo about it.

Zeph reached out and touched the guard and drew electricity from her pulsecaster pistol and sent it coursing through the android. The android guard collapsed amid sparks of electricity and the smell of ozone.

Zeph entered next and moved to flank the guard on the other side from Emersohn.

"I'm a pretty good hacker," Zeph said.

Zeph jumps to a crate on the side of the truck to keep out of the way of the laser fire coming from Emersohn and Scherzo. As she moved, she dropped her battle staff and drew her pulsecaster pistol. She fired and the electricity arced to the trooper and went straight down his spine, further stressing his system but not knocking him out.

Zeph drew her semi-automatic pistol and fired at the hobgoblin on her right. The slug hit the trooper, although it was a light wound.

Zeph did a graceful leap, using her battle staff to vault up in a way that evaded lash of the trooper behind her. Then she brought her battle staff high over head and smashed down on the head of the trooper that had been giving Emersohn such a whipping. His eyes rolled up and he tumbled down, unconscious. Zeph twirled back to face the back of the truck.

Zeph swung her battle staff at the trooper between herself and Bennie but the shifting truck also tipped her off balance and she missed.

Zeph fired off two arcs of electricity at Shenk. One hit and crackled as it shocked him.

Unable to move, Zeph drew her pulsecaster pistol and fired a bolt of electric charge at trooper Shenk. The charge glanced off Shenk's side, giving him only a little bit of a burning shock.

Zeph attacked Shenk with her battle staff, but it only hit harmlessly against his armor.

Zeph continued to try to pummel the Pvt. Glaka and this time she gave him a crack on the head.

Zeph swings her battle staff at Glaka but doesn't get enough strength behind the attack.

Zeph drew her semi-auto revolve.

Without having to worry about discharging her handful of electric charge into Shasta, Zeph tapped the hound, saying "Tag! Your dead!"

The electricity surged through the creature and put it down for good.

Zeph drew electrical energy out of her pulsecaster pistol with a spell and tried to touch the hobhound to discharge the energy into it, but she couldn't manage to touch it.

Zeph shifted until she was about five feet from the closest Hobhound and unleashed a new spell she had just mastered. She drew heat from an adjacent dimension and concentrated it into a searing blast that swept over both beasts while just missing Orion. They were not ready for the attack which burned their flesh and burned away the little ridge of hair along their spines.

Scherzo stood by the airlock, ready to be the first out to handle the negotiations about what to do with the shipment, Zeph asked, "If you'll allow me to, I'll cast a spell that may make your job a little easier."

Scherzo raised an eyebrow at the request, but nodded. Zeph concentrated and a moment later, Scherzo felt as if a warm breeze of fresh air had blown over her, although there was no evidence of actual movement of air. She wasn't sure what the effect was, but she felt subtle changes in her self-confidence.

"It's called charming veneer, and it should make others a bit more responsive to your already considerable set of charms."

Scherzo blushed a little at the complement, but she thanked Zeph.

After Benny healed people, Zeph used a spell to clean the blood off fabric and armor.

Zeph moved to the other side of Scherzo and then fired a blast of electricity from her pulsecaster that caught the Breck in the neck and knocked him out. Her electric blasts were not lethal, but they took him out of the fight, which was all she cared about.

Zeph fired her pulsecaster pistol at the drow who shot her and the electric bolt zapped him.

Zeph took advantage of the fact that the remaining crate fiend was in an open space in the room, with no one within five feet of it. She connected that spot with an alternate reality and let bleed into the area a loud crash of thunder. The sound failed to harm the creature however.

Zeph responded with another surge of electricity at the shooter. This too connected and he fell and died as the electricity played over his body before vanishing. The air smelled of ozone and gunpowder.

The foam Zeph had brought into existence from another world, faded away. She was not yet powerful enough with the effect to make it last more than a few seconds.

Zeph yelped in surprise when the drow gang member shot Scherzo. She stepped forward and made eye contact with the thug, drew crackling sparks of energy from her pulsecaster sidearm and pointed her finger at him. The lightning arced and struck him in the chest. He staggered back, muscles jerking and flesh burned.

Zeph drew more electricity from Horizon's powered pistol and the surge of electricity almost killed him. He was wounded and smoking as the air around him smelled of ozone.

Zeph dashed around a table with cowering customers to get behind Horizon. She simply touched the pistol at his side and its battery surged and gave him a nasty shock.

Zeph did a few calculations and confirmed her results with a quick search of the planet's infosphere. "We could limit this charge by switching on our armor life support systems. But the charge is minimal, basically about a credit a day," she explained.

At Scherzo's request, Zeph looked up Lamashtu's Lair, which was where Tarika said they should go to meet Tause Jarzeed.

Zeph reported after a minute or two. "Here it is. It's about ten miles from here. Robo-taxi's cost a credit. I ordered one to find us here."

Zeph, feeling a surge of adrenaline after clubbing one leech to a pulp, raced to Scherzo's side and finished off the leech Emersohn and Scherzo were battling. She swung her club like a golfer, killing the leech and sending it flying forever through the Drift.

"That's how it's done, guys. Try to keep up," she teased and looked around to see how many were left.

Zeph raised her club high and brought down with surprising effectiveness on the leech attacking her. The blow crushed the tiny brain and instantly killed it. The witchwarper moved cautiously to stand where the flattened leech had been on the hull, so as to be out of reach of the one between Scherzo and Shasta.

"Three down," Zeph said into her comm unit, with a calm, breathy voice, as if she had just dealt a playing card instead of killing a dangerous creature.

Zeph followed Scherzo out of the airlock and attacked the same leech Scherzo attacked, but from the side. She swung a club at the beast and gave it a good blow. She felt the impact but could not hear the sound that would usually accompany such an attack.

There was silence for a while until Zeph felt everyone waiting for her to speak. Her voice was wispy and soft, with slight emphasis on sh-sounds. Her voice was lyrical and soothing.

"I grew up on Arkanen, a moon of Liavera. I went to the Arcanamirium in Absalom. I got a job with the Company when I graduated. I did desk jobs for a while, but I'm happy to be able to explore. I love storms and being in nature. Electricity and I get along pretty well. I have a few spells that can be used for self-defense. I can also draw things from parallel dimensions that can be helpful in situations to slow other people down or to distract them. I'm just starting on my mystic path, however, so I run out of resources quickly. Still I know a fair bit about hazards and creatures of different worlds. And I love to fly."

"Zeph is fine, yes," the blonde woman confirmed. She did not make eye contact with Shasta and instead sat at the science officer's chair, locating the various monitors and checking the telltales.

She appeared human, but Shasta noted her pale face and hands seemed to have faint blue wisps slowly shifting like smoke rising from a cigarette. Her hair also seemed to waft back and forth as if air were blowing through it, although the bridge was ventilated with a slow cycling of air that should not be noticeable at the current setting. Shasta checked the crew list and discovered Zeph was a species known as a sylphs, a descendent of the mating of a human with and outsider from the plane of air. She was also listed as having the secondary assignment of magic officer along with a brenneri named Benny. Shasta noted that Zeph was also quite cute, as humanoids went.