So many things! I’ve built Brock a body so he can go with us when we are off-ship! Ash helped me buy some of the stuff needed, and he’ll make sure we can get Brock back on board seamlessly. Ash even stayed with the ship during repairs so far. He got to talk to someone from the Eoxian Embassy on the station, and we have an appointment there tomorrow. Sresaka went, I think, to visit her old workplace, while Lexx and I got to talk to lots of people and a bug. We talked to a dwarven campaign who almost lost his ship to the Swarm, and we also talked to the Starfinder Society, as they are planning an expedition back to L476. Well, back for us, anyway. We are suddenly very popular, and they are going to pay for us to go along. They have a Shirren technomancer in the group going, and I will do my best to not run screaming every time I’m near her. We have about a week left here for ship repairs and upgrades. I’m looking forward to going back to the planet as an archeologist, rather than an engineer, though I won’t be surprised if I don’t end up doing a bit of both jobs.
wererat
Rae, NG Ysoki Mechanic Xenoarcheologist born on Akiton, lately of Absalom Station. Hover Drone named "Widget 2.0."
Rae arrived on station about six months ago. She's friends with a Vesk Soldier named Sresaka, and a Lashunta Envoy, Lexx. Tolerates the Pahtra Operative, Ash.
Living on the Edge
Supplemental
Venn is alive! Both of the Steward ships we thought lost in the explosion from L476 were pushed away from the planet on a shockwave, and eventually the ships powered up enough to return to Absalom Station. In fact, the Stewards believe the planet itself may have survived the explosion. Thankfully, the artifacts we set out to destroy were on the Eoxian ship that we know was blown to bits. Unfortunately, they may have used the weapon on the Knights of Golarion’s ship– that will need to be looked into, as well as one smaller Eoxian ship that was seen heading towards L476 moments before the explosion.
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
So… a lot of rooms to get through, but we were lucky! I-9, all banged up, came limping into the pyramid to help us while Brock powered up the ship, once we got the array on the planet to stop draining it. Lexx determined that the pyramid was designed by Azlantians. We used the stored energy to turn the weapon towards the Eoxian ship. Total obliteration! But then, the weapon itself started a countdown– the planet had become unstable thanks to that last blast, and we had the option of… well, getting off the planet or not. Of course, we did! But we hit drift space just as we saw L476 “supernova,” taking the remaining ships in orbit with it. We don’t know of there was anyone left alive prior to that, but there cetainly wasn’t by the time the planet exploded.
We took a day to get back to Absalom Station. The ship needs a fair amount of repairing. The Stewards took over for that, thankfully, as they have the resources that would otherwise necessitate a trip to Khefak Depot. We’ve agreed to “freelance” for the Stewards. They pay well, and what are the odds a planet will explode every time we work for them?
Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun
We walked down a flight of stairs and, guess what! More ghouls. Maybe five or six, but they seem a lot tougher when one of the crew keeps falling over from multiple attacks and then reviving long enough to get knocked out again. Hopefully this is at least giving I-9 and Brock time to repair the ship and/or themselves.
Widget is muttering something, while still smooshed against me under my coveralls. So helpful.
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
A few seconds after our shout of victory, the pyramid targeted our ship and shot it down. We can’t contact Brock or I-9, and hope they are just literally laying low for the moment. But we can shoot ghouls. We ran straight at the pyramid– it doesn’t seem to target individuals, or perhaps the creatures inside are only targeting larger objects. We got to our objective and found a 3′ perfectly round hole where the architects hadn’t placed one, and clambered inside. Sresaka and Ash were ahead of Lexx, Widget (still in my coveralls), and I, and within seconds, we were fighting ghouls off of the two of them. Lexx got the brilliant idea to try and sound like one of their evil overlords (having heard various radio chatter on the way in), and would have succeeded quite well if there hadn’t been a ghoul close enough to hear both him and his radio version simultaneously. Sre and Ash were pretty banged up (and manacled) in the few seconds it took to catch up with them, but we managed to kill(?) off the ghouls. Except for the one that got away. . . .