Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 01

"Pffft, you got your cut of the profits, don't act all innocent." Hana said, waving her hand dismissively.

"With Hana on that one, after that performance setting up the video- innocence doesn't suit you either," Sam pointed out, sticking her tongue out at Ami. Ami stuck her tongue out at her friend, then laughed.

As the party wound down, everyone got their sleeping bags. Soon, the room was only lit by a faint night light, and the only sound was the soft breathing of everyone - and the faint rasp and sussurations of the dust pattering against the walls. The morning came with the dust ceasing and Ami sitting up the instant the dust storm settled. It was easily five, maybe even four in the morning. The entirety of The Rusty Dragon felt as if it had been alyered

"Come on! Everyone!" She whispered. "Lets get up!"

Rakain sat up, rubbing grit from his eyes with his knuckles. Quietly, and with normal Vesk efficency, he stood and grabbed his small arsenal of gear - laser pistol, knife, comm unit - and before hooking everything to his belt. He rubs the choker on his neck, feeling the spark of magical energy within. "Ready," he whispered.

Hana, who seemed to wake up instantly without grogginess, snickered as she sat up. She rolled from her sleeping back and began stuffing an almost obscene amount of clothing into her backpack before standing up and giving Ami and the others a thumb's up. Since it was only an hour or so off Nora's usual wake-up time she was only sleepy for a little before getting everything she needed. Her bag and toolkit hooked onto her back and her drone scurried up onto her shoulder, perching there like some star pirate's parrot. Ami, meanwhile, had slung on a set of leather jackets that looked to have some metal plates sown into them for a form of armor. She strapped a sleek dueling sword to her hip, then picked up and twirled around a sleek Azimuth laser pistol. She holstered it and grinned, braces flashing.

"Do I look badass or do I look badass?" she whispered.

Rakain nods emphatically.

Sam, meanwhile, had just groaned awake, rolling over in yesterday's black tank top and grey panties before pushing herself up and to her feet. She took a moment to get changed with her back to the rest of them, stripping down and giving herself a wipe down before getting dressed in a fresh set of- tank top and panties. From there, she donned the undersuit and armor, collected her gear.

"Suitably bad ass," she said, grinning at Ami.

Hana held up her ring-computer at the other girl, then at the others and herself and smiling, "Wicked!"

Nora yawned as she fumbled with a packet of instant coffee and a thermos. She did manage to say something that sounded a bit like 'cute' in response as her tired brain struggled to start up fully.

Ami giggled. "Okay...lets all be werey werey quiet. We're hunting gobbos..." She winked.

As they crept together down the ladder out of Ami's room and into The Rusty Dragon, they moved past where Bentha snored, then came outside into the town itself. Rustpoint looked as if it had been covered in a thin layer of snow...but the snow was red. Blood red. Walking along the street, their shoes kicked up dust as they stomped along.

The edge of the town was circumscribed by a wall made of scrap and metal and ceramics. A few heavy artillery lasers had been mounted near the gate, but they weren't manned at the moment.

Once they were beyond the gate, Ami turned on her T-Pod and started to sing along with a popsong, filling the air with her beautiful voice. The sun rose overhead and they trooped across the vast red flats, heading towards the shipswamp. Ami paused in her singing, laughing as she missed a note, before grinning and walking backwards as she looked at her friends. Her hands slid into her pockets. Her shoes sent up tiny puffs of red dust into the air.

"So!" she said. "I bet we're going to take on a dragon at some point. That's how the stories go: You eventually will fight a dragon and will explore a dungeon. If we fight a dragon, I say that I try my hand at it." She put her hand on her chest. "For I am clearly team leader, and team leader always takes on the biggest, baddest threats."

"When you say take on.. are you talking like sexy or violent?" Hana said playfully. "Because I need to know how to edit it properly. "

"Why not both?" Rakain added, his hands in his pockets as he walked. "Fight it naked."

"Yes, brilliant. The smallest among us, clad in leathers most fine, to step before the maws of a dragon." Sam teased. "Oh, though, I didn't think of that angle Hana. Might not even need the hoard then."

"The...vesk raises a good point," Ami said, her voice super serious. Then her tone dropped into a grizzled, macho whisper. "Only nude can we bare our souls!"

"Sadly fighting nude is impractical." Hana grumbled, sounding annoyed. "Trust me, I've looked into it." She sighed.

Sam chuckled. "You are all crazy."

Rakain snickered, trying not to let his mind wander too much over the images of naked fighting. He only partially succeeded. His muzzle turned a slight red as he stood a bit straighter, his tail twitching from side to side.

"Look, logically you either fight as free or armored as possible, right?" Hana said, perking up at the discussion of nude fighting.

Ami giggled. "This madness is why you love us, Sam!" She said, sticking her tongue out at her. Then, turning around, she stopped. "Whoa."

The others walked over as well. Each one whispered essentially the same word. Whoa. The shipswamp lay below them, in a broad gully, about a hundred feet straight down. They stood on a ridge line that surrounded half of the 'swamp', giving them a perfect view of the swamp itself. Hundreds...maybe even thousands of ships, ranging from large to small, had been left to rot there. Their components mixed together, forming metal walkways between the vast pits of reddish-pink dust that looked thin enough to drag someone straight to the bottom. Looking down, they could see five entrances: clear patches of wreckage that were at the edges of the shipswamp.

Seeing anything underneath the wreckage was impossible, considering how thick it was, and how many ships had broad tops and wings, creating a kind of foliage. Sam looked over the edge of the gully, her hands resting on her hips, the armored knuckles clicking against armored leggings. She looked back at her friends, stepping away from the edge.

"So, we pick an entrance, map our way in and through it, and systematically search for our targets?" she asked.

"Sounds good to me!" Hana said, giving a thumb's up to the walking humanoid tank that was their friend.

Rakain drew his pistol, holding it by his side. The weapon seemed tiny in comparison to the rest of his hand. "Seems like a start. But which way should we go in?"

"Shouldn't be an issue..." Nora mumbled, rubbing her cheeks in thought. She glanced at her drone and began pulling the little machine into her hands so she could double check the little firearm built inside of its body.

"Well, the nearest path..." Ami said, pointing. "I think it's the one that leads to that weird old hermit who lives out here..." She said, nodding. She glanced back at her friends to see which of them knew what she was talking about.

"The weird hermit with weird hermit powers?" Hana asked, "Yeah, I've heard of him. Walthe or Walter or something, right?" She sighed. "We should check and make sure he's okay. Like...not bug him, just make sure he didn't get murdered or anything."

"Making sure he is doing well after the storm." Sam said in agreement.

Nora made a noncommittal noise as she continued checking over her drone.

Ami nodded, then grinned at Nora and Rakin. "There's an old kasathas who lives in the shipswamp. Some people - not just Hana - say he has weeeeeeeird powers!" She wiggled her fingers as she started towards the path, her short shorts clinging tightly to her rump as she walked forward with a confident pace.

"I heard he's a fan of old school magic like you. I also heard he wants to be left alone, which is why I didn't want to make him sound too interesting.." Hana sighed slightly as she followed after the other girl.

"No such thing at this point," Nora snorted aloud, happy with her drone as she set the quietly beeping little machine back on her shoulder.

"Weird is subjective, so considering our group." Sam added as she started after them. Rakain - who had been looking out at the shipswamp, grunted and turned to follow up the rear.

Ami snickered, quietly. "I'm sure we'll be polite..." She said as they walked onto the path leading into the swamp. It was made of a solid chunk of corrugated metal that had been laid out on the dusty ground, propped up by poles. It clacked as Ami stepped onto it, turning back to face the others. She grinned.

"Today is the day," she said, nodding. "Where our lives truly begin. Where we face down evil and wickedness and-"

A tentacle reached up from the dust, wrapped around her ankle, and yanked her feet out from under her. Ami screamed as her butt crashed onto the metal floor. She grabbed onto the edge, holding on as the tentacle tried to drag her off and under into the dust below. The ground humped upwards and each of them saw that an immense shape was lurking underneath the dust, the tentacle coiling around and around Ami's ankle.

The tentacle dragged at Ami, yanking her leg out straight as she clung to the metal dock. "Let me go!" she snarled. "I may be fucking Tian, but that doesn't mean I want to be in a hentai!"

Nora's reaction was instant as she reached for her belt. Her drone too moved, little arms gripping hold of Nora's shoulder to give it a good perch. With almost perfect timing both Nora and her drone expose and fire their weapons - Nora using a chunky revolver, the drone firing a bullet from its mouth. One bullet - the drone's - pinged off the wall overhead. The other, though, slammed into the tentacle. Blood splashed onto the dust. Ami gritted her teeth. "B-Be careful with the guns!" She said, then added. "N-Nice shot! Ee!" She squeaked as the tentacle yanked harder.

Sam: Sam rushed forward, closing the gap between her and Ami with the intent to slam all of her weight down on that tentacle, using her armor itself as a weapon. The tentacle yanked Ami's leg around, making the young girl scream in fright and pain. Sam jerked her knuckles back before

"By the way Ami, that explains why Bentha didn't approve of this kind of life." Sam teased lightly, trying to take the edge off of the situation.

"Noted!" Ami squeaked.

Despite her urging caution, Rakain didn't have anything in his spell repertoire that screamed "hit tentacle monsters with" so he took aim at the tentacle with his pistol, sighted, and pulled the trigger. The shot scoured a neat line along the meat of the monster's tentacle. As a string of smoke started to rise into the air from the burn mark that Rakain left on the tentacle, its grip loosened somewhat. As Ami yanked on her leg, Hana pulled a small blue glass stone from her pocket.

"Hey! I got dibs on tentacle fun with Ami!" Hana said, her voice irritated. She lifted up her hand, the stone covered in a glowing blue energy as it flew from her hand. The tentacle, though, chose this moment to let go of Ami. It whipped away under the dust as the stone pellet slammed into the ground it had been on mere moments before.

There was a moment of silence as Ami pushed herself to her feet, panting quietly. "Okay..." She said. "T-Thanks, guys. Do...you think we-"

The dust to the other side of the walkway exploded open and several tentacles whipped about as the monster emerged from the dust, screeching. It swung at Nora's face with one the tentacles, but her bot slapped the tentacle away as the beast menaced the teenagers. "Oh, come on!" Rakain yelled.

Nora flinched and let out a noise of frustration as she narrowly avoided the tentacle. She turned her pistol on the monster, her drone aiming too, and both fired in sync. Again the highly advance and programmed drone missed while a pissed of Nora's bullet blew through the creature's side. Sam found herself without the space between herself and the monster to retrieve the cannon strapped to her back. Instead, she took a step between it and Ami to provide her cover, sweeped with one arm to attempt to knock away the tentacles it was reaching out with and put herself behind a full powered punch aimed for the creature's center mass. The punch slammed home...then through the creature's face, crumpling iit inwards in a spray of blood and viscera. Then, jerking her arm back, Sam watched as teh creature slumped back, then hit the dust, starting to sink into the silty material.

Ami panted. "Everyone okay!?" she asked, looking around, her eyes wide.

"Good," Rakain said, hurrying to her side. "Nice hit, Sam."

Hana grumbled, "No.. I barely got to do anything and was totally ineffective." She grumbled, then smiled, "But the rest of you guys did great!"

"Fine," Nora said with a small huff. She shifted and dug into a pouch at her belt and pulled free a few spare rounds to reload her pistol. She even fed a few to her drone like a treat. The tiny robot chomped up the bullets with a tiny squeaking noise.

Ami grinned, then stepped over and put her hand on Hana's shoulder. "B-But you still get to take my tentaclevirginity!" she said, nodding slightly, her cheeks flushed with a slight glow.

Hana smirked, "Unless someone else steals it!" She pouted, hugging Ami before they continued on.

Sam snorted, turned back to Ami and Hana. As she turned, she shook out her hand, dripping gore and blood onto the ground. "Tentacles?" She inquired as she continued along the path.

"Hey, why not?" Hana smiled playfully, "They provide all sorts of fun oppertunities!"

"Tentacles." Nora agreed, patting Sam's shoulder.

They started forward, heading deeper into the shipswamp. As they walked, together along the narrow platform, the oppressive nature of the swamp started to settle in. The air was bone dry and sunlight gleamed off metal everywhere, dazzling their eyes. The heat started intense, then got more intense as they walked along - the faint sounds of clanking metal and groaning ship skeletons filling the air.

Ami stepped off a metal gangplank and onto the back of a huge eoxian freighter who had been left to die in the middle of the swamp, the bone-like protrusions of its wings framing the walkway ahead like a ribcage.

"This place is spooky..." Ami said, quietly. "Is it just me, or is it spooky?"

"Fairly spooky," Rakain said, ducking udner a piece of low hanging metal. Then, as if he was trying to more accurately describe the situation, he coughed. "Fairly. Moderately...moderately spooky."

"I was thinking it's a shame that all these things are sitting here unused. I mean, I'm thinking if we looted this place proper we could just build our own ship! ...and by we, I mostly mean Nora." Hana nodded to the mechanic, who nodded back to her, face impassive.

Ami snickered, quietly, looking over her shoulder at Rakain. "I thought vesks didn't get spooked." She whispered.

"That was before I knew that tentacle monsters were a part of the equation here," Rakain said.

"It didn't try and drag you under. But...yeah." Ami nodded. She shook her head then, standing straighter. "Lets focus on what Hana said. This is not a spooky ship swamp. This is instead, um, loads of opportunity. Right?"

Hana nodded, slapping Ami's back. "Right!"

The group came around a corner and found that someone had set up a home in the middle of all this junk. The building looked sturdy and well made, though it was made of scrap. There were two stories, with the front door being made of smooth metal. The lights seemed to be out - but since the sun was shining overhead, that was not entirely unexpected.

"Nice place for a recluse..." Ami said, grinning at her friends. "Who wants to knock on the door, then run away really fast?"

"Yeah- not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere. But it is a graveyard." Sam said and nodded as she added more to the map she was making to the computer mounted to the underside of her left armguard.

Sam just chuckled at the joke and walked toward the front door of the building.

Hana snorted, "Weird anthropomorphization for something you can take apart and put together, Sam." Then, turning to Ami, she shrugged, "I can do it if you want." She smiled as she joined Sam in heading for the door.

Ami shrugged, then grabbed Rakin's arm and walked with him towards the door as well. Hana reached up and pounded her pale fist on the door, each strike causing the red lines that transcribed her body like cicutry to flare with illumination. Ami tapped her foot impatiently as they looked at the door. The wait seemed to last forever - but couldn't be more than a minute or two before the door opened. Kasathas were a race who had come to the Pact Systems in a massive worldship, arriving to find the solar system far more inhabited than they had expected. They had settled in despite that, though they remained somewhat standoffish.

This one was dressed in a sleek gray jumpsuit, his face gray and severe, his eyes a pale blue. His four arms were crossed over his chest, and his face mask was tucked around his mouth - Kasathas hated to show their faces to all but the closest relatives.

"Can I help you, younglings?" he asked, his voice a deep rumble.

It was obvious to each of them that the Kasathas had been wounded recently - a bandage was tucked against his side. His skin looked pale. Sallow. And that was saying something considering the Kasathas were normally gray skinned.

Hana, her eyes flicking from his bandage to his cloth covered face, smiled. "We just wanted to check if you needed any help. Like say.. healing magic applied to your wound?" She said, pointing to his side.

The Kasathas looked down at himself, then chuckled quietly. "I...well, if you want to..." he said, sounding a bit pleased. He held out his lower right hand to them for a shake. "Wather..." he said. "My name is Wather."

Hana reached out, her hand glowing with a bright blue energy before she took his hand and shook it, "I'm Hana Song." She said with the air of someone who was ready and eager for recognition. The blue magic flared along his arm, reaching the point where his bandage had been wrapped. There, it faded and the Kasathas stood taller and looked considerably relieved. He reached down with his lower left hand, pulling the bandage aside to check the wound. There was now only a thin scar. He grunted appreciatively.

"I hope you don't mind me being sudden, but I have a simple medkit in my bag. I could help if you wanted," Nora slipped in, gesturing to the Kasathas' side. He looked at her, then at Hana. As he did so, Sam coughed.

"Sam," she said, introducing herself. Rakain simply hovered behind his female companions, nodding to the kasatha.

"Rakain," he said.

"Uh...I should make you all breakfast..." Wather said. "A-And no, no, the healing is more than enough." He said to Nora, hurrying back. Nora's brow furrowed slightly. Magical healing could handle surface wounds and simple abrasions. But if he had been injured for some time, he might have gotten sick. It took more than a cantrip to heal sickness. And it was better to check twice. Or, so she thought. But she kept her tongue - as Nora was wont to do.

They stepped into the home. Ami opened her mouth, clearly planning to compliment the place. Slowly, she turned to her friends, mouthing the words: What a dump. There was a dining table with a seat before it, but the seat had been knocked over. A pot had been shattered on the ground, and a pair of puckered holes had been punched into the back wall of the house. Fragments of other bits of shattered furniture was left on the floor, while dust gathered on the ceiling and walls. Everything had a worn down, shabby look to it, made all the worse by the surrounding mess.