Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 02

"Up!" Rakain said. He flexed his muscles. "And no mere dungeon can contain me."

Nora snorted, "Sure, if those undead follow your command. Otherwise the only dungeon any of us will see is you and Hana in Hana's dungeon." She teased while pacing around the hold.

"Kinky! And I say up." Hana nodded. "I'd rather be in a place we can blow a wall out and run when stuff comes at us from behind."

"Yes. Especially if it comes at us from behind in a sexual manner." Xata tried to get into the spirit of the general humor. "I concur with up."

"Might as well go up." Sam said, agreeing with the rest

Hana giggled, "Man, I'm glad I'm an android so it's not racist when I laugh at how cute other androids can be attempting the more intricate aspects of subtle humor." Xata frowned at that. She had thought she was being subtle. Her circuits heated with slight embarrassment as she kicked her foot at the ground.

Ami snorted. "That's not how racism works, Hana!" She said as they walked up the stairs. The door opened into a large common room that had once been the home of the crew on the ship. It was...spartan, with a low table, stools, and a kitchen that looked designed to mostly provide simple, filling crude gruel rather than anything approximating food. The only sign of humanity anywhere were tiny painted flowers that decorated the space above the hatchway leading into the crew quarters.

The air was filled with the musty scent of age - and the faint, sweet rot of death, scented even after all the time since the ship had crashed. A dark splash of blood was soaked into the side of the table.

"L-Looks...nice," Ami said, shaking her head slowly as she shone her flashlight around the room - as there were no internal lights. The inside of the ship was as dark as a tomb. Rakain took a few steps forward, some primal instinct directing him to put himself in front of his companions. They'd already been attacked by enough already.

"Ah, I was just joking around, Xata!" Hana said, patting the other android on the back. "I really do think it's cute!" She frowned as she looked around the room curiously herself, wondering what had done all of this. Sam just shrugged, having decided to keep out of this line of teasing and started looking around the room more closely.

Xata's circuits heated even more at the pat on the back. Something about Hana just made her feel... funny. And a bit giddy. But she shelved it for later analysis as she cautioned Ami: "Be careful, Your Grace. This place does not fit analysis 'nice.' There was violence here."

"Lovely..." Nora mumbled. She knelt and held her arm out so her little bot could leap down onto the floor and quickly skittered off after Nora pet the dooking little robot. The display on her arm flickered to life and she began to monitor the camera between peering around the room.

As Sam made a slow circuit around the room, Ami sighed quietly. "Please...just...call me Ami..." She said, smiling. "Or, if you want to be formal, Miss Woodwise..." She said, nodding slightly as Rakain stepped ahead of her. She pursed her lips. "Huh. Who built a wall here..." She said, playfully slapping Rakain right above his tail. Rakain felt a tingle spread through his broad back from where Ami slapped him. He returned the favor, giving her a light tap on the rump with his tail.

Hana snickered, "You need to earn calling her Sweettits." She said, nodding sagely as she looked around, frowning as she checked around for any bodies.

"Of course." Xata enabled a Crafty Expression and winked. "'Miss Woodwise.'" But she was feeling guarded still as she looked about.

"Cutiebootie works too." Nora supplied offhandedly as she continued to watch the holographic display on her false arm.

"It is quite the cute butt," Rakain said, eyeing the body part in question. Ami turned bright red.

"I suppose I should intervene before some young and impressionable minds get the wrong idea. Hana is a bad influence, and we are all proof of that." Sam said, mimicking a rather serious tone. "So, crew quarters first?"

"Hana is the exact opposite of a bad influence," Rakain said, subtly holding out his hand for a low five from Hana. Hana slapped her palm onto the vesk's hand with a quiet slap. Xata was fighting to keep her circuits from glowing with embarrassment again. She nodded at Sam.

"Crew quarters would seem a good place to begin," she said. "Away from the, um-" She tried Banter again. "-bad influence?"

Hana snorted, "Hana's a bad influence. Hana's a slut. Hana needs to wear panties all the time. Hana needs to learn someone's name before having sex with them." She said in a sarcastic tone. "Hana needs to learn that schoolrooms aren't brothels. Everyone is soooo judgmental in this town."

Sam, meanwhile, had to lift up one foot to keep herself from blocking the drone. Before they headed off in any direction, they all got a good view of what the drone was seeing. The ferret drone crawled forward through the corridor heading towards the prow ofthe ship - that way led to a large engineering room. The ancient power core of the ship had shattered, and several chunks of shimmering green crystal remained. The drone's radiation detector started to chatter cheerily - alerting them that those power crystals were still active...

Which would mean they were valuable.

But sitting around them, almost invisible to the naked eye, but easily spotted by the drone, was a thick, translucent jell that bobbed and quivered in the pale green light of the crystals.

"What is that?" Ami whispered, ignoring Hana's diatribe for the moment.

"Bad, probably?" Nora suggested, keying a few buttons. She stared at the display and let out a sigh. "Do not like what I'm seeing in that room though. Lots of radiation."

"Soooo, options?" Rakain said. He drew his pistol. "Ladies, you want me to shoot it?"

"Well, um, since it's living in a power core...maybe not?" Ami said, grinning weakly.

"There's a chance it's not a bad guy," Hana pointed out, leaning in to eye the view from the drone. "I suggest we send one of the androids in, as they're expendable." She nodded, then looked at her blue, metallic hand. "...I mean not sending one in, as they're irreplaceable!"

Xata felt like she should know what it was, but her database search functions were a bit slow in switching over from social interaction mode. Still, she was eager to please and said with false confidence: "I believe it is a worthwhile risk to make contact. I volunteer."

"That's- a good point, Ami. As much as I am for shooting it in it's metaphorical face, causing problems there might cause problems far beyond that room." Sam said with a nod. "And if it doesn't have a brain, Xata, I doubt it's friendly."

Ami snorted. "Well, uh..." She shook her head. "All our armor is designed to withstand radiation." She said, nodding slightly. "So, we can at least be in the room for a short while." She shrugged. "Maybe...we can stand near the doorway and shout at it? Note, I said shout not shoot." She grinned at Rakain.

"Living goo usually just wants to eat." Nora mumbled as she keyed her drone's stealth suite to render it mostly invisible.

Hana paused, looking at Rakain for a moment, then frowned, "Naaaah, not gonna do it.." She snapped her fingers, "Oh! If it just wants to eat, anyone got some noms?"

"I will attempt something." Xata began to advance toward the room's edge. As Xata stepped up to the room's edge, she saw that - looking around the door frame - she could see the engineering bay down a twenty foot corridor. The drone had scampered quite fast before coming to the reactor.

"We are not going adopt a flesh eating slime thing." Sam noted and followed, not wanting Xata to be in the path of danger.

"But it'd make such a cool pet..." Rakain muttered, possibilities flashing through his mind.

"Oooooor, we could try and lure it out, so the fleshies don't end up glowing in the dark before the fight's over." Hana said, reaching out to gently grab Xata's shoulder, stopping the other android. "I was thinking we could lure it somewhere for a safer fight."

"If you're thinking of training it to eat clothes..." Nora mumbled, giving Rakain a small frown.

"I mean I can lose my shirt and still be decent," Rakain said.

"Not you I'm worried about," Nora muttered. Rakain looked pointedly innocent.

Ami snorted, quietly. "You just wanna show off..." she said, sounding amused as she stuck her tongue out at Rakain.

Xata saw Sam and nodded at her in thanks. She said: "Self-analysis indicates I am partially radiation-hardened. I will advance. Cover me?" Her circuits glowed. She had only been awake a short while but somehow knew she had always wanted to say that.

Rakain tugged at his collar. "I mean, that is, if you want me to..." He winked at Ami, who turned bright red and looked aside.

Hana frowned, "Think it would come after spider chunks? I mean, we can go out, cut off some spider and lure it out of engineering so we can fight it someplace less likely to kill some or all of us..."

Sam nodded. "Not going to shoot into an exposed engine core, but I'll cover your escape." She replied, confirming the plan.

"...People eat sea spiders." Nora said while shrugging."Might work Hana."

Ami blinked, her blush fading. "That's...that's a good plan...want me to go and get the spider chunklets?" She asked, looking at the others.

"I've got a knife," Rakain offered, tapping the sheathed blade on his belt. "Just a survival knife, but it should work."

"Then you're better prepared for it than I. Go for it." Sam replied to the others.

"Coolio! Someone hack it up and I can teek the meat around." She smiled, lifting up some random debris with a telekinetic field of energy, her fingers glowing as she flexed her magical chops. Xata paused, analyzing. Hana's plan was probably wiser. She pulled back.

"I will lie in wait." She had always wanted to say that, too.

They each found hiding spots - Xata almost vanishing into the shadows, while Sam (never the most subtle woman) simply stood slightly off to the side. Hana stepped up to the corridor with the chunk of nicely cooked spider flesh. She walked up to the engineering bay and waggled the meat...and the goop surged off the platform and started to slowly drip and flow towards her!

Hana scampered backwards as the goo flowed towards the door - about three feet wide and two feet tall, it was a mass of nearly translucent goop that seemed to 'drag' the green glow of its former roosting grounds with it, shimmering as it rolled forward.

Nora's giger counter didn't produce more than a few chatters - so it wasn't emitting dangerous levels of radiation. That was comforting, at least.

The creature paused - and then, on entering the room seemed to be content to simply start wrapping around the spider meat and quivering gently - the meat dissolving away. It didn't notice them. Not even the six foot something amazon with heavy plate armor and a freaking huge gun strapped to her back.

"So, time to explore while it eats?" Nora whispered, speaking into her com unit to make sure they could all hear her.

"Call me whacky, I'm gonna suggest we wipe out the flesh eating goo.." Hana whispered into her com, frowning.

"How do we do that exactly?" Rakain wondered quietly.

Ami shrugged. "Shoot it with lasers?" she whispered, peeking over the chair she had crouched behind. As she whispered, Xata was overcome with excitement. Before she even knew it, she was beginning to Sing.

"Wait, didn't she say that weird crap happens when she sings?" Rakain said, watching Xata as magic coalesced around her.

"You mean you don't want it as a pet, I'm surprised." Sam noted as she put a bit of distance between the goo and herself. She reached to the cannon slung across her back and swung it into her arms. "Shoot it with things, yes. As much as I trust my armor I don't want to punch an acid gel monster."

Nora nodded and keyed a few buttons so her bot would scamper along the ceiling and find a safe place to perch and ready it's pistol. Rakain put a hand on his spell cache choker, and the other on his holstered pistol. He tapped the butt three times, and the pistol rippled with a sheen of violet light. As Xata sang, a glow surrounded the ooze...and then it twithced and froze, no longer actively pulsating. It was frozen!

Hana pulled a small glass stone from her pouch, firing off the stone, surrounded by glowing blue energy, though it was clear she had little faith in her aim.

"Quickly, adventuring companions! Swing into action!" Xata was grinning from ear to ear. Sam pulled the trigger on her immense reaction cannon and a huge slug slammed into the jelly. Nora and her little drone both took aim with their pistols and fired in perfect unity. Rakain fired his supercharged laser pistol, the beam much bigger than normal. It zipped through the air and struck the goo with a squelching noise. Xata tried to reproduce the Song that had zapped the spider earlier.

Bullets, shells, beams and stones slammed into the mass of jelly like material. It wobbled, rippled, and bounced each thing that struck it off, but seemed to glow brighter with every strike. Then Rakain's beam struck it and the glow became brighter and brighter-

Ami ducked behind her chair.

The goop exploded with a spray of greenish light. Jelly splashed Sam, Hana, Xata, RAkain and Nora's faces, leaving them each dripping with the thick stuff.

Ami peeked out from behind cover. "Think you got him?" she asked, giggling - her hand waving as she hummed softly. Magic flared around her palm, starting to clean the goo away from her friends with her own talents.

Nora was still and silent until magic cleaned her off. Then she leaped back making a gagging noise and wiping at her face all the same. "Oooohohoho no fuck that thing for even existing."

Hana frowned, her own magic cleaning herself off before Ami could get to her. "So, you knew it would explode and you didn't warn us?" She said, frowning slightly. Ami blushed. Xata was too exhilarated to be disgusted by the fine coating of slop all over her. "It was no match for our cute butts, Princess -- uhh, Miss Woodwise!"

"Not the ideal fluid I like to be covered with..." Rakain muttered, flinging chunks of goo off himself with broad shakes of his arms.

Ami blushed harder. "I didn't know, I just guessed..." She said, her hand waving as magic continued too glow around her fingers and palms, wiping away the goop that remained on her friends.

"Can I pay you to clean my armor from now on? It's really annoying getting some of the gunk out of it." Sam offered to Ami in response as she cleaned the faceplate of her helmet.

"Not a bad guess, Princess," Rakain winked at Ami.

Ami blinked at Sam, then smiled. "Sure, five credits a clean," She said, standing and rolling her shoulders.

"Will you do it in a bikini? Because I have some spare credits if so!" Hana said, the thought of Ami in a bikini clearly overwhelming her ire at being splattered with goo. Xata was still grinning, scooping up the little bits of goop left after the magical cleaning with her fingers, her circuits glowing, looking fascinated with the whole experience. Rakain picked another bit of goo out of one of the spines on his chin.

"I would pay way more than five credits to watch that, Hana," he said.

"We should find another strange creature to vanquish immediately!" Xata said, happily.

Ami snorted. "You are really too easy to please, Hana..." She said, grinning as she took hold of the collar of her jacket. She tapped her thumb along the seam, then tugged it upwards. The collar unfolded, hardening with a whir of smart fabrics, before a face-plate clacked down, a clear glass covering that turned the collar into a helmet that covered her head. She tugged on gloves, then nodded to the others. "Ready to stomp through a room full of deadly radiation?" she asked - her cheeks bright red, clearly flustered.

"Radiation," Rakain grumbled as he mimicked the motion. "Yippee skip."

Xata's eyes flicked and she tapped one of the moving sigils that appeared to be on her skin. The Second Skin armor grew into a film covering her completely.

Sam just tilted her head and her armor let out a faint hiss as it sealed itself and forced the current air circulating in the system out of it. "Let's take a look."

Hana snickered, "If I'm so easy to please, why won't you do it?" She pouted at Ami as she followed her.

"For, uh, reasons?" Ami stammered, her voice faintly muffled by her deployed helmet. She shook her head. "Onwards!"

The engineering room was filled with the pale illumination of the greenish crystals. Ami stepped gingerly around the central pillar that made up the main engine, looking down at the glass that covered the floor. "So, the engine broke when they crashed..." She sighed. "Anyone bring a big lead case? Cause those might be valuable, right?"

"Got a drone," Nora said gleefully as she moved to find someplace cozy to settle. Her little bot moved to scamper up Ami's leg and paused to grip lightly and hang from her shoulder like it would with Nora. Ami blinked, looking at the drone.

"You think the drone can carry it safely?" she asked, curiously.

"Worth a shot," Rakain said. "I'm strong but I'm not rad-proof."

"If you would feel more comfortable I can carry it. My backpack is designed to handle industrial hazards so it should dampen the radiation just fine." Sam offered, sliding her backpack off her armored shoulders.

"Oh!" Ami said, grinning. She picked up one of the green chunks, dropping it into Sam's backpack - where it clunked home. Once she had finished loading each chunk,the backpack sealed and the giger counter on Nora's arm and drone stopped chattering. Ami tugged her helmet back down into a collar.

"Well, there we go!" she said, grinning.

Xata frowned, not in truth looking very interested in the glass. She asked aloud: "What made them crash?"

"I...don't know..." Ami admitted, blushing and smiling at Xata.

Hana snickered, "So.. body condoms off then? Or is this place still too glowbug to be safe?" She said curiously, her hands on the helmet she had deployed from her armor's collar.

"Well, the giger counter isn't clicking, so I think it's safe." Ami nodded to Hana. "To...the bridge, maybe?"

"I... think I need to know, Your -- Miss Woodwise." Xata perked up a little at the suggestion of the bridge.

"Aye, aye, captain!" She saluted Ami and grinned.

"Probably some kind of logger there," Rakain said. "Definitely worth a look."

"What made it crash isn't something I ever gave much thought- just so many ships get junked here." Sam said honestly and tapped something on her wrist to turn off the life support of her armor.

"Might as well."

Hana looked at Rakina, "Why would a ship like this have a logging operation on it? It's barely big enough for a forest!"

Ami blinked. "My what?" she asked, looking at Xata as they started down the corridor again - coming to a large steel door that was painted with a green dragon surrounding the porthole. Looking within, they could see the bridge - triangular in shape, with several consoles that had been clearly designed for use...and were now mostly smashed, burned, or corroded. Sitting on the captain's chair was an ancient skeleton, head lolling backwards, body clad in sleek armor that looked like a fusion of ancient and modern technologies. The armor was all flat planes and slats, with slanted shoulder blades and a ceremonial headdress that still had a high quality optical visor built into it. A sleek monomolecular sword sat on its lap, as if he had died sitting there.

Six other skeletons - each dressed in tattered green uniforms - were sprawled at the consoles, save for one who had fallen onto the floor. They each had a similar curved sword strapped to their hip - though theirs seemed to be merely steel.