Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 05

Author's Note: Everyone is eighteen!

Starring
Lucithana as Hana Song
Kitty as Nora
Nathan Ravenwood as Rakain
Jason as Sam
Cyrano Johnson as Xata

Previously, on Starfinder: Our heroes explored an abandoned station and found the single greatest dragon in history, Brashivalampathorus (an adorable psuedodragon, abandoned by his cruel technomancer master.) Adopting the small dragon as their mascot, the party continued to the Brineice Asteroid itself - ready to find out who is behind the attempts on Ami's life.

The cold light of the distant sun cut across the surface of the Brineice Asteroid, shining along the craters that dotted the surface. It shone down, stark and white against the party as they approached the buried pirate fortification that they had detected while scanning the asteroid.

The actual door itself was pretty old and cruddy looking, made out of solid wrought iron that had been hammered into shape and fastened up against mechanical devices that allowed for entrance and egress.

Ami tapped her finger against her com unit, turning to face the rest of them. "So, uh..." she said, her voice nervous. "How do we get through this door?"

"That depends," Rakain muttered. "Do we want to make a lot of noise or as little as possible?" As he spoke, Hana walked over to the door, looking it over curiously for any sign of a lock or keypad or anything like that. Xata followed her lead, looking at the nearby terminal by the door and moved toward it.

Hana leaned forward, she saw an old, beat up looking keycard reader and computer terminal that had been attached to the side of the doorway.

Sam chuckled. "I'm all for blowing open the airlock and venting this place to space but really- being a bit more subtle would be advised."

"Someone could do hacking at this." Hana said, pointing to the keycard reader.

Rakain cracked his knuckles dramatically. "My time to shine."

"I'm against the venting idea," Ami said, quietly, turning to face Sam, her face severe in the helmet. "These are pirates, we don't know how many of them have taken prisoners." She nodded.

Xata's circuits glowed as she tapped away at the terminal and pushed a few buttons to activate the door's mechanism, giving Rakain an apologetic look.

"Hence, subtly." Sam said in response to Ami, speaking over Xata's head.

Rakain's head and tail drooped. "Awh."

The door silently opened, revealing an interior airlock door - the inside door still shut tight. Ami stepped inside, her pistol in hand as she looked around, then gestured them forward.

"I am confident that you will shine numerous times," Xata told the Vesk with a smile as she followed Ami. Hana walked in, looking around curiously for cameras or anything like that. Rakain followed the girls, hand pawing at his pistol, ready to fight anything that jumped them. Cannon in hand Sam lowered herself into the airlock. She stepped in, then looked through the window looking into the rest of the base. She turned back to the others.

"Beyond the door, two guards, bored and oblivious." Sam said.

Hana put her finger to her lips, pointing to a window, then focusing, touching everyone quickly one after the other, giving them a mental image of a pair of corbies playing holocards, pouting slightly as Sam voiced the thought before she could.

Xata put a hand to the hilt of her katana.

"Sorry." Sam snickered softly into their commlink.

"Fair warning, I am not stealthy," Rakain said. "So if that's the approach we're going for..."

"Clearly, Ami needs to seduce them." She said, nodding sagely.

Ami blinked, then stepped over and tried to kick Hana in the shins. The android stepped away quickly. Ami, giving that up, tapped the grenades hanging from Sam's belt as the door shut behind htem and the airlock pressurized. Ami whispered. "Since these are smoke grenades, I say we keep our helmets on." She paused, then coughed. "Why am I whispering, we're in a vacuum and we're using a com unit." She looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Agreed." Sam noted as she took one of the canisters off of her bandoleer. "So do you want cover, or choke them out?"

"...are we still talking about Ami seducing them?" Hana asked Sam curiously. Ami managed to actually get her in the shins. Xata, meanwhile, tried the door, and winced as it failed to open. She didn't think she had made too much noise... she held back and waited on her friends.

Ami stuck her tongue out at her. The door, meanwhile, refused to budge at Xata's poking and prodding.

Rakain craned his head, trying to get a look at the goons through the door. "I'm not sure they're her type, Hana."

"Ami's touch is also quite a bit light than choking. A feather light touch." Sam teased as she waited on her companions.

"I think I may be able to draw them away," whispered Xata.

Ami nodded slightly as Rakain tilted his head - seeing that the inside of the room showed two corbies - larger looking dire ravans with humanoid builds - playing a card game that projected holographic versions of the monsters they were using. They were clearly intent on the game as they played it.

Ami nodded. "If we can get the door open..."

Xata began to hum deep in her throat as she worked to conjure the ghostly sounds of arguing, echoing deep inside the asteroid's corridors. "So.. is one of you tech folks going to figure the door out?" The android said curiously, pointing at the terminal that Xata hadn't managed to open. Xata's voice rose a pitch inside her helmet, her brow furrowing as she finished casting. As she did so, Rakain tapped a few times at the door terminal and beamed as it turned green.

A ghostly sound started to come from down the rough hewn, icy corridors of the asteroid base. The two corbies looked up - standing and walking away from their post as the door quietly hissed open - the five of them stepping into the room.

The room itself was a quiet, roughly hewn looking place. The walls were ice, with the occasional piece of metal stuck to it to form a technological surface that could be used for terminals - though many of the terminals seemed to be aged and ill used.

The holographic card game that remained on the table was in mid fight - showing shimmering, inch high representations of the monsters that they had been using to fight one another.

Ami tugged her helmet back and let it collapse into the collar, grinning slightly. "Nice work, Xata, Rakain..." She whispered. "Should we get into position for when they come back?"

Hana scooped up the cards, looking around the room for any hiding spaces.

Xata was feeling the surge of excitement as her trick worked. "Perhaps we could Take the Fight to the Dastardly Villains while they are All Unawares?"

Rakain grinned and waggled his fingers. "I'm with Xata. I've got a few new tricks I want to try."

"We can likely get the jump on them from behind." Sam noted as she slipped the grenade back into it's pouch.

Hana smiled, "I'm a fan of picking them off in small groups so we don't get overwhelmed myself." She said, sneaking into a little hidey hole in the corner of the room, vanishing into the shadows.

As they spoke, each of them could hear the sound of the dire corbies speaking to one another as they started to return to the room. One of them was saying: "I told you it wasn't nothing..."

Xata pulled her katana free and stepped back into the shadows as best she could as events overtook their speculation. Sam took a hiding spot near their entrance, putting the firearm onto her back as she brandished her sword. Rakain moved to the opposite side of the doorway as Sam, touching his choker and causing a few sparks to jump to the tips of his claws.

As they crept into their hiding spots, Xata found the perfect place to hide. She shifted into it - and then found the floor was more slippery than she expected. Her feet skidded out from under her as the corbies came into the room. They both gaped - looking at Xata as she stood in the center of the room.

"What!?" The first corby asked.

"It's a beep boop!" The other corby said, sounding shocked - both unaware of Hana, Ami, Sam and Rakain.

Hana burst out of her hiding spot, "Or is it TWO?!" She fired off a small glass bead that cracked one of the corbies between the eyes.

The corby staggered. "Ow!" He said, sounding more confused than hurt. He rubbed his forehead. He rubbed his forehead as he shook his head. The other corby, though, blinked and saw the two standing behind him at the door.

"What the bloody hell is going on!?" he asked. In a scene much closer to something in one of the bad horror flicks that the group commonly watched together, after the birdbrain squawked out his confusion over seeing a pair of large suits of armor standing behind him, the smaller one moved as Sam stepped forward into a horizontal slice- lopping it's head clean off.

The corby hit the ground - and his head hit a moment later as the one who had been flicked between the eyes gaped in shock. Xata reached toward the second corby, humming deep in her chest as energy swirled around her. Every electrical device on the creature's body sparked and crackled as she hammered a fist into its face. A moment later it was on the ground, fried.

As the corby twitched on the ground, smoke rising from its body, Ami shook her head, grinning. "That's two pirates down, and quietly!" She said, gulping. "I'll get the bodies in the airlock?"

"Damn, didn't even get a chance to do my own zappy thing," Rakain grumbled.

"I am confident your zappy thing will be specatcular." Xata grinned at him.

Hana snickered, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a chance later." She poked Rakain, "Hey muscles! You gonna let the princess do all the manual labor?" She smirked.

Ami blushed. "Not a princess..." She muttered, already leaning down to grab one of the ankles of the dead corby - hand closing around the yellow scaling. Rakain shook his hand to dismiss the sparks around his claws.

"I mean the lot of you seem to be doing just fine from my point of view." He reached down and grabbed the other ankle of the Corby Ami grabbed.

"Oh fine, Ami volunteered but I'll take care of it." Sam teased as she cleaned the sword and put it back in it's sheath. Xata's circuits glowed with the delight of dispatching some Actual Villains for the first time.

As they dragged the bodies away, Ami grinned. "So, what now?" She asked. "There's a corridor to the left and a corridor to the right..." She said, nodding. "Both are icy and nasty.

Hana smirked, "And I will slack the heck off! Bodies are heavy.." She smiled, "I say right! Because of super secret science."

"Because you're right handed?" Ami asked, dryly.

"Well, there is a terminal there, right? Might be a layout of things like the electrical grid or the like." Sam pointed out as she searched the two dead bodies.

Xata said confidently: "At this point in a Castrovelian Opera, the heroes would split up for Additional Drama."

As Sam pointed at the terminal, she noticed it was corroded away - wires sticking out of the keyboard. It...was clear the corbies didn't exactly like up-keeping place.

"No!" Ami shouted at Xata, then blushed. "No, no, no We are not splitting up."

"Castrovelian Opera may not be the best guide to real situations," said Xata, chastened, blushing.

"I'm with Ami on this one," Rakain said. "Splitting up bad."

Sam shrugged after realizing her suggestion was pointless. "Yeah, not going to argue that."

Hana giggled, "Yeah, I'm not a fan of the idea of splitting up either." She smiled slightly.

"To the right, then?" Xata asked, shyly.

"Oh! Before we do, you looted those guys, right?" Hana asked to the others. A quick loot later and they had discovered what there was to find: Little of value, unfortunately. The most valuable thing found was a holo-card of Black Lotus one of the corbies had unknowingly had in their deck, unaware of its value.

Ami nodded. "Then, to the right." She said, grinning and pointing. She started forward, her skin tight spacesuit clinging to every curve on her body. Which, to be fair, wasn't much curve...but those curves were spectacular.

The ice walls were rough hewn, and they had a clear sign of ill use and ill repair. The ceiling lamps were yellowy and ugly, producing a dim light...and they finally came to another door, the door thinner but still fairly sturdy. There was a glass window on it - and labels in common underneath.

SHUTTLE BAY.

"So.. guessing that we're not going to find oodles of cool ships in here." Hana giggled slightly. "Want to bet if it's better or worse than than the junkyard back home?"

"My money's on worse," Rakain said. Xata was crestfallen. She had been hoping for an immediate helping of Dastardly Villains. "Left?" she suggested wanly. Sam stuffed the gear retrieved into her pack, save for one of the comm units one of the corpses had and followed the rest out.

"Worse," Ami said, snickering, then stepped up.

Hana giggled, "Well, we can still look, right?" She said, pressing her face to the window in the door. Ami looked over Hana's face. She recoiled.

Ami shuddered. "There are giant fucking spiders in there..." She whispered as she looked at the others stepped up to the window. The inside of the shuttle bay had two more of the pirate attack craft...but they were surrounded by webs. Thick, stringy webs connecting them to ceiling, floor, walls...everything. A huge spider stepped with deliberate slowness past the view port, moving towards one of the corners.

"That is dee-sgusting," Rakain muttered, his voice a low growl.

Xata shook her head. "Their energy is clearly not focused here. In my opinion we must confront their Villainy at its source."

"Couple of spiders and an ettercap nomming on a corpse, so.. we can kill them and maybe get some loot from her?" Hana said, trying to sound optimistic.

"Well, I want to know why there is an ettercap here in the first place. They're not usually besties with anyone," Ami whispered.

"Are ettercaps thinky?" Hana asked curiously.

Ami nodded. "They can be," she said.

Sam seemed to be taking notes of the room when she got her turn at looking through the viewport in the door. "Well, if we open the bay door we may be able to use the Sunwolf to clean up that room without damaging the ships." She noted. "But that's secondary, I think it's safe to say whatever is causing the beacon effect on Ami isn't in that room."

Ami nodded. "So, we go back to the left?" She asked, curiously.

"I can try popping it's brain from here if you want me to." Hana said casually.

"Back," Rakain said, nodding furiously. "Back is good."

"We can clean this up later, in my opinion, Miss Woodwise." Xata tried to sound like she wasn't just guessing.

Ami smirked, patting Hana. "By stripping or..." she grinned at the android playfully.

"Maaaagic." Hana smirked at Ami.

"Less innuendo, more backing away from the spiders please," Rakain hissed, shifting his bulk backwards slowly.

"Aww, scared of a few creepy crawlies?" Sam teased

"When they're that fucking big, yes," Rakain growled, tail lashing from side to side.

Hana giggled, "All those ancient racial memories coming up and freaking you guys out?"

Rakain shot Hana a dark look. "As a matter of fact, yes, thanks very much."

"I am certainly scared of a few creepy crawlies," Xata put in quietly. "Creepy crawlies have the same name in ninety-seven cultures for good reason."

Ami nodded and gestured them back with one hand. They all headed back together, walking towards the left corridor. "Ah, you remember the ancient times when Lloth ruled over ancient Absalom, forcing all her male servants to wrestle in pudding before earning the right to make violent love to each other for her pleasure?" Hana said, nodding sagely at Rakain as they walked along.

Ami snorted quietly. "That's, uh, not a thing, right?" she asked, sticking her tongue out at Hana as they circled around to the left. This time, they came to another similar door...the building seemed to be nearly symmetrical, but this shuttle bay was not nearly as filled with spiders...nor ships. As they craned their heads to look through the glass window pane, they saw that the inside of this shuttle bay had been turned into a kind of training room - they could clearly see that there were other doorways leading from the room in question.

But in the center of the room were two hideous looking ogerkin - fusions of oger, orc and something worse. Their faces were covered in pustules and dripped with occasionally bust pimples as they wrestled, headbutted, and punched at one another. It was clear that they were...wrestling, yes, but it was less clear how serious it was.

Rakain was still twitchy, his tailtip flitting back and forth as he pawed at his gun and rolled his shoulders. "Ogrekin. Not giant fucking spiders. I can deal with that. Yeah."

"The Lloth thing is totally true. According to certain historical documents I'm willing to lend you it is." Hana giggled.

"I have no records of such a ceremony," said Xata in puzzlement, but mainly she was focused on assessing the potential of the creatures in view for Dastardly Villainy.

Ami snorted. "So, since we're going to HAVE to go past one of them, lets...maybe go into this room and beat them up?" She whispered.

"We could wait until after they cum and they're all sleepy." Hana said, snickering.

"Depends on the source of such records. Did they come from a Hub, or a Tube of Red?" Sam teased as she waited.

"That's just rude, Hana," Rakain said.

"Way more rude to give them blue balls." Hana snickered. Xata cocked her head at Hana's last comment. Ami snorted, quietly as the two ogrekin backed away from one another, panting, before running towards one another and smashing forward again. As they smashed home, Ami tapped at the door control, biting her lip slightly. "It...works and it's not locked," she said, nodding. "I can open the door."

Hana giggled, "Ami's getting impatient." She stuck her tongue out. "So, shall we go then?"

But as she spoke, magic flared...and the two ogerkin looked up, then turned around, looking around as if they were trying to find where the noise was coming from as Xata hummed the sound of Ogrekin homoerotic antics, culled from the most homoerotic porn she could find. Rakain clapped a hand to his choker. When he drew it away his whole hand was alight with electric current.

"Bring them over here, Xa. I need to fry something to take my mind of the spiders," he growled.

Ami tensed, ready to push the button. Xata played the lure of homoerotic noises closer as Rakain requested. She made them as dirty as she could, squelching, squealing, the rhythmic slapping of flesh against flesh... the works. Sam shrugged and got her sword free once more.

The ogrekin, following the noises, walked fowrad, their faces more confused than angry. The door opened with a loud HISS and the two ogerkin blinked as they looked at the five of them.

"Hello!" Ami said, cheerily.

Sam rapidly crossed the few feet between herself and the ogres in a quick lunge, attempting to run one of them through. The blade slammed into the ogerkin's chest, impaling through his heart. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock. Then he slowly fell to the side. Dead. Xata leapt forward and slashed at the second Ogrekin, but the strike glanced off the creature's hide.

Hana pulled out another glass bead and sent it flying at the ogerkin's face, smirking, "You're not worth a real spell."

The bead slammed against the creature's face, causing it to stagger backwards.