Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 05

As the ogrekin staggered, Rakain surged from his hiding spot, his hand glowing like a beacon, electricity arcing between the tips of his claws and shrouding his hand. Fueled by the lingering horror he felt at seeing something akin to his insectoid ancestral enemy, her poured more power into the spell. He grabbed hold of the orgekin's face, claws digging in deep, and let out a primal roar as he let the Jolting Touch spell go. In a moment, all it's power surged through the orgekin. It spasmed wildly, but Rakain held on, still roaring defiance. When he felt the spell's power wean, he ripped his hand away from the ogrekin's face, his palm smoking. The orgekin had an outline of Rakain's hand burned into it's hideous face, and stood ramrod straight for a moment before falling back dead like a plank of wood.

Xata gave the Vesk an impressed look. "I told you it would be spectacular."

"Naaaahsty." Hana said, snickering slightly, "Personally I prefer spells you can use when cowering far, far away from your enemies." She said playfully.

Rakain stared down at his smoking hand, then at the dead ogrekin, breathing heavily. All he could smell was smoke. He swallowed, his Adam's Apple bobbing. He was shaking slightly.

As the smoke rose from the body, Ami chuckled - a touch nervously. "Got any anger you wanted to work off there?" she asked, stepping daintily over the bodies, looking around the re-purposed shuttle room. She frowned. "Two doors, one to the right..." She was clearly comparing mental maps. "If that door goes straight, It should lead back to the spider-bay. That door?" She pointed to the right. "That one goes to the outer edge of the base. Maybe one of those old defense arrays we spotted?" Then her brow furrowed and she stepped to the side.

"And that door," she said, pointing to a third door. "Looks fucking evil."

Sam nodded in agreement as she pulled the blade from the still warm corpse and cleaned the blood off of the metal before returning it to it's sheath. "Then continue around the outside?" Sam asked.

Xata put a hand gently on Rakain's shoulder, squeezing.

Rakain shook his hand, wiping it on his pants. "Yeah, sure...whatever you guys want."

The third door was...strangely foreboding. They weren't quite sure what about it was...was it the rust-red color? The fact it was sunken into the corner of the room, tucked away from any of the other doors? The fact that dried red smears lead straight to it, as if bloody corpses had been dragged inside? The possibilities were endless.

Xata's brow furrowed and her eyes darkened as she looked at the door. It Positively Screamed Villainy.

Hana looked to Rakain, frowning slightly, "Seriously, are you okay, dude?" She said softly, moving over to put her hand on his shoulder.

Xata joined in concern with her fellow beep-boop, having seen the sheer intensity in Rakain's strike. Having spent her time in contemplative silence Nora finally broke it as she shifted towards the northern end of the room. She moved her finger as if counting wires along the wall before stopping at a terminal. After a moment she reached out and hauled back hard on the display and console before shoving the mass aside.

Ami looked at Rakain - also concerned - as Nora shoved aside the computer, revealing a narrow ice channel, carved to let people enter into a deeper area of the base...in secret. Leaving them with four routes in total: One to the outer edge of the fortification, one to the spider-bay, one to the mysterious red blood soaked door...and now, this secret passageway to the north.

"Wow, good eyes Nora." Sam noted, more stunned by the secret passage and how it was hidden than by Rakain's magical outburst.

Xata's Empathy Subroutines abruptly hit their limit with the revelation of a Secret Passageway. Taking her hand from Rakain's shoulder, she looked with fascination at the new developemtn, grining brightly at Nora.

"They didn't have the power plugged in," Nora said, pointing along the mass of tangled wiring. It would have taken ages to follow it all but still she managed to find the lone little plug without an outlet.

Rakain was spooked by his own ferocity. He'd never been prone to the fits of battle rage that plagued the Vesk. But seeing the spiders had set his blood boiling, and had culminated in his control slipping and him frying the ogrekin. He shuddered to think of what would happen if he did that with one of his companions. "I'm fine," he muttered, obviously lying.

Ami smiled, then punched Rakain in the shoulder. "Where was that passion in the shower?" She asked, clearly trying to cheer Rakain up with a bit of lewd humor - but her eyes were clearly concerned.

Hana poked him, "Nope! Now fess up or I get to ticklin'!" She said, smiling and holding up her hands, wiggling her fingers at him. Rakain drew his arms in close to himself.

"Please don't touch me, Hana," he said, his voice flat. "Not right now."

Ami blushed, slightly. "Well..." She said, looking uncertain. "Um..." She kicked at the ground. "Would finding more monsters help?" She asked, quietly.

Hana nodded, sighing slightly, "Alright.. Just.. if you think talking will help, remember we're here for you. And.. if you don't, then maybe try it anyway and be surprised?" She smiled gently, lowering her hands.

"Nora has revealed a Secret Passage!" Xata declared brightly. " In 98% of system-specific cultural narratives, this will lead to Villains! We must not delay!"

"Just don't let the pressure build," Nora said, giving Rakain a slight smile before gesturing, "I'll scout the passage real fast with my bot."

"Thanks, Hana," Rakain said. "Yeah, Ami, more monsters might help. Long as they're not fucking spiders."

That actually had Sam glance over at him, before shrugging her shoulders. "I still trust ya to have my back." She said as if that ended matters for her. So she waited on the scouting report from Nora.

Ami smiled, then nodded. "To the secret passage then!" She said, starting towards the door, pistol in her hand, frowning as she tapped on her flashlight to provide some illumination as she walked forward.

Hana nodded to Rakain.

"Cool. When we deal with the spiders you can hang back, I mean, they're in a shuttle bay, I'm pretty sure we can just fly the ship in and pew pew them without having to get close," she said.

Sam nodded and followed Ami into the tunnel. Xata followed them without hesitation. Rakain brought up the rear, still holding his arms close to his sides, as if he was afraid of accidentally touching his companions.

As the lot of them started forward, Nora tapped a button on her wrist and the ferret sprang forward off her shoulder. It skittered away between their legs, causing Ami to squeak. "R-Right!" She said, grinning. "We should, uh, let the robot go first, right?" she asked as Nora showed them all the view: the drone had skittered up to another disguised terminal. Peeking it open with its tiny metal snout, the ferret skittered into a metal corridor that stretched between two rooms. The signs on the doors made it clear what they were. To the left?

CIC.

To the right?

SCIENCE STATION.

"CIC is command, right? Sounds like the better place to start out." Hana said cheerfully.

"Command and Control," Ami said, nodding, leaning over Nora's shoulder to eye at the view. "Did I mention that drone of yours is cool as heck?" She asked.

"The Villains will be in CIC." Xata agreed. "It does mean Command and Control in 94.5% of cultural narratives. Do we feel ready?"

Rakain glanced at the Science Station doors, tail lashing. "Sure we don't want to go hunting around in there?"

"Can you nose the door open?" Ami whispered to Nora, pointing at the CIC door.

"Well, the idea is to make sure we take care of the bad guys and save any innocents first, right?" Hana said, smiling. "CIC has a chance of giving us access to surveillance cameras and shit."

Sam nodded. "Once we have the command station we should be able to get more information and be more prepared to thoroughly clean out the compound." She noted to Rakain. Rakain nodded, still nervously rubbing his hands together.

"Right. Makes sense, he said

"CIC and Villains." Xata's circuits glowed with resolve and delight.

Nora keyed a few buttons on her wrist, getting her bot to carefully edge towards the door. She debated for a minute before ordering her drone to quickly open the door as best as possible and then retreat to the edge with it's stealth so it can peek inside safely. Rakain crouched down and drew his pistol, running through his mental rolodex of spells again. Preferably something that wasn't up close and personal.

The drone skittered towards the CIC door. It nosed against the door, managing to peek through the crack it opened - the door being unpowered and able to be pushed around relatively easily. The room was indeed a command and control room...but it was one that had been taken. Not salvaged, not built...taken. There were smashed computers. Chairs had been hacked in half. Walls had been gouged. Blood stains flecked several of the consoles...but the whole thing looked as if it had been left to rot since it had been smashed. Several cables ran from old computers and were rolled out into an open doorway leading into the next room over...it seemed that the corbies had just decided to leave the room to rot and take advantage of what computers were still functioning with an extension cable, plugging it into a different area.

Ami frowned. "Well, at least we can say that these people didn't make this place."

The sight of the room made Xata unaccountably sad. "It's like they're not even Villains. Just squatters."

Hana shrugged slightly, "At least you guys can like.. hack into the cables, right?" She said curiously.

"Whose to say the birds were the one that took it," Rakain said, patting Xata on the shoulder. "They could be the second or third owners of this dump."

"Noted," Nora said aloud to herself. She keyed her drone and nodded, "Probably safe to slip through and check the other room out on our own. And hack? Like, with an axe?" She asked, turning to Hana with a confused expression. "Or tech hack?"

"I meant like.. techwise. You know, like splice the cable or something?" Hana said, blushing slightly.

Nora stared at Hana for a moment before looking back at her wrist. "Oh! Oh, probably. If you could get all the routing correct, make sure nothing is doubling back on itself and then power it up with a generator. Though it could probably be easier to just salvage the data stores inside. So, we go in, we, uh, do that." She nodded to Ami, who grinned.

"Can I lead the way?" Ami asked, before turning a glowering look on Sam, who was looming behind her protectively. "Or is the plan to put me into a bubble wrapping?"

"If we put you in bubble wrap everyone would find you just by following the popping sound." Sam teased as she stepped forward and made her way to the CIC.

"We will not place you in bubble wrapping," said Xata in agreement with Sam. "That would be impractical. But our Mightiest Warrior should lead the way." She looked at Sam meaningfully and perhaps a touch adoringly.

Ami chuckled. "She does seem to be..." She said, sounding amused - while they walked forward to the CIC. Walking into the room, they all heard a voice echoing from the other room , clear and high pitched and nasil.

"No, no, no!" The voice said. "You got that part entirely wrong - Captain Dashen Rendier never ever would flub a line like that! Reset and try again! Now!"

Ami looked at the others, her face furrowed in clear confusion.

"Trouble," Rakain mouthed, not daring to say anything.

Hana blinked, "Someone playing a video game?" She said curiously.

"Captain Dashen Rendier is the star of Space Explorers," Xata supplied. "Records are fragmentary." Sam shrugged and inched closer to the door to try to get a count on numbers. Ami blinked - and as they all listened, they heard a corby's voice.

"Scan the planet, then. Mr, uh, Thuweir." He sounded like he only vaugely knew what the fuck he was talking about

"Most...logical?" A confused sounding corby suggested.

"No! Captain Rendir's logical half-elvish aide, Thuweir, is far more stoic!" The nasal voice shouted as Sam inched over to the door. Hana moved over to the door curiously to peek over Sam's shoulder, wondering what was going on. Sam crept up to the corner then peeked around - unnoticed by the collection of corbies within the room, which seemed to be an old conference room that had been cleared and transformed into...well...a throne room.

Seated on the far end of the room on a throne made of scrap metal and bits of bone was a strange looking man: Red skinned, black haired, he was human in shape, save for his elongated nose that looked to be almost six, seven inches long. He wore sleek armor and had a sleek laser rifle seated in his lap. He was also throwing what looked like rotting fruit at the four corbies - each one dressed in appallingly bad Star Explorer cosplay outfits - who were coiling away from his pelting.

"Ugh!" the red skinned man said. "You're almost making me pine for Christolph Pine's atrocious turn in that hideous reboot..." he said, scowling at them. "Again! And this time, don't be fucking terrible!"

Lounging behind the throne, almost unnoticed until she shifted slightly, was another woman...as exotic as she was beautiful. Her thighs were furred and feathered, coming to a pair of golden, grasping claws. Her bared breasts were lightly freckled with brown spots, providing an almost hawk-like shade to her pale skin, while her head was sleek, with swept back ear-tufts rather than ears, and long feathers. A pair of wings folded behind her back. Even naked, she manged to look far too dignified for any of this. Looking back at her, the red skinned man grinned.

"Enjoying the show, Z-" he started, but the woman lifted her hand in a clear show of derision, then turned and stalked off through a doorway at the back of the room.

All recognized the woman as a harpy! They were a race of humanoid bird women, who relied on other species for their procreation. This meant many were in the thrall of or connected to monstrous races...well, since they relied on them for procreation, save for those able to find more understanding demihumans.

As for the red skinned man, most of the group were baffled. Sam, though, nodded in recognition. She knew what he was. Rakain's eyes followed the harpy woman out of the room, though he stoically refused to look at her bare rear...for more than a moment. But it was hard, considering how firm and taut it was. Her tail feathers did flick up with every step, revelaing the pert, hairless sex nestled between her legs. Then she went down the stairs leading out of the back of the room was gone. Ami, noticing said eye line, elbowed Rakain playfully - but with just a tiny bit of jealousy glinting in her eyes.

Sam tapped onto the touch screen of her tablet a message that was bounced to the rest of their comms: "One leader in red, 4 thugs, one possible captive. Leader is a spellcaster- A Tengu." Played out in their ears in the default robotic text to speech voice.

Xata cocked her head, cross-referencing at hearing the name 'Thuweir.' She suddenly stood up and walked into the room. Every corbie looked at her. The red skinned man looked at her. Sam face palmed. Ami face palmed. Hana face palmed. Nora put her hands over her face. Even her drone put a paw over its snout. Rakain may have still been thinking about harpy poon.

Xata stood in the center of the makeshift throne room, then assumed a stoic expression. Her chin lifted and she spoke, seriously and studiously: "It would be logical to scan the planet for life-signs. We must detect whether the life form we are dealing with is made of pure energy."

"Oh..." the red skinned man blinked. "Well, um..." he coughed. "I suppose we'll be doing the episode The Enemy in the Mirror rather than the Shaken Six." He nodded. "Crew..." He stood up, then thrust out his finger. "Kill the evil doppelganger!" The Tengu broke into peals of laughter as he sat back in the chair. He waved one hand. Music began to screech from the speakers - filling the air with canned trumpets and violins and drums.

Nora mumbled to herself in response, bringing her wrist up as she knelt down. Her little droid too a shot at the closest Corby, clinging to Nora for support while she keyed a few buttons on her wrist. The music playing crackled for a second and then suddenly stopped before picking up with something completely different: Dramatic and decidedly more modern and epic sounding. But it wasn't from Space Explorers. The red man's face twisted with fury as the drone fired off a blast, signing the corby dressed as Montgomery Ironbeard, the dwarven engineer of the Intrepid. He screeched in fury and pain.

Hana focused, her eyes glowing blue as she put her fingers to her temples, making the red skinned man's eyes glow blue as well as she fired off random synapses in his mind. The red skinned man clenched his jaw, shuddering, his eyes half closed. He hissed. "Migraines...caused by...inferior music!" he screeched, furiously, springing to his feet.

The four corbies rushed forward. One of them swung its claws at Sam, who was nearest to her. Sam lifted her left arm, shoulder checking the beast. Two others had drawn their pistols and opened fire on Hana and Rakain. The blast seared along Rakain's shoulder, but the huge Vesk jerked aside at the last moment, evading most of the real damage!

"Highly illogical," commented Xata, remaining in-character as she watched the action unfold around her, a bit stunned that her clever masquerade had not worked.

Following through on the shoulder check Sam attempted to use her weight to bodycheck her current assailant and make ground on the Tengu, who she saw as the greatest threat. "Rakain, cover the rest from the thugs please." She requested as she snapped her blade out from it's sheathe, slicing at the Tengu as it was being drawn.

The armor managed to withstand the blade, sending a shower of sparks as protective plating was scraped at by the edge. Sam used the momentum of the attack to draw herself closer and slam herself against him, knocking him back a foot to put enough breathing room between them for another swing.

"Focus Demon. Or you might find it hard to breathe."

Rakain grunted acknowledgment of Sam's request, dropping to one knee and lining up a shot at the one who had fired the shot that grazed him. Due to the pain shooting through his arm, however, he took several extra milliseconds to line up his shot. He fired, but the corbie dodged out of the way!

Xata hummed deep in her throat and summoned three purplish missiles to hammer into the nearest corby, frying it instantly. Keeping in Space Explorers character, she pronounced: "This is all most illogical" as she knelt next to its smoking body and placed her hand on its neck in the Thuweir Neck Pinch.

The Tengu snarled as he glared at Sam. He slammed his palm into the ground and exploded into a flurry of crows. They cawed loudly, flying around in a wild pattern, then circling around. The crows flew back together into a mass, which reformed into the Tengu again...right behind Ami. He grinned wickedly. "Aha!" he said, drawing a pair of sleek, monomolecular kusarigama - short, deadly looking curved blades on two foot wooden poles. He snapped them up, so that both were hooked around Ami's neck.

"Thanks for bringing her here, I was wondering where Miss Princess got put," he said, cheerily. "Now drop your weapons, or the Tian dies."