Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 06

"Well I am going to need your word that you will behave while in our care or custody, depending on how you want to look at it. Otherwise I am going to have to have you in bindings." Sam said seriously.

"You got it!" Kelda called over her shoulder. Then she and her erstwhile companions were around the corner and gone.

"...the fuck is a street samurai?" Ami asked, sounding faintly confused.

"WE help people because it's the right thing to do." Hana said, clearly still irritated at the others.

"And we all know how Sam likes her bindings," Rakain muttered. Ami grinned slightly, drawing her hand back and punching him in the shoulder gently.

"Sellsword or Merc, with a code of honor." Sam said, leaving the last bit out for a moment to rake on Kelda's nerves.

"Cultural data indicates they were urban persons who watched numerous martial arets sims," Xata helpfully supplied in response to Ami's question.

"That too." Sam said with a nod to Xata. "Depends on how you look at them."

"..Nora, can you make sure Alfie doesn't let them on the ship without our permission?" Hana asked as Ami nodded to Xata and Sam.

Nora nodded, bringing her wrist up. "Alfie, go into full Guest Watch protocol." She brought her hand up and took a few quick pictures with a small lens in the tip of a finger before sending the images to the AI on their ship.

Ami shook her head. "Never heard of them myself," she said, sounding wryly amused. "But come on. Lets keep on keeping on..." She smiled at Nora. "And I bet Brash will forgive them before we can even show up...he seems like that kinda guy."

"Brash will love them, and we haven't told him much." She nodded, "If they apologize he'll be clueless I bet."

"I don't want them talking to Brash without us watching them.. I figure that the women might be alright, but that half-orc..." Hana shook her head.

Ami nodded. "Well, Alfie won't let em in." She said, quietly. "Come on." She started down the corridor, shining out her flashlight.

"I'm giving out orc friend the lowest level stuff. He's pretty much stuck hanging out next to the airlock until we get back." Nora said, keying a few more buttons on her wrist.

Sam shrugged. "They have no claim anymore. They can try a claim, but doing so wouldn't be wise. They will come to realize that once they see the path out. Besides, I don't know if they have any atmo with them. A space walk is a bit of a problem without a suit."

Nora turned to continue following Ami, stretching her arms out in a yawn. Xata nodded apporval of Nora's choice, then moved to follow her. "The girls can sit in the lounge, but that's really it. Alfie can pretty much disable every console and viewport based on what portion of that they're in," Nora continued as they walked down the thin, icy corridors.

As they walked forward, Zaoibe was looking around, her brow furrowing. She bit her lip slightly, then hissed. "S-Shut up!" She said, sounding scared. But as she spoke, they all realized...they too could hear voices. They echoed from the vents, and rang from the winding corridors that filled out the dungeon-like lower level, their lights seeming to dim. The voice, though...it was guttural and deep.

"Zaaaoiiiibeee..." The voice hissed. "Rip you apart, traitor...bitch lying traitor..." A smacking, cracking noise sounded. "Against goddess, against prophecy, rape you to death..."

"SHUT UP!" Zaiobie shouted, pressing her back against an icy wall, her eyes wide with fear - looking at the others. "Y-You can hear it too, right!?" She asked, sounding terrified they'd say no.

"Yes. We hear it," Xata confirmed grimly.

"Yeeeeeeep," Rakain said, drawing his gun again. He was really getting tired of all the creepy shit.

Nora clicked her tongue and frowned a little, glancing over to Zaoibe. "So...did you bring the Kami to Yoshi?"

Zaoibie shook her head. "N-No!" She said, sounding terrified.

Xata hummed and sent a message to Zai, the words carried by magic. "Do not be afraid."

Hana nodded, frowning slightly, "Whoever's speaking, she didn't turn traitor. Your useless goddess cursed her and she finally got it undone. That's not traitor-ism, that's fucking over someone who fucked you over." She snorted.

Once more Sam had her sword at the ready. "Relax, the voices are real. That also means it is a trick of some sort. Someone is playing you." She said, trying to comfort Zai.

The snarling voice snapped. "Stupid stupid...stupid..." It growled, quietly. "Bitch, fucker, fuck..."

Zaoibe gulped, then frowned. "Yoshi...he said that there was something down here. I never knew it was alive, though."

"And not particularly articulate," Xata added, with more Cutting Earnestness.

"Something other than the Kami? Or did he fuck with it somehow?" Hana said, frowning slightly.

Zai nodded. "He said it was what took the base before he got here." She licked her lips nervously. "But...if it's supernatural, it might have taken up roost around the kami generator...doubly so if the guards are gone." She nodded.

Nora blew out a breath, bobbing her head. "Alright then. So, everybody keep an eye out for something really mean..."

"So it would be responsible for the state of this outpost?" Sam asked, not sounding pleased at the prospect.

"It would make a certain amount of sense," Xata said as they walked forward, the air growing colder and colder, their flashlight seeming pitifully weak in the darkness...but then they came to a large steel door - which had been ripped open, deep claw-mark furrows on it. It had been ripped open from this side...something had wanted to get in. And get in it had. Within the chamber was a large, whirring tube of glass, shimmering and crackling, a bright white speck floating within.

But coiled around the ground at the base was something hideous. Long, coiling tentacles, ugly milky white eyes growing from the back of each of them, the body was pale white and pulsated with an eldrich energy. It was...something that should not have been, something that had crawled into this world through a crack in reality - an octopus turned wicked and vile...and immense.

Those eyes focused and the creature hissed. "Tasty..."

"It is a decapus!" Xata cried out after frantic-cross-checking of her databases. "It occurs in my Abyssal reference clusters! Beware! It cannot be damaged but with magic! It resits the elemental magics!"

Sam didn't quite know what that thing was, or rather what it was named and what that meant. Her sword had been enough for a literal demon today so she trusted it would be enough for whatever -it- was. She was already committed to the strike when Xata called out her warning, having already rushed ahead of the group to put herself in front of the maw of danger. Too close to just back off she feinted a thrust and swung for one of the limbs near her. If Xata was right then she could atleast batter it and defend herself.

The blade sunk home - and they learned something...the Gap, which had destroyed history, required people to reconstruct what they had learned from archaeological evidence. It was true...ancient tales of fighting such demons were clear. They were immune to mortal weapons.

Mortal weapons were much better these days.

The blade - monomolecular and sharper than anything before the age of nanotechnology - sliced into the tentacle, bringing up a spray of thick, gouting black blood. The monster screeched. "NO! NO! THAT PROPHECY WAS FALSE! IT CANNOT BE SO!"

"So you bleed." Sam said, her grin audible in her voice. Nora fired and missed with a loud, annoyed curse following suit.

Xata's Song was a song of a thousand voices, each one minuscule. It swarmed up within her as she struck out at the Decapus, her palm making contact with it as a thousand thousand tiny voices transmitted a chorus of enmity into its flesh. The creature gurgled and burbled as the nanites rushed into it's brain. It started to speak. "Nine nine nine eight nine two!" It writhed, then smashed its own forehead with a tentacle, completely befuddled by the nanites that were surging through it!

Hana put her fingers to her temples, her eyes glowing blue, but this time the glow grew brighter than before, becoming as bright as a flashlight as the creature's brain sparked wildly under her mental assault. The massive octopus writhed and squirmed as it was struck by the blazing magical energy, screeching loudly!

Rakain made a grab at one of the flailing tentacles, a new spell coalescing in his mind. Just as it was ready, the tentacle he reached for darted back, and his efforts went to waste Sam renewed her assault on the eldritch abomination, encouraged by what she had witnessed. She can cut it, it can bleed, it can feel pain. It can likely feel fear. Once more she pressed forward, stepping closer to that flailing mass of tentacles as she met it's swings with her parries, as it attempted to squirm out of the way of her blade.

More than once it managed to do so, looking as if it didn't obey the laws of physics as it moved about. Yet again luck proved to be behind Sam as she seemed to get how it moved suddenly, recognizing a piece that was slightly larger than the rest. She lunged, hard, the edge parting it's flesh.

The blade cut in deep, deeper than they had expected, the creature writhed, twitched...and then laid dead, its brain hacked in half by the sword. As it slumped to the ground, Ami shook her head, waving her hand under her nose. "Eugh..." she said. "it smells like a tannery..."

She was right - the thick, cloying stink of the thing was nearly overpowering.

Nora relaxed a little, letting out a relieved sigh. Another yawn followed as she moved up, activating a light on her arm to find a console. Xata's eyes shone as she relaxed. Of course Sam had killed the beast. Of course she had. Hana frowned, waving her hand to cast, filling the air with the scent of roses, trying to overwhelm the stench of the creature's body, "So.. shall we go about freeing the Kami now?"

Sam just went to cleaning her blade, trying to put just what had stained it out of her mind.

"So- that was a thing."

Rakain smacked the wall with a fist. He needed to stop falling over himself and fucking up.

Ami stepped over as the roses filled the air, while Nora stepped over and looked at the console. She tapped a button. The lights in the room dimmed, and then there was a low whirring noise - and the tube started to sink into the ground. The white spec didn't waste time. It flew forward and smashed into Ami's chest, sending the Tian Princess staggering backwards. She yelped. "Ah!" She said, her eyes widening as the glowing energy surrounded her. She gasped, her eyes widening...and then she flared...and floated upwards...

Her arms flared outwards as a glowing light surrounded her body. Her clothes vanished, leaving her bare. Then a glowing whiteness coalesced around her hips, her shoulders, her belly, solidifying and then flashing into existence, creating the wrap of an elegant top and skirt combo, with a glowing tiara flaring into life around her head. She landed on the ground, blinking as she looked at her fingers and the elbow length white gloves that made up the final part of her ensemble. A tiny white wisp flew outwards from her hair, forming into a pair of fox ears, while a similar wisp exploded from above her rump, forming into a bushy fox tail.

Ami stood stock still, looking like she really wanted to punch something.

Zai blinked. "Well..." she said, quietly.

"I didn't...expect it to be that sudden." Nora said slowly, eyes wide as she spun around to watch.

"Rak, are you o.. okay?" Hana said, blinking in confusion, looking at Ami, "You.. that's.. quite a look..." She said, looking at her in confusion. "That.. is not how I expected that to look..."

Ami looked down at her new costume, then yelped as she saw her fox tail. "What is happening!?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah I was expecting something more...' Rakain said, waving a hand in a circular motion. "Well, not that."

"Agreed." Sam said, in quite a bit of shock herself. Xata looked at Ami in confusion, trying to work out what had just happened.

"It's a physical representation of the kami's protection of you." Hana said, looking at Ami curiously.

"Fox cute?" Nora said slooowly after a moment, pointing at Ami's ears.

It seemed the Kami had fused with Ami...and transformed her clothes into an exotic outfit that looked like a mixture of combat gear and a princess' outfit, with a tiara, fox ears and fox tail as the finale. Ami scowled.

"Well, can't it have given me something sensible, like plate!?" She asked, angrily.

Zai giggled, quietly, shaking her head.

"Even Sam doesn't wear plate. Just cool form-fitting combat armor," Nora said, her eyes glittering.

"Well, a hybrid of that." Sam said in mostly agreement. "Full blown plate tends to me mechanized."

"Ami's is tremendously cute," Xata noted.

Hana frowned, "Ami honey..I.. love you, but that's dumb as hell.. if you're going to get magical armor, why the hell would you want it to be heavy and bulky?"

Ami blushed. "Bulky at least doesn't mean pervs can look up my skirt..." She shook her head, slightly. "And the Kami is still not speaking to me..." She sighed. "It's like..." She bit her lip. "Like this is a reflexive action."

"Maybe it needs to recover? Being used as a power source isn't fun," Nora said, walking around Ami curiously.

Hana snorted slightly, "Too bad you can't wear anything under a skirt." She stuck her tongue out playfully. "How about this, focus as hard as you can on the clothing, tail, and ears disappearing."

"Besides, it suits you Empress." Sam noted, her playful tone coming back. "You were always a sexy fox."

Ami nodded - seemingly having missed what Hana said as she looked at Sam. "And maybe they...chained the brain down somewhere else?" she suggested. "Lets check the room and see what we can find..." She nodded, then blushed and kicked Sam in the shin. The contact of her shoe with the armor made a loud clunk - and Sam found herself staggering slightly.

Ami blinked. "Oh, gods, are you okay?"

"You're in full mahou shoujo mode Ami, be careful," Nora said, finding it hard not to burst into laughter.

Ami blushed. "Right..." She said, sighing quietly.

"Hells!" Sam cursed as she found her leg going out from under her, rushing to regain her balance.

"I'm fine! Just- well, we aren't arm wrestling soon."

Nora moved over while still smiling, giving Ami a firm squeeze, "I don't mean anything mean by it. You're still our Ami."

"That is Very Impressive, Miss Woodwise," Xata said, seriously.

Ami smiled and then breathed in. "Let me try that Hana." She closed her eyes. She focused. Her body shimmered and then, with a flash, she was returned to normal, sagging slightly. "Oof..." She said.

Hana smiled, "There, now you can flip between the two." She smirked, flicking Ami on the nose, curious how sensitive the defense was. Ami squeaked as she was flicked, rubbing her nose. She smirked.

"Taking advantage of my weakened sate, huh?" she asked. As she spoke, the tiny ferret came into the room, scrambling up onto Nora's shoulder, bumping against her head. The atticc whisprer had left it a gift - the small, dog-like skull now rested on the drone's head like a mask.

"Don't make that sound like an invitation." Sam teased, leaving the explanation to Xata.

"No, just testing to see how paranoid your protector is." Hana snickered slightly. "Wondering if spanking your rump would mean exploding into full fox girl."

Xata just smiled. Ami snorted. "Can we, ah, wait till after we loot the room?" she asked.

Nora blew out a breath, smiling as she poked her drone back. She mumbled a quiet 'thank you' before reaching out to gently adjust the mask, using her hand to wriggle it into place. "I'll work out a design with the mask later so it stays in place..."

"How about till after we are back on the ship?" Sam asked as she sheathed her sword and started doing exactly that.

Hana smiled, reaching out to help Ami to her feet, "Good point, let's look around for cool, fun loot!" She said cheerfully. They started to pick through the room, they found that the monsters had been collecting and gathering treasure here - most likely due to it being one of the most secure parts of the base. They found a sleek circular throwing shield that shimmered with the tell tale sign of being made of solid vibranium, a monomolecular throwing knife that had been augmented with a returning fusion mod, and...most fascinating...a small vial of orange-brown powder that made Ami whistle.

"Do you know what this is!?" She asked. "This is spice..." She grinned. "You take it, and I hear you can restore a spell you've cast by remembering it perfectly..." She nodded. "There's only enough for a weak spell, but...still, this shit's rare."

They also found a few cred sticks with a total value of 13,920 credits them.

But the final part of the horde was the most interesting...another one of those disks, with a small etched image of the Brineice asteroid base on it, a sister to the first disk they had found on Yoshi's body!

As they looked at the disks, Ami blinked. "Is it just me...or are they glowing?" She asked as the disks shimmered and glowed with pale golden light. Ami frowned, holding her disk closer to the one Nora was holding - as they came closer, the glow got brighter. "Should...we put them together?" Ami asked.

Nora shrugged and moved closer to Ami while slipping the other card out. She held it up and reached out to tap the two together.

"..they're a REALLY badass key. When someone genelocked to them," Hana pointed to Ami "Puts them together, then they open a drift portal to a specific spot, yank out whatever's inside it and then shut again."

Sam whistled. "That is an expensive lock."

Ami gulped. "Well, then...Nora." She said, nodding, and then touched her desk against Nora's. There was a bright flash and a roaring of wind as a portal opened up and then a chest landed on the ground before them. It was laquered and covered with golden dragons and red paint, beautifully ornate. The chest started to speak aloud, the voice coming magically from the wood - and the words were Tian.

Hana frowned, "Well.. it says if you're of the imperial line you can open it, and if not, you'll die ten thousand deaths, so.. Ami?" She said, smirking at her slightly. "And before you think I'm gambling your life, it's key was genelocked to you AND the kami jumped to you, so those are damned good bits of evidence in my mind."

"Ami, I'd be careful about trusting a talking box," Rakain said.

"It makes a certain sense." Xata said, nodding.

Ami bit her lip, slightly, looking at Rakain. "True..." She said. "But..." She breathed in. "I want to know..." She smiled at him, then looked at the box, stepping forward hesitantly.

"I can say I haven't been more sure of anything than that this is safe for you to open." Sam said with a nod.

Ami's palms touched the box and it whirred, gently, opening up, revealing a small circular seal of purest jade, carved with a dragon and an ancient symbol. It pulsed...and each of them shivered...each of them could feel fingers of magic reaching into their minds. Their eyes grew more and more unfocused as images filled their eyes...

The first image was of a peaceful world of blue and green and white. It was shrouded in a cloud layer - and then suddenly, emerging from hundreds of Drift Portals were thousands of ships. They swarmed outwards, their designs grotesque and quasiorganic. There were draconic fighters and snarling, pig-faced battleships with flaming cannons thrusting immense turrets. Their crews were exotic demons with burning skin, tusks, and fierce eyes.