Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 10

Hana followed after her curiously. "So.. seriously, anyone else want a Vanish grenade?"

"I can still see invisible stuff by the by," Rakain said, follwing Sam. "So for the next few minutes if anything wants to jump us I'll see it coming."

The door swung inwards and Sam saw that it was a small chamber - ten sleeping pallets were within, each one neatly laid out, with an adjoining bathroom, and a painted, furious looking statue with a red skinned figure holding up a noose in one hand and several throwing stars in the other. There were also several chests.

"I can use it," Xata volunteered to Hana, taking the Vanish Grenade.

"I'm good, thank you though Hana." Nora said, kneeling to dig through her bags quickly and dig out a small little hover drone from her kit.

"Just got enough for everyone to get one and an extra one." Hana said, handing two to Xata.

"Thank you, Fellow Beep-Boop!" Xata also took a moment and concentrated, a melodic hum rising from her throat to no immediately visible effect.

Sam mostly focused on the room itself, checking for any hidden passages- because ninjas- before going over to the chests. Rakain eyed the statue. "Yaezhing. Tian god of harsh justice and murder." He looked back out the door they'd entered through. "Patron of ninjas and assassins. Charming."

"He seems to fit the decor." Xata nodded.

Keying a few things the hover drone Nora carried took off and quickly went about covering them from above while she got her drone to move a bit forward along with Sam. Ami shuddered. "Ugh. I know there are evil gods in the Pact World's pantheon - Azmodeus. I was kind of hoping that was a specific fucked up thing in the Pact, though."

"Evil is Everywhere," Xata nodded mock-sagely. "Some tropes are born of truth, it seems."

"...I just figured it was that other dude with the nose we killed earlier.." Hana frowned. "And every culture has evil, babe." She smiled, ruffling Ami's hair. "If it didn't, we probably wouldn't be knee deep in corpses right now."

Sam was over on the second chest before she found something of note, a hollow point in the board covered in a false panel, hiding a credstick. Checking the others she found the same across them, each hiding one. "So, about 3,000 credits here." She said after checking the sticks with her tablet.

Ami nodded. "So that's six hundred for each of the people doing actual work!" She said, grinning slightly at Sam.

Hana snickered, "Ami's laughing because when we're done she'll have several million credits in national treasury to play with. If not much, much more."

"Think of all the weapons you'll be able to buy, Sam!" Rakain said.

"Let us not Count Our Chickens," Xata said, then paused, wondering at where exactly that phrase came from.

"Please, the legends state the Tian Star Empire is one of the largest, most wealthy kingdoms in the galaxy," Ami said, smirking slightly.

"One downside is you're going to have to deal with a dragon cuteing up your royal vaults." Hana smirked.

"I think Counting Chickens may refer to presuming a yield from farm animals who have not yet had their crack at killing you," Xata added after processing for a moment. "Uh... that may be inexact."

"Oh no, what a horrible eventuality," Ami said, her voice flat.

"How in the world is that a downside?" Rakain asked. "Given that Brash is...erm, flexible."

"Sooo, how hard was it to get Brash into a female form?" Ami asked, grinning at Rakain. "And how hard was it to...fit?" She wiggled her eyebrows at Rakain.

Sam shrugged. "It's not about the weapons you have, it's about how you use them." She offered as a reply to Rakain.

Xata's circuits glowed a little at that. "Sam knows what she's talking about," she affirmed.

"It's about the fact that not all chicken eggs are fertilized and even some fertilized eggs do not reach full gestation, Xata," Hana said, gently.

"Hey, I'm not the one constantly measuring my dick here," Rakain fired back playfully. He looked at Ami, his eyes glittering. "Honestly, not that hard at all. To both questions."

Ami snorted, quietly. "Well, ah...good to know. All of that, that is." She shook her head. "Which room next?" She asked. "Clockwise or counter clockwise?"

"Oh." Xata nodded. "And by analogy, not all expectations... got it. Thank you!" She smiled at Hana with gratitude.

Hana nodded, "In honor of Rak, I say we go clockwise." She smirked. Ami snorted, loudly. Rakain's tail flicked.

"I don't start things Rakain, I end them." Sam teased back. "No preference to what is next though."

Fortunately, the next two rooms were fairly easily checked out - they were abandoned guardrooms, originally used for the station's original, defensive purpose. They were clearly not needed now - since who was going to attack the place? The chamber after that was an empty bunkroom - dust on the walls and no treasure within. It seemed that the population of Ravenscraig was a great deal lower than it had once been.

However, the room after that - which was the opposite door to the ninja bunkroom - opened in on a chamber with eight human men and women - Tians, Ulfen, Varki and other ethnicity. They were rough, tough looking fellows, and they were all watching a holoscreen, headphones on their heads, which explained how they had missed the combat in the other room...

And they were watching The Skinshaw Murders II: Foxglove's Back.

The android girl who had survived the last slasher film was being stabbed to death by the returned killer, provoking loads of cheers from the ruffians. Xata's jaw tightened. Hana held up her hand, pointing to Sam and mimicing pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it. Rakain pointed to Hana, trying to communicate his agreement.

Nora dug around in her bag before fishing a grenade out. She waved to Sam, held up three fingers and gestured to her. On your signal. Sam nodded and pulled out another metal can from her pouch, this one marked with a stripe of red paint.

The thugs were utterly engrossed with the show and cheering on the android girl being brutally stabbed while her breasts bounced in the center of the screen that they barely noticed the pair of grenades thumping into the ground in the center of their group. Ami slammed the door shut and a moment later, the door belled outwards with a flash of light and trailing smoke.

When the door opened, the room was filled with nothing but ash. Though the screen showed that the android girl was running away from the killer, clutching her wound - still alive!

"God dammit, spoilers." Sam said, commenting to the movie before walking over and turning it off- retrieving the movie for later viewing.

Hana snorted, "Dude, that's like the first couple minutes of the movie." She said, shaking her head.

"Well I haven't seen it." Sam retorted.

"Trooooooooopes," Nora groaned aloud after a moment.

"It'll have boobs, you'll be happy." Sam teased.

"You know what has boobs and is less degrading to women? Porn." Hana stuck her tongue out.

Ami shook her head slightly, grinning. "I kinda have to side with Hana in this case...though, is that true of Tian porn too?" She asked, curiously.

I mean, we already know they fucked dragons for porn purposes," Rakain said, thinking back to that night.

"Just gimmie the tiddy." Nora said with a snort as she moved about the room.

"You mean does it have women's sexuality constantly rewarded with death? No, no it does not have that," Hana said, her voice dry.

Ami nodded. "Well, there's that!" she said with a grin, stepping out, then frowning. As she did so. "Do you hear that?" She asked.

A faint chiming sound was coming - faintly muffled. They looked around, and then Nora's drone chirruped. It dove into some of the ashes, then came out, holding up a sleek smart phone, the phone jingling. The caller ID was labled as YOUR MOTHERFUCKING BOSS and had a picture of a furious, glaring yellow eye, slitted like a wolf's.

"Oh. Well," Xata said, pursing her lips.

Hana held her hand out for the phone, smiling.

Nora clicked a button so her drone would drop the phone off in Hana's hand. She popped it open, "Y-yes, sir?" She said, trying to sound gruff, but a little nervous as well, as if caught in the middle of doing something she wasn't supposed to. After a few moments of being shouted at - the sound muffled by her ear -she pulled the phone back, then looked around to try and find the speaker phone option and turned it on, "Y-you're on, sir."

The phone clicked on and each of them heard a gruff, furious sounding male voice - layered over the soft pap pap pap sound of a pair balls slapping against a firm rump, and the soft moan of a female voice gasping quietly.

"Listen to me you slack jawed, half-tian fuckfaces," the male voice snarled. "I am currently balls deep in the finest fucking Tengu chick in this whole fucking place, and so if I have to pull my knot out of her and head down there and cockslap you bitches right in the face to get you to DO your FUCKING JOBS, I will be VERY fucking cross!" He panted. "So, right now, you will STOP watching whatever FUCKING MOVIE you are RIGHT NOW and GET to the FUCKING GUARD HOUSES! GOT IT!?"

"Ohhh Gannnnnnn!" A female voice wailed.

Despite the severity of the situation, Rakain doubled over and clapped his hands to his mouth, barely able to contain his laughter. Ami was blinking very quickly, her lips pursed slightly. "Y-yes, sir! Don't worry, we're on it right now!" Hana said, then muttered to the others "I told you fuckers it was too loud!"

"Don't fucking make excuses! GET TO WORK OR I FUCK YOU NEXT!" The phone clicked off.

"...I'm having a hard time trying to imagine a tengu woman with that giant red nose," Nora said after a few following seconds, rubbing her head through her suit.

"He sounds like... an asshole." Xata couldn't come up with a more succinct Troper term for it. "I say we show him what Fucking means. The bad, non-fun kind."

Hana turned the phone off off. "So.. he's going to be surprised." She smirked. "We going to let him nut or send him to the afterlife with blue balls?" She shook her head, "Pretty sure he meant corvid brand."

Sam shrugged. "Depends on how long he takes."

"Let's race him," Xata said.

"I don't know, if I had to try and get these jerks to do anything, I'd be grumpy," Ami said, shaking her head slightly. "But, yeah..." He paused. "Did he say knot?"

"Yes." Nora's voice was wry.

"Canid terminology. Interesting. Werewolf?" Xata suggested.

"You did knot see that coming, huh?" Nora asked, doing her best to stay deadpan.

"I'm guessing humanoid wolf, judging by the caller ID." Sam pointed out.

Hana snickered, "Down girl." She winked at Ami. "So, upstairs we go?" She said cheerfully.

Rakain cracked his knuckles. "Let's."

"This is going to be a knotty situation," Xata agreed with Nora.

"Riiiiiiiiight..." Ami shook her head, blushing furiously. "Is it bad that I feel worse because he's fluffy?" Ami asked, then blinked. "Oh, I just got that, Nora..." She snorted, then punched her in the shoulder gently. Then Ami wrung out her fist slightly - since there had been a loud clunk when she had punched him.

"Metal is a little hard. Don't worry though, we aren't going to give you the cold shoulder." Sam teased over the comms, keeping her voice low as they made their way up the stairs.

"He is a very knotty boy. One who has forgotten his Thou-Shalt-Knots. But he is playing Knots and Crosses while we are playing Chess!" Xata warmed to the pun theme.

"Alrighty, calm down there. It's knot a race. Keep yourself under control before we tie you down," Hana fired back.

"Please, do knot tease me," Xata whispered.

"Augh!" Ami writhed in what appeared to be physical agony.

They came to the stairs and started up, finding themselves in the middle area of the tower...and they found that this part of the tower was dominated by a large laboratory. There were decanters, beakers, technical components, a large computer, a library full of musty tomes, and a glass cell in the center of the room. The back of the room had a pair of stairs, heading up to the next level.

Within the glass cell was a humanoid figure. Their skin was grey and their eyes were sunken in, their hair hanging in patches. Sores covered their shoulders and arms, and they wore what had clearly once been a fine suit. They stood up, their body moving in unnatural, jerky motions as the lot of them came into the room. The former human's mouth opened - and as its mouth opened, they could see dozens of glittering black eyes peering out of the mouth at them, illuminated by the harsh light of the chamber. The faint shape of insects within that mouth could be seen...a bulges traveled underneath the skin - the crunch and squeak of moving chiten and squished subcutaneous fat bringing a hideous squirming feeling to each of them.

"Release...me..." The human spoke in a buzzing, hissing voice - but they noticed that the voice didn't come from the mouth or even the glass. It came from a small flickering gemstone on the laboratory desk. A translation gem!

Hana winced, then frowned, looking around the lab for some sort of panic switch that would fill the room with fire or something. ...after trying to pocket the gem. The figure and gem reminded Sam of two of the things they had chased here. "Hana, ask who he is," she said.

Hana frowned, then sighed, "Who are you?" She said in Tian, putting the translation amulet on.

"Prisoner...summoned by...the oni..." it whispered, voice a soft, hissing chittering sound. "Tortured. Tortured..."

"That's infernal. Like demonspeak," Nora whispered, eyes going wide.

"Just be glad we can't hear what it's actually saying and we're getting the translated version," Rakain gulped.

Xata was at a loss. She just stared at the creature in horror. She had never conceived of such a thing in the flesh. Literature and downloads didn't do it justice. Sam nodded, looking a bit relieved that the thought that had anchored in her mind had been proven false. And being in a suit of armor separating her from it, including the glass, helped.

The creature watched them through its dead eyes. "Release me...I will help you..." It said, utterly dead. One thing about the creature, though...it was a shit liar. They could already tell it wanted to do...well, maybe it did see vomiting demon bugs at them was helping.

Hana frowned slightly, "Hey Nora.. I don't know if you can help, but.." She switched to mental communication with the woman, Will this button send it into space or just open the box?

That button will just open the cage. That's all. Charming, Nora keyed back after a brief moment.

Hana frowned, moving around behind it and muttering, waving her hand, a small thundercloud appearing in the box, sending down bolts of lighting into the thing inside. The humanoid suit containing the swarm of vicious infernal wasps screeched and the translator gem screamed aloud. "Haaaaaate! DIE! KILLL! YOUR EYES WILL BE OUR NESTS!" It writhed - and started to smash against the glass. Smash. Smash. Smash! Smash! Smash!

The glass cracked slightly.

"...Really Hana?" Nora asked, backing up at that point. She found a crate to kneel against and raised her rifle along it.

Xata pulled her sword and went to guard position.

Hana whimpered softly, "Die, die, die, come on, die!" She looked at Nora, "What?! You wanted to release the fucking demon wasps instead?"

"We clearly cannot let it out. But we cannot just keep torturing it either," Xata murmured.

"Never said that, would have rather just ignored it. I meant just unleashing a spell without warning anyone first," Nora said with a sigh. Sam was a little surprised at this, but set herself into position between the group and the cracking glass. Nora rolled her eyes and just stayed put, rifle trained in place.

Hana frowned, "Sorry, just saw a demon thing that was clearly pretty fucking evil and figured we should kill it for several reasons!"

The lightning shuddered as the glass cracked and crunched and cracked with each impact, the glass crunching outwards. Ami had her pistol drawn, her body tensed. The smoke roiled within...but they couldn't see the shape.

Then there was a howling shriek and wasps - huge, red, black wasps with hideously dripping stingers and fierce claws smashed into the damaged part of the glass, the swarm exploding free, soaring out towards the party!

Sam wasn't quite sure just what she should be doing, feeling a bit under equipped for dealing with a hellspawn like this. So she held a defensive posture, using her sword to attempt to slice and bat away those insects that flew at her.

Xata whisked her sword to the side and reached out at the nearest wasp, grabbing its infernal head and Singing the Elvish words "I Still Believe!" at the top of her android lungs as she sent voltage surging through it!

The lightning jolted from wasp to wasp to wasp, slamming into them in a perfect line - the much diminished swarm writhing, twitching, then falling to the ground. The smoke cleared within the center of the cell and they saw that more than a hundred wasps were dead within there, slain by Hana's lightning storm.

"Holy fuck..." Ami whispered. "Remind me to never piss you two off..."

"Same," Rakain said, lowering his rifle.

"Teamwork!" Xata's circuits were glowing almost ecstatically in the wake of the triumph. "Well done, Fellow Beep-Boop!"

Hana frowned, shaking her head, "Just ..yeah.. that thing was fucked up and needed to die.." She shook her head.

"I am deeply unsettled at the idea that the people here summoned it, stuck it in a cage, experimented on it...and didn't have a 'vent into space' button..." Ami said, shaking her head slightly. Sam was silently counting her lucky stars for her backup on this one, refusing to think of what would have happened if it had been that demon and her alone.

"I guess if they summoned it, they could banish it?" Sam guessed.

Hana nodded, "Yeah, that's.. some fucked up logic. 'Let's have a way to instantl-..fuck, boss is coming downstairs." Hana pointed to the stairwell. Rakain jabbed a finger at the stairwell, scrambling to find cover.

"Someone is coming." Xata's voice was suddenly tense. "It's him." She whistled to herself, shimmered, and turned invisible. Ami nodded, then dove behind the computer console, hiding there as Xata vanished. Nora nodded in agreement, pointing to Xata while standing. She glanced around before moving to haul herself behind a wall niche.

Hana frowned, pulling out one of her potions of Vanish, readying to drink it. Sam moved off to the side to try to find an angle to get the jump on the approaching 'boss.' Rakain darted into the lee of the stairwell, squeezing his frame underneath the steps.

As they squeezed into hiding, the door opened and a cute looking tengu girl - black fur somewhat disheveled, the long feathers on her scalp sticking up in a somewhat undignified manner, a towel wrapped around her hips and barely containing her shapely bust - walked in, leaning against a lean, incredibly muscular looking wolfman. His fur was midnight black and his belly was a pale gold, and he had the pectoral and abdominal definition of a male model or a pornstar. He was dressed in a light kilt, and was looking around the room with disgust - then horror. HE shoved the woman behind his back, his face grim, his eyes alighted on the hole in the cage.

Then he saw the dead wasps. He blinked. "Holy shit, someone killed that fucking thing-"

"A-Are we going to die!?" The tengu whimpered.

"Nah. You better thank your tailfeathers someone toasted that sick fuck's science fair project..." The wolflman muttered.