Where There Is Smoke...

[Shameless]

Seiya growled as the Shakara still stood, but knew he could not relent. He'd never seen this many show up at once, so clearly this was planned.  They knew he was here for them.  "I will kill you all, Shakara."   The last word, heard only by those close to him, was filled with a hate that would never die, as he slashed again with his shortblade.

Spoiler

seiya attacks with his shortblade (16)
if a hit, it deals 11 damage

 

Edited January 12 by Shameless

[Asarasa]

"You know what these bastards are?" Ivy demanded of the big cat man, her lips peeled back in a snarl to make any Valna proud. The slumping creature - a Shakara? - before her struggled up from a knee, and the silver-haired woman's blade flicked out instinctively as she took her grey eyes off the Valna, almost missing as she cut a line across the bastard's throat. "What the darkess nebulae did you do to them and what in all the stellar hellfires does one want with me?"

 

Spoiler

Attack Roll: [1d20+6] Roll: [7] Result: 13 - hit!

Damage Roll: [1d8+4] Roll: [7] Result: 11 slashing damage to the former Bubbleman.

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Dodging her way through the Xenos' strong but clumsy attacks, Amari narrowed her eyes with a frown. If and when they killed all these creatures, part of her was very curious to borrow some lab space with a piece of the creature in hand. If she could find a way to replicate even a fraction of their metamorphic talents upon herself with her Nanites... It could mean everything for her and other Promethans who got hurt by their exposure to the Crysalis Engine.

 

In the meantime, she kept her guard up and backed up from the threat towards the now-open door, tendrils dancing to keep the entire space in line of sight. 

 

Spoiler

Disengage action and backing up Amari the unarmed, unarmored, and spelless clear of immediate threat.

 

 

[Nina]

Under Seiya's unrelenting attack the morph goes down in a spray of bodily fluids. The second morph glances at Amri backing away and turns back to leap upon Seiya's back. Seiya spies the move out of the corner of his eye and rolls to the side taking the body of the dead morph wit him and the attacker stricks his former comrade!

 

Sori parries the Morph that is attacking her causing her riposte to fail.

 

The Morph that was shot by the bot slashes at the machine in vain.

 

Spoiler

one of the morphs attacking Seiya and the one by Ivy are incapacitated. that leaves one on Seiya, one fighting Sori, and one fighting the bot.

 

[SalmonMax]

Emi popped up from her impromptu cover and muttered a curse. She focused her thoughts on the one attacking her boo, the customs robot.

 

"You leave him alone!" she demanded, and the little drone hovering over her shoulder vomited forth another blast of energy! It streaked across the room, searing into the strange creature's arm...but she had to cut it off early as the melee swung around and she nearly hit the robot by mistake.

 

"...what are these things?" Emi lamented. She reached into her pocket to get her SIM headband out. Maybe a quick search would give them useful info?

 

Spoiler

Emi rolls 21 to hit for 2 force damage.

 

[Nina]

As Ivy's blade severed the throat of the thing that had been the bubble man the rest of the monsters became dazed and confused. It was enough to give the former passengers of the Kismet the advantage to end the struggle.

 

With quick and deft moves Seiya and Sori finished off the remaining Exomorphs. Amari whom had started the door opening stopped and ordered it shut again when she saw that the fight was over.

 

Sori flicked her large blade causing the blood on it to fly off to splatter the floor. She pointed a finger at Emi. "Shut that thing down before it calls security!"

[Shameless]

Seiya made sure to take the left mandible from each of the Shakara once they were dead, and scowled.  "They are called "Shakara" by my people.   It means "Face Stealer.  They are shapeshifters of great talent, and they are What I Hunt."  It was clean that they were a source of great hatred for the Valna Hunter.  He moved to one of his cases, which was a preserving case, and added the mandibles to the collection he already had.   "They eat part of their prey and can take their form, at least for living things."

[Asarasa]

Ivy quickly wiped clean her shorter, slimmer blade on the Shakara? that had been masquerading as a potential employer, slamming it back into its scabbard with more force than necessary then putting her back to a bulkhead before taking a look at the datapad she had scooped up. Lips turning down in a frown, she grunted. The datapad hadn't belonged to the shapeshifter, but was tied to the station, probably belonging to the actual Dage. It wa currently open to general flight operations with arrival and departure times. The Kismet was highlighted.

Dark brows lowered, Ivy glanced up at display over the docking portal of the latest arrival. Kismet. She grunted again.

"Don't look like you're the only one hunting there, Big kitty," Ivy drawled, tossing the datapad at Seiya with a deft twist of her wrist. "Seems like they were looking for you or someone else on the Kismet."

The sleek woman pushed off the wall and sauntered over the the alien she had downed. The rest of them had seemed stunned when it had gone down - do they have some sort of hive-mind? - and gave it a quick, cursory but professional search. Unlikely to have any obvious answers, but she wasn't above scooping up some neglected cubils, digital or coin. "If they have to eat what they copy, means there's gonna be some bodies hereabouts." The white-haired woman straightened up and tossed her head, nodding towards a secondary exit from the docking arm. "Probably we should all get gone before what passes for TavSec shows up, asking questions we don't have answers for."

Edited February 5 by Asarasa

[Shameless]

Seiya managed to catch the datapad, and looked at it, taking note of the listing, and letting out an annoyed grunt.  "They usually aren't this smart.  That changes things."   He looked to the others, and shook his head.  "All of you at least, are you."

[Exile_Jeane]

Amari didn't look up from where she crouched next to one of the dead xenos, wishing she hadn't had to pawn her university issued portal lab for room and board those first desperate months on Cerise before she got a proper reliable gig going. Unfamiliar as these 'Shakara' were to her, she had no basis to distinguish one extremely rare polymorphic xeno hated by Seiya's kin from anything else in that very very niche group. She didn't want to think about how deep she'd have to dig to find any extant references. Still...

 

Hoping against hope, the Promethan picked up a bit of shredded xenos and held it up to the light. If she could borrow time in a lab for analysis and somehow get the nanites in her Forge to replicate even half of that ability... It could mean everything for her. Or nothing. Her face danced between hope and doubt and she grunted, standing up again.

 

"Hi. Name's Amari. Give me a few hours to recharge in a safe bolt hole and I'll be able to heal up anything you can't heal up yourselves. Least I owe you for putting them down," Amari offered as she padded over to her baggage, voice going bemused, "Just how many of you can channel crucible energy, by the way?"  

[Shameless]

Seiya considered Amari's words, and nodded.  "That too, is likely a factor."    In truth, he realized it was likely the only reason they got away without injury.  Fighting them as they had here, and as he had before were two different things.  He knew he'd need to report this back to his patron, as soon as the chance presented itself.   Despite having not used his own abilities, the others did, and the Shakara were wholly unprepared for them.

[Nina]

Sori listened. Then went to the door into the station. "Looks like all of us. Which is fascinating and all, but we need to get out of here unless you all want to explain this. Seiya. you know these things will there be more?"

[SalmonMax]

Emi scowled a little at the admonition to hack the robot. Sure, it was fun to hack robots, but...what was the big deal, exactly? They hadn't done anything wrong. A bunch of aliens attacked. Eh, whatever. She didn't really want to deal with station security even under the best of circumstances. They were annoying. And they might ask awkward questions about why her papers weren't in the system.

 

She tuned her implant into the robot, bringing up a glowing holographic control panel in front of her that would duplicate the custom droid's user interface. Tapping her fingers in midair, Emi entered a bit of malformed code to knock down its user authentication protocol, then falsified a handshake and response code from station security. The custom bot would, on accepting that code, cease any attempt to signal security...satisfied that they were on the way. Classic case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing. Hah! Too easy.

 

Spoiler

Using Remote Connection to gain access to the robot, then making Computer check at advantage from Master Hacker. Rolled a 12 and an 8, hee hee. No idea what the DC of the check was, so...be gentle.

 

[Asarasa]

Ivory shot the odd Promethean and the big Valna a smirk, the hint of deep grey shadows flickering across her silver-grey eyes, but she didn't a word. The SecBot quieted, Ivory slipped past the woman into the station and nodded towards the left. It didn't seem like the most obvious way to get out of sight, but Ivory had been on Pel Tavaria long enough to know there was a quicker way to the lower decks in that direction.

"Call me Ivy," the pale, white-haired woman said over a sleek shoulder. "Not sure about a place to sleep, but I know a place to get some food and drink and where questions ain't asked. Riftides. This way."

[Shameless]

Seiya nodded.  "I imagine there will be more, yes.  We should leave.   I have my own contact here as well, If they are actually still them."  He looked at the dead xenos.  

He hated these things, but he had to admit they were cunning predators.   Still, they had their flaws, which he'd reveal to the others once they were assured no one was listening in.  "Sounds good, let's go."

[Nina]

Sori called for everyone to wait a moment then went to the droid and fiddled with it for several precious minutes. Then she rejoined  them and noticed their suspicious looks.

 

“I had to turn over the ship. They might not chase me for this mess,” she waves back at the carnage they had left, “but they certainly would for stealing a starship.” She looked at both Ivy and Seiya, “Where to?”

 

Spoiler

decide if you are going to go to Ivy's place, or to Seiya's or split up and go separate ways.

 

[Shameless]

Seiya looked to Ivy, and nodded.  "We're in your hands for now.  Once we have some breathing room, I'll make contact with my source here, and see If I can get us some more information."  It seemed clear the Valna was willing to stay together, as alone they could easily fall to the Shakara, but together, they were able to fight against them.

[Asarasa]

After the Terran tinkered with the SecBot and the Valna said his piece, Ivy tilted her head and said, "Riftides."

She began leading the group through Pel Tavaria, down corridors and lifts and slidewalks with the swift pace of familiarity. Regardless of what they others might have wanted, there was no way Ivy would have gone to someplace she didn't know with a group of strangers first. Riftides was home turf for her... And besides, she could go for a drink. Or three.

Ivy might have affected a blasé attitude, but her sharp eyes warned away the urchins, even as she regarded most of the people they passed with new suspicion. Hostile shapeshifters. Dust and slag! The only reason Ivy didn't ditch these guys at the first chance was that it looked like one of these Shakara had been trying to hire her, and she wasn't sure yet if it had been on purpose or because the shapeshifter had been trying to keep up the ruse of the person it had replaced.

Ivy led them towards the lower part of the Station, near the outer hull. The sector certainly wasn't the most prosperous, with far fewer passerby's. Ivy swaggered up to a door that would have been discrete save for the dim, digital display. It proclaimed 'Riftides' in slowing shifting fonts as it flowed around the circular portal. The door irised open as Ivy approached, not even bother to alter her pace.

The triangular main room was far from capacity, through it was hard to tell with the low lighting provided by dim, incandescent strips and the softly curving far wall being a smooth sheet of floor to ceiling Vitrinite giving a clear view of The Keshite Rift. The decor was angular and worn, most of black and dark blue composite, but otherwise in serviceable repair.

Leaving the others to their own devices, Ivy sauntered up to the bar in the corner to the left of the entrance, and the surprisingly muscular Kesh woman manning it. Ivy smirked. The Kesh woman blinked her pitch black eyes once in an expression Ivy knew was exasperation.

"What trouble have you brought me this time, Ivy?" The bartender muttered in Kesh, practiced eye noting the dishevelment of the newest arrivals

"Customers," Ivy drawled, leaning over the bar, wrapping hand in the front of her work shirt and pulling the Kesh into a kiss, who seemed to endure it with a fond resignation.

"Ah, the worst and most welcome of trouble."

"It's been a cycle, Truna. Job fell through. Reasons," Ivy said. "Bottle of my usual." She tossed her head back towards the others. "We have to talk."

Truna sighed and passed over a bottle of chilled Dendus whiskey Ivy had taken a liking to recently, not bothering with a tumbler that Ivy wouldn't use. "So do we."

"Uh-huh." Ivy slipped away from the bar, gracefully curved bottle in hand. "Get something if you want," she said as she passed by the people who she didn't count as crew yet. "Food's limited to what they can get on the cheap. Drinks are expansive and not watered down. Prices are palatable."

Ivy skirted the small stage in the centre of the room. It could serve for live performances, but Ivy hadn't ever seen it used for such since she'd been on Pel Tavaria. Right now, three holographic feminine forms writhed in time to the slow, throbbing ambient music. Ivy continued on to her usual booth in the corner opposite the bar, taking a seat with her back to wall, so she could seen everyone coming into Riftides, and no one could get behind her.

She unhooked her saber from her belt, so it wouldn't jab her in the side, and set it between her legs under the table. Without preamble, to opened the bottle of whiskey, a puff of cool condensation flowing out. She didn't even wait for it to dissipate before she took her first sip of the icy hot, sweet liquor.

[Exile_Jeane]

Amari noted the empty stage as she crossed the room and stowed her go bag and guitar in a likely booth, head tendrils wriggling and nose scrunching in distaste. Canned music was just *so* second tier unless you had another option, and it offended her musician's soul to see it in a place that was clearly intending someone be on that stage or else they'd just have a screen up in the corner playing whatever media had the most broadly popular appeal.

 

She noted Ivy's comment about cheap drinks and nodded slightly without looking up from the comms stream she pulled out of her bag, quick sure finger taps pulling up any information of Riftides from the local net. Respectable local rep. And if she trawled deep enough... Yes, it used to host live music although the public-facing side of bar's site had nothing to say if the place had changed hands since the last time it had hosted. She'd had colder prospects in the Rack that had led to gigs, and body-stealing xenos or no, part of her was itching to perform for more than an audience of one.  

 

"Keep an eye on my things, Seiya?" she called to the warrior felionid over one shoulder, making her way to the evident barwoman on duty, a professional smile blooming onto her face.

 

"Good morning. Name's Amari Asmodesai. I'm going to be aboard station the next few months and I was wondering who'd I'd talk to about arranging an audition for that stage over there?"

 

Spoiler

Rolling CHA with advantage because of background.

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [3] Result: 5

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [10] Result: 12

 

I'll take a 12, lol.

   

[Shameless]

Seiya nodded, taking a seat where he could watch whatever Amari was going to do, and frankly, he was still coming down from the adrenaline rush of combat.  His gear was stowed in the proper cases, and he quietly thought about what the presence of the Shakara already being here meant.   The only thing that he did know, was that the companions he'd fought alongside weren't Shakara.   For now, that would have to be enough.

[Nina]

Dock Arm 3B Lock 4

 

The docking gallery stank. Tarko looked around at the bloody, he guessed it was blood, mess. This, was interesting. 

 

The Tavpol forensic teams were just getting started. And two bot techs were working on the customs robot which should have reported the incident but hadn’t.

Tavpol Detective Tarko Brae, stepped over the ugly alien bug and went to the techs with the bot. “Well?”

 

Udo Meeks looked up from the opened head panel of the bot. “He fired his weapon, but his records have been altered so I don’t know what he fired at or what he witnessed. Don’t know if anything is recoverable. I’m pretty sure he been fuddled with by an Esper.”  

 

“Hmmph” was all Tarko said in response. He walked over to a uniformed policeman. “What we got on this ship?”

 

The policeman looked at his bulky data tablet and jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the docked vessel.

 

“The Kismet a fourth rate long hauler, belonged to a shipping concern out of old earth but they sold it and it was being delivered to the buyer here on PT. Guy named Gage.” He flipped the tablet so Tarko could see the image of a short bubble looking fellow. “He is registered on station, but we haven’t located him yet.”

 

“Crew? Passengers?”

 

The space cop shook his head. “No access yet. Looks like the bot was in the process of docking them but his brain is fuddled.”

 

Tarko nodded and looked around again at the dead aliens and the mess, then he glanced out the big space window at the carnival of lights flashing across the empty space and that gaudy red starship.

 

Interesting indeed, he thought.

 

The Riftides…

 

Truna had inwardly grimaced when Ivy came in with a gaggle of strangers. She wasn’t in the mood today. It was odd that the weird little human would associate with anyone at all, let alone such an eclectic bunch.

 

When the little one that she had thought was a Dendus at first because of the hair, but on closer inspection determined it was a human with some sort of body mod, cam up and asked about the stage, Truna had been further annoyed.

 

The damn Hyperlance commotion was draining her clientele and now this.

 

“Well to be honest we don’t use the stage much anymore. Not for entertainment anyways. But if you want you can audition right now and if I like you, I can set something up for happy hour.”

[Exile_Jeane]

Following the bulkier woman's arm to the stage, Amari took it as an indication just where and how public her audition was to be. She chuckled, "Understood, Ma'am. I shall strive to not disappoint."

 

The statuesque Promethan made it back to their booth with that grin still on her face and bent over to pick up her guitar case, settling just long enough at the outer edge of the seat to open the case and give it one last tuning, mind intent on the ritualistic twang-tweak-twang loop that would ensure any flaw in her performance rested solely on her. "You're a good luck charm, Seiya. Haven't had someone say yes to me that quick since my name meant something," she commented without bothering to look over her shoulder, a few extra sets of tenticular eyes focusing on the felonid while she finished her prep.

 

She could see the bar owner bending down to turn off the looping holographic trio, and final string checked, Amari knew there was nothing to be gained from delay in an establishment that was rippling with mild curiosity at the change in background noise. She removed her ever-so-fashionable hat and left it atop the pile of her belongings, adjusting the lay of her guitar strap across her body, and crossed over to the stage with long confident strides.

 

"Thank you for your kind attention, Patrons of Riftides. I've flown a long way to be here, and all I can hope is that you treat me kindly," she announced to the room simultaneously with her voice and in Dendus silent tentacle signs, drawing herself up to her full height as she channeled a quick dusting of nanites from her Forge down along her arms. Feeling the reassuring tingle in her fingertips, she exhaled and let the music take her away into one of her favorite crowd pleasers, an uplifting piece by the iconic duo Carol and Tuesday from the prewar Martian Renaissance that spoke to the courage of those who dared unknown skies and unknown worlds. Amari's voice danced above and below the chords coming from her instrument, supporting the work of her fingers, swaying with the music and tuning out as much of the world as her mutation would allow.

 

Spoiler

Casting the Enhance Ability cantrip for +1d4 on my next charisma roll...

Rolling Performance with advantage from background...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+4] Roll: [7] Result: 11

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+4] Roll: [1] Result: 5

Hmmm, adding that 1d4 to that 11...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d4] Roll: [4] Result: 4

15 Total. I'll take it.

   

[SalmonMax]

"WELP," Emi said as she looked around at the others, then at the stage, then at the bar. "This whole thing is pretty scuffed right now, yeah? Here."

 

She extended a hand to whoever was sitting nearest her. "Call me Ozone. Glad you guys proved to be competent xenocides. It's a growth industry, I hear. Nothing but rosy financials."

 

With a little wave, she tried to coax the bartender over.

 

"One Barsoom Kaboom, please. Do you have the little...figure...nevermind, it's fine. Just the drink."

[Nina]

Amari played.

 

She wasn't the best anyone had heard but she was good and had a lot of potential. Someone put a empty mug on the edge of the stage and dropped a credit in it and after a few songs there was a goodly amount of tips.

 

The bar itself wasn't crowded but it had a good turnover of clientele so that over the next half span several folk came in for a quick drink and dropped a tip and a few even pulled up a chair.

 

Back at the table the former passengers and pilot discovered that all of the were Esper. And if that wasn't odd enough non of them were employed, what with Sori having finished her commission upon docking.

 

Amari played for an hour, while the rest of the drank and had a bite to eat. After her audition the barkeep gave her a few credits and a sandwich and told her to be back at 20 hundred hours for a few sets that night.

 

Asa smiling Amari joined the party a man in a dark brown duster came up to the table. He had op written all over him.

 

"You the gang that left that mess down at he Kismet? Mind if I join you?"

 

He didn't wait he just sat down after grabbing a nearby chair and pulling it over. "My name is Tarko, I'm with TavaPol, and I need your assistance."

 

Spoiler

TavaPol is Pel Tavaria Police

 

[Shameless]

Seiya had a drink for Amari when she rejoined them, and a smile, revealing his teeth in what was likely meant to be a non-threatening smile.  "That was very nice Amari."  It wasn't what he was used to, but he had enjoyed her performance, as had others.  When Tarko joined them, Seiya's smile died a quick death, his blue eyes narrowing.  He wasn't going to say much of anything, electing to let the others handle this obstacle.   That said, he was somewhat impressed that Tarko had tracked them down so quickly.