(Starting and continuing from the last comment thread)
While Lirassa ruminates over the issue of the key, Bina quietly convinces her to accept a synglobin dose and a vitaglobin booster. It quickly restores a bit more color to the Besteeng's cheeks before she puts her helmet back on.
While preparing the doses, Bina then asks Ham if he wants one, or at least a painkiller. He replies that he'd rather get moving and heads over to claim the assault rifle. He does suggest bringing a dose along for later, however.
Meanwhile, Pru scoops up the auto shotgun, saying, "Fine, if no one else wants this..."
Realizing that Nekshi has an eye for the pistol she'd intended to claim, Mey'Luskar decides to let the Zorlan have it instead.
Pru then picks up the revolver and holds it out to Mey'Luskar. "Lady, this is a crude toy," says Pru, "but it's better than nothing."
Mey'Luskar wrinkles her nose. "I'd rather have nothing," she says curtly and moves away.
Pru shrugs and turns instead to Bina. "How about you?" she asks.
Bina eyes the weapon as if it were about to bite her and drops the synglobin pack. "No!" she says anxiously. "I can't! I'm sworn against violence!"
"You're not wearing your brooch, friend," reminds Pru. "Come on! This is the real world! You're a weak flank without heat!"
"No!" protests Bina, gesturing negative with all her might as she picks up the synglobin. "No! Never!"
Mey'Luskar huffs and comes back. "Gimme that!" she snaps, yanking the pistol from Pru's hand.
Meanwhile, as Mon'Fargret finishes removing the turret from the female guard's helmet, he asks, "Which way now? Southwest under the airfield or Southeast?"
"Southwest under the airfield would be quicker," replies Betham. "Either way's probably going to be guarded. And you can bet they heard our little party here." He throws a sidelong glance at Lirassa.
The Besteeng finishes getting her armor together and stands up. Then she strokes her cannon of a firearm lovingly. "I'm ready to party," she says. Then she begins strutting toward the southwest exit.
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Nekshi accepts the Gauss pistol from Mey and quickly grabs the flashlight.
She also takes the two wristers and begins to immediately fiddle with the simpler one.
"Just give me a chance to see what they have in terms of security procedures. These look like personal units, not issued."
"So, after Nekshi checks out the possible security measures, do we want to worry about any sort of marching order or tactics as we proceed to the next node, or just wing it? Maybe we could send the little robot ahead of us to act as a scout, or better yet, could we program it to distract the occupants of the next node to help us evade them?"
The female's wrister has some sort of symbol in a minimized window. Nekshi will pass it around to see if anyone recognizes it.
"I like the idea of utilizing the robot. Perhaps Mon'Farget will allow me to examine it to see if it is possible to control it."
Mon'Fargret proffers the robot to Nekshi, "You can make better use of this than I can I suppose."
"Now that we are public targets, let us move along."
He follows Lirassa towards the passage.
Betham starts to follow Mon'Fargret but stops when he notices Bina moving quickly over to a Kai-Tempuera shrine. As the disgraced priestess takes out a stick of incense and lights it using a built-in lighter, Betham says, "Are you sure we have time for that?"
Bina places the incense in a holder, assumes a prayer position, and replies quickly, "There is always time."
Betham hesitates. Then he sighs hard and performs a remarkably brief prayer. As he turns away to leave, Mey'Luskar approaches Bina and holds up a pack she has taken from one of the cabinets.
Neither opening her eyes nor moving a centimeter from her prayer stance, Bina says curtly, "That's not ours."
Mey'Luskar taps a symbol on the pack. "Public emergency. I think this qualifies." She holds out the pack.
Bina opens her large eyes, takes a deep breath, and then turns. "Very well," she says, taking the pack and throwing it over her shoulders as she goes.
So no one recognizes the symbol? That sucks. I'm sure it's part of some symbolic password or something. We can deal with it when the time comes.
Nekshi will whistle for Granite, and ask, "Guide me?" while she starts to fiddle with the robot.
Is that even possible? Is it small enough to carry two handed?
(Are people being absent minded, or just absent?)
"Symbol like symbol on paper?" asks Widjgleebie.
"Didn't we just talk about that (on the last comment thread)?" asks Pru with annoyance, moving her various weapon acquisitions around on her shoulders.
Mey'Luskar gulps hard and then hesitantly walks closer to Nekshi. "Let me see it," she says. As she leans in for a look, her breath catches. Then she quickly looks away. "It's...not the same as before," she says. "But that's got to be the key!"
(The robot is about the size of a softball.)
Widjie is going to look over the grenade launcher so she knows how to run it properly then she is going to sling it on her shoulder and see if she can find something to eat.
(The storage node has a big supply of food...all emergency-ration style designed to keep for a long time [but not inedible]. It looks like the Farbetts have already pilfered a fair amount; a lot of containers in the northern area have been smashed open and dumped out near the north entrance. That means there's quite a bit of still-edible treated grain meal, fungus, dried fruit, and processed concentrates.)
"Wait..., the symbol is the key, so can we reproduce the symbol to aid us? No..., that won't work, the message the guard received clearly stated any "mix-race groups" are to be regarded as hostile, so I doubt we could talk our way past any guards, even with the key."
"But.... now that we have the two guards' wristers, is there any way we could broadcast the image of the symbol Gol'br'in gave us to the other guards, to neutralize them as we move along? Would that work?"
Mon'Fargret moves a little farther on with his gauss rifle drawn peering down the tunnel and waiting for the others to catch up.
Granite shakes violently for a second, as if casting bugs off her skin. "Let's move on - I don't like standing around in the open here. Regardless of what lies ahead, our location is likely known to the guards, and I can't imagine they are sitting around on their fins playing G'Nokley." Granite will move to follow Mon'Fargret.
Nekshi ponders Zeton's suggestion.
"I find it more likely the rune will open doors and not dissuade the guards from killing us. The robot is controllable but only to the extent it is part of a larger network and not under my direct authority. It can probably be turned against us when whoever is supposed to be monitoring it returns from their other duties."
Anyway...as the party starts moving down the tunnel in bits, Lirassa is still strutting out in front with Mon'Fargret a few paces behind and Ham moving to catch up.
Betham strides purposefully forward a short distance behind that group, also moving at a brisk pace to close the gap.
Next comes Bina at least a dozen paces behind. Though not moving as fast as Betham, she is also gaining on the front group bit by bit. Behind her come Atraktu, Pru, and Mey'Luskar.
I'm going to assume that Zeton, Nekshi, and Granite Spear come next. Granite Spear is guiding the night-blind Zorlan while she continues to fiddle with gear and chat with Zeton.
Widjgleeby just succeeds in grabbing a few handfuls of munchies when she notices everyone else is disappearing.
Suddenly Lirassa changes from a confident strut to a cautious scramble toward the wall. She waves a warning back at the others.
(I need ALT rolls from everyone.)
I rolled at 10. 16-10=6
13-19= -6!
ALT=14
Roll=18
Don=dammit!
ALT=13
ROLL=18
I'll see Don's Dammit, and raise it by a Dag'nabit. I guess Granite Spear is paying more attention to the Zorlan than her surroundings.
(Okay...I rolled for the absentees)
As Lirassa and Ham move to the sides of the tunnel and wave back at everyone, most of the party is distracted by a sort of argument that breaks out between Bina and Mey'Luskar after the latter asks if the former can still hear the voice of The Path. Bina seems to find the question offensive.
"Save the ethics lesson for later," snaps Betham in a near whisper. He points up the tunnel.
Granite snaps to attention, and quickly ushers Nekshi to the side of the tunnel, pistol in hand ... er ... tentacle. She will position herself directly in front of Nekshi as she scans the tunnel ahead to see what the commotion is about.
Finally realizing something is up, Mey'Luskar and Bina stop their little tiff and listen along with the rest of the party.
They are rewarded with silence.
"What's this all about?" demands Mey'Luskar quietly.
"Someone was shouting up there, lady," whispers Pru in reply. "Some kind of 'zark' talk, I think."
"Ehrkiss," retorts Betham. "Another Ehrlathagi merc like the guy back there." He jerks a thumb over his shoulder.
"Ehrlathagi, Sarkons, Besteengs," mutters Mey'Luskar. "Nothing but 'zarks'. Where're they getting 'em all from, anyway?"
"They heard us," says Bina in a melodic near-whisper. "But we spoke Yangae, so they're not sure if we're hostile."
In as quiet a voice as he dare speak, Zeton whispers, "If they think were not hostile, we need to take advantage of that. If we knew how many were ahead of us, we could send the robot ahead with one of the symbols to try to take out a few of them."
Sighing quietly, Zeton silently turns his attention back to the little robot and tries to unlock the remote control interface by bypassing the lock, or eliminating it entirely by any means he can muster.
Stifling a shout of joy to less than a murmur, Zeton looks at Nekshi and smiles. "It's nice to know there are still a few lazy souls left in the universe."
Quietly jubilant, Zeton continues, "They've been saying it since the dawning of security, 'change the default password after purchasing a product', but Mr. Guard back there must have been too busy, or too lazy, to bother. Either way, meet Zobog". Zeton raises the robot and tips it slightly down as if the robot were bowing its head to greet Nekshi.
Zeton changes Zobog's password to something much more difficult than the default password and quickly checks out all the functions the robot is capable of performing. Zeton is mainly interested in learning if Zobog can carry one of the pieces of paper with a symbol on it.
Whispering to Nekshi, (as well as anyone close enough to hear), "If Zobog can't carry one of the symbols given to us, does anyone have any tape?"
"The Runes and the key are not the same thing," points out Mey'Luskar. "But whatever; I might not know what I'm talking about."
"I was thinking if the guards in front of us have been exposed to the Rune, we could stun them with one of the symbols given to us by Gol'br'in. Of course, that wouldn't work if they weren't under the influence of the Rune... Anyone else have any bright ideas?"
Nekshi ponders for a moment, slightly ashamed of being outshone by Zeton.
"I speak Ehrkiss rather well as it happens, perhaps I can convince the guard to lower his defenses for a few seconds until we can ascertain the situation."
"I wouldn't have to expose myself or any one else, just start a conversation and see what happens."
She looks around to see if anyone agrees. Granite notices Nekshi is talking to her tail.
"Well, that's sounds like it might work. If there is any way we can use Zobog to help with the ruse, let me know. I've full control of Mr. Zobog and maybe the other guards will recognize it."
With that, Zeton powers up Zobog and checks for any information about the previous owner that might help Nekshi answer questions, or provide information to the guards up ahead.
Mon'Fargret replies, "Good idea. We can get a bit of recon along with seeing if they are afflicted."
He proffers one rune to Zeton.
[eewww. Nekshi's talking about exposing herself... or not]
Nekshi smiles at the wall.
"Come on Granite, it'll be fun, just like the time we superimposed the quarterly redacted trade assumptions with the bilateral cost dividends minus earnings at the trade symposium last Winter. Who can ever forget that little jest?"
She purses her lips and begins to hyperventilate.
"It's been awhile, let me get into character...nemayisas yanatidias sarkonias!"
She twirls around unsteadily and wipes the grime out of her eyes, "Sarkonias yanatdias tohecyesia!"
She bows to Granite and draws her pistol, "ElfrYnys makindic Tuleineis amis haemnisias amis koxtenjues tuleninhiu!"
"Okay Granite, lead me to the bend in the tunnel where we can't be shot at and pray my pronouns hold out...nema, bhA, he, Ynyo yin...be ready for hand to hand if he thinks I'm his cousin or something..."
Lirassa turns her head slowly around to fix her helmeted gaze on Nekshi.
"Where in the nether gulfs of the Between did you learn that awful language?" she asks quietly.
Nekshi clenches her jaw and crosses her arms.
"If you must know, I had an ongoing hyperwave relationship with a Sarkon freighter pilot when I was in the Academy. He taught me the intricacies of his language while I supplied him with software management and logistical maximization theory. It was sanctioned by my Mentor and earned me a seat in the Diplomatic study group. So please spare me your patronizing attitude."
Bina looks quizzically over her shoulder. "Sarkish and Ehrkiss are two different lang..."
"But they're related!" interrupts Betham curtly. Then he moves closer to the defrocked priestess and apparently whispers something into her mind.
(Incidentally, Zeton doesn't find much data stored on Zobog, which would make sense if its owner was using it as a spy [voyeur?] bot.)
Ignoring the quibbling, Granite Spear proceeds to lead Nekshi a little further up the tunnel as requested.
As they move through the group, Pru mutters, "Are they serious? Isn't there a better way to do this?"
Bina nods toward Zeton. "Right now he's wondering why Nekshi doesn't use the speaker on that robot."
Granite smirks at Bina's comment and whispers [discretely communicates somehow] to Nekshi: "Not a bad idea. Using the robot speaker instead of your face might save us from getting in harms way.... again."
Nekshi claps her hand on Granite's shoulder(?). "That's a capital idea!"
"Zeton can we try this with the robot? That way I'll be less prone to stage fright."
Fully activating Zobog and gently launching it into the air, Zeton replies, "Yeah, that sounds like a much better idea. Here, let me link you into Zobog's communications system"... "there, that should do it."
"Let's hope the guards don't have a special friend or foe password, or we may lose Zobog from our little party, which would be a shame."
Zeton sends Zobog down the hall, taking full advantage of Zobog's flight systems to program field expedient defensive maneuvers to extricate Zobog should the other guards start to shot at it.
Zobog floats on down the tunnel. The opening into the next storage node can clearly be seen.
The argument can now be heard clearly. Two male voices. Both are speaking Ehrkiss, though one of them clearly has a non-native accent. The non-native one sounds tougher. (Actually, the native one sounds kind of wimpy.) Both of their voices sound like they're coming from speakers.
Granite gestures down the tunnel. "I don't suppose we're just listening to an unoccupied com station? Can Zobog get close enough to see anything besides a radio?"
"I'll do my best to get as close as possible to get us a visual of what's happening."
Zeton adjusts the controls of Zobog to take advantage of all it's surveillance capabilities while trying to get Zobog closer without attracting attention.
Zobog starts to move forward a bit and then suddenly lunges forward.
Sucking air through his teeth, Zeton quickly tries to regain control while muttering something about stupid acceleration curves built into maneuvering algorithms.
There is a dull thud as Zobog makes contact with a box.
There is a quick scrambling sound, and then a voice yells, "Vobog! Dousiuic? Cintic damsiu? "
Whispering to Nekshi,(and making sure there is no way his voice is picked up and transmitted by Zobog), "OK, you're up! I just hit a box or something, so maybe you can use that and say you're wounded or something. Anyway, Zobog and I are counting on you to keep them from shooting before Zobog gets back." Zeton ends with a smile which doesn't do a very good job of hiding how nervous he feels.
Granite nods at Zeton and pokes Nekshi in the side.
Nekshi licks her lips nervously and activates the comm link through Zobog (in Ehrkiss),"This is training Cadet Solanei with supply, I have appropriated this robot from our fallen comrades to appraise you of the situation concerning the attackers. Although I am sorely wounded and frightened, I will continue to broadcast in the hopes you may gain the upper-hand tactically and rescue both our honor and my life. #cough#cough!"
Nekshi looks at Granite and shrugs.
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