You wake up and go downstairs to the hotel bar and restaurant to eat and plan out your day.

While there, you overhear a conversation between a Vrusk and a Human. The two are friends and both work for Sik'Triksta on the monorail. (Racial hatred is not as widespread as Legrange had wished, apparently). While recently at Quazzt's Depression, the Human saw starship lights in the sky, which was very odd since starships are only supposed to land at the starport.  Why they should land at Quazzt is beyond him.  "Probably just extremists," the Vrusk says, which is answered by a shrug from the human.

Hammer says conspiratorily as everyone eats, "Did you hear that? If the ships all go through the starport, then our RIK friend may not know if a Sathar group is coming here or not when the ships start landing in places they're not supposed to."

Desiraye nods as she takes another drink of her morning coffee.  "Good point Hammer!  I think our friend is doing a good job and all but, I think he has a problem with his pride getting in his way.  Not a bad trait but, kind of leaves you with blinders on sometimes.

Like when I mentioned the Sathar being able to jump in to an area with little problem.  The Qantariate has a way of doing it, some of us have seen it happen before we got here.  Doesn't mean that the Sathar aren't bringing ships in here too.  Maybe we should check out the lights?

We have any other business to look into here?  What about the Dralasite?" (Wasn't there a Dralasite involved in our investigation?)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:43, Tue 25 June 2013.

Here's from the quest thread:

You found three potential suspects while investigating the broadcast interruption:

Kirscht:  This is a human female who has a criminal record for theft.  She normally lives in Jedsis, but visits Quazzt occasionally to visit her ailing grandmother.  You get details of her domicile. (You have not talked to her.)

Semoins is a Vrusk executive who showed up as one of those in the control room.  Semoins was also among those quarantined with you.  He is part of the Clik A'qat trade house, which manufactures glass.  Upon interrogating Semoins, you found that he was told to place a thumb drive in the control room by a dralasite who apparently threatened him.

Blirdor:  This is a dralasite, known to be a prolific gambler and one who is unusually successful.  It appears that this is the dralasite who threatened Semoins and had him place the thumb drive in the control room at the broadcast station.


Hammer says, "So we investigated the house of Kirscht and found her to be some sort of thief hoarder, and she also visits Quazzt occasionally to visit her grandmother.  Now these guys are talking about Quaazzt's Depression, whatever that is.  We could look into Blirdor today.  Don't we also have to get back to Nuna at some point about her results of research on the artifact?"

Hammer then turns to the strangers talking. "Hey, I couldn't help but overhear you talking about the starship lights over at Quazzt's Depression.  Any idea what you think they might have been from?  It sounds really strange yet fascinating."

OOC: personality/leadership only a 30/30, but he'll give it the ole college try

(Success.)

The Vrusk and Human actually appear quite friendly.  The human turns to the Mechanon curiously and answers, "I don't know for sure.  All these crazy disturbances are from extremist groups.  I know that much.  Kraatar has no shortage of extremists."

"I agree," says the Vrusk.  "You've got the LeGrange extremists, the Vrusk houses, and so forth.  We don't subscribe to that brand of thinking.  It's all just racist if you ask me."

The human says, "Yeah, so whatever's causing starship lights is probably coming from one of those groups.  But the only way to really know for sure is to go to the starport and check their records.  They have records of all landings that take place on the planet.  All landings are supposed to come through the starport, not through Quaazt's Depression."

OOC: FYI, Please reacquaint yourselves with the planet map.  If you want to go to Quaazt in the future, you can, but it is about a 6 day journey on the monorail, since travel is about 8 hours for each hex on the map.   You'd have to take the transglobal monorail.  (As noted, you cannot take a starship because they are off limits except for the starport.)  So you'd probably want to take care of all business in Gozzorf City (the capitol) before taking off on a trip like that.

Here's another copy of the map blown up (and cut in half).

"The Dral first and then a road trip?"

"Sounds good to me."

..."And a quick stop to see Nuna?"

Hammer says, "THey just said we could go to the starport to check records there about the starships.  I think we should do that too.  Leave no stone unturned, and the RIK fellow will think we are investigating LeGrange's death too."  THe Mechanon does not eat or drink, but patiently waits for the others.

"In no particulart order then?

Check Starport records, look more into the Dralasite, and then re-visit Nuna at the labs?  I think we're going to need someone at the lab to duplicate the stuff we have to fight those creatures off since we never got the dart throwers or guns from Ejidali!"

Hammer says, "Sounds like a plan.  Back to the starport then!"

You first head back to the starport.  This allows you to talk to the Vrusk technicians responsible for space traffic control and landings. The technicians have no records of any authorised or unauthorised landings outside of the starport. You take a look at the normal computer records and see that they seem to be telling you the truth.

(A computer technician expert may be able to use the computers to get more information, though not mission critical if you don't have someone.)

(If not mission critical right now, I think we can hold off)

"It was worth a shot guys.  Let's go visit Nuna at the lab and then find out what we can about the Dral before we go on a road trip?"

Hammer says, "Worth a shot, and I think it was also a success.  Now we know that whatever it was, it was not logged on through here, so it was not an official landing or takeoff.  That makes it even more suspicious."  He furrows his mechanon metallic eyebrow simulators.

"I will try to hack it, though I'm not as much an expert as everyone else, given that I'm an environmentalist, but my mechanical structure does give me some advantages with computers."

Hammer will use his computer skills to try to hack in.

"SOrry, doesn't look like I was able to do it," he says when he finishes.

09:23, Mon 08 July 2013: Hammer rolled 58 using 1d100 ((58)).  Computer SKill level 4.

In reply to Hammer (msg # 15):

"There's certainly something up if those two we just talked to said ther was lights out where there wan't supposed to be.  Maybe they found another way around the starport that our RIK friend doesn't know about yet or, won't ackowledge."

OOC: Assuming no one else has anything else to do at the starport...

You head back to the lab to talk to Nuna.  When they let you in, Orvo gets a call in that he has to do some work, so he excuses himself to take care of work, mumbling something about not even getting a day off after being stuck in a cabinet by Sathar and nearly blown up.

Nuna is still bandaged from the assault by the Blackness creature from the Qantariate.  She escorts you to the research facility where the Sphere was relocated for processing.

"First," she says, "the good news.  Like I told you, the sphere is like a beacon as well as a keyhole to the Qantariate dimension.  And like I said, we had to create a chemical compound to submerge the Sphere in to dampen it and keep the Qantariate creatures from crossing over to our dimension through it.  We've accomplished that."

She shows you a cylindrical glass structure with a slightly amber liquid in it.  Submerged inside you see not only the Sphere, but a strange biological thing that looks almost like the removed organs of a creature.



"Just as we were submerging the Sphere, this thing came out of nowhere.  It must be from the Qantariate dimension, but we don't know if it's from the Shadow Rakon group helping us or from the Qantariate groups attempting the invasion.  Our liquid has kept it in stasis for now.  Until we determine what it is--friend or foe--we don't dare remove it."

"Now for the bad news.  We don't have LeGrange's genius to help us, now that he was assassinated.  So we will need time for the message to be responded to by the Shadows of Rakon that we found yesterday and to decode the schematics.  The problem with decoding is that the message exists simultaneously in parts across multiple dimensions.  It's like piecing together pieces of a puzzle that are separated by oceans."

She continues, "The UPF is sending a ship this way.  They will likely take over the processing of the artifact and making military preparations, but due to the distances involved, it will likely be a week or so before they get here.  We have been communicating with them about our findings, but they have told us to send nothing further, just in case the wrong hands get ahold of the communications. Unfortunately, the Vrusk forces here are not responding well to our requests for better security, especially because of the riots they are facing, but also because we are a non-Vrusk organization and we can't give them details about why we need military personnel here."

She spreads her hands.  "That's about all I have for now.  I'm sure the UPF will want you aboard once they arrive, but they're also going to want better answers regarding LeGrange and if there is any connection between his assassination and the Qantariate or if it's just because he was a loud-mouthed zealot who got in too deep."

Desiraye lets Nuna update the team on what they were able to find out and pass on information.  "LeGrange certainly would've been helpful but, no longer an option.  It's up to you and your people to deciher what you can before the UPF gets here.

We found more Sathar at our contacts last night and everyone was killed and we didn't get our damn dart guns.  Do you think you and your crew can make something out of the sample we have?  We can lave it for you to try out and hopefully we don't need it.  We've got to try and find out what happened with the assassination of LeGrange.  We're going to need you to keep us updated.

Do you know much about Legrange?  I mean other than being a large-mouthed zealot?"

"I am completely at a loss, here. Anyone sympathetic with Legrange's views on the political situation might have wanted him dead to incite interest in the cause, anyone antithetic to Legrange might have wanted him dead to shut him up. We should look into his personal life, if he were a real jerk, we could add everyone else on planet to the suspect pool."

Nuna shrugs.  "I've read all his papers and theories, but I never really met him.  I can't help you much there.  We'll keep researching the sphere here, but it will just take time.  The one thing about LeGrange is that he had loyal followers and he had tight security.  And from what I heard, there were multiple people involved in the attack, including the people you chased.  That makes it sound to me like there is more than just one lone gunman out there.  Maybe a group of people.  But I wouldn't think it's the Sathar since the attackers were not Sathar."

Noticing the silence, Hammer says, "Is there anything else we can do here or should we just come back to check in with you again later?"

Nuna says, "Why don't you check back with us tomorrow?"

"We'll call, if that's OK?  We're pretty sure that we need to do some travelling to investigate the LeGrange incident."

She says, "Airwaves may not be safe.  I'm not sure how much I can safely disclose with the thought of other ears potentially listening in on the conversation.  Come back whenever it works out best for you."

Desiraye looks to the others before answering Nuna, "We may have another day, maybe two left here in the city.  We've still got one or two leads to check out."

You prepare to check your next lead...

(Not sure where you are going next.)

Did we do any of this yet???

You went to the house of Kirscht and broke in to find some clues/details about her.  But that's the only one.

I updated the Goals here (see post 2):  link to a message in this game

It now reflects what you found about Kirscht in red italics.

EDIT: I should also add that you did interrogate Semoins, as noted in the quote you posted.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:29, Wed 24 July 2013.

I just updated a number of the goal quests in the thread above to indicate some of the important things you discovered, and people you spoke to.  They are mostly in colored or bolded text.

To respond to Desi's post in the goals notice thread, yes, I think you would move on to one of the other activities.  It is currently midday on Kraatar.

Let's pick a path and proceed on here team.

Hammer says, "I suggest we either go talk to RIK Zzik'Ti to report our findings so far and see what he suggests we do next, and maybe where we can find that dralasite, or we go visit that shuttle pilot we met and saved.  She might know something about these landings since no one at the starport knew anything.  The other thing I was thinking was maybe we just poke around at the trade houses to see if anything comes up."

"I'm not so sure that Zzik'Ti wants to see us unless we have anymore evidencve.  He seemed pretty pissed when we saw him yesterday and we brought up the landings and the Sathar.  I'm not sure he's ready to hear from us after he had to bail us out after the shop went up on fire.

Our new pilot friend might be helpful with where these landings or lights in the sky might be taking place or how they might be avoiding detection from the starport.

Last option of finding the Dral is a god idea too.  We're going to have to go on the road after we finish up here?

Sound about right everyone?"

"That seems a sound plan. I've no idea how to find a Dralasite, and even less desire to deal with the trade houses."

"We found out he's a prolific gambler.  We can go to gambling houses maybe, or even ask around back at the broadcast station to see if anyone knows where to find him?

"Let's give that a shot then and get moving!  We're wasting time."

(Ok I think Im back now...)

"Woo, yes the pilot lady, she rather cute...Alright first the gambling houses then the pilot."

"Ok, why not ask around at the gambling houses. Let's do that."

You spend much of the rest of the day asking around at the gambling houses to see if anyone knows the dralasite Blirdor.  You find that he has been banned from several of them, which suspected he was cheating because of his winning streaks.

Then you find one he has been frequenting lately, but they tell you he has not been around in a couple weeks.  That surprised them because he had been winning a fair amount, and losing here and there too.

As you are leaving, you notice a human male outside the gambling hall and realize you have seen him around throughout the day.  It appears he may have been following you.  He sees you look oddly in his direction, and he turns to walk away.

Desiraye smiles at the man hoping to keep his attention a bit longer when she sees that he looks like he may be getting ready to run.  She whispers quietly to the rest of the group, "Get ready to chase this guy down!"  She tries to move closer and gets ready to run after the guy when/if he takes off.

S'Krllk whispers back to Desiraye, "Two vrusk chsing down a human would look bad."

As Desi accurately predicted, the man sees you smiling and coming towards him, and he breaks off in a sprint.

Hammer begins chasing after him.  He doesn't draw his gun yet, but he is ready if it is needed.

"FRAK," Desiraye says aloud as she takes off after the human and Hammer.  She says back to S'Krrlk and Kri'Lik, "Make sure we're not followed and watch your backs!  We'll contact you by chronocom."

Not pulling out any weapons yet, Desiraye begins the chase after the two.

Desi and Hammer begin chasing the man.  He turns down an alley between two buildings, and when you seem to be somewhat alone, he turns around to face you, knife in hand.

Desiraye stops and puts her hands on her hips trying to get some air back into her lungs.  She smiles at the man holding the knife and raises her left hand up to him in a non-threatening manner, "We don't want to hurt you, just talk.  Put the knife down!"

Instead, he lunges, landing a solid blow on Desi with the knife.  (8 STA damage)

Hammer fires his laser rifle at the man to protect Desi.

Desiraye winces at the knife attack from the man as she tries to maneuver into a close position so where she can try to use her Martial Arts skills to disarm and or knock out the knife-wielding human before Hammer blows him to pieces.

Martial Arts: 60%
Civilian Skeinsuit: 46/50
STA: 58/62

FYI, Hammer only has a laser pistol, not rifle.

ROUND 1

Hammer fires three shots (assuming 3) from his laser pistol.  Two shots go wide, but one finds its mark.  (24 STA dmg)

Desi tries her martial arts but makes a bad miscalculation and fails.  The man strikes back, also nearly critically failing.

He takes a step back, knife at the ready while the laser hole in his gut is clearly causing him great pain.  He is backing away while his knife at the ready, his head darting back to look for cover behind him.  There are some trash cans and a fence, and a vehicle is also parked in a tight squeeze between the two high rise buildings.

When Desiraye gets back up to her feet, it was obvious that she was pissed of at her attempt to take the knife-wielding man down.  She reaches under her coat and grabs for the grip of one of her pistols, she wanted to drop this guy really bad but, she knew that they needed him alive right now.  She brought the sights of the Tangler Pistol up on the man and fires at him hoping to stop him from running (or fighting) any further.

Tangler Gun @ 60%

Cost: 250Cr
Weight: 2 kg
Damage: Entanglement
Ammo: 10 shot TanglerClip
Rate: 3 when powered, 1 when manually pumped
Defense: RS Avoidance Roll
Range: 5/10/20/40/80
Ammo Cost: 25Cr (10-shot TanglerClip)
Skill: Projectile Weapons
This message was last edited by the player at 00:46, Fri 30 Aug 2013.

Desi makes a direct hit, and the man jumps but fails to avoid the tangler.  He gets entangled in the sticky stuff, struggling and groaning with all his might despite his wounds.

"Why are you chasing me?" he says.  "I only got 20 credits to my name.  We're not Vrusk.  We're supposed to be on the same side, right?"

Hammer says, "Don't play dumb with us. We know you were watching and following us.  Why?  Who sent you?  Don't make us do something we'll all regret."  The Mechanon tries to appear menacing and uncaring, hoping his mechanical body will make this guy think twice as he intimidates him.

Biosocial expert, psychosocial skill level 2 (50% success rate)

Desiraye holsters her Tangle Gun and approaches the entangled Human.  She kneels down next to him and speaks in a low, calm voice, "We don't want your creds you idiot and we're not looking to go out of the way to hurt anyone.  I would listen to my friend here and answer his questions."

The thug struggles for a few more seconds, then looks defeated and says, "Look, I'm just hired to tail you.  I don't even know who it I'm tailing you for.  I just have to be at a public holovision booth every evening at the same time and report what you've been doing.  Then I get 20 credits a day.  I don't know any more than that."

Hammer says, "You have to know more than that.  Who hired you?  What does he look like?  Where did all this happen?  And where's this holophone you use to get messages?"  Hammer is continuing to put on the intimidation pressure.

Having waited in the distance, krilik now moves forward to where her friends are interrogating the human. As he walks he scans the crowds to see if anyone is alarmed by his friends actions.

Luckily, the action all took place in an out of the way alley, so no one seems to have noticed.  Also, the riots recently have made such encounters more common than the norm.

"He hired me in Jedsis," he says to Hammer's questions.  "It was a Yazirian.  I don't know the name.  The booth is a public booth in Jedsis.  The next call is in a couple of hours.  I just get paid by a cash drop that's in a different location every day.  It's very secretive.  I just have to tell them what you've been up to during the day.  That's all."

Hammer says to Desi, Kri'lik and the others: "Maybe we follow him to this phone update and see what we can learn from there.  What do you think?

Desiraye nods to Hammer's idea, "We want to be there with you when you get your next call and then your money drop.  Trust me, we're not interested in you, we want who hired you and them only.  You can keep your creds you've earned.  How long have you been watching us for?"

"Im in agreement, and perhaps we can feed them false information."

He says, "I was hired the day after the riots started.  I couldn't follow you too closely when you got passes to secured areas or in the high society area during the quarantine.  Look, for 100 creds I'll say whatever you want me to say in the holophone.  The picture is always blank, so I can't see who I'm talking to, but he can see me.  You can pay me half before and half after if you don't trust me."

His thirst for money tells you he'll probably do what he says and not ditch you.

Hammer shrugs his metallic shoulders in a human like fashion.  "If 100 credits is all it takes to get to the bottom of this, I'm in.  We just got that 10,000 credit reward, remember?"  He looks to the others to see if they agree.

Desiraye tries not to show her frustration when Hammer mentions the money they just got paid a large sum of credits.  She returns her attention to him and says, "You do what we say and how we tell you to do it and you will make out OK.  Like I said, we don't want you, we want the people paying you.

What's your name and how much time do we have before you have to contact them?"

He gives you a name, Booker, and tells you the next call is in a couple hours.  You have just enough time to get to the phone after getting him out of the tangler grenade mess.  You make it there without him doing anything suspicious.

What do you want him to do/say?

Hammer says, "Let's make sure we are not seen but that we can hear everything.  Start the conversation like normal so we can see what is going on.  Then, I don't know."  HE looks to Desiraye and the others to see what else they want him to say or do.

Looking to Booker the professor asks, "What exactly have you been telling them and what if anything do they seem the most interested in knowing."

Psycho-social Level 3
  Empathy                  - 40%  (10% + Sk Lvl)
  Persuasion               - 40%  (10% + Sk Lvl)
  Communication            - 70%  (40% + Sk Lvl)
  Hypnosis                 - 45%  (15% + Sk Lvl)
  Psycho-Pathology         - 60%  (30% + Sk Lvl)

"I just report your movements.  He just wants to know where you've been and what you've done.  I was never actually asked to 'DO' anything but observe."

"Try not to flub this up Booker.  We won't do any physical harm to you, like we said, we want the people who hired you.  If you tip them off, then it's a totally different game and you can take the credits from us for your hospital stay.  Is there anything else you can tell us about them?

I was thinking we could ask our friend here to set up a meet and scope out the drop for his money?

He will do as you say.  Payment is by cash drop at a different location each day, so the money is probably already wherever it's supposed to be now.  They'll just tell him the location during the call.  He has never met anyone or seen anyone.  All he knows is the voice and the location of the phone.

"Is there someway we can use a voice recognition software to try and identify this person?"

"If we have it, why not use it?"

"well I dont know if we have any but at the least we could record his voice and try that later."

"That could work, but we might have to deal with a house for the records."
S'Krllk starts working at his bodycomp, preparing to record what he could if necessary.

"Agreed.  Let's get to this meeting and figure out what we want him to tell his employer what we did today that might make them show themselves to us."

If we knew what they were most interested in we could use that somehow...Perhaps we should have him mention that we are telling people Sathar are here...?

"That's it," Desi says with a spark in her eye.  "We drop a certain reference and see if it gets back to us somehow.  Mu gut is telling me it's our friend at RIK who may be keeping tabs on us.  I wouldn't blame him after what has went on and the way he reacted when we told him about the Sathar we found."

Tell me when you are ready for him to receive the call and any specific things you want him to say.

"We tell Booker that he was able to get close to us and he was able to hear us talking about a Sathar incident we had with one of the merchants.  We were now looking into investigation and where they're coming from, possibly the starport.

What do you think?"

"Sure, we are after all interested in ship landing..."

In reply to Kri'lik (msg # 81):

"ANything else?  If not, let's go with that and see what we can do."

Booker does exactly as you tell him when the call comes.  The caller simply asks for his report.  The voice does not sound familiar but you could probably identify it again.  It is most likely male, but not very deep.  You can't tell if it is human or not.  It could be a Yazirian like Booker had said.  The video is turned off, so there is no telling what the person on the other side looks like.

Booker talks about the Sathar and suspicions about them coming from the starport.  The caller says, "Good.  Let me know if anything else about the starport is found.  Have they been back to the news agency?  Have they talked to reporters or given them anything?"

Booker pauses and looks in your direction for how to answer.  He then says, "Uh, no."

This pause and awkward answer apparently has roused the suspicions of the mystery voice.  He abruptly shuts off the communication.

"Hey!" Booker says, pounding on the holobooth.  "Where do I pick up my reward?"  He bangs on the holobooth a few times with no result.  "What about my reward?" he says again into the holobooth again before stepping out with a deep frown on his face.  "Great," he says.  "Now I got nothing.  What about the 100 creds you guys promised?"

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 83):

Desiraye curses and punches the side of the holobooth as the contact ends the transmission from his end.  She has her hands on her hips and and then refocuses when she hears Booker start to complain about his money.  She walks up to him, grabs him by the collar of his shirt/jacket and pushes him against the holobooth, "You Fraken idiot!  How do you make eye contact with us while talking to them?  No wonder you work cheap because you're an amateur at this Booker. Sheesh man.  Follow us again and we won't be so nice to you.  Anything else you can think of before we cut you loose?"
Desiraye grudgingly digs into her jacket pocket and pulls out 100 credits and forcefully puts them into Bookers pocket and tells him.  "Remember something!  We paid you as we agreed.  Loyalty goes a long way in this business."  SHe turns to the rest of the group, "Let's get the hell out of here.  We didn't get much but, we did get something useful."

After all this, it is now evening.  You remember the curfew, and it will take some time to get back to the hotel.  The monorail is packed with people trying to get back in time for curfew.  You guard your gear carefully in the ride and it does not appear that anyone tries to steal anything from you.

However, suddenly Desi feels something and sees a Yazirian putting something small into her bag as the train stops at an exit.  He seems to notice her notice him, and he jumps out the monorail doors at the exit.

OOC: FYI, I am trying to update the 'summary' thread.  I realize this goes on for a long time and it's hard to remember everything, so take a look at the summary, which I should be updating as we go.  It's not done yet, and it is different from the "goals" posts.  It is to refresh your memory on what actually has happened, not necessarily to give you goals for what to do next (though it may give you ideas there too).
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:59, Mon 23 Sept 2013.

Upon seeing the filcher leave the train, Hammer steps between the door to prevent it from closing.  "Are you missing something? Should we chase down this guy?"

Desi will try to quickly step up after Hammer steps block the Yazirian.  If she cannot, she will take off after him at whatever speed she needs to to catch him.

The Yazirian sees the pursuit and begins trying to evade you, turning down to steps that lead to the subway, past a sign that says "REPAIRS. DO NOT ENTER."

"Try to use less than lethal on him.  We need him alive," Desis says as she continues pursuit after the Yazirian.

Hammer says, "Will do my best," and then he disappears at a sprint after the running Yazirian.

Kri'lik does his best to keep up, though he is not entirely sure why everyone was chasing this guy but Desi was a trusted friend so he gave it his all. At the mention of capture the aged Vrusk grunted out the words while he ran that he had a stunner.

You follow him down into the dark construction area of the subway.  He sees you pursuing and now, without a crowd to watch, he jumps down into the tracks of the subway and begins running into the darkness of the tunnel.

You are slowly catching up to him but do not have any light sources.

Yazirians come from nocturnal hunters and have good sight in the darkness.  Any Yazirian characters suffer no penalties in the darkness if they chase him.

Kri'lik fumbles with his various pockets about his explorers vest then curses as gee realizes he must have misplaced his flashlight. He then activates his radar motion sensor mounted on his left arm gauntlet. He may not be able to see very well but the radar reflected image on the sensors screen should help, though using it a his primary eyes would likely slow him down. Hopefully someone else had a light.

You follow the Yazirian.  He stops and tries to open a door on the side of the tracks, but it appears locked.  Frustrated, he turns back toward you, drawing something that had been hidden underneath a backpack and trenchcoat.  Its humming warns you of its nature as he pulls it out and turns to meet you head on.  It is a sonic sword.

"Turn back," he says.  "I give you no second warning."

OOC: Fighting in the near darkness will give appropriate penalties to all but those who can see well in the dark, such as Yazirians.

Hammer draws his laser pistol on the Yazirian.  "Now wait there.  Tell us what's going on?  Why did you run?  We don't want trouble here."

He sees the threat of Hammer's gun, but instead of giving up, he rushes at Hammer with the sword swinging!

OOC: Sorry I'm late to posting...

BIC:  Seeing the Yazirian charging Hammer, Desiraye goes for the Tangler gun that worked so well before and fires three [3] rounds at the rushing opponent.

Projectile Weapons: 60%

Thumbing his blaster to stun Kri'lik takes aim at the charging Yazirian and fires.

Beam Weapons Level 2 - 45% + Aim

ROUND 1

The Yazirian is too close and Desi has to abort her plan to use the tangler at the last second.  She is also in the dark and it is hard to see who is who.

Lasers fly, and the Yazirian is hit twice.  (32 total STA damage.)  Some of the damage appears to be absorbed by his albedo screen.  He also hits with his sonic sword, hitting Kri'lik for 26 STA damage as he slashes across Kri'lik's chest and stomach.  The Yazirian is starting to go into a battle rage...

The sonic sword has an invisible blade because its blade is comprised entirely of sound (when turned on).  It emits a high pitched whine as it swishes through the air.

Hammer curses under his breath and fires again.

S'Krllk calmly steps back, pulls out his weapon, and attempts to fire at the sound of the sword.

Hammer is not impeded by the darkness with his nightvision and other mechanical parts, so he fires again at the Yazirian.

Desiraye pulls out her flashlight and yells out to the others before turning it on and, Turning on her albedo screen, "Light coming on!  Watch your eyes and take him out!"  If the Yazirian comes near Desi this turn, she tries to be defensive as possible and dodge until she can get her weapon up.  Light will try to focus on his eyes/goggles.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:03, Thu 17 Oct 2013.

ROUND 2
A flurry of lasers and firing follows before the Yazirian can strike again.  He is hit by S'krllk's needler but also by Desi's laser.  He crumples to the ground, dying or dead -- hard to tell in the darkness of the subway.

Speaking of the subway, you hear the distant approach of a train.

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 104):

Desiraye quickly holstered her pistol and shined her flashlight on the body of the fallen Yazirian and calls to the others, "QUICKLY!  Get him off of the tracks and safe.  Subways coming and we need anything we can find for clues to find out what's going on here."  Desi moves over to help get the body safely off the tracks.

Holstering his blaster, Kri'lik winces in great pain from where the sonic sword had hit him across the chest. The aged Vrusk was badly hurt but was still able to move around, though a bit slower.

Moving as quickly as he can he helps Desi and the others drag the body to a safe spot before the on coming subway hit them all.

If there is no time he will of course leave the man on the tracks to save himself.

You are able to pull the body to the side in the darkness and stand flat against the wall as the subway flashes by.

You find a folded computer printout in the Yazirian's pocket and 30 credits.  He does not carry identification, and his only weapon is the sonic sword.  He also has a phone.

(Whoever takes an item, please add it to your inventory.)

The printout has the name "Gorboz" on it, along with an address.

The phone is locked but an apparent defect in the design allows you to see the last incoming text message.  The last one was from Gorboz to Sikriie, which must be the Yazirian, and it occurred just after the phone call you had with the human who had been following you.  It says: "Text me when bug planted."

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 107):

With the body safely removed from the tracks, Desiraye focuses on the injured in the group.  "Let's try and get the good doctor patched up enough to move out of here!"

"If anyone needs a good melee weapon, the sword is a good choice.  We need to try and get the phone unlocked to see what else is going on here. This is the second person so far to be following us.  Now, they're trying to plant tracking bugs on us.  I'm getting a little frustrated with everyone but us knowing what's going on around here.

Let's get Doc back to our place and maybe we can set a trap for this Gorboz person.  Take everything and I guess throw the body back on the tracks.  Make it look like a suicide or a victim of a crime."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:02, Sun 27 Oct 2013.

Hammer takes in Desiraye's words. "I bet you that this also has to do with our hotel room being ransacked.  What do they want exactly?  The orb?  Because that's safely in the labs now.  i think they'd go there for that.  Maybe we should go check next chance we get."

S'Krllk says, "Let me check the phone, maybe I can get something more from it."

S'Krllk tries to get into the phone, but he accidentally makes a secure lock get in place so he can't even try.  (Critical miss on the roll. Sorry.)

"We need to set a trap.  We need the phone unlocked first and then send the text to whoever's on the other end of this phone.  Then, we find out what they want?

What else do we have that someone else could want?  We're missing something simple and yes, I think it's got to do with the room be ransacked."

While you're trying to figure all that out, you might want to look at the Quest Goals thread and figure out what to do next.  We can move forward the plot.  We're almost done with this section.

Hammer says, "Let's go back to visit the lab and check on the sphere for now.  We've got to get some answers before long.

You head back to your rooms to plan out your next moves.

In the lobby going up to the room, you are met by a dralasite.  He says, "My name is Gorboz.  I am here on behalf of Ssi'Aq'Krr, the news trade house. My sources tell me you have a video of LeGrange just before his death, and it may be the last interview with him before he was killed.  As you can see, such a video would be of great value to the news agencies.  I have been authorized to offer you 20,000 credits for the video.  That's an enormous sum, as I'm sure you understand, especially for a video which you have no need of yourselves.  What do you say?"

You are in a public, safe place.  He pulls out an envelope and displays what looks like about 20,000 credits to you.

Desiraye looks at the credits and then back to the Dralasite.  "Put that away you idiot!  Twenty-thousand creds for a video tape of Jack LeGrange?  Are they starting to do a memorial special for him already?  It strikes me funny that the news agency and not RIK are looking for a tape of something that might answer questions about the assassination.

Fifty!"

He speaks slowly.  "Fifty thousand credits?  That is too expensive for my blood.  I assumed RIK already has a copy, but they are not releasing it publicly.  This is an exclusive, that's why it's worth something.  I will give you 22,000 credits for the video.  Do you have it with you?"

She smiles back at the Dralasite before addressing him again, "Tell me one thing, are you the one who was trying to put a tracking tag on us and wrecked our place, looking for a tape?

Exclusives are costly Mr. Gorboz.  How much do you or your employers looking to pay for this exclusive?

I won't confirm or deny the tapes whereabouts at this time.  I'm sure you can respect my teams concerns?"

He says, "I really don't know what you're talking about.  I hope you reported that to the police.  In these troubled times, one has to expect such things will happen.  With riots, the assassination of LeGrange--you know, bad things happen."

As he drops into a conversational cadence, his voice seems a little familiar.

"I will give you 25,000 credits.  Come on, let's strike a deal here, and then you won't see me again."

And then you realize why his voice seems familiar.  It is the same voice you heard speaking through the vidphone and that abruptly cut off the call earlier in the day with Booker.

You remember the last words the voice had said before becoming suspicious and cutting off the call:  "Let me know if anything else about the starport is found.  Have they been back to the news agency?  Have they talked to reporters or given them anything?"

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 119):

"We're not the type to run to the police with little things like that.  We prefer to handle our own matters when we can, especially when bad things are happening.  And, bad things happen to bad people," Desiraye says with intensity as she looks the Dralasite right in the eyes with her comment.

"Your voice!  Your voice sounds very familiar Gorboz.  We know you!"

Kri'lik quickly plays back the recording he has from the phone booth to confirm to their new friend Desiraye's suspicions. Then looking to his friend he says, "I dont think this tape is for sale..."

Gorboz shrugs in a way that a dralasite can do.  "People say all dralasites sound alike.  I'm not surprised if you get me confused with a dralasite friend or celebrity.  30,000 credits.  That's my final offer."

"I'm pretty sure it's not a racial thing where you say all of your kind look alike Gorboz.  I recognize your voice from the phone call you made to your contact Booker who was following us.  Distinctive almost.  Like my companion said, I don't think the tape is for sale and Gorboz, you must want it really bad to hire someone to ransack our rooms and offer such a substantial amount of creds for it.

I guess this is good day then?"

S'Krllk attempts to match the recording he made of the telephone conversation with the voice of the dralasite, tinkering with his bodycomp whilst the conversation ensues.

Gorboz waves his hands in a dismissive manner.  "I was mistaken.  You are not reasonable.  You are all crazy.  What you speak about, some ransacking, is something I know nothing of.  If you do not take 30,000 credits for this exclusive video, you are crazy."  He walks off in a huff.

"We'll see you around I'm sure," Desiraye says with a sracastic voice.  She turns to her companions and says, "We're going to need to watch our backs with that Dral.  Maybe we can do some back tracking and use the transmitter we got to find out where he is.  Maybe our friends at the lab can help us.  Let's get back to business, shall we?"

"The voice matched, but if he doesn't truly want to have it for 'exclusive news', then perhaps there's more on the recording we haven't noticed."

Hammer says, "We were all there at the interview.  Did anyone notice anything weird about it?"

OOC: Are you guys going back to the lab?  I'm not sure what your next move is.

OOC: I believe the lab was next

"I don't remember anything weird about the interview. We could review it I suppose. But in the mean time lets go check back in at the lab. Perhaps there is a new development there?"