Incident At Absalom Station

Gang Wars

The party met on the Okimoro, a shuttle to Absalom Station. They were all on their way to Docking Bay 94, to meet Duravor Kreel, a dwarf who was prepared to sponsor them to join the Starfinders. As they left the ship and saw Duravor, a laser battle broke out in the docking bay. They took cover behind some crates to wait it out, only to see their mentor killed. As security arrived to deal with the aftermath, they learnt that rival gangs the Downside Kings and Level 21 Crew had been involved.

Released as innocents by the station security, they went to see Chiskisk, the Starfinders representative on the station. He was saddened by Duravors’ death and tasked the party to investigate, to prove themselves worthy of the name Starfinders. They asked around and found out that two mining corporations were involved – the Hardscrabble Collective and Astral Extractions. Astral Extractions had hired the Downside Kings, a bunch of thugs who operate from a nightclub called the Fusion Queen, while the hardscrabble had hired the Level 21 Crew, operating from a bodega called Mama Fats,  for protection.

They decided to visit Mama Fats, where they learnt the Level 21 Crew operated in a benign way to the civilians in their territory, and had been at the docking bay trying to save Duravor from the  Downside Kings. They next visited the Fusion Queen, doing a little scoping out of the place first. Then Aldean shot a bouncer and Levi magic missiled the other one. After a brief fire fight, they got into the club, where Aldean caused a panic by standing in the centre of the dance floor and waving a laser pistol around. The rest of the party went through a side door and found three more goons, who were dealt with fairly quickly. The next door lead to an office, where a large Vesk with a hammer caused some problems. After dealing with  him and a human taking pot shots at them from behind a desk, all was quiet apart from approaching security personnel.

They left with the human's data pad and a few odds and ends.

Dead Mediation

From the data pad, they learnt about the Downside Kings criminal activities, including their agreement with astral Excavations to kill Kreel, and about the Acreon and something called the Drift Rock. They reported back to Chiskisk and were welcomed into the Starfinders, who told them the Acreon was a ship.

Some time later, they received a messenger from Gevalarsk Nor, the Eoxian ambassador.  They recalled that Eox was a planet peopled by the undead, which was widely accepted within the Pact Worlds. They met Nor, who said
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I’m certain you’re aware of the recent interest in the prospecting ship Acreon and the asteroid being referred to as the ‘Drift Rock,’ and I believe you’re also acquainted with the dispute between Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble Collective over both the ship and the asteroid. Both parties are currently awaiting legal arbitration, but the wheels of justice often turn quite slowly. As a result, I have offered my services as a mediator in hopes of finding a solution that is equitable to both factions.

“The first step in this, of course, is learning the specifics of the opposing claims. Reports of your recent endeavours in dealing with some of Absalom Station’s most notorious gangs have led me to believe that you might be useful in this undertaking as well. You’re new to the station, you seem to possess a wide range of skills and abilities, and you certainly appear capable. In short, you’re perfectly positioned as a neutral third party that could cut through all of the red tape surrounding this issue and get to the heart of the matter. I would like you to go to the Acreon, find out precisely what happened to its crew, and ascertain the value of its asteroid cargo, as well as determine whether this Drift Rock is truly as ‘mysterious’ as the media claims.”

He offered them 600 credits each for their efforts and upon their agreeing, continued “There is one additional detail that I’d like to ask your help with. Among its other cargo, the Acreon was carrying a package destined for the embassy. Of course, with the ship being quarantined, the package has been undeliverable. I’ve been eagerly awaiting its arrival, and I’d consider it a personal favour if you could find the package and bring it to me when you return to the station. It’s clearly marked, so I don’t imagine it will be too difficult to find.” He told them a ship had been laid on for them and that permission had been arranged.

In the next day, Rymer spent a lot of time looking at whether space suits were needed (because the GM hadn’t read the rules) and representatives of the mining corporations fruitlessly visited Levi to find pout what precisely was happening.
Finally they boarded the Hippocampus (the ship that was to take them to the Acreon) and set off. Near the end of the voyage, they came under attack from a Death’s Head Necroglider, which was eventually disabled by a lucky shot from Aldean, with help from Levi.

The Acreon

They docked with the necroglider and Aldean boarded her, moving through to the bridge. here he found an array of lights, which he relayed back to the hippocampus for Levi to comment on. Levi immediately told him the auto-destruct was activated, which caused him to flee the ship and  they moved away, just in time.

They turned their attention to the Acreon, after attempting to review the sensor logs for the crew of the necroglider, which they had failed to record. The Acreon’s aft doors where open, and the ship had no atmosphere, as far as they could determine. They started to explore the ship and were attacked by a pair of Akatas, which they slew and retired to rest in the Hippocampus. This pattern of behaviour occurred several times.
Eventually the found the cargo hold and the package wanted by Nor, which they transferred to the Hippocampus. At this point, Aldean being hurt, he retired to bed.

The others continued their search, finding some Space Goblins in the crew quarters, who promptly surrendered. Over Aldean’s objections , they took them prisoner and left them where they were. The next door had a jury rigged laser blast trap on it which Levi set off, causing him to rest for a while. Finally they approached the bridge, where they opened the door, saw three Akatas and closed it again. They rested on the Hippocampus, giving Aldean the chance to join them.

The Drift Rock

They came up with a plan for dealing with the Akatas, which lasted until the moment they opened the door. Rymer and Aldean ended up in one to one combat in side corridors, while Levi and Ninura fought the third. Finally victorious, they explored the Acreon's bridge, finding the Captains last log entry, which showed a singular lack of understanding of space creatures.

The party took off and scanned the drift rock, finding it composed of rock and metal with the appearance of having sheered off a larger lump of rock. Landing, they began to explore on foot. Rymer was the first to step onto it, discovering it had zero gravity and losing her footing.

The two Space Goblins followed her, grabbing hold of her to keep their footing. Aldean, seeing this as the final proof of their expected treachery, shot one of them, causing Ninura to head off to heal them. At this point, the operative from the life pod on board the Necroglider opened up on them and a zero-g ballet commenced, with Aldean the only person not to take part. as he remained within the ships gravitational field.  After some time, they killed the operative and were able to take stock of their situation, Levi having found a cave in the drift rock.

The Alien Machine

They moved into the drift rock, Aldean feeling a little off colour. They found the corpse of a crewman of the Acreon who had died of wounds and moved on. The next cavern had tunnels lined with panels and obviously made by someone leading off it, as well as a creature which attacked them – a Void Zombie. Having dealt with the zombie, they went back for a rest, only to find the Hippocampus had left. Aldean shot the recording robot in a fit of pique and retired to his bed, feeling very unwell. The others explored the made tunnels, which went nowhere and appeared to have sheared off.
Aldean and the rest decided to investigate the next cavern, where they encountered something which ripped their flesh unseen.

They retired to bed where Aldean stayed,now very ill indeed. The others went back to the rock, finding a cavern with two Void Zombies (swiftly dealt with) which proved to be more members of the Acreon's crew. The  cavern also had a space station door incongruously in one side of it, which they used to get away from the strange attacks of the unseen enemy.

Aldean was now bedridden and dying, his fellow crew members separated from him. They continued to explore, as beyond the  door hummed with alien machinery. The advanced machinery was beyond the wit of Levi, although he poked about anyway, discovering a control room of some sort as they came under fire from a security robot.

Starship Grotto

They decided to rest (again) before taking on the security robot. Returning to Aldean, they found him partially recovered, but still unable to walk. This didn’t stop them taking him with them.

Carrying Aldean, they swiftly made their way back to the corridor the robot seemed to be guarding. The robot was acting weirdly, taking shots at them, and then retreating for no reason. The damaged droid was eventually defeated, the Space Goblin pulled away from the machinery before it did too much damage and the room beyond the robot investigated. It contained the body of someone called Moriko Nash, whose data pad Levi accessed.

In the recording, Moriko identifies herself as the captain of the independent star ship Sunrise Maiden, and briefly relates her discovery of a strange asteroid in the Drift. She landed her ship in a cavern on the asteroid and began exploring other chambers inside it, but she was attacked by a terrifying monster that seemed to consume life energy and could walk through walls. Wounded and unable to escape the monster, Moriko managed to modify her armour’s force field to extend in a bubble around her, as the monster seemed unable to pass through the force field. Nevertheless, Moriko realized her force field would eventually run out of power, and the monster would finally be able to reach her. She ends the recording with the following.
“I think I’ve come to terms with it. I won’t survive, but at least I’ve explored strange worlds and seen wonders I would never have dreamed of as a child. I guess everything comes to an end eventually. I’ve always been the master of my own fate, and I’m not going to change now.” Captain Nash holds up a pistol. “When my force field goes down, I’ll fight. But I’m saving my last charge for myself. My life, my death.

“This is my last will and testament. To whoever finds this recording, I leave the Sunrise Maiden to you. It’s a good ship, and no matter where I’ve gone, it’s always brought me home... until now. If you treat it right, it’ll do the same for you. Leave my body where you found it—we came from the stars, and to the stars I’ll return—but the Maiden deserves to keep flying.”
Excited by the news of a ship, they carried Aldean to the last encounter.

Leaving  him on the floor, they opened the door to see two humans, partially dissected. Levi tried to open the space door, but was cut down by the Garaggakal before he was able to do so. Ninura, using the force field provided by Moriko, tried to help him as did Rymer, who died soon afterwards. Aldean’s last vision was of his crew mates dying, before he was powered down for the last time...

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Back on Absalom Station

The four characters met on a transport to Absalom station and introduced themselves, some more cryptically than others. They were met by Chiskisk, who was prepared to allow them into the Starfinder guild, in exchange for solving a local mystery. A small team of people had been sent to investigate and clear an asteroid tethered to a ship, and had not reported back, after the recording robot with them had been disabled. The parties job was to  complete the mission and find out what had happened.

The Acreon Revisited

After agreeing to the request and spending a day outfitting with their forward pay, they met at ac docking bay with their pilot, Gus. As they neared the asteroid, a flickering light in one of the ships tethered to it caught their attention. Docking with the ship, they were surprised to find the door broken, but forced their way in. Wadaz set of for the source of the light in darkness, the ship having no power. She came upon a Goblin, who ignored her instructions stop what he was doing and face the wrath of the ships owners and shot her.  In pitch darkness, she returned fire as Rickard and Rayna made their way forward to the bridge, where they encountered more of the pesky little blighters. As the fire fight continued, Wadaz grabbed hold of the Goblin and dragged it forward, only for it to attack her with its dog slicer – an act which caused its death. Meanwhile on the  bridge, the Goblins put up stiff resistance and ran away. opening various doors out of one of which came an Assembly Ooze. As the party converged on the area, Rickard did some weird Technomancer thing to it and killed it. (Actually, he cast Jolting Surge.) The Goblin captain fled the scene in the pile of junk the Goblins call a ship, only for Gus to arrange for him to be intercepted by station personnel.

The Sunrise Maiden

The party travelled on to the asteroid, and entered the caves shown on the vid they had seen of the previous team. They encountered some Skeletons, which were soon dealt with.
They moved on, through several empty caverns with rock-filled passages with metal walls heading North (nominally, I still have to get my head round giving directions in space). Finally, they came to a cave with a door in the far wall, which was atypical for the area they were passing through. As They crossed to the door, they came under attack from an unseen source. After several rounds of this. one of them saw a ghostly figure partly inside the wall and soon it became clearer the were under attack from a some form of driftdead. As it finally materialised, and the smoke form grenades cleared, they were able to put it down.

Beyond the door was an alien corridor, lined with unidentifiable technology, stretching to left and right, the remains of a space goblin team lying dead on the floor. They headed left down the corridor, to a double bulkhead. Opening it, they discovered the dissected remains of the previous party – and the creature that killed them. A  brief fire fight ensued, which ended as the Garaggakal fled into space.
Sifting through the remains, they found they were now the owners of the Sunrise Maiden, a spaceship which had remained here for sixty years undisturbed – until now.