Babylon 5: Outrageous Fortune

[Dr Simon]

"As might we," replies the Colonel, "but perhaps its worth a try. See if we can outrun it first." This last is a command to the pilot. You notice that although the Colonel is a llort, the rest of the crew are human. All are dressed in a uniform similar to the ones that you have seen on the guards in the spaceport, and on the surface doors, bearing the insignia of the Lison Consortium.

"It's keeping up with us Sir," says the pilot after a few more minutes of flight.

"That's no good, we don't want to lead it back to the city," muses the Colonel. He turns to Kirth. "Looks like we'll need to try your idea, unless anyone else has any suggestions?"

[sblock=OOC]
Diplomacy check for Kirth. Possibly a good result....
[/sblock]

 

[Shayuri]

"Let me try something," Ashley says. She then motions to Croft, beckoning.

When he comes over she tells him quietly, "When they're close, I can sense them telepathically. They might have some kind of hive mind that we can try to influence or interfere with, like the ships in the Shadow War."

"It's worth a try, at least before we risk being incinerated in exploding oxygen."

 

[Vertexx69]

Croft comes over to Ashley removing his gloves, he speak in as low a whisper as he can manage. "Regardless, we will need a direct line of sight to the swarm. If there is some kind of ... central intelligence, then we might be able to disorient it for a short time while making our escape. But these hybrids may very well be able to survive hard vacuum. Lets find a portal of some sort in the back or bottom of the shuttle."

When they find the widow The young Centari extends his bare hand to other telepath in the hopes that their combined strength is enough to confuse the insects. "Maybe some sort of large predator on an intercept course from the direction we are heading would do the trick?"

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

[sblock=OOC]
Diplomacy check for Kirth. Possibly a good result....
[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC for Dr. Si]
Kirth's untrained diplomacy check, +1 for his charisma, is the attached die roll.
[/sblock]

 

[Dr Simon]

Ashley and Kirth reach out their consciousness towards the swarm trailing behind the shuttle. The distinctive Shadow scream echoes in their minds, and they taste the wrongness that all telepaths feel from Shadow technology. They feel the strands of faint traces of mind holding the swarm together, and try to unpick them. Ashley presses forwards and is rebuffed sharply. She reels back, blood running from one nostril. But she causes enough of a distraction for Croft to swoop, and the swarm mind is shattered momentarily by the young Centauri.

This is enough for the shuttle to swoop away from the swarm, which is lost to sight in the darkness of the Lison sky within seconds.

Sif contemplates turning to destroy the swarm, but decides instead to make for the underground safety of the Tribon City when long range scanners indicate that it is moving again, this time away from the shuttle's location.

****

After returning to Tribon City there is a rush of activity as the crash victims are taken away by medical teams, and Colonel Sif is engaged in matters with the security forces. Before he is ushered away, he turns to the group, Kathy Sakura in particular.

"I think it is vital for planetary security that details of this are not made public just yet," are his parting words.

"Typical," says Sakura to the llort's retreating back. "Biggest scoop in ages and they're going to make us sit on it. Tell me you got footage at least, Maxie."

Max turns stiffly. "There is something we must discuss," he says, his voice strangely stilted. "Do you have anywhere private?" This is addressed not to Sakura but to the rest of the group.

"Max?" says Sakura with a nervous laugh. "What's going on?"

"I will reveal what I know," says Max in his strange voice. He scans the area with his camera eye. "But not here."

[sblock=OOC]
Since neither of Ashley and Croft have the Gestalt feat, you can't use Aid Another or similar actions, but I went with seperate checks for both of them. The relevant ability is daze (DC 14)

Telepathy check Ashley 8+8=16, success. Will save for swarm succeeds (nat 20), so shley takes 1d4=2 points on of nonlethal telepathic damage.

Telepathy check for Croft 7+10=17, success, swarm fails Will save, treated as drifting for as long as focus maintained, ends once out of visual range.
[/sblock]

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

Kirth will hang back and just watch and listen to these happenings, happy to let his more psionically-inclined friends handle these esoteric things.

 

[Shayuri]

"I thought it was a bit of a coincidence we just happened to have you on our crawler," Ashley says, eying Max. "Clever though, using the reporter. All eyes are on her, while you're just...the camera."

She closed her eyes and rubbed the spot on her forehead directly between her eyes. There was still a dull, throbbing ache there, the feedback scream from the Shadowtech echoed still. It was, she reflected unwillingly, a good thing there'd been two telepaths there. Croft had succeeded where she'd failed. The backup plan had been risky. Very risky.

"Okay, not here. The most secure spot on this planet I can think of is our ship." She opens her eyes to regard Max warily. "Would that be acceptable?"

 

[Vertexx69]

Croft catches up to the cameraman and Ashley after making a quick stop into a curio stand with a small sack in hand. He hands the sack to Ashley as leans in. "For the next time you need to do something like that, this will help a bit." He smiles as if what he said was funny somehow and makes a B-line for the bar.

OOC - Bought a brand new stress bit 50c. to reduce non lethal dmg from psi usage.

 

[Dr Simon]

Max gives a stiff nod, and the group heads back to the Fortune. Lars and Vector, meanwhile, leave to sort out the logistics for getting Lars' crawler back.

Once safely onboard, Sakura gives Max a withering glare.

"Suppose you tell us what this is about, Maxie?"

"I am a Class X holodemon program currently residing in this man's hardware," replies Max, or the voice speaking through Max. "He will be unharmed when I leave, and should not be blamed for my actions." Max regards the group, his camera eye giving little servo whines as it alters focus.

"The entity is known as Organism Omega. It was created in 2263, in a deep space research facility owned by VoidCorp, but with alien assistance. Given that Shadow technology is involved, it is possible that it was the Drakh, but there are other servitor races which cannot be ruled out.

"I was created to learn as much as possible about Organism Omega. I have managed to infiltrate VoidCorp's systems and steal much of the construction data before it became necessary to seek a hidden, and more mobile host. This I can share with you. Organism Omega is intended as biological weapon. Unleashed onto an unsuspecting planet it will proceed to wipe out indigenous life forms and disrupt electronic systems. This current operation is overseen by a VoidCorp executive named William Lomax, with the aim of gaining a monopoly on the oxygen supply on Lison. My heuristic capabilities are limited, and so I am unable to determine if there are other goals, perhaps you can."

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

Kirth pulls Ashley aside and whispers, "So...this Organism Omega thing...first of all, should we be concerned or perhaps terrified, and second, is there some way that we can turn a profit by involving ourselves in the mission of Max slash the Class X holodaemon?"