Session export: The Radient Horizon

Dr. Bril Teg Erinos stood before the table with his hand on his hip, his helmet tucked between his other arm and side. He considered the details of Envoy Phaelor’s briefing in silence for a moment. He’d seen enough holofilms to know that a distress signal from a derelict ship meant nothing good. What dangers would he and his fellow Envoys encounter, he wondered?

“Do we know what they were researching prior to the ship’s disappearance?” he asked.

“Oh great another mystery ship thats mysteriously sending a signal. What’s to worry about Certainly won’t be a trap or anything dangerous.” Reece whistled and booped to Karracca.

The tall rotund silverback wookie simply grunted in reply. The irracible droid wasn’t wrong in his sarcasm.

An armored form leaned against the wall, idly spinning a blaster pistol around his gauntleted finger. The hair trigger on Glory made this a tricky maneuver, liable to end in disaster, but long experience and constant practice kept Alex from discharging the weapon into the wall as it twirled.

“You are so quick to assume something sinister must be going on. Do you have any idea how many ships encounter random phenomena in their travels, causing them to go off course and inevitably derelict? Thousands every month. It is a big galaxy, and there is just oh so much that happens in it.”

The pistol was launched into the air, spinning rapidly before being snatched by the other hand to resume its spin.

“Immediately expecting the worst only invites it. You have to allow for wonder and whimsy to exist in your life, or you will only find misery.”

Reece opened his tool main tool compartment and extended his plasma torch armature and began spinning the end around in a similar fashion to fellow who had just spoken to him. He wasn’t doing it to mock the man, on the contrary he thought it looked totally rad and was trying to emulate it.

“Enh, I hear ya. But why the distress call now is what gives me pause.” Reece tooted and twittled in reply as he continued waving the arm around and spinning the torchhead around.

“Well might as well get to it. Who’s ship are we taking?” Karracca growled.

“I am afraid mine is…somewhat ill-suited for the endeavor. It is mostly a luxury transport at this point, but not really designed to handle more than a person or two for any significant travel,” Alex drawled casually as he pushed himself away from the wall. “Maybe a couple extra if they are all particularly friendly with each other.”

Reece beeped out an offer, “The Century Hawks available. I’ll even offer the use of it free of charge all I ask is that we recieve a 10% share of the value of anything we salvage.”

After all, the little droid was emancipatex now, and needed credits for the upjeep of the ship and all the oil baths that he loved taking.

“There’s also my vessel, the Erinos’ Oath,” he said, “I suppose it’ll depend on what each ship is best suited for.”

“The Hawk can make atleast point 4 past light speed, has some of the fastest sublight engines in the galaxy, we got a sensor jamming suite, electronic countermeasures, back-up hyperdrive and shield emitter AND she’s up gunned and up armored enough to get us in and out of almost anywhere. My ships best suited for….anything.” the astromech’s droids old processor stuttered for a beat as it searched for the proper term before landing on the all expansive term. It had the effect of him coming off as a braggadocious little snerf though. The plucky little droid whirled his cranial dome around to regard each of the others in the room, only a few of which he knew.

Bril listened intently, nodding along. “That is very impressive, indeed … but does it have a cloaking device? What if we need to make a stealthy approach or exit? The Erinos’ Oath has all that and more.”

Reece lowered his volume and he rolled backwards until he was beside Karracca, “Uh we got enough money to afford a new cloaking device?”

“Not really, plus I doubt we’d be able to get one installed this far out on the frontier.” Karracca replied with low growl.

Reece rolled back over towards Bril, “Lets take your ride, we can have the Hawk on standby if things get frisky.” The droid relented.

Bril nodded graciously. “Very well,” he said before turning to the others. “Ancient artifacts, especially those connected to the Force are a special interest of mine.” Then, he shifted his gaze to Alex in particular. “I believe vod Draconis also has similar areas of expertise, so I like our chances of identifying these artifacts and discerning what role they played in the ship’s fate.

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“While I must admit that my particular expertise tends to be more in…er, shall we say ‘acquisition’ of these artifacts moreso than study, I have picked up a few things here and there over my years.” He began casually strolling toward the door as he spoke, the easy pace of his gait matching to that of his speech. “I shall put forth my best effort not to completely embarrass the name of the Wayfinder Society should it come to it, but I can make no stronger a promise than that.”

“Possibilities….so many possibilities,” a diminutive Lurmen with slate-colored fur muttered to himself from a corner of the shuttle. He carefully lifted up and inspected each piece of his equipment before putting it back in its proper place. “What research, what artifact? Celestial phenomenon perhaps? Must examine star map, need more data.”

M’aiq secured the items on his person and sealed his medical backpack, then scurried through the passenger hold of the shuttle, tilting his head, eyes darting, pausing at each member of the team in turn to examine them as if they were also part of his equipment. “Hmm, team composition adequate for task,“ he stated flatly and in a matter of fact tone as if mentally going through a checklist.

Reece leaned over towards Karracca and beep booped in a low but clearly still audible tone, “Hey, hear that bro? Says were adequate for the task. High praise coming from a Lurmen.”

M'aiq stopped, looked Reece up and down again, “hmm might need to revise assessment.” Then returned to pacing and muttering to himself about data points and hypotheses for the cause of the distress signal.

“Does anyone have any further questions?” Bril asked. “If not, we shouldn’t delay any longer. Lives could be at stake.”

Glory was stowed away back in its holster as Alex turned to address the rest of the team, smoothly transitioning his pace from walking forward to walking backward.

“Sounds to me like we have a plan and about as much information as we are likely to get without boots on the ground,” his words were punctuated by the quiet woosh of the door sliding open behind him as he stepped through. “Last one there gets fed to the ghosts.” And the door slid closed again, only the sound of beskar-clad boots striking floor plates beyond it indicating that the Mandalorian was making his way apace.

“Adequate?,” Sennix mused, offering a polite smile to the Lurmen at his feet who was in the middle of his silent examination. Waiting until M’aiq had continued on, Sennix looked back up at the rest of the crew in an examination of his own, using the Force to ever-so gently feel out the latent power of the others without them noticing.

Allowing the barest of smiles to creep onto his lips at his findings, Sennix turned his attention to the ID-9 Seeker Droid lying compacted on the table beside him. “Ryku,” he called, tapping the droid on its head.

With a low chirp, Ryku’s photoreceptor flashed to life with a sinister red light. Extending its spider-like limbs, the droid’s claws clicked against the table as it began to crawl up its Master’s outstretched hand and onto its perch on Sennix’s back.

Karra and Reece made their way over to the hatch and followed Alex. They both knew it was always safer to stick with a Mando when the going got tough.

A massive Gen'dai stood in the corner, watching, listening, but not speaking. He followed the group through the boarding hatch.

The Erinos’ Oath cautiously pulled alongside the Horizon, orienting itself into position on the maintenance hatch with a pressurized hiss.

As the group gathered at the airlock, Sennix approached the access panel, signaling his ID-9 to slice into it. Ryku’s SCOMP link extended, connecting with the system as he cycled through the codes that it had saved in his memory banks. A frustrated grumble warbled from the droid as it disconnected from the panel, clicking its pincers in agitation as it returned back to its master.

“Disappointing,” Sennix muttered, stepping back from the airlock to let one of the others make an attempt.

Things weren’t going well. And that fact irked Bril because the mission hadn’t really started yet.

Stepping forward, Bril focused on the access panel that one of his teammates had tried and failed to slice into. At first, he relied on his keen eye. But when that yielded nothing of use, he turned to the Force.

“Let us see what memories you carry,” he said to himself while extending his hand.

When his fingertips touched the smooth metallic surface, images flooded his mind’s eye – images of countless hands tapping a sequence into the access panel.

He had it.

Without saying another word, he punched in the access code into the panel, causing it to emit a high pitched chime when it was accepted.

Alex pushed past the rest of the team, taking point. As he passed Bril he turned his head slightly. “That must come in awful handy when you forget where you left your keys,” the chuckle that followed was amplified by the systems in his armor.

Both Honor and Glory were drawn, fingers light on the firing studs but still there regardless. The ancient Mandalorian slowly approached the corner, stretching all his senses - and the not-inconsiderable telemetry suite built in to his armor - to try his utmost best to be aware of any danger which may await the team before they full-on stepped in it.

Following the group through the intermittently illuminated corridor, Sennix’s eyes narrowed slightly as the uneasy feeling grew stronger the further in they ventured, its source still unclear… and that was the part he hated the most.

Ahead of him, the party had come to a halt as their path had ended at yet another door.

Reece deployed his sensor kit from the top of his dome, “Looks like a hangar of some type on the other side. Door looks sealed.”

Karracca had already had his lightsaber in hand and moved one of his thumbs toward the ignitor.

“Can you slice it.” The wookie moaned.

“Prolly.” Reece beeped as he lowered his sensor apparatus and deployed his interface socket.

Bril looked over the scene carefully for a minute or two, making mental notes of everything of note. Once he had a clear enough picture of what had occurred to construct a hypothesis, he turned to address the group.

“The orientation of the blaster marks, the barricades themselves, and the MREs suggest that they hunkered down and fought to keep someone from getting to the hangar bay.”

Mei'ka pipped up from her position in the back. She had been quiet so far, opting to bring up the rear. “If there is no one around here that means they drove off the attackers? Maybe they didn’t make it past the hanger?” She questioned looking around for another way into the ship. Someone must have activated the S.O.S signal after all. Ever the optimist Mei'ka hoped at least one person was hunkered down somewhere safely.

Reece dutifully went and checked all the exits from the large hangar. He didnt care about signs of battles. He was an R3 astromech suffering from proccessor-rot and had been freed by his owner was busy chasing the almighty credit at this point in his life. As he rammed his probe in the socket of the final visible hatchway leading to the interior of the vessel he twittled, “He yall, this ones open. Might wanna have your pistol and energy sword thingies ready as I pop this open.”

“You need a memory defrag bruh. Energy sword thingies?” Karracca growled lightly to his mechanical pal as he tapped him in the shoulder of his chassis.