SKM-19

SKM-19 aka "Scout"

SKM is a human-looking android with tan skin, and dark grey hair. Some would say he looks like a natural born human if it wasn’t for all the circuits. But he has given up trying to look human. He understands he’s different and therefore does not try to hide the obvious circuitry that lines his skin (unlike other androids).

His eyes are a dark brown, speckled with yellow motes of color—dots of the nanites that live in his system and keep his biological body synced with his machinery.

His getup is plain and simple. Standard tactical gear, boots, basic armor, gloves, etc. His armor shows its wear: dents, scrapes, and acid burns from previous incursions with the swarm. He carries a high-powered sniper on his back and a simple slug-pistol in his arm’s weapon compartment.

Notes

12/27/2020

• We're at Vibreclean, a front to tunnel into caves under the city
• We enter the building, and Pepper "Fonzie's" the employee's only door
• We head back into the building of automated laundry machines
• Bun and Pepper note a loose panel that opens to lead down to a basement, we head down
• We come to a 10x15' cinder block room and Crash spots a loose area that leads to a downward slope...
• We enter the "Caves of Pilgrimage"
• We come across a box with an electronic lock--luckily, we have the keycard. (Phew)
• We move a curtain to reveal a series of holograms and a weird, gross lichen
• The holograms seem to be something that depicts Sheeren "culture" and how choices are varying in weight
• Suddenly, a giant fungus monster starts beating our asses (namely Bunn's)
• We drop the fungus then walk through an illusiary wall
• On the hallway walls, Pepper notices carvings in the wall that represent space travel... longer and longer as we go down the hallway
• We find some traps. but it's fine
• We come to some writing/baas reliefs in Sheeren that's about "The Dawn of Friendship," a peaceful time and Sheeren shaking hands with multiple races of people
• We enter a small shrine area where there is a poem carved into the western wall
  • There's a wrapped package and some half-burned incense (not recent)
  • There's a list of Sheeren names, seems to be lists of crew member
  • The Poem is slightly eroded, but the poem is about loss and mourning, grief, growth, and change.
    • This must be lists of sheeren ships that were lost
• We come across a flooded room, 4ft deep
• Bunn goes to walk in the water but Scout stops him, "I don't need to breathe, so if I need to swim it's not an issue"
• Scout steps in the water and is IMMEDIATELY attacked by a FUCKING SNAKE-SHARK
• 2 rounds later he is SWALLOWED WHOLE, but not before he crits the beast and knocks its dex down -2
• Everyone is screaming.
• Scout gets knocked unconscious in this monster's body
• The gang kills the monster and BARELY manages to get him out of the stomach in time to save him
• We heal up a little then head across the now cleared water
• We come across a tall amber column that gives off a slight warmth
• There is a shrine with an insectoid head carved in it
• A hologram of a Sheeran appears, then turns into motes of light...
• Bunn identifies that the column has deep healing magic
  • SUDDENLY THE COLUMN DISENTEGRATES
• AND A GIANT BUG APPEARS
• FUCK
• We barely survive the fight, Bunn delivering the final blow on his final hit point
• We look into one more room after the fight to find a bunch of styff
  • We find some keepsakes from another planet, each one is filled with shades of viscious oily fluid
    • Essentially snowglobes, Scout takes one
  • We find a trunk and Crash figures out how to open it
    • Inside we find devotional icons to Hylax
    • A set of Ceremonial Robes
    • An Antique datapad
      • The datapad has full schematics of the caves
    • There is a journal about a woman who was aiding the Pilgrims who came to her
      • Some musings of The Forever Reliquary... but no idea what it is. She looks forward to seeing it herself.
    • A long narrow box that contains a Staff of Mystic Healing
• We head back to the SDF
• Xelanon thanks us for bringing back the relics. He gives us some credits (in the doc)
• Nejerri tells us we're on temp leave aka we have a bunch of time to fully heal up
  • Time to buy new stuff, sell stuff, buy ammo
  • Scout is OUT OF BULLETS for his pistol
  • SCOUT NEEDS BETTER GUNS FOR NEXT Time
• AND WE LEVELED UP!!!!

12/13/2020

• WE CONTINUE THE FIGHT
• They surrender and we arrest those who survive
• We take a bunch of stuff from these dudes (see google sheet)
• We get a map of some caves
  • When we overlay it with some of the city, we find a cavern under a temple of Hylax
  • The temple is the HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP
  • The "Entrance" is under a place called Vibreclean
• So we call on our buddy Xelonan
  • He thinks the tunnels are hundreds of years old, maybe an old Shirren settlement?
  • He notices a language of his people BEFORE the swarm
• Nejeeri wants us to investigate the caves as emergency shelters if/when the Swarm shows up
• We ask Xelonan about the Reckoners
  • He doesn't know about them, but he knows some people who try to find good faith in the swarm to be spared.
  • The Swarm can't be reasoned with
• Xelanon looks tired tho
  • Pepper asks if he's been sleeping well
  • He replies he's been having nightmares
    • He sees a presence called the GOD HOST
    • Other Sheeran seem to have been experiencing this as well
    • He describes the feeling like a LARGER THING being out there that he can sense... but not grasp
  • He's been having these nightmares since we left Suskilon
• It gets awkward, he leaves....
• We wipe cut to our gang outside of Vibreclean

11/29/2020

• We check out this robot and Crash and Pepper find out that someone tampered with this robot
  • They turned off this robot's preventative person killing protocols
  • Targeting insignias for police / militia
• SKM guesses that thing was probably tampered with recently
• We flag a local militia and ask about anti-sdf / militia groups
• This guy mentions The Reckoners? They distribute fliers around town?
• We send a message to Commander Nejeeri, she says she doesn't have any further work for us for the day
• So we decide to rest since we're a bit beat up
• The next day Nejeeri sends us out to a comms tower where folks have evacuating for some unknown reason
• We get a car and head into the city
• We investigate the building and run into a woman named Chendwen, she has an "odd" SDF jacket on
• Scout goes down the hall with Chedwen to "investigate" and Chedwen gets the jump on Scout. We fight a bit and she runs off.
• We don't find much else, but Chedwen DID leave her datapad
• There's a weird ascii image and a video
• The video is 10000% Pro-Swarm
  • Follow Sister Spark
• This sounds like some reeeeeal Death Cult shit
• Sister spark is an android
  • The Reckoners hold reguilar meetings at a place called Reckoner Hall
• We rest a bit, but investigate the Hall at night to see if there was any weird activity
• This place looks like a shopping center after hours
• We manage to convince the guy at the door to let us in, then we knock him the heck out
• Bun and Pepper arrive, we run into the building
• ... they have cameras...
• AND SO A FIGHT BREAKS OUT.
• Crash and Scout get entangled (marked in character sheet)
• Chendwen shows up. Sister Spark shows up.
• WE break at the end of a combat round!
• WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?????

11/15/2020

• there's a water treatment facility we need to go investigate
• "Muotta's - They'll steal the knife off of your belt"
• We drive to this water collection facility in a government issued Sedan
• We walk up to this giant green funnel collecting rainwater
• Before have a good chance to look around, these goddamn birds start attacking us
• One runs off, the other is obliterated by Crash
• Pepper checks out the computer near the collector and a fuckin BOMB goes off
• Bun takes a serious hit
• We manage to rewire the computer
• But we get a new mission: Fire in an apartment complex near by
• We drive over in a few minutes
• We meet with the local militia
• 3 civvies inside, one is a small child
• We book it inside (Bun gets hit with some backdraft before we go in)
• We save the mice, but we find some humans and save them too!
• We come out and a goddamn robot shows up to put out the fire but HE TRIES TO KILL US AND BUN GOES DOWN
• We manage to beat the robot... AND WE LEVEL UP

11/1/2020

• Fuckhead McGee comes down and sees us post-fight
• We tell him to get fucked because there's some radiation down here
• He runs
• It's been a long ass day, we probably should sleep
• We do some basic healing, the knock off
• It's "morning" on Day 2 on the ship (2 days remain until we reach our destination)
• We wake up and the powecore is fucked
• We run down to investigate and see some goddamn gremlins in the ship
• We shoot around and screw up some systems, but we are luckily able to repair them
• We notice a curse on the ship's power core but luckily Xanathos (?) removes it with some religious mumbo jumbo
• And as a group we're able to fix the power core
• We find a ring on one of the gremlins legs
  • Mk 1 ring of resistance
• We stop a mutiny. But it's good, we show that dumb shit what's what
• After another day and a half, we arrive to Utraneous
• We see a huge space station built into an astroid, dozens of ships are docking
  • Oddrock
• We dock with SDF clearance - nice
• We are greeted as returning heroes, engineers check the ship, medics standing, and we're recharged
• A familiar face: Ltd Gorrum.
• We're supposed to go planet-side
  • New Grakka is where we're headed
• We have a year before the bugs get here... hopefully
• We're aken to a military transport to head to New Grakka
• On the way down, we chat with Gorrum, they apparently don't have an evac plan ready. Uh oh
• And we arrive in short order
• We're taken to city hall where the SDF have setup shop
• We relay what we find to The captain
• We get a Radiant Star, Medal of Courage from the SDF
  • YOOOOOO!!
  • Enchanted to pulse with a bluish glow, a courage medallion is awarded to those who risked their own lives to protect the innocent and their fellow companions. Once per day as a standard action, you can activate the item to summon a fery orb, granting you the benefts of wisp ally until the end of your next turn You draw forth otherworldly energy to create a small, spherical, floating wisp that can distract your enemies in combat. This wisp can move 60 feet per round in any direction, and you can direct it as a move action on your turn. If the wisp occupies the same space as an enemy, the wisp provides your choice of either harrying fire or covering fire (see pages 246–247) against the enemy each round on your turn, and it follows that enemy within range automatically unless you direct it to change targets. The wisp is made of pure light and energy and can’t be damaged in combat, though it can be dispelled as normal. In addition to the function described above, the wisp sheds light in a 20-foot radius in a color of your choice (chosen when you cast the spell).
• We're promoted to lieutenants!!!
• We are now a special squad!!
• and we bought new shiiiiit

10/18/2020

• We're on our way to Utraenous
• BUT BAM, our ship starts messing up!!
• this looks like sabotage... could be one of the passengers onboard
• Someone put the ship off course a little and we corrected it... someone is fucking with our stuff.
  • Other passengers:
    • Half-Elf (Kenda, female, civilian engineer)
    • Formian (Ch'thrak, male, civilain medic)
    • Kasatha (Saldri, male, civilian lawyer)
• Scout runs down to see Crash serving everyone ice cream
• Pepper checks on the Escape Pods - no tampering
• Scout starts yelling at Xanathos after her questions us saving their lives: MAYBE XANATHOS KNOWS HOW TO SABATOGE THE SHIP, HUH??
• Bun asks him to leave and he heads back up to the cockpit.
• As he approaches, he hears a wild laugh
• Gun out, he enters the cockpit and nothing is there
• Bun suggests we use the buddy system for everyone on the ship
• Pepper comes to check in on Scout and to be his buddy
• She checks the vents, but nothing seems tampered with
• Pepper sees something on the security cam and we run to the cargo bay
  • We radio to the group that we saw something
• It's ASSEMBLING BLOBS!!!!!
• WE FIGHT EM
• Crash gets some Radiation Poisoning!
• So does Bun!
• We find some goodies, Scout gets some new armor!
• We take the drugs from the cargo bay and move them to the captain's quarters for safe keeping
  • Maybe we can sell these to the SDF

9/20/2020

• We're in SHIP COMBAT
• WE ZIP AND ZAP AND WE KILL EM
• We make our way to Utraneus
• With Scout's WONDERFUL Piloting check, it'll take us 3 days to get to Utraneus

9/7/2020

• We drive a bit, but as we get closer to Reo City, car congestion forces us to abandon our hardtop
• Zelenon gives us some inspiring words... but Scout isn't helped by it
• The radio crackles to life, Commander Neejani(?) tells us to GET OFF PLANET however we can
• The swarm is coming, we need to get to Utraneus
• We head west towards the ship port... everything that direction seems to be on fire
• As we approach, we see ships wrecked beyond repair
• After a bit, we come across a woman (Kilora Gishi) who was on the Reo city, city council
• A group appears, refugees trying to get off planet... but the swarm appeared
  • Some of the group are the family we saved at a gas station
  • And a male Vesk soldier, Otvash. He looks quite beat up. This guy recognizes Scout. This is a dude who knows him as SCUM
    • He has a huge axe and is wearing ceremonial armor that's very beat up
• They haven't had any luck finding a ship
• A small 1 person fighter ship flies over us
• Our comms chirp to life, "Ahh, SDF! Having trouble?" - it's Anasia Render! lol
  • She has a lead of a vessel we could find
  • She's cheeky about it, but tells us about an underground bunker run by some shady folks. Watch out for security.
• We follow a path to the coordinates and see something has blown out the doors to this hidden base, by conventional munitions
• We make our way in, and are hit by a sonic security measure
• We move into the hangar and are bombarded by a robot
• Then another robot!
• We beat the robots and get two tazers off of them
• We do some perusing, and Scout finds a BOOK on how to fly a specific ship, a camo membrane with some batteries
  • A fine webbing that can be altered by small electrical charges - 10 mins to setup - +2 to stealth once charged. One charge per day of a battery.
• We find a box with a Drift Engine in it - it's obviously in disrepair.
  • Pepper would need the right resources and a week of time to fix it
• We explore a bit more, find a few goodies (including a scan card)
• We find the ship!!
• In the hangar, we fight an AWFUL FUCKING MOLD MONSTER
• but we survive.
• We load the Drfit Engine into the ship
• Bunn calls down the group, Xenelon heals up HP, we rest and get our SP back
• we find 6000 UPBs in the hangar. woweeeee
  • Everyone gets 1500 UPBs
• Before we can take off, some swarm monsters jump us
• Bunn almost dies, but we head the FUCK out
• But next time.... STARSHIP COMBAT!

8/23/2020

• Turns out Reda wasn't bad, just possessed by a slime
• We settle things in town and everyone is packing up to go to Reo City
• We send Susreth Susaro to go with them
• We go into the mountains and we come to the Hylax temple
• It looks like a bug
• We see a ruined tanker with two human bodies with three human bodies around the tanker
• Something tore out the engine of the tanker
• Two bodies lie on the ground, one looks like she was crawling back into the vehicle when she died
• We get the IDENTS of the 3 soldiers, plus their gear
  • LOTSA GEAR
• We snipe the shit out of some bugs
• We enter the temple, find some mystical plates, dodge some traps
• We find Xelonan and have some talks with him, convince him to come with us -- even though he wanted to stay
• He explains how the swarm were once part of the greater collective, but "strayed from Hylax's light"
• We get healed... and then a bIG FUCKIN SWARM MONSTER SHOWS UP AND DROPS SOME BABY SWARM.
• It is rough.
• We survive the fight, and rest in the temple overnight.
• We get healed up
• Najeeri crackles in on the radio: "If you haven't reached the evac point by..." and it crackles out
• END OF PART 2

8/6/2020

• We open at a truck stop, killing some buggers
• We save some farmers who came from Lynmari
• Turns out the manager of the food processing plant they come from has been confiscating fuel from vehicles so no one else can leave
• She (the manager, Reda Cooper) claims that the company they work for was going to get them safe passage off the planet
• They ask about our commander (Najeeri)
• We grab a bunch of processed snacks from the truck stop, we throw a bunch in the back of the truck
• We drive and begin to drive next to a frozen river.
• We see black smoke in the distance, about 10 miles from Lynmari
• We see a big sign "The Greater Sahtor Waterworks", big smoke stacks
• we get fired on by a freaked out Lashunta - Susreth Susaro
• Bun and Scout intimidate the guy
• He's hearing something in his head, "Hylax will know."
  • (Hylax is the deity of the Sheeren)
  • Hylax is a deity of peace
• Scout takes this guys gun and knife
• This guy is from the second battalion
• We decide to take him with us, he's a medic and cleans up Bun's wounds
• We get to Lynmari
• There's a big sign that says Longship Agricultural Alliance
  • They're a food manufacturer
• We come across a bunch of townsfolks in front of a food processing plant
• A woman is at the head of the crowd, it's Reda Cooper
• We sneak into this big building where Reda went in
• We see Reda on the ground, and there's a slug like thing in the room
• The slime goes into SCOUTS BODY
• We some how fucking manage to beat it.... GOOD GOD

7/26/2020

• We're at Fort Gallant on Suskillon
• Commander Negeeri was getting her leg cut off
• And Pepper and Bun got a good night's rest
• Negeeri says, "It's the end of the world, Midnight Squad." They're evacuating the planet.
• We get into this massive tank-truck, Scout offers to drive/pilot
• We have a 2 hour drive to get to the Sahtor Region to Reos City so everyone can get the fuck out
• Scout finds 2 Mk1 serums of healing in the glove box of the tank-trunk
• suddenly, we see a swarm starship flying through the smoke
• It fires a pulsing green missile, missing us, but the acid of the missile leaves pock marks on the side of the tank-truck
• We survive the chase
• It'll be a few hours before we get to Reos City.
• We've been given orders to abandon vehicles about an hour outside of Reos city
• We get new orders after a commendation from Commander Negeeri
• We are supposed to find Xelonan, a priest at the Temple of Hylax, at a temple and a missing squad (4 soldiers)
• Scout knows that Hylax is a Sheeren deity, a deity of diplomacy and peace. They call Hylax the "hug bug" -- not a nice nickname. Worshipped mostly by creatures with hive minds.
  • There is historically a link between the Swarm and the Sheeren
• Commander of the squadron is Quvenzh (leader of the team)
  • 2nd battalion folks, more military
  • We're the 5th, previously all wiped so it's less soldiery
• We're heading for a city called Lynmari
• We'll be given a troop transport
• We only have a few days to get there and back
• We rest for the evening, eating RME cubes, sort of chit chatting... getting to know each other a bit
• The LT. tells us to watch out for the "Scorpion" a prison... "Keep your eyes open."
• We drive about 60 miles, coming across some abandoned cars. A farmer runs out to us
• BUT IT WAS A TRICK!
• They run awayyyy