Session 008: Huskworld Report
General Summary
Midnight Squad slept & returned to speak to Commander Hadiya Najiri.
She told them that they could replace things on the Razor Crest one item per day. As well as bring two more of Midnight Squad with them. They selected Kosh (to have the potential of another starship in combat) & Ellen Ripley (gunner / science officer).
- A medical bay was installed
- EMP cannon was removed
- Mining laser was then added to where the EMP cannon was
- An arcane lab was installed
On the fourth day the reconstruction was completed & it was a copy of the picture found in the caves.
Due to limited supplies Midnight Squad was only able to convert 20% of their credits to UPB's.
Getting into the Razor Crest, Midnight Squad took off with Fumbles at the helm. Their trip to Ilemchuuva took ten days. They broke down all the items into UPB's. While Rivet made some sedatives from the narcotic spores he collected.
Negaflare ordered a course set to the planet, & Kosh cracked his knuckles saying that it was time to fight the swarm head on. This caused Negaflare to change his mind, & order a scan of the planet. Noticing that the swarm was still present which was unusual as the swarm typically moves on from the places they occupy.
Ellen Ripley was able to find some gaps in the swarm patrol ships. After some time, they were able to figure out a course of action.
After plotting the course of the ships the Midnight Squad was able to pilot their way down to the planet, turn off their power & make a controlled crash landing causing 19, 10, or 0 damage to members of the crew.
They left Kosh & Ellen on the ship to guard it & went after the swarm that was gathering outside their ship.
Taking on the swarm, they were soon met with three snipers standing on the top of a cliff.
The swarm was soon defeated with their help from the high ground.
They introduced themselves as Clade Company. Etchiax a female Shirren mechanic, Kokan agender Bolida, & Queue a male Android operative.
Etchiax suggested that they head to Clade Company Base which was underground. She assumed that the swarm would leave their star ship alone as they did with other technological components on Ilemchuuva. Taking two hours they passed the time with some conversation.
Etchiax had some experience working as a security guard in her youth, she was working as a starship mechanic at the Uudz spaceport when the Swarm attacked. She collected a few dozen survivors (including Queue) and managed to dodge Swarm patrols by hiding in the city’s sewers, where she modified her exocortex to better defend the group of survivors. Not long after, Hescamu’s crew of bolidas stumbled across her ragtag band, and Clade Company grew out of that partnership.
Kokan mainly reminisced about the bolida settlement deep underground that became untenable once the extractor imagoes began their work.
Queue outright refused to discuss any personal details. When they pushed, Etchiax gently pulled Negaflare aside and quietly informs him that Queue lost his entire family—a partner and three adopted children—in the Swarm attack.
Hescamu was the leasder of Clade Company, & suggested helping each other. Clade Company needed help with one of the swarm's extractor imagos.
Negaflare found a young host shirren named Jadvata, who graduated from Zessh University a few years ago. Jadvata reveals they’d had an anthropology class with Galchak and can describe where the professor’s office is in the main academic building. While Jadvata admits they were not particularly fond of that class, they recount admiring the collection of relics in the professor’s office, including one particularly impressive weapon that seemed like it might have been blessed by Hylax.
Hescamu proposed members of Clade Company guard the exterior of the extractor imago while Midnight Squad conducted their raid, ensuring that the party wouldn't get overwhelmed when the imago starts calling other Swarm components to its defense.
Disabling or destroying the imago would reduce the tremors and instability of the area, which would also make a strike mission into the university safer and quicker—to say nothing of limiting the ongoing destruction of one of the only cities left standing on Ilemchuuva. The extractor imagoes are extremely large, however, and attacking one externally would likely have little effect. To truly take down one of these behemoths, a strike force would have to infiltrate the creature itself, using the access pathways Swarm components use to control the things, and disable it from within.
Midnight Squad went to the extractor using the underground tunnels.
