Centaurs

We are waiting to see if we have any reactions to the food or drink and then we get a comm call from Vance who needs us to help make decisions about the sphere. He seems to think it is urgent, but I can't get it in me to hurry. We go back to working on the fall out shelter concept and what it might mean. Maybe to an avian civilization it would mean a medbay? We head back down to the first floor and we can hear a warning buzzer and the lights begin brightening and dimming in time to the buzzer. Then a hologram with an avian body and reptilian face with brightly colored feathers (bluish) about 6 1/2 feet tall wearing a loose belted robe starts talking directly and very obviously to us. There are occasional snatches that we can understand from the datapad : "Greetings.......hologram.....assualt...............Please search for cover at your earliest opportunity to prevent your imminent demise."
 
I ask Hicks to scan outside the building and he says we have a problem. There are six humanoid battle droids, skeletal, lined with dura steel with blaster rifles and what appears to be a force pike on their back walking in as a squad of six (three by three) and heading straight for us. I head to the fall0ut shelter, and it opens at my approach. Stale air wafts out, but I can see there is a turbo lift and stairs down. After a brief discussion we decide to head down to see what is there as that provides a chance that we can get out of their sensor range - even if it is a sewer. Down below, we find it ransacked, but there are still some supplies. We look around for another entrance and discover that the space is fairly extensive and could hold a decent number of creatures. We find some hatches scattered around that look like they could be opened if necessary and they seem to be headed towards the main street. We decide to wait for around 15 minutes to give the droids time to do a search, get bored, and return to base. Suddenly we hear a few muffled explosions above and then the turbo lift activates. Hicks grabs a desk-like piece of furniture and sets it up as a barricade. We decide retreat is the better part of valor and I pick out a hatch and open it. We are about to pop through when the turbo lift opens and a figure in power armor steps out.
 
He starts firing questions at us. "Did the droids hit you? Is everyone okay? Are there any others?" I force him to slow down and explain himself and it turns out that the darts the droids fire will infect anyone with a virus that allows you to be susceptible to technopathy as the first stop in becoming not human. He then introduces himself as Lt. Silaar Foss, a member of the 3rd night wolves who are on patrol to remove droids that keep popping up in the ruins. He is fairly sure there is an automated fabrication factory somewhere in the underground of the city. He sounds a bit frustrated by that, but then he is giving me a weird look and asks how I am feeling. I feel great! I begin flirting with tall, dark, and armored, but he just talks about how I need immediate medical attention. Since he isn't interested in having fun right now, I pout and agree to go to the medical district. We get back upstairs and discover the droids deactivated so the patrol group takes us to a waiting shuttle to head in to Nightwick city in their bat wing shaped shuttle.
 
Once there the techs tell me that I and Hicks ingested organells - which sound very exotic - but it has made the pupils of my eyes lose color and my hair is turning purple while my skin is turning gray blue. On the plus side, I have a clean bill of health - I look Cestean! I convince the LT. to take us back to our ship to verify no droids have overtaken the area and then I also kinda volunteer to do some scans to see if we can find the droid shop. We land just as So'Zen is heading into the ship. He starts talking about something or other, but I ignore him and head into the ship and call for Lady Zaye so I can get some facts. She provides a quick synopsis that indicates Danar has a thermal det in his hands as a method of diplomacy as he is trying to force two entities to work together. One being Janus the revenant - I turn on So'Zen and demand an explanation about what happened while I was in the coma. He ignores me and says he is going to the bridge to meditate. JEDI!
 
Vandromas asks me if I want to go to the cargo bay and see what is going on at the source. We get there and find the door locked and Danar yelling about a danger as we need to negotiate the surrender of the being inside the sphere as there is another entity inside a datapad that wants the first entity dead. I am not sure that Danar hasn't been influenced or possessed by something as this seems a huge overreaction to the situation. So'Zen gets involved and the outcome is that the thermal det is turned off and maybe we can start a real understanding of the situation when Zaye's son chimes in and says he is sorry just as the power goes. I see Hicks turn and head for the outside ramp as Lady Zaye heads towards engineering and where her children should be. I discover that I can see. Not bright as if the lights and power were on, but shades of gray. I take a moment to check in with the mouse droids and they are frantic as they cannot contact any of the various ship systems. I calm them down and direct them all to engineering to work together to start working on a fix. I then walk out of the ship and contact Lt. Foss to let him know what is bubbling up from the ground. I also let him know that I can see a glowing green haze cover the entire field. He does not sound happy about that as he explains it is a null field which does not deplete power, but removes the ability for electricity to flow as normal and that is used by the droids during a large incursion. He and his team are five minutes out and more back up will arrive in 15.
 
Then the things are out of the ground and they are the stuff of nightmares - literally as they resemble centaurs. Ten foot tall and spitting streams of green something which I imagine is the virus mentioned by the Lt. earlier. Vandromas says it feels like either a Dathmyrian witch or a Night sister or could just be their tech as he runs to start battle with one of the creatures. I turn on my shield and prepare myself to guard the ship from the ramp. As the first one charges, I fire my two blasters center mass and it staggers a bit and then stops and takes two step to the side. I pull out the plasma blaster and fire before it has time to finish its plan and it sizzles its way into the body, but even while the fire is eating away at it, the eyes look at me and glow a bright green. Then five other centaurs turn to look at me with bright green glowing eyes. I notice almost absently that none of the ships are being attacked. The focus is on the people - not the equipment. I subconsciously process this information and roll of the ramp to get under it. Two of the creatures fire at me and I take a glancing blow to my leg. That I will feel in the morning, but I get under the ramp just as I see the other three switch to vibro blades and charge towards me.
 
The Lt. and his crew rush in and he tells everyone that they need to find the one who is controlling the null field as if they can't take that one out - more waves will come.