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The First Run

By Stephen Landis

Set in the Grimmerspace Universe

Powered by Starfinder

All Rights Reserved

Arc fought to keep from smiling as he checked his equipment one more time on board the Rambling Gent. After years of busting his balls in the scrap fields of Gylorr, it finally happened. He was finally picked up by Touchdown Salvage, they finally accepted his application. The captain of the Rambling Gent, one of Touchdown's smallest ships, picked him up and offered him a position as a crewman. For the first time in a long while, it felt like his fortunes were changing.

Tough, pale-skinned hands with the consistency of leather continued to work on finishing up his last inspection before heading up to the bridge as he finished reminiscing. The custom rig he had built up over the years was working perfectly, its smart tools and diagnostic computer adapted well to his latest modifications. His utility welder was fully charged and holstered on his hip while his dinged and chipped pry staff was worn on his back. Not exactly the fanciest set of tools but that was going to change if he stuck around with Touchdown for a decent length of time. Speaking of that, he needed to get to the bridge before he was late.

The rest of the crew was still gathering on the bridge when Arc arrived. The lean Gylorran human look around at the cramped bridge as he spotted the rest of the crew. Science officer Jim was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and straightening out his jumpsuit collar. Captain Smith, the owner of the Rambling Gent, was currently looking over the helm's shoulder at the asteroid and the orbital habitat inside it growing larger in the bridge viewport. And at the helm, seated in front of the captain was Arjana…

Unlike the rest of the crew who came from Gylorr, Arjana was from the planet Fazhura. Arc scowled softly as he tried to avoid looking at her, he hated Fazhurans, most Gylorrans did. Fazhura was a planet full of robotics wizards that had been taking advantage of Gylorr for decades and were spoiled rotten by an over-reliance on automation and mechanical servitors. Decades of conning Gylorr salvage workers out of honest work by essentially strip-mining entire acres of scrap with automated collectors, hording all manner of technological riches, and of course there was the Endless Mall built on Gylorr's moon of Diff, the crown jewel of Fazhura's arrogance. All this from a bunch of whiny robotics geeks that never knew the pain or the satisfaction of a day of back-breaking labor.

Arc couldn't recall a time he ever saw a Fazhuran do any real physical labor themselves before he met Arjana and even then the most work he ever saw her do involved maintaining and modifying Ge-Vees, her robotic valet, and it showed. Arjana was soft from years spent behind a workbench while her mechanic familiar did all the heavy lifting. Hopefully she could still run if they needed to escape in a hurry...

Arc was not sure what the captain saw in this particular Fazhuran other then Arjana was a decent pilot and was good with technology. Ge-Vees wasn't much for conversation, lacking a voice module would do that, but very handy in the kitchen and with general maintenance.

“We'll be at the abandoned orbital colony in forty-five seconds captain." Arjana reported, bringing Arc out of his silent monologue.

“Good. Jim get on the sensors and run a scan to see if there's anyone alive in there. This could be the Rambling Gent's biggest haul yet!" Smith ordered with a clap of his hands, the biggest smile on his face as he eyed up the abandoned habit. “Almost thought the coordinates I bought were going to be a bust. But lo and behold, here it is. Life support components alone will be worth a fortune if we can get them back to port."

Jim paid no attention to the captain's fantasizing as he took a seat at his station. After a few seconds of punching buttons then shaking his head before looking at the readings again, he looked up from the console. “That's… weird." He audibly muttered, drawing the full attention of the rest of the crew.

“Jim… Do we have a payday or do we not?" Smith asked, his smile quickly turning into a scowl as he dealt with the thought that this big payday might not be as assured as he first thought.

“I don't know boss. I'm getting multiple life signs but… none of them seem to be human." Jim replied with a confused wave of his arm. “I'm also getting strange responses to telemetry scans. It's like the whole interior is one big open space." The science officer added, shaking his head a second time.

“Probably escaped critters from a zoo then. Thing's essentially a city in space after all, certainly would be a big enough place to have a zoo. We'll just have to make sure we're armed before we go aboard." Captain Smith replied dismissively, not even acknowledging the telemetry scans. “Arjana, finish bringing us in." He ordered as the rest of the crew began boarding procedures.

Docking with the colony went smoothly enough. In a matter of minutes Arjana had the ship nestled against one of the exterior docking rings and was currently entering override codes to open up the docking iris. Meanwhile the rest of the crew assembled in the ship's locker next to the airlock and started arming themselves. The Rambling Gent's armory wasn't much, one laser rifle and pistol for each crewman and one power cell that needed to be split between both weapons. Both weapons were “Azimuth" pattern, a dirt-cheap grade of weapon that was easily mass-produced by the gunsmiths in the Attien Combine and adequate for chasing off wild animals but not much else. Arc was certain his welder could do more damage if he needed to put something down but he holstered the pistol and rested the butt of the rifle against his shoulder all the same.

Once Arjana joined them and Ge-Vees was instructed to guard the ship, the crew walked through the airlock and up a dimly-lit stairwell. At the other end was a second sturdy bulkhead leading into another airlock. Along the way up, Arc was mindful of standard salvage operation procedures and took note of his surroundings. So far there wasn't anything that looked like an interface port he could plug his custom rig into and access the station's computer network to assess power and life support. The docking tunnel was long but that was to be expected given the amount of space rock shielding the colony inside from cosmic radiation.

As the four explorers gathered in the interior airlock, the door shut behind them and there was a brief burst of heat as automated decontamination protocols scrubbed them of common pathogens. Once the system was satisfied they were clean, the door ahead of them opened and the crew of the Rambling Gent stepped into the colony proper where they were greeted by blinding light.

Briefly blinded by the glare of reflected sunlight, Arc held up a gloved hand to shield his eyes. When his vision finally cleared, he found himself standing in a small clearing in the middle of a dense arboreal forest. The shift from the hard, angular metal corridors of the Rambling Gent to… this was so jarring that Arc immediately turned his head and looked behind him. The airlock was right there, a rectangular metal door buried in the side of a tall grassy foothill.

Arc wasn't the only one taken aback by this, Jim also stared flabbergasted at their surroundings before looking up. Captain Smith watched both men look around with a bemused smirk. “Oh come on now, I know this is Arc's first time in a cylindrical habit but come on Jim, you've been in these a few times before."

“Is that a lake up there?" Arc asked dumbfounded as he stared up at the “ceiling" of the cylinder and found a body of glistening blue water looking right back at him. The rational part of his brain was reminding him about things like centrifugal force and other basic physics lessons that explained how this was all possible but there was still a difference between knowing something is possible and actually seeing it.

Having seen similar constructions before, Jim's awe soon gave way to concern as a worried look appeared on his face. “Boss… where's the city?"

“What?" Smith replied, his face twisting in a confused expression.

“You said all the life signs were probably zoo exhibits that escaped. But I don't see anything that looks like a city from here. No city, no zoo." Jim replied

Smith shrugged. “Leave the worrying to me Jim, there probably is one somewhere or some access to the maintenance levels where we can find something worth the expense of bringing a larger crew back with us. Besides, if nothing else there's a lot of wood here and we got saws on the ship. Some Combine aristocrat will give their left nut for actual wooden furniture."

Silent so far, Arjana cleared her throat. “Funny you should mention the Attien Combine sir, you do know they're the closest polity to our current location right?"

“Yeah… so?" Captain Smith replied, frowning as he began to get visibly impatient with all the questions.

“Does a heavily over-urbanized civilization with a horrifying overpopulation problem strike you as the kind of people to build nature preserves sir?" She replied academically.

Before the conversation could continue any further, a rustling in the underbrush made the landing party jump and turn towards the jostling bush with weapons raised. “Who's there? Come out, show yourself!" Captain Smith ordered.

But nothing came out, the bush fell silent to their demands. Then, a flash of gray, like something was running on all fours. By the time Arc took aim and had the creature in the sights of his rifle, it was too late, the animal had disappeared behind a nearby ridge. At least, he thought it was an animal...

Smith shook his head as he watched the creature disappear. “Arc, activate a homing beacon and hide it somewhere above the air lock. Then lock the door and program a new code. Something simple we can all remember like 1111 or something. After you finish that, let's start looking for signs of civilization in that direction." The captain ordered, pointing in a direction that took them lengthwise down the cylinder.

The location of their ship was marked in short order and soon the landing party was on their way. One tree began to look like another before too long, causing Arc to appreciate the wisdom of marking their original location so they could find the ship again. The knotted needle and leaf-covered floor of the dense forest gave way to a lush grassland where the grass grew up to their shoulders before turning back to bare forest floor with only the occasional shrub where the sun broke through the dense forest canopy. He had to hand it to the original builders whoever they were, Arc's surroundings were beautiful for a seemingly endless stretch of grassy woodlands that made navigating a trick and a half.

Every so often the group would stop and look around to make a note of the terrain features above and around them before continuing on to keep from getting lost. No visible signs of habitation yet clearly someone lived here, the scavenger felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end like something was watching them. Something lingering just out of view. Every so often Arc could have sworn he caught a glimpse of whatever was stalking them but the moment he turned his head, they were gone. A flash of gray fur, a flicker of yellow eyes, was all he managed to make out before whatever it was vanished in the blink of an eye...

The array of mirrors and lenses the habitat used to simulate natural sunlight began to dim by the time the crew climbed one last rise in the middle of a vast rolling field and found themselves looking down at the first artificial structure since they arrived. A complex of interconnected buildings joined by rigid tunnels and raised walkways stood below them. The Gylorran salvage tech studied the buildings as the rest of the group argued about what to do next. Everything looked like it was built to last but also looked extremely uniform, like it was extruded out of a machine instead of built by hand. There was also a modular sense to the design, Arc spotted no less then three second-story doors that opened to empty space. Almost as if the colony was designed to be expanded module by module.

“What did I tell all of you." Smith began. “Our payday's right there."

“They could have done a better job building it closer to the docks or at least gave us a proper road to walk on." Arc replied, starting to share Jim and Arjana's unease. First time out in space and he felt like he was back in the Gylorran scrap fields, dodging native predators while looking for good salvage. Years of honed survival instincts were telling him that something was wrong, very wrong, with everything he had seen so far.

“Looks like a Combine colony." Jim replied. “Which makes no sense because nothing else here looks like something they'd build. Why shell out the credits for all this then go cheap on the last stretch?"

Captain Smith shook his head and started walking towards the complex. “Do you people want to go inside or have this discussion out in the dark?"

Arc sighed and followed after the ship's captain, the other two following suit right behind him. Smith was right of course, it would be dark long before they got back to where they left their ship. Whatever was wrong with this place, it could wait until morning. And if it couldn't, it was better to limit the number of directions it could come from.

There was nothing marking the perimeter of the colony compound, no automated sentries or other signs the explorers were not welcome on the premise. If there was anything stopping the four of them from walking in and filling their pockets with whatever would fetch a good price on the second-hand market, it wasn't out making itself known just yet.

At one point the colony had a small network of sidewalks and manicured lawns but the grass had been overgrown with the unnervingly pristine sidewalks marking the edge between the waist-high patches of grass. And no markings, no flags or signs proclaiming who had owned or founded this colony. Or signs showing which building did what, Arc noticed as the group followed Smith into the first building that looked promising.

The first building they entered turned out to be administration, everyone fanning out to better explore the building. The receptionist's desk and modest main foyer gave way to rows of empty cubicles ready and waiting for office workers to come in and perform mindless administrative tasks for the colony. One row of desks even had several computers that appeared functional. On a whim Arc turned one on and was greeted by a login screen with a cheerful smiley face logo he did not recognize glowing brightly back at him.

Pulling out his custom rig and setting it in front of the active computer, he quietly signaled the others over the comm. “I found a working computer in the cubicle farm. Going to try accessing it and seeing what I can find."

“Good, let us know if you find anything." Captain Smith answered back.

Arc nodded habitually even though there was no one to see his gesture and gently pulled the universal connector cable out from the side of his rig and plugged it into the desktop unit. Bringing up a basic password cracker he used to explore the secured parts of wrecked starships back on Gylorr, he started to crack the computer's security only to see the program promptly finish and thrust him right into the user interface. There was no security to crack. The previous user had left themselves logged on like they had just stepped away from their console for a few minutes.

A second later, the rookie scavenger was in and quickly skimming through programs and applications before accessing the colony's data network and bringing up the computer's email program. The email was unsurprisingly empty but the data network was surprisingly busy and full of content for an orbital that looked so sparsely inhabited. Unfortunately it was all very disorganized, sorting through it properly would take time he simply did not have even with the search programs he had on his rig.

Skimming the best he could, he focused on common discussion topics and noted the upload dates, comparing them against his wrist-mounted chronometer. There were a lot of very in-depth discussions concerning gene-grafting, biochemistry, and various mammalian predators from throughout inhabited space that was all over his head. Inter-spaced between these discussions was pictures drawn by different artists of varying levels of skill, most of the subjects were nude and a couple appeared to be anatomical impossibilities.

While the art was… imaginative, more worrying were the dates. One week ago, four days ago, two days ago, one day ago, yesterday evening. The last update was a general announcement posted this morning by someone who appeared to be the colonial governor.

“Citizens! Today is an important day for our community. Today is the day we take the first step towards beginning our expansion. Through a bit of cunning, I have brought four travelers to our colony. Three are from Gylorr, the planet of junk, while the fourth is a Fazhuran female. Smith, Arc, Jim, and Arjana have come expecting to find an abandoned station full of salvage and treasure. You know what really waits for them, ready the welcome..."

-Doctor Wells

Arc skimmed this announcement then promptly read it again, his blood growing colder. The moment he was finished, he immediately unplugged his rig and opened a channel with the rest of the crew.

“Captain… did you buy the coordinates for this place from a Dr. Wells? And did you tell him about the rest of us?" The Gylorran asked as he stuffed his custom rig back into his pocket.

“Now how in the Gyre do you know that Arc?" Smith answered Arc's question with one of his own. Arc could feel the bottom of his stomach vanishing.

“Because I'm reading a message he sent to the other colonists this morning captain. He's telling them to expect guests and mentions all of us by name. You, me, Jim, and Arjana." Arc replied as he heard the sound of the automatic doors gently sliding open behind him.

Grabbing his laser rifle and leaving the channel open on his custom rig, he turned and raised his weapon just as whoever walked in ducked behind the chest-high half-walls separating the cubicles. Resting his gun against his shoulder, he pointed the barrel of the weapon in the direction he thought the colonist had disappeared. “Alright, I know you're there and I have had just about enough with these games. Either stand the Gyre up and show yourself or there's going to be a lot less wall for you to hide behind."

His communicator echoed with the sound of Captain Smith demanding a status update but Arc was entirely focused on the person he had cornered.

Sticking its head around the side of the wall was a creature the Gylorr native never expected to see again once he got into space, a Woov. Six-legged, four-eyed lupine predators that roamed the ice fields and endless tundras of northern Gylorr, Arc killed more then a few of them in order to earn his pay. While surprising, the sight of one did not intimidate him even if it was snarling at him like this one.

What did scare him was how this one's head seemed to rise up behind the cubicle wall until she stood upright and Arc realized his error. This was not a Woov… this was a human woman that had modified her body to resemble one of Gylorr's fiercest predators. She had to be after all the bio-manipulation nonsense he found on their computer network. A nearly nude human woman with shaggy gray fur, a shapely figure… and four clawed hands soaked red with blood that Arc hoped to the All-Creator didn't come from the others. He suddenly became painfully aware that Arjana was their only pilot...

Keeping his weapon raised and pointed at the augmented woman, Arc tried to steel himself. “So… you gonna talk or just keep growling at me?" He asked.

“Silence hairless ape, you are not worthy of speaking to me." Came her answer accented with a heavy snarl.

Great, a transhumanist cult with a superiority complex. This is going to end well. He thought briefly. “Up yours fleabag, I'm the one holding the gun here."

“Brash of you to assume there was only one entrance into this place, typical ape. That flaw will be your undoing." His opponent replied with a nightmarish smile that showed all her teeth. All two rows of her sharp, knife-shaped teeth perfectly adapted for tearing large bites out of his flesh...

Arc became aware of the sound of other growling entities behind him and to his side. A faint bead of sweat began to form on his brow as he looked at the desk he was working at and the stairwell behind him. There was definitely a cultist between him and the stairwell but he had to chance it. Squeezing the trigger on his laser rifle, he shot and aimed wide, driving the Woov augment under cover before he hastily ran for the stairs.

Rising up and running to try and block his path, a human augmented with feline DNA from a creature he didn't recognize raced to intercept the fleeing Gylorran. Would have been successful too had Arjana not picked that exact moment to come down the stairs and quickly open the door, slamming the duralloy portal in cat-man's face.

Arc ran in and slammed the door shut behind him. The duo ran up the stairs to the third floor. Heart pounding in his chest, Arc waited until they were both through before sealing the metal door shut with a quick weld. It wasn't his best work by a long shot but it would hold long enough for them to figure out how to get out of this and back to the ship.

Switching off his welder and turning to size up their surroundings, he found the rest of the crew had already barricaded the other stairways… and that things were deteriorating between Jim and Captain Smith.

“Where in the Crypt Moons of Solitaire were those things hiding all this time?" Smith began, looking at Arc as he ignored the sight of Jim staring daggers at him.

Unfortunately for Smith, Arc was not having it either. “Well Cap'n, they're all animal people and it doesn't rain or snow here unless they make it happen so I imagine they all just get cozy in the forest."

“But you said they used the colony's data network. Only computers we saw are right here."

“Yeah these computers use the local network… so does my custom rig and all of our personal comm. units. You really willing to bet that a colony of self-modifying nutjobs we just met doesn't have those things too?"

“But-" Captain Smith was still clearly clinging to the hope that there was a big haul to be found here. Unfortunately for him he was the only one that still believed that was anything but a fairy-tale.

Arc threw up his hands and just walked away before he contributed to making things worse, heading towards a window. The third floor of the office building was much like the first. Largely open with most of the divisions made by temporary walls meant to denote cubicles and offices where colony functions were administered. Each of the four outer walls was dominated by massive bay windows that gave an excellent view of the surrounding area.

And while the day had “set" on the colony, the artificial systems keeping everything lit let in enough natural light to simulate a full moon and allowing the cornered human to get a general sense of how dire the situation was. Small groups of shadowy figures watched from the edge of the forest or roamed the overgrown lawns of the complex proper, disappearing into the tall grass only to gracefully reappear later. A few minutes later he became aware that Jim had appeared next to him.

“So how many of them do you think there are out there?"

“I count at least twenty on this side but of course it's hard to tell in the dark. Doesn't help that none of them seem to need flashlights or torches."

“That would be consistent with what little we've observed thus far. Arjana tells me most of the feline-augments seem to resemble some night-predator from equatorial Fazhara."

Arc rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Think the captain's going to look for a replacement for me when this is over?"

“I think the captain's going to need a replacement for all of us when this is done whether he wants one or not. I'm usually the one standing up for him when a plan doesn't come quite together but this… he's really stepped in it this time. I knew it, I KNEW something was wrong the moment we stepped on board. We should have turned right around the moment we found this compound."

“No, we should have turned around the moment we came aboard. They've been watching us ever since we startled one of them outside the airlock." Arc replied with the certainty of someone who had previous experience being hunted.

“You think that was one of them?" Jim asked.

“What else could it have been?"

“Okay, fair point. But still begs the question, why try to kill us?" The science officer replied, moving onto the next big question.

“I thought that one was obvious. They wouldn't have built a colony in the middle of nowhere if they were welcomed with open arms by one of the five polities. If we escape, we can ruin the whole thing. Even if the polities don't do anything about it, there's enough mercenaries and firepower for sale in any one polity that a private citizen can easily take care of these nutters themselves if they want."

“Well then why bring us aboard at all?"

“Maybe it's not us they want. Maybe they just want the Rambling Gent."

“But they have to have a ship already. How else would Dr. Wells be able to get off the colony and give Captain Smith the coordinates?"

“So? If they steal the Rambling Gent then they have two ships. Now they can go collecting converts twice as fast. I mean does these people look like the type to make their own ships?"

If Jim had anything to say to that, it was interrupted by the sound of something large banging against the door Arc welded shut moments ago. The weld continued to hold for the moment but the door visibly reverberated from the force being applied to it. The crew of the Rambling Gent grabbed their weapons and aimed at the door just as it was forced open.

The band of Woov cultists were greeted with a hail of laser fire, the searing beams burning flesh and causing gray fur to smolder before they were driven back. The other barricades began to buckle and shake from the force of other augmented pushing against them. There was only one way out and the crew all knew it. With a speed Arc didn't think he was capable of, he raced down the stairs with the others and was out the front door of the building in five minutes.

Out of the building and out in the open… he realized with a chill as he heard Jim scream. The other Gylorran had ran too close to the tall grass and was dragged screaming into the foliage. Blood soaked hands reached out onto the worn concrete as Jim tried desperately to pull himself away from his assailants. Arc caught a flicker of blood-soaked mouths, of Jim missing pieces of his body, and found himself giving into the urge to flee.

Running as fast as he could, heart pounding in his chest, Arc raced through the woods constantly aware that death was only a few steps behind him. Running after the others, he soon caught up with Arjana and Smith just as they arrived at the edge of a large meadow with waist-high grass waving gently in the night breeze. Arc realized this was a trap, they all did, but unfortunately it was still the fastest way back to the ship. So with their pulses still racing, the three of them ran through the tall grass.

Soon all he could hear was the sound of grass crunching beneath his feet and his own heavy breathing. All-Creator, was the field this large when they came through the first time? Arc wondered and looked back just in time to see Smith get pounced by a black-furred blur and scream as he disappeared beneath the tall grass. The salvager kept running, up ahead Arjana drew her laser pistol and fired into meadow, seemingly blindly. Stupid Fazharan… he thought briefly before what she was really doing became apparent.

The grass smoldered then caught fire with a burst of flame that burned brightly before quickly spreading. Arc had barely cleared the meadow before a roaring blaze cut off his escape. Behind him the transhumanists screamed and howled, their pursuit foiled for a moment. The two humans took the opportunity to keep running, their flight fueled by pure adrenaline. The Rambling Gent was just ahead….

The homing beacon came to life as soon as it sensed the approaching duo, revealing the airlock's location to them. Arc frantically entered in the code he programmed earlier then ushered Arjana in ahead of him. Slamming the reinforced alloy door shut behind him, he turned on his welder a second time and began to weld the door shut, this time making sure it was strong enough that no one would be able to break through without proper tools. As he switched off his welder, he felt a strong pang of guilt before reminding himself that there was nothing that could be done about Jim or Smith. Nothing he could do about the dead.

Arjana was at the helm doing pre-flight procedures when Arc came aboard and locked the airlock door behind him. “We all aboard? All of us left at any rate?"

His sole companion for the trip home was silent for a moment. “Yes… just you, me, and Ge-Vees." She answered sadly, probably trying as hard to avoid thinking about what had just happened as he had.

“Is the board all green?"

“Ye-yes. Looks like they didn't sneak aboard and sabotage anything." She replied, her hands visibly shaking as she finished punching the controls. Arc imagined he didn't look much better.

“Get us out of here then, there's nothing we can do for the others. Not anymore."

As the Rambling Gent took off and the colony disappeared behind them, the rookie scavenger sat down in the seat next to the robotist and exhaled. A colony of cultists that was going to have to be marked off and hopefully dealt with at some point. Two dead, including the captain, and absolutely nothing to show for it. The two of them were going to have a lot of explaining to do when they got back home….

To: Magos Barker

From: Magos Romero

As per the Archmage's request, I am sharing all the information I have managed to gather on individuals that pose a threat to our conquest of the Gliding Rim Galaxy. The following is most of what I managed to gather on an individual known as Arc, general statistics (compiled in a format similar to our files on the members of the Starfinder Society for ease of reference) and the account of one of his earliest exploits shown above. I understand you have questions on the accuracy of the latter item but finding sources to verify it have been understandably… difficult.

Name: Arc (Real Name Unknown)

Species: Human of Gylorrian descent

Gender: Male

Age: Late twenties, possibly early thirties at the most. Stresses of the Gliding Rim make age-reading a difficult proposition.

Homeworld: Gylorr

Polity: Thriftic Binary

“Class": Appears to be a Mechanic though the unique specializations of the Gliding Rim Galaxy make it hard to tell.

Affiliations: Touchdown Salvage (former), Truthseekers (current)