>Last time in Freelance Ghost Quest: You went to the Xel’naga worldship with the High Templar and his guard, and discovered a psionic will inside the ship’s engine or power core. It tried to make you reactivate it, but you resisted, and joined Siladus at what is most likely the bridge.

“Siladus, what do you make of this?” You gesture to the special chair, then to the rest of the room.

“It’s most likely the bridge. Every system is inert, but the lay-out seems to fit. The chair in the middle seems to be connected directly into the ship with those crystals. I’d say whoever sat there would have been able to psionically control most of the ship.”

You head towards the chair and put your hand on one of the crystals. You look for something similar to what was in the giant crystal. You know what to look for now, but you fail to find anything similar. There is something there, but it feels distant, as if it’s not in the room itself.

You look around to the rest of the bridge. What would probably be the crystals meant to project the main screen are broken. One of the consoles is warped as if someone or something was thrown against it very hard. The rest seems more or less intact.

“I cannot discern any more information.” The High Templar says in general, but mostly meant for you. “I doubt trying the chair would be a good idea, but perhaps we could see if the consoles here react to you too?”

>1. Sounds like a plan. Head for one of the intact consoles and see if it reacts.
>2. Just go and sit in the chair. You know you want to.
>3. Try to discern what the feeling at the chair is. (will have to roll)
>4. Write in.

>>34343332
First
>3
then check that one damaged console and finally:
>1

>>34343466
Writing.

>>34343625
I mean, roll me some d20's. Derp.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>34343637
here we go

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>34343637

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>34343637

>>34343679
>>34343711
>>34343727
Well, that's a failure. Writing.

“Wait a second, there’s something…”

The feeling at the chair seemed similar to that in the crystal, but you can’t put your finger on it. You concentrate and try to find it, where it comes from. You can’t get a proper lock on it though. There’s one thing you did learn from your attempt. Whatever it is that’s connected to the chair, it’s not in the room itself.

The damaged console peaked your interest as well. You head towards it, but all you find is that it’s the same kind of console as the rest, but slightly smashed. Perhaps whoever was manning it was slammed into it so it bent? From the looks of how severely dented the console is, he or she wouldn’t have survived.

Finally, you head to one of the intact consoles. You put your hand over it, expecting it to start displaying all kinds of holograms, but all you get is a faint glow coming from one of the crystals, and most people wouldn’t have even noticed that.

“Maybe try another? It might be broken?” Siladus helpfully interjects. You follow his advice, but the next console gives the same reaction. The third and final intact console reacts differently though. As you hover your hands over it, suddenly a piercing sound erupts from it. You see sparks flying from all the crystals, and start backing off. After a sudden flash of light erupting from the console your vision fades to black.

When you come to, the smoke is still settling. You can’t have been out for more than a few seconds. You try to get up, but find it harder than you though. Some of the remains of the console were bent by the explosion and are holding you down. Once your mental capacity has recovered enough, you realise the thing exploded from the inside, as only the front metal bar attached to its now bent legs presses against you.

With some effort, you manage to bend them back far enough to escape its clutch. Mentally, you thank Quartus for giving you the armour, you probably wouldn’t have survived with your old ghost outfit.
The rest of the room is unharmed. The protoss seem shaken but no one was hurt, although you see Siladus’s psi shield glimmering for a moment. The next thing you notice is that there’s crystal dust everywhere. The explosion probably came from the crystals themselves. A malfunction of some kind? Suddenly you’re really glad you didn’t activate that power crystal.

>1. Head out to one of the other locations (crystal array or containment cells).
>2. Talk to one of the protoss about something (specify who, and what to say).
>3. Write in.

>>34344037
Let's head to those containment cells then

>>34344037
>>1. Head out to one of the other locations containment cells

>>34344225
>>34344235
Writing

You tell your companions you want to check out the containment cells. Ur’athan warns you that they plan to leave soon, so he’d rather you stay in contact. The path there is uneventful, but the structure itself is quite interesting. It looks vaguely triangular in shape, but has two lower side-wings making it into a five-point star. You enter through the front doors at the tip of the triangle, and immediately you see the similarities with the temple on Lahan II. The room is filled with rows and rows of tubes connected to both ceiling and floor.

This time however, they’re not filled with dangerous felines. In fact, most of them are shattered, and you can see the vague shape of what used to be bones in some dust in one of the closer cells. Once you reach the next room though, you notice an immediate change. The air is a bit more humid, and the room is slightly warmer. You look around carefully and see some green here and there. It’s not a large plant, but there’s a lot of them. Small ten-centimetre sprouts stick out of several crevasses in the machinery. Most of which seems to be semi-functional up to a point. The plants might be leeching off the energy in some way, you figure.

>Anything specific you still want to do before you go back to the planet?
>1. Go to the middle crystal and do what it wanted you to do.
>2. Check out the crystal array real quick. You won’t have much time to actually do anything there anymore though.
>3. Head back to the shuttle.
>4. Write in.

>>34344530
Let's take a gamble?
>1
But be prepared, we might have to leave really fast if this backfires

>>34344530
>>1. Go to the middle crystal and do what it wanted you to do.
Pressing the button

>>34344595
Uh, no. How about
>2

>>34344595
>>34344639
Just wanted to add that these are incredibly bad ideas that aren't supported by what happened on the bridge. This ship is scuttled and reactivating the main reactor would be incredibly dangerous.

>>34344530

I'll go along with the "push button" plan, but let's consult the templar first and tell the guys to hold on to their butts.

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>>34344595
>>34344639
>>34344669
Oh my. Seems to be some opposition, so I'm going to give you some more time.

>>34344666
I tend to trust ancient computers when they tell me to do something, maybe back in the day those problem-solving programmes actually worked?

No, I admit it's a stupid idea but just imagine if this thing actually works

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>>34344666

>>34344717

Samefag from >>34344669

I don't really have a strong feeling one way or another, as long as we don't just randomly go out of our way to fuck shit up. I'd be fine if we did it after consultations with the Templar though.

>>34344838
Lets consult with the Templar first. But keep in mind most of the ship is FUCKED UP. So if we do start anything up, we'd first have to consult with the intelligence in the crystals with a 'start slow and easy, you're in a bad way' suggestion.

I still think it's a bad idea, but if others want to do it, that's my advice.

So, just confirmation before we do anything here. Please reply only with ">X" Where X is the number of your vote.

>1 = push the button.
>2 = don't push the button

>>34344865
>>34344877
Hmm, let's just say that if the push button vote wins we still inform the high templar and try to talk to the crystal.

>>34344877
>1
(can you add the option to consult the templar fist as well?)

>>34344899
>>34344896
>>34344877
Illegal vote. Please only put ">1" or ">2" in your post.

And your concern has been noted

>>34344896
>1

>1

Screw it, it seems that there's enough of consensus to pretty much just talk to the templar and the crystal about it, I'll write that before asking another vote.

There’s still something nudging you to the center pylon though. You exit the containment building and head back to the middle structure. On the way there, you psionically contact the High Templar.

“Templar, I’ve been thinking about that crystal in the middle a lot. There’s just something strange about it. Do you think it might be reasonable to try to activate it after all?”

There’s a long pause before he replies. “I had already been cautious about activating it at the start, but after what happened in the bridge I would advise you to not do so. Or at least to wait. We know that this section is fairly stable, so I would prefer to have my and my men examine everything first. Perhaps you can come back later once we know more about it.”

You take that into consideration. You can always come back later. You’ll be down at the planet for several more weeks, so you suppose there’s plenty of time to consider and hear what the protoss find out about it. Still, there’s this nagging feeling in the back of your head. You continue your way to the pylon, and once there, you immediately feel a bit of pressure to push the symbol again. You resist it much more easily now that you expect it though.

You reach out to the presence in the pylon, and try to ask what is wrong with it. What needs to be done to help it and what it would do once it is ok again. You’re not sure it got the message though, as all you can feel is the constant asking to activate the symbol on the dais.

Roll me a d20 for knowledge/intuition.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>34345239
rolaen

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>34345239

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>34345239

>>34345252
>>34345257
>>34345258
Failure. Writing.

Rolled 18, 19, 17, 15, 10, 11, 15, 8, 11, 14 = 138 (10d20)

>>34345283

Dice gods are not with us this day.

>>34345353
Initial rolls there suggest good rolls can be found.

You get a sudden thought flashing through your mind, but before you realise what it is, it’s gone again.

You consider what you know about the place now, before you make any decision that might have a big impact. It’s a large ship from the same race that made the temple that transformed you. It’s thousands, maybe ten thousands of years old, and much of it is shattered into pieces. This part you’re in is the most stable of them all, and probably the most intact whole piece.

The power core seems to be semi-sentient, or at least has a psionic presence, and it wants you to help it. Or force you to help it. Once that is done, it will try to continue to serve its master’s goals, whatever they may be. There may or may not be another similar presence in or near the bridge, but it seemed much more faint. There was also an explosion when you tried activating a malfunctioning console there, and the others didn’t seem to have enough power to activate.

Finally, the High templar would prefer you wait with activating it again until it has been studied further. There’s plenty of time to activate it later once it might have been established that something like on the bridge won’t happen on a larger scale.

The pylon continues glowing bright green in front of you, dimming and brightening every few seconds, as if asking you to do something.

>Activate the crystal?
>1. Yes. Go for it.
>2. No. Head back to the shuttle now.

>>34345455
>2. No. Head back to the shuttle now.

>>34345455

>2. No. This ship is not going anywhere. Let's hone our subtlety under sensei's guidance before trying to commune with the vessel again.

>>34345501
>>34345557
Ok, writing.

>>34345455
>>1. Yes. Go for it.

You decide against activating it, and head back to the shuttle. The ride back to the planet is uneventful, and your companions are silent. Some of the zealots look at you weirdly though. It seems some of them are suspicious of you from being able to activate the terminals.

Once you arrive at the spaceport, Ur’athan starts giving out orders to a multitude of protoss gathered there. Many of them get tools and head into shuttles of themselves, and more protoss than you had seen together in the outpost depart for the worldship not long after you touched down.

The High templar tells you to take the afternoon off. He wants to meditate on their findings, and you head to your cabin to eat. After a sober meal, more substantial than the protoss’ meals of sunshine, but not much more, you have a free afternoon and evening to spend.

>1. Try to find out of probes have a personality (aka operation: pester probes).
>2. Go spar with one of your zealot friends.
>3. Try to find an engineer or something and see if you can’t find out what protoss daily lives are like.
>4. Write in.

>>34345819
>2. Go spar with one of your zealot friends.
MUST BECOME ZEALOT MK2

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>>34345819

>1. Try to find out if probes have a personality

(I don't have a face when google turned up with pic related)

>>34345819
>1. Try to find out of probes have a personality (aka operation: pester probes).

>>34345819
>2. Go spar with one of your zealot friends.
Or both. Both would be good.

>>34345865
>>34345931
>>34345962
>>34346007
Sorry, got called away for a moment. It's a tie, and has been for a while, so I'm just gonna roll to see which one you do first. You can do both of them just fine.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>1. Probe
>2. Zealot.

You decide to look up the few friends you’ve made in the zealot ranks. You’ve been assigned a set of psi-blades which you have been allowed to modify so it fits on your suit, and you’ve also had a few instructions by Ur’athan how to properly utilise psionics for shielding, so your psi shield has improved quite a bit already. It’s still not up to par for actual hand to hand combat with a zealot, but it’s fine for a spar.

You quickly find a young eager zealot wanting to face you. Well, ‘young’. He’s about two hundred years old. Still. He’s one of the less experienced warriors, and he’s eager to prove himself. He’s slightly overconfident too, so that might give you the edge you need.

You enter the small arena, and your appearance is enough to quickly get several other protoss gathered around the sparring area. You mentally go over the rules again to make sure you got them and to strategise. Both users keep up their psi shield form-fitting. The moment you hit your opponent, you back off and both combatants return to their corner before continuing the fight. Hit your opponent three times and you win.

The protoss in front of you has an eager look on his face. His body language signals a rush, but you’ve seen the zealots fight before, and they like their feints. Still, you think it might be low-key enough to make it not a diversion.

>1. Prepare to counter a frontal rush.
>2. Take a defensive stance, be ready for whatever he throws at you.
>3. Take the initiative. Rush him first.
>4. Write in.

>>34346554

>Prepare to counter a frontal rush
Let's see how zealous he is.

>>34346554
>2. Take a defensive stance, be ready for whatever he throws at you.

>>34346554
>>1. Prepare to counter a frontal rush.
Can we trip him and tag him on the waypast?

>>34346616
That was more or less one of the counters I had in mind.

>>34346583
>>34346592
>>34346616
Writing.

>>34346735
I mean, roll me some d20's

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>34346770

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>34346770

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>34346770

Come at me, bro.

>>34346803
>>34346889
>>34346920
Critical success, writing.

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>>34346920

You prepare yourself for a frontal rush, and you were right to do so. The zealot rushes towards you and tries to deliver a mighty uppercut with his psi blades, but you let yourself drop down and roll forward. While passing by, you tag his leg with your psiblade, but make sure to keep it at that.

That was surprisingly easy. Your opponent has a stunned look on his face, and after a few moments he starts glowering and heads back to his corner. Doesn’t look like he’ll underestimate you like that anymore.

The second round starts, and he’s a lot more careful now. He dances around you a bit, probes you, but doesn’t commit to his attacks. You’ve just read his movement, and you think he’s expecting you to wait until he attacks again.

>1. Prove him wrong. Rush him down when he least expects it.
>2. Stay on the defensive, wait for an opening.
>3. Feint a counter-attack when he tries probing you again, then hit him if he falls for it.
>4. Write in.

>>34347033
>4 Feint an attack, lure him out.

>>34347033
>4.
Subtly unscrew one of the psi-blades with our powers, assault him, throw the psi-blade projector at him as a feint for a strike, then while he's confused and hit in the face, ATTACK

>>34347033
>3. Feint a counter-attack when he tries probing you again, then hit him if he falls for it.

>>34347107
>>34347125
>>34347129
Writing.

>>34347033
>>1. Prove him wrong. Rush him down when he least expects it.

You wait a moment for another one of his probes, but while you do, you bend the rules a bit. You use your psionic powers to subtly loosen one of your psi blades, and when he probes, you use that arm to go for a counter attack.

Only, you immediately pull back, but let the psi blades fly forward. They have enough power left to flicker for another half second once disconnected from you, but it’s more than enough to unbalance your opponent. He swats away your lone psi blade, but puts on too much weight, expecting there to be an arm to provide counterweight. You simply tap him in the gut with your other blade, and calmly walk to pick up your loose one, leaving the protoss standing there in confusion.

Laughs erupt from the crowd. You lost track of it, but in the very short while you’ve been fighting, you’ve attracted quite a bit of attention. There’s probably about twenty protoss standing around watching the fight.

A sudden movement in the corner of your eye refocusses your attention, and you barely manage to dodge a blow. Right, stay focussed. Your opponent is clearly angry now, but it’s a calm and seething rage, one of the more dangerous kinds. He’s ready to expect anything after that little trick, and he doesn’t want to lose to you so easily.

>1. Go on the defensive again.
>2. Keep feinting attacks. Unbalance him until you see an opening.
>3. Rush him. You’ve been mainly defensive for the whole fight, time to change things up a bit.
>4. Write in.

>>34347201
>>34347350
And yes, I just gave you a free hit without needing to roll because the strategy was so outlandish he'd never have expected it or known how to counter.

>>34347350

>1. Go back on the defensive and take advantage of opponents now no doubt more cautious attacks

>>34347350
>Rush him. You’ve been mainly defensive for the whole fight, time to change things up a bit.
Let's go with this after all it's time to loosen up a bit and go on the offensive here, not like we can try another trick with him being hyper aware of all our trickery going full frontal assult will catch him off guard.

>>34347350
relax, calm down and put a smile on our face, count as
>1
But with some added psychological warfare

>>34347350
>4
Go in heavy, assault him, after a few seconds of offensive, utilise the same trick with both psy blades, then use our own body to attack.

If that isn't allowed, then simply utilise his own psi-blade to tag himself

>>34347446
You do have to tag him with psi blades, yes.

>>34347474
Can we tag him with his own psiblades?
Can we move fast enough that we can reclaim a lost psi-emitter and emplace it upon our foot? (We aren't wearing shoes right?)

>>34347446
This guy is a zealot, not an amateur... might be a bit to overconfident if we'd try to take him out with his own gear

>>34347496
Technically, yes, you can tag him with his own blades, and if you're in the middle of a fight, no you won't have time to put it on your foot. You are wearing your regular armour, and even without it, it wouldn't fit on your feet properly. Not to mention it'd be extremely hard to channel it through your feet.

>>34347504
The thing is, is that as >>34347125
Proved, outlandish tactics work.
For a Zealot, giving up your own weapon would basically be giving up your own soul, I'm suggesting giving up our weapon entirely to gain an edge over our enemy.

Maybe doing that and kicking him over, then reclaiming our psi-blades would work...

>>34347558
>Not to mention it'd be extremely hard to channel it through your feet.
Really? Darn.
Oh well, it was worth a shot. Maybe we can get some foot-psi-emitters for winning the fight or something

>>34347571
you're thinking about psionically unscrewing his weapons? that would be awesome, maybe do it before he tries to parry one of our hits so that he loses his blade when it strikes?

>>34347638
That would be dangerous, but very crafty.
Actually, since he's angry that might also work, changing my vote to this.

>>34347394
>>34347417

defence

>>34347398
>>34347446
rush

Hmm, we're kinda on a tie. gonna roll tie-breaker in 3 minutes if there's no new votes.

Also, if the rush wins, the weapon throwing tactic discussed would be a lot harder to pull off than a regular rush attack, so I'm going to keep it at the easier one. Remember, you haven't had that much training with psi blades yet either.

>>34347593
Basically, the principle (well, how I envision it and thus it ends up in the quest) is that it's an extension of your arm, more or less. It might work to apply the same principle on your legs, but it'd be highly impractical and situational, and you'd need a lot more training to manage.

>>34347681
I'm changing my vote to offense, meaning this:
>>34347638

>>34347638
>>34347655
His weapons are in his shield, so you don't have the fine manipulation on them like you had on your own. Not gonna work like that.

>>34347705
shame, back to my original vote

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>34347703
>>34347716
Ok, rolling tiebreaker then.
>1. Defensive.
>2. Offensive.

>>34347743
Offensive it is then.

>>34347760
And I should stop forgetting to call for rolls in the post I call the votes in.

Yes, some d20's are in order.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>34347783

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>34347783
Eolab

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>34347783

Don't let him get away with a peace of us, boy.

>>34347789
>>34347801
>>34347836
Failed, oh so narrowly. Writing.

>>34347848
Actually, cancel that, I forgot to factor something in, narrow success.

>>34347848

hey, can't take him for all of his pride. We just taught him a valuable lesson to never underestimate his opponent...

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>>34347836

>piece
o well, we getting shrekt anyway.

>>34347862
Yaaaaaaaay

You smile at him. It’s probably the worst insult you could have given him at that moment. He still moves cautiously, but you can see his movements being ever so slightly more unrefined. He’s slowly closing in, and you simply jump towards him.

You use the momentum and height gained from your jump to slash downwards with both your blades, but he catches it in time and you land on front of him in a crouched position while he’s pushed backwards a bit. You recover faster though, and while he’s fast too, you tag his chest with your psi blades as you rise, just a second before he tags your shoulder with his own blade.

The last one was close, but you still had a flawless victory. The crowd erupts in cheers, and your opponent shoots you an angry look and stomps out of the ring. You feel a hand coming to rest on your shoulders.

“Don’t mind him. He’s young, arrogant, and you’ve just taught him a very valuable lesson. By Adun, I just hope he realises that last part.” You recognise Silanus’ ‘voice’. “Anyway, that was an impressive battle. You’ve improved tremendously with the psi blades. You fight very dirty though, and us Zealots are used to honourable combat. It unbalanced him to see someone fight like that, but it’s the message the High Templar has been trying to spread for a while now. Our enemies won’t abide by our pre-set rules and meet us honourably, and we have to change to be able to beat them.”

>How do you respond?
>1. It was a good fight.
>2. I suppose they haven’t really had to fight for their lives against a stronger opponent yet. That teaches you to fight like that.
>3. I’m disappointed it ended so soon. I thought the elite Zealot warriors were tougher than that.
>4. Write in.

>>34348005
>I suppose they haven’t really had to fight for their lives against a stronger opponent yet. That teaches you to fight like that.
Nothing teaches you adaptability like fighting something three times your size that's faster stronger and tougher than you.

>>34348005
>4
"I wish I didn't have to fight dirty, anything less and I'd have most likely been beaten ten times over."
"Maybe next time I won't have to resort to such petty tricks, and we can fight fairly"

>>34348005

>It was a good fight
>As you say, enemies don't abide by rules. Embarassment in a sparring ring is preferable to death in battle, I think...
To be fair we are pretty unique specimen, and I don't think we've been told to obey some specific rules, have we?

>>34348005
We weren't trained in the use of psi-blades like he was, clearly we deserved an edge

>>34348110
Not really. You abided by the technical ruleset, seeing how there's nothing in there that says you can't throw your psiblades. They just don't consider trickery like that very honourable.

>>34348087
>>34348110
Second

>>34348110
>>34348087
>>34348049
Writing

“It was a good fight. As you say, enemies don’t abide by rules, embarassment in a sparring ring is preferable to death in battle, I would say.”

Siladus lets out a laugh. “Yes, that much is true.”

“And nothing teaches you how to fight like that than going up against things twice your size and three times your strength that are trying to kill you. I suppose they haven’t really had to fight for their lives against stronger opponents?”

“A lot of them have, but the younger ones still have their heads full of heroic tales of honourable combat. Out detachement specifically hasn’t seen much action in the past century or so.”

He pauses for a moment. Many protoss still linger around, eager to see you fight again, but Siladus steps forward. “Well, what is everyone standing about for? Get back to work everyone!”

He turns back to you and continues. “I have to go back to my duties as well. It is as you said, it was a good fight. Perhaps one day you might face me in here and prevail, though I don’t think you’re quite there yet.” He smiles at you before he turns away and leaves the room.

>That’s it for tonight folks. I’ll start next thread with probe pestering.
>Next thread Tuesday at its earliest, more likely to be Wednesday.

>>34348318

Thanks OP, it was a good thread, as always.

>>34348318
Thanks OP goodnight!

>>34348318
"I might be able to help with that by making a few tests or drills for others to perform. Half of it is in the surprise, but I think you'll need it."

>>34348318
Thanks for running, Supervisor. Can't wait to find out what dark and ancient secrets we uncover from dicking around with their Probes.