Rbz24: Spoils

General Summary

The crew came to. Which was more than they expected. Their ship was adrift, emergency lights flickering dimly, punctuated by showers of sparks. A mechanical siren while an air pressure warning as atmosphere vented out through a number of holes throughout the ship.
But they were alive, and the three of them sprung into action. Quinn had the bright idea of using his plants to help seal the hull breaches. It was a wild idea for Benesh and Saskia, but given the desperate state of the ship, it was as good an idea to try as any. The resilient cork of one of the vines proved especially well suited to the task, squeezing into smaller fractures and the binding the damaged hull together like an organic bandage.
Before long, they were able to get backup power generators online and Benesh climbed up to the cockpit to use the sensors to take a look around. Nash was slumped at the back of the bridge, catatonic after the explosion. The Rampart was gone, that much was easy enough to surmise, with the asteroid smashed to bits. And the battle between the pirate fleets was long over. However, when a strange object tumbled across his vision. It was a strangely polyhedral obelisk, covered in vines that seemed to glow faintly against the backdrop of the nebula.
"Quinn, get up here and take a look at this," he yelled down toward the engine room.

Quinn couldn't believe his eyes as he gazed at the strange object, "That's it. Exactly as the refugees described. Its vitalizing powers cause the vines to grow all over it. We need to get it aboard!"
As Benesh began to maneuver the Rubezahl closer to the relic, it quickly dawned on the crew that this would be no simple endeavor -- the relic was easily as long as the Rubezahl and would certainly not fit inside. Whatever they wanted to do, however, they would have to do it soon. The pirate fleet was now on the move, several of the larger cruisers cruising toward the asteroid base, perhaps to collect trophies from their kill.
"Maybe we can tow it with us... or hide it somewhere," Benesh suggested over the intercom as he repositioned the ship. Saskia was already putting on her EVA suit and stood at the precipice of the cargo bay, tow cable in hand. It was an all too familiar sensation as she got ready to jump at yet another object floating in space.
This time, she nailed the jump perfectly. Her thrusters slowed her just enough that she was able to stop herself with her hands, grabbing onto several sturdy vines to prevent herself from drifting away. As she pulled herself onto the relic's surface, however, she knew exactly what she was dealing with. In fact, she's worked with this kind of material before, as a occasional smuggler trafficking in black market artifacts. Rather than tying the cable around the relic, she pulled it tightly into the material... which parted like a heavy clay!
She excitedly explained her finding to her very confused crewmates as she pocketed a piece of the relic material. They quickly realized the potential of breaking the relic into smaller pieces, so as to hide them within the debris, and recomposing it later. They worked quickly, pushing the relic pieces into crevasses even as the pirate ships' braking burns began to light up like freshly forged stars.

---

"Yarr, we be needin' repairs. Perhaps you can help us for our share of the booties?" Benesh growled into the microphone with his best pirate impression, trying to not to wince at the ridiculousness of the request. But after only a short pause, the Oathkeeper captain replied in the affirmative.
Before long, a pirate shuttle was docked to the Rubezahl and Reinhard was leading a roudy crew of pirates onto their ship. The pirates got to work -- which meant they were helping themselves to the stash of booze in the mess as they sank seashanties.
A few of them did manage to patch up part of the hull and electrical systems, while the others did just as much damage shorting out the lighting and tearing down the cork vines holding the ship together. It was all Benesh and the others could do to diplomatically usher them back onto the shuttle. At least if they were off the ship, they wouldn't accidentally vent them all into the vacuum... or come across their hidden relic pieces.

---

With a battle- and booze-sated Reinhard back on their ship, and the sleezy Nash returned to the pirates, the crew patched the Rubezahl up as best they could. The Oathkeepers did not linger long, many of their ships jumping away, no doubt for fresh plunder. It was fortuitous as it left them alone to retrieve their stashed relic pieces and set course back to Elysium to return the relic to the refugees.

Report Date

28 May 2022

Primary Location

Rampart

Secondary Location

Orange-Green Nebula

Related Plots

• S2. Relic Hunter