Session 9: Auction Part Deux Report

As the first evening of the auction closed, the party was led down the elevator to a lower level containing a private sleeping area dedicated to their retinue. The Memory Market had done an excellent job of providing security for their valuable items and the Starfinders were beginning to think that there was no way they were going to leave with the ZAX memory fragment they came to retrieve. The options seemed few, and risky. Steal the item? How would they pull that off without triggering alarms and bringing the whole security force (and likely the other patrons) crashing down on them? Buy the item? Not really plausible given how fast the bids were rising during the auction. Etcetera.   Smartly, however, the Starfinders decided to work the room of the auction, going major bidder to major bidder. During one such intereaction, Dutch convinced a Vesk working for Zevrakka that a ZAX unit had led to apocalypse on his home world and gave a chilling speech about the resulting apocalypse. (out of game, a clutch nat 20 sealed the deal and shifted this Vesk from war mongering to an internal resurgence of their humanity.) Redspike's conscience became a new angle on how to secure the memory fragement, but it all depended on his decision to play along with a conspiratorial "mugging" the next day. However, given that returning without the fragment would likely result in dire punishment, he decided to sleep on the decision and inform the party the mext morning.   As the party was led down to their temporary quarters, they briefly considered how everything could work. They again considered the heist option. It was a no-go. If Redspike agreed, what would they do? Pickpocket him (with his consent?) or swap it for a fake? They chose the latter and through a series of brilliant crafting rolls, scavanged an older chip from one of the sleep pods, had ZAX-17 build some plausible code for it, and scuffed it up so that it resembled the auction item.   In the morning, the rumor the party had implanted about Intra-Val's desired AI companion had done its work, and she handily acquired it for the opening bid. Earlier that morning during breakfast, Dutch again convinced Redspike to continue the plan, and they successfully swapped the actual memory fragment for the fake and slid off into the Drift with their spoils. It remains to be seen how long Zevrakka will be fooled or what code ZAX-17 put onto the chip... Meanwhile, ZAX examined the Fragment, and discovered that it was actually part of him. He is hesitant to incorporate it without more study.   As the next session begins, the Starfinders have dropped Intra-Val back home on Absalom, and ZAX is continuing his analysis of the fragment. The party has levelled up and is now 20K credits richer. As the mysteries reveal some of the secrets it seems even more queue up behind them. Two questions remain: what will this memory fragment do if ZAX incorporates it, and what is the name of this starfinding party??