Reroll

Betty shrugs at Ed's unfinished question, “I'm game for a meeting, but maybe we want to have THEM join US. We're the ones with the nukes, after all.”

I chuckle, “And maybe we bring a few of the refugees while we're at it.”

I consider, “I was planning on showing up, either way; I want to check and see if an Amulet of Undead Persuasion can feed a vampire from a different mythos successfully.”

Betty considers, “So you want to make vegan vampires?”

Ed nods, “Sounds like it… and great if it works. If the point is peace, giving predators the option of NOT eating people is kind of a requirement.”

“Yes.  All I have to do is collect the amulet from…” Oh, wait… “my Crafting crew…”

Betty gets it, “Who will have vanished along with all of your other active minions when you died.”

Ed gets worried, “Then… who's steering the party ship?”

“Sir Issac Newton?” I'm trying to inject a little humor.

Nobody laughs, though, and Ed flips into practical mode, “Fair point: She was in a stable orbit… ship, please plot the party ship's expected position, and calculate a suitable intercept course.”

The shipboard VI complies, making a nice hologram of an expected path.

I nod, “Send this to the current pilot, we'll need to handle this sooner rather than later.”  I mean, our ship will be fine for quite some time.  The random satellite that happens to hit her shields, though?  It's toast.  Worse, the ship will eventually de-orbit, and I’d rather not find out what happens when a skyscraper sized chunk of super tough future metals wrapped around a massive nuclear reactor hits the ground at orbital speeds, especially when there is NO warning because nobody on the ground can see it.  We have months if not years before that happens, but still… I use my comm to confirm with my pilot that we're heading that way now.

We are.

Now, the main ship is cloaked, and well; the Advanced Gray Cloak is the best cloak in the game.  However, at close enough range, it's beaten by Ultra sensors… which I have.  And of course, we know right where it should be.  So in theory, this is a simple matter.

I make the announcement while we travel, “Attention all guests, we plan on offering you two basic choices: We can drop you off basically any place on Earth you'd like.  Alternatively, you can join our resistance faction. You'll need to follow orders, and tell us all about what you can do in detail.  Most of the time, you'll be stationed shipside, and expected to work; when we have need of your specific skills, we'll come and talk to you.  Take your time and think it over; we'll have a rep visit each of you individually for your answers over the next couple of days.”  I figure there's few enough of them that individual meetings are fine.  And if not, I can push them off to shadows.  

I replace all the buffs that vanished when I died, on myself, Ed, and Betty, while we travel. We find the main ship without any hassle.  I do get an annoying report, however: The shields are fully up.  We can't dock with them like that.

We hail it to be sure… the VI answers, but doesn't have access, as we didn't buy that upgrade. The computer does at least confirm the party ship is empty, and that Betty and Ed's ships are docked okay.  But that's okay.  We can deal with the shields for a very simple reason:

The mothership can't fire back without a gunner.

We pick our spot, take aim, and whittle down the shields with my ship's weapons while we scan to see how much further we need to go.  It takes a while (we deliberately go slowly, to minimize the damage to the ship), and eventually the shields give way with only a little scorching on the hull.

At which point, I fly out through an airlock.  Of course I'm buffed up for it, can fly, and have Starfinder armor, all of which is vacuum rated.  The ship accepts my palm, and I'm in. So I get out my Library, and fill the ship back up with crew. Things go much better after that.  We get Ed and Betty over as well, of course, which is much easier when we can paint exceptions in the shields.

That sorted, I check on the crafting project… seems my minions finished prior to vanishing. The Amulet is sitting right there on the floor.  Just to be safe, I take the time to identify it… yes, fully enchanted.  Good… a little paranoid, I leave it unclaimed on the floor until AFTER midnight. In the meantime, I rebuild and store my shadow army.  It may be handy to have, you know?  A new “Alice” (Unwilling for thirteen hit dice, the Mage archetype for an increased caster level and trading her natural attacks for the Implement Bearer talent.  A base caster level of nine, boosted via trait to eleventh for Life, boosted to fifteen for Life via Implement Bearer… and of course, I get her Magic Vessel so she can refill on spell points.  She'll have the basics all by herself, but I also get her Circle Casting so she'll be fully set with backing from my library. I of course test her with a skill challenge… she's fine.  Even if she wasn't… she's unarmed, even after the buffing: Alteration to grant her the exact right appearence, winged flight, damage reduction, fast healing, vacuum support, and more.  I mean, she's still unarmed when I'm done: Alice needs to be strictly a healer.  Most of my mages are that way, especially the Unwilling ones. Anything with actual offensive capability? I skip Unwilling.  So Destruction is a little more limited than most spheres within my library, as I can't get the 10th+ caster level Advanced talents safely in my library, but for most Spheres I get a complete set.

But I DO build Destruction mages.

My basic Mage build is as follows: Base form of a Biped, for better manipulation with Alteration later.  The Mage archetype to give her a better copy of the Magical Companion form talent (spellcasting), trading the natural attacks for a free copy of Implement Bearer, as per the archetype. Feats all go towards talents - whichever ones I want - except for the one at eleven hit dice, which of course is used for Circle Casting. In the case of Companions with actual offensive capability, that doesn't work: They're only ten hit dice, so I use my shiny new second free form talent to get them an extra feat for the purpose. The rest get the Unwilling archetype, and instead of using the second form talent for a bonus feat, they get Magic Vessel (so I can load them up with spell points remotely).

Soldiers are built similarly as Bipeds: But of course, not as mages, and none Unwilling. Their two form talents go to getting Regeneration (bypassed by a different pairing of damage types, so no one area attack will wipe out an entire squadron), with their feats spent on Starfinder weapon and armor proficiencies, plus the Shadowstuff Armament feat.  They have ten hit dice finally, so each can conjure up armor, a weapon, and ammunition for the same all at the same time: These are the heavy artillery, as Starfinder weapons scale differently, and they can bypass item levels, going straight to maximum effects, like a Paragon Reaction Cannon for single target use, the Tempest Shock Caster for groups, the Crackdown Shout Projector for capturing people (it's nonlethal), and so on.  Feat limitations sadly prevent me from getting everything on the same build, which is, of course, why I also make two other types of soldiers, the same as the above, just with different proficiencies.  The Dogs of War get Light Armor, Basic Melee, Advanced Melee, and Grenades: They're intended for close combat.  The Sentinels, on the other hand? They go with Light Armor, Sniper Weapons, then Skill Focus in Perception and Stealth: They keep watch and handle very long range engagements (with the Elite Shobhad Horizon Stalker, they can hit targets from about two miles away… theoretically: Their aim is shot on anything past about one mile).

And of course, I have them all buffed up.  Between them being humanoids and my squeezing out a caster level of twenty two for Alteration (twelve base, five more from an Implement, five more from Circle Casting), and all the talents I want (Circle Casting and my library), I get ten traits (five from caster level, two from Anthropomorphic Transformation on a humanoid, one from Greater Changes, and two more from Extreme Changes twice) to apply. granting them: a perfect fly speed, a swim speed, and the ability to go through stone and dirt (elemental purity), Immunity to Acid (energy manipulation; coats a second trait), a force field (Mechanical Customization), Starflight (literally the ability to fly in space: Star-Spawn Body), Immunity to suffocation and pressure (Extreme Adaptation), and the ability to stay conscious and act while below zero health (Ferocity from Bestial Spirit).  And,of course, I also get them Eternal Steel from the Nature sphere.  I even squeeze in two more Alteration Talents by way of Create Reality: Web (from Vermin Transformation) and damage reduction (overcome by silver, from Protean Mastery).

The end result? My rank and file soldiers can fly, walk through dirt and stone (but not metal, so reinforced concrete walls will still stop them), function just fine underwater or in outer space, ply the stars, and aren't even inconvenienced by simple injuries: They can only be taken out by more esoteric effects (such as dispelling, death effects, poison, and the like). Oh yes, and they have high tech handheld weapons capable of taking down tanks relatively quickly… and no need for fuel, ammunition, food, or other supplies.

And then I store them all away, an army of super soldiers at my beck and call. After all, I need to meet with the Resistance leaders.

Or is that the other Resistance faction leaders?