The people say that the being who created all things ripped themselves into atoms only
to give the dark void of space life. They say they plucked their own eyes from their
heads gave it to the universe to make stars. They tore their skin off so the universe could
use it to forge planets. They drained themselves of their blood, flowed into water to make sure
life could grow. Their sacrifice made the universe so overwhelmingly happy that the once
dark void burst into colour and light. Swallows of reds, purples, greens, yellows flowed throughout
the galaxy like paint in water. The vast and now colourful sea stretched endlessly out and
it brimmed with life and after years of pondering and living those creatures that lived on those
planets they found ways to connect with one another and then they met and told stories
and laughed and cried about the sacrifice of this being. They named the galaxy that connected all
of them the atomless. A nebula floats colours spin dance around a thin line of darkness that
streaks across the stars. This thin black line rumbles making colours flutter like scared birds.
The line glows and it grows longer and longer and then bursts open forming an open eye. A ship
stares this eye down as it floats helplessly in space. But this seems too big. Our story
can't start here. Let's reconvene. Of all of the solar systems that drift through the atomless sea
our story starts on a space station in the Aesir solar system. The warm sun of Aesir warms the cold
hull of the VA-11 space station in a vibrant light. The VA-11 is used as a meeting place for
travelers all throughout the galaxy to catch up with old friends toast to new goodbyes and recall
old adventures. The halls are packed with different species traveling from all over the galaxy.
Vendors set up in long hallways selling foods to advertise their planet. Hey get your schlaps here
only from Caeser. Hey we got sugared goblins over from Noot Noir you won't find them anywhere else.
Hey we got fresh Guamps caught in the last solar day all the way from Ron. The best Guamps you can
eat. People hustle and bustle and barter and bribe before their ships take off. Some starting their
stories some ending them. And this story begins with a roll of a dice. Can everyone roll just a
cheeky just d20 roll to see who is going to be introduced first in our little story. Oh we're playing this game.
Okay. I got a cheeky little 13. I also got a cheeky little 13 how dare you. How dare you. Nordin what do we get?
A cheeky less than little 18. Oh there you go hey listen 18 18 is 18 is the one let's let's let's start here.
Oh dear.
The soft lights of the resting area although turned down to their absolute minimum blind you.
They're set into night mode but even that's more light than you've seen in years. Your body as you
turn aches in the soft cot that you have itching at the fabric rubbing against your skin. The window
to your room shows the vast colorful sea of the atomless. The stars collect a rainbow of color
gathering to see the man they've heard stories about and the man they haven't seen in years.
You hear a little as your phone lights up. It's an alarm for a job that you have picked up. As your
hand goes over and touch the phone the light of the phone hits your face and as we see as arm
can you describe him for us? From the human perspective one could say he does look very
human like a brown skinned heavily bearded long black haired human man but there's some rather
large differences. For one thing he stands at like six foot four and lying down he's slightly
longer than that. His hair is wiry but straight and over the backs of his arms and other places
you can't currently see because of his clothing there is what looks like black scales made of
kind of the crust that comes from cooling magma and even so if you look closely they're little
fissures where those scales meet where small amounts of light can be seen as if there's magma
indeed running underneath the skin. There are four horns reaching back from his head two extremely
large ones that swoop back and curl up to a small point and two much smaller ones that only go about
a third of the way. His ears are long and pointed and there's clearly a lot more lines than maybe
even he's used to at this point surrounding those fiery red eyes as he looks at the the phone. The
phone says it's a text because you've already responded to the to the job posting. A little
message says hey nice to meet you my name is Scrap my ship is parked in hall A if you're you
want to make over we're waiting for a few others. Roy will be right there. He gets out of bed and
puts on a pair of like grayish heavily pocketed pants a white long-sleeve shirt rolled up to the
elbows I mentioned he was clothed before he has some shirt underneath that a burnt orange scarf
and a quilted vest that barely covers the upper half of his torso and then slips on some really
tall boots he's got a very broad sort of build about him and a little bit of extra weight around
the middle. As you leave and you find your way to hall A you walk past a calf in the in the in the
main market area and you see a Kalasha this four-armed gray humanoid they're sat at a table in
this apron they're holding a thick black fluid in a thermos with with two of their four arms and
the other two seem to be like typing on a touchpad. You've met this person before you know their name
is Keely she spots you and and and she perks up he's like oh hi darling how you're doing?
I'm doing good first job in quite some time. Oh my god they got back to you did they? I did they did
quick question do people say good morning on place like this? Yeah I mean I guess it's pretty normal
for people to say good morning some people who have been on here they try to make like good waking
they tried to make that pop off but nobody likes it everyone's like just say good morning like a
normal person stop saying good waking it doesn't has the same mouth feel. So yeah you can just say
good morning good morning darling it's nice to see you. Hey I actually got a got a got a got a
question for you you're a Ifrit right? Technically singular is a Ifriti but yeah. Ifriti my apologies
okay well that's grand um what's your planet called? They hold up their little their little
tablet and they're like I got a crossword I'm trying to do and I can't I don't know the answer
I'm trying to do without googling I feel like speaking to people that's that's that kind of
it's alright. E two R's U N. Hey you hear a diddling on the on the pad well thank you so much honey I
appreciate that. That's a tough crossword most people haven't even heard of this. Well apparently
that's why they put it in hey can I get you anything? Oh yeah for uh for getting this I've
been stuck in this for a few hours now. Well what's in the thermos there? Well this is it's just a
weird like as they swirl it around it's like this thick like quite viscous fluid like it's uh it's
it's supposed to keep you awake it's real warm um apparently they made it on earth but it just we
kind of just messed up the recipe because of all the stuff and they used the wrong type of thing
it's nice though it's Kalishtha. I'll take a cut with that and maybe something snack like to go.
Yeah sure huh tell you what what's your favorite sandwich or snack at all I'll make it. We got a
bunch of stuff in the back it's quiet today people are too busy traveling. I don't remember. All
right hey listen social pressure is hard don't you worry I'll get you just like a normal thing
you vegetarian or anything you get your sorted out? No I eat meat. It's your thing yeah I'll get
some. They scurry off into the back room and there's a after a little bit like they come out
with like a pre-wrapped just like this this like green green meat with some just like random leaves
in a wrap and like there you go it's it's it I'm not the best cook but you know it'll suit you and
it was free so there is that. Thanks I just like drop it into my vest I'll see you again I'm sure.
Well I do hope so don't you be a stranger you look after yourself on those missions. Yeah I will.
Take care. See you later. You too. Does Zom go right to the meeting place which is Hall A or do
they? I feel like yeah they don't want to screw up their first day on the job considering it's
been so long since I had one so yeah they'll show up not just on time like a smidgen early.
You go you go walking off and again you find your way it's it's pretty simple you as you are walking
to the to Hall A you pass by Hall G as you're just walking through and in it stationed is a large
carrier ship and in front of the docking bay are a few people in these very manicured strong
imposing looking green armor. As you walk you feel a watch on the side of you. The the hand
that's not holding the cup of coffee like there's a grinding sound coming from it as I inadvertently
make a fist and just clench as I walk on past trying not to stare. Our other two people who
both got 13s would you like to roll again or one of you can of course be kind enough to offer the
off of the banquet to someone else. What do you think Dylan you want to roll? Let's roll. I'm
feeling competitive yeah with that starting off. Oh well I only got a five so. And I got a six.
Oh there you go. Very uncompetently. Booyah. It doesn't matter how much you win by as long as you
win. Exactly exactly. Ike. The gentle hum of the engine pairs with the soft piano music that plays
from a speaker that's centered in a large wooden desk that you're seated at. There are papers strewn
across the table with the logo the Brewery Mining Company on the corner of every page. You don't
know the people you're sat with. They have clean pressed suits, neat haircuts, warm smiles but
there's none of it in their eyes. They've given you what seems like warm words but their warmth
was spent years ago. That doesn't stop you from searching for that warmth. Your eye falls upon a
projector and a human giving a presentation. They're young around mid-30s. They have slick back,
brown hair. They have a rare softness about them. They have a name tag that says Quinn and it has
he him underneath it. Right well with the Brewery and Sirt merger and with the incident that happened
a few years ago we are looking quite pretty and there is a small chuckle. I really think that we
can use this time to expand ourselves and move up in the places you know that that we deserve to
move up in. As you're all aware as I'm sure the shareholders meeting is coming up soon and you
know with that there'll be a lot of people to impress. You know both of the CEOs are going to
be down and there's a lot on the line but honestly there is nothing that after we've secured this
deal there's nothing that we can't do. They look around the room for some form of reassurance and
their eyes fall upon you. Can you describe yourself? Yes I am a pretty little rat girl who is
maybe on the shorter side of human heights something like four nine ish and she's wearing a
skin tight bit of pink armor and a cloak around her shoulders. Right now the hood is down and her
ears which are quite large she has kind of tried a little bit to tuck them back as to not take up
too much space. Quinn gives you a soft smile and gives it back to the room and then continues to
the presentation. We join back at the break. Everyone in the room is sat around this talking
for lunch. They're like an array of just little sandwich dishes and and just some like picky
foods for the group and they're all mostly talking amongst themselves. Ike what are you doing? Well
kind of just like twiddling the tip of her tail between her fingers waiting and looking and hoping
that someone will acknowledge my role in this or anything at all. After a little while there's a
quite hearty laugh as this Quinn like pats the shoulder on someone and they walk over to you
I drop my tail. Hey how are you doing? You okay? I'm just fine. Yeah? Well sorry I am it was rude of
me earlier I mentioned the shareholders meeting and the winter ball and I that was bad of me I
shouldn't have done it because it's only for you know people who actually work in the company and
you don't you you got the you know you're helpful and you've gotten you've gotten here you know but
I'm sorry about that. No of course I totally understand. It's just well shouldn't I be
involved with shareholder meetings just you know things like that and maybe I could advise a little
bit on on how things are going to work. You know I have a little bit of skill in in that. Well
okay see because the problem is is that that I can get you a ticket of course I can't but like
my car is broken down and getting you a ticket and fixing my car it seems like a thing that's
like just like a little it'll be hard to do you understand you know. I really do but well first of
all if you have problems with your car I could help with that too. I could probably find some of
the parts you're missing but also you know if it's too much trouble I don't want to be there it's
just that I I just thought that maybe I could help to troubleshoot a little bit. Oh no I want
you to be there absolutely of course there will be so much it was so much fun to have you there.
Shareholder meetings usually fun. Well this one is a winter ball so it's it's it's like it's kind
of shareholders meeting and kind of got like a like a they'll be they'll be like you know fun
little party elements at the end you know. Well and I go kind of pick her tail back up between her
hands and say on second thought I actually don't really have anything I could wear to a ball so
let's just focus on the job. Alright hey whatever whatever you say they take a few steps away and
they get they they pick their phone out their pocket and they like they stop kind of in front
of you and that they scroll for a little bit and they're like ah you know what is absolutely devastating?
The do you know the the theme park Leviathan Eye? Do you know of it? It's just outside of
Raan. Have you ever been? I I know of it. They had they had these drinks called ice storms which
were like they they were goofy absolutely filled with sugar they had these like little eyeball
looking things and it was it was it was very silly but I heard that one of the shareholders
they love they love this drink and it was like it was what they grew up with in their childhood
you know but you know the Leviathan Eye it like a few a few days ago it's such a shame because it
it crashed into the it crashed into the into the asteroid belt that it that it's next to so we
can't get him and you know now I know it's not it's not very good of me to say but you're a
smuggler aren't you? Done a lot of smuggler type things. Gone drinks from the lower decks to the
uppers. I think I think you know that quite well. Well all I'm wondering is if you are able to just
get a hold of some of these drinks then I could buy you a new dress and I can definitely get you
a I can I can get you a ticket into the into the shareholders meeting if you'd like of course it's
entirely down to you but you could go with the shareholders you can rob some you can rob some
alpo's you know we could we could get you permanently living in the upper decks of course
if you want I understand if you don't. I you know you know that we we make that we make them. It's
just not you know it's not the same if you don't get it from from the actual place that it's made.
Well right I mean I can get them I can I can get those. Would you? Oh my god that would be that
would be so wonderful one of the other people like hits Quinn on like the side of the knee they seem
to be overhearing the conversation this they're they've got like a female form but they're Android
a little mohawk tied quite neatly they just bat them on the side and they're like Quinn come on
it's like but no listen it'll be you want to go to the ball and we need these drinks if you go to
Leviathan's Eye the little the or what's left of it I'm sure there's some ships going out to travel
and scrap them then I can absolutely get it I'll pay for the dress and everything we'll get you the
the the top range people to do so that not sound great do you know my size hey I'll take you to a
tailor we can get it all figured out absolutely a tailor yeah doesn't that sound like the best
um hey they're they're sugary drinks really quite terrible but I'll get them I know hey listen I
know and I I wouldn't I don't want you to be doing it like not that I don't want you to come along
it's just you know the drinks aren't very good but you're just such a such a whiz at this stuff
but at picking up things you know that I just it'll be wonderful and it'll look good for both of us
or you mainly because you're the one who picked it out right yes yeah fantastic well the the job
boards outside I'm sure there's a few there's a few posted I think I saw one earlier for a ship
traveling to Leviathan's Eye maybe you could go and and hop on that one and hey listen all we're
going to be doing is is talking amongst ourselves about this this certain brewery merger it's
entirely boring and I can't imagine that you'd want to listen to it and I'll fill you in after
when you return sounds terribly boring and she will skip out of the room and put the cloak back
up immediately after she walks out you hop skip out there's a there's like a crowd of people like
a flood of noise the soft piano music and the soft clicking of the typewriters have immediately left
I said typewriters which is now canon everyone uses typewriters in this universe apparently the
the typewriters in the other room leave and now there's like this this talking of people there's
there's there's hustle bustle walking around and there is a there is a job board which is just just
down the hallway a little bit what does that was like doing well in the crowd she kind of seems
smaller interest like instantly the hood up and her tail kind of like clutched in towards her body
as she sort of blends into the crowd of people to get a look at the board you sail on up close to
it it's it's pretty it's a board that as you get as you like arrive near it it seems like a bit too
tall but then like a low as itself almost like understanding your presence and you see it you
see a few jobs on there there is one one posting from a contact called scrap who is in Hall A and
they're saying that they're going to Leviathan's Eye it says you can take what you want I'm just
there for one thing we'll offer a free ride to anywhere you want if the job goes successfully
and again you can keep what you take is this like an electronic yeah look kind of board yeah yeah
well I like go and press my finger to you press it and there's like you feel as it like ding and
glows you feel a small like energy through your finger and it kind of follows down your arm to
your hip where you feel a small like little buzz upon looking at your phone there's a little message
just saying hi thanks for thanks for agreeing to come I'm in these coordinates in Hall A we have
a full crew now hope to see you soon I'm off as you as you as you walk down the halls and make
your way towards Hall A Theriac your mind breathes the tip of the reeds on the top of your head bloom
as you bask in the warmth of the Sun here a trickle of the fountain being protected by a proud bed of
flowers sitting in a cold bed of dirt in the center of the main space that acts like a city
center on the station the flowers burst with color giving sustenance to the buzzing robot bees
tricking the the flowers into thriving you hear like a large as you feel a breeze as you feel the
ventilation shaft open and blow an embarrassed wind throughout the room of the station your mind
focuses on the world the chatter the life that fills these halls the ambient music that seems
to be playing throughout fades and abruptly stops and then a mascot pops up on the on this on the
screen they have a purple lion like body but where the main would normally sit is this wreath of
tentacles and their face is a lot more humanoid than it should be hey there have you ever wanted
to snuggle a sharp wing kiss a Carrick form a friendship with a fruji but you can't because
they're just too gosh darn vicious well here at wild times we've made it so these once scary
beasts regard you as a friend so come on down to wild times on it and tickets started 500 credits
book using the code I want to have a wild time for 10% off when buying four or more tickets and
remember it's not a wild time if it's not at wild times the adverts cuts off after showing a few
more animals and then the music comes back and returns as it returns and the Sun and eyes that
were once looking upon the screen seemed to just flow back throughout the room theory I could you
like to describe yourself funny yes theory act is a about three foot tall organism with a humanoid
body their head and the sprouts that come out from on top of them resembles a garlic bulb with
purple petals that sprout forth they have pretty tight knit features around the center mostly just
eyes and an opening for a mouth they wear a single a single lens visor over their right eye their
ensemble is a is very clinical I would say with a with a jumpsuit underneath that almost looks
more like a guy better a very tropical sort of feeling layout and design in colors and with a
with a single badge on their on their pocket that probably displays a photograph of them and then
their name theory act their arms and legs are more like roots and then there are some almost
like clay like elements that are incorporated as well around the joints and some of the longer
elements of their body that aren't as flexible as this advert cuts off and finishes you feel a buzz
on your thigh checking it you see it's a response to a job that you picked up a few a few days ago
as you are aware the theme park the Leviathan's I collided with the asteroid belt that surrounds
it and there have been sightings of bizarre slug creatures and you have been asked if you can go
pick one up theory act looks over the message and then replies in like a very formal sort of email
just saying like I will be attending this meeting regarding Leviathan's I will be bringing as much
equipment as I can and hoping that this expedition brings us something fortuitous and then sends it
off I think after sending off the message theory act is going to look back towards the these robotic
pollinators that are going about and just mulling them over and like has like a little like
holographic like notebook for like field notes fascinating whilst studying these these robotic
robotic pollinators you feel a presence behind you when you turn you see a a patra which is a
large leopard humanoid they're wearing a small waistcoat have a little a little trilby and have
a little paper notebook just like I'm sorry a little a little holographic notebook just like
you do they hey my name's my name's my name's Beck she hurts it's nice to meet you pleasure's mine
is that right that's right I'm I'm working on a story about the living conditions of the animals
on Eden I understand you're one of the head scientists working there would you mind answering
me a few questions I unfortunately have a meeting in a few minutes unfortunately that oh no of
course I understand this won't take a moment of your time the creatures that are on display
they've been seen to be passive which is unusual for their normal wild counterparts is anything
you'd like to comment on that no comment and we'll just begin like packing up clearly like
this is more just of the the the the news reporters who are looking to get more information about
wild side that yeah is beyond theory acts like control really okay okay no no comment that's no
trouble is it true that the more aggressive animals are forced into hunting zones where
customers can hunt them for sport I don't I don't remember that being ever included in our plans
no okay unaware of that that's great thank you so much I appreciate that so what are you doing here
on the space station so far from so far from wild time even though wild time is opening are you
running from something no I have a job as I said it before if you will excuse me I have other matters
to attend to you have a good day back jumped ship and started a new job job shamed okay this is
wonderful thank you so much for your time I appreciate everything you've given me some very
good things to focus on I hope you have a wonderful day if you want to contact me for any explanations
or increase in answers there's my card right there and they hand you a small a small card
with a universal number on it you have a nice day theory I appreciate you answering those questions
of course back you you have a nice day as well thank you I turn around and walk off
drawing some things they sit not too far away they just kind of they they walk over and they
sit down they seem to not be paying that much attention to you but are still occasionally
will look up and then go back and then write some more notes fucking paparazzi yeah theory
act is after being sort of pestered by this reporter bite back the Iraq is just going to
say I'll get to the well study more of the wildlife here later and it's just going to go
ahead and walk towards Hall a keeping an eye out maybe for like anyone else who's more of the
of the media type and trying to avoid them you do so you see you see a few people who maybe are not
like actively looking for you but people who are who are traveling this is like a station where
people stop off and go somewhere else so there's a lot of like young upstarts trying to get those
kind of things you walk through the halls and eventually you walk to the place that you've been
asked to meet as you walk down this long stretching hallway you see through the windows there's a ship
that's docked in Hall a of the VA 11 which has been nicknamed Valhalla by passersby you see in
front of you just before the the the doors that enter Hall a you you you see as as um who's
standing there and as you walk closer you spot Ike also who walks from another direction you
all seem to get to in front of these large metal bay doors at the same time through the some few
glass panelings in some windows you spot you spot a ship that seems to be built of all different
parts of different ships it seems to be just like a bit of a mismatch of technology but you all
arrive at the at the same time I stay a little bit away from the other two just just a little I
think theory egg is just kind of looking up at the like theory X sort of has just like a layout of
the of the premises and it's just double checking like this is all yeah okay this is all I okay
just checking and then just like closes the sort of map application I'm just kind of around like
hello are you all here for um for the opportunity I I'm here for a ride right yes free ride so
patchwork VS either of you scrap scrap no scrap scrap like scrap metal or no this is I go okay I
was told that they were going to be this was an expedition regarding possible mollusk like
species no not ringing okay I saw a job that yes yes I saw that I saw job too well now that I
think of it wasn't really a job actually was more of just an offer for it a sort of free taxi I
think what's going on is it's probably probably something there needs a crew so well but why are
you here then scientist oh well I was told that there were there would be some sort of
zoological sort of study captures something along that sort I take several steps back
and you know it's it's it's it's for understanding the the the sort the the
xenoecology of this pos I seem to be losing you don't I are we all at least under the impression
that we're going to Leviathan's I yes yes okay so that's not a trap then wait why would someone
trap us together I like to assume the traps are are just sort of always waiting sense motive
yeah okay you can absolutely roll sense motive that's no trouble I would you like to sense motive
on the job or on Ike okay yeah sure I guess we can have a I guess we can have a our first little
role will be a jewel role hell yeah so oh this depends Ike with with what do you what do you
first of all as arm what are you trying to suss out about about them is this is this a person who
thinks that they're in trouble or just a person who's paranoid okay now like is there not is this
their natural state of being or you know you so Ike you can always just freely give this information
if you'd like but if you want to keep it like a little more hidden you could roll a a bluff check
if you'd like and as arm you roll me a sense motive and whichever one's higher we get that spicy
little little tidbit of information which you can do use as you see fit I'll go with a bluff check
oh love that she can go first role as a to love oh no I got a 23 so the the answer is both great
she is both always like this but also is afraid that someone would be after her yeah you know I
think introductions in order yeah I'm a Zom how do you do you he like he he leans in a little bit
then pulls back and then he tries to extend a hand realizes oh no that might not be it
trying to see how you would like to be greeted as you pull your hand back she reaches her hand
further out and grabs it pulls it back in that's right yeah as um he oh like I lean down a little
bit and try to extend the hand again yes the theory act they great pleasure to meet you the
whole study of creatures can you explain a little bit more about that right I should probably
introduce myself my name is theory I am a biohacker largely incorporated with the the
wild times facility zoological park and we had just recently opened some time ago and was told
of this opportunity to perhaps find some more some more individuals more organisms that we
could possibly bring into our lab and study as far as most of our most of the wildlife on
and inside of wild times is from a dune but this would be extending our studies beyond just okay
so not like me well what is you I'm just a lady can I sense motive that feels oh my god I is the
smallest thing I've ever seen I want to give him such a big hug yes yeah you could sense motive
I'm just a lady never ends well Cinderella business rat all right here we go sense motive
baby oh no are you bluffing Dylan this isn't really a bluff she doesn't understand the
question she's a lady but she also is a rat so this can be ladies wondering if your studies
include rat people right I should I should clarify the like people are not part of that
is exclusively organisms like like like non yes out of character to different well then I
apologize for my yeah earlier rudeness it is actually nice to meet you she'll give you the
shake of course yes what what is it exactly that you do for a living I and a job a song I am just
I just take small jobs here and there yeah just place to place exactly freelance worker yeah well
I'm excited to be working alongside you I hope that this provides you more opportunities going
forward I I suppose we are on on the same quick question with expedition now aren't we you were
right though scrap we haven't seen us a scrap anywhere have we then I guess we're all here for
the same job we might as well go in I just click the button to open the door yeah you you you click
the button and the doors open and you see ahead there's this long long metal hallway and at the
end you see the ship so many different parts guns that like don't fit the the the ship there are
engines of like four different sizes from four different ships or like hap dash re like put on
almost like someone is making a quilt of a thousand different parts you see like halfway
down the hall another you see another little rat they are brown smaller more hunched over one half
of their face has been replaced with this large metal plating and they have this like green glowing
eye their ear on this side has been replaced with a little antenna that is blinking occasionally
as as the doors open this little rat turns good hey oh this must be my team hey and they they walk
over and they hobble towards you hey how's it going my name's scrap it's nice to meet you you
are you got we got an imposing bunch on us don't we come come come come I'll give you the rundown
of what we're doing in a little bit how did everyone find the trip everyone find Valhalla
all right we found it just fine um what's the job if you don't mind me asking ah we'll worry about
the details when we're in the air don't you worry about it we'll get you all on the ship first
uh I mean would it be hard to find when we have maps well we have maps and it's also a uh an
entirely destroyed space station theme park that's just flown out there in the middle of in the
middle of space so it's not that hard to find is it I mean I meant VA 11 oh you meant here you meant
here this no it's it yeah it's it's it's easy to find again this is the whole space station
there's there's signs everywhere and you all look like a smart bunch hey I'm boring you with all my
I'm going you're gonna get me all carried away we're just talking you've already got me half
doing it come come come follow me I'll uh I'll introduce you to our engineer uh they hobble down
the uh they hobble down the path and um they uh and it opens up into the the docking bay ship room
this is the only ship uh that is that is housed there um and they uh uh they gesture for you all
to walk in and as you walk in sky hello introduce yourself yeah I hate character intros so Matt let
me pre-write mine I'm also assuming you don't have any copyright rock copyright free rock music in
that little bag of tricks do you Matt okay so you first hear the 90s grunge rock blasting in a
volume no one over the age of 25 could stand you trace it to the source an ancient looking boombox
the pages of a comic book draped across it fluttering to the vibrations of the base
nearby sticking out from underneath a cluster of pipes and dials is a pair of baggy pants
a pink crop top is illuminated in intervals by the sparks and hiss of a welding tool and held
off the ground by what looks like a skateboard pink sneakers tap to the beat of the music and
you think you can faintly hear a female voice singing along amidst the noise the legs bounce
from the floor and onto the skateboard as two striped sleeves reach around the pipe and push
a young human into full view large dark round goggles adorned with plastic butterfly wings look
back at you until they're pushed through icy short uh short icy blue hair revealing tired but bright
green eyes a face framed by freckles and pastel bandages smiles as a girl no older than 17 stands
to greet you she stomps her foot down kicking the skateboard into her hands which you can now see
is peppered with colorful and eccentric stickers as she flips it to her back fastening it to a
magnetic harness she offers you a fist to bump and says what's up my name's sky welcome to the
patchwork my dudes i uh i hand shake the fist i was i was gonna do the same thing okay uh you're
supposed to go like oh you can do a little explosion i you want to you know add some flavor
i okay um hell yeah what's your name uh um um is um this is um well this is ike and there ya
she very ah she her welcome aboard okay so are we heading out scrap oh shit yeah hey yeah i'm
ready i'm ready to go if if y'all ready to rock and roll um ike uh has kind of hung back a little bit
and is is trying to get a quick assessment of the place uh especially this engineering room
um just to see if it feels sky worthy and also maybe to see if scrap feels sky worthy
sky obviously is sky that's not a question um yeah yeah no sky seems solid uh sky is sky
is sky when i i i um uh i think theory i just got that one to sky and it's like
hello very nice to meet you you're the engineer in this in the project very nice to meet you uh my
name's theory yeah uh and nice to meet you too it'll be a pleasure to work alongside you um
do you not a ten dollar words there yeah we got a guy who could speak for the uh for all the galaxy
oh is he gonna be the brains we got the brains we got the brains we've been waiting for someone
like you it looks like we got the brains the brawn and look at the cutest little lady over there hey
hey oh my god she's just so cute you're so cute i'm so sorry i i i do sincerely hope that we all
have uh a higher functioning cortex uh organs a good brain is that what you said cortex you feel
like an like a metal arm thrown around you who's this guy talking about cortex is god get on the
ship what you're doing y'all do realize we're stealing stuff from a broken down actually
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey later later later later later we'll go on the ship we'll get on the ship
um i uh do you want to roll me you can roll me an engineering if you're trained in engineering
or you could roll me just a perception yes i would like to go for engineering please
oh finally ah i gotta go on uh 21 oh beautiful um this ship is again it's like it it it it's called
the patchwork for like a reason it has it it seems to be made of a of a thousand different ships
looking inside you see uh each chair is different like there are parts where it's like the the
ramp to get inside is made of like three different sheets of metal it looks it looks kind of like a
mess but it does look very functional the engines seem to power up and like are still like humming
along um the uh that you notice a weird thing ships in this universe they all have a a figurehead a
a piece of their ship which is like a statue purely for looks this doesn't have a figure
the patchwork doesn't have one it also doesn't seem to have a a drift core or any engine that
can function with it a drift core you would know is what people use to travel from solar system to
solar system so if you have a functioning ship you can fly like planetary to like planet to planet
but you can't go like solar system to solar system as the gap is just too far and you can't just
analog do it it's like um is the difference between like riding a horse somewhere like you can ride a
horse from town to town but you can't ride a horse from like country to country um and a drift core
maybe you can yeah i am a loser i can't do that unfortunately but i've heard people can um i'm
just a city slicker uh yeah so it works it's a functioning it's it's as as hap dash route it is
this is a functioning ship okay i i'll continue to fiddle with my tail but less intensely um
um after after there's the loud yells from scrap at the c. react um at is is a is a good way to put
it that's the correct uh prep preposition i i don't remember yeah uh um you do you do see them
um uh look at you and um they they come they they walk over hey you're all right
this this thing flies if you're wondering i know it looks like trash but it's it's a good ship
i feel like this guy got like the best parts of a bunch of different ships and just put them all
together it looks like shit that's lies so good yeah it's it's it's great i i know it's i know it's
uh i know it doesn't look like much but don't you worry like you're in good hands here you got like
the best mechanic you could find and and an engineer that i found on a planet like you'll be
you'll be fine it it it does it it looks it looks quite good actually but um i kind of would like
to know what the job is before we are in the sky well clearly we're going to displace it an asteroid
hit and looting it of what we can find and that's the whole of it there's no secret surprise mission
in everything that he has said is correct okay um well um then i apologize for my rudeness it's
it's nice to meet you oh my god you are not even rude you're so cute what the fuck can we like
yes yeah come on aboard everyone come on aboard i got some snacks and stuff if people are hungry
we we uh we got a little drive ahead of us and i'll explain i'll explain the mission more when
we get on very well very well you as you as you walk onto the ship you see that there are um
there are there are there's an amount of chairs um a series of chairs all laid out
all with like a small uh like pull over um computer kind of holodeck and and things like that which
you see on a lot of different um ships but all of them are from different ships and look very
different and seem to suit many different needs um when going on the ship what chair um what what
chair hits you guys which which chair would would you pick what does it look like what does it feel
like i can go first because i knew this question beforehand so sky parkours over things in the ship
and lands comfortably on a movie theater seat that flips down and is a shade of bright pink
and takes a cup out of the out of the holder on the arm and just starts sipping it and flicking
switches and shit right above her i think theorac is is going to be looking for the most i guess
sort of uh just functional seat just to sit on so it's going to it's going to be a very like sterile
sort of uh bar stool that you might find in a in a laboratory um um just kind of like prop
is it swivel 360 is it one of those yeah and uh just uses the little uh like bar just to like
climb on top of it and then just sits nice ike is gonna pick the one that looks the most fancy
so if if any of them have like a bit of plush or like a little a little um you know seat cover of
of a nice squish material oh absolutely there's like a an old like grandparents chair like real
nice with the big backing and all that yeah his own looks to like a chair that looks like it's made
for someone his height it's it's very it's comfortable it's like a captain's chair from
some ship from like a capital ship too and then he goes sits on like a plastic folding chair that
someone just bolted to the floor that's too small for him because he doesn't know if that seat's
for him and he's like oh that that feels wrong maybe that's the captain's chair i'm gonna sit
in this one um scrap walks walks through um spots you as arm and is like hey you can uh you can get
on the nice chair if you want you're sitting on the that's literally a bit like a deck chair for
a beach that uh i thought i was just like oh well we need a sixth chair so i just stapled it
so stapled is the right word are you staples like stationary like it will you guy your size
with the speed that this thing goes that's 100 going to break dude please sit on it i look down
and i try to sit up and there's this audible creaking sound move over to the chair he pointed
out and sit right back down um scrap uh walks up to the to the to the front there's like uh it kind
of looks uh like submarine s like the the windows kind of go the whole way around in this at the end
of this ship um there's like a huge deck clearly nicked from some probably stolen from the same
capital ship that as arm your seat is from um it's a very fancy pretty high tech uh switchboard
um and it's flicking a bunch of switches uh you hear the ramp up behind you um now we ain't flown
with this many people before and the first test flight was like when was it sky like a like a few
months ago was the first test flight of this i mean yeah but i've done the calculations dude like it
can hold maybe like six people size varying yeah i mean i guess it'll be fine but just in case it's
not um nah it'll be fine uh flick some more switches and you feel the
of the engine as the as the as the as the patchwork um lifts off and then a real sudden
jump back as it off into um uh into into deep space um six you said sky
yeah but i mean like you know you're much smaller than him so i say six but maybe like eight of you
five of him listen and theory act is is is like a i had a garlic i think we could 13 theory acts
okay i think it'll be fine i would be deeply distressed if there were more than one of me
i must say uh scrap the the bay is secure right we're like oh fuck yep basically don't worry about
it yep all right so we're on we're on track we're good yeah we're all secure okay so dude i was
wondering how you posted a job for us going to take the scrap from this station when it's not
necessarily legal so i feel like i need to be honest with you so terribly sorry to interrupt
honest with so terribly sorry to interpose um i was told that there would be uh snails or
hollisks of some slugs perhaps they're gonna be slugs oh hey right so i'm gonna let you all in on
what we're doing here today um so uh the leviathan's eye theme park has crashed uh somehow after it's
like 300 odd years of flight in an orbit over ron uh crashed into the uh asteroid belt that surrounds
it we saw it happen it was so gnarly fucking crazy that place is basically dust now um and not
right there's lots of it left but it's dust full of stuff that no one's coming to take
quite yet exactly so um what we're looking for is a drift core we don't have it yet we're trying to
get out of this fucking solar system as quickly as possible so we need a drift core um it should be
somewhere in the engine room these ships normally have like hundreds of them we just need one grab
the drift core bring it back to us i'll install it give anyone who wants a free ride to literally
anywhere else that's that's fine um also any scrap that you guys find you can keep it's none of my
business i don't know why you're all here um but yeah you can keep stuff uh theoryac yeah there's
um there's been reports of the asteroid that crashed into it broke open and all of these
weird little slug creatures just kind of came out and are kind of floating there so yeah you can
grab one of those um i don't know why the rest of you are here but yeah no i'm sure there's
something for for for alia uh we can pick up where we dock a little later when we get a little closer
we don't know if anyone else is coming for this ship so and we kind of don't want to run into
people not like now at least because we might get overrun with hats before you know it so um
um yeah um do you think that the bar is still standing
the what i certainly hope so i don't know yeah like maybe yeah i'm sure why you're getting drinks or
something uh i thought i might wait yeah i mean i'm sure it's all still functioning and open
um it seems like the the asteroid only destroyed like the outer hull so uh there's anti-gravity
through like uh a lot of it since the gravity thing has been busted but power still should work
and i'm sure the coolers work yeah the bar should be working fine that's the reason we hired you guys
because like you know there's a lot of cool stuff there but it's too big a job for me and scrap you
know it's a little too dangerous that's why no one's coming to get their shit yet you said hefs
right yeah uh yeah the uh big bastards might be coming but might not um as long as we're in and out
we we might be able to slip by him if we stay there a little too long then they might appear
just to like clean up some numbers uh make sure that you know the place is quote unquote safer
but if they're there then it's not gonna be safer at all okay um for everyone um the hefs are a um
are a large military group in this solar system um uh you would you would all know that they are
uh you you might know some people who've who are like from there or or who know about them um
um it's you've definitely seen advertisements all over the place especially on the va11
advertising like if you sign up to join the hefs your like your family gets like a lot of credits
like 50 000 60 000 credits um to sign up uh yeah you would know that about them um if you want to
if you if you think you might know more or you want to know more you can we can talk and roll
dice and that's fine um that's a base knowledge that everyone would know i'm sure they'll definitely
show up but if we're quick which um i can be quick uh you look pretty quick sky um oh
oh i can be quick theoryac um
when you're going to get all of your slugs um which i i think it's great that there are actually
slugs i didn't think that part was going to be true um for a moment also thought that was not
going to be true i'm very happy for you um but can you be congrats on the slugs can you be
quick quick uh the the goal of the mission is to acquire them on the planet and then leave
i'm not there to study them extensively in their nap in in this environment it's mostly to
to capture well it sounds like this isn't their natural habitat as it i understand were so maybe
bringing them somewhere less uh targeted i'm bringing a sample of the population i'm not
collecting all of them it it it will be five maybe ten individuals if i'm lucky good okay um
um and as um how quick are you
can i do a check
can i do a check what do you want to roll a dex check just to see if it's almost like runs up
and down the thing i'm pretty quick no no i think he's off in his own little world i'd like to do a
check um to determine how how much i know about the heath absolutely um okay i'm thinking it could
be a culture check or perhaps um maybe a maybe a uh a little uh profession check um you can if you
if if you are trained in culture which is weird that you have to be trained in it if you're trained
in culture then yes culture absolutely um but also if you want to go spicy i'll give you a little
diff i'll give you different information if you want to go your specific profession um but yes
you can also do that it's really down to you which one to profession check let's let's let's try it
you know profession that's a 16 okay um beautiful uh would you like to state where your profession
is or would you like to keep it just kind of cheeky you cheeky me sounds a bit right for now
just cheeky you okay um hi there beautiful people just for the people watching listening at home hi
there hi how's it going um in this game everyone has a set amount of skills as just like just like
dnd however they have one skill which is called the profession which is kind of their job or what
they did before they this the adventure started which is specifically unique to them um so everyone
has like a little spicy little different one um and you got a 16 you're saying there's a weird
term that uh goes with the heaths it's not an official one but it's um like anyone who joins
up with the heaths don't come back alive not in a they die but they are never the same when they
return um people who sign up always are far more shut off and seem seems kind of like their soul
has died a little in combat they are brutal like berserkers full their full name is old hethna which
is berserker they are full on they like raging powerhouse of of a unit they attack in big numbers
and completely brutally um so you know these people to be a scary group yeah i'm not that fast
i mean look at you you could like pick up three of me though right yeah
yeah if you needed to like break down a door or something you know lift heavy boxes
face off against you know them much
yeah the heaths i mean like i don't think anybody here does i think we're all on the same page
they i would like to go back on a previous day with that i feel like we perhaps flew over rather
quickly um this it this is how legal is this again uh it's not at all if nobody finds out we're there
because no one finds out that everything is made sure no one finds out and be good i mean here's
okay here's here's the thing dude is we get there we take things we leave without a trace other
people get there they're like ah damn a little bit more than i was expecting got washed away
with the asteroid tide nobody really gets hurt here like it's illegal but it's not necessarily
wrong right the thing is is that is the leviathan like jaywalking it's like jaywalking except we get
stuff it's like jaywalking it should be legal it's weird that it's not this place is scrap if we get
there before any government officials get there and then claim like all this is you know we're
gonna do whatever with this and send it back to the government we're just hey listen i'm here for
one drift call so i don't i don't really give a like it that's not even that illegal i'm just
saving some money i'm being smart you're stealing stuff i don't know why you're looking at me like
that you're you want to take a weird little slug thing that's not that kind of weird that's
that's scientific collection it's it's different okay well i'm scientifically collecting a drift
core to add to my sweet ride is that good enough for you uh scrap are there any more energy drinks
in the minute in the mini fridge can you try i don't know i don't know i overstock those things
you go through them in like 20 minutes i think what the point is is that no matter what we're
taking the truth is a place like this considers it illegal to infringe upon their territory
and take anything including snails of mollusks or
mussels snails are a type of mollusk yes yeah i knew that common is not my first language point
i didn't know that neither did i and neither did i matthew the brain
and we're all learning today this garlic over here
uh no matter what you do it's not it's not considered legal by these people or by you know hef
which is why we're going to get out of there really quickly with all the things that we
get and then we'll be on our way quick point i don't have a gun or a knife or um anything
um well can i ask you something then are you looking for anything in particular
we all seem to have a little something that we're after right of course i would come here knowing
knowing that i wanted something specific um a little uh snow globe yeah from from uh from
this place from the amusement park yeah yeah i got one singular snow globe some private collector
wanted to pay me for a single snow globe yeah oh uh that's that's rad dude that's dope is there
money in that is there money in like collecting snow globes yes i hear the resale market this is
astounding uh what was what was your name again a zom a zom hey yo here catch and i toss you a
small round metal something is it a grenade i do catch it it's great yeah don't uh don't i should
have told you this before i checked it out you don't pull that little metal tab until you want
it to go like yeah you know uh i like attach it to it to my vest and i seem to like i look like i
know what to do with it that's fun you can have that that's cool uh if you want some stuff i got
some we got some spare shit from uh we have some spare shit you don't even know where it's from
if you want to get dressed up and you got you want like a second skin and stuff we got some
we got some things for you oh no thanks i'm coming uh i pulled down the scarf and there's like a
a rather fancy undershirt on oh all right do you want like a pistol or something because we have
we have those i i i will say i'm not coming with you i'm gonna stay on the ship circle around
outside pick you up wherever you need to be picked up you can take i have a gun you can take mine
oh maybe take it one second i get a question
no that was that was scary because it wasn't from anyone on camera and i was just very
so our sound effects are um through sirenscape and
we'll just play the sneeze that's all you need to know
um what about you um doctor professor scientist theory doctor's good okay um i do have um
i need a pistol uh it may need some ammunition um i'm more familiar with tranquilizers sedatives
i've if we must use um force live ammunition
bro dude i love the energy y'all are bringing to this y'all are way too prepared to kill somebody
the whole plan is we're not gonna interact with anybody i love i love the ambition but we're
trying not to kill people here yeah i'm not worried about the people i'm more worried about
whatever we i do not know the size of of these of these of the slugs we you didn't check the
size of the slugs before i was not told much of anything as i think many of us have not been
informed of several aspects of this particular mission however it's important that when going
on an expedition such as this that we are prepared for uh encountering wild animals that there is the
possibility of lethal threat and an attack and to be prepared sometimes live ammunition is when it's
necessary i prefer sedatives i prefer tranquilizers things go out of hands i will take a gun yeah
yes all right all right there you go scrap where did you get these guys i just put out like 50
different ads and these are the only three to turn up of vague job descriptions what did you
sound scary it's it's it's it's it's just of it's all safety protocol you must understand
oh yeah no that sounds that's really safe yeah um i think i am through with questions actually
um you mentioned food you look at his zoo yeah i got some food um i think there's some leftover
pizza in the mini fridge it might be uh under that energy drink i asked you to pass me like
10 minutes ago you can walk the seatbelt sign is off it's you're right i'm sat closer to you
than it is to me oh it is i don't know don't i look like a dick theater of the mind don't we
i don't know where the fuck it turns well i think we were using theater of the mind i assume
it would be near you if you passed it to me scrap like flicks and buns and there's a small like
thing um of like an old like it's literally like like an old i mean i say old it's an air airplane
like seat belts off logo but it has like another bit that's like wired into it um that has these
big neon lights uh that say autopilot enabled and then the little seat belt sign uh comes off
right so yeah we can get up and just walk around the ship scrap walks over pulls the energy drink
out throws it to sky um catch it with one hand barely looking up so uh opens up this little this
little tiny like bachelor pad mini fridge there's like a couple of like finger sandwiches and some
like cold pizza and shit in there as well as like a whole side of it which is just entirely filled
with energy drinks and like one almost empty thing of ketchup um i have a very important sorry it's
not i was just gonna say sorry it's not a pleasure cruiser i have a very important question for you
um absolutely the pizza before i react to seeing it on a scale of dale domino's to
the slice of pizza in a goofy movie how delicious does this pizza that is the accurate range of pizza
quality i need to know how ravenous i become so we've all watched the goofy movie we've all seen
we've all seen the 1995 classic we order i'm gonna say i'm gonna say on that specific scale
we're kind of looking at crusty crab pizza i think okay okay okay i mean like scrap we order
pizza pretty often but because of that we get bored of a lot of pizzas so i feel like it's
probably fresh but a little wacky you know might have anchovy yeah it's yeah we we ordered like
i actually like those there you go hell yeah oh hell yeah no dive in uh gang you you got it um
just through there is the sleeping quarters um it doesn't have a lot it has like a hammock and
like it has a hammock a child's double bed as well as like a few other things that that you can
sleep on if you want it's gonna take us around eight hours to get to leviathan's eye with this
current uh tracking um but yeah you all can walk around and do whatever you want um that is a sign
all right if there's anything that you would like to do a little conversation bits um there's like
there's like eight hours you you cool kids have to kill before you arrive we could of course just
skip right there but if there's anything y'all want to do um can i immediately kick my feet up
in the movie theater chair take a rolled up comic book out of my back pocket flick it open and be
like so do you have like a personal problem with the heaths and like some sort of issue with
self-loathing or am i picking up on something completely unrelated self-loathing yes to the
self-loathing no to the heaths thing other way around i'm confused about self-loathing
you're confused about self-loathing so you don't know whether you hate yourself i don't hate
myself um just um you just don't think you deserve the nice chairs well i just didn't know if it was
already claimed or not and i didn't want to ruffle any feathers oh right we forgot about our fifth
member of this crew we keep him in the closet he only comes out for parties and to sit in the
closet i would sense motive on that but i feel like i do know enough about sarcasm to get it
also scrap does go closet i would like to think that i or one of you are the fifth member we all
have a fifth member you mean sixth i might mean sixth he might mean sixth yeah i'd like to think
that i was the fifth member or i was the first i made the team anyway i'm going back to uh doodling
okay bye what are you doodling ah fucking you know
just like cool literally no i can't think of anything aside from the word dicks
so i can't state because i feel like that would be fucking joy yeah it's just uh you know it's my art
it's my art of uh everybody's got a psychic what did i yeah i'm a furry artist on the side i uh
so i'm just making i'm just i'm making money how do you think we afford all those pizzas you know
what i do i know trust you as a captain a lot more yeah yeah no i'm i'm real good yeah we're real in
i'm also super fucking good at it i think uh searac is going to go over towards the pizza we'll like
analyze it um is going to pull out a petri dish cut off a little bit of the tip of a slice put it
in the petri dish close it put it back in the pocket uh and then get an actual slice of pizza
did you just take a sample of our pizza
uh to check for the uh possible bacteria uh climate on this particular ship oh you don't
have to test for that there's uh there's i i would severely hope so that there's bacteria uh
uh otherwise that's a well what is the condition of your um of your of your lab
do you have a lab on this um on this vessel um no i think we have this room and a bathroom well we
got the uh yeah and it's not a lab we got like some implements but it they're not installed we
have like glasses do you need glasses to like test stuff you might have to clean some soda
out of some of them do you do you have a microscope i have glasses to see that's if you put those real
close to something i'm sure they'll do the same kind of thing so basically aren't you a sign i'm
not a scientist i am a scientist i i am a biohacker i am a xeno a biologist
i work at a zoo i work at a zoological park
what zoological park i am the co-founder and head scientist of wild time
cool so when did that open
open it's not open yet it's open in like a week you're still looking for animals
and you haven't no we have all of our subjects are already in the in in their enclosures in their
exhibits the
the are the slugs for personal use define personal use you define personal use just answer the
question oh like i feel like you might know if they're for personal use or business or pleasure
you know pleasure what pleasure would you give from slugs no one answer that friendship friendship
well if you're a biohacker um that could be possible it is possible it is not within the purpose of
the organisms at wild times is to study the organisms that were that are on idun and within
a controlled environment and to make sure that they were not excessively aggressive
it's a zoo i think it's for like you know public viewing whole point zoos people pay money
money a wildlife park a zoo is for entertainment wild times is for education and information for
the public are people going to go there though like to like to look i severely hope so so you're
hoping all of the advertisements that i've seen have been quite antithetical to my express thesis
for for the facility but it's a super sick place they got like hotels and restaurants already and
stuff so it's a zoo it's it's no it's a wildlife park see sky understands sky understand okay sky
understands so when you say biohacker and you were talking about oh the animals have to be less
aggressive because they're in a wildlife park do you like fuck with the animals to make them less
aggressive this almost no slinks away we we genetically modify these creatures slowly carefully
to lessen the hormonal effects within stressful encounters so that they when they are placed
in some somewhere like a smaller habitat than maybe they're used to that they do not react in
such a visceral way and that there is less of a threat of bodily harm to the scientists and and
crew first and foremost but also to the to the audience and to to the to the visitors of wild
huh it's um it's it's a delicate process it requires several iterations of extraction
of extraction and uh re-implementation of uh it's it's primarily extracted through blood or other
liquid sometimes cerebral spinal fluids are more common if if it's a more gelatinous creature
that doesn't necessarily have like like if i were to do the the mollusks that we might find on
uh on Leviathan's eye i might use mucus but primarily liquids are what we use to to modify
which which makes sense is within you know photo and the uh the the liquid as the implementation
of change within uh a system anyway so are the slugs for personal use what do you think the
other two are up to right now oh they're gone they uh i guess looking um around the ship for a small
um place to hide just like a a little uh a nook a cranny a series of pipes uh any anything she
can crawl into and just be in a dark little spot yeah there there are this ship being the way that
it's built there are nooks and crannies absolutely everywhere scattered throughout the whole ship um
you find yourself just as you said it's like some some pipes that um like they aren't they aren't
steaming or bursting they're just like just quite warm um just like just off to to to the side just
past the um just past the like the like crew living quarters um and you snuggle up you snuggle
them up in there um just just kind of making a little um a little space in here i don't have
anything um but i tidy a spot of it with like the back of my cloak uh and dust it off and then
sit down and like kick my legs up and curl up there just dillon would you be comfortable with
me trying to find ike with his arm trying to find ike sure can i roll a perception check see if i
can find ike yeah absolutely you can yeah um then you can you can decide like the dc or if you would
like a role to combat it um let's see so um my uh natural dex is 15 so why don't we go with that
absolutely so why rolled a natural 20 plus six so that's a 26
oh there you go hell yeah um it does take some looking it's difficult to find ike since since
you were looking in like the main crew areas so it takes you a little it takes you a little while
like an hour maybe an hour and a half but um yeah you do end up coming across and finding ike oh
there you are um you lost this place is a bit of a maze no i i wasn't lost oh you're hiding
i wasn't hiding don't i just finding a place to just get some rest oh it was um i was wondering
if you want to share some of this viscous black liquid and also sandwich um i think it's supposed
to be coffee but i'm not sure i wasn't told sorry oh um i kind of don't think that coffee would be
good for me um i'm already a little bit on edge yeah i mean what but i'll i'll eat i uh i like pull
out the wrap and i just like break it into two and hand over half so who do you think is chasing you
um well i i guess it depends on what day it is and what i've done recently and um who i'm with and
what planet demand and what area i'm in it could mean a lot of things i don't know it's it's really
up to a lot of different things um maybe no one's after me somehow i doubt that and somehow you
doubt it too well it comes with the territory a little bit territory what do you do i don't do
anything different than what you do you know just things jobs stuff you know you know you know
things jobs stuff so you've also been a prisoner for 30 years all that stuff i like take it that's
the moment i take a first bite of a sandwich
uh no no definitely not that oh rebel leader then
uh you can keep guessing if you want baker no i i again just little jobs just things i just get
things and and do things well i mean judging by your armor you're pretty successful at it
successful that looks expensive she perks up tops her tail you like it really well i mean it's very
fancy it's pretty fancy i like it very much you know what strikes me about you you're wearing
very fancy armor you have clearly a bit of a a habit of finding some of the nicest things in the
room but also you feel like you're on a run and uh you didn't blink too hard when i said 30 is a
prisoner nor you're trying to get away from me which is pretty interesting considering you know
usually that indicates that i killed someone did something worse than i said rebel leader and you
didn't even blink at that one so well i mean we're stuck on this ship where am i gonna go exactly
like gonna jump out of the window into space oh my god would you guys mind if i walked in
and then jumped out the window into space would i mind i do not mind that at all sky walks sky
walks through the hallway and she's like oh hey sup and then puts down her goggles concealing her
eyes puts up a gas mask goes through an airlock and then jumps out a window into space taking her
board off her back that's all continue all right well i can't do anything like that i've never seen
anything like that before so um but still no i wasn't gonna run away from you because um
um i think we're all a bit of
varying flavors of criminal in this
in this little ship um maybe not the doctor but i'm not sure about that one yet i feel like it's the
first time you admitted that though that you're a criminal by any sense and uh according to
actually according to quite a number of things i'm not a criminal at all
well i'm not sure i think you know me well enough i know exactly what i do what do you do work
i get it i've got secrets too but one thing i've learned about you know being alone um
being alone um eventually you find yourself drowning in it well i'm sure that that's very
true but i am not alone i have tons of friends like enough to fill a big ballroom worth of friends
so many friends that you've been on this ship for what two hours and you haven't called anyone
um i didn't see anybody making phone calls we're on our way to a to a job you don't make phone
calls on your way to a job do you if i had someone i was close to if i had someone i was close to
yeah i was just irresponsible and begging for trouble i know how to stay hidden
till the job is done
well why don't you show me some of your friends i can show you one of mine
uh i pull open like my it's really old it's like a very old personal communicator it is
30 years out of date at least it was probably old when i got it so think 40 years out of date
and i go scroll through the images super slowly because again it's super old i have not updated
i haven't updated to the latest os and i pull open an image of me and another looking horn giant
basically that's malice they're my partner and um that's me and my mom i don't have pictures of
my dad he died when i was young um that and i'm like i point to an image who is not nefreti um
of like a very basically gigantic bug person that's hive they're great they seem great
so who are they some of my best friends well malice is my partner of course you just showed
me a picture of your mom so i i figure this is your best friend hive oh no i was um my lieutenant
oh
oh well they look all very nice yeah i do
um look at me i found one person to talk to for like a second
here i am just spilling out my guts i'm so sorry um has it it's been a while then
huh i i mean i'm assuming 30 years is um just ended then a couple of days ago
well you picked a heck of a first couple of days i didn't pick this i well i i picked the ship but
i didn't pick being on va 11 or see i got released because apparently there was a paperwork accident
that led to the 30-year incarceration because it was never legal so um they just dropped me here
because they don't want me to cause trouble oh um well so then you didn't do anything wrong then
oh i did i just didn't charge me for it
that's that's good then um well uh i don't hate you and i'm very glad that you're uh on the ship
i should probably leave you alone to your um napping i should probably find a new room uh no
offense i just i don't i i like to be able to have a little hiding spot looking like i've now
walked through most of the ship where are the places that are hardest to find good could i roll
tactician my profession um yeah sure honestly probably even without like even without rolling
the place that i is hiding was fucking hard to find like it was it's a hidey hole hidey hole
i i i rattle off three different places um that were less hard to find but also pretty hard to
find i won't go looking i appreciate that i've seen this entire ship so well okay
uh um there's a doo doo um throughout a speaker which is connected through all the uh all the ship
uh hey sky can you get the the fuck back in the ship we are all arriving to leviathan's eye so
everyone needs to strap back in sky comes back into the ship
um everyone goes back to their seats and you see uh ahead of you um and a large glass dome that
should have covered all these different rides and attractions all floating in the middle of space
but the the the dome has cracked and shattered as a huge asteroid almost impales throughout the
whole thing surrounding the leviathan eyes different pieces of large rebar and chunks of metal
that are that are floating softly soundlessly around it as the ship uh the patchwork comes to
a to a to a soft halt um you can see it out in in front of you um scrap grabs a small little uh
uh like um kind of looks like a monocle and puts it in front of them um twisting and turning it like
right so uh the drift core that we need seems like it'll be inside of the engine room
and from what i can see there's three pretty simple ways in or ways that we can get in
uh we can just dock at where the other ships go which would be pretty safe but would be incredibly
obvious to anyone who who comes so if we if we see any form of resistance we will be spotted
basically instantly um there is a maintenance hatch probably um which might be a little harder
to get into and maybe take you through some weird winding holes we'd also need to any of you can hack
can any of you hack anything scrap all right i know you can i mean and if anyone else can we probably
need to hack the maiden store to get in and i don't know if they have any form of security measures
but um but if we go that way we'll be completely hidden so uh there is that if anyone comes up
they won't be able to see us at all um and third it points to the large hole that the asteroid has
created we can just float in that way that'll be super quick we can get to the drift core in no time
at all that'll be dangerous as hell we'd have to float in anti-gravity for like a little bit and
i'd have to find another way to pick you up uh not to be that guy who's like constantly hey can i roll
can i roll but can i actually how dare you play the game yeah we're not here to do that
can i roll tactician again to see if those are the best options and if so
what would be the best operation for pickup if we decide to go through the dangerous absolutely
yes actually everyone if you give me a decent argument anyone can roll for for just some
information on the three or if you want to specifically spot there's perception which
you can do if any of your professions kind of clock with it if you have spells and clock with
it i actually kind of want i get to try to um i mean we're far away a little bit still but
i want to kind of get a look at the infrastructure and see if um hacking into a lock system
would be possible i kind of want to use computers uh my computer skill too to see if i can do that
brilliant absolutely um as you walk up to like the the front like viewing window scrap just like
without looking hands you the little monocle and it's it's a thing which you
see is it's essentially just a telescope but from the future um so you can like zoom in and things
um yeah you can absolutely roll computers that's fine what did we get on the tactician check 21
21 um so hell yeah i'll tell you a little uh i'll these are the three
the three like quickest ways that don't require like heavy machinery to get in there would
probably be a quicker way if you had like a drill or uh something like that um there's also
you do spot um or rather you you would know that um with the guns that the ship has you could
probably blow a hole in the side of the engine um and make it so that you can get in that way
but the danger aspect of that would be like you there's a unless you know specifically where
you're shooting there's a pretty high chance that you're just gonna just blow the whole engine and
have all of leviathan's eye blow up right in front of you so you have uh i'll i'll narrow down a little
way you've got the actual docking port which does have a lot of ships on it which is safe but it's
obvious um the hole through the main dome which is quick but dangerous and you have the maintenance
port which is hidden but it's slow pretty sure the doors and locks won't be a problem
i think that
let me ask you something would you prefer to keep this ship in one space or would you
prefer to do a couple swings around keep an eye out for any incoming heads
uh scrap i'm asking scrap
yeah i mean i'm happy to i'm happy to do fly around like that's okay so maintenance hatch
probably has some sort of background security on it we might want to head to docking pay first
drop us off there circle around a bit pick us up at the maintenance hatch because by the time
you get we get to it it'll be one we'll be closer to the engine and the drive that core is probably
a bit heavy but two we'll be able to see what kind of security they have on board and we won't be
surprised by it i mean what kind of security can they have it's like a theme park it's not it's no
wildest time you know depends uh i imagine i know like even though it's a theme park i imagine like
i know some non-lethal probably uh but you know place like this tend to keep a lot of cash and
they tend to be pretty guarded during the day times we're off backup security usually kicks in
sounds like maybe possibly not yeah nothing too serious the problem is more noise we make coming
in more obvious we're going to make ourselves we might start off hidden but if we start kicking
off every single security system i have well it could be backup uh buoys to transmit that
information to you know corporation owns this place can transfer that information to many spare masks
yeah spare masks for oxygen breathing half of your face so
so we couldn't to go up docking bay and then maintenance do we want to stay i thought the
plan was we start at maintenance and then leave maybe via somewhere else because i would hate to
get to maintenance and then find out that we can't hack our way out and then be stuck there i would
rather try and hack our way in and then find an easy way to vamoose you know hacking our way
yeah definitely go that route uh we take a slow probably single file double check for security
systems along the way check a backup subroutines like yeah i didn't take it through maintenance
that's no trouble at all is that the plan all in favor say i think that's of course a fashion that
makes the most rational i i i hi hi all right then there we go um the ship and and uh flies down
below the um uh below the like the nice festivities and ends into like the the cold like
just real this is a ship that is supposed to be like held in uh held in orbit um scrap flies along
to a uh these two huge metal doors um you see that there's a small light uh above him that flashes on
orange uh ah yeah that'll that'll that's that's that's the boarding call um but i can't imagine
anyone's there uh turns on comms you hear like a of just like open comms and then nope so yeah
normally they want us to uh they need like a code essentially a check in yeah to to be able to dock
uh if you guys have any form of hacking ability now's now's the time to show it off take it away
lady the floor is yours me uh uh okay yeah i got uh all right um i i kind of um
where what what is it i'm looking at exactly with the with the like comms open the like docking port
comms open a small screen opens up uh and you um and and what it looks like is just a screen that
that like looks out onto the the um the these two giant bay doors which are normally just like a
password or something is written into you i see a thread a strand of almost energy that looks
tangible which is connecting the this specific computer to the doors um yeah so computer with
the keypad okay so uh ignoring the keypad uh i will look and lean in close to the touch screen
um and lift a finger up and she kind of just plucks gently down on the thread um and
whispers a little bit to the computer uh hopefully inaudibly to everyone else um just sort of having
sort of having a little intimate chat with with the screen um and tries to find out it's it's secret
there is a response not through like any form of conversation but but just like a like a
there's a warmth that runs through you as um this this computer is open to a to a dialogue um as you
as you speak to it uh i would i would i would computers uh unnatural 20
it it regards you as a as a as a as a good friend as um you feel uh you feel just just calm in its
in its presence and give you like a like a it it leaves the energy like leaves you but but it's
but it's but it's a leaving like you're watching someone cheekily walk away um you see this thread
as it flies back to the doors and the doors and open and the computer and the docking port
and i just go bye and uh walk through the wait how'd you do that i would have probably just gone
through the linux system and like switch some files around but i don't even see what you did there
did you say goodbye i thought she was saying goodbye to us no not if that's weird
i look at i i look at the rest oh i she didn't say anything i said goodbye because uh computers
i love them and i just pat the computer as if it's a dog on my head
except it doesn't have a head and it's a computer uh so long computer
uh scrap pulls the the ship forward um lowers the the um the the
ramp uh onto the uh into into the maintenance hatch so you could you could just walk in um the
oxygen carries from one to the other but you but uh you still carry on the oxygen masks is just
just in case oxygen is like a little f***y on in uh in in the eye um i mean hey y'all uh you can do
what you want the the door opens and and there's a there's an open door and the ramp off into into
into the leviathan's eye do we have a map or something so we can know where the core is
i could perhaps try and find something uh through my computer system i'm certain
there were some design aspects that were pulled for a while time uh and um could i do
i do oh what kind of check would this be uh i i fucking love the way that you i love i love
the little thing that you did of just like oh yeah we stole some plans that makes complete sense to
me yeah absolutely you can you can i'll just argue me a role and i'm happy to sure happy to
do have you roll it okay uh i'm gonna say this is profession hell yeah yeah let's go
okay that is a 27 absolutely yeah you as you as you step foot in you kind of remember like like
even though even though the little the little bits weren't uh weren't taken but you remember
like seeing the plans uh once of just like oh well we could do this if we wanted like uh
the docking port to come down and like all that and um you remember a meeting that you had with
um some execs just like uh there was like what is essentially imagineers uh who were like oh
i have an idea how about we can do this and make this and it was a meeting that wasn't your forte
but you do remember the map and seeing the like the layout of things um yeah yeah you can you
you can you you remember where to go and i can i can sort of guide everybody in the right direction
okay um here's the plan did we want to huddle up let's huddle up come here so snow globe sounds
hard as hell that's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack so i say go get the drift
core because that's going to help us get out of here way better go get those slugs because that
sounds gross maybe we'll find the snow globe along the way and the mission at the bar to celebrate i
i i'd like it that sounds perfectly reasonable i would check maybe the snow globe i thought you
wanted a snow globe or something you're right i did uh yeah it's probably gift shop next to the
dock i was going to say yes check check the merchandise okay so step one get the drift
core yes all right hands in sure uh um thievery on three one two three thievery thievery okay let's
go i did not feel great about that oh my god the unsureness of literally everyone aside from sky
saying the word thievery was very good for me you hear of the of the maintenance doors shutting and
scrap you hear it um so i'm gonna do two turns around and i'm gonna join you at the uh i'm gonna
join you on the in the docking port the main docking port everyone okay with that yeah be safe out
there dude aye aye and you were left in a cold dark hallway there are lights on but they're
pulsing like a frantic heartbeat um just like flickering on and off and uh as you walk um
down these halls through uh theriac who's who's leading you there's this constant
message that is repeated um through the speakers um drift lockdown in effect please proceed to drift
docks drift lockdown in effect please proceed to drift docks is constantly being repeated over and
over again um god that's gonna get annoying can i try and hack that to turn that off
you definitely can give it a go yeah okay put on some sweet tunes asam doesn't say that
oh my god yeah no sky would do that can i like turn the radio on or something
you can absolutely give it a go give me a computer's check
hell yeah if i roll badly is it gonna be like experimental jazz or something
yeah yeah you will always hack it but it's the quality of 26 oh sky reaches up and taps her
goggles a little bit and looks around um you're the way you hack is is very different to to how
meta wise we've seen we've seen i um yours is a physical like you what you put your glasses on
and there is this um you feel this connection of a a slight pulling against uh just your temple
as you feel like a a magnet activate and your um your your both your goggles like fill with code
um that you like eye and with some like flicks of your fingers are able to like push past and move
certain things um are you changing the you you turn off the announcement of drift lockdown
in effect um do you switch it to any music i do you guys hear echoing through these empty halls
what starts with a rad guitar solo that goes like turn and then the drums kick in like and sky does
this cute little like jump dance a little air guitar and then she's like let's go steal some stuff
as soon as this like
and then the drums like um can everyone give me a perception check just really oh god i bet that
blew our whole cover but it looks really cool it looks really cool what cover
uh oh that's another nat 20 wow nice you said it was a perception 13 yeah yeah yeah please
uh that's a 17 nice 26 nice nice 26 sky oh i'm rolling too the one who caused the problem is 13
um you're the only one who clocks but um everything just seems like everything just gets very loud very
quick um so the rest you can't quite hear you're very distracted by the music they just started
playing but as um you hear in a vent above you a clatter and then sound like the sounds of something
scattering something large scattering through the vent away from you down the hall i
i i reach uh towards my wrist towards my waist for a pistol forget that i actually didn't take
scraps pistol oh scrap would have given you the flight was like eight hours if you want it you
can absolutely take yeah yeah i put my hand on uh on the hilt and i look up there's something else
here like like a person or no idea it's in the vents but it reacted to the music it just um
freaked out skedded off a point in the direction then i am a genius and it's running away from us
we don't have to worry about it let's go get that drift core sky we were supposed to be here alone
i don't know this place is abandoned they probably have like animals running through
the vents and stuff and this guy's here for animals so that's like there's more things to take
i i think if it ran away um we shouldn't go looking for trouble didn't we all say that we
don't actually want to fight anything i'm just worried my call for help okay then we move really
quickly out yeah yeah best course of action when dealing with unknowns in an unfamiliar environment
is to just keep moving forward but stay alert so let's keep moving forward but please
continue purveying the area azan that was very astute yeah i do that i i think i walk like
beside theriac as we as uh they lead us on just keeping as much of an eye as possible
i search for traps can i search for you can search for traps search for search for trance uh do you
also have dark vision what about that well you are a being made of actual lava so you are giving us
light like a soft light that is surrounding everyone um do you actually want to check for
traps i will allow you to check for traps if you actually want to check for traps
i'm mostly checking for like security measures then tracks sure uh give me a uh computers uh
actually you can argue different but i'm gonna go for computers or engineering just to clock
where these types of things would be um not the profession again in like a oh you can go for
profession profession of tactics yeah it works very well see that's way better than anything
yes this has become a very handy profession but then wait just wait until we go to a mall
there's gonna be i'm gonna be so confused on tactics of black friday shopping please
what's the best way to tackle this in canada or the u.s because those are two different beasts
in space it's completely different oh my god 21 um yeah sure give me beautiful um
you know you know what drift lockdowns are um drift lockdowns switch on only emergency um
emergency protocol so uh because the idea of a drift lockdown is that the ship is going
into drift which is like warp speed star star finder's version of warp speed um so they would
they turn off all uh security measures um to go into drift because it just sucks up power from
like incorrect places um so yeah you you imagine that everything is turned off on on emergency mode
should be safe for now as long as we stay in drift lockdown that is
um you you follow theory you follow down longer hallways and take sharp turns which you feel like
you're going back on yourself but you're not because there's like a slight lip of going up or going down
and you you see um a you see it you see a sign which has lit up drift lockdown in progress
lit up drift lockdown in progress um but also it says engine room underneath when walking around
the corner to look at the at the large um closed uh maintenance doors which also say engine room
above um there is a turret pointing down but it is clearly powered off as it's it's fully um dipping
its head uh the door is not um it's not a a computer right mechanism it's mechanized but
it's not computer based so you can just pull it open okay well first of all i don't want to take
any chances with that so i'd like to reach up grab the turret put my foot against the wall and
tear it off oh that is going to be a hard just base strength that's gonna be a base strength of
like 20 it's gonna be a beefy beefy to pull off a whole thing yeah the 20 you get 20 oh shit yeah
yeah okay i listen to man of a word yeah i said i said to do it yeah no you fully do it you um
you look pull it and it yeah you like it like you don't get it off the wall you're not like
just a made a made a muscle um but you do you like get it so that a few wires like buzz and
crack and snap and from your knowledge of engineering this is gonna work this is dead
even even if everything turned back on this one turret is just it's done so
let's go get the car um so all that stands in front of you is is these closed these closed big
doors i think theoryac is like gonna walk up and just uh gonna be like she just should be fine if
we just open the doors and then just like with their little hands they're just like
doctor um we we need uh your expertise um can i talk to you for a minute and i want to
wave them over to me ah certainly hold on and then just walk away from the door as as they
walk away from the door like signal to us um like uh um doctor uh the um skittering sounds we heard
uh earlier did you did you happen to hear it i did not catch that no i unfortunately uh skittering
does it is it usually um a sign of of a particularly large creature well size is more
determinant of and then just are you guys having like an aside about like yeah when you turn when
you turn your backs can sky just like yeah take a pin out of her hair and then go to the door
um sky goes to the door i believe azan was also ready to open it right oh am i can you can you
you i like i look down at sky okay yeah i was gonna say can you see me take the pin out of my
hair and then i can i look up and be like oh shit um oh god my dude was falling out you know
okay cool absolutely uh that's it's uh yeah give me a give me a sleight of hands just to be spicy
and get those rolls in a sleight of hand or a lock oh shit you do yeah lock picking would be great
yeah go on 18 is is it possible to aid someone in a role by the way yeah it is yeah um yeah you can
absolutely give a give a hand if you want um so yeah uh with the as on how are you helping sky
in picking the lock i'm also i'm trained in sleight of hand oh there you go so i'm probably just like
uh you know what like there's a little lock because these doors aren't meant to be open like an actual
door yeah right so there's a hatch that needs to be cracked open and like uh oh right here and i
like dig um a small crusty finger behind it and crack it he's covered in that macmacrush that's
his thing he's a lava man oh of course that's less gross okay i was like a small like amount of ash
yeah it's not it's it's completely fine if you don't think about how the crust is literally
forming on the skin it's fine um yeah i just helped out by finding where the lock is like yeah
beautiful yeah so sky roll that with advantage you can roll your lock picking again
23 oh thanks dude look at that shit um yeah you hear a very satisfying like
of air like escaping from uh from the other room and are able to pretty easily push it aside um
as you do you see
a a long hallway like 90 foot stretched out in front of you um dock the whole way down
shutters on each side are completely closed um and at the end of the hall there is a large large
room that is that is brightly lit up there is a seeming crystal um in the center of this uh
of this of this room which has this arc of uh lightning which is hitting a command console
the light that this lightning is giving the crystal makes it shine out in this gorgeous
rainbow pattern that seems to cling to the walls and um leaving almost like an imprint of color
and everything that it's that it's like moving slightly and touching you do also see um part of
the asteroid um wedged uh in uh to the engine room and there are a few slugs slimin all over it um
what do you guys do is that crystal the drift core that crystal is not the drift core you've seen
drift cores before and you can tell that that is this is not it however you do you can you can spot
drift cores around but this crystal is not that okay i'm gonna take my skateboard off my back and
start down the long hallway um you skate you skate down that down the hallway and nothing seems to
um nothing is that there's no like activation or nothing it's just a smooth long ride down
i thought you guys said you were fast um i
uh i start running just a little bit i take a long stride i think theory cast a sprint
uh they got a little way so with yeah with with sky skateboarding down as i'm walking normally
i jogging a little bit and theory act full sprinting all walking at the exact same pace
all walking at the exact same pace as you go down this hole um you get to the um you get to the end
and you see the engine room there are clearly clearly marked these um large cylinders um which
quite quite big and pretty heavy um with these like lightning yellow orbs which are in the center
um they all there's like a bunch of them all stacked up this big sign saying um saying drift
core uh spare drift cores um the uh yeah and you see you see those there this asteroid that has
fallen in there's like a few slugs seemed to poke from the top they're about uh about this big
football sized um which are just like minding their own business just sliming around uh and
there is this crystal which is the the arc lightning doesn't seem to touch the crystal
it seems unaffected by it but still giving it um like giving it uh like it's coming off of the
crystal but it's not touching uh it's not it's not touching it in any way seems to be coming off of
a small aura um and again there are these like rainbow lights which are like flowing around it
and and being given off of it through the um the the the light that this arc current going into this
big main uh i think theoryac like instinctively pulls out their like written journal but then
it's like no we don't have time and then uh just flips to a different app and it's like taking a
picture of the of the scene and then like a couple of close-ups and then puts away their device and
then we'll grab um a sort of like expandable like uh like carrier almost like like a pet carrier
um uh similar to the ones that they use and they've developed at wild times and uh it's going to try
and just grab a slug i love this let's grab this fucking slug can you make me a slug grab roll
sure um you can make me a lot you can make me a life science hell yeah that's the one that's the
one yeah life science let's go i have a plus 11 on that i'm a nuisance let's see well oh my god
what did you get i got a natural one between two to 12 love that for us you um you you reach at
your hand um it's it's just like a symbol you don't do anything wrong um you open up the gate
you reach your hand under as soon as you do you feel a powerful intense burning um as the mucus
of the slug gets all over you um and you you take four as this acid that the this little slug is is
like protruding off like burns all of your hand and uh you you wipe it off just take that full damage
and um and you can give it another go if you want or you could do whatever it seems like it's just
the way you approached it was incorrect you didn't have enough knowledge just before oh how do i
change my where's where's the hp um it will be under it will be stamina you click it right at
the top of your character sheet stamina you take that oh i took four i took four yeah oh boy max
damage on my d4 i'm so sorry does this occur in front of all of us yes it does dude you okay
i'm half my health uh i think like once like it takes like like a couple seconds for it to like
to feel it but then here it's like
i guess you should have researched more than just the size huh probably um
um just are you all right probably just a chemical burn maybe um it's all right it's all right uh
we'll grab some gloves
the natural one was forgetting gloves natural yeah that's literally it i'll give you advantage
because you've dealt you've now tried once and you have the gloves therefore you have advantage
on this little roll i got about 23 this time there we go hell yeah science is all that shit right you
that's it you you you like half scoop it and then half just like throw this slug inside this little
carrier it seems quite passive um and just kind of falls in and does a little like uh the like
force field goes back up and theory act is like yeah i think one's enough that's that's plenty uh
can i go to the cage and be like your name is burger and fries
uh i i what about milk highly do not suggest giving names to do that what if we get like at
least one more though isn't isn't just one wouldn't it get lonely and also isn't it beneficial you know
to have to uh see how they interact with each other like socially unless this is all like you're
not doing like medical experiments on them you're trying to like study them and find out like what
they're like do you want a breeding pair did the snails come in breeding pairs right well that's
true maybe a breeding pair well we would perhaps need to identify the the sex of this particular
individual organism and just looks in i wish i knew more do they have a burger and fries that's a
quote that's a quote uh we do well i'll just i'll grab another one uh and then we'll go get another
one yeah you're you're welcome like you've grabbed another one you don't need to roll again you just
easily i was gonna pick another one and just put it inside of the inside of the same or something
uh it would be i don't know that the rick would have have multiple i think i think it would have
to be the same enclosure uh so to them in the same how big are they they're like football size
yeah football size yeah well that's that's kind of cramped uh yeah they're slugs though they're fine
but this i mean professor i'm getting the sense here that you're not a very emotional person
but would you not want to be able to tell these slugs apart how do you tell them apart if they
don't have names how we we number them or give them you know like subject a 31x
listen no offense i don't mean to toot my own horn or anything dude but i'm pretty sure that
burger and fries is easier to remember than a 29x or whatever you just said
i mean we could ask this look uh how do you feel about burger and fries or b29x bnf
i think i think i think that's a rizoni s for a 29x bnf
well i'll leave you to your professional use and i'm gonna go get the drift cores
and i'm gonna go get the drift cores do you need help with that or is it just a matter of picking
one up no i think i'm good can i just i know drift cores matt can i just pick it up you can
do i need gloves no no no it's fine it's like they're already contained in these large containers
but these containers are like two-handers they are big things um i was planning on since i have
my skateboard and the only thing on my like back harness would be my bowstaff and just take that
off and like flip it around and attach it like a backpack wonderful um yeah that's grand uh you
do however just like with the sheer weight of it um you take uh the conditioned uh encumbered
so you move 10 foot slower um that's it you just move 10 foot slower uh so out of big serious
situations doesn't matter at all um so as long as we're not being attacked by acidic slugs we're
fine i got this i'm fine and you grab you grab the drift core you've got the slug the only thing
left in this room is is is this like weird little crystal thing but aside from that it's all it's
all that looks expensive you should probably take that it does it also looks like it's doing something
and that makes me feel like we should leave it um i'm open to suggestion though matt what if we need
to roll to figure out what the heck it is um you can do do do do if you're trained in mysticism you
could try in that piloting if you want to know if it's something that a ship uh a ship has before
engineering does know if like what its use would be on normal vessels engineering i'll roll and i
got a 13 uh i'll engineering as well sure i want to kind of be a little bit of a wild card here and
i i i want to um roll physical science physical science i i i kind of want to see if it's oh
yeah okay that kind of a thing yeah no that's a great shout yeah i love that shit absolutely
you can yeah um what are we rolling gamers i rolled a 17 in uh i i said engineering so i'm
gonna go with engineering engineering brilliant 17 in engineering uh any edit with the other
what are our other roles i got 13 in engineering so i imagine i'm just sweating trying to look tough
holding this door i got a 12 in piloting um 19 for physical science theory i can i you
engineering theory you've built things before you have a lab you on you understand like the
mechanics of how like how things fly and what spaceships need and all this um you've literally
not a fucking a clue at all what this is this is not a normal thing for ships to have not in a you
don't know like as armor sky aren't aware of what this thing is but you're like this doesn't fit
ships this doesn't work in any um it might look like it's doing something and it might very well
be doing something and you can imagine it is with this like lightning arc um but it's not supposed
to be there um i with your role you you're stood at just kind of the right area you spot the asteroid
as it's burst into the into the hull of this ship and you clock a broken part of the asteroid um and
it seems like this thing which you again you know what theory i know this isn't part of a ship um
but it does look like it's come from inside of this asteroid it it is a thing which is clearly
has a lot of like you can use it as a power source because it is creating this lightning it looks
completely harmless to the touch um since the lightning isn't quite hitting it seems to have a
little field around it um and you don't really know what it is either but you can assess that
it's from this uh it's from this broken um asteroid that hit the um the hit leviathan
oh um and i just want to kind of like hop and um you hop up and you touch it um as soon as
as soon as you you make contact there is this and the lightning arc just stops and the crystal just
just very lightly just um falls into your hand all of a sudden there's like this moment of silence
and darkness where you're all kind of stood the only light in the room was given by this lightning
arc and then the hallway just and lights start turning on again and you feel like a hum of an
engine and you hear drift lock down lifted and this long hallway that you walked up these shutters
as shit all lift up and you see hundreds of people these slugs that are covering the asteroid that
theriac has in his bag seem to have attached themselves to these people turning them into
these hideous shambling moaning zombified creatures you assume that when the drift lockdown started
people like fled into these rooms to strap in to go into the drift which just allowed the slugs
just to spread super easily and infect everyone as you look around through the thin layer of glass
that separates you from these rooms one of the creatures turns and spots you and slam themselves
into the glass and then another follows and then another and another until all of these creatures
are battering themselves against this glass trying to reach you and you see this glass begin to crack
jaw dropped slowly reach up to my goggles press them again and i'd like for the hard rock music
to play again and look over at my new friends and say let's go that's where we're gonna leave today
oh what a joy hello beautiful souls thanks so much for listening to the atomless now music today was
provided by alexander nakarada by subscribing to their patreon at patreon.com four slash anna
karada which is spelt a-n-a-k-a-r-a-d-a now ambience was provided by michael gelfie under
their podcast and content creators fair use and also by subscribing to their patreon which you'd
also definitely do because their ambience has taken this podcast to a whole new level it's so
good it makes me want to scream uh that is patreon.com forward slash michael gelfie which is m-i-c-h-a-e-l-g-h-e-l-f-i
the song that you're listening to right now is by matt harris it is strange stuff and it is also
a thing we have the license for because it's fair use and it's fucking amazing i love this
song very much our players today were super dylan who plays ike they are super dylan on all social
media nordana lee who plays azam going by the handle werewolf feels andre who plays theriac
going by the handle andre revier art momo o'brien playing sky who goes by the handle momo o'brien
and myself matthew ekberg who is captain krail pretty much everywhere and to our hosts the welcome
inn you can find the live plays of the atomless on their twitch channel every other wednesday
which is the wednesday where the podcast is not coming out as well as conundrum company off the
rails which are two major shows as well as so many more beautiful things i cannot speak higher of the
team they've helped us and me out so much i love them i love you if they've listened this far i
love you and yeah thank you so much for being here i appreciate you so much and i hope that the next
time that this little crew takes off into the atomless sea i hope you're there to join us
i hope you have a beautiful rest of your day bye bye
you