Agi, as I'm sure Tyral has told you, the project
is proceeding well. However, I'm sure she's neglected
to mention that we have record that someone in
the Peacekeepers got their hands on some of our
data tied to the transport of materials for the
installation. It is mostly junk, but we can't
rule out that a fuse has been lit, and that we
may need to accelerate our plans. I've looked
at the most recent report on our clusterist populations
in the city, and it's very disheartening. You
need to step up your efforts to get your people
out of there as soon as possible. It looks like,
percentage -wise, that people have been most
receptive to moving to other urban centers. We
should scale up our operation in Clearwater Crater.
Maybe have Pogolier take duty and do a segment
on how safe the city is. Make sure to point out
the temporary housing. I don't mean to tell you
how to do your job, but I think you understand
the position we would be in if the peacekeepers
came knocking before this is done. Sincerely.
Pierce Sunspire Okay, DT. We should get started.
Yes. Okay, fine. Let's get going. Is it ethical
to fuck a dolphin? Yes. No. Oh. Maybe. Hi! Welcome
back to Calamity Cascade. Today we will be resuming
our traumatic beam saber campaign, All That You
Know. My name is Colin, and I am the GM. Joining
me today are... Brian. Brian. Hi, and I'll be
playing Hex the Bureaucrat. Wyzak. I'm Wazzack,
and I'll be playing Geist, the ace. I really
should just call you Zack. I keep forgetting.
Yeah, either's fine. Ewan? Hi, I'm Ewan. I'm
playing Loyal, the empath. And Adam? I'm Adam.
I'm playing Joseph, the infiltrator. So, the
last set of vignettes contained a lot of content
in them. So, instead of skipping forward to the
next mission, which is going to be in around
two weeks' time... We're going to have a little
bit of time to explore things together, just
to kind of cap off the end of those vignettes.
Loyal and Geist. If you went to investigate the
explosion, you would learn fairly quickly that
a bombing took place at a cafe not too far from
the Peacekeeper base. Emergency services are
already there, running triage. Geist Crow, the
moon devil who's with you, his expression is
pretty implacable, and he pretty much leaves
you as soon as he confirms there's no active
threats left. It's pretty bad. The entire front
of the building was blown inward. The situation
is chaotic, and it's hard to put together exactly
what happened or who was targeted. You do, however,
notice one person getting rushed into an ambulance.
Your squadmate, Hex. He is not in good shape.
He's missing an arm, and he is full of holes
and very, very bloodied, and he is clutching
a little tattered piece of paper to his chest.
Oh, shit. I think Geist will probably look over
to Loyal and then... Run over to Hex, and maybe
if he's conscious, he would talk to him, but
if not, he'd probably talk to the paramedics.
Is he out? Hex, you can be conscious if you want.
You would be in a very delirious state, though,
as I think you have been. Yeah. I'm home, but
he's not exactly doing a lot of talking. Then
I guess guys still talk to the paramedics and
be like, what the fuck, is he okay? uh they kind
of they kind of push you back and like sir give
us some space here fuck i mean i guess i'm just
gonna i'm just gonna i'm not gonna fight the
paramedics so i'm just gonna kind of hover and
like see probably just like watch them load him
into the back of the ambulance yeah are we the
only like military peacekeeper people around
right now um no definitely some of like the base
guards have come over and are like right what
are they doing they're skeeved out they're like
holding rifles and like looking around um for
threats because it's not immediately clear what
is going on to anyone i want to pull guys away
and say the best thing we can do for hex right
now is to leave him in the very capable hands
of the medics we need to figure out what happened
here we need to look around and yeah i want to
do a survey to a wide Psychic scan to see if
there's any hostile entities around here. Sure.
Bad vibe check. Doing a bad vibe check. I know
that doesn't typically happen. I love it when
you do the vibe checks. Let's see. Ooh. I don't
know shit. Bad vibe. The vibes are bad. Yeah,
you kind of reach out with your mind, trying
to... figure out what is going on, and there
is just so much pain and fear and confusion in
the air that you cannot make anything out that
is useful. Yeah, I should have expected that.
I would maybe, the only thing I can think of
is that Geist might try and, like, you know,
ask one of the Peacekeeper soldiers here what's
going on, just to... From an out -of -character
perspective, he might glean the fact that the
general was here and got blown up if those guards
know it. And if not, then he'll probably just
leave. Because there's not really anything he
can do here. Clearly, there's no active threat.
This was some kind of sabotage. Yeah, I think
you see some guards interrogating one of the
victims. Some guy dressed in a suit, private
security. One of the general's bodyguards. And
he's kind of clutching his arm. It looks to be,
like, damaged, but, like, superficially. And
he's, like, saying, I went to the bathroom. I
left the general there with the rest of the guards,
and then there's a noise, and I came out, and
it was all fucked. It was all fucked. Oh, shit.
Loyal, we should get out of here, I think. I
think this is bad. Part of me wants to, like,
look for the remnants of the bomb to figure out
who made this what happened here but yeah i don't
want to be around the screaming minds surrounding
me at this moment no it's so distracting isn't
it it's exhausting god shut up already case of
the mondays Those were Hex's last words. Who
died? Jeez. Wow, this is crazy, man. Where were
you guys? I was at a bar. Just in case you're
wondering where I was. Just a confetti flies
off his shoulder. Look at all. Yes, so we will
skip ahead to that night. Joseph, you arrive
back on planet pretty late, and you do, kind
of as you mentioned, your vignette, check the
news, and you get it basically all confirmed.
that that did in fact happen. Everything you
saw, it almost took part in. Well, you did take
part in it in a way, but do you report to Nyla
immediately or later? I think I do immediately.
Excellent. So you are, this is kind of at your
crate, which is the designated meeting place.
You send the signal to Nyla and you meet her
there. She looks exhausted. You don't get the
impression you woke her up at like maybe 3 a
.m., 4 a .m., whatever it is now. Whitecliff
is there and she seems very passive. The usual
like kind of judgmental glare looking down on
you. And Nyla just kind of grabs her head and
says, Do you know what happened? Yes, I was there
when it went down. Do you know that? Wait, what
do you mean you were there? I was with Goldhouse.
I saw them pull the trigger. Wait, they did this?
Yes. She, like, grabs her head. Says, okay. Um,
did, did you, did anyone tell you about Hex?
What do you mean? Um, Hex was, uh, he was there.
He was? At the restaurant? Yeah, he was... Yeah,
he was there. He's in the restaurant. Why was
he there? I don't know. At the restaurant, maybe
he was getting lunch. Maybe he was... We don't
know. We don't know. No, we wouldn't know. No.
Okay. He's alive. Yes, he's... They say he's
stable, but he's not going to be the same afterwards.
Can I see him? Not now. They're not letting any
visitors in. Just debrief what happened. What's
besides this? Tell us why this happened. How
did they did they tell you how they got a bomb
in to the city? So I guess I I want to tell them
everything that happened, but I'm almost like
forgetting. They didn't tell me anything like
that, right? No, there was no. It was just show
up. And here's the trigger. OK, basically, I
mean, you didn't ask, but yeah, they didn't tell
you anything. And if you want to say I tell her
everything or if you want to admit certain things.
then let me know. I do just want to tell her
everything, and I will mention that I did meet
another sentient AI. I presume you're leaving
out the stuff about contrition. Yes. Okay. The
conversation me, me, milk, and cake had separately,
I will keep to myself, but everything else I
will explain. I'll just keep it generally, just
to be like the... Do have a sentient AI, as I
predicted, on their team. I did speak with them.
Seems to be that they are aiding them in their
efforts. Whitecliff kind of cuts in, says. Another
emergent personality. What was it like? Similar
to me. Almost a bit more advanced, but the body
was different. Non -standard? No. Not at all.
Someone's been doing something. She kind of inhales,
and she almost... She, like, looks up. Like,
in a round. Uh, like... I don't know how to explain
it. Like a paranoia. Uncharacteristic of what
you've seen in her. Mm -hmm. And Nyla just kind
of continues to, like, rub her face in the way
you rub your face when you're, like, really stressed.
Um, and... She says, Joseph, they asked you to
tag a Shudderbug mech. Yes. Right? I'm sure you
understand the repercussions if we go through
with that and the repercussions if we don't go
through with that. We are already on this course.
We cannot deviate now. We can't keep before cutting
pieces off of ourselves forever. I need a timeline.
I need to know you can get face -to -face with
a decision maker, if not the person in charge
of Gold House entirely, at least the one in charge
of this operation. If we can gain their trust
quick, then I believe I can do that. Okay. Just...
We... Like I said, we... We can't keep... doing
this forever they're gonna keep asking for more
and more from you and we have to give them something
real or else none of this will work it'll be
for nothing so just put the tracker on cheapskate's
frame it's the gold one we'll um i'll i'll put
something together to mitigate the risks and
uh just i don't know get some rest if you rest
i'd And she kind of just cuts herself off and
says, Anything else? No. That was it. Okay. Obviously,
I... How much have you told your squad? I've
only spoken to you since I've gotten back down
here. I take back what I said about reading them
in on it. It wouldn't play well. Not with Geist
the way he is right now. Not with Loyal. Just
keep it to yourself. If you need counseling or
something, it can be arranged. I don't... Have
a good night. I have to go. I have to attend
to things. Of course. And she kind of stalks
off, and Whitecliff kind of stays a little bit
and just kind of looks at you and says, Have
you talked to any other emergent personalities
besides the one you met? It was the first one
I've met so far, no. No strange sensations? Maybe
a kinship when I first met Milk Cake, but that
is all. I see. Well, keep at it, Joseph. And
if you do good, maybe we can arrange for better
circumstances for you. I would like that. She
nods, and then she leaves too. So, in the coming
days, if you don't know already, the media gets
a hold of this story. General Wave was the likely
target of the attack, and he is dead. Gets a
big funeral, as big as you can really get on
Terra Brea. Despite his low profile to you in
the pilot division, It seems he was exceptionally
important at keeping the operation on Terra Brea
together. His absence has created a very hard
-to -fill vacuum, and the usual chain of command
has fallen apart due to staffing issues. For
the time being, the division heads are attempting
to run the show as a sort of oligarchy, with
each division head voting on how to move forward.
It has been... Somehow more inefficient than
the way things were before, but at least it is
a way forward. Your squadmate Hex has been hospitalized
and is not taking any visitors at this time,
but Dr. Grace is attending to him personally
and assures you that he will pull through, but
that it was very close. Loyal, you mentioned
you might want to visit your friend Maze after
your experience. Yeah, I was torn between visiting...
Joseph first. I think I want to talk to Joseph
first, because what I want to talk to Maze about
involves whether Joseph can help me with something
or not. So I wonder, what does he do? Where does
he go after this? What does he do with his time
directly after this, after this briefing with
Nyla? Where will I find him? I think you probably
find him still in his crate, just kind of mulling
around, trying to keep himself busy, not think
about what has just happened. I don't know if
I've ever visited Joseph's crate. I don't think
you have. I don't think many have. Do you have
a crate? I have a little crate where I live.
How big is your crate? Where is your crate? Is
it like your Roomba dock? It kind of is my Roomba
dock. It's where they kept me when I was assassin
robot. And that's where I would go in and out
of my missions. And it's kind of become my little
home. Is it like a shipping container or is it
like a crate like a dog would stay in, like a
very small cage? I think it's like a shipping
container, right, Colin? With like a little hook
-in pod where I would sit. Yeah, it was like,
I think the way we talked about it was that it's
literally in a warehouse full of cargo containers.
That's like everything else there is just unused.
And yours has been like converted into like a
secret base of sorts, which is less secret now,
but you know. Is it secret enough that it wouldn't
have surveillance on it? Can I talk to Joseph
freely in this crate? Um, I would say that since
Joseph has been here so long, that is up to him.
Um, yeah, I don't think many people would probably
comb through this area. So there's no surveillance,
right? That's what I would assume. Yeah. Whitecliffe
probably has bugs everywhere in your house, dude.
Are you kidding me? That's what I'm thinking,
but, like, no active surveillance from anyone
from the Peacekeepers. I'm guessing Whitecliffe
is, like, following, but I don't know if she's
interested in anything Loyal's gonna tell me.
But if we do want to be secretive, we might have
to leave the place. Hmm. Then I don't think I
would go there unless I'm, like, paranoid. Real
ballsy. Unless I'm paranoid that people are just...
listening in on my emails too you can invite
joseph somewhere you will probably show i want
to invite joseph somewhere that would be remote
but not overly suspicious for us to meet there
what kind of place would that be maybe a restaurant
where an important official is no no no it could
be anywhere it could be you could do the the
classic thing of a noisy bar um Or a quiet bar.
Rooftop somewhere. Rooftop bar. Rooftop bar.
So many bars. Or just like an alleyway. You know,
there's so many quiet corners on Terrabrite.
Let's meet in an alleyway. Sure. You sending
me a little message? Yeah, I would send a little
ping that was just like Joseph, can you meet
me at this location? And it's just like marked
on the map and it's just some fucking alley somewhere
that's like In a less populated part of the city.
Joseph sends you a thumbs up emoji and makes
his way there. Joseph would walk into the scene,
seeing Sunleth just floating next to a dumpster.
It's not very inconspicuous of you, loyal, but
it is nice to see you. Sometimes it's better
to be away from prying eyes and ears. Listen,
I will get right to the matter. I... I have a
favor to ask you. I want to know if you are able
to do it or not. Okay. What would you have me
do? Is it possible for you to hack into the informational
database that the Peacekeepers have on information
about Clusterists and plant falsified data, but
make it look as if it was always there to begin
with? Can I do that, Colin? You would have to
roll for it. But it's something that's possible
for me, right? Oh yeah, the Peacekeeper infrastructure
is really dated. Okay. I can do that for you,
yeah. Is this something that would be easy for
you? I don't think many things are easy, but
I can definitely get it done for you. I appreciate
the candid answer. Listen, you have been my squadmate
for... some indeterminate amount of time now,
some weeks, months. I think we were trying to
figure out how long this has gone on early. What
do you think? How long has it been? However long
it feels like. I think months. Yeah, I was going
to say months. I was going to say months also.
Yeah, and if you're listening, please do not
go through and keep track of how long I said
because it'll probably be like seven days and
that'd be really embarrassing for everyone. Yeah,
don't fact check us, please. Hey, I'm in a coma.
It's okay. time's not real for you anyways yeah
i just say that joseph i've come to trust you
over the time we have spent together and i will
let you know the information that i would like
you to plant i need you to falsify a bit of information
about clusterists and that specifically they
have memory training For in the case that they
are captured, their memories of certain critical
locations that would be disastrous if it fell
into the hands of the peacekeepers becomes completely
erased after a certain period of time. Okay.
How soon could you do this? Well, the base seems
busy. They keep their hands occupied. I'll do
it as soon as possible. I cannot surmise if now
would be a good time or a terrible time given
recent events, but I think the chaos may work
in your favor. At least, I hope it will. I would
definitely agree to that, loyal. Thank you for
meeting with me here today. I'll be in touch.
Yes. Um, one more thing. Yes. I need something
from you as well. As you know, I have gone undercover
with Goldhouse and have been doing many things.
At some point, people might ask me what has transpired.
I will not be able to tell them the truth. You
cannot reveal this to them. Sunleth is surprised
by this to be asked a favor of Joseph, but he
nods his head and is like, I understand. This
goes even for our squadmates. If Geist or Hex
gets wise and has you interrogate me, I need
you to tell them something else. I kind of shift
in my tank at this, like wriggle a little bit,
because I don't like the sound of this. This
makes me uncomfortable, but I nod again and say,
okay, I will do as you ask. Good. Happy to hear
it. And loyal, remember. We're almost there.
I think you can feel it as well. We won't have
to do this very longer. I hope you are correct.
Thank you again. Of course. Joseph jogs off.
Great. We could... So, obviously, Joseph rolling
a die is not going to automatically make your
long -term project succeed at Loyal. But I do
think you could set it up in such a way that
you could proceed. So, Joseph, if you want to
roll an interface for me, risky standard. I think
I would love to. We can see how that goes. Can
I push myself? Use a little bit of stress because
I have a lot being able to use. So is that two
stress? I forget. Two stress for another D. Okay.
So then I'm going to roll. Plus 1D risky standard?
Mm -hmm. Eh. Six. Success. Yes. The infrastructure
is very bad. It is almost concerningly bad how
easy it is for you to do this. It kind of maybe
makes you uncomfortable. Like, if the Clusterists
did in fact have a good enough... sabotage division
they could really wreak some havoc on the peacekeeper
systems and yeah you edit the digital file on
like i don't know where it would be like just
general knowledge about clustrous infiltrators
like buried somewhere that people rarely refer
to and just edit that they are conditioned to
have their memories of important events decay
or they can force them to decay or something
like that to give Loyal, that's plausible deniability.
Perfect. Secretclusteristinfo .txt has been breached.
Put this in the porn folder. It's not in the
archives. It must not exist. So, Loyal, did you
want to have that meeting during downtime then?
Yeah, I think so. It's more of a downtime at
this point. Cool. I'm good with that. So I think
we're going to kind of fast forward a little
bit. Hex, you have undergone extensive surgeries
and physical therapy. Well, actually, I should
ask. Loyal, did you want to talk to Geist? About
what? Nothing. About how I'm the destined inheritor
of the King Returneth. By putting a crown on
my head. I think I would just like... And instead
of talking to him, I would just like creep on
him. I would just watch him. Figure out what
the fuck is happening. What's special about Geist?
I don't want to tell him anything yet because.
Anyone else want to do any talks before I fast
forward? I think that's good. The only bit of
secret information Geist has, he is keeping to
himself and I feel like it's about to become
relevant. Sure. Hex, you've undergone extensive
surgeries and physical therapy. The best that
money can buy, funded in part by the corporate
council, who have provided the latest in prosthetics
and neural regeneration techniques without your
consent. Recovery has been ongoing, but you're
at least able to walk around now, and your new
arm is functional. You're no longer bed -bound.
Recovery has been ongoing, and you... your arm
is it's good it's like it's the best that you
can get but there is a delay to it um the simulated
nerves just feel different and it takes a lot
of physical therapy to get used to um and you
can only imagine how difficult it is with the
usual prosthetics most soldiers get and not this
bougie shit your level two blood loss harm has
been removed wait no your level three Blood loss?
I forget, it was bad. It was bad. Yeah, your
level one blood loss arm has been removed and
your level two missing arm harm has been replaced
with input delay to represent the weird feeling
of your new arm. Dr. Grace says you will get
used to it, but that it'll take time and plenty
of physical therapy. But there's also something
else about you that has changed. You've gained
your first scar. Yeah. Would you like to tell
us what that is and any immediate behavioral
changes people might notice about you? I'm so
curious about this. Yeah, no. Hex's first scar,
I know baby's first scar, it's a very big day,
is paranoia. Yeah! He no longer feels safe like
he once did. He now sees that things can go bad
quick and he might not know about it. So in terms
of how this might manifest, he's a lot more wary.
And I think that'll show more as we play. Excellent.
So, despite the previous injury of one of your
squadmates, Geist, it does not seem the timetable
has been pushed back at all. Yeah, I don't think
so. Nyla gives you the go -ahead to gather your
squad and frame for the next mission from your
hangar and head over to the Moon Devil's hangar
as she has other matters to attend to. She wishes
you all luck, but that's all you get from her.
All right. Yeah. Geist will gather the team.
I don't know where everybody usually hangs out
off -mission, presumably somewhere on base. I
don't know. Loyal shows up suspiciously fast
because he was near you. I was going to say,
Geist leads a pretty boring life. I feel like
Loyal would spend a lot of time watching him
tinker with his frame or run combat drills over
and over and over or go back into his little
hole -in -the -wall apartment. Yeah, I think
that would make him realize naturally. Yep. Geist's
thing is he wants to be a martyr. Yeah, so Geist
gathers everyone and basically says, like, you
know, grab your frames, we're a special mission
today. Alright, Hex was already there. He's already
in the hangar. Joseph's gonna stroll in. Oh,
did Joseph give me any indication that he was
successful with his tinkering? I imagine in that
time I probably maybe sent you a message. Thumbs
up emoji. Yeah. Cool. So when you get to your
hangar, whichever one of you gets there first,
which I'd like to imagine is maybe all of you,
one thing sticks out to you, and that is there
is a fifth frame in here. It is hard to tell
exactly what model it is. It seems to be pieced
together from at least four different component
sets. But you see a number of semi -familiar
components. A repaired set of rockets that were
junked from Hex's frame. The cockpit and head
of the Silver Sun, which was the Maze's frame
you brought down on your first mission. And there
were even some grafted pieces of Loyal's old
broken shields. And in front of the frame, in
full pilot getup, making some last -minute adjustments,
is Gopher. Oh lord. Gopher! Gopher. This is our
fifth buddy. What is this? What the fuck is this?
Gopher looks unwell. In a significant way. Like,
dark bags under his eyes. He's muttering to himself.
And he says, This is my frame. You doing alright
there, bud? You look like shit. They killed my
brother. His unit got ambushed in the city, and
I know you're going on a mission, and I'm gonna
go with you. Fuck. Has Gopher piloted a frame
before? Unclear. I would ask him this, like,
Gopher, have you ever piloted one of these things
before? I've been running sims. I've run sims
on all my free time. I always thought that I
could be a pilot. One day, like you. I look to
Geist at this. Geist gives like a really like,
it's like an uncomfortable like, oh fuck, kind
of look. Go for it, listen. Man. I think you
know what I gotta say. Don't say it. Geist, I'm
gonna make this easy for you. I'm going with
you. I'm going to kill some fucking clusterists.
And if you don't let me go, then I'm leaving.
I'm going to go fucking stomp off into the city
by myself and just start opening fire. See what
I hit. Would you prefer that? Hmm? I want to
like lean over to guys to be like, he's telling
the truth. I mean, it depends on what district
of the city. No, look, look, it's not. Believe
me when I say that out of anybody in this base,
I know what you're going through. Alright? It
doesn't... I really can't change your mind, can
I? No. You get approval from Nyla for this? No.
Maybe we should let her know first. Go ahead.
I'm gonna look to Geist. Yeah, go ahead. I'll
send a little message to Nyla. Look. Nyla, like,
calls you immediately. Joseph? Hello? What? Is
this a joke? No. Gopher is here with us right
now. Is this about his brother? I believe so.
Fuck. Fuck! Um... No, he can't. Obviously he
can't go. Just handle it. And she hangs up. We
must detain him. I don't think that's a good
idea. Do we even have the resources to detain
anyone anymore? Maybe you can talk to him? Gopher,
do you think... Do you understand how crucial
you've become to our work here? Yes. But I've...
We have the new repair bay. I've got assistants.
They know how to do most of the maintenance.
I have documentation. They just need to... They
just need to fucking read it. And they'll be
fine. Everything will be fine. It doesn't matter.
I'll be fine. I won't be a burden or anything.
I just... I need to do something. Okay? Listen
to me. I've been good. I've been so good to you
and your squad, and I just want one thing for
myself, and that's this. Just one mission. Just
one chance, and I'll go back to being good gopher.
I'll be running here and there. I'll bring you
drinks. I'll bring you fresh drinks with ice.
With ice, you know? It's not that much ice on
the base, but I'll get it for you. Okay? Just
this one thing. If you go through with this,
if we let you go through with this, I mean, I'd
say that Nyla's gonna fucking fire you, but I
don't know that she can at this point. You won't
feel better when you kill somebody. You'll feel
worse. A lot worse. And you'll hate yourself,
probably for a while. I don't want to feel better.
Geist looks back at the squad like, well, what
are you going to do? Does anyone have any good
speech skills? Anyone want to try to talk him
out of this? Hex can try. I have like a one in
consort. Oh, Hex is good consort. And he's our
squad mate, so it could do well. Yeah, so Hex
is going to try talking him down from the ledge.
Yeah, I also want to let you know, this is kind
of a twisted form of the consequence you got
from entanglements. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In
case you forgot. Okay, I mean, if you want, what
do you say? What are you trying to convince him
of? Gopher, Hex finally speaks up. I was also
just the good herald, plugging away, helping
in the back. And I didn't feel like I was doing
anything. But take it from me, you can't just
jump right into it. You are going to be a liability
to us out there, and I'll be the first to tell
you that. You're more useful to us here, and
that's how we can get revenge for you. All right.
Let's see it. Desperate standard. Come on, baby.
Can I burn a fate in a wrong system? Wrong system.
Yeah. Consort, risky standard. Hail Mary. Partial
success. So, you're going to get a desperate
complication from this. Nice. I'll stay in the
ship. What does that mean? It means he's going
to come with you, but he's going to stay in the
ship. Okay. Like his frame or the loading ship?
In his frame, in the ship. And that's not a lie.
No. Right now, he means that. Okay. If you think
that'll help us. He won't drop with you, is what
he's saying. Melvin, what was your brother's
name? I'm so fucking glad you asked that. Oh,
thank you. Oh. It was Kev. Come on. Kev, the
Vin family is my new favorite Dynasty Hunter
brand. Fucking Kev. Kev? Vin? Yep. I shoot Melvin
in the face. I just can't handle it anymore.
Listen to me, I promise you, the first... Well,
fuck that. Every single Clusterist that I kill
on this sortie, it'll be for Kev. They'll blame.
You know my reputation. Okay. But if things go
bad, I'm gonna help you, okay? Look. Just...
We need... Please. I'll be good. I won't jump
in after you crazy. I'll be with Worthy. I'll
keep him safe. And if shit gets weird or it's
looking bad, I'll be there. I've been doing the
Sims. I'm good at it. I'm really good at it.
I'm better than I thought I'd be. And this frame,
it's great. Look at it. And he points at it.
It was not great. What is our mission right now?
You don't know. They don't tell us any info at
all? No, you don't know anything. The only one
who knows anything is Geist. He's not saying
shit. Um... Are you afraid to die, Melvin? No.
I... It honestly sounds better. I'm gonna pull
out my sidearm and aim it at his head. And I'm
gonna ask him again. And then I'm gonna look
to Loyal to see if he's lying. Are you afraid
to die, Melvin? Hmm... I'm gonna roll a die.
Resolved. It's like Disco Elysium. I love this.
I'll fucking do it. Authority, guys. Points the
gun at his own head. So, partial success. We
should have had you roll it. Oh, well. He's slightly
afraid to die. Yeah, I guess it's... He's nervous.
He says... He puts his forehead against your
gun. And then he puts his finger on the trigger.
And he says... No. I want to die. I really fucking
want to die. And I want to die surrounded by
their fucking corpses. Geist looks to Loyal.
Loyal reaches up one of the arms of his exopod
to the top of the gun and just lowers it and
looks Geist in the eyes and says, He doesn't
answer. He just lowers the gun and he looks to
Geist and he says, If he drops, I will cover
for him. I will shield him with the Nautilus.
Geist holsters his pistol and he says, Look,
I don't trust any of your puke assistants to
touch my frame, alright, so you better not get
your ass killed. And he stalks off. Yes, sir.
Lil just gives him a sad look and goes over to
his frame. Yeah, everything you said was true.
He's, like, fully suicidal right now. That's
probably bad. Joseph's gonna walk over to him
and put his hand on his shoulder. Say, welcome
to the team, Gopher. Nod and then walk away.
Yeah, he gets back to work. You've got a better
call sign than that. Gun 13, Gopher. All right,
let's get it on. Also, I forgot to mention, but
the ambush he's talking about has a lot of suspicious
similarities to the one Kuro told you about,
guys. Like, as in, like, it keeps happening,
or as in it probably is the same one? It's probably
the same one, given the time frame. Okay. It's
very funny that immediately in the wake of Geist
being told that, Joseph went and started hacking
around in our mainframe. It is interesting, isn't
it? It's a shame he got a full success on that
test, because I had a funny idea for a consequence.
You get funny with me, buddy. But yeah, let's
go. We're going to the Moondevils hangar. I'll
never tell. So, do you tell your squadmates anything
before getting there? You're given the go -ahead
to do so if you do want to give them some pre
-briefing. Yeah, yeah, I'll basically just tell
them that we're going to be going for a operation
with the fucking Moondevils of all teams. That
seems pretty serious. That's all I think I really
know about it, right? Yep, there is a virtue
involved. Oh yeah, that's right. There's a virtue
involved. I don't know which one. Excellent.
That's all we have? Yeah. We're going to break.
X does not look happy with this. The Moon Devil's
Hangar is housed in the same kind of area as
your base of operations. It's much bigger and
better equipped, though. Each frame has its own
repair bay, instead of having to share one. There's
a small battalion of runners and repair crew
milling about, bringing ammunition, spare parts,
and cleaning supplies. Security is very beefed
up. There are armed guards at every entrance,
lookouts on top of the hangar, and even a smaller
patrol frame outside, keeping watch. The four
Moondevils frames are here, and I'm going to
list them out. The first is piloted by Call Sign
Tapper. It's a humongous frame that has to kneel
down to fit in the hangar. Almost looks to be
scaled on its back, but at closer examination,
it is covered in what must be hundreds of missile
launchers. The second is piloted by Callsign
Green. It's a mid -sized frame, a Soul Union
standard mech deployed on hundreds of worlds.
Kind of like Hex's, but this one's been slightly
modified, but nothing that sticks out immediately
to you. The third is piloted by Lieutenant Grimble.
It is hard to call it a frame at all, maybe 8
feet tall, nearly man -size. It's equipped with
a number of winches and cables, a large thruster,
and a beam sword, which is nearly as big as the
frame itself. And the fourth Geist you recognize
as Crow's frame, with its infamous design. Each
part of its body, cockpit included, is fully
modular, able to reconfigure on the fly via a
highly complicated magnetic field controlled
by the pilot. The frame shifts itself on the
fly according to each situation with a near limitless
amount of configurations. It is unclear who designed
the frame, and the most Crow has ever said is
that it is a custom job. And the pilots of these
frames are gathered in a sitting area on the
right side of the hangar. There's like a framed
board with a bunch of commendations on it, some
photos of the virtues that are like grainy and
distant, and a printout of Pierce Sunspire's
face that has been repeatedly punctured with
throwing darts. Yeah, I guess, are our frames
loaded into where these ships still? I can't
imagine they're here and we're just like kind
of here in person. I think they're being loaded
in. Okay, yeah, Geist will take a good look at
the picture of Retribution on that board of greeny
Virtue photos and then kind of head over to where
the pilots are. Did you bring Gopher with you?
No, I think we made him stay in the car. I don't
want to have to tell the moon devils that he's
here. Kind of embarrassing. My little brother.
Yeah, maybe we should bring him so he doesn't
get fucking killed by them as soon as he jumps
out of our ship. It probably shouldn't be a surprise.
Oh, no, I think Geist would say he shouldn't
come to the briefing, but we can tell him about
him. You guys walk up. Crow, who I described
in the vignette, is a mushroom man. Very cool
looking. Kind of leans in, places a foot on top
of a coffee table, and he says, Before we begin,
you should know, you will not be permitted to
leave this hangar unsupervised until the end
of this operation. All communications will be
blocked as well. If you have anything you need
to do before hearing the information, now's your
chance. No. Your pilot and your infantry crews
should be brief once we're en route. You'll be
responsible for getting them in order without
mentioning the mission to them. Okay. Okay. The
Shutterbugs received intel that the Virtue, Duty,
making an extended visit to the Clusterous stronghold
of Clearwater Crater on the far eastern edge
of the River Valley. He's doing a press tour
to show off some of the new housing facilities
being built to encourage Clusterous to move out
of the city and into the River Valley. He pulls
up a map of the city, which I'm going to pull
up for you in Foundry now. Oh my god. It's a
very big image. I did not need to make it this
big. Me when I drink water. It's life -size.
So true. It's like half a circle, right? That's
what we're saying? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Clearwater
Crater is the largest clusterous -affiliated
urban center on the planet, except for this city.
Population, 120 ,000. Highly militant. It sits
inside a large crater, making it exceptionally
difficult to approach as well as to leave. The
city's proximity to other clusterous strongholds
makes it a threat. makes the threat of reinforcements
or even other virtues likely. Our only benefit
is that they won't expect us to attack such a
reinforced target. The operation will begin with
two precision suborbital drops. The moon devils
will drop onto the city center and immediately
engage duty, attempting to secure a kill before
he has time to respond. This method proved very
successful when we destroyed Love during the
siege of Brea City. So, he kind of points out,
imagine this map was well made and clear to tell
what things are. The red dots are anti -air emplacements,
and the green dots are garrison entrances. Can
you describe this map roughly for the listeners?
It's a half circle trying to depict a crater
with a river going through it, and there's a
dam in between the river and the crater's rim,
and then there's a city kind of in the middle
of the crater. So imagine a river going through
a crater, and there's a dam in between the outside
of the crater and the inside of the crater. The
city is directly around the river. At the point
where the river meets the center of the crater,
that is where the city is. It would be a shame
if that dam broke. Real humanitarian question.
Yeah, let's listen. And the dots that you're
talking about are on top of the dam. On top of
the dam, yes. The AA emplacements and the garrison
are all on top of this big concrete dam structure
that stretches the crater's rim. Mr. Crow continues,
and he says, At the same time we drop, the Dusklights
will begin their operation. Their primary goal
is to disable or destroy all anti -aircraft installments
on the rim of the crater. Your secondary goal
is to distract or destroy the western garrisons
stationed on the crater's edge as well. On the
off chance you complete both objectives, your
tertiary objective is to destroy or disable the
dam to flood the crater floor and the city inside.
Once duty is destroyed by the Moondevils and
the anti -air installments are disabled, We will
head towards the western crater edge for rapid
exfiltration. You will cover our retreat, and
then you will retreat yourselves. The most important
aspect of this operation is speed. We need to
be able to exfiltrate as soon as we are finished
with duty. If we give the clusters time to respond,
we will be overrun and destroyed. If the AA installments
are not destroyed, our pilots will not be able
to reach us, and we will be trapped. Any questions
so far? Just so we're clear, because this has
caused some confusion in the past. The tertiary
objective is to consign the 100 ,000 or so civilians
living in this cratered area to a watery grave.
It's unlikely all of them would die. Fair enough.
The civilian death is secondary. The robbing
them of that hydroelectric plant is primary.
But, like I said, that's only a tertiary objective.
We're here for the virtue. Alright. Okay, moving
on. Your frames have been outfitted with a flare
system. If Retribution shows up, send out a blue
flare and we will attempt to assist during our
exfiltration, if possible. The Virtue Sacrifice
has been spotted in this area recently. We have
no reason to believe it will be there today.
However, if you spot Sacrifice, send up a red
flare immediately and abandon the mission. Whichever
squad is targeted should attempt to buy time
while the other squad attempts emergency exfiltration.
If we send up a green flare, that means duty
is finished and we're on our way to exfiltration.
To summarize again, final objective outline.
First, destroy the AA installments, and if you
have time, destroy the western garrison, and
then damage or destroy the dam. There are no
rules of engagement. Alright. Gais looks back
at his team. Any questions? None for me. None
here. No. Then I guess this is it. You understand
if we do see sacrifice. Do you understand the
instructions that have been supplied? If you
are targeted? Yes. I don't have a lot of data
on this guy. What? I take it your engagements
with him in the past have not gone well. We don't
fight him. You won't win. How long should we
buy time for if he shows up? You won't live that
long. Alright. I don't think there's anything
more to say. Good luck. He nods and starts to
load up. Now's a good time to figure out what
method are you going to be using for this operation?
Well, shit. Let's take a look at the old little
cheat sheet here. So Brian's going to walk in.
He's going to be in like a suit and tie. I'm
going to be in a workbench. I'll be in the little
box. Hey, fellow terrorists. Something happened,
they know. So, assault, deception, scientific,
social, stealth, or transport. I think our only
real options here are assault or stealth. Unless,
you know, somebody has an idea. No, go hard fast.
I'm down with assault, especially because we
just got a cool new ability called Reavers, where
if we take team actions, if we get multiple sixes,
like if more than one person rolls a six, we
can pool them for a critical success on the group
chat, which is pretty cool. We haven't done an
assault yet, and this just seemed like an assault
mission. I'm ready. We've been so deceptive.
Let's just go in for once. It's been funny, though.
It's hard to be deceptive when you're a 40 -foot
tall tank. Yeah, I think we go loud. That's my
thought. Okay. So, you are dropping in. You are
loaded into Worthy's aircraft, and presumably
you give him and your infantry the necessary
information that they need to do this operation.
I think also we'll just let Worthy know about...
gopher, and just Joseph maybe says, try to keep
him aboard. Don't let him jump off. Okay, is
Joseph, but that kid, he's the one with the big
shooter, you know? Yeah. Listen, when it happens,
just let us know. I'll try, but Hayes fields,
and he shrugs. I give him a pat on the back and
walk away. You are all, with the exception of
Geist, who can fly, equipped with single -use
retro thrusters, which allow your frames to not
pancake when they hit the ground, when dropped
from the air from high heights. And unless you
have anything to do on base, you're going to
take off. Yeah, let's get out there. Before we
go, I think Geist will just go over to Loyal
and be like... That tertiary objective, it's
pretty grim. I don't think we'll have time for
it, but I just wanted to make sure before we
left that you were good. Since this is a hydroelectric
dam, do we have an option to just somehow disable
it without flooding the entire crater? Yeah,
they did say destroy or disable for all your
objectives. How do you disable a dam? I mean,
if it's a hydroelectric dam, yeah, you can just
break the machinery that generates electricity.
If it's just a regular dam and the only function
it has is to hold back water, then disabling
it by very definition would be flooding the city.
Yeah, Loyal would say, I am assuming we are in
agreement that if we do have the extra time and
we are pushed to do something about the dam,
we are disabling it at the most. And not doing
anything else. That'd be nice. I don't think...
I don't think any of this is going to shake out
the way we want it to. This is serious. This
is really serious. It never does shake out the
way we want it to, does it? No. No, it never
does. That's war. Glad we are at least aligned
on the dam. Yeah. Let's get out of here. Agreed.
All right. You've got a few hours until you drop
as the craft climbs into the atmosphere very
high up. If you have any last checks you want
to do on your equipment or talks or anything,
now's the time. If not, tell me how you pass
the time. I don't think we need to do pilot load,
but do it anyways. Just check light, medium,
or heavy. There's no real... Who knows? Who knows
how fucked up things could get? I'm not even
going to make any promises. If we're going to
get out of our mechs, I think we're in some big
fucking trouble. Sometimes people are taken out
of their mechs without wanting to be out of them,
you know? It's true. So, okay. How are you passing
your time? I want shots, baby. I want cinema.
I feel like, I mean, Geist is kind of obsessive,
so he's probably, like, just, like, for the first,
like, you said it was, like, hours, right? Yeah,
it's going to be, like, about five hours. Okay,
probably for the first, like, hour and a half,
Geist is, like, checking his systems, rechecking
his systems, rechecking his systems again, running
diagnostics, sitting there in the cockpit just,
like, flicking levers because he's bored. But
yeah, then after that, he'll probably just get
around and start pacing the bay of the ship.
Excellent. Hex. Hex doesn't want to leave anything
to chance, so he's just studying that mission
map and the very brief briefing they got. Excellent.
Loyal. Unless told explicitly and violently to
fuck off, he is staying next to Gopher. He's
not pushing any, like, psychic thoughts onto
him, trying to calm him, though it is running
through his mind. He's just next to him. Do you
want to know what he's doing? What is he doing?
What's that guy doing? It seems that he is filling
the cockpit with explosives. Hmm. God damn it.
If I float up to him and he's doing that, I'd
be like, hey, gopher, what are you doing there?
You know, the Clusterists, um, they can pull
things out of your head if they catch you. You
know that, right? I wonder if they did that to
my brother before they shot him in the back of
his fucking head. Bet they did. Bet they made
him hurt real bad. They're not gonna get me.
They won't get you. They won't let them. Okay.
Thanks a lot. Thanks. Why are we bringing him?
He's going to blow up the dam. He's going to
do it. Oh, no, dude, that'd be so bad if he blew
up the dam. It'd be a shame if he did our objective
for us. I feel like maybe as he's pacing around
the bay, he'll see. go for filling his really
shitty frame with explosives and he'll see loyal
uh talking to him and then he'll probably wait
until sorry are you done like is loyal gonna
do anything else geist is gonna wait till loyal
like backs off maybe a little bit maybe at least
out of like immediate conversation range if loyal
ever does to go try talking to him i think when
you go into training to become an empath you
get told for certain signs of a person to look
out for where Your skills are not effective.
And this is what Gopher is right now. Loyal doesn't
really know what to do. And if he sees guys coming
over, he turns to him and welcomes the interruption.
Look, I've got to talk to him just for a minute.
Of course, be my guest. Gopher, do you know what
happened to me? Why I'm all fucked up like this?
Retribution, right? Yeah. Do you know what he
did? Uh, not in detail. I used to be with the
Moon Devils, and one of the pilots I flew with
was somebody that I cared about a lot more than
anyone else in the world. And, uh, Retribution
crippled my frame, and... killed her right in
front of me he didn't have to do it she was removed
from the combat at that point her frame was wrecked
but he killed her almost as if directly to spite
me and then he put me well into a comb i almost
didn't survive i know what you're feeling right
now and i know that you just want to go and do
something and make them pay. His fist clenches
a little bit as he says that. But the thing I
think that got me through other than, well, you
know, the passage of time while I was in my coma
and my physical incapabilities was looking at
the big picture. Alright, you want to go down
there, you want to surround yourself with a pile
of bodies, and you want to blow yourself up,
but you know what? That's what they want. They
want this war to bleed the peacekeepers so dry
that they have no choice but to leave. And then
they win. And then the sacrifice of everybody
who died in pursuit of this stupid fucking mission
is so much piss in the wind. That includes her,
that includes your brother, and it'll include
you. Is that really what you want? Is that what
you think your brother would want? He kind of
just sits there, quietly, tinkering with the
plastic explosive. And he says, I won't lose.
We won't lose. All I'm saying is that if you
really want revenge... You need to live, and
you need to keep going until this bitter fucking
meaningless conflict has been fought to its very
end. Do you understand? That's why you need to
survive. That's how you get your revenge, and
that's why I get her to bed every fucking morning.
He looks you in the eye, and he says, I understand.
Thank you. Don't throw your life away. Loyal,
that's a lie. You can hear it. Geist doesn't
know that. Geist is convinced that he did a good
thing, and he goes back to his frame. Yeah, I
let Geist believe that. Fucking big dub, boys.
That was easy. We got him. Finally, it's a good
deed. So, Joseph, before I ask you how you're
passing the time, you get many text messages
from Nyla saying, where's Gopher? I respond with,
we're about to head into the mission, won't be
able to talk, but he's with us. He'll hang back
in the ship and we'll keep him there. Don't worry.
Thumbs up. Going into a tunnel, can't talk. You
know how it is, Nyla. It's very important information.
So how are you spending your hours, Joseph? I
want to go talk to my pal Hex. That's okay. You
find Hex over studying the map. I'm gonna walk
over to Hex. Joseph extends his arm for a shake.
He says, You looking a lot better there, Hex?
Joseph wouldn't notice this, but Hex is painfully
aware of the delay in meeting his hand with his
new robot one. Good to see you again, too. I'm
ready to get back to it. Is the arm treating
you well? Not as good as the original, but I'm
glad I'm at least alive. Same here. Couldn't
stand losing you, pal. We've had a lot of drinks
together. Listen. I'll have your back here, okay?
If you get into danger again, I'll be right behind.
I promise. Hex? He's a little taken aback at
this, but he doesn't let it show. He just kind
of gives a nod and says, I appreciate it. But
watch yourself out there, too. That I should.
That I should. He could have done about this.
And he kind of gestures to the arm. So let's
see what we can do here today. Very true, my
friend. Let's look at the maps. Joseph's going
to help you and pour over things as well. All
right. Eventually, the yellow drop light flashes.
Worthy's voice comes over the speaker and says,
All pilots to drop bays and... No, he's not Southern.
Jesus. All pilots prepared to drop bays... No,
what is that? That's French? Mediterranean. Pilots.
Pilots. Pilots. Pilots. No. Okay. Well, he says
in his voice, he says all pilots to drop pays
and prepare for engagement. We'll fix it in post.
No, I won't. Go listen to some Minnesotan accents.
I keep putting people with Minnesotan accents
in my games and I always lose them in the void.
It's just Terebrae. Terebrae is like that, okay?
I should have made him a Southerner. We don't
even have a Southerner NPC who appears regularly.
Bluth? Bluth? No, well, he's... That's a different
type of Southern. Oh. He's Southern Southern,
you know? He's Antebellum. Yeah. All right. Let's
get it. Let's do it. All right. You get in, and
eventually the drop light turns green. And then
Worthy's voice comes through once again. His
voice. And it says, Moon devils have dropped.
Good luck out there, Dusklights. Oh, that was
it. I got it. So, what goes through each of your
minds before you drop? Just like a brief impression.
Geist. Just. I feel like Geist has developed
a sort of combat zen. It's almost like meditation,
except that he doesn't have the sort of thoughtfulness
to do something like that intentionally. So he
just, like, takes a breath in, takes a breath
out, just focuses on the dials and the rattling
of the ship, and he just clears his mind because
everything he does while he's on the ground is
basically reflexive. Geist is just concerned
about making it out of this one alive. Loyal's
thinking about Gopher. Joseph's also thinking
about Gopher, but after noticing the explosives,
he's thinking, how could I use this? We probably
should have sabotaged his frame. But it's too
late. How could we use this? If you do that,
he's going to go down with a parachute and a
combat knife. Okay. It's time for the engagement
roll. Yeah. High dice. You get... One die for
sheer luck. Yeah. You get an additional die for
being a bold move. Yes. You do not exploit any
vulnerabilities of the target. Not really. We're
dropping on top of their anti -aircraft guns.
That's like the opposite. Yeah. You have minus
one for tier difference because this is a tier
two you're attacking in this case. Okay. You
don't really have any external support because
you and the Moon Devil's kind of doing separate
missions here. And there's not any other factors,
but I will hear them if you have any propositions
for an extra die. Right now you're at one dice.
So just to figure this out, we are taking out
anti -aircraft things and also the green dots,
right? That's our main plan. The red dots are
primary. Yeah, the most important thing is you
take out the red dot AA guns. The green dots
are like the frame station there and the infantry.
They're like underground bunker. That's secondary,
and the dam is the third objective. And moon
devils currently are going after the virtue?
Yeah, they're going to the center of the city.
They're going to be over there. Gotcha. Understood.
I can't think of anything else that would give
us an edge here, so I think we're literally rolling
one die, and that's a coin flip. You know, there's
a reason it's called a die. It's because it kills
you. Oh, I don't want to start off in a desperate
position today, guys. Somebody with good luck.
Yeah, who's feeling lucky? Who can give me that
4, 5, or 6? I take a 4 or 5. Hex getting hit,
like, you know, bombed is an unlikely event,
so that's kind of lucky in a way, so I'll roll
it. What am I rolling? That's true. Literally
1d6, and if it's a 1 or 2 or 3, we are fucked.
Oh, that's easy, 4. Oh! I'll take it. I'll fucking
take it. We could not have hoped for better.
Holy shit. As you drop, your frames careen through
the cloud cover fast, leaving Worthy's craft
far above you. Droplets of vapor streak across
your cameras and trail your mech like a comet's
trail. You breach into the sunlight of the Troposphere
and you see the crater beneath you. From here,
you see the Moondevil splash down, a four -square
formation surrounding the kneeling frame of duty.
Before you can get a proper look at it, the distortion
of a haze field blooms, leaving just streaks
and glows of indistinct violence. I'm going to
create some clocks now. Not by create, I mean
show you. Okay. I've shared these clocks with
you. They're going to make a little more sense
once I describe some things. As you drop Loyal,
your cockpit lights up with a targeting warning.
Too late. A beam of concentrated plasma clips
one of your retro thrusters, disabling it. You
feel a psychic presence, distinct and fierce,
directed at you. Looking down as the vapor comes
off your camera as you see its source, perched
on top of a large satellite dish is Eggwhite,
one of the hyenas you let get away at the refinery.
Eggwhite. Eggwhite. Beside him is the final member
of the hyenas, their leader, Cackle, scrambling
into position while hefting a large launcher.
A number of generic frames likewise have begun
to emerge from the interior of the RIMS facility
preparing themselves for combat. Perhaps more
importantly for you, Loyal, is that if you don't
find some way to repair or mitigate the loss
of your thruster, you'll be dead once you hit
the ground.