Welcome back to Starlane News. My name is Joe
Jeffries, filling in for Tesco Long, who is still
on vacation. We are here in western Brea City,
where the majority of the urban Clusterist population
lives. As you can see, all around us are these
flyers with an alarming message which reads,
Clusterist citizens of Brea City. Despite our
best efforts to keep the city safe, recent developments
require immediate military efforts to liberate
this city. You are urged to find temporary shelter
outside of the city, or at the very least, farther
west, towards the Snow Wall. Now this warning
coincides with a number of similar messages and
broadcasts pushed out by Agi menta, the leader
of the militant Clusterists, which have been
ramping up over the course of the last few months.
Naturally, this message has many people scared.
Here in the West City, those that can flee have,
leaving empty houses in their wake. Farther west,
in the poorer, colder districts, overcrowding
and resource shortages have turned into violence,
with people fighting over limited resources as
fewer and fewer supply caravans are willing to
go to and from the city center, where the peacekeepers
are currently located. The question remains.
Is this more posturing from the Clusterists to
rattle the Peacekeepers, or will these threats
be realized? One way or another, we'll be here
to let you know. This has been Joe Jeffries with
Starlay News, and as always, stay safe, stay
informed, and keep your eyes on the stars. Hell
yeah. Okay. Recap. I'm not going to do an intro,
so don't freak out. Last time, after attending
to some personal business and getting a tour
of your new base, you were sent deep into Clusterist
territory to investigate what happened to the
Moondevils, who have gone missing after they
went looking for Warehouse 27D, the place that
our friend Hex found. When we last left off,
you were dropping on their last known position,
or the position of the warehouse itself. The
drop lights turned green, the swamp was beneath
you, and your frames dropped down. And as promised,
let's get a look at your new frames, freshly
retrofitted. Geist, let's hear yours first. Sure.
So Geist... Changeling, it kind of, I'm not going
to say it has a problem, but it definitely like,
it is distinctive in the way that it kind of
functions. So my idea for what it looks like
now is that it's kind of been retrofitted. The
profile has been changed and it's been busted
up a little bit. So it looks very, very, very
similar to the old model Changeling that Geist
destroyed out on that test yard. So I'm imagining
it in kind of like a workhorse military olive
drab, but it looks like really kind of rusty
and busted up. It's like been intentionally scuffed
up to make it look like an old piece of surplus
that was dumped, you know, somewhere in a scrapyard
and then refitted. But underneath it's got all
the same cutting edge hardware. Awesome. This
in no way says anything about the secret passenger
in Geist's brain. It was all his own free will.
Of course, naturally. Loyal. So the Nautilus
has been stripped down of all of its mother of
pearl casing and shielding and just everything.
It looks like a stripped car, like a skeleton
almost. And there are panels over the parts that
actually need panels over them, like the wiring
stuff. They're just a plain gray or black or
just... Whatever metal is strong and cheap, there's
no paint on them or anything. And it looks honestly
kind of like I think Joseph's frame used to look.
Just like very spidery, very skeletal. Except
for the head, where the melon part of the Nautilus
used to be. It now is just an entirely exposed
sonar array. like, on the front of a sub, which
I'm going to send a picture of you guys to right
now. Where'd you get a picture of me? So it's
like a pinhead, almost. Yeah. All of these little
sonar devices coming out of it and just this
kind of round, mostly dome -shaped thing sitting
on top of the shoulders of this fucked up giant,
still very giant, robot skeleton. So. Very cool.
That's what it's turned into. Loyal has become
a Cenobite. That's fucked up. That's what I was
going to say. But I think it fits. Okay. Joseph,
since you've been called out. I have been called
out. I was going to go with something that looked
kind of like a utility frame. So what I was doing
was I painted my whole frame yellow and I put
large plates around my arms and legs that are
yellow and black, kind of like caution tape,
you know? And the stripes across most limbs.
I have like wires strung between all the arms,
but these aren't loose wires. They're taut. So
nothing can get really like snagged while I'm
flying around. I trying to mess up the laser.
So now it looks more like a mining laser. And
to like help with that, I even put like a ladder
and steps around my later. They're fake and they
don't get used, but they look like a human would
walk on them to fix the laser, you know? And
then finally, just so no one's looking in and
sees a robot driving it. I made the cockpit glass
way darkened now. There's a big orange letters
on the front. They said that says like maintenance.
And then there's a bunch of like caution warning
stamps, like all over the cockpit. So you can't
really see inside the windows. Yeah, exactly.
And then there's spare wheels on the back of
the body. Like, like you would have in a car.
This is reminding me of like, uh, A Rock Raiders
robot. Does anybody here know what that is? Yes.
Oh, yeah. Lego Rock Raiders? Of course. Does
it have a clear orange chainsaw on one side?
Tell us about it. It really should. The Rock
Raiders were kind of the best. We have time to
get a Rock Raiders. Or Ninjago. Okay? Yeah, exactly.
But yellow utility frame. That's kind of what
I'm going for. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Hex. You
know, best for last. Hexes, in a surprise to
no one, just looks like a mass -produced frame.
Pretty similar to his old one, but frankly, if
you weren't looking out for it, you wouldn't
notice the slight changes where maybe he's using
a different model of artillery launcher this
time, you know? But otherwise, plain great. Yeah,
V3. Awesome. We kind of, a lot of us, we have
almost a cohesive theme of old, junked up piece
of shit. We all decided to go very low -key as
part of our disguise, which I think is pretty
cool. It lined up nice. Yeah. Okay. You are assaulting,
as I believe you just said last time you were
here. Mm -hmm. Your point of entry, I think,
is the detail you need to fill in, and I think
that is just that you are dropping down on top
of the warehouse. Yep. Point of attack. I have
the modifiers right here. So you start out with
one dice. You're going to get another dice from
your hyper booster, that little thing you got
for your base. That gives you plus one to any
assault plan. This is very bold. You're dropping
into very uncertain territory. So you do get
that dice for being bold. This does not exploit
vulnerabilities. It is not ineffective against
the target. You don't really have external support.
No one is really interfering with the mission.
But you are going to take a minus one D from
tier. So that is going to take you down to for
a grand total of two dice. Who wants to be that
person? Who's going to be that bitch? Yeah, I
don't want to do it here. We are getting near
the end here. Who hasn't rolled an engagement
roll? I don't think I have. Unless I have? I
don't know. Maybe Adam has it. I don't know.
I don't think I have. I can't remember if I did.
I feel like I generally refuse to do it because
I have bad luck. Brian typically does it. In
my brain. I think you waffle and then I do it.
I want to see it from Joseph this time. Blowing
on the dice. A six? Okay. Very good. Joseph,
you've been holding out on us. Yeah, I know,
I know. Got the weighted dice. What can I say?
Awesome. Yeah, you all four fall down towards
the silt basin, and you land with a splash and
a squelch in the swamp. Your frames kind of sink
a few feet into the murky water. For the smaller
frames, like Joseph's, which is, I think it's
still a small size, right? Yeah. You've got like
only five feet of your frame above water. You're
very inhibited here, but in the control position,
you find a stump to stand on or something. Picks
him up and puts him on the stump. Thank you.
You sit right here, buddy. All around you are
these huge, broad, canopied trees with thick
trunks with very few branches except at the top
where they fan out into this umbrella shape.
Ahead of you, probably around 200 yards, on this
swampy mound is the warehouse. Relatively flat
building covered in this camouflage netting.
There's a large metal blast door that is closed
in front of it. And there's not really any sign
of the Moon Devils around here. Loyal, you quickly
notice, as you get here with your sonar, that
there are some anomalies in the swampy water
surrounding the warehouse. There are these well
-disguised, what you presume to be mines, just
by their profile. Very advanced. A normal scan
would not have picked these up, but... Very fortunately
for you, you are, you know, using sonar, which
whoever designed these was not expecting for
you to use. And that is where you're going to
start. There are mines all around this warehouse.
No one approached the warehouse. It's trapped
with mines. All right, put him up on the tack
and we should just avoid them. We can't stay
here in the water. We're going to be liable to,
you know, get snagged by something. Agreed. Kind
of like how quiet it is. Are there trees around
the warehouse? Can we jump over the mines? The
warehouse is in a clearing, explicitly. It looks
like the trees were cleared out. Do we know anything
about the mines? Are they identifiable? Do we
know what triggers them? You do not. Your control
position is that you're not immediately in threat
by these, but they're very advanced, I'll tell
you that much. You are not familiar with these.
That's not something you have worked with or
seen, most likely. Are they spread out enough
that we could pick a path between them? Or are
we going to have to deal with them somehow? You
are aware immediately of a few of them in front
of you, like halfway to the base. They seem to
stop there, but... You are not immediately sure
if that is because of they're not there or because
at that range, whatever Loyal is using sonar
-wise is just no longer effective. I kind of
want to blow one up. Have Joseph, like, jump
through the trees and go on the opposite side
of the warehouse and just, like... Throw some
rocks at them until they blow up, and then we
figure out a way to get through on the other
side. I was gonna ask, would the trees here hold
my weight if I climbed up them? Yes, definitely
your weight, because you are a small frame. Okay,
okay. Go be Tarzan. There's not really any point
in subtlety, because we literally fucking turbo
boosted out of the sky. So we can just fucking
go hard, we can go loud, it's time to kick ass.
Gotcha. Do we want to be safe and blow up one
mine first? Yeah, I feel like we have Joseph
go on the opposite side of the warehouse, blow
up one of the mines, and then we wait for them
to alert and maybe start going that way, and
then we blow up the ones on our side, and then
we all go in and we regroup. Yeah, do we have
any plan for if things do start up? Like, are
we just going to shoot them? I think that's probably
our best bet, but also Joseph will be safe from
them. Geist can fly, so it's Loyal and Hex who
we'll need to worry about most, but they could
both check a maneuverability thing if they wanted
to just build a boost over or something. Who's
the most maneuverable of us? Probably me, because
I'm tiny. Yeah, I'll do that. I'll get to the
other side of the warehouse and... Throw a rocket
of mine, see what happens. Yeah, I think the
hard part of that is the maneuvering more than
anything. So do you want to give me a... I believe
it is just called a maneuver. Yeah, let me roll
you a maneuver. But hey, let me make sure my
fucking things are where they should be. How
considerate of them to have built -in distractions
for us. Your position is controlled, standard.
Control standard. Here we go. Partial success.
Yeah, you effortlessly, you were just climbing
up a tree and then hopping over? Yeah. Yeah,
that's easy for you. For you? That's easy, man.
You jump off a tree, do some parkour shit, you
land on this muddy mound in front of the blast
door. You find, I don't know, like a old stump
that's been left there and uproot it, and you
hurl it at one of these Once it makes contact
with it, this almost instantly bright light and
this sphere of plasma just bursts out of the
water, evaporating everything around it. And
then even like the steam of the water comes apart
at the molecular level, turning into hydrogen
and water. The hydrogen... I mean, hydrogen and
fucking oxygen, both of which ignite instantly
into this huge orb of melting heat, which bursts
out around it. And if you had been in that, it
would have been very, very bad for whoever that
is. Wow. Mines are safe, guys. Let's go. How
big is the blast radius? It's, um, hmm. Let's
say maybe 15 feet sphere. Pretty big. All right.
Joseph should head back this way. We should pay
attention and see if they go investigate or do
anything. Well, do you hear any sounds? Maybe
I could watch from where I'm at to see, you know?
Yeah. Because I'm thinking maybe I'm already
in like a kind of like a good perched up position.
If like you guys fight, like it'd probably be
good if I was up here and shooting down with
my laser. Like I'm already in a kind of great
area. I am up. Your consequence is that you're
in a risky position. Now I am, right? Yes. Yeah.
You all are. Knowing the blast radius of that
mine, do I think that I could pick my way through
the mines that are in front of me without flying?
It would probably take another roll to fully
map out a route without flying. Okay. Okay. I
was just thinking, because I assumed that, like,
Loyal, like, could, like, tag them on our combat
display or whatever. Yeah. And you could also
just keep throwing shit in there if you wanted.
Yeah, that would take some time. Build up some
paths. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. It's so tempting. I
got all this load to declare. Maybe I will activate
my fine machine gun and just start fucking...
I'm thinking what I can do is I can fly over
top and then just fire my fine machine gun. down
into the minefield and the places that we don't
have maps to just try and set as many of these
things off as I can. Yeah, shoot him. And no
one's came out so far, right? No one's investigated?
Nope, not that you can tell. Okay. Got you. That's
a good question. Not that you can immediately
tell. They definitely know we're here, though,
and if nothing else, probably some sensors linked
to those mines, so let's just get up to the warehouse
as quick as we can. Do you want a role for this?
Do you want me to battle or perhaps maneuver?
I don't really know what's appropriate. Um...
You're just shooting, right? Just kind of shooting
in the line where you presume for them to be.
Yeah, I'm kind of just trying to clear a path.
Where is everyone standing right now? In the
trees. I'm in a tree. Hex is hanging in the back.
Okay. Just wondering. Yeah, just this role will
be controlled. Okay. And what will it be, though?
Whatever you'd like. You'll probably get the
same as long as it's a reasonable role. Yeah,
yeah. I mean, I think battle is the one that
makes sense to me. Here we go. So I'm glad this
is controlled because we all know how good I
do with three dice rolls. Oh, it's a partial.
Partial. Two, five, and a three. That is a partial
success. Yes, you unleash a salvo of shots in
the water, just in a path that you'd like to
take. And the... One sec. Geist has a new machine
gun. All of his equipment looks different. This
one's like... It's like a big, bulky, black,
drum -fed thing that kind of is bolted to the
underside of the left hand of the changeling,
but with, like, a handle and firing yoke that's
gripped in the robot's hand. Awesome. Yeah, you
do it. Like, sphere after sphere of this plasma
just bursts. It's very impressive. There's, like...
Something about these bright flashes, though,
Geist, it's hard to tell what it is. It's like
your sensors are getting messed up, but your
eyes are also getting messed up by it as well,
and you feel like it's not really a seizure,
but it's seizure adjacent. Seizure adjacent.
Seizish. I'm going to take your fragmenting clock
by one. That fills it up, you son of a bitch.
Oh, no. Do you want to resist that? I think I
have to, yeah. Can't have you fragmented, man.
I don't know what's going to happen, but it probably
should not be at the very beginning of the match.
So, yeah, I'll resist that. What are you thinking?
Is that a resolve? I would take... Actually,
I can't say I would take because I have to give
it to you. I think acuity. Like the mech action?
Yes, sir. So I'm going to lose quirks for this?
Oh, fuck, you're right. If you want to hybrid
it, I can just roll my acuity, which is two.
I think that is very thematically appropriate.
Yeah, roll your acuity, but take that much stress.
Okay. Let's see. Acuity. Fix my acuity. I'm going
to click bombard because it has two dots on my
sheet. Three, so I lose three stress. Not great.
Not terrible. Okay. Yeah, you managed to clear
a path. The water goes sloshing back in where
it was evaporated. You can't smell anything because
you're in a frame, but there would be a smell
in the air. I promise. Of? Maybe Geist can smell
it. It would be weird. Probably smell like fucking
jet fuel mixed with swamp gas. Mm -mm. Yuck.
That's what I'm saying. Okay. You guys proceed
to the little island? Let's do it. Yeah, let's
all get up in here. What order are you going
in? I love that question. I feel like Geist is
probably at the front. You know, Hex is a little
slugger. He can go second. Am I, like, super
far away if I'm in a tree next to the warehouse?
Because I'm, like, I'm wondering if I went in
there, like, even on the ground, I'm wondering,
like, the first thing I would do in a problem
is get up high and then shoot. Then I'm already
in a good position for that. You are, on the
x -axis, you are two football fields away from
your comrades once they reach the warehouse.
Okay. More minds on the way, so they think there's
more of us than there actually is. In frames,
that's not too bad. I feel like I should stay
where I'm at, and if I hear screams, I'll jump
over and get to you guys. Sure. Okay. It happens
far more suddenly than it usually does. Haysfield
goes up, and Geist, you are struck four times.
as a flurry of fists manifests out of nothingness
in front of you, and retribution has made his
appearance. His form is shifting as always, liquidy,
translucent, not quite here, but somewhere else,
though this time it seems far more erratic than
usual, almost bedding around you like a lens.
The world through his form is concentrated and
brought into focus as if looking through a hundred
disjunct telescopes. And strangely enough, he's
attacking you directly this time instead of one
of your comrades. You are going to take three
level one damages. Dented, punctured, and reeling.
And I'm going to put you in a desperate position.
How would resisting this even begin to work?
You would have to resist them separately. Oh
my god. A broadcast comes over your comms. Retribution
talking. Probably directly to you, but not making
an effort to hide his voice from your friends,
saying, You fucking idiot. Do you have any clue
what you're up against? Oh, I think I know just
fine, baby. Um, so let's see. I could theoretically
resist all three of these. That would put me
down to one quirk. So I'm not going to do that.
What I will do instead is I will... How much
load do I have? Okay. I'm going to resist one
with a quirk with flexible frame. I'm going to
resist one by checking off armor. He's mad. I
like that he's mad. He's very mad. Swearing.
Loyal? And then I'll take one. Guys, he's really
mad right now. I'm sure it is the only one of
those that I remember, so that's the one that
I'll take. Awesome. What do you do? Well, that's
a good question. This guy, he's fast. He's a
speedy little guy. I'm going to need to match
him to get that speed. I have a question. I recall
that I was given a device by Ziggurat that in
order to... develop the countermeasure she wants
to develop, I need to hit him with it. Do I need
to check off a vehicle load for that? If you
look under your vehicle primary form gear on
your sheet, you will see a new entry. Yeah, okay.
Probe weapon. So I'll remind you of its purpose
is that it is not so much to develop a countermeasure
as it is to find out where retribution actually
is. Oh, that's right. Okay. All right. It can
be any weapon you want. Go ahead, design something.
Okay, yeah, no, my idea for my newly designed
frame weapon, because Geist's very iconic thing
is his, like, double extra punch hand. So I'm
thinking of his new melee weapon is just, like,
it's straight up the Armored Core -style pilot
bunker. It's, like, a huge state driver that's
held in the right hand of the frame. Fuck, yeah.
Man, I'm running up against my vehicle gear limit
already because I was gonna... Okay, I think
I am going to use my... I would like to use my
advanced prototype, my fine mobility suite. I'm
going to push myself. to gain both increased
effect and the extra die. And my plan is to try
and just, like, he's extra fast, he's extra erratic,
I want to keep up with him. And just, like, wait,
measure my blows until I can get a direct strike
on him with the probe weapon. That's kind of
my plan. Sure, what do you want to roll for that?
I mean, I assume battle. That's what I would
like to roll, and I also think that that's what
makes the most sense. Excellent. Is anyone helping
you? I would love some help. We have actually
a bunch of group. So first of all, we can pool
sixes to generate a critical success. And I think
Loyal got... Didn't you gain a new ability that
assists in group actions in some way? It is after
I see the results of an action roll, I can push
myself to assist. And if no dice were rolled,
we can roll again with one dice. But I can only
assist if no one else assisted on the roll. Okay.
And this is after seeing the results. So would
it be better if someone just flat out assisted?
We could just fight him as a team. Well, because
how... It's tricky. If we fight him as a team,
we're more likely to generate a critical hit.
But whoever leads the group action in this case,
I think it would be Geist, will take more stress.
Is it just one quirk to push yourself for a vehicle
action? Yes. Okay. And you get the best result,
or you get the result of whoever's leading it?
You get the best result of everyone. Okay. In
this case, since you have been ambushed, you
cannot make a group action right now. Next rotation,
though, I could definitely see it. Okay, so for
just this first one, then I will just try and
get it myself. So just with the push. What is
my effect if I have more effect and less effect?
Base, you are at desperate limited. So you will
need to increase your effect somehow if you want
to do more damage. Desperate limited. Curse this
damage. Okay, I could. I could check off another
vehicle load and use my boosted reactor, but
that's a real one shot. That's wasting one vehicle
load for extra effect on this one thing. And
I have no more. I'll have one extra load left
for the whole rest of the operation. That would
suck. That would suck. But I'm rolling four dice.
I'm hoping I'll at least get a partial. I guess
I could activate the rage system. I would give
you improved effects if you use the rage system.
That was fast. Okay, death wish is fine. Possibility
hallucinations. Okay. I thought it caused something
called can't tell friend from foe. This is better
if I'm not going to hurt my friends. I'm just
maybe going to get fucked up. You know what?
Let's do that. Let's do the rage system instead
so I can keep my vehicle gear. Sure. I'm going
to immediately kick it into high gear. We're
rolling four dice on battle. It's desperate.
I just re -read Rage System. It's only for maneuvering.
Rage System? It's called Rage. I think it's a
situation where you, like, see fucking multiple
realities to evade things. If you are biding
your time for a perfect strike, though, I could
see it being a maneuver. Sure. I mean, I am using
my mobility suite. It'll still tick ticks in
his thing, so. Okay, I'll do that then. Yeah,
that makes more sense because, I mean, it is
a, I am using my prototype reactor, sorry, my
prototype mobility suite to gain an advantage
here. So, yeah, I'll do that. Excellent. Mostly
semantic. Okay, this is desperate. I got one
extra die. Effect is standard. And I have put
retribution's eight -step clock up. as well.
Okay. Let's kick his fucking ass. Hey, that's
a success! Yes! Alright. You get two ticks. So
explain what you're doing. You're evading, mostly
waiting for an opening? Yeah, so it's like, it's
very defensive. Retribution's coming fast, he's
moving weird, so it's very much just, like, reactive,
especially with the rage system active. He's
just avoiding blows, avoiding blows, waiting
for an opening, and as soon as he overextends
just a little bit, and Geist knows that he can
get a strike in before it could pull back, he
just slams probably... just in the arm above
whatever is folding. Is Retribution just punching
him? Right now, he is just punching you. Just
punching. Okay, so the fist comes in and he kind
of punches at the elbow with the pile bunker
and just tries to tag it with the tracking device
or whatever the thing is designed for. Geist
doesn't know what it is. I'm sure Ziggurat has
many, many words to say about it, but he just
tries to hammer it into the elbow area on a kind
of hasty overextended punch. Sure. You do that.
The rage system kicks in. You see a lot of weird
shit all around you as you hallucinate. You see
a version where Loyal got blown up by a landmine,
and his frame is just totally melted. You see
something where Joseph has been thrown down from
a tree and impaled on a rock. For a moment, you
think you see one of the moon devil's frames
that has been like, it's just standing there
completely still. Like for a half second, you
see like the crown in your cockpit and like everything
is red. And before you can dwell on that for
too long, you strike. With the pile bunker, a
small strike. Retribution is moving backwards
as you're striking. You've kind of figured out
Retribution's, I guess, moveset at this point.
It's been very much... It is reckless. In many
ways, it reminds you of yourself when you first
fought Retribution. Just going right for it.
No care about self -preservation at all. There's
definitely something different about him. Something
desperate. um the pile bunker hits him and you
see little parts of it break off in this like
liquid material that he's made of and kind of
start floating around in there um which presumably
means it works but you know it's too early to
tell uh okay what will you all do next i was
sick are we ready to strike are we ready to do
our epic Getting you forced team attack. I want
to try that at some point. Do it. Let's get it.
I want to read. Oh, first of all, something for
everybody to keep in mind. If you push yourself
in a fight and you don't get a four or better
on the roll, you don't lose a quirk. That's an
ability we have. I can also use telepathy to
spend one stress per person to let everyone use
the leader's action rating instead of their own.
That could let everybody battle with a three.
It's a really good combo. Are you guys ready
to kick his ass? What do you say let's battle
with threes? Does anybody not have three battle?
I have one battle. I have one battle. Yeah, let's
do it. Yeah, that helps. That's a four dice value.
We're syncing up. Do I need to, like, roll any
dice to get over there, or could I say that I
run over there now that I hear stuff happening?
That is a good point. You aren't really in close
quarters. I'm not. I'm still up in the tree.
Hmm. Sorry to blow everyone's bubble. I just
had to raise my hand in class. I mean, we could.
If you want to get, if you're like, if you want
to have your fucking sync up motion, because
it is very sick, do you want to roll a maneuver?
To get over there? And to say you can see where
this is going? Like Geist gives out an order
or something? That'd be cool. Yeah. I could roll
a maneuver for that. Yeah, roll it. I mean, you're...
He's not fighting you. Yeah, am I controlled?
You're in a risky position. You're risky. There
is a virtue here. Controlled. Standard. Just
roll it. Roll it. Roll that shit. Partial. Partial
success. Critical partial goal. Too fast. Your
partial consequence. I think you're just going
to take level one damage. Hit a bird or something.
As you're getting into position, like, I think
you probably weren't expecting Retribution to
do something, but he, like, flicks his arm back
and, like, a little disc of energy just barely
clips you. It's almost like it was an instinct
more than an actual attack. So you'll take the
level one damage chipped to your frame. Motherfucker.
You can resist that with armor or quirks or whatever.
Yeah, let's resist that with... How much armor
do I have? You already have armor, it looks like.
From last time. It just gets negated and we'll
just remember you used one armor use. Okay. Easy
peasy. Okay, so let's talk about order of operations.
Loyal, you're spending how much stress per person?
One. So I'm assuming, including myself, I spend
three stress. Do you have to spend for everyone,
or can you not do some people? Is it an all -or
-nothing situation? It does say per participant
in the group action. Yeah, I think it's an all
-or -nothing situation. Yeah. What does that
look like? That would look like, like I'm assuming...
This ability means that I connect everyone with
Geist's battle knowledge. They all gain somehow
in their mind his reflexes, his knowledge of
where to hit things and what to do and his rage
or cool head or whatever. They just become Geist
-like for the duration of this. How horrifying.
We're having our own clusterous communion, but
it's for murder. We are. Isn't that beautiful?
It really is. What do they feel right now, Geist?
Guys, I feel like he's had some emotional growth.
He's no longer just an insane berserker. I feel
like he feels cool. He feels less angry, and
that gives him a clarity of mind that he never
saw before. But it's very complicated. You still
feel like... I don't want to intercede on your
cool moment. You do literally have a death wish
consequence because of the rage system. Oh, that's
true. Okay, then you all just feel... You feel
a completely artificial, insane sense of berserker
rage. I think. Cool. Maybe that's why Joseph
jumped off the tree. What the fuck? You lost
a social link. Okay. Everyone rolls three dice.
Alright. I'll give you risky since this is a
group action instead of something more fucked
up. Risky standard. Let's kick his ass. Okay.
That looked okay. We got a critical! Everybody
got a six! You guys, we're so in sync. We got
the triple critical. It doesn't even matter that
Loyal rolled really bad. I just take one stress.
Not bad. Distracted from my telepathy link. I'll
leave this to you. Because you're going to do
three ticks, which is very good. Let's leave
three ticks left. What does this look like? How
do you all do this? Let's see one move from each
person at least. Sure. I feel like to start the
whole thing off, Geist can feel everybody's mind
sync up with him in like a single... What is
everybody fighting with, I think, is the best
question. Some people might have to check off
weapons if they haven't done so yet. That's the
point. You need to have a weapon to fight, and
I think all our vehicle load got reset, so I'm
curious what everybody's swinging with. That's
a good question. They don't have to be melee
weapons specifically. Battle is just a close
-range fight of any kind. Could I use, like,
my feet of my frame, since I have sharp edges,
sharp corners on it? I think you still have to
check off a melee weapon if you're going to use
the bulk of it, or else your effect would be
worse. Would I be able to fight with, like, a
non -melee weapon, like a ranged, like my laser?
Can I use that to do it? Okay. Yeah. Battle is
just like a pitched fight. It's not necessarily
a melee fight. Okay. Hex is whipping out the
telescopic baton. It's an old classic. Yeah.
Big drill. Still got the same weapons. So I feel
like as Geist feels everybody's mind sinking,
he tries to... He kind of, because I feel like
at this point we're kind of all working as one
unit and all thinking the same thing. So Geist
goes for, like, a square shot to the torso, knowing
that he'll dodge it, and then when Retribution,
like, flinches backwards to avoid it, Loyal's
there with the drill, anticipating where he's
going to evade to, and he just gets hammered
with it. Okay. Fuck yes. What are you doing,
Joseph? The three of them are wailing on them.
You have a ranged weapon. Are you just kind of,
like, taking... I was going to use my laser,
like, literally like a claymore and hit him with
it. That was my plan. I mean, you could do that.
That would be fun. That would be cool. You do
have a death wish. I would like to do that. I'd
like to fly down, and as I'm flying down, I,
like, kind of spin around, grab my laser, and
hit him with it. Isn't this the same guy who,
like, destroyed my old frame? I remember. Yes,
it is. It's like, I'd be like... How's my new
frame taste, asshole? And hit him in the head.
But all four of us say it at the same time. Yeah.
Oh, fuck yeah. Yes. Oh, that's creepy. I like
it. That's good. I like that. Everyone say it
for the podcast, all right? Yeah. Go ahead. How's
new frame taste? How's my new frame taste, asshole?
How's my new frame taste, asshole? We got it
in one. Okay. You beat the ever -loving shit
out of him. It's weird. You're hitting liquid
reality. It's like you're hitting, I think I've
said before, like hitting a tub of cornstarch
water where it's like non -Newtonian fluid. Yeah,
yeah. Really slapping that thing. Probably makes
a weird wet slapping noise too. But like you
see, as I've explained before, these like big
chunks of like weird metal slag falling off the
retribution apparition. And yeah, he's been diminished.
I think he hops back towards the... I think he
hops into the minefield. Just in the middle of
it. He doesn't set anything off. But he's trying
to get some range from all of you after your
very sudden walloping of him. Get his ass! What
do we do next? We gotta get three more ticks.
Odds are good we're not gonna get another crit,
so this is probably gonna be tough. Does anybody
have any suggestions other than straight up just
trying to beat his ass some more? He is in the
minefield, I will tell you. I'll warn you. I
had a stupid idea. Well, yeah. I guess we could
do that. Good stupid idea. Let's hear it. My
stupid idea was, I don't know if you would allow
this, Colin, but I do have that devil's footsteps
thing that I remember. You can maneuver to confuse
your enemy so they attack each other. And there's
no other enemy here, but would a mine be an enemy?
Can I get him to punch a mine by accident? I
like this. Get in there and try to trick him
into getting into the blast radius of one. Yeah,
I mean, I can see that. I'm down with that. If
we want to try that, I don't know. Unless we
want to shoot it from afar. That was my plan.
I like that plan. It's ballsy. I like it. Yeah,
so when you push yourself, choose one of the
following in addition to the normal benefits.
And that's the other one I was going to do. Yeah,
I think you are maneuvering. I will set your
position at desperate. Because you're in a minefield.
But I will give you... plus one effect up to
standard because you're doing this in the minefield,
which is very cool. Okay, and I'm... Do you want
an extra die from that push? Yeah, that's what
I was gonna do. Well, here's the dang old thing.
Being the shrewd tactical genius that Geist is,
I could assist you for free, and because I have
three... Sorry, I have a question for assists.
Does it... Because I know that the benefits are
variable. Is it the person helping's ranking
of relationship, or is it the person being helped
in terms of determining what effect you get?
It's you. It's your connection with Mirage. So
I can do this for free because of Tactical Genius,
and I have three ticks, which I think means he
gets increased effect and better position and
an extra die. And what my idea for how this looks,
because I know I always have to justify it, is
that, I mean, so, you know, we know that as we
get into the thick of things, as we get closer
to ending the war, that retribution is going
to come for us. And I feel like Geist, knowing
that retribution likes to come for his allies
while we were stuck there in the onion warehouse
was like. All right, like, this is how he moves.
It's fluid. He comes from all angles, but try
and trick you with little flickers of emotion.
Never look for the first attack. It's always
the second or third. Stuff like that. So he's
just like, it's like a crash course on how specifically
to fight Retribution and how to avoid his blows
and his weird flickery unreality thing, because
Geist has seen it up close many a time. Okay.
Love you, coach. I was going to say, can you...
Run this down for me just real quick. If I'm
getting this straight, I'm pushing myself, so
that's plus one dice, right? You can't push yourself.
Oh, no, no, no, sorry. Yes, you're pushing yourself,
plus one die. You're getting aided for plus one
die. And then with the position and effect changes,
you're going from desperate standard to risky
great. So it'll be two bonus dice. Plus two risky
great, right? Yes, sir. On maneuver. Maneuver
plus two risky great. Mm -hmm. Let's see it.
Parcel. Parcel. 4, 3, 1, 4. Okay. At least you
kind of protected me with that, so I won't get
too hurt. Parcel's better than a fail. Yeah,
exactly. What does it look like when you're trying
to make him hit a landmine? I was trying to like
just jump out and be like I imagine I'm trying
to since I'm the smallest one I'm like the most
annoying so I'm just like trying to pepper him
and kind of annoy him and draw his attention
and if he's in the minefield right now I think
I'm like like maybe even me being so small in
the water is sort of a benefit here like he has
to like punch me but he doesn't know what's behind
me since I'm so small you know I'm like in the
water and I think I'm like jumping around close
to mines fucking awesome yeah you're you're like
a little jester Real Sonic the Hedgehog type
move, I would say. You're too slow. Yeah, he
kind of punches at you. He keeps like looking
back at Geist, like clearly kind of upset that
he has to deal with you and not fucking Geist.
And, you know, he knows where the landmines are,
but I think you really just piss him off enough.
to the point where he thinks he can hit you.
He takes an over -ambitious... I think he summons
a spear out of this liquid reality stuff and
stabs it right past you. You dodge it into a
mine. It blows up. You manage to get away from
most of it, but you are going to take the level
2 damage seared, I will say. Can I resist that
with a quirk? You can try to reduce it with a
quirk. Oh, okay. Which would be... I think this
would be expertise. So take two quirks you'd
have to check off to reduce it down to level
one. Yeah, I don't want to get in trouble yet.
So let's use two of my quirks. Reduce that to
one. Awesome. Okay. So as level one, let's just
call it... Grilled. Grilled. You're braised.
A Swiss charm. But you did fill up his clock.
So I'll explain what happens. His entire frame
starts after it gets blasted by this giant plasma
blast, which kind of eats up his spear. And you
go somewhere a little safer away from him. It
starts to vibrate and solidify. You kind of see
it almost turning into a statue in some places.
Instead of just pieces falling off, it's actually
kind of consuming him. I turn my camera on, by
the way, as I'm saying this. Always got to get
a shot. And then he's going to use his another
rival move, which is that he is going to leap
at Geist. His liquid body, what remains of it,
wraps around Geist. And Geist, the world around
you kind of bends and contorts. And the changeling
starts blurting out all these diagnostic warnings.
Haze anomaly, positioning mismatch, frequency
paradox. And then suddenly, with a nauseating
lurch, you are plunged into complete darkness.
And it is a moment that feels like lasts an eternity,
devoid of all sensation. It's like your thoughts
themselves are even frozen. You're barely even
processing what's going on around you. And then...
With almost an inverse of that same lurch, everything
starts moving again, and you begin falling. You
are now nearly two miles up in the air. Retribution
is darting around you and striking at you. And
I've started a new clock for Retribution, which
is a four -step clock called Retribution Fragmenting.
Phase two. And for everyone on the ground, they
both just disappeared. So just to be clear, I'm
in the changeling, right? I'm not outside of
it? No. You're in the changeling. Okay. You take
the level 1 harm, teleportation sickness, and
I'm junking your fine mobility suite. Oh, shit.
Is that the thing that lets him fly? Yes. Figured
as much. Okay. I assume I can't resist this.
You can. I can? Is it... Ooh, so I can resist
being teleported up into the air? No, you can
resist the sickness. What? You said both. What's
the other thing? Teleportation sickness and the
mobility suite being junked. The mobility suite
being junked. Um... Is that going to be an expertise
or an acuity or something else? Teleportation
sickness is going to be... Oh. The other one.
The junking will probably be expertise. That's
my last spare cork. Indeed it is. This is a hell
of a thing to have happen at the beginning of
the match. Indeed it is. Maybe the warehouse
is empty. It can be used at any time. That motherfucker.
Okay. Guess. Which would, what would it be to
resist the teleportation sickness? Sorry. That
would be insight. Hmm. Um, I think I'll take
the teleportation sickness and do I want to spend
that quirk? You know what? I will. I'm gonna,
or no, no, I won't. We're going for it. We're
keeping it junked. It's more exciting this way.
We're going to construct a net really quick underneath
you, okay? It's fine. So I am free -falling and
he's punching at me. Is that correct? Yeah, he
just jabbed like a little claw hand through your
thrusters. And he's like darting around you.
He is teleporting very quickly. With every teleport,
his frame is getting more and more... Small,
almost. He's shrinking, and little pieces of
black metal are falling off of him. Is he attacking
me, or is he just here to watch me die? He is
attacking you. Okay. I think what I am going
to do is... Is he flying fast, or is he teleporting?
He's doing fucking Dragon Ball Z shit to you.
Bastard. Okay. I have a few ideas. I just need
to home in on which one would be the most fun.
Love this. The most fun. I can see that he is
diminishing. I think what I want to do is check
off a fine shield or force field. and just try
to stave him off until he's too small to hurt
me or he vanishes outright. Interesting, okay.
Does it seem, sorry, I should probably clarify,
am I close enough to the ground that I will hit
it at the end of this action? You are two miles
in the air, so no. Okay, cool. Yeah, then I think
I'm just going to try, I'm going to try and just
wait it out. You ever play Shivering Isles and
punch Shagora? I did, yeah. That's what I'm imagining.
You can see very far from up here. That's awesome.
Yeah, um... I'm gonna... I don't know if it would
be battle or maneuver. I feel like it would probably
be one of those two. Maneuver, probably, if you're
dodging. Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to... But
you have the same score, so... Yeah, yeah, it
doesn't matter. It's more just a matter of semantics.
But I've got all my fine ace gear out this operation.
Let's see what happens when I maneuver. I assume
this is desperate. Mm -hmm. All right. Well,
here we go, Dice. Do what you will to me. Partial
success. I'll take it. I will take it. 5 -5 -2?
Fine. That's fine. I'm going to check two ticks
on his clock. I'm going to reduce that. You dodge
a lot of his attacks. He is attacking, as I've
said, very recklessly, desperately. He is using
up resources far more than he really needs to.
There's probably multiple points that you kind
of have a death wish, so who knows how analytical
you are. But you swear that he's making very
bad decisions that he did not make before. He
has, like, left his calm open. And it doesn't
seem like it was intentional. Like, he just forgot
to shut it off at one point. And you, like, hear,
like, this grunting, like, static -y, like, grunting
noises. He's, like, mumbling to himself. Just
saying, like, gotta hurry this up. Almost out
of time. Gotta hurry it up. Gotta finish this
off. At one point, as he's teleporting around
you, And he's getting smaller. He lands one good
attack on you where he forms one of his arms
into what appears to be a stake driver, identical
to what you typically use to hit him. And it
punctures your cockpit, just like goes right
through it. And you're going to take the level
one damage punctured. Again. And then the level
two harm gouged as it goes into your cockpit
and actually hits your physical body. Level one
damage. I got him. Level one harm. Level two
harm. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Level two harm. I'm
trying to think. You got him on the ropes, Geist.
I got him on the ropes, don't I? Yeah, I think.
I think I'll take both. I love to take pilot
harm. Excellent. I'm gouged. I'm impaled. I'm
ready to party. What's new? I don't know if anyone
on the ground can do anything, but I'm open to
hearing propositions. We send good vibes in the
pocket dimension. Realistically, you are... They're
not in the pocket dimension. They're just in
the air. Now. They're in the pocket dimension
for the teleport. I mean, like, I could skeet
shoot, but that'd be bad for guys. Oh, yeah.
Also, I think they're in a haze field, so you
wouldn't actually be able to accurately hit them.
Shit. Well, anyone got any other ideas? The haze
fields actually mattered. You got this, guys.
Two miles away in the sky, even show up on sonar.
We could throw one of y 'all. Can you throw two
miles? To get Joseph out of his frame. This is
gonna be a hard one. But I have to try. Yeah,
if you can't think of anything, we can just do
another Geist. I have no clue. I think I know
what I'm gonna do. I think to try and finish
this off, this is a risk. It's a big risk, but
I think I'm just going to try and punch him.
I think I'm just gonna try and hit him with my
snake driver. Geist and punching. Name a more
iconic duo. But it's okay. I have a cool idea
for this one, assuming I don't fail. Let's see
what happens. Um... You do a reduced effect.
Yeah. Oh, so that'll only be one tick on the
clock, probably, eh? Unless you push for effect.
I could. Best way to do this. While Geist is
thinking, I know you guys can't really do anything
on the ground, but I would like to see the reactions.
He just disappears, and Loyal immediately tries
to do a sonar scan to figure out where the fuck
either of them went, and there's just nothing.
He's just looking around like, what the hell?
They're gone. Yeah, I think Joseph's coming out
of the water. He's like, where did they go? What
happened? Should we go for the warehouse? Is
there anything happening in the warehouse? We're
like, information looking at the doors of the
warehouse. Yeah, something, what's up? What's
over there? I will spend a quirk to push myself
to get that effect up. Last quirk. My last spendable
quirk. I can spend one more quirk, but I'll be
entering breakdown. Okay. Three dice. No way
out. Destruct standard. What's near? Oh my fucking
god! Let's see. Six. Six fucking six. Okay, okay.
Before you describe what you do, you also have
to describe in a very cool way how you stop yourself
from falling to your death. You gotta include
that in this result. Oh, yes. Okay, no, no. I
have a really good idea for this. So we're falling
down. I assume we're maybe getting a little bit
close to the ground at this point. What I would
like to do is I would like to check off my...
I have one vehicle load left to spend. I would
like to check off my grapple anchor tool as part
of this, because that was my safety plan. And
so my idea is that as we get close, it looks
like Geist is going to hit the ground. Everything
just goes... very, very still in the cockpit.
He sees all these possibilities. He's trying
to narrow out the hallucinations. He fires the
grapple at Retribution as she shrinks and then
manages to snag him a one in a million shot and
pulls with enough force to reverse his downward
momentum a bit, enough so that it's less lethal.
And as he flies into him, he pummels him with
the stake driver right in the face. But before
he does, on the open comm channel, he just says,
I'm sorry. And then boom! Blasts him right in
the face with it. And then the reverse momentum
is enough that he fucking just plummets probably
completely gracelessly into the swamp water.
But he's removed enough of that momentum that
it's just a big splash and some superficial damage
rather than him turning into a pancake. Fuck.
Yes. Yeah. You smash down. Are you landing on
top of him type situation, or are you splitting
apart? I assumed that he was going to discorporate
after the hit, but yeah, if he's still present,
then we'd probably land in a tangle. Sure, yeah.
You hit him in the face, it explodes into this
big spray of... It's like if water freezes right
after being hit by a ball. It just turns into
this metal slag as it blows out from his head.
You land on top of it and, like, a single little
arm, which is almost... His frame's not, like,
10 feet tall at this point. So very small compared
to your 30 -foot mass or whatever the medium
size is. It's big. Just, like, reaches up on
your leg and kind of, like, grabs at it as it
solidifies into this, like, metal statue almost.
And just over the open comm, the only thing that
you hear is just, like, this really... labored
breathing and him just saying survive and then
uh a little like whatever is left of him like
little bits just like pop out of existence and
the hayes field goes down and he is gone somewhere
else holy fuck my heart is like racing oh man
holy fuck i feel like I don't even know. I feel
like Geist just kind of... Geist and the Changeling,
because they're kind of one and the same, kind
of unsteadily, kind of tries to jerkly right
himself in the water and stand up. The Changeling
is already beat to shit. The thrusters are all
badly fucked up. He's covered in swamp water.
Probably every single bath -filled plating is
all bent out of shape from the extreme velocity
of falling. And he just, he doesn't say anything.
He just kind of looks around for a minute. I
feel like he's breathing heavily, and as he does
so, the entire changeling is, like, heaving a
little bit, even though it can't actually breathe.
It's just mimicking his biological movements
instinctively, because that's kind of how it
works now. Yeah. Does he land nearby? Do we all
see this? Yeah, he's there with you. You just
see him fall out of the sky. Flash into the bog.
Does it box up? He says, Geist, are you okay?
I... Yeah. Yeah. Is Retribution... Did you get
him? I think he's gone. Not gone, gone, but I
don't think he's here anymore right now. Is that
little metal statue still there? Yep, there's
a little arm. Yeah, I want to scan it, make sure
there's nothing going on in there. It is inactive.
As I mentioned before, the metal is... It doesn't
seem like anything you've ever encountered before.
But it's still just metal. It's still just alien
metal. Wow. Do I get a drive clock check for
that? Yep. Yes. Almost there. Almost there. Went
away. Could I... I wanted to just walk up. to
Geist's frame and put my hand, try to put my
hand like reassuringly on the frame now that
it's breathing. Do you feel that, Geist? I feel
like Geist does, yeah. Yeah, just like Joseph
is like testing his theory and just kind of like,
good job. And then he puts his hand on the frame.
Geist looks, the changeling looks up with its
little, I imagine it has like a very squat. like
green odd shaped head, but it kind of just turns
and looks, but he doesn't say anything. Gotcha.
Joseph puts his hand down and then looks towards
the warehouse. We must go forward. Yeah. Starts
splish splashing forward.