Joseph, the time has finally arrived to complete
your mission given to you by contrition. Your
assignment, as you probably remember, is to assassinate
a woman by the name of Marigold Marion who lives
in an apartment 874 in the Greywood Sands apartment
complex. The twist to this assassination, as
you also may recall, is that it needs to be painful
and you need to be seen doing the assassination.
There has to be witnesses. you have been informed,
either that or you figured it out yourself, that
Marigold lives with some roommates who would
probably make some good witnesses, and all that's
really left for you to do is to convince Worthy
to give you transport out of the base to Greywood
Sands and then undertake that assignment. So
we'll just start there with you proposing this
to Worthy. Yeah, okay. I'm probably telling him...
It'll be a quick trip. I just need to get in
and out. It won't be any trouble. I need to do
this beforehand, though, so can you help me?
I thought we were supposed to be staying put.
I need to get things ready in a different place,
okay? Okay, well, can it wait a few days? I have
to replace some of the plating on the ship so
that we don't get nailed by Peacekeeper radar
or whatever. As long as you can get me there,
I'll wait as long as I need to. Okay, thank you.
I'll see you in a couple days. We'll do it around
evening time so we can drop you during cover
of night. Wonderful. Thank you, Worthy. Of course.
And then a few days passed. Is there anything
you do to kind of get ready for this? I think
I was just anticipating this the entire time.
If anything, I'm breathing a sigh of relief once
this is starting. So I think he was just like...
Doing busy work, you know, just finding things
to distract himself with. Nothing really preparing
for the assassination, just like throwing balls
against walls, you know. So at some point during
this whole in -between section, Worthy takes
Loyal somewhere. Like he stops working on the
ship. He seems upset about it, but you don't
really know exactly what that's about. And then
the evening comes for you to depart. And you
arrive in the evening, probably like dusk, at
Worthy's ship. And you are surprised to see that
Geist and Loyal are loading their frames aboard
his ship. Oh, I think Joseph walks up to the
two of you. What's going on? Hello, Joseph. It
looks like we're all going for a little day trip.
Yes, it seems so. Worthy discuss things with
you? Uh, not at length. Just basically said that
you got a place you gotta go and we're gonna
have to drop you on the way. Oh. Perfect. Wonderful.
I can handle that. It seems we're all attending
to personal matters. Yes. Is that why you're
here? Kind of his eyes shift between the two
of you. Personal matters. Yeah. Guess you could
say that. Interesting. Well, I wish you good
luck. Yeah, you too. Careful out there, whatever
you're taking care of, we still got shit to do.
Same to you. Alright. With those nice little
exchanges, you get aboard the ship. It takes
off, goes into the blizzard that always surrounds
your base, and heads out east towards the river
valley. Worthy takes great care to take the long
way around, even though he has this new, it's
not like stealth plating, but it's something
in between armor and stealth technology. They
make it a little harder to get picked up on radar.
He still takes the long way around to avoid being
seen by either the Clusterists or the Peacekeepers.
And it is a long ride. I don't know if you guys
have anything more you want to say to yourself
or to each other, but if you do, then you're
free to do that. I think I'm keeping to myself
unless people are talking, but I'm just trying
to focus on what's coming ahead. Yeah, I think
Geist doesn't... Geist is curious what it is
that Joseph is doing, but he's not curious enough
that he would want to... insight retaliatory
line of questioning, so he's probably just going
to keep it to himself as well. I think that Loyal
would just ask Joseph one question, and that
would be Joseph. Yes. This place that you're
going, we're going to see you again afterwards,
right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for
easing my worries. Yes, and you'll both come
back in one piece, correct? Of course. Good.
I don't know what you need to attend to, but
if it's as personal as what I'm dealing with,
good luck, loyal. Good luck to you as well. Joseph
kind of looks away when you say that. We go back
to our opposite sides and just sit around twiddling
our fins. No thumbs, I guess. If you have those.
All right. Worthy's voice comes over the cabin
intercom. He says, we're coming up. Oh, I should
ask you, Joseph, are you taking your frame with
you? You don't really have a reason to, but I
should check just in case. No, I'm leaving it
back at the base. All right. In that case, Worthy
says, as the rear door of the craft opens up,
We're coming up on Greywood Sands now. Grab a
parachute and just hop when the light turns green.
We'll come back and get you once we're done with
Geist and Loyal. Just hang tight in the city
or outside the city. I'll pick you up. Do I need
to do anything like send a flare to get him back
or is it all arranged? He probably arranges something
more subtle. A time or something. Or even just
like, since there's no Hayes field, you could
even do encrypted radio communications. I don't
think it'll be an issue. Okay, that makes sense.
The plan is, and he probably would have told
you this, is that he's going to drop you off.
He's going to drop Geiss and Loyal off. Then
he's going to wait in the area of Geiss and Loyal's
thing, pick them up when they're done, and then
come back for you, grab you, and then take all
of you back to the base. Okay. So it's a nice
loop. Worthy likes his loops. He's a self -insert
like me. But yeah, that's it. You grab a parachute.
I probably get to the little opening of the ship.
Give my comrades a salute. I jump off and fall
like a rock, I assume. Unfortunately, that parachute
was really cheap as we established earlier. Not
this again. But yeah, and then we'll get back
to you on the ground, Joseph. Sure. And we're
just going to finish on Loyal and Geist, like
looking down as Joseph plummets towards the familiar
city of Greywood Sands below. What the hell do
you think he's doing down there? Joseph, last
we had left you, you had just jumped out of Worthy's
ship above the forest of Greywood Sands. You
are falling down over the forest outside the
city with the cover of nightfall. The parachute
deploys and kind of carries you gently downwards.
And ahead of you, you see like the sparse lights
of the city. At the center of it, probably like
the biggest building, the most lit up, you see
the apartment and temple building in which your
target is supposed to lie. Marion Marigold is
her name. And your instructions were to kill
her, get seen doing it, and make it painful.
Yeah. You avoid getting your parachute caught
in any trees and touch down gently on the forest
floor. This kind of gentle, resonant hum from
the trees surrounds you. Now you have to proceed
through the forest, get into the city, and find
your target. Right now you're on the west side
of the city, so there's a small stream between
you and the actual city proper where your target
is. If you remember from your operation when
you were in Greywood Sands, Kind of the least
defended side of the city is this west side.
Which operation was that? Rampart, where you
were kind of in the motel room the whole time
because everyone hated you. Remember that? Okay,
I remember that one. Yeah, that one. That's that
city. And so you might have a little bit of water
activities to do. Okay. So do you have any questions,
like technically, before we start? We're going
to do an engagement roll. to determine how this
starts out. No, I think I should be good. Let's
do this. Also, what load are you? I'm guessing
light, but... Light, yeah, I'm light. Okay, so
you're going to start with one die, and now I'm
going to ask you some questions. Is the mission
bold? Maybe not. No, you don't think? I mean,
it depends on, I guess, your definition of bold.
Like you are kind of just assassinating a civilian,
which isn't like, you know, an applause for for
boldness. Well, I would think that the boldness
is doing it. So people watch me like I'm an assassin
who kills things in the dark. I guess it is.
It's straightforward. Right. It's like I have
to kill someone and have people. That means like
I think Joseph's thinking of his escape. It's
like, okay, once I kill this, that's when my
life gets hard. It'll probably be easy killing
this person, but leaving would be trouble. Yeah,
you know what? I'll give you that second dice.
Does the mission exploit the target's vulnerabilities?
I think so. Most average civilians don't expect
robots to come and assassinate them. Kill them,
yeah. Especially if you're not an important military
target, which this lady isn't. Spoilers. Are
you receiving any external support? Not really.
Are there any other factors affecting this mission?
Which is you technically have a higher tier than
your target. So I'm going to give you another
one die. So that's going to give you four fucking
dice. Okay. We're going to take the highest one
and see how it shakes out. You got a six. That's
full success. You're going to start in a controlled
position. You effortlessly and silently weave
through the forest. At one point, you cross paths
with like a small contingent of guerrilla scouts.
But you either, I mean, you can choose whether
you kill them or just like go around them. Let's
go around. You get past them. It looks like they
were just looking for vulnerabilities, still
trying to fuck over this town, even though their
forces were really depleted during your mission
here. You cross the river. I guess you kind of
just walk across the bottom of it. Yeah, I guess.
I don't think you float very well, so. Maybe
jump it? I think it'd be a little too big to
jump. Okay, then let's, I like the image of him
just going into the water and coming out the
other side. You get across, you go past the factory,
across some underlit city streets, and you kind
of get into the center of the city. From here,
it'll get a little harder to proceed. Luckily,
you got past the main obstacle of just getting
in from like the outskirts where it's most guarded.
So you have to, from here, like the apartment
building is like maybe two blocks away from you.
You have to find a way to get through the streets
or whatever method you want to do to get there
and then get up to the eighth floor of the building
and enter into unit 874. How do you want to do
that? I was thinking maybe I wanted to climb
it on the exterior. Does it look like that's
possible? Yeah, you might have to check off some
climbing equipment, which I think is an option.
Yeah, climbing gears right here is two. That'll
let you do it much easier. Or otherwise, you'd
have to think of another way of doing it. Yeah,
because I was thinking if I go in the front door,
then I'm going to have to deal with a lot of
like... hiding from people. A lot of rules there.
Anything could happen in there. I feel like I
should enter from the outside, from the balcony,
and then do all my deeds. Plus, if I have the
climbing gear, I'm familiar. That might make
my escape easier. I'm going with exterior. I'm
going to leave you with one gear for a knife.
If you want to use a knife, you can try to find
a weapon in the apartment or just use your hands.
Just keep that in mind. You only have... Okay.
Actually, you have... I just noticed this. You
actually have... Your class gets light climbing
gear. Oh. So you can actually just use that.
It's only one square instead of two. Oh, my God.
I can't believe I didn't see that. Shout out.
Infiltrate the class gear. There we go. Austin
Ramsey knew you'd be climbing. Thanks, Austin.
Thanks, Austin. You did this for me. Okay. I
think you're still going to have to roll here.
Are you going to try to get into a window? Is
that your goal? Do you think it's possible for
me to climb all the way up to that floor and
enter through the balcony, or am I going to have
to stop it short and get in through a lower floor?
We'll see how you roll. If you roll a six, I
would say that you just get all the way up there.
Okay, okay. So that's going to be a controlled
prowl, controlled standard. Do you want to push
yourself for an extra die? How am I looking with
stress? I'm looking pretty okay with stress.
Although our next mission is our last, right?
Yes, your next mission. Well, it probably is
your last. I can't guarantee anything. Okay,
yeah. Yeah, so what I've told everyone so far
is that I'm going to give everyone a little stress
reduction in between their vignettes and the
next mission just because you're supposed to
get that. So, you know, it's up to you. But it
would be two steps if you want to push yourself.
I'll push myself. This is something I don't want
to fuck up. All right. Awesome. Okay, so you're
going to roll your prowl, and you're going to
need a plus one bonus dice. Plus one controlled
standard? Mm -hmm. Partial. Okay. I probably
should have said what I... My plan before going
into this is... Because I didn't want to... You
mentioned the streets, and I was like, well,
I could probably get away from the streets by
climbing on a nearby building, and then jumping
over from that onto the apartment building, and
then climbing up from the exterior. That's what
I was going to do. Yeah. If you want to decide
for that. i think here's where i'll leave you
off is that you you know you do that you get
a good transfer from like a nearby building so
you have to go up like two floors already um
you you hook this rope like i'm assuming you
have like some sort of like grappling hook but
you don't need to check off um and you climb
up a few i'd say up to the fifth floor maybe
the sixth floor it's called the sixth floor um
when just like some cheap part of this outer
exterior of the building chips off from the weight
of you, and you manage to cling to the side of
the building so you don't fall to the ground,
but your rope and your grapple detach and start
falling down to the ground below. Your consequence
is that you have reduced effect here, so you're
not all the way up there yet. I guess we'll move
on from this position. Could I roll another prowl
to see if I can get up to the top? Yeah, what
method are you doing? You don't have your rope
anymore. Am I close, then, to another balcony?
Yeah, let's say that there's an apartment balcony.
Like, you're holding onto the bottom of it right
now. So above you is, like, a sliding door or
something where you could press in. Okay, can
I pop my head in and see through the sliding
glass door? Is there anyone inside? Uh, yeah,
give me a survey. You're still in a controlled
position. Okay, survey, controlled standard.
Failure. Um, okay. Basically, with controlled
failures, you don't really get anything here.
You don't get any consequences, but you look
in, the blinds are closed from the inside. You
cannot see really anything. So you could try
to push on with a risky position if you want,
or you can try a different method entirely, like
just trying to go through and see what happens.
That sounds dangerous. So I could either continue
climbing on the exterior in a risky position,
or I can try to make it through this balcony
area, right? Yeah, I think narratively, either
way, you're going to be in a risky position because
you are either going to be climbing without gear
or you're going to be going through someone's
apartment, which you don't know if they're in
it. The lights are on, but, you know, that's
also a risk. I think I'm going to go through
the nearby balcony. Because if there is a chance
of me getting caught, I can take out the person
way more easy if they're right next to me. So
I'm going to go through the balcony. Do you want
to give me a prowl? Yeah. Risky standard? Risky
standard. Partial success. Okay. So here is where
I will leave you. Is that you open up the door.
You part the blinds. There's no one inside. No
one you can immediately see inside. There's like
a TV on with some like news programming on it.
It's kind of like sparsely furnished. Like it's
very, very Spartan. Not a lot of amenities here.
You are almost across the hall and like to the
front door when you hear keys in the door and
it starts to open up and there is a person coming
inside. Okay. And that is the complication I'll
introduce here. I think I'm going to do my best
to hide. Joseph's a thin little dude. Not little.
He's pretty tall. But, like, do you think I would
be able to hide in between the door and the wall?
Like, as it's opening? The space there? Yeah.
I think you could try to do that. Okay. Yeah,
I think that's where Joseph's going to nestle
himself right now. Sure. Why don't you give me
another prowl roll? I think I'll just still put
you in a risky position. Risky. Okay. Partial.
All right, partial success. So what's, let's
say the person opens the door, steps inside,
closes the door behind them. What's your next
move? Like, what's your goal? My goal was to
somehow do like a little Metal Gear Solid trick
and make a noise near the balcony. So they'll
run over there and check that out. And while
I will slip through the door. That was my plan
originally. And that's why I was trying to figure
out, like, should I set something up near the
balcony so they'll run over there immediately?
But if they're putting the keys in right away,
I don't have any time to do that. So I better
hide right in this moment. But then maybe when
they close the door, I can pick up a nearby object
and toss it near the balcony. And then that way
they'll be like, huh, what's that? And then go
over there. OK, yeah, sure. Name an object you'd
throw out the door that you might find near the
door, like a pair of shoes. Maybe I'm thinking
maybe a key tray because that thing will shatter
and it'll make a sound that sounds like a glass
breaking. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So here's
what I'll give you. You throw it, uh, it hits
the, the, like the sliding door that you just
came through. It's like at the perfect angle.
Um, and it like both of them break, uh, very
loud shattering noise. Uh, this guy, uh, runs
over to, to investigate and you're able to slip
into the hallway. Um, you know, you look both
ways. If no one is in there right now, you do
see like, that there are some cameras in here,
but they don't seem to be like, you don't theorize
that they're like actively monitored. It's like
this typical stuff. Like if something happens,
people look into it. Okay. And as part of that
complication, this guy is going to, maybe you
hear him through the door, like as you're looking
around, like he speaks into like a device of
some sort and you hear him say like, I think
someone, broke into my apartment um from the
balcony so i'm going to now show you a clock
okay so it is a four -step clock called alarm
it has two out of four right now once it fiddles
up uh things will get a little harder for you
to get out okay so that's where you are you're
in a hallway now um you are a robot in this hallway
people do that's not good do live here so if
someone runs into you that might be a problem
uh you are two floors down from where you need
to be now Okay. There'd probably be an elevator.
So down the hall a little bit, there is an elevator
and some stairwell as well. Do I see any visible
vents around me in the hallway? Ooh, vents. Nice
crawling areas. Maybe I could see, is there maybe
like a maintenance room that I spot? Because
I can check out a vent in there if I need to.
You can get pretty small, right? Yeah, I mean,
I've climbed through vents before in previous
missions. I love vent crawling. It's always fun.
You never know what you'll find in there. Yeah,
even though I look at the vents in my house and
I'm like, could someone crawl through that? But
this building's got big vent shafts because it's
a big building. Yeah, Die Hard, you know, building
that big, got that big vents. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, we can't go against Die Hard. We can't.
Yes, there is a vent entrance that you could
feasibly sneak into. Yeah, because I figure nothing
to do about the alarm now. We've already started
the clock. I can't do anything about that. I
can't silence this guy. You could technically
resist it. You do have shadow. Oh, you may spend
your spark to resist the consequence from detection
or security missions. Yeah, so if you want, you
can just pop that right now. That alarm would
not get ticked at all. It'd still be there, but
you wouldn't have those two ticks in it. Okay,
maybe let's do that then. I do want to use my
shadow. I feel like once the alarm springs, I'm
done for. All right. So I want to keep that zero.
So how do you resist this? The guy calling? Yeah,
or like him being alarmed enough that he would
call. My original thought, okay, I don't know
why I thought this. I thought immediately, like,
what if I pose it as, like, an animal ran into
it and broke it, and that's why he's wrong. But
then I was like, where is Joseph going to find,
like, a dead bird immediately in this hallway?
I don't think he could do that. So my next idea
was, like, maybe I could tamper with his phone
so it fucks up and he can't make his call or
something like that. Yeah, absolutely. Like as
a robot, maybe there's some interference I could
do. Yeah, he's not like using military hardware.
So messing with like a civilian phone, I can
see that. Okay. Yeah, let's just say like you're,
with Shadow, you have a little like portable
jammer that you just like kind of stick to the
wall. And he like, he keeps trying to make calls.
He's like, no reception. Come on. It was just
my eyes. This exact scenario happened to me when
I was trying to call the police once, and I just
had no reception. It was extremely stressful.
That's terrifying. Yeah. Is this a simulator?
This is your memory. I'm climbing through your
memory right now. Who am I killing right now?
You're killing me. Oh, God, no. You're killing
me. Make it happen. Make it quick. Okay. Yeah,
so you are in the hallway. No alarm is raised.
You hear some guy cursing inside. You were in
the vent. You have vented. Just like the imposter,
bro. Just like the fucking imposter, man. Get
some views on this one. Yeah, we're getting trendy.
Let's see. I mean, I'd like to just go up to
the eighth floor, if possible, if I can, in these
vents. I can't really think of a great consequence
if you do fail, because you're in the vent. That's
smart. You can't run into people in the vent.
Yeah, that was my protected place, because I'm
like, there's no cameras in there, so no one
could, like, really watch me. It's probably connected
to the eighth floor, because vents are going
all around, so I can maybe get to the top floor
from there, and that's my little safe space.
Yeah, I think I'll just give it to you. I think
you just get up there. You climb up. I think
you do some, like, weird thing where you have
to, like, kind of do the splits and shimmy up
these vertical shafts. Maybe some people hear
some weird clanking noises and just blame it
on the old ventilation systems. The rats. Yeah,
the rats. Gotta be the rats, man. Rats again.
And you get up to the eighth floor. I think it
deposits you like a maintenance room, like you
said, like one of the pumps. That's what I figure.
Maybe now that I've jumped out into this maintenance
room, maintenance room would not have a little
window on it, so I can't look out there. There's
no way I can tell what's beyond the room into
the hallway. I could pitch something to you,
which might make your role better. What's that?
Which would that be that I think there are like,
since this is the future, I think the maintenance
room would probably have some sort of computer.
And you do know that there are security cameras
on every level. So if you wanted to look, you
could interface. And that would even put you
in a controlled position. I think that's a good
idea. I forgot we're in the future now, huh?
Might as well take advantage of it. So this is
a controlled standard. Controlled standard. Critical
success. Holy shit. God. Wow. Can I pocket that
for later? Nope. God damn it. Yeah, so you...
Well, first things first is that you open up
the camera and there's no one in this hallway.
I think while you were hacking into this, you
get a few things. I think you get complete control
of the... the building security measures um like
you can shut down the elevator if you want you
can you can remotely open people's doors like
maybe they have electronic locks in addition
to like manual locks um in case of like an emergency
you turn off cameras you can erase uh camera
footage if you want or you know um if you because
you kind of want to be seen in some cases you
could even like i don't know tamper with it you
can do whatever you want like anything you can
feasibly imagine You could even start a fire
alarm if you wanted. I'm devising a plan with
something like that in mind right now. I was
about to ask that. It's like, I probably can
trigger fire alarms from here and make the whole
building go a little crazy. That would put your
target out in the hall. It would. Immediately,
do you think? Well, so with the system you have
in place, in theory, you could... Lock her door
and then trigger the fire alarm so everyone leaves
except her and her roommates who are your witnesses.
Oh, man. To go even one step further, I think
with that security footage just scrubbing through,
you do notice that you know that Marion is inside.
You see that she walked in later in the evening
as well as her. I need to remember how many roommates
she has. Okay, she has one roommate. Uh, you
know that there is, uh, one roommate, a dude,
um, who lives there as well, and they are both
inside. Uh, you know we're inside, but you know
that they're there. Do I have to... Can I trigger
this stuff if I'm not near the computer? Yes.
This is a super late time to ask this, but I'm
wondering if... Can Joseph, like, mimic voices?
Is he able to do that? Or is that too much? That
would be a roll. Okay, okay, okay. The fire alarm
idea is really fun. But I could see so many ways
where it could go wrong. And that's where I'm
afraid. Anything can go wrong. It comes up to
the roll, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. First, I'm
going to delete any footage with me in it. Okay.
And I'm going to sporadically delete other footage.
So it doesn't feel like I'm taking out specific
cameras. It's like cameras from all floors are
getting taken away. So people will think it's
an error there. I'm just going to lock that dude
who I climbed into his door. I'm going to lock
that door for now. He probably doesn't even know,
but I don't want him doing anything right now.
If there's a millisecond he informs someone,
I don't want to have that. So he's staying in
there. If I scrub through this footage, do I
see guards or security officers in this apartment?
They have like someone in the lobby, I think.
It's not like a military installation. They're
like, they're like rent -a -cops. They don't
even have like... They probably don't even have...
Actually, no, they're guerrilla fighters. They
have guns, but it's not like a full fighting
force in here. Those are mostly on the perimeter
of the town. Okay. It'd also take them a while
to get to the eighth floor in a pinch. I'm trying
to think once I... Okay, with the cameras, can
I look through the footage and see if people
have been entering the apartments next to hers?
Can I confirm who's in rooms? Yeah, there definitely
are some of them that are occupied. This is like
after hours, so most people who live here are
kind of tucked in for the night. Or at least
watching TV or something. Okay. Because once
I pull the fire alarm, everyone's going to be
rushing out. Maybe I could just wait then. And
then go to her door while it's locked. Get in
there. She'd still have a witness because there's
a dude in there. So that would work. It would
be cool if the entire building saw me kill her.
That would be cinematic, but I could see how
that would be problems. Let's go with, I guess,
the safest plan. Ideally, then I ring the fire
alarm. I let everyone out except her. I just
go to the door and we see what happens, I guess.
Yeah, sure. That's my current plan. Yeah, okay.
Let's get there. How about we do that? Let's
get there. Yeah, you ring the alarm. Everyone
starts to head out. People are... is wearing
the nightwear or like look really tired and just
like talking to like oh what's going on um you're
not supposed to use elevators and fire so they
use the stairs safety tip oh and anyone who is
using the elevator i stop it just to teach them
a lesson be safe um be safe and yeah her door
doesn't open because it's locked in the inside
maybe on the camera you see like the the handle
like jiggling um poorly um And then you get to
the door. You hear her banging on it. And you
hear, like, two voices behind the door, like,
why isn't the door opening? Like, what the hell?
Should I call someone? You know, like that. Mm
-hmm. Okay. If I do a cool entrance, I might
end up just, like, killing her by accident. I
don't want to go too loud. You'd have to be a
really cool entrance to kill her by opening the
door. I mean, like, I'm imagining, like, feet
first, just go right through. He's, like, fucking
just going... Just smashing through like a bullet.
I think... I guess... I can't think of any clever
or smart thing to do here besides get in that
room. And this is, like, the easiest option to
do it. I mean, I suppose I can. I mean, if I'm
already in here, then this is at that point where
I want to be seen, so I don't need to sneak around
anymore. Yeah, you could theoretically open the
door. She can go into the hall with her roommate.
There's no one up here anymore. And plus you'll
have a camera there for extra witness measures.
Oh, that's true. That's true. But what about
all the fun tools I could use at my disposal
in the apartment? Yeah. For murder. And you can
always look around. Just like, see what their
life is like. I know, these fucking humans. Gross
animals. Okay, I think then... Let's... I'm going
to... And I assume they're not like looking through
the eye hole and they see a robot there, right?
No. I think you stay out of the way of that.
Or maybe I darken that. This fucking robo door
or something. If I could lock the doors. Yeah.
I think I'm just going to let them, I'm going
to unlock the door and let them open it. And
we'll see what I can do in that next second.
Do you want to be seen at this point or do you
want to hide? Like I'm imagining if all things
go well, someone opens the door. What the fuck
is that? I just fucking not take out, but I wound
my witness. And then I grabbed the lady. push
her into the apartment, and then do my deed.
The wounded guy is still watching me, and then
I can do what I need to do and get out of there.
Sure. So the door begins to open. Let's call
it a prowl, just to see how this goes. It probably
will not be a prowl once this action is done,
but, you know. Sure. What's that? Is this controlled?
I think you're still controlled. You have a complete
drop on them, and they're not soldiers. All right.
Controlled standard. Partial. Partial. Okay.
So the door opens. The roommate opens it. Just
kind of average build guy, completely unremarkable.
I'm not even going to describe his traits. I'm
not going to describe that he has heterochromia
and a really cool scar. Oh, God. How are you
disabling him? Are you just throat punching him?
Probably a throat punch, or maybe I just grab
his head and bang it, but not too hard. Maybe
I throw a punch. Let's do a throw punch. How
do I not kill this guy? You throw a punch at
him. You throw him back into the apartment. Marigold
is there, a young woman. And I guess you grab
hold of her somehow by the neck or something,
or you push her back into the apartment. And
now you're in there. The guy's gasping on the
ground, crawling a little bit. She looks very
afraid. She doesn't have a weapon or anything.
I think your complication here, and I'm going
to move you into a risky position, is that you
see that her phone is open, and she's on the
line. I think maybe you see on the phone, it
says building security or something. Okay. And
they have heard a scuffle. So that's how you're
risky, is that now people have a reason that
maybe they should come up here. Like you said,
it'll take a while, but now you're in that risky
position. Okay. Does that mean the alarm has
started? Or is that we're not taking that clock
into account? No, it's not going to take off
yet. So you have just your only consequence is
that the risky position. So the consequences
going forward will be more severe. Sure, sure,
sure. Colin, when I look around the apartment,
does Joseph get any ideas? Does anything pop
into his brain when he sees a bunch of things
around his disposal? I mean, like, imagine an
apartment, right? You know, their kitchen knives
are here. You know, plateware. There's a TV on
the opposite side. Since you're in the main room,
there's, like, two hallways on either side, one
leading presumably to her room and one leading
to this guy's room. You know, she's kind of squaring
up a little bit. Like, you still have the drop
on her, but it seems like she's going to try
to fight you here. With their bare hands and
your robots, though, it probably won't go as
well. But yeah, that's it. There's no exposed
electrical wiring or red barrels, unfortunately.
If this is too cheesy, you can stop me here.
But is there possibly a chessboard in there?
Yeah, sure, why not? Why not? Like, I just see
at the corner of Joseph's eyes, he's a chessboard
open with the pieces. Yeah. I mean, hey, I love
visual symbolism. Yeah, there is a chessboard
there. I figure maybe Joseph is looking around,
trying to look for things. You know, he's like,
maybe I could use this, that, knives, maybe something
like that. And maybe he spots the fucking chessboard
and he gets, maybe there's like a little fucking
thing that like breaks within him. And I think
maybe he like, he moves and drags her with him.
As he goes to grab one of the pieces and his
hands dangle all over, like some of them are
probably like on the ground or on the floor,
but one of them is still standing. It's the king.
And I want him to grab that and then kind of
hold it up like to her face. And then I wanted
to jam it into her eye. Jesus. Okay. That's a,
I think that's a struggle at this point. Do you
want to push yourself? Yeah, let's push myself.
I don't want to fuck this up. Two more stress.
All right. The struggle plus one risky standard.
Yep. Plus one D risky standard. Let's go. Okay.
So you get it fully. You don't have any consequences,
but I would like to, I just want to show you
a funny thing that happens. When I'd be able
to switch this to before I put it in her eye,
I pull her out into the hallway. So at least
I get the camera to watch me. Okay. That's what
I wanted to do, is just, like, make sure to get
this on film so not just this human sees me,
but also I get a little video of me doing this
gruesome act. Yeah, sure. You see, like, the
roommate is, like, kind of keeled over. Maybe
give him a kick to keep him down. You can still
see through the door as you head out into the
hallway. And, like, while you're pulling her
out into the hallway and, like, getting ready
to do it, like, she's struggling in a really
weird way. Like, she's angling for something.
And, like... As you, like, wheel up to drive
this thing through her eye and into her brain,
which presumably is very hard to do. It requires
a lot of force. She grabs your wrist and, like,
twists it, like, in a really strange way with,
like, a lot of confidence. And you realize that
she has perfectly replicated the fighting move
that Geist and you taught the people of Greywood
to deactivate robots, which, as you know, was
a lie. So she's trying to use that knowledge
on me, right? You know what? Just to give her
a little bit of confidence, I'm going to pretend
like my hand fucked up a little bit. Just so
she has this before anything happens. That's
so fucking rude. Maybe even for the cameras,
it's like, at least the people continue believing
that this is the way you take out. robots so
i'm gonna fuck up my hand a little bit when she
does this to be like you you did it it worked
uh there's a little bit of hope in her eyes and
i guess you you're jamming the king piece through
her eye into her brain yeah let's do maybe three
thrusts like first is going to the eye so i can
get the scream out for the camera and the last
one i'm putting it all the way through into the
brain So it's painful, but she will be dead in
about next three seconds. All right. Yeah, you
do it. She screams in pain. The roommate starts
screaming, too, as he witnesses this. Because
it's horrific. And you push it all the way through.
You're like, I don't got to go into too much
detail, but you really got to get in there to
do that. And yeah, as soon as it does, she spasms
a little bit and then just goes slack. And there's
just a big hole in her eye now. And you've done
it. You've done the deed. Awesome. Let's get
the fuck out of here. Okay. I'm going to give
the guy one last look. Is he doing anything?
Is he just screaming? He's trying to crawl away
from you. Okay. He's facing towards you, kind
of on his ass, crawling backwards, horrified,
thinking you're going to kill him next. I'll
give them a look, and then I think I'm just gonna
start making my way out of here. Yeah. How do
you want to do that? If soldiers are coming up...
Okay, so guards aren't using the elevator. No.
Because they're using the stairs, because they're
smart. So I can't fucking... Can I, like, close
the doors to stairwells to fuck up their time
even more? Yeah, sure. I won't even make you
roll for that. You can just, like, put a piece
of garbage in the way, wedge it. Sure. Okay.
I'm wondering, before I leave, could I, like...
Not broadcast this footage, but can I take this,
like, video clip and transmit it somewhere? Or
do you think, like, that'll just work itself
out? What are you trying to do specifically?
I'm thinking, like, maybe I can just, like, throw
this into, like, a group chat or something, maybe?
Like, upload it onto someone's phone so that
when they look at it, or, like, a bunch of people's,
they'll be like, what the fuck is this video?
And they see this horrible thing. Yeah, I mean,
you can, absolutely. You have control over those
systems. I mean, whether you do it or not...
People will get this footage, you know, since
it exists. And like someone died, they'll look
at the security footage either way. If you want
to like broadcast it to even make it more seen,
just like go the extra mile, you can totally
do that too. You can email it to some like news
organizations. I'm like, isn't this fucked up?
Question mark. Yeah, exactly. That this robot
did this? Question mark. Oh my God. A nice idea,
but I'm only going to do that as I'm leaving.
Yeah. Because I don't want to do that now. Otherwise,
I need to get out. Yeah, you could go. You could
try the stairs. You could try the elevator shaft.
You could even go out of that room and just try
to crawl down the outside. Since you do have
two gear left, you could check off the rest of
the climbing gear if you wanted. Yeah, you know
what? Actually, could I... Before we leave here,
do you think there's time for me to quickly give
a once -around her apartment and just look around?
Yeah, so like... With your, like, full success,
the alert didn't even get triggered. So, like,
the only way people are going to come up is that
guy on the ground calls them, which right now
he isn't thinking about doing. You're set, basically,
until people realize the fire alarm is a fake
and start coming back up. Sure, sure. Yeah, I
think I go in there and I stomp on the phone
that's making the call. And then while Joseph's
in there, I think he gives a look around. And
is there anything I can tell about who this person
is from the apartment? Like, I don't even know
who I just killed. Yeah. You figure out, like,
I think on down one hallway, there's like a door
that has like the name Marion on it. And you
know, that's her name. And you walk into it,
go down the hallway. It's pretty small, like
kind of like almost like a dorm room. There are
some like fairy lights hanging across the ceiling.
The walls are decorated with a lot of posters.
A lot of them are like clusterist anti -war posters.
Some of them are kind of depicting popular musicians.
And on her desk, off to the side of the room,
you see a picture of Marion with her arms around
a man wearing a military outfit. And there's
this half -written letter sitting next to it
on the desk. I want to read that. Okay. Joseph
can read? I gotta analyze this. Hold on. Are
you sure? Did you just take that skill? Shit.
The letter reads, Hey, Grin. I know you can only
get a letter about once a month. I just wanted
to let you know what's been going on down here
in case you haven't heard. The guerrilla forces
tried to take over the city. I was really hoping
they would succeed. I gave them so much information,
but it just wasn't enough. None of us had expected
that new peacekeeper squad to get here so soon.
I'm so tired of living under the thumb of those
bastards. All they do is kill and take, and they
don't even ask themselves why they're doing it.
I... I just wanted you to know I miss you. The
new roommate is fine, I guess, but it's not the
same when I'm not living with my family. I know
you can't tell me anything about where the Resistance
have deployed, but I hope every day that whatever
you're assigned to will be enough to put an end
to this war. Wishing you well, as always. Your
sister, Marion. Looks us over, probably gives
the letter, two taps with his finger. He spins
around, and I think he's going to head for that
balcony and start getting the fuck out of there.
Sure. With the climbing gear, then I'm going
to declare the second one, right? Yeah, the two
thingies. All right. Yeah, you open the balcony
door. This time, you get a nice, solid anchor
on it so it won't fall off while you're rappelling
down. You know, you drop the... Rope down. The
roommate is kind of just, like, staring at you,
like, aghast, like, shocked that you're not killing
him. And I think he, like, sputters out, like,
why? What? I think Joseph winks, and he jumps
down. Jesus. Yeah, I'm not gonna make you roll
for that. There's no, um... With the position
you're in now, like, I think you're gonna be
good to get out. Okay. Pretty much un... Because
no one is... By the time they get all back up
there and see the body and then set the people
out to figure out where you went, I think you're
going to be basically already gone by then. Good
rolls. Very good rolls. I think you get out of
the city, get back across the water, back to
that clearing that Worthy told you to meet you
at. It's a little bit farther than where you
got dropped. And you just get to kind of wait
there. Maybe this is when I start sending the
file. Yeah. Just, like, one by one to different
news organizations, you know? Yeah. As I hear,
like, maybe, like, sirens going on in, like,
the town off in the center. And, like, I hear,
like, people, like, shouting and stuff like that.
It's, like, just peacefully sitting on a stump
and beep, beep, beep. Just, like, sending. You
might even, like, see, like, you still have the
security feed open. You, like, see, like, the
guards coming up, seeing the body. Like, people
shouting. Like, what's the topic header on those
emails? Once this happens, is this contrition
saying like the robots are in power? Then I should
just send it without any fucking thing. So they
think it's a robot. But if I want them to keep,
you know, I don't know contrition's plan. So
I'm going to send it as like a bystander. Something
like, what the fuck did I just find? Like, it's
not just a fire alarm. This just happened. Yeah.
Can you believe this? The robots are coming for
us. Yeah. Yeah. And like, as you wait here, I
think. You get, like, a feeling, just, like,
in the back of your head, which you recognize
is, like, kind of the gentle touch of contrition,
just, like, like, mission accomplished. Like,
you did it. Our plan is finally, like, set in
motion, and, like, we have a lot of work ahead
of us. Basically, I'll be in touch, right? Sure,
yeah. Well, I guess contrition would probably
say we'll be in touch, because of the nature
of that. Yeah, now all you have to do is wait
for... Worthy to come back with Geist and Loyal.
And once he finishes sending everything, I think
Joseph probably like looks around this clearing.
I assume there's also like trees and stuff around.
I think like maybe he just like starts looking
at the trees and inspecting them one by one.
And he finds like a really big one that seems
to have just like this little opening within
it. It doesn't go far, but there is like just
a tiny little opening in the tree. And I think
he just kind of like wedges himself in there
and puts himself to sleep for the time being,
just how he used to. when he was an assassin.
It's kind of like, yeah, going back to how things
were. Yeah. Yeah. Good. It, it kind of feels
good. Yeah. It feels like this is where he's,
I think he thinks like this is appropriate for
me. You know, this is where I gotta be. I gotta
be in a closed and tiny enclosed space, you know,
although it's not metal surrounding him now.
It's nature. Isn't that something? I guess I
should say your names. Geist and Loyal, you have
just dropped Joseph off. Worthy has flown you
a little bit farther into the river valley, climbing
quickly into the night sky as you push farther
into Clusterous territory. Your plan is just
to drop on top of the target, right? Basically,
yes. I assume he'll come out to fight me, but
if he doesn't, I'll go in to fight him. And I'm
not sure if the Clusterists really have the capacity
to throw any extra roadblocks, but if they do,
you know, I'll deal with them when they show
up. Sure. Worthy gives you, like, an advance
warning. We should be above the drop site in
about ten minutes. Call for extraction when you're
finished with your business, and I'll pick you
up. Can I have a flare gun? Is that just something
I can have, like, a flare to call in loyal? Because
I know there's probably going to be a haze field.
To call in loyal? Yeah, because Loyal's going
to be in the... Loyal's my... I guess Loyal's
coming down, right? I don't know. For some reason,
I imagine Loyal staying in the ship, but I think
it makes more sense to have him on the ground.
Yeah, that's what my assumption was. Yeah, I
just don't... I don't want him to get caught
in the fighting, but I feel like at this point,
Retribution probably will just fight me. Yeah,
we'll have a flare gun for Worthy, and then I'll
keep Loyal closer by. Okay. Then with that, Small,
do you have any... Any last words for Loyal before
you guys jump? The changeling looks at Loyal's
frame, and he just says, Listen, Sunlith, if...
I don't... I have you here because I'm worried
that he might try to pull a fast one, but I mean,
I know that I can beat him. I have to beat him.
I don't... want you to get hurt. I don't want
you to get in the way. I don't know, this is...
I feel weird asking you to be here at all, to
be honest. This is... Just make sure they don't
pull something sneaky on me, okay? A weird, unnerving,
smooth pinhead head of Sunless Sonar Array. His
stripped -down mech looks back at the changeling,
and you hear... Over at the intercoms. Don't
worry. I will help you in any way I can. Okay.
Let's go. Droplight turns green. Your frames
fall down towards the target below you. You don't
see very much at all. I mean, it's dark. It's
moonlit right now. There is... You see probably
like a small... Some small lights below. No large
facility. There's not really anything else around
giving off any light. You're kind of far from
any actual cities. It's very remote. You're like
in the backwoods of the river valley. Before
we do the engagement roll, what load are you
bringing? Pilot load? Mm -hmm. Oh, Christ. Oh,
I have two dots in struggle. I'll be fine. Probably
just... Probably just medium. Heavy only gives
you one extra piece of gear, and that really
doesn't usually feel worth it for the extra penalties
of being kind of cumbersome. You know what I
mean? Yeah. Yeah, we'll keep it medium. Same
here. I won't need all of these. I don't think
I will use all of them. Let's do the engagement
roll. You start with one dice. Is the mission
bold? I think it's... I don't know what's there,
so I don't know if it's bold. I think, given
the power level that the virtues tend to swing
on, I would say that it is bold, yes. Does the
mission exploit the target's vulnerabilities?
I feel like it kind of does, because this is
basically the only place where he's really vulnerable.
Yeah, we found him. Yeah, unless Ziggurat's completely
off base. And as far as I don't know, he doesn't...
He doesn't know that I know. Yeah. Okay. That's
another die. That's three total. Are you receiving
external support? Not really. Are there any other
factors affecting the mission? Is anyone interfering?
There is another factor affecting the mission.
You're going to get another dice because of it.
Oh, my God. Oh, man. You too. Which is four,
I think, total. That's crazy. Okay. You got it
right, Geist. It's got to be you. I know it's
got to be me, and I'm happy too. It's just, it's
so crazy to me to look at the fucking splash
sheet here and see that there's only three virtues
left. Let's see if we can make it two. Alright.
Oh my god. That's three sixes. That's a three
and then three sixes. I got another triple six
credit. Number of the fucking beast. Oh, again.
That's not even the first time I've done that
recently. That is incredible. Okay, good. I guess.
Good. Okay. Let me share something with you.
So basically, there is a clock. It is called
reinforcements. There are no ticks in it, but
you should just be aware of it as players. That
if you make too much noise, people are going
to get called in. You can't really crit on an
engagement roll, but because you rolled three
sixes, I will say you almost, like, incredibly,
don't even know how. You may need to land these
multi -ton frames on the ground extremely lightly.
Maybe Worthy has hooked them up with some parachutes
and some very modern retro thrusters or something.
But it's impressive. It's a very impressive drop.
Maybe the ground is just very acoustically insulating
or something. And then you are on the ground.
There's a clearing ahead of you, because things
are always in clearings, as we know. And you
are kind of at the tree line, and there is this
little log cabin. And you see through the windows
there's some lights on behind some drawn curtains,
and outside of it is a little beat -up truck.
And that's all you really see. I've got two dots
in scan. How many dots in scan does Loyal have?
Just one. Just one? Wow, I'm a better scanner.
That's... Which is surprising given that I have
sonar. That's disturbing to me. I use different
scanning than you do. That's true. I can only
see normal scanning things. I don't got that
sonar. I'm gonna... I guess I'll scan. Sure.
I guess I'm gonna... I mean, I have a feeling
that I know that the secret entrance is in...
base in the log cabin. I'm suspecting, or maybe
Geist is suspecting that there's like an elevator
down there or something. But let's see. Let's
see what I can scan. What's my position? Controlled.
Controlled standard. Wow. That's two ones. That
is two ones. Come on. You can press on by seizing
a risky opportunity or withdraw and try a different
approach. In terms of this can? Yeah. I mean,
I guess what you get is there is a cabin. There's
a cabin there. There's some interference in the
way. Maybe that's something to do with why your
frames landed so lightly. There's some weird
environmental effect going on here that you don't
quite understand. And you can't get anything
concrete. It's like, yeah, this is a cabin. Look,
I think there's something here. Maybe inside
the cabin. Let's watch the wide angle. I'm going
to approach and I'm going to the changeling is
going to tiptoe over to the log cabin. Camera
on grandpa inside and the water cup is jiggling.
Are you rolling for a tiptoeing? No, I'm not
actually trying to sneak. That was mostly a joke.
I'm just walking up to it, and if something...
It's basically like I'm waiting for somebody
to fuck with me. Okay. I'm ticking the reinforcements
arrive clock by one. You're tiptoed! Nothing
happens. Okay. I think Geist is going to get
out of the changeling. And he's gonna look at...
Back to Loyal. There's no haze yet, right? Mm
-mm. Yeah, he's going to look back at Loyal and
be like, I think I have to go inside. I'll be
in touch. I should be able to manipulate the
changeling no matter what goes on in there, so
even if I can't radio you, I might be able to
pass a message along that way. I don't know.
Let me know if you see anything, and be careful.
Loyal thinks that Geist is crazy for getting
out his frame, but his frame nods at you. I'm
getting out of my frame. You are out of your
frame. The night air is warm. Okay, I'm gonna
go... I'm gonna go up to the door, and I'm gonna
see... Does the door have a window in it or anything,
or is it solid wood? Solid wood. There are windows
along the side of it, though. The blinds are
drawn, though. Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna go up to
the front door, and I'm debating whether I should
knock or if I should just turn the handle. I
think I'm going to knock, but I think I'm also
going to check off a pistol. Sure. So I'm going
to knock on the door. I'm going to just give
it a little rep, and I've got my pistol down
where it wouldn't be immediately noticed by somebody
opening the door unless they threw it open all
the way. Sure. You hear some movement inside,
and the door opens, and there is an older gentleman,
middle -aged, wearing some plain clothes. Nothing
fancy. You kind of get a peek at the interior
of the cabin. It's very homey. And he says, Oh,
hello. Can I help you, sir? I found out Retribution's
real name, didn't I? You did. I think it's Whistler
Zeal. Sure. Guys, the guy doesn't seem... Does
he open the door enough to see that I have a
gun? No. Not yet. Okay. I guess Geist is not
really sure exactly what to make of this, but
he says, I'm looking for... I'm looking for Whistler
Zeal. I have reason to believe he's here. I think
he'll want to see me. I'm sorry. I'm afraid I
don't know anyone by that name. You sure you
have the right address, son? Yeah. Ziggurat gave
me these coordinates, right? Mm -hmm. After our
little thing? Yeah, okay. He sometimes goes by
Retribution, so I'm told. Loyal, is Loyal patched
into your comms? Sure. Yeah, I think Geist would
leave it open so that Loyal can hear this conversation.
Okay, cool. Just good to know moving forward.
Oh, you mean the big machine thing? Yeah, only
my understanding is that there's a man who drives
it. Oh, I wouldn't know anything about that.
Old Gossamer just keeps to himself. This is a
lie. I didn't think the lie detector would come
in handy, but I assume, Loyal, do you tell me
this? Yeah, he says he's lying. He's keeping
something from you. All right. Look, I don't
want to draw this out. I really don't want to
hurt you, so why don't we just... Lay everything
out on the table. I can tell when you're lying
to me. I can tell you lied to me just now. Old
Gossamer? He's never lied a day in his life.
That's a lie. I don't bother telling guys this
one. I don't think you need to. So is the door...
So he's opened the door a little bit, right?
You can force your way in. Yeah, well, I think
what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna kick it open and
then I'm going to make it very clear that I am
holding a pistol and that I am now aiming it
at him and He's gonna say here's the thing I
really really fucking hate being lied to So why
don't we cut all the bullshit right now? I know
that you're lying to me. So you start telling
the truth and this doesn't need to get any worse
Sounds like a command to me It does sound like
a command, and you know what? I'm just so good
at commanding now. You are in a... At this moment,
I'll call it risky standard. Cool. Risky great.
Ooh! Another failure! That's a 3 -1. Wow. I'm
paying for that initial burst of luck. Yeah,
I think he... You know, he's startled by you
pushing in and pointing the gun at him. He kind
of walks backwards with his hands behind him.
And you see that he touches something underneath
the dinner table. And I'm going to tick the reinforcement's
arrive clock by two now. And I think he says,
well, let's not do anything hasty. Let's just
talk about this. Maybe I can help you find this
person you're looking for. Let me look at my
sheet here. See, this is the... problem this
whole game this whole campaign i've been bragging
about how uh cool the ace is because i can always
do cool stuff but now that i'm out of my frame
things are a lot less simple hmm okay you know
what i just remember looking over my sheet so
i have this ability red comet um so i can try
and impress or dismay someone using my reputation
And that will give me one extra die. Okay, what
does that look like? I think Geist is going to...
He sees that he pushes the button and he says,
You shouldn't have done that. Listen to me, motherfucker.
I was there. Clearwater crater when the dam broke.
I have been. killing clusterous shitbags like
you since the day I woke up from my coma, and
I have dreamed every single night of this day
since then. So tell me where I can find him,
or I'm going to kill you. Loyal, you can tell.
That's the truth. Oh, man. Uh, yeah, sure. If
this one doesn't work, I am going to shoot him.
Command, additional die. Marshall! Yay! Finally.
Okay. The old man. The middle -aged man. He's
not old. But he talks like an old man. Yeah,
he does. For some reason. Maybe it's even uncharacteristic
for him. As if he is putting on an act. Or maybe
it's a stress response. I don't know. Old Gossamer
is so... He's so unique. He puts his hands up
and he says... Maybe his voice changes. He's
like, okay. Okay, sorry. I'm sorry. Listen, I
don't know. I don't know anything. There's an
elevator. There's an elevator in the fireplace.
Some people, they told me to stay here. They
don't tell me anything. Sometimes they go down.
They bring stuff with them. That's all I know.
I can open it up. I know how it opens up. But
that's all I know, okay? That is all I know.
Here's what's going to happen. You're going to
bring the elevator up here, and then you're going
to walk out that front door, and you're going
to leave. Okay. That sounds good to me. I have
a friend who's going to make sure that if you
try to tell anyone else about this, you'll die.
Yeah, of course. I don't want to die. I don't
even have any skin in the game. Honestly. I was
just doing it for the paycheck. You know, Peacekeepers...
Okay, okay. He presses a little thing on the
side of... It's not a real fireplace. It's like
an electric one, like one of the ones that has
a display of a fire on it. Really lame. But he
presses something on the corner of it, and the
fireplace kind of pulls back, and the stonework
on the floor kind of recedes. And then there's
a pair of elevator doors. There's also a small
panel on the side of it that is showing that
the elevator is currently going up due to arrive
soon. Cool. He heads out the door. I'm going
to aim my gun at the elevator. Sure. I may stand
behind something. Like not like hiding, but like
for cover. Yeah, absolutely. The elevator opens
up and there are three lightly armored soldiers
inside. And they're reeling like these stocky
CQB rifles with like these thick short barrels.
Okay, I think I'm gonna... Can I check off...
I'm just looking through the list. Could I check
off an unusual weapon to have like a flashbang
grenade or a stun grenade? Yeah. I basically
want to throw a prime stunner into these guys
and then just take them out as best I can. Sure.
Struggle it up. Yeah. Okay, so I still, I'm nice
and fresh, I've got lots of stress, I wonder
if I should maybe push myself. I can also assist
after the fact, still, if things go really bad.
That is true, and this might be the last time
that you can do that. Mm -hmm. Okay, I'll just...
So you can assist after the roll is made? Yes,
after you see the results of an action roll,
you push yourself to assist. And that'll just
give me one extra chance to unfuck it? That's
what it sounds like. Okay. Yeah, I guess I'll
just struggle with the two, and we'll see what
happens. We'll use it if we got two. Okay. Roll
that. Headshots! Oh, that's a success! Success.
Good, good, good. The stun grenade goes off.
Do you have a pistol? Yes, just a handgun for
now. You throw it right in as the elevator doors
are opening. It blows up. Everyone in there is
very deafened and blinded. And it is easy to
put them down with some clean shots. Cool. Well,
blood smears in the elevator and they are all
kind of piled on top of each other without having
even stepped out. Cool. I'm going to reload my
pistol. I'm going to step in the elevator. I
think I'm going to pick up one of their rifles,
assuming they're not like biometrically coded
or something. I guess you'll find out when you
pull the trigger and it blows up in your hands.
Do they have any kind of advanced electronics
on them, or do they look fairly simple? They
look pretty simple. Okay, cool. I'll grab a couple
magazines from a dead one and put them into my
webbing and thumb it around. Geist has used a
bunch of weapons, so he might be familiar with
the pattern. If not, he at least knows how to
use similar things. Do they have any radios on
them, actually, too? Yeah. Cool. I'm going to
cop a headset. You are in on the headset network.
You don't hear anything yet. Sure. You might
hear something later. Are you going down? I,
are there more than, is there more than one floor?
No, there's only here and there. Perfect. Yes.
And I'm going to put it down. They don't, do
they have like any ID cards or anything? I guess
there wouldn't be much point to. Nope. ID lock
this. Yeah. So I'll, I'll go down and I'll, I
just am basically going to wait out of sight
from where the doors will open. I imagine there's
like a. Like, maybe like a foot of space, unless
it's specifically designed so that there's nowhere
to hide in here. And you're leaving Loyal up
top. You know what? Why don't I ask? Geist will
be like, alright, I got this place secured. Target's
down. Do you want to come down with me, or do
you want to stay up here? You are considering
going alone? Yes. Just wait one moment, and then...
You hear the sound of the Nautilus opening up.
No sound left at that. As some floats over to
you into the cabin. Okay, I'll keep a half eye
on our frames through the changeling. Let's go.
Geist seems uncharacteristically nervous, almost.
Normally, even when he's not sure how things
are going to turn out, it's kind of like he doesn't
really care. But he seems a little tense, a little
nervous, which is maybe something that Sunleth
hasn't seen before. And Loyal used personal weaponry?
Does his exopod... It has hands. It's got hands.
I always imagined them as being too clumsy to
pick up and fire an assault rifle, but I guess
they would have to be for him to be able to function
in society, wouldn't they? They're quite dexterous.
Okay, he picks up an assault rifle off the ground
and hands it to him. He takes it. Remember how
to use one of these? I think I'll be fine. Alright,
let's go. We start going down. Okay. It is cramped.
Loyal's big. So it is a little cramped in this
elevator. But you get in. The elevator closes
up and begins to head down. The elevator's very
smooth. It's... It hums down. It's maybe one
of the better elevators you've been in. There's
some pre -programmed music playing alongside,
and there's a little voiceover, too. And it says,
This elevator is modern. This elevator is safe.
This elevator has multiple fail -safe stop measures.
This elevator can hold nearly 700 kilograms during
standard operation. This elevator is inspected
weekly by professionals. This elevator is moving
at the proper speed. This elevator loves you.
And as that voiceover finishes, it's probably
on a loop. You've probably been in here for like
30 seconds. The elevator jerks to a stop and
kind of freezes in place. And then the music
stops, but that same comforting voice comes over
the intercom. This elevator has been stopped.
Emergency services are on their way. Don't worry.
This is completely normal and completely safe.
Oh, fuck. We have any interface between the two
of us? Let's find out. I got one. Oh, yeah? Okay.
This is bad. Loyal, can you see if you can get
this thing moving? Like, with the computer? Can
I open up some panels on this thing? Yeah, sure
thing. Pop open some panels. That's a diagnostic
port for you to plug into. I would like to do
one of my absolutely classic at this point Geist
Tactical Genius explaining moments. I can't explicitly
try and justify how I could have earned this
free assist. And I think it actually might be
as simple as when they're planning, when Geist
first asks Sunliff to go on this with them, he's
gonna be like, look, I mean, Joseph's not gonna
be there, so if there's like, this is probably
some kind of high -tech top secret sort of facility
so if there's any sort of like you know machine
intrusion that has to be done it might be a good
idea to brush up because i sure as shit can't
do it how's that was that too stupid nothing's
too stupid anymore hell yeah that's what i like
to hear loyal checks out a book of programming
101 brushes up on those those old intro courses
it'd be fun to check off like palm computer with
useful programs to say that i go yeah install
some some hacking modules into my exopod let's
roll it let's roll that thing do you want do
you you get another die from geist you are in
a risky and standard position uh risky only because
of the time crunch more than than any other threat
yeah risky because we're about to plummet to
our deaths if you fail this role No pressure.
Well, that would mean the elevator isn't safe,
so this wouldn't happen. Yeah, was that a lie?
No, it's all true. How many dice did I get? You
get two dice, unless you push yourself. We're
in the elevator. It's so safe. What could go
wrong? Failure! Failure could go wrong, of course.
Okay, that's two more ticks on the reinforcers.
You have one tick left on this clock. These reinforcers
are coming fast. You've filled this up. Yeah,
it... It is taking a very long time to hack this
elevator. It's so advanced. It's so modern. You
just can't hack it. I mean, that's your consequence,
is that this is just taking a very long time.
I don't really have any... I don't really have
a desire to get you stuck in this elevator shaft.
There are other ways out of here, but you spend
the time doing it, basically. And I'm happy with
that. Eventually, you get it working. It just
takes much longer than you would like, especially
knowing that there might be more people on the
way. And maybe you hear over the comms, I think
the security team's dead. They haven't come back.
I haven't heard from them. But I've gone in contact
with command, and they're going to send people
over, so we just got to hold tight, okay? Oh,
I should have activated the fucking haze field.
The elevator gets to the bottom. It eventually
gets down there. The doors open up and you arrive
at a laboratory. It is a room filled with all
manners of terminals, monitors, and various unknown
scientific equipment for rubes like you. On the
far side of the room is a big glass observation
wall looking into a room with a singular large
tube covered in... And beyond that frost, you
see a vague outline of a body, which, Loyal,
you actually quite recognize that silhouette,
because it once crushed your brain, if you'll
recall that. I do. I was literally just listening
to that earlier today. And there, in the room
with you, at all these equipment, are some shocked
and frightened -looking scientists who are kind
of huddled behind their workstations. Cool. I'm
going to look at them, and I'm going to be like,
get them out of there. Excuse me? I said get
him out of there. He gestures to the tank with
the gun. Okay. I don't think you need to convince
these people for a number of reasons. They start
clacking away at their terminals. Are you having
them pull him out physically or do you just want
them to open the tube? I want them to open the
tube. Maybe I said to that effect. I want to
see his face open the fucking tube. They'd probably
let you know. It's like, I know this is probably
your goal. I feel the need to tell you that if
I open the tube, it will kill him. Noted. Actually,
guys, think about that for a second. Can I talk
to him? Can he hear me right now? Um, that's
kind of, uh, that's kind of like a problem, uh,
to explain. He's, um, he's not really, uh, ever
since, uh, he got back from his last operation,
um, he hasn't, uh, been there anymore. What do
you mean? He's brain dead. Ha! Ha! Geist starts
cackling, laughing. It's probably kind of disturbing.
He goes a little bug -eyed just for a second.
I think Geist just starts yelling, you son of
a bitch, you couldn't even stay alive long enough
to meet me face to face, you fucking coward.
He keeps laughing, but he's not happy. Or he
was laughing. I feel like that kind of subsides.
Is there, sorry, is the tube in this room with
us? It's like beyond a glass wall in the other
room. Okay, is there a door in there? Yeah, yeah,
you can just walk through the door. Okay, I'm
going to walk through the door, and then I think
I'm just going to open up on the tank with my
gun. Okay. He dodges. No, the bullets go through
the thick glass. He's riddled with holes. He
doesn't, like, wake up or move or anything. The
glass breaks, and his, like, limp body attached
to all these, like, tubes you see now that the...
The frost is no longer in the way. Um, and all
these little plates, metallic plates all over
his body with input ports on them and these tubes
and wires and electronic readouts jutting from
his missing limbs and his, his skull. And he
just, he kind of flops onto the ground like a,
like a fish, like a fish. Um, he, he's like maybe
twitching a little bit. Um, but he just lays
there in a pool of his own blood and this, this
like thick liquid that has come out of the tube.
I think, sorry, this isn't really exactly a soft
retcon, but Geist is more trying to break the
glass, although he did still want to hit him
a few times. It's not like he shot the body like
30 or 40 times. Oh. I think he mostly wanted
to break it apart, but he did still want to hit
him. Same thing, basically. He lost bullet holes.
Yeah. And then he's going to walk over and slide.
I assume this is full of some kind of gross amniotic
fluid or something. Yeah. We womb -like. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. Guy's gonna trudge forward and
slosh through the ankle -deep gross and he's
gonna grab... He's still attached to a bunch
of tubes and everything, right? And wires and
stuff. Yeah. He's gonna grab him and he's gonna
lift it. He's gonna lift the body up so that
he's looking in the limp, floppy, dead face just
for a second and he's like, come on, you son
of a bitch, come on, look at me! It wasn't supposed
to be like this! Is that a command? I guess.
Am I rolling for it? Depends how bad you want
him to look at you. Yeah, yeah, that is a command.
Get your ass back in here. Is this position desperate?
Uh, no. Just standard. Risky standard. Okay.
I don't think I can wow him with my reputation,
unfortunately. Let's see what happens. You know
who I am? A success! Another one and a six. Oh
no, I actually don't know if that's a good thing.
Yeah, there is a electronic almost thrum from
the cabling attached to him. And you feel it
tingle up your arm. And the body twitches and
spasms and spews blood and expels some of that
amniotic fluid from it. The body's lungs. And
you just feel this electronic, almost magnetism
down these cables leading to the other side of
the room where there's a big doorway with the
word deployment painted on it. And beneath it
are a number of symbols indicating the presence
of radiation, airborne toxins, as well as a third
unknown symbol depicting a stick man whose lower
half and upper half have become separated. It
was a question mark between the two halves. And
there's something calling to you from the other
room. And Loyal, you probably feel this too.
He's in there. Oh my god, he's in there. Geist
drops the body. And he... I think he dropped
the assault rifle. He picks it back up. and he
reloads it, and he walks back. So is that an
offshoot of this room, not the room with the
scientists in it? Yeah, it's an offshoot of this
room. Okay. Then Geist looks to one of the scientists,
and he's like, you, come with me. Okay, let me
just put on my PPE first. Get the fuck over here
right now, or I'm gonna give you a new hole to
breathe through, you fucking understand? Right
now! He begrudgingly comes after you, looking
at his hazmat suit with a deep, forlorn look.
And he... He walks over. Is the frame in there?
Of retribution? Yeah. Yes. Is he inside of it?
Not his body, I mean. Yes, it appears that is
what we've been dealing with now. There's been
a fragmentation of the mind. Hmm, I don't like
that word. What do you mean fragmentation? What
happened to him? I... As simply as you can. Yes.
The interface is a connection between the body
and the base model, which we project out into
the world. I know... you are familiar with this
because, uh, you are the pilot of, uh, the changeling,
which we've, we've seen, uh, data from, but,
um, usually after the deployment is over, uh,
the body will come back awake as, as the, the
pilot is, is moved back into it. Uh, but after
the last deployment, uh, I think it sustained
too much damage and the mind, uh, it no longer
connected. back. It didn't flow the other way.
It was stuck in there, and it just left a husk
behind, which has been causing some issues with
the system. So if I walk in there, is he gonna
paste me with a cannon or whatever the base model
has equipped? Um... Yes, you should probably
leave. That's a lie. Don't listen to him, Geist.
And is that place full of radiation all the time?
I would strongly... No. No. Only sometimes. That's
a lie. Yeah. Okay, yes, there is radiation in
there. Okay, I'm gonna go put... I'm gonna put
a hazmat suit on. I'm gonna make the dweeb put
a hazmat suit on. I'm gonna make him come with
me. He appreciates that. I'm going to say, I'm
going to look at Loyal and I'm going to be like,
look, I'm just going to go see what's going on.
If either of these scientists give you a problem,
you know, you should probably shoot him to show
the other one you mean business. That's a lie.
He's just trying to freak him out. I'm kind of
like trying to look at the screens, see what
these guys are actually doing. There's science
stuff going on, for sure. Most, I guess, For
you, Loyal, the most interesting thing is what
is beyond this door that Geist is going in. There
is a presence in here which is... I wouldn't
call it similar to martyrdom. Yeah, I was going
to ask that. But there is... It is unique in
the same way. Like, uh... This is a stupid metaphor,
but if martyrdom is a fruit, right? Retribution
is also a fruit, but they're different fruits.
An apple and orange, perhaps? It is apples and
oranges. Yes. Okay. And... I'm going to make
the scientist walk in first. Sure. So there's
a double airlock here, so you're kind of in the
middle decontamination zone. There's some warnings
in here. Most interestingly is that... It says
that anyone who is entering the deployment chamber
is forbidden from participating in psychic communions
for at least 27 days. That is interesting. It
is. The Lord tidbit right there. Ooh, I really
like that, actually. The airlock cycles, and
you are let out into the next chamber, which
is a large hexagonal room, about 100 meters in
diameter. The ceiling stretches very, very far
up. By your guess, it goes all the way to the
surface. And in the center of the chamber, surrounded
by scaffolding, is retribution. In this form,
it is not the same kind of shifting liquid thing
you're used to. It's more solid. The entire frame
is comprised of this rough, bubbly black metal.
Kind of think like a pumice stone, almost. In
this form, it almost seems to be more of a statue
than a machine. The joints are fused together.
There's no sign of any mechanism that could be
mobilized at all. Some parts of the metal are
damaged. There's large gouges, holes, and chips,
almost all of which you recognize as damage from
your last battle with Retribution. But you notice
that these damaged bits seem to be almost regrowing
in these small, shimmering, pulsing, fleshy parts,
which seem to be restoring it. And where the
cockpit of the frame should be, is a twisting
mass of cables which connects it or connected
it to the body of its pilot in the other room.
On the scaffolding, there are like two scientists
clad in some sort of advanced hazard suits, the
same that you are wearing now. And they are turned
towards Retribution, and they are kind of spraying
it with a fluid, which seems to evaporate on
contact. And they're both kind of distracted.
They are unaware of your presence. Either they
could not receive any radio in here, Or it's
because of this extremely deep hum that is reverberating
from the frame. Can I shout over it? I don't
think you can. Can my voice be heard? No? It's
like, it's deafening. Okay, what if I shot my
gun up the chute? Would they notice that? That
might get someone's attention. Yeah. Yeah, I
want them to stop spraying it. Sure. But I don't
want to shoot them just yet. Yeah. You should
just near them, basically. Yeah, or I just want
to make a gunshot sound to see if that would
pierce the home. I guess I could ding around
off the scaffolding so that they hear the impact
as well. Yeah, I think that does it. You do that,
and they turn to you, and you... Actually, they
don't have radio, so they can't talk to you.
But they put their hands up. They seem surprised.
He gestures, he uses the rifle to gesture away
from where they're standing, like get away from
the frame. Sure. Then they go off to the side.
Okay. Geist is going to take a couple steps towards,
sorry, I think you already told me this. Is this
like the size of a frame? Is this thing like
20, 30 feet tall? Oh yeah. It's big. Okay. Geist
is going to look up at it and he's just going
to say kind of inside his own helmet and even
maybe not with any sort of expectation of a response.
Do you have anything to say for yourself? Does
he get anything back? Yeah. I think, uh... There's
a voice that says, I wish you'd waited a little
longer, Garrett. Then maybe I could have been
a little more sporting about this. And the voice
seems to come... It's like inside the hum, almost.
Just like, in... It's audible. Loyal can hear
this. But it's like it's coming from a long hallway
filled with machinery. It's really strange. I
don't even know if I'm going to be able to replicate
that effect. But it's weird. You know, I've been
thinking for a long time now what I was going
to say to you when this moment came, but now
I don't know. It doesn't seem like it means anything.
frame kind of vibrates momentarily, shaking the
surrounding scaffolding. And for, like, a very
brief moment, you see the outline of Retribution's
projection appear, that, like, swimming, semi
-solid aura. But before it can, like, fully manifest
itself, it, like, retracts suddenly, like a...
like a balloon popping, almost, and, like, breaks
apart into those chunks of alien metal that rain
on the ground. And that voice comes out again.
And says, no good. Tried too hard to kill you
before sacrifice did. Now I can't even finish
you off. What a pathetic fucking way to die.
Get it over with. Yeah, sacrifice didn't do so
hot. I don't know if you heard. Yeah, I figured.
Congratu -fucking -lations. I really thought
I'd enjoy this. You know, you know. You know
better than anyone, you're probably the only
one who knows what it's like to have that kind
of thing completely consume you. Your every waking
moment. And now I'm here. I don't even know if
I want it. Isn't that insane? I don't think I
really had. Any choice when it came to killing
your family the same way that I don't think you
had any choice when it came to killing mine.
I think we're both just caught in the tides of
things bigger than either of us and forced to
tear each other apart like animals. What would
you do if you killed me? What do you think would
happen? Took out your friends all that time ago.
And I was standing over you. I knew you were
still alive in there. I knew I hadn't finished
you off. But I was afraid to kill you. Because
that meant it would be over. There was some part
of me, part of something else that stopped me.
Made me tell myself that... Letting you live.
Oh, that was the real revenge. But really, it
was just more fucking cowardice. I should have
finished you off when I had the chance. Put it
behind me. If I had known how much pain there
was in staying alive and becoming this, I never
would have done it. I would have chosen to bleed
out in front of my fucking family or taken my
own life. You know, it's kind of funny. You're
right. That is where the pain is, and that is
exactly what you inflicted on me. Does it make
you feel better to know that you got what you
wanted? I've got nothing left. He spreads his
arms wide, even though he's wearing a hazmat
suit. I've had to turn myself into a freak just
like you. I thought I was doing it for reasons
personal to me, but now I realize that... I was
just a pawn and you're just a pawn and whatever
it is that you're stuck in right now has made
a puppet out of you the way you thought you were
making a puppet out of it. I don't really have
anything else to say. It seems cruel to sit here
and inflict this sanctimonious sermon on you.
But I am going to kill you. I think. That it's
the only way to set you free. I'm not doing it
for revenge, not anymore. She wouldn't have wanted
me to kill you. I know that. And I know that
when you die, it's not going to make her come
back. And if I could somehow tell her that I
had done it, she'd be horrified at what I've
become. So that's it. I tell you I'm sorry again,
but I know it doesn't mean a fucking thing. I
have nothing to say to you. You have nothing
left to say to me. I have nothing to say to the
dolphin. I have nothing to say to whatever thing
is pulling your strings. Just do it. And he pulls
placed explosives out of his satchel, which I
am checking off. No, not the C4! Please! I'm
gonna gesture for the scientists to get out of
here. Thanks, Gadaddle. I'm going to prime the
explosive. I'm going to place it on the frame.
And I guess I'm going to... I'm going to stand
back in, I'm going to cycle the decontamination
chamber back in. Is this, is it at all feasible
for me? And this is maybe too meta a question
for me to know, but I want to, I want to stay
in the decontamination chamber and watch the
explosives go off. Can I have like a, like a
shaped charge or something that'll blow inwards?
So I'm not like risking collateraling myself
basically. I think from what you see of the machine,
the place to put it would probably be where the
cabling meets the cockpit. Yeah. Just intuitively.
And if you ask like a scientist, they'd probably
tell you to. No, no, I'm not. I'm not going to
ask. I'm doing it on intuition, baby. Yeah, I
guess I'll I'll stand back and I'm not going
to. Geist isn't going to say anything. He's just
going to thumb the button on the detonator and
I'm going to spend my two drive clocks. There
you go. You don't have to roll for it. OK, Laurel,
where are you? I moved a little bit closer to
the door. And I'm kind of just watching. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Um... The charge goes off. That,
like, humming in the room ramps up to, like,
a shriek, like, instantly. And that, like, liquid
reality material that Retribution is usually
made from starts to almost leak from the body,
expanding into the room like a stream of soapy
bubbles. As they are expelled, the body, the,
like, metal part... begins to disintegrate, converting
into this bubbly form. They shoot out very violently,
and they brush past both of you, Loyal and Geist,
and you feel a presence pouring over your mind.
It's like a... You get this impression of like
a cold cream almost being poured over your brain.
And then there's this violent... sharp revulsion
that erupts from within both of you. There's,
like, these images flashing in your mind of visions
of the crown, of the Red Sea of Blood, and this
vast cornucopia of sanguine wires. And as you
feel this, the bubbles almost, like, as if repulsed,
retract away from you, and then float upwards,
up towards the ceiling, going through it. And
as they do retreat, and they flow upwards out
of your view, Geist, you can see this clearly.
Retribution, it fades away. Like, all of it has
been turned into this immaterial form. And you're
just left in the airlock as this humming dies
down, and it is just quiet. And there's nothing
in here but like these, just these empty machine
parts. These tubes that used to be connected,
leaking some of this fluid. And you're alone.
Is there anything left of the frame? Or the statue
thing. I guess it's not really a frame. You want
a memento? Yeah, I'm wondering if any of the
little shards that he was trying to manifest
are still there. I think those are still there.
Okay. I'm going to grab a little one. I'm going
to pick it up and look at it in my little biohazard
suit palm. It's the same as what you've seen
before from it. It almost is like a... You know
like ferrofluid, how it's all spiky and shit?
Yeah. It's like that, but like solidified. Although
you can't help but feel that it's a little more
inert this time. It's lost its kind of like inherent
impressive alien mystique almost. It's like this
is just slag now. Like when you looked at Martyrdom's
or TKR's body after Martyrdom had been released
from it and it was just like there's nothing
there anymore. Yeah. Okay. I think Geist is going
to leave the airlock. He's going to go back into
the main room and he's going to strip his biohazard
suit off. And he's going to pick up his rifle
and he's going to look at the scientists. He's
not going to say anything. He's just going to
look at them. He's almost in a fugue state. He's
just staring. I think an alarm goes off. And
you hear the soothing voice of the elevator say,
Facility cleansing protocol activated. All essential
personnel, please leave immediately. I think
we're going to leave immediately. Yeah, I think
some. Yeah, you go up the elevator. It doesn't
stop this time. Wouldn't that be fucked up? You
know, unless you stop, then the scientists are
going to leave, too. I'm actually going to grab
one of them. Okay. I'm going to be like you.
You've got some questions to answer. You're coming
with me. No. Well, I'm actually not the senior
researcher. You would want John over there, and
that's a lie. I don't think I say anything. I
think I just keep the rifle aimed at him. He
very sadly goes with you. As his other compatriots
are permitted to leave. You get up there. You
get out of the way of the cabin. There is a gentle
rumble from underground. And then you are just
kind of left to call in Worthy to reflect. Do
whatever you need to do. I think. What time is
it? I'm imagining it's nighttime. Is it nighttime
or is it day? It is nighttime. Okay, cool. Geist
is going to look up at the sky. Are there stars
there? Is it a beautiful, clear night? Yes. He's
going to look up, and he's actually going to
not even fire the flare because there's no haze
field, so he's just going to radio Worthy and
be like, we're ready for dust off. Worthy comes,
meets you, picks you up, picks your frames up,
and takes off to the sky. And you... Do you have
anything you want to do in the ship or any? I
think at some point you do pick up Joseph. I
asked Adam what Joseph would behave like because
we can't schedule a call in time. But Joseph
said he'd keep to himself. So unless there's
like urgent need to talk to him, you can have
the last shot here of what it looks like before
we fade to black. I don't think he's just going
to talk to anybody unless Loyal wanted to come
and talk to him. He's just he's probably sitting.
You know what? No, he's not in the Changeling,
which is unusual because he's never out of the
Changeling lately when he has the choice to be
inside of it. But he's outside of the Changeling,
and I think he's just... Is there anywhere on
the ship that has exterior windows? I doubt the
hangar does, but maybe... I know the cockpit
does. Is there anywhere else? Yeah, there are
actually windows in the hangar. I think we described
them before. I love the hangar of this stupid
ship. It's been such a pivotal location for so
many reasons. Yeah, Geist is just going to go
and stare out the window, and unless Sunlift
tries to talk to him, he's just going to sit
and stare. I'm keeping an eye on the scientist
that you brought. He's still here, right? Yeah,
he's cradling his head in his hands. I think,
Geist, as you look out the window, you see like
a painted over scrape from when Retribution first
attacked you in this very same hangar. We'll
leave it there.