In a concrete bunker, somewhere under the skin
of Terra Brea, machinery flares to life. We see
a laboratory of sorts, lightly staffed. Two clusterists
in lab coats rush between terminals, discussing
various readouts and reports. They're panicked
and look farther into the lab, at a large tube
of liquid in the center of the room. Suspended
in that tube, a vaguely humanoid shape, its warped
shadow is dimly lit by the overhead lights of
the facility. The scientists seem to be pleading
with it, though their voice is muffled by a droning
hum. The room seems to tilt and refract against
itself, a distortion centered on this tube. The
hum gets louder, and we can barely make out some
of their words. Stop. Not ready. Exertion. Patience.
Damage. The hum reaches its crescendo, a painful
vibrato that makes the scientists cover their
ears and wince. Then all of a sudden, clarity,
a silence, and a single hateful voice. He's alive.
I can feel him. He's far. He's weak. I can reach
him. I can hurt him. I can hurt him again. Brief
recap. Your mission was to steal some corporate
data from this refinery and then assist the leaders
of that refinery with dealing with some nearby
eco -terrorists. Unfortunately, things did not
pan out as planned. Just after you got the data
you needed, the refinery was attacked, but not
just by some environmentalists with firebombs,
but by a clustrous squad of the hyenas. You were
caught off guard, but managed to fight them off,
but not without taking some serious damage. Everyone
with the exception of Loyal is hurt. and Geist
has pushed himself past his breaking point, severely
wounded and just barely hanging on. Control has
decided to exfil you, and you've been picked
up by your pilot, Worthy. And after Worthy picked
you and your frames up into the air, Geist experienced
some what we called haze psychosis. His ears
rang, he heard some phantom alarms, his gaze
was swimming, and as this happened, he was overcome
with a certainty that his rival, Retribution,
who's the one who put him in his coma and ruined
his life, was here. So to set the scene, You're
in the air with your frames in the big cargo
bay of Worthy's ship. Geist, I don't know where
you are. Maybe you're propped up against a wall
or one of your teammates is like looking over
your wounds. Yeah, I like the idea of him being
like slumped in the corner with like one hand
over his torso and he's like leaking hydraulic
fluid and blood and he's a real fucking mess.
What does it look like when you are overcome
with this feeling that he is here? I mean...
So it's probably like he's really like tense,
like his hands are like gripping really tightly
and his eyes are kind of spinning in their sockets.
I guess he doesn't really have teeth left to
grip, but it's almost like minor spasms. And
I guess probably in this specific case, it's
likely a little bit difficult to tell if it's
because he is physically injured, but he does
seem to be going through something mentally and
he kind of like struggles and like. He coughs,
but like because he doesn't really like his he
doesn't have like a normal mouth anymore. It's
kind of just like a weird like staccato wheeze
as his lungs like push air. But he's like trying
to kind of sit up and it's causing his leaks
to leak worse. He's like, put me back in, put
me back in. And he's probably gonna start trying
to crawl to where his wherever he can get into
his frame. Loyal, you get a very strange feeling.
It's. Like there are pockets of water in the
ship where your sensors and sonar are warped.
You know, you're uniquely aware of this because
you know how sonar travels through water. But
it's like in the air, these big bubbles, that
invisible bubbles, but like sonar sensors just
like getting warped by them. And they're like
moving together. They're coalescing in the center
of the ship. Does it seem like the ship is flying
through them, or are they just appearing at a
central point that's moving with the ship? It's
moving with the ship. I... I'm just building
my frame right now, I assume. If you want to
be. Yeah. I assume we just got up in here, so
I open up my comms and I say, Companions, I am
detecting some strange anomalies within the ship.
There seems to be an energy... something forming.
I don't know what it is, but... Be prepared.
He's here. He's fucking... Who's here? He's crawling
along the floor. Someone, is there... Do we have
any medical aid in this ship? You don't get anything
more coherent out of Geist. He is... I don't
know. Is he close enough? What is... Is it up
to me to decide how close is he to where... Like,
are the frames here, like, in a place where they
could be accessed from the interior of the ship?
Yeah, I think for sure. I think you're, like,
climbing up. I don't know if anyone's helping
you. Everyone's just staring. This guy's, like,
drags his bloody body across the ground. Maybe
Joseph will go up and try to stop him from crawling
to the mech. He tries to fight you off, but,
I mean, he can't. He's not physically well enough
to, like, really put up a fight. Hex goes and
helps. We're holding you back. Yeah. He looks
back at you all, and he's like, either help me
or fucking kill me. And he tries to probably
weakly strike at whoever's holding him back on
his left side. With his right hand. Are we going
to see a roll for that? I would call for a roll.
Actually, give me a fortune roll. This won't
put you out if you fail it. Yeah, I was going
to say, guys, don't make me roll. I only get
one, and I need to use it when I make my shift.
Well, you wasted it on a punch. I wasted killing
my teammates and then immediately pass out. Nice.
How many dice? Just one? Yeah, just one die.
I just want to see how that goes. Oh, yeah. That's
a one. Is this bubble forming near us? Like,
can I put my shields up and, like, kind of stand
defensively around my friends who are trying
to fucking get Geist someplace safe? Yeah, sure.
As everyone else is. Hey, Geist, you try to punch
Mirage, and he's made of metal. I'm going to
grab this as it comes up and just kind of put
it back down. Say, you're not yourself right
now, Geist. He's here. Get in your... Fucking
frames or you're all going to die. And I turn
to Hex and look at him. With that last little
initiation. Yeah, you are all interrupted. In
like a split second, those bubbles you're seeing,
Loyal, they're pretty close to finishing coalescing.
The sound of the engines, these like loud roaring
engines become muffled, inaudible. Then there
is this ear splitting, oscillating crack. Pulse
of energy emits from the center of the hangar.
All the lights go out, and your cockpits flicker
and blink momentarily, for those of you in it.
If you have a heads -up display, it does the
same thing. It displays the warning. Unknown
haze signature. Perhaps even more concerningly,
you hear the engine slowing and feel the aircraft
beginning to lose altitude. And I am going to
reveal two clocks to you. No, not two. I know.
What time is it? God damn it. Okay, there's two
clocks. One is engine repair, and the other is
crash landing. They are pretty obvious what these
mean. But, you know. Everyone takes the level
one damage to your frames. Hazed out. You can
resist this or use armor as normal. What do we
resist hazed out with? Acuity is what it would
be. Okay. So you would, to resist this, you would
lose quirks equal to four minus the amount of
dots you have in that column. Okay, let's do
some acuity. Just straight acuity. Yeah, so you
don't roll anything, but if you have any confusions
about how that works, let me know. Yeah, I want
to use specific quirk for this. Should I describe
me using the quirk? You don't use one quirk,
you use a number of quirks to resist. Yeah, it's
like resisting a normal consequence, right? Yeah,
you don't roll with mechs. What you do is you
take four minus your, I guess, attribute rating
in that category. So I'm looking at Harold's
she right now. And Harold in acuity has manipulate
and scan, like at any level. So that means his
acuity is two. So to resist, he would take two
quirks off. But if you have armor... Since this
is a level one damage, I would recommend using
the armor, because resisting in your frames is
expensive. Armor. Yeah. So just mark that you've
used armor on your sheet. I see. Can I use the
new mechanic we discovered and junk a piece of
gear, or is that not... Yeah, absolutely. Does
that not make sense? Absolutely. What are you
junking? I don't know. I think I'm going to junk
my... I like all of these things. Oh, you know
what? It's got to be the boosted reactor, unfortunately.
Oh, no, I'm going to need... Oh, no! Sign shield
or force field. Okay. Yeah, so you notice as
you're trying to get into your frame, your force
field completely fizzles out and you hear a spark
and a little thing pops on your frame. And you
will have to repair that at a later date. So
now that you've all... Kind of become aware that
something's going on. The emergency lights come
on, bathing the hangar in red, and you see that
there is something here now, in the middle of
the cargo hold. A frame that is very strange
looking. It's indistinct. It's almost fluid,
halfway between here and somewhere else. The
design is advanced, far past anything in the
Seoul Union, and even farther past the Clusterist's
production capabilities. It's like light filtered
through water. Even its weapons seem to shift
and change as you look at them. One moment, this
twisted blade of energy. Another moment, a cannon
of alien design. It's like it's out of a dream.
For Geist, it's almost like it's specifically
out of your nightmares about him. It does look
the same as when I saw it last. Like, is this
the frame that he fucked my shit up in all those
years ago? Nope. But it does look like it looks
like in your nightmares. How dreams have that,
like, fluid. weird thing where like one second
he's killing your girlfriend with a sword another
second it's a giant gun you know yeah very fluid
relatable having sex with them it's all those
things joseph what just me where's the discord
soundboard i need dumb tissue um okay what do
you guys do i guess loyal you're up front and
you see this thing in front of you is it real?
Is it made of water? Like, what do I know about
this? You know fuck all, but you can roll. You
can roll a survey, you can roll a study even.
A scan would be perfect. Yeah, I want to roll
a scan because Loyal is looking at this and being
like, this isn't real. Something fucky is going
on here, and I'm going to try to do something
about it. Oh yeah, you're all in desperate position,
by the way. That wasn't clear from the narration.
DKA 3 XP mode. Should I roll again? I didn't
roll desperate. God, yeah, that's a 1. You didn't
want to push yourself or anything? Oh, I should
have. I would recommend pushing yourself. I'm
a fan of the players. Okay, fine. We're going
to wipe that from the record. We're going to
keep the 2, but if you want to push yourself,
you can roll another die. If you want to get
aided, you can get another die. Yeah, let's see.
How would someone aid me doing this? It would
help if I could get a scan from someone else
who's also in their mech from another angle on
this watery phenomena. Yo, Hex. Hex would scan.
Just saying. So what does that look like, Hex?
I mean, you're outside your frame, right? Do
you have a remote control? Yeah, he abandons
Geist. Well, am I close enough to get to it in
time? I was going to say, I could bring Geist
to his frame if you want to go do that. That's
what I was going to do. Geist is already at it,
so I think Geist can get in if you just let go
of him. Oh, is he that close? It won't be pretty,
but I mean, I don't know. Maybe Colin wants to
contradict me on that, but I think he was like
almost there when he started. No, you're pretty
much there. Okay. All right. Hex runs to get
in the robot. Cool. All right. This might modify
on this on how much stress do I take from being
aided? You don't take any stress, but Harold
takes one stress. God, this is stressful. I have
a dice modifier. Am I just rolling? You can roll
two more D. You can just roll two D6 straight
up, and I'll add that to your previous roll.
Thanks, GM. Two and a two. Wow. What'd you do
to us? What'd you do to us? Oh, that's all three
twos. Yeah. Yeah, you... What are you scanning
with? Sonar? More electronic measures? Oh, no.
I'm using my built -in frame sonar. Okay. Yeah,
you... scan this thing and it the information
that it feeds back to you is like overwhelming
in what it's trying to tell you it's i don't
want to like go like eldritch horror with this
quite yet but it is in not just two places simultaneously
it is as if it is in like everywhere all at once
um it is like skimming along possibilities it's
like technology beyond what you could even fathom
especially in a situation like this and your
desperate consequence is that you're going to
take the level 3 damage destroyed as it puts
a humongous, like a trident almost, of this liquid
energy through the center of your frame, impaling
it to the wall. Let's resist that. Sure. How
do you want to resist it? Okay. How much armor
do I have left? How many ticks of armor did I
need to use last time to resist the haze? It
was just one. How many ticks do I need to use?
Sorry, you don't use ticks of armor. Oh, God.
You use, like, two ticks of armor is equal to
one use of armor. Yeah. Oh, I see. You use all
of armor when you use it. I will do that. That
seems simple enough. Yeah. Which would mean that
your mech will be very armor -focused, which
I think is fitting for your mech. It is. It is.
And that will take it down to level two of...
Except that. I guess. So put in the damage area.
But impaled. Done. Which means you'll take minus
one D to all future rolls that are applicable.
Who wants to go for something next? I think I'm
the last one. No, wait, it's you two, yeah. I
don't think, I think because Geist is, even though
he was closest to his mech, I think it makes
most sense for him to go last. Wasn't one of
the clocks fix or repair the ship or something?
That's correct. Yeah, I was hoping to work on
engine repair. I imagine I would go help Worthy
try to keep this thing airborne. Yeah, just get
the fuck out of here. Yeah. Yeah, sure. So to
you, it sounds like the issue is coming from
the engines themselves, which would involve climbing
up onto the roof of the ship. You know, I have
a two in maneuver, so. You could. You want to
do it in your frame? Oh yeah, those are vehicle
actions. I have two in prowl, but I still am
not prowling up onto the top of the ship. You
can do either. It's up to you. Both of them would
make sense for you? They both make sense because
you're a small mech, so I would accept that you
can slip through things. I mean, once you get
to the actual repairing, you'll probably need
to get out. Yeah, I would like to go not in my
mech. I feel like once I do, then the other mech
is just going to be trained on me. So I'm going
to be all sneaky like an infiltrator and prowl
to the top. Sure. I will give you that. It's
going to be a risky position. I'm not going to
give you desperate because you are small, you're
sneaky, and you have optical camo already checked
off as well. Dare I say, I would give you controlled
position because you have everything going for
you and Retribution is currently distracted by
the bigger threats. Wonderful. So, position controlled.
Yeah, do you want to push yourself? I'm in a
controlled position, which is nice. It is nice.
Maybe I don't need to push myself at this moment.
Sure, and do you have any damage on you? I mean,
harm. No. Harm? Okay, cool. I'm going to roll.
Roll me that prowl. Cool. Oh, that's a two. So,
you head for a little access hatch, and this,
like, swirling liquid energy you quickly realize
is it's everywhere. It's like, you don't even
know if it, if he is aware. That it is everywhere?
Because it doesn't even seem that controlled.
It seems almost to have, it's like lashing out
wildly, like knocking over cargo crates and stuff.
So I'm going to say you can try again if you'd
like, but it'll be a risky now. Uh, could I try
again and push myself? Yes, you could. Let's
do that. So you're going to take two more stress
and then you'll roll an extra die. Rolling prowl
modifier. Is it plus one or one extra die? Yep,
that's correct. Except now we're in position
risky. That's correct. Roll. Partial success.
Yay. Let's roll. Yeah, you run through this weird
energy stuff and you manage to get through, but
right as you're getting through, you get hit
by, I would almost call it nausea, like robot
nausea. I don't know what that's like for you.
Robaja. Slow robaja. Yeah, and it's like you
can feel the electrical signals, which are your
brain. There are some parts where the signals
aren't making it where they need to go. So sometimes
you think you told your arm to move, but it just
doesn't move. So you will get there. You get
through the access hatch and pop out onto the
roof, and you see that the engines are smoking
and shit. But you take the level one harm. Processors
slow down. Processors. Damn, we're getting fucked.
Already. And you can... If you'd like, perfect
opportunity, because we didn't use it last time,
you could expend your spark to resist the consequences
for that for free. Using the shadow ability?
Using your shadow ability. I see it on my player
sheet right here. You want to tell me what a
spark is? So your spark is like a special one
-use currency that you get once per session.
It's like luck, kind of? It's kind of like luck,
and you'll see it. To the right of your stress,
there's armor, heavy, and spark. You can just
check off spark and say, hey, I dodged it. You
used your sick shadow stuff to dodge underneath
the little liquid laser beams and do a sick slide.
Does that reduce then I don't get the harm? Yep,
it goes to zero. Wonderful. Because it was only
level one. Damn. Okay, who wants to go next?
Hex? Yeah. I mean, Hex is looking around and
shit's looking real bad. But Geist is probably
going to be the first to leap. Hex is taking
it all in. Taking it all in. Geist, did you want
to go first or did you want to? Um, I so I would
like Hex to help me. Yeah, Hex is well, my move
I was going to do with Hex was just fire of olive
missiles. So sure. Do you want to give me a hand?
Let's do it. What are you doing, Geist? Geist
is going to... He's going to go all out just
this once. Actually, he does this every time
he tries to kill someone. I have a question,
actually. Has my boosted reactor refilled? Okay,
you know what? Let me read the thing, actually.
Spend for improved effect when speed or agility
is required. This refills at the start of each
mission. Okay, so the gas tank is still empty.
Damn. If I were to... I think I'm allowed to
ask this, right? If I were to attack him, what
would my effect be? I have no damage. You have
no damage, so then I would think it would be
standard effect. Okay. Yeah, I think what I am
going to do... See, this is the problem. My machine
gun is a fine machine gun, which means it's a
better way of attacking somebody, but... it's
much more cinematic too as my final action just
like fucking kamikaze rush at him and try and
put my robot arm through his face so i think
i gotta do i gotta do the exciting thing yeah
unless you like pushed yourself for greater effect
you'd get standard with the user i would say
okay cool um and you can't you can't push yourself
and get a collateral die right you can only do
one or the other you can yes you can still get
a though Yes, I can still get aid. Do you want
a collateral die? I think... See, here's the
thing. I'm going to... Am I allowed to ask what
the collateral die does? Yes, absolutely. Okay,
sure. What do you got for collateral? I'm gonna...
If you want the collateral die, I'm going to
tick Crash Landing again. Which will bring it
up to two ticks. Oh my god, let me look at how
many ticks it has. six oh it's not great oh but
engine repair is only four um yeah i'll take
it all right i will take it at the expense of
everybody else um so i am going to take my collateral
die because i think i'm going to need my quirks
to avoid my robot blowing up even though i think
i'm still about to die anyways um so what geist
is going to do is he is going to basically as
soon as everybody as soon as everybody let go
of him like when this whole kerfuffle started
and people stopped holding his legs he immediately
kept lifting himself up into the cockpit of the
changeling he kind of flops over into it with
a sound like somebody dropping a bag of steaks
on a steel countertop just like splatters back
in but as soon as he does his hands start moving
And the interface comes to life. And so basically
what he's doing is just pointing the changeling
at retribution. He's putting the throttle all
the way full and he's just going to try and fucking
fly right into him and punch him as hard as he
can. And I would like aid just to be like to
if Hex can just like distract him for a second,
just basically by like attacking him to like
catch his attention. So he maybe doesn't see
it coming before it slams into him. Yeah. Hex
does a little distraction. Take one stress, Hex.
Man, Hex leads a really stressful life. We all
have stressful lives right now, okay? Just a
bit. I have level 3 harm. So yeah, Geist is there.
He's in the cockpit of his mech. He's screaming.
He's bleeding really badly. He's probably about
to pass out. As much from the haze psychosis
as anything. Yes, I maxed out my stress last
time. um so i have this so this is i assume a
battle or a maneuver it's kind of both but i
have them at the same level so for the time being
the distinction i don't that's for a battle like
battle sure let's battle this is my supercharged
falcon punch three dice please work okay i know
by the way yeah i'm sorry i'm can you use the
collateral die for extra effect or is it only
an extra die on the roll or does it do the same
things that pushing yourself does I don't know.
Let's say you can do either or. Okay, cool. I'm
using my collateral die for increased effect
rather than an extra dice because I'm living
life on the edge, and if I only get a partial,
I want it to count a little bit more. Anger is
crossed for you. Anger is crossed for you, my
friend. You got this. Here we go. Green. Ooh,
baby. That's a six! One three and a six. Holy
crap. Oh my god. We're still in it. Thank God.
I had my toes crossed. I literally had my toes
crossed. That was what did it. Oh, man. The secret
feels good. You're using your fists, right? Yeah,
yeah. They're basically, they're like, I think
I said they're like impact drivers. So it's like
the, it's almost like the stake driver from Bloodborne.
They like can jackhammer back and forth at like
point of contact. For, like, extra damaging impact.
So he's basically, like, trying to fly and punch
through him as he moves as fast as he possibly
can through the ship bay. Yeah, sure. You jet
with speed that probably even surprises yourself.
Like, the changeling almost takes over a little
bit. Whether you just, like, hit full throttle,
go forward, don't give a fuck what happens. And
you punch through Retribution. It's like punching...
You ever see those, like, videos of, like, the
cornstarch and water? It's like that weird non
-Newtonian fluid. Yeah, yeah. It's like punching
that, like, bends inward and it pops out the
back and you see this, like, that, like, liquid
energy or whatever it is, liquid reality, just,
like, spurt out the black and, like, get splattered
into the back of the hangar. Doing three ticks
to the retribution clock, which means... Yeah,
that's great effect. You are going to... Guys,
like, remember me, you son of a bitch! He's,
like, barely coherent. If he... If he still had
a normal mouth, he would be, like, blasting spit
all over the inside of his flight helmet. Okay,
yeah, that's, fuck yeah. But yeah, you punch
through him, and you see that he starts to reform
around your arm, which is weird. And he's, like,
groaning. Like, it's like an inhuman groan. It's
like, the noise professional probably would take
it out, but it's like, Do you get that? We got
that. That's what it's like. Let me tell you,
it was inhuman. Hex, you want to do anything?
Hex just saw this, and now that he sees the reforming,
he's going to keep a distance, but missiles probably
aren't good here. Go help one of those blocks
if you can, I don't know. Yeah, you know what,
he's going to go in for a hit with his little
baton. Okay, buddy. We did start to groan, so
maybe we're doing something. Do you want to...
I mean, I assume this is going to be a battle.
Yes. Do you want to push yourself? Yeah, why
not? Let's push ourselves. Why not? We're all
in it. Yep, let's do military workhorse. This
is going to hurt. I reread the rules recently.
Once you guys check off all your quirks, you
are in breakdown mode. Yes. which means taking
any other actions with your mech will do damage
to it, unless you just get out of your mech.
Okay. Just so you know. Okay, so you're going
to get plus one die to this roll. Your position
is Desperate Standard. Oh, yeah, I got to take
that XP. All right. Risky Standard plus one.
One, three. Oh, no. No! Hey, guys. I think he
grabs the stake driver out of his chest and like
a doll turns you around and punches it into X.
Damn. What kind of Looney Tunes magic does this
man have? Oh, that's probably bad. So two things.
One is you're going to take the level two harm
punched. Cracking. Cracking. Level 2 damage.
Sorry. And your rack of missiles or rockets is
junked. He positions it in such a way that it
crushes your missiles. No. So, fun little consequence.
I put a J in the slot so you just remember you
can't use those anymore. And now we're back at
the top again. You guys have been kind of split
up a little bit. There's three of you facing
off with retribution. I like the frowny face
you put on the sheet, Brian. Yeah, I was like,
I need something better than a J, all right?
Worthy's voice comes over the comms, like extremely
fuzzy, even at this distance. The haze is just
so dense. And he says, I'm barely holding her
together up here. I really need one of you to
get on top of this thing and restart the engines.
Electrical is fucked. I can walk you. And then
he cuts out. Can I respond? Sure, you can try.
Yeah, I try to go over the columns and I don't
know. Worthy, I'm on top right now, fixing the
engine. So if you can hear me, I'm going to get
it covered. You just keep us up. I suppose he
doesn't respond. Yeah, you're not sure. You hear
some feedback coming back through. It's like...
Joseph, let's look at you for a second. You're
on top. You're scrambling towards the engines.
They're smoking really badly. You can see...
You are no longer above the clouds, I would say.
You've got to see the ground running by you,
beneath you. Holy shit. So do you have a repair
skill, I guess is my question. Remember when
I didn't take engineer and I got interface instead?
That's the place we're at right now. Interface
with the ship while it's going down. Can I interface?
Yeah, I'll give you less effect, but I think
I can see the argument for interface. Using my
fingers, getting all up into this engine. You
can also push yourself if you wanted to have
the better effect. If you have any stress to
spare, you push yourself. I could. I could interface
with a push myself. Maybe I'll do that. I'm imagining
you slide up to the engine, you find a little
diagnostic port, and you plug something into
it, and you're like, talk to me, girl. How you
doing, old girl? You stay up. All right. We're
going to get through this. All right. So prowl
plus one. Is this risky? This is going to be
interface. Plus one. Oh, yeah. You're right.
But yeah, this is risky. And I remember take
two stress once you roll it. Yes. Plus one. Risky.
That's a six. Whoa. It's a six as fuck. What
does the ship say back to me? Hurt, hurt, hurt,
hurt, bad, hurt, bad, hurt, bad. Restart engine
manually. I don't need this. You gotta help me,
baby. Shut up. Yeah, you find that it tells you
to basically restart the engine manually. Things
in the future are pretty smart. uh like vessels
have onboard ais and it basically like sends
you the documentation where it's like please
pull the manually restart level i'm lover i'm
dying which i think i think this is unusual for
onboard ai worthy may have made some Modifications
to make it more personable. Worthy would. From
what I know about you. Yeehaw, I'm dying, partner.
Joseph's gonna look past that. So all you need
to do, you pull it down, and one engine's back
up, so you stop losing altitude so rapidly, but
what you have to do now is you have to get to
the other side of the ship before time runs out.
Gotcha. That will check the crash landing one
more time. Okay, back inside. Loyal. um yeah
yeah you've kind of been uh impaled a little
bit so the dolphin brain is equipped to handle
information at a much higher speed and volume
than the human brain and yet this is the most
sensory experience that loyal has ever been subjected
to in his life and it is extremely unpleasant
imagine like the worst psychedelic trip a person
could be on in their life while being impaled
by a weird watery trident at the same time so
loyal does a couple things he still is like convinced
this is some kind of weird illusion and he has
an idea about how to break it he doesn't sure
he's not sure if this will work or not but the
first thing he does is he just turns off all
the sonar receiving like stuff in his exopod
and in his frame so that he's like no longer
receiving that video or visual audio input in
his brain in his like biosonar and i want him
to just like start revving up his drill that
starts revving up and i want him to push himself
by spending his intermittent optical camo quirk
to go invisible and just like get his frame inside
of the anomalous water energy that is retribution
right now and then at the same time that this
drill is going just like pump as much like sound
high -pitched noise at different frequencies
as possible into this drill like into his mech
it's whatever produces sound on the mech at a
time is just going to be going full blast but
only when he's inside of this water bubble -shaped
like an enemy so it doesn't, like, deafen his
friends. Sure. As an attempt to destabilize it.
That's a battle if I've ever heard one. It sure
is. Good thing you made me take one point in
battle. Yep. I'm helpful like that. That was
a badass description for a one -point battle.
Well, doesn't exhausting the quirk, doesn't that
count as a pushing of yourself? Yeah, you get
plus 1d. Which means that I have still just 0d
because I already have minus 1d. Oh, yeah, so
that puts you at 1 total. But we're still in
Desperate Standard, right? You're in Desperate
Standard, that's correct. Alright. Does anybody
want to aid me by making sure this thing doesn't
move while I do this? I need another distraction.
Can Hex aid? Yeah, do you have any stress left?
Uh, Hex is at... Five stress left, you know,
before things go to Larry. You could also aid
me by, like, navigating me to this, because I'm
using, like, I imagine that even Sunless's eyes
are closed at this point. He's just doing it
blind. He cannot, like, see or hear at all because
he's so oversimplified. No, I imagine Heck sees
what's going on and, you know, tosses Geist off
him, like, you know, gently, of course, and runs
over to go hold him down and help you out. Okay,
does that give me another die? Give you another
die. That's mark one stress. All right, everybody
cross your toes. We're going drinking after this.
Oh, the worst outcome. That's two twos. Again,
the curse of the twos endures. You're killing
me here. Two things happen. So first thing is
that, Loyal, you move up into this and the drill
stops. It's, like, dead in its tracks. It's going
so fast and it stops. It's, like, it's impossible
for that much inertia to just stop, but it does.
And your whole frame just pauses. Like, it just
stops responding to you as if it's, like, paralyzed.
And this big hand, this clawed hand, just forms
out of this liquid reality and just moves slowly,
just, like, inching towards your frame. And,
like, a single finger comes out and just starts
pushing. through the front of your cockpit right
towards you. And Hex, you go to tackle Retribution
to hold him down. And all of a sudden, he's just
not there. And he's gone. It's like thin air
missing. And Loyal, a little light comes on in
your cockpit. And there is someone in front of
you. This liquid form missing most of his limbs.
There are these phantom limbs coming off of him.
And he's just like walking up to you. And I think
you try to move yourself, but you realize that
you are moving so slow. Like, your brain functions
even are struggling to keep up with him. He's
like a blur, just walking towards you. He grabs
you by the head, and he says, Time's up. And
he crushes your skull in his hands. And you're
going to take the level 4 harm dead. Oh no! I
think I might like to resist that. Okay. We're
going to resist with stress. Okay. Yeah, that's
going to see trauma out. Dolphin trauma. Dolphin
trauma. Drama this early in the game. Wow. I
just got my second one. Last session. You started
with one. Don't talk to me about trauma. You're
such a drama queen. Drama Olympics over here.
No, it's good. I like it. So how much stress
do I take? Do I just take it all and reset it?
So what you're going to do is you're going to
want to click the prowess button. This is prowess.
You're going to click that, and that's going
to determine how much stress you take. You might
not stress out. It's possible you won't. Oh,
no, you stressed out. You rolled a four, and
you had two stress left. So mark that last two
stress. I'm going to reduce that harm down to
a level two because I'm nice like that. You're
going to take the... Harm. Fractured skull. Fractured
melon, if you will. My noggin. No, my melon.
Your poor melon. I have no idea this just happened.
No, it's just that he vanished. Like, not even
a crunch or anything? I guess it would depend
how loud. You know what I think he does, actually?
Because the headset on? I think, because this
is Retribution, I think what he does is that...
All of a sudden, a video feed of the inside of
Loyal's cockpit comes up. And you just see it
happen. Damn. Makes you watch. That, uh... Yeah,
he's stressed. I've just lost an entire organ
and sense of my, like, senses. Yeah, and after
that happens, Retribution bursts out the back
of Loyal's frame, like, reforms in the air. And
he seems... Like, the liquid reality is, like,
it's jittering. Parts of it are, like, hardening
and falling to the ground, and these, like, chunks
of, like, metal slag that are jagged. Who wants
to go next? Oh, also, Sunleth, you're out of
the game now, unless you want to take a dire
action. That gives you level 3 harm automatically,
so choose wisely. I'm not going to take a dire
action yet. Can I save it for later? I think,
yeah, it makes sense for Loyal to decide on his
next turn, right? Yeah, I've just been well and
crushed. I'm not doing anything anytime soon.
It hurts bad. I'm seeing, like, spikes in my
brain, because, like, sound and visual is pretty
much in the same place for a dolphin, so it's
like, I'm feeling spikes, I'm seeing spikes,
I'm hearing spikes, and it's all pain all the
way down. Who wants to go next? I'm going to
declare a directed energy weapon. Yeah! If the
missiles were, like, on his left shoulder, another
thing shows up, boring as fuck, of course, but
hey, it's glowing. It looks like a Spartan laser.
Yeah. Nothing boring about a Spartan laser. Yeah,
do it. That's a battle. Still desperate position.
Glass this motherfucker. Alright, risky? Oh,
it's desperate, baby. You suffer severe harm.
Oh god, another two! No! Why'd you do this? You
did this to me, guys. I put the twos on everyone
but myself. Yeah, you shoot a laser and you shoot
it into Retribution. But something weird happens
is that it bends. It's like refracted. And instead,
it goes through the roof of the ship and shears
off. part of the wing. Joseph, you're up there
and a big laser beam comes cutting through all
the hard fucking work you just did. I'm sure
my squad mates are handling this well. I'm going
to check crash landing one more time and that's
the first consequence. The second consequence,
Harold, is that Retribution is in front of you
now and he picks you up and he throws you through
the back of the transport knocking the cargo
ramp open and you are... In the air, you are
falling to the ground. She loves throwing people.
I hope we're not far above the ground now, guys.
You are exceptionally far above the ground, and
the worst part is that you don't have your jump
thrusters anymore. Oh, no. So, you can resist
this if you'd like. Yeah, hold on with one hand.
It'll be very cinematic. I would recommend resisting
this. It's my big recommendation. Unless you
want to resist it. I mean, like, yeah, yeah,
let's resist, let's resist. All right, so this
is going to be an expertise roll, and all you
do is check off two quirks. The quirks I'll check
off will be... Bye -bye, redundant systems. You
served me well. Redundant systems? I'm on fire.
You're armed. All right, and what am I rolling?
Nothing, you just check off two. Okay, that's
sweet. So you get to resist getting thrown out
of the ship. which would have been basically
if you don't resist this, you die. So thank you
for resisting. Is that all your quirks, Hex?
Thank you, God. No, I have common parts left.
Okay. Am I missing anyone? Did I do Geist yet?
Geist hasn't gone yet. He's only gone the one
time. I have some absolutely terrible news for
everybody because I actually am going to check
off a new zero load piece of equipment, which
is the Reflex Adjustment and Guidance Engine,
also known as... rage an interface system that
when activated greatly enhances the pilot's abilities
at the cost of their survival instincts for several
minutes this may improve your position and effect
in maneuvering you also suffer the consequences
death wish and possibility hallucinations which
can be resisted as normal which i can't do the
modified position and effect and any unresisted
consequences last until the end of the next scene
which i really don't think is going to be a problem
What I want to do is actually repeat a little
trick from my very first operation. And what
I want to do is I want to shoot him with my grapple
gun and fly out the hole that he just blasted
in the roof with him attached to me to get him
off the ship. Sure. And then I'll probably crash
and maybe I'll die. Well, I could also just attack
him. But at this point, I think that I just want
to fuck him up. I mean, he flew up here. Maybe
that actually is a dumb idea. here's the problem
because my other option is that i can push myself
to attack him but if i do that i only have three
quirks left so that's one quirk to push myself
and then two quirks to resist any consequences
and then my mech is wrecked out break down which
is bad and i don't want to do that you know what
i can just junk my gear fuck it no geist instead
i'm not gonna do that or maybe i've I mean, you
only really got one roll left, kinda. I do! Well,
I mean, unless I get another six. You gotta think
about, like, turns left. I know, but it's...
I can't... You know, yeah, I can just blow my
gear up. It's fine. Can I... Okay, here's a question.
Will... I guess the reflex adjustment and guidance
engine, this is just for maneuvering, right?
So it wouldn't make battle any more effective.
So if I'm trying... If I use it to, like, shadowbox
this motherfucker instead? I think it would be
better that way. Okay, cool. yeah i'm going to
lose my uh ability to have any sort of self -preservation
whatsoever so what this looks like is that geist
he punches through him he gets redirected and
he punches hex he doesn't even notice he goes
and like turns himself around as fast as he can
but by the time he's turned around retribution
is exploding out of the back of uh loyal's mech
and Geist is just like not even seeing what happened
as he starts to as he starts to pivot he activates
the rage system and he just turns around and
he says no you don't and I'm going to push myself
for because I'm good I already get the increased
effect from the rage system so I'm going to push
myself for an extra die and I'm going to try
battling him one more time you are you're a death
wish I think you want to die right now absolutely
yeah I mean I think that that was clear Even
before it was clear. I think like before maybe
there was a part of you that was like, I got
to stay alive for the mission, you know, but
this time it's like, I got to die. I got to die.
Gamers, I got to die doing something right now.
I got to die, but I got to take him with me.
Exactly. Also, I think you are seeing, you have
possibility of hallucinations. So I think you
are seeing kind of like what Loyal saw. You see
all the positions of retribution, like in every
direction. I'm going to try and punch the one
that seems the most real. Yeah, so I've got three
dice. I'm increased to great effect again. What's
the worst that could happen? Well, Geist could
very well die. And in fact, at this point, it
might be welcome. He's so fucked up. He's like,
this is like his cockpit's flashing red. He's
pushed his mech way past its tolerance and his
body. Let's see what happens. Oh, my God. Oh,
my God. Did I get a six? No! I got a five. Ah,
okay. So the total, I hate how it totals them
up instead of showing you them all. So that's
a three, a five, and a four. So this is a partial
success, but that means that Geist is out of
the scene once he deals with whatever horrible
consequences are about to happen. Sure. So you've
gotten a partial success with great effect. You
have three ticks on Retribution Clock, which
is very good. And so what does your attack look
like? What were you trying to do? Um, it's the
same thing, but now that the rage system is active,
it's a little bit, um, it's less of, like, a
brute force speed smash through, and there's
a little bit more finesse to it because the computer's
guiding him, so there's probably, like, a little,
like, a duck and a juke, and maybe it's, like,
an uppercut or something. He's getting a little
fancy with it. Sure. Okay. Yeah, you do, you
go sicko mode, as you once said, and you rush
at him. Uh, I think you kind of see it coming.
He plants his phantom back foot, and you realize
he's going to take it. He doesn't want to dodge
the attack at all. But, you know, you put all
of yourself into it. You're like, if you're going
to fucking take it, I'm going to make you work
for it, motherfucker. And you punch through on
both hands, and you just absolutely annihilate
this liquid reality stuff. Giant chunks of metal
are just, like, dropping off of him onto the
ground. Alien slag material or whatever it is.
And then he... Both your arms are basically through
him at this point in different parts. And he
grabs each arm in each hand, making that, like,
weird groaning sound again. It's like... And
grabs each arm, kicks you. Your frame goes backwards,
but your arms stay. You're going to take the
level 3 damage. What is it called when you do
amputation? Double amputation? Yeah, double amputation.
I'm going to... Well, I mean, the only thing
that makes sense is to junk my melee weapons
to resist that. So maybe he just gets the lower
arms. Yeah, that's cool. I like that. So you
get... He rips off both the melee weapons instead.
Your arms are still badly scraped up, so you're
going to still take that level 2 damage. Yes.
Like, bent arms. Unhanded? Unhanded. Disarmed.
Oh my god, you should not call it disarmed. But
he looks bad. Like, whatever he is or what's
going on, it's starting to fade. And we'll jump
back to Joseph, my friend Joseph, who's putting
in the more work that matters here. Wiping my
forehead. Just really getting the down dirty
of it. Breaks out a lunchbox, takes a sandwich
out. Exactly. Hard work day. Union mandated,
buddy. I'm on break. Yeah, you have fixed one
of these wings. You have to get over to the other
one to fix it. The top of the ship is partially
melted now because of the laser beam that got
redirected towards you. Do you want to just like
make a mad dash for the other one while I...
Yeah, because the... Right now the clock I'm
working on is engine repair, correct? That's
correct. You're one tick left, so as long as
you don't fail. Okay, so I need to just basically
get the other one, right? Yeah, and I would accept
the prowl, because you now know what you have
to do. It's just a matter of getting there in
time. Maybe I'm on all fours, going even faster
than expected, like a cheetah. I was going to
say that could really work, but I... No, that
too. That would work too. Yeah, I would like
the prowl, and then could I even push myself
again here? Yeah, if you have the stress, do
it. I only have three left. It's two, I think.
So that's pushing it pretty close. It costs two
to push. Oh, does it? Okay. So there we go there.
What happens if you fully get your stress up?
You get a scar? You get removed from the mission
unless you do some crazy shit like Geist is doing.
And then you get a trauma. It's not awful to
get a trauma. That's always fun. And this would
be risky, right? Yes, this would be risky. Beautiful.
Flawless. Like a beautiful gymnast. You sprint
across the thing, dodging, you know, whatever
fucking projectiles are coming up. Maybe a seabird
flies close by. I'm a seabird. I'm a seabird.
Killing it instantly. You get on all fours, you
get over to the top as the, you know, you hear
the other engine starting to give out from the
stress again. But you pull that manual reset.
The other engine sputters to life. And the engine
is repaired. It's evened out. And downstairs,
you are all kind of in various states of bad.
And Retribution is starting to head towards you
again. You know, shuddering, dropping this metal
slag all over the ground. But then it stopped
moving. Like it just walked into a wall. And
the air kind of freezes in place static again.
And that disembodied voice comes out. And it
says, again, in like the exact same cadence it
said it to you, Loyal. It says, time's up. And
with that, the frame collapses into itself and
vanishes. Like it was being pulled through a
really tiny hole in space. And then the air is
still. Very still. Geist isn't even conscious.
to experience this because when he got like the
hands ripped off of his mech the concussion of
having the cockpit kicked finally fucking knocked
the last bit of fight he had out of him like
he he performed well beyond the limits of any
reasonable human but he fucking like his he passed
the fuck out and probably has another brain injury
for the pile but he's done like the changeling
just kind of collapses on its back and like maybe
like the rage system causes the limbs to keep
twitching but with our pilot uh nothing's going
on what does loyal look like right now you have
officially trauma doubt i feel like just all
of his electronics are shut off at this point
by whatever the fuck retribution did to him and
He's, like, just floating in his exopod. All
the lights are off. He's still breathing, but
just, like, shallowly. Just in there. Knocked
out. Gozy. And there's blood. There's blood in
the oxygenated water that he's also breathing,
so he's gonna have to deal with that in his lungs
later. Okay, not gozy. Breathing blood gang.
Hex. Joseph, where do you go after you fix it?
Do you go to the cockpit? Do you go to where
your squad mates are? Um... I think Joseph would
actually go to the cockpit to just make sure
Worthy's good, because if it cut out, I want
to make sure that he's still good to go. So I
want to check on Worthy. I assume that they're
doing good down there because I have no idea
what happened. Yeah, I think as once Restribution
gets out, Worthy's voice comes through and says,
Pilots, are you there? It's just me up here.
It doesn't sound like anyone else is responding.
Whatever. Did you do that? You fix it? Yes, are
we stable now? Yeah, we're fucking stable. Thank
you. Joseph, I owe you a drink, or a robot drink.
I will take you up on that, but I need to check
on my squad mates right now. Yeah, go check on
them. I gotta patch up some electronics before
I can even put this thing down. Agreed. Good
work, Worthy. And I'm gonna jog over to the hole
and look down it. Easy access. Hex. You are the
only one left standing in the cockpit. Hex is
hanging on. Yeah, I guess you put yourself in.
And I hold time. Hex is fighting for his life.
Guys, this isn't funny anymore. Please just pull
me up. Yeah, I think now that the ship is stable,
you can just pull yourself in. And you go in
and you see... I imagine... It's probably not
like this, but I imagine Loyal's mech is in the
fetal position. Oh my god. And, like, Geisseneck
is on its back, its arms are, like, smoking and
burning, just not moving at all. Yeah. I'm reminded
of this meme in the chat. Well, Brian, you have
to save the memes. Everything's on fire, and
a guy walks in. Oh, it's the pizza guy. Yeah,
it's from Community. Yeah, it's the pizza guy.
But... I mean, Hex functionally thinks Geist
is fucking dead, so he runs over to Fetal Position
Robot. Hey, are you alive? Am I able to respond?
Do I have some, like, autoresponder being, like...
I'm out of the office right now, but if you need
to reach me... I imagine I'd have some type of
AI in, like... My frame, my exopod, it's like,
Sunlith is currently unconscious. Please immediately
take to the nearest medical facility. I just
keep saying that over and over again. Alright.
Hex isn't a doctor, so what would he see if he
went over to check on Geist? So the Changeling...
The cockpit is sealed, so you actually can't
see inside, but the mech itself, like, it's all
dinged up. The front parts of both arms have
been ripped off, and there's kind of just, like,
exposed wires and twisted metal. It is very twisted.
It's like the fists of his mech were twisted
right off, but the center part is, like, all
dinged up where it got booted, and it's just
kind of, like, occasionally twitching as the
rage system tries to predict combat that is not
happening. Ooh, that's cool. Like that. That's
cool. Fucking psychopath. But Hex thinks both
his squad mates are dead, he guesses. He's not
in water, so you can just flip the... If you
want to see if he's alive, you could open the
cockpit, but you'd probably have to get out of
your own frame to activate the manual eject.
Now that it's depowered, it's not locked. I mean,
if everything's peaceful, Hex will hop out and
do that. Yeah, I think Joseph eventually comes
down. You all link up, talk a little bit. I mean,
you all mean Hex and Joseph. Joseph jumps down
from the hole and enters and kind of looks around
and then sees Hex. I say, Hex. Come help me out
here. Hex is trying to pull the release on Geist's
cock fade or whatever. Of course. And Joseph
runs over and assists. Yeah, it pops open and
Geist is like lying there and his like his hands,
which are both robotic hands, are still like
gripped so tightly to like the control. yokes
that like they've started to crack through um
but like he's he's bleeding he was in really
fucking bad shape when you tried to stop him
from climbing back into his cockpit and now it's
even worse like there's blood he was bleeding
the whole time so there's now blood and like
hydraulic fluid all over the interior of the
cockpit like it's smeared all over the controls
and everything He's bleeding out of every bit
of exposed skin that he still has has some sort
of rupture on it. It's a fucking mess in there.
There's blood everywhere and you don't even know
where to take a pulse because he... I was about
to say that. I was going to try to take a pulse.
Hex gags a little. He requires medical attention
immediately. Do we have a doctor on board? I'll
tell Worthy to get us... back as soon as possible.
Is Sunlift okay? What do we do? Did you check
on Sunlift? X goes and runs back over to see
if we can't, I mean, can we even, what would
we do if we ejected you? My, like, exo -plot
would just kind of pop out. Let's do that. Yeah,
you, like, the hatch opens up and the, like,
mechanism deposits him in front of you. on the
ground and the exopod is floating it's functioning
i assume it wasn't hurt it was just like his
physical body that got hurt but he's unconscious
there's blood in the water his melon like has
damage to it it's all kind of just like ripped
up from these ephemeral claws and the message
is still just playing please bring to the news
medical facility please bring joseph is gonna
put a hand against the glass and he'll say Stay
strong, Sunlift. You will swim again. And then
I turn to Hex and say, So sweet. Barely survived,
but we are alive. We will fight again. Let's
get back home, patch up these wounds, and we'll
figure out what to do next. Okay? We're lucky
to be standing. I'm glad that you're alive too,
Hex. I'll put my arm around him and give him
a little wink. How about a beer after this? Hey,
buddy. I thought Joseph only has one eye. How
does he wink? He does. And he always winks with
that one eye. He blinks with the one eye. That's
easy. I like to call it a wink. It sounds more
cinematic. It's good. It's great. It's about
the intent. Just like he closes one side of his
single eye. Ew. Ew. It's cute. It's great. Yeah,
and I think Joseph is just going to tend to Geist
as much as he can and tell Worthy, you know,
like... Get us back. Two squad mates with major
injuries. We must return now. Yeah, I think Worthy
gives you the affirmative and rushes you all
back and you make a rough landing on the airstrip
closest to the medical hospital, I think. Worthy
parks between two other aircraft because he understands
the severity of the situation. And you are not
immediately debriefed. Geist and Loyal are rushed
away by facility doctors. It's, like, pulled
off, like, a bunch of people and, you know, just
the medical scrubs and, like, grabbing you, like,
yelling. Do they need to get a what? A veterinarian.
An exotic species doctor. I got a dolphin doctor
in here. Stat. I think Dr. Grace knows dolphin
physiology. But, like, I think you are, like,
they can't move your exopod. So I think they,
like, they pop it open. They have to pump out
my lungs and get me breathing air. They pull
your whole -ass tube body out of the exopod onto
a stretcher. One of them is like, do we gotta
spray it? Do we gotta spray him down with water
or something? The other one's like, just get
him to the fucking hospital, man! That's racist!
That's racist. And they rush you over to a hospital.
Geist, you are in and out of consciousness. Mostly
out. You have pushed well past your breaking
point. At some point, you think Dr. Grace is
there, and she is very upset. And you hear her
say something like, You can't do this to us again,
Garrett. God damn it. She's doing, like, chest
compressions on you, and you're, like, barely
aware of it. You're like, I think you're pretty
certain that this is it. She's ready to go. I
feel like Geist is happy with his performance.
Geist is aware of the fact that Retribution is
presently way above his weight class. I guess
it really depends on how conscious he even was
at the time that he was taking those actions.
But in hindsight... If he was able to internalize
everything that happened, he's like, yeah, I
really got that motherfucker, didn't I? This
would be a good time to die. No teeth. Eventually,
the painkillers come through for you, and it's
like a blur. It's a soft blur. You might think
you're even dead, honestly. Kilo is there at
one point, you know. the uh director of the pilot
division and he's just like sitting at the bedside
just like looking at you like grimacing you take
it you tell the joke but you will not remember
it loyal you also get a lot of attention in the
hospital um dr suri grace to her credit she knows
dolphin physiology um although you know you're
more conscious than geist was by a long shot
and at some point she's like I'm sorry, Loyal,
I gotta look this up. And she walks out of the
room. Thanks, Abigail. Medicine in blowhole,
question mark? And, you know, I think you're
also visited by some people, Loyal. You are visited
by probably Gopher. Gopher visits you. Gopher
likes you. You're actually friends with Gopher,
and you're... Who is Gopher again? He's like
the little guy who runs errands. He's the runner.
Poor Gopher. Those are both outcasts on this
godforsaken planet. He comes into your hospital
room and you're like, Hey, you! How are ya? Wow,
your head looks different. Do they have a, like...
I can't really talk to people without my accent.
That's true. I'm just like, on a stretcher. I'm
just, like, looking around, unable to speak to
anyone. Maybe I, like, do a little couple whistles
at him, but no one understands me. That must
be very strange for you. Yeah, I don't like it.
Yeah, they just kind of talk at you, and they're
like, they're there, it's going to be okay. And
your control also is you, Miss West Edge, because
you're also very good friends with her. And she
says, don't worry about the debriefing, Loyal,
we'll handle it. Just, uh, you focus on getting
better. You and... and, you know, she kind of
looks at you, and she looks very upset, very
sad. He just makes a sad little affirmative whistle
at her. Dolphins, luckily, they have very fast
healing abilities. They can, like, regrow their
skin at a pretty quick rate, so he won't be out
of commission for too long. He's upset about
not being able to talk. And for the rest of you,
Hex and Joseph, Nyla does debrief you, and she
looks very concerned. She says, Worthy gave me
the rundown, so just, you know, I'll pull the
recordings from whatever is left and just get
some rest, okay? The plant was attacked by a
chemical agent. I have video recording. I'll
upload it to you so you can see what we can do.
Thank you. Just, uh... And she kind of trails
off and looks at the conference room down across
the city with a grimace on her face. I am going
to interrupt her again and hold up the flash
drive. I also was able to get this from the facility.
She like rubs a hand over her face and says,
fuck, I forgot. I forgot about that. Just leave
it on the table. I'll look at it later. And when
you put it in, plug it into a dummy hard drive
first before you upload any data to the main
mainframe. Okay. Not a rookie. Joseph gives her
a wink. Do any of you visit Geist or Sunless
in the hospital? Yeah, I think Joseph is going
to visit both of them a lot. I think he's going
to be by their hospital beds quite frequently.
I think he wasn't expecting to do this. I think
this, the near death of both of the squad mates
remind him of a squad mate he lost previously.
He finds emotions to be a weakness, but right
now he's afflicted with them and he can't help.
He can't help but look over the two fallen comrades.
Yeah. Does Joseph... We talked about this briefly,
Adam, about Joseph and what he remembers from
when he was just an AI for a pilot. Yeah. Does
Joseph realize that the it was the same person
like retribution is who killed your previous
pilot? I don't think he did, because I feel like
everything from that kind of as we talked about
before feels like his past life feels like a
dream almost. So it's like he remembers bits
and pieces. So he just remembers the main thing
is having a good relationship and then having
that person be killed by something outside of
his forces that he couldn't control. And now
he's reminded by this because he was distracted
with fixing up the ship that two of his squad
mates almost died. So he remembers that and visits
them every day. Cinema. Sitting there. Rain hitting
the window. Hex visits weekly and he'll bring
flowers. But otherwise, it's just pretty standard
business. I mean, he feels we signed up for this.
Yeah. Yeah, I think Joseph would even tell Hex
like. i'll stay here for the both of us you got
work to do yeah hex is more he's concerned but
he knows this isn't his place to be there all
the time yeah yeah and joseph brings up the idea
of maybe getting a drink at the bar again please
my stress level is too high loyal uh you get
discharged much quicker because you know your
main like the main thing that knocked you out
of commission is that you you've been traumatized
like your brain um something's change within
you and you get to choose one of those things
under scars um to choose is your scar your trauma
yeah i was thinking about that and you don't
need to decide now okay unless you you were like
100 certain of what you want we can do that now
but we should just revisit it next it's not downtime
but like the first mission after that see how
you've changed i have an idea but i have to think
about it a bit all right and guys it takes a
lot longer to heal like i'm thinking like multiple
weeks at least yep so i after that a number of
things happen no one really tells you it explicitly
but you do get the sense that you got a very
good deal on the data you stole yes um for some
you know for the time being um until i say otherwise
you guys are going to be able to take three downtime
actions instead of two Because of this increased
budget. Again, this is temporary, especially
because you failed your primary objective. I
mean, your secondary objective, we'll call it.
Hex, Nyla lets it slip to you that some footage
of the operation got released to the press, and
it does not help the relationship between the
Peacekeepers and the Council, and you, the Dusklights.
And you're going to lose your relationship with
the Council. It's going to go down by one, so
you're not a negative one with them, which means
they dislike you. which is going to make it harder
for the peacekeepers to get funding from them
for jobs. And maybe even worse for you, Hex,
is that Nyla specifically orders you to go to
the corporate council and humble yourself in
front of Mr. Bluth. Oh, no! This is where he
dies. You gotta go eat crow. I think we'll do
that in... Yeah, we're gonna do that in a vignette.
But just so you know, that's coming up. Hex is
pissed. He gains his stress. no don't do that
to yourself that's the last fucking straw um
and that's where we're gonna stop for today um
and next time we'll do downtime thank you all
bye bye