[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventurecast, where the stars are cold, the void is endless, and danger lurks in every shadow.

[SPEAKER_04]: Out here, trust is a gamble, and survival is never guaranteed.

[SPEAKER_04]: On tonight's Adventurecast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, this took my entire family and went over the fuck out in there, and I want revenge.

[SPEAKER_05]: I had a slap fight with him, and you just blew off his head.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's wonderful to meet you.

[SPEAKER_04]: So there I was, trap behind the barrels.

[SPEAKER_04]: There were four.

[SPEAKER_04]: No.

[SPEAKER_04]: Six guys, fanning out to surround us.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I hold my fist up, and tattooed across my knuckles is BRIC, break.

[SPEAKER_04]: Now let's make a deal.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is the Dark Star Adventure cast.

[SPEAKER_02]: the scapegoat hums gently as it cruises between the stars.

[SPEAKER_02]: The jump is smooth, the alarm is quiet, and for once, no one's bleeding.

[SPEAKER_02]: In the cargo bay, make shift chairs are pulled into a loose circle as the crew takes a moment to breathe.

[SPEAKER_02]: Afflit by hanging worklates, the air smells faintly of solder, old coffee, and whatever that smell is coming out of Froggy's den in the corner.

[SPEAKER_02]: Aily's hooked up her music to the Aurora Stereosis Demand someone's cracked a bottle from the emergency's dash.

[SPEAKER_02]: Laughter is echoing off the bulkhead walls.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no [SPEAKER_03]: I thought I was done for, I thought I was gone.

[SPEAKER_03]: But instead of firing, the damned things start singing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like serenading me.

[SPEAKER_03]: Man, turns out, my so-called friend decided to replace my hack with a romance subroutine.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_03]: Only you be a life.

[SPEAKER_03]: I never ran so fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Felix, you don't deserve the good things that come your way sometimes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Haha, let's look at that.

[SPEAKER_03]: I guess they're all take that back now, Robert.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, now that that earned you a drink Felix for sure.

[SPEAKER_05]: Haley co-estone, yeah, I'll fill you up.

[SPEAKER_05]: But I think it's time you tell us your secret.

[SPEAKER_05]: You said the goat's name because you got a frame?

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's hear it all right.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, it's not exactly a secret.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's just a painful memory.

[SPEAKER_05]: Hmm, I'd like to hear it for you, drink.

[SPEAKER_05]: Now's a good time as any captain.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ah, all right, I'll give you the full story.

[SPEAKER_04]: Back on my homeworld, Zephyrst 3, my family has a shipping company, Draxis Goods, family owned and operated for generations.

[SPEAKER_04]: You name it, we deliver it.

[SPEAKER_04]: But it was entirely on Zephyrst 3, and I always thought that was a little bit of a waste.

[SPEAKER_04]: I thought, why don't we grow this business into something interstellar?

[SPEAKER_04]: So many customers out there among the stars that we could trade with.

[SPEAKER_04]: My mom, she's in charge of the business, she never agreed with me.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, thorny, it's too risky, no thorny, we don't have the funds, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I met up with this guy, William Salarist, he was with Nexus Corp.

And I thought, oh, one of the Corpos, yeah, how many young dumbass, maybe if I work with them, they'll actually help me.

[SPEAKER_04]: Biggest mistake in my life up to that point.

[SPEAKER_04]: Salarist guy basically framed me for smuggling, and because of me getting in trouble, my family lost the whole business he ended up taking it over, and then I went to jail.

[SPEAKER_04]: My whole family disowned me.

[SPEAKER_04]: I've been in talk to my mom, and the better part of 10 years, I don't know if she'd mad or what happened, but while I was in prison, no one said a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, and that's it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, pretty much.

[SPEAKER_03]: Dorn, this gotta be more to it than that.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I went deep on my story, man.

[SPEAKER_03]: I told you everything, man, you know how hard it was for me to talk about P.

Come on, Dorn.

[SPEAKER_04]: All right, all right, it's only fair, it's only fair.

[SPEAKER_04]: I guess there is a little bit more than that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe I didn't just, just out of habit, maybe I left some stuff out.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, like I told you, I got out a little early from that sentence.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was supposed to be 12 years stint in prison, but I got out after about 10, because Omni-Tek of all bought my contract.

[SPEAKER_04]: And they wanted me to be part of something called Project Redwing.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sound familiar?

[SPEAKER_04]: No shit.

[SPEAKER_04]: Damn.

[SPEAKER_04]: Though thankfully that didn't happen after hearing about what happened to PD.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry buddy.

[SPEAKER_04]: I had to made a city AI anyway.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you touched a bullet there for sure.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well what I didn't tell you is after I got out of prison and before that happened I had a bunch of downtime before I got transported to Camieri IV.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I set myself up to try and find that bastard salaries.

[SPEAKER_04]: Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he was going to pay for taking my family and my company away.

[SPEAKER_04]: I bought myself a brand new data pad, 500 hours on the exo net, and I went down to the local ramen shop and got myself a bull.

[SPEAKER_04]: I was in it for the long haul.

[SPEAKER_04]: But barely an hour later, I found what I thought was a complete dead end.

[SPEAKER_04]: The articles were everywhere.

[SPEAKER_04]: Salarist was dead.

[SPEAKER_04]: Got killed in some kind of Maglev crash about a year before that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Something happened with a transport glitched out and it knows that I've dried into a residential block.

[SPEAKER_04]: Killed salarists, everyone on board, and a bunch of local residents.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we got a quick death, that's annoying.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, what you thought, you find his grave and piss on it?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, that was the plan, uh, but some things changed.

[SPEAKER_04]: The first thing I did is I got myself a drink, and another, and another, and another.

[SPEAKER_04]: And not long after that, I was blackout drunk wandering around the streets of Polyphen.

[SPEAKER_04]: I remember sitting in a gutter, a rain pouring down, my data pad on the ground next to me, the one that nobody knew I had, the one that I just bought hours before, will beaped with a message.

[SPEAKER_04]: No sender, it just said, Salarist is not dead.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's been erased and attached to it with some kind of [SPEAKER_04]: Tim like it was always raining on Paul Fin, which honestly I didn't mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Rain slicks the metal walkways of Hacomé prefecture on Pauli Fin, pooling in the cracks of plastic steel and rusted grates.

[SPEAKER_02]: Neon lights spills from the entrance of clogged curvilocks, blues, reds, purples, flickering through the alley like a broken memory.

[SPEAKER_02]: The base thumps that was a wall at your back, steady as a heartbeat.

[SPEAKER_02]: A nearby vent is this team, and the air smells like burnt synth oil, and soy noodles.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne pulls out his new data pad and reads the message again, but a hundredth time this hour.

[SPEAKER_02]: Salarist Lips.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's been erased.

[SPEAKER_02]: meet in the alley behind Kurolox, midnight, bring muscle, and at the end of the message is a cypher key, a non-sense string of letters and numbers that probably go to something important, but thorns never been so good with tech, and hasn't the damn dis idea what this could mean.

[SPEAKER_02]: The muscle that Thorne has brought his best and only friend, Cano Rix, a short and lean man with the sides of his head shaved in a tassled mess on top.

[SPEAKER_02]: He wears loose streetwear in earth tones covered in patches and the odd symbols of his shin-tech faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne feels like he's been waiting all night when finally, from deep within the alley, two men stepped from the shadows.

[SPEAKER_02]: They approach cautiously, their hands visible at their sides.

[SPEAKER_04]: It might be them, Kay, and I start walking over.

[SPEAKER_05]: We've been reading certainly long enough.

[SPEAKER_05]: How do you know it's them?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, there's only one way to find out.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I know I'd back at them.

[SPEAKER_05]: Did they at least give you a sign something to initiate our and destined meeting?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, there was a secret handshake.

[SPEAKER_04]: It comes both to do.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, they didn't give me anything.

[SPEAKER_04]: The men approach.

[SPEAKER_04]: Their hands are visible at their sides.

[SPEAKER_04]: I hold mine like half-up, like obviously I'm the holding a weapon.

[SPEAKER_05]: I tried to omnisciate the secret handshake.

[SPEAKER_02]: The man that's lightly in front looks at your hand out stretched and kind of stairs you down.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's your name?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Dorn, you Mara.

[SPEAKER_02]: He turns and looks at his friend and looks back at you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thor, Draxus?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm told you have something for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm told that you have something for me, information.

[SPEAKER_02]: The information's coming, but I need to make sure you have what is owed to us.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think to myself that they possibly mean the key or is it something else.

[SPEAKER_04]: The key seems to be all you have connected to this meeting.

[SPEAKER_04]: Do I have it in a physical form that I can hand over or is this going to be more of a?

[SPEAKER_04]: It's just the message on your data pad is all you have.

[SPEAKER_04]: Alright, so I just, uh, I pull up the Cypher and bolt my data pad pointing out at this guy that you can see the screen with most of the Cypher visible.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is what you're looking for.

[SPEAKER_02]: He, uh, looks over it as friend.

[SPEAKER_02]: His friend gives it nod.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's it.

[SPEAKER_02]: He puts out his hand.

[SPEAKER_02]: The data pad door.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just handed over.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have any attachment to this pad I've had it for like all of a day.

[SPEAKER_02]: He puts it in his co-pocket.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're lucky that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he walks away.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, where's my intel?

[SPEAKER_02]: Listen good.

[SPEAKER_02]: I came here expecting to eat the shit out of you.

[SPEAKER_02]: You gave me the data pad I'm gonna let you leave with your nose intact.

[SPEAKER_04]: I kind of glance over it at Cano like do you see in this shit?

[SPEAKER_05]: I really didn't want to be [SPEAKER_02]: In this case, I was looking forward to a fight, and your friend here Thorn, I think he's proposing more.

[SPEAKER_02]: From out of the sleeve of his co-market, comes a baton, his friend holds one out as well, and a approach.

[SPEAKER_02]: Roll initiative.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I think these are the wrong fellows.

[SPEAKER_05]: I told you to ask for the secret handshake.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think the time for each change of words has come to a close, my friend.

[SPEAKER_04]: The time for each change of blows has begun.

[SPEAKER_04]: And this is why you brought me some, let's get to it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Couldn't do it without you, my friend.

[SPEAKER_02]: The man that was slightly lagging behind, beat out the initiative order so it's going to go him and then Kano and then Thorne and then the leader who has the data pad in pocket.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the guy who was slightly larger and hasn't said a word rushes forward and takes a swing at Kano with his baton.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is he hit with a 15?

[SPEAKER_02]: He does with an AC of 15.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you take three points damage?

[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, the stumboton rockets towards you and hits you with a belt of electricity as it strikes you that was your first mistake Sir you won't get a chance to make another The thing I have ready is a pistol Same these what would cano do?

[SPEAKER_05]: he would connect with the comedy spirit of the data pad and take the data pad out of his pocket and slap him in the face with it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so you're gonna try to basically grab the data pad.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you're gonna do a punch to try to hit him but with no damage.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then if that succeeds, you will do a dexterity check.

[SPEAKER_02]: or some skill that may, I think that's there, he's probably, oh no, an exert check, that's me.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'm gonna stack it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Nice, well, we'll hit him.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's just a normal punch.

[SPEAKER_02]: Rolling this guy's punch.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, you beat him by one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, nice.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you roll your punch, you snake in underneath his jacket and you grab the data pad from inside his jacket as he scrambles to stop you and then he raises up his baton to attack.

[SPEAKER_02]: But before this guy can bring his baton down upon you, don't or any old boy, what you got.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, Thorne's trying not to attract too much attention.

[SPEAKER_04]: Nor is he the type of person who is going to jump to murder at this point.

[SPEAKER_04]: I still just want my data pad back.

[SPEAKER_04]: It looks like my good friend Kano has secured it.

[SPEAKER_04]: So what I want to do is probably just, I get next to Kano, like half behind him, basically.

[SPEAKER_04]: I can see that this other guy who's right here that he just wrestled the thing from is probably not going to be happy about that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Right.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm either going to duck behind, [SPEAKER_04]: Cano or if they go for Cano I'm gonna just try to like punch him in the throat.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm holding my action [SPEAKER_02]: So, first of all, GOOM number two attacked Kano and hit for three damage.

[SPEAKER_02]: GOOM number one was pickpocketed by Kano a moment later.

[SPEAKER_02]: Kano is facing both of these guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's just tanking both of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne, you're next to him, but slightly behind him.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because Kano moved up to be the muscle.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, he wants that data pat back.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he doesn't care about taking it back right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: He just cares about stomping Kano into the ground.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then he can take it back.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, he raises his baton to do that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Would you like to make your snap attack?

[SPEAKER_04]: They're going for Cano.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_02]: There will be one more guy attacking before your next turn.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm just going to punch him.

[SPEAKER_04]: So this guy raises his weapon to attack Cano and I notice the opening and I try to just quickly punch him in his exposed areas.

[SPEAKER_05]: If it's a boat area.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know what I mean.

[SPEAKER_04]: I get a 17 which I hope it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that hits him.

[SPEAKER_02]: A 17 hits.

[SPEAKER_02]: How much damage?

[SPEAKER_02]: One.

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to do one?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean that's what an unarmed attack.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're not hailing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh boy, yeah, you punch this guy into throw it and he stumbles back a little bit and then his Patan comes crashing down on a peanut.

[SPEAKER_04]: You did not interrupt his pack obviously I thought about trying to knock him down, but I just it seems so unlikely.

[SPEAKER_02]: Man I hope I don't roll very well.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I roll the four great cano lives [SPEAKER_05]: I do do I make it to the next scene one more scene.

[SPEAKER_05]: I helped.

[SPEAKER_05]: I do take a just a whiff just a just a tickling of shock damage But I'm still standing just barely but still static like when you look at battery.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's the kind of shock damage you got [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'm truly feeling the spirits of the machine here.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, sweet Jesus.

[SPEAKER_05]: Never been playing this game.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the bruiser, the slightly larger guy, it's his turn.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he is going to try to snatch the datapad from Cano as Cano rocks back and forth on his feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: He rolls his punch.

[SPEAKER_02]: 16 gets you so he succeeds on his punch.

[SPEAKER_02]: And now roll your punch as a skill, Cano.

[SPEAKER_02]: He got a 10.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I got a seven, so you're about to lose the data pad.

[SPEAKER_02]: However, as an expert, you can reroll a skill.

[SPEAKER_05]: I do believe I'm going to play Dirty and try to pick him in an entertainment position.

[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, wait, no.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I got two those.

[SPEAKER_05]: I rolled the nine.

[SPEAKER_02]: The role of the nine, which is better, but he got a 10.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he snatches the data pad now, he has it in his hand.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh man, we got a data pad, a hot potato going on.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that took up his turn.

[SPEAKER_05]: But he does have some very soul shins.

[SPEAKER_02]: His shins are smartened.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me tell you.

[SPEAKER_02]: OK, Kano, you are dangerously close to being unconscious.

[SPEAKER_02]: What would you like to do?

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, now that I'm in position, I'm going to try to steal the data pad and then use my full movement to run away.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are like an attack opportunity type thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you have to do a fighting withdrawal, which is like a disadvantage.

[SPEAKER_05]: But then I'm going to stand to like the badass I am and take it like a man.

[SPEAKER_05]: I just hope he misses.

[SPEAKER_05]: Uh-huh, pretty much.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you can rush that attack roll.

[SPEAKER_05]: I do rule in 18, so I meet me wanting.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you want to use your punch or do an exert deck?

[SPEAKER_05]: We're going a big punch of Rooney for 10.

[SPEAKER_05]: So that is mine.

[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_05]: I know you were trying to just take a quick photo of us, but unfortunately I will be taking that back.

[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Aino rolled a ten and this bruiser rolled an eight so you snatch it back from him and then you You're moving away thus incurring two attacks of opportunity Is that what you're doing?

[SPEAKER_05]: No, I think I'm just going to stand to like a man and take it if you want me to like take it from you and run [SPEAKER_05]: It's probably not a terrible idea.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not not to abandon my good friend.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's either that or I'm pushing one of these guys onto the ground.

[SPEAKER_04]: Or just, you know, swallowing my pride and putting a laser through them.

[SPEAKER_05]: I am currently on the ground in a fetal position holding the data pad going, mine, mine, mine!

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to leave my only friend on the planet, though.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you can totally just steal it, and then all of a sudden, Jeno joins the adventure.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to draw my ready laser pistol now that Kano is on the ground holding the pad and I'm going to [SPEAKER_02]: So go ahead and roll a you got to give your boy a talk charisma It's gonna be a talk charisma, and I'm gonna give you a plus two because you are pointing a gun at them Oh, this is what I like this is what's gorny and all of that I spent 10 years in the plank Don't tell me, is that a good door?

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a good door in voice?

[SPEAKER_02]: No, I ain't going back Ah, I am not going back to prison Isn't that your catchphrase for like the first episode?

[SPEAKER_02]: What did you do?

[SPEAKER_02]: Why did I do?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going back to prison.

[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, I got a 12.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's very high.

[SPEAKER_02]: That beats the threshold out of the water.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: So on the next guy's turn, the leader.

[SPEAKER_02]: He raises his baton, but he doesn't look scared.

[SPEAKER_02]: He looks like he understands that the tide has shifted, and that's just a part of being in the underworld.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're just gonna back away and me and my buddy are gonna take my day to bad and get out of here [SPEAKER_02]: He looks over his friend and taps him with a baton, and the two of them back away slowly.

[SPEAKER_04]: As they're backing up, I still get the gun pointed at them, and I do not take my eyes off with them, but I reach down with my other hand and help Cano up to his feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: At that moment, the scoosh of air breaks, glasses through the rain, turn it, you see a battered grab car with a hooking man behind the wheel at the edge of the alley, just 15 feet away.

[SPEAKER_02]: You notice a woman, barely visible behind him in the passenger seat.

[SPEAKER_02]: They are polar opposites, she is tough and wierry with black hair shoved under her hat, and he is a tall, blonde, broad-shouldered man covered in tattoos.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thorn Draxis, get in the car.

[SPEAKER_04]: I look back and fuse that look at the two guys can fuse and I help can't know the rest of the way up and I just start backing up towards the car, hoping that the second time someone in this alley knew my name that it was the right one.

[SPEAKER_02]: The guys keep their hands up and then as you reach the car, one of the guys starts reaching towards the scope pocket.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can I lay down some covering fire?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I shoot him from the car?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so go ahead and roll to hit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Both of you just go ahead and roll at the same time.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're shooting past bricks so I need you to take a minus two.

[SPEAKER_05]: As you guys are doing that, I'm rolling into the car.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is the real light is.

[SPEAKER_05]: I got the data pad.

[SPEAKER_05]: I keep tasting metal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, look at my roll.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at my, I, sorry, I rolled at 90.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually got a 20 with the minus two buck me, but 19 for six damage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Straight, straight to the head, right over brick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I am here on business.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, boom.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne, you lay down covering fire and you just shoot wildly.

[SPEAKER_02]: You understand nothing about pistols, especially because you just got a prison.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is probably the first time you fire this laser pistol that you picked up on the black market just a couple of weeks before.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, probably.

[SPEAKER_02]: Meanwhile, this woman in the passenger seat shoots past her friend's face, almost skimming his nose with a bullet.

[SPEAKER_02]: As it rockets out the driver's side window and blows the head off of the hired boon.

[SPEAKER_02]: The leader one looks at you, then looks down at him.

[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't move, and then he just gestures towards the car.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm already happy, and at this point.

[SPEAKER_03]: But, tomorrow it's time to go.

[SPEAKER_05]: I had a slap fight with him, and you just blew off his head.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's wonderful to me too.

[SPEAKER_05]: Wait, you're Mara.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who the fuck are you?

[SPEAKER_04]: This is Kano, don't worry about it.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's their driving.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I am going to worry about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You had two next-to-schools after you, but the fuck do you think this is?

[SPEAKER_04]: I thought it was supposed to be some kind of a meet-up.

[SPEAKER_04]: I had no idea what you looked like.

[SPEAKER_00]: A meet-up?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's my cover.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been driving right now as simple message and now we have next this body is like, do you know what's going on here?

[SPEAKER_04]: How do they know I was going to be here?

[SPEAKER_02]: At that moment behind you, you see a very conspicuous pair of headlights pull out into the street behind your grab car and begin to follow you at a very consistent pace.

[SPEAKER_03]: Um, more looks like we might have some company better get everybody buckled in back there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, brick, it's probably next to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know where we're going?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I got this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good.

[SPEAKER_04]: How do they know where we were going to meet?

[SPEAKER_04]: Wasn't me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I received a message to combine Thorne Drexus, said you knew something about the forest that you were looking for.

[SPEAKER_04]: True, but I also received a message to meet someone called Marra and that I should bring Muscle and I gesture as, Can't know who's interested in all of this.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Muscle!

[SPEAKER_04]: What do you know about the forest?

[SPEAKER_02]: That was...

At that moment, the car zooms forward and taps the back of the bumper almost making you spin-out grip.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need you to roll your pilot skill, which we're using for driving.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is to not spin out and keep your grab car on the road, and at this point, it's becoming very clear to you that you either need to engage with this car or you need to escape this car.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's that?

[SPEAKER_03]: Am I modifying my pilot roll with?

[SPEAKER_03]: That will be a pilot deck.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, thank you.

[SPEAKER_03]: I rolled an eight blue it out of the water nice brick grabs hold the wheel I make the corrections to stop spinning out and I get a bit of distance from the car and I get ready to make a move as I know the intersections coming up and I think I have a way to maybe gain some ground and lose these guys okay and you know I can make pre-fexture very well you I grew up here baby [SPEAKER_02]: Block that bar away in blocks six baby you are rocketing down what is normally You know not necessarily a sleepy street, but there's a lot of street lights.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of businesses The rain slick streets of Hakame prefecture are sliding by as it cars in front of you are just in the way You're going around them the streets of the grab great you get some distance between you and them But they're not giving up that easy [SPEAKER_00]: Rick, be careful, need to make sure these guys are actually who they say they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is for all I know, you guys are more next to scooms, just like the two that are coming after us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have been on the hunt for this man's salary for a whole freaking year, and I am not going to let you two mess it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard you had information that you also want this guy dead, so let's [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone says he died in a magle of crash.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were no survivors, but I know that's not true.

[SPEAKER_04]: And just how exactly do you know that?

[SPEAKER_00]: There was a survivor, and it was me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, this took my entire family and went over the fuck out in there, and I want revenge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you are my best chance to get it.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's like we have a lot in common then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good, because you're in it now.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is my last chance to get this done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you in?

[SPEAKER_02]: Break, you've reached the intersection.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's time for you to do the newver that you planned out.

[SPEAKER_02]: What were you playing on doing?

[SPEAKER_03]: Alright, so I'm going to quickly navigate.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's just a couple car stops for me the light ahead.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to switch into the oncoming lane, newver around a car, try to get a big truck.

[SPEAKER_03]: I sit coming in between me and the guys behind me and take a sharp corner.

[SPEAKER_03]: Try to lose them in a little [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, this is all within your skill abilities.

[SPEAKER_02]: So go ahead and do your same roles before with your GCF 6.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, that's a 7, baby.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, cool.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, now you need to get three successful escape roles.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's your second one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Gonna go distance away.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now you have a semi-between you and them.

[SPEAKER_02]: The action that brick is putting you guys through in the back seat is throwing back forth.

[SPEAKER_02]: Tano, you bash the side of your head against the glass and it's marked.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it's-it [SPEAKER_05]: born HP, and now I'm potentially pretty much unconscious.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a 0 when staff is one.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're a 1 HP?

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, we go.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you bash your head.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like you get this driver.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you are reeling my dude.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are reeling.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm currently seeing stars.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm holding this data pad.

[SPEAKER_05]: Like it is a teddy bear.

[SPEAKER_05]: Um, I hope it was important.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're almost there and it's clear.

[SPEAKER_04]: Can we trust these guys?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a choice.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're the ones who just got into a car with a couple of strangers after fighting to nexus goons in an alley.

[SPEAKER_04]: If there's anyone you can trust, it's us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we just picked you up on Faith Alone.

[SPEAKER_04]: Good.

[SPEAKER_04]: And as soon as I think of a way to prove to you, I'm Thorntrak.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you will wait to prove to me that you're this Mara character.

[SPEAKER_04]: Till then, let's just agree to work together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I don't think there's ever going to be a way for us to really prove who we are to each other with all the stuff going on here on Paul even.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I can assure you that Salarist, he's alive, this whole thing's been a setup.

[SPEAKER_04]: Of course, he's a trickster to the core, the bastard.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, Brick, you continue to try to put distance between you and the nexus boons that are in the car behind you.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are gliding down the rain-slicked street of the Hermannite world polyphen deeper and deeper and deeper to Hacomé prefecture, looking for the landmarks that will let you know that you've arrived.

[SPEAKER_02]: But first, you got to put more distance between you and those goon.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go ahead and give me one more dex pilot roll.

[SPEAKER_03]: and cross them fingers, boy, and I'm just getting like speed far away from them with this one.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's up to you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Can there be like Crawbridge?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll tell you what, you know that there is a construction site coming up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and there's a ramp that you've had your eye on for the better part of three or four months and you're a dirt bike enthusiast, you're like damn.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got to figure out how to get my bike there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go off that ramp and knock it high if you see a gold and opportunity by friend.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right, I'm gonna I maneuver us align this up and I think I've got my spot ready I know where I'm gonna land and what's that?

[SPEAKER_03]: I think I know that spot.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we got to get there Mara, you see him lining up for this jump, and you know exactly what this dude's doing break Hold on everybody It's an 11 call my god I cannot fail a rule [SPEAKER_02]: As you rock it off of the jump, a whole story into the second level of a car garage.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Valkyrie Car's brakes screech ripping into the thick atmo of polyphen, and into the darkness of the not quite fully constructed car park.

[SPEAKER_02]: Brick quickly cycles his way down to the bottom and out the opposite side entrance and into an alleyway.

[SPEAKER_03]: Art the car.

[SPEAKER_03]: Where does Guy learn to drive an airport?

[SPEAKER_03]: Ah, listen, we walked from here.

[SPEAKER_04]: Everybody out.

[SPEAKER_04]: Just as well, I'd like to get out of this car with a little bit of lunch I have left.

[SPEAKER_04]: Where are we going?

[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, I know a guy.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know a guy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Great.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know a guy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Meanwhile, you hear Cano groan from the back, barely hanging on to climb just this.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I start snapping my fingers in Cano's face.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, come on man, we're gonna get you some help.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to carry him though.

[SPEAKER_05]: see the spirits.

[SPEAKER_04]: I wouldn't have it any other way.

[SPEAKER_04]: I do love being carried and I like help you out of the car.

[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Thorne.

[SPEAKER_04]: I take the pad from you and I stash it so that you're not holding onto it in your stuper.

[SPEAKER_03]: No problem.

[SPEAKER_03]: So before we walk away and head out towards Mara's guy, brick puts his hand on thorns, shoulder looks down at him, puts his fist in his face.

[SPEAKER_03]: Listen, if you're not who you say you are, if you get her in trouble, she gets hurt because of you, then you're going to catch a brick to the face.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I hold my fist up and tattoo across a tattoo across my knuckles is BRIK.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then we walk off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.

[SPEAKER_02]: You follow Mara deep into polypins underground through service tunnels and forgotten corridors.

[SPEAKER_02]: The air grows stale, and heavy with ozone.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're sifting through ancient mud, dirt, the number of unhoused peoples in priests.

[SPEAKER_02]: You hear, sirens, ever more distant, even the coppers don't want to come into this area.

[SPEAKER_02]: Eventually she leads you to a rusted door marked with a faded red cross.

[SPEAKER_02]: Apparently it opened on its own a port though, because there's no one on the other side.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mara walks in without a care, she doesn't even check the corners, although brick does, but you do get the sense that he's been here before.

[SPEAKER_02]: Inside, a clinic is cramped and cluttered with cybernetic parts and flickering monitors.

[SPEAKER_02]: surgical arms hang overhead like dormant insects.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is Dr.

Siles Place, an old river dock who's patched up more ghosts than people remember.

[SPEAKER_02]: Dr.

Siles is near the insect-like machinery.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's tall and wiery.

[SPEAKER_02]: He seems to be one with the machines in his environment, just another arm on the great apparatus that is over the recumbent bed that is in the middle of the room.

[SPEAKER_02]: He has skinned the color of old brass and a lattice of fine circuitry tattooed across the scope.

[SPEAKER_02]: His eyes are mismatched, one is cloudy and original, and the other a bright red implant that wears softly when it focuses.

[SPEAKER_02]: It laughs.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ha ha ha!

[SPEAKER_01]: Mara and brick of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome!

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back my old friends!

[SPEAKER_01]: Come in, of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come in, come in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then who do you have here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Who have you brought to [SPEAKER_00]: Finally have a lead doc.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, that Savaro guy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Valorist.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, celery, celery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, sure, have someone who can help us.

[SPEAKER_02]: He puts his hands on your shoulders and you lead to and Mara.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come sit, sit, sit, and you lead you to the bed.

[SPEAKER_02]: Might as well check your implants while you're here.

[SPEAKER_02]: It sees Cano and he says, oh, whoa, what happened to you, y'all, man?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I got, I got Cano, like on my shoulder.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like, Cano, your arm is like around my shoulder, and I'm holding some of your weight.

[SPEAKER_05]: I took a one or two stun tons to the old noggin and well could certainly use a little bit of a a checkup if you will and I see you've quite a few parts here Do you also speak to the spirit of the machine?

[SPEAKER_02]: the spirits of the.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_02]: Shintek.

[SPEAKER_02]: Cool.

[SPEAKER_02]: You do?

[SPEAKER_02]: No.

[SPEAKER_02]: But much respect.

[SPEAKER_02]: The shintek's have come in from time to time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, I've been to the temple.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of my best clients.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry, Mara.

[SPEAKER_02]: He kind of removes you from the bed.

[SPEAKER_02]: You come here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come here.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're more in trouble than young Mara here.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can run your dog.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm so sorry.

[SPEAKER_02]: Please lie down.

[SPEAKER_02]: My good friend.

[SPEAKER_02]: I will just kind of pass out over here, I had a bit of a bumpy ride over.

[SPEAKER_02]: You lay down and almost immediately fall into unconsciousness.

[SPEAKER_02]: Feeling the soft, warm embrace of technology pulsing all around you.

[SPEAKER_02]: You feel finally for the first time in an hour, safe.

[SPEAKER_02]: They could care of him, Doc.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's the only person on this planet I feel like I can actually trust.

[SPEAKER_02]: For as dirty and dingy as everything isn't here, the actual medical equipment is speed squeaky clean, and he paths one of the insectoid arms that's hanging above the bed he says.

[SPEAKER_02]: But even not, even down here in the underbelly of polyphenive manages to scround up some of the most advanced medical technology this side of the system.

[SPEAKER_02]: You'll be just fine who'll be back on his feet just an hour or two.

[SPEAKER_02]: You'll be on the mend for the better part of a month but you'll be operable.

[SPEAKER_02]: You'll be in a bit of pain who'll be stiff but you'll have him back.

[SPEAKER_04]: Adam on his unconscious shoulder.

[SPEAKER_02]: He goes over and he programs a couple of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the arms were to light the game to ease the bruises across his scalp and shoulder and stitch up a single laceration that is across his brow.

[SPEAKER_02]: Two electrodes come down and connect to his temple and begin to like gently electroshock him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And as bonus, two robotic hands come up out of the end of the bed and begin to massage his feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you look kind of oddly at that, [SPEAKER_02]: The good doctor's style says, hey, a lot can happen through the feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of pressure points, a lot of nerve endings.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's all very scientific, but it's gonna help with his recovery.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he's a pervert.

[SPEAKER_02]: Got it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

[SPEAKER_02]: I only take pictures of the feet if they allow me to.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everything's on the up and up in this black market file mod center, okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: And on that note, are we looking?

[SPEAKER_02]: Are we looking?

[SPEAKER_03]: That's too dark.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, if you ever know anyone that wants he to list it black market biomods if they want to become more machine than man Set him on down to old doctors I can't figure anybody I know who wants that Especially you, he points at the end If you ever know anyone [SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure I will never meet anyone who wants a bionic eye or a robot body.

[SPEAKER_02]: Back on the scapegoat, Thorne has just told that part of the story.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne!

[SPEAKER_00]: You gave the guy's feet pics?

[SPEAKER_03]: I gave him feet pics.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thorne, you've known about a biomod specialist this whole time, you never told me?

[SPEAKER_03]: I fucking hell man.

[SPEAKER_03]: You have ugly feet Felix.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, we, I have robot feet, okay?

[SPEAKER_04]: Listen, I know that you're really interested in all this body modification stuff, but let me finish the story before you jump to conclusions.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fine, fine, fine.

[SPEAKER_04]: All right.

[SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, like I was trying to say, we're at the Dox place and Mars in the middle of explaining what we're even doing there.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a year of chasing shadows, I found a lead.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the Nexus Corp cook communications pass through automated data relays, and each one holds a rolling seven-day cash before permanent deletion.

[SPEAKER_00]: The relay nearest to the Maglev crash site was taken offline for repairs, hours after the crash.

[SPEAKER_00]: It never came back online.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's cash, may still hold the command to the AI pilot, the orders, whatever, from the Nexus executives, and if sellers' staff was stage, the evidence is gonna be there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that cash can't be accessed by any normal means.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to go to that relay and we have to take it in person.

[SPEAKER_04]: So then what do you need me for?

[SPEAKER_00]: I was told that you had a cypher.

[SPEAKER_04]: Wait, this cypher?

[SPEAKER_04]: And I pull out the data bag, blacked it.

[SPEAKER_04]: So you're telling me you didn't send me this message?

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't send me this message saying to look for you that you had some information for me that would help me.

[SPEAKER_04]: I never even knew who you were until I got this message saying that I should look for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: DocSciall comes forward.

[SPEAKER_04]: Can I see that?

[SPEAKER_04]: I need to put this hand out for the dead, bud.

[SPEAKER_04]: I reluctantly start to hand it to him because the last person who said that then tried to murder my good friend, but I do give it to him.

[SPEAKER_02]: To be fair, the last guy said that tried to walk away, and then you were like, hey, wait a minute.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but then what happened?

[SPEAKER_02]: He tried to murder your friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you on the side of Texas?

[SPEAKER_02]: Me?

[SPEAKER_02]: No.

[SPEAKER_02]: You in Texas, Goon?

[SPEAKER_02]: Me?

[SPEAKER_02]: Doc's style, he takes it and he says, I just, ah, it's weird.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's missing a sender.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you see it?

[SPEAKER_02]: I noticed.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Basically in an anime, this shouldn't even be possible in the Nexus network.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, yeah, this is through the Nexus subnet of the ExoNet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this should be impossible.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, do you mind if I check this out?

[SPEAKER_04]: I just look at, uh, Amara.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: What are you looking at her for?

[SPEAKER_02]: She trusts me.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he goes off and he plugs it in.

[SPEAKER_02]: You do trust this guy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Other than brick, he's the only person I have left on this planet who could help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That message may have been anonymous, but you're still the best chance I got.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you're mine, too.

[SPEAKER_03]: Mara, they could have followed us.

[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what, I don't know if we can stay here long.

[SPEAKER_03]: We still on for tonight, the relay.

[SPEAKER_00]: We still got it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna be on track.

[SPEAKER_03]: This guy had what we needed?

[SPEAKER_00]: He did.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's safer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that we have a copy, we can figure out what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be able to figure out where Solaris is.

[SPEAKER_02]: DocStyle walks over as you're sharing this moment with the datapad and he says, yeah, uh, no center.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's almost as if you typed this out yourself and just had it on your datapad.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like it was never said, yeah, I must have gotten really drunk and just came up with a sight for all by myself.

[SPEAKER_04]: I give Thorne a very suspicious eyes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, it starts, you know, we said 7x ends with, uh, atc w3.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are, you know, the pre-pend and opend.

[SPEAKER_02]: of relay code.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, obviously, I was listening to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this seems like it's a relay code.

[SPEAKER_02]: So relay codes can do a bunch of different things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So each of the different relays that are all over the next this area of a prefecture for instance, have these relay codes, they're rolling codes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, they're only good for so long, you can go to a relay, go up to the platform patrol panel, and if you enter this end, or if you have like some sort of connection you plug it in, and it'll give you access to the terminal.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're usually only good for about 24 hours, but if what I'm hearing is correct, that relay went offline.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if it's offline and you're trying to access its cache, and this is the code.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's just expecting for when it was last online a year ago.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you power that really back up, you should be able to use this code to access everything in there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everything you could want.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what did this art permission?

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure if Kano was a way he would say that the data pad reached out to me itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have weird friend, Thorne.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hey, whoa.

[SPEAKER_02]: The ShinTech religion, uh, maybe a little odd, Mara, but we should still reverence.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're doing good work in the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure she doesn't have anything against you.

[SPEAKER_03]: We get to the relay tower.

[SPEAKER_03]: We solve this mystery for both of us.

[SPEAKER_02]: And as you're saying that he goes over and he touches Mara's scalp, Mara, you don't react at all because you're so used to this.

[SPEAKER_02]: He peels back a piece of skin and is a forked there and he plugs into the fork and he begins running the diagnostics on your two different bio mods.

[SPEAKER_02]: One of which is your eye mod, which allows you to zoom up to 500 meters at a scoffing position.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the other is your [SPEAKER_02]: Those talk are transceiver, which allows you to talk with DocStyle up to pretty good distance.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, it has audio visual transmission, so sometimes when you need help, he acts as your textbook.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, he runs dog gossets on that, and on his data pad, Thorne and Brick.

[SPEAKER_02]: Brick seen this before, but Thorne especially, you can see on his data pad as he runs the dog gossets that he can see through her eyes, and is a little bit of feedback as you're talking to your own voice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Morrow.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you're zooming in, have things been a little blurry for you?

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't look quite right to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a little bit harder these days, Doc.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you gotta come in.

[SPEAKER_02]: You gotta come in and see old Docs now when you have these problems.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not biology.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's biomodology.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's something I can fix.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just a quick patch.

[SPEAKER_02]: He poopy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that better?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't really see 500 meters in any direction here, but Number one or number two number two number two number two number two So he unplugged from from your scalping it fold just get passed back into place Mara, I'm gonna go a good transport prepped when this guy's up and running.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think we can go in I gesture towards Cano [SPEAKER_00]: Got it, we'll check on Cano.

[SPEAKER_02]: Cano is good to go and just a few more minutes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Brick goes upstairs, any fines, transport.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm prepping just, just every nose.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm prepping motorcycles.

[SPEAKER_03]: Ha ha ha ha ha.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just the same bar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Providing feet pictures because she is so, [SPEAKER_00]: Desperate to kill these guys that she's like, yeah, I'm giving my Petticures for the Ripper dog like I which truck I thought we were I was like, oh, this is like Victor from cyberpunk But no, it's fingers.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's fingers.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a hundred percent fingers and you just like offered me up to him.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know He's a robot massages feet If you're leading medical purposes, however.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's a blood flow thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: He does accept credits But if you don't have credits [SPEAKER_02]: It's their stigets.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, [SPEAKER_02]: So, you go up and you prep some most cycles.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know where you're getting them.

[SPEAKER_02]: So why don't you go ahead and will actually Mars, one with all the connections in this area.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, Mara, why don't you roll up a nap?

[SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, yay, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited.

[SPEAKER_00]: What am I gonna do?

[SPEAKER_02]: Brute has connections in this area, but only through the strength of Mara.

[SPEAKER_00]: Am I running this on intelligence or wisdom?

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say we're gonna go with this, though.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think wisdom's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a stone straight up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's my cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: was the oringing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, great roll.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to take a good roll.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, break you go up and you have a contact with a gang in this area.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a small gang, but they kind of spread across the sector.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, they're in like, they're on different planets and they're even on space issues.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no.

[SPEAKER_02]: And anyway, you get some motorcycles from this unnamed gang.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah Do the motorcycles all have like Rapparacic news a rattle she yeah, there's a Rappmotee and they have like little things.

[SPEAKER_04]: They do have bangs or do they have mohawk.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh They have bags No, they're they're they're neon lanes more like oim They're neon lanes [SPEAKER_02]: I'm laying down here.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm laying down here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thought of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you ascertain some kind of shitty grab bikes from them, but at least they don't have wheels There was step up and hey, no you are back on your feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are stiff.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are in pain But you have bull capability of your body.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think to the advanced technology that DocSio had access to so you are back to your maximum hit point six And you don't have to limp, but you feel like you want to let these little stairs with your two friends and everyone gets on their own motorcycle [SPEAKER_05]: something's just feeling a little off about my feet.

[SPEAKER_05]: I just can't play place it.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're feet are great and violated at the same time.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you all get up and there are four motorcycles waiting.

[SPEAKER_02]: You each get on your own motorcycle and led by brick to make your way off to the broken relay on the north side of the tree picture.

[SPEAKER_02]: On the way, you pass residential block six.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mar and Rick don't even look up.

[SPEAKER_02]: But when you see the big six in blazing on its side, Thorne and Cano, after hearing the story, that you heard in the car and finished in Docs' Isles place, you can't help but look up.

[SPEAKER_02]: 30 stories up at least a blackened fire ravaged holes to exist inside of the building.

[SPEAKER_02]: The mag love is as long as they never rebuilt that part of the block, but that hasn't stopped people from living there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Every floor leading up to that one is popular, people walking around inside, lights around, laundries hanging outside, and even more crazily.

[SPEAKER_02]: People are living above the crash site, in a part of block six that looked like the Brenda Crumble into the streets at any moment, but has been hanging on for a year, so maybe it's safe.

[SPEAKER_02]: But that spot, those rooms, those apartments.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's where Mara used to live, a year ago, with her family, who were all killed in the crash.

[SPEAKER_02]: You continue speeding along the streets of Hakame prefecture in Polyphen.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's been about six hours, still night time.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's always nighttime.

[SPEAKER_02]: You leave the general section of Hakame prefecture's city center, and it's a bit of a highway.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's just a few more miles leading to the next prefecture.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here is your glimpse of nature that many people in this area will ever get.

[SPEAKER_02]: Fair and waste land, scrub grass.

[SPEAKER_02]: alone tree here and there.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Mega City isn't allowed to extend to this area because, well, they have to dump their refuse somewhere.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mounds of garbage and toxic waste, streams that have been turned into sludge, where you can only assume was once a large hill has now been beaten down.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's but a small, love-covered in garbage.

[SPEAKER_02]: But out here is the northern, [SPEAKER_02]: A large cell phone tower looking structure with a platform about a hundred feet up and then fifty-four fifty feet more of relay reaching off into the sky above that platform.

[SPEAKER_02]: That control platform is where you are trying to go and there is a lot of work of stairways and baking their way all the way up to that platform.

[SPEAKER_02]: The relay itself is fenced in chain length, large berth around it, bots parking.

[SPEAKER_02]: but no one's been here in well over a year.

[SPEAKER_02]: The gate is locked.

[SPEAKER_02]: You drive your motorcycle's up to it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Stop, take out the stands and get off.

[SPEAKER_02]: What would you like to do?

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, as Brick gets off some motorcycle, I'm kind of looking around the area.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've been watching for tales the whole time.

[SPEAKER_03]: Looking for threats on alert.

[SPEAKER_03]: Looking out for any of those goons.

[SPEAKER_02]: Looking around, you don't see anyone in any direction whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_02]: Except for back on the highway, which is now about 200 meters behind you.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can see a steady stream of cars and back looks making their way around.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, Mark.

[SPEAKER_02]: Looks like we're clear.

[SPEAKER_02]: Push, move in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's break through.

[SPEAKER_02]: Brick, you can't prepare, you take out your both cutters and you snap the chain and push open the rusted fence.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's about a hundred foot walk to the relive.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's point.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your eyes open K.

I tap my ghost receiver just to make sure that docks the styles like aware that we're here just to confirm that that connection is made.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see what's happening.

[SPEAKER_02]: You hear in your cochlear implant, docks dial says, [SPEAKER_00]: Let us know if anything comes up, Doc.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm trying to access the satellite feet now, but you know next is, they got to lock down.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll do my best, if good luck.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.

[SPEAKER_00]: See you on the other side, Doc.

[SPEAKER_02]: See you there.

[SPEAKER_02]: brick leading the way on point sweeping back and forth looking for trouble before you make your way the hundred feet towards the relay.

[SPEAKER_02]: The relay looms like a skeletal tower against the haze of polypins upper sprawl, it's an ancient rust streaked antenna stretching high into the neon sky.

[SPEAKER_02]: Its lower levels are all exposed steel and forgotten scaffold.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are open air platforms bolted onto its frame like afterthoughts, cables with and hum and wind, flickering hazard lights blink through the balloon.

[SPEAKER_02]: Baded Nexus Corp logos blinked to the metal half-eaten by rust.

[SPEAKER_02]: been a long time since anyone been here, and the climb up those winding stairs looked dangerous.

[SPEAKER_02]: As you approach the last 25 feet with a relay, a band screeches to a halt at the entrance of the fence, barreling over your four motors like those that were left there, and boons begin to pile out.

[SPEAKER_02]: They take cover along the side of the fence, you see them whip out their guns, they search through the balloon for you, they haven't spotted you just yet, and they're pretty hard to see themselves, but it's only a matter of time.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'd gesture everybody, take cover, take cover, get down, get down.

[SPEAKER_02]: Add run behind some detritus.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's a couple barrels in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can take cover.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm imagining myself like spider crawling with my laser pistol behind a barrel.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's true.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Take my pistol out too.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I guess you guys have to decide what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're currently taking cover.

[SPEAKER_02]: Are you trying to sprint up the stairs?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because these guys are here.

[SPEAKER_02]: They obviously know that you're here.

[SPEAKER_02]: What would you like to do?

[SPEAKER_02]: Are you going to stand and fight?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or are you going to play?

[SPEAKER_02]: How many of them are there?

[SPEAKER_02]: You can see at least four, two on each side of the fence, but you don't know how many may have filed off the other sliding door on the other side, the band that's pulled up.

[SPEAKER_03]: If I know anything about Nexus Goons, they're at cockroaches.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's the ones you can't see, you gotta worry about.

[SPEAKER_04]: We gotta get inside and activate this relay.

[SPEAKER_03]: We have the element of surprise now.

[SPEAKER_03]: I say, we take them out.

[SPEAKER_03]: We get up that tower, we need to get the hell out of here before reinforcements show up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not turning around now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bricks right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have pull out my laser pulse.

[SPEAKER_02]: We try to go up the tower.

[SPEAKER_02]: They'll see us for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a couple of them out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so I was like, you're standing in fighting.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone roll initiative.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are four Nexus Gunes that are visible, so I'm gonna roll initiative for four of them, but that doesn't mean there's only four.

[SPEAKER_02]: It does.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't hide to us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, so many of the rules.

[SPEAKER_02]: Show me the rule.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says I can't lie to you.

[SPEAKER_03]: I wrote it in Sharpie in the back of my book.

[SPEAKER_03]: Show me the rule.

[SPEAKER_04]: You can't legally add enemies to the combat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, with a roll of eight bricks gonna go and then Mara Thorne, one of the next this guards, Teno, and three more nexus goons, and then maybe more.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, brick, currently it's your turn.

[SPEAKER_02]: The nexus goons don't seem to have noticed you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, but they do also.

[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously know that you are here, otherwise they would not show up at all.

[SPEAKER_02]: They are cautiously moving through the fence for it here.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm going to, I'm kind of couched, behind a barrel, and I'm going to kind of line up a shot with the Nexus Goon that's kind of like center left, moving up.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I wait till I get a good beat on him, and then I take, I open fire with my light pistol.

[SPEAKER_03]: Ooh, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: The guns are coming out.

[UNKNOWN]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, uh, I got a not one there.

[SPEAKER_03]: Um, however, I am a warrior and I want to hit that first guy So I'm gonna turn that into a hit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, nice.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I'm gonna do three damage So I as he moves up I line up and I let loose a few shots and I seem to make contact [SPEAKER_02]: He takes one to the chest and falls down to a knee.

[SPEAKER_02]: You imagine that he grunts, but he's too far away for you to hear.

[SPEAKER_02]: The three guys around him see him and begin to fan out a bit more.

[SPEAKER_02]: They do not seem overly concerned about their down Patriot.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mara.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mara is going to try and take a shot or no.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's not going to try.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's going to feel inspired by that crazy head shot.

[SPEAKER_00]: She got earlier in the evening, just by apparently needing a diagnostic on her eye mod, but, you know, she's just that skilled, and she's going to shoot at one of the next exclusions, whomever is closest to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, there's a five hit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, five.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's not it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I watch as my little laser kings off of just a random piece of debris, you know, hide back behind my cover.

[SPEAKER_04]: Alright, stay down.

[SPEAKER_04]: I've got this.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thorne Draxis.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm hiding behind the barrels nearby where brick is, and I've got my laser pistol ready.

[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, I'm not super good with guns, and last time I tried to fire this thing while we were making a quick escape.

[SPEAKER_04]: The recoil almost wants to thing out of my hand.

[SPEAKER_04]: But I'm gonna do my best to try and lay down some covering fire And so I'm just firing my laser pistol off at these dudes and I see brick gets it hit on one and the guys like clutching his wound And so I taking him at him specifically and I tried it put a leg forward Yeah, try to finish him off, you know That guy looks like he's out of the fight.

[SPEAKER_02]: My is well murdered.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's not moving as much, you know, though.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's true finish him off.

[SPEAKER_02]: There weren't as always looking for dudes finish off.

[UNKNOWN]: Oh [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, that's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorne in his flat.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I feel like Thorne is telling the story.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he's in Belusher.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he's like...

And there I was.

[SPEAKER_02]: Trap behind the barrels.

[SPEAKER_04]: There were four.

[SPEAKER_04]: No.

[SPEAKER_04]: Six guys.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fanning out to surround us.

[SPEAKER_04]: I took him with my laser crystal.

[SPEAKER_04]: I saw a guy.

[SPEAKER_04]: Our eyes locked.

[SPEAKER_04]: He pulled out his gun.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ready to fire on me.

[SPEAKER_04]: But I was quicker.

[SPEAKER_04]: I drew it from its holster.

[SPEAKER_04]: And this one swooped by blasted him right between the eyes.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got to caught it up in the distant through the hole in his head as he fell to the ground Jesus Yeah, and he's dead So for listeners at home, that was at 18 hit with six damage insane and real life and what really happened You know a year ago was Thorne was hiding behind the barrel completely hidden just firing backwards over his head going [SPEAKER_04]: I would just had like one eye closed and one eye kind of open, just like spray and spray.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then you're on this game, it would be like, sir, I was four predators surrounding me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm covered in mud, a bowie knife to my name and no pants.

[SPEAKER_02]: None of us, none of us believe, and we're just taking our heads.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was the only one left.

[SPEAKER_02]: and a guy collapses to the ground.

[SPEAKER_02]: Before the next guys turn, they all have to roll them out because the first enemy went down in a blaze of thorn-like glory.

[SPEAKER_02]: From a roll for the three guys you can see.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then, tell you we're not gonna have to lie to us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number one succeeds.

[SPEAKER_02]: He will be sticking around.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number two succeeds.

[SPEAKER_02]: He will be sticking around.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have a GC of eight.

[SPEAKER_02]: I roll the seven and an eight.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number three succeeds.

[SPEAKER_02]: Roll the three, which is last time I checked mathematically.

[SPEAKER_02]: Undo and eight.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he's sticking around.

[SPEAKER_02]: They don't need a shit about their friend.

[SPEAKER_02]: They look at him, and then they assess their own philosophical feelings on mortality, and they go, I could deal with this, no.

[SPEAKER_04]: Something they don't care about their friends, that they care about the mission, and they know that their friend knew what they were getting into.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this guy runs forward, takes cover behind a barrel, and takes a shot at brick, who is kind of diagonally to him, also taking cover.

[SPEAKER_02]: So because brick is taking cover, this guy is going to take a minus two.

[SPEAKER_02]: Good thing I would rule the 5 because I ruled max damage on this rifle for 12 damage.

[SPEAKER_03]: 5 does not hit brick.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's a big yikes for me though about the damage.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because he's a what is locally known as a non-player character, he can't use the warrior ability to re-roll that to automatically kill your ass dead.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can thank me later, you owe me a soda.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so that's that guy, he a myth, and you know, your turn.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, is there any way besides the barrels to sneak and hide or is this a true firefight?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can just leave off into the dark.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's all kinds of reviews and barrels and darkness itself if you wanna hide.

[SPEAKER_05]: Understood.

[SPEAKER_05]: I think I'm going to take a shot with my laser pistol at the guy still in open cover at the top.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then I'm going to use my movement to move towards the stairs.

[SPEAKER_05]: To use them, even though they are just partially slatted for some type of cover.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, do what's your weapon?

[SPEAKER_02]: A laser pistol.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have a good variety here.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have two laser pistols and two old-world-style gunpowder pistols.

[SPEAKER_05]: Or a 15-4-5-dech.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh!

[SPEAKER_02]: 15-hits!

[SPEAKER_02]: And which guy were you hitting?

[SPEAKER_02]: The guy that moved up or one of the two that stayed back.

[SPEAKER_05]: Most North, uh, the guy that has not taken cover yet.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: 15-hits.

[SPEAKER_02]: 5-damage.

[SPEAKER_02]: Instantly powders this guy's brain all over the pain-link fence behind him.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you're playing not Robert Ross and you're still exploding heads back to Christ.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't help it.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just what I do.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, it's just a GM.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do they have to roll morale or not?

[SPEAKER_04]: If they're at half of their total forces, but we can only see too.

[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if that means it's more or not.

[SPEAKER_02]: I am going to do secret GM rolls in Foundry.

[SPEAKER_04]: Great.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because a GM rolls.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now you don't know if I'm rolling or not.

[SPEAKER_02]: Secret GM rolls.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we call social engineering.

[SPEAKER_02]: I will not call it that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you call it that or your character will not survive?

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's what you call social engineering.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't social engineering.

[SPEAKER_02]: Me, I'm social engineering you.

[SPEAKER_02]: God damn it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so I've made or may not have made a morale check.

[SPEAKER_02]: And next this guard is next this next.

[SPEAKER_02]: So next this guard.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't improve my joke please.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he's got my fault of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Glad I thought of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Classic box.

[SPEAKER_02]: We need to bring box back.

[SPEAKER_02]: He stuck on Camille before you guys got a swing down and switch out froggy for him or something It's nice that we didn't kill him though, does that mean he's out there?

[SPEAKER_02]: He might have been in one of those fighters that you guys bought.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's true.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but we failed to destroy any of them That's true.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's probably alive either way So this next this guard is next this glad I thought of it [SPEAKER_02]: and he is going to fire upon Dave.

[SPEAKER_02]: He actually, he is going to, yeah, he moves up and he gets behind the barrel on the opposite side of his friend who is also hiding behind the barrel and he rose out a cylindrical object.

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't land exactly where he wanted.

[SPEAKER_02]: It lands about 10 feet behind the four of you.

[SPEAKER_02]: So between the three of you and the stairs, where Kano is currently hiding behind the stairs, a cylindrical object hits the ground and with his pops open and a huge geyser of smoke exudes from it, [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, no, you are just barely outside of the smoke on your side of it and the three of you are just outside of the smoke on your side of it Obviously he was trying to lay down a smoke grenade, but sort of failed.

[SPEAKER_03]: And now can those in my super cover?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, now can you just walk away?

[SPEAKER_02]: You wanted to help you got it [SPEAKER_02]: that was my goal perfect love it as the round end you hear the tell tale walk walk walk walk walk walk of a dual rotor skimmer next this made coming out from the city and flying low with a relay tower this is essentially a dual-bladed helicopter with other mag love capabilities [SPEAKER_02]: Incredibly mobile it can fly in any direction.

[SPEAKER_02]: However instantly it can like land incredibly quickly It can rise into the sky faster than you can blank the veto What's the veto what you just said?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's again a next year's skimmer Vertical takeoff and landing no no no no no no no if it's it's purely horizontal in nature [SPEAKER_02]: Everything it does is diagonals.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, hold on wait a whole lot If it was anything it'd be a bishop not a rock.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so It diagonally moves in towards you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just got a grindy right Yeah, it's the words towards you from this guy and a giant spot like Trash is down on you lighting the sea the next his booms are still in darkness [SPEAKER_02]: Spotlight and Brady down on you, 10,000 moons of course.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are half-blinded and extremely visible, and in otherwise very dark landscape.

[SPEAKER_02]: And what's worse, you can no longer see the next assumes that you are quite, you are completely like fun.

[SPEAKER_03]: I can't see a damn thing!

[SPEAKER_03]: Amy, we're outmatched here!

[SPEAKER_00]: We still have to get up this tower.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know.

[SPEAKER_03]: I put my hand on Marshal there.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're holster behind the barrels.

[SPEAKER_03]: Maro, we've come this far.

[SPEAKER_03]: You've come this far.

[SPEAKER_03]: You have to get this intel.

[SPEAKER_03]: Give me your gun.

[SPEAKER_03]: Give me the ammo you've got.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'll hold them off.

[SPEAKER_03]: You go get that information.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nope.

[SPEAKER_03]: Take these guys up there.

[SPEAKER_03]: You get that information.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever is going to go up that tower needs to get it to have a safe way back down and thorns the only one with the cipher.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to have to go up.

[SPEAKER_05]: I look over.

[SPEAKER_05]: We've done this a long time and I'm in satley we're on to be here with action bro.

[SPEAKER_04]: Take care of yourself.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll be back.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then I just like book it up the stairs while they cover me.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't fuck it up.

[SPEAKER_05]: You owe me so many little keep on Codes!

[SPEAKER_02]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha [SPEAKER_02]: or until you finally reach about 90-110 feet up near the very top, the control button below you, gunfire, still rages between the two opposing forces.

[SPEAKER_02]: This skimmer circles overhead, lighting the fight like a play, keeping your friends blind, as next to spoons close in.

[SPEAKER_02]: You look out for the street.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are three vans, there is at least a dozen spoons outside the fence.

[SPEAKER_02]: half a dozen have made their way inside, and what's worse, some of the goons are setting up shields in the dirt, creating ways for their friends to get closer, smoke grenades, flash banks, covering fire, all of this against three tenacious albeit but overwhelmed people that are holding the line all for you to come to the top of this tower.

[SPEAKER_02]: You duck into the control room and you find yourself faced with a large control panel.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a large power switch that turns a relay on and there is a blank screen next to it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Activate the relay.

[SPEAKER_02]: The control panel swings to life with a peak and a cascade of lights.

[SPEAKER_02]: You hear a noise from behind you in a voice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I'm so familiar.

[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I reach for the pistol that is not there because I gave it to brick and I spin around real fast to see the source of the wood.

[SPEAKER_02]: At first you don't recognize the figure.

[SPEAKER_02]: A person and then type black clothing, a loose dark colored cloak.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's lettering down to their knees.

[SPEAKER_02]: They are backlit as the skimmer flies overhead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who's there?

[SPEAKER_02]: But the skimmer passes and your eyes are just and then you recognize a form from the past.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mother?

[SPEAKER_02]: She steps into the room.

[SPEAKER_04]: What the hell are you doing here?

[SPEAKER_02]: I sent you that message on your data pad.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry for all the cloak and dagger, but it's necessary.

[SPEAKER_04]: Mother, this is ridiculous.

[SPEAKER_04]: What do you mean you sent the message?

[SPEAKER_04]: What's going on?

[SPEAKER_02]: I sent you the message to Mibarra.

[SPEAKER_02]: I sent Mara the message to MiU.

[SPEAKER_02]: I orchestrated that entire encounter with the intention to bring you here at this time to avenge the family, to reveal the truth of Celerus, Baked Death and after 10 years to speak with my little boy.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's been a long time.

[SPEAKER_04]: The whole time that I was in that prison, I never heard anything.

[SPEAKER_04]: I thought the entire family had abandoned to me that everyone just assumed I was guilty.

[SPEAKER_04]: They did a band of you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's my fault, your mother's fault.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thor and I have so much I need to say to you and not much time to say it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Celerus is not the one who betrayed you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I am.

[SPEAKER_02]: Celerus was running a smuggler and I knew that your involvement with him was dangerous.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know that your ambitions and your recklessness and your deals would cause our company great pain.

[SPEAKER_02]: You were an increasing risk.

[SPEAKER_02]: I looked at the sheets, I crunched the numbers, I saw the probabilities and I knew that our corporation was not going to last with you at the helm and I knew you were set to an iridip.

[SPEAKER_02]: You need a time to mature.

[SPEAKER_02]: You need to listen to reason, but you refused.

[SPEAKER_02]: You made deal after deal, deals that collapsed, larger and larger money sinks.

[SPEAKER_02]: Bankruptcy wasn't on the break, but it was on the horizon.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'd uncovered a lot of information about Celerist.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was going to expose him, get him out of our lives forever.

[SPEAKER_02]: And hopefully with that connection gone, you would simply come back into the fold.

[SPEAKER_02]: but then you started making deals with other people that were not salarist.

[SPEAKER_02]: Outside of his connections and I knew that this web had grown too large that you had been know that you had bought into this idealized life of more and more money.

[SPEAKER_02]: The end goal was never more money thorn.

[SPEAKER_02]: We had enough.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was not worth risking everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I couldn't just take Celaris out of the picture I had to remove you as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know how long your sentence would be, but I implicated you in the smuggling ring alongside Celaris, knowing that both of you would go to jail.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I didn't expect Celaris to paint it on you.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, Arnie, I know I can't.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't undo the last 10 years.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't undo the damage that I've done to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: God knows I won't try.

[SPEAKER_02]: After you were gone, Celaris made his move.

[SPEAKER_02]: With the power of Nexus Corp, he was able to take over the company.

[SPEAKER_02]: 5 generations to lose in 10 years, and now, for those same 10 years I have been working to reclaim it.

[SPEAKER_02]: But just after we lost the business, and assassin nearly killed me, I survived only by luck, and I've been on the run ever since.

[SPEAKER_02]: And after Solaris, suppose a death while I do something, just quite adding up, I know the information you need is in that control panel, and where I have failed, I believe that you can succeed.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thorny, this is only the beginning.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you understand?

[SPEAKER_04]: Born is kind of completely dumb, founded right now, to find that his own mother, the person that he respected the most in the world, is the one who set him up and got him in prison for 10 years.

[SPEAKER_04]: So he takes a few seconds to process that.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then remembers that this is also the woman not only that raised him, but that brought [SPEAKER_04]: and if he thought that he was in the way, that maybe she had good reason to think that.

[SPEAKER_04]: He knows he made some mistake.

[SPEAKER_04]: Mother, this is, it's a lot to take in, but I will make sure that Salarist pays for what he did.

[SPEAKER_04]: I can forgive you, but him I will never forgive.

[SPEAKER_02]: Salarist is alive.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know you can take the data that's in this control panel and find him.

[SPEAKER_02]: I believe in you, and I know that you can take back the company and restore the family.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mara is tough.

[SPEAKER_02]: She can help, and she comes with a bonus.

[SPEAKER_02]: Brick, I didn't choose them lightly.

[SPEAKER_02]: They are motivated, and they are willing, and they want to see Salarist come to justice as badly as we do.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm pleased that you made an ally in Kano.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's an extremely useful, cap burglar with a storied history.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I've read all about him.

[SPEAKER_02]: If he's willing, I would love for him to accompany you, and we would pay him handsibly at the end of all of this.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have a team, that you have friends, dare I say.

[SPEAKER_02]: One's that can help bring down Celerist.

[SPEAKER_02]: Will you do this?

[SPEAKER_02]: Will you take back the company and save the family?

[SPEAKER_04]: You don't even have to ask.

[SPEAKER_04]: We'll get it back.

[SPEAKER_04]: Drax's goods will be owned by Drax's again.

[SPEAKER_02]: You'll see.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: She steps forward and she produces an object from her pocket and hands it to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Your father's wedding ring.

[SPEAKER_02]: Inscribed on the inside with the Drax's family name.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think he would want you to have it.

[SPEAKER_04]: I just take a look at it in the light and kind of like slip it away.

[SPEAKER_04]: I go in for like a hug.

[SPEAKER_04]: She sticks out of hand.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh [SPEAKER_04]: But she was gone.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I didn't know what to think, and I didn't have time to process it all.

[SPEAKER_04]: I just downloaded the cache and do a chip, and I rushed down the stairs to try to help the others.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_04]: Breaking Cane over there, dead.

[SPEAKER_04]: I found their bodies, pull a laser holes.

[SPEAKER_04]: Mara was gone, as was the van.

[SPEAKER_04]: I watched the skimmer glide off into the night.

[SPEAKER_04]: They didn't care about me at all.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was Mara they wanted.

[SPEAKER_04]: I assume she's dead now, and the cover up of the Maglev crash at Block 6 is now complete.

[SPEAKER_04]: That one last loose end finally tied off.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so sore.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, Thor, Prometheon owns Nest's Corp.

[SPEAKER_03]: There's data on this station, editing that can help.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'll get it out for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I know, Felix.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's all I could think about.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm in a fine salarist, and when I find him, Thor takes out his pistol.

[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of his holster and he slams it down in the table in front of everyone.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna kill him.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then we're gonna piss on his graves.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, I had family problems.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know Thorne has cut throat and ruthless.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've worked with him long enough.

[SPEAKER_03]: turn your own son in to send your own son to prison, and that is one cold heart and mother.

[SPEAKER_03]: I guess I see why Thorne has so much trouble connecting with people.

[SPEAKER_03]: Or guy, I'll help him find who he needs to find and kill who he needs to kill.

[SPEAKER_03]: You'll get back whatever kind of family he wants, but you know I wonder if he still has the contact information for that ripper dog.

[SPEAKER_00]: I always thought Thor wasn't the most open member of the crew and honestly, I feel pretty bad that we sort of forced him to talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would have struggled to share a story anywhere near that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope we'll be able to make it up to him by wrecking Nexus Corp.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next time we run into them, and...

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, with our luck so far, I'm sure it's going to happen sooner rather than later.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I feel pretty bad for forcing Thorn to share that story and I struggled and wanted to keep quiet on that too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope we'll be able to make it up to him by wrecking Nexus Corp the next time we run into them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with our luck, that's sure going to happen sooner rather than later.

[SPEAKER_05]: I still can't believe Thorn betrayed by his own mom.

[SPEAKER_05]: Cold?

[SPEAKER_05]: What?

[SPEAKER_05]: That's the kind of cut that just don't let you.

[SPEAKER_05]: A scar over.

[SPEAKER_05]: And you're never going to be the same again.

[SPEAKER_05]: Last team gets wiped out.

[SPEAKER_05]: All of them.

[SPEAKER_05]: You know I've been there.

[SPEAKER_05]: You never get losing the brother in arms.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't matter.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to use past and it's across baseless voices listed with you.

[SPEAKER_05]: And you're just stuck sitting there.

[SPEAKER_05]: Thinking, why me?

[SPEAKER_05]: Why am I of all of these men, I, the one who survived?

[SPEAKER_05]: I've been there.

[SPEAKER_05]: I know that silence.

[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if that's strength, they're just stubborn survival, maybe it's both.

[SPEAKER_05]: All I know is this crew's taking another hit.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't, it's our mob been feeling, and it's getting closer.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ugh, well, it's true, framed by my own mother, whatever.

[SPEAKER_04]: I haven't thought about Cano in the others in a while.

[SPEAKER_04]: That man was a treasure.

[SPEAKER_04]: He deserved better.

[SPEAKER_04]: One minute I'm trying to focus on exposing Nexus.

[SPEAKER_04]: The next I'm sailing through the void torps parts unknown.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's hard to keep everything together.

[SPEAKER_04]: But the more I think about it, I wonder about Mars' fate.

[SPEAKER_04]: That doctor too.

[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe there's still hiding out on Polyphen after all.

[SPEAKER_04]: Still, Felix is right.

[SPEAKER_04]: If there's answers for me, I'll find them when we get to Prometheon.

[SPEAKER_04]: and what the FLEC was mod do in there on Polyphan anyway.

[SPEAKER_04]: She barely answered any of my questions and only presented me with new ones.

[SPEAKER_04]: What is she involved with now?

[SPEAKER_04]: Where did she end up?

[SPEAKER_04]: I just hope she's all right.

[SPEAKER_04]: Her and everyone back on Zephyrce.

[SPEAKER_04]: Please be all right, everyone.