[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Darkstar Adventurecast, where the stars are cold, the void is endless, and dangers lurk in every shadow.
[SPEAKER_03]: Out here, trust is a gamble, and survival is never guaranteed.
[SPEAKER_05]: On to Night's Adventurecast?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not one of you at all, and I never will be.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't care what your entire bullshit is, and I had button.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back everyone to the Dark Star adventure cast.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when we last left our heroes, they were at Scrap Jack's truck stop.
[SPEAKER_03]: What happened between the last episode and this episode is that the players decided that they wanted to take some time and create a plan on how they were going to try to take back Scrap Jack's from the quote-unquote evil void cultists.
[SPEAKER_03]: In doing that, they thought it would be fun to not tell me the plan.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the episode you are about to hear is a lot of me knowing just the beginnings of their plan and them revealing the plan as we go through the episode and it's very weird in a lot of ways.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was sort of like them game mastering for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we had a lot of fun with this one and we really hope you have a lot of fun with it too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here we go on with the adventure.
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert Ross, you are wearing Coltis gear, you are covered in blood and somewhere you found chicken feathers and you have stuck chicken feathers all of your body, like you've been tired and feathered with blood and feathers, it's normal Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are carrying a shotgun, you're carrying a laser pistol and someone has drawn a terrible
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely awful representation of their the void cult is tattoos on your face and neck and it looks like they partially Shaved one side of your head and then stopped probably because you stopped them.
[SPEAKER_03]: They shit Who tried to shave my head?
[SPEAKER_03]: You have one swath from your sideburn just over to the top of your ear Which someone liked shaved it and then it's like stopped.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh Hell no
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you walk into the southern section of the main lobby that way, so you can kind of place yourself wherever you think is, you know, you want to be for the plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said, at the very southern end of the southern section, I figured I'm coming out by the security door because I also want to check on my man, Dan the man grand on the way out.
[SPEAKER_03]: You want to walk down to security.
[SPEAKER_03]: You do know that from the security cameras previously that there's a cultist in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: oh okay um perfect uh i i was gonna go from the from the bottom south um so i'm gonna do absolutely that but i might come out from the airlock at the bottom south or from the door at the bottom south bottom south uh never uh west south and door it's a yeah it's a little bit you are holding a toggle in your hand with a button on it as you went to the main lobby one of the brothers walks up to you brother what happened to you
[SPEAKER_03]: Brother, you, you, you, you have to see do it one or two of you want to come with me to the utility room behind this brother the rip and space time has grown and you see that the many captives in this room are have been forced to kneel and they are summer shielding their eyes and some are staring
[SPEAKER_03]: you can also see into the lounge and observation deck that there are still three captives in there and they are huddled into the corner as far as they can go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I am definitely not looking at whatever tentacle nonsense.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you stare into the void of stairs back at you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: What what did you say your name was?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm brother Vox brother K-Low brother Vox You look very different today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So somebody tried to shave my ass for it was it's a whole thing Would you come check the utility room with me?
[SPEAKER_04]: Thorne, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow, that is a question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I am currently going to the admin office.
[SPEAKER_03]: So using the distraction of Robert, you try to sneak around into the admin office.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've also outfitted yourself and cult this close, I noticed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm going to possibly something to defend myself with.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you have a laser pistol that Robert no longer has, great, and you're wearing cult's clothes, and I need you to roll a sneak charisma, because you're trying to pretend like you belong.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a 10.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, oh, so you make your way through the cafeteria and loop over to the cabin office with Yana.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, with Yana, obviously.
[SPEAKER_03]: who is also wearing, she's wearing mother prex's clothes and you sneak, you think that you sneak unnoticed into the admin office.
[SPEAKER_03]: When you enter into there, you glance over and you see Robert is being like, you know, why would you all just come with me over to the, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it, you do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no more than one or two, we can't handle, I mean, well, fit three people, one or two, one or two max.
[SPEAKER_03]: it's a very crowded hallway all and then you duck into the avian office in here it's the same office that you were in before thorn but just to remind you there's a desk on the west side of the room with a few chairs in front of it it's lined with bookcases but there are no books on them it's mostly knickknacks and trophies or you know random things that you know she may have won for having the only truck stop in like an entire quadrant of this sector
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything is relatively clean, but the desk itself is extremely disorganized, and has a terminal on it as well as a data pad.
[SPEAKER_03]: Behind the desk, there is a door.
[SPEAKER_03]: The door is currently open, and through that you can see that there is a lot of control panels, as well as a window that overlooks out into space, specifically the parking lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: In that fuel control room, there is a cultist, frustratingly like trying to work buttons and like lights and being like, Why won't this work?
[SPEAKER_03]: And he bangs his fist down onto the control panel that he used the type it's terminal.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, um, but he doesn't seem to notice us enter.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, he's backs to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's about 20 feet away on the other side of the desk.
[SPEAKER_04]: I make a crouch down behind the desk gesture with one hand, and then I crouch behind the desk myself with my laser pistol, trained on that guy, and I'm gonna tempt to execute him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Y'all put a hand on your wrist, and she whispers into your ear, you might break the glass.
[SPEAKER_03]: What's up, it doesn't come to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna shoot, if you shoot, I mean, you might break the glass.
[SPEAKER_01]: Vacuum of space, hello?
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought you were a pilot.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't intend on missing, but I suppose you have a point.
[SPEAKER_03]: He fumbles around on top of her desk, and she pulls a letter open her back, and she hands it to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nah, I wink, and I take it, and I'm gonna go do what this does to that guy.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're going to open this letter and then he's the letter.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to open the envelope.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's the envelope and the document that I need is underneath his papery skin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, gosh.
[SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, I'm going to sneak up behind him and try to assassinate them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so Rolla's sneak decks this time.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're trying to do that type of snake.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, yeah, I'm trying not to be heard, so.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're having a whole mini adventure with Yana.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can feel love blossoming.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I got a 10.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you sneak up.
[SPEAKER_03]: and you are within arms reach of this cultist who's like people, people, but I damn.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you can see that he's trying to like unlock the controls or like figure out how to use the controls so that he can refuel their ship.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you look out the window, you see this large rectangular ship that obviously would never survive entering atmo anywhere.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just as brutal as style, black and gray, all angles, rectangles, chips, past together with the parts of all these other ships.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's desperately trying to move the refueling box over to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, he hasn't noticed me, though.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you're right behind him, too.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, perfect, OK. Yeah, so now that I am up close behind him, unnoticed, I've taken my preparation.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've made my time.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm going to take this letter opener.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to perform an execution attack
[SPEAKER_03]: Great idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hello, serial killer.
[SPEAKER_03]: What is wrong with you guys?
[SPEAKER_03]: They're rubbing off on me.
[SPEAKER_03]: What can I say?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you're going to execute him.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've taken, you've prepped, you've got a weapon.
[SPEAKER_03]: You spent time slowly sneaking up to him successfully.
[SPEAKER_03]: He doesn't know you're here.
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess do you want to describe how you assassinate this or man?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is he wearing armor?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's wearing like street armor.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so I'm going to stab him in the neck.
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe he'll just slid his throat with this letter opener.
[SPEAKER_03]: okay yeah so you reach around and you you slow just throw and at the expense of making this two graphic he believes and any dice grows yeah sorry sorry guys I didn't mean to go too far you need to warn the viewers before you do that you are covered with some other dudes brains so I don't know yeah but come on he crumbles through the ground and yana walks in behind you and says nice work thanks and I hander
[SPEAKER_03]: He takes it and she actually tucks it into a pocket.
[SPEAKER_03]: She taps the couple commands on the controls and she says, Okay, I've completely locked everyone else out now.
[SPEAKER_03]: So even if we all die, they won't be able to refuel.
[SPEAKER_03]: That'll teach him.
[SPEAKER_03]: If we all die, they won't escape.
[SPEAKER_03]: They'll eventually run out of air and they'll die.
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, Felix, where do you up to?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I know that Thorn and Neon are going to the Abon office.
[SPEAKER_05]: In case that fails, I want to try to make my way back to the mid-bakes.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know I can access buddy's systems from there.
[SPEAKER_03]: out on re-enable his re-enable him and actually get him to do this security shit now that he was supposed to do earlier so I need five seconds going on easy to drop me a fresh Guinness and wanted to take a big ol' slurp witness my precious seconds oh yeah and you'll never relive those five seconds you were just getting there waiting for me to drink a beer that's what you did with there's us evaporating before my eyes
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, they're gone and we're continuing to talk about it, so it's spotlight is on me even more and more and more of my seconds Yep, that pieces of life you'll never get back and now you're gonna listen to Scott do something I'm not way to the med bay, I am sneaking my way as best I can through the cafeteria So you're also wearing the final cultist uniform Alright, so go ahead and roll sneak charisma Alright
[SPEAKER_03]: Kaylee's the only one that's not wearing a set of these clothes because you didn't have enough, and also she's much too large It's a four.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, that's a that's a bad snake roll.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a bad roll.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so I do get a re-roll a skill.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so I'm gonna re-roll that skill Okay, that's a lot better.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a nine that time
[SPEAKER_05]: Nine is a much better role.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I go out and I begin to speak, but then I remember this journal article I was reading about how to avoid making noise when you're working in an enclosed computer system and I take some of those learnings and I apply them one about it too and then I sneak through the cafeteria.
[SPEAKER_03]: be your red and adventurers manual on how to sneak this is a quest for glory's time oh yeah so you make way up to the med bag the door is unlocked because you guys left it unlocked and you move inside the moment you go in with the doors to open you notice the doctor is awake and she goes what the fuck and then you close the door just that does it oh no
[SPEAKER_03]: Where do you get off?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna have in your big brutal woman knock me out.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm as you say this.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm walking forward over to the terminal.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't have time for this.
[SPEAKER_05]: You need me quiet.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you need to listen to me for one second.
[SPEAKER_03]: They might save your life.
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't like you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_03]: Listen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, just listen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't interrupt me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't like you.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm gonna help you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Untie me.
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_03]: What else could it go, Rob?
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm tired, I'm tired of complaining, I'm just so done with the whining.
[SPEAKER_05]: She takes the drink out of her flap and then she passes it to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, take a drink.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_05]: Y'all a seven, let me know that Buddy has a perimeter security system.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm turning him back on, get him to enable that system, so we can take out all these cultists and take back your statement.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I can't help with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just a fact-down.
[SPEAKER_03]: And drink a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_03]: What you're doing right now?
[SPEAKER_03]: Perfect.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you give me the okay sign?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I give her a big, like, overexaggerated sarcastic thumbs up.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're the next file.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I go to the turn turn to the terminal and I re-enable buddy
[SPEAKER_03]: Buddy who used to be friendly and extremely loquacious has since been reprogrammed by you.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's a bit more dower now and a bit more emo.
[SPEAKER_03]: And his digital face appears on the screen.
[SPEAKER_03]: He looks like face from Nickelodeon.
[SPEAKER_03]: But now he has like a swoopy.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has like swoopy bangs over one eye.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he kind of like he likes he flicks the bangs out of his his Nick Jr. eyes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he says, Oh, what do you do want?
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, buddy.
[SPEAKER_03]: What ever?
[SPEAKER_05]: Listen.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, since we last talked, I found out some stuff I could only use your help with, you know, if you're not.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, now we want to help.
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to go help earlier, buddy.
[SPEAKER_05]: You were exactly forthcoming with the assistance, because you failed to mention the private security system that you have.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, well, I don't have one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I think you do and I type in the scaredy code.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, it's a verbal one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's a voice passcode, obviously.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not like numbers and letters.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually three words.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're going to tell me the words.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, this is your rodeo.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're going to tell us the words.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let me roll back.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I'm just trying to think it's three good words.
[SPEAKER_03]: Read good words.
[SPEAKER_03]: Boom.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've security activated.
[SPEAKER_03]: He says, oh, I can't believe you told you the past code.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you even want?
[SPEAKER_05]: I told you, I want you to turn on the perimeter security system in target, the cultists who haven't been in your station.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, what even an idiot or something?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's perimeter, T-E-R, perimeter.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't shoot things on the inside, tell me.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know that, okay, but we need to prevent them from escaping.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fine, you've activated security protocols.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll activate the perimeter now, but only if you give me the five word passphrase to do so.
[SPEAKER_05]: So many passphrases.
[SPEAKER_05]: He swoops the hair out of his eyes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Buddy, will you please help?
[SPEAKER_03]: Fine, passcode accepted.
[SPEAKER_03]: And moment passes, and he says, Derek activated.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great work, bud.
[SPEAKER_03]: Whatever, life is pain.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, tell me about a killer.
[SPEAKER_05]: Computer, check down Buddy.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's turned myself off.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's dark.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was thinking shut down the emergency medical holographs I sit down for a moment and I reach over and back in for the the flask from the doctor and it's over near I take a swing.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, that was more painful than I thought it would be.
[SPEAKER_03]: It takes out a blue death stick And she passes the view.
[SPEAKER_03]: I put it in my pocket Priscilla.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no, no
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not gonna I'm on the job right now you psycho then give it back then give it back You move it back to her piece of shit.
[SPEAKER_03]: She snaps it on
[SPEAKER_03]: You're hanging out and having a drink with Dr. Speth, and Buddy has turned himself off because he's so deep in dark now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Haley's had like one good experience in this place so far.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was when she got to take a hot shower for the first time in a forever and she Remember seeing on the security monitors someone was being tortured in that room So she's gonna go figure out that situation and see if she can help.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have to cross the cafeteria So go ahead and give me and you're not wearing a disguise.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, give me a sneak dex Yeah, not a sneak strength
[SPEAKER_03]: What would that even be?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, I tried to figure it out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no, no, she throws herself up onto the ceiling, which I'm assuming this is a crummy industrial place, so it's all actually exposed wires and tubes, and like shivis across the ceiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna let you do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think I'm gonna let you all exert strength to give me a long the girders on the ceiling which are completely hidden from view in the main lobby.
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, roll exert strength.
[SPEAKER_03]: No sneaky needed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, that roll.
[SPEAKER_03]: It would have been fine for sneaking.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well done.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_03]: You exit the hallway outside the utility room and quickly scale and grab- Oh no, no, no, I don't, I don't scale.
[SPEAKER_02]: I flip up like a cat.
[SPEAKER_02]: My vertical jump is like three feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to say that's not humanly possible but you did roll it 12.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you Jedi jump up to the ceiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: My hands are tied.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually, it's really like a 15 foot ceiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you kind of like launch off a wall and you can definitely reach it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You grab onto a girder and you pull yourself up and you kind of peek out and you see people in the main lobby who could have potentially heard you under normal circumstances don't because all eyes run robber He's currently like trying to like beckon people and like a weird maca rain a type dance through the doorway of the hallway to lead them back to the utility room Pass the robber love to see it and you can hear him say his iconic line Do you want to tell a hasher handshake and you hear them say no
[SPEAKER_03]: and you stream across the cafeteria ceiling and drop down in front of the the bathroom like area, toilet showers and sanitation, and you enter in.
[SPEAKER_03]: This room, this whole area, is covered in steam.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was not like this at all when you were here before.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like every shower head is on.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can hear the rush of water from the other room as the searing hot water from a dozen shower heads
[SPEAKER_03]: And you hear a chanting, and you hear words here and there about void and acceptance and becoming untethered and ready for the ascension.
[SPEAKER_03]: You slowly make your way up to the showers, skirting the benches and lockers and toilets, and you peek into the showers, where there's well shower heads all spraying water down.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in the center of this gang shower, you see a man, bloody, and naked, laying on the floor.
[SPEAKER_03]: Another man in soaking wet robes, standing over him with knife in hand, a piece of flesh in the other hand, and he is looking up at the ceiling and mumbling in coherently.
[SPEAKER_03]: The man on the ground is practically unconscious from pain.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's so sad.
[SPEAKER_02]: But awful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think I want to charge at him and knock him over.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you sprint at him over the soapy stopping wet floor.
[SPEAKER_03]: Very bravely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, the gangstower.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've roll exert decks to see if you can keep your feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Six is good enough to sprint across and you're directly in the guys' face and you charge straight into him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Go ahead and roll to hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's my roll to hit?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be what you do when you punch a gnome, you just tackling him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to tackle him to the ground and pummel his face.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am feeling like actual rage because I am a professional killer.
[SPEAKER_02]: What he's doing here is torture.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll not kill her.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a combat professional.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we don't do this.
[SPEAKER_03]: Aren't you a serial killer by trade?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm a combat professional.
[SPEAKER_03]: Who has- Oh, my bad, all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Who has accomplished certain objectives across many missions.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I rolled his exert strength in a U-roll yours and whoever gets higher wins.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you win, you knock him to the ground.
[SPEAKER_03]: If he wins, you do not knock him to the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: And all the two, oh, the stupid sword got me.
[SPEAKER_03]: You sprint across the slippery ground, keeping your feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you reach him, you kind of like slip a little bit, and you tumble like you kind of shoulder into him, and he doesn't move, even though he's not really aware of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You kind of stumble slightly, and then he looks at you when he says, he's in and he raises the dagger up and roll initiative.
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, all out of all these mini stories only Haley gets into a random phone.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, like, this is classic Haley.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's got everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so he raises his knife because he gets to go first and he brings it down upon you.
[SPEAKER_03]: He rolls a 12.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that glances off of my shoulder.
[SPEAKER_03]: And your AC is what?
[SPEAKER_03]: 15.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he does deal one point of shock damage to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Glancing blows off your chest armor, but the pressure of it hurts your ribs.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, ah, that's gonna bruise.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm a little distracted by the torture guy on the ground, so I'm still makes me a little bit easier to get a single hit on.
[SPEAKER_01]: The torture guy looks up to you and he's like, please help me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wind my arm back and punch him straight in the face.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure this will be the end of the combat.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just couldn't know what he was doing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I didn't know where the other direction though, and you just kept missing, and he just and dived you to death one point at a time.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that then, does 17 hit?
[SPEAKER_03]: 17 hits, and how much damage?
[SPEAKER_02]: First I was damaged.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's instantly dead, and he falls to the ground.
[SPEAKER_03]: His ribs all cracked, and I don't know if his ribs are cracked so much as turned to dust, as he falls to the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just knew a bad for this poor tortured man who was being tortured and, you know, there's probably blood mixing in with the water and now Haley just delivered, you know, I know, just held to this evil cultist and now there's more blood swirling down the drain but it's not his What happened to the, oh my god, this is just awful The man reaches up to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's naked and he's, he's been slashed several times.
[SPEAKER_03]: He reaches up to when he says
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, I help him up, and the guys' robes are probably all soaking wet and awful.
[SPEAKER_02]: This guy's been tortured.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, of course I'll help you.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's bleeding pretty freely from me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, I'm like, can I get him to the med bay?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's one door over.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is.
[SPEAKER_03]: You might be seen, but there is a distraction.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I want to try getting this guy to the med bay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so go ahead and roll sneak right because you're carrying a man.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's very, that's very, thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also think you can use Seat Sneak Strength if you held up a, like, two, no, and like, walked with the table.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all the five.
[SPEAKER_02]: I rolled a five.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm going to give you a plus one because it's a distraction.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you make a six, which is exactly what you needed, and you make your way into the med bay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, feel like you're surprised when a whole king form carrying a naked, bleeding man crashes into the med bay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Doc, I am so sorry about earlier.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you help?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus Christ, what's going on here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy shit, Ali, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't me.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you do to this man?
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't me, it was a cultist.
[SPEAKER_01]: She sweeps everything off of that, and she says, Lay him down on the desk, quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I put him up there, gently with care.
[SPEAKER_03]: By Urch-O-M. She begins to disinfect and clean his wounds, and the man's heads like lolling around.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna give him some for the pain, and she injects them.
[SPEAKER_03]: The moment that happens, the man gets like, kind of like a half-smile, and he looks up at you, Haley, and he goes, hi.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're welcome, Urch.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have how you're feeling he sticks an elbow out to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says I'm Walter hey Walter I'm Haley with two eyes.
[SPEAKER_03]: You why is his elbow at you?
[SPEAKER_02]: I wag my elbow back.
[SPEAKER_03]: No Touch my elbow with your elbow germs germs.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't touch his elbow.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just repeat what you think like it's a sort of colloquial breathing
[SPEAKER_03]: He loses interest in me, he looks at Felix, and then he passes out.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have that effect on people.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think seems like it's Felix's fault that he passed it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard death stick rotation.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just glared at him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the whole room is smelling strongly of deathsticks, so you're starting to get a contact high, Haley.
[SPEAKER_02]: Geez.
[SPEAKER_03]: Haley, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, remember the guy that was on the screens and the showers?
[SPEAKER_02]: Being tortured, I go in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: All of the showers that were on, totally steamy.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the cultists was torturing him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He'd taken his skin off and was chanting up into the sky, completely distracted.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something going on out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is something weird going on here too.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I mean, it's good you two care if I guess, but we got, we do have bigger fish to fry.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a lot more cultists out there.
[SPEAKER_05]: That is one dude.
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope Robert's ready.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and here we go.
[SPEAKER_03]: The plan is finally coming to fruition.
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert, you see that Hayley has joined Felix in the Medbe over the shoulder of the brothers.
[SPEAKER_03]: You see that Thorn and Yanna have made their way into the Adnan office.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have the toggle with the button in your hand.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have distracted everyone long enough.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I start walking towards the utility room, seeing if I can get how many people are interested and what I have to say as my finger just kind of swirls over the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Roll talk charisma.
[SPEAKER_00]: that would be a five, and so I feel like I've most likely stumble over my words and dance, but like, the utility, maybe what are you thinking about the bed by, ah, I could hit the button.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm totally part of your cult, and then you hit the button.
[SPEAKER_03]: At that moment, the device that Felix hooked up to the power core goes off, shutting off all of the lights, hands, or reps, as people leap to the feet, survivors and cultures alike.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I come out of the med bay.
[SPEAKER_02]: I walk over to the device that's been opening this void, and I try to destroy the antenna.
[SPEAKER_02]: To put a stop, whatever is happening with the ultra-chore.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you rush out of the med bay and you're running towards the antenna right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I try to evacuate how to love as many of the pedestrians as I can and move them away from the giant tentacle monster that has seared itself into my brain and I will never ever forget.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you kind of move people away and you kind of cover them up with your body, knowing what is coming.
[SPEAKER_03]: Storm.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, at this point, uh, I'm just going to use the refueling arms like here from in the fuel control room, the fueling arms.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to take one of them and have it like latch on to one of the turrets, like the perimeter turrets, and literally like break it to rotate it
[SPEAKER_04]: and wipe these guys out.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Yana is on a separate set of controls.
[SPEAKER_03]: And she uses the second refueling arm to help you with that and wrench the turret out.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when the two of you do that together and consider, you give each other a look from across the control room and each other and like kind of give each other a cool nod in the air five.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: With our minds though.
[SPEAKER_03]: With your minds.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ali, you make your way all the way to the antenna, finally completing your sprint.
[SPEAKER_03]: Outside of the giant windows of the lounge, which you now spot from the middle of the lobby, you see two giant refueling arms ripped the turret off of its gyroscope and aim at the windows.
[SPEAKER_03]: At that moment, Robert runs and huddles up with all of the survivors and captives and forces their heads down and covers them up with his big beefy body as much as he can, and you cover the last few
[SPEAKER_03]: You draw back your fist, but at that moment, a void tendril makes its way out from the rift and brushes against you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You feel yourself screaming, your consciousness swirls around infinity as though circling a drain.
[SPEAKER_03]: You see only darkness.
[SPEAKER_03]: You awaken on your back, there's a bright light in your face, cold steel, pressing against your palms.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two blood splattered surgeons stand over you in white masks.
[SPEAKER_03]: One looks down to you, shock registering on his eyes.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's awake.
[SPEAKER_03]: The other, holding a worm-like machine about the size of your index finger responds.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nurse, please increase the dosage.
[SPEAKER_03]: And as you slide back into unconsciousness, the doctor inserts the wriggling machine into your nose.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, Lee, you find yourself back in the main lobby.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your fist caught back the antenna 12 inches away through the rift.
[SPEAKER_03]: You see movement, something slimy was at an eye.
[SPEAKER_03]: It couldn't have been.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're looking into infinity.
[SPEAKER_03]: You find yourself circling into the void and becoming memorized.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: After remembering all of that, Haley is just goes into a basically dissociative state.
[SPEAKER_02]: All she remembers really about why she's in the middle of this room right now is to destroy this antenna and get down, and so that's what she does.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's quickly as she can.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, to your cocked back fist, then rockets into the antenna, punching it again and again, it just explodes, it falls over, it cannot at all sustain any sort of working state once Haley decides to destroy it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you're punching it, it actually doesn't feel like metal, it actually gives and it feels a little moist almost, but you don't have time to think about that now because you hit the deck and put your hands over your head, Felix, what would you
[SPEAKER_05]: All right, well, I've got emergency power routed to the turret because I knew the power was going out.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I have the controls wired to my data slab, so I see that the one has put in a position and I enable the targeting module and I target the cultists and trigger it to open fire.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Nick Jr. face of Buddy says, Oh, now we're talking.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is swoops to hair out of its eyes as the turret activates and lays waste to all of the cultists remaining in the lounge and in the main lobby.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bullets, Ricochet, all over the place, sparks flying the resounding boom of the bullets hitting across all of the walls, cultists flying.
[SPEAKER_03]: of blood, the sound of decompression fighting against the life force, doesn't the tiny holes in the lounge window appearing, air, precious air, escaping out.
[SPEAKER_03]: The last quote this falls, Y'all know waste no time, the moment the turret has completed firing, she rushes out of the admin office with a role of duct tape and throws a strip over every hole in that lounge window.
[SPEAKER_03]: Every cult this is now dead except for one.
[SPEAKER_03]: He hit the ground very quickly.
[SPEAKER_03]: You only got hit by one bullet from the turret, but that still did massive damage, blowing his arm clear off.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brother Hallick, the leader of this small sector of the cult, crawls over to Haley, where she lays on the ground.
[SPEAKER_03]: He puts his forehead as close to your forehead as he can, and he says,
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not one of you at all, and I never will be.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't care what your untethered bullshit is, and I had bottom.
[SPEAKER_03]: As you had bottom.
[SPEAKER_02]: He came close to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, barely hanging on the consciousness.
[SPEAKER_03]: He puts one hand out to you on your shoulder, and he says, I child, you are more like us, and you think this small sect is gone.
[SPEAKER_03]: and he looks up as he sees Thorne and Felix exit out of their respective doors and Robert stand up and mix the carnage.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are your friends, but they don't have to be your only friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want you guys as somebody that I rely on or partner with.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're cruel and evil and you shouldn't be part of this world.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is no cruel.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is no evil.
[SPEAKER_03]: He rolls onto his back and tears up at the sky.
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll find that you're more like us than you thought.
[SPEAKER_03]: He takes one big deep breath
[SPEAKER_03]: Yana comes out and thanks all of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know how I expected you to do that, but you did shoot everything up, but there's very few deaths.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I guess I'm in your debt.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will ask my mechanics to fix up your ship for free.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope there's not too much wrong with it, and we'll refuel it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, what the hell?
[SPEAKER_03]: All you can eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey!
[SPEAKER_00]: Free food!
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I line my pockets with me, love.
[SPEAKER_02]: I drink so much orange juice.
[SPEAKER_05]: I reach out for the desk deck for the doctor as the same closest.
[SPEAKER_03]: He passes it over to you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, Felix.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, doctor.
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you guys hiring?
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: Back in the admin office, Yana and Thorne are sitting side by side, and Yana pours you a scotch from her private collection, and the two of you sit in the chair's opposite her main chair at her desk.
[SPEAKER_03]: She gives you a clank, she holds it a shoulder, and she says, I know you want to leave quick, but I've been talking to the mechanics, it's good to take them a week, but I can make your stay here quite comfortable, but I hope you don't mind.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't doubt that one bit, I don't mind at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe we have some unfittered business to attend to, and she raises the glass.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well then, we better get started, and I also raise mine to link it together.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, we fade to black.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my.
[SPEAKER_04]: A roll for an issue.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: It looks bursting.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Marty, you're going to come back.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not here.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a kid to board.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't do this.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your kids are going to suck.
[SPEAKER_03]: Y'all is not a good person.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't do this.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's a girl that's why she's going to be on a seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we thought it'd rest why she called you on a seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: She didn't call you.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's in first into your office called you a clone.
[SPEAKER_03]: And well, that's the end of the episode.
[SPEAKER_03]: So let's jump right into logs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thorne, won't you kick us off?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, what can I say?
[SPEAKER_04]: The crew really came together in the end and we managed to out to that weird cult.
[SPEAKER_04]: Casualties were minimal and Yannud didn't charge us for any of the damage to scrap jacks.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was an ambitious plan, but we pulled it through
[SPEAKER_04]: Man, that Robert can be a handful, but he's damn reliable and he's a crackshot at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad Felix was able to keep his nose out of the dust long enough to be useful, but I still dread the day he's too far gone when I need him most.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I've come to count on Haley quite a lot these days for obvious reasons, but I'm worried about her now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Something about that void and the things those cultists were saying seemed to have shaken her up a bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the shame we have to leave so soon, but the last thing we need is more attention.
[SPEAKER_04]: At least, Yana and I were able to spend some time together.
[SPEAKER_04]: Swap Exo males so we can stay in touch.
[SPEAKER_04]: It may not have been the most relaxing pit stop ever, but the crew does seem to have gotten over their cabin fever and they're back to working together like a team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, my cult is disguised worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have buttoned my backside and called me a biscuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it wasn't a little worried
[SPEAKER_00]: But as the gatling gun started rolling, gathered up everybody, hit the deck, covered all those veins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it, it was got this, and I look back, Jesus, I didn't even know Syvies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, she's just standing there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, drift.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then boom!
[SPEAKER_00]: We're alive, we're always closed, and uh, where the hell don't we get off to?
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, why me?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just eating my own limited meat, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally enjoying some will-deserved aren't all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do keep hearing it, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: At home, At home, the leak from the beacon still hasn't stopped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hear stands up on the back of my neck, I whip around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really need to get off this damn station.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, we are finally putting scrap jacks behind us.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it wasn't exactly the most restful of pit stops, but hey, at least we've got some free repairs out of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, while I'll be glad to put this place in our rearview mirror, I do kind of wish we'd reconsider the docs offer.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we already have Froggy on board and he doesn't do jack shit.
[SPEAKER_05]: So why don't I add another member to this monthly crew when at least they have a useful skill?
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, well, maybe we'll run into her again somewhere in the black.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then hey, I've got that copy of Buddy Source code to give me busy at least.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he had the most interesting personality protocols I've ever seen.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I am really looking forward to getting my hands dirty and figuring out what makes him tick.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I was, well then, you know what, it's not clearly not over.
[SPEAKER_02]: so much for his and full refuel.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's more to this cult, there's more to whatever being untethered means, whatever I saw when I touched that antenna.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know where to get started on figuring out what happened there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hadn't seen anything like that machine before on any of my missions and, you know, I do pay attention.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I would have noticed a void popping up somewhere or cult robes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I don't even have memories close to what I saw there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Usually after a mission, I can be pretty calm just by focusing on what's next, what the objective is, but from this like truck stop, I have too many questions and I'm not sure if I'm ready for any of the answers.
[SPEAKER_03]: And just one more thing before you go, I wanted to give out a huge thank you to our Patreon subscribers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Holly and Brad are two top patrons at the scapegoat syndicate level we bow before you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We really appreciate you and if you're out there in podcast land wondering hey wait a minute How can I get money at the end of one of these episodes head on over to patreon.com slash dark star adventure cast and spend some of your money with us You'll get early add free episodes in a crop
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[SPEAKER_03]: And hey, Christmas is coming.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Patreon.com, Slice Jarks to our adventure cast.
[SPEAKER_03]: Love you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye!