[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to Darkstar Adventures.
[SPEAKER_04]: Tonight, we journey deep into the shadows of the Viridian Expans, where danger lurks at every turn, and no one can be trusted.
[SPEAKER_04]: You've tuned in to an adventure where the stars are cold, the enemies are many, and every decision could be your last.
[SPEAKER_04]: Tonight, a rag tag team of unlikely allies find themselves drawn together, not by fate, but by the designs of an unseen power.
[SPEAKER_04]: Before we launch into the heart of the action, let's take a moment to meet our crew.
[SPEAKER_04]: First, there's Brian, who plays the steady hand in smooth talker Captain Thorne, the diplomatic leader who keeps the crews with sharp and their deals sharper.
[SPEAKER_04]: Next is Stephanie, who takes charge of Haley with two wives, a no non-sent warrior, who solves her problems with overwhelming force and heavy firepower.
[SPEAKER_04]: Behind the gunnery station, she's a wrecking ball than human form, less talk, more explosions.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's Haley with two bodies.
[SPEAKER_04]: Then we have Doja, playing the wild card pilot, Robert Ross, with nerves of steel and a devil-may-care grin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Whether he's threading the needle through an asteroid field or out drinking a bar full of spacers, Ross flies by instinct and just enough luck to keep him alive.
[SPEAKER_04]: This Afro is the only thing keeping my head in the mirror.
[SPEAKER_04]: and Scott rounds out the crew as Felix Champlin, the anigmatic transhuman hacker with a razor-sharp mind and steel in his stride.
[SPEAKER_04]: Armed with cutting-edge prosthetics and a talent for turning the digital void into his playground, Felix is the ghost you never see coming.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm moving beyond humanity's limitations.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now buckle up.
[SPEAKER_04]: The stars are waiting and the ferridian expands never for gives, unprepared.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is Dark Star Adventures.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah!
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, here we are!
[SPEAKER_04]: Ducks, dive ventures!
[SPEAKER_04]: Here we are!
[SPEAKER_04]: Excitement is palpable with our four brave adventures.
[SPEAKER_04]: Scott, Brian, Doja, and Stephanie thanks so much for joining me tonight for the first episode of Dark Star Adventures.
[SPEAKER_04]: P-P-P-P-P-P-P-U!
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah!
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, we're gonna dive right into it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I got a great adventure for you guys tonight.
[SPEAKER_04]: So let's go.
[SPEAKER_04]: The view from the cockpit is a dizzying swirl of stars as your ship tears away from Camieri IV.
[SPEAKER_04]: The station's glittering lights shrink behind you, but there's no time to admire the view.
[SPEAKER_04]: Your sensors are screaming.
[SPEAKER_04]: Two strike fighters have broken from the station's shadow.
[SPEAKER_04]: There are sleek silhouettes gleaming against the void.
[SPEAKER_04]: Bright flashes of laser fire light up the blackness as they streak towards your vessel, close it fast.
[SPEAKER_04]: The targeting computer chirps incoming threat detected.
[SPEAKER_04]: The controls humbly your fingertips as your ship jolt's from an impact.
[SPEAKER_04]: A moment of static buzzes across the combs before a crackling voice cuts through.
[SPEAKER_04]: You thought you could just up and leave without saying goodbye?
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike fighters are faster and more maneuverable than your ship, but your vessel packs more of a punch.
[SPEAKER_04]: This battle isn't just about survival, it's a test of your cruise ability to work together under fire for the first time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Alright, everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is it.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're under attack.
[SPEAKER_04]: Who's heading up to the weapons?
[SPEAKER_04]: Who's piloting?
[SPEAKER_04]: And what's your plan for keeping this crate in one piece?
[SPEAKER_04]: Stations, everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Get in your stations.
[SPEAKER_04]: We got combat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sir, yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm down to the guns.
[SPEAKER_06]: Robert, what can you tell me about these fighters?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pull them up on screen.
[SPEAKER_04]: Robert, you take a look at the radar, read out, and you ping the enemy ships as they close in on you once again.
[SPEAKER_04]: They appear to be two standard strike fighters.
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, they get close enough for you to get a visual off your port bow and you see that they have been spray painted heavily in various colors, probably gang affiliations from that space station you just left.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got two mugs on our port.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are going to, this is definitely a gang affiliated.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to take them out.
[SPEAKER_06]: Only one way to deal with riff raff like this.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hayley, make sure you get those cannons primed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ready for the pew pew.
[SPEAKER_06]: Robert, make sure you keep the engines primed.
[SPEAKER_06]: We may need to move around quickly, but for now, just keep her steady.
[SPEAKER_06]: Feel like see what you can do to get the systems in order.
[SPEAKER_06]: Aly is going to need all the energy that you can get to fire those cannons.
[SPEAKER_06]: Alright, I capped it.
[SPEAKER_05]: God, what are all these tools?
[SPEAKER_05]: Alright, I think everything's lined up.
[SPEAKER_05]: Alright, Aly, you should have everything you need.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, a gun's a gun.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to fire one weapon.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I shoot and I put all of my strength behind it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Haley's muscle is flexed as she works the gunnery.
[SPEAKER_04]: Bring the multi focal laser with its incredible armor piercing power to bear down on the first strike fighter.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that is a hit for one damage.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not a lot of damage, but the armor piercing is so strong that it corings straight through the strike fighters' hull.
[SPEAKER_04]: Slicing it like butter and dealing that full one point of damage to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: One full point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shot Aily.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, girl.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Felt good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going again.
[SPEAKER_03]: I shoot that same ship.
[SPEAKER_04]: You bring your multi-focal laser to bear on that same strike fighter once again, but you go wide.
[SPEAKER_04]: The laser shoots past the strike fighter, making the side of the space station behind it.
[SPEAKER_03]: No one saw that one.
[SPEAKER_04]: The first strike fighter that you shot at swings around, you frantically swing your sensors around to keep it in the clear spot on your radar screen as it opens fire on your aft.
[SPEAKER_04]: Its reaper battery fires out in great bursts and hits for six points of damage tearing through the right side of your cargo bay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Captain, there's a crisis on board.
[SPEAKER_04]: Talk to me, Felix, what are we dealing with?
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, that last shot, Grays our cargo bay and it opened it up to the outside.
[SPEAKER_05]: I gotta get down there and fix it right away or worse toast.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll support you wherever I can.
[SPEAKER_05]: I get up from my chair and I start running this high second down and I'll deal with this on my next turn.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Felix has left the engineering and calms departments completely bereft of anyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're effectively two departments short on your next turn while he runs down to try to fix this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Unfortunately, there's no one else I can do it because he is the fixer.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Felix rushes down to the cargo bay to try to stop everything from rushing out into the vacuum of space.
[SPEAKER_04]: Meanwhile, the second strike fighter whirls around to your opposite side, flanking you and takes a pot shot at your back engine.
[SPEAKER_04]: With a twelve, it misses your armor class of fourteen, which is good, because it was ready to do some massive damage to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: The reaper battery or fires, whizzes just over the top of your ship and off into the void of space.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well Captain, as you stand on the bridge, looking out at these two strike fighters that are assaulting your newly acquired spacecraft, you can't help but think about how you actually got into this situation.
[SPEAKER_04]: All the events that unfolded in the space station just mere hours before that led you to this predicament.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, sometimes life can be a little funny.
[SPEAKER_04]: And when it gives you lemons, you have to make a spaceship out of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Flashback sequence.
[SPEAKER_04]: We are now reminding to what is the start of the adventure.
[SPEAKER_04]: It.
[SPEAKER_04]: The four of you come from many different walks of life.
[SPEAKER_04]: But something that you all share is that you received a cryptic message from your employer on the tech corp, telling you to head on out to a gas mining office on a recluse deep space station on the outer fringes of space called Camiri Four.
[SPEAKER_04]: For those of you that may have investigated's community for, you find it odd that there's actually no omnitech presence on this patient at all.
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, omnitech isn't a very powerful megacorp.
[SPEAKER_04]: It would have been weird if they did have a presence here, but you do find it odd that they would ask you to come here.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't think my TPS reports were that bad, but I guess they're relocating me already.
[SPEAKER_04]: You find yourself with three other people at the front of the gas mining offices of a recruitment center to hire low-skill workers to work in the gas mines on various gas giants or high atmosphere density planets to pull enriching nutrients or heavy gases out of the sky and repurpose them for terraforming and in other such things.
[SPEAKER_04]: The door is locked, but as the fourth of you arrives, you hear the door snick as it unlocks, and slowly creeks open on rusted metal hinges.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hearing inside, you see a Spartan office.
[SPEAKER_04]: No chairs.
[SPEAKER_04]: A single metal desk on two metal legs behind it, a robot that is welded to the floor, unable to move from its position.
[SPEAKER_04]: This robot is not meant to look human.
[SPEAKER_04]: It is simply a trapezoid with a speaker in front of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't think we should offend it if you know what I mean.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thorne strides in and up to the desk.
[SPEAKER_06]: And he says, yes, this is Thorne Draxis reporting from Echo Three about some blackout one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Haley walks in all six, five of her and just stairs at this awkward awful machine wondering why they're there.
[SPEAKER_04]: The door shuts behind you, and you hear it lock.
[SPEAKER_04]: The one window, which is already frosted over, now has a metal shutter come down.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's lunging you with the darkness.
[SPEAKER_04]: A light turns on.
[SPEAKER_04]: A low blue hum, a mitts from the droid.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to the secret Omni Tech offices I'm trying to hear a four.
[SPEAKER_04]: A small shoot opens up in front of it, and a tiny pincer claw comes out, holding an SD card.
[SPEAKER_04]: The tiny arm telescopes out to the wall where there is a slot with a speaker above it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It imputes the SD card into the slot.
[SPEAKER_04]: Immediately, a voice fills the room.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome, members of Blackout One.
[SPEAKER_04]: This mission briefing is classified
[SPEAKER_04]: We trust you understand the importance of secrecy.
[SPEAKER_04]: A few months ago a deep space outpost intercepted an encrypted transmission from outside the sector.
[SPEAKER_04]: A transmission which resisted all conventional forms of decryption.
[SPEAKER_04]: We found and employed some of the sector's best hackers.
[SPEAKER_04]: And out of their efforts came a string of numbers we now believe to be coordinates.
[SPEAKER_04]: Cords and its leading to an uncharted system
[SPEAKER_04]: at the far reaches of our own sector, the Viridian Expans.
[SPEAKER_04]: Your mission is to travel to Nistrataphore.
[SPEAKER_04]: There, you will retrieve a Zeno-Linquist named Dr. Alara Voss.
[SPEAKER_04]: Once you have her in your service, figure out how to get to the uncharted sector and discover what the risks are learned there.
[SPEAKER_04]: They age you in this mission a free merchant class spaceship has been purchased, and awaits you in docking Bay, seventy-two.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now although this ship has not flowed in close to a decade, it exists.
[SPEAKER_04]: They no known registration, allowing you some animosity.
[SPEAKER_04]: A false ship identification has been uploaded on a ship, which has been provided to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: At this point, the blow-penser claw retreats back into the robot, and comes back out, holding a small envelope, and it hands it to... Yeah, it goes ahead of the rubber ross, but then towards next.
[SPEAKER_04]: I grab it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Keeking inside of the envelope, you find a thousand credits represented in physical form and a small SD card.
[SPEAKER_04]: Some credits have also been provisioned for a food in additional supplies.
[SPEAKER_04]: We are likely not the only group or corporation to have intercepted this signal, be wary.
[SPEAKER_04]: So those you meet on your travels may be searching for the same thing as you.
[SPEAKER_04]: You will have no contact with us until your mission is complete.
[SPEAKER_04]: We will be in touch.
[SPEAKER_04]: The transmission ends.
[SPEAKER_04]: A curl of black smoke rises from the point that the ST card wasn't inserted into.
[SPEAKER_04]: The shutter's rise and the door unlocks.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, this is all a bit co-conduerned.
[SPEAKER_06]: I can't say that this is what I expected when I woke up this morning.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's it in that envelope, Thorne?
[SPEAKER_06]: Thorne dumps out the contents like into his hand and holds it out.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, these are the credits that they mentioned and one of these here dated chips.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, we take a look at that.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a standard high-capacity SD card.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're not sure what's on it, but according to the transmission, it's some sort of identification profile for the ship.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, assumeably once you get to the ship, you'll have to upload it into its systems.
[SPEAKER_05]: This must be that, uh, that ID they're talking about for the ship.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll hold down on this so I'll get us loaded up and we get there.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hmm, license and registration.
[SPEAKER_05]: Apparently so.
[SPEAKER_05]: By the way, though, I'm going to see you again.
[SPEAKER_05]: Haven't seen you since that last mission.
[SPEAKER_05]: With that go three.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I'm surprised they put us together after the, that whole thing went haywire last time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, you know, it was nice to have a break, but I'm glad to be back in the action.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you say haywire?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're supposed to save Dr. Foss.
[SPEAKER_03]: You guys can do that, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: find her.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I work with machines, not people.
[SPEAKER_05]: You look more like you could save somebody.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just gotta get to her for anyone else does.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I know I threw a lot of paragraphs at you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I can give you like a high level version of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Your mission for tonight is to go get your ship from docking base seventy two and then go to mistrata four, which is a research facility on the planet Wafisa in the revirmy treta system.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that is one, two, three, four, five systems away.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're looking at like twenty to thirty days of spike drives.
[SPEAKER_05]: So what am I sure we've got good spice on this shit point at there?
[SPEAKER_00]: You?
[SPEAKER_00]: And for that, I'm gonna take a look around, good look around, make sure that if there's anything that we can harvest out of this base while we're making our way to the dock, I'm gonna see if I can grab it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely, so as you leave the false front of Albany Tech here on Crimeira IV,
[SPEAKER_04]: and start making your way towards the docking base.
[SPEAKER_04]: At least some of the docking base, one through one hundred, because you're looking for seventy two, you are encountering this horrible space station that was once a hub for research and development, but has since over the past twenty years turned into a haven for black market drugs and illicit activities.
[SPEAKER_04]: The corridors are dark with many of the lights burnt out or broken.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's grimey.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's run down.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's obviously no governmental entity here.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no cleaning staff.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's simply anarchy.
[SPEAKER_04]: The air smells of rust.
[SPEAKER_04]: Old fuel.
[SPEAKER_04]: And the buzzing of malfunction in lights flickers overhead.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not a very pleasant place.
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, like many space stations, it feels as if you were underground by here it's particularly claustrophobic.
[SPEAKER_04]: All of the luxuries that even the cheapest space station has are not present here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Windows into space or at least illusionary pictures to make you feel like there's a actual planet outside with blue skies and green grass.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here you are, deep underground, even though you are floating in the middle of space.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm certainly going to be looking out for ammunition, Russians, fuel, and any drugs I can find just to keep them out of failx's hands.
[SPEAKER_05]: You don't know me yet, man.
[SPEAKER_05]: How does your set of curiosity?
[SPEAKER_05]: Do we know how like supplies work on ships is just based on the life support?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to run a very crunchy game.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: But the one thing you will need is fuel.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to probably want to like track fuel because that's impetus for you to take on jobs.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: But for food and stuff, I don't care.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you have fuel in your tank, then I assume you have enough food to eat as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: That makes sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: So are you guys making your way towards docking base seventy two while just looking out for other things or are you intentionally going away from docking base seventy two to shop or to search?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we should, I mean, we're here for reason I want to get off the station.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll go around.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're already to go.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I assume one of you can pilot this thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm moving with urgency here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll happily pilot us away, but I'm definitely just keeping a strong eye out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, as we head towards the, uh, back in May, seventy two.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you, good, you keep a safe, man.
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, when I heard we were going to cry, Mary, I thought we were just getting demoted.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now I feel like this is the sealicide mission.
[SPEAKER_06]: What is it anything different with Omnitech?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they've been trying to kill me for years, and don't you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, it's still a bit of a sensitive subject.
[SPEAKER_02]: Guys know about my sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know they've been trying to do something fun at us.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reason they put us all together.
[SPEAKER_03]: so that we can serve because we're the best.
[SPEAKER_06]: I like your attitude, Haley with two words.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: I haven't been here long, but I definitely don't think we're the best that Autotech has.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, don't sell yourself short.
[SPEAKER_06]: Speak for yourself.
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to sell myself short, man.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: So the four of you make your way to docking base, seventy two.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're going through this dingy, crappy space station that probably cost trillions of credits to make and have since been abandoned by whatever entity made it and taken over by the gangs that have sprung up here.
[SPEAKER_04]: You count your way up to docking base, pass in corridor after corridor.
[SPEAKER_04]: The first one is for docking base one and two only, then three through ten, then ten through twenty.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes the docking bay corridors are just for one or two massive docking bays that are meant for frigate class ships.
[SPEAKER_04]: Other ones are a bevy of smaller docking bays.
[SPEAKER_04]: All crowded together, fitting most likely in its heyday, two, three, four strike fighters per docking bay, meaning that there would be a hundred for a single corridor leading off to one of these docking bay sets.
[SPEAKER_04]: You make your way up to the fifty through eighty section.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're looking for docking base seventy-two.
[SPEAKER_04]: In this section, like all the other sections, it's full of grime and refuse.
[SPEAKER_04]: Dirt, it smells of stale recycled air, but something different about this area are the scorched marks on the wall.
[SPEAKER_04]: The dried blood on the ground weeks, if not months old.
[SPEAKER_04]: Barragades have been built in various places along these corridors.
[SPEAKER_04]: A war broke out at some point.
[SPEAKER_04]: Massive battles along these corridors.
[SPEAKER_04]: There is a barricade directly across the entrance to docking Bay's fifty through eighty.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's built of stacked storage bins and metal sheeting.
[SPEAKER_04]: Two armed guards wearing hacked together armor painted in bright greens and yellows and behind the barricade.
[SPEAKER_04]: The barricade is about ten feet tall and they're on some sort of ledge behind it.
[SPEAKER_04]: On each of their left shoulder pads is a red emblem of a fierce rat.
[SPEAKER_04]: One wields a semi-automatic pistol, which he brandishes at you as you approach, and the other sports a sought-off shotgun, which he holds at the ready.
[SPEAKER_04]: the welcoming committee.
[SPEAKER_04]: They both also have knives in a band of leaders across their chest.
[SPEAKER_04]: Their shoulder pads are spiky, but not as spiky as they're hair as each sport, identical, green, and yellow mojocks.
[SPEAKER_04]: One of them speaks up and just, hey, hey, this area is off limits to the likes of you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Gentlemen, gentlemen, we're here on official business.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're looking for seventy-two and I like I very rigoriously step forward and like put my arms out like this doesn't have to be a shootout.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's brand is the one that's talking.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's just brandishing his semi-automatic pistol around point to get at each of you and then scratching his head with it.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's like, oh yeah, well, I don't see no seventy-two here.
[SPEAKER_04]: So why don't you seventy-two yourself away from us?
[SPEAKER_04]: They high five each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was good on gentlemen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I mean, we might have to take a little step away because I mean, I was just trying to show off around here.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these barriers you all put up to keep keep back the orphans.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you have a whole bunch of orphan barriers around here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that right?
[SPEAKER_04]: off and bet what the hell are you talking about often barrier I was an orphan I don't my friend my friend here was a what what do you mean what the fuck do you mean often barriers and now he's pointing his gut at you I mean I'm just showing look you got you all got such a nice looking barrier here Didn't didn't mean to disturb not what a nice little little little rat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's a
[SPEAKER_06]: I think what my friend is trying to say is, we don't mean any offense, but we do need to get beyond her barrier.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yet beyond her barrier, listen to these fancy gentlemen coming in from the south side of the station.
[SPEAKER_04]: You don't know who you are?
[SPEAKER_04]: You're obviously not from around these parts because we're the drift rats!
[SPEAKER_04]: We drift like rats all around this side of the station.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you think you're going to come here and get across our barrier and drift rat territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you not understand that yet?
[SPEAKER_04]: Because I could pump you full of lead and maybe that'll give you a little bit of an idea where you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know that drift rats.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know we're in drift rat territory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all should have said some earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's my boys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, we just stand enough to the side starting to do up our old flex routine, crunching your knuckles.
[SPEAKER_03]: We know where we're are.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're on our way to seventy two move.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I need you to roll talk Robert Ross, which is not a skill you're good at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll try to talk him up real good and I roll the five.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as you guys approach the ten-foot barrier, and you're crunching your knuckles, cracking your knuckles, and Robert is basically trying to ingratiate yourself to them, right, Robert?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or at least let them know that, I mean, I respect the drift prats.
[SPEAKER_00]: The drift prats are a mighty game.
[SPEAKER_04]: So unfortunately, you didn't roll very high.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as you approach, the shock I'm guy also points his gun, and he says, yo, I don't like that they're getting so close to us there, and the other one says, what do you think you're gonna do?
[SPEAKER_04]: Get over this wall, and he pats it really hard.
[SPEAKER_04]: Back up, you're not allowed in drift rat territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're probably working for them neon fangs anyway.
[SPEAKER_04]: Huh, and he spits on the ground, neon fangs.
[SPEAKER_04]: More like, more, and he looks over to his friend.
[SPEAKER_04]: More like, uh,
[SPEAKER_04]: He snaps his fingers, looking for help.
[SPEAKER_04]: The guy just looks at him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nyeongwames.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, the Nyeongwames.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad I thought of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Nyeongwames.
[SPEAKER_06]: You're a bunch of them Nyeongwames.
[SPEAKER_06]: Listen, we're not with the wames.
[SPEAKER_06]: We respect the Drift Rats, and we're on official business.
[SPEAKER_06]: and I'm telling you that it would be in your best interest to let us through.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, Thorn, why don't you roll a talk because you're trying to intimidate them?
[SPEAKER_04]: I rolled a twelfth.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, with a twelfth, you say that and it go, you know, box.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think these guys are serious.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ah, shut up with you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, tell you what, y'all look pretty serious.
[SPEAKER_04]: Why don't you just stay there and I'll get a little rust claw?
[SPEAKER_04]: He'll talk to you and he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll sort this out.
[SPEAKER_04]: He'll sort it out.
[SPEAKER_04]: You stay here and he'll sort this out.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: He hops down off the back of the wall and the guy with a shotgun just keeps it kind of trained on you and his face is just completely blank.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's obviously that there's not a lot of lights on in there.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I just kind of smirk at him and then I turn back to the group and I like huddle up real quick and I'm like, what the fuck are we gonna do?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're gonna punch him.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're gonna feed up on a giant wall.
[SPEAKER_03]: After they come down.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, y'all.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I'm going to have to let the mussel take care of this one.
[SPEAKER_05]: These boys are low tech.
[SPEAKER_07]: What do we just tell them?
[SPEAKER_07]: We, uh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we could go to the lowest tech route.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we got a thousand credits.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, what, what can I bribe these boys?
[SPEAKER_05]: What?
[SPEAKER_05]: Probably not very much.
[SPEAKER_05]: They don't look like much.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think anything can make a difference in their lives.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_07]: You're crazy.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm not giving our credits to these bumbling gangsters.
[SPEAKER_05]: You want to tell the boss that I'm exact that we got stopped before we've got to the ship?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we'll get to tell him much for dead.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe you're right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Intruder!
[SPEAKER_04]: That's welcome to the lower docking base.
[SPEAKER_04]: You turn to find a hooking, heavily scarred man.
[SPEAKER_04]: His nickname of rust claw comes apart quite clearly as his left hand is missing.
[SPEAKER_04]: and has been replaced with a mechanical cybernetic claw.
[SPEAKER_04]: He looks like a beast built for sheer strength, and he has a very commanding presence.
[SPEAKER_04]: Box tells me that well you want to get through to docking bay seventy two look at me.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm a poet everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good one mosque.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good one.
[SPEAKER_06]: If it isn't the great an illustrious Lord Rust claw.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, we would like to get docking bay seventy two very important business.
[SPEAKER_06]: I see.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, you're in drift rat territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can't just walk on through.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's not the way this works.
[SPEAKER_04]: Of course, of course.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure you want in docking base seventy two.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I I nervously look back at everybody else and then I look back at at rust claw again and I say uh, but that's where we parked.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've been in control of these docking bays for years now.
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you mean that's where you parked?
[SPEAKER_00]: as is happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,
[SPEAKER_04]: Unable to open these past several years, tell me what's in there, and maybe you can do a favor for me in exchange for the goods that I own.
[SPEAKER_04]: What kind of ship is in there?
[SPEAKER_04]: You're doubtful.
[SPEAKER_04]: A spaceship.
[SPEAKER_04]: And what kind of favor are we talking about?
[SPEAKER_04]: It depends on what kind of spaceship is in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're telling us, yeah y'all don't even know what thing you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's a lot of security in here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Unable to open all the doors to all the docking base.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've gotten a lot of them open.
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_04]: This one we haven't quite opened yet.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, well, I could, I could open one of the other ones for you.
[SPEAKER_05]: It exchanged for you letting us through a seventy-two.
[SPEAKER_06]: And it's nothing special.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's just an old, you know, small ship.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was left to four Felix's uncle just passed and he left to two of them in his will.
[SPEAKER_06]: So we're here to pick it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just curious, if my big strong friend over here can open the door with her bare hands, feel it's y'all getting to hack this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If she can open this with her bare hands, well, you let us take the contents of what's inside.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, what are you taking for a fool?
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you think I became the leader of the drift rats by just giving things out based on feats of strength?
[SPEAKER_04]: Boy, I am a feat of strength!
[SPEAKER_04]: I care not for seeing such musculature.
[SPEAKER_04]: Then he points down to you and he says, you tell me what type of ship is in there and I'll proportion a favor.
[SPEAKER_04]: You do this favor?
[SPEAKER_04]: We open those doors?
[SPEAKER_04]: Based on a misuming you have the code to get in.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if that type of ship is in there, you weren't lying to me.
[SPEAKER_04]: If so, Fakdo, you can take it away because the favor has been rendered in full, and a drift ride is always worth his word.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just a free merchant.
[SPEAKER_06]: And yes, we have the codes.
[SPEAKER_06]: a free merchant that's been sitting there for how long?
[SPEAKER_06]: Who knows, how old was her uncle Felix?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, let's see, uncle Uncle Roger died.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I, I've, I've been playing it a couple times.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know how hard it is to keep track of interplanetary time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, how old did you see you all been here?
[SPEAKER_05]: Five years or so?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it was about six years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: If that thing's been sitting there for longer than two weeks without maintenance, it's probably a rust bucket that's not flyable by now anyway.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll tell you what, I have a small favor for you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously you've heard of the drift rats, but have you heard of the neon fangs?
[SPEAKER_05]: You mean the neon lames?
[SPEAKER_04]: The neon lames.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey boss, that was my joke.
[SPEAKER_04]: I made a silence, you.
[SPEAKER_04]: If I want to know who said a joke I'll ask, the neon lames, that's a good one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, the neon, the neon laims.
[SPEAKER_04]: The neon laims are, well, they're another gang, a lesser gang.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're a bit more south of us.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have some of the docking base, and they've been trying to expand their reach.
[SPEAKER_04]: They've forgotten exactly who is in charge of this side of the space station, and they need to be reminded.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have someone with you that can hack?
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, yeah, you could say so.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been hatching a little plan for a while now, but our hackers are not really up to the task.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're not fighters.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this requires going behind enemy lines.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's the hack?
[SPEAKER_05]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_04]: Move into the neon lanes territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: The on lanes.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you're going to try to take down their systems from the inside.
[SPEAKER_04]: Of course, all their ports are fire walls.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're going to have to actually move into their territory to use one of the unprotected ports.
[SPEAKER_04]: Blaster the drip threats insignia all over every screen on the station if you can access them with a message on it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Better a rat in the drift than a king in a cage.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's our motto and we live by it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Remind them who's in charge of this station.
[SPEAKER_04]: You could do this and we see the proof on our own screens.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can come back here and we'll let you into, well we'll let you access to Dawkins Bay, seven or two opening the door will be up to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, give you a hearty hand shake and a glass of brew if you wish it because you'll be honorary drift frats if you can make the neon lanes look that thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, lame.
[SPEAKER_05]: You have a copy this program you won't run.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got a right to roam program.
[SPEAKER_04]: What do I look like?
[SPEAKER_04]: Someone who fights programs?
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I look like I'm wearing glasses?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, you're welcome.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then what was it again?
[SPEAKER_04]: Better a rat in the drift than a king and a cage.
[SPEAKER_04]: Finish his box.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, all right, all right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that'll be no problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great stuff, by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: He waves his hand just misively and hops off to the back of the wall and you can hear him moving back off into the docking base.
[SPEAKER_04]: box waves his semi-automatic you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, that'll be fine.
[SPEAKER_05]: We just need to get to the right, uh, the right interface.
[SPEAKER_05]: So let's, uh, he said, what do you say south of here?
[SPEAKER_05]: I never know which direction is which in space.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all rotating.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you leave docking base, fifty through eighty, unable to get into docking base seventy two and you're gonna go try to figure out where the neon things are, how to infiltrate them, how to hack them and do exactly what, uh, rust claw needs to allow you access to your ship.
[SPEAKER_04]: So have at you.
[SPEAKER_05]: be like sellings can take you to write a program that does that I can do all or walk and it was just a little bit of time but uh... i mean to get into their system i mean if you have the prep for for a bit here we could you know i could do it no no problem um... i do like i don't know a good hour hour and a half to sit down and work through this you know make sure i got the right raps to their protocols uh... or you know we just go in there and i wing it
[SPEAKER_04]: And I will say, you're on a space station that has accommodations.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if you guys need the, it is getting on in the day.
[SPEAKER_04]: It'd be nice to spend the next night on your spaceship.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you can't do things fast enough, there are hotels, CD and non-CD here on the space station.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, listen, Thorne, you know, you see in me an action.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can do this, no problem.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is a baby hack.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like the fact that there guys couldn't do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I wouldn't even call them hackers.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're, you know, kids playing around.
[SPEAKER_05]: Give me ten minutes if I'm one of their terminals and I'll be fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, ten minutes might be a little bit of a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what kind of security we're going through here?
[SPEAKER_06]: No, that's what the ten minutes is for.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hopefully not a big ten foot concrete wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm worried about.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, you mean physical ski?
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know about any of that stuff.
[SPEAKER_05]: You all got to figure that out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Cyber security.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, like I said, that's the ten minutes.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, ten maybe fifteen minutes tops.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's that that's that that clicking a clock part now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about what am I going to have to deal with to make sure that you have the then their ten minutes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's like crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: Look, my stress rise.
[SPEAKER_05]: Why don't we go find out.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was my boy Felix.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so tell me how you want to approach this.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're heading towards neon fang territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we have a decent idea of where that is, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so you know that they hold some of the docking base, south of fifty through eighty.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, so we're looking for the thirty through fifty area or whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so you eventually find the neon fangs are holding.
[SPEAKER_04]: You don't quite know the extent of their holdings, but you do know that they don't start to hold until the low forties.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they hold multiple corridors, but they're smaller.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're not like the big neon rat.
[SPEAKER_04]: The big drift rat section of fifty through eighty, which won massive corridor with a bunch of stuff behind it.
[SPEAKER_04]: They hold many smaller corridors with only a few docking base behind each one.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as you approach this area, it's less of a barricade that's talking people from going in and more of a residential area and lots of stalls and merchants and the neon fangs sort of patrolling the area more like armed guards and preventing people from going down certain docking big corridors.
[SPEAKER_04]: But other than that, they've seen to have built a community that they are the protectors or perhaps exploiters of here in the lower areas of the docking back.
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, what I was gonna say was that we should keep our eyes peeled for anyone that looks like they're with the fangs, but it sounds like we can see that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so the neon fangs are dressed in similar like street armor as the drifrats, but their colors are different.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're spray painted red or black, red and black all over their armor, and they have an emblem of a rat that looks very similar to the drif rat rat, but it has two giant fangs on the front, like coming out of its rat-like mouth.
[SPEAKER_04]: So their emblems are practically identical, but one has fangs.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm sure there's some sort of message in there about how we're all actually alike.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm sensing something about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I wrote pages, Reims of History about these two gangs, and they splintered from the same.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I didn't.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, did I?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like where's the room you and Juliet story here?
[SPEAKER_04]: If you guys want to stick around to the space station, I'm sure you could find that story.
[SPEAKER_04]: That guy with the handgun was clearly in my future.
[SPEAKER_05]: So as we're moving through this area, and we kind of see all the things you described with the stalls, the guards, I'm looking around for any access points that seem like they're tied into, you know, that they, that I could check out to see if they're tied into the right network and begin doing some analysis of the system here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure, so you're moving down essentially what is the main corridor?
[SPEAKER_04]: All the docking base have other corridors that branch off of this one.
[SPEAKER_04]: This main corridor with all these stalls and people is the same corridor you've been following that goes all the way back to Drift Rat territory and also goes all the way to the lift to bring you up to the upper levels where you actually went to like the Omnitech gas mining front.
[SPEAKER_04]: So this is just the main thoroughfare.
[SPEAKER_04]: There is, you do spot a port.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's currently in use by a merchant who has a small stall
[SPEAKER_04]: selling handmade rugs and towels.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's he has a laptop looking device plugged into it with a great ribbon cable.
[SPEAKER_05]: A Dutch and a storm.
[SPEAKER_05]: I just, I gotta get on that.
[SPEAKER_06]: That exact one.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, have you seen any others?
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, Lee?
[SPEAKER_05]: Rob, you seen any others?
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure, we can keep looking.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he's just a merchant.
[SPEAKER_05]: He looks nice.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, somebody should go talk to him.
[SPEAKER_06]: You want me to distract him?
[SPEAKER_03]: I can go ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, before we all do that, I'm kind of curious just to give them a little bit of distraction.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm just roll around in some grease and spack out my hair real quick, make it look like I'm a neon lame.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, don't, don't see it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, you do your body.
[SPEAKER_00]: I turn my Afro into like the most gigantic spiked dreadlock row thing you've ever seen.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just curious.
[SPEAKER_04]: What method of adhesion are you using during your Afro?
[SPEAKER_00]: What colors your Afro?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a white Afro that has been just dunked in floor grease.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like I'm just like rubbing it up against a wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're afro touches a wall and immediately turns into shoulder length hair.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how greasy it gets instantly.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you spike it up the best you can with floor grease and whatever else is rubbing off of the floors in wall.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a disgusting, it's less of an afro and more of a block of hair.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, that is, it's a trapezoid of hair.
[SPEAKER_04]: But you are missing the red and black spray painted armor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the black's coming from the grease, because I'm now just rolling around in grease.
[SPEAKER_00]: Haley, can you, can you try to make a little, little rat up in here somewhere?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you just like drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop and then.
[SPEAKER_04]: No.
[SPEAKER_04]: People are looking at you a bit funny here in this main thoroughfare of the space station as you roll around on the floor and rub your head against the wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: I kind of, as you do with this, I kind of feels kind of, you know, glimpse over.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I lean against the wall near where the merchants computer is plugged in as close as I can get to it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And kind of like, you know, make it obvious that I'm rubbing like a painful part of my body.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, and I kind of like hiking my pants, feel like they see my robot legs.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm like rubbing my my the joints where my legs meet my hips.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm just like lean against the wall for a quick little rest.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, we're going to roll a couple of skills here for both of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Haley is terrified right now of what's going on on the floor.
[SPEAKER_05]: I have nothing to do with that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Robert just went for it and I just like trying to take advantage.
[SPEAKER_06]: He walks up and he's like, yeah, and he starts break dancing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I love it.
[SPEAKER_03]: My sister.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, this is what my sister experienced.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm just going through a whole lot of reshaping what I thought, strike unit.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I'm like, is this a normal strike unit six adventure?
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the least weird thing we did.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Robert, I'm gonna have you roll perform dexterity.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, what's to perform?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, perform dexterity's perfect.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're rolling around the ground, rubbing your hair everywhere, trying to get it into a approximation of a neon fangs armor and hair style.
[SPEAKER_04]: which is obviously never going to happen.
[SPEAKER_04]: But unbeknownst to you, you are causing the exact distraction, you wish to cause by becoming a neon thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: So with a role of eight, you meet the DC and you have captured the attention of the nearby rugged towel merchant who is saying, who, uh, Felix who's right next to him next to the port on the wall can hear say, what the places that young man's lost his mind.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Felix, I need you to also roll perform because you're trying to act like you have a reason to be leaning against the wall.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's to do perform.
[SPEAKER_05]: I am a pain.
[SPEAKER_05]: I haven't let you to maintain as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but you're trying to mask your true intention of, yeah, so go ahead and roll perform charisma.
[SPEAKER_05]: I rolled a six, sadly.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so, but you get a bonus from the distraction.
[SPEAKER_04]: The merchant is not looking at you.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're just another, you know, man with, well, I guess you have prosthetic legs, but you're another, you know, another older gentleman that's having problems rubbing his legs and he's attention to just purely captured by this white afroat man rolling around the ground.
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, he's capturing a bit too much attention as two neon fangs down the corridor seems to have noticed him on our starting to make their way towards him.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I'm not going to have enough time.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think to myself, do the hack here.
[SPEAKER_05]: Or will I?
[SPEAKER_05]: So first thing first, I'm going to unplug his laptop and plug in my date of head.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: He is too wrapped up in what's happening to notice.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I perform like the handshake and like, can I tell that this is a neon flame?
[SPEAKER_05]: I forget their actual name.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a lot of flame.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_05]: neon fangs.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it an actual neon fangs?
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, I purchased their systems.
[SPEAKER_04]: So to determine that, I'm gonna need you to make some sort of exploratory computers role.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you plug in, you grab, what kind of device you're using?
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you opening a laptop or is it a data pad?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I have it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a data pad.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a slab.
[SPEAKER_05]: It folds out into like a three-screen thing.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's called a data slab.
[SPEAKER_05]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you plug your ribbon cable into the port and you slide open your data slab and you hurriedly type on, is it a virtual interface or is it actual physical keys?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a virtual interface.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, realizing that I'm going to try to pull out a, like a network map of the local area.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll keep your roll from before.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is all a single hacking attempt.
[SPEAKER_04]: So,
[SPEAKER_04]: You continue typing as the neon fangards, or you can see out of the corner you're right there now, conversing with your group and Robert Ross is sort of from the ground and they're all talking.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're typing, they're continuing to distract, and you pull out a network map that tells you how many different ports you're here in this corridor, but also that the ports that are firewalled, you can tell because you can't reach.
[SPEAKER_04]: ask those ports and figure out what's on the other side of them, which means they're firewalled.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is where the neon fangs ports are, but you do have their physical locations.
[SPEAKER_04]: Meanwhile, two neon fangs walk up to you, Robert, while you're on the ground.
[SPEAKER_04]: They each have pistols and knives, but holstered and sheathed, and one of the neon fangs says, citizen, you're a causing alarm.
[SPEAKER_04]: Please stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Serious, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have to stand up for y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: low, the neon fangs, by the way.
[SPEAKER_04]: They go ahead and they help you up and they're kind of dusting you off and trying to get the grime off you a little bit, but they don't try too hard.
[SPEAKER_04]: They turn to Captain Thorne, who just happens to be the closest one and says, is this your friend?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, my apologies.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's having a bit of a traumatic stress episode, but I think he's coming on the other side of it now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks for your assistance.
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely understand.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I haven't seen you around here before.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is neon fangs territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: We try to keep the peace the best we can.
[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously your friend wasn't hurting anyone, but we can't have him rolling around in the streets.
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you new in this area?
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, yes, actually.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, welcome to the Neon Fang's Territory.
[SPEAKER_04]: We keep everything as safe as we can from the other gangs, essentially from here down to docking Bay, twenty, I don't know if you've gone that self yet.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you need lodging, there are several hostels as well as one more upscale hotel.
[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of residents have been moving in and taking shelter in what we, unfortunately, are calling a shanty town, but there's plenty of space there if you simply need the bed somewhere outside and you are
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, bereft of credits, let's say.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's extremely helpful.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: And if I could ask, I don't suppose the things have like a central base of operations in these areas, do you?
[SPEAKER_04]: It depends what you're looking for.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, if you need some sort of help navigating the area, or you want to talk to our leaders about some concern with our community, you can go to booking Bay corridors down.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's two on the port side.
[SPEAKER_04]: Whenever we say a number of corridors, we're talking about port side corridors.
[SPEAKER_04]: Go to down and then it will be that next corridor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And theoretically, if we were having some
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, did not necessarily happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Issues with drift rats.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you all be able to help us with that?
[SPEAKER_04]: If drift rats enter this territory, we kindly ask them to leave.
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't take them as a legitimate threat.
[SPEAKER_04]: Of course, they harassed our citizens before and interrupted our supply lines and they've taken a section of docking bays to the north that are largely useless.
[SPEAKER_04]: which is why we haven't attempted to move into them ourselves.
[SPEAKER_04]: But of course, they are a problem from time to time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: We wouldn't move against them, though, based on something that happened outside of this area now.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you've had trouble with them, I would simply tell you, stay away from them.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's plenty of stable sections of the space station where you can call your new home and welcome the Crimea for.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I've been into light speaking with you, gentlemen.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, if you're going to be picking a place to live on cremary of four and you end up staying in the neon fangs community, my name is Roger.
[SPEAKER_04]: I actually run a
[SPEAKER_04]: pool hall, just down.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I guess I thought I'd be running it, but as a guard with the neon fangs, I don't know that much time.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I suppose it's probably more fair to say my wife and my eldest Axel run the pool hall.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if you play billiards, or if you like to gamble a little bit, or just want a good place to drink with a few friends, it's called Rogers.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's my name.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's down there for corridors, and you'll find it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're so kind.
[SPEAKER_04]: He shakes each person's hand and turn.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, that advice happening.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm pulling my data pad and pulling it back in the Martian slap top.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I give him the most long and awkward greasy handshake.
[SPEAKER_04]: He does show on his face that he thinks it's awkward and greasy, but out of politeness, he waits for you to finish the handshake.
[SPEAKER_04]: He obviously thinks that you're suffering some sort of like emotional trauma.
[SPEAKER_04]: When you release his hand, he grips you by the shoulder.
[SPEAKER_04]: For a moment, he says, my friend, whatever's happening, it will get better.
[SPEAKER_04]: It will.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he claps you on the shoulder.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just stay with your friends.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're a good lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You serve our con man and I will absolutely fat fat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love failures.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been playing since I was a boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go by Roberts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ruff.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rogers.
[SPEAKER_04]: My name's Roger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rogers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a break.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a common problem.
[SPEAKER_04]: People call me Robert all the time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: They sound, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, Rogers did something and I can't wait to see you there.
[SPEAKER_04]: All are welcome.
[SPEAKER_04]: First round is on me of pool and drinks.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you don't drink, we have water too.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks, Roger.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Roger.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Roger and the other guard who was standing a little bit off, just kind of watching the crowd during that leave.
[SPEAKER_04]: And as they leave, the second guard gives you kind of a half-hearted wave like he regrets not being more part of the conversation.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they move on into deeper and to neon thanks territory towards Rogers' billiard hall.
[SPEAKER_03]: Guys, guys, what the fuck?
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, that was rude.
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
[SPEAKER_03]: They're awesome here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, like, what's in this code?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, yeah, I kind of feel bad now, yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: Haley's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Guys, it's a prank.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you not get, like, I'm putting up a picture in some words.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a prank.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just a prank, bro.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so we can get access to our ship.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we sure?
[SPEAKER_05]: I wrote the program, Haley.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you, is it a nice prank?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, but we're still the bad guys.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, there's a picture in some words from the dumbass gang.
[SPEAKER_05]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're never going to see them again.
[SPEAKER_05]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're just people.
[SPEAKER_05]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_04]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_03]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_06]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_03]: These are just people.
[SPEAKER_05]: of where all their ports are we can go now and finish this is one in Rogers because let me tell you that place on a great what what is Rogers what are you talking oh my god
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a free beer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, I was too busy rolling around and grease.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's free beer.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said he'd get us off the first round free.
[SPEAKER_06]: He did say first round is on him and that did constitute a verbal contract.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where did he say this place was?
[SPEAKER_05]: I check, I cross-referred set against my map of ports.
[SPEAKER_04]: So to get to any of the firewalled ports, you're going to have to go through one of these lock doors.
[SPEAKER_04]: Either a barricade or a shut door.
[SPEAKER_04]: But there is a barricade and a shut door, basically every corridor that you pass.
[SPEAKER_05]: Listen, like, we can go there if you want, but we're not here to have a good time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Excuse me, excuse me.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, sir, man.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the carpet towel seller.
[SPEAKER_06]: Ah, yes.
[SPEAKER_06]: Carpet towel salesman.
[SPEAKER_06]: How can I help you?
[SPEAKER_06]: Would you like to buy something you've been in front of my stall for a long time now?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, you're a business.
[SPEAKER_06]: I believe we were just leaving.
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: Your textiles are lovely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take a towel.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, don't pay that much, don't pay that much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, how much is it?
[SPEAKER_06]: That'd be three credits for the towel dairy.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's too much.
[SPEAKER_06]: Come on, just walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.
[SPEAKER_06]: Just walk away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just walk away.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just walk away.
[UNKNOWN]: Just walk away.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just walk away.
[SPEAKER_05]: Listen, I found this, I pulled up this map of the ports.
[SPEAKER_05]: We gotta get through one of these locked doors.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you guys are walking down the main thoroughfare right now as you talk.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm talking to hush tones.
[SPEAKER_05]: Listen, you see all these, and I'm pointing out the locked doors, and I like the barricades as well, I pass.
[SPEAKER_05]: We gotta get in there.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's where I can do my work.
[SPEAKER_05]: Somebody, like, somebody's gotta get me in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, can you hack one of these doors?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in perfect, me on, flying to scas, so I can easily watch the door.
[SPEAKER_06]: Probably I don't have to tell you this, my friend.
[SPEAKER_06]: But the disguise is not that great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's worth one beer.
[SPEAKER_06]: And maybe there will be a listen.
[SPEAKER_06]: Felix, is there one for corridors down?
[SPEAKER_06]: Can we check that corridor to see how close it is?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it's like every corridor.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, let's go.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, all right.
[SPEAKER_06]: So in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, go four corridors down and see if we can find the door that's there or doors I guess and see what their proximity to Rogers is.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, and I hate to say it guys, but we're out of time for the night.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we're gonna go right into the crew logs section of the pod.
[SPEAKER_04]: So for our first time listeners, which is everybody, because this is our first episode.
[SPEAKER_04]: Unless you're listening to our episode, one hundred, God willing in the future, and you've come back to listen to the first episode ever.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back.
[SPEAKER_04]: We are now going to do our crew logs where everyone in the crew gets a chance just to give their final thoughts.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe think ahead to what's going to be happening in the next adventure, so make sure you stay tuned for episode two.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think we'll start with Scott.
[SPEAKER_04]: What does Felix think?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, the group is dragging me to some gods for sake and billiards haul.
[SPEAKER_05]: more people, I guess.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think there's a chance I can find one of those access points that I need.
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll see what we turn up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Definitely, Ali would too wise.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, this has been a weird mission so far.
[SPEAKER_03]: First, there's the robot, which weird, then, you know, unexpected from Omnitech, then we, you know, can't even buy towels after dealing, you know, watching Robert
[SPEAKER_03]: roll around an oil because of the neon flames.
[SPEAKER_03]: And thank God we've met one nice person on this place, but you know, people are seem to be hell bent.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hopefully we can just finish this mission before someone messes something up and also get Robert Clean.
[SPEAKER_04]: He needs a Brian.
[SPEAKER_04]: What's Captain Thorne thinking right about now?
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a shame we ran into the crazies on this station before we ran into any normal people, but at least we're on our way to get in that ship.
[SPEAKER_07]: Did you see what they were charging for rugs on this thing?
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh boy, it's a good thing these drinks are gonna be free.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, the last but not least, Robert Ross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Felix and, hey, with one wild sister, we love working with a crew that ain't a bunch of random days.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are your favorites.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they seem like a bunch of charms, but ships a ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: We knew you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Dark Star Adventures.
[SPEAKER_04]: The story is just heating up, and our cruise challenges are only just beginning.
[SPEAKER_04]: Will they find a way to outsmart the neon fangs and get to docking bay seventy-two?
[SPEAKER_04]: You'll have to join us next time to find out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Until then, stay sharp, keep your engines running and remember.
[SPEAKER_04]: Out here among the stars, survival is the ultimate victory.
[SPEAKER_04]: See you next time on Dark Star Adventures!