Transcriber: Vivien - ocean1212w#9314
Austin: You get this just incredible charge of energy underneath you, as you begin to lift up. The ship is now like above the ground and it's going faster than you've ever felt it go before because the Maglev, you know, track is just super powerful. It's, again, powered by both Motion and the breadth of The Exemplar. And again, as it does this, there is like a reverberation inside of the ship that, Millie, you recognize as Motion’s voice. It's like, the longest two minutes of your life as you, you take off very fast, but also there's a point where you're like, is this working? Is this supposed to? What's happening? Um, and then things start to lift like any loose cloth begins to lift into the air.
And for the first time you see... Partizan from above and you just see like the sea. Um, and it's like, as you're looking at that, that you feel the track beneath you give way to nothing.
[Music begins: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
And The Blue Channel takes to space and is space for the first time, uh, ever since you've had it at least. And then like way off in the distance, you're your, you know, navigational computer like outlines where the Portcullis System is and you plot your course, uh, and it's rocky and you have a week in front of you basically between now and when the next Portcullis gate opening is, and that's about as long as it will take you to get there in a straight line.
They point to the sensors and there's like some sort of object approaching from the rear quickly. The sound of Motion. Now you hear it Thisbe this time, the words are intentional and they are,
Austin (as Motion): Did you really think we'd let you get away that easily?
Sylvi: Aah!
Austin: Motion is coming. Uh, are there alarms on this ship? I think Jesset yells from down the hall:
Austin (as Jesset): Uh, what did, what was that? What is happening?
Ali (as Broun): Uh w-w-w-w- We're getting it under control. You know,
Austin: I think it's close enough for you to recognize what you're looking at. Especially Millie who's out there with her long range weaponry and scanners.
This is a kind of big cylindrical object with- with the engine on the back and riding on it, like hooked onto it are three mechs previously it's been five minutes. One of them you recognize immediately Millie. It is the Aponia, which was piloted by Sabeeha, who you may remember deceived you back in hospice a few months ago now.
Um, and they immediately like call up over over Comms to you and they. Um,
Austin (as Sabeeha): I told you, I'd see you again.
Sylvi: Am I allowed to block that communication?
Austin: (laughs) Yes, totally. The transformed jet form of the Aponia shoots forward and is, is now very close to you. I think that what they do is fly past it. They cut into one of those containers and immediately, like you just see water leaking out of the, of the ship or of the container, and that's important water.
[Theme concludes, just music for about 30 seconds]
Austin: Hmm. How do I want to give this to you? Okay. So. Um, so Sabeeha, you know, is continuing to do these strafing runs and then, and then they have to like pull back behind you at a certain point. Um, you've like released a bunch of these at this point and then just like, Things go quiet for a second. And then there's a string of explosions.
Uh, as, as the Aponia is rocked by a bunch of these minds that you've placed behind them. Um, uh, this is very good because it means that they can't approach you from your, your, um, weakest position anymore. Um, uh, however, the consequence here is that things get Desperate going forward. Um, actually, you know what I think I can do, I can do it.
This was a risky consequence, right? Uh, so... Let me just double check something, uh, I can do two controlled consequences. All right. So, um, you're moving to a worse position, uh, and you are, um, adjusting, uh, clock by one as damaged from this explosion, uh, and angered by it, Sabeeha pulls up closer, like, you know, afterburners their way to you and lands on the top of the ship, um, uh, and begins to just like start to cut down with these kind of daggers that they have, which, uh, you know, it has transformed into humanoid mode at this point and begins to just kind of like strike down at the armor plating on top of The Blue Channel. You are now in a desperate position, uh, but the Motion clock has been ticking, uh, up to five with your great success.
Um, you could also resist this, this damage or that, or that desperate, the move towards desperate. If you want to burn some quirks. Mo I, unfortunately I think it would be more quirks than Mo can sustain.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: There would be
Janine: It would.
Austin: we have to break down Mo, which seems like a big breakdown still in the middle of this fight.
Janine: Yeah, it does seem that way… I don't know that I'm quite ready to do that.
Austin: That's fair. All right. So y'all are in a desperate position. Um, Motion, uh, Sabeeha and the Aponia are on top of The Blue Channel. Uh, and you can hear the scraping as these daggers, these like, um, beam-bladed daggers are striking the, the roof also I'll note, you might remember, uh, Broun that's the last time that you fought Sabeeha, you noticed that there was a problem with the way that they were able to like transition energy between systems or something like that. Basically there was this like, um, they're really pulling extra from, uh, from the same, their boosters and their weapons are pulling from the same supply, basically in space where they don't need to like cool their stuff as- as much, um, uh, that does not seem to be as big of a deal.
So, you know, it's not, you're not in the hot temperatures of Auspice here.
Ali: yeah,
Austin: so sadly, that particular weakness is not, uh, it's not available.
Sylvi: Coul-. Okay. I need to get back to the ship that I'm connected to by a cord.
Austin: True.
Sylvi: So I thought of something silly I could do, but if there's better suggestions, please offer them. [Austin laughs] Um, so when the Stray Dog is in like the Lacrimosa form it, I described it as having more like bigger hands, like claws.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: Um, and so I was thinking I could transform and then just… pull on the thing as hard as I can so the- to like slingshot myself back over there?
Austin: Mm. mm-hmm?
Sylvi: Um, and try and like... maybe even collide with Sabeeha. Um, but that might be a bit too much right now.
Austin: Okay s-. That's option A.
Sylvi: Yeah-
Janine: I was just like, the thing with Sabeeha is that you're also colliding with us.
Sylvi: That's the- that's why I was like, this sounds a little silly, And-
Austin: You’re in a desperate position already, so...
Sylvi: And I'm thinking like it! [laughs]
Austin: Mm-hmm. Broun?
Ali: Yeah, I... The only thing that I wanted to bring up is that, like, I might want to get into The Three Cheers at this point. Cause I feel like I've done what I can from... the cockpit. Um, so if this ends up being like a Millie comes in, Broun goes out situation that seems good, but… Oh, I don't know. Um,
Austin: That's up to y'all how you gonna handle it?
Janine: Can I just real Millie in?
Austin: You could also reel Millie in yeah-
Sylvi: Yeah, you could also do that-
Austin:: yeah, yeah,hundred percent. Undoubtedly. Um,
Ali: Oh but once I go out there, what am I doing? Cause I can't fire a bunch of missiles at my own ship!
Austin: Yeah. That's- that would be a problem with,
Ali: That would be really the problem there. Um-
Janine: Maybe I should tip my hand that I would really love for Thisbe to do the thing that I've done with Thisbe a lot, which is climb on the thing and hurt it.
Austin: Sure, no-one’s stopping you. You don’t need to breathe!
Janine: So that's, I know that's, that's on the exactly. That's on the table is like, no, I can, I can just get up there.
Austin: Mm-hmm!
Janine: Um, in a lot of ways, Thisbe is a little more durable than Mo.
Austin: Yeah, definitely!
Janine: I’ve- I've built her out for sure. Um-
Austin: Yeah! And again, you're already in a desperate position. What's more desperate than this?
Janine: Great
Austin: Like, we can just do that hard cut right? From, uh, Sabeeha, cackling and cutting away at the top of the- The Blue Channel to then revealing Thisbe on the edge of the ship, you know, staring, staring them down.
Ali: Yeah. Go for it.
Austin: You're reckless. Right? That's your, that's your scar?
Janine: Yes, Thisbe is specifically reckless. Reckless is isn't the best word for it-
Austin: Yeah
Janine: I think is the closest word to describing the thing, which is just that, like, she doesn't take her own self into consideration as much in circumstances as she should.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: Um, would you like to take one of my bandoliers?
Austin: Ooh!
Janine: What?
Ali: [laughs] Which is a belt worn at the hip or the chest that can hold bombs, containers filled with chemicals, drugs, or biological agents.
Janine: Um, is that a thing you just hand out?
Ali: It's a- it's a load thing. I could easily hand to you and strap to your robot waist
Sylvi and Austin: [laugh]
Janine: Uh, I feel like it actually might be smarter for me to take something else.
Ali: Sure.
Janine: But, um, I like, uh... I want something cutty...
Austin: You have fine destruction tools, don't you, for yourself or something? No, he don't. Oh, well-
Janine: I have a pilot sized force field for myself.
Austin: Well, Oh, that's the, that's the pilot-size thing that you have, right?
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Yeah. Yeah. Um...
Ali: I mean, on your load thing, you have heavy weapon. You have an unusual weapon.
Austin: Yeah. Um, you have demolition tools you have. Yeah.
Janine: How about I take some placed explosives?
Austin: A hundred percent- wait! Again, Broun did just say, please don't blow things up next to my ship. [Ali laughs]
Janine: I don’t have to use like all of- like...
Austin: Okay!
Janine: I- you gotta do something. There's- she's stabbing it.
Austin: [Laughs]
Janine: She's already damaging the ship.
Austin: I'm with you.
Janine: Um-
Ali: Well get like a placed electrocutey or something. [laughs] That’ll electrocute them-
Janine: To get through the robot? Hey, what's- what's this robots like situation?
Austin: It's- it’s-
Janine: Does it have like a windshield or?
Austin: No, it has, it has like optics. It has like, you know, cameras that show it, you know, this is, uh, this is a Gundam. This is a Gundam what transforms into a plane like Gundams do sometimes-
Janine: Does it have like a hatch?
Austin: Yeah, there's a cockpit. Yeah. There's a cockpit in his chest. Like a cockpit, like a, um, entry- You would have to open it though. It doesn't just, it's not like a hatch that you could, uh- there’s not like a handle on it ready to go. Do you know what I mean? You'd have to force it open.
Janine: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Um...
Austin: But if you want to like run up on it, open the cockpit and toss a grenade in there. That's a thing you can do. It's just, we're going to, we're going to roll for it. I mean, that's probably a couple of rolls. Probably
Janine: Probably.
Austin: That’s- That's a big one.
Janine: I mean, I'm good at wrecking.
Austin: You are good at wrecking. You're not wrong.
Janine: Uh,
Austin: Here's what I'll say is: if you want to do that straight up, either you can roll wreck, but it's desperate standard because, uh, uh, Sabeeha will have time to try to react to this. If you do a set up action via prowl, uh, to like get up there, um-
Janine: But if I fail that set up action, bad things will happen.
Austin: That's correct. Yeah. You're not wrong. Um...
Janine: Okay. Um,
Austin: you know, I'm, I'm giving it to you, you know, what you would do is, um,
Janine: You know what, no, I'll take, I'll take the setup action, then I'll do the thing. Um, what are we talking about in terms of setup action?
Austin: Sorry. I was saying, I think it's probably, if you're getting there quickly without being noticed. Right. Um-
Janine: Okay!
Austin: Which I think is prowl.
Janine: Yeah. Um, I'm also just trying to think of like, what's my, what's my thing once I get in there,
Austin: I think that’s what-
Janine: part of me?
Austin: But yeah, go on-
Janine: Part of me, this is again really j- Part of me really just wants to tear my way into the cockpit, rip her out and fling her into space.
Austin; That'd be Wreck!
Janine: Um… [everyone laughs] There's no, there's no like equipment there. Is there a benefit for me bringing equipment or is that just because most people can't do that? [laughs]
Austin: I think it’s because most people can't do that, right? I think that that would be, I actually, I think you would need to push yourself to do that because that would be-
Janine: Oh I was planning on doing that for both of these.
Austin: Okay well that would be acting with extreme strength, right? And so that is an effect.
Janine: Yes, yes yes.
Austin: That is the equipment-
Janine: Yeah
Austin: You're declaring yourself as equipment almost, you know?
Janine: Okay!
Austin: So yeah
Janine: All right!
Austin: So push yourself for the prowl that brings you up to 2d6. Does anyone wanna help on either of these?
Janine: That does bring me up to 2d6.
Austin: Does anyone want to help with any of these?
Janine: I am also acting with extreme speed for this one.
Austin: Oh yeah. Useful.
Sylvi: I could help. I think because it says assisting is still just stress, right?
Austin: It's just stress equal to whatever your, your, your connections are
Sylvi: And I only have one, and I can take one.
Janine: Mm-hmm
Austin: Totally. So,
Sylvi: um, maybe I could just lay down some covering fire or something and distract them with that-
Austin (overlapping): That makes perfect sense. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah. Drawing, drawing. Sabeeha’s attention to like the wrong side of the ship basically?
Sylvi: Yeah!
Austin: I almost- I almost picture it almost as if you're now like flung out, not just behind, but to the side of the ship, you know, so that they have to turn and look [00:15:00] away from where Thisbe is.
Sylvi: Mm-hmm
Austin: All right! So give me-
Sylvi: Just flailing around out there.
Austin: (laughs). Yeah, exactly! shots are now coming- Broun? They are very close to The Blue Channel.
Ali: Yeah, I bet…
Austin: Um, all right, give me your, give me your now 3d6.
Janine: Yeah
Austin: Thisbe... That's a 6!
Janine: (singsong) There’s a six in there!.
Austin: That’s a six!
Janine: That is Milly’s six too, cause it is the last one. (Ali laughs)
Austin: That is Milly’s six, a hundred percent. Um, so you're right-
Janine: Call that one Milli’s six.
Austin: Uh, so you are, how are you- Are you, do you have like magnet... feet? Like how were you climbing around on this thing out there? Are you just like flinging yourself forward?
Janine: I think this is Thisbe on all fours-
Austin: Yeah, ok, god!
Janine: like this is Thisbe the same way that Thisbe holds on to Mo-
Austin: Right.
Janine: She doesn't, you know, as, as we know, she doesn't drive Mo internally. She just hangs on the back of Mo while ever- while, Mo's doing whatever the fuck Mo is doing. Um, so I think this is, this is. This is an extension of that as like, she knows how to hold onto weird robots while stuff's happening. (laughs)
Austin: Yeah. Um, and you're crawling across the various greebles and handholds and, you know, window cleats-
Janine: like four-legged sprinting almost
Austin: God. Great. Like a villain in an A24 horror movie. Great. Um,
Janine: and like, because it's space, I imagine there's a degree- and like Thisbe’s been in space before she worked with pirates.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh?
Janine: for a bit. I think there's a degree to which Thisbe knows that she can let go, like she can use-
Austin: Right! Oh my god. Nightmare
Janine: I think that's the extreme speed. I think it is. She knows that sometimes she can kick off with her legs. It'll be faster.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Like she just gets that momentum and then she just has to land the- you know, she just had to land it.
Austin: And so yeah, you do. You flip yourself, you push yourself. You're- this is terrifying because space is so big! Space is-
Janine: It’s the worst I hate it. I hate every part of this.
Austin: If you just- If you’re just not- If you miss you're done. It's over. You're never- go watch Kerbal- go watch Project Beast on Giant Bomb and watch us try to rescue people from space. (Ali laughs) It's impossible. Um, you get there, you're on the you're on the you're climbing up the leg of the Aponia you're on the cockpit, like, um, You know, uh, cover basically, which is metal. Um, and now you're going to tear through it?
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Acting with super strength!
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Sorry, not super strength-
Janine: extreme- extreme strength-
Austin: extreme strength. That’s a wreck!
Janine: Using my wreck to act with extreme strength,
Austin: Alright! And then you're pushing yourself that’s 3d6. Do you wanna- uh, is anyone helping, is any collateral die, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.? And this is great effect because of the setup action to be clear.
Janine: Oh, yeah,
Ali: I can not help. I could help, but then I wouldn't be here anymore.
Austin: Yeah, you would be. That'd be,
Janine: Yeah…
Austin: Hey, you would take a scar and then be back in the next scene. If this is success-
Ali: Oh...
Sylvi: (pained) I can do it
Austin: Milli?
Sylvi: can take another stress.
Austin: You can take another stress, you can! How do you do it?
Sylvi: I’ll do it, I marked it! Um…
Austin: How do you-
Sylvi: Maybe this is when I open comms with Sabeeha
Austin: Yes! Yes! What do you say?
Janine: (laughs) That’s great.
Sylvi: Um... I think it's just like... something about like
Sylvi (as Milli): you know Biha. You've always had trouble keeping up with me. Of course it takes you coming all the way to space to actually catch up for once.
Sylvi: And just stuff like that!
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah, love it. Perfect. Ship it. Uh… (Sylvi laughs) not ship it, just ship it. just, you know,
(Ali and Janine laugh)
Sylvi: I mean! I'm not going to judge anyone.
Austin: I mean-
Ali: Important distinction
Austin: Yeah yeah, important distinction. So that's- are you taking, you're taking an extra day on that then, so that’s 4d6.
Janine: Yep.
Austin: All right, dice. What are we got? Hey! Again-
Janine: Got another six! Again it's Millie’s six.
Austin: Milli’s six again!
Janine: Milli’s six!
Austin: It's the last one!
Sylvi: That’s right.
Austin: That's right. Uh, Sabeeha’s like-
Janine: You’ve heard of the devils third? Well that's Millie’s six.
(Ali & Austin laugh)
Austin: Sabeeha’s like:
Austin (as Sabeeha): Well, you know-
Austin: and then, and then what happens before they can finish that thought?
Janine: the hatch I think- for a- for a six, I am just going to give myself the indulgence of saying that Thisbe finds just enough purchase. Like she- she finds like she, she pulls on it enough just to like loosen an edge. And that is as good as the handle for her.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Both hands are in there. She, I think she's just rips the whole thing off at it’s hinges.
Austin: Jesus
Janine: I think it's just open now. And Thisbe is just standing there. The size of a car.
Austin: Yeah. Just towering over Sabeeha-
Janine: And I think just- just- yeah! plucks Sabeeha out.
Austin: Um, I think Sabeeha makes eye contact with you in this moment, as you just, you know, they're going to float away.
Janine: Mmhmm.
Austin: Right. And looks at you and, um, you can see them mouthing the word “please”.
Janine: Ugh! I mean- (sighs) I don't- that hurts me, but I don't think that's anything for like, Thisbe. Thisbe…
Thisbe recognizes it, but there is no separating that “please” from the like- Thisbe’s communication channel was not blocked.
Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Janine: Thisbe heard everything that's to be how was saying to Millie. The delight, the, the like complete glee thinking that- that- That, you know, Millie was the one who was at a disadvantage that, that we were all the ones who were going to get fucked over and completely tripping on that.
Austin: Yeah-
Janine: Uh, and that was moments ago.
Austin: Yeah, that was seconds ago. That was not long ago-
Janine: seconds ago. (Ali laughs) It was seconds ago.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Janine: I don't. So I don't think Thisbe even hesitates.
Austin: Okay. Um, they float away into space. The, um, what do you, what do you do with the mech that's attached to you? I guess you keep it, huh? I think that they had activated some sort of, again, like magnetic- so do you just eject it? What do you do?
Ali (overlapping): Woah woah woah woah woah, wait, Motion’s on that thing, right?
Austin: Well, Motion’s, not all of Motion- but yes. Motion is deployed inside of it,
Ali: Get that the fuck out of here! (Janine & Austin laugh) Are you kidding me?
Austin: Ok, this time Broun is like (Ali laughs) no, no, no, we don't fuck with Divines in my house.
Ali: Well I think I would-
Sylvi: Ok not that one!
Ali: I would love to take it into the ship, um, and like research it, but not if it can make rival moves. Get the fuck out of here!
(Sylvi laughs)
Austin: Yeah It could still make two rival moves. Oh, it can't because you had ticked through the clock all the way. That is why. That is why it cannot.
Ali: Oh sure.
Austin: Uh, so boom, you've maxed out that clock. Um, boom. Uh, I do think that as, um, uh, you know, Sabeeha floats away, Motion now, in your still open comms, uh, does speak to you, uh, Millie, um, and says, um, uh,
Austin (as Motion): Oh… oh Biha, you always were better, which is why I wish you would come back.
(Sylvi sighs)
Austin (as Motion): In fact, I'm pretty sure you will.
Sylvi: I don't think there's a response, I think
Austin: Yeah. Mm-hmm
Sylvi: I think Milli’s just trying to ignore this.
Austin (as Motion): See you soon, Millie.
Austin: and then the, you know, the, the, Aponia is released presumably. And do you like have it self-destruct in space? What do you do with it?
Ali: Target practice!
Austin: Target practice. Oh, I love that!
(Ali laughs)
Austin: That's great. A hundred percent. Boom love it.
Janine: Gotta get used to doing stuff in space.
Austin: You gotta! That’s how you get there
Ali: Yeah! This is a safe, yeah. Safe way to do it.
Austin: Um,
Ali: Um… I love the idea, um, because I- Broun hadn't left the cockpit. And I think that that makes more sense now because like, I think the way that it works is that there's like a real sort of like huge sealed door-
Austin: right.
Ali: From the cargo Bay to the rest of the ship to be like-
Austin: Oh yeah a hundred percent.
Ali: to be like, yeah yeah yeah, our air is staying in here. Um-
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: But like, as soon as Millie and Thisbe are back on like the, like the hatchet of that door opening and Broun running downstairs and being like, (emotional voice) are you guys okay?
(Janine laughs)
Austin: Yeah. Aww! and everyone is, and the rest of this trip is uneventful! The rest of this phase of the trip. Remember phase one, get off the planet, phase two get to the Portcullis, phase three, get through the Portcullis. Um, you- a couple of days, go by, and then you see the Portcullis in the distance, um, like on, on camera, uh, you know, you see it on sensors even earlier than that. Um, but, but it's there. And, uh, I don't know if I've described the Portcullis stuff to y'all on a call like before, and not just like in an intro somewhere. (laughs) Um, but they're almost like giant... stone structures it's, it's not that there's no like circuitry or whatever. Um, but they are these vast... Stone… um, like, uh, uh, octagons almost, or I guess, uh, hexagons, right?
There's there's like, um, long up top and on the bottom, uh, horizontally and they angle up in these kind of like bracket shapes on each side. Um, uh, and they are, um, You know the size of- they’re the size of like past or something right there, the size of like a city, each one of them. Um, uh, and it's like stone and circuitry.
And the way that they work is they kind of open up with a big splash of this kind of red liquid. Um, and then you pilot your ship through it too, to jump to somewhere else in space. Um, and they only do it once a week. That's like the, there's a schedule. They open up once a week so that, uh, you know, everything can be checked and- and they're not checked in terms of sca- I mean, I'm sure they also scan stuff, but, but, uh, basically just to keep track, like there is not free exchange. There's not free travel. Every ship is noted as going through every gate, et cetera. Um, And when you get there, there is one other ship waiting, uh, which is less than it should be probably normally this is like a big event in a way, right?
Like it's like, it's the weekly thing. And everyone goes through, there is one giant truck, uh, space truck, not truck. It's like a, a freighter. Right. Um, uh, that is, uh, kind of like a, it's like a long, um, rectangular, main holem thin, almost like a ruler. And then what if a ruler had a bunch of, um, like, uh, s- not like- disks basically attached to it on the left and the right? gigantic huge. Oh, you know, almost as big as the Portcullis itself in scale, uh, this is just like some sort of mega freighter that's carrying a billion different things and it's waiting in line or wait- it's not waiting in line. It's waiting. It's the only thing here. So it's waiting. You kind of pull up behind it.
Um, and tomorrow is the day that the Portcullis is supposed to open. Um, you know, this is the goodbye to the Partizan system. Um, what are y'all, what are y'all do on your last day here?
Ali: Um...
Austin: Is there like a family dinner?
Ali: Aww
(Janine laughs)
Austin: Are you too busy working on repairs to The Blue Channel?
Ali: No, I think that we can all... kind of gather.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Um, let's- that's team building. That's worth it. Um, also you can't do very good repairs on an empty stomach.
Austin: That's true. (Ali laughs) It's true.
Um, um, so yeah, family dinner, everyone's here, you know, um, I don't know that there's a big speech or anything as the journey isn't over by any means, but this is a big deal. So, you know, I still think that there's like that energy. We don't need to zoom in here unless someone has a thing, but it's nice. Presumably.
Janine: I have a thing.
Austin: Thisbe?
Janine;The baby sits on Thisbe's lap.
Austin: Awww, good. You know, the- the ship isn't moving. Right? You know, so it's less dangerous.
Let's say
Janine: exactly. It's not like she's going to get thrown over. We need, we need, we need some tender Thisbe after the ripping someone out of their- out of their mech and throwing them into space Thisbe. That’s going to haunt me for a while.
Austin: Yeah. Sabeeha, not coming back. Sabeeha, bye to Sabeeha, sorry Sabeeha. There's some really f-
Ali: I love the idea, um-
Austin: No, go ahead
Ali: No
Austin: No, you go ahead
Ali: Um of Thisbe, like sitting cross legged on the floor, but because (Janine laughs) Thisbe’s so big, like that she's like the correct height for a table now?
Austin: For a dinner table. Yeah. I love it. Um0
Janine: Also free, uh, free, um, God, what are those things called that you put babies in that are like the little cages, but they're soft. (Sylvi laughs) not a playpen, right? Is it a playpen?
Austin: A crib?
Janine: No, no, no. The ones you put on the ground, so the kid can like-
Austin: Oh
Janine: -just hang out, but not fuck with anything-
Sylvi: I think I know what you're talking about-
Austin: Was that?
Sylvi: The weird? Like, like, jump like,
Austin: Is that not a playpen?
Janine: It looks like a cage but soft. I guess it's just a play pen.
Austin: I think it’s a playpen yeah.
Ali: Are you talking about the one where like the two legs go in and then there's the little table
Austin: No that's uh like a-
Janine: No that’s a like a walker.
Sylvi: Ohh, okay that's what I was talking about so...
Austin: You’re talking about one of these. One of these?
Janine: W- yeah, but not like- like a cage cage, like, a yeah-
Sylvi (laughs): That kid-
Janine: That's why I called it a cage-
Austin: That kid looks so sad!
Janine: Cause sometimes they're just cages. (laughs)
Austin: Like a mesh- like a mesh instead of a cage.
Ali: That's a crib, right?
Austin: It’s not a crib.
Janine: It doesn't, it doesn't it doesn't no-
Austin: A crib is like a bed.
Janine: it's like off the ground-
Ali: It’s like a play-
Austin: That’s a playpen yeah. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah That's- you just put your baby in there so they just don't walk around. Anyway, the- the point I was making was that Thisbe with crossed legs is probably like a playpen sized area
Austin: Uh-huh [Ali laughs]
Janine: -where a baby would just- not- y’know that’s a safe contained sp- that's not safe. It's a contained space. [laughs]
Austin: Good!
Janine: If you need it. While the parents have-
Austin: I’m not making you roll anything for baby harm. We're good. Everything's fine.
Janine: No I- The day you make me roll something for baby harm is the day I sign off abruptly and take a little break.
Austin: Fair. Um, All right. Uh, the next day comes and- A note: you've not been- no one's called you yet. And I don't think it- it hits until the next day. Uh, at a certain point, Si’dra is like
Austin (as Si’dra): [slowly] Hey… we definitely should have been hailed by now. Um, it's really weird that no one's reached out to us.
Sylvi (As Milli): I mean, maybe they’re dealing with. The big ship. I don't know, like, it's been a while since I've had to travel through here, but those larger freighters can take some time.Right.
Austin (As Si’dra): I guess. So
Ali (as Broun): should we send out a... a message? Like a-
Austin (as Si’dra): yeah!
[30:00]
Austin: And then, you know, Si’dra hits a button and says… What is the name of- what- are we calling this The Blue Channel? As our lie, or is that also it's? Do you know what I mean? Like have we generated... does the false paperwork say the name you gave it? The Blue Channel?
Ali: Um... I don't think so because I wouldn't want it to be tracked once we're in space.
Austin: Ok. Right right right.
Ali: Right. Like I would start using that name once we're out of it.
Austin: Okay. Yeah. So then, so then, um, you know, uh, Si’dra says, this is the whatever. Um, I don't have a fake name on deck. Um, you know, this is the... I’m like looking around my room. I'm doing- I'm doing the Keyser Soze here... unfortunately, the thing I looked at was a model of Tallgeese, which is just an already, that's already a name.
Ali: Uhhh…
Austin: You can't just take the Tallgeese unfortunately,
Ali: this is the vessel unit number, Tallgeese.
Austin: (laughs) Exactly. Um, there's no response, uh, until a different- until the- the large ship, uh, hails you. Um, uh, I do have a name for the large ship though don't, I... I better, uh, it is the Feldspar Blue, the SOV Feldspar Blue. SOV standing for Ship or, or… Uh, I’ll have to figure out what S is... Something Orion Vessel, uh, certified- not certified. That'd be a C. Uh, standard, um, uh
Janine: Space
Austin: Space Orion Vessel. uh, It's like something like a red, like a- like a synonym for registered, but I don't remember what it is. So don't worry about it. SOV, uh, the SOV Feldspar Blue hails you in response to seeing you hail the station, y'all pick up?
Ali: Sure
Austin (as KRK): um, Hey there, Tallgeese! Um, uh, this is, uh, this is Feldspar Blue and, uh, I was wondering if you heard back from the dang Porcullis?
Ali (as Broun): Yeah, no, uh, no communications here. Um...
Austin (as KRK): I've been here damn near two weeks, nothing!
Ali (as Broun): Oh.
Austin (as KRK): by the way, KRK-56. Kay Arr Kay.
Ali (as Broun): Oh hey KRK.
Austin (as KRK): But KRK [pronounced Kirk], um,
Ali (as Broun): um.
Austin (as KRK): Pleased to meet y'all.
Ali (as Broun): Yeah yeah yeah, I’m-
Austin (as KRK): Uh, y'all got some cool machines on that, on that ship. Huh? I did a scan. I hope it's not a big deal. I'm just a inquisitive sort- uh, the thing is I gotta get going and I'm a little worried because this is the longest I ever had to wait in a Portcullis. I've been doing this 57 years.
Ali (as Broun): Oh wow. 57. I'm gonna ask you some questions. Ha-
Austin (as KRK): Um, a few things about a few things. So be happy to sit with you and talk after we do this haul. Uh, there's uh, a real good stop a couple of jumps away. I don't know if you're heading that way, but I'll send over my route and we can see if it lines up.
Ali (as Broun): By all means. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen any other ships go out?
Austin (as KRK): Neither come nor go. Normally it’s busy around this time.
Ali (as Broun): Huh.
Austin (as KRK): Now it could be that I took a, uh, extra heavy, uh, shipment this time. And I took up a lot of the extra stuff that will be coming this way. But, uh, you know, I'm not, I'm not sure why it's so quiet.
Ali (as Broun): Is there like a... uh, like a... like a... like a customer service channel on this?
Austin (as KRK): or you sound like someone- is your first job?
Ali (as Broun): [Breathes in through teeth] Yeah!
Austin: (laughs) Um, uh, Kirk says, uh
Austin (as KRK): Okay okay. Well normally what we do is we call in to the, to the, uh, the station here to the Portcullis, they ask you a bunch of, uh, deeply annoying questions and you go about your business.
Sometimes they come on board, they look around, normally that's already done at the launch station. They could just check in on that and see that you already got the clearance to save both of us some time, uh, this time, uh, that didn’t happen. I'm more worried it didn’t open and let things through
Ali (as Broun): Hmm… uh... you think we should go over there?
Austin (as KRK): Well, I can't rightly do that, can I? Look at me!
Austin: And you get the impression suddenly that maybe KRK is the ship also.
Ali: Sure.
Austin (as KRK): But if you were to go on board, I wouldn't mind hearing back and you know, letting me know, uh, what the deal is?
Ali (as Broun): uh, yeah, KRK, you can keep an eye out? Keep your scanners on?
Austin (as KRK): Oh I got, uh, we can keep the scanners on, you know, this thing. Uh, I got, I got some real, some real heavy hitters on board. Don't you worry? Got some Scourge units, like at that-
Ali (as Broun): Scourge!?
Austin (as KRK): Yeah. Scourge units.
Ali (as Broun): Dang!
Austin: They are like little mos- They're not little. They are like... SUV size drones, um, like that, that are like defensive, you know, close range… You know, flying mechs
Ali: Yeah I think- I think Broun meant that legitimately.
Austin: Oh yeah yeah yeah!
Ali: Like Broun usually sees like shitty mechs out there. Multiple Scourge units. That's-
Austin: yeah, I was not. I was not saying you did not. I was just communicating with the audience what these were
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I think- I mean- I think Broun would be willing to do that. Are there other ships in the area or is just the two of us?
Austin: Nothing. It's just the two you here.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Yeah. And Si’dra confirms nothing coming or going, nothing- nothing near range can confirm that there's not like the ionized matter in the air from activating the Portcullis. So a week ago, like the braid, the scanners are lower or whatever, then they should be.
So this person doesn't seem to be lying to you. KRK is uh, they/them, by the way.
Ali: Oh yeah I think-
Austin: Actually, I think Kirk is actually, I think Kirk, is he/him? I think Kirk can be, you can be a robot and be a he/him. Right. I think that's true. Or not a robot. You could be a giant spaceship and be a he/him, I think-
Sylvi: Absolutely.
Janine: I’m a robot and a she her so-
Austin: Right, exactly. And sure. You're not the size of like seven football fields put together, but Kirk is goddammit!
Ali: Um-
Janine: I found a picture of KRK.
Austin: That's Kirk, there- there- there he is! I
Janine: I posted a picture of Jay Jay the Jet Plane for listeners.
Sylvi: Oh no!
Austin: Thanks. Good. Thank you.
Ali: Um, I would be willing to bring The Blue Channel, like into orbit essentially of KRK’s vessel.
Austin: Yeah!
Ali: And then I think maybe the way to play this is do the... the belty thing with maybe Broun and the Three Cheers and possibly Thisbe or Millie if they want to come down too?
Austin: like, basically hook like a- like a zip line between you and the station, basically?
Ali: Right yeah yeah yeah.
Austin: Y'all all goin?
Sylvi: Yeah. I'd wanna go.
Janine: Yeah
Sylvi: This is- this is very suspicious.
Austin: Mm-hmm
Ali: Yeah. I think I'm leaving Eiden and Jesset in the pilot and co-pilot seat.
Austin: Yeah. Cool. Jesset’s like
Austin (as Jesset): we'll be on comms. Just let us know.
Ali (as Broun): Yeah, they’ll be open.
Austin (as Jesset): And, uh, you should all be safe because, uh, this is scary to me! I'm not going to lie. This shouldn't happen.
Ali: (laughs) Yeah, okay. I think we go do that.
Austin: All right. Um, it's like a slow shot of that grappling hook, kind of like it's all outside in space. So like the sound is- is- doesn't exist or is muffled in a cool cinematic way. Uh, as you know, this grappling hook thing connects and you're able to like...
Ali: Yeah that’s-
Austin: -pull yourselves across. Um, you know, you have to do an- I'm not going to like, make you roll for this shit because it's just get on board, you know? um, you have to find the ex- the external hatch thing, or like the manual override to open up the airlock and let you in, um, it's not empty inside, you know, there's a- there's another, like, you know, there are probably some fighters and like a shuttle or something on board, um, inside this airlock. Um, but there's no one here. And the lights are off, or it’s- let's say it's auxiliary lighting is on when you go inside. Um, we get that good- You're all in space suits, right?
Sylvi: Oh yeah.
Ali: Oh yeah.
Janine: Yeah,
Austin: (laughs) well, hmm. Wait a second! Um,
Janine: Thisbe got her- got her- got her beach sash on.
Austin: Um, and yeah, this place is huge. Um, but there’s signage everywhere. You've never been on board, one of these things I'm guessing?
Ali: is there like an internal... um, like, like emergency comms?
Austin: Yeah, sure. Like, like a panel or something.
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah
Janine: A red telephone?
Austin: Yeah. Like that style. Yeah, totally.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: I think there's a little panel on the side of something that has a- like a little speaker and a handset. Um, you go over and pick it up or like send a message? What'd he say?
Ali: Um, yeah, I mean, I think depending on, it works, trying to get into like a place in this facility where somebody might be,
Austin: Yeah. so you send- you- you- you speak into it. Um, uh, and I think there is like a robotic voice that says, um
Austin (monotonous soft robot voice): The Partizan Portcullis system has been placed on standby mode. Please wait for assistance.
Ali (as Broun): Standby mode?
Sylvi (as Millie): I didn't know they had that.
Ali (as Broun): Yeah, it's just like a door, right? Like just open the fucking door.
Sylvi (as Millie): uh, Should we see if we can turn it on, like ourselves? like, no, one's here.
Austin: No-one’s here. As far as you can see.
Sylvi (as Millie, shouting): Hello?
[Janine and Ali laugh]
Austin: Echo, echo. Hello? Hello.
Sylvi (as Millie): No-one's here.
Ali: Does Thisbe have any like thermal scanners or whatever, but no one for sure is here anyway. So it's like-
Austin: Oh?
Ali: (laughs)
Austin: Yeah, what do you got? What do you got that's like a thing here-
Janine: Great question-
Austin: we've got a fine digital connector. You got a fine long range transmitter. You got a pilot sized force field.
Janine: Um… I wonder if- I wonder if this is a thing that we could resolve with like a survey or an interface or something
Austin: This is one hundred percent- I'm act- I'm adding like a clock
Janine: You know, if you, if, if you look around a place, if there are people who are around there currently, usually there's like a sign of it. There's like a coffee cup or… Like,
Austin: Yeah
Janine: Some dirt- like shoe- I guess it's space. So probably not shoe dirt, but like oil. Fingerprints?
Austin: Oil. Totally. Give me a, uh, give me a survey. This is controlled standard.
Janine: That's a one and a three.
Austin: It is. Um, you see the things, you know, there is the, it is, it is clear that people have used this station, uh, as you begin to explore and walk around as safely as you can. Um, There is a, uh, there is a, um, uh, you know, the signs of use. Um, there are fingerprints on number pads. There are, um, uh, you know, uh, uh, signs of, of, uh, you know, you find the, the, like, what's the, why am I blanking on the meal space?
Um, what do you call that on like a military base-
Janine: Canteen?
Austin: A Canteen yeah yeah yeah
Ali: A mess hall?
Austin: or a mess hall, either of those. And, you know, there are, um, the kitchen, uh, clearly has food and stuff in it, but it's row after row of empty chairs, you know, this, this is the sort of thing that would have held thousands of people potentially, right? Maybe it doesn't need thousands of people to operate.
And in fact, um, um, you know, most of these at this point are not used as military bases. There are not enough ships and stuff on board, but they are, they are built for that sort of work. Uh, or that sort of function if they need to be, um, they're often part of the front line or they were a part of the front line of an expanding empire at a certain point.
Right. Um, you know, these are the things that in Stellaris you build, because, you know, it's like a good choke point, um, to base your, your, all your ships out of, or whatever. Um, and you're... you know, I would say that you're even at, uh, at this low roll, you're like, yeah, there are people here this month. You know, um, with that three though, uh, there's a point at which this is controlled. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to move you to risky. And the reason you moved to risky is you, you turn down a certain hallway, um, and Thisbe, um, a shot rings at you, but your personal force field, you're able to activate that in time to not take any damage. Um, but there is a turret, an automated turret here, um, that instantly fires at you.
Um, and then a voice rings out over the loudspeaker. That says
Austin (monotonous soft robot voice): The Portcullis system is currently in standby mode. Please wait for assistance.
Austin: It's the same- I just delivered it again, but it's the same. There is no affect. I added a little affect there by mistake. It's the same flat like message as before. Uh-
Sylvi: I just want to note at this point I have marked that I have my fine machine pistol (Ali and Janine laugh) and Millie has that thing out
Austin: And again, all of this is lit with that kind of like auxiliary floor and ceiling lighting, where it's just like the individual lines of like led, um, that show you kind of walking paths, but this is not bright. This is not well lit. Um, in some ways it is similar to the Nier Automata, uh, space station you were talking about before, but imagine that dark and poorly lit.
Ali: Yeah. Um, it's funny. I was thinking, um, when you were describing that of like... Broun stuffing a backpack full of the extra food stuff.
Austin: Yeah, totally. Fuck it.
Ali: And, um, like,
Austin: Classic Broun shit.
Ali: Yeah, like on the, um, on the radio with Jesset, like
Ali (as Broun): We still haven't found out anything. If you can download blueprints and just try to track our movement, we're going to head to the control center-
Ali: and then like shots from the hallway. (Austin laughs)
Ali (as Broun): I gotta go
Austin (as Jesset): Wait wait wait! Is everything-
[Ali laughs]
Austin: And then yeah, uh-huh. Yeah perfect.
Ali: Uh, yeah. Um, this is bad. Mm… I wanna give Millie the opportunity to like make, uh, an action here.
Austin: Mm-hmm
Ali: Um, but I think that Broun's impulse would to be like, to try to find a control panel, to like, shut that... down?
Sylvi: Yeah. That… is fine. Like, if you want to do that, I could just be like, laying- like I could just be like firing back and trying to draw its attention. Cause it’s a turret right?
Austin: Yeah It's a turret.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Is that a help? Are you helping here? No, that would, that would give you a scar huh.
Sylvi: That would, yeah, no, that would fuck me right up. This is purely for flavor.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh-huh. Then Broun give-
[00:45:00]
Ali: Does it make sense that um, Millie would be shooting out that specific gun?
Austin: but in general-
Ali: And Broun is gonna shut down the system? Yeah
Austin: Okay. Then give me, give me that sounds like an engineer to me.
Ali: Sure
Austin: Um, well, I guess it'd be an engineer or- yeah, this would be engineer. We've talked about this before. Uh, this is not- Mm? Hmm. Is? You could do an engineer or an interface here because of the type of system it is?
Ali: Um,
Austin: You’re much better at engineer, right? Yeah,
Ali: yeah, yeah, totally.
Austin: Yeah. So it's 2d6 risky standard at this point.
Oh my God, these rolls, what is happening with these rolls? Um, uh, uh. A door-
Janine: Can I rip the panel out and throw it into space?
Austin: I mean, (laughs) yeah, but unfortunately here
Janine: That’s not a serious-
Austin: Yeah I gotcha. Um, the... Hoo hee haa okay. Uh, buh buh buh... let's say. Hmm… Um, God, I think when you're trying to- in the process of trying to do this, um, there's a- there's a moment where the voiceover says, um, over the loud speakers the kind of, um, you know, system it's not an AI, but the system communication device or whatever is like, um,
Austin (monotonous robot soft voice): Tampering with- tampering with the Portcullis system, uh, will engage lethal defenses.
Austin: And at that point you realize that the, uh, actual like turret, uh, shooting, uh, has been purposefully, not as lethal as it could have been. And this time it catches Millie, uh, in the shoulder with a- a level two harm, a level two harm, um, uh, what's what's just like shot in the shoulder, uh, pierced.
Sylvi: Okay.
Austin: Nah pierced is too is too like bloodless, isn't it? No, it isn't because it pierced your suit. That's why it's a level two harm also. Right. Um, and that's bad. It's bad to lose- to lose the, your, your space suit’s integrity. So take a level two harm pierced. You can resist it if you would like to, but yikes!
Sylvi: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Austin: You could declare armor- you could declare armor and drop it down to a level one.
Sylvi: Actually I am going to declare it because I literally have a bunch of inventory space.
Austin: So then yeah, take, take bruised. Instead the level one as the round, like really badly impacts you, but doesn't tear through the- the armor. Um, boy, it's only a four step clock here to explore this place, but y'all got to get the success in here somewhere! These dice have been hell. These are the worst dice we've seen all season.
Janine: I'm trying to assess if like- what's worth focusing on and what is kind of not going to actually advance us?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Like is taking out one turret more useful than doing something else or?
Austin: It's anything that ticks the clock. Right?
Janine: Yeah yeah
Austin: So what I, the way that, the way that system works, it's like, if you, if you take out the turret and it takes the clock by one, then we've taken out that one turret.
Right. But if you, if you happen to get a great success, I could read that as you now know how to take out these turrets, you know what I mean? Or something like that. Um, what's important is ticking clocks and getting effect, and we can interpret that how you want.
Janine: Okay. I would like to... uh... uh… (laughs)
Austin: Mm-hmm. I'm seeing the chess pieces on your sheet a little bit here. I'm curious.
Janine: I’m looking at my options here.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: Um, I kind of just want to have Thisbe throw her body at this turret. Like, I kind of just want her to just like, you just make this move and just like, maybe you zigzag up on your way to it
Austin: Yeah, ok
Janine: or, or while it's busy shooting Millie,
Austin: Uh-huh
Janine: it's a thing of like-
Austin: This is a wreck again
Janine: this is a run-up and just, yeah, tear through.
Austin: Yeah? 2d6 for wreck. I'm guessing you're not pushing yourself?
Janine: Mmm, no, not this time.
Austin: There are ways you could play it if you had to, but yeah. So 2d6
Janine: I have alternatives here.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh
Janine: So it's- I’m- I'll just stick with the 2d6. For now,
Austin: Hey, there's a six!
Janine: Six and a five! That's a Thisbe six! [Ali laughs] That's- the six is the first one. So that's a Thisbe six I’m calling it now.
[Austin laughs]
Sylvi: I have no claim to that six.
Austin: Not Millie’s six. All right. Uh, risky standard. That, that advances it by two. So yeah, I think what we learn here is your- the combination of your just sturdy body, but also your pilot sized forcefield is enough to like, uh, shrug off those rounds. Um, and you can just be a body shield. You're just like walking up to these targets and then- and then why don't you just like crushing them?
Janine: Yea- how big are these turrets? Are these like wall turrets, are these like big floor ones?
Austin: These are like wall, these are like ceiling turrets. You're tall enough to reach up to them basically. I think that they're like the size of a human arm stretched out. You know what I mean?
Janine: Oh yeah I'm probably just, I'm probably just grabbing them and tearing them off.
Austin: Yeah. That makes sense.
Janine: Like, I just imagined Thisbe like taking them with both her hands and then just like pulling her feet off the ground.
Austin: Yeah, ok [laughs]
Janine: It's just her entire weight is on this turret until it comes out.
Austin: And falls?
Janine: It seems very efficient! [laughs]
Austin: And you're able to0 you are again able to repeat this at this point. So yeah, uh, you come to another corner and do it again and blah, blah, blah. So that's, that's a little bit, now you have a little bit more free rein here, as you're exploring the Portcullis two of four,
Ali: I um...
Austin: You said you were looking for what the- like control room before? Basically?.
Ali: I think so. Yeah. Um,
Austin: I think you were able to find your way there with this, right. There's maps, there's stuff like that. You know, there's- there's signage. You find a way to the control room. Um, it is a... a fairly large space. You’ve still come across no people.
Um, and, uh, it is a space with like a bunch of screens. Um, and I think probably a single holographic like display in the middle of the system, the solar system, um, uh, that's like fancy and it's using like some sort of chemical mist, plus light projectors to light things in these holographic ways. Um, and, uh, uh, the, um, the screens and the walls all have, like, again, this room is not as lit as it should be. Many of those screens are just straight up off, um, and the ones that are on all just say standby. Um, but you found this place, um, you can kind of look to see what you want to do here in trying to make sense of this place, if you, if you continue to, you know, look around and such.
Ali: Yeah. I kind of want to do like a survey or something just to see…
Austin: Yeah!
Ali: Um, yeah, just look like through employee logs or last messages. Um...
Austin: Right. Okay. Um, so that is, what is your survey?
Ali: Two!
Austin: Hmm. I kind of feel like it's a study and not a survey because surveys are like,
Ali: Yeah I was reading them and yeah
Austin: like what's popping off, like
Ali: Survey is like looking in a room and
Austin: yes, whereas Study is looking through.
Austin: Sorry! Sorry to be that person!
Ali: No no no. No, I get it. Um, can I uuu-uu-uuse. A palm computer with useful programs to-?
Austin: That would increase the effect for sure. Um-
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Uh, let's say that the, the, or, Hmm, huh? Hmm. So I think that would, that would raise it. That would raise it too. Um, to Risky Great. What I think you could do, and we like never do this is trade position for effect.
Um, but that's a thing that's on the table most of the time. Uh, normally it goes the other way. Normally it's like, I want to go more desperate in order to… to- Yeah. After an action’s, position and effect are determined, the pilot may choose to improve their effect at a cost of position or vice versa, if it makes sense in the fiction.
So this could be you being like, ‘Hey, this is risky great’ because I'm using this Palm computer. Um, but let me reduce it down to, uh, uh, you know, um, controlled standard, uh, which would give you the two ticks you need, but put you in a controlled position, you know.
Ali: I don't know that I understand that math
Austin: Uh right now you're risky, which means if something goes bad, it's a risky level consequence,
Ali:Sure
Austin: which is like harm and stuff like that. But if you wanted to, you could using this go to a Controlled Standard instead of a Risky Great. Um,
Ali: but I would still just have the one dice.
Austin: You would 100%, but you would be in a better position so that if that one dice broke bad, it wouldn't be- It's the end of the world, you know? Sure. Um, you can't get, but you just can't get bonus dice from equipment basically. You just get bonus effect from equipment is basically the situation,
Ali: Oh right sure
Austin: But this is the way to trade that effect for position, which gives you a little bit of a safety net.
Ali: Um, yeah, I'm, I'm in as well. If I can't gear my way, um, to another dice that I might as well use the...
Austin: And I'm guessing- yeah, no one- no one can help at this point because everyone is-
Sylvi: No I can’t-
Austin: about to scar, right? Yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah. If I try anything, I'll get a scar here
Ali: Yeah I’ll wait to take a scar... Okay. Yeah, that's fine. I'll take, I'll roll the one dice and it will be a-
Austin: Yeah that’ll be a six so it won't be a problem.
Ali: (sighs) It's a three,
Austin: it's a three, it's a three, um, hooo. It's a three. It sure is. Uh, but it's a controlled three, which again, um,
Ali: Mm-hmm!
Austin: So this is fun. Uh, as you're, you're keeping it, you have this computer out just like handheld computer that's helping you keep track of everything and interfacing with stuff and blah, blah, blah. Um, you know, you're, you're trying to boot things up and get a sense of what's going on. You think you understand how to turn- Let me give you a little bit. Um, the next step, the Portcullis is supposed to open up again in two hours, but it's not going to, it's been deactivated.
Um, and you in fact, see that it is not only deactivated, um, but it's scheduled to be destroyed. This thing is going to detonate in two hours, in fact.
Ali: Oh!
Austin: Um, and so that is why you've moved into a risky position as a countdown begins. Um, and now the voice over the loudspeaker says, um, uh- the same thing I said last time, which is
Austin (robot voice): attempts- attempts to
Austin: what, uh, what did I say, not modify, uh, uh, tamper.
Austin (robot voice): attempts to tamper with the Portcullis system will be met with lethal violence or with lethal response
Austin: Um, and that, uh, countdown clock to the explosion advances from two hours to one and a half hours. You are in a risky position.
Ali: Hmm. Well, that's not good.
Austin: That’s not good.
Ali: Um-
Austin: There is still information to be gained here, generally speaking also.
Ali: Um, is this something that I can, I mean, I tell Thisbe and Millie, obviously, who I think has learned this through the, did I tell Jesset and-
Austin: Oh yeah. Jesset says-
Ali: Kurt?
Austin: Uh, KRK. Yeah. Jesset says
Austin (as Jesset): That's bad news.
Austin: And KRK says,
Austin (as KRK): Oh, you didn't touch anything in there, did ya? Well, you couldn’t find anybody who can tell you what's going on?
Ali (as Broun): Not a damn person here, KRK,
Austin (as KRK): It’s not going to blow up though. It’s gonna blow up? It’s not gonna blow up
Ali (as Broun): It’s saying- It's saying it's gonnablow. I'm thinking it's gonna blow.
Austin (as KRK): You're pulling my leg.
Ali (as Broun): No, no, no. KRK, you don't have any likes to pull. I'm not pulling anything!
Austin: Well, okay. You didn't have to rub it in.
Ali (as Broun): I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm scared. I'm on a ship that's about to explode.
Austin (as KRK): Okay okay okay
Ali (as Broun): You’ve never seen this before?
Austin (as KRK): No, no! I- 57 years. I've never seen something like this. I think the only time- No, not even when-. No, never blew up a Portcullis. Why would you blow up a Portcullis system? [Ali sighs] All you do is- you're- you're making it so no one can come into a system. No one can leave it!
Janine (as Thisbe): I can think of reasons to do that.
Sylvi (as Millie): Yeah, KRK. That might be the point.
Austin (as KRK): I don't appreciate- who are all you? I don't know Y'all. Who are these extra voices on the comms?
Austin (as KRK): I don't. Hi, I'm KRK-56.
Ali (as Broun): Ohhh- Yeah
Sylvi (as Millie): First Mate Ver’Million Blue!
Austin (as KRK): Pleasure to meet you Ver’Million. [Sylvi laughs] I'm just a little nervous. I got a lot of cargo here and my reputation is at stake. I'm already a week late and I'd like to get moving.
Ali (as Broun): I'd love to get you out of here, KRK. Uh, I'm doing my best. I, um, [sighs] Oh, um, um,
Austin: Anyone else want to poke around at anything in this room?
Sylvi: Uh...
Janine: Uh… I mean, it went so well.
Austin: Uh-huh. Everyone is just so close. This is so interesting. It's like, these are all roles you should be able to make if you could push yourself, but everyone is about to break. And so no one can push themselves without getting a scar.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: So, I mean-
Austin: Uh-huh
Janine: I can get a scar without leaving the scene.
Austin: You definitely can
Janine: That’s a thing Thisbe can do,
Austin: It’s true
Janine: -and I'm not averse to doing, I've been kind of sitting on it for a situation where it seems particularly impactful.
Austin: You're not wrong. Um, and even if you- you do the thing you're talking about, you also have this other thing that makes the consequence of that not so bad.
Janine: I- I guess that's true. I hadn't been thinking of it as a thing where the consequence would be harm, but I guess it would be,
Austin: That’s what it says, right, yeah-
Janine: but I do have Tough as Nails from the soldier playbook penalties for harm are one level less severe
Austin: Uh-huh
Janine: excepting for level four which is the fatal-
Austin: And you also have, yeah, right. Uh, will not, Will Not Stop Ever, right?
Janine: Yes. That's the thing that keeps me from leaving a scene. I take level one harm.
Austin: Yeah
Janine: Um, although does that, how does tough as nails work for a level one harm?
Austin: You just don't have that less effect you take the harm. You just, you don't get less effect. You just push through it basically without getting reduced effect on future rolls
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Which is great.
Janine: Yeah. That's pretty good. Um, the trick is mostly, I don't know what Thisbe does here, given Thisbe’s skillset. To-
Austin: You could interface with the Portcullis to get more information.
Janine: Yeah. Um-
Austin: Or to deactivate this explosion, for instance, right?
Ali: Yeah that’s just like the play
Austin: Right. Or to open it, like, yeah, you could do- anything you want to do here with the system? Interface will let you do it.
[01:00:00]
Janine: Um, I think the thing to… mmm. I think the explosion is probably- is probably the important part, right?
Austin: Yeah. I w- I, if you fill this clock, we're going to go into a mode where we can just talk about, like, if you succeed, if you succeed at interfacing with this thing, you're going to be able to do the things I just said, and I'm not making you choose one of them for this roll. That's kind of like you have completed the ‘exploring the Portcullis’ clock, being in a position where you can kind of interact how you want.
Janine: Okay. Um, then I think that I'll try and interface with this thing and I'll push myself and I'll take a scar
Austin: And let’s talk about the scar after we see how the roll goes and everything else right?
Janine: Yeah
Austin: So it's 2d6. No, one's helping presumably right. Or wait, can Millie help you here? You-
Sylvi: I could.
Austin: You could.
Sylvi: I think I will.
Austin: Okay.
Sylvi: And now I have one point of stress left.
Austin: How are you helping as- as Thisbe connects to this thing to interface with it. What's that- also, are you like, how are you connecting to it to interface with it Thisbe? Are you just-
Janine: Um,
Austin: Is this using-
Janine: I... Sorry what were you going to say,
Austin: No you go ahead, I'll let you take the lead
Janine: I was just umming and ahhing until I thought of something. [Ali & Sylvi laugh]
Ali: Oh, okay
Janine: What were you going to say
Austin: I was gonna ask, was this- is this connecting to it directly through a port? Is this, just like setting yourself up at a keyboard and a screen and going wild. Like, what is the- what is the visual?
Janine: Uh, I don't know. It's probably, it's probably like directly connecting with, with it.
Austin: Yeah
Janine: Um, in order for inter- interface to make sense, Thisbe at a keyboard doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Austin: You had those like LAN cables last time when you were doing the Bing-32 project, right? So-
Janine: Exactly. Exactly. I think it’s something along those lines.
Austin: Um, so then, yeah. Millie, are you just like monitoring signals to make sure that Thisbe doesn't overheat or something, or like, Oh
Sylvi: yeah I think it's a lot of that. I mean, it's a lot of keeping an eye on the turrets.
Austin: Sure.
[Austin laughs, then Janine laughs]
Austin: Yeah right, cause if Thisbe-
Sylvi: Make sure that doesn’t happen!.
Austin: Yeah, definitely. All right. 3d6, risky standard... That's a five!
Janine: Millie's five!
Austin: Millie's five. Uh-huh
Sylvi: Like it's not as good as the usual, but I'll take it.
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Janine: I’ll take a five.
Sylvi: Yeah
Austin: Mm-hmm. You're going to take a five and you're going to take- so, so you pushed yourself,
Janine: Mm-hmm
Austin: which means you're taking a scar, then you're going to take- and you're taking- but, but you're staying in the scene by taking a level one harm, right?
Janine: Yes.
Austin: You're then going to take a second level one harm as the consequence to this,
Janine: Ugh
Austin: , which if you want to resist, you can roll dice to resist. Um, but let's talk about what happens. You connect to this thing and almost instantly you feel like you are, um, overwhelmed, but maybe also, um, I think to some degree, there's a familiarity too, to what you've hooked into, but the amount of data that streams into you is, uh, just... massive.
Um, for a second before you can kind of adjust your senses, it's almost like rubbing your eyes. You can feel the breadth of the principality. Um, you can, it's like zooming out all the way in a four and a 4X space sim and seeing everything and seeing all of the- all of the lines of connection between every space station here.
Uh, every, every sector that the principality controls, seeing data of things moving from, um, system to system- or not even things moving, but seeing like, okay, seven freighters just moved through the Laraphon-4 system into the Laraphon-5 system. Uh, all right. Now, uh, you know, over here, you know, at the front, uh, you know, we just got received a huge, uh, you know, incoming, um, arrival of a bunch of military freighters.
Uh, there's just like all of this information about all of the kind of beating heart of the principality because you have connected to the Divine Space, one of the signatories of the pact of necessary venture. Which is, and has always been tied to the Portcullis systems across the entirety of the Principality.
Um, and in this, with this success, you wrest control of this specific Portcullis system away from space, which lets you turn off the self-destruct system. Uh, and lets you get access to this stuff. Now, the reason I say it's familiar to you is because I think this is the sort of system that they would have- and this is maybe going back to why you were created the way you were, that units, like you were, were connected to, to get your orders in the era of expansion and colonization that like it wasn't that you necessarily reported directly to any individual human Operant. Your first operant was the Divine Space, which is who or what was at the front of colonizing all of Orion territory, which as you might recall, we haven't looked at the space map for a long time in this game.
Um, but if we skip over here really quick, see how big Orion is, uh, Most of that, that huge arm, that just goes all the way around the galaxy was Space leading expansion. Um, and so you were one of the many tools in Space’s is, you know, original colonization effort. Um, uh, and so getting a download like this was a normal part of the day at some point, um, uh, so disconnected from your contemporary, you know, selfhood that I don't know that it's a one-to-one memory, but that's part of what just happened there.
Um, so that's the, that's the basic experience that you had? Um, I think the one of those level one harms should be about just the overwhelming amount of information that you just got zapped into your brain. Um, the other is literally a zap as a, in desperation, [Janine laughs] uh, uh, Space tries to like overload you and electrocute you to push you out of the system.
Um, but fails, it fails to do that. It does zap you, but it doesn't, it does not
Janine: How about overloaded and overdrawn?
Austin: Love it. At the memory banks.
Janine: That was the thing I kept thinking [laughs]
Austin: Uh-huh! Yeah, totally, totally. Um, so yeah-
Janine: I've also taken relentless as my scar, because it’s a good companion to reckless
Austin [overlapping]: Oh good, reckless and relentless. Yeah. Definitely. Absolutely. Um, the, uh, So you get that and now you have access.
I think all of these, all of these screens, light- light back up the system turns back on to whatever degree you want to, you want it to, um, and you have a little bit more information, I think, as you, you kind of all this information pours through you. Um, one of the things that you're able to do is change the focus of the holographic- Um, The holographic map in the middle of the room, which zooms into Girandole and Partizan, uh, and you see something very strange. Uh, the first thing is not, you know, entirely, uh, unheard of, I guess, something launches from the North pole of Partizan. A ship. Um, and, uh, it seems to take off and go directly up into, uh, Girandole’s orbit and then descend into Girandole.
And at that point it's like, okay, I guess you could put a probe into the gas giant. That's strange. Um, and then you see something else which is, uh, visualized in the center of this gas. Giant is another gate, is another Portcullis system. Um, in not the dead center, but you know, deep below the tumultuous storms of the gas giant Girandole is another Portcullis, another arm of the Divine, uh, the Divine Space and around it is a fleet. Um, part of the fleet of the Pact of Necessary Venture. Though you also see at this moment that there is an even bigger fleet from the Pact on the opposite side of Girandole, where you never get to see, um, uh, because of the way the moon is orbiting, Girandole, the Pact has kept a fleet there for a long time.
You know, you have access to that information also. Um, and so yeah, they are moving something from the North Pole. Where you might recall. Sovereign immunity has a mission going on right now to, um, to this gate, to this gate in the middle of Girandole. Um, and there were some coordinates, uh, that it says that gate is positioned to, and I think Broun, when you see them, you tell me how you feel.
Cause you know, those coordinates. Valence just told you about those coordinates. [Ali laughs] Those are the coordinates to the Nobel Homeworld.
Ali: Oh,
Austin: um, not just told you, but in that message
Ali: Yeah yeah yeah
Austin: which, I guess you could put together is that means that this is where they launched that initial attack from, or the initial one, and the followup one that we saw, you know, 20 episodes ago that got wiped out.
You've no idea what they're doing, actually. That's not true. You don't have no idea cause you're connected to their computer systems. So ask me some fucking questions about what the fuck they're doing here.
Ali: Yeah. Um… Seems bad whatever it is
Austin: It’s bad! Yeah, uh-huh!
Ali: Yeah. I feel like the, um, I mean, like at the, the, the, the, the mention of being able to look at the last, um, launch or whatever. And seeing that it was on Valence's home world,
Austin: Yeah
Ali: just wanting to like download all of that information?
Austin: Oh yeah. I think you can see pretty straight up that last year, Um, this would- tied to, to when you would have been in, um, of what was the name of that town? Why am I blanking on that town? Um...
Ali: Obelle?
Austin: Um, Not Obelle, post-Obelle. Orzen. Orzen. Um, they attacked, they tried to attack into the, uh, the Nobel home world, launching a fleet from here, from Girandole. Um, that was wiped out. You get like a record. It was like, we attacked with a huge force. It was wiped out instantly.
We believe that this was by the, um, the being called The True Divine or Autonomy Itself. We received a message, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was broadcast in these cities that day. Um, you know, Valence has not come up by name here, but you know, you recall when this all happened.
Ali: Oh right. Yeah yeah yeah, I remember when Valence started saying weird shit all over-
Austin: [laughs] Yes.
Ali: Um
Austin: And it seems like they are planning on another. Um, I think it, you know, they have a thing that basically says, um, operations for- um, operations, uh, are planned for a month from today. Um, or they probably don't say a month, but maybe they say a month from today, but it's it's- I would say probably a couple of weeks from now for you. Um, two or three weeks
Ali: But I’m reading this after the fact
Austin: You're looking at this after the fact, this place has been shut down for a while. Um, uh, it takes a week to get to Partizan anyway, you know, um, et cetera.
Ali: Sure
Austin: Um, so it's like, I'd say like three, two to three weeks away. Um, and you find, you know, communications, you find like small communications between people on the ship that are like ‘what's going on’.
You know, they don't understand what the big plan is. Um, you find a, uh, a transcript of a speech from Rye who is the Elect of Space explaining that this operation will give the Pact all of the energy they need to, uh, win this- win this war against the Curtain and against, uh, the Principality, um, you get the sense that, um, I mean it says pretty out- it says outright, like make sure to get all essential, um, essential, uh, Pact, um, you know, personnel and equipment off of Partizan and into the safe zone by day.
Um, you know, it, it becomes clear to you very quickly. Maybe there's even a simulation button, right? I think maybe that's the most fun way of doing it.
Ali: Yeah
Austin: Um, you see the hologram that you hit an app, you hit play on the simulation and the Portcullis, this, this kind of hexagonal, um, gate inside of the center of Girandole, um, lights up and it's all low poly PS1 style graphic, you know what I mean? This is, this is not super high-res shit. Um, it lights up red as if it's turning on. It turns white, um, there’s something that says like the blinks on, and it says Autonomy Itself, you know, like right there pointing at the gate. Um, and then that white light begins to grow and grow and grow and around it is some sort of… containment, like sphere. Um, I think the closest thing the audience can think of here is it's similar in some ways to the sphere of perennial wave nano machines that are at the center of the galaxy that, um, provide the perennial wave with. It's incredible- provides Perennial with her power. Um, this kind of like huge network of orbs that, that like siphons energy from something- from the center of the galaxy, except this is not siphoning energy from the center of the galaxy.
This is siphoning energy. It seems from The True Divine, from Autonomy Itself, which for some reason that is not clear from this side of things, uh, has been goaded into coming through the Portcullis into Partizan and then quickly captured or enslaved or transferred into pure energy or something. Um, this energy orb grows and grows and grows until it absorbs not only Girandole, but Partizan as well.
Um, it's like a new star is created in the system bigger than the, or denser than the star that's already there until everything else in the vicinity orbits it. Um, and the Pact is drawing an infinite supply of power from it. Now you do have an option [01:15:00] here, which is you can turn on the Portcullis. KRK is fine. KRK, you, you want to hit that button? The Portcullis will open up in two hours like it's supposed to, and KRK can go on his way and you can go with them.
Um, Or you could try to address whatever this is. Yeah,
Ali: Yeah, sure could. Um, do I have any sense- Cause it's weird, right? Because I'm reading through all of these plans that are about to happen in three weeks. Right?
Austin: Uh-huh
Ali: And can I like, can I find the parameters and the exact location of what “the safety zone” is
Austin: Totally, yeah!
Ali: or like perhaps like figure out who the commanding officer-
Austin: Yeah, the, the commanding officers on this are Rye, the elect of Space, Gallica the elect of Present, who you may be remember visited Millennium Break months ago. Um, uh, to try to be like, Hey, we could work with you and uh, Motion. Um, uh, and, and by extension Glory, uh, but, but Motion is the person who speaks, uh, on behalf of, uh, it was like kind of the leader, uh, not, not her elects, not ever her elects.
Um, and so, yeah, it's, those three are kind of the commanders of the Pact period, but especially here, um, so yeah.
Ali: Um, yeah, this isn't good and there's no way...
Austin: And then you have the safe zone. The safe zone is basically a certain distance away from where the orb will be. Um, the orb of energy, this new star, the, this kind of like Autonomy Itself turned into a, uh, captured source of power, um, uh, at its full extension.
Uh, will be, will be a safe zone,
Ali: right, and there’s no way-
Austin: But that’s like in space, y’know?
Ali: Yeah yeah yeah. And there's no way to like directly disrupt this plan right now. I would have to-
Austin: not from here. Yeah
Ali: No, no, no,
Austin: no.
Ali: Yeah. Um...
Austin: You could send word where- you could send word back, it would take a little while to get there, but you could. Yeah. Yeah.
Ali: Yeah I was just thinking like, does KRK have better comms that I do? And who at Millennium Break that I would get in touch with it? Maybe isn't SI, but...
Austin: can be SI, I mean, it could be someone in the Oxblood clan, right? Um, uh, we haven't talked about other Oxblood people in a long fucking time
Ali: Oh would it be AO?.
Austin: It could be AO yeah, you would trust AO enough, right? Yeah,
Ali: Yeah. yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I would do that yeah-
Austin [overlapping]: Um, no message you send would be instantaneous, but you could send a message, you know? Um, what's the message say?
Ali: Um, yeah, I think it's like an encrypted data log of all of this stuff that Broun just downloaded, obviously
Austin: right, okay, yeah yeah yeah
Ali: like here is literally a, Oh, can hit play and watch the little, um, PS1 FMV or whatever the fuck.
[Austin laughs]
Ali: Um, and then, you know, you know, Hey, it's Broun. Uh, we made it out here, but, uh, you know, gonna stick around to take care of this. Um,
Austin: Oh so you've made that decision already.
Ali: Well?
Austin: Okay.
[Ali laughs]
Austin [flippant]: I jus- y’know,
Ali: uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, you can’t destroy the planet and create a whole new star and be evil. Can’t do that. Um,
Austin: I it's, it's fun that you just jumped to it and it's one that Broun does not even raise it for discussion. Broun has decided this. [Ali laughs]
Ali: Um, I mean, I think the Broun... I don't want to speak for Millie, um, but I think the Broun knows Millie well enough that if they were like, well, what should we do? You know, the suggestion of being like, ‘Oh, we should just go’.
Austin: Mm-hmm
Ali: You know what I mean? That's like a weird thing to ask somebody who you already-
Austin: Yeah, that’s fair
Ali: -sort of think will be like, ‘what the fuck?
Austin: [laughs] Yes
Ali: No this is- millions of people are gonna die’
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah.
Ali: Um… So why even have the conversation when you could just be like, ‘AO, just get in touch with me and I’ll-
Austin: Yeah, Uh-huh
Ali: (laughing): Figure out what I can do... Um… yeah. yeah!
Austin: Um, it's- do you, do you reactivate the Portcullis so that KRK can leave?
Ali: I mean, I think that I do unless I, well, I definitely do because I mean, step- Step B of this plan-
Austin: Mm.
Ali: -if step A is ‘Hey AO, send me a message, I'll be looking out for it’, is like, ‘Oh, other people should be getting off of Partizan at this point’
Austin: Right. Right. A lot more people just in case.
Ali: So yeah, that gate should be wide open. Come on through
[Austin laughs]
Ali: Um, I, I don't, I feel like KRK might provide like a tactical advantage, um, especially if I want to abuse his, um, more advanced comm system. Um, so I don't know, I don't wanna make a decision about KRK yet, but I am opening the gate.
Austin: um- KRK’s gonna leave, iss the thing KRK’s gonna do
Ali: Sure! sure sure sure. Um…
Austin: Uh, KRK wishes you well- you know, that's not, this is not what KRK-
Ali (overlapping): Um… Yeah. Yeah, this isn't KRK’s deal.
Austin: Yeah
Ali (as Broun): KRK don’t you like Partizan? Do you have a pal back there? Anyone you really liked?
Austin (as KRK) (overlapping): I've got pals all over the place. I got pals everywhere. I got- listen I- I thought y'all were a rookie, you know, cargo, freighter company. Uh, not. God damn revolutionaries. Uh, not that I have anything wrong with that. I'm happy to move freight for whoever's paying, but, uh, well the people who are paying are paying and I got to get my stuff there.
Ali (as Broun): Well, uh, KRK sent me that route over and, uh, maybe I'll catch up with you.
Austin (as KRK): Do you need me to bring anything? Do you want me to carry anything forward for you?
Sylvi: Should we, uh, the family that's on the ship with us?
Austin: Good question.
Ali: Uhh-
Sylvi: cause like, like there's civilians here with us. Would it be better served for them to go with KRK and we can… like to co uh, to whatever, like we can meet them somewhere specified, I guess.
Ali: I wonder if there's a way that we give KRK Avar and Revere... Uh, no, that's not how you pronounce that name
Austin: Uh, Ryrira
Ali: Ryrira yeah thank you, uh-
Austin: Um, it's a ridiculous name, so don't worry.
Ali: Yeah! And the- the MBK maybe?
Austin: and say, ‘Hey, drop this off at somewhere’?
Ali: Right. And then we'll meet up with you once we...
Austin: Yeah,
Ali: -figure out this next situation.
Austin: I just really want to sell the- the moment of... just how close you, like- there is not- my prep is done. I'm out of prep. The rest of this is narration. And when like, cards on the table, when I started, when I did this prep, the rest of this is, uh: You get here. You talk your way through this place. You wind up somewhere. You start a little farm. Like, that's not, this is what I started my prep for this yesterday to like bring it all together to final stuff. The- my thought is, Hey Thisbe, you have, I mean, let's just say it. This mission would advance Thisbe's drive clock to maximum. Thisbe, your drive, ‘Find the farmers again, and be of use to them’ is literally as close to being in your grasp as you possibly could be. Right? Um, this is, this is like 100% true. Uh, in fact, if, instead you want us to do something really like nice and like good for everybody, uh, between your drive clocks, uh Millie's and Broun's, you could do a four step clock right now that is ‘to find a future for Millennium Break off Partizan’, which is Broun's drive.
Both of those are here, right? Like you could do that. And the other thing, I just, maybe the people who were still here stopped this plot, you sent word back, right? We could, I could do a game with them. That's about what that is. Um, that doesn't involve y'all at all. Y'all could just say, you know what I trust SI and Gucci and AO to fix this shit. Bye.
Um, I was putting it on the table because if I don't, it doesn't matter that you turn your back on it and go back and go, you know, and head back. But like that is literally in my mind, we ended on a really warm and, like, nice shot of y'all getting to the farm planet that Thisbe is from and setting up shop there and Millie gets to like live a quiet life.
You know, the- The End, you know, capital like, yeah, we'll come back to Partizan, but maybe Millie gets to live a life forever away from a war. And, and that's great. And Broun gets to be a cool space pi-. You know, like as far as, as far as these characters are, are, you are, you can have the happy ending right now if you want it.
Sylvi: I'm just having trouble justifying this decision to myself for like, Millie's character and stuff.
Austin: Yep.
Sylvi: Because like you can say like, yeah, she'll go off and like she'll live and have her like happy life or whatever. But if she finds out Partizan got destroyed, she's going to be living with that for like, her entire life.
Austin: Mm-hmm
Sylvi: And so I think like, just from her perspective, she probably wants to try and do something?
Austin: I'm with you.
Sylvi: Yeah. Maybe like, maybe sending the message to AO was enough. Maybe like just discovering this plan will turn out to have been enough. Um, and if the others are leaning towards like us spending our drive clocks and doing that, I'll be fine with it.
I just like, thinking about where like... Millie's going as a character and like what that could do to her in the future. And I want it to just throw that out there
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Mm-hmm
Austin: Totally. How's Thisbe feeling about all this?
Janine: I think like, If we go back, Thisbe will be happy to go back. If we don't then Thisbe will be happy not to. Like-
Austin: (laughs) Okay.
Janine: I think it's a thing of like, Thisbe equally understands either choice. Um.
Austin: Right. I guess the, the, the thing that is probably worth voicing, um, and maybe Jesset voices this, but not- like you, Jesset I think is like, ‘we gotta go back’, but I think Jesset is the person who would voice,
Austin (as Jesset): You know, if we go back and we die, then Millennium Break might die on Partizan… But, I guess, ante up.
Ali: I mean, for Broun, I feel like it's making this decision without telling themselves that they're making the decision-
Austin: Right
Ali: where it's like, Oh, the thing that I'm going to do is I'm at least going to wait to hear back from AO. And if he says like, okay, cool, thanks. That's one thing. Or if he's like, well, you should help us.
Cause like, I think as a player, I guess I. I sort of don't know, sort of like foundationally, how Broun would even help in that big, final mission and like what- what they think that they could provide that would make them turn their back? Um, but at the same time, I think that there's... when I... when I think of Broun as somebody who understands Valence as somebody who lived through a catastrophe and then traveled an unspeakable amount of time, just to find help,
Austin: mm-hmm
Ali: (lauhgs) the thought of being like, well, here's this force!
Austin: Uh-huh
Ali: See ya! You know, it's like a really not the thing that they would do, especially not at this moment in their lives. Um, But I do think that it's the like.
Ali (as Broun): okay. You know, Avar, Ryrira can take this thing, go with KRK. It's going to be chill. And we're just going to wait here for message back. I just want to make sure that AO got it-
Austin: (laughs) Uh-huh
Ali (as Broun): I wanna see the ‘read’ on my phone before I go through this gate.
Ali: And then that's like a week that passes where it's like, okay, I've been thinking about this for a week.
Austin: Right. (Ali laughs) And I've made a decision one way or the other, assuming that,
Ali: Right
Austin: yeah.
I think you'll hear back from AO sooner than a week, but you will have to wait a week to leave again, right? The Portcullis is- you know, you can, you can, uh, turn it back on so that it will activate, but there is not just like an on switch here- like that is a global thing. They all turn on at the same time, at the same point across the galaxy, you know?
Ali: Right
Austin: Um, but that doesn't- that's fine. Like you'll have- you'll have plenty of time to decide or to hear back hopefully assuming that their mission goes well, that's the, you know, the, that, that AO, assuming AO makes it through that, uh, you'll hear back.
Ali: Yeah. Um, cool.
Austin: All right. Okay.
Ali: Okay!
Austin: Let’s do XP really quick? Everyone is so stressed out. [Sylvi laughs] Um I guess-
Janine: I’m not!
Austin: Um, not anymore. Yeah, uh-huh.
Janine: I’m at zero!
Austin: You’re at zero
Janine: I'm feeling great
Austin: You’re feeling pretty gooooood. All right. Uh, Millie tracking or violence? Yup. Take two. I got it. [Sylvi laughs] Uh, history, tragedy or opening? Absolutely. Uh, beliefs, scars or quirks causing struggle… I don't know. Hmm. Uh.
I don't know. I don’t think any of those-
Sylvi: Nah I don’t know if-
Austin: Yeah, alright. Broun had a level. Did you take something? Yes you did.
Ali (overlapping): I did take something. I took, uh, Damn The Odds.
Austin: right. Rightrightright. Damn the odds. Um, all right. Uh, uh, da da da da da… Technical skill or mayhem? Yes. Uh, history, tragedy, opening again, you don't have any... Oh, wait, I'm uh... history dadada. Yeahyeahyeah! I think a lot of that stuff with, with early on stuff you're talking about Apostalisian stuff, blah, blah, blah. Yep!
Uh, and then, and then, uh, beliefs, scars or quirks... uh, the compactible limbs, uh, collateral, die, I think counts as a quirk thing. So take one for that. Boom. I almost just erased half of your screen. Uh, and then, uh, playbook XP, uh, for Thisbe um, fulfill your purpose or address the [01:30:00] challenge with understanding, um, I think that stuff with, with the, uh, robot or not the robot, the, uh, pretending to be a more of a robot than, than, or a different type of robot, let's say than you are-
Janine: Uh-huh
Austin: definitely advances that. And then the walking forward and taking shots thing again also. So take two for that. Uh, we do that. And then, and then, um, history, tragedy, opening. We got that stuff with Space and learning about that. Uh, How does that hit Thisbe, by the way? Getting that extra little color of original purpose?
Janine: um... What was the flavor on it again was just that, like, this is a, this is a download of information that like, she remembers having gotten these in the past, but is no longer really used to it? That’s the flavour on that or...
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and specifically the knowledge of like, the very clear knowledge that like, Oh, Space was the frontline of colonizing most of the Orion arm, uh, and that you were just one of a billion similar units getting these downloads to then like be dropped off on a planet to help colonize it specifically, right?
Janine: Mm-hmm. Um, I mean, I think, I think the- the harm that gets done in that scene probably overrides like most of the other reactions that would be had.
Austin: Sure. Sure.
Janine: But I think the, I think the, um, The, the ultimate thing is, is just the understanding of like, that's what was, but clearly that's not like that's not how things are anymore.
Austin: Yup.
Like that's not, that's the, the, the fact alone that, that it's a jarring difference. Getting that information from what she's used to, like all of that stuff. Um, just highlights that, like, you know, that is the past. That's not relevant to the present anymore. To her present any more
Austin: Right, right. Um, okay. Uh, and then I'll handle squad XP.
Everyone gets a drive clock, which means that Millie has one drive clock. Broun has one drive clock and Thisbe has two drive clocks.
Janine: is... um... iiiiiiiiiis putting the family on KRK an assurance along with the- with the breakout kit. Does that satisfy Broun's thing?
Austin: Good question. Um, I think you need more-
Janine: cause to me it reads like it-
Austin (overlapping): I think- Yeah, go ahead.
Janine: It just feels kind of like, it feels like that's the move of like... I dunno. I dunno what I was going to say.
Austin: I think it's an open end. I don't think that confirms it. I mean, you could spend the- here's the thing, you want to spend the clocks to confirm it, you do. You know what I mean? Um, I-
Janine: Um, I mean that's what I mean is like, is this the moment where we spend those clocks and say that that's been accomplished.
Austin: In my mind, I think you have to give Jess it to them too, to confirm it and maybe Eiden, right? It's like you need. You need more people who have a slightly broader set of skills, or maybe it's either Jesset or Eiden- maybe it's Eiden and Si’dra.
Ali: Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Yeah. The four of them.
Austin: Cause Si’dra has the Comms stuff, you know, and Eiden is an engineer, or like- we have three engineers on board! We've got Jesset, Eiden and- and Broun. So losing one of the engineers, sending one of the engineers, one of the comms people- maybe even Eiden is better cause Eiden definitely has more like, ‘I know how to do a garden’ also, you know?
Ali: Yeah
Janine: That's true.
Austin: So yeah, I think it's, if you send Eiden, Si’dra, Ryrira, Avar, and M’reb and then the- the construction stuff that's enough. Plus you spend the four clocks. That finds-
Janine: How do people feel about that?
Ali: Um, that would just be my… my chunk?
Austin: That'd be your clock! Yeah. That would be your- your drive. Yeah. And then also be Millie’s drive also, or Millie’s clock also.
Sylvi: Yeah. I- I'm fine with that, because that also feels to me, like we're sort of like... guaranteeing these people's safety a little bit, just to sort of metagame a bit.
Austin: Yeah, totally!
Ali: Yeah
Janine: Yeah. We're guaranteeing their safety. And also we are kind of hedging our bets because like part of the- part of the risk of going back is like maybe, maybe it all dies here. So this is sort of like-
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: uh, you know, it makes, it would make that a little, a little easier to- to swallow.
Ali: Yeah, it's definitely assurance in that way, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Where, like we do this, we get back out, we just meet up with them.
Austin: Yeah that’s all, It's easy
Janine: Mm-hmm
Ali: Easy Peasy.
Austin: Um, and KRK is happy to- And also my spending this, you know, KRK is good for it, right? [Janine and Ali laugh] KRK is not going to betray anybody because you've spent these clocks to assure that, um, KRK would drop him off on a planet off the- off the grid.
You know, you've saved KRK a lot of time at this point, if KRK is fast about it, her can make up that time or not make up that time. But, you know, etcetera, um, So, yeah, that's I think that that does it. And let me tell you that leaves the ship a lot lonelier and a lot quieter, not having a three-year-old on board really changes the dynamic. [Austin Laughs, Ali laughs]
Um, I think Si’dra gives everyone hug before they go. Um, I think Eiden is like lecturing Jesset in that kind of like, veteran, you know, uh, trying to get some information into, uh, into a rookie's head, not that’s Jesset’s a rookie, but Jesset’s young, and Eiden [pronounced aiden] or Eiden [pronounced eden] is, is old and understands stuff better, you know? Uh, has been through it.
Um, any other final goodbyes to this crew? You play with the baby one more time Thisbe?
Janine: Yeah!
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Um, I think- Oh, what's a good... What's a good thing that I robot would be like, the baby will enjoy this and then make the parents kind of nervous. [Austin laughs] Um… [laughs] My instinct is, is I don't even know. Well, I don't know. I don't know if Thisbe would do something that would make them nervous. Um, My instinct was to have this be take, uh, take M’reb in like one arm and then climb up at the back of Mo and be like, look! up here. It's fun. [Austin laughs] Now you're on two robots. Um…
[Ali laughs]
Austin: That's fun! Fuck it. That's fun!
Janine: And I think that's one of those things where one of the parents was like ‘ah dadadada’ [Austin laughs] and she’d probably stop. But-
Austin: Hundred percent, yeah. uh, I think one of the parents does that. I think Avar does that and Ryrira was like,
Austin (as Ryrira): It’s- Honey it’s fine
[Ali and Janine laughs]
Austin (as Ryrira): Thisbe knows-
Janine: Never dropped a turnip in my life! And a baby is like a more valuable turnip. It's fine.
Austin: It’s the same thing!
Ali: Yeah. Um, I think Broun gives, um, Avar- their... attached notes to the-
Austin: Oh! good call!
Ali: to the Valence-Gur stuff.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Um, yeah, there's a little heart to heart there. Um, I think they chop it up with Eiden a little bit.
Austin: Yeah, sure!
Ali (laughing): I think Broun and Eiden get along! Um...
Austin: Uh-huh. Again, lots of like comparing notes and being like- I think like giving you notes on the ship and ways you could make it run better.
Ali: Yeah yeah yeah, um...
Austin: Um, you know what I mean? Like, Oh, you should open up the, Oh, if you, if you opened up the fuel a little bit more here, you'll get, uh, you know, oxygen differently and dah, dah, dah, you know?
Ali: Right. Yeahyeahyeah. I think, um, Broun and Eiden did a lot of those, like make sure you're taking those, your vitamins walks together!
Austin: Yes. Yes. Totally.
[Janine laughs]
Ali: so like it's Broun definitely knows the stuff to do, but it's Eiden kind of like kind of playfully, but also like, I mean this, like make sure you… buhmuhmuhmuhmah.
Austin: Yeah
Ali: Um, and then, um, you know
Ali (as Broun): Si’dra, DM me. My comms are open.
Austin: Uh-huh
Ali (as Broun): I'll see you again
Austin (as Si’dra): I’ll see you.
[Sylvi & Ali laugh]
Austin: Uh-huh. Si’dra’s like,
Austin (as Si’dra): Ah, I’m, you know, got to get some sort of communications network that can go between the Gates all the time. I'm gonna to figure it out. I just need, I just need more time.
Ali (as Broun): Yeah!
Austin (as Si’dra): And I think I'm gonna to have more time soon. So.
Sylvi (as Millie): Yeah, you've got this!
Sylvi: And then Millie does a big thumbs up. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
[Ali laughs]
Austin (as Si’dra): Um, all right, um, bye everybody.
Austin: And Si’dra’s the last one out, um, into some sort of like, like one of those cool tubes that connects two spaceships together, you know what I mean?
Um, also, there was like a really cool, like a cabin for four visitors inside of, uh, the, the, um, Feldspar Blue inside of KRK’s- Inside of KRK. Uh,
Janine: Yeah can we say it's cool in there? It’s like a reception desk inside, there’s like a-
Austin (overlapping): I think it’s really cool in there!. I think it's like a reception- a hundred percent think it’s like it's a reception desk and like-
Janine: Some candy machines… with the little
Austin: candy machines, old, you know those old cigarette machines, it's like those, but with candy
Janine: Ooh
Austin: Um, and then it's like carpeting and everything's very lush and plush and it's like a really fancy old hotel in there,
Janine: it's like a big U shaped conversation pit-
Austin: Yes
Janine: style couch that you can step down into-
Austin: a hundred percent and like, you know, connect via Velcro to the ground or something so that you can-
Janine: magazines that are just like, where are these even from?
Austin (laughing): Yeah!
Janine: What is this food? What is any of this?
[Music begins: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
Ali: You know what a conversation pit is? A really big playpen for a little baby.
Austin: Wow, true. Damn.
Janine: Oh yeah.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Um, so yeah, with all that said the, uh, The Blue Channel is a little extra lonely as you wait around to find out if you're needed back on Partizan for this big, final m- uh, mission
Janine: Thisbe hangs out up front now, though.
Austin: Aw, good.
Ali: Aww
Janine: It’s a little less crowded. People are a little bit less squishy.
Austin: That's true. That's true.