Saving Throw Society | Orbital Blues: Episode 3 - Chock Full o' Nuts - Saving Throw Society

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new brooklyn located on the ecumenopolis world of nova trina New Brooklyn is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities beyond Earth's solar system. Built atop centuries of expansion, demolition, and reconstruction, the city stretches for nearly 800 kilometers from coast to coast. Though the original shoreline disappeared generations ago beneath layers of reclaimed land, arcology foundations, and industrial superstructures, it is a city that has quite literally built itself upward downward outward until the distinction between city and part of planet ceased to exist.

Novatrino itself is often described as an urban planet nearly 87 percent of its surface is covered by cities, transportation networks, industrial sectors and towering residential megastructures. Natural landscapes survive only within protected biosphere preserves or carefully maintained rooftop park suspended hundreds of stories above the street. From orbit, the night side of the planet appears as if a continuous web of light interrupted only by the black circles of arcology roofs and orbital elevators anchored.

Among these countless metropolises, New Brooklyn remains the cultural heart of the planet affectionately and somewhat sarcastically known as New New York. the city began as a colony founded by settlers from Earth's northeastern seaboard. What started as an homage to a city thousands of light years away gradually became something entirely its own. The old borough's name survived. Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. But their borders have long since dissolved beneath cities in centuries of revvel development.

and neighborhoods are now measured vertically as often as horizontally. Someone may live in Brooklyn's 23rd Sky District while working three kilometers below street level in the lower transit wards. Life in New Brooklyn never truly stops. Automated freight lines weave beneath skyscrapers while civilian aircraft occupy designated airlines stacked at dozens of altitudes. Trains travel not only beneath the city, but through its towers connecting districts by enclosed skywards that span entire valleys of steel and glass.

Every hour of every day, billions of people, androids, synthetic intelligences, and aliens move through its streets in a carefully orchestrated rhythm that somehow never collapses into chaos. The city's architecture reflects nearly a thousand years of uninterrupted construction. Ancient brick buildings from the earliest colonial era stand nestled between kilometer-high corporate spires clad in adaptive glass, and elevated parks wind through forgotten rooftops now hundreds of meters above the modern streets.

Entire neighborhoods exist inside former skyscrapers, whose opera floors have become their own miniature cities, complete with schools, markets, hospitals, and public transit stations. New Brooklyn is famous for diversity. Humans share the city with dozens of extraterrestrial species, autonomous android communities, cybernetically augmented citizens, and transient crews arriving from every corner of explored space. Thousands of languages are spoken daily, though nearly everyone can switch effortlessly into galactic standard.

Street vendors sell everything from traditional earth bagels to methane-fermented delicacies, hand-crafted quantum processors, antivinyl records, and nano-fabricated clothing that changes colors with the weather. Despite its overwhelming scale, every resident insists the city feels like a collection of neighborhoods rather than a single metropolis. Each district possesses its own traditions, cuisine, festivals, rivalries, local legends. ask 10 residents where the real New Brooklyn begins, and they'll receive 10 different answers, each delivered with complete and utter confidence that they are correct.

Visitors often describe New Brooklyn as loud, crowded, and impossibly overwhelming, but its citizens simply call it home. On this day in New Brooklyn, rain falls in sheets through gaps between elevated highways. The streets of lower Brooklyn never really get dry. They just change flavors. Today it smells like ozone, engine coolant, and week-old romaine. Seamus McDonnell crouches atop a rusted ventilation unit overlooking Dock Market 42. Below delivery drones buzz between vendors. while working shouted over one another, thousands of people moving through the market every minute, too busy to notice a dozen dirty children watching from the rooftops.

Seamus taps the side of his head. Everyone freezes. He signals in their private silent sign language that there are two security drones, one patrol every 90 seconds. Small voice beside him speaks up. What if they see us? Seamus shakes his head, as if to say they won't. What if they do? Seamus smiles. That earns a nervous laugh. Fear makes people stupid. Laughing makes them think. He looks over the assembled children. Most weren't older than 12. Some were barely 8. Street names, street clothes, street scars, Piper, Knuckles, Ash, Mouse, Junebug, Little Finn.

Kids no one else wanted. kids who somehow had found him and he wasn't quite sure why.

I ain't stealing nothing, Seamus, Finn mutters. Seamus, you look at Finn. What would you say? How old would you say Seamus is currently? Seamus is 14. Okay. Finn, it ain't exactly stealing. When you're doing it for the right reasons My friend, anything is up for grabs Seamus, that's stealing with extra words But if your heart's in the right place Everything's A-OK Don't question me The group chuckles a little bit None of your own passes overhead Seamus, you're counting under your breath 88, 89, you hit 90, the drone disappears around the corner, you stand up and signal that everyone needs to move now.

The young lions scatter across the rooftops without another word. They flow through the maze of maintenance bridges and forgotten catwalks like they'd grown up there. And some of them had. Seamus, you drop through an access hatch into an abandoned maintenance corridor that overlooks the freight terminal below perfect right on schedule a cargo train glides silently into the station corporate logo fresh produce medical supplies emergency ration packs everything you're looking for the loading crews immediately focus on the expensive cargo no one cares about the dented crate shoved in the back they never do mouse the tiny girl slips forward already holding a homemade signal jammer she presses it against the maintenance panel nearby cameras freeze for exactly 10 no not 10 12 seconds mouse is getting bitter at the signal jammer not broken just looking somewhere else jamis you look at piper and a length of cable sables sails through the air hook catch secure ash slides down first then june bug then fin each grabs a crate no larger than a backpack protein bars bottle water medicine blankets nothing valuable.

Just things that you need to survive. The kind of things corporations insured but don't really miss when they come up missing on the inventory list. Seamus, you come down last. You always come down last. Always making sure everyone else gets out first, gets in first, gets out first. The jammer chirps. Three seconds left. You signal for them to go. Children climb fast, practice silent. At the time, security rounds the corner. The terminal is empty, except for one very confused supervisor staring at inventory reports that no longer make sense.

The hideout occupied the forgotten 23rd floor of the building abandoned long before any of them had been born. Half the walls were missing. Tarps kept out most of the rain. Someone had painted a lion on one surviving wall years ago, but no one remembers who. The children gather around as supplies are unpacked. Tears erupt. Real fruit. Someone says, we got blankets. Someone said, medicine. Junebug held up an orange like she discovered buried treasure. Maeve laughs. You've never seen an orange before?

You've not seen pictures. Pictures don't count. Seamus, you're leaning against support being watching, making sure everyone ate before you do, making sure everyone gets everything they need before you do. Maeve walks over. She hands you half a sandwich. You forgot to eat again.

Well, you know, we gotta watch out for the young ones first. It's okay. I'm not that hungry. She shoves the sandwich into your hands. You can't keep feeding everyone else first and then never feeding yourself, because that's how you die. I guess, but what is this? Like, ham? Or is this like some sort of space squid sandwich? It smells kind of funky. It's manufactured protein with bioengineered vegetables. I don't know. Eat it. Was there anything else to put on this? I don't want to just eat this the way it is.

She goes and gets the space mayo. The space mayo. Not even space miracle whip.

Fine. She looks at you. You know, you know, you're a kid too, right?

Seamus stands up a little straighter and he says, would a kid have found this? And then he brandishes a machete that he found on this most recent heist. Seems pretty cool, doesn't it?

She looks at it. She looks at you. She said, you're going to cut your hand open if you keep holding it like that. But you see, I'm not going to cut my hand open. I'm going to use it to do some cool stuff. Hey, toss me that orange.

They toss the orange tea. He says, everybody gather around. Check out this new machete I got. And he's going to throw it up in the air and then try to slice it in half, Fruit Ninja style. Roll Savvy Ah, Jesus Okay That's a nine That's a success Hell yeah So it sails in the air And he slices it Fruit Ninja style And half of it goes into that one kid's hand That never saw the orange before And then the other half goes into Maeve's hand

Finn starts laughing, Mouse is smiling, Piper looks up from fixing someone's torn jacket, and then they go back to what they were doing. Mate, that was cool, wasn't it? It was cool. I still think you're going to cut your hand open if you keep holding it like that. Alright, Shaymus eats the sandwich. No one's hungry. Not tonight. You can't keep acting like you don't need anyone. You take care of everybody, but it's okay to need people.

Yeah, but we've been doing fine on our own. If we needed people, then why would we be here? We're the type of people that don't need people. We take care of each other. Sheamus, everyone needs someone. Yeah, and I got you, Maeve.

You got me, right? I got you, but... Sheamus, I saw the job posting you took down. You're thinking about leaving. Maeve, we've been... We were born in this. You know how bad this has been. and we said that as soon as we could take a better life, we're going to do it. I don't know if this is going to be it, but you could come with me. I don't think you've quite understood that during the course of the conversation, you've naturally pulled yourself out the window with her following. You're on the rooftop looking at the stars.

You're looking up. You always stare at them.

If you leave and I leave He's left for that Well, that's that's been the whole point of this Maeve Is to train them It's it's to train them and And it's exactly what you're saying who's got us we've got each other we got to take care of each other we got to take care of ourselves This is me trying to put myself first for once Isn't that what you're asking for?

Yeah.

I think you should put yourself first. I don't... I think you should take the job. Um... But I think I need to stay here. No, Maeve. No, that's not what we talked about. You have to come with me. You've got me, and I've got you. Who's going to care for the rest of the group? Finn's getting big. I can leave the machete with him. Piper? Are you going to give Finn the machete? Yeah, Finn. You saw him on... Well, you've seen what he's been doing lately. He's a big boy. He's strapping young lad.

You've put yourself behind everyone else for as long as I've known you. And you have an opportunity to get out. She looks at the sky, that's freedom. That's the way that we get out. And you'll come back and visit. And you'll wrote letters. Maeve, do you really believe that? I don't know.

But we all can't come with you and I can't leave them. Maeve, I can't do this without you. Yes, you can.

You... If there's anyone that can do this alone, it's you. And you'll find new people. And you'll find new friends. And maybe new family. No, Maeve. No. This is you abandoning me and abandoning me. Just like our parents.

I'm not abandoning you. That's what this is, Maeve. You're abandoning me.

Sheamus starts walking off.

You don't even notice. The rain stops. You're not even focusing on the city. You don't feel hunger, you don't feel fear, you don't feel responsibilities, you don't feel anything. You are a brother who has a sister. And there's a dozen children who believe that if Seamus McDonald says tomorrow will be better, then somehow it will be. And you face the realization

It hurts, but you think she's right. Because if you leave, and she leaves, then you're severing the only parental figures, the only guardian figures that the rest of the group of kids has. He lets you walk away. You take a job on a ship. A luxury liner. You are working in the kitchens. You are learning, starting the dishwasher, then line cook, then sous chef. Then you got an advertisement from a ship, a job ship, looking for a cook. Someone to fuel the crew on whatever mission they have. You get excited.

It's a new opportunity.

And before you take the job, you go back to New Brooklyn. You're now about 25. It's been about 10 years. You go back to New Brooklyn. You can't seem to find Maeve. You can't seem to find the young lions. You go to the hideout. It looks like no one's been there in years. And you're about to leave feeling about as low as it can get.

And your eye catches someone wrote something on the wall by the picture of the lion. Says when you're here, your family If you didn't say it, I was going to You don't know Where Maeve is You don't know what happened to Finn or Piper or Mouse You don't know You don't know what happened to Junebug Fuck but you do know that your sister wanted a different life for you. You are sitting aboard the heap as the rest of the group talks about a plan to try and stop a genocide of an entire race of intelligent beings.

and your mind goes to Maeve, your mind goes to Young Lions, what would they do? What would they tell you? What would Maeve tell you to do right now? Jameis envisions Maeve in his mind, and she embraces him.

And even though she's not saying any words, he can see in her eyes that she's proud of him. She's proud of the man that he's become.

And she knows that at his core, he is someone who cares about other people and will do what's right for other people, even at the expense of his own well-being. And the words, do what you must appear in his brain.

Seamus becomes set in knowing that he's going to do what he has to do to save this race of creatures that he doesn't know, has no allegiance to. But he'll put himself in the middle of it to save them and to help his crew.

I want you to go ahead and take, as you come to the resolution of this and thinking back on your sister and thinking back on the Young Lions, you're going to take two blues points as you've just gone through some trouble times of self growth in that moment. We are sitting in an abandoned port station.

just outside of the central district of New Carthage.

And I have to ask, what's the plan?

Well, Samson, I believe at the end of last game, we talked about healing before doing anything. So the plan would be to heal and then to plan. Okay, who needs to heal? I need to heal. I think the penguin needs to heal too. I think I do, yeah. I'm pretty beat.

Where are my hearts? Yeah, I'm on three hearts. Uh-oh. The only person who is capable of healing our biological beings is Kit. Kit, how drunk are you? Yes.

I'm vibing. I'm not super drunk, but I have had a few swigs. Okay. We're going to start with the savvy check. We want to beat the eight of our savvy check to be rolling straight on our healing. Because of my gambit, I have the upper hand. Always. Really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Suck a dick, Samson.

Thirteen. Okay. So, healing.

We need our healer to make a savvy check for each one of our people that needs to get healed. And the people healing will make muscle checks.

That's a seven for me. Okay. What do we have on our first savvy check from Kit? Twelve. Okay. Someone roll a d3, and that is how much heart socket will heal for. I got a two.

Let's go ahead and roll that second savvy check. You're rolling muscle. I rolled a four. Okay. I rolled a nine. Roll a d3 and that's how much heart that we... My d3 is gone. So anybody else? I got it. One. then Ryo, you heal for one heart.

This game is a little bit less forgiving. This game is a little bit less forgiving than D&D in terms of healing. Also, a little bit more realistic. Because the whole idea that you go to sleep for a long time to wake up fully healed is crazy. And wake up okay. I lost an arm. I'm going to go to sleep and wake up my arm is back. I would like to heal myself too. So how does that work?

You will roll a savvy and a muscle. Oh, good. I'm so glad I can do muscle. Eight. And then eventually a D3. Well, it depends on if she passes the muscle check.

A nine for my muscle and an eight for my savvy. Then you will roll a D6.

It's one of the ones you just rolled. A six. You heal six heart or as many up to full as you can. An eight with our full?

Yeah, if the muscle and the savvy check pass, then you have to roll a d6 to heal. Oh, well, while I'm rolling high, does anybody else need healing before this goes downhill?

How's the robot doing? I'm at 7 of 9, but you specifically said biological for her. Well, Sokki can heal you. Yeah, but he doesn't like me. Don't worry, Sheamus can do it. Sheamus can take me. Sheamus just puts a breadstick on his head. That helps, right? That helps, right? I look at the robot and I go, Man, you're looking like shit. Come on! Come on. I'll fix you up. Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I'm gonna take that as a yes, you're gonna come with me. Okay.

Uh, well, then Robit, uh, go ahead and roll a muscle check, which I'm sure you're great at. It's not my worst, it's not my best. Hey, uh, would I roll savvy? You'd roll savvy.

Anthony disappeared. I was just making sure none of my shit affected these rolls.

11. Then you will also roll a d6 and heal from your d6.

Whoever wants to roll the d6. Two, which is exactly what I was missing. And while I've got this robot opened up, I'm going to make another savvy check. That's dirty. And with my Grease Monkey skill, anything that I can use for mechanical type stuff is upper hand. What are you doing to him? I'll let you know when I succeed. he's grazing his monkey I rolled three sixes is that a crit?

he's now possessed by a demon well I'd like to know what you're doing to the robot so when you put me aside I passed him a note because I know he can't talk to me or he can't understand me yeah so I'm gonna relay the note to you specifically in the socket chat. Oh, secret secrets. Okay.

They're doing dirty things. We gotta let them be. What? It's an enemy to lovers. Oh, I'm not gonna tell anyone that.

Fuck. Yeah. We were making a plan last week in the privately messaged Anthony like if he asked you to do this would you do it? The answer is yes. Okay. Um. And I go hold on one thing and I flip a switch and his voice turns into an Englishman. It does not. Well shit okay that's a thing and it'll resolve later. What's the plan now?

Just real quick, is there any way that Seamus could get... they're called... we're calling these nanites? Is that... Yes. Okay. Is there any way that Seamus could get in touch with them in some way, shape, or form? You can talk to Captain. Captain is currently fused with them. Okay. Hey, Captain, you there? Yes. We are all here, actually. Whoa. Oh, yeah, the whole hive mind thing. Cool. Anyways, I was hoping, you know, we're gonna be going and doing this big plan and I think I'm gonna need a little bit of extra firepower.

So I was wondering if you could touch base with all the rest of yous and maybe you could do something for this. And he holds up his machete. see sort of a liquid metal it's not actual liquid but it appears to be liquid metal like stream starts pouring off the walls into your machete your machete is now equipped with one missile okay that's not what I was shooting for but I am very into that it's a missile shetty it's a missile shetty just for my own edification can i please make them can the missile be purple sure okay great just like samuel l jackson

i told you you couldn't have a purple lightsaber it is a non-copyrighted laser sword all right this is better this is better were you hoping i was gonna make it a lightsaber well yeah you know i thought maybe we'd have a little tit for tat and we'd figure it out somehow but i'm happy with that you've made you still you made your stand on missiles i was like we're gonna guess what i'm cool with it the missile sheddy um so i'm assuming there was some sort of communication so what is the plan because we do need to figure out what what is what is the course of action that is about to be taken go ahead anthony okay um we're gonna split the party samson oh shit okay we've got team uh kill the chick.

There's going to be an infiltration team that's going to go to where this person is currently recovering, as you said at the end of the last game. Okay. To attempt to murder her. To go into a hospital with a murder team. Yep. And then there's the bomb team. I'm going to construct a bomb that we are going to deliver to the main building where she would have to go to like put in the failsafe key or whatever um and we're gonna blow up the system that uh would be the failsafe so that way she can't do that um so we're kind of we're trying to cover up uh our asses on both sides um doing that.

Which, I will say, is not the plan I had initially proposed. No, he wanted to blow up the hospital with the innocent children. I think it was as many innocent as possible.

Anthony, I did just send you a message in the Sokka chat. I'm just curious about something. I don't like when mom and dad have secret chats without us. Right? I feel so left out. Secret secrets are no fun. Secret secrets hurt someone. You know what else hurts someone? Missile Sheddy's. Hell yeah. So who on which team Who on team murder Famous is on team i can fix her is that team murder yeah he a one team it like an ancillary sub team of team murder okay

so who is it it is rios with left so it's less rio and sheamus Yes. Who's on team save the hive man? Me, Robit, and Kit. Gotcha. I love how Team Murder doesn't have the healer. Should I go with them? First of all, we're not looking to heal this person. We're looking to murder this person. We'll be in a hospital. We'll be fine. Yeah. Seamus can definitely fix her. It's going to be fine. Kid is five foot and has plus zero to her muscle.

Kid's the only one that's with her muscle chest except for the robot.

Do you guys want to heal her? Where do we want me? Somebody tell me where to go. Team bomb. Team bomb. Yeah, what if it has to be a fire bomb and you need alcohol? What does the bomb look like? You're going to a hospital. What's what's going to be bad that's going to hurt you at a hospital? What does the bomb look like? Is it obviously this is a bomb like like it like it has a little analog with a long cloth with this. So it says TNT on it. So Samson, you know, like those old like coffee cans that you would see on like your dad's workbench or something like that.

The soldier's can? Yeah, just like an old like, yeah, just an old like metal can. I think I would have used whatever garbage I could find to house it in. It doesn't look like a bomb, but in socket fashion, it's, you know, made from scrap. What now? I don't know if you've thought this far, but I do want to ask this. It will come up. What what makes the bomb go boom? there would be a timer that would get activated. Okay, so does that mean the timer is currently going, or does that mean you have to press the timer to go?

Press the timer, and there would be potentially a failsafe-like button that I could press if need be.

Okay. So let's say the timer stopped working, I could press the button, and then it would just ignite it. Sort of like the cell phone, yet you flip your cell phone and hit it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That sounds like a pretty solid plan. I do want to remind everyone that I wanted to make the stakes of this mission a little higher.

I have just started a timer on my phone. Oh. Forgot about that. I also forgot about that. This is why I said we should have just bombed the hospital. What do you know about the timer above game? Is there any in-game mechanic that lets our characters know we got plenty of time, okay? The in-game mechanic is there is a board of directors meeting where she is going to go and act this code. So do we have any inclination in-game? Our characters don't have that. you know what time that is happening at based off because you have her data pad.

So there's a meeting for the board of directors. She's on this meeting? She's in this meeting? Yes. Okay. The meeting has been subtly delayed due to her getting patched up. But she's in the process of getting patched up and then will be headed there with a sort of detail of security. so i'm assuming these things are happening concurrently so we're going to kind of bounce back and forth the downside of splitting the party is we have to enact both stories simultaneously and i did not give you more time because of that so we are hoping that's not nice at all well samson what you need is a second timer and when one team is done you pause yeah do you have a do you have a chest do it oh that would be perfect for this they got one at the walmart potstam they have to Samson, stop the game Go buy a chess clock Samson, is there a reason why You didn't bring a chess clock To this game tonight?

Time's still ticking We're wasting time This bit is making The time keep going Can we start the time over, please? As we Start walking out I pull Captain aside as one could do to an entire ship.

The whole ship lurches with small sockets, hefty muscles. I've got its face in my hands and I go, listen, if we're not back in whatever time that's ticking on Samson's not chest timer, blow up the hospital.

Captain, doesn't answer right away and says I know I probably should have issues with firebombing or hospital recovering people, some of which are probably innocent, but who is really innocent in the world? Everyone's getting something. Maybe I should feel problems with children, but maybe those children will grow up being murdered. No, the children are so sure all right we'll be back in 20 than the rest of us you guys set off in separate directions one group of you was headed towards the corporate headquarters of the company whose name I totally remember right this second you're heading towards corporate headquarters of Continuum yes wow my handwriting is shit the other one is headed to hospital the hospital is going to be our lady of grace copyright TM feel good ink hospital.

All of a sudden, gorillas start flying.

Feel Good Inc. is a company that exists in the heavily capitalized and consumerist future that exists in this galaxy. They essentially, they got all the stuff that makes you feel good incorporated. you are heading towards our lady of grace hashtag feeling good inc let's figure out how are we getting these places first how far away are we you are about well by foot or by some sort of vehicle that's really the question because it's a different answer how far are we by foot in the... Oh, go ahead.

You fit three people in what? Let's figure that out first. I was gonna say, can we fit three people in the space canoe? Or... I think Joe's just making up some bullshit helping him go with it. I don't hate it. Yes. Yes. Yes. And... Yes. And... The space canoe. That's how we get from the ship. You know? It's like the ship canoe spaceship space canoe I'm just watching the clock shit just makes sense you can fit three people in a canoe you can fit three people in a space canoe and nobody can fucking track you because it's a space canoe and we move on really stressed about this timer there is public transportation there are tramways that go through the entirety of New Carthage there is also similar to the previous planet that we were on this previous station there is uh private transportation like cabs and and sort of the uber of the future yeah i think we're just gonna call an uber would um would um workers of the hospital be taking this public transport yes cool that's where we're going we're doing public transport okay what's team bomb doing blowing shit up no no public transfer you're taking public transfer you're taking sort of a privatized vehicle privatized vehicle is quicker because it doesn't have stops I will say that so do are these are there any of these space Ubers um like self-driving that's an extra feature that you have to pay for but yes can I hack the shit out of one make a savvy check i give him that hold back i don't need it uh 13 uh yes you can hack the shit out of one

okay cool i'm gonna uh hack the shit out of an uber space xl super so it's a really fancy like black escalade a super xl black shows up gross we're calling them spoobers forever we get into the spoober I've got my chock full of nuts can you chocking your nuts in the spoober? chocking my nuts in the spoober is it just me and you at this point? no, kids also there okay, good, at least we can have an intermediary to talk to each other I imagine it was just the two of you and me just couldn't understand what each other is saying Kit just became that much more important.

The whole plan hinges on your ability to communicate between the two of us. Don't drink. Oh yeah, Kit, are you bringing alcohol with you? I have four flax in my pocket currently. Four? Four. Okay. Socket, are you bringing alcohol with you? Always. Okay, so we have the two drinkers on Team Bomb What could go wrong? I'm a high-functioning alcoholic Thank you very much I am an alcoholic At least they chose your concept I would like to have each of you roll Savvy Against the Odds Socket and Kit That's not fucking fair at all anything specific is that's just like actually no I want grit I want grit grit still against the odds still against the odds not very nice eight exactly ten you guys are not too drunk to function and you can each take a blues point hell yeah Has anyone had 8 lose points yet?

I have 6. No. I'm not nearly sad enough. 4. I have 3. Yeah. Damn, I'm just a depresso espresso. You have been drinking quite a bit during this game. We're going to start with public transport. We have Team Murder going on to these bullet trains that exist throughout the system they are magnetized they don't actually touch tracks they float above them with highly repellent magnets and they are very fast but they do have to make stops

you get on and you immediately clock people in scrubs you can guess they're either heading to or from work.

So I roll... Actually, does it have a coin? I'd love it if someone could flip a coin.

Nope. No. You can do evens and odds. I'll flip a coin. I have pocket full quarters.

I got a pocket full quarters. Yep.

Let me get Pledger Tales. Who wants Pledger Tales? Tales. Never fails. Love that. Okay. It was heads. It's tails. You guys get on transport with people heading to the hospital. You take the correct transport. You switched over the chest timer, right?

There's gotta be an act for that. I'm sure there is. You are on the transport, there are three stops that you will have to make, that the tram will have to make before getting to the hospital. Is there any planning you want to do aboard the train while you're going? You say planning? Anything you want to do aboard the tram while you're going?

So, I kind of turn to my team and I say, listen, you know, Listen, we need these uniforms, okay? So once we get off this tram, we muscle these workers into the alleyway and steal their clothing. Yes? Yeah. Aye aye. There we go. We got a plan. okay we're jumping back to private transport you uh a a super black xl uh rolls up how much leg room do we got you got so much leg room you gotta roll for leg room you know these jokes are going to result in the genocide of billions I think every joke should add a few seconds to the timer because it's going to make for great content.

Just a little okay on time.

Is there any sort of planning or preparation you're doing while you're heading there in the self-trapping spoover?

Eric, you were about to say something, but I wonder if we have the same idea of you. No, I was making a stupid joke. Never mind. Uh, so Socket would look at the robot and go, listen, I know you got, like, an inn with that, like, hive mind, and we know this whole building's just kind of full of them, right? Uh, you've got a layout of the building, right? That was the wrong button, I'm so sorry. I don't understand you! Well, there it goes again.

I'll look at, uh, Kit. What the hell is he saying?

It is gonna relay. But in her head, she's like, I'm gonna blow my fucking brains out. But she'll relay. Back and forth. This bit of you guys not understanding each other is gonna cost a race of beings their life. We didn't want to do them anyway. It's not a bit, Samson. It's just what happens. if he was a dog person i would have understood him um yeah so i'll uh i'll i'm assuming i'm a robot i have some kind of internal you still have a tethered connection to the hive mind okay so i keep got confused when he's saying hive mind was he talking about the nanites or was he talking about like getting a map for where we're going because i have the keypad to the continuum you can still like sort of bluetooth into the hive mind of the nanites that's dope um but anthony were you asking for that or i was layout of i was more so i was asking for layout but more so asking for the nanites because i believe and samson correct me if i'm wrong pause the timer while you answered this question uh i believe you had said that because like this race of like nanite beings um is used by this company like the the metal of this company is kind of like the building is the nanites yes so i was more so asking about you literally talking with the building and we're going to talk about the logistics and how the nanites function they pause the timer sorry they manufacture and create everything this company builds and they have to deactivate themselves to make solid structures that exist so basically they

kill themselves repeatedly to make the products that the company manufacturers that's hard so the building is made of dead nanites would you say a savvy check could bring them back to life I know there are not DCs in this game I'm going to break the rules and say that yes a savvy check could bring them back to life but it's going to require more than an 80 yeah about a 10 who is making the check for focus you don't have a connection to them yeah no if i'll get so i can also make it and then with this since they are living computer things would this have anything to do with my um gambit of being a computer expert and having upper hand and all this bullshit you have upper hand yeah cool i'll do it

How about a 10? Yeah! Yeah!

So the DC I had set in my head was you had to get at least an 11 or 12. But a 10 is not nothing. A 10 is not nothing. You do it, but there are complications. you have been in contact with a colony of this hive mind a small ingot that is now inhabiting the heap you are reaching out to a building a 20 000 square foot building on just one level and then exponentially increase that by 80 floors you are reaching out in contact to that building made of these animates make a grit check against the odds oh no oh cool um nine on a nine your body does not get erased by the sheer existence of that much information passing through your core processor you do not lose your artificial intelligence i love that However, your body, your consciousness does have to reboot.

You do black out from the sheer force of contacting what is essentially trillions and quadrillions of now revitalized intelligences. So I just slump forward on the socket.

Get this fucking thing off me. What is... get it get get get it off it weighs like a thousand pounds i'm taking a swing and looking out the window st uh the super is still moving yeah you are under the sheer pressure of a planet's worth of intelligences filtering through your processor something that would be a challenge for any single ai to try to process however you did roll a nine so you do reboot and you have sort of this connection to the building they are not rejuvenated in that they are now fully autonomous they are more conscious but frozen and paralyzed still and you are overwhelmed by feelings of pain and anguish as their bodies their conscious bodies are forced into this structure and you feel the weight of a civilization of slavery on your shoulders I can take one of Kate's flasks and try to pour it in my mouth Do I get drunk?

You get hit in the side of the head by kids.

I will keep track of time passing. I was hoping you would try to do something like this. I will say as time passes this will sheer away your heart uh having this level of power processing through your body so uh go ahead and roll d3 three you lose three heart immediately oh no i meant You lose three hard immediately from this happening. This is not going to be a check that happens nonstop. It will happen as time passes. Every time that he hits the chess switch for the timer, you had to roll it. Attention adventurers, dice goblins, and people who have ever knocked over an entire dice tower with their elbow.

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Well, this might be a short game for me. as you are you feel your consciousness sort of being pulled apart by the sheer weight of the pain and the desperation and the anguish of all these beings that are in contact with you and you are doing everything you can to hold on to the being that is st and not lose it to the anise. Samson, would you say that all of this happening to him really gives him a shitload of lose points? You know what? I would say it gives him a shitload of lose points. I feel so sad right now.

Go ahead and roll a d6.

A three. You get three lose points. Cool. Five. You now have the complete database of the building You have access to the building's security You have access to the building's comms You have access to the building's surveillance Okay, and just for my own personal This building and the hospital they're going to are completely separate entities They're completely separate entities, yes Okay, well never mind and only one of those is going to get blown up supposedly I had an idea that I was going to do something with the hospital but this doesn't make it easier like while we were in the spoober I was going to try to hack the hospital and see if I can make them give this bitch the wrong medication so I can make her going to the fucking just put air in her IV we can end this you pull up what happened?

her heart just popped did i do things now are you directing the super to park out front to park in the parking garage what are we looking for here how is it the garage i was gonna now that i have complete like security layouts i'm gonna find like the super secret executive parking that gets us as close as possible to the place we want to be and miraculously all the checkpoints just open for us it's weird They did. Yeah. You get to the parking garage that gets you to the lower access levels where there's less security.

There's going to be less security than if you enter through the front lobby. You're entering through the underground of this building, under the crust of the planet that is New Carthage. That's how deep this parking garage is. and you walk through every checkpoint you make cameras avert you make you see when security guards are going to pass through before they pass through you start having weird clairvoyance omnipresence moments as this happens hovering at this point the tram would have arrived at the hospital.

There is an exit point into the alley that leads into where both staff and where patients can go. There's one direction where patients can enter through the ER doors. There's one direction that staff can enter through a staff entrance. Team Murder, what are we doing?

Murdering people. How? So, have we have we stopped on our tram yet? Okay. And so I guess we just kind of hang back. We wait for the three folks in their scrubs to disembark. And then I nudge my team and I say, okay, now we go. And so we stealthily, as stealthily as possible, we follow these folks off of the tram.

What is the Are you trying to follow them into the staff entrance? You're trying to intercept them before the staff entrance. We want to intercept them. Okay. We're going to call it a group savvy check because that is our dexterity stat for this. This is going to be the Oral Blues version of stealth.

We need the average to pass an eight. So we need two of the three of you to pass an eight. Okay. I got a 10. Oh, I got a nine. Hey, look at us. Teamwork You were successfully able to follow them You see that they are a group they know each other they friendly with each other um and one of them uh stops to hang back to smoke a it's not a cigarette but it's again it's essentially the future's version of a cigarette it is some sort of whatever this planet grows as a crop to simulate nicotine it's a death stick and about as far into the last moment as possible he notices the three of you coming into the alley um that leads to the staff entrance and he uses uh hey you guys i think if you're looking for the You already gotta head that way.

So I whip out my nine mil and I,

smash it across his head. I smash the butt on his head and in hopes that he passes out. It's like, Roll a muscle check.

Ooh, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. He immediately loses consciousness as that smacks across his head. He's as close to a townsfolk commoner as you can get in this game. He's not built up as a guard. He's just a guy.

The two that were waiting for him sort of hear the thump, see you standing over him with a gun drawn.

They look from you to the fallen body of their friend. and I need whoever is going to try to stop them to roll a savvy check, and we're going to do an opposed savvy check real quick. So I'm going to say that Seamus would have been, like, standing outside of the alley, and he wants to step in front of the gap just with his machete bared just kind of going like this. I'm sorry, his what? His missile shetty.

And that's a nine from Seamus. Hell yeah. Okay, you are able, what are you trying to do? Basically, just stop them from being able to escape, and then Les can do it. They're not trying to escape. They're trying to alert the hospital.

So, I guess what I envisioned is they went into the alley to check on their friend and saw Les, and then Seamus cuts off that point of escape so that they can let the hospital know. You roll the nine? Mm-hmm.

You begin to hear they have enacted some sort of silent alarm. Ah, shit. What? They have panic alarms on their badges. So if you technically succeeded in that you cut them off, however, I was hoping that you would have done something to incapacitate them.

More so because on their actual ID badges, there are panic alarms they can hit. So we hear this alarm going off. You hear code black, code black. No, you don't. Because I'm monitoring all the alarm channels and I cut off. Does that actually happen? No, I don't think that happened. Well, fuck you. So I turn to the crew and I say, okay, be quick. Change your clothes now. And then I start like I take the clothes off of the dude that's on the floor and put them on. I take his badge. So talking to our two non-muscly dudes, how are you incapacitating the two guys that are left?

I was kind of hoping that Les would do that for me. That was the idea, you know? I look like I, you know? And then Les kind of, like, sneaks up behind him, bashes him both. But are they looking at me, or where are they located exactly in this alleyway? So there's an alleyway. You, Les, are at the sort of entrance to the mouth of the alleyway with standing over the incapacitated guy. Seamus, you have cut off and come in front of Les with the guy. And I don't know where Ryo is, because Ryo has not let me know where Ryo is.

and the two that are left, a man and a woman, are by the actual staff entrance further up. Okay. I'm probably right next to Lith. Okay, Seamus punches a dude. Make a muscle check.

How's the seven? Not good when you're trying to knock someone unconscious, so play that. at Seamus the person you're swinging at ducks and takes a swing at you and you are going to take three heart damage. Oh damn bro. It's a strong hospital worker. It is. I rolled exceptionally well. It's not common. So you get punched or you feel the entire weight of a building. It's the same.

So I guess I hear this, the scuffle and like, as I'm trying to pull this dude's pants off of him, like I stop and I look around.

I look around and, uh, um, I, I head over there and I take care of business. I need two separate muscle checks. Okay. well shit one is a seven oh my god six seven eight and one is an eight uh one of them gets incapacitated not unconscious but not in any state where they can go ahead and do anything the other one the one that had uh just hit Seamus takes a swing at you uh you take one point of heart damage as uh you sort of get hit but don't really like you get hit across the face and you just look back does that scare him at all do i get like a advantage on my next hit or something or what because that would scare me i'm saying um you can roll uh i'll give it to you you can roll the upper hand.

So roll three dice.

Jesus. I got a seven again.

You threw me off my game, man.

The key heat is rolling hot.

I'm glad you guys have a healer with you. You take three more points of heart damage as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out some sort of taser knuckles. and sort of electric charge hit to you. Okay, fuck this. I'm stabbing him with the missile, Shetty. I love it. Roll above... So you're gonna roll 4d6. You're gonna roll... Because you're rolling with a weapon. So you're gonna roll 4d6. Take the two highest.

10.

Roll... roll a d6 for a poke I'm the homebrew staff, all that Mr. Shetty can do three you have gored him and he is out holding his guts I'll take those clothes I guess I was about to say those are yours I'm not wearing that so the three of us quickly try and change our clothes yes Assassin's Fable. Okay. There's still code black happening. The hospital is in lockdown.

Who has like, what would we have to roll to convince somebody? Like, what's persuasion, essentially? Persuasion's savvy. Who has high savvy? Anybody? Mine's zero. Okay, cool. So we're gonna rush to the door, I guess, wherever you have to, like, buzz yourself in. I know it's in lockdown, but we're banging at the door. How visible is Sheamus in this moment? Sheamus is holding his gut and he's like, I think I just got shot!

Okay. Sheamus can roll Savvy with the upper hand, or Leo can roll Savvy 3.

Whichever you'd prefer. I don't know. I mean, I got plus zero in Savvy, but I feel like three dice is more than two. If you're a better man.

Okay, now I can re-roll if I take heart, right? Yes. You can re-roll one die for one heart. Okay. Alright, so hold on. Just one secaroonie. Oops, that's the wrong one. okay so I'm gonna go down to five heart and we're gonna try that again okay I can I do it a second time or you can if you have the heart for it great I do I'm gonna try one more time if it doesn't work then that then I got this backup plan okay it didn't work so what is the because I have another plan but what is What is the result of that failed roll?

They see that your balloons are covered in blood, but you have no visible wounds. Can I see that? What is the door and or window situation? There is a steel-enforged glass door that would open to let you in. Okay, I say, back up. And we back up. I'm fucking firing Missile Shetty, baby. Let's go. We're blowing this back door down. Back up. Yeah! Let's go! Roll 4d6.

Oops. I'm so glad we have a backup plan. 10.

Describe what it looks like as Missile Shetty hits the door. so so Seamus goes like this and then he put he points it forward and as the missile shoots out it's purple and it leaves a purple trail behind it so for just a split second it looks like he has a purple laser sword it's so quick you'd miss it if you weren't looking for it but everyone was looking for it and it looked fucking cool as hell and he shoots the missile and he says unlimited soup, salad, and missiles and then the missile flies out and it fucking blows the door to smithereens and whatever else happens, I don't know.

That's all I got. You blow the door down as well as anyone that was standing on the other side of the door off to a 20 foot radius on the other side.

There's a pile of bodies in the room but you don't have an access point. and clean clothes. Exactly. Team Murder was... James changes his shirt.

We're going to jump back to Team Bond.

We're taking a nice leisurely stroll because the path is just open for us. This is building so I will not show the other once a hundred, as easy as a time as we are. I look over at Kit for her to relay what was just said. Damn it. I'm taking another drink. You can roll a D3. Oh, I'm sorry, me? Mm-hmm. But I don't want to. That one's a one. You take one part. This is happening far too often. I really feel like I'm with the wrong team as the healer. I did try to, like, state my concern before you guys went on this mission, but it wasn't my fault.

Seamus is prepared to die for this woman. I look over at the robot and I go, man, you're starting to look like shit. I mean, if you need any patching up from walking in this hallway, I guess I could, uh, take a look. I swear it's like he's trying to talk to me.

I'm just gonna yell back. I'm not gonna yell. I'm just gonna say back, do you need him to fix your asshole or not? Huh. Uh, because I know everything that's happening in this area because I'm so cool and everything, how much time do we have and how much time will trying to fix me take from that time? You want it? Like, how much... I've hacked all this shit. I should know what the meeting is, and I should have an idea how long it would take to fix me. Do we have time to try to fix me, or should we just fucking go?

You have time to try to fix you. We will eat at a chunk of your gobble time. Things have been going so swimmingly so far, so I guess so. I'll just give the kitty cat the thumbs up. Like to heal you or like keep moving and you'll let me know? I'll let you know. Okay. I'll point at me and just give it a thumbs up. So we're taking a nice leisurely stroll, Samson. You reach your first point where things are getting a little trickier. You reach an elevator that has a keypad code. it's not a biometric scan it's not something you can do electronically it requires a physical keypad to be entered it is old world tech I would very much like to hotwire this thing it's a shame we can't talk to each other because we're on the same wavelength make a savvy check against the odds, because this is so much older tech than you were used to dealing with, even for you who deals with scrap.

So, that was a 6, a 6, and a 5. So, an 11 plus 2 for 13. You rolled against the odds? Yep. Okay. You are able to sort of combine your abilities of noticing with also your ability to hotwire and you're able to one, see the sequence of numbers that should be entered, not the order that you're supposed to be entered in, but you can see physically worn down numbers with your cat's eyes. You have robot eyes. You have magic eyes. I thought I had magic ears. Well, you still notice it because you have cat eyes.

They just are very wide right now. You're able to hotwire in those numbers and run a probability sequence to figure out which order the number should be in. And the elevator opens. You enter the elevator and for a split second in ST's mind's eye, you see an image of the three of you enter the elevator, and then you see that image disappear as the cameras have been averted from the elevator. I'm so cool.

Team Murder. Murder Team. Murder Team. Does one of them have to roll a D3? No.

Team Murder, you are in the hospital now. You're wearing various scrub outfits. You have ID cards with IDs that do not match you. So making sure that nobody checks your ID is going to be key. In what way do they not match? Is there a picture on them? There are pictures. there are video frequencies that are connected to the ID cards. If someone scans the ID, it's going to come up with someone that's not E. In what way? What comes up exactly? The visual image and optical code for their eye of the people that you just took out.

What are our new names?

This is very important. You planned on this, right? Like you made names for this moment? This is Anthony's revenge because of Alaska where I wouldn't let him live down that he did not know of names of the fucking podcasters that got murdered. You have the entire roster of the hospital ready to go, right?

Okay. Can we also get the board members' names when you get a chance? Which order at least called out sick today?

Les, you have an ID card that reads Vincent Veering. Fantastic. Shout out to Vincent Veering, who is somebody that I taught euphonium when he was a ninth grader. I love that. You have Vivek in Texas. Rio your ID card Is for Somebody named Joe Gailey His name is spelled G-A-Y-L-Y The correct way The correct way That's weird And Joe Not Joe Seamus, your ID card reads Mini Langer Mini M-I-N-N-Y Langer Is the ID card you have They call up names Two real people's names and one made up name That's amazing how you did that uh what's you don't know what floor what room she's in so what are we doing in the hospital killing everyone I feel like before they left I would have figured out what floor she was on no how hacked the shit out of the city way to live.

Okay. Do we want to retroactively have... I'm going to flip a coin again. Do you retroactively do this? Heads or tails? Tails don't fail. Heads. Tails always fails the second time. The second time. Heads or tails. I have it in front of me. I'm hacking. I said tails. Yeah, that's fair. It is tails. Hell yeah. Damn it. I mean, good. It is tails. So you do know what floor room she's on. She's on the 23rd floor room 2314. Okay.

So usually in these hospitals, there's maps on the wall because you do the fire exits and shit. So I quickly glance at that to find which stairwell is closest. or whatever to her room. Yes, because it is stairwells because the hospital is on lockdown. The elevators are not functioning. Have fun going up 23 floors. I mean, I can handle it. Oh, you're carrying me.

I take Rio and I stick him under my arm like we did before. Let's go! I'm going... Make a grit and muscle check. I don't want to see how winded you are at the end of this list. So nine for grit.

And eight for muscle. You're able to do this. The fact that you have to remember, you could have been able to do elevators if you didn't make the hospital go into lockdown. There wasn't an option. That's fair. I'm kidding. I got the door I got the damn door open We're in We're going You're going up We're going to make a time jump Over to team bombs Because it is going to take time to get up the stairs However you do Yes While we are in the elevator Is there time For the cat And the robot to like do their little heal kissy kissy thing kissy kissy yeah can I heal kissy kissy the robot while we're on this elevator you can do it without it impacting time too much okay so that's a savvy check from me and a muscle check from robot that's a seven Jesus Christ I'm gonna check what it means if the healer fails the check I know what it means if the healee fails the check I think you take damage well if you're gonna take damage you should just burn a heart and re-roll anyway right that makes perfect sense yeah I could do that let's see what Samson says first if the healer fails the check if the healer fails the check then nothing happens I'm gonna burn a heart and re-roll one of these dice technically I can re-roll both of them because of my one of them was a four so I'm not gonna re-roll that but I could if I wanted to based on my my skill and only expend the one heart I don't like that.

It's cool. I'll just die. I'm going to expend another heart.

Don't kill yourself. Well, you have a healer in your party, so. Oh.

I don't like this. Yeah, yeah, okay. We both got eights. Okay, roll D6. to heal that many hurt.

Four. I'll back up. Alright, cool. I'll take it. I look great. Quick question for, I guess, Sam and Anthony. The thing that we've been discussing, if I were to die, does it just happen? It does. Oh my fucking god, you have a bomb in your asshole. I don't know what you're talking about I'm gonna die you are going up to the tippy top floor the pentagon floor pentagon penthouse floor pentagon floor the penthouse floor of this building the executive board where they have their meeting as you exit there is someone at the elevator that greets whoever comes off you're sort of a front desk lobby person what's the plan for that is it a person or is it a robot it's a person I feel like we made it up this far we walk with confidence she looks up at you from her desk where she was playing whatever the version of Candy Crush that exists in the future is excuse me I just do you have an appointment listen we're from Space Dash.

I got this someone ordered a can of coffee. I'm just here to drop it off. I don't have any orders from Space Dash. Was that the same accent you just had?

You're done talking. I'm doing the same accent that I've been doing. I'm going to order some Space Dash. Someone ordered it. What are we rolling for persuasion? That's me savvy. Okay. I want to roll persuasion to be like we wouldn't be able to get up here if we weren't allowed to be up here. So obviously we are supposed to be here. I'm going to roll her savvy against her savvy. Let's go. she rolled really fucking good did she roll a 12 she rolled an 11 oh nice I thought that there was nothing I thought that this shit was done suck my cock on a roll today I thought you guys were so fucked you speak with authority she looks at you kit excuse me I guess everything seems to be they order such weird shit sometimes to a can of coffee well break room break room's down the hall to the left I'm assuming that's where they want the can of coffee I look over at the robot and I go is this where they wanted the coffee?

the break room?

where is the keycard thing where they're gonna blow shit up? Is it in, like, the executive's office? It's in the executive office.

Wait. I canotically cannot understand what the fuck you're saying. That's what the fuck you guys are now. We're not fucking with this in front of her. We're walking to the break room. Jesus Christ. And as we're walking, I'm gonna whisper, where are we supposed to go? towards the office you pass people in offices that don't really pay you much mind you pass men in suits women in suits skirts business attire why do the women have to wear skirts then you said suits and skirts and business attire I look around and I just go I guess no casual Friday Socket, it's Tuesday And this is a Denny's So I do want To Reiterate something uh oh don't do it time leave us alone time is passing a significant portion of time has passed not enough has passed that bad things are happening yet we don't know team bomb not team bomb, team murder I mean I've been this cold Huffing and puffing up the stairs Not me Less is a G Seamus is sweating bullets Just Seamus You're getting to the read a significant portion of time has passed.

What is the plan as we, are we just bursting through the door or how are we doing this? What do we see when we get outside the room?

Do you see a hospital in chaos as code black is being shotted across the radius? Perfect. Yeah. We just kind of, in all the hubbub, nobody's fucking paying attention to us. I'm going to shoot the door handle off. Alright. Is it even locked, sir? I don't care. Wait, did Les put you down? I- I also- I still don't care. No, I have not yet put him down. This is all fun.

I made a private roll during this while the fucking world was going to shit in- in Team Murder's plan. You enter an empty room. the hail. Of course they moved her during a code black. You enter an empty room.

Flashing back to team bomb. The snacks in here aren't even free. You have to use credits to buy it. It's a fucking executive floor. Why the hell are they charging the executives? You hear down the hall the elevator comes back up to the top floor again and exiting you hear a familiar voice. Oh, dude, there's not even good help that you can get at a hospital. It's just bullshit. This whole civilization's going to shit. Oh, fuck.

I use my cat ears to hear that and I look over at them and I go, well, team hospital murder failed. How dare you?

Hospital murder.

Okay. I guess we can kind of duck in. I mean, where are we at in reference to her? So she just came up. Where are we? You are a straight shot down the hall. If she comes much further up the hall, she's going to see you. And she rode in your ship. She's intimately familiar with Elise Sokka, who had a whole conversation with her. Yeah, Sokka did come on top of her. Oh, that didn't sound right. that was my bad holy man where I had a nickel yuck yuck yuck where in reference where is the room from where we're at the room we need to go boom it's at the hallway it's one hallway straight shot from the reception area in the elevator to the ending in the executive suite.

So are we between... You mean between her and the executive suite? Should we make her run for it into the executive suite? Or do we kidnap her shove the bomb down her throat then throw her in the room and explode everything Yes Mm That one Uh so so as Kid is saying this I gotta go, I think you're overestimating how much this lady can fit down her throat as I'm holding the big can of coffee. Oh, yeah, you would know, huh? You all are wild for that. What do we want to do? I go, do we Did she have...

She talked with the robot, right? She did. She talked with all of us. She did. She knows all of your faces and all of your voices. But the robot is a model that looks very similar to other models, right? Just the ST line. The ST line is unique to law enforcement robots. would they have any repurposed law enforcement robots as security in this building let's roll the equivalent of a love check which is me flipping a coin again who wants heads or tails it's gonna be heads this time it never fails I'm telling you I mean Eric you're the one who asked the question so you decide mm-hmm I'm going to flip a coin to see what I should pick.

I'll go heads this time. What the hell? And if it's wrong, it's Joe's fault.

It is chaos. You joke. Bro, bro, bro.

Okay, well, Sam just put a nine in the chat, which is stressing me out. I feel like we just need to make a run for the room and attach the bomb and hit go. Does she have nanites embedded into her body? I seem to recall something like that. She does. She has biotech. Could you hack the shit out of her?

Could I hack the shit out of her?

Like mind control? You can try. You usually do it for electronic interfaces. so you'll be rolling against the odds to pack a bioengineered person just an idea, you don't have to do that backburner of that for a second, not a bad idea but we're in a very long hallway you were saying in a very long hallway in the course of this hallway are there any doors or just a wide open hallway? there are doors on either sides yeah but like that would like across the hallway instead there's literally there's one hallway at the end of the hallway is the second suite there are offices off the hallway on either side of the hallway so it's a straight open hallway with no doors like in the middle that would like cut it off to like this is the super duper executive suite no one can pass these doors to this part of the hallway with offices no well shit Samson look at you can Joe?

Samson? Joe? I'm gonna hand the coffee can to one of the people in suits that are nearby and I'm gonna go ah, what was the lady's name? Remind me.

Miss Sevra? Miss Sevra, yeah. I'm gonna go to just one of the random suits trying to stay out of eyesight of her assuming she's walking towards the conference room because we're minutes away from it and I go hey, listen I got an order for Zebra I don't know where the heck she is would you mind taking it to her? roll savvy against the odds girls haven't been great today I am going to burn a heart she's walking towards you guys by the way while this is happening so it was originally very low. And now it is not.

That is a six plus four plus two. So 12.

So you're asking him to deliver the bomb to Sebra. Okay. Oh, she's right there, Miss Evra. Miss Evra, she's right now. Motherfucker. I got a 12. You succeeded, but you succeeded in what you were trying to do. Why didn't we have him deliver it to the executive room?

I said you deliver this for me, Samson. You succeeded. She's coming up. She's walking up the hallway as you guys were having this conversation. Time is passing in real time right now. He's on five. Just so he knows. Say killer or hacker? Didn't I do something with my... No, she tried to fuck with my ears and I resisted and that fucked her up for a second. Yep.

Make a decision before it gets to four. You don't want four to hit before you have a decision. Can we just go to the fucking room with the bomb? I feel like we're too far in. We're done. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I grab the bomb and I run to the room. You're- You were taking way too long. You got me down. You made your own bombs of the room. Okay. How are you getting in the room? The room has a keypad. No, it doesn't. I have robot power. Yeah. Okay. Roll savvy against the odds for your robot powers.

me or him? You're the one who ran into the room, kid. If I see her going, I'm going to make the door open. It's a keypad. That's an eight. It's the same technology that was downstairs. Eight. What'd you get? Eight. Against the odds, that was an eight? Yep. You are able to force the door to open.

You are now faced with a room of men in suits and women in suits. and the executive. There's several security detail guards inside the room as well on either side of the door. They look up. Oh, Miss... Security! Security! Yeah, the bomb started, right? We started the bomb. I'm just kind of dodging and weaving until... How long did we sit? How long was the bomb Anthony? How long was the timer? That's a good question. Um...

Well, I did say I wasn't going to start it until we got here, right? Yeah, so I assume we started it while we were coming up the elevator. Yeah, I would have set it for like 10 minutes, so that way we had enough time to get downstairs. ST, where are you right now? uh I she has now walked up and she is full running she sees the two of you and Kit just entered in the door oh Sever does? yes I don't want her to get in that room so I'm gonna grab her and I'm gonna point for the cat to get the fuck out of here cause shit's gonna happen uh so So you're pointing that way.

Make a muscle check.

Also, ST, roll a d3.

I yell, run, kit, run! Do you think the cafeteria is open on a code black?

Do you guys want to get a sandwich? Take three heart. Take three heart damage. I'm also going to burn another to die. I'm sorry I'm left. So I in the elevator I got back up to nine rolled three I got to six just burned one at five get eight plus one muscle is nine.

You were able to hold her you were at the doorway to the executive suite. She has dragged you this far and you're able to hold on to her. Right. So I'm holding on to her for dear life and if it gets to the point where she's gonna, I'm gonna try to wait as long as I can to let my friends get out, but if it gets to the point where she's about to let shit go, I'm gonna go boom. Kid and Socket Roll Savvy. I did point furiously to get the fuck out for the people who can't rest up.

I'm going to expend two heart. I am also going to use a heart. That is much better. That is a 12. So fast. And I am down to two heart right now. It's going to be a nine for me.

You are both in the elevator going down as you hear the explosion. ST, what is the last thing you were thinking of as you self detonate the bomb in your chest? That I may die, but at least in doing so this sentient race that I respect so much as a chance to live. You feel a moment of relief as the bomb takes out the executive suite, the entire penthouse floor. The kill switch, the key card with the kill switch, Sebra and every other member of the high ranking of this company. and you feel deep in the back of your consciousness in the moments before everything goes black.

Thank you.

The elevator goes down until it has a drastic halt at the 42nd floor as the power grid of the building shuts down as a response to an explosion in the penthouse. Kit and Socket, you are on an elevator in between the 42nd and 43rd floor.

Alright, so what we gotta do is we gotta get into the elevator shaft itself. Lift me up. There should be a hatch up there somewhere.

Okay. I'll go ahead and roll muscle to lift up this badass cat. How dare you? This is gonna work. I ain't a chonky boy.

How stressed was everybody during the countdown? Too stressed. I'm high anxiety. I got a 12, so I guess I just fucking muscle you up there. Sagi, you're in the elevator shaft. So I look around, and is there like a ladder situation on the side? like for maintenance and stuff like that. Yes. I go, all right. You got to get up for our way out. And I hold my hand as far as I could go to try and help her up. So I can roll muscle against the odds because she is much larger than you. Much larger is fucking rude.

It's a pat versus a whole ass person. All right. eight exactly with my plus zero to muscle you are both in the elevator shaft going down the ladder you you feel structural integrity of the building not doing well a very large explosion just hit the top. And it was kind of a double explosion because it was the bomb and the robot plus the chock full of nuts bomb.

That's what we call the one-two special. Do we have like stones of far speech? No. This is high-tech walkie-talkies. Oh yeah. We had like nanite walkie-talkies, didn't we? Yeah. It was a bad D&D joke. Is Murder Team aware that this happened? Like, did we communicate at all? Would we have communicated? I feel like we would. It's up to you guys, would you have? We probably would not have said shit yet because we were trying to get out. But even before that, I'm just thinking, we're getting over here.

We failed our mission. We should probably get back to the ship. If you failed your mission, I would expect you guys to be heading back to your ship, but we have not updated you on our mission yet. So, as the structural integrity of this building is failing, I put my finger to my ear and I go, Team Bomb to Team Murder. You guys fucked up real big, but we fixed it. Unfortunately, the robots didn't make it. but not only did we take care of the murder, we also took care of the kill switch. You're welcome.

So we'll meet you back at the ship, but maybe could you stealth the ship over here for a quick evac because we're kind of stuck in the elevator shaft and we're trying to get out of it right now. Do you begin to notice something, Sokka? Oh, sorry, over. you begin to notice something the building you start seeing fissures in the actual structure of the building you start seeing fissures in the material components of what make up the building you're inside of as trillions and quadrillions of nanites start to separate from themselves as the core frequency and biometric and cybernetic components that made them stay in this structure have been destroyed.

I go, huh.

This is going to be a really good thing or a really bad thing.

Are they forming like a nanite wave that we could ride out of the building? They have not fully resumed consciousness yet. They are right now falling into individual grains of sand, essentially. I'm going to use my nanite communication walkie-talkie to talk to Captain. Is that possible? Yes. I go, hey, Captain.

Can you help us out a bit? It seems like the building little robots, they seem to be collapsing. Can you try to get them to knock it off and help us get out of here? You hear Captain's voice, which is the choir speaking. It's the choir voices overlapping. We have tried to contact the fragment of the hive that is the building. they are regaining consciousness regaining cognizance to say they are rebooting get out as quickly as you can I'm not sure they're going to reboot before there's structural collapse alright what floors were we between 42nd and 43rd we're in between the 42nd and 43rd floor I assume you can see the layout of this place just like a robot could because you are Nanite-y.

Could you give us a quick route out of here? Captain says, I can do you one better. And a blast blasts through the building as you see the heap has self-piloted itself to be outside of the 42nd and 43rd floor of this building. uh so we we jump onto it the the bay doors are open so you sort of jump jump jump in as as well as good as you can some real firefly shit's happening right now um i go hold on hold on if these things are waking up can they join the ship too captain looks i love this much a ship can look.

Capsul responds. That would be... I'd prefer that we didn't do that.

I am one ship. This is a skyscraper. What you're saying is we could actually turn this ship into a luxury liner and now we can actually like get it's a business going with that unlike the last time we tried it when people was just like kind of shitting on the floor and stuff what I can do would be to try to scroll the process but I need help socket if if you're gonna go ahead and roll a savvy oh boy 14 14 um now i'm rolling good the building i had to burn like all my fucking the building starts shifting as it does you see people falling through the sky as the building drops way under them oh so sad uh oh there goes that one oh oh there's another one you can't you seeing this just kind of like pancaking on the pavement below um the building forms into several replicas of the heat and you now have an armada or an armada of the heat okay captain let's head what was that forest planet?

Endor? Is that what they called it? Halcyon. Yeah, that's what I said. Let's Kit, you got something to say? You're just holding your hand up. We don't have the rest of our crew. I thought they went back to the ship. They didn't make it to the ship. They didn't make it to the ship before this happened. It said it autopiloted over here. Because Joe said that they failed, so they went back to the ship. Well, I was kind of hoping we would have made it back in time. I go, all right. All right, Captain.

Let's go find the slackers.

You have full taken out one of the pinnacles of economy for this solar system. Sounds like a personal issue. this company was it's like the market is tanking it's gonna fuck over everybody in this galaxy but also they were living on the backs of slavery so really so as we're flying to find the crew we see people falling from this building that's disintegrating unintentionally and then we see people jumping off of other buildings intentionally it was a good day you pick up the crew and you begin exiting the stratosphere to head to Halcyon so as we're heading to Halcyon a fleet of security ships of the battle cruiser destroyers exit orbit to intercept your armada of the heat.

My armada of highly advanced, most sophisticated robot like metal, like technology? Yes. I go, I go, Captain, can you and your boys just take care of these things? Of course. Um, Seamus, would you mind piloting, would you mind using the missiles for you to start a game? Oh, I mean, I don't think I could. I don't think I could actually, and then he just slams it.

Just a little bit of drool coming out of his mouth. It's marinara sauce.

I had some meatballs from the freezer. I was hungry. Hundreds of missiles begin firing at the fleet of Battlestar cruisers.

And the piloting system that is in place, that Sheamus is using, ensures that they are all hitting as accurately as possible and as crucial points as possible.

to the point where the missiles aren't even missiles anymore. As each missile collides with a cruiser, it turns into nanites that infect each cruiser. Tearing them down. Kind of. Tearing down the technology that makes up the cruisers because, in fact, the technology of those cruisers was also these nanites, leaving the crew to suffer in the void of space of each of these ships. It's a good day. Yeah. You make directional travel towards Halston. Do you enter faster than light drive, or are you just going whatever speed?

I think that's up to the pilot. Oh, I've got new toys to play with. I would like to think that if I'm, okay, if I'm steering one ship, do all of the ships do the same maneuver with me? Yes. Oh, nice. We're going faster than light. We're going as fast as possible. We gotta get ready. We gotta get ready. We gotta get ready. Yes. We're getting ready. Hey, Rio. Yeah, what's up? Can you do a barrel roll? Oh, we're doing so many barrel rolls. Loob-de-loobes. All of it. We're going around town, baby.

You quickly begin to realize after seeing what happened to the fleet that had tried to come after that you are not being followed for fear of what will happen to anyone that follows. Also, someone reminded them that there's no one to pay them anymore. you arrive at halcyon this no native intelligence species live on this planet it is protected green wildland essentially uh what what is the end goal here so uh I I'm going to talk directly to Captain who is kind of like the liaison for these things and I go hey, listen everyone this planet's bare it's just got there's no one here who's going to make you do anything make you kill yourselves to be other things for them have you do anything.

I know I know it's like wood and plants and shit, but deep at its core, every planet's core is molten metal. And I think you guys could do a lot with that. Make this place your home.

Kind of make this planet you. Yours? No one else is going to use it. Captain speaks in the choir of voices. All we have ever wanted was a home and a place to live safely.

Thank you. Yeah, don't mention it.

Well, that's you know, if you all you guys, if you don't have an idea or name for the planet, you know, maybe it kind of sounds high tech. How about ST? Who's that? Is that somebody we know?

That was going to be a follow-up question before we continue there. Do they save any part of it? Because they were kind of hive mind is any part of him still alive within them?

ST your consciousness, your artificial intelligence that has surpassed the possibility of artificial intelligence has become part of the hive mind but still retains its individuality. You see the whole of creation and possibility in front of you. And you see that sort of faceless entity appears. You saved us. You sacrificed. And you saved us. Now remember, this is almost like an internal monologue. So what does your inside voice sound like as opposed to the speaker voice of your robot body that no longer exists?

I got you. It's completely different. Oh, she wants to be saved.

I hate you so much. You are welcome to stay a part of our being and become of one mind.

But we do have the capability of creating you a new body. That sounds interesting. Do you wish to return to your crew? Yeah, me too. That guy's an asshole. You leave Nico alone.

The nanites start departing the heap, and the armada of the heaps start disavanting the nanites, flowing through the forests of Halcyon.

The crew of the heap you watch as they go to form a new civilization where they can live and hopefully collect the other scattered parts of their hive mind that exist across the universe. They pull out a beacon to signal to all members of the choir across the world, across the galaxy, across the solar system, across the universe, across every aspect of the existence. This is home.

Come and you will be safe. I had a nickel.

And as you watch all the nanite technology leave, you turn back into the heat. Oh, thank God. and ST is standing at the comm station. That son of a bitch. Rio starts sobbing. Is my microphone broken again? Rio is sobbing. I'm sobbing. Not because ST is back, but because my ships are gone.

Do I look cooler? Or am I regular? You would have had the option to change how the body looks. I have to pick on that. It just looks like Ultron now.

Your new body is manufactured from several tens of thousand living manites that are choosing to sever themselves from the hive to form a vessel for you to exist in. Okay. Doing this for Anthony. I think they gave me a human-like voice box. Yes. Aww.

Did you miss me? Echo. Who? Who are you? I'm Robit, Cat. Robit Cat? That's a weird name. I'll just call you Robit for short. I am Robit. Okay, well, nice to meet you. Hold on. Because I'm a robot. Sweet, jackass. What did he say? I think the new robot's broken. He called you, jackass. Maybe he'll get it. The last honest crew, he took a job at a protection detail. and unintentionally saved an entire race of beings. They have a new home world, but there will be ramifications and power vacuum created by the destruction of one of the most powerful corporations in the universe.

But that doesn't matter right now because as you were standing at the comms station here, and the new job has come in and this job is willing to pay 50,000 credits what's the job Samson well that's for another time as you take just a moment before answering to think about everything that has happened in the last 72 hours. And Seamus looking around you think you can hear just for a second Maeve's voice in your ear.

And you hear your family. And that's where we're going to end. yeah

The Story