An Acceptable Loss

Oct 13

This episode was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

The gyroscope is eating Prometheon Station one ring at a time, and there's no next loop to fix what goes wrong this time. Thorne gets locked in an office with the one enemy he can't decide whether to trust. Felix runs a hack under a ten-second gas countdown with three lives riding on it. Haleyy finds out exactly how many members of an Unhallowed horde one very angry woman can throw. And somewhere in the wreckage, the crew has to decide what an acceptable loss actually looks like.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

Meet the Crew:

Jeff as Star Master
Brian as Captain Thorne
Stephanie as the warrior Haleyy
Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix

Special thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate members!

They're keeping the lights on, and the airlocks sealed.

[00:00:00] Star Master Jeff: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventurecast, where the only thing standing between you and the Black is your ship and the strength of your crew. Void help us all.
[00:00:09] Thorne: How is melting my friends gonna get us out of here alive?
[00:00:13] Robert: I am just putting out into the world that I am very good at lassoing things.
[00:00:21] Felix: I've seen what's happened in your pursuit of knowledge. Some costs are too high.
[00:00:26] Haleyy: Have you ever asked the question, one woman versus a hundred horde members? Haley is trying to answer it.
[00:00:38] Star Master Jeff: Previously on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the last loop ended with Felix pulling Dr. Voss's plug against her warning. The station reset. And this time, something is very, very wrong with the gyroscope. Prometheon Station resolves out of the dark, but it's wrong now. The gyroscope sits closer than it did before, filling more of the viewport every second you look at it, and the two locked rings spark and throw void energy in great sheets. The station is being pulled in, and it's losing ground every moment. Whole arcs of the outer ring you never had a reason to visit are being chewed away and dissolved, the hull peeling back like paper. The core of the station still holds the labs, admin, the offices, the warehouse, but not for long. Haley, the thrum in your chest isn't a beat anymore. It is a pull, hard and insistent, and underneath it, for the first time, you feel a certainty. This is it. There is no next time. Whatever happens here on this loop, the gyroscope is pulling everything to destruction.
[00:01:56] Thorne: Be like, what the hell was that? I told you Voss told you not to pull her out and then you pulled her out anyway. And now look at that thing. It looks like it's all coming apart. That's because of what you did.
[00:02:05] Felix: Well, somebody had to try something, Thorn. Nobody was doing anything that was useful. I took action. I made a move and it didn't work. Well, so what? We'll just try again and again and again until it works.
[00:02:18] Haleyy: Guys, I don't think we're going to be able to try again.
[00:02:23] Felix: Wait, what?
[00:02:24] Haleyy: If you looked outside, and there is something different about this loop.
[00:02:29] Thorne: So you're saying this is it, Haley? We don't have time on our side anymore. We gotta get to those scientists before it's too late. I have so many questions still. Listen, I'll take Iso. Felix, can you, the hack that you used to get into that admin office, can you write something for me? I'll take it with Iso to that door. When we get inside, I'll download the data and I'll get on the switch so the acid doesn't go off. The three of you, get to those scientists. Get to Dr. Voss. They must know how to stop this. And don't forget about that other orb, Felix. It might help. What do you mean... Oh, yeah. All right. That could work. And hold on. Let me write you that program real quick. While he's doing that, Robert, get us to the closest parking spot. And if this really is the last loop and you want to do something about the Acceptable Loss, you are authorized.
[00:03:15] Robert: Okay. I'm going to... Haley, was your gun not quite aligned right? Because I'd love if you could take that thing out with a good old sand chucker.
[00:03:24] Haleyy: Pretty sure the sand chucker is always ready to go.
[00:03:27] Robert: Okay, I'll take her in. Can you take care of her?
[00:03:30] Haleyy: Yes. Haley gets up. She walks over to where the sand chucker controls are while wiping vomit off herself. Because, you know, that's just a normal part of this now. And then she gets settled in. And yeah, she fires the sand chucker. See, in the words of my crew, I find this loss acceptable.
[00:03:56] Star Master Jeff: And only a shred of the Acceptable Loss is still around, and that's because it is fully anchored to Prometheon Station. But everything else has been ripped apart and destroyed, and just the tiniest little black chunk is still connected. But you do see everything, including the extra pod and all of his belongings and everything else, floating off into nothingness.
[00:04:18] Robert: And, uh, I'm gonna take her in, Captain. Thorne, take your vac suit. Look at this thing. Do you see the sparks coming off of that station? I do not want to see you sucked into the vacuum space. Froggy, that's one thing. By the way, where did Froggy go?
[00:04:37] Thorne: Yeah, you're probably right about the vacuum. It's a good call. Everyone make sure you got your suits. And yeah, as for Reggie, the two of you are probably going to have to make amends at some point, Robert.
[00:04:47] Robert: Yeah, he's going to have to apologize to me. So what do y'all take it? I'm going full gear out. Full gear out. By the way, what are we doing? Are we sending Felix over to the CEO's to hack that place?
[00:05:02] Thorne: No. I want Felix down where the orbs are. Go to the lab. He wrote this program for me. I assume it's done by now. I hand you over a data chip to plug into your device. Perfect. I'll take this, and I'll use this to get into the admin office. Iso, I want you with me just for cover. I don't want to go anywhere in the station by myself. You got it, Thornythorn. Once we get in there with this, I'll turn off the gas. That'll give you three access to the labs, the scientist, and most importantly, to Dr. Voss. Sounds like a plan.
[00:05:36] Haleyy: Oh, they're not gonna be happy to see us.
[00:05:40] Star Master Jeff: Everyone has their vac suits on, you let the air lock cycle, and when you step out into the Prometheon circular hallway, you find that there is atmosphere, there is erratic gravity, sometimes a little light, sometimes a little heavy. Otherwise, everything seems fairly peaceful. However, there is a figure waiting for you here, a figure also wearing a vac suit, though he has his helmet removed, and he's just breathing station air. It is Sabien, the listener who has been a thorn in your side and in some ways you've been a thorn in his as well. I put my arm out to make sure that Haley and Robert don't kill Sabien immediately. He holds up his hands and says, hey, hold on a minute. Before you kill me, I thought we might just have a nice peaceful talk because a lot's changed in the last eight hours or so. You always come a bit late to the party.
[00:06:30] Haleyy: Does look a little different.
[00:06:31] Star Master Jeff: Things have changed. The gyroscope, it took them from us. They seemed to be working for it directly. Me and the rest of the listeners, we lost all control. I'm the only one left. I figured we could team up. Let bygones be bygones. I was never really against you anyway.
[00:06:49] Thorne: Team up? We've been telling you for however many loops it's been that whatever this is needs to be stopped. It's great that you finally had a turning around at the last possible minute, though. That's fantastic.
[00:07:02] Star Master Jeff: My goal here is to make sure that everything happens the way that it should. And if you won't have me, I can attempt to go on on my own, but just know that half the station's been ripped open, so make sure you keep your suit sealed when you get in towards the core. I don't know, Haley, what do you think?
[00:07:19] Haleyy: You should come with us, just because he's been here a little bit longer than we have, but let's get any kind of weapons off of him first.
[00:07:28] Thorne: Yeah, I don't trust him. If we're taking him, you're babysitting him.
[00:07:32] Haleyy: Oh, for sure. And I do believe him when he says they've lost control. Whatever's happening here now is substantially different.
[00:07:41] Thorne: All right, then, Sabien, it sounds like it's your lucky day. My friends here have decided that your help is more useful than your death. But we're going to take your stuff and you're going to have to stay close.
[00:07:52] Star Master Jeff: Very well, then. And he snaps on his helmet. So you already know the route cold. You skip over the terminal and you make your way straight to the hallways that will lead to the warehouse, to the inner core, where you will then split up and go on your merry way.
[00:08:06] Haleyy: Sabien, what is going on here? What is this gyroscope? Why is there a time loop? What do you know? Because it seems like you guys were here before it started.
[00:08:16] Star Master Jeff: Well, yes, the listeners were hired by Virodyne to do a job. Doesn't seem to be working very well for us, though. You got in bed with the wrong folks. Do you know about how those forks work? I wouldn't say I totally understand it, but I do know how to operate them to some degree, and I am one of the engineers that fabricates the ones that we've made ourselves.
[00:08:39] Robert: Okay.
[00:08:39] Star Master Jeff: Tell me about two tines versus three. Wow. I can see that you are a knowledgeable man on alien technology. The two-tined forks are the ones that we have made ourselves, and the three-tined ones are, and sometimes four tines, are ones that have been found in alien ruins.
[00:08:58] Haleyy: Four tines? Yeah.
[00:09:00] Star Master Jeff: The three-tined, we were able to shove human consciousness into an orb. We don't know exactly what four-tined would do, but it also has one of those orb depressions on it. But we've never had a conscious orb that we've been able to place into it. In fact, if I can get my hands on your friend there, that'd be a great experiment to actually proceed on one day. I grab him.
[00:09:21] Felix: That's never going to happen, you hear me? That's never going to happen. Very well. I'm simply a man of science. I'm looking for knowledge. I've seen what's happened in your pursuit of knowledge. Some costs are too high.
[00:09:35] Star Master Jeff: In short order, you find yourself outside the warehouse door once again, but this time, it's sealed shut, and the readout next to it shows low oxygen and pressure warnings across its surface. Good thing we brought these suits, Robert. Good call.
[00:09:48] Robert: I've never seen so many sparks coming off that gyroscope. I mean, you know the warehouse. It's been degrading since we've been getting here.
[00:09:55] Felix: All right, I can open the door, but as soon as it opens, there's probably going to be a massive, essentially, breach. We're going to get vacced. If there's no pressure in there, it's going to pull us in. So we need to secure ourselves on this side.
[00:10:11] Haleyy: Guys, I have a rope.
[00:10:15] Felix: Haley, tie me off.
[00:10:17] Haleyy: I pull out my rope, which is awesome. My treasured possession. And then I tie us all together. Me, Sabien, unfortunately, Robert, Iso, Thorn, and then to Felix.
[00:10:34] Felix: So once we're all tied together, I'll look back at the team. All right, everyone, turn those mag boots on too. Every little bit's going to help. and then I will open the door.
[00:10:44] Star Master Jeff: A rush of air almost sweeps you off your mag boots into empty space beyond. The warehouse is gone. You stand on the edge of the void. The bottom of the warehouse has been ripped away to reveal the great gyroscope below. Miles away, but so mammoth that each ring rotation shakes the ground beneath your feet. The thrum in Haley's chest quickens. There's not much left to this room. The bridge that was here before has been destroyed, except for a small remnant on the far side. The door to the inner core is sealed.
[00:11:24] Felix: Well, shit. Haley, you want to untie us? I think being tied together now would be a disadvantage.
[00:11:32] Robert: I am just putting out into the world that I am very good at lassoing things.
[00:11:39] Haleyy: Don't know where he picked up that skill, but it works.
[00:11:43] Robert: I see a little horn sticking out of the other bridge. I take the lasso and bam. True as can be. Nailed it. First try. I don't know why. Clone programming. Don't you dare say clone programming. I don't know why.
[00:12:00] Star Master Jeff: I just know how to lasso things. Everyone pulls themselves across and makes it easily to the other side to that other sealed door. You open the door, everyone rushes through, and you close the door, and you are back in atmo. And you are now at the split. If you are still doing the same plan, this is where the party will split, and some of you will say adieu and go to the offices, and the rest of you to the lab.
[00:12:28] Haleyy: This feels pretty familiar. So Haley goes and gives Iso an awkward fist bump. Hope to see you shortly. She's worried about losing her doctor.
[00:12:41] Star Master Jeff: She wraps you up in a hug and she says, keep those rocks safe, Haley.
[00:12:46] Thorne: Come on, everybody. This isn't goodbye. Now let's just be careful and this will all be over in no time. I shoot one glance at Felix in like a, please, this is serious. I give Felix a do the right thing glare.
[00:13:00] Felix: I glare right back at Thorne and I storm off towards the lab.
[00:13:05] Haleyy: Ah shit, Felix. Um, Thorne, Iso, see you in a bit. Bye. And she runs off. And dragging Sabien.
[00:13:15] Thorne: I'll see y'all on the other side. Let's get to it, y'all. Thorne lets out a long, exasperated sigh. Almost out of here. And then follows after Iso.
[00:13:29] Star Master Jeff: So the party is split. Robert, Haley, Felix, and Sabien, you head off towards the lab while Thorne and Iso make for admin. As was planned, Haley yet again bashes down the lab door and Thorne, you execute the pre-programmed hack that Felix made that opens the admin door. Coincidentally, both doors are now damaged and they can't be resealed. So Haley, you like really bent yours out of shape by punching it and kicking it. And Thorn, Felix's hack burnt out the actuator, freezing it mid position and then damaging it so the door can never be closed again. And as the admin door clicks open, Thorn, you hear a voice behind you. Well, if it isn't Thorn, I'm glad we finally caught up with each other. I spin around on my heel to see who is talking to me, but I assume I already know. I think you know who it is, and I think you know that it's a man with very dumb hair, kind of long on top, shaven on the sides. He's wearing Virodyne gold and black. It is your best friend, Victor Strake from Loss Prevention.
[00:14:27] Thorne: If it isn't my good friend, Victor Strake.
[00:14:30] Star Master Jeff: So this is Victor Strake, the jabroni himself. Nice to meet ya. Victor ignores her outstretched hand and turns to address you, Thorn.
[00:14:41] Thorne: Well, I got some important business to do in your boss's office here.
[00:14:44] Star Master Jeff: Why don't we talk in there? That's why I'm here. I figured you'd come back here, so I came to meet you. I'm glad to see you can get this door open. I've had a hell of a time with it, trying to get it open these past several loops. Being unlikely allies is probably the best way to go about this because I think we have very similar goals. And he follows you into the office.
[00:15:03] Thorne: I don't disagree with you, but the problem is I feel like there's an imbalance of power here. You have way more information than we do. What the hell is going on here? What were you idiots trying to do with that giant gyroscope?
[00:15:15] Star Master Jeff: I don't think I can actually tell you what we were doing because I don't know. I just roll my eyes. Hey, I work in Loss Prevention. I was delivering the orb here. That's it. And then I just happened to be here when everything went sideways and I've been trapped here ever since. All I know is I've been trying to survive the listeners, those zombied people, and just trying to figure out how to restore order.
[00:15:41] Thorne: As far as I was told, your bosses are the ones that hired those listeners, so it surprises me that they're giving you crap. I walk over to the computer and I sit down and I start typing while we're talking.
[00:15:53] Star Master Jeff: I'm not armed. Every single loop I have to try to find a gun or something to protect myself, but the listeners always get there first and I kind of stopped trying.
[00:16:02] Thorne: Yes, that's what Iso's for. We don't need to be armed as long as she's here. So I start running Felix's hack that will unlock this terminal, give me the ability to open the labs and otherwise access the data of this facility.
[00:16:16] Star Master Jeff: Back down in the lab, you've just gotten the outer door bashed open, and when you open it up, you see that the antichamber door that leads into the lab is just now popping open, because Thorn was one step ahead of you. Inside are Petra and Ren, who both rush out the moment the door is open, panting for breath as if there's no oxygen in that lab at all. After a moment, Petra says, thank gods you finally made it. We're not gonna melt this time, isn't that great, Ren? I suppose we should introduce ourselves a bit more formally. Hi, I'm Petra, lead scientist here at Prometheon Station, and this is my lab assistant, Reniford.
[00:16:53] Haleyy: Hi, Petra. Nice to meet you.
[00:16:55] Star Master Jeff: Oh, the feeling is more than mutual. Believe you me.
[00:16:58] Haleyy: Pretty sure this is going to be the last loop, actually. So no more melting down.
[00:17:03] Star Master Jeff: Ren pipes up for the first time. Yes, that's actually something that I wanted to talk to you about. You see, the void energy that's oscillating off of the gyroscope is getting ever closer to the other orb, the virtual intelligence. It's actually eating into the station, one layer at a time, and it is bound to intersect with the orb on this loop, and when it does, I'm afraid it will collapse off spacetime here in this sector, destroying everything in its path. So, in a way, the loops will end, but so will we. I take the other orb out of my pack while he's talking. Oh, another orb. We spent all this time with only one orb, and now we have two. And he reaches out for it.
[00:17:46] Felix: I pull it back. As far as I know, there's three consciousnesses in here, but we haven't been able to access them the same way we can talk to Dr. Voss.
[00:17:56] Star Master Jeff: Petra steps forward. Three consciousnesses, that's very interesting. Yeah, your Dr. Voss is just one consciousness, and usually these virtual intelligence orbs hold an alien consciousness. We don't really know how powerful an alien consciousness would be, so three human consciousnesses, maybe that equals one alien. Let's try to hook it up.
[00:18:15] Felix: Now, what is it you're trying to do with this? You think you could just steal people and connect them into machines that you don't understand how they work for your own, what, for some corporation to profit off of?
[00:18:29] Star Master Jeff: Sabien steps forward and says, Whoa, hold on, friend. It's not simply profit. It's scientific ingenuity. You make me sick.
[00:18:40] Felix: Show me how to get this thing hooked in.
[00:18:43] Star Master Jeff: Petra and Ren lead you into the lab and show you all of the equipment in there, as well as Dr. Voss, who remains inert and unresponsive at this time.
[00:18:51] Robert: And as they're doing that, I'd love to know, what exactly do you know about what we're listening to?
[00:18:58] Star Master Jeff: Well, the gyroscope is a sort of relay, and we can hear transmissions that are coming through it, assumably from the alien's home sector. Right now, everything we're hearing cannot be decoded, because our virtual intelligence is not compatible. But with a compatible one, we hope to be able to decode messages from that reality and also send our own through and, maybe, even be able to travel through ourselves one day. The great CEO, Victor Saren, is leading this effort.
[00:19:27] Haleyy: Victor Saren?
[00:19:31] Star Master Jeff: He looks annoyed for a moment. Yes, Victor Saren. I'm very wary. It's been a very long loop. I'll be over there conserving my energy. Let me know if you need me. And he goes and he crouches down in the corner and closes his eyes.
[00:19:48] Haleyy: Hey guys, we just got some information. Victor Saren is in charge of all this. Sabien finally started talking and that guy's name came up again.
[00:19:58] Thorne: Oh, yeah, Haley. That's interesting. Very interesting. I actually have a special guest here with me. A different Victor S that you may be familiar with. A guy with a weird haircut. He and I were just talking about how best to all get off of the station alive.
[00:20:16] Haleyy: Probably not on the Acceptable Loss, but...
[00:20:22] Thorne: Probably not.
[00:20:24] Star Master Jeff: Strake is next to you and he's like, probably not what? Your ship. What about my ship? It's probably not going anywhere. Anyway, I have a lot of questions for you. Suddenly, Iso sprints out the door and down the hall. Yeah, I thought I heard something down here. We got a little bit of a horde problem. And you hear her pumping and shooting her shotgun off down the hall. And she goes, I don't need your help or anything. There's only like a dozen of them. I'll let you know. That makes me pretty nervous, but okay. Back at the lab, Sabien's eyes suddenly spring open, and he comes out of his crouch and says, I believe the Unhallowed are coming. Can you feel that, Haley? And when you concentrate for a moment, yes, you can feel something odd, like a pull in your chest.
[00:21:08] Haleyy: I definitely feel something, yeah. Ugh. Um, how did you control them before?
[00:21:14] Star Master Jeff: It's concentration and power of will. But like I said before, they no longer listen to us. They listen to the gyroscope.
[00:21:21] Haleyy: You are the worst scientist ever. Like, rah!
[00:21:25] Star Master Jeff: And the horde comes around the corner at the end of the hall and starts rushing the open door at the antechamber.
[00:21:32] Haleyy: So Haley grabs Sabien by his vac suit, holds him up, and she's like, you're gonna die before this ends if you can't figure out a way to deal with that.
[00:21:41] Star Master Jeff: He slams the door shut and presses himself up against it, and he says, but I can't hold him back alone. And you see, for the first time, genuine fear in his eyes.
[00:21:52] Felix: Guys, it sounds pretty crazy out there. Can you just keep it together? We're almost done in here, I think. Petra, are we almost done?
[00:21:59] Star Master Jeff: Almost done? No, Felix, we're just getting started in here.
[00:22:03] Haleyy: Thorn, things are getting pretty crazy down here. What's going on up there?
[00:22:08] Thorne: Well, meanwhile, back in the CEO's office, I leave the computer, just like take a couple steps away, and I peek out the door where Iso is just to see if I can see the horde. How close are we talking?
[00:22:20] Star Master Jeff: Iso's at the T-junction about 15 yards away, and she's firing off down a hallway you can't quite see, but you do see the blood splatter, and it's close enough to be hitting her.
[00:22:30] Thorne: Well, Strake, it doesn't seem like we're going to have much time for this conversation, but you got to tell me one thing. And I storm across the CEO's office. I grab the photo off of the shelf and I just stick it in his face. What the hell is the connection between you and Saren?
[00:22:43] Star Master Jeff: You some kind of clone or what? What are you even showing me here, Thorn? You look just like you. Yeah, I guess there's some resemblance, Thorn. Is now really the time? Listen, there's no connection between me and Mr. Saren.
[00:23:00] Thorne: He's your boss, isn't he?
[00:23:02] Star Master Jeff: Yes, he's my boss, but he's my boss's boss's boss's boss. Like, I'm way below him. And yeah, obviously the resemblance is uncanny. And I am a clone, but I'm just a clone of myself. I have no connection to this man. And why is this even important?
[00:23:16] Thorne: It's more than uncanny. But I don't know if I'm buying this act, Vic. I mean, you're... You mean to tell me that you had no clue?
[00:23:23] Star Master Jeff: There's nothing to buy, Thorn. We don't have time for this. He looks at the picture again and he flinches, closes his eyes and rubs them. Then he swats the photo out of your hand and he says, Thorne, this is so stupid. Why are you wasting our time with this? Jesus, Victor, I should put a bullet in you now.
[00:23:42] Thorne: What good are you to me in this situation?
[00:23:45] Star Master Jeff: I'm sorry I can't be the clone of Victor Saren that you wanted me to be, but what I can do is you can get me on that computer. I know databases, and I know Virodyne systems. Let me help us survive.
[00:23:58] Thorne: Sit down here. See what you can find. It's Project Redwing. But I want to just make sure I have a really keen eye on the gas. I don't want to let that slip.
[00:24:08] Star Master Jeff: He sits down, and he pulls up the camera for the lab, and he says, So, all of your friends are here right now? Yes, some of them are, sure.
[00:24:17] Thorne: But forget about that. And I reach over, and I, like, hit the buttons on the keyboard to bring up the search again.
[00:24:23] Star Master Jeff: He types real quick, and he brings the lab feed up again, and then he stands up from the chair so that the two of you are face-to-face, and he is between you and the computer. Thorne, I don't want to make an enemy of you. Just back off and let me work.
[00:24:35] Thorne: All right, well, I try to force my way to the computer because I don't have time for this.
[00:24:40] Star Master Jeff: He steps in front of you. Thorne, we're not done here.
[00:24:44] Thorne: Thorn, we're about to be so done if you don't get out of my way. And I take out my pistol.
[00:24:49] Star Master Jeff: When you go to draw your pistol, he slams his hand down on yours to attempt to try to stop you from drawing it. A tie. So you are able to draw your pistol, but he has a death grip on your wrist and you're unable to raise it up. Your hands are shaking as they are interlocked, and he says, Thorn, be reasonable. Great, get out of my way. He looks nervously at the rifle still slung on your back, and he goes to draw his knife.
[00:25:15] Thorne: I'll try to grab his arm and prevent him from producing the knife.
[00:25:20] Star Master Jeff: He muscles past your hand and pulls out the knife, and he puts it up to your throat as he's keeping your gun down. I push him away so that we're not locked together anymore. You hear the gas alarm going off on the computer at that moment, 10 second warning. You are unable to push him away, but you do knock him off balance and the two of you fall to the ground just as the computer's alarm quiets. We're gonna go to the lab briefly. A mechanical whirring noise fills the air and Petra looks up at the ceiling and she says, everyone out, now! And then her and Ren dive for the door. Back to Thorn.
[00:25:59] Felix: And Felix dives through the door after Petra and Ren, desperately trying to evade the acid.
[00:26:06] Star Master Jeff: You rush to the door and you leap out just as the acid activates, but you were too slow and the acid rains down onto your back as you roll into the atrium. Thankfully, you're in a vac suit, but the vac suit is quickly disintegrating. Take four points of damage and your vac suit is now rendered useless.
[00:26:28] Felix: Thorn! What's going on up there? Ah, God! Turn it off! Turn it off!
[00:26:34] Star Master Jeff: And at that moment, the Horde slams through the door, pushing Sabien off of his feet. The Unhallowed quickly makes their way inside and begin to move towards Sabien on the floor. He looks up at you, Robert, and he says, Robert, help! And he reaches a hand up to you.
[00:26:50] Robert: The big thing, and this is Robert Ross is having a moment because he's at an internal dilemma of is Sabien going to be able to psionic tag team with Haley or do I shoot that motherfucker in the face? I'ma shoot that bitch in the face.
[00:27:11] Felix: Blast it, Robert.
[00:27:12] Robert: He was gonna help.
[00:27:13] Felix: Oh my god.
[00:27:14] Robert: He was gonna backstab us. I know it in my heart of hearts.
[00:27:17] Felix: We have more important things to do right now than settle scores. Haley, get on the door quick. They're coming in.
[00:27:23] Haleyy: Haley knows in the back of her mind, she is reacting to Sabien getting blown the fuck up, which is awesome. But in terms of the now literally pressing problem of the horde, Haley is literally picking up the horde by their shitty little space uniforms and just throwing them back against each other, knocking them over like bowling pins. Have you ever asked the question, one woman versus a hundred horde members? Haley is trying to answer it.
[00:27:59] Felix: Oh God, turn off the acid, it's coming through.
[00:28:03] Thorne: Thorn can't really answer that cry because he is wrestling on the floor with Victor Strake. Thorne grabs him by the wrists and pulls him closer unexpectedly, puts his feet on Strake's chest and just tries to kick him away. As he sort of rolls across the floor, Thorne quickly gets up onto his knees and slams the keys on the keyboard as fast as possible. Gets on his comm. I got a problem up here. I'm under attack. That should stop the acid.
[00:28:33] Felix: Out time, Thorne. Jeez. I don't know what's going on up there, but it is hot down here. So thanks for turning the acid off, but I got to get back to work. I roll to my feet, back very hurt. Petra, Ren, get back in here. The acid stopped. We got to keep going. And I run in ahead of them and complete the steps that we had been almost done with to connect the orb that we brought from the Scapegoat, knowing that next I have to begin the delicate process of disconnecting Dr. Voss.
[00:29:01] Star Master Jeff: And Felix, as you go to continue those steps, you notice that the terminal next to Dr. Voss has a new message on it. It says, admin access required. Meanwhile, back at the door, Haley's doing her best to try to keep the horde at bay, but there are simply too many of them and they begin to trickle past her and make their way to the lab.
[00:29:19] Robert: I try my best to stand up, see if I can seal this thing back up while Haley does some damage.
[00:29:26] Star Master Jeff: You rush forward to try to seal the door back up, but you fumble hard and you go headlong into the mob. They claw and bite at you. Take eight points of damage.
[00:29:37] Thorne: That is significant.
[00:29:40] Robert: Oh, damn it, y'all. Haley, I might need some help here.
[00:29:46] Haleyy: She's like roaring, screaming as she grabs the Unhallowed off of Robert, throws them back down the hallway and is like, fuck that Insta panel shit. And she just throws that guy down the hallway.
[00:29:58] Star Master Jeff: Meanwhile, back in the office, Thorn, you feel a stabbing pain in your back as you get stabbed in the back for turning your back to Victor Strake. Take three points of damage as his knife slides into your back.
[00:30:12] Thorne: You bastard.
[00:30:13] Star Master Jeff: Thorne, it doesn't have to be this way. Just step away from the terminal.
[00:30:17] Thorne: How is melting my friends gonna get us out of here alive?
[00:30:21] Star Master Jeff: It won't. And he yanks you back. We can still survive this. You and I.
[00:30:27] Thorne: If the only way I can survive is with you, then fuck it. And I'm gonna try to get to my gun before he gets to it.
[00:30:35] Star Master Jeff: He wrenches the gun from your hand and immediately shoots you in the leg. Take five points of damage. Ow. Thorn, just stay down. I don't want to kill you.
[00:30:47] Thorne: You're doing a really bad job then.
[00:30:50] Felix: Thorn! Blasted Thorn! Thor, do we need admin access down here? While I say that, I see if there's a way I can access the terminal, plug in, while screaming at Petra and Ren, what do I do here? What do I do here?
[00:31:04] Star Master Jeff: It requires admin access. It's only the CEO that can do that from his terminal.
[00:31:10] Felix: All right, so I spin around the corner, frustrated that Thorn does not get back to me. I see the horde overwhelming them. I take my pistol and I shoot the closest horde member I can and as many as I can to keep them at bay. And I connect, and I blast a couple limbs off, I blast a couple faces, and I scream at Haley and Robert, get back, get back! Because I'm worried Haley's gonna run off into the horde.
[00:31:31] Robert: And with that, Robert Ross nods a little appreciation to Felix and Haley for laying down some cover and fire, tries to scrape as many Unhallowed off him as he can, take a couple steps back and hit anything that is not in the near vicinity of Haley with a little suppressing fire. And with that, I put down some suppressing fire, trying to battle back the horde, but also create a little separation for Haley and Felix.
[00:32:09] Star Master Jeff: And as you look out, Felix has shot, Haley has thrown, you have mowed down several of them, and you see that the horde seems unending. However, they initially got into the antechamber because you used your first action not to hold them back, but to kill Sabien. You have now completely pushed them back to the doorway once again. You have reclaimed that space between the three of you.
[00:32:32] Haleyy: Haley concentrates on the feeling that's in her body and screams at the Horde to run away. The slag off!
[00:32:43] Star Master Jeff: You dig deep and you scream, but the Horde fails to recognize your authority.
[00:32:50] Haleyy: Thorn, we can't keep this up forever. Where are you?
[00:32:53] Star Master Jeff: Thorn, you hear Haley calling up through the comm, but before you can answer, everything goes to shit. The floor shakes, hard, then a streak of tearing metal, and the far wall peels back like a can lid. Behind it there's black, and the gyroscope, close enough to touch, its rings throwing arcs of void lightning. The air goes all at once, and Saren's framed photo goes with it, out into the dark. Thorn, you've got less than three seconds of air. What do you do?
[00:33:28] Thorne: Laying on the floor, I see that the desk in this room is bolted down. I grab onto the leg of it, activate my mag boots, throw on my helmet, and brace against the desk as hard as I can.
[00:33:40] Star Master Jeff: Strake's boots also clamp down, and his helmet snaps shut. His gun wavers for a moment from being trained on you. Over his shoulder, you can see pieces of the Acceptable Loss tumbling by in the void and get snatched up by the gyroscope. Thorn, stay down. I don't want to have to kill you. Last chance. Then I have to take it.
[00:34:05] Thorne: Thorn grabs the rifle that's still slung across his back and swings it around as fast as he can.
[00:34:10] Star Master Jeff: Strake's eyes widen. His finger tightens. You're unable to raise your rifle in time, Thorn. The muzzle is still down at Strake's boots when both of you fire. You feel the laser burn through your suit and tunnel through your body. Down in the lab, the ground and the wall are beginning to peel away as everything depressurizes and you can see the gyroscope out the side. Felix immediately begins to suffocate. Everyone quickly turns on their mag boots. Because the wall has only peeled off in the lab, Ren rushes out of the room and shuts the lab door on you. Gasping for air, Felix turns to Petra. Do you have any emergency suits in here? She runs over to an emergency rebreather station and slips it on herself and then runs back over to you with a suit repair kit and hurriedly starts to staple up all of the holes in your suit as she slowly succumbs to the vacuum of space.
[00:35:19] Felix: Thank you, Petra. I whip around to look at Ren and point at him accusingly. Robert, Haley, I'm all right. I'm getting patched up. I'm trapped in here, though, until Thorin gets this figured out. Just hold him off longer.
[00:35:32] Robert: Snap up, knowing Felix is at least patched up from here, and I grab the door. I push it closed as hard and agile as I can, because I'm honestly not sure what type of door this is, but I'm assuming it's a good old-fashioned. I slam it on their face type.
[00:35:53] Star Master Jeff: It is a good old fashioned slam it on their face type. And so you slam it in their faces, but you once again realize that the door is damaged and it won't click shut and stay shut on its own. So you kind of just have to lean your weight on it. I know Haley said earlier she wanted to do the same thing. So the two of you are straining against the door, trying to keep it closed against the horde. Felix, a minute later, the admin authentication comes through and the panel unlocks.
[00:36:18] Felix: Thanks, door. I'm in. And I begin the procedure to transfer the load from Voss to this other orb.
[00:36:29] Star Master Jeff: Finally having authentication, you switch the load from Voss to this other orb. You're able to unhook Voss. She's finally able to speak once again.
[00:36:36] Robert: And she says, Felix, you came for me.
[00:36:39] Star Master Jeff: Of course, I always will. Felix, you notice a dark purple glow is emanating from the newly connected orb. Suddenly, a chorus of voices screech over your comms. They're garbled at first, but they soon resolve into a single voice. Hey, Robert, Felix. You are safe with us. Open the door. Open the door. You are safe. You are safe. We are the Concordant.
[00:37:11] Robert: Y'all, are we opening this door? Because I don't know about that. Felix, did you do this?
[00:37:20] Felix: Robert, open the damn door.
[00:37:24] Haleyy: Robert, it's okay. I can feel the horde calming. It's safe now.
[00:37:29] Robert: Okay.
[00:37:38] Star Master Jeff: The horde pushes through the door just as a screech fills your comms, and they freeze. They freeze mid-step, mid-reach, and simply stare at nothing. The horde slowly turns, moving into the halls, and disperses, vanishing from sight.
[00:38:07] Haleyy: What the slag is going on?
[00:38:12] Thorne: I think we did it. Looks like the gyroscope's running smooth now. I can see it through the giant hole in the wall in here. Thorne's sitting at the computer in the admin office, having just authorized Felix in the lab. He moves away from the giant hole in the room that leads down to the gyroscope and grabs some spray foam to repair his suit and close up his wounds.
[00:38:36] Robert: Thorn, did you take care of Victor yet?
[00:38:40] Thorne: Oh yeah, Robert. He's real well taken care of now. Thorn takes his rifle and slings it back over his shoulder, grabs his stomach where Strake shot him. His own shot landed exactly where he wanted, right on Strake's mag boots.
[00:38:57] Star Master Jeff: And it was a clean hit from Thorne. As the bullet pierced the boots, they snapped off, malfunctioning. And Strake was sucked straight out into space, tumbling end over end towards that gyroscope. As he falls and gets closer and closer to the alien technology, he radios in. Well played, Thorne. But I'll see you soon enough. A moment later, void lightning arcs from the gyroscope straight through him, leaving nothing behind but dust.
[00:39:27] Thorne: Thorn looks out at the debris from the Acceptable Loss floating through space, remembering that there's now no clone of Victor Strake for him to return to. Not likely, Victor.
[00:39:40] Star Master Jeff: As if on cue, Thorn's data pad lights up and Redshift Revelry starts to play.
[00:39:47] Thorne: Thorne tightens up, thinking to himself that every time this music plays, he loops back and ends up back in the cockpit of the Scapegoat. His eyes clench shut, and he waits a minute. He counts to 30, 28, 29, and he opens his eyes, terrified that he's gonna see the comms panel again. But instead, he's lucky because it's just the destroyed admin office, the holes, the gyroscope.
[00:40:15] Robert: Oh, God, guys. Do we have to do this again? I don't know about that music. I can't listen to that ever again.
[00:40:22] Thorne: It looks like we did it, y'all. We're not looping. And the money's been deposited. We're not filthy rich. But boy, this is going to keep us sailing smooth for a while.
[00:40:32] Haleyy: Things feel okay now.
[00:40:34] Thorne: We did get the boss back, which is pretty huge.
[00:40:38] Robert: I got her. Let's go home.
[00:40:51] Thorne: Thorne Draxus, personal log. It's been about a month since the last loop at Prometheon Station. Felix was able to safely recover Dr. Voss, and she's back with the crew. She's been quieter since this happened. Maybe she just needs more time to process. Out of all of us, I think I took the worst of the damage, but it was nothing Iso hadn't seen before, and I was back to 100% in no time. Victor Strake is dead, and this time I'm pretty damn sure of it. But there's no way Virodyne is going to roll over and let us walk away from this. They obviously had big plans for this place, but now it's been ripped away from them. A Trinity-class fleet cruiser from Novacrypt picked up the energy readings of the station going critical, and they came to investigate. Novacrypt was pretty happy to find a Virodyne installation this well-equipped and basically completely vacant. They swooped in, set up shop, and brought in more and more ships over the days that followed. Virodyne ships did show up eventually, but when they saw the Novacrypt fleet, they turned tail without firing so much as a warning shot. Novacrypt owns this system now. That orb that Felix installed, it called itself the Concordant. It seems to be running things smoothly now, whatever that means, and it seems like it has no problem working with Novacrypt. So after all of that, Prometheon Station is still running, just with another corpo pulling the strings. Whatever Prometheon was building down there, it belongs to Novacrypt now. Lucky for us, they offered us a contract. And not one of those for your own good or forced labor deals, but a real honest to God contract for work. They bought out the arrest records for me, Reg, and Felix, but Omnitek wouldn't let go of their special clones or their experimental psychic warrior so easily. I'm sure they'll be kicking down our doors again in no time to get them back. Between the auction money and this new deal with Novacrypt, our endeavors should be well-funded for the near future. But I can't shake the feeling that all of this was only the beginning of something even bigger and even weirder than any of us could imagine. And worst of all, I can't even listen to Redshift Revelry the same way anymore.
[00:43:09] Star Master Jeff: Well, that's it for Season 1. Thanks so much for listening to the Dark Star Adventurecast. Big thanks to our cast, Brian as Thorne, Scott as Felix, Doja as Robert, and Steph as Haleyy with two Ys. And as always, I'm your Star Master Jeff, playing everyone and everything else. If you want to hear every episode two weeks early, head on over to patreon.com slash darkstaradventurecast. And a huge, huge thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate supporters. They've been here with us since day one, and now here we are 33 episodes later, and they're still helping us keep the feed clean, clear, and true for all of you listeners out there. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. It really helps new people find the show. Next time on the Dark Star Adventurecast, we're taking a break from the Scapegoat. The feed's gonna keep going with a handful of one-shots instead, starting with a game called Mausritter. And the Star Master Logs and SWN Rules Explained are taking a short break too. Season 2 starts February 2nd, or you can get it two weeks early on Patreon on January 19th. As for the crew, they're just gonna have to figure out what comes next. And I think their decisions might surprise you. Tune in to find out. Once again, thanks so much for listening and coming with us on this journey to follow that signal. Season two is on the way, but in the meantime, take it easy and we'll catch you on the next one.