Eleven Rounds

Aug 18

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Eleven rounds. That's the clock Felix is racing when the crew gets pulled back into Causeway 3's server room mid-hack, three swarms of electro-beetles closing in from every angle while a Virodyne patrol boat spins up to intercept. Thorne throws a flare. Haleyy sweeps them back with her bare hands, twice. Robert drops his gun, pulls a knife, and rolls across the floor covered in bug grease rather than take a hit standing up. All three of them are buying Felix time to pull the one thing they came for: confirmation of where Strake took Voss. He gets that, and something else nobody asked for, buried four subsystems down under a name that means nothing to any of them yet. Getting out of the room turns out to be the easy part.

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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.

[00:00:01] Star Master Jeff: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventure Cast, where the only thing standing between you and the Black is your ship and the strength of your crew. Void help us all.
[00:00:11] Thorne: Oh, Felix, please, hurry. These things really hurt.
[00:00:14] Robert: Why did I leave them? I have so many hit points.
[00:00:18] Felix: Generator 01. I hesitate for a moment. It must be important if it's down that deep.
[00:00:24] Haleyy: And now there's electric beetles? Fuck this.
[00:00:38] Star Master Jeff: Welcome back everyone to the Dark Star Adventure cast where all of our cheers are very, very long. Tonight we are doing the second part of the Causeway 3 arc. How's everyone feeling about what happened last time?
[00:00:55] Thorne: It went great as far as I remember.
[00:00:58] Robert: Um, yeah, I don't feel like it's gonna go good real, real soon. And I'm everything's perfect. I'm kind of worried about where the hell is strike taking Voss?
[00:01:10] Star Master Jeff: Oh, it's true. Well, you know, I think we have a lot of questions. But just to make sure I remember because I don't remember what happened last time. And I feel like someone here is supposed to remind us about what happened. That's right. We're bringing back the segment where Stephanie tries to remind us about what happened last time we played. Stephanie, you have 60 seconds on the clock. And go!
[00:01:37] Haleyy: Okay, so just to remember, we have to start off. Strake has Voss, but she has been sending messages to Felix. And Felix is like, hey guys, we gotta go find this relay thing. We go out there, and turns out that it is this, um... Virodyne little station we had to dock on the station which proved to be very difficult required a lot of hacking to get done thorn has to put on the acting class of his life to convince tech support at veridine that he's victor strike which did not go over well well okay it kind of worked until it didn't there was an attempt and then um then we get called out someone shows up is like yeah no you guys aren't who you say we are and honestly they were pretty right we're shocked but they didn't find out earlier considering bailey with two b's was one of the was also on the phone at the time um and so right before we left off our group began to be attacked by little scarab sized robots so that's great can't punch them all and um there's hacking beginning to happen and felix might get electrocuted by panels okay
[00:02:52] Thorne: This is where our Lokipon training comes in because we got to avoid them.
[00:02:56] Robert: You got to punch them all. It's definitely like the top tier hidden Lokipon joke of the century.
[00:03:03] Thorne: Yeah.
[00:03:04] Star Master Jeff: So where it sits now is that you have made your way into Causeway 3 and you have gone past the initial door security. You have talked to to the station AI, which you gave a lot of roundabout answers to. And then a man answered and was like, hey, stop fucking with the AI. What do you actually want? And Thorne was able to talk his way past him. Felix went into the next room, which is the server room. Everyone is now in there and started hacking. The act of hacking alerted them, a patrol boat that apparently is in system, which explains why there was no delay on the comms in the room before, is now making its way towards causeway three. And at that same moment, electro beetle robots start swarming out of all these little slits on the top and bottom of this room. Remember, you are in your you are in your spacesuits. You are in zero G. Felix is hacking. And he realizes, if I disconnect, the system is going to harden. And I won't ever be able to get back in without significant time and effort. So now the three of you prepare to protect Felix as he continues his hack.
[00:04:16] Thorne: That is where we are. Yeah, see, no big deal.
[00:04:19] Star Master Jeff: Yep, no, this is easy. Not only are these Electro Beetles coming to shock you through your spacesuits, and they do good damage, but also Patrol Boat 6 is making its way in from the inner system, and Felix has already noted that it will be here in about 110 seconds. That gives you 11 rounds. And if you finish those 11 rounds, and you're still in this room, the scapegoat is toast. Because it takes several rounds to get out of this room back to the scapegoat. And once you're in there and cycle the airlock, it takes a couple rounds to get all the way back up to the bridge and start maneuvering your way away and start dip dodging and rolling and firing back. So you got to do this faster than 11 rounds.
[00:05:07] Robert: Yeah, guys, a patrol boat we might be able to tangle with, but I'm going to tell you, I'd rather get in and get out of here. Yeah, you don't want to stay and hang out with the horrible beetle robots? I'm a little worried about them.
[00:05:21] Star Master Jeff: They continue to skitter towards you as the three of you move in on the three flanks of Felix to protect him. And directly in front of him is a big wall of consoles and machines. He's jacked in. His trifold data pad is open. He's hacking furiously. So you've already done the first stage of the hack. So just to remind you, you've received the outer ship logs. This tells you that the acceptable loss transited recently through Causeway 3 heading to Prometheon Station. So now you know that's where he took Voss. It also broke open a full station readout, which is actually what told you that Patrol Boat 6 is on its way in. So that's your first turn, they start to come in and swarm at you. Their first turn, they all move forward one. That means they are now in base to base with the three people that are protecting Felix that have closed ranks around him. If anyone is in the same space as electro beetles, they will take damage, there is no rolling to hit, I advise you to not shoot wildly at them or punch them. Because these are three distinct swarms of electro beetles. They are not something you can simply stamp out with a bit of damage. I suplex the swarm. Oh, you win. You win. Oh, my God. We are also in zero G in spacesuits. Yes. Yes, you're in zero G. You have your magnetic boots activated right now. And the electro swarm seems to also be sticking to what you would call the ground. But they are kind of crawling along the walls as well. Okay, they've all moved forward one. Next turn, they're all going to move forward one again. And they will be on top of Felix.
[00:07:00] Thorne: thorn what would you like to do um so what would i like to do is a really good question i have to cover felix i assume that uh we've got like i'm on one of his flanks maybe one of you two is on the other side and then one of you is behind him it's the way i imagine it i'm i'm uh i'm taking taking the right side here uh as far right as we can go um hayley you in middle or are you going to take the the far flank
[00:07:27] Haleyy: Well, I was going to say, should you take right behind, like potentially looking more down the hallway or like the larger area of the room? I really only have like my fists to work with here. Yep.
[00:07:39] Thorne: Done. So is there some way that I can like, I don't know, it's a swarm, right? So I just want to kind of put myself in between it and Felix. Maybe I can try to like get it to, I don't know. I don't think I can stop a whole swarm, but maybe I could block. or change its path. So it comes for me instead of him. Kind of a thing.
[00:08:00] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, so you can interpose yourself. So essentially, just get in their way and get down, get in their way and block them as best you can. A few might get through and nip at him, but not enough to do any like real damage. However, that doesn't take a role. You just get in their way and it works. But you will take the full brunt of the swarm, which means taking damage.
[00:08:25] Thorne: I do not like getting electrocuted by a swarm of tiny beetles. I've got my weapons and my basic gear readied. I do have a flare. Maybe I could throw the flare and kind of like stun this section of the swarm. Surprise it, scare it off. I don't know.
[00:08:44] Star Master Jeff: So if you want to activate your flare and chuck it into the middle of the swarm, I mean, I would let you throw it into any of the three swarms in front of you or in front of Robert or Haley. And we'll say that it because it's consumable, it automatically scatters them, which will push them back. So next turn, they'll have to come forward again. And this turn, they don't do any damage to anyone.
[00:09:06] Thorne: Okay, so seeing that the swarm is right upon me, then I reach onto my belt, I grab the flare, and I crack it open and just toss it into the swarm to try to get them all to scatter. The one next to me.
[00:09:18] Star Master Jeff: The flare lands right on a bunch of their backs, and then they create a hole, and then they spread out away from it, and then they all retreat back to their little slit under the wall and kind of hide as it flares dangerously in front of them. And the flare bounces off the floor and begins to slowly rotate throughout the room. Haley, what would you like to do?
[00:09:37] Haleyy: Haley is going to try and use her tremendous height and wingspan to push the swarm off to the side.
[00:09:48] Star Master Jeff: So you lean down and you sweep across all of them, trying to like push them back.
[00:09:56] Haleyy: Yes.
[00:09:56] Star Master Jeff: Go ahead and roll and exert strength.
[00:09:59] Haleyy: Oh, no.
[00:10:01] Star Master Jeff: This is the same thing as getting in their way. So you will take damage, but you're going to sweep them back so that next turn they have to come forward. So it's a little, it is a little better. It's a little better than just getting in their way. The problem is if you fail the roll, you're going to take damage and Felix is going to take damage. They'll get past you. Yeah. So there's a little bit more risk.
[00:10:22] Haleyy: That was a six.
[00:10:24] Star Master Jeff: Six gets it. Nice. So you lean down and you sweep your big, beefy, haily arm. They're so beefy. You let your bugs off to the side. And you still take damage. It's the same thing as though you got in their way. But now next turn, you don't even have to worry about them. You can kind of worry about something else. And now you can see that I rolled a 1d4. So you take three damage. And now everyone's mentally calculating how many hits they can take from these things. And not a lot. Robert Ross, what would you like to do? Thorn and Haley's swarms have both been swept back a space, but yours is still chittering and electrifying directly in front of you.
[00:11:05] Robert: Yeah, I'm not being ready for a swarm. I... Had my gun out already. Drop that, and by drop it, I mean sling it behind my back, pull out my knife, and just start stabbing as many bugs as I can, but mostly start rolling on the ground and covering myself in bug grease.
[00:11:26] Star Master Jeff: Okay. So I'm not going to make you roll because it doesn't really matter how many of them that you hit. But the important part is you're saying that you are trying to get in their way, right? Oh, yes. Rolling around and crunching them. So you're going to take an automatic 1d4 damage, which comes out to... four points of damage so you took max damage but you do block the electro bugs from getting to felix so two swarms push back one still directly next to felix but robert ross is rolling around like he's back on kamiri 4. Imagine Roger just popped out and he's like, what are you doing? You guys want a beer? You guys want a beer? It's free beer. And then we're back up to the top. Felix, what would you like to do on your turn?
[00:12:15] Felix: I mean, I'm tuned out of everything around me. I'm in the zone. I'm hacking. I'm typing. I'm trying to find Voss. That's what I'm here for.
[00:12:23] Star Master Jeff: So a few electro bugs have made their way over to you, not enough to do like a full hit point of damage, but they are kind of going up your leg and shocking you. And sometimes you're hitting that seam between your prosthetic robotic leg and your actual flesh, causing you real pain, even though you're not losing hit points. And although your jaw shakes in pain, your fingers remain steady as you clickety clack all over those keys. Go ahead and give me your second programming int role at this terminal. 10. And remember, you do not have a reroll anymore because you rerolled on stage one of this hack. So whatever you roll is what you get. And 10 is a very good roll. But just remember that these are getting incrementally harder as you go deeper and deeper into the system. So you make your way past the outer ship logs and you find yourself in a deeper subsystem that tells you about the historical records of Causeway 3. You find that the Omnitek data vault passed through here years ago. and I was also bound for Prometheon.
[00:13:31] Felix: I paused for a split second in my typing, and then I keep going.
[00:13:37] Star Master Jeff: You frantically check the logs, and it never came back. It seems that either Prometheon leads to somewhere else, or... Prometheon was its final destination.
[00:13:47] Felix: More reason than ever to figure out where this damn Prometheon is.
[00:13:51] Star Master Jeff: Thorn, Felix is muttering something to himself, and you spare a look back to him, and it looks like he's seen a ghost, but you've got your own problems. The Electrobugs have moved back up, and Haley, yours have also moved back up. They are now directly in front of you, and they seem to be basically ignoring you. All three swarms are single minded as they go for the intrusion of the system and they are all going for Felix. Thorne, what would you like to do?
[00:14:18] Thorne: All right, Felix, time is a factor. Keep tapping away. OK, at this point, then I'm going to take my rifle that is slung over my shoulder and just grab it by the muzzle and kind of just start swinging the butt of it around to try to like sweep the swarm away from Felix as much as I can.
[00:14:35] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Are you trying to do something similar to what Haley did? Yeah. Sweep them back.
[00:14:39] Thorne: I don't have giant beefy arms.
[00:14:41] Star Master Jeff: Yeah. So it means that you're going to have to get into their space and just start scooping them and moving them away. So you will take damage. I'll do what I can. So go ahead and roll your exert. And actually, you guys can roll your exert strength or dex when you do this like displacement type maneuver. So I said strength for Haley because that's her best stat, but I don't think you have a best physical stat, Thorn. So go ahead and choose strength or dex.
[00:15:08] Thorne: Yeah, I'll pick strength. That's more what I'm doing is just really heavily swinging this gun and they are basically the same. So yeah, I got a six actually. Oh, six is exactly what Haley got.
[00:15:18] Star Master Jeff: So you are good to go. So you start... sweeping back and forth with as much of the rifle as you can as you go in and like wade into these electro bugs and they start shocking your legs and crawling up your chest and you're kind of getting them off of you and you push them back as best you can and in the process you take oh four points of damage another max damage roll ah felix hurry your ass up Your third level now, you got probably more than 10 hit points. So you're probably okay for now. But poor Thorny is not a warrior. So this is not looking too good for you. I can only really feasibly take one more of those. Hayley, what would you like to do? Your electro bugs have reached your feet once again, their eyes and their little electro pincers aiming for Felix.
[00:16:06] Haleyy: Haley is going to do the exact same thing she did last time and lash out in the easiest way she knows how to try and rush these things away.
[00:16:17] Star Master Jeff: The beefy arm protocol, as we call it. Okay, go ahead and roll your exert strength again. You can hear Felix frantically pounding away at the keys behind you on his data pad. yeah six again oh my god i mean you guys are i mean i gotta tell you that's that's cusp in it we know dc6 is is considered kind of like a low level task so you get down with your big beefy arms and as you're sweeping these electro bugs to the side they are all zapping you from armpit to fingertip on both of your arms and also crawling up your legs and getting you all over you are going to take 1d4 damage oh minimum lucky yeah that would have been really good for thorn so hayley that's wonderful Haley, take one point of damage. You sweep the Electrobugs back to the wall once again, and you hear Felix muttering to himself and overcombs, and you're starting to get a little worried about him.
[00:17:08] Haleyy: Felix, everything going okay? Don't want to rush you or anything, just want a status.
[00:17:13] Robert: Yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine. Felix, how close are you to being done? Do we want me to start heading back to the goat to get this ball rolling?
[00:17:23] Felix: Everybody stop talking to me. I need to focus. You may want to get this ship running, Robert.
[00:17:28] Thorne: I don't know how much more of this I'm going to be able to handle.
[00:17:30] Robert: Yeah, guys, I'm going to make a big push forward here. I try to do a kick up while simultaneously smashing as many bugs with my feet as I can, and then use my movement speed to try to start hustling back towards the airlock to the goat.
[00:17:51] Star Master Jeff: So Robert, you were rolling around all over these bugs squashing them taking a bunch of damage but this round you spring to your feet and you're worried about patrol boat six so you run off towards the airlock you make it to the hallway and that's the end of your turn.
[00:18:06] Robert: Let's get out of here guys. Felix, I need you in and out.
[00:18:10] Star Master Jeff: Okay, that is the completion of round two. Felix, what would you like to do? You are now unguarded on your left flank.
[00:18:17] Felix: I feel cold on my left side, but I'm going to keep hacking away. Oh, it's a 13. Oh!
[00:18:25] Star Master Jeff: Oh my god, this guy is on fire! Okay, you have gutted down to the third subsystem, which exposes the drill path directory. You're able to pull up the Prometheon route and transfer to the scapegoat remotely. However, you also catch a weird entry, a place you've never heard of, a destination known as Generator 01.
[00:18:49] Felix: Generator 01. I hesitate for a moment. It must be important if it's down that deep. And I keep going.
[00:18:56] Star Master Jeff: Okay, you do have the Prometheon drill route. You could simply stop now. But you notice that there are other subsystems. There is more information here. But you can decide that on your next turn. Thorne. You have pushed them back and on their next turn, they move forward and they're now next to you again. You have saved Felix for yet another turn. Haley in front of you, they have moved forward. Unfortunately, Robert did not push them back on his turn. So they're already right next to Felix, which means they move in and swarm over Felix, covering him from head to toe in little electro bites. Felix, you take one point of damage. That's not such a bad roll as they shock you up and down your body. Thorn, what would you like to do? You look back and you see Felix just covered in electrobugs as your own descend upon you once again.
[00:19:47] Thorne: Robert, keep going. I'll take care of this. and then I move away from the swarm that I was just sweeping, and I try to head over to Felix, and I start to just start sweeping as many of them off of his body as I can. So even just with my bare hands, well, not bare hands, because I've got the suit on, but with my gloved hand, I'm just dragging these scarab robots off of Felix, picking them off, sweeping them out of the way, just generally trying to sweep the swarm back some more. This time just with my hands, though, because it's a little bit more up close and personal.
[00:20:19] Star Master Jeff: Okay, roll exert dexterity or strength. Okay, here goes.
[00:20:23] Thorne: Oh, a six again. Oh, my God. Wow. Everyone just keeps rolling sixes. I have a negative one too, though.
[00:20:29] Star Master Jeff: Take four points of damage. Oh, no.
[00:20:33] Thorne: Oh, Jesus. Oh, no. Are you still up? I'm sorry. I am still up, but I can't survive another four points of damage. Oh, Felix, please, Ari. These things really hurt.
[00:20:44] Felix: Hold tight, Thorne. I got Promethean. I just, there's something else here. I gotta figure it out.
[00:20:48] Robert: Guys, I'm coming back in. Don't you dare go deeper. Get the engines running. Thorne, if you die on me, I will kill you. It's a date. God damn it.
[00:21:00] Star Master Jeff: Haley, the electro bugs have closed in on you once again. They were swarming over Felix, but they've been pulled off of him. But now you have three swarms all right next to Felix. One is in front of you, but two other ones are just going to close in on him. As Thorne has moved into Felix's area as well and is frantically trying to keep them off of him. What would you like to do?
[00:21:23] Haleyy: So I will try to push some away again.
[00:21:26] Star Master Jeff: Okay. You try to displace them with a beefy, beefy arm procedure.
[00:21:30] Haleyy: She's so strong. No! Oh! Not a five. A five? What is this?
[00:21:40] Star Master Jeff: Okay, what that means is you try to sweep them away. It doesn't work. They crawl over you instead. You are unable to gain purchase on the electrobugs as they crawl all over your hands and arms. You're trying to sweep them away, but you just can't get the bulk of them away. Take four points of damage, Haley, as they move over your body, skittering and electroshocking you and directly onto Felix, who is directly behind you. Felix. They swarm over you. Take two points of damage from the electro bugs that Kaylee failed to protect you from. Okay. That is the end of round three. Patrol boat six. Felix, you notice that it is getting ever closer.
[00:22:24] Haleyy: We have a useful amount of information at this point, hacking-wise.
[00:22:28] Thorne: You don't know that. We don't know that. You did let it slip that you had the location, but you found something else.
[00:22:36] Star Master Jeff: So there do seem to be more layers here. But yeah, it is your turn right now, Felix. Would you like to go deeper?
[00:22:43] Felix: So I'm there, my fingers on the key of head. Just been shocked. Feel tingly. My leg aches. I look down, I see Thorn. He's practically smoking. He's been electrocuted so much. Hayley, bugs all over her arms.
[00:22:57] Haleyy: Dude, we gotta go. I cannot take another hit.
[00:23:00] Felix: I pause for a second. I think about Prometheon, Boss, Petey, and I push away from the console. I got what we need. Let's get out of here. What a choice.
[00:23:13] Haleyy: Felix, are you sure?
[00:23:14] Robert: I said let's go!
[00:23:16] Felix: And I push down after Robert.
[00:23:19] Haleyy: Let's go.
[00:23:20] Robert: Get out of here, guys. Let's do this.
[00:23:22] Star Master Jeff: Felix, you pushed off away towards Robert. You are now just at the entrance to the hallway. Unfortunately, the electrobugs are going now. Haley, the electrobugs that you've pushed away from you skitter forward, unable to reach you. However, there are two swarms of electrobugs next to you right now. One of them, now that Felix is away and unplugged, skitters towards you, dealing. Four points of damage.
[00:23:51] Haleyy: You're kidding.
[00:23:52] Star Master Jeff: You keep rolling so many fours. Yeah, that's pretty dirty. Players hate this guy. And then, Thorn, the other one is the swarm that you have been scraping off of Felix, who I thought he was your friend, but he just abandoned you. And they swarm all over you, dealing, you're lucky, only two points of damage. Okay, that is not enough to knock me down. How many hit points you got left and what's your max?
[00:24:19] Thorne: Two out of 12.
[00:24:21] Star Master Jeff: Oh no.
[00:24:22] Thorne: So you did four and then four.
[00:24:24] Haleyy: Well, I guess I can pick you up if I'm just running, so.
[00:24:27] Robert: Jesus, why did I leave them? I have so many hit points. Because it was an order.
[00:24:34] Star Master Jeff: Okay, and here we go. Thorne, what would you like to do?
[00:24:37] Thorne: I do still have one more of these old pre-tech cosmetics. I used once to bail myself out, and now there's only one left. But this is exactly the kind of situation it was for. So I'm going to just put my feet on the console that Felix was just working on, and then just kick myself out down the hallway. So I'm just like flying through space behind Felix, who is chasing behind Robert. Come on, Haley, we got to get out of here. And then I will take it out of my readied position and apply the pre-tech cosmetic to heal myself for 1d6.
[00:25:16] Star Master Jeff: Okay, just before you roll that, you could also use your main action to get the rest of the electro beetles off of your body because you're swarmed.
[00:25:24] Thorne: Oh, okay. Yes, then that instead.
[00:25:26] Star Master Jeff: But it's also totally cool to heal yourself, but you'll probably take more damage next round.
[00:25:32] Thorne: Yeah, I would rather be rid of them, assuming that they aren't just going to attack me next turn anyway, because that's what I'm trying to mitigate. If there's a way that if I scrape these off of me and then push away, that there aren't any close enough to hit me next turn, then that's ideal. And that's what I will go for.
[00:25:49] Star Master Jeff: You'll be in the hallway. They'll be in the server room. They will most likely chase you, but it's unlikely they'll be able to catch you.
[00:25:55] Thorne: All right. So I put my feet on the console and kick off behind Felix, but then I'm just going to use my main action to scrape the remaining scarabs off of my body as best I can.
[00:26:05] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Yeah. You get most of them off. Is that an exert roll? No, no, that's that's easy. You can kind of just get them off yourself. And you took the damage from when they came on to you. And because you're moving away from them, you're you're leaving their area. Haley, you are also covered in a swarm. And now you're alone in the server room, which is your most hated place to be in the universe is in a room so many computers.
[00:26:25] Haleyy: Yeah, I don't understand anything about this room. this isn't made of paper first there's the spider monsters that we you know experienced the ceiling spider goo monsters yeah now there's like yeah and now there's electric beetles fuck this um yeah this is sort of spider goo monsters part two electric beetle loo electric beetle loo okay what would you like to do hayley She is heading back to the ship. But just to double check, are Felix and Thorne, either of them needing help? Do either of them look like they're struggling?
[00:27:03] Star Master Jeff: No, they both have hit points. They both got the beetles off of them and they're both making their way towards the ship. You, however, are covered in beetles.
[00:27:10] Haleyy: I shake like a, you know, like a dog trying to drive itself off.
[00:27:15] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, yeah, perfect.
[00:27:17] Haleyy: I shake like that aggressively as I start walking back towards the ship. So I'm doing those two things at the same time.
[00:27:24] Star Master Jeff: No acrobatics like Thorne did. You just shake like a dog as you trudge back to the ship and they fall off you like shingles in a storm.
[00:27:30] Haleyy: Like just big stompy steps to try and crush them underneath my feet.
[00:27:34] Star Master Jeff: Crunch, crunch, crunch. Okay, you leave the server room and you are now trudging down the hall. Everyone has survived the server room. The beetles can't catch up to you as you move away. And Hayley, after you go about halfway down the hall, you notice that they are not actually pursuing you. And they go back into the little slits. all along the room to resume hiding. Robert, you are able to now safely EVA if you want. I push off. Absolutely. You push off and that concludes the fourth round. So if your intention is for everyone to be inside of the scapegoat and Robert to have made it to the pilot's chair, I will simply count the rest of the rounds and tell you guys how much you came out ahead. Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah, we're just trying to get to stations.
[00:28:23] Robert: yeah yep is there anything else anyone wanted to do that might exacerbate that like robert are you going to the bathroom first or like giving feel giving froggy a noogie or something on the way by as much as i would love to uh this is a case where we need to get the hell up out of here y'all um i just run dead ass to the bridge uh and then kick into gear
[00:28:49] Star Master Jeff: fast as we can. Okay, so you kick across on the fourth turn as your EVA. Turn five, you cycle the airlock, which means everyone else has to wait. But there are a couple of rounds behind you. So you make sure you uncycle it after you're done. You run along the spine of the scapegoat on round six. Round seven, you slip into the pilot's chair. At this point, everyone else has EVA'd and just barely cycled the airlock in our back inside of the scapegoat. Robert, you can see on your readout that the airlock has cycled, but you're not exactly sure if everyone was in there. But you guys have now completed what was an 11 round race in seven rounds. We are now at the beginning of round eight. Patrol boat six is still three rounds out before it's within range to fire upon you. What would you like to do, Robert?
[00:29:42] Robert: Captain, do I have authorization to get the fuck up out of here? I'd like to pilot away as fast as I can.
[00:29:53] Felix: Robert, you've got the coordinates to Prometheon Jump Point.
[00:29:57] Robert: Is it in my compad?
[00:29:58] Felix: Yep. It's in the GOAT. It's in the nav computer.
[00:30:01] Robert: Yep, yep. Locked and loaded. Buddy, can you set up a route?
[00:30:07] Star Master Jeff: Okay, buddy. I'm setting a route to Prometheon Station.
[00:30:12] Robert: Hey, buddy. That's the one. Lock it in?
[00:30:16] Star Master Jeff: Okay, buddy. But I've heard some weird things on the airwaves about that, but we're just gonna dive right in. Woo! He slams down on the spike drive button and they start to spin up. It's quite dramatically. And then you're going to have to wait like 45 minutes because it actually takes quite a while. Meanwhile, patrol boat six continues to chase you throughout the system as everyone else makes their way up to the bridge. And as the captain, Felix and Haley make their way onto the bridge, there is a blinking comms light on the communications panel, which is ironically, a light that exists directly next to the impression that Dr. Voss made in the comms panel to sort of like situate herself and be able to hook into the scapegoat.
[00:31:04] Haleyy: That's adorable.
[00:31:05] Star Master Jeff: I toggle it. I receive the signal. The moment that it turns on, the microsecond that it turns on, you hear a very annoyed voice say, Scapegoat, I have received your actual ID and I understand exactly who you are now. It's come across the waves. I have backups of the ExoNet that tells us the notices, the warrants, and exactly who you are. Stand down and give yourselves up. You cannot win a race through space against us.
[00:31:34] Thorne: I roll my eyes. Unfortunately, that's not going to be possible.
[00:31:39] Haleyy: Mm-mm.
[00:31:39] Thorne: Hate to let you down, but it seems like our systems are going haywire. We can't slow down, can we, Robert?
[00:31:45] Robert: Yeah, sir. I just... We're going... We're at 11. We're at 11, and I can't slow her down.
[00:31:52] Felix: There's something wrong with our comms. There's something wrong with our comms, too, Captain. They keep... And I toggle the switch on and off. We keep breaking up our comms, too. Yeah.
[00:32:01] Star Master Jeff: As you're toggling, you hear, so, Draxus, you, and, precedes you. I leave it all the way off. Thank you. The light just starts blinking. You're assuming furiously once again. I click block collar. Yeah, the light switches off. And then you notice on the weapon stations, Haley, that you have been targeted by patrol boat six. Though what they were slightly out of range and they are still slightly out of range. But what defines slightly is now changing quickly because their boat is faster than your ship. They are smaller and more agile, and they are not quickly, but they are gaining on you. You're not so good at math, but you're pretty sure they're going to catch up to you before you're able to make your spike drill.
[00:32:55] Haleyy: Guys, they're gaining on us. How much more time is it going to take? And they know where we're going.
[00:33:02] Felix: So we got to kill this guy.