Life Is Unfair

Jul 21

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The crew leaves the Omnitech ship with a name, a lead, and no answers. And now: a midnight heist at the Helium Docks, a hacked security gate, one fake employee named Gregory Overton, and 3am waiting in the dark.

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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.
[00:00:10] Felix: Why is there mustard all over the comms?
[00:00:13] Felix: Robert does go and loot that body.
[00:00:16] Robert: That body?
[00:00:17] Felix: I want you to put your fingerprints on that body, yes.
[00:00:21] Haleyy: Hayley cracks her knuckles. Let's open some hatches.
[00:00:26] Star Master Jeff: Previously on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the crew came to Spigot broken and hunted. Victor Strake's codes had locked them out of their own ship, and someone had already tried to kill them once. They tracked the assassin to a docked shuttle. Inside, a Robert Lyne clone with a standing order to eliminate the crew. They questioned him until he ran out of useful answers. Then, Iso shot him. His dead man's transponder fell from his hands, blinking red. His partner had been warned. Now it's the middle of the night on Sibylen. A cargo ship is arriving at the helium docks at 3am with something the crew desperately needs. Blank ownership modules. If they can get one, the scapegoat will finally be theirs. But the other assassin is still out there.
[00:01:20] Thorne: All right, Felix, you've been tapping away at that thing for a while. Please tell me you found something.
[00:01:25] Felix: Yeah, I don't know. It's been kind of hard to parse the data here, but I think I have found a few things. So have I found anything specifically about where the ship came from, where it was going to go afterwards, communications it's received, potentially that could lead us to Dr. Voss or just in the general direction of where she might be is kind of my goal.
[00:01:46] Star Master Jeff: So it seems as though this ship's orders have been the same for quite a long time now. And you can date it back to not long after you left Wafisa. Their standing order was to follow you. That's it. Outside of this hacking attempt, just from like scouring the ship, you find 2,500 physical credits in a bag in one of the clones rooms. You also find an encrypted data pad that has another 5,000 credits on it. It's sort of like having Bitcoin. And you also find a spike thrower, which is a type of weapon. And you also find some security armor. There is a spot in each of these luxury cabins for the armor to be stored. The security armor that you found is obviously for the man who you blew the head off of, or Iso did, and she's currently sleeping in his bed right now. The other armor is missing. The spike thrower was next to the armor, so it obviously belongs to the dead Robert clone. But there are no such weapons that are found in the other cabin.
[00:02:51] Felix: Were there any messages on the ship that had been sent to the ship that had received or sent recently?
[00:02:56] Star Master Jeff: There was a message that was received recently. It's a standard form of change of order that turns the track the scapegoat order into an eliminate order.
[00:03:06] Felix: Are these messages traceable in any way? Like point of origin?
[00:03:10] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, it's traceable in the sense that everything that's sent through military command is traceable. So you can see the full audit of where all of these orders came from. But it's all by employee ID and maybe isn't telling you so much. But you can take note of those employee IDs and maybe compare them with names if you can ever find some someday.
[00:03:31] Felix: Yeah. I'll download the relevant messages to my datapad for just further kind of analysis, and then share what I found with Thorn about that.
[00:03:40] Thorne: Sounds like this guy's been following us for a while, him and whoever he's working with. I guess it doesn't really help us find where Strake went. It's kind of our current problem.
[00:03:49] Felix: Yep. Unfortunately, I think it's a dead end here. So our best bet is just to stay on the original course, get the goat back up and running, and... I guess keep going where Voss wanted us to go and hope Victor's there too.
[00:04:00] Thorne: I get a weird sneaking suspicion that we'll find them there. Or at least more information.
[00:04:06] Felix: You know, if we wanted to... I mean, this ship's in pretty good order. And the goat's got some space in the cargo bay. You know, we could maybe take it with us. Yeah, you think this would fit in there?
[00:04:17] Thorne: Yeah, I think it would. It's just a fighter. It certainly would help us out a lot if we had a fighter.
[00:04:23] Felix: Can we steal two ownership modules and redo this one, too, and then we can have two fully functional ships? That'd be pretty sweet. It's certainly not off the table. It depends on what we find when we find the shipments. Yeah, Thorne, I would also say, I mean, if we get a good ownership module in here, a clean one, then we could probably turn around and sell this bad boy.
[00:04:41] Thorne: Mm, yeah, I like the sound of that. I mean, if we're going to be stealing a module anyway, if there's one, there may be two. Might as well take a look. Robert, Haley, looks like Felix is done doing this hacking thing. Let's head back to Iso's and figure out our next steps for the morning. If that other clone is still out there, well, we're gonna have to deal with that when we find him.
[00:04:44] Robert: Roger that, y'all. I scouted for any afros, dreadlocks, twists, or bowl cuts on a clone and I saw nothing. Uh, we should get up out of here.
[00:04:50] Thorne: Great, we're gonna take this shuttle back to the goat and load it up. But remember, as long as it's got this original ownership module in it, it's basically a liability. So if we don't manage to get a replacement, we probably should jettison it sooner rather than later, especially if we do get a clean one in the goat.
[00:05:28] Star Master Jeff: So, Robert, you get in. You power up all the systems. You hit those big old toggles. Flip, flip, flip, flip. The lights come on. Wom, wom, wom, wom, wom. The hum of the engines under your butt. This is what you live for. You are a pilot. And you slowly lift off into the air. And you wonder if you should tell everyone what you just saw the name of the shuttlecraft is as you fly off towards the scapegoat.
[00:05:51] Haleyy: What's the name of the shuttlecraft?
[00:05:53] Star Master Jeff: Huh? Don't you want to ask?
[00:05:55] Haleyy: Yeah, what is it?
[00:05:57] Robert: Robber someone that saw it, the Life Is Unfair, and it looks like somebody put a lot of time and energy into really pimping this thing out. I mean, there's a shark on the side. It is, it is actually pretty nice. Yeah, they put some nice like living quarters in too. Wonderful.
[00:06:18] Star Master Jeff: So you guys fly all the way to the to the scapegoat. It's like a five minute journey. And Robert settles the life is unfair down next to the scapegoat. Thorn, you do the extra transaction with the people that are doing the repairs. It's going to take a few more credits because they have to put the shuttle onto like a special dolly and then move it into the scapegoat and then settle it down like cargo. So while Thorne is haggling price with this guy for loading the Life is Unfair into the scapegoat, Hayley, you notice that Iso breaks away from the group and heads right up the ramp and into the scapegoat.
[00:06:58] Haleyy: Aw, damn. Guys, we lost Iso.
[00:07:01] Felix: What do you mean? We don't have time for this.
[00:07:03] Haleyy: I know, she's in the scapegoat.
[00:07:04] Felix: Wait, where? Oh, son of a space rat.
[00:07:07] Haleyy: I mean, like, my room is clean, so this isn't a problem for me.
[00:07:13] Felix: I run in there as fast as I can to find out what she's getting clone juice on.
[00:07:19] Star Master Jeff: You're sprinting in as fast as you can while everyone else walking casually past you. As fast as your little robo legs will carry you. Beep, boop, beep, boop, beep, boop. So you all, depending on your mood, rush or stroll onto the scapegoat. And when you get in there, you see that her TX-7 shotgun is leaning up against Haley's girder that she's wrapped in a mattress that she punches and bends. And Iso is sitting in the driver's seat of the Aurora. When you guys come in, she goes, hot damn, this is a nice ride you all got here.
[00:07:54] Thorne: You're telling me. It's a classic. They don't even make those anymore.
[00:07:58] Robert: Okay, can we go? She turns it on. I've heard a couple things go for a couple of million credits.
[00:08:06] Thorne: Yeah, maybe with a few fewer bullet holes in the hood, but yeah.
[00:08:09] Star Master Jeff: What kind of salesperson are you? Well, I ain't got no million credits anyway, but listen to that engine purr. What is that? Uranium? Plutonium. Plutonium. This is a nice ride. You're going to have to let me drive this puppy. I don't mind if we get out of this next mission scot-free. Let's take a drive sometime. She pops it into gear and starts slowly making her way towards the exit of the goat. No, no, no, not now. Hey, Thorny, Cap, why don't you all pass me that shotgun over there? I don't know that I like where this is going, Iso. Oh, we'll drive it over to my shop. We could take it for a little joyride. What? We have 12 hours to kill. I think it's like 10 hours at this point. We've wasted a lot of time. She pops it into park and turns it off and says, y'all suck. Deeply. You see Froggy poke his head out of his den and he's just got a face like a slapped ass. He's just been crying. Hey, Reggie. How you doing, bud? You hanging in there? I feel like I haven't eaten in days.
[00:09:07] Thorne: You want some food?
[00:09:08] Star Master Jeff: Yeah.
[00:09:09] Thorne: Percy comes out. Is that that cat? Look at that. Felix glares at it.
[00:09:15] Haleyy: Aw, Percy.
[00:09:16] Thorne: Don't aww Percy that thing.
[00:09:18] Haleyy: He's fine.
[00:09:19] Thorne: Thorn starts rummaging through the, uh, the mess hall. So, uh, what are you guys doing? I come back to Froggy with a sandwich and I give it to him. Well, we're making a plan to get a new module for the goat and then we're gonna get out of here. Try and track down Dr. Voss and see what happened with the others. Oh, that sounds fun. Can I come with? It's gonna be really dangerous, Reg.
[00:09:42] Star Master Jeff: I don't even care anymore. I get that, and that's possibly why you should stay. Fine! And he throws the sandwich on the ground, then he picks it back up, and then he walks into his den. He's doing great.
[00:09:53] Haleyy: When's the appropriate time to have an intervention?
[00:09:56] Felix: It's been a day, Hayley. He'll be fine.
[00:09:59] Haleyy: Okay, okay.
[00:10:00] Felix: His best friend died 20 hours ago. Okay, y'all, get in the car. I call shotgun. No, we're walking. I'm driving. We're taking the car? Damn it. I mean, Thorn, this is not exactly an inconspicuous ride, Thorn.
[00:10:14] Thorne: Yeah, but it's a long walk through the desert, Felix, and if we got to make a run for it, you know, it'd be nice to have a little bit of a hovercraft on our side. It's not a bad idea.
[00:10:24] Star Master Jeff: All right, I guess we all get in the car. So you motor out of the scapegoat and you start to make your way towards the ISO shop. The streets are fairly wide here by the spaceport, but they continually get more narrow as you go deeper into Spigot. Thankfully, she's in a main area, so it does widen back out and there's a lot of residences and other shops here. You do have to beep at some people and you're kind of weaving in and out of traffic. There's not enough room for two cars side by side, so thankfully you don't really run into any full-sized cars like you're driving. In fact, you don't see many of those at all. Turns out you're incredibly conspicuous. Everyone's looking at you, especially because your car is so damn nice. Then you come to a huge crowd of people that are crowded around like a campfire in the middle of the road. What the hell is this? Oh, shit, not my place of business. And Iso leaps out of the car and runs towards what you now see is her shop. It's just a smoking hulk. It has been bombed out, lit on fire, and destroyed. She pushes through the crowd and disappears.
[00:11:32] Felix: Felix looks over at Haley. Guess we know where that other clone went now. Um, do we have the, uh, Felix? Did we hack into the street cams around here? Yeah, when I was in her shop, like, I don't have a perpetual connection to everything I ever hack into, guys.
[00:11:48] Star Master Jeff: A tap on the windscreen of the Aurora, and you see there's a regulator there, one of the local police force, tapping it with a stun baton. And he says through the closed driver's side window, move along. All right, they're kind of blocking the road. I beep the horn that I assume exists. He waves you down like a side street that requires you to back up slightly.
[00:12:10] Thorne: Yeah, I get the Aurora out of the way, but I want to park it and cover it and try to find ISO.
[00:12:15] Star Master Jeff: You only have to go, like, 50 feet down, and you find a spot where you can pull over pretty far to the side. Well, it looks like we...
[00:12:22] Thorne: This may end up being more of a revenge thing than it already was. We should go find her.
[00:12:27] Felix: Yeah, but Thorn, and I look at my watch, we really don't have a lot of time to waste here. Like, we're gonna need time to scout the area and hack in. Let's just find her and get out of here.
[00:12:39] Thorne: All right. So we parked the Aurora, lock it, cover it. And I guess we go see what happened, even though I kind of have a pretty good idea. Let's just see where she went.
[00:12:48] Star Master Jeff: So you make your way over to Iso's shop, and the crowd is starting to disperse now. The local fire brigade has already put out whatever flames were here, and people are no longer interested. In here, she's at the computer terminal that Felix hacked, trying to get it to turn on, but it looks like part of the entire terminal has been ripped out. Felix, you immediately notice that the internal storage hard drive has been removed. Robert, you see a pair of boots sticking out from behind a piece of machinery. Guys, we might have a corpse here.
[00:13:24] Haleyy: Haley goes over to check out this hopefully dead body.
[00:13:27] Star Master Jeff: You go behind this piece of equipment and you find another Robert clone, completely shot to shit. And when you draw the sight lines, you see that it was destroyed by the automated turret that Iso keeps hidden in her wall. That turret has been completely destroyed as well by gunfire.
[00:13:45] Haleyy: Huh, I wonder if this is the other clone.
[00:13:47] Robert: I mean, we gotta hope so, but what took out the other clone? Slash the turret.
[00:13:54] Haleyy: Which was also taken out.
[00:13:55] Star Master Jeff: I can't imagine it was mutual fire. And the clone is also pretty charred up because of the fire.
[00:14:01] Thorne: Where the hell's Iso?
[00:14:02] Star Master Jeff: Iso's over by her terminal trying to get it to work, but the storage bay is completely ripped out from it.
[00:14:10] Felix: It's dead. They ripped out the main storage unit. You're not getting this puppy back up. Whatever was on here is lost. Dang it!
[00:14:18] Star Master Jeff: And she throws the keyboard across the room.
[00:14:21] Felix: Robert, Haley, check that guy's body. See if he's got a storage module on him.
[00:14:26] Robert: Do we really? Now, yes, absolutely. Felix, do we want to put our fingerprints on the dead body?
[00:14:35] Felix: I want you to put your fingerprints on that body, yes.
[00:14:40] Star Master Jeff: then don't you guys have the same fingerprints anyway gonna feel up that body you're wearing gloves anyway Robert geez did you just say every clone has the same fingerprints oh my god so I guess that bartender wasn't the only clone wow way to perpetuate stereotypes but Robert does go and loot that body Robert, so the very first thing you do is you do a full ocular pat down and you see that this clone is also wearing security armor. But because he's been shot to shit and then set on fire, it's completely useless. It also has a laser pistol as its sidearm. Wow, it? Yeah, now who's the clone?
[00:15:24] Felix: Who's the clone phone now?
[00:15:26] Star Master Jeff: Well, it's a dead body, so I'm saying it. Is that wrong? Only things that have the Holy Spirit in them can have a gender. And then he has a sidearm, a laser pistol, and also a laser rifle, but once again, they've been completely charred and they are no longer useful. So that's what your ocular pat-down tells you. Are you diving into the pockets? This all seems useless, folks.
[00:15:56] Robert: No, if he's not, Haley is.
[00:16:00] Haleyy: Haley's like, does this guy have a transponder?
[00:16:02] Robert: Well, if you want to do the cavity search, Haley, then it's up to you.
[00:16:05] Haleyy: Well, you just looked at him. Yeah, I'm going to go through this guy's pockets.
[00:16:10] Star Master Jeff: Here's my gloves, then.
[00:16:12] Haleyy: Thank you.
[00:16:13] Star Master Jeff: So this is what you find on him. You find an Atmo filter. You find an Insta panel and you find one scout report and one survival kit.
[00:16:27] Haleyy: What is an Insta panel?
[00:16:29] Star Master Jeff: An Insta panel is like a really small flat piece of kind of like plastique. But when you insert a, I believe it's a type A power cell into it, it immediately turns into like a three by three foot square of really strong ceramic or something like that or plastic. I can't remember.
[00:16:48] Haleyy: I toss it to Felix. All right.
[00:16:50] Star Master Jeff: It opens in the air and crushes him.
[00:16:52] Haleyy: What does the scout report say?
[00:16:57] Star Master Jeff: So a scale report is like a sheaf of survey scans. This one is for a colony that once existed here on Sibylen. And it's not on this side of the planet, but... You're not exactly sure what he was doing with this stuff, but it is a fairly complete report of the last known status of that colony about 150 years ago. And then some updated readings on seismic activity from just a few months ago.
[00:17:28] Robert: Is it in any way related to the location of the exosat?
[00:17:33] Star Master Jeff: They are very far away from each other.
[00:17:34] Felix: Haley, did you find a computer storage module on him? Or an ownership module?
[00:17:41] Haleyy: I'm going to say, I'm going to put my hands up and be like, I don't think so.
[00:17:44] Felix: Is there something on his body that you don't understand what it is?
[00:17:48] Haleyy: The Insta panel that I threw at you. So over there now. Atmo filter makes sense.
[00:17:54] Felix: It's not a hard drive. Oh my God. Okay.
[00:17:56] Haleyy: Here's a scout report.
[00:17:58] Felix: No, give me that. I understand that holds data Haley, but that does not hold data for a computer. I saw it's gone. There were obviously somebody else here killed this thing. This clone destroyed your turret, burns your shop down and stole your hard drive. I don't know what you had on there. Somebody was after it.
[00:18:14] Star Master Jeff: Well, I don't think I had anything on there. Well, except for my security camera footage. That's really the only thing of value on there that we're on. Oh yeah, and I'm on there too. And I get naked in here. I live here. We gotta get that hard drive back. So there's weird stuff on there.
[00:18:31] Thorne: Well, if this clone didn't have it, then where did it go? Could there have been someone else they were working with, or is it just buried in the rubble somewhere?
[00:18:38] Robert: Do we want to check with some of the bystanders? Or is there a neighborhood... building that we might be able to hack into and get some of these street cameras to see what might happen. Now there's a plan.
[00:18:54] Felix: Yeah, I can try. I gotta find a panel to patch into. There's just a lot of those guardians out there. I like the way they've been looking at us.
[00:19:02] Thorne: Oh, if it's access that you need, I think I might know somebody we could talk to. I may have made a friend back at the admin office when we were picking up the shuttle.
[00:19:12] Star Master Jeff: Iso slams her fist down on the desk again, rattling the display, punching the monitor and hitting it into the wall and just storms off towards the back of her shop. And she says, I don't care what y'all do.
[00:19:26] Thorne: All right, Felix, why don't you head to that cafe and start working on some code? If we're going to hack into those cameras or even if we're going to get to the mining site, we're going to need something written. So go work on that. I'll reach out to my contact and see if we can't get the access to the cameras from here. Haley, see if you can help Iso find whatever data is missing or at least get her to calm down. You're good with clones, right?
[00:19:50] Haleyy: Yes, and you can't stay stuck here forever. I head back to talk with Iso.
[00:19:59] Star Master Jeff: Okay. She's sitting on the bed that you had laid on not that long ago to have all your tests done. And she's just looking around all of her destroyed medical equipment and just simmering with rage and gripping onto her shotgun, her TX-7, so tightly her knuckles are white.
[00:20:18] Haleyy: Hey, Iso. You're looking pretty tense here. Much is obvious.
[00:20:26] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, more angry than a tick that's not on a dog, because a tick wants to be on a dog.
[00:20:33] Haleyy: Well, Iso, those who lie with dogs catch fleas, and I think wallowing is going to... Don't you want to go shoot stuff? It looks like you want to go shoot stuff. I know you, Iso. You want action, right?
[00:20:49] Star Master Jeff: I kind of do.
[00:20:50] Haleyy: Yeah, so do we. You know how I like punching things?
[00:20:54] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I guess.
[00:20:55] Haleyy: Well, we might not know specifically who did this, but we do know who paid them, and we do know that the way we're going and what we're going after, they're going to be there. We're trying to fight the same person here, Omnitech. We got a plan, and this is really awful that this has happened to your store and your life here, but now we get to go shoot shit. Got a new plan.
[00:21:20] Star Master Jeff: I'm going to murder every thief and bastard I find.
[00:21:22] Haleyy: As long as they have an Omnitech badge on.
[00:21:24] Star Master Jeff: And everyone around that person, because they're probably in cahoots.
[00:21:27] Haleyy: We can talk about that as it goes.
[00:21:30] Star Master Jeff: I'm saying if I see an innocent civilian and I'm like, clock them, and then I see that they're next to someone that's wearing one of them Omnitech badges, or anything that even looks like an Omnitech badge, or even anything that looks like a badge.
[00:21:40] Haleyy: Nope, those are like hexagons. Badges are very normal here, Iso. Let's stay focused.
[00:21:46] Star Master Jeff: She stands up and racks a shell in her shotgun and she says, Well, all right, Haley. When I think about the old days, us going around killing innocent civilians together.
[00:21:55] Haleyy: No, they weren't. They were not innocent civilians. They were militant combatants.
[00:22:02] Star Master Jeff: Right, right. Were you fighting the same red rice wars as me?
[00:22:05] Haleyy: We don't have to have this conversation now.
[00:22:08] Star Master Jeff: All right now. So she grabs her shotgun and she storms out of her former store. And everyone is out in the street, I assume, hanging out.
[00:22:20] Thorne: Yeah, Thorne's out there trying to make contact. And I think Felix and Robert are in the nearby cafe.
[00:22:27] Star Master Jeff: Iso grabs you by the collar. Haley said, if I see any shapes at all, I can blow their goddamn heads off.
[00:22:32] Haleyy: I did not say that.
[00:22:34] Star Master Jeff: Okay. And the car, Thorne.
[00:22:36] Thorne: So we're not worrying about the security footage, then, it sounds like.
[00:22:39] Haleyy: We are not.
[00:22:40] Thorne: I put my hand on my earpiece and call out to Felix and Robert. Guys, change of plans. We're making our way to the depot now. Let's get to the Aurora.
[00:22:50] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so everyone squeezes back into the Aurora. Where is Iso sitting? In the shotgun again, or no?
[00:22:57] Thorne: Yeah, she can have shotgun.
[00:22:58] Star Master Jeff: Okay. She's... gripping her shotgun so tightly and she's like rolled the window down and she keeps sticking her head out and yelling at random people. Like she needs a way to bleed off this energy. So as you're driving past some like regulators, she's like, fuck you. She's like, go, go, go, go, go. Are you heading out of town to the helium docks? Yes, I am.
[00:23:20] Robert: My question, who has control of the ox?
[00:23:23] Thorne: I mean me, but I'll pass it as long as you don't put on anything weird.
[00:23:26] Robert: Thank you. I'm going to grab that ox. I'm going to play some Gravity Whale. I'm going to play some Nova Hole. I'm going to play the Red Rice Riot. And then I'm just going to let it go on to whatever random thing it generates after that.
[00:23:41] Thorne: Wow, Red Rice Riot, really. I didn't paint you as that was your sort of thing, considering you were kind of, like, on the other side of that. Like, basically singing about you guys.
[00:23:50] Star Master Jeff: Yeah. What you don't realize is that it's on shuffle, so Red Rice Riot plays first. And it's sort of like this universe's Fortunate Son. And as you're listening to it, and you think about Robert, and you're like, yeah, he did run away from the military. He obviously didn't agree with what was going on. And you putter off in the Aurora in the direction of the helium docks. As you start to approach it, you're about a half mile away right now and you're going over a rise and you can see the helium docks with a long road leading off to the east as you are traveling north. You see a large fenced-in compound with a single building and two landing pads. You see no humans. However, you do see three automated turrets positioned around the fenced-in enclosure. The entrance into this circle is guarded by a single security arm like you'd see going into a parking garage. You do not see any life around at all. The Sun of Sibylen has started to set long ago, and you are now entering into night. It is currently 7.30 p.m., and the shipment is coming in at 3 a.m. What would you like to do?
[00:25:15] Thorne: Oh boy, this is a tough one. Got some information from that guy at the bar I was talking to, so we know at least where the shipment's coming in. Maybe we should go check that place out first.
[00:25:24] Haleyy: Let's go check it out.
[00:25:25] Thorne: And I start driving the Aurora towards the bay that I was told that the shipment would be coming to.
[00:25:30] Robert: Now, Felix, are you going to be able to hack into these turrets?
[00:25:34] Felix: Wait, if I can find an access point, Robert, but if there's no hard wire points outside of that enclosure, we got to get in there first. Am I going to need to snipe them? Let's see. Let's just scout the area first, see what we can do.
[00:25:49] Star Master Jeff: And as you draw closer, you notice that there are also a few cameras scattered around as well.
[00:25:56] Felix: What's outside the fence? Anything or is it just like this, just in the middle of like nowhere, basically?
[00:26:01] Star Master Jeff: It's in the middle of nowhere, but there are a few things outside the fenced area. There's the road leading up to it and there's a parking lot on the outside. And you can see that there are various trucks, commercial looking trucks, as well as some construction equipment in this parking lot area.
[00:26:18] Robert: Okay, y'all, I think we're definitely going to need to scout guards. And what are your thoughts, everybody, on slowly disabling stuff? We have a little bit of time. Do we want to do it all at once or hit and run?
[00:26:34] Thorne: Kind of hoping that if we can put a line shunt in, that Felix will be able to cut everything all at once when the time comes. But is that wishful thinking? I think we're gonna have to get inside to do it.
[00:26:43] Robert: I think the only port's probably in that warehouse. Yeah, we gotta get through that fence first.
[00:26:48] Haleyy: Sounds easy enough.
[00:26:50] Robert: With the turrets? We're gonna walk right in there?
[00:26:53] Haleyy: We can't disable the turrets from right here?
[00:26:55] Thorne: I mean, with your guns you can. I'm not quite ready to jump to that solution. Not at this time of day.
[00:27:02] Felix: And let's not forget, if the people bring in that shipment and think anything's wrong, they're probably not going to come.
[00:27:06] Thorne: They'll just fly away. Well, the shipment's going to be fully automated. So unless we cause any obvious trouble that would set the system off, we should be all right to just swoop in mid-delivery, take what we need, and get out of here.
[00:27:21] Felix: That's why disabling is probably more important than destroying because there could be some kind of fail-safe system.
[00:27:27] Thorne: All right, then. If we don't see any other obvious solution, then let's try to just scout around and see where we can find the main entrance to the gate or the normal way that people would use this system and see what we can figure out. Just drive slowly but casually, Thorne.
[00:27:43] Robert: I think we need to leave the car a little bit away here, and I'd like to scout for guards, like anything human besides the turrets and the cameras. Yeah, sounds good.
[00:27:55] Thorne: So, like, park the car, kind of walk up, scout around. Then I'm just going to park the Aurora in that parking lot outside the fence, maybe behind one of those big trucks so it's inconspicuous, and then we'll do some scouting.
[00:28:07] Star Master Jeff: So you pop out of the Aurora. Iso's out like a fucking shot. And she's running right up to the security arm. Oh, Jesus.
[00:28:16] Thorne: Haley, I thought this was your thing. Keep eyes on her. Don't let her get too far away. We need a short, short leash.
[00:28:23] Haleyy: I know. I'll go after her.
[00:28:25] Star Master Jeff: She stops at the security arm, and Haley, as you walk up, she's like, Haley, I heard what y'all saying in the car there, but those turrets don't bother me too much. They're not even moving. I bet they're not even on. Why don't we just try walking in to see what happens?
[00:28:38] Haleyy: No, let's regroup first. You know, one thing I know is to rely on the experts here, and Felix is the guy we're going to be trusting when we're on the inside.
[00:28:49] Star Master Jeff: Listen, Haley, I'm an expert and I'm guessing this is sort of like a red light, green light situation. We go in and the turrets notice us, we just stop. Then when they go deactivate again, we just run in a little bit further and then we stop again.
[00:29:01] Haleyy: Iso fully believe and trust and know that that has worked in the past, but we are members of a new crew now. And that crew would like Felix to also be in agreement on this. So let's go talk to Felix.
[00:29:18] Star Master Jeff: Which one's Felix?
[00:29:19] Haleyy: The one with the legs.
[00:29:21] Star Master Jeff: Ugh.
[00:29:21] Haleyy: I know, I know. But you guys can chat.
[00:29:26] Star Master Jeff: Why can't we just listen to you or Robert? These weaklings don't even know what they're talking about.
[00:29:30] Haleyy: They do listen to Robert and I when our skills become necessary. But right now you and Felix will solve this problem better than anybody.
[00:29:40] Star Master Jeff: Fine, fine. Awesome, thank you. And she kind of drops her shotgun and she's just dragging it by the butt as she walks back towards the Aurora. Meanwhile, I think we've gotten out.
[00:29:49] Thorne: Yeah, we're all walking that way too. So we meet up with them halfway. Well, what'd you find?
[00:29:54] Haleyy: Um, yeah, Iso thinks the turrets might not even be turned on.
[00:29:59] Star Master Jeff: Well, here's the thing. I think that we could just walk right in, and if they turn on, we could just stand real still, and then we could run again, and when they see us, we stop, and they wouldn't see us anymore. It's kind of like a shark. They can't see, or a T-Rex.
[00:30:12] Felix: That's maybe one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. It's going to be tied into this security arm. So I think let's just go see. Let's just see what this thing is all about. I don't want to walk over very cautiously, keeping an eye on the turrets and the cameras kind of over to the security arm and see, like, is it hooked up to any system? Basically, this is just literally a manual low tech arm.
[00:30:34] Star Master Jeff: So you spot three turrets, as seen previously, and there are three cameras, which now that you're closer, you clock them as kind of a mid-security option. They likely have infrared capabilities. And there's a sensor pad next to the security arm. It looks like it's for tapping a security pass, too.
[00:30:53] Felix: Yeah, so I'm going to take out my kit and see if I can pry it open and get inside and look at the internals here.
[00:30:59] Thorne: While Felix is getting to work, you three just keep your eyes peeled and cover us. My bionica eyes.
[00:31:05] Haleyy: My alert sense of alertness is on it.
[00:31:10] Star Master Jeff: So you fan out a bit and you're watching the area. You're taking a good look at those turrets. They're not moving a muscle. Even the cameras, they're kind of moving back and forth on a normal cadence. They don't seem to be keying into the fact that Felix is standing there. So every so often he appears in each of the three cameras zone, but they're not fixating on him at all. You look out at the parking lot. There's these big safety yellow construction vehicles and commercial trucks. You don't really see anything interesting there. But then you swear you hear something and your eyes are directed upwards. And about 100 feet above you, you spot a small standard issue. By standard issue, I mean Omnitech standard issue surveillance drone hovering with its quad rotors surveying you.
[00:31:59] Haleyy: Slag sucker. Haley is not going to just shoot at the damn thing. Nope. That would be impulsive and dumb.
[00:32:07] Thorne: Nobody's going to be mad at you for shooting it. I'm telling you that now.
[00:32:11] Haleyy: Yeah, Haley shoots it. Of course she does.
[00:32:14] Star Master Jeff: Okay, roll the hit.
[00:32:15] Haleyy: It's a 14 hit.
[00:32:18] Star Master Jeff: You shoot an incredibly accurate laser beam 100 feet into the air to the stationary drone up above. It actually starts to try to move out of the way when you all of a sudden snap your laser rifle up and shoot it. You clip one of its rotors and it begins to spiral down to the ground, making an angry whirring noise before crashing. So I'm going to roll a 1d4. If I roll a 1, it lands inside of the fenced area. I rolled a 2. So it lands right in the parking lot near you. And as it swoops over the fenced area and lands in the parking lot, you watch the turrets intently and none of them move. I run over and office space that thing. Okay, so back with Felix, you've torn everything apart on the inside and got a good look at the internals. What are you trying to figure out?
[00:33:15] Felix: Basically, is the security arm, going through it, if I'm not verified, is that going to set off the security system? And if so, is there a way to bypass that from happening?
[00:33:26] Star Master Jeff: So you're unsure exactly what the software would do if you're unverified. But you do think that you could spoof something that would make you be verified if you had an hour to kill. Okay. I check the time. It is 830. I go over the comms because I don't know where they all went. You look over your shoulder and you don't see everyone, but you do see Robert stomping on a surveillance drone in the parking lot.
[00:33:55] Felix: I just shake my head. I go on comms. I'm going to need about an hour to get us through this gate without getting shot to hell. So just leave me alone.
[00:34:04] Thorne: Well, we have time before the shipment, but thanks to this drone here, we have no idea how much time we actually have. So get to work.
[00:34:11] Star Master Jeff: So are you setting up shop right there or are you going to grab your trifold and relax in the Aurora?
[00:34:16] Felix: No, I'll just sit right here. Keep checking on the system for answering questions I have about what I need to build here and basically build a hack to subvert the system.
[00:34:25] Robert: Yeah. Can we set up a perimeter here? Um, I want to make sure that. There are no otherwise scouts, snipers, or anything else that's been sitting here lurking about.
[00:34:40] Star Master Jeff: I agree, Robert. Why don't you set up Overwatch, and I'll set up Underwatch. I'll stand right next to Felix with my TX-7. Anything gets near him, bam! If I see any shapes, bam, bam!
[00:34:52] Robert: I do not mind you taking Assault Team. I'll take Overwatch. And so the hour passes.
[00:34:57] Star Master Jeff: Felix, you have a quick and dirty hack to patch into the security system and validate a new user who you are calling. Who is this fake person you've made up? We'll call it Gregory Overton. Oh, I kind of want to know more about Gregory here. Don't worry about it right now.
[00:35:21] Haleyy: I would also like to know more about Gregory.
[00:35:23] Star Master Jeff: Gregory Overton, age 37. Sex? Yes, please. Single and ready to mingle. He sounds handsome. Okay, so it is now 9.30 at night, and you have a hack. What would you like to do? I'd like to execute it. Okay, you execute the hack. Go ahead and roll Program Intelligence. That is a 13. The security bar opens up the millisecond you press the enter key on your keyboard. All right, we're in. Iso, after you. Just because I'm not 100% sure that this is what controls the turrets. She runs in 10 feet and then stops, and none of the turrets move. Then she runs in 10 more feet and then stops. Y'all, I think it's okay. Nice work, Felix. Thanks, boss. Y'all should bring the Aurora in here.
[00:36:15] Felix: Don't leave it out there. What if someone comes and pilfers it? Yeah, we're going to need to make a quick getaway with this ownership module. Though she's got a good point. You keep the gate open, and I'll go and I'll get the Aurora.
[00:36:27] Star Master Jeff: and you drive through the security arm, and is everyone going, or is Robert still up on Overwatch?
[00:36:35] Thorne: Stay close by, Robert, but keep your eyes peeled. Watch out for drones and obviously anything coming over the sands.
[00:36:41] Robert: So where is high ground? What about the top of a truck in the parking lot?
[00:36:50] Star Master Jeff: Oh man, genius. Yeah, there's tons. There's a big commercial like Mack truck. That's not the tallest thing out there, but you can lie down on top of it. Or you can use, there's a big scissor lift truck. Like you would use to work on utility poles with like a bucket, like a bucket lift truck. Yeah. So if you want to go up in a bucket. Yes. So Robert, you go on overwatch, you're 30 feet up in this bucket truck and Thorne's driving the Aurora in and everyone else is walking in. In here are two landing zones and a cargo warehouse. And now that you are in here, you can see that arrayed around the sides of the cargo warehouse are tiny little hatches that perfectly blend in with the side of the warehouse.
[00:37:37] Thorne: Well, this is the place. It's going to be one of these pads. I'm not sure which one, but we could probably cover both.
[00:37:42] Felix: I've seen systems that are kind of like this before, and if they work anything like what I know, they'll drop off the cargo and it'll get placed into one of these hatches here, and it'll be cataloged and stored in this building. All right.
[00:37:53] Thorne: I hear you. Then the plan's going to have to be wait for the shipment, and when the stuff comes off, we make sure it doesn't get inside here. Once the ship is down, we can...
[00:38:04] Star Master Jeff: Hello?
[00:38:04] Thorne: Who said that?
[00:38:05] Star Master Jeff: Hey, I, uh, Robert, I found a bunch of pastrami on the ship, and I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind if I had a little bit.
[00:38:12] Thorne: Froggy, is that you?
[00:38:14] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I just, I'm hungry. You guys didn't leave any food for me.
[00:38:17] Felix: How did you get, how did you get this frequency?
[00:38:21] Star Master Jeff: I was just on the bridge.
[00:38:23] Felix: You're on the bridge.
[00:38:24] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I had to ask if I didn't want to eat Robert's food again without asking him first.
[00:38:28] Thorne: That was very thoughtful of you, Reggie. Cut him some slack, guys.
[00:38:32] Robert: That was actually very kind of you, Reggie. You can, of course, have another sandwich as long as you eat it down in your hidey hole.
[00:38:42] Star Master Jeff: So don't eat it on the bridge.
[00:38:44] Thorne: Yeah, you didn't eat on the bridge, right, Froggy?
[00:38:46] Star Master Jeff: I'm gonna stop. I think that would be best. And then you hear the noise of him flattering down the comms panel and then just walking away. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
[00:38:57] Robert: Yeah. I don't know what I'm gonna do with that thing. He had such potential. He could have been the voice of the wastes.
[00:39:05] Star Master Jeff: So you guys have, it's about 10 o'clock right now. You have five hours. So what are you guys doing with those five hours?
[00:39:12] Felix: I was going to suggest that Haley and Iso as the soldiers kind of like see if any raps have been laid for us in here.
[00:39:20] Haleyy: Yeah, that sounds good to me.
[00:39:23] Star Master Jeff: Wait a minute, Haley, you're going to listen to this guy?
[00:39:26] Haleyy: Yes.
[00:39:27] Star Master Jeff: I thought you were the commanding officer. He does have good ideas. This pipsqueak?
[00:39:32] Haleyy: The scapegoat crew hasn't lost a mission yet. And we listen to each other, which is something that Iso, you and I did too.
[00:39:39] Star Master Jeff: All right. All right. What do you all want me to do?
[00:39:42] Haleyy: We're going to go look for traps.
[00:39:44] Star Master Jeff: Oh, my God. There's no traps, y'all. Stupid.
[00:39:47] Haleyy: It's nostalgic.
[00:39:49] Star Master Jeff: You stupid. You all stupid.
[00:39:50] Haleyy: No, it's... Why are we stupid?
[00:39:52] Star Master Jeff: no traps here. You think they're delivering cargo to a trapped place?
[00:39:57] Felix: God, they stole the security footage from your office where we were talking about doing this thing. They might know that we're here.
[00:40:04] Robert: Yeah, and we don't trust Peter.
[00:40:06] Thorne: Yeah, I didn't get a good feeling in that conversation that he wasn't going to try to stab us in the back. You said yourself that he was something of a snitch.
[00:40:13] Felix: Mm-hmm.
[00:40:14] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, that's right. Okay. And she takes one step and she's like, oh, I think I stepped on a landmine.
[00:40:20] Haleyy: Iso, don't mess with us. We are slightly serious.
[00:40:25] Star Master Jeff: Okay, I'll look for landmines then. Oh, tripwire, oh no. So she goes off and she starts looking for traps. She's poking things with her shotgun. She goes over to one of those hatches and she pulls one of them up on the side of the warehouse. Y'all, there's robots in here. Felix, this is one of your people. What do you mean robots? It just opened? There's a like half human sized robot that's fairly wide. It doesn't look humanoid. It looks more like a rectangle on its side. So it's longer than it is tall. A little chode bot. Yeah, it's a little chode bot. And it has these like forklift arms that come out from it to go under things or grab onto things.
[00:41:04] Felix: Yeah, looks like a cargo loader. Probably comes out when deliveries happen to help load everything into this warehouse.
[00:41:09] Robert: We got time. You think you could hack that thing instead of delivering into one of the little panels, one of the little trap doors, deliver into the Aurora? I mean, might as well. I don't have anything better to do right now.
[00:41:20] Felix: We got some time. What else is up in there? Yeah, I don't know. Everybody, see if you can open up any more of these hatches and figure out what's inside.
[00:41:28] Haleyy: All right, I'll open some stuff. Hayley cracks her knuckles. Let's open some hatches.
[00:41:34] Star Master Jeff: I like it. You force open all 10 hatches.
[00:41:37] Haleyy: Just Haley, by the way.
[00:41:38] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, Iso goes to do one and you're like, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:41:41] Haleyy: I haven't gotten to do this in so long.
[00:41:44] Star Master Jeff: And inside is another cargo bot. There are 10 cargo bots. There is also a larger door. It has no handles on it. And no matter how hard you strain, you can't force it open.
[00:41:57] Felix: I wonder, I wonder if there's a central system inside. Like Thor, I know I said it could be hard to get in, but I might as well try.
[00:42:03] Thorne: Yeah, we have time for now. And I do like the idea of trying to make this as smooth as we can.
[00:42:10] Felix: I do like smooth. So by the main door, is there any, you know, connection point, computer port, terminal? There is not. Oh, no. Everybody look around this whole area and tell me if you see any, like, computer port or terminal of any kind anywhere around this building.
[00:42:27] Star Master Jeff: Robert, you see a exhaust hole on the top of the cargo space, probably to let off heat because Sibylen is so goddamn hot. And there's, like, an AC vent fan on it. And Haley, when you are poking around, you see what you would call a port, but you're not sure, on the side of the robots. Kind of like you yank one of the robots out of its charge port, and you see that there's a port on the side.
[00:42:52] Haleyy: Guys, I think there's a port on the side.
[00:42:54] Star Master Jeff: Of the robot? Yeah.
[00:42:57] Felix: Yeah, I mean, let me look. Yeah, it's a standard data port. Yeah, all right. I think I can jack into the robots at least from here, Haley. Nice work.
[00:43:06] Robert: Thank you. Y'all think, Haley, could you give somebody a boost, maybe get up on top of that building? I think there might be a opportunity to get a little sneaky-beaky up in the roof.
[00:43:21] Star Master Jeff: It is 25 feet tall.
[00:43:23] Haleyy: Not a problem. Haley, it turns out, when they did cheerleading back in military training, yeah, she was at the bottom of the pyramid. She was a thrower. So she crouches down.
[00:43:35] Star Master Jeff: I'm going to stop you there. There's no way you're hurling someone 25 feet to the top of this roof.
[00:43:42] Haleyy: They are small enough. Haley might be able to do it.
[00:43:47] Star Master Jeff: You know what? Iso runs. Iso is small. So Iso runs over to Haley and jumps into your basket and you throw her up. Yeah. That's the yeah that I know that there's trouble coming.
[00:44:01] Haleyy: Yeah. How far up does she go?
[00:44:03] Star Master Jeff: Well, you have to roll your exert strength.
[00:44:05] Haleyy: Can't I like, no, I can't punch her up in the air. That'd be mean.
[00:44:09] Star Master Jeff: You can punch her upwardly, but I don't think she's going to go. They call that an uppercut. Ten's pretty good, actually.
[00:44:18] Thorne: Ten's amazing.
[00:44:20] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, it's not amazing enough to throw someone vertical 25 feet is what I would say if this wasn't 0.8 gravity on Sibylen. So you lift her up with a 10 and you hurl her. And when she starts to reach the top, she grabs and just pulls herself up the rest of the way. And now she's on top. Robert, she clocks you about 150 feet away and she waves over to you. You're a little way back. So she goes over and she starts struggling with the exhaust of this large HVAC system. And Robert, you see her tear it off and then pencil dive down into it.
[00:44:56] Felix: So what Felix is doing is attempting to hack into this robot to try to understand, like, is it networked to the others? Because what I'm assuming is going to happen is it's going to take receipt of the cargo that's being delivered. And I want to be able to take advantage of that process.
[00:45:12] Star Master Jeff: Program int, that's a 14. So with a 14 you find out that all of these 10 cargo loader bots are networked together, and they do have visibility into the security and operation of the warehouse door. Oh, and like visibility into, or like control, like I can open it. You can simulate a delivery to open the door early through the cargo bot. Okay, um, I'll do that. Okay, so you simulate that, and two of the cargo bots come out and they go towards the door and the door opens and the cargo bots go in. Wow, Felix, good job, that'll be a nice easy way to get through here. Now I wonder where the others went. Wait, where's Iso? Haley, where's Iso?
[00:45:55] Haleyy: So, uh, she, uh, she jumped. I, I threw her up into the air. Oh, my God.
[00:46:10] Haleyy: So she's up there now.
[00:46:11] Felix: Well, let's just. All right. And I just turn around to walk into the warehouse with my flashlight on.
[00:46:17] Star Master Jeff: what you see is just a lot of different various pieces of cargo. Iso is straddling a motorcycle and she says, y'all, look what I found. Well, well, that's nice. She turns it on. Is it wheels or hover? It's wheels and it seems to be gas powered. And she says, God, hey, let's just remind you of some of our time back on Polyfin. Motorcycles everywhere on that planet. Can't wait to go back.
[00:46:46] Haleyy: Yeah, don't know if we're going back to Polyfin.
[00:46:51] Star Master Jeff: She putters out into like the landing zone area and starts doing donuts. At least she's happy.
[00:46:57] Felix: Why don't you look around, see if you just, you know, if there's anything valuable we could take with us. I'm going to try to get back into that robot network and disable or wipe the cameras so that they don't know we were here. And maybe take control of those turrets in case things go sideways.
[00:47:12] Thorne: Well, based on that drone that we saw, it's very possible. So why don't you do that? And yeah, I'll see if I can find anything light and valuable.
[00:47:20] Robert: Yeah. Is there any way you can make... take everything except the Gregory profile out of the turret safe zone so that anybody else that comes up in here gets vaporized.
[00:47:34] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, it's not a bad shout, Robert. I'll give it a whirl. Okay, so firstly, Thorn, you don't really find a lot, and you do have plenty of time, so you're kind of just opening every crate, but something that does stick out to you is you find a crate of pharmaceuticals Most of them have names that you don't understand. You don't even know why you'd take them. But two things do stick out to you. One is bizarre, which is antibiotics. And probably 75% of this crate is just that.
[00:48:07] Thorne: Yeah, okay. I mean, I don't want to steal pharmaceuticals from sick villagers or whatever, but they won't miss one little crate. These are Omnitech crates. Right, yeah. If I'm stealing from Omnitech, then I'll take two.
[00:48:20] Star Master Jeff: And then the remainder of this crate, the other 25% that's not Bazaar, is a mishmash of a bunch of stuff, but you do find some lifts. There are two cases of lifts, so there's 50 lifts in here. That is a crap load, and Felix is going to be through the roof if he finds this. Like he's going to be literally through the couch. So there's a couple more things. You also find in this crate a bioscanner and 15 Lazarus patches. Oh, damn. So much stuff. And five medkits. As you guys are loading things into the Aurora's trunk, you see objects you haven't seen in quite a while that you haven't seen since you were on Wafisa back in that car garage.
[00:49:02] Robert: Oh, yeah.
[00:49:03] Star Master Jeff: The family photo. The cookbook is in there because you guys tossed it in there. Yeah. Just various Wafisa artifacts, including a Wafisa latte mug. Get it now in darkstaradventurecast.com slash store. Oh, product placement. Take that, advertisements. And Felix, go ahead and roll your programming hint. That's a 12. Okay, and can you explain to me exactly what you were attempting to do once again?
[00:49:30] Felix: So when I was connected into these robots before, I know that they're connected to the security network here in some way. So what I'm trying to do is basically, you know, turn the cameras off slash wipe the cameras if they're recording so that there's no evidence of us being here. And also trying to... Take control of the turrets if I can, either directly controlling them or, thanks to Robert's idea, basically making it so that any person who does not fall within the profile that I put into them will get blasted by turrets.
[00:50:04] Star Master Jeff: With a 12, you can easily do that. The cameras are not recording. They are actually just the eyes for the turrets. I don't do anything with them then.
[00:50:13] Felix: I leave them on because I want to use the turrets.
[00:50:16] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so leading up to 3 a.m., you can see a ship in the sky, just a small little dot grow brighter and brighter and brighter. Of course, there's always the big ring of ships going around all of Sibylen as they wait their turn to fuel up at the base elevator fueling station. But this dock, it's brighter, brighter, brighter, and it's obviously on a direct course for you because it just keeps growing. As we approach quarter of 3 a.m., it's now large enough that you can see that it is a fairly large cargo ship. And it lands down in one of the large landing zones. And immediately, all of the cargo bots, except for the one that Felix is jacked into, head out. The ship ramp opens up, and the cargo bots start to move in and remove small, medium, and large crates. And the warehouse doors automatically open as they start bringing them all in.
[00:51:08] Felix: Thorne, Hayley, they're coming in. I guess just open them and start... Oh, you don't even know what the damn thing looks like.
[00:51:14] Thorne: Yeah, I pat Haley on the shoulder when the bots start coming in. All right, these are our crates. We don't know which one, so we're just going to have to dig.
[00:51:20] Haleyy: Sounds good.
[00:51:22] Thorne: Once there's no bots near a crate, we'll just go over to it and open it up until we find the one that has what we're looking for in it. You start ripping open crates.
[00:51:29] Star Master Jeff: It takes several minutes to rip open each one and then several minutes to dig through each one. You're not sure what kind of packaging the ownership module would be in. So this is going to probably take you at least an hour to go through all of these, which is the two of you. But time is something that you have. So the cargo bots continue working as the two of you rip into everything. Iso stands guard, Robert's on overwatch, and Felix, you are jacked into the cameras and the turret. Felix, through one of the fences and on the outside perimeter, you can see about 30 feet away in a depression in the desert, a black shape moves.
[00:52:09] Felix: Robert, there's something over there in the corner.
[00:52:11] Robert: Let me see if I can focus down on it. No, I'm not seeing it yet. Let me pull up my bionic eyes.
[00:52:19] Star Master Jeff: And it's very dark out right now and your bionic eyes do not have night vision on them.
[00:52:23] Robert: I was really hoping for an upgraded set of eyes, guys, but apparently not.
[00:52:29] Star Master Jeff: You can see everything very well inside of the fenced-in area and within a couple feet outside because of the spotlights. But everything that's 20, 30 feet out in pure darkness. In fact, you're getting blinded by the lights, so it's making it even more difficult.
[00:52:44] Felix: Listen, there's something coming, I think. We might have to get out of here hot. Thorne, Hayley, have you found it yet?
[00:52:50] Haleyy: Uh, Thorne? We're digging.
[00:52:52] Star Master Jeff: Look faster. Robert, you hear a drone. No, you don't hear a drone. You hear three drones as you look up into the sky and you see three drones swooping in above your head. They seem to be making straight for the fenced-in area. They don't seem to have noticed you.
[00:53:06] Robert: You have a couple of drones incoming. That's three tangos incoming.
[00:53:13] Star Master Jeff: As they swoop over your head, you notice that they're not simple surveillance drones. Each of them is packing a bit of firepower.
[00:53:19] Robert: Oh, yeah. These guys are locked and loaded.
[00:53:22] Thorne: That's why your job was to ambush the ambusher.
[00:53:25] Haleyy: Shoot those things. Shoot them.
[00:53:27] Robert: I wait until they have cleared me. As they clear over me, I am going to unleash my combat rifle on one of them. I rolled an 11 for seven points of damage. Or did you automatically hit? Yeah, you know what? I usually like to save it for automatic misses, but I'm going to say I auto hit. Okay.
[00:53:58] Star Master Jeff: Well, you blow this drone out of the sky. Boom. And it crumbles down into the fenced in area, landing very close to Felix. It slams into the warehouse wall and lands just seven feet away from you, Felix. And you look up and you see two more drones coming in. One drone down, the other drone swoops in and takes aim at Felix and Iso, who are huddled next to the side of the warehouse. Okay, with an 11, the drone misses. The shot goes too high and slams into the side of the warehouse, missing both of you. Robert, you're up in a bucket and you're about 75 feet away from these two drones. What would you like to do?
[00:54:37] Robert: So I would like to take a shot at the drone closest to me. That's going to be a 20 to hit for 15 damage. Jesus Christ, man. Pew, pew. I try to blow off the rotors like I'm clipping the wings off a fly and then I duck back up into my bucket.
[00:54:59] Star Master Jeff: The drone goes down hard, smashing into the fence and getting tangled in it and then simply dying. Iso looks up at all the commotion as one of the drones slams into the warehouse next to her. Another one misses a laser shot next to her and another one slams into the fence next to her and she goes, y'all, I think we got a combat. And she racks a shell, aims up at one of these drones and fires. 13! 13 gets the drone, slams into it for four points of damage. These things are weak as hell. And it crashes down to the ground. Felix, you, the trained hacker assassin that you are, you never take your eyes off of the camera feed. And when the drone fight starts, you see the black shape get up and start moving off into the desert. And when the third drone goes down, you see it run off and disappear, melting into the night.
[00:55:52] Felix: Looks like the uninvited guest made himself scarce. Gonna be more coming, so we gotta hurry up and get out of here.
[00:55:57] Thorne: There's a lot of stuff to sift through. As soon as I find one, I'll tell you.
[00:56:02] Star Master Jeff: Thorn, you find a small box that has the serial number that Felix told you should designate ownership module chips. And when you open it up, you just see a loose collection of them in those static bags. Oh, sweet. I snap the box shut.
[00:56:21] Thorne: The whole box. Yeah. All right, Haley, we got them. This is it. There's a bunch in here. This should be good.
[00:56:29] Haleyy: Awesome.
[00:56:29] Thorne: Yeah, and we start running back out towards where Felix and Iso are.
[00:56:32] Star Master Jeff: When I hear that from Thorne, I unplug from the bot and run as fast as I can to the Aurora. Okay, everyone piles into the Aurora. I'm assuming Robert comes down off of the lift in a safe way.
[00:56:44] Robert: I use an action to go 10 feet down and then jump into the sunroof.
[00:56:51] Star Master Jeff: Okay, he lands perfectly in the car. Because things are a little tight, Iso goes and grabs the motorcycle so that everyone doesn't have to cram in. She's like, I ain't leaving this behind. And she putters around behind you. As you begin to make your way back towards town, you're just reaching the bottom of that hill when at the top of the hill, you see a set of headlights just cresting over the hill. You have seen zero traffic on this road tonight. As the lights start to approach you and you approach them, the truck that is in front of you takes a very sharp turn, blocking the roadway in front of you. And you see a man get out of the passenger seat and a man get out of the driver's seat. The driver's seat man rests his rifle on the hood of the truck, and the man in the passenger seat flashes an extremely bright light a moment later directly into your eyes. Thorne, you can't even see the road in front of you.
[00:57:45] Thorne: So I swerve the car so that the passengers, whoever's got shotgun and whoever's in the passenger side in the back, they're basically facing these people. But otherwise, yeah, if you guys can't see, I can't see either. Maybe I just drive us off into the sand. Okay, go ahead and roll pilot deck.
[00:58:04] Star Master Jeff: I got a seven on my pilot deck. That's not bad. That's average. So you skid the car to the side, you stop momentarily, and then you realize... No one can see. Yeah. And you screech off into the desert. Shot after shot ring out. I am going to roll to see if the first two shots hit you. Nope. That was a 13. I'm rolling for a 15.
[00:58:32] UNKNOWN: 10.
[00:58:32] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Two new holes appear in the Aurora's trunk. The Aurora.
[00:58:37] Haleyy: Aurora!
[00:58:38] Star Master Jeff: Sorry, I had to. Every time the Aurora gets shot, you have to say that. The Aurora. As you move off into the desert, in the same direction as that black shape did.
[00:58:48] Thorne: Yeah, and I swerve us off into the desert around the truck so that we can get back on the road. I check my mirrors for ISO, but I otherwise, if I can see her or hear the bike, I want to just be driving as fast as I can back towards Spigot.
[00:59:03] Star Master Jeff: You see Iso in the desert struggling to follow you, but the motorcycle is not good for this. Yeah, because I want to get back on the road as soon as I'm around the truck. Eventually, as you're looking back, you see the headlight just skirt into the sand as the motorcycle topples over.
[00:59:19] Haleyy: God damn it.
[00:59:21] Star Master Jeff: I jam on the brakes.
[00:59:25] Thorne: What are you doing, Thorne? We got to get out of here. We're going to lose ISO.
[00:59:28] Haleyy: We got to get her.
[00:59:30] Thorne: Okay, let's go. Haley, and I give you that look, and I hand you this flash bang that I have that you can give them a taste of their own medicine if you need to.
[00:59:40] Haleyy: Wonderful. I do that. I hop out of the car, run towards where the motorcycle went down at, and is ISO there?
[00:59:50] Star Master Jeff: Iso is under an intense spotlight that's coming from this truck, but since the spotlight's not on you, you can see them. They're like 150 feet away, and as you run towards her, you realize that she's only 50 feet from them. And she's under fire, and she's hunkering down behind the motorcycle attempting not to take shots.
[01:00:06] Haleyy: Can I throw the flashbang out and kind of try and get it between Iso and the enemy, the Omnitech people? Yeah. Yeah, I do that.
[01:00:18] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, with a good enough exert. So roll your exert strength because you're going for distance.
[01:00:24] Haleyy: Yeah, I'm using the thermal flare and I extend the guidance spins to make it do the bright white flash thing.
[01:00:33] Star Master Jeff: Okay, cool. So it goes like 200 meters, so you have plenty of room. As you're on the run, you set the thermal flare's guidance fins out and you aim it straight at the truck and it locks on. You let it go and it rockets off on its own as you continue sprinting across the sands of Sibylen, the bright red exhaust of the thermal flare lighting you as you rush towards your friend, Iso, who is hunkered behind this motorcycle and the flare clears the distance quickly to the two men in the truck. You have flashbacks to your time during the Red Rice Wars and a very similar situation you had with Iso at that time. And you slide next to her behind the motorcycle just as the flare erupts and you cover her eyes as a great white flash goes across the entire area around the truck. And you see the two men raise their hands and panic as the spotlight swivels wildly and the gun goes off into the sky. Iso pries your hand from her eyes and she says, Haley, y'all didn't have to come back for me.
[01:01:34] Haleyy: We're in this together, like we always have been.
[01:01:38] Thorne: I back the Aurora up after the flash goes off, that they don't have to run as far.
[01:01:42] Star Master Jeff: Let's go! She grabs onto your arm as you help her to her feet, and she drags her TX-7 shotgun out of the motorcycle as you move her off towards the Aurora. And the two of you pile in as Thorn puts the pedal to the metal and heads back out to the desert before eventually swinging back onto the road and making his way back to Spigot. You arrive at the scapegoat and Iso gets out of the car and says, we all fucked up my life good enough. So, uh, which bunk is mine? Anyone you can find.
[01:02:21] Haleyy: Just stay away from Froggy.
[01:02:23] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, you get a full room. She goes over to the new shuttle and she says, I think I'll take this little clones room. I already bunked down in there once and I think it's got my stank on it now.
[01:02:34] Felix: While they're doing that, I am going to the bridge as quickly as I can and encoding and installing the new ownership module in the scapegoat and shouting to Robert to come with me so we can get the hell off of this dust ball.
[01:02:46] Star Master Jeff: Why is there mustard all over the comms? And as you install the ownership module, the time has come for you to do the thing that you desperately hoped you would think of another solution for. When Vos connected into the communications panel and permanently wired herself into the GOAT, many of the systems became dependent on there being some sort of artificial or virtual intelligence to control some of the systems. There is no more Dr. Voss on this ship, and you only have one alternative, and you haven't thought of another solution.
[01:03:18] Felix: Gods help me!
[01:03:20] Star Master Jeff: And I push the button. Hey, buddy! Thanks for turning me on again! Wow, I got a lot more room here, buddy!
[01:03:28] Haleyy: Holy shit.
[01:03:31] Thorne: Uh, Felix, what have you done?
[01:03:32] Star Master Jeff: Hey, Thorny Thornpants! Are we ready to go for an adventure?
[01:03:37] Felix: Let's just go.
[01:03:38] Star Master Jeff: Ha ha ha! And here we go! Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Dark Star Adventure Cast. Big thanks to our cast, Brian as Thorn, Scott as Felix, Doja as Robert, Steph as Hayley with two Ys, and, as always, I'm 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 thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate supporters. If you're enjoying the show, please, please, please take a moment and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. It really helps new people find the show. Next time on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the scapegoat finally has her own ownership module. Buddy AI is running around in the systems and apparently quite delighted about it. And the crew needs to pursue Strake, who has stolen Dr. Vos. Can they figure out the correct heading and save their friend before it's too late? Tune in to find out. We'll catch you on the next one. And until then, keep following that signal.