Death and Damnation
Scrapjack's, Part 3
Trapped by Void Cultists at an interstellar truck stop, the crew uses their limited resources in their struggle to survive.
Meet the Crew:
Jeff as Star Master (Game Master)
Brian as Captain Thorn
Stephanie as the warrior Haley
Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix
Support on Patreon
Special thanks to Brad and Holly, our first Scapegoat Syndicate members on Patreon!
They're keeping the lights on and the airlocks sealed.
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Star Master Jeff: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Dark Star Adventure Cast where the stars are cold. The void is endless and dangers lurk in every shadow out here. Trust is a gamble and survival is never guaranteed On tonight's adventure cast.
Felix (Scott): Yana seven. Let me know that Buddy has a perimeter security system, so I'm turning him back on getting him to enable that system so he can take out all these cultists and take back your station.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I'm not one of you at all, and I never will be. I don't care what your untethered bullshit is. And I headbut him.
Thorne (Brian): Do you want a Tallahassee handshake? Yeah. So I'm gonna stab him in the neck. Maybe even just slit his throat with this letter opener. Well then we better get started and I also raise mine, clink it together.
Star Master Jeff: So sit back and enjoy. This is the Dark Star Adventure cast. Welcome back everyone to the Dark Star Adventure Cast. When [00:01:00] we last left our heroes, they were at scrap Jack's truck stop. What happened between the last episode and this episode is that the players decided that they wanted to take some time and create a plan on how they were going to try to take back scrap jacks from the quote unquote evil void cultists.
Star Master Jeff: In doing that, they thought it would be fun to not tell me the plan. So the episode you are about to hear is a lot of me knowing just the beginnings of their plan and them revealing the plan as we go through the episode. And it's very weird and in a lot of ways it was sort of like them game mastering for me.
Star Master Jeff: So we had a lot of fun with this one, and we really hope you have a lot of fun with it too. So here we go on with the adventure.
Star Master Jeff: Robert Ross, you are wearing cultus gear. Yep. You are covered in blood and somewhere you found chicken [00:02:00] feathers and you have stuck chicken feathers all over your body. Accurate like you've been tarred and feathered with blood and and feathers. It's a normal Wednesday you are carrying a shotgun. Mm-hmm.
Star Master Jeff: You are carrying a laser pistol and someone has drawn a terrible, absolutely awful representation of their, the void cultus tattoos. On your face and neck and it looks like they partially shaved one side of your head and then stopped probably because you stopped them. They shave. Who tried to shave my head?
Star Master Jeff: You have one swath from your side burn just over to the top of your ear where someone like shaved it and then it's like stopped. Oh hell no. So you walk into the southern section of the main lobby that way. So you can kind of place yourself wherever you think is, you know, you want to be for the plan.
Robert Ross (Doja): You said, um, at the very southern end, the southern section, I figured that I'm coming out by the security door because I also wanna check [00:03:00] on my man, Dan the man Grand. Uh, on the way out, you want
Star Master Jeff: to walk down to security. You do know that from the security cameras previously that there's a, a cultist in there.
Robert Ross (Doja): Oh, okay. Um, perfect. Uh, I, I was gonna go from the, from the bottom south, um, so I'm gonna do absolutely that, but I'm gonna come out from the airlock at the bottom south, or from the door at the bottom south.
Thorne (Brian): Bottom south.
Robert Ross (Doja): Uh, never, uh, west, south door.
Thorne (Brian): That's a, yeah. It's a
Star Master Jeff: little better. You are holding a toggle in your hand with a button on it.
Star Master Jeff: As you went to the main lobby, one of the brothers walks up to you, brother. What happened to you? Brother, you, you, you have to see.
Robert Ross (Doja): Do maybe one or two of you want to come with me to the utility room
Star Master Jeff: behind this brother. The rip in space time has grown and you see that the many captives in this room are, have been forced to kneel and they are, some are shielding their eyes [00:04:00] and some are staring transfixed into this rip in time.
Star Master Jeff: You can also see into the lounge and observation deck. That there are still three captives in there and they are huddled into the corner as far as they can go.
Robert Ross (Doja): And I am definitely not looking at whatever tentacle nonsense. That's, that's how you, you stare into the void, it stares back at you. Um. Mm-hmm.
Robert Ross (Doja): Um, I'm, excuse me, brother. Um. What, what did you say your name was? I'm Brother Vox.
Star Master Jeff: Brother Klo. Brother Vox. You look very different today.
Robert Ross (Doja): Oh, somebody tried to shave my afro. It was, it's a whole thing. Would you, would you come check the utility room with me?
Thorne (Brian): Thorn? What are you doing? Wow. That's a, that is a question.
Thorne (Brian): Um, I am currently
Star Master Jeff: going to the admin office. So using the distraction of Robert, you try to sneak around into the admin office. You've also outfitted yourself and cult this clothes. I notice. [00:05:00] Yeah. Some had
Thorne (Brian): possibly something to defend myself with.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. So you have a laser pistol that Robert no longer has.
Star Master Jeff: Great. And you're wearing Cultus clothes and I need you to roll a sneak charisma. 'cause you're trying to pretend like you belong. Yeah.
Thorne (Brian): Alright. Oh yeah. That's a 10.
Star Master Jeff: Hey. Oh, so you make your way through the cafeteria and loop over to the Aon office with Yana?
Thorne (Brian): Yeah, with Yana,
Star Master Jeff: obviously who is also wearing, she's wearing Mother Pre's clothes.
Star Master Jeff: And you sneak, you think that you sneak unnoticed into the admin office. When you enter into there, uh, you glance over and you see Robert is being like, you know, why won't y'all just come with me over to the utility closet? Just, Hey guys, check out the utility. Yeah. No more than one or two. Uh, we can't handle, I mean, it won't fit three people.
Star Master Jeff: One or two. One or two max. It's a very crowded hallway, y'all. And then you duck into the admin office in here. It's the same office that you were in before Thorn, but just to remind you, there's a desk on the west side of the room with a few [00:06:00] chairs in front of it. It's lined with bookcases, but there were no books on them.
Star Master Jeff: It's mostly knick-knacks and trophies or you know, random things that you know, she may have won for having the only truck stop and like an entire quadrant of this sector. Everything is relatively clean, but the desk itself is extremely disorganized. And has a terminal on it, as well as a data pad. Behind the desk, there is a door.
Star Master Jeff: The door is currently open, and through that you can see that there is a lot of control panels as well as a window that overlooks out into space, specifically the parking lot. In that fuel control room, there is a cultist, frustratingly like trying to work buttons and like lights and being like, why won't this work?
Star Master Jeff: And he bangs his fist down onto the control panel, then continues to type its terminal. Okay. Um, but he doesn't seem to notice us enter No, his back's to
Thorne (Brian): you. He's about 20 feet away. On the other side of the desk, I make a crouch down behind the desk gesture with one hand, and then I crouch behind the desk myself with my laser pistol [00:07:00] trained on that guy, and I'm gonna attempt to execute him.
Star Master Jeff: Yana puts a hand on your wrist and she whispers into your ear. You might break the glass. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Speaker 6: You're gonna shoot at, if you shoot him, you might break the glass vacuum of space. Hello? I thought you were a pilot. Well,
Thorne (Brian): I didn't intend on missing, but I suppose you have a point.
Star Master Jeff: She fumbles around on top of her desk and she pulls a letter opener back and she hands it to you.
Thorne (Brian): Ah, I wink. And I take it, and I'm gonna go do what this does to that guy. You're gonna open his letters. I, he's the letter
Felix (Scott): there.
Thorne (Brian): He's the envelope and the document that I need is underneath his papery skin. Oh God. Anyway, I'm gonna sneak up behind him and try and assassinate him. Okay. So roll a sneak decks this time,
Star Master Jeff: if you're trying to do that type of sneak, I mean, yeah. I'm trying not to be heard. So you're having a whole mini adventure with Yana.
Star Master Jeff: I can feel love blossoming. [00:08:00] Great. So I got a 10. That's pretty good. Oh, that is pretty good. So you sneak up. And you are within arm's reach of this cultus who's like beep, beep, boop, ah, damn. And you can see that he's trying to like unlock the controls or like figure out how to use the controls so that he can refuel their ship.
Star Master Jeff: And when you look out the window, you see this large rectangular ship that obviously would never survive entering Atmo anywhere just as brutalist. Style, black and gray, all angles. Rectangle ship patched together with like the parts of all these other ships and he's desperately trying to like move the refueling bots over to it.
Thorne (Brian): Okay. He hasn't noticed me though. No,
Star Master Jeff: you're right behind him too.
Thorne (Brian): Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Yeah. So now that I am up close behind him, unnoticed. Mm-hmm. I've taken my preparation, I've made my time, and I'm gonna take this letter opener. I'm going to perform an execution attack on this unsuspected cultus. Yeah.
Star Master Jeff: Great idea. Fellow serial killer. What is wrong with you guys? They're rubbing [00:09:00] off on me. What can I say? Well, you're gonna execute him. You've taken, you've prepped, you've got a weapon. You've spent time slowly sneaking up to him successfully. He doesn't know you're here. I guess, do you wanna describe how you assassinate this poor man?
Star Master Jeff: Is he wearing armor? Yeah, he's wearing like street armor.
Thorne (Brian): Yeah. So I'm gonna stab him in the neck. Oh, okay. Maybe even just slit his throat with this litter opener.
Star Master Jeff: Oh, shh. Okay. Yeah, so just so you reach around and you, you slit his throat and at the expense of making this too graphic, he bleeds and then he dies.
Star Master Jeff: Gross. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry guys. I didn't mean to go too far. Uh, you need to warn the viewers before you do that. You are covered with some other dude's brains, so I don't know. Yeah, but come on. So he crumbles to the ground and Janna walks in behind you and says, nice work. Thanks. And I hand her her letter, open her back.
Star Master Jeff: She takes it and she actually tucks it into a pocket. She taps a couple commands on the [00:10:00] controls and she says, okay, I've completely locked everyone else out now. So even if we all die, they won't be able to refuel. That'll teach 'em. If we all die, they won't escape. They'll eventually run outta air and they'll die.
Star Master Jeff: Meanwhile, Felix, what are you up to? Well,
Felix (Scott): I know that Thorn and Yana were gonna the admin office in case that fails, I want try to make my way back to the Med Bay 'cause I know I can access Buddy's systems from there and wanna reenable his, reenable him and actually get him to do this security shit now that he was supposed to do earlier.
Star Master Jeff: Sorry, I need five seconds. Hold on. Casey just brought me a fresh guin. And wanted to take a big old slrp witness my precious seconds. Oh yeah. And you'll never relive those five seconds. No. You were just sitting there waiting for me to drink a beer. That's what you did with those seconds evaporating before my eyes.
Star Master Jeff: Yeah, they're gone and we're continuing to talk about it. So Spotlight is on me even more. More and
Thorne (Brian): more and more of
Star Master Jeff: my
Thorne (Brian): seconds.
Star Master Jeff: Yep. That pieces of life you'll never get back. And now you're gonna listen to Scott do something. I am on my way
Felix (Scott): to the Med Bay. I am [00:11:00] sneaking my way as best I can through the cafeteria.
Star Master Jeff: So you're also wearing the final cultus uniform. Alright, so go ahead and roll. Sneak charisma. All right. Kaylee's the only one that's not wearing a set of these clothes because. You didn't have enough, and also she's much too large. Mm-hmm. Uh, that's a four. Okay. That's a, that's a bad sneak role. It's a bad role.
Felix (Scott): Yeah, it's a bad role. So I do get a re-roll. A skill. Yeah. So I'm gonna re-roll that skill. Okay. That's a lot better. That's a nine. That time. Nine is a much better role. So I go out and I begin to sneak, but then I remember this journal article I was reading about how to avoid making noise when you're working in an enclosed computer system.
Felix (Scott): And I take some of those learnings and I apply that what I'm about to do, and then I sneak through the cafeteria.
Star Master Jeff: So you're read an adventurers manual on how to sneak? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is Quest for Glory, Kyle. Oh yeah. So you make your way up to the Med Bay, the door is unlocked. 'cause you guys left it unlocked.
Star Master Jeff: And you move [00:12:00] inside. The moment you go in with the door still open, you notice the doctor's awake and she goes, what the fuck? And then you close the door just after she says that, oh
Felix (Scott): no.
Star Master Jeff: Where did you get off? I'm in Your big brutal of a woman knocked
Felix (Scott): me out. I'm I, I'm as, as you're saying this, I'm walking forward over to the terminal.
Felix (Scott): I don't have time for this. You need to be quiet.
Star Master Jeff: No, you need to listen to me for one second. It might save your life. What? I don't like you. Oh my God. Listen. Oh, just listen. Don't interrupt me. I don't like you, but I'm gonna help you untying. Sure. Why not? What else could go wrong?
Haleyy (Stephanie): Oh my
Star Master Jeff: God. I am tired. You are tired complaining.
Star Master Jeff: I'm tired
Felix (Scott): of her complaining. I'm just, I'm so done with the whining.
Star Master Jeff: She takes the
Felix (Scott): drink out of her flask and then she passes it to you. I take a drink.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. What's going on?
Felix (Scott): Yanna? Seven. Let me know that Buddy has a perimeter security system, so I'm turning him back on. Getting him to enable that system so we can take out all these cultists [00:13:00] and take back your station.
Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I can't help with that. And she sits back down and, and drinks a little bit more what you're doing right now. Perfect. She
Felix (Scott): gives you the okay
Star Master Jeff: sign.
Felix (Scott): Yeah. I give her a big like over exaggerated, sarcastic thumbs up with a big smile. Yeah. And then I go to the turn, I turn to the terminal and I re-enable buddy,
Star Master Jeff: buddy who used to be friendly and extremely loquacious has since been reprogrammed by you.
Star Master Jeff: So he's, he's a bit more dower now and a bit more emo and his digital face appears on the screen. He looks like face from Nickelodeon, but now he has like a swoopy, he has like swoopy bangs over one eye and he kind of like, he flicks, he flicks the bangs out of his, his nick junior eyes and he says, oh, what do you even want?
Star Master Jeff: Hey
Felix (Scott): buddy, whatever. Listen, uh, since we last talked, I found out some stuff I could really use your help with. You know, if you're not, oh, now he wants help. I wanted your help earlier, buddy. You were [00:14:00] exactly forthcoming with the assistance because you failed to mention the perimeter security system that you have.
Star Master Jeff: Okay, well, I don't have one.
Felix (Scott): Well, I think you do. And I type in the security code. Oh, it's a verbal one? Yeah, it's a voice pass code, obviously.
Star Master Jeff: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. He's voice and it's not like numbers and letters. It's actually three words. Okay.
Felix (Scott): You're gonna tell me the words,
Star Master Jeff: oh, this is your rodeo.
Felix (Scott): You're gonna tell us the words? Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Lemme roll back. Oh, I'm just trying to think of three good words.
Star Master Jeff: Read good words. Boom. Security activated you just said. He says, oh, I can't believe she told you the passcode. What do you even want?
Felix (Scott): I told you. I want you to turn on the perimeter security system and target the cultists who have invaded your station.
Star Master Jeff: Oh, what are you? Even an idiot or something? It's perimeter. PER perimeter. It doesn't shoot things on the inside dummy. I
Felix (Scott): know that. Okay. But we need to prevent them. From escaping,
Star Master Jeff: fine. You've [00:15:00] activated security protocols. I'll activate the perimeter now, but only if you give me the five word passphrase to do so.
Felix (Scott): So many passphrases. He swoops the hair out of his eyes.
Star Master Jeff: Buddy, will you please help? Fine. Passcode accepted and a moment passes and he says, sure it's activated. Great work bud. Whatever life is pain.
Felix (Scott): Yeah. Tell me about a killer. Computer shut down buddy. I just turned myself
Star Master Jeff: off. It's dark. I was thinking shut down the emergency medical holograph system from Voyage.
Felix (Scott): I sit down for a moment and I reach over and Beck and for the, the flask from the doctor
Star Master Jeff: he handed over to you.
Felix (Scott): I take a swig. Ugh. That was more painful than I thought it would be. She
Star Master Jeff: takes out a blue death stick
Felix (Scott): and she passes you. I put it in my
Star Master Jeff: pocket. For celebration? Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wow. Wow, wow.
Star Master Jeff: No, no, no, no, no. Puff puff pass motherfucker.
Felix (Scott): No, this is, I'm not gonna, I'm on the job right [00:16:00] now. You psycho
Star Master Jeff: then give it back then give it back. You mooch. I hand it back to her. You piece of shit. She snaps it on. Takes a hit, nightmare. Death stick rotation. Just you and the doctor. Oh my God.
Felix (Scott): Be awful. The doctor and buddy nightmare test rotation, the three of you.
Felix (Scott): Honestly, I
Star Master Jeff: don't wanna be.
Felix (Scott): How dare you. How
Star Master Jeff: dare you. So like you're hanging out and having a drink with Dr. Beth and Buddy has turned himself off because he's so deep and dark Now Ailey, you are where and doing.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Haley's had like one good experience in this place so far. That was when she got to take a hot shower for the first time in forever, and she remembers seeing on the security monitor someone was being tortured in that room.
Haleyy (Stephanie): So she's gonna go figure out that situation and see if she can help.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. Nice. You have to cross the cafeteria. So go ahead and give me, and you're not wearing a disguise? No. So give me a sneak deck. Yeah.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Not a sneak [00:17:00] strength. It's like,
Star Master Jeff: what would that even be?
Haleyy (Stephanie): I don't know. I tried to figure it out. Oh, no, no, no.
Haleyy (Stephanie): She, she, um, throws herself up onto the ceiling, which I'm assuming this is a crummy industrial place, so it's all actually exposed wires and tubes and like SHIs across the ceiling.
Star Master Jeff: You know what? I'm gonna let you do that. Yeah, I think that's great. I'm gonna let you roll exert strength to shimmy along the girders on the ceiling, which are completely hidden from view in the main lobby.
Star Master Jeff: Yeah. Okay. Roll exert straight. Cool. No sneaking needed. Oh my God, that roll. It would've been fine for sneaking that. Do? Mm-hmm. You exit. The hallway outside the utility room and quickly scale and grab all Oh, no,
Haleyy (Stephanie): no, no. I, I don't, I don't scale. I flip up like a cat. My vertical jump is like three feet.
Star Master Jeff: I wanna say that's not humanly possible.
Star Master Jeff: But you did roll a 12, so you Jedi jump up to the ceiling. My hands are tied. It's actually, it's only like a 15 foot ceiling, so you kind of like launch [00:18:00] off a wall and you can definitely reach it. You grab onto a girder and you pull yourself up and you kind of peek out and you see people in the main lobby who could have potentially heard you under normal circumstances.
Star Master Jeff: Don't, because all eyes are on Robert. He's currently like trying to like beckon people in like a weird Macarena type dance through the doorway of the hallway to lead them back to the utility room. Classic Robert. Love to see it and you can hear him say his iconic line, do you want a Tallahassee handshake?
Star Master Jeff: And you hear them say no, and you shimmy across the cafeteria ceiling and drop down in front of the the bathroom, like area toilet showers and sanitation. And you enter in this room, this whole area is covered in steam. It was not like this at all when you were here before. It's like every shower head is on.
Star Master Jeff: You can hear the rush of water from the other room as the searing hot water from a dozen shower heads build the air. You can hear screams coming from within the showers. [00:19:00]
Felix (Scott): Oh my God.
Star Master Jeff: And you hear a chanting and you hear. Words here and there about void and acceptance and becoming untethered and ready for the ascension.
Star Master Jeff: You slowly make your way up to the showers, skirting the benches and lockers and toilets, and you peek into the showers where there's 12 shower heads all spraying water down. And in the center of this gang shower, you see a man bloodied and naked laying on the floor. Another man in soaking wet robes standing over him with knife in hand, a piece of flesh in the other hand, and he is looking up at the ceiling and mumbling.
Star Master Jeff: Incoherently. The man on the ground is practically unconscious from pain. Gross. Yeah. Sorry guys.
Haleyy (Stephanie): That's so sad. Well. Awful.
Star Master Jeff: Yeah, these guys suck. Poor guy.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Yeah, I, I've tried to figure out if I, you know, will slip on the floor if I charge him while he is staring up at the ceiling. Chanting.
Star Master Jeff: Not if you make your exert dexterity.
Star Master Jeff: [00:20:00] Roll. If you wanna charge.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Yeah, I think I, I think I wanna charge at him and knock him over.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. So you sprint at him over the dopey stopping wet floor. Very brave of me of the gang shower, uh, roll exert decks to see if you can keep your feet. Six is good enough. Yes. So you sprint across and you're directly in the guy's face and you charge straight into him.
Star Master Jeff: Go ahead and roll. To hit
Haleyy (Stephanie): what? What do I roll to? Hit
Star Master Jeff: bin? What are you doing? You punching him. You just tackling him.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I want to tackle him to the ground and pumble his face. I am feeling like actual rage because I am a professional killer. My God, what he's doing here, God here is torture. My God. Well, not killer fighter.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Oh my God. Combat professional. I'm a combat professional, but we don't do this.
Star Master Jeff: Aren't you a serial killer by trade?
Haleyy (Stephanie): No, I'm a combat professional who has,
Star Master Jeff: oh my bad. Sorry.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Who has accomplished certain objectives across many missions.
Star Master Jeff: So I rolled his exert strength and now you roll yours. And to whoever gets higher wins.
Star Master Jeff: If you win, you knock him to the ground. If he wins, you do not knock [00:21:00] him to the ground.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I rolled a two, ugh. The soapy floor got me.
Star Master Jeff: You sprinted across the slippery ground, keeping your feet, but when you reach him, you kind of like slip a little bit and you pumble like you kind of shoulder into him and he doesn't move.
Star Master Jeff: Even though he is not really aware of you. He kind of stumbles slightly and then he looks at you and he says. Jesus and he raises the dagger up and role initiative. Ah, okay. Of course, all out of all these mini stories, only Hailey gets into a random
Haleyy (Stephanie): PI know, like this is classic Hailey. It's kind of her thing.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. So he raises his knife. Because he gets to go first. Yep. And he brings it down upon you. He rolls a 12.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Yeah, that glances off of my shoulder.
Star Master Jeff: And your AC is what?
Haleyy (Stephanie): 15.
Star Master Jeff: 15. So he does deal. One point of shock damage to you. Okay. The glancing blows off your chest armor, but. The pressure of it hurts your ribs and you're like, ah, that's got a bruise.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm a little [00:22:00] distracted by the tortured guy on the ground, so I'm still makes me a little bit easier to get a single hit on.
Star Master Jeff: The
Speaker 6: tortured guy looks up to you and he is like, please help me. So I wind my arm back and punch him straight in the face. And I'm sure this will be the end of the combat.
Star Master Jeff: Don't, he didn't know what he was doing. Imagine it went the other direction though, and you just kept missing and he just knifed you to death one point at a time,
Haleyy (Stephanie): seven to 17 hit
Star Master Jeff: 17 hits, and how much damage per
Haleyy (Stephanie): seven
Speaker 6: damage.
Star Master Jeff: And he is instantly dead up
Speaker 6: for black
Star Master Jeff: and he falls to the ground. His ribs all cracked.
Star Master Jeff: And I don't know if his ribs are cracked so much as. Turn to dust as he falls to the ground.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I just feel bad for this poor, tortured man who is being tortured and you know, there's probably blood mixing in with the water and now Hailey just delivered, you know, I dunno, just hell to this evil cultist. And now there's more blood swirling down the drain.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Yes, but it's not his. What happened to the, oh my God, this is just awful.
Star Master Jeff: The man reaches up to [00:23:00] you. He's, he's naked and he's, he's been splashed several times. He reaches up to you and he says,
Speaker 6: help me.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Of course I help him up and the guy's robes are probably all soaking wet and awful. This guy's been tortured.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Hmm, of course I'll help you.
Star Master Jeff: He's bleeding pretty freely from his head. I know. I'm like,
Haleyy (Stephanie): can I get him to the, it's one door over.
Star Master Jeff: It is. You might be seen, but there is a distraction.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Yeah. I go, I wanna try getting this guy to the Med Bay.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. So go ahead and roll. Sneak strength because you're carrying a man.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Oh, that's very, that's very kind of you.
Star Master Jeff: I also think you could use sneak sneak strength if you like held up a like table. Oh no. And like walked with the table. That's fine. No, that's fine. That's, I'd roll a five. I
Haleyy (Stephanie): roll a five,
Star Master Jeff: but I'm gonna give you a plus one because it's a distraction. Oh. So you make a six, which is exactly what you needed, and you make your way into the Med Bay.
Star Master Jeff: Uh, Felix, you're surprised when a hulking form carrying a naked bleeding man crashes into the moon. [00:24:00]
Haleyy (Stephanie): Doc, I am so sorry about earlier. Can, can you help?
Speaker 6: Jesus Christ? What's going on here? Holy shit, Hailey, what are you doing? It wasn't me. What did you do to this man? It wasn't me. It was a cultist. She sweeps everything off her desk and she says, lay 'em down on the desk quick, and I put 'em up there gently with care,
Star Master Jeff: but urgently.
Star Master Jeff: She begins to disinfect and clean his wounds and the man's head's like Luing around, I'm gonna give him something for the pain, and she injects them. The moment that happens, the man gets like, kind of like a half smile and he looks up at you, Hailey, and he goes, hi, thank you.
Haleyy (Stephanie): You're welcome. Or, um, how, how you're feeling.
Star Master Jeff: He sticks an elbow out to you and he says, I'm Walter.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Hey. Hey Walter. I'm Hailey with two Y's.
Star Master Jeff: He wags his elbow at you.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I wag my elbow back.
Star Master Jeff: No. Touch my elbow with your elbow. Germs.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Germs. I don't touch his elbow. I just repeat what he's saying.
Star Master Jeff: Like it's some sort of colloquial breathing. Yeah. Right. [00:25:00] Elbow.
Star Master Jeff: Just wave your elbow. Germs. Germs. YouTube. I'm not, yeah, you loses interest And he, he looks at Felix and then he passes out. Have that effect on people. Yeah. It seems like it's Felix's fault that he passed that. It's the nightmare death stick rotation. I glar, I just glared at him. Yeah. Yeah. His, his whole room is smelling strongly of death stick, so you're starting to get a contact High Hailey.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Geez,
Star Master Jeff: Hailey. Well, what, what did, what are you doing?
Haleyy (Stephanie): Look, remember the guy that was on the screens in the shower? Yeah. Being tortured. Yeah. I go in there. All of the shower heads were on totally steamy. One of the cultists was torturing him. He'd like taken his skin off and was chanting up into the sky.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Completely distracted. There's something going on out there. There is something weird going on here too. All right.
Felix (Scott): Well, I mean, it's good you took care of it, I guess, but we got, we do have bigger fish to fry. There's a lot more cultus out there than just one dude. I hope Robert's
Star Master Jeff: ready. Okay, and here we go.
Star Master Jeff: The plan is finally coming to fruition. Robert, you see that [00:26:00] Hailey has joined Felix in the Med Bay over the shoulder of the brothers. You see that Thorn and Yana have made their way into the admin office. You have the toggle with the button in your hand. You have distracted everyone long enough. What do you do?
Robert Ross (Doja): I start walking towards the utility room, seeing if, uh, I can, I can get, uh, oh, how many people are interested in what I have to say as my finger just kind of swirls over the button. Roll talk, charisma. That would be a five. Uh, and so I feel like I most likely stumble over my words and guys, but like, the utility, um, maybe, what do you think about the Med Bay?
Robert Ross (Doja): Ah, like, hit the button.
Star Master Jeff: I'm totally part of your cult. And then you hit the button. At that moment, the device that Felix hooked up to the power core goes off. Shutting off all of the lights, chaos erupts as people leap to the feet. Survivors and cultus alike. [00:27:00] Hayley, what do you do?
Haleyy (Stephanie): So I come out of the Mudd Bay.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I walk over to the device that's been opening this void and I, I try to destroy the antenna to put a stop to whatever is happening with the Elger tour.
Star Master Jeff: Okay. So you rushed outta the Med Bay and you're running towards the antenna right now. Robert, what do you do?
Robert Ross (Doja): I try to evacuate, huddle up as many of the pedestrians as I can, uh, and move them away from the giant tentacle monster that has steered itself into my brain and I will never, ever forget.
Star Master Jeff: So you kind of move people away and you kind of cover them up with your body knowing what is coming. Thorne. Okay, well at this point,
Thorne (Brian): uh, I'm just gonna use the ref, the refueling arms, like hear from in the fuel control room. The fueling arms, I'm just going to take one of them and have it like latch onto one of the turrets, like the perimeter turrets, and literally like break it to rotate it all the way around [00:28:00] backwards so that it can point back towards the lobby and wipe these guys out.
Star Master Jeff: And Yana is on a separate set of controls. And she uses the second refueling arm to help you with that and wrench the turt out. And when the two of you do that together in concert, you give each other a look from across the like, control room at each other and like, like kind of give each other like a cool nod in the air.
Star Master Jeff: Five. Yeah. With our minds though, with your mind. You make your way all the way to the antenna. Finally, completing your sprint outside of the giant windows of the lounge, which you now spot from the middle of the lobby, you see two giant refueling arms. Rip the turret off of its gyroscope and aim it at the windows.
Star Master Jeff: At that moment, Robert runs and huddles up with all of the survivors and captives and forces their heads down and covers them up with as big, beefy body as much as you can, and you cover the last few steps to the antenna. You draw back your fist, but at that moment, avoid [00:29:00] tendril snakes. Its way out from the rift and brushes against you.
Star Master Jeff: You feel yourself screaming. Your consciousness swirls around infinity as though circling a drain.
Star Master Jeff: You see only darkness. You awaken on your back. There's a bright light in your face. Cold steel pressing against your palms. Two blood splattered surgeons stand over you in white masks. One looks down at you. Shock registering on his eyes. She's awake the other holding a worm-like machine About the size of your index finger respond.
Star Master Jeff: Nurse, please increase the dosage. And as you slide back into unconsciousness, the doctor inserts the wriggling machine into your nose.
Star Master Jeff: Hailey, you find yourself back in the main lobby, your fist cock back the antenna 12 inches away through the rift. You see movement, [00:30:00] something slimy. Was that an eye? It couldn't have been. You're looking into infinity. You find yourself circling into the void and becoming memorized. What do you do?
Haleyy (Stephanie): After remembering all of that, Haley is just goes into a basically dissociative state.
Haleyy (Stephanie): All she remembers really about why she's in the middle of this room right now is to destroy this antenna and get down, and so that's what she does as quickly as she can.
Star Master Jeff: Okay, so your cocked back fist, then rockets into the antenna, punching it again and again. It fizzles. It explodes, it falls over. It cannot at all sustain any sort of working state once Hailey decides to destroy it.
Star Master Jeff: And when you're punching it, it actually doesn't feel like metal. It actually gives, and it feels a little moist almost. But you don't have time to think about that now because you hit the deck and put your hands over your head. Felix, what would you like to do?
Felix (Scott): Well, I've got, um, emergency power routed to the turret because I knew the power was going out and I have the controls wired [00:31:00] to my data's lab.
Felix (Scott): So I see that thorn is put into position and I enable the targeting module and I target the cultist and trigger it to open fire.
Star Master Jeff: The Nick Jr. Face. Of Buddy says, oh, now we're talking, and it swoops the hair out of its eyes as the turret activates and lays waist to all of the cultus remaining in the lounge and in the main lobby.
Star Master Jeff: Bullets ricochet all over the place. Sparks flying the resounding boom of the bullets hitting across all of the walls. Cultus flying hit a haze of blood. The sound of decompression, fighting against the life support. Dozens of tiny holes in the lounge window appearing air, precious air escaping out the last callus falls.
Star Master Jeff: Yana wastes no time the moment the turret has completed firing. She rushes out of the admin office with a roll of duct tape and throws a strip over every hole in that lounge [00:32:00] window. Every cultus is now dead except for one. He hit the ground very quickly. He only got hit by one bullet from the turret, but that still did massive damage, blowing his arm clear off.
Star Master Jeff: Brother Hallick, the leader of this small sect of the cult, crawls over to hay where she lays on the ground. He puts his forehead as close to your forehead as he can, and he says, A why you are untethered like us.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I'm not one of you at all, and I never will be. I don't care what your untethered bullshit is.
Haleyy (Stephanie): And I headbutt him.
Star Master Jeff: You headbutt him.
Haleyy (Stephanie): He came close to me,
Star Master Jeff: right? Barely hanging on the consciousness. He puts one hand out to you on your shoulder and he says, my child, you are more like us. And you think this small sect is gone. And he looks up as he sees Thorn and Felix exit out of their respective doors.
Star Master Jeff: And Robert, stand up. Aix the carnage. They are your friends. But they don't have to be your only friends. [00:33:00]
Haleyy (Stephanie): I don't want you guys as somebody that I rely on or partner with. You're cruel and evil and you shouldn't be part of this world.
Star Master Jeff: There is no cruel, there is no evil. He rolls onto his back and stares up at the sky.
Star Master Jeff: You'll find that you're more like us than you thought, and he takes one big, deep breath and is no more. Yona. Comes out and thanks all of you. I don't know how I expected you to do that, but you did shoot everything up, but there's very few deaths, so I guess I'm in your debt. I will ask my mechanics to fix up your ship for free.
Star Master Jeff: I hope there's not too much wrong with it, and we'll refuel it. What the hell all you can eat? Hooray.
Robert Ross (Doja): Free food. Oh, thank God. I lined my pockets with meatloaf.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I drink so much orange juice.
Felix (Scott): I reach out for the death stick from the doctor. As the scene closes,
Star Master Jeff: she passes it over to you.
Felix (Scott): That's stuff.
Star Master Jeff: Hey, uh, Felix?
Star Master Jeff: Yeah, doctor. Are you guys hiring? No. [00:34:00] Back in the admin office, Janna and Thorn are sitting side by side and Janna pours you a scotch from her private collection. And the two of you sit, uh, in the chairs opposite her, her main chair at her desk, shoulder to shoulder. She gives you a clink, shoulder to shoulder, and she says, I know you want to leave quick, but I've been talking to the mechanics.
Star Master Jeff: It's gonna take them a week, but I can make your stay here quite comfortable. I hope you don't mind. I don't doubt that one bit. I don't mind at all. I believe we have some unfit business to attend to and she raises a glass.
Thorne (Brian): Well, then we better get started and I also raise mine, clink it together, and we fade to black.
Thorne (Brian): Aw. Right. Role for initiatives.
Felix (Scott): Felix Burst.
Speaker 6: Marty, you gotta come back. It's your kids.
Star Master Jeff: It's your kids. Don't do this. Your kids are gonna suck. Janna's not a good person. Don't do this. She's a clone. That's why she's called Jan a seven. Whoa. It's not a dress. Why? She's called you on a seven. She doesn't call you.
Star Master Jeff: She doesn't burst into your [00:35:00] office and call you a clone. And well, that's the end of the episode, so let's jump right into logs. Thorn, why don't you kick us off?
Thorne (Brian): Well, what can I say? The crew really came together in the end and we managed to oust that weird cult casualties were minimal, and Yana didn't charge us for any of the damage to scrap jacks.
Thorne (Brian): It was an ambitious plan, but we pulled it through despite everything, man, that Robert can be a handful, but he's damn reliable and he's a crack shot at the end of the day. I'm glad Felix was able to keep his nose outta the dust long enough to be useful, but I still dread the day. He's too far gone when I need him most, and I've come to count on Haley quite a lot these days for obvious reasons, but I'm worried about her now.
Thorne (Brian): Something about that void and the things those cultists were saying seemed to have shaken her up a bit. It's a shame we have to leave so soon, but the last thing we need is more attention. At least Janna and I were able to spend some time together swap exo mail so we [00:36:00] can stay in touch. It may not have been the most relaxing pit stop ever, but the crew does seem to have gotten over their.
Thorne (Brian): Cabin fever and they're back to working together like a team.
Robert Ross (Doja): Hey, my call this disguise worked well, butted my backside and called me a biscuit. Now, I was a little worried after the deer departed mother saw right through me,
Felix (Scott): eh.
Robert Ross (Doja): But as the Gatlin gun started roaring, gathered up, everybody hit the deck, covered all those civilians thinking Haley's got this.
Robert Ross (Doja): And I look back, she's not even no civvies. Mm-hmm. She's just standing. There, blank drift, then boom,
Robert Ross (Doja): we're alive, boys closed, and uh, where the hell thorn get off to? Anyway, me, I'm just eating my unlimited meatloaf. Finally, enjoying some well deserved all and all. [00:37:00] I do keep hearing it though. That hum, that hum. That leak from the beacon still hasn't stopped. The hair stands up on the back of my neck. I whip around Nothing.
Robert Ross (Doja): I really need to get off this damn station.
Felix (Scott): Well, we are finally putting scrap jacks behind us. You know, it wasn't exactly the most restful of pit stops, but hey, at least we got some pre repairs out of it. And you know, while I'll be glad to put this place in our rear view mirror, I do kind of wish we'd reconsidered.
Felix (Scott): The doc's offer. I mean, we already have froggy on board and he doesn't do jack shit. So why don't add another member to this Motley crew when at least they have a useful skill? Oh, well maybe we'll run into her against somewhere in the black. Then, hey, I've got that copy of Buddy Source code to keep me busy, at least, you know, he had the most interesting personality protocols I've ever seen, and I am really looking forward to getting my hands dirty.
Felix (Scott): And figuring out what makes him tick.
Haleyy (Stephanie): Well, all's well. [00:38:00] The, you know what? It's not, clearly not over so much for his simple refuel. There's more to this cult. There's more to whatever being untethered means, whatever I saw. When I touched that antenna, I like, I don't even know where to get started on figuring out what happened there.
Haleyy (Stephanie): I hadn't seen anything like that machine before on any of my missions. And you know, I do pay attention, like I would've noticed a void popping up somewhere or cult robes, like I don't even have memories close to what I saw there. Usually after a mission, I can be pretty calm just by focusing on. What's next, what the objective is, but from this like truck stop, I have too many questions and I am not sure if I'm ready for any of the answers.[00:39:00]
Star Master Jeff: And just one more thing before you go. I wanted to give out a huge thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Holly and Brad are two top patrons at the scapegoat syndicate level. We bow before you. We're not worthy. We're not worthy. Uh, thank you so much. We really appreciate you. And if you're out there in podcast land and wondering, Hey, wait a minute, how can I get my name at the end of one of these episodes?
Star Master Jeff: Head on over to patreon.com/darkstar Venture cast and spend some of your money with us. You'll get early ad-free episodes and a crap ton of bonus content. Trust me, it's totally worth it. You will not be disappointed. And hey, Christmas is coming. Maybe buy subscriptions for everyone in your life.
Star Master Jeff: patreon.com/darkstar Adventure cast. Love you. Bye.
