Twenty-One Loops

Sep 29

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The crew wakes back up on the bridge with no idea how they got there, except that they remember dying. Prometheon Station resolves out of the dark exactly like it did the first time, gyroscope still sparking. Behind one locked office door: a dead man's switch, and a data chip stuffed with files, and a photograph shows a face Thorne wasn't expecting to see.

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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 Adventurecast, where the only thing standing between you and the Black is your ship and the strength of your crew. Void help us all.
[00:00:10] Thorne: Well, screw it. Grab your gun. We got people to shoot.
[00:00:14] Haleyy: Give me your stuff first. Then we can talk.
[00:00:17] Felix: Don't mess with stuff you don't understand, Haley.
[00:00:19] Robert: You are lucky, Felix. I would have shot you in the face.
[00:00:28] Star Master Jeff: Previously on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the crew of the Scapegoat was just about to die on Prometheon Station. And then, without warning, they found themselves back on the Scapegoat, alive, safe, and remembering every second of it.
[00:00:44] Thorne: What the fuck just happened? Robert, can I get like a status?
[00:00:48] Robert: Where are we? I'm staring at the same gyroscope I was a couple of hours ago.
[00:00:57] Haleyy: Haley is going to have a normal reaction here and vomit. Did we all just experience the same thing?
[00:01:08] Felix: I was shot, Haley. I'm feeling like my stomach area.
[00:01:12] Haleyy: Are you fine?
[00:01:13] Felix: I'm fine now.
[00:01:14] Robert: What the hell? Are you sure? I get up out of my chair and I Pillsbury Doughboy Felix right in the former gunshot wound a couple of times. Stop.
[00:01:25] Felix: Like, a Lazarus patch is good, but not that good. There's no patch. There's nothing. My clothes are fine. Everything's fine.
[00:01:32] Robert: There was a bullet hole here. Now, I'm like 100% sure you were bleeding like a lot.
[00:01:36] Thorne: I think I died for a minute. I don't remember seeing any kind of psychic glow like we saw previously.
[00:01:43] Felix: Haley, is this you? Did you do this? No, this was not me. Guys, we're getting closer to the station and we're still powered on.
[00:01:51] Star Master Jeff: Hey, y'all, I spent a few hours making the medbay look real nice, and which one of y'all assholes came in here and messed it all up again? It's like I didn't do anything in here.
[00:02:00] Thorne: I don't know what to tell you, Iso, but maybe take a look at the clock?
[00:02:05] Star Master Jeff: Look at the clock? I hate you guys. She'll figure it out. Froggy stumbles onto the bridge. Guys. And then he pukes exactly where Haley puked. And he goes, oh, and he holds his stomach. What happened?
[00:02:19] Haleyy: Haley pats Froggy on the back.
[00:02:22] Star Master Jeff: We're still trying to figure that out, buddy. You and only you puked right here. Now clean it up. Yes, sir. And he stumbles back out of the room to find a mop.
[00:02:33] Robert: By the way, Froggy, do you remember some, I don't know, things like being on the ship for like a while? Pokes his head back in.
[00:02:43] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, a little bit. But like, I don't know, time kind of flies on the scapegoat anyway. It does indeed.
[00:02:49] Robert: Have you seen this gyroscope before? This big old thing right here, this Prometheon station? You seen this before? I'm trying not to look at it.
[00:02:58] Thorne: Listen, I'm not going to pretend to understand what's going on right now, but the forces at work in the universe seem to have decided that we get another shot at this. We need to get in there. We wasted time last time and that scientist died. But I bet she knows something. Maybe she can help us. If we can just get in quick, don't waste any time. We let her out and we ask those questions before she gets gassed. Maybe that's Voss. Maybe we can just do this in one quick run. I don't get what's going on, but we got to try.
[00:03:27] Robert: And with that, I pull us up into the first bay that I can find. I'm not looking to go around or be stealthy in any way. I'm just going to pull up to the fastest thing we can get so we can get in, we can get out. AS with the AP.
[00:03:43] Thorne: ISO, what are you doing?
[00:03:45] Star Master Jeff: Trying to redo my whole goddamn med bay. What do you want, Thorny?
[00:03:49] Thorne: Well, screw it. Grab your gun. We got people to shoot.
[00:03:54] Star Master Jeff: You exit the scapegoat into a hallway on Prometheon Station that looks very much like the hallway you were in the very first time you entered. And that's because there's a big hallway that loops around the entire circular station. So this hallway has a bunch of like detritus everywhere. It looks like people were simply raptured away at some point, leaving things laying on the ground that they had been carrying or carts tipped over. And you take a moment and you remember what happened last time you came on the station. And you listen. But you do not hear the telltale signs of any security bots quite yet.
[00:04:30] Thorne: I know this is probably going to sound insane, but what if they're, like, these things are just laying here. These people look like they vanished. But what if they were simply not sent back in the loop? I mean, I think they're all the unhallowed.
[00:04:44] Haleyy: Yeah, and we don't know where the unhallowed people are all hanging out at.
[00:04:47] Robert: I feel like they're probably congregating around the listeners.
[00:04:52] Thorne: Good point. The two of you should take the front. Felix and I will follow behind. Felix, make sure you grab that map.
[00:04:58] Felix: Yeah, I'll find a terminal that looks like the one that I found the first time and just download the map.
[00:05:03] Star Master Jeff: Nice. Good idea. So that is trivial for you. So you download the map from the nearest terminal and then the four of you are on your way. It's very easy to navigate this station and avoid the pitfalls that you saw on your last visit because you know exactly where you're going. And before you know it, you find yourself at the lab door. So this is a locked door that, if I recall correctly, Haley bashed in last time.
[00:05:26] Haleyy: And I'll do it again! And I kick the door down.
[00:05:30] Star Master Jeff: It opens easily this time, revealing the antechamber on the other side. The woman's face is already framed in the porthole of the lab door, and she grabs the intercom and says, You made it even earlier this time. Do you remember? She points at her ears and says, I can't hear you.
[00:05:46] Thorne: Dumbass. Remember? I just shrugged through the porthole like, well, then you're on your own. Just talk at me.
[00:05:52] Haleyy: I pick out my notepad and say, hi.
[00:05:56] Star Master Jeff: She waves at you. She's really excited. She clicks on the intercom again and she says... I don't know how you're here. This is the 21st loop and you're just now here on what I can only assume is your second loop. I've died 20 times to the gas at the same time, every single time. If you could spare that for me, then I would be extremely grateful.
[00:06:23] Felix: Haley, ask her how we opened the door.
[00:06:27] Star Master Jeff: The door can be opened many different ways. There is a badge that our CEO on Prometheon Station has that can open any door in the station. He is the one who lets me in every single day. I have not seen him since these loops started. But I know a lot of people have simply vanished.
[00:06:47] Felix: Where would he be? Mm-hmm.
[00:06:49] Star Master Jeff: I know where his office is, and I know that his terminal has elevated privileges as well. I know that you can turn off the gas from there. I know that he has a dead man switch. Every single day, he must enter in a code to make sure the gas doesn't go off. That way, if he's ever killed or ever forced off station, everything in this lab gets melted to nothing.
[00:07:10] Felix: When she tells us that, I put the map up against the porthole so she can point to where his office is.
[00:07:15] Star Master Jeff: She points it out. It's in the administration area, which is you're kind of on the west side of the Corps, and it's on the northeast side of the Corps. So it's not crazy far away, but it is a little bit of a walk. I note that mentally.
[00:07:27] Felix: I try to burn it into my brain.
[00:07:29] Star Master Jeff: Hayley, ask about Voss. There's also the younger man in there. He comes up and he snatches the microphone from the woman. Please go turn off the gas. Forget about the metal orb. Forget about everything else that's happening. We are being melted over and over again. We need you to come back every loop and stop us from being melted. That should be number one on your list.
[00:07:53] Felix: I cross my arms and just stand. I mean, if they get melted, then Vos gets melted, right?
[00:07:58] Star Master Jeff: Actually, that orb in its own separate containment is one of the few things in this room that doesn't get melted.
[00:08:05] Haleyy: Can you talk to her?
[00:08:08] Star Master Jeff: Yes, but only when she wakes up. She's only allowed consciousness during certain hours of the day. She looks at a wall clock and she says she'll be awake in about 45 minutes. And then I get a few precious minutes with her before the loop restarts.
[00:08:26] Felix: Felix is getting visibly angrier as they're talking about this because like they're obviously experimenting on her.
[00:08:32] Thorne: Haley, ask if they know why it's looping or what they know about Strake.
[00:08:36] Star Master Jeff: First of all, hi, I'm Petra. This is Ren.
[00:08:39] Haleyy: Hi, Petra.
[00:08:40] Star Master Jeff: something tells me we're going to be meeting again. I don't know why this loop's happening exactly, but we hooked in this virtual intelligence because there is an array that we're tapping into on the alien gyroscope, and things weren't going very well, but Mr. Saren wanted it to go off anyway, so we did the experiment. This orbed Isn't the right fit. Yeah, that's probably why this is happening. And it has not been fun. And we need to get out of here.
[00:09:15] Felix: Saren. Saren? Felix, that's the guy. Felix is practically vibrating with rage at this point. He's basically, yeah, I'm stomping away out of the room.
[00:09:27] Star Master Jeff: Iso stops you from leaving the room, Felix. And she goes, whoa, whoa, hang on there, Felix.
[00:09:33] Felix: Get off me, Iso. Who's Saren? He's a monster who killed my brother. And I stomp out.
[00:09:39] Thorne: Oh. He's the head of Virodyne, or I guess the head of Omnitek. He's basically the source of all of our woes.
[00:09:47] Star Master Jeff: Iso pokes her head out the door and she says, uh, y'all, Felix is gone.
[00:09:51] Robert: God damn it. I can't hear, like, squeaking legs off in the distance. It's too late.
[00:10:00] Star Master Jeff: Felix, where's your ass at? Before you respond, roll evasion. Oh no, evasion?
[00:10:07] Haleyy: Oh god.
[00:10:07] Star Master Jeff: I'm sure Felix is great at that.
[00:10:09] Haleyy: Well, this is gonna be good.
[00:10:13] Star Master Jeff: Robert, Felix does not answer you. You are met with silence.
[00:10:18] Robert: Yeah, I go sprinting off into the darkness.
[00:10:23] Star Master Jeff: Okay, Robert sprints off on his own before anyone can react and follows the map towards the administrative office because he knows that's where Felix was probably likely to head. And rounding a corner, you see Felix on the ground, sitting up against the wall.
[00:10:38] Robert: You are lucky, Felix. I would have shot you in the face for running away from the party.
[00:10:45] Star Master Jeff: And as you get closer, you see that his head has been rent from his body.
[00:10:48] Robert: Oh, man. OK, who done did it? Is there somebody who might have performed said act?
[00:10:55] Star Master Jeff: You hear a noise behind you and you whirl around to find the gray haired man that you saw in the first loop. Gas mask pulled up on top of his skull. Hold on now. I come in peace. We do have you surrounded as well. Any points behind you and then you can hear the scraping sound of footsteps back there. Just like last loop, I'm only here to talk.
[00:11:18] Robert: Yeah, okay.
[00:11:19] Star Master Jeff: What do you need? What is your goal here? We're here to recruit. I'm going to need that big gal you have as well as a really good looking guy to come and join our team. Oh, you need me. You need me and her to join you. Haley, right then you come around the corner just a few paces ahead of Thorn. Here you see the Void Cultist just a few paces in front of you, his back to you. And then a few paces in front of him is Robert. And then behind Robert at the end of the hallway are four listeners, gas masks over their face, melee weapons at the ready. There you are, Haley.
[00:11:57] Thorne: What's the deal? Oh my God, what is going on in there?
[00:11:59] Haleyy: Stay calm.
[00:12:01] Star Master Jeff: Just let me teabag this man. The man looks over his shoulder and sees the two of you and he goes, you really don't make this easy, do you? Grabs a parachute ripcord that's on his chest and yanks it. And when he does that, his cloak flies to the side. And Robert, since you're facing him, you can see that he has just pulled the pin on like 15 grenades on his chest. Robert! Yeah, that really blows up. The captain's chair, the communications panel, the gyroscope just resolving in the distance. Felix, safe and sound, sitting at his station. Haley pukes.
[00:12:41] Felix: I grab my neck this time, and I also throw up. Reggie, we're going to need cleanup on the bridge.
[00:12:48] Haleyy: Felix, you okay?
[00:12:50] Felix: That's not a great way to go.
[00:12:51] Star Master Jeff: Hey, at least you didn't melt. Iso sprints onto the bridge and just goes, hey, y'all, what the fuck? Y'all died? I was there for another hour by myself.
[00:13:02] Felix: Oh, thank God. Okay. That's good to know. She didn't reset when we did.
[00:13:05] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, great to know. I was running away from goddamn void cultists for over an hour and they're not very nice. So you didn't make it back to the ship? I wasn't trying to make it. I didn't even know where I was. Felix sent everyone the map except for me. I don't have your number. I didn't have it either. She puts a finger in your face. She goes, fuck you, buddy. Well, they chopped my fracking head off. They chopped my head off, Iso. I tried to stop you from leaving the room.
[00:13:29] Haleyy: Did you talk to the scientists more? Through the porthole or anything?
[00:13:33] Star Master Jeff: No, I don't have a notebook and pen. I left. I ran after y'all. And then I heard the explosion. I came around the corner. You've made do with less ISO. I tried to do my best, but y'all ran away straight into a bunch of grenades. And then everything blew up and I had to run away. Void Cult is chasing me out of every orifice. It was crazy.
[00:13:53] Haleyy: Did you see Victor Strike at all?
[00:13:55] Star Master Jeff: Victor Strake. No, I didn't see Victor Strake. Is Victor Strake on the station?
[00:14:00] Felix: Well, he was the first time. Well, let's not forget about Victor Saren, who is apparently also here somewhere. That son of a bitch.
[00:14:07] Robert: Okay, now that we have a better sense of where the administrative office is supposed to be, Felix, can you point me out the bay that's going to get us closest?
[00:14:19] Felix: What I'd like to do, Robert, is go to the same spot, take the same route, and see if we can get really good at that route.
[00:14:26] Robert: Yep. I'm going to do almost that, except for I'm going to go right next to Victor Strike's ship and just teabag it real quick. Just sack tap that thing right out of the bay. So you're crashing the scapegoat into the acceptable loss. Damn right.
[00:14:43] Haleyy: I never want to hear you guys complain about letting those people melt again because that's what we're doing, by the way. What? When we're crashing into the ship.
[00:14:51] Thorne: No, I am going to complain about that. Stop fucking around so we can go stop people from melting.
[00:14:55] Felix: Those people, they're torturing Dr. Voss. And I think they deserve to melt. I'm going to say it. Felix, for all we know, they're the only thing keeping Dr. Voss alive. Didn't sound like it, Thorne. Sounded like they were keeping her in some kind of suspended animation, waking her up when they needed her to serve their purposes. But regardless of that, we got to get in there.
[00:15:15] Robert: I'm just going to full speed us like as close as we possibly can to Victor Strake's ship. And if I overshoot it, I overshoot it.
[00:15:26] Star Master Jeff: Okay, great roll. So you are able to cut it really close and very lightly tap the acceptable loss, doing a little bit of damage to the scapegoat, and you do destroy the entire backside of the much smaller acceptable loss, and you see that it vents all of its ammo and probably all of its cargo, and you also see a weird tube-like structure, man-sized tube-like structure, careen off into space. Then you cycle the airlocks and find yourself back on Prometheon Station in the big round hallway that circles it.
[00:15:59] Haleyy: So our goal here is we're going to try and get to the boss's office, Aaron's office, the executive's office. But before we turn off the gas, as long as we have time, we need to make sure that these two people aren't just going to head off with Voss.
[00:16:15] Felix: Oh yeah, Felix has a plan. Once we get into that computer, Felix has a plan. Don't worry about that.
[00:16:21] Star Master Jeff: Ominous. Haley, just ahead of you, you notice that there is a white tube with wires coming out of it attached to the wall hidden behind some luggage. It looks quite out of place.
[00:16:32] Haleyy: Felix? What's going on there?
[00:16:36] Star Master Jeff: That looks weird. Let me take a look. Felix, it looks like an improvised detonator hooked up to some sort of repurposed coolant line that's been moved from elsewhere.
[00:16:48] Felix: I'm going to try to disarm it.
[00:16:52] Star Master Jeff: It's obviously some sort of bomb on the outer side of this hallway that was meant to go off and cause explosive decompression when the wall was breached. But you're able to safely remove the remote detonation portion of it and then disassemble it a bit further. Unfortunately, to do that, it takes you 30 minutes.
[00:17:08] Felix: All right, we got to go fast. We got to go faster next time. Let's get moving.
[00:17:14] Star Master Jeff: You continue to move in and you actually find yourself cutting through a part of the warehouse that you did on the very first loop. And you can see up into the office where it has like the big glass walls where Victor Strake was looking down on you when you first realized he was on this station too and talked to you. Things haven't really changed in here at all. However, you bounce up and down a little bit. The gravity feels a little weak here for some reason.
[00:17:40] Haleyy: Weaker than last time?
[00:17:42] Star Master Jeff: Yes, absolutely. You think you could probably jump twice as high.
[00:17:45] Robert: That feels like, do we want to, I mean, we have loops. Do we want to explore why the gravity is weak in this spot?
[00:17:52] Haleyy: Nope. I think we should just note that it is weaker.
[00:17:55] Felix: Right. Is it getting weaker and weaker on each loop? Let's make a note and keep going.
[00:18:01] Star Master Jeff: So you continue to make your way across the bridge in the warehouse when the door on the other side opens and the gray-haired man steps out. He puts up his hands immediately and says, Oh, hey there, everyone. Let's talk.
[00:18:14] Haleyy: Good to see you too, buddy.
[00:18:15] Star Master Jeff: Oh, I think we're beyond calling each other buddy and pal. Perhaps we should have proper introductions. All right, dickhead. And I shoot him.
[00:18:23] Haleyy: Yeah!
[00:18:24] Star Master Jeff: Before you do, my name is Sabien, and I'm only trying to help.
[00:18:28] Haleyy: It doesn't matter. See you next time around, buddy.
[00:18:30] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, bye. Fine then, I'll... And he slumps over, dead, the hollow point from Felix's gun having completely eviscerated his skull. And what a dickbag.
[00:18:40] Haleyy: God, I hate that guy. I search his body.
[00:18:43] Star Master Jeff: He actually doesn't have too much on him of note. He has body armor, a cloak, and he has a little pendant that looks like a tiny shard of one of the forks that's been chipped off and put on a lanyard. And he also has two of those like stress balls that are metal and etched all over that you saw on Sibylline that that one Void Cultist used to try to like detect if you and Thorn were potentially unhallowed candidates.
[00:19:09] Haleyy: Sweet. Awesome. So I take those things and his clothing and I put it all on.
[00:19:14] Star Master Jeff: All right, let's go. Let's go save some people for being melted. You leave the warehouse and you make your way closer and closer to the administrative section. Unfortunately, the way forward here has a very stout metal blockade that has been literally welded to the hallway. There is a note saying,
[00:19:38] Haleyy: Paper. I love paper. This is great.
[00:19:40] Star Master Jeff: I don't think I know how to read, so. It's folded up several times and it says thorn.
[00:19:48] Thorne: I unfold it to reveal hopefully additional contents within.
[00:19:52] Star Master Jeff: It is a note from Strake. It's very long and verbose, as you would expect from his own personal style. But in short, it says, I have things I need to get done here, and then I need to escape. You have things you want to get done here, and then you need to escape. Our goals do not have to be opposed. Let's work together. And that's it.
[00:20:13] Thorne: Well, it looks like that guy who said we just blew off isn't the only one who wants to chat and make friends. Seems like Strake might be stuck here, too. It seems like this experiment got out of control on them, and they don't know how to get out of it.
[00:20:27] Felix: You know, weirdly, I'm much more okay working with Strake than I am the cultists. Yeah, I can understand that. No, why is that? Why is that? I mean, not Saren, not that Victor, but Victor Strake. That weird little clone guy? I bet we could work with him.
[00:20:43] Thorne: Felix, I worry... Well, we'll talk about this later, but I see your point.
[00:20:49] Haleyy: We don't need to work with Strake yet.
[00:20:52] Thorne: Nope. But he could be, you know, an interesting source of information. We could use him. Exactly.
[00:20:59] Star Master Jeff: You hear the pitter patter of little feet. We got to get through this barricade. Haley, punch it. You're currently at a dead end with this barricade in front of you. You can double back and go around the corner if you want, but you're starting to hear things from around that corner. Grunts and growls and the slip slap of feet. What would you like to do as the first unhallowed crashes around the corner?
[00:21:22] Haleyy: I'm going to hold on to the tuning fork and yell stop.
[00:21:26] Star Master Jeff: That one stops stock still as five more pile around the corner and sprint past.
[00:21:31] Felix: I don't think there's any rules for this, but can I overload a power cell that would go in a gun? And do what? Try to make an explosion to break through this barricade.
[00:21:40] Star Master Jeff: Sure, but it will destroy the power cell forever. So you have a battery that is now primed to explode, but it's extremely unstable.
[00:21:51] Felix: Uh, guys, get back! And I kind of toss it down at the floor next to the barricade and run.
[00:21:57] Star Master Jeff: Okay, I need everyone to roll evasion. Yup. This is fun. We're doing saving throws tonight. Let off a bomb. So the explosion rocks the small corridor that you are in and it looks like three of you succeeded on your saving throw. So you don't take any damage and you don't get flown to the ground. But one of you gets thrown further down the corridor and falls to your knees and the mob descends upon you.
[00:22:23] Robert: And I am down and getting mobbed.
[00:22:27] Star Master Jeff: Yes, but fortunately, you are the only victim of Felix's improvised explosive device. Well, actually, that's not quite true. There's a second victim. It's the door. It has been completely eviscerated by your improvised bomb, Felix.
[00:22:40] Haleyy: Well, these items that Sabien had clearly matter for something. So I take out the etched metal balls and then hold on to the tuning fork and think really hard about getting everyone to stop and see if anything happens.
[00:22:58] Star Master Jeff: They actually begin to vibrate a little bit and you realize that they are pulling in a certain direction. And then you realize as Thorne moves through the space, they're actually just pointing towards him. They're not helping Robert at all. Speaking of Robert, you are covered by a bunch of unhallowed and getting increasingly buried in the mob.
[00:23:16] Robert: Yeah, I think I'm going to try to escape unless I'm just going to punch a bunch of dudes in the face. But no, I'm going to try to escape. And I rolled a one.
[00:23:29] Star Master Jeff: Take four more points of damage as the mob wrenches you deeper into its gullet. Robert. Rest in peace, big dog.
[00:23:37] Haleyy: We gotta keep going.
[00:23:39] Star Master Jeff: You hear the sounds of Robert getting smothered and ripped limb from limb. Iso gives a quick salute before turning around towards the door and beginning to clear the debris from the explosion so that everyone can make their escape. I won't let his death be in vain. Robert, I had the same thing happen to me last loop. It's not a pretty sight. Come on, y'all.
[00:24:01] Felix: We'll see you on the next one, pal. Felix, bloodied, broken. I think my wrist might be broken. I'm at 2 HP, so I'm not in good shape. But yeah, run towards the administrative office as fast as you can so I can get on that terminal.
[00:24:15] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so you all sprint towards the administrative office and you find the CEO's office. It is a big metal door with a big metal inset around it with tons of tiny little pockmarks, like decorative pockmarks, all over it. It looks like it may be locked with a keypad. Okay, you move in a bit heedlessly, and then you hear the twang as you set off the hidden tripwire, and all the little insets around the door start spitting the same sort of gas you saw in the lab that melts everything that contacts it. Everyone go ahead and roll your reflex saving throw.
[00:24:54] Felix: We all rolled so bad. Oh, I rolled a one. We did it. Three, two, one. Guys, our dice are weird tonight. I thought Robert was going to have the most gruesome death. We're all about to be melted by acid. Oh, now you guys don't want to get melted. I mean, I got torn limb from limb.
[00:25:12] Star Master Jeff: Okay, everyone succeeded on their salvation saving throw. It takes eight points of acid damage. Idiots. They should have just gotten hit by it. Everyone that failed takes 17 points. Oh, never mind. Oh, I'm dead.
[00:25:22] Thorne: Yeah, I'm very dead.
[00:25:24] Star Master Jeff: the captain's chair, the bridge, the gyroscope resolving in the distance, Robert screaming in terror from the pilot's chair as Haley vomits every time. Froggy runs in and vomits and slips on her vomit and then falls into Felix's vomit and then begins to sadly mop it up.
[00:25:45] Felix: Robert got eaten alive. I mean, this is the best way to learn. There's no consequences to your actions. Froggy, cover your ears. No, you did not just hear that, Froggy. That's not what Felix said.
[00:25:56] Star Master Jeff: He just starts slapping Robert. He's like, ah, he won't even remember this. No, that's not what I meant, Froggy. That's not how it works.
[00:26:05] Robert: That's the one consequence there is, is memory. And at that, I take the gun and shoot Froggy in the face.
[00:26:12] Thorne: I saw that coming, yeah. Froggy is splattered inside the cockpit. Yeah, I was afraid that was what was going to happen.
[00:26:21] Robert: I'm sorry, guys. I just, I'm so, I'm, honestly, no. I'm not sorry.
[00:26:27] Thorne: You can't tell the guy there's no consequences. Thorne, I just got melted by acid and I'm back somehow, so you'll forgive me. No, no, this was bound to happen. This was bound to happen. I'm just glad it happened while we were in a time loop, okay?
[00:26:38] Felix: Let's just get in this station. Come on, we got stuff to do.
[00:26:41] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so now you're old hands at this. You get all of your gear, your rebreathers, your laser cutter, and you go out and you cycle the airlock. Did you want to bring anything else with you?
[00:26:50] Thorne: Oh, yeah, actually, can I leave a note for Strake on the door of the goat? Vic, yeah, we can talk. I think maybe we have a shared interest, but we need to figure out how we're going to meet before we run out of time. And that's all I'm going to say. I'm just going to put it just like that and he'll figure the rest out. He's a smart guy.
[00:27:07] Star Master Jeff: You then make your way to the warehouse where the gravity has completely failed. And when the door opens up and you step in, you start to slowly float off.
[00:27:19] Thorne: Next time, I guess we're bringing our bag boots. I guess we can confirm that it's getting worse or lighter, whatever you want to call it.
[00:27:25] Star Master Jeff: And just to remind you, this is a very large warehouse with a bridge that cuts right across the middle of it on the second floor, which is the bridge that you are currently on, even though there is no gravity. And as you start crossing on the other side, the door opens and Sabien exits once again. And this is starting to feel a lot like Deja Vu to you. Once again, he throws up his hands and he goes, wait a minute, let's talk this time.
[00:27:48] Haleyy: Get out of the way, dickbag. Give me give me your stuff first and then we then we can talk.
[00:27:53] Robert: She wants your clothes and your tuning fork and your balls.
[00:27:56] Haleyy: The balls and the fork.
[00:27:58] Robert: Give her your balls. I want you to get naked.
[00:28:00] Star Master Jeff: Get naked. I'm not going to do that. And you know what? I'm done with you for now. We'll talk next loop. And he quickly steps back and the door closes. A few seconds later, you begin to hear sounds of construction. What are you doing in there?
[00:28:16] Haleyy: Probably that metal door thing again.
[00:28:18] Robert: I really should have shot that bitch in the face.
[00:28:21] Haleyy: Who has the laser cutter to take it out? Because I feel like we're going to need it.
[00:28:25] Star Master Jeff: Good intuition, because you reach the other side of the bridge and the door is unopenable. And from the other side, you hear the construction stop and you hear like bang, bang, bang. And Sabien very quietly, although he's yelling, you can hear him be like, OK, well, I guess we'll see you next loop. I pull out the laser cutter and I get to work.
[00:28:45] Robert: And while he does that, I'm going to check the door to the other direction where Victor's track was two loops ago.
[00:28:56] Star Master Jeff: Oh, yeah, nice. Okay, so Felix, you get to work with the laser cutter, and Robert, you're able to kick off in the no-grav and go up to that little glass room on the third floor of the warehouse. In here is a full control room. You're not sure exactly what all those bleeps, bloops, and buttons do. Monitors are switching on and off, and there's like a little spectrograph. You do spot that there is some sort of manual for a operable crane, but all of this is Greek to you.
[00:29:21] Robert: Felix, I'm going to need somebody who does the computer tappy taps. I need a door guy. I desperately need a door guy up in here.
[00:29:33] Felix: I turn around to you, lift up my welding goggles. I'm kind of busy right now, Robert. Do you want me to be the door guy or the computer guy? Yes. I'm kind of hoping for both, yeah.
[00:29:44] Haleyy: Yeah, kind of hoping for both.
[00:29:45] Felix: I put them back down and I turn back to the door. Team, this is going to be a bit... I don't really see another way through. I'm just going to keep cutting.
[00:29:53] Thorne: Yeah, can't somebody help the welding and we can get Computer Man on the computer job?
[00:29:56] Felix: I can weld. Yeah, cut here, cut here, cut here. Where are the points to cut?
[00:30:02] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so Robert takes over for Felix. And then Felix, you kick up and you go up to the foreman's office. So there's crane controls up here for a crane that can come out of the ceiling and move around on a track. And there's also drone controls, but you don't see any drones around, but you do understand how they work.
[00:30:19] Felix: OK, I'm going to check the controls, the crane controls, the drone controls and see what's operational, see what things are connected, what's working.
[00:30:25] Star Master Jeff: The crane works. You get it to exit the ceiling and you can move it around and it can actually like reach basically every nook and cranny in this entire room. I love it. I'm going to try to use this crane to batter the barricaded door. Nice. Damn. You slam the crane into the door and it shakes and bows in and a bunch of things fall off the other side, but doesn't quite open all the way on that first hit. So you continue to hit it over and over again. You use the crane portion to tear at it. And within 15 minutes, you've completely deconstructed the barrier. Okay, the door is open. On the other side, you do see a bunch of construction tools, but there are no void cultists in sight. You do not run into a barricade where you ran into one before. You go through that spot and you round the corner. Something happened here. There are five dead void cultists. One of them is Sabien. And they are all riddled by laser fire, laying dead at the entrance to the admin wing, which is where all that acid came from.
[00:31:32] Thorne: Well, how's your chance, Hayley, if you wanted to take his stuff?
[00:31:35] Haleyy: Yeah, I'd take his stuff.
[00:31:37] Star Master Jeff: You go over to take his stuff, and when you roll him over, you find there's a note stabbed into his chest.
[00:31:45] Thorne: Who's this one from?
[00:31:46] Star Master Jeff: I think it's a safe bet everyone knows. It's not addressed to anyone, but it is in the same hand as before. So probably from Victor Strake. And all it says is, you're welcome. Great, thanks.
[00:31:58] Haleyy: Well, that's endearing.
[00:32:01] Star Master Jeff: So you're outside the admin offices. This time there is no trip wire, though all the little holes are all over the place still.
[00:32:07] Felix: And the door is shut. I want to really carefully look at the floor, like pressure plating, any other trap that looks like it might have been laid. Just because all those holes are still there.
[00:32:18] Star Master Jeff: You do not find any obvious traps except for the normal security that's on the door. So there's a digital lock. And then there's all of these pinholes that, to your remembrance, exude a lot of acid.
[00:32:29] Felix: Yeah. So I'm assuming if I fuck up opening this door, guys, we're all going to get drenched in acid. So you might want to wait out there to tell me twice. I've already been burned to death enough times today. I'll take a couple steps back. I'll plug it and try to open the door. Felix winces back as the door slides open, remembering what it felt like to be acid burned.
[00:32:49] Haleyy: Victor, we're home.
[00:32:51] Star Master Jeff: You find yourself in a cushy inner office here on Prometheon Station. There is a couch. There is a, like, little bar. There's a fridge with presumably food and alcohol. There's a rich mahogany desk. There is a terminal atop the desk. And there's really nothing else that important in this room. Just a bunch of rich person shit.
[00:33:11] Felix: I want to start on the terminal.
[00:33:13] Star Master Jeff: Okay, there is a passcode that's needed, so you're gonna have to hack. Go ahead and roll program intelligence. It's a CEO. It's probably in the desk drawer.
[00:33:22] Thorne: Check if he just keeps the password in the desk drawer. Yeah, is there like a post-it with the password on it somewhere?
[00:33:27] Star Master Jeff: So yeah, this is actually a lot more difficult to gain access. Like you access the terminal, but then you're like, oh, everything's locked down. So you're like trying to gain access and see what the capabilities of the terminal is. This one's going to take you a little while.
[00:33:39] Felix: It's going to be a minute, team.
[00:33:42] Haleyy: On the desk, is there any kind of chip reader that I could like set something on top of to unlock the computer? I'm wondering if my tuning fork for some reason can override technology.
[00:33:57] Star Master Jeff: Interesting thought, but no.
[00:33:59] Haleyy: I hold it up to the monitor and it starts to change colors and I'm like, oh, pretty.
[00:34:03] Star Master Jeff: You're just degaussing everything. Okay, so Felix, you are hacking. While you're doing that, Robert Ross is poking around the room. Robert, you find a safe like in one of the drawers.
[00:34:15] Robert: How heavy and solid does it feel? Does it feel like because we do have welding equipment that I could just zap out the bottom of this thing much faster? Or should we does it feel like I should go through the door itself?
[00:34:30] Star Master Jeff: You could definitely cut through this pretty easily.
[00:34:32] Robert: Felix, how long is this going to take you? Because we got it.
[00:34:37] Felix: Robert, just give me a minute. Give me like 20, 25 minutes.
[00:34:41] Robert: Perfect. I put on my welding goggles and I go to town on this bad boy and see if I can cut through.
[00:34:51] Felix: It's not the first safe.
[00:34:53] Star Master Jeff: It's not the first safe Robert Ross has cut open. So Robert Ross is working on that. Felix is hacking. Haley is trying to frantically degauss the terminal that Felix is trying to work on. And meanwhile, Thorn, you are poking around in much the same way Robert did. And something jumps out at you. Something that Robert wouldn't necessarily have noticed is that there is a picture here. A picture of Victor Saren, the CEO of Omnitek, Prometheon, Virodyne. You're not exactly sure exactly what he is the CEO of, but here he is. He is an older gentleman. He is shaking the hand of some diplomat or other rich asshole just like himself. And you are startled to see that he looks very much like another Victor who you have actually seen quite recently. Just 40 years older.
[00:35:44] Thorne: Fucking knew it. It's all coming together, I think to myself. I don't show this to Felix yet, but I already alluded to this earlier when Felix was saying, oh, I like this Victor. It's just not that other Victor that I don't like. I had a feeling we were going to have to breach this conversation soon. I'm going to lose my mind. I'm going to wait until Felix is done what he's doing. You guessed this way back when you met Victor Strake. Yeah, I've guessed this like two years ago.
[00:36:10] Star Master Jeff: So Felix, you are continuing to hack and Robert, you have finished cutting open the desk safe. You are able to peel back the metal and inside you find only one thing, a small data chip.
[00:36:21] Robert: Felix, this feels like when you're done, when you're done, something you might want to look into. All right. All right. Give me a sec.
[00:36:29] Star Master Jeff: I'm almost through here. And with that, you are in, Felix. You have access to the whole breadth and controls of what CEO Saren can do. More pointedly, you can open up the lab door. You can turn off the lab gas. You have access to the lab chat log and finally access to the cameras in the lab itself. Can I turn on the gas from here? Yes. Okay, I do that. You turn on the gas, and on the lab camera, you watch Petra and Ren melt and die. You can see inside the lab, a lot of things get destroyed and melt, but the safe box that Vos is in that's transparent is protecting the connections and the wires and the orb and everything.
[00:37:14] Felix: All right, we're good to get in there and get her now. Oh, what the fuck, Felix? They work for Omnitek and Victor Saren. They've captured Dr. Voss. They're potentially torturing her for information. They see her as a machine, not a person.
[00:37:30] Thorne: Hey, I'm just saying. You're really interested in dehumanizing anyone who's ever worked for Omnitek. And while I agree anyone who gets in our way needs to be dealt with, I just don't know if I approve with the methods that I'm seeing from my team on this particular mission.
[00:37:45] Star Master Jeff: Well, Thorne, you better just make sure you don't get in my way. I better. And then I pull up the chat logs. With a few keystrokes, you pull up the chat logs, and they all seem to be between CEO underscore Saren and V.Mistretta-4. Oh, I know who that is.
[00:38:01] Felix: Oh, boy. I look at the most recent conversation quickly.
[00:38:06] Star Master Jeff: The most recent entry just says, Saren, CEO says, day 23, 0347, begin.
[00:38:15] Felix: I type in quickly into the chat interface. Elara? It's Felix, Elara? It says, connection not established.
[00:38:25] Star Master Jeff: What? All right, it is her.
[00:38:28] Robert: We can also, I'm just going to throw out here, sit here because I got this chip and I'd love to know what's on it. There's too many things right now.
[00:38:37] Felix: I've got to get to Voss. We'll come back later.
[00:38:40] Haleyy: But we don't know if another loop is going to happen now. This can be the one. If we grab Voss, Voss apparently seems to have been the trigger for this zone around the huge gyroscope, which is what I'm assuming. This might be it. Do we need someone to stay here on the dead man switch?
[00:38:58] Felix: Oh, yeah. Iso. Iso's standing outside the room with her shotgun. Iso, get in here. I show her how to do the dead man switch. And basically, whatever the instructions are, either keep pushing it or push it when it gets to this time. I'm not staying here alone. You're fucking bonkers if you think I'm doing that again. We'll close the door. We'll close the door. Nobody's getting in here.
[00:39:17] Star Master Jeff: That ain't happening, Felix. I ain't staying alone.
[00:39:20] Thorne: Well, if you all go get Voss, I may stay here and try to find Streak. I'm okay with that.
[00:39:27] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so it sounds like Robert, Haley, and Felix are now en route to the lab while Thorne and Iso are staying here in the admin office. Thorne, you can see on Saren's Terminal the absolute horror show that Felix has wrought upon the lab. So you have access to the cameras, the gas, the lock to the lab, and also these chat logs if you're interested in those.
[00:39:49] Thorne: Yeah, and I have time. I just want to, like, once they're, you know, 90 seconds out of earshot, I just want to get on comms and make sure they still work, that everybody can still communicate and be like, all right, contact me if you need me. I'll be here. And then, yeah, I'll start reading slash plugging in this chip.
[00:40:04] Star Master Jeff: So very quickly, chat logs, we'll do first. Yeah, sure. It says, session 0441, Saren underscore CEO, day nine, status, V.Mistretta-4. Still listening. It's not language. It's closer to a pressure that means something. Can you answer it? No, I can hear it. I can't speak back. You need something that can actually communicate with it, not just listen. Noted. Session 447. Day 15. Solene reports two rings are out of synchronization. Because it's answering something and getting nothing back. You've built an ear and called it a mouth. Lumen proceeds on schedule. Session 455. Saren, your man Strake is standing outside the lab again, bugging me. He's been here twice today. Ignore him. He's conducting a sight assessment. He looks like someone I've seen before, but I can't quite place it. Session 461. Day 22. Full activation is authorized for tomorrow, or 400. Don't. Not with me as the only anchor. I'm not strong enough to hold it and I can't answer it on my own. If you open that thing with only this one ear to listen... Your objection is noted.
[00:41:23] Star Master Jeff: Session 462. Day 23.
[00:41:28] Star Master Jeff: 0347. Begin. And then there are no further entries. What a fool.
[00:41:34] Thorne: If only he had listened to her.
[00:41:36] Star Master Jeff: Are you also going to look at this chip while they're making their journey? Yes, I would like to look at the chip. Or try to, at least. You slot in the chip and it immediately pops up a welcome message for Saren CEO. And then the directory opens and you see that there are thousands of files, all of which relate directly to Project Red Wing. Oh, Lord.
[00:41:58] Thorne: In the state that he's in, Iso, it's a good thing Felix didn't take a look at this chip. I'm not going to lie to you.
[00:42:04] Star Master Jeff: Thorne, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know what I'm looking at. And I don't care. We got to get out of here. This place is a goddamn death trap. We go now to the three other party members who are going off towards the lab. And you meet no resistance. No bots. No listeners. Void cultists. You don't run into Strake. Nothing is going on. In fact, ever since you ran into all those void cultist bodies that Strake left for you, it's been very quiet here on the station. So you have no resistance as you make your way to the lab. And you are now in front of the door that Haley has now had to bash in twice. And it is still closed and locked on this loop. Uh... Haley?
[00:42:44] Felix: I motion to the door.
[00:42:46] Haleyy: I bash it in.
[00:42:48] Star Master Jeff: Haley, you begin to bash down the door, and while you do that, Thorn, you get a notification on Saren's computer that says, Connection established.
[00:42:57] Thorne: It's Felix. It looks like Voss is waking up. Then talk to her. Tell her we're coming to get her. Voss, are you there? It's Thorn. We're here to bust you out of whatever the hell's going on, but it sounds like you're in a pickle. Can you hear me?
[00:43:10] Star Master Jeff: Thorn, yes. Tell Felix that he can't simply disconnect me. They've tried multiple times, Petra and Ren, and it never works out the way they think it will. I can hear the great thrumming of the driver's scope. My ears. I only have but one to listen to their voices.
[00:43:30] Thorne: Felix, you probably should not unplug. Dr. Vashi is advising us to leave her plugged in. Let me try to get more info. Hang on. The voices, question mark, does this have something to do with the gyroscope, the experiments that Prometheon's doing? How do we stop this?
[00:43:47] Star Master Jeff: It has everything to do with the gyroscope and all of the experiments at Prometheon's behest. I can hear them through the veil. The gyroscope is calling.
[00:43:58] Thorne: Do we need to stop them from coming? Or do we need to appease them? How can I get more listeners? Connection terminated. Damn it. Felix, I lost her. I only had enough time to type, like, two questions.
[00:44:14] Felix: Well, I'm getting out of here, Thorne. Don't tell me what I can't do.
[00:44:17] Thorne: I'm just telling you what she said. Petra tried to unplug it, and apparently that's part of the problem.
[00:44:22] Star Master Jeff: Felix, Haley, and Robert back at the lab do have now bashed open the door.
[00:44:26] Robert: Oh, damn. Is this, um, is this Petra and Ren? Because, uh, that's just a puddle of goo. God damn, what'd you do, Felix? Did what I had to do. You had to do this?
[00:44:39] Felix: Okay, dig into that. You had to do this. I don't have time. I gotta get Dr. Voss. I am gonna go over there and look at the system, see what it looks like, how it's set up. I'm sorry.
[00:44:51] Robert: I thought we explicitly were told don't unplug Voss.
[00:44:57] Felix: I keep doing what I'm doing.
[00:44:58] Haleyy: I walk up next to Felix, try to do this in a non-threatening manner, and then place my tuning fork on top of Voss.
[00:45:08] Star Master Jeff: The miniature shard of material that seems to be from the same material as the tuning fork resonates violently and then flings out of your hand when you press it to Vos.
[00:45:20] Felix: I spin to Hayley with like a fiery look in my eyes. What the hell are you doing?
[00:45:24] Haleyy: I'm just trying to see if something happens.
[00:45:27] Felix: Don't mess with stuff you don't understand, Hayley.
[00:45:29] Haleyy: Maybe she'll wake back up. Thorn would let us know, right? You know, her connection would open back up.
[00:46:00] Felix: Okay, so I've traced the wires and I think I'm feeling good in my manic heightened state about what to do. And so I begin to move my hands towards disconnecting some cables.
[00:46:12] Thorne: What's the situation down there?
[00:46:14] Felix: I take out my earpiece.
[00:46:16] Thorne: Guys, can you hear me? Crew?
[00:46:20] Robert: I start pulling out my blaster and looking over at Haley.
[00:46:25] Haleyy: Felix, are you sure you want to do this?
[00:46:28] Star Master Jeff: I pull the first plug. Sparks begin flying off of Dr. Voss's body, and you can see that there's a large holographic diagram of the gyroscope with its three spinning rings and two locked ones, and the two locked rings begin to move judderingly, and errors begin to multiply all over the screen. Felix, at this moment, you do notice that Robert Ross has pulled his pistol out.
[00:46:44] Felix: Robert, back off. This is working. I'm gonna get her out of here.
[00:46:50] Robert: I'm just warning you, Felix.
[00:46:52] Star Master Jeff: Felix thinks he knows the sequence to pull these cords out, and so he starts pulling them out.
[00:47:04] Star Master Jeff: Great waves of sparks continue to explode out of Voss's chassis, scoring Felix's arms. The gyroscope diagram shows all the rings suddenly halt to a dead stop. Voss begins to glow as you unplug the final cable.
[00:47:24] Haleyy: Felix, don't!
[00:47:31] Star Master Jeff: The gyroscope resolving before you.
[00:47:33] Haleyy: Mother, no.
[00:47:35] Star Master Jeff: Haley vomits.
[00:47:36] Haleyy: I get...
[00:47:38] Robert: Swiveling over to Felix. That is what mercy looks like.
[00:47:42] Felix: I glare at Robert, punch the monitor in front of me, and I storm off.
[00:47:50] Haleyy: Okay. Give it five, but we got to stop preparing and, give it a few, but we got to start preparing for the next loop. Let's go.
[00:47:57] Star Master Jeff: And unfortunately, that's all the loops we have time for today. We'll have to pick up the next loop on the next episode, which will be the finale of season one. Hey! Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Dark Star Adventurecast. Big thanks to our cast, as always: Brian as Thorne, Scott as Felix, Doja as Robert, and Steph as Haleyy with two Ys. And as always, I'm your Star Master Jeff, playing everyone and everything else. If you want to hear every episode two weeks early, head on over to patreon.com slash darkstaradventurecast. And a huge thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate supporters. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. It really helps new people find the show. Next time on the Dark Star Adventurecast... The crew's finally got real leverage against the loop, but leverage isn't the same as a plan. The loop is degrading. Victor Saren and Victor Strake seem to have something in common, and Voss is still connected to the gyroscope. Whatever they try next, it's the last shot they've got before something on that station gives way for good. All that and more in the next episode of the Dark Star Adventurecast, which is the thrilling conclusion of season one. After 33 episodes, we have finally closed out a season. Whoop, whoop! And after that, stay tuned for an entire crew Star Master Log. That's right, every single last person that plays in this game is going to be on that Star Master Log, and we will have a retrospective about the entire season. Don't miss it. We can't wait for you to hear it. But in the meantime, from myself and everyone else here at the Dark Star Adventurecast, thanks for listening. We'll see you next time, and keep following that signal.