You're a Good Person, Robert

Jul 7

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The crew tracks the assassin back to a docked Omnitech ship at the spaceport. What they find inside is a face they know. Dr. Iso gets her revenge. The dead man's transponder sends out a signal. And Robert and Haleyy have the conversation they've been circling for years.

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Meet the Crew:

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

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

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

[00:00:01] Star Master Jeff: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventure Cast, where the only thing standing between you and the Black is your ship and the strength of your crew. Void help us all.
[00:00:10] Felix: Oh, fuck off with this clone bullshit. Now, hang on one second. Whoa, whoa, okay. Robert, hand me that gun. Thanks, Felix.
> ⚠️ *Cold open clip — this line is from later in the episode. At 00:27:25, the same line is attributed to Felix. Likely Felix's line used in the cold open and misattributed here.*
[00:00:20] Haleyy: We knew you had it in you.
[00:00:22] Robert: I very subtly stroke him on the cheek and then slap him in the face. Oh.
[00:00:28] Star Master Jeff: Previously on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the crew landed at Spigot and found an old contact of Haleyy and Robert's, [[Dr. Iso]], a black market doctor from their military days. Iso was nice enough to run a full scan on Haleyy and confirmed their worst fears. Crystalline structures were growing throughout her brain and energy building towards something unknown. So they left with a plan. At three in the morning, a cargo ship would arrive at Helium Dock 7 carrying the black market ownership module they needed to get the [[The Scapegoat]] back into space. But they never made it that far. An assassination attempt disrupted their plans, and they found themselves back at Iso's shop, trying to figure out exactly what they should do next.
[00:01:15] Felix: Well, right now, while they're repairing the goat, they're also fueling her up and restocking the supplies. And once we have that ownership module, I can just pop that baby right in, register the ship, and we are good to go. Great. Then this is our last chance for a shopping trip.
[00:01:29] Star Master Jeff: Are y'all kidding me? You want to go shopping right now?
[00:01:32] Thorne: You almost got assassinated, you dumb bitches. I don't want to go shopping right now. No, you're exactly right. Well, I'll tell you what I would like.
[00:01:39] Felix: And I open my backpack and I pull out this drone interface module. I hear you were a bit of a cyber head, Iso. And I was hoping to get this installed, but now that I know your provenance and I look at Robert, I don't know if that's such a good idea. Aw, you can trust her.
[00:01:58] Haleyy: Felix, I can vouch for the clones. You know, might not seem like it, but we have accomplished a lot together. Countless missions, dangerous situations.
[00:02:08] Felix: Listen, Haleyy, as much as I appreciate your input here, maybe just so you can tell me, can you install this and what kind of time are we talking about?
[00:02:15] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I can install basically anything into anyone, but it ain't quick. And there's a reason those procedures are so expensive, but also it's a very complex procedure. And when it's done, hell, you ain't going to want to be walking around for at least a week. Don't worry. But your own weird power fantasies of becoming a cyborg aside, Iso wants to do something. And Iso wants revenge. Someone threw a grenade at us today. And you bunch of wimps are just going to go and shop? You want to go to the local mall? I don't think so. Iso here and her TX-7 wants to go find this dumb bitch and shoot him through the fucking throat. Mmm. That's my girl. Hey, I don't hate the idea.
[00:02:59] Felix: Now if y'all are going to help me, arm up.
[00:03:01] Haleyy: Haleyy flexes her arms. Let's go.
[00:03:04] Felix: Let me get into the local networks here and see if I can figure out if any of this footage has been hidden or doctored in any way.
[00:03:10] Star Master Jeff: She pushes her antique terminal towards you with the clacky keys. And she's like, saw yours. I got nothing to hide. Jack in. I move hers out of the way.
[00:03:20] Felix: I unplug hers from the network and I plug my trifold.
[00:03:23] Star Master Jeff: Hey, I had a document that wasn't saved. You don't use cloud documents in the future. My screenplay. Okay. Well, that's gone. I guess she's not going to be an author anymore. And you push your terminal out of the way and you set up your trifold.
[00:03:39] Felix: And basically I'm trying to find it, like trying to look for any traces of like footage that was deleted or things that were doctored to try to figure out if we can understand who threw that grenade in.
[00:03:48] Star Master Jeff: You notice that she's literally jacked into the wall on her terminal. And there is Exonet here, but it's done through a relay that then connects into the inner system. And if there isn't information that's cached here on Sibylen that someone else has requested previously, anything that you request is going to take several days, weeks or months to get here as it travels from like area to area through the sector to get to you because there is not instantaneous communication. Everything's barred by light speed. So the Exonet out this far is almost useless. So once you jack into this network, you realize that they have their own local network that they all share. And the security, it ain't shit. So go ahead and give me your program intelligence. I don't even know what you're doing yet. I just know you said hack into the local network.
[00:04:39] Felix: Than 11.
> ⚠️ *Transcription artifact — likely a die roll result ("that's an 11" or similar).*
[00:04:40] Star Master Jeff: Oh, man. Yeah. So you hack into the local network. I mean, you own it now. You're the administrator. What would you like to do?
[00:04:47] Felix: I guess trying to access the security cameras that would have been or any cameras that would have been around the outside of the bar. So whether it's like the camera on an ATM or, you know, a traffic cam, anything like that, that would have had an angle. I'm trying to basically get access to the footage.
[00:05:07] Star Master Jeff: You easily flow through the local network and make your way towards the regulator inner network, which is slightly more secure. But still, after what you've done on places like Polyphn, this is nothing. After hacking into a data vault, this is nothing. This is Sibylen, podunk, local security, just trying to make it so that everyone has at least a seven digit password type deal. So for a moment, you're like, oh, no, they have enhanced security. And then you press one button and you're like, I'm in. And you start going through all of the last couple hours of footage from around the event. And it doesn't take you long scrubbing through the footage to find exactly what you are looking for. You find a man wearing a brown jacket, ill-fitting, too big for him, and a hood pulled up. But on closer inspection, you don't actually think it's a hood, but more just a piece of fabric that he put around himself under the jacket. Obviously some sort of hasty disguise. But as you go frame by frame and enhance the image, you notice that he's actually wearing a uniform, a crisply pressed uniform with an [[Omnitek Holdings|Omnitech]] insignia on the breast. And then, of course, scrubbing forward, you see him take out a grenade, pull the pin, chuck it through the window, and hastily walk away. A moment after the explosion, you see Iso fly out of the bar, shooting wildly. See him. He starts to run. She clocks him and chases him into the alleyway. And that's where you stop.
[00:06:51] Felix: Lose him when he goes down here, but he's Omnitech. Are there any more ATMs you can track him with? I can't see any cameras down this alley.
[00:07:00] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, the camera network isn't super robust here. You just happen to have on one corner, there's one angle, and there isn't always a camera on every corner. Seems like maybe just at larger intersections. But due to your awesome programming role, your fingers are flying across the keyboard before you can even think about what you're doing. You're just now like, oh, Omnitech. And now you're checking for Omnitech across everything. Omnitech comes and refuels here all the time, but they very rarely land. They go to the top of the refueling tower after being stuck in line for hours or days, and then they make their way off into the black of space once again. However, less than one day ago, an Omnitech ship docked at the spaceport. It's a small transport meant for maybe two people if they're taking a long trip, but could perhaps squeeze four on shorter trips.
[00:07:51] Felix: I think I found something, guys. I think I found the ship he came in on.
[00:07:54] Star Master Jeff: That's a good lead. I want to look to see if it's still docked. Records show it is still docked, and you do find that there is a camera in that area at the spaceport.
[00:08:04] Felix: I'm going to pull that up and scrub to, like, from after the explosion up till now to see if, like, somebody coming back has looked, you know, matching the description of the person.
[00:08:14] Star Master Jeff: Indeed, about an hour after the explosion, you see that very man go up to the ship, open the hatch, and climb up the ladder to get on.
[00:08:22] Felix: I turn to Iso.
[00:08:24] Star Master Jeff: He's there. And I point at the screen. She's already at the door, unlocking it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. What's the plan here? We go over there and we shoot his face off. I thought I was very clear on this. You throw a grenade at Iso and guess what? Kaboom! This is Omnitech. You're starting a war with a corporation. Wouldn't be the first time. She looks at Robert and Haleyy and kind of nods. No, it wouldn't. You want to go kill someone like the old times?
[00:08:51] Haleyy: Yeah.
[00:08:52] Star Master Jeff: Why do? Sorry, Felix. Looks like the room's turned against you. Iso's in charge now. Hang on, hang on.
[00:08:59] Thorne: I do agree with them, Felix. We do need to do something about this. And with Iso involved, that, you know, if they're going after her, they're not going after us. Fine.
[00:09:09] Haleyy: Thanks, Felix. We knew you had it in you.
[00:09:12] Star Master Jeff: She turns from the door and grabs a box of shotgun shells. She's like, I've only got eight in here, just in case.
[00:09:19] Felix: And she pockets them. As we're walking out, I'm like, just so you know, there could be up to, like, three other people on that ship, so he's probably not alone.
> ⚠️ *"And she pockets them" appears misattributed to Felix — likely Star Master Jeff narrating Iso's action.*
[00:09:27] Star Master Jeff: She pats her pocket full of shells as if in answer. Oh, wait a minute. And she runs back into the shop while you guys are out on the street. And she comes back a moment later and she goes over to Robert and she hands him a skinny cylindrical object that he immediately recognizes as a flashbang. I only have the one and I wish it was something that would kill.
[00:09:47] Robert: No, this will give us that element of surprise.
[00:09:51] Star Master Jeff: If you throw it real hard, you might be able to hit him in the throat. And then the flashbang would go off, and that'd be real funny.
[00:09:57] Robert: If I throw it real hard, I'm going to hit him square in the mouth. Or square in the nuts.
[00:10:02] Star Master Jeff: Ooh. And they're walking off, like, talking excitedly about maiming and violence, which is honestly the first time that anyone has seen them get along since you've landed here in Spigot. Yeah.
[00:10:14] Haleyy: We love it.
[00:10:15] Felix: As they walk off, I look at Haleyy and Thorne, and I go, hey, just to check, did Robert kill that bartender? I mean, I didn't really notice.
[00:10:23] Thorne: I'm sure there were many casualties. Okay.
[00:10:25] Haleyy: Things happen. Maybe.
[00:10:27] Thorne: All right, well, let's go.
[00:10:29] Felix: Just keep an eye on them.
[00:10:31] Star Master Jeff: I always do. Robert and Iso are still a few paces ahead, and the three of you are taking up the rear as you make your way towards the spaceport. You know from the records exactly where this Omnitech ship is, and... Within an hour, you have made your way to the spaceport and you are several landing bays down from it. This is a big open air spaceport. So you can see everything you need to see from fairly far away. And it's all completely open to the public. It's only the individual landing bays that are kind of shut down and you need individual access to get to them. The Omnitech ship, strangely enough, is only about a dozen landing bays away from your ship, the Scapegoat. So you kind of walk past the goat and you see that they're welding new hull plating on. And 15 minutes later, you're just about to pass this Omnitech landing bay.
[00:11:24] Felix: All right. So Felix is not thrilled to be here. So before you make a move, what are we looking at here? Like, what's the situation?
[00:11:31] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, so it's like a big open-air field that's separated by steel walls. The walls are like 10 feet high, so they're more about just kind of stopping people from waltzing right into any individual bay. But under cover of night, or if you were jumping out of a helicopter, you could land right into any one of these bays. In fact, the bay for this Omnitech small frigate, the door is wide open.
[00:11:56] Felix: Hmm. That's suspicious. Yeah, I don't love that. [UNCLEAR] go, well, we're here. What now? She starts walking through the door.
> ⚠️ *[UNCLEAR] — transcription artifact for what appears to be a gesture or hesitation. Original audio unclear.*
[00:12:05] Thorne: I grab Robert's shoulder since I at least can, you know, reason with him. Listen, Robert, I know we want to take this guy out, but if we can put the squeeze on these folks before we enact any, you know, killer vengeance, it would maybe do us a benefit. But let's prioritize no witnesses. Those regulators are about, I don't want to get on the wrong side of another group.
[00:12:29] Robert: I wholeheartedly agree that taking a moment to get the lay of the land, do the, well, let's just say what a snapper does. Establishing overwatch so that we can actually see who's going in, who's going out, how many we got before we just go bust up in there willy-nilly. Probably gonna be to our benefit. I so, I don't know if you're hearing me say this.
[00:13:04] Star Master Jeff: She stopped when you started talking. And as you were talking she was distracting you by kind of frisking you. Please do not take my flashbang. Yeah, you say that down at her. Like, I don't know if you're hearing this, just as she pulls the flashbang out and she's like, Robert, if we ain't going to use this and she starts walking through the door, she's like, the hatch of their ship is open. Why don't we just throw this sucker in there and see what happens?
[00:13:19] Felix: I said, listen, listen, listen. Let's try to at least take this person alive. We are looking for somebody, and any information we can get will be invaluable to finding her.
[00:13:27] Star Master Jeff: Fine, I'll play along a little bit, but those mothers—
[00:13:30] Felix: You can have your way. You can pull his toes off. You can gouge his eyes out. You can have your fun.
[00:13:36] Star Master Jeff: My God, what is wrong with this man? I ain't going to torture no one. I know, he's a bit of a weirdo. I might shove this flashbang down his throat, but I ain't going to pull his fingernails out or do anything untoward to him.
[00:13:48] Robert: Now, while I watch out over things, Felix, if you could get a digital layout of the land, Iso and Thorne, could you like play Lokipon for like a couple hours?
[00:14:01] Felix: Can I still be connected to the camera network or do I have to be hardwired in to do that?
[00:14:05] Star Master Jeff: You have to be hardwired in. There's no Wi-Fi here. I'm going to look for a port. Yeah. So there's nothing like this. This ain't no Camiri 4. There aren't just ports hanging out in the hallway here, especially because you're in a field. But you do find an administrative office.
[00:14:22] Felix: All right. Well, I mean, Robert, you said you wanted like visual access to what's going on. I can get into the computer system from that admin building we passed when we walked in. I mean, I don't exactly fit in and give it a try, I guess.
[00:14:35] Robert: Do you want me to help you with this? No, I don't want you to help me with that. No, I'm not saying the tip of the tab. I'm saying the disguise part.
[00:14:45] Felix: I know what you were saying, Robert, and I am all set with that. Thank you. I feel like just a little bit of hair grease might really help you out. Last time I tried a little bit of your hair grease, my pillow was stained for three months. If I may interject, why don't you just send the handsome one in there? Because he doesn't know how to use the computers. We'll go together. Although, hold on. The one I could — let me sit down for a second here. I'm going to sit down and try to put together just a little, like, program Thorne can click to access that will, like, because I know the layout of the computer systems, will access, like, the camera network that he can navigate through.
[00:15:21] Star Master Jeff: Okay. So you make a little batch script, give me a Program Intelligence check, PC6. This is an easy task for you. Make him actually write the script. That's a 10. Okay, yeah, so no problem for you. You create a little batch file. Do you send it over to Thorne, or do you keep it on your trifold? No, I'll send it to Thorne's pad.
[00:15:41] Felix: So what, I just take this and plug it in?
[00:15:43] Thorne: No one watches me?
[00:15:44] Felix: Yep. Yeah, and then click that right there, and that'll kick it off, and you'll get access to what you need.
[00:15:48] Thorne: Yeah, so I take my pad, and I'll go while y'all wait here and have a look.
[00:15:53] Star Master Jeff: And I have my bionic eyes out. Oh, my God. I assumed as much, yeah. Actually, you are in a situation where there are things far enough away for you to see with your binoculars. Yes! So you look several landing bays away. You spot some birds in the sky. You check out some faraway dunes, and you see some silver-suited men in conveyor bots working hard to mine out that helium-3. And you ooh and ah as Thorne makes his way over to that administrative building. Thorne, you walked right in with authority, I assume. Yeah, like I own the place. I can already see where this is headed, so give me a free Talk/Charisma roll. What do you mean? That is a 10. Nice. Okay, just wanted to kind of set the stage. So you walk in, and immediately there's a woman at a reception desk. And behind her are a ton of hot swap type of desks with only a few people at them, as well as a bunch of private offices. And there's another floor to this place. When you walk in, she looks down like over her glasses at you because she was looking down, annoyed. And then when she sees you, she sits up a little straight and she takes her glasses off and kind of smooths her hair. Hello there. I'm sorry. How can I help you? Yeah, can I? I need a terminal. Oh, well, I'm sorry. They're really only for government workers. But there's a public library not far from here. Let's see.
[00:17:13] Thorne: Do I see what I'm looking for, though, at least? So that I know, like, can I... Yeah.
[00:17:17] Star Master Jeff: There's a ton of, like, boxy old-fashioned terminals with landlines plugged into them.
[00:17:21] Thorne: Yeah, okay. So I kind of just, like, put one elbow down on the counter and, like, kind of lean in, and I'm like, oh, I just want to use one real quick. I'm sure nobody would mind if I just grabbed one that nobody's using, right?
[00:17:33] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Oh, and you notice that when you lean in, she starts to breathe a little bit faster, and she smooths her hair again and looks down and back up. I guess it would be okay. Great, thank you. And I just walk away. You go over to the terminal, and you have to circle around the desk, which means you can see her back, and you see that she's just fanning herself with a piece of paper as you plug your data pad into the port.
[00:18:00] Thorne: All right, I'm gonna hope that Felix's trick does the trick, and I push the button as instructed.
[00:18:05] Star Master Jeff: Meanwhile, back at the landing bay, Felix, you are waiting impatiently. Like, it's been like 15 minutes. This is way too long. Finally, your trifold blinks to life and a window opens, showing you the contents of that terminal, and allowing you to then jack into the local network and immediately gain access to all of the cameras in this area. Excellent.
[00:18:32] Felix: All right, I'm in. Thanks, Thorne. Just hold tight. Yeah, you need me to stay here, right? Yeah, you got to stay jacked in. All right, so I'm going to cycle through the cameras. I'm looking for, like, security, the regulators, anybody around that's going to, like, you know, actually cause us problems if a scuffle kicks off.
[00:18:50] Star Master Jeff: There are regulators in various buildings around here, and some of them are patrolling about, but there's not a very large force here. And other than that, you really don't see any complications.
[00:19:04] Felix: We look pretty clear, but we try to keep it quiet because... Sound is going to travel pretty far here. I mean, it's a pretty wide open space and we don't want a bunch of regulators to show up.
[00:19:16] Haleyy: Agreed.
[00:19:16] Felix: Iso loudly puts a shell under— Robert, Haleyy, anything else or do we just go?
> ⚠️ *"Iso loudly puts a shell under chocolate" appears to be a misattribution + transcription artifact. Likely Star Master Jeff narrating Iso racking a shotgun shell.*
[00:19:22] Haleyy: Point me where you need me.
[00:19:24] Robert: Do we want to wait for Thorne to come out, y'all? I thought I had to stay here.
[00:19:29] Thorne: Yeah, if you're going to stay in there. You could just leave your pad there. I don't mind leaving it here as long as it's not, again, a loose end. Like, this is my data pad. We'll go back and get it.
[00:19:40] Star Master Jeff: You hope. You only need to leave your pad there if Felix wants to keep an open connection to see through all of the cameras. I do want to have that. The second you unplug it, he's going to lose that.
[00:19:49] Felix: I do want to have that.
[00:19:50] Star Master Jeff: Oh, that's way too traceable. Can I also see, though, at least? Yeah, you could see everything Felix is doing on the terminal.
[00:19:58] Thorne: Yeah, so I can watch from here. And you guys can hear me over comm, so that's fine. What am I going to do, shoot somebody? We might need that one damage. Well, then you better get someone else to do it, because I might miss. Yeah, so if I can see what they're doing, I will stay here, monitor from here, and keep in touch on comms.
[00:20:14] Star Master Jeff: Okay. So back to the three of you plus Iso, at the landing bay.
[00:20:21] Robert: My only thought at this point, I'd love to hear the room's opinion on, I hurl flashbang in, we all run in, and fucking shoot everything.
[00:20:35] Thorne: And I don't like it, because see if we can take him alive and try not to draw too much attention.
[00:20:40] Star Master Jeff: Thorne, you're starting to draw attention from that woman as you talk to yourself. She turns around like you're talking to her, and then when she sees you're not, she turns back around.
[00:20:49] Felix: I make a note of it. Robert, remember, he could have information on where Voss is. We have to find Elara, remember. Oh, God. Let's flashbang him, tie him up, and get some info. You're making this so much harder. Yeah, but you're good at it. You're going to do great. I believe in you, buddy.
[00:21:09] Robert: Yeah, I'm good at shooting people in the face. Okay, okay. New plan, new plan. I hurl flashbang into the room. Haleyy, you go in and try to choke him out. Iso and I shoot any other jackasses in there. Felix, you hide in the corner. Y'all ready?
[00:21:30] Star Master Jeff: This is boring as — yeah, kick the tires and light the fires. Let's do it. And she takes out her shotgun and just starts flat out sprinting towards the ship. Oh, God. Damn right. That was close to the plan. Go girl. That's my kind of lady. She did not hear a plan, let me tell you that. She heard guidelines, if she even heard those. Haleyy and Robert sprint after her.
[00:21:55] UNKNOWN: 100%.
> ⚠️ *Table crosstalk — speaker unclear.*
[00:21:56] Robert: Damn right. Oh, yeah. I'm just trying to make sure that I can get the flashbang before she gets to the ship.
[00:22:03] Star Master Jeff: Surprisingly, she reaches the ship first and waits. She's at the bottom of a hatch at the bottom of the ship with a ladder leading up into it. This ship is a medium-sized ship for, like, individuals. At the bottom of the ladder here, Iso runs up and stops, points her shotgun up, and she waits. And you see an intense look on her face, and it reminds you of going to war with her all those times. And any fear you had of her being a complete wild card in this situation can now be discarded. You realize that she's in combat mode. And as you approach, she's ready and waiting to follow the plan.
[00:22:42] Robert: Commander, we're going on your mark.
[00:22:45] Haleyy: All right, throw it.
[00:22:47] Robert: Three, two, one, mark, breach.
[00:22:50] Star Master Jeff: You toss the flashbang in and you hear a scuffle of feet and then— as the flashbang goes off and a yell.
[00:22:57] Haleyy: Haleyy runs in.
[00:22:58] Robert: Damn right, I follow behind. I'm clearing left. I'm hoping that Iso is clearing right. Haleyy is taking point on assault and we are her overwatch.
[00:23:13] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Haleyy clambers up the ladder with Robert in tow and Iso right after. Robert swings to the left and Iso swings to the right as Haleyy zeroes in on the man that is crumpled on the floor, clutching his eyes. You run up and you grab him. And when you flip him over so you can see his face, goddammit if it isn't another Robert clone.
[00:23:35] Haleyy: God damn it.
[00:23:36] Star Master Jeff: Son of a bitch.
[00:23:38] Haleyy: Robert.
[00:23:38] Star Master Jeff: This one has a buzzed head and a goatee.
[00:23:42] Haleyy: You guys really are everywhere.
[00:23:44] Robert: Fucking love this. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you. I mean, you knew. You always knew.
[00:23:49] Haleyy: Do you recognize him?
[00:23:54] Robert: It looks a little bit like Ranger 2, but I'm a little Tony.
[00:23:59] Haleyy: Nah.
[00:24:02] Star Master Jeff: Iso walks up and kicks the guy in the stomach and she goes, I don't see a clone at all. I just see scrap, just a hunk of meat. And she spits on him. And then she takes out her shotgun.
[00:24:12] Haleyy: We might want to talk about that perspective, but okay. Well, don't kill him. Just we'll tie him up.
[00:24:19] Robert: No, let's drag him out of here.
[00:24:21] Felix: Don't bring him outside, you psychos.
[00:24:24] Haleyy: We tie him up.
[00:24:26] Robert: We need to get him to the person who can do the talky talk.
[00:24:29] Felix: Well, if the ship is secure, Thorne and I can come in there.
[00:24:32] Thorne: Yeah, you tell us when the ship is secure and we'll come in.
[00:24:36] Haleyy: All right, yeah. Okay, we'll tie him up and then keep going.
[00:24:38] Star Master Jeff: So you tie him up and as his vision and ears clear, he looks up and he says, oh, fuck. You?
[00:24:48] Haleyy: You who?
[00:24:49] Robert: This guy, a clone. We're going to be the best part of your day. Now, do you want to get to talking or are we going to have to make this a little weird?
[00:25:01] Star Master Jeff: Listen, I haven't seen another clone in quite a while, so this is already goddamn weird enough.
[00:25:07] Haleyy: We get that a lot.
[00:25:08] Robert: Yeah, I'll talk. Okay, that's what I like to hear. That's what I like to hear. I very subtly stroke him on the cheek and then slap him in the face. Tell me what you got to say.
[00:25:19] Star Master Jeff: God damn it. Okay, I'll tell you everything. You and your friends are marks and I was paid to kill you. Okay, happy. I work for [[Omnitek Holdings|Omnitech]]. I don't know what relation you have with Omnitech, but hey, I was told to come here and kill you and I'm a soldier. I was just following orders. Omnitech, you say? Because we work for Omnitech. Well, apparently not anymore. So the communication goes out for Felix and Thorne to head towards the ship.
[00:25:48] Thorne: Yeah, you guys send out some sort of radio, and Thorne, he takes his stuff, and he starts to leave the admin office, and then he stops, and he turns to the woman who was sitting there, and he's like, it's time to get out of here.
[00:26:00] UNKNOWN: Mm-hmm.
> ⚠️ *Likely the receptionist's voice, voiced by Star Master Jeff — misattributed as UNKNOWN.*
[00:26:01] Star Master Jeff: She looks up to you visibly gulping like you've never seen a non-cartoon character do that and she takes her glasses back off folding them nervously and putting them on the desk in front of her and she says I don't know, I kind of just work until the job's done. Well, we got nothing else to do. And then I just like slide some anonymous contact information and then leave.
[00:26:24] Thorne: What is the anonymous? Is it just fake? No, it's real, but it's like, you know, it doesn't say Thorne Draxus and my home address and everything like that. It's just like a number. Thorne's probably got like a dozen numbers that he uses.
[00:26:36] Haleyy: Did you accidentally write down the number of the receptionist at Scrapjack's?
[00:26:44] Star Master Jeff: So it isn't long before Thorne meets back up with Felix and the two of you scurry across the landing pad and up into this small ship. What you find in there is Iso pointing her shotgun at a man huddled on the ground who looks exactly like Robert, but with a buzzed head and a goatee. Robert is kneeling next to the guy, stroking his finger down his cheek, and then he slaps him. And Haleyy's standing nearby, and it's honestly hard to read what expression she's wearing right now. It's like she's battle-hardened and disgusted all at once.
[00:27:19] Haleyy: Yeah, it's like disgust and curiosity, so you read it in a lot of ways. Really? Another one? Yeah.
[00:27:25] Felix: Oh, fuck off with this clone bullshit. This place is infested with Roberts.
[00:27:31] Haleyy: I wasn't expecting this one either.
[00:27:34] Felix: I'm gonna go hack into this computer system on this ship and figure out where it's been and where it's going. Don't talk to me. No, Felix, don't you want to know where Voss is? I'm gonna go find that out from the computer. Thorne can find it out from this man. I'm not talking to him. It, him.
[00:27:51] Robert: It? Whoa. You watch yourself now.
[00:27:54] Thorne: Felix, I think the preferred vernacular is him, yeah.
[00:27:58] Star Master Jeff: Hey, whoa, clone. The guy who you don't really know his name. No one's asked his name. He says, oh, so you're the guy I'm talking to? And he, like, moves his chin towards Thorne because he's tied up.
[00:28:12] Thorne: Yeah, I kind of, like, get comfortable near him. I guess that's what's happening.
[00:28:16] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I mean, I'm just a soldier. I work for Omnitech. I'll tell you whatever you need to know. Omnitech, huh? Yeah, just don't kill me, and I'll tell you everything.
[00:28:23] Thorne: Sure, sure. So what's your sign? What do you go by? DT7X. All right, DT. Do you like 7X better?
[00:28:32] Felix: It doesn't matter.
[00:28:33] Thorne: Listen, I bet Omnitech, you know, just sent you off to a random ball of sand to assassinate a couple of random nobodies that you don't care about. But there's some big shit going on here, so I got a couple questions that I want to ask you. Did you have contact with anybody before you did the job? Like an anonymous message from Omnitech the entity or an individual who was representing Omnitech?
[00:28:57] Star Master Jeff: Oh, it came down from my commander. Yeah, and their callsign? Oh, I can tell you pretty much everything, but I'm physically unable to tell you some secrets.
[00:29:08] Thorne: I kind of turn and I look at Robert and Haleyy. Is this like a weird clone programming thing? Or is he just being an asshole?
[00:29:16] Star Master Jeff: He's just being an asshole. I think we can beat it out of him. Yeah. It's like a brainwashing thing. Really, I would tell you if I could, but I can tell you he doesn't matter. He's not an important person. He's just my commander. That's it. But I just can't reveal the structure of any portion of Omnitech. The administrative side, the military.
[00:29:37] Thorne: They told you to come to Sibylen.
[00:29:40] Star Master Jeff: My orders were to follow you. You came to Sibylen. And then I was told to destroy you after whatever you guys were doing on the other side of the planet. I was told to stay away from that situation. And then when whatever happened over there resolved, I was already parked here and waiting. And I was told, today's the day.
[00:30:02] Thorne: And your commander gave you that info?
[00:30:04] Star Master Jeff: Yes. He must have been following us for a while. Yeah. Felix, as you are walking over to the cockpit, you do notice that it's a craftsman for two people, and both of the individual sleeping compartments have been lived in and have their own clothes thrown about and fixings on the walls.
[00:30:26] Felix: I run back to the group. Robert, Haleyy, I said, what the hell? There's somebody else here. Both of those rooms have been lived in. How — ask this guy, who else is here?
[00:30:35] Thorne: You got a roommate, my friend?
[00:30:36] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, they wouldn't send me out alone. And where are they? Well, we went out together to kill you. He was running flank, and after the explosion, we were going to meet back here, and I haven't seen him yet.
[00:30:48] Robert: Pull up the ladder, y'all. Close the hatch.
[00:30:51] Felix: Yeah, so while they do that, I just, like, curse under my breath and, like, go back up to the cockpit again to hook back up into the ship and try to figure out what I can from that.
[00:31:00] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so you jack into the ship and you start hacking through its systems.
[00:31:04] Robert: Now, DT7X, were you at the Exosite?
[00:31:13] Star Master Jeff: Is that where you were? Whatever was on the other side of the planet, no, I didn't go there.
[00:31:18] Robert: I'm asking the questions. How would you possibly have followed us then?
[00:31:24] Star Master Jeff: Well, I followed you to Scrapjack's. Then you guys did a number on that place. I stayed nearby. I hid behind some asteroids. And when you left, I followed you to here.
[00:31:36] Thorne: Robert, remind me that we need to upgrade the sensors. Yeah. Thorne, what's bothering me right now is that he hasn't been affected by any of the tuning forks. Oh, the guy just looks at you confused. I kind of lean into the group. Yeah, maybe — well, if he was far off it may not have affected him. Yeah, but then he'd be too far to know where we were. Maybe. Do you think he's just as useless as he seems? All right, DT, here's the thing. My friends aren't buying your story. It feels like there's a gap or there's something that we're missing. Can you help me understand what it is that doesn't add up here? Like, how are you following us? Are you tracking our ship? Some sort of tracker? Is it just completely by eye and you're just really good at hide and seek? Or, what is it? Because these two fellow clones here are really antsy. And I'm trying to keep them calm. I mean, you should know, right? Like, I'm trying. Nobody has to get blown to bits.
[00:32:39] Star Master Jeff: Today, even though you already tried to do that to us once. When you say two fellow clones, he looks over at Haleyy, then he looks at you, then he looks at Robert, then he looks at Iso, then he looks at Robert, then he looks at Iso, then he looks at himself. He says, I don't know why you think something's not adding up. You're in an Omnitech ship. You could always be tracked quite easily. So I tracked you all the way to Scrapjack's. I monitored the signal. You eventually left Scrapjack's. You went to the other side of Sibylen. I was told not to pursue you there and to come park at the spaceport and wait. So that's what I did. But then your ship limped its way over towards the spaceport. And while you were traveling, I got new orders. Today was the day. You parked, you came to town, I tracked you, tried to blow you up. It's nothing personal.
[00:33:29] Thorne: Of course, of course. And then I kind of just shrug at Robert. Well, there you have it. I mean, he doesn't know much more beyond that. I mean, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Scapegoat's, you know, on their radar.
[00:33:41] Robert: Felix swept it for bugs. The only person who could get in here was Victor. He got into the root core of it. He got into the kernel. Nobody else could track it. You're telling me this guy is better than Felix? He told me no one was tracking us.
[00:33:57] Felix: Come through on comms because I've been listening in as I'm doing my work. Robert, what I said was, yes, no one was tracking us — that's before I knew how deep Omnitech's hold on our systems were. With the whole thing with the ownership module, they were embedded in our core systems of the Scapegoat. They could have used that to track us. Now they won't be able to anymore. That explains how he followed us so far.
[00:34:19] Star Master Jeff: Iso pipes up and says, what your friend Felix is trying to say is he fucked up. So it's not a problem with this guy's story. It's a problem with Felix's brain because he don't work so well. Maybe we should give him one of them brain scans, too. Maybe he got rocks in there. But I say it's time we just take care of this guy. Take his nice ship. Just kind of leave.
[00:34:39] Thorne: Hey, I mean, I'm out of questions. Sorry, DT, but you weren't as helpful as I had hoped.
[00:34:44] Star Master Jeff: Great. And she raises up her shotgun.
[00:34:49] Robert: Yeah, that's exactly — DT, do you have anything that's gonna make my nice friend here not blow your brains out, you dirty piece of — Oh my God. Okay, Robert. I told you everything I know and I thought — he looks at Thorne imploringly — I thought we had some sort of a deal here. I would tell you everything I know and then I would get to live.
[00:35:21] Thorne: Robert, calm down. Calm down, buddy. Wait, no.
[00:35:23] Haleyy: There's a lot going on here.
[00:35:25] Thorne: Here's the thing, DT. What were we gonna do to get you not to blow us up, you know? It's kind of like Catch-22. Like, if you were super helpful and you, like, you unlocked, you know, you blew this thing wide open, I might have tried to find a way to vouch for you, man, but, you know, when you get into wet work, you gotta expect that this is probably how it's gonna end. Fine. Fuck you and your mother. Now, hang on one second. Whoa, whoa, okay. Robert, hand me that gun. And Iso blows his head off. Now, come on, I was gonna do that.
[00:35:58] Star Master Jeff: His brains splatter all over the floor and wall behind him as he falls backwards, and when he does, his hands, which were bound behind his back, a small, round orb falls out from his hands, blinking red.
[00:36:14] Thorne: God damn it.
[00:36:15] Robert: And this is when, if I can, grab his body and put it on top of the grenade. Yes. You're like, grenade!
[00:36:23] Star Master Jeff: And you put his body on top of it. Nothing happens. And not long after, you realize it's not a grenade. And when Felix is able to take a look at it later, he finds that it's a transponder. Somewhere else, when that button was pressed on top of this little round orb, someone was alerted. I think we know where his friend is.
[00:36:45] Felix: Or at least we'll be meeting them soon. I put it on the ground and I crush it beneath my robot foot.
[00:36:53] Robert: Do we use this ship as a trap and then wait for the friend to come? I'm getting worried we're getting off track here, guys.
[00:36:59] Felix: And I look at the time.
[00:37:00] Haleyy: Yeah, we have to get the control module.
[00:37:02] Felix: Yeah, we got to steal that ownership module like at 3 a.m. We don't have a lot of time here.
[00:37:07] Star Master Jeff: And I don't think he's coming back, guys. That was probably telling him to stay away.
[00:37:11] Haleyy: Good call.
[00:37:12] Felix: Yeah, I was like, that was like run. Well, I'm sure he'll come for us later. But Iso, did you get what you needed out of this?
[00:37:19] Star Master Jeff: Well, all I wanted was to come kill this motherfucker. He threw a grenade at us. Do you remember that? Do you remember when he threw that grenade? Well, now he's dead. And she laughs a little too maniacally. It was a good shot. Was I able to get any info out of the computer system? It's going to take a while more. So you still have several hours.
[00:37:39] Felix: So if you want, you can hack. Yeah, I want to work here for a little bit just because I think it's important, like, if we can get any detail out of this system, because it's an Omnitech computer.
[00:37:48] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so Felix, you disappear back onto the bridge. Thorne, what do you want to be doing?
[00:37:55] Thorne: We're just waiting on the ship at this point, hoping that the associate doesn't return here. So I think we're just on vigilance. I'll probably be in the cockpit with Felix just using the cockpit window to try to just see if anyone's approaching the ship and just kind of keep my eyes peeled.
[00:38:10] Star Master Jeff: Okay. So the two of you are up on the bridge. Iso actually goes into the dead man's bunk and lays down to take a quick nap. And that leaves Robert and Haleyy. What would you guys like to be doing?
[00:38:21] Haleyy: Eating snacks.
[00:38:23] Star Master Jeff: Haleyy.
[00:38:24] Haleyy: Hey, Robert. What's on your mind?
[00:38:26] Robert: What are you remembering?
[00:38:29] Haleyy: It's tough because all of the memories are sitting there.
[00:38:33] Robert: All? All the memories?
[00:38:35] Haleyy: Seems like it. The necessary ones float to the surface or they're there, ready for me to get access to as I get in a reference point to something, but it's kind of a stop and go process. So no, I haven't remembered everything necessarily. It's not like I've jumped back to being who I was before all this started.
[00:38:58] Robert: That's what I'm worried about. When you're going to remember everything, it's going to come flooding back. All I can say is I'm so sorry.
[00:39:08] Haleyy: You don't have anything to be sorry for.
[00:39:10] Robert: I do, though.
[00:39:12] Haleyy: No?
[00:39:12] Robert: I've lied to you. I've lied to you for years. I tried so hard to keep you safe.
[00:39:19] Haleyy: You did keep me safe because Haleyy with two Ys was something that I made. You took care of what was right in front of you and what you had to work with.
[00:39:31] Robert: I could have told you the truth. I could have told you what happened, but you were dead. You were dead in front of me. You were fucking dead. I'm sorry. I couldn't let you go through that again.
[00:39:45] Haleyy: I feel like you remember those moments a bit better than I do, at least for now.
[00:39:51] Robert: But it's going to come back, and you're never going to trust me again.
[00:39:57] Haleyy: What I've seen in front of me the past couple of years — you're a good person, Robert.
[00:40:03] Robert: Now that's a lie.
[00:40:04] Haleyy: We've been stuck in a lot of shitty situations together, but even if it's tough, we make the best decisions we can at the time.
[00:40:12] Robert: That's what I did.
[00:40:14] Haleyy: And that's what you did.
[00:40:15] Robert: That's what I did. Saw a path forward. A path forward for our freedom. To be able to take you out of whatever government hellhole that they were going to test you in from now until kingdom come.
[00:40:31] Haleyy: I don't know where these new powers or abilities came from. It's clear there was nothing behind it, and you're right, because it was going to get worse before anything got better, if it ever did. So even if it was hard, you did the right thing.
[00:40:49] Robert: Did I, though?
[00:40:56] Thorne: What the hell are you still doing on here? We need somebody out there keeping watch. There's another assassin lurking. He could be here any second. Let's go. You guys all right?
[00:41:06] Robert: Nothing's happening here. Keep it to yourself. Okay. And then I just go back to help Felix again.
[00:41:14] Star Master Jeff: And I scurry away, setting up overwatch. And Haleyy is finally able to open her snack and not think about her mental state for a couple minutes.
[00:41:24] Haleyy: Yeah, Haleyy's just kind of like, ah.
[00:41:27] Star Master Jeff: So we have Robert on Overwatch, Haleyy having a much-needed snack, Iso bedding down in a dead man's bunk, Felix hacking away at the ship, and Thorne standing guard over Felix, looking out the front windscreen of this small ship, watching for an assassin. And I think that's where we're gonna have to stop for tonight. Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Dark Star Adventure Cast. Big thanks to our cast, Brian as Thorne, Scott as Felix, Doja as Robert, and Steph as Haleyy with one or 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, please, please take a moment and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. It really helps out the pod and helps new people find the show. Next time on the Dark Star Adventurecast: the crew is running out of time. The ownership module heist at Helium Dock 7 starts at 3 in the morning, and they still have to make it back across Spigot to get there. But when they roll out, they find something waiting for them that entirely changes their plan. Because the second assassin wasn't sitting idly by. Tune in to find out what happens, and as always, keep following that signal.