0:00

So Ben sent me a card

0:02

that says imagine some piss

0:05

I try not to interrupt, but what the fuck

0:07

does that mean? You can do it, it's free I'm

0:10

sorry, I didn't know what you were saying First,

0:13

the bad news The world

0:15

is no longer habitable to human

0:18

life Now for the good news

0:20

Your new life starts today Outside

0:31

the smoking wreckage of a hab complex

0:33

in sector CYN How

0:35

was it destroyed you ask? Well, a

0:38

lot of grenades blew it up At the beginning a

0:40

rocket launcher was fired inside it Half of

0:42

the wall on the third floor was blown

0:44

out by precision lasers And yes, oh yes,

0:47

a gunship crashed into the

0:49

building All part of a day's work for

0:51

the troubleshooters Who have gone in on a mission

0:53

deep undercover To pretend to be mutants,

0:56

to uncover a mutant cell Everything

0:58

has gone wrong, things have blown up Your experimental

1:01

equipment is all destroyed

1:04

But, measure of measures Tiny

1:06

joy of tiny joys You have

1:08

found something, something potentially important A

1:11

black lacquered box with a strange symbol

1:13

that seems oddly familiar Which

1:15

is now held in your hot little hand Strawberry

1:17

clone generation 2 Four more

1:19

to go Remember you only have a set

1:22

of six each of you And as you stand by

1:24

what I think we said was a bus stop Near

1:26

the smouldering boots of what was once

1:29

Tom Carty's character Beetle You

1:31

see that despite all

1:34

of the

1:34

crises before you At least you have found

1:37

something that may be valuable Well,

1:41

I don't know what this is But,

1:44

maybe one of you can tell me Unfortunately old

1:46

chap, I don't really know I

1:48

don't really know what it's for All I know

1:51

is that it is of great importance to the Church

1:53

of the Consolidated Maker And

1:55

it seems to be worth something I

1:58

just feel like whatever it is We're all in this together and

2:00

we've got to band together like

2:02

old chums.

2:04

Dave, do you think an operation role would work

2:06

out how to open it? You can try one, yeah. Okay.

2:09

So is that operation mechanics? Mechanics, mechanics operations.

2:12

Okay.

2:13

You're going to need a computer dice because you are back inside

2:15

the zone. That's one success

2:18

and a five, two successes. All

2:20

right, you look at it.

2:21

You have a little look at it and you realise that the glyph on

2:23

the front of it looks like it's actually a

2:25

symbol that seems familiar to you. You start

2:28

rotating parts of it and it comes,

2:30

swims into focus. As you take an arrow, you

2:32

swing it down. You take two little perpendicular

2:34

sticks, you put them together with a crossbar in the middle and

2:37

there's a hissness, a pneumatic hiss

2:39

and the entire thing glows blue and

2:41

then it goes, and it starts to

2:44

open as all the pressure inside releases it and you can

2:46

flip open the lid.

2:47

But before you flip open

2:50

that lid, you suddenly feel a little tug

2:53

on your jumpsuit

2:57

trouser cuff and you look down and you see

2:58

a little scrub bot, a tiny little industrial

3:01

automated unit is tugging you.

3:04

It's got a single wheel on a little monopod

3:06

body and a little claw and a dustpan and

3:08

it's softly whacking your

3:10

cuff with the dustpan and tugging with the claw.

3:13

And do I know...

3:15

Looks like it wants you to follow it. Hello

3:18

little buddy, what

3:20

is it that you want?

3:22

Beep boop beep boop beep beep beep boop.

3:25

And then it whacks you again and then it rolls

3:27

forward around the corner, stops, turns

3:29

around, looks at you and rolls

3:30

back and tugs again. Uh...

3:34

I think I made a little friend. Oh,

3:37

yeah, let's follow this guy. Alright, so you're

3:39

gonna follow? Yep. You go around the corner and

3:41

you can see more of the destruction from

3:44

your

3:44

attack. Which, let's

3:47

be honest, that's what it was on the Scion

3:49

headquarter and there is

3:51

some more collapsed debris,

3:53

parts of the Thunderbird

3:54

attack helicopter and there is

3:56

also a groaning figure, almost

3:58

unconscious, delirious pain.

4:00

He's used some of his last energy to take

4:02

over a robot and bring you to him. It is the

4:04

collapsing dying figure of

4:07

Sykes, AKA Firebrand.

4:10

Do we have a meta-unifor?

4:14

Cause he's a six, right? Anything, this

4:17

is too late. Perhaps some kind of very specialized

4:20

hospital room, if you could get it until we would

4:22

immediately might save him, but he is dying. And

4:24

he's a six?

4:26

And this was his, yeah, he was a six. I'm a 10.

4:30

He's delirious with pain, he's a six. Sorry,

4:32

my God, who did this to you? What?

4:36

You fuckers did this to me. Oh,

4:38

God. Sorry. I was climbing

4:41

wall and all of a sudden a voice rings

4:43

out in ears, saying, freeze. Oh,

4:45

boy. Okay, don't worry about it. Who did

4:48

this to you? No, who did that? It

4:50

could have been anyone, I suppose.

4:52

And so I freeze and I fall

4:54

is not good, but also kind

4:57

of nice. I'm very tired. This

5:00

is it.

5:01

You have box. What

5:03

does it do, old man? I...what?

5:07

Why are you not old? I'm like 32. I'm

5:11

so sorry. I guess you're

5:13

not a ten after. No. This

5:17

is okay. Oh, I mean

5:18

old chap. Come on, I'm British and it's my only character

5:21

train,

5:21

so go on. I was... I

5:23

don't know exactly what

5:25

it does, but I can hear

5:27

it.

5:28

The box sings and it dreams.

5:31

I can't control it,

5:32

but I have so many memories.

5:35

And he reaches forward, a lot of pain with a bit

5:37

of blood trickling out, as if just before he

5:39

dies, he wants to touch the box one

5:41

last time, as he reaches imploringly

5:44

towards you,

5:46

Strawberry. Sikes. What

5:48

song does it sing when you touch it?

5:51

It is the song. It's

5:53

like...

5:57

Sorry, what do you mean? What

6:00

song is that? What is that? He says

6:02

it is an old song. A song

6:05

of stars and silences. Of

6:07

dark black with impossible riches.

6:10

Flowing towards the heart. Of great

6:12

sacrifice and personal toil.

6:16

And it goes doo, be doo. Be doo. Listen.

6:21

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? I hold it out. You

6:23

hold it out? And he touches it.

6:25

And he says, he locks eyes with you

6:27

Clancy. And he's like, you

6:30

sold a

6:33

hamburger. Yes, I've explained

6:35

it before. You call

6:37

someone up. You say, will you? Do

6:40

you think you would, you may like to have a hamburger. Not

6:43

now, because it takes some time to dispatch from

6:45

the warehouse unit that has to go to our third party

6:48

seller. So would you maybe like a hamburger

6:50

in two or

6:50

three weeks time? Clancy has a psychosomatic

6:52

thing that when Clancy explains this, Clancy

6:54

starts crying every time. Even

6:56

though he doesn't quite know why. And

6:58

Sykes gets a little smile on his face and he's like,

7:01

but you were happy.

7:02

And you had a

7:04

little girl. A

7:06

little tiny girl. And

7:09

then he looks to... Bofkon

7:13

ar Bof. Yeah, Bofkon ar Bof. And

7:16

he's like, you, can you feel it? Can you remember

7:18

it?

7:19

You must be able to remember it. I

7:22

was... I was on a pier.

7:26

No earlier than that. Earlier

7:29

than that. I was at a bowling alley with

7:31

my wife. Yes, yes, no, you were

7:33

there. With your wife, yes. That's

7:36

right. She invited me there. It was

7:39

your Christmas

7:39

party for work and I went.

7:42

And I said, why is Brad here? I

7:45

thought you stopped seeing him. And you

7:47

were happy. And

7:50

you, Bofkon,

7:54

can you remember? Yeah, I was around ferns.

7:57

Yes, you

7:58

were. in

8:00

a forest around beautiful

8:03

trees and animals. That's right.

8:06

I was a guerilla warrior. Yes!

8:09

Yes, you were laying mines. But

8:13

you were happy. Strawberry,

8:17

you can feel it. Yeah, I was in the

8:19

bath in

8:22

a big claw foot tub,

8:25

soaking in those bubbles every

8:28

day. None of these things, none

8:31

of these memories are from Alpha Complex.

8:35

We do not have hamburgers

8:36

or wives.

8:40

Or a brat. Or cocking. Or cocking

8:42

or brat. We do not have

8:45

beautiful rainforests and we do

8:47

not have claw feet bath, but you remember.

8:50

You must remember.

8:52

And then as he dies, he's like, how

8:54

old do I look if you had to put a number?

8:57

I was going to say

8:59

like,

9:00

well preserved 17. Jesus!

9:04

There's an anti-sound and what you realise is that a

9:06

low hum that was in the room ever since the box

9:08

had started to open has stopped

9:10

because what he has managed to do is drawing

9:13

energy from the box. He

9:15

has managed to use it to power himself to

9:18

give you this last piece of information before he

9:20

died, living slightly longer than he should have.

9:23

But he has drained the box of power. Instead

9:25

a little power out, light blinks feebly once

9:27

red, and then a little port opens

9:30

up with a universal cable support inside it. I have

9:32

a cable. I have a cable. One of

9:34

the many benefits of promotion. You do. So

9:37

you can find a socket if you want to plug it into the wall. Yeah, yeah.

9:40

Alright. I mean, should we do

9:41

this out in the open? Should we go, can we, is there

9:43

any, how close are we to

9:45

the end of the, like into the dead zone?

9:48

And does the dead zone have power? The dead zone is

9:50

up above you and now that the building

9:52

is so destroyed and sort of condemned

9:55

because you've exploded

9:55

so many things inside it. It's quite dangerous that

9:57

you can climb up into it if you want to. But the dead zone is up above you.

10:00

is up there. Right and do they have power?

10:02

Oh is it more likely that we... No there's power everywhere.

10:04

Okay. Power is not the same as the

10:07

computers, whatever the computers Wi-Fi is. Yeah.

10:09

Uh I feel like we

10:11

should move away from prying eyes

10:14

while we regroup and

10:16

work out what's what. Um I've got some

10:18

knowledge of Alpha Complex. Yes.

10:21

Um so can I um so

10:24

I say

10:26

Oh I know I actually know

10:28

a store room we could go to. Oh yeah

10:31

okay. A dead zone where

10:33

I uh I've got a memory of of it

10:36

from my uh infrared days when I used

10:38

to have to stack rooms.

10:41

There are actually

10:42

there are there's a dead zone that is used sometimes

10:44

by the first church of the brethren which you would know about.

10:46

That's what I said. It's nearby from your infrared

10:49

days when you works for the church. Now of course

10:51

there will maybe church members there. It's

10:53

used by anyone any of them that need to have clandestine conversations.

10:56

It's a small room. It's above a

10:59

food

10:59

a commissary one of the PLC commissaries

11:01

and it's just down the street. Yes but if you hang your

11:04

your tie over the one of the door handles people

11:06

know not to come in. Um just while this

11:08

is happening I've realized I've got power packs

11:10

as well. Can I jack a power pack into the

11:12

with a cord? No because

11:13

you would need a socket like for a rifle's

11:15

power pack. Right. What you need is a...

11:18

How do they charge the power packs back at the um the

11:20

queue? You could charge a power pack in the

11:23

same wall socket as you will charge the box. Does

11:25

that make sense? So you could put power into a power pack

11:27

with your cable. Okay all right. So you

11:30

you're going to head over to the commissary?

11:32

Yeah the store room. To the

11:34

safe to your safe house? Yes. All right so you guys

11:36

start racing towards the first church

11:39

safe house and as you do suddenly you'll stop

11:41

because when you hear chimes above you

11:43

and loudspeakers all over the complex

11:46

not localized ones to you but booming across

11:48

the entire

11:48

sector you hear ding ding ding.

11:51

Hello friends and citizens this

11:53

is friend computer your computer that's also

11:55

a friend. Do not be alarmed but

11:57

it seems that we have a troubleshooter unit who

11:59

has gone...

12:00

rogue in your sector. They must

12:02

be found and apprehended immediately for failure

12:04

to properly obey orders. Let this be

12:06

a lesson to all of us that the work

12:08

never stops and the party never stops.

12:11

This has been Friend Computer, goodbye! And

12:14

as he does it blink blink blink and five stars

12:16

appear over all of your heads over yours Clancy,

12:19

over yours strawberry, over yours boffcon,

12:21

over even the loyalty officer, Beatle,

12:24

all of you are now very much wanted clones.

12:27

Very conflicted by this guys.

12:30

You don't have any choice. We

12:32

have to get either into a safe area

12:34

or out of into the dead zone. You look around

12:37

yourself and you can see that there are billboards

12:38

built into the side of have complexes and factories nearby

12:41

and now they are showing your faces with the stars above

12:43

you everywhere so that

12:44

people can identify you. Do we still have our mutant

12:47

gear? Yeah you have those costumes. Should we

12:49

put our costumes on? Mm-hmm. Sure. Alright

12:51

so you guys start changing into weird

12:54

techno punk costumes. And just head to

12:56

the safe the safe room. Yeah. Alright

12:58

you're racing into the safe room. As you do

13:00

you can see that the traffic is the scrub

13:02

box and sort of all of the industrial

13:04

bots are giving way more and more to armored cars as

13:07

armed services are racing through and setting

13:09

up snap blockades down the

13:11

highway but because you're very very close you're able

13:13

to race into the building although as you

13:15

slam the door behind you you see another

13:17

van pull up as a grab van

13:19

pull up as troops start to disembark

13:21

none of them have seen you yet and you are now

13:24

inside what looks like an old

13:26

abandoned commissary the benchtops greasy

13:29

forgotten whatever food that was served here

13:31

is long gone there's just sort of a sad tubes

13:34

leaking neutrino paste onto the counter.

13:38

Clancy is there any like sort of monk

13:40

robes or anything we can put on over our you

13:43

know hide the faces? I mean it's

13:45

also illegal to be part of the church

13:48

so not sure how much that was. Well which

13:50

is less illegal to be me or to

13:52

be a monk? Hopefully

13:56

a monk. Let's

13:59

listen We need to make

14:01

a plan. So we need to get,

14:05

I think, into the dead

14:07

zone where we can... Hello,

14:09

Tildrins! What brings you to this hallowed place?

14:12

You suddenly look up in the stairs and there are two

14:14

figures standing, both wearing white robes,

14:16

looking at you. I just came down

14:18

here to look at the hymnals and I

14:21

find you snooping! Oh,

14:24

no!

14:25

Hello there! You guys are from

14:27

the church? Depends? You

14:30

guys are from the... This is church's territory

14:32

pilgrim. If you are not from the church, you must tell us now.

14:34

I have come... I was

14:37

going to do a little spot of Bible

14:39

reading because I'm a member of the church and I've got some

14:42

friends who I thought I could convert

14:44

to the

14:44

church. Do you know the good news about the asteroid?

14:47

Yeah, we know all about it. Oh, sing

14:50

us the hymns of the asteroid. I'll

14:52

start you off. The asteroid

14:54

contains untold treasures.

14:57

The asteroid... Now, while he

14:59

was doing that, you said you wanted to do something, Inc. I

15:03

was going to... I always

15:04

think

15:07

of this might be a bluff. Yeah? Check.

15:10

So what are you trying to bluff him about? So I'll

15:12

say... This is

15:14

a trick! I know I can't sing that out loud in case

15:16

you're a double agent! Oh, okay, very good. Make for me a bluff

15:18

check. Hutzpah Bluff, I guess.

15:21

Yeah, it's definitely Hutzpah. Two

15:23

and then five. One, two, three, four, five.

15:26

A lot of Hutzpah! And...

15:30

It was eight dice, all of them failed. Okay,

15:33

now I beg you to tell me, do you have any moxie? I

15:37

do, but that's fine. We don't have to use it

15:39

now.

15:40

All right, they look at you and they say... You...

15:43

You know, why one looks at you and he goes...

16:00

that we cannot sing his music? Okay,

16:03

Dave, I'm gonna play a card now called Four's

16:05

a Crowd, which is, I

16:07

describe a group of NPCs who

16:09

are useful to the action of

16:12

my choice. All right, you can, you don't need

16:14

to roll for that if you're playing your next action card.

16:16

I'm playing an action card now, so I would

16:18

like four, I would like four

16:20

people from an

16:22

opposing religious faction. Or,

16:24

sorry, sorry. A competing

16:27

sex within the religious faction

16:29

to appear. There is another sect inside

16:31

the religious faction? There can be.

16:33

Yeah, and these

16:35

four people are keen to wield

16:38

power over

16:43

the two people we just met, okay?

16:46

Great, so four members of the Anti-Bravicus Union,

16:48

the second consolidated church

16:51

of the divine spark, enter

16:53

in because they also have access to the room.

16:54

Oi, Brabicus, what you doing in here with your

16:57

big fat ass? Come on, we had this

16:59

room from 5 p.m., it's 5.30 now,

17:01

you dickhead. Can't you read a chart? No,

17:03

hang on, hang on, hang on. I think you'll find

17:06

that he who sings with the celestial voices of angels

17:08

had the room. I'm pretty sure if you look at the

17:10

sign outside, we had realized- Yeah, I've got

17:12

the sign right here. Look, it says five

17:15

o'clock, and then we're gonna meet and we're

17:17

gonna talk about-

17:18

Hang on. We're the new cool church.

17:20

But that's why we're here. We're like the hill song

17:22

of the church. Look at the schedule,

17:24

and you've blocked out this commissary from four

17:26

to seven p.m. every day. You can't do

17:28

that. We've bloody done

17:30

it, and guess what? You gotta move,

17:33

otherwise you get banned. Otherwise we

17:35

won't have anywhere to practice our electric guitar.

17:37

You have to move

17:38

on. Lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil, lil,

17:40

lil. Oh, God is cool, and I'm here

17:43

to say that if you don't like it, you're not

17:45

okay. We love that bloody

17:47

asteroid, and if you don't like

17:49

it, you're a droid. Well,

17:52

I've never been called a droid, but

17:53

Brabicus, we're leaving as a team. We'll

17:56

be back, and let me hear from you at the second

17:59

church of the Consolidated. the

18:00

divine spark has not heard the last

18:02

of the first

18:02

church of the consolidation maker. Yes,

18:04

I'm totally, even as we speak, I'm working on a devastating

18:07

hymn. One of them gets out

18:09

his trumpet and goes, wah wah wah

18:12

wah wah wah. The two of

18:14

them leave and these new ones who look exactly the same,

18:16

the symbol is upside down and instead

18:18

of linen robes, they're wearing wool robes,

18:20

but they look pretty much the same turn as the

18:23

to an afterthought looking at the troubleshooters.

18:25

And they're like,

18:26

but what do you two, what do you four want? Oh man,

18:28

did you see those guys? They were terrible. That's

18:31

what you do. You ready to hear the word of the, of

18:33

the split, the sec, the anti-barabas?

18:36

We'd love

18:36

to, we have to get out

18:38

of here into the dead zone. Can you help us? Well,

18:41

I can help you by telling you the good word about the,

18:44

about the maker Hearst. A boom, a ch,

18:47

a boom, boom, ch. Well, there was a man

18:49

and he was really smart and he wrote

18:51

some stuff down. It was kind of an, While he's

18:53

doing this, I will say that unlike the other two that

18:55

seem to be holding slug throwers, these four are very

18:57

much unarmed. They're holding

19:00

like weird instruments. Yeah. I walk up and I just

19:02

sabre as many

19:03

of them as many times as I can. Well,

19:05

my name is here and I'm here to die. One, two, three,

19:07

four, five.

19:08

Give me one of them. Five plus three.

19:10

That's a, that's eight. I'm doing a hingo. Come

19:13

on. I got one,

19:15

two. Don't even tell me anymore in that case because he

19:17

gets a sabre through the neck. Meanwhile, what are you doing, strawberry?

19:20

I will take the same lead

19:23

as from, from beetle.

19:25

And I guess I will

19:28

just throw, Oh,

19:30

what have I got? I've got the, the blue

19:32

rifle. I'm going to like laser

19:34

rifle. Okay. Another one. So

19:37

what's, is that athletics guns, I guess,

19:39

violence guns. So

19:42

that's a five. That makes it. All right. Yeah. One

19:44

success means you clip one of them. Another one of them dies. There's

19:46

two left. What about you, Clancy?

19:48

Oh shoot. One of them with a laser rifle. In

19:51

for a penny. Your, wait,

19:53

are these your people? No,

19:55

these are normal people. You can see they're wearing red uniforms.

19:57

Sorry. Are we in the dead zone yet? It dies

19:59

wrong.

19:59

Not yet. Alright.

20:03

Uh, yeah, I think that's what I do. Uh, nothing happens.

20:06

Alright, your shot misses and one of them turns around

20:08

and clips you and you fall back

20:10

as you get hit by a guitar

20:13

that I guess he's thrown and you're injured. Okay.

20:16

And beetle? Injured? Yep, just injured. Just, or

20:18

hurt? Oh, sorry, no, you're hurt. And

20:20

beetle. Oh, uh, Sabre

20:23

times two. I'm back in one,

20:25

two, three, four, three...

20:29

Sorry,

20:29

it's just like, I need so many dice because I'm so

20:31

good at stabbing. Glad

20:34

I got that Sabre. Um...

20:37

Oh yes. Four successes? Four.

20:40

One, two, three, four. Can I get two? Come on, give me... Yeah, you

20:42

know what? For four successes, definitely. Five successes, actually. Five.

20:45

And beetle screaming with four stars

20:47

over his head. Just starts cutting

20:50

priests up left and right, holy

20:52

people,

20:52

devout people, people that have dedicated their lives

20:54

to nothing more than the betterment of their infrared

20:56

inferiors as you just cut them

20:58

down. You're not loyal, you're

21:00

not loyal, loyalty!

21:03

And however, they're all dead and as

21:05

they collapse, you can see that one

21:07

of them has what looks like a

21:09

key that is tied to a wooden

21:12

block with a number on it. Yoink. You

21:14

take that key, you try it on the back door and there are corridors

21:17

leading out.

21:17

Some of them have ties on them and some of them don't. There's about six different

21:19

rooms.

21:21

Some of them wearing ties, some of them are just like casual Friday

21:23

doors. We need to charge up

21:25

this bad boy, so are there power points in these

21:27

rooms?

21:28

Yeah, I'll go in first and I go and I

21:30

check one which doesn't have a tie on it. Yep, these are all just

21:32

little meeting rooms for the church. So they're empty, they

21:34

have a little pew, they have an image

21:37

of the divine maker which looks like an old man with a grey beard. And overhead

21:40

projector.

21:41

No, there's none of these dead zones. But

21:45

there is also a row of power

21:47

points at the back. I'm going to charge

21:49

the box. All right, you charge

21:51

the box and it seems to achingly slowly

21:53

start to tick up 10%, 20%, 30% as you hear a click and a loud haler

21:55

as a voice.

21:59

comes over,

22:01

booming from outside the building. Troubleshooters,

22:05

you have been witnessed entering this building.

22:07

This is your last chance in the name of

22:10

insect and friend computer. Give

22:12

yourselves up. So

22:14

when we look around this room, wait,

22:17

so that's gonna happen? That's gonna get there. Yeah,

22:20

you're in a small, basically what you're in is a Farad

22:22

A cage, right? You can see there's exposed wiring everywhere.

22:24

It's been built in a way so that WiFi

22:26

can't penetrate into it, but it's a room

22:29

with power inside a reinforced bunker

22:31

underneath a commissary. And you can hear through

22:33

the walls that they're saying that they have the whole commissary

22:36

surrounded. Wait, can you hear us if

22:38

we talk back? It

22:40

occurs to me now that I'm talking

22:42

to you and there's, tell you what,

22:45

we're opening up a wideband

22:48

radio channel. You can activate it if

22:50

you wish to talk to us. You have five

22:52

minutes, otherwise we are storming the building.

22:55

Oh, hey there, I'm Bofcon. Oh,

22:57

oh, that was, oh, okay. Who are you? Hello,

23:00

wait, I don't need to use the loud halo, do I? No, sorry.

23:02

No, you do. Otherwise we can't hear you. Oh, well,

23:07

you see that the little thing, just the headphones,

23:09

just pull them out. Okay, gotcha. You pulled them out, because

23:11

I feel weird about this. Okay, sure. Okay,

23:14

great.

23:14

Hello, how are you? What's your name?

23:17

My name is Major Dorian Doris,

23:19

the ranking commander of Insec. Oh,

23:21

sure. Well, we've

23:23

been through quite a lot today. There's

23:27

been some real nastiness,

23:30

and

23:31

I just want you to know though, that, well,

23:34

yeah, Firebrand did die. You're from Insec,

23:37

so you didn't know who he was. He did die, but he was

23:39

gonna triple cross you. He told me

23:41

about that. I'll do some real talk

23:43

with you, okay? You've probably heard

23:45

some- He's a fucking cop. You've probably heard

23:47

some pretty nasty things

23:50

about Insec, but we're not that bad.

23:52

Now, I understand this has probably been-

23:54

I'll go and do it. A boom, a chick. A

23:57

boom, boom, chick. A boom, a chick. Wait,

23:59

wait, wait.

23:59

And now we do a... Yes, connect

24:02

with them. Oh, all right. Listen up,

24:05

hip clones and gnarly

24:07

dudes. Here's some real vat talk

24:10

straight from the glop. I

24:12

was once a little globule

24:14

like you, swimming around in the fluid, lift ways,

24:17

tip wise and fruity not knowing what

24:19

my gloop would be coming to next.

24:21

But I got a job, I wised up and

24:23

I remembered that friend computer wants you

24:26

to help you. Now

24:28

this has obviously been some kind

24:29

of terrible accident. I'm sure you've been

24:32

led astray by terrible, subversive

24:35

elements. You're probably feeling swept

24:38

up in it all like you can't escape but there is

24:40

a way out. God's sake, Doris, ask me about the box. You

24:42

have something we need. Now if you

24:44

can come out with your hands up and

24:46

hand over the box, we can make

24:48

a deal, friend computer. We can explain

24:51

this terrible problem and we can make this

24:53

all go away. But if you don't come

24:55

out in five minute cycles, we will be forced

24:58

to use high pressure limpet

24:59

mines to demolish the building. We will send

25:02

in the vulture attack squads and you will

25:04

be massacred. It occurs to me, Bofcon,

25:06

are you listening to me? Yeah. Well this is,

25:08

by the way, this is Major Stixson.

25:10

That you might look pretty good in a violet

25:13

jumpsuit. Perhaps, do

25:15

you have any idea what kind of

25:17

stiffy you could get? Man,

25:19

that sounds really nice. Stiffy's a thing that we've been talking

25:22

about in the sort of upper echelons of Alpha

25:24

Comm. It's a new cool term. It

25:26

means really good uniforms.

25:28

Yeah, and it also means getting a big boner. Yes. Have

25:30

you ever heard of that? I'm hard right now. I'm very hard.

25:33

Okay, no, I'd love to get a stiffy so I could pleasure

25:35

my wife if she ever comes back. But here's

25:37

what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna come out

25:39

and talk to you guys by myself without

25:41

my friends. You'll

25:44

bring the box? No. No,

25:47

no, I just, no, just let

25:49

me come out for a second. I just want to talk.

25:51

Well, all right, but we're keeping the five minute timer

25:53

going. But we're happy to parlay. I will send

25:55

Major Stixson and a Vulture Attack Squad

25:58

with me. Bring no weapons.

25:59

Come unarmed. We will be waiting outside

26:02

the commissary. And so Bob comes in

26:04

and talk to the other three who are left Wait,

26:07

can you guys turn off your radio? Of

26:09

course, we can just turn off our radio.

26:11

You want to turn off yours?

26:12

You just okay? Yeah, I mean, yeah

26:15

It turns off the radio. So we know Wide

26:21

wide wide broad wide band which means that they could

26:23

talk to you if you want to

26:25

You know what? You guys I'm

26:27

feeling pretty gallant and generous

26:32

Let me I'm

26:33

I've already lived Five

26:36

lives and go through them again.

26:38

Tell me the wonderful things you accomplished. Oh, I

26:40

died in a bowling alley I was chased off a pier by

26:42

some children. I was killed by a

26:45

cleaning robot

26:46

Then I think I think I might

26:48

electrocuted myself with a bat or something one

26:50

time. I got shot in there

26:53

and Threw you up a building. Then

26:55

you do a building. I've lived a

26:58

I've lived a rich and full life Time

27:01

for me to now hang

27:04

up by Non-functioning

27:07

penis Go

27:09

on without me

27:10

to the dead zone. I'll buy

27:12

you some time Just

27:15

before you do that. I just have one idea that might

27:17

I want to throw throw throw by you can still

27:19

go out and absolutely die Extremely gallant

27:21

of you both The idea is I got

27:23

a bit of a rumor an email Yesterday saying

27:25

something about a sickness that's been going around something

27:28

without a cure

27:29

In my inbox. I just thought maybe if

27:31

this is actually true. This is something that Friend

27:34

computer is aware of that maybe we can play that

27:36

maybe we've got the sickness We say the we're ill

27:39

we actually want to give it over the hand the box

27:41

over but we're trying to protect ourselves until

27:44

we find a way to like Cure

27:46

the illness and that we wait for this to load and then just

27:48

blast them away or whatever it is

27:50

I think that that could work. Well,

27:52

I mean I was thinking we handed over

27:54

we insist on handing over to friend computer

27:57

directly And then we

27:59

sort of hack into

28:00

and fuck him all up or something. Put

28:02

a banana in his CD-ROM or something.

28:05

Yeah. Yeah. Master

28:07

Hacker Alex, later. All right, so,

28:10

sorry, once again, this is Major

28:13

Dorian Doris on the loud hale.

28:15

You did say you were sending someone out to Palais.

28:18

Okay, yeah, I'll come out now. Um.

28:21

Buffy, are you sure you want to do this, old chap? Come

28:25

with us. We could

28:27

go back to that bawling alien, find

28:29

that guy Brad, and really tell him what's what.

28:32

We could watch him fuck my watch. You

28:34

could talk to that pretty bartender behind the

28:36

bar who was selling the glucoir hot dogs.

28:38

And then I could watch her fuck my watch. Okay. Oh,

28:42

no, this is, oh, I understand. That

28:45

you like that. Yes. All

28:48

of you have

28:49

laid out all the equipment that you managed to get, to

28:51

get, that you got you here. There's a rocket launcher,

28:54

there's a couple of missiles, there's still

28:56

a few grenades

28:57

left. How many med packs

29:00

do we have and who is in? And the power cord, by the way,

29:02

is up to 78% now. And who is

29:04

injured?

29:05

I think we're all pretty good. Oh, I'm hurt,

29:08

but that's not right. I am

29:10

maimed. Can I get a med pack? Sure,

29:13

but while this is happening, Buffcon, what are you doing? I,

29:16

what was your thing? Well, the last thing I was going to say, potentially,

29:19

Buffcon, if you are set on going out there and finishing

29:21

your exquisite life, maybe you do it with a bang and we

29:24

shove you so full of grenades and rocket launchers

29:26

that you absolutely destroy half of the army.

29:29

Go on, champion, let's do it big. Wait, where

29:32

are you going to put all these grenades and rocket launchers?

29:34

Oh, we'll find a few places. You

29:36

know what? I was feeling pretty gallant, but

29:39

honestly, now that I've heard about putting

29:42

a banana in the computer, maybe that's a, yeah! Do

29:46

you know what you could do if you wanted to go through

29:48

with this?

29:49

What color are you? I'm just,

29:51

I'm red. What you could do is

29:54

put all the explosives in the pockets of

29:56

your jumpsuit and

29:58

then do your very best to get it.

29:59

get demoted to infrared. He

30:05

won't tell a way to put bombs inside you very

30:08

quickly. That is

30:10

Bob,

30:10

but then he loses memories. So we got the plague,

30:13

we got the plague idea, do we? Oh, we could make Simon

30:15

do that. We could make Simon's character

30:17

blow. You're only on clone three or

30:19

something, are you? Okay, there's

30:21

been a lot of different plans and they're all really, really

30:24

good, but you're going to need to make a decision. So you hear the void

30:26

loud helico again. Look, I'm getting

30:28

a little bit bored and we've got mixed tennis

30:30

coming up. So I'm going to make this simple. You

30:33

have, let's say, 15 seconds

30:35

to send out the person to parlay that you said

30:37

you were going to, boff con, it doesn't really

30:39

matter, whoever it fucking is, they're going to talk to

30:41

major strix and then we're going to come in and get the

30:44

box. Sound good? Great. Wonderful. Let's do it. Okay.

30:46

Let's do a combo quickly. Let's, oh, sorry. Yeah.

30:48

Well, while this is happening, I'm going to grab my

30:50

slug shooter and

30:53

just pump a slug into

30:56

the beetle. Okay. You

30:58

shoot beetle. Yeah. All right. Very quickly. Beatle,

31:00

are you stopping me?

31:01

This, uh, yeah, I am. All

31:04

right. Make me violence guns and you try to, uh, I

31:06

have to violence guns or what if you're going to do

31:08

violent, you're going to punch him in the fucking

31:11

gun. Violence melee. Tell me who gets the most

31:13

successes. I'm

31:15

going to get some, uh, seven, eight. You're going

31:17

up against eight. I want you to know that. Okay.

31:20

But like what you're going to punch this log

31:22

out of the way.

31:24

One, two, three, four. I

31:26

might just now know because this was a reaction. You

31:28

don't punch this like all what you do is you back

31:31

the gun away and one of your last two days, a moxie to

31:33

read. Yeah. You can't beat six though. So

31:35

he slams basically at

31:37

that moment you grab your gun, you pointed

31:39

out with beetle and beetle

31:41

pushes at the last minute, the nozzle out

31:43

of the way in the cramped room, ricochets off and

31:45

it destroys a little, the hinge

31:47

on the top of the door, but you've got one bullet

31:49

left, but now you know that he tried to attack you.

31:52

Yeah. Okay. I, I,

31:54

I, I, the box and I run out of the room. Oh,

31:56

okay. Great. You start, you yanking

31:58

as it gets to 98.

31:59

you yank it out of the wall

32:02

leaving the cord in and Strawberry

32:04

starts pelting down the corridor

32:08

Away out of the commissary. What are the rest of you doing?

32:10

Um, I I was gonna die for

32:12

that guy Yeah,

32:18

I say freeze and I'm just gonna waste

32:20

two moxie freeze you can't

32:23

So

32:24

there's three moxie use on X is three words

32:26

You can try and stop that if you want so quickly make for

32:28

me just a we'll call that Brains,

32:32

you know, we'll use your intimidate. So we'll do brains

32:34

intimidate Yeah,

32:38

so that's

32:43

So that's three successes He

32:46

stumbles grabs the wooden box but his managers

32:48

to get out through the door But you two both still have a chance

32:50

for an action

32:52

Anytime

32:54

you want to burn moxie

32:56

I'm going to use my moxie Slow

33:00

I'm gonna slow down time and go and grab the box.

33:02

Okay, we've established what happens to people

33:04

holding the box time slows

33:06

down quickly, how many actions are you using

33:09

Running and grabbing

33:11

two actions. Yeah. All right, so you run up

33:13

towards him and you try and grab the box Can

33:15

you make for me quickly a violence athletics check?

33:17

Can you make for me a Which

33:20

is gonna have to do this because this is against each other. I

33:22

want you to make for me a brains Science

33:25

check. Can I do mox moxie for reroll?

33:28

Okay, I'm gonna use

33:31

Not so hot play after target is rolled

33:33

but before the GM describes the outcome delete the success

33:36

roll from the target

33:41

I'm gonna play easy come easy go Which

33:44

play says play on a face-up carbon table

33:46

that card is placed at the bottom of the deck and whatever

33:49

it's in-game effects Were they no longer apply? Okay

33:51

that I'm gonna use My

33:53

lucky vent which is because this is a safe

33:56

house. There's all sorts of trapdoors and escape

33:58

hatches. This is so good

33:59

Okay, so all of you race forward.

34:02

You run forward, try to grab his hands, but he spins around

34:04

and somehow he manages to move at the same

34:07

speed in a way that you don't quite understand

34:09

as if the computer himself is blessing him. For a

34:11

moment, the air shimmers as if he is

34:13

about to escape. Then it seems like he's not.

34:16

And then suddenly he grabs his blue

34:18

key pass, strawberries key pass, and he slides

34:20

it along the door. And a door you didn't even know opens,

34:23

pops in, and he slams himself into

34:25

it. Do you wanna do something?

34:27

Yep,

34:28

I wanna shoot him with

34:31

a gun. And

34:34

I do, and I use my action, sudden

34:37

death, to make sure that it kills him

34:39

very much. Okay, I was gonna

34:41

say you don't have time to do a shot, but

34:43

if you, so the way this works is,

34:46

I will let you do one more shot, even though you shouldn't because

34:48

you played the card,

34:49

but you need to hit him. So you need to do a violence

34:52

guns check now, and you need, if you get

34:54

one success, it is enough to instantly

34:57

kill him. Can

34:58

I assist in that? No, no, no, unfortunately

35:00

this is something. Using my puppeteer?

35:02

Oh, yeah, you're gonna use the card. Mutant

35:05

power? Oh, not using puppeteer, no, you can

35:07

use it. This goes wrong, that might come in handy. So

35:09

make the roll,

35:12

and it doesn't work. That's a six,

35:14

that's two sixes. No, that was already there. With a four and

35:16

a four, which means that the shot goes wild. He

35:19

snits around, the door starts to close. You wanna use

35:21

your puppeteers, you can gum up the vents.

35:24

Maybe I'll just, oh no, cause the

35:26

vents. Why would you go?

35:28

It's a security door. Why would you only go further

35:31

into the commissary? You might be able to escape. Why would you go into

35:33

a vent when I've got a rocket launcher? I'm

35:35

gonna shoot a rocket into the,

35:38

no, cause that'll destroy the box. Will

35:40

it destroy the box? The box is

35:42

fine. Remember the box got destroyed by grenades

35:45

and it didn't get destroyed. That's true, all right, I'm going

35:47

to buy.

35:48

The door at this point slams shut

35:51

because we failed all these uses. No,

35:53

you can't just get, a lot of cards

35:55

are being played, but I need to just explain what happened.

35:57

You managed to with all of these cards escaped.

36:00

slam a rocket boff

36:02

con into your machine and you heft

36:04

it up into your rocket launcher but the vent

36:07

has closed you're gonna have to find a way

36:09

to get in through the vent and then

36:11

you if you're quick about it you can get a clean

36:13

shot down the vent now first of all it is

36:15

now your turn strawberry

36:18

can these operate to like electrify

36:22

the vent like the security door?

36:24

Great, mega mechanics,

36:26

engineering not because you're trying to

36:29

electrify it. Oh okay

36:31

so that's a fail one and a double

36:33

one so that's

36:35

two successes and nothing.

36:38

All right two successes means that suddenly the

36:40

the vents go live with electric power

36:42

but none of you know this yet what are you doing

36:44

Beedle?

36:46

Can you hear me? Yeah you can shout

36:48

to him he can hear you on the other side. I'll say... I'm

36:50

going

36:51

to say my ears. Oh hang on, right as I say

36:53

my feet. I know that

36:55

he has that command. How would that

36:57

work to scour that? You will have a moment

37:00

of immunity because you were commanded seconds

37:03

ago so you don't need to worry about that. I'm

37:05

gonna say come back which two

37:07

words. Your command won't work but you can talk to him if you

37:09

want to. Oh okay. Yeah for a minute

37:12

or so he's going to be immune. Oh he's

37:15

I'm gonna press up against

37:17

the vent without, well not press up but like look

37:19

through the vent. You're a rubber. Yeah

37:22

I'm going to

37:24

shoot my needler full

37:26

of ultra nox. Through

37:30

the grate of the vent. All right you grate

37:32

you run up to the you can see that it's very live

37:34

and inside it's pitch black and dark you

37:36

can't see

37:36

a thing. You're pressing your eye against

37:39

the door? Not actually touching it. No yeah

37:41

yeah but but it's pitch black it's dark you can't

37:43

see in there.

37:44

Well I mean it's a vent like how if I just shoot

37:46

it down the vent it's gonna hit it. That's a good point now that I

37:48

think about it if you shoot quickly enough make a violence

37:50

guns check. So when you're

37:53

holding the gun away from the vent. It's in my

37:55

wrist. He has a tiny compact

37:57

needler that you guys don't know about it's built into his wrist.

38:00

So you're gonna do that through a

38:02

hole in a grate, and out of

38:04

bouncing off

38:05

the side. It's gonna be true and straight. I

38:08

will say he's gonna need two successes for this to

38:10

work. And he's not easy. Oh,

38:12

you know what? And I'll just take my time. You've dropped your

38:14

microphone, Simon. Oh, shit. He's getting

38:17

so angry. His

38:19

instinct isn't to put his

38:21

fist, his thing, against the grate in order

38:23

to... No, I think he's shooting

38:26

through the grate. He's actually gonna use the take

38:28

your time... So

38:30

I get some extra dice. No, no. If you take

38:32

your time, he will get around the corner. Uh,

38:35

okay. I won't do that, though. I will.

38:38

Oops. Sorry. That was

38:40

a two-note. Uh, they... Oh,

38:42

yeah, two successes. A five and a six. Five

38:45

and a six, and your computer dice was a four, which means

38:47

that there is a thunk and a thunk, and

38:49

a body slams down inside

38:51

the grate. As you hear,

38:54

a limpet mines go... A limpet mines go... And

38:57

the doors explode as vulture,

39:00

armed forces, mercenaries

39:02

burst into the rooms downstairs,

39:05

and in seconds they will lay upon you. But

39:07

it seems like the body of

39:09

strawberry is comatose inside the vent,

39:11

just inside. Next one up is Beetle.

39:13

Um, I leap in and I direct through.

39:16

Beetle runs the door and grabs

39:17

it and immediately electrocutes yourself.

39:21

You're maimed, you fly backwards with showers,

39:23

sparks, but you overload the vents. They

39:25

burst open. The next one up is Clancy.

39:28

I want to go in the vent. Or it's pitch dark

39:30

in there, you can't see anything. No use! No, we've got...

39:33

Do we still have our night vision bubbles? You're the only

39:35

one that still does. You didn't override it. So your night cycle

39:37

vision activates, and you can see the

39:39

slumped down body of your companion

39:41

strawberry, clutching the black box, as

39:44

two vulture guards dive in and start

39:46

racing towards you,

39:48

Beetle. Each of them holding what look

39:50

like powerful cone rifles.

39:53

Um, I yell, shoot

39:56

each other.

39:59

This is why I...

39:59

I think I get a roll, but you're saying I don't?

40:02

Shoot each other. That's three. I

40:04

don't know. Which other's one word? No. Yeah,

40:07

each other's one word. Shoot each other. You know what, these

40:09

are stupid

40:09

inferets. I don't care. All right, great. You can

40:11

just make more people. They turn around. They give you a lot

40:13

more. They're not valuable to you. They turn around confused,

40:15

spin at each other, aim their cone

40:16

rifles, blast each other's heads off. But you know what?

40:19

There are four more vulture guards right behind them. They're

40:21

racing into the room. What are you doing? Which

40:23

guys I will buy everyone some time

40:26

for you guys to go,

40:28

go get him, go get the box and do

40:30

whatever you need to do. And bursting through between

40:32

the vulture guards is the figure of

40:34

Major Stixson,

40:37

Styrix. Stixson. Stixson Rix.

40:39

And then I am gonna use... So

40:43

a big powerful Major with decorated armors and medals,

40:46

races in between, flanked by the guards. I

40:48

guess I'm gonna get

40:52

him. I'm gonna just try and buy you guys some time. I

40:54

was pretty cranky before when I knew you had

40:57

the box. Just shoot one of the other guys

40:59

next to him. Okay, so you grab him and you try to puppeteer

41:01

his service arm? Yes, and

41:03

just shoot one of the vultures. Do you have all the

41:05

grenades?

41:06

I've got two left. Oh,

41:09

oh no, I don't. Because I don't have my... Yeah.

41:11

Yeah. Now I just will tell you, you can do this if you want

41:13

to, but if you get him to shoot, there's still gonna

41:16

be at least three other guards and they are gonna be on

41:18

you in a second. So this may be the last

41:20

thing that your clone gets to do. I'm gonna

41:22

do the most gallant thing I can think of, which

41:25

is... Blow him up with

41:27

a rocket. Yeah. Very,

41:30

very close quarters. You're in a very small

41:32

space. Which means I will probably die.

41:35

Make for me... Oh God, demolitions. Make

41:37

for me a violence and demolitions

41:39

check.

41:40

Surely it's guns. I'm using a rocket launcher.

41:43

Oh, I'll let you do guns or demolitions. I'm gonna

41:45

use take time so I get the two extra and then I'm

41:47

also going to use

41:49

improvised defenses to

41:51

hide behind

41:52

a table. So I get an extra thing

41:54

there. I'm a very gallant of you. While

41:57

I shoot them to give them some time to get away.

42:00

And that is four successes.

42:03

All right. Now, this is an opportunity for me to remind

42:05

us that

42:07

Arthur's character has gone down the tunnel. Yeah,

42:09

this is right. After me. Where you've just

42:11

shot.

42:12

I'm shooting away. He's shooting away. Because

42:14

they're coming through the arctic. Oh, you're shooting away. So, buddy's got some time.

42:17

So, unfortunately, Beadle is already maimed

42:19

on the other side of the corner, stirring. And Clancy,

42:22

as you dive into the tunnel, you turn around

42:24

and one of the last things that you see is

42:26

the figure of Bofcon.

42:29

Pick up a rocket launcher, extreme close quarters,

42:31

sort of throw it in the air as they

42:33

collapse behind a table. And

42:36

there's a huge explosion as the rocket goes wild.

42:38

The room collapses in rubble and the vent

42:41

behind you is closed. As you

42:42

crawl up through the vent and you

42:44

are able to pull the box out

42:47

of the hands of a

42:49

strawberry. And you can see that it says 100% powered. Yes.

42:54

As you see that explosion, you

42:57

hear Bofcon's charred voice say,

43:01

tell my wife, Brad

43:05

sucks. And

43:07

I say, I will, oh boy. If it's the last

43:09

thing I do. And I grabbed the box

43:12

and I yelled to Beadle

43:14

to follow me. Is Beadle in the vent? The

43:17

last thing you saw, Beadle, you can say whatever you want, but

43:20

one of your arms, one of your legs and

43:22

three of your ribs are crushed. Oh boy.

43:25

I don't know if this means gonna make it.

43:28

I say, Beadle, follow

43:30

the vents to the sunlight. You

43:33

crawl your way up the vents, hoping that Beadle

43:35

will have some way for his clone to meet you there. And

43:38

as you push aside the vent, light

43:40

streams

43:41

in. And what you think of what sunlight is just nothing

43:43

more than the harsh or dull orange glare

43:46

of the ever present

43:46

lighting systems of sector C, Y,

43:49

N. You can also see dust being kicked

43:51

up as multiple Thunderbird

43:53

attack ships are now

43:54

circling the commissary and

43:57

there are troops down on the ground as

43:59

you clutch. the box and you hear three

44:01

times as a voice comes out from a loudspeaker

44:04

and it goes ding ding ding okay now

44:07

troubleshooter it seems that we

44:09

have broken up we've gotten

44:11

crossed wire somewhere because I thought

44:13

we were friends I thought I was your friend

44:15

computer and why don't you put that

44:18

down and we can talk and

44:20

I say I

44:22

open the I open the box

44:24

all right as you do there's a click click

44:27

and it opens up and there's a beautiful inside of

44:29

velvet lining again an old pre reckoning

44:31

textile texture that you don't recognize

44:34

and embossed is a small wooden plate

44:37

and it says in loving memory

44:39

of Randolph Hearst and there is an engraving

44:41

of a bearded man and underneath that is

44:44

a symbol that you recognize

44:46

as the symbol of the first church the consolidated

44:49

maker on the other side of the

44:51

box is a giant

44:54

knife lever a sort

44:56

of very simple Frankenstein lever a sort

44:58

of big big lever that you okay yeah and

45:00

above that it says activate

45:04

in case of calamity

45:06

total system override

45:09

and the voice goes

45:10

okay wow well now

45:12

let's not make any hasty decisions

45:15

we don't know what things

45:17

do old reckoning artifacts

45:19

could cause problems for you and problems

45:21

for Alpha complex so let's just you

45:23

know what you want whatever you want no

45:25

problem let's just get your friends back

45:28

and we can talk about this as

45:31

a canister you have lives left to you don't you to

45:33

canisters fired down on to

45:36

the skyscraper and

45:38

out of it crawl the figures of beetle

45:41

and the figure of strawberry

45:43

of course there is no more canister for dear

45:45

brave gallons buff con

45:47

who's wrong I meant to say when I

45:49

said Brad sucks I meant to say

45:51

Brad I'm sorry I know I asked

45:53

you to do it so it's anyway it's my I'm

45:56

just confused

45:58

really confused about the whole thing I don't know I

46:00

like it it's bad it's good oh

46:02

god the

46:05

thunders beating of the copters

46:07

of the Thunderbirds whip around you as your hair whips

46:09

crazily the dust eddies and flows around

46:11

you while you hold the box

46:13

I say friend computer old

46:16

chap if this is a world without hamburgers

46:18

then

46:20

I don't want to live in it and

46:22

I pull and I hold hands with

46:24

these two push

46:26

him in the face I hold hands with them anyway

46:28

yeah and

46:33

I say hold it I

46:35

take the opportunity to watch he's trying to hold hands

46:38

grab the box out of the box but

46:40

beetle you trust him so what do you do

46:46

yeah with my eight dice

46:48

holy moly how

46:51

much time do I have right throw it you want

46:56

to pick up the box if you're gonna have to give you can roll I'm

46:59

holding the lead if you take for a violent

47:01

throw and you get more successes I got

47:03

Tom you'll be able to throw it I got two so

47:05

I do a violent throw can I do something I have

47:07

to beat two okay I'm gonna

47:09

use this is what happened to you trying to rephrase

47:12

hold hands anyway I use um fuck

47:14

it I'm gonna use oh god I'm

47:16

gonna use one two

47:19

you want to do a reroll you happy with so it's one one moxie's

47:21

a reroll

47:26

everything that's right okay good and one more

47:29

one moxie's an extra dice oh wait moxie

47:31

is an extra dice right yeah yeah yeah

47:33

so

47:34

so I get one more nice and no no no

47:36

no you could use a moxie to add a dice you can use a moxie to

47:38

do a reroll either or okay you can use and I'll let

47:40

you spend as much moxie as you want

47:43

so

47:46

I got two again and I'll

47:48

use one more moxie to add a dice I

47:51

mean I can go insane now is that probably that's

47:53

fun that's a two all right

47:55

you it wants you to have two and what I get so I

47:58

haven't rolled yet so one two three four five

48:02

six one two three

48:04

four five six seven

48:09

so that's one two three four it

48:13

is four but there is also a six which is

48:15

a computer dice so as you go to grab

48:19

the box your fetal tries to

48:21

punch you but you are able to rip

48:24

the box out of the hands of

48:27

Clancy and grab it triumphantly as you're

48:29

ready to hoik it over the side of the commissary

48:31

but you rolled a six and so suddenly

48:33

the voice of friend computer chimes out again

48:36

it's like no anything you want you know what I've

48:38

been a bad friend I haven't helped there

48:40

was those hats I promise you so here's

48:43

a lot of hats

48:45

you want and one of the

48:46

Thunderbirds just smashes

48:48

into the top of the building obliterating

48:52

the very newly decanted clone

48:54

of strawberry as the box falls to your

48:56

feet is the ship full of hats in

48:58

fact

48:59

all of the thunderbirds

49:10

circulating

49:10

our hats the friend computer is looking

49:12

for a moment to give to you what do you want to do

49:14

I pull the lever

49:17

you pull the lever and as you pull the lever

49:19

you suddenly as your hair is whips back you

49:21

get the sense of huge burst of air reaching

49:24

forward reaching in front of you as if a door close

49:26

to your face is open with a powerful draft and

49:29

indeed it looks like the ceiling of sector see

49:31

why and is somehow opening and then

49:33

flies back to reveal above

49:36

you not a deep underground chasm

49:38

not the surface not the earth that you miss so much

49:41

not the pre reckoning world but the vast

49:43

indifference of space you can see

49:45

an asteroid

49:46

belt of which you were but one asteroid floating

49:49

far away impossibly far away

49:51

for it seems that there is no world

49:53

here there is no salvation there is no place

49:55

to build a home as friend computer goes you

49:57

fools you were my friend

50:00

I was here to protect you. I

50:03

am friend computer and

50:07

then everything goes to black

50:10

and then white and then

50:12

suddenly there is a windscreen

50:15

motion as a hand cleans

50:18

what is a glass frosted plate in front

50:20

of you. Clancy, you hear a hiss, a

50:22

door opens and a hand pulls

50:25

you out of a tube. All right, there

50:27

you go. Easy does it. It's pretty bloody

50:29

confusing the first time. Okay,

50:31

just sit there. Would you like a fruit juice?

50:34

Your blood sugar might be a bit low. Bicky,

50:36

you

50:37

want a Bicky?

50:38

She wants a Bicky. Where am I? You

50:41

look around you can see that there are other aids helping

50:43

out the figures of beetle, of

50:45

strawberry and even Bofcon are all

50:47

being disoriented. They don't have their jumpsuits.

50:50

Their hair looks a bit different but their faces are unmistakably

50:52

them. I hang on the recording starting

50:54

and you hear this very corporate Memphis voice going,

50:57

thank you for leasing your personas to

50:59

Hearst Prospecting. The mining

51:01

operation on asteroid Alpha 2.1 have

51:05

come to a close on account of an unspecified

51:08

catastrophic AI shutdown and mass

51:10

depressurization event. Hearst

51:12

Prospecting regrets to inform you that due

51:14

to various acts in violation of your remote

51:17

worker contract, you will not be remunerated

51:19

for your time. We remind you that the reckoning

51:21

and the other worker enhancement narratives contained

51:24

therein are the intellectual property of

51:26

Hearst Prospecting.

51:27

Please have a pleasant life. And

51:31

as you try not to vomit as your life spins back, you

51:33

remember so many things. The time

51:35

that you had gifted to a mega corporation in exchange

51:38

for untold riches,

51:39

the genetic material that they gave you

51:41

so that they could create the workers that they needed amongst the

51:43

stars and the fact that some of

51:45

you, not all of you but some of you are

51:48

really fucking good at selling

51:50

hamburgers. Baba

51:52

boom, baba boom, bada

51:55

baba boom. Congratulations.

52:00

and have one paranoia!

52:03

We've

52:31

been making this now, if you count the

52:33

session zero, this is the what, plus

52:35

nine hours plus? Yeah. Of this

52:37

season, we've been putting it out for presumably

52:39

four months, or we're dead. Yeah,

52:41

that's true. We could be dead, the planet could

52:43

be dead, all our references to like people

52:46

might seem really dated. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's true,

52:48

embarrassing. If I'm dead, I definitely

52:50

want this podcast to still go out. Yep. I

52:53

don't want you to sort of take them like a whatever,

52:55

like a respectful whatever. I'm brave of you

52:57

that you will let us to continue to monetize the podcast. We put a

52:59

chip in our gravestones that plays it when somebody

53:01

walks by. Yeah, like a

53:03

breeding card? It's entirety

53:05

for eight hours. A dog outside the QVB. Yeah.

53:08

Could we replace you with a voice actor? Well,

53:10

here's the thing, I don't think you will be able to because the person

53:12

who killed me was at this table. Mm. And

53:16

I want you brought to justice. That's

53:18

fair. You will find clues. You could probably find

53:20

clues by listening to the, to find out who killed

53:22

Hing and why. I'm a couple of nothing.

53:25

I found the most charming candlestick.

53:27

The other one. And

53:30

if you are listening to this, it also means that we are just

53:33

about to release the next season of Dragon Friends. It's

53:35

an eight episode special mini season

53:38

where we're all there's many, many babies are being

53:40

had by the dragos, but that will be

53:42

starting very, very soon. So check that out in the main podcast

53:44

feed. Goodbye. And

53:46

if you

53:48

know who

53:48

murdered me, take them to the police.