Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 34 of Beyond the Furthest Stars!
(Intro plays, fades down, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: Okay. So where we left off. Y'all were in the hotel room debriefing after Rho and Hermes did some stupid shit.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, they fucked everything up.
Avery/GM: Got Hermes captured.
Bee/Polaris: So bad.
Avery/GM: Zahn saved Rho from becoming a concrete hamburger, thing. And y'all evaded the military from swooping in and blaming you for the terrorist attack. That isn't actually a terrorist attack, but you know, that's what they were thinking. And then y'all asked the Winstons to send the shuttle early so you can take off sooner for...
Avery/GM: New Terra and Ollie has a drone attached to the ship carrying Hermes and Rhea to their destination. So y'all will know where they are at when the time comes. What's the play before the shuttle gets here?
Bee/Polaris: Need gun, need medicine.
Caden/Bruce: Leave note.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, well, we can just text Marty.
Caden/Bruce: That's true. But I feel like also a note, just in case.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we can, we can all leave like a, like a Christmas card, but like a, be back soon, like a BRB card. And we all sign it.
Avery/GM: Oh, for sure. I'm sure the concierge has something available. Oh man, but no. But no, if y'all, if y'all do... Perish on this trip. Marty is gonna be abandoned, but no. So Polaris, you are wanting to find yourself a new gun and some med kits.
Bee/Polaris: Well, Marty gave us like a med kit, but like what, what all does that, is it just like the med kit? Did Marty have a scanner? A scanner thingy?
Avery/GM: I think Marty has a bioscanner on her, but I don't, I don't think she gave it to you guys. I think she just gave you guys one medkit with, which basically has enough pharmaceuticals to heal one character one time, so.
Zach/Zahn: Got it.
Bee/Polaris: Can we just ask the Winstons to stock the shuttle that they're sending us with a bunch of medical supplies so we don't have to pay for it?
Avery/GM: Millionaires and you're being cheap. No, I'm kidding.
Bee/Polaris: We're not millionaires. I'm not at least.
Zach/Zahn: Well, that's because you spent a whole bunch of money starting somebody else's business. I'm still a millionaire, single millionaire.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but not for long.
Avery/GM: Collective millionaires.
Bee/Polaris: Cause like as soon as we get to a, like a nice place with a lot of like cool robot-y stuff, you're going to buy them all up.
Chris/Ollie: Same. I don't know. I think the quadrillionaires can fit the bill though.
Avery/GM: No, thats fine.
Zach/Zahn: I need to save all my money so that I can afford to upgrade all of our shit.
Avery/GM: Yeah, If you want to roll a charisma lead check to see if they'll honor that request.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Charisma is my worst skill.
Chris/Ollie: I know. Where's Marty?
Bee/Polaris: Charisma lead. Excellent, I have a minus one.
Zach/Zahn: Hey, at least it's only a minus one.
Bee/Polaris: I don't think that's gonna do it, that's a four.
Avery/GM: Yeah. They say the shuttle's already on its way, we can't exactly have it pull over for stops. It's gonna be there in a minute.
Chris/Ollie: Do we have time to even shop anything? Or are we just stuck with like…
Avery/GM: I mean, once you have the shuttle, you have the shuttle and then, you know, you can do whatever you want.
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah, but we're like, super time crunched.
Bee/Polaris: Oh shit, it's the middle of the night, too, isn't it?
Avery/GM: Yeah, it's like 9 o'clock and there was a terrorist attack in the city, so.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is gonna go online and see if there's any delivery services. They can get it to us instantly.
Avery/GM: Yeah, I guess roll, if Polaris is doing this go ahead and roll an intelligence, I guess intelligence program, since you're using your computer skills?
Bee/Polaris: Can someone else smarter than me do this?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn can try, I guess.
Bee/Polaris: I'll still roll it. So that cancels that out. Seven.
Avery/GM: Yeah, like there's a bunch of services, but they're all closed due to emergency. You do see one service open, and it's actually the hotel gift shop. Damn it, they don't have guns though.
Zach/Zahn: Do they though?
Avery/GM: I will say, there are guns on the Cassiopeia. Yeah,
Chris/Ollie: I mean, there's guns on there I'm pretty sure Zahn uh, I've got a bit of fix too. So, between us, I'm pretty sure we could whip up some makeshift weapons.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn actually has a makeshift weapon in mind that he wants to build, so.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, and you can have Ollie’s gun too, because he's going melee now, being a dog boy.
Bee/Polaris: I'm mostly melee as well. I your laser blade? Yeah, I, I mean, players dual wields with laser blades. I was just gonna, I just wanted a ranged weapon just in case. Cause I don't think I can, well, wait, actually I think I can throw it. Nevermind.
Zach/Zahn: That's right. You want, last time you wanted me to put like some kind of magnets in your, in your gloves so you could Thor throw it.
Avery/GM: Which I'm sure you'll have enough travel time between here and New Terra to do that if you would wish.
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah.
Caden/Bruce: I mean the hotel, the hotel gift shop probably has like The basic medicine supplies like I'm sure they do like Space type like Tylenol and gravel.
Chris/Ollie: Well, there's a terrorist attack. The security forces are swarming all over the city, right? Could Ollie try to like hack into their network and get a supply drop? Here making them think this is like a platoon that needs medical and weapon supplies. I mean… with a high enough roll
Avery/GM: Okay, this is high risk high. This is high risk high reward Chris.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, yeah
Avery/GM:I will let you do it. But there is there is a significant risk going on here.
Zach/Zahn: That's okay The shuttle will be here in less than a minute.We can dance the fuck out of herein case somthing goes wrong.
Bee/Polaris: Well, who's paying for this room? Like whose name is on this room?
Zach/Zahn: The Winstons.
Avery/GM: Machamps.
Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, Machamps.
Caden/Bruce: Whoops.
Bee/Polaris: We don't want to do that to Machamp.
Chris/Ollie: I do not want to do that to Machamp. I'll just do a normal search for any businesses that might've been missed or any maybe underground businesses.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: 14.
Avery/GM: Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah, you find a, like you're, you're looking and you're looking and you're seeing a lot of like these, these like official businesses closed and stuff. But then you decide to check like, the kind of like, traffic scanners that are in place. And you see that while the central area of the city has been closed off, there is still a lot of traffic going on in the Southwest quadrant of this city.
And you zoom in on that, and there are several shops in this location that sell a variety of goods, and there's just a lot of traffic going on, probably some panic buying going on, because this city doesn't have explosions go on very often, so.
Chris/Ollie: But they're, like, out of the quarantine zone. Okay.
Avery/GM: Yeah and for you all, it would probably be, like, a ten minute shuttle ride. And since your hotel is just on the edge of the quarantine Zahn, you can easily avoid any run ins with, the military.
Bee/Polaris: The law.
Chris/Ollie: The law. I am the law.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. Well, yeah, Ollie will relay that and say, ah, most fortuitously, in the southeast, there are still shops operating.
Avery/GM: And then pulling up to your window, you see a shuttle and you hear a little beep beep beep.
Bee/Polaris: That's cute. Does, did we ever establish that the hotel gift shop has medical supplies?
Avery/GM: I mean, it was, it was like in the Google search. Like, you know, medicines was in the list of things they have.
Bee/Polaris: I don't want to go back downstairs. I don't want to talk to the concierge guy.
Chris/Ollie: Just wait until he's driving the shuttle.
Bee/Polaris: Oh! If he is! Oh my god I’m about to fuckin lose it.
Avery/GM: No, I wouldn't do that.
Bee/Polaris: That guy has a lot of jobs. Where does he find the time to do stand up? Okay, so what are we doing? Are we going shopping over there? Or are we getting in the shuttle and... skedaddling?
Avery/GM: We can also handwave the shopping if you all have exactly what you wanted to buy in mind, we can just handwave it.
Bee/Polaris: I just wanted to stock up on just like a shit ton of medpacks.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, just, just basic supplies.
Bee/Polaris: Just, like, a stupid amount.
Zach/Zahn: The necessaries, yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Just all the stuff that everyone else in the city is rushing into buy.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, can we also panic buy?
Avery/GM: Yeah! Cool. Anyway, so yeah, so y'all are in this shopping area. There's various different shops. There's lots of people kind of crowding around and stuff.
It's very busy right now. But y'all have time to grab some equipment. What do y'all grab?
Chris/Ollie: I'm gonna write down a big list because these things are very cheap compared to our current funding. Absolutely going to get a handful of bioscanners because I want one installed on Ollie's chassis.
Avery/GM: Oh, that's the other thing I was going to ask. Ollie, are you staying as a dog for this trip to New Terra?
Bee/Polaris: Yes. Let's go! Oh my gosh, Ollie, you're an attack dog!
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah, nope. Ollie's the attack dog. I got Ironhide as my recent foci. Hell yeah. I got... I'm gonna have my two laser blades dual wield him.
Avery/GM: Get in there.
Bee/Polaris: Wait, did someone write who wrote down that they have Marty's medical pack?
Caden/Bruce: I do, recently.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, then I have a medical pack that I didn't know about.
Zach/Zahn: So what we want to do is get a bunch of Lazarus patches.
Bee/Polaris: Don't those cause system strain if you use them though?
Avery/GM: Yeah, but death causes permanent system strain if you think about it.
Caden/Bruce: Yikes!
Bee/Polaris: Hey, thanks, GM. I'm going to get a few Lazarus patches then.
Avery/GM: Sorry, that was too real.
No, I mean, you're totally right. But I just thought is my special little thingy because I'm a weird special boy my healing, does that make it, if I roll a bad, will the healing not last as long?
Avery/GM: Yeah, let me, I, I need to pull that up actually, so Bee, the yeah, the one, so if you roll a one on your d6 for your healing basically your wounds cause your body to go into shock, and so your medical enhancements don't help at all, so it's just whatever the normal effect is, is what happens.
Everything else basically either accelerates, or everything else accelerates your healing. So.
Bee/Polaris: Ok.
Avery/GM: Yeah. 01 is just basically like, you're just like everybody else in this moment.
Bee/Polaris: Sick.
Chris/Ollie: Okay, is this just a medical shop? Or, like, what kind of stuff is available here?
Avery/GM: There's I'm just saying there's all kinds, there's all kinds of stores around here. So there's tools, medical stuff. There's weapons stores, communication supplies.
Chris/Ollie: I'm looking at these computing gear on this equipment list. And a lot of it says it's illegal. And even the stuff that doesn't say it's illegal says it's, it's, it's used for sussy stuff. So like what on this list is available around here?
Avery/GM: That's a good, that's a good point. I think, yeah, I'd say probably the data slab. The storage unit and maybe, maybe a remote link unit you could probably find, but the remote link unit is going to be inflated in price.
Chris/Ollie: How inflated? Because my pocket is incredibly inflated.
Avery/GM: I mean, look, it's, I'm only gonna, I'm gonna say it's probably three times as expensive as it's listed in the book. So.
Chris/Ollie: Done. That's 750. Yeah. Got it. All right. I'll probably... We probably have storage units and data slabs out the wazoo. Actually, I don't know, I'll grab a, like...
Zach/Zahn: Holy crap, they're only 30 bucks.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah no, that's what I'm saying. Like, we're stocking up a shuttle, so... For a mission, I don't know if we should be getting, like, hundreds of these things.
Zach/Zahn: I'm just gonna get like 10. I’m gonna drop 300 and just get 10.
Bee/Polaris: 10 Lazarus patches?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, for future adventures, you know?
Bee/Polaris: Fair enough. Oh, can I get a laser pistol?
Avery/GM: Yeah, easily.
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah.
Chris/Ollie: All right. Am I gonna be able to acquire solar rechargers, telekinetic generators, and low light goggles.
Avery/GM: Yes to all of them, I don't know why you would need goggles, but sure.
Chris/Ollie: I mean... It's always good to be prepared. They're cheap.
Avery/GM: Unless you're, unless you're gonna, unless you're gonna like Frankenstein them into your own system.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, all the technical stuff I'm buying, I'm buying an extra to integrate into my chassis.
Avery/GM: I figured. The most terrifying space dog ever. Oh, and Chris, before we leave the planet, I do need you to roll a percentage dice.
Zach/Zahn: Alright, cause this thing is growing.
Avery/GM: What?
Bee/Polaris: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought, I thought it was gonna be to spot the drone that he put on the ship and then they're gonna destroy it.
Avery/GM: Oh no, no.
Bee/Polaris: But I mean even then we can still track Herbie's because we have the coil cube.
Chris/Ollie: 97. This is a hopefully good, high is good situation.
Avery/GM: No, it is because that's the percentage of how much your crystal grows back. So yeah, so I don't know, I don't know what kind of freak...
Chris/Ollie: It's just back?
Avery/GM: Freak accident occurred. But yeah, your, your crystal grows. By 97%.
Zach/Zahn: Holy shit.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. Because, if I remember, I shaved off the tiniest sliver to stick into this dog body.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: So it was like nothing, and now it's boop, okay. Go Chaos Emeralds.
Avery/GM: Go Chaos Emeralds. That's why they're Chaos Emeralds, you never know. They're quantumly entangled. And if there's one thing you know about sci fi, it's just, you just stick the word quantum in front of it, and it makes sense. Alright, are we done shopping? anything else anyone needs before we...
Zach/Zahn: I would just like you to give me a base amount of money needed to spend to build the weapon that I wanted to build. For parts.
Avery/GM: Oh, the thing, the thing?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: You're building the thing?
The thing!
Zach/Zahn: A thing.
Avery/GM: Wait, are we talking about the…
Zach/Zahn: compressed air bulkhead spike thrower, yes.
Avery/GM: Oh, that thingy, that thingy. For all the raw material parts, I'd say 1200.
Zach/Zahn: That's fine. Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Wait, can I buy one grenade? Sorry.
Caden/Bruce: Just a singular grenade!
Avery/GM: It's a very impulsive purchase, but sure.
Bee/Polaris: I was, because I was like, wait, are there any other weapons that I would like? And I saw the grenade and I was like, hell yeah!
Chris/Ollie: The impulse buy, I imagine, like, at the cashier's stand, there's a grenade on the shelf.
Bee/Polaris: It's like next to the candy bars.
Chris/Ollie: I need this grenade.
Avery/GM: Yep, exactly.
Caden/Bruce: Actually, I think I'll buy Bruce a regular size. Laser pist… like laser knife thing. Cause he only has one that makes toast. He should probably have one that's actually also a weapon.
Avery/GM: No, I mean, it is, it is regular size. It's, it's adjustable.
Caden/Bruce: Oh, cool cool cool. Nevermind then. We're good. We're good here.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: I'll buy four grenades.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah, the shopkeeper's just like, You know, they're buy two get two free.
Bee/Polaris: Are you serious? I'm actually just gonna spend fifty instead of the hundred.
Chris/Ollie: Boto.
Bee/Polaris:Buy two get two free.Hell yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah. That's what they do with the candy bars at the store, right?
Bee/Polaris: And that's what they do with the grenades.
Avery/GM: Cool. Okay, y'all stock up on your stuff. It takes maybe an hour to get everything you needed and you're back on the shuttle. Is Rho coming with you or did you leave Rho in the hotel room to think about what she did?
Bee/Polaris: we’re not, we can't leave her.
Caden/Bruce: We're not bringing, no…
Bee/Polaris: Wait, wait, we're leaving her alone?
Caden/Bruce: I don't know. Okay. I guess we could like put her on like ship arrest.
Zach/Zahn: I was going to say, we need to, we need to bring her with.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Cause also, she'll also, since she speaks Terran, she'll know some of the old stuff that's on the station.
Bee/Polaris: Ooo, true.
Caden/Bruce: Oh, fair.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, plus
Bee/Polaris: if there's I mean also the last time we left her alone, you know,
Chris/Ollie: yeah, and if there's any more concrete info about getting back It'll be there. But yeah, I don't think we can leave her. She needs to be watched
Avery/GM: Yeah, so y'all make your way up to the Cassiopeia. It has not been discovered in orbit. Y'all did a very good job of hiding it, so kudos to you wasn't even noticed by the hegemony When they passed by it, so excellent. And yes, I, I did roll for all those things.
Bee/Polaris: Oh shit. Yeah. Hell yeah. We hit it real good.
Avery/GM: You make it on to the Cassiopeia. You don't have an AI to help you pilot this ship, but Polaris, are you up to the task? or do you want Rho to take her station in the Precognitive navigation chamber.
Zach/Zahn: Does she want to go back into that?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, does she want, I don't think she wants to go back.
Avery/GM: I mean, you can ask her but if you're, if you know, you all kind of come onto the bridge and
Bee/Polaris: now I do have a question. Can Polaris even fly the Cassiopeia?
Avery/GM: You've flown it, yeah. Oh, sick! You flew it with the help of Hermes last time, but yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Son of a bitch! Okay.
Avery/GM: I'm presenting you with some options, basically. Essentially, you could plug in the AI you currently have... into it.
Bee/Polaris: No. Absolutely not. Isn't that Coil?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: No.
Avery/GM: Utilize your own skills or, or, or ask Rho to take her station.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie could probably also navigate. He put his Chaos Emerald in the ship for the trip.
Bee/Polaris: Does Ollie have any navigation programs or anything like that though?
Chris/Ollie: No. But he could try.
Bee/Polaris: I love that. Thank you. Well. Oh yeah, I did fly it here. What am I ta… Anyway, okay I think, like, just getting out of the current system that we're in, players will fly it, but if there's an autopilot like setting, players will do that because we're essentially putting in coordinates and going to one location.
And then if anything happens, Polaris will grab the controls, but I do need to make Ollie his, his little, his little bags.
Avery/GM: Okay. So you're taking the pilot station?
Bee/Polaris: Indeed. Yup
Avery/GM: Rho looks at you, Polaris, and just says, do you want me to go back in the chamber? And you can tell she kind of looks scared.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just says, no, you don't have to. You've been in there long enough.
Avery/GM: Okay I'll just, I'll sit here for now, but I'm not like taking command or anything like that.
Bee/Polaris: Aye, aye, Cap'n.
Avery/GM: She blushes. Like nervous, like, oh gosh, no. Not me. Cool. Okay. Go ahead and roll your pilot check.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, shit, you're right.That is the thing I huh. So, I get to roll three because I have a specialist, and I rolled two sixes and a five, so in total is it just dex piloting?
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. In total, it’s
Avery/GM: Or intelligence, but yeah.
Bee/Polaris: That's all the same. So, 12 plus, that's 16.
Avery/GM: Damn.
Bee/Polaris: I pilot this shit out of this ship, dude.
Avery/GM: You pilot this shit out of this. In fact, you shave an extra, you shave an extra 12 hours off of your, your flight path. You calculate a better flight path than the one that the Winstons gave you.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, shit.
Bee/Polaris: Fuck yeah. Players won't rub it in. But he will send over, like, Hey, this is a better flight path if you guys ever need to use this in the future.
Caden/Bruce: Just rub it in.
Zach/Zahn: I'm not gonna rub it in, I'm just gonna rub it in.
Chris/Ollie: Just put some passive aggressive, like, you know, I'm not sure who figured this out, but...
Bee/Polaris: No, no, no, Felis is just trying to be helpful. He sends a heart and a smiley face.
Avery/GM: Very good. So, you jump into... Liminal space and you have a little bit of extra time before you arrive.
Does anyone do anything before you arrive at the space station or are y'all just gearing up and getting ready?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is going to be putting some stuff together.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. Bruce is also going to be like making little bento boxes for everyone.
Zach/Zahn: Bento boxes.
Avery/GM: I love it.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is making Ollie’s little little baggies, but also Polaris would ask Zahn about the magnet and the gloves… if he has the time.
Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, he'll do that too.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Okay. So Zahn, roll a dexterity or intelligence fixed check and Polaris and Bruce go ahead and roll either intelligence or dexterity work checks.
Bee/Polaris: That's going to be a five.
Caden/Bruce: That's going to be a 10.
Zach/Zahn: I got an 11 on my fix check.
Avery/GM: Okay. Polaris, you are able to finish one saddlebag. By the time you get to the Maybe it's just a new pattern that you're working with. You know? sOmething like that. But you're able to at least finish one saddlebag. So, it might take some, like, awkward attaching to Ollie
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris can just make him like a little satchel, and then like, Later, he could just make, like, a, a cargo bag.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Zahn, you are able to put together everything that you wanted to put together? Your new weapon?
Zach/Zahn:Heck yeah.
Avery/GM: You come over real quick. Like, the, the magnets for Polaris gloves and his laser blade. It's, like, super simple. Like, you kinda just walk up while, while he's sewing. You're like, I need your hand real quick. Take the hand, put the magnet, like, do a couple screws, take the, the laser blade, do the same.
Bee/Polaris: You screwed directly into Polaris's hand.
Avery/GM: No, you have like gloves, right?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I have gloves on, but screws are long.
Zach/Zahn: No, no, no, instead I'm like uh, as you're sewing, I'm like, glove me.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris takes off his glove.
Zach/Zahn: And the magnets are segmented so you can actually, you know, still like, move your palm and they're riveted into place.
Avery/GM: There you go. Even better.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris, thanks, son.
Avery/GM: You get a thumbs up. And Bruce, you make these bento boxes that are just, they smell so good. They've got these cute little, little segments inside of them for each little thing. You've got, you know, some roasted vegetables and I'll let you describe it. You, you describe how, how good these look.
Caden/Bruce: So he made like little like the kind of thing that you use for cookie cutters, exception for it's like, you know, star shaped rice with like these freshly sauteed vegetables and just a whole bunch of food that's like nutritious and good for you, but also like, Light to carry, but will also feed you up, like, fill you up pretty well, and he's made one for everyone on the team.
It's just like, packed them into like, cute little lunchboxes, and then there's like, sharpied on the name of each team member, and like, a smiley face, and like, inside the box, it's like, written in little note, like, Look at you go! You've done so well! Like, little inspirational quotes and such like that.
Bee/Polaris: My heart!
Avery/GM: For when you're deep in the bowels of the space dungeon and you're just like, I'm gonna eat something.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah! And then you open it up and it's just like, you've done so good, keep going! You know?
Bee/Polaris: Aww! That's so sweet!
Avery/GM: And, yeah. You, you've all... Done these things to prepare and the spike jump ends and you are a lot closer to the inner system than you normally are when you jump.
And that's because this system is very small compared to the other planetary systems you've visited. It just takes probably about an hour to drift in close enough to actually see the space station. And Zahn, are you on the bridge when you come into view?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You see a sight that you haven't seen in 12 years?
Zach/Zahn: Approximately.
Avery/GM: Yeah, approximately 12 years. Except it's a lot worse off than when you left. New Terra Station is a station that is essentially, when these people came to this galaxy a few generations ago, it was actually a fleet of ships, and those ships were able to interlock together to form this space station.
And so there were whole wings of this space station that could house... A colony core of people in cryostasis and an entire wing dedicated to physics experiments and technology research and just all kinds of different areas. And when you come to your former home, you see that most of it has been reduced to rubble and pieces and debris.
A lot of the wings have been shattered or maybe exploded. And they, they are no longer functioning. There is a core of about five ships still linked together with all this debris kind of floating around it, uh, floating above the space station. And as you get into communications range, you get an automated signal warning you away.
And it says, do not approach station under lockdown. civilization collapsed possible biological contamination do not approach, and it just repeats over and over and after a few moments of this you actually Bruce, you're sitting at the communication station and you see a notification that you're getting an actual channel request being sent to you.
Caden/Bruce: I feel like Bruce will look at Zahn and just be like, do you want me to answer this?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn will approach and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it.
Caden/Bruce: And Bruce will accept the call.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you accept this call and, Zahn, you immediately hear a voice you haven't heard in 12 years. And this person says Hey, are your communications relays working properly or something, unidentified ship?
The beacon says don't approach, get the hell out of here. Do not dock with the station if you value your limbs and your lives. And Zahn, you recognize this voice as the voice of Amanda Ripley, one of your mentors from your time back on the station. Surprisingly, she is still alive.
Zach/Zahn: Surprisingly, indeed. Zahn's gonna lean over Bruce's shoulder and hit the push to talk button. Hi, Amanda.
Avery/GM: I'm sorry, who, who is that? That... That sounds, your voice sounds awfully familiar. How do you, how do you know my name?
Zach/Zahn: Doesn't matter. We're here on important business and we need stuff from the architects.
Avery/GM: Well, if you know who I am, you probably know where the docking bay is, I guess, but God, that voice sounds so familiar.
Avery/GM: Zahn? Zahn, is that you?
Zach/Zahn: The one and only.
Avery/GM: Ah shit, why'd you, what are you doing here? I told you to get out of here twelve years ago, and I told you to never come back.
Zach/Zahn: And I would have upheld that, if the entire rest of the galaxy wasn't in trouble.
Avery/GM: What are you, oh god, okay, well I'm kinda dealing with some shit right now, so, uh, just be careful when you come out of the docking bay, there's some troublemakers outside. Just be careful.
Zach/Zahn:10-4.
Avery/GM: And the communication ends. Zahn, you know where the docking bay is? It's basically just like a little airlock that you essentially link up to and, and come through. It's not like this place was really designed for, you know, a multi ship transportation hub or anything like that. Do you guide Polaris in or?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, I basically. Like pull up a screen and I enhance and then circle around where the, like the docking tube or whatever is.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will send a thumbs up in chat and also a hug emote. Cause this must be rough.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn just puts the shrug emote.
Bee/Polaris: Gonna dock this bad boy. Well, not the cast. Not gonna dock the cast. We're getting on the shuttle. Probably should not expose the cast to whatever the fuck is on this.
Chris/Ollie: Good idea.
Bee/Polaris: Also, do we want Rho to come with us, or do we want her to stay on the cast and she can just watch our live streams and translate stuff for us?
Zach/Zahn: We should ask Rho what she wants.
Chris/Ollie: We should ask what she wants, but I don't think we should leave her alone.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, the last time that happened didn't do didn't go too well.
Caden/Bruce: Didn't go very well at all.
Bee/Polaris: Well, what does Rho want to do?
Avery/GM: I don't know, you'll have to ask her.
Bee/Polaris: Hey, good point. Polaris will just turn to Rho and say, Do you want to come with us, or do you want to stay on the ship?
Avery/GM: Well, I wasn't planning on going on board. I was, I was thinking maybe I could stay here and pilot the ship in case you need like a quick evac. I could like blast a hole in that thing and, you know, give you guys like a quick way out.
But if you, if you really feel like you need me there, you know, I, I understand that you probably don't. Trust me as much, you know, leaving me alone because of what happened with Hermes, but…
Bee/Polaris: Polaris puts a hand on her shoulder and says, I don't think you'll leave us behind. But if you do, we will just hunt you down.
Avery/GM: Nervous laughter. No, I, I only, I, I only helped Hermes out because he asked me.
Bee/Polaris: You don't have to explain yourself. Just don't leave us behind.
Avery/GM: No, I would never. Besides, you're my, you're my only way home at this point. That'd be kind of shitty.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, not really. We gave you the coordinates, didn't we?
Chris/Ollie: I mean, I think it was just coordinates though.
Bee/Polaris:Cause Blair said the coordinates in chat.
Avery/GM: I know, but she was also unconscious.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, right. Well, is Rho in the chat?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, does she have like what is it? Chat history permissions?
Avery/GM: Yeah, I don't think Rho is in chat at the time, but probably has been added to chat at some point, yes.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, she'd probably scroll back up.
Avery/GM: Yeah. She pulls out like a little wristwatch and scrolls up. Oh, I see, I do have the coordinates. Well.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, I can go home right now. Bye.
Caden/Bruce: Bye!
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris says, don't leave us behind. I'm so serious. Don't leave us behind.
Avery/GM: She salutes.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris does like the double pat on the side of the arm and then just like goes to the shuttle.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah, y'all board the shuttle. And, uh, pilot it up to the little airlock here and you know, it's a quick little wait time while you wait for everything to finish docking. And then suddenly it opens up and you are in the airlock. The red light above this door here is flashing, and you feel the pressure equalize in this room, and suddenly it flashes to green, and there's a little button on the side of the wall that says open.
Oh, and you, and from, from the other side of the wall, you do hear some banging going on somewhere in the other room. Oh
Bee/Polaris: yeah, definitely gonna have to do a murder. Also Polaris will, like, send his live stream feed to the comm station on the cast so that Rho can watch, just in case we need translations. And he'll, he will text her as such.
Avery/GM: Sure. Makes sense.
Zach/Zahn: So Zahn has a spike shooter on his back, attached to his backpack, but he's got his laser pistol in hand.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: As everything equalizes, he activates his helmet and it builds up in the awesome, awesome way. And then, with a sigh, he Pushes the open button.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Before he pushes it, players will say, I take left. You take right.
Zach/Zahn: Get a nod.
Avery/GM: Okay. You come into the corridor here.
Zach/Zahn: Oh my God. That's so cool. Zahn activates the flashlight on the side of his helmet.
Avery/GM: Okay. You hear the banging coming from to, to, to your left and Zahn as you illuminate that area with your. Flashlight, you see several beings banging against a door.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie's gonna like, take point in front of everyone else.
Avery/GM: Okay. Okay. And as, as your flashlight shines on them, they all turn to you. Turn their attention towards you and you can kind of hear some like, laughter and some like, snickering going on.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie will... As they turn to him, say, Greetings, new friends. Can you point us to the nearest service station?
Avery/GM: And from the corner, a bigger dude emerges and is just like, Well, well, well, looks like we got some fresh meat, boys. And let's roll initiative.
(outro plays and fades down)
Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1up Podcast Network Production. Find more of our content at 1upPodcasts.com.
Intro and Outro Music Produced by Dustin Carpenter. Background music provided by TabletopAudio.com and used under an attribution non-commercial license from creative commons. The tracks used today include Mega City Slums, Starship Bridge, Star Freighter, and Secret Facility.
We’ll be back on December 1st with our next episode.
See you out there! Beyond the Furthest Stars!
(Outro fades up and plays out)