Episode 15 - Cross the Finish Line!

Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 15 of Beyond the Furthest Stars!

(Intro Music plays, then fades out, background music fades in)

Avery/GM: So you're flying in close towards this platform. Zahn, you jump off and just tell Polaris to come back for you in a couple minutes. Or what,

Zach/Zahn: what if I specifically, uh, render like in my programming bit, um, have the, the missiles, you know, attack the assemble singles, but have one of them deactivate its payload and then I ride a missile back.

Bee/Polaris: you're gonna bullet bill your way to the shuttle?

Jenine/Marty: Oh my gosh.

Zach/Zahn: Yes.

Bee/Polaris: That sounds dangerous.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Zach/Zahn: Just, just close enough to where I can use my graphical launcher to actually like close the gap.

Chris/Ollie: Well, I mean, Marty could just swing by Actually, I guess it would be, uh,

Bee/Polaris: Polaris could just swing by.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, because that will, that will track us back. We wanna go to the end though.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris's faster than the shuttle.

Chris/Ollie: Oh, I thought they were already on the way past, but I guess they would've to go off course downward, some.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah, man. Bullet Bill sounds far more entertaining.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, Ollie will be 100% fine no matter what happens. So he's like, thumbs up.

Avery/GM: Okay. I'm setting the difficulty level for this . Cause you're basically going to have to hack two different things. So you're gonna hack the targeting for almost all the torpedoes except a nearby one that will rocket you towards your shuttle. And you'll jump onto your shuttle before it hits and get out of the way. Is that what you, you're basically gonna be doing?

Zach/Zahn: It would be a similar flight path, but not like one directly at it, cause then I'll use my grapnel launcher to, uh, hook onto our shuttle and then zoom back onto it.

Bee/Polaris: are you explaining this plan to… In chat?

Zach/Zahn: How do you mean ?

Chris/Ollie: No, Marty's just gonna see a missile fly at ‘em.

Bee/Polaris: like are you telling the rest of the team?

Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, as long as just like, uh, don't worry about me. I'll, hitch a ride!

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will type in chat. Don't miss Smiley face.

Zach/Zahn: I never miss Winky face, except for the times that I, and, and very small print, except for the times that I do

Avery/GM: 85% of the time I hit 100% of the time.

Zach/Zahn: Oh God.

Avery/GM: Okay. I will need an intelligence program. Check on this computer. Ollie, you can roll to help as well.

Zach/Zahn: All right, dice. You've been rolling stupid low for me all day. Let's, uh, let's change that up on when it's important. It's important. Hell Yeah. So you said intelligence program?

Avery/GM: Yes.

Zach/Zahn: That is a 12 and I

Chris/Ollie: just get a flat. Two, two dice?

Avery/GM: two D six plus the same skill.

Chris/Ollie: Oh okay. In that case, that would be, that would be 13

Avery/GM: Okay. Uh, so a 14 total, I think, or no, 13. 13 total. Yeah, Zahn. You actually see, because the rules are that spotters cannot attack the other shuttle. So you see Professor Infinity's gunship start nose diving towards you as you're like typing in this stuff, right?

And you're getting kind of frantic about it. And so instead of being able to specify a specific target, you're actually able to just eliminate a target. You see that that program is already in there and yes, your suspicions were correct. It was programmed to purposefully miss the assemble singles shuttle and spider , and so you quickly just change it to the signature for your spotter and shuttle and the torpedoes turn And target this spotter that is nose diving towards you. And you see just five torpedoes, zero in on this floating gun and explode and detonate.

(Explosion sounds)

Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh you were staring down the barrel of a giant desert eagle.

Avery/GM: And then you finish plugging in, um, the trajectory for this one, uh, specific launcher to launch you near, but not at your shuttle and you hit the button on your, your last little programming line of code, and you jump on this shuttle and you are, or jump onto this torpedo as it launches out (Torpedo launch sound) and you are hurdling towards your Shuttle. Yeah, so I guess the only thing left to do would be to roll all these D 20 s to attack the assemble singles shuttle.

Yeah.

Jenine/Marty: Rip!

Bee/Polaris: Let's go.

Zach/Zahn: I can throw, I can throw a D 20 in there too if you want .

Avery/GM: Oh, it's fine. I got it.

Bee/Polaris: Do you want me to mail a D 20 to you?

Avery/GM: No, Nat 20.

Zach/Zahn: Heck yeah, brother.

Avery/GM: 16, 17. 10

Zach/Zahn: Oh man. I think we're about to be the only competitors in this race.

Jenine/Marty: Well, we stopped…

Bee/Polaris: we blew it up so good that we're the new sponsors!

Jenine/Marty: Oh yoinks!

Avery/GM: So you see three of these torpedoes, uh, actually hit their target, (explosion sounds) on the assemble single shuttle. Um, and it's still there. It's still floating, but it's, it's limping now and it has actually lost what? Lead it had on your shuttle

Jenine/Marty: ha

Avery/GM: as it's now kind of starting to, like, it's got chunks missing out of it and there's like pieces of it that are kind of like falling and just kind of floating around it, um, as it, it slows down greatly, and then two of them connect with the lucky Tentacle spotter and blow it up completely.

Bee/Polaris: Yay.

Caden/Bruce: Some fried calamari.

Bee/Polaris: It turned into little bits of space sushi, like the debris is little bits of space sushi.

Avery/GM: And for this checkpoint, I won't even have the assembles or Herme's roll a pilot check because yeah. y'all pass through the checkpoint for this one first.

Bee/Polaris: Yay.

Zach/Zahn: Yay.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah!

Avery/GM: And then you're coming up to the last checkpoint it looks like. . Basically it's just like an abandoned construction dock for like a local shipyard. There's like these four like kind of crane arms that kind of like stick out that probably people like hang from in like zero G to like do repair work and stuff on a ship or something like that.

Zach/Zahn: Makes sense.

Avery/GM: Yeah. But there's basically just, it's basically just four little asteroids with these cranes on it as we're.

Zach/Zahn: as we're approaching. Zahn is gonna like, or as it's coming into view, Zan will be stepping back onto the, the, the shuttle from having attached his grapnel launcher and left his bullet bill behind him.

(detaching sound, and thud sound)

Avery/GM: Sure

Zach/Zahn: his bullet riding days. And, he’ll give Marty a pat on the shoulder from behind the gun and be like, good. Shootin’ Tex!... whatever Tex means in space.

Jenine/Marty: And then Marty like does the little finger guns and goes (makes gun shooting mouth sounds) Thanks!

Zach/Zahn: And then he is gonna look up and see this, you know, shipyard and he is gonna be like, where the fuck did assemble singles get all these weird setups at

Jenine/Marty: whoever it is. They should get a raise on the set design.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I was about to say, they just hired us. Team of set designers.

Zach/Zahn: Zahn Shrugs.

Avery/GM: Okay so coming up to this Construction place. Polaris, you're slightly ahead of your shuttle, so I would like a intelligence or dexterity Notice. Check.

Bee/Polaris: Oh boy. I'm good at those. In theory.

Jenine/Marty: In theory.

Bee/Polaris: intelligence or Dex?

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, well they’re the same thing. So it doesn't really matter. Nine.

Avery/GM: Nine. Okay. You see several robotic looking figures on top of these cranes.

Bee/Polaris: Can Ollie also see this?

Avery/GM: You count? Yeah. I guess Ollie would technically be able to see this. Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Cause his little eyes are in the corner of my goddamn visor.

Chris/Ollie: I'm like over here changing the settings and. Adjusting the…

Bee/Polaris: Stop! (laughter) Polaris tries to drag and drop all into the, the recycling bin.

Chris/Ollie: Recycling bin!

Avery/GM: You count eight little robot bodies hanging out here.

Bee/Polaris: Oh no. Uh, Polaris will point this out to the rest of the team. He'll send a, a short GIF just like with Red Circle. Around all of the little robot guys.

Avery/GM: Sure. And yeah. Uh, do Marty or Zahn react to this at all? You've got some distance, uh, before you get close to them.

Zach/Zahn: What do the little robots look like?

Jenine/Marty: Yeah?

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Do they look dangerous or pointy?

Zach/Zahn: Do they look like combat bots?

Avery/GM: They look like very big fighty robots with big hammer hands.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, so they're not used for making bread dough?

Avery/GM: No.

Bee/Polaris: Or tenderizing meat?

Avery/GM: I mean, probably,

Zach/Zahn: probably could!

Avery/GM: but probably meat that's attached to humanoids.

Jenine/Marty: Do they look like they can fly ?

Avery/GM: hard to tell.

Bee/Polaris: Can we go can we take the long way around? Since we're in a, we have a huge lead?

Avery/GM: You could take the long way around. You could try and dodge this whole thing altogether.

Bee/Polaris: Well, how, um, who are there any other shuttles in the race?

Avery/GM: Just the assembles. The assemble shuttles is limping behind. Oh,

Bee/Polaris: Donezo! let's take the long way around.

Zach/Zahn: No, man. We just, uh, we go through and we target the, the bases of the cranes for the cranes to fall and not be in our way.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah!

Bee/Polaris: are the cranes, like, do the cranes still have like their, their whole little, you know, hook and string?

Jenine/Marty: hook and string!

Avery/GM: When, when I say cranes, I just mean like the arms, like they're, they're mostly just used as like anchor points for like people who are floating. So they don't like float away into space.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. I thought, I don't know why I said hook and string. I forgot the word. What is it? A cable ?

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Avery/GM: Hook and str. It's fine. We're not construction workers.

Bee/Polaris: That is true. Okay. Shoot. I was gonna, I was gonna “you first” the assemble singles shuttle, but, um, what do you guys wanna do about this?

Jenine/Marty: What if we talk to the robots? Do you think they’re nice?

Bee/Polaris: Can we make friends with these robots? Can I send a message to one of these robots, little robots? ? you're a robot. No, I'm kidding.

Zach/Zahn: Greetings Fellow robots.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, without any remote hacking capability. I think I could. . I can mess with him a bit, but I can't deal with eight robots.

Bee/Polaris: At the beginning of this campaign, Ollie kind of like found his sentience or, you know, kind of woke up. Can we awaken them to a new purpose in life?

Chris/Ollie: I mean, Zahn has the magic hands. He's the one who did it.

Bee/Polaris: Can Zahn awaken them to a new purpose in life? Do you wanna be the father to…

Zach/Zahn: I don’t know what I did though.

Jenine/Marty: More kids!

Bee/Polaris: Can we, okay. Can we actually like talk to these robots though?

Avery/GM:

Chris/Ollie: Father, I think we need to adopt additional siblings.

Avery/GM: I will say that either you or Zahn or Ollie could open like a remote communications, uh, channel with them.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will open a chat room and say hi!

(comms sound)

Avery/GM: They type… are you saying hi vocally or typing?

Bee/Polaris: Well, both because he is talking in his helmet.

Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. Um. Someone responds back racer. You should not be communicating with this unit. We are here to assist you in winning the race.

Bee/Polaris: it's not against the rules.

You see like they send like a book turning page emoji . You are correct. This is not against the rules, but we are about to board both shuttles and see who is best at racing

Bee/Polaris: N…No… Heart Emoji.

(comm sound)

Jenine/Marty: Can I, am I also in this chat room?

Avery/GM: Sure.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I'll, I'll live stream the chat room. I'll screen share.

Jenine/Marty: Okay. Cool. Cool. Cool. Um, I don't know if Marty is just gonna try and like, encourage and be like, okay, maybe, maybe let's try a different approach and be a little. Let's be nice to them and maybe be like, Hey, what if we just do like a quick zoom, pass them, give them… Marty is currently coaching cause does not understand technology, kind of

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Jenine/Marty: And how this, uh, thing works. It is surprised that she got, um, emojis down.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris takes notes. He nods along and then he edits his previous message and puts no heart emoji, smiley face, Winky face.

(Comm Sounds)

Avery/GM: Do not worry. This is just part of the race. We will not actually harm you. Smiley face.

Jenine/Marty: Why do I feel like that's a lie?

Chris/Ollie: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Are you lying to me? Question mark. Smiley face. Winky Face.

Avery/GM: I am programmed not to lie. I am only programmed to mildly maim.

Bee/Polaris: can…

Zach/Zahn: are you going to harm our shuttle?

Bee/Polaris: Uh, can you do me a favor, question mark?

(comms sound)

Avery/GM: I do not know. I will have to wait until I hear the request.

Bee/Polaris: can you divide by zero? ? Can you divide 26 by zero?

(Comm Sound)

Avery/GM: God damn it.

(laughter)

Zach/Zahn: Math is not…

Avery/GM: charisma. A charisma program check.

Bee/Polaris: Fuck. I have nothing in that.

Jenine/Marty: wait, Can I help with That was I, was I helpful?

Avery/GM: You can. You can roll to Assist. Yeah. Charisma program.

Jenine/Marty: I got a nine.

Bee/Polaris: I rolled phenomenally. I rolled 12 minus one. So 11

Jenine/Marty: Well I helped!

Avery/GM: Polaris, you see four of the robots explode.

Bee/Polaris: Yes!

(Explosion sounds)

Bee/Polaris: Polaris puts the Pog emote in chat.

(Comm Sound)

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will also put up “amateurs” in chat.

(Comm Sound)

(laughter)

Avery/GM: Oh my gosh. Okay. So I will say that you see these explode just as you're about to pass underneath, uh, the, the arms of this, of this crane, or are you going to take the long way around?

Bee/Polaris: No let's just go the normal way.

Avery/GM: Okay. So instead of having to fight four robots, um, only two robots jump down onto your shuttle and you see two jump, uh, two of them are still up there waiting to jump onto the singles shuttle that's coming.

Bee/Polaris: Can Polaris send a message to the two of on the shuttle? They’ve already…

Zach/Zahn: As Zahn is like staring at them like What’s up?

Avery/GM: I'm gonna say they've already closed down their communications equipment.

Bee/Polaris: No.

Avery/GM: And they are now in smash with a hammer mode.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. Well I guess I'll just have to do my dumb piloting stuff then.

Chris/Ollie: Zahn, you're inside the shuttle with them. Or are you guys outside?

Zach/Zahn: Yes.

Avery/GM: Yeah, it's like a flat bed, so.

Chris/Ollie: Oh, okay.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah, I'm on the outside.

Chris/Ollie: and then, and it's open space on the shuttle?

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Chris/Ollie: Oh, okay. Shit. I was gonna say, uh, put your helmet on one of the robots and I'll hack it.

Zach/Zahn: Oh my God.

Bee/Polaris: Hold your breath.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, just hold your breath. You'll be fine.

Avery/GM: So, yeah. So there are these two robots that, that stomp down and they are, um, these big, kind of like burly imposing robot bodies with like these two big hammer hands on, on either arm. but they have like a little LED screen. and the LED screen is displaying like a smiling face, and you just hear the robot say, “please do not be alarmed. We are just here to test our hammers on you.”

Jenine/Marty: No!

Zach/Zahn: I do not consent to being hammered right now.

Avery/GM: Well shit.

Zach/Zahn: I do not consent to hammer time and then he is gonna pull out the grapnel launcher, flip it to reverse and point blank fire at one of them.

Avery/GM: to try and like reverse polarity them?

Zach/Zahn: basically it's going to like, pretty much Yeah. Like I just wanted to hit one and then not like have it knock him off

Avery/GM: Sure. Roll a dexterity shoot then.

Zach/Zahn: 12.

Avery/GM: That's good. That'll do it. Yeah. You hit one of these with your granel launcher and, uh, kind of knock it into the. Into the air, so to speak. And so now it's kind of floating above your shuttle and pulling away since your shuttle keeps moving forward. Um, but there's this other one here and it's going to actually take a swing at Marty, who is

Zach/Zahn: How dare it!

Avery/GM: at the gun ship.

Jenine/Marty: How dare you? Oh, I am still at the gunning thing aren’t I?

Zach/Zahn: Oh that’s right!

Avery/GM: I rolled, I rolled a D six and did even odd to see who it would, who it would target.

Jenine/Marty: That's fair.

Zach/Zahn: How dare you attack such innocence!

Avery/GM: So it did roll a 17 to hit you, Marty. Now I have a

Jenine/Marty: question. Okay. Can I like look the robots into the way the camera is and just go “Uwu please no!”

Bee/Polaris: you wouldn't hit a guy with glasses?

Avery/GM: Uwu Please no? Let's see here. Use a skill…

Jenine/Marty: like with the biggest puppy dog eyes ever.

Avery/GM: Okay. what is your, what is your current ac

Jenine/Marty: It's probably something sad… 13.

Avery/GM: Okay. I, okay. Go ahead and, A charisma connect check.

Jenine/Marty: Guess what? I get a roll three D six. Mm-hmm.

Avery/GM: And we'll consider this, um, this action, a total defense action , which would raise your ac. And if you succeed the skill check, it will decrease their role on the dice.

Jenine/Marty: Okay. Cool. Great. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. Wait. That is a ten. Uwu Please!?

Avery/GM: I did need it to be a, I needed it to be a 12.

Jenine/Marty: No!

Avery/GM: I did place it kind of high. Um, so it does end up like it pauses for a minute and then continues its motion, so I will reduce its attack damage by half.

Jenine/Marty: Hey.

Zach/Zahn: Thankfully we've all got that, like exceedingly high hit points, hypothetically speaking to not get insta-smashed.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Marty's also a tank. We, we went over this last time.

Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, that's right.

Avery/GM: So nine damage rounded down will be four damage.

Jenine/Marty: Oh, that's not that bad.

Avery/GM: That it hits you with, and then could you make a physical saving throw?

Jenine/Marty: Oh yeah. That's, that's cool. That's that's great. Thank gosh. Uh, it's a 16. Mine is an 11 .

Avery/GM: Perfect. Okay. Yeah, so this, this hammer attack, like, it, it knocks you, it knocks you down a little bit, but you're holding onto the gunnery station still so you're not like lifted off your feet and floated into space.

Jenine/Marty: Hmm. I love that.

Bee/Polaris: Good shit. Good shit.

Avery/GM: And I think that's everyone's turn.

Chris/Ollie: They haven't taken any damage right?

Avery/GM: The robot has not, no one robot has been floated into space and cannot get back. So there's just this one robot now.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Well I wanted to save them, but uh, I guess I'm gonna have to use up one of my processing points. I'm going to, are you looking at 'em Zahn?

Zach/Zahn: Oh, absolutely.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Then I'm going to commit a point and, oh, where did my routines? There we go. Use hack control. Commit a processing point as a move action. And target a visible ex expert system, robot, drone vehicle, or automated device. No larger than a grab flyer. Give it one command. It's physically capable.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Chris/Ollie: Of carrying out, even if it violates the programming. Oh. And it'll do it on its next available action.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Chris/Ollie: And I will tell it to eject.

Avery/GM: Okay. , does it get any kind of save on that or no?

Chris/Ollie: No. I mean, it's, it's your, you know, your call, but it's a, it says target visible robot, drone, vehicle, or device.

Avery/GM: No. If it's, if it doesn't have any kind of save functionality, then no. You're right. Cool. Cool. Well then, uh, the next round is about to start, but, um, Polaris out your cockpit window. You do see the other two robots. They seem to. After the single shuttle passes under them.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah, of course.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, of course. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: it's still limping and they, the one that's on our shuttle hasn't, uh, affected

Avery/GM: our speed at all, so. Okay. I believe though your team is still going first before this robot. So anyone do anything to this robot before it's turned?

Zach/Zahn: I would like to have Zan do a dexterity fix to use his laser blade to systematically dismantle this robot

Bee/Polaris: It's like a NASCAR pit crew.

Jenine/Marty: Yes!

Zach/Zahn: But with a laser. With a laser blade .

Jenine/Marty: So I have a question. Can I assist in this way?

Avery/GM: Sure.

Jenine/Marty: As someone that is skilled in the medical field, is this a humanoid ish robot? So I would know where the weak points are question mark?

Avery/GM: Yeah, I mean it's, it's humanoid, so yeah,

Zach/Zahn: Obviously-

Avery/GM: you would know like

Jenine/Marty: here, here, here.

Zach/Zahn: Arms, knees, shoulder, neck.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. But you have to hit at like this specific angle.

Avery/GM: Um, sure. Uh, go ahead and roll that check then. And you said dexterity fix. Yeah, that's fine. And then Marty, go ahead and roll an intelligence heal.

Zach/Zahn: Ooh.

Avery/GM: Since you're using your medical knowledge, you know,

Jenine/Marty: good choice. Ooh.

Zach/Zahn: Oh, damn,

Chris/Ollie: damn.

Zach/Zahn: That's the third double five in a row.

Jenine/Marty: I also rolled two sixes, so it's gonna be a 13.

Zach/Zahn: So it's 13 from me, yeah.

Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah. Y'all turn this robot into Swiss cheese, and just

Bee/Polaris: scavenge it for parts. Yeah.

(Laser blade sounds)

Avery/GM: you basically leave just its torso, uh, sitting on, on your, um, on the deck of your, uh, Your ship here and then it follows the command that Ollie gave it to eject. And you see that it's two legs that are still kinda like bolted. Or not bolted, but like standing up, but they're on the, you know,

Zach/Zahn: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Avery/GM: They're standing up still. Uh, you just see them like, Basically just like rocket off of the shuttle backwards.

(jet booster sounds)

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Sorry. I could have, could have done that before it attacked you. But I didn't realize I had two processing left. I thought I only had the one.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, sweet.

Zach/Zahn: Ah,

Chris/Ollie: so,

Avery/GM: and yeah.

Bee/Polaris: sweet. Uh, while that was happening, Polaris is uploading that video of the drones totally missing the assembles shuttle to the internet and saying, look at this cheating. Shame! shake hat emoji.

Zach/Zahn: Unfortunately, we're so far ahead that we couldn't get actual footage of the robot's delayed. Jump onto the craft singles or assembled singles.

Bee/Polaris: Well, Polaris, Polaris was watching, uh, through the, like while you guys were getting boarded. So, and his visor is, uh, technically a pc, so he it's technically a data event, so he totally took a video.

Zach/Zahn: Oh, okay. Clear self-favoritism. Cheater!

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I'm gonna ruin their PR.

Avery/GM: So, so you've defeated the robot and you're about to pass through the fifth and final checkpoint and you see behind you the assemble, single shuttle break apart around it (detaching sounds) and to where it's just like this little, almost like escape pod sized ship

Bee/Polaris: extra cheating.

Zach/Zahn: Oh, it's gonna fucking just like extra cheat.

Avery/GM: and it has one little booster engine on it and it starts just bulleting towards you.

(Booster sounds)

Bee/Polaris: Now out of curiosity cause I didn't actually do anything with my turn.

Avery/GM: Sure.

Bee/Polaris: Can I shoot it? ?

Jenine/Marty: Well wait,

Avery/GM: it would

Bee/Polaris: oh it's the shuttle.

Avery/GM: It would be breaking the rule.

Zach/Zahn: It would be against the rules. Shoot one of the cranes to fall in its flight path.

Bee/Polaris:Yeah alright. Can I make, yeah, I'll, can I shoot one of the asteroids to create a spray to hit it? Cause I feel like the crane would take too long.

Avery/GM: Yeah, totally.

Zach/Zahn: I mean this thing is Just a freaking escape craft kind of level of thing. It's definitely got like no defenses on it. It's definitely all last minute speed.

Bee/Polaris: Indeed. Um, yeah, PA is gonna use his best beam to just. Carve a line in one of the asteroids to create just like a, a field of debris for it.

Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll. Either Dex shoot or attack roll, whatever you prefer.

Bee/Polaris: I rolled attack and that's gonna be a 15.

Avery/GM: Cool. Yeah. You create this little field of debris around it, um, that it's gonna run into. If it doesn't do one hell of a pilot check.

Bee/Polaris: just in case it does make it through the, um, the debris. Uh, I'm gonna move Polaris's ship into the path of that ship because I can't attack it. But there's no rule saying it can't attack me. So, uh, I imagine it doesn't have great defense. So if it hits Polaris ship, it's probably not gonna make it.

Jenine/Marty: That's a, that's a, that's a

Avery/GM: this is, this is true. Now you are putting your ship in danger

Chris/Ollie: You only have 6 HP on that ship.

Bee/Polaris: Incredibly true. Can I put a wing in the path so it'll knock it off course and at least slow it down?

Chris/Ollie: Oh no, just go above it and then roll super-fast and just slap it with the wing away.

Bee/Polaris: Oh Yeah, I'll do that. That sounds funnier.

Zach/Zahn: Just barrel roll?

Chris/Ollie: Do a Barrel Roll!

Zach/Zahn: And Slap!

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I'll do that. That's way funnier.

Avery/GM: Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, it did roll to make… make it through the, the debris. So you are going to position yourself kind of above it and then barrel roll to like hit it with your wing and knock it out of the path that it's on. Oh my gosh. Okay. Roll dexterity pilot

Bee/Polaris: Okay. Uh, wow, that was phenomenal. that's gonna be a 15.

Chris/Ollie: We're all God rolls today.

Bee/Polaris: I rolled, I rolled six.

Avery/GM: Seriously!

Bee/Polaris: Cause I rolled three dice and dropped the lowest. So I rolled two sixes and a five.

Jenine/Marty: Oh my gosh.

Avery/GM: Oh man. Okay. Well, yeah, you do that, you see it starting to navigate your little debris field and just like, oh shit and Maneuver your ship in such a way that you barrel roll and you hit it with your wing, um, and like it leaves a dent in your wing a little bit, but it's just cosmetic. It's not actual damage. And you just fling it and it's Barreling towards like asteroid number one at this point.

Bee/Polaris: I'll also make it look like I was trying to move out of the way of it, so it's not like I attacked it

Avery/GM: Sure. With, with that good of a role. Yeah. You, you totally masterfully make it look like a total accident and you have eliminated the last of your rivals in this race as the, the up and coming, the brand new racers racing for Big Fred.

Bee/Polaris: Let’s go!

Avery/GM: Pass through the final checkpoint of this race and have sealed their victory.

Zach/Zahn: Eat shit little Fred!

Avery/GM: in the pendulum death race, sponsored by assembles cheese.

Zach/Zahn: That’s what Zahn screams as we pass over the finish line: Eat shit little Fred!

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will just like type in chat. Fred, Fred, Fred.

Zach/Zahn: No, you, you have to specifically say Big Fred though.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: Because little Fred, who was an asshole to his bigger brother.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. In parentheses big.

Avery/GM: Wow. Oh my gosh. and the announcer is just like, and in a stunning upset, the assembles racer has been knocked out of the race for the first time in the past 36 races.

Bee/Polaris: Oh my God. That's gonna garner a lot of a attention.

Jenine/Marty: Yoinks

Avery/GM: We'll learn more about this mysterious team sponsored by big friend later at our award ceremony.

Bee/Polaris: Ooh, maybe we shouldn't have won.

Zach/Zahn: award ceremony. Do we have to attend?

Chris/Ollie: I mean,

Zach/Zahn: can we just take our paycheck?

Bee/Polaris: Oh wait, Ollie gambled with Avi.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: And got a way bigger payout than the reward money.

Jenine/Marty: We can just yeet. We can just yeet. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.

Bee/Polaris: Let's just dip!

Chris/Ollie: I mean, we gotta, we gotta get Avi to pay out though.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, yeah, you're in the booth with Avi. You could just like pay out, walk away.

Avery/GM: Actually, back in the booth, Ollie, Avi is laughing and like her mood has improved. She's like, oh, that was so exciting. You won. You won. Wow.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will reply. Yes, it truly was. If I had a heart, it surely would be beating .

Avery/GM: Yes. Mine certainly Is. Your friends put on quite a show out there? Well, a deal's a deal. Do you have a data pad that I can transfer the funds to?

Chris/Ollie: do I have one of those built into my arm?

Avery/GM: I'm sure you probably do.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Actually. So I'll hold up my arm.

Avery/GM: Actually you would because you, y'all split the, the untraceable credit chip five ways last time, so yeah, you definitely

Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah. My crypto wallet , so yeah. I'll hold out my yeah arm and it'll flip up with a little, uh, crypto wallet.

Bee/Polaris: it would be really cute if you had like a holographic, like actual wallet that opened.

Avery/GM: Sure. . And yeah, Avi pays you and it's just like, well, that was a lot of fun. I'm, I'm sure dad will be so upset that I lost his money. But

Zach/Zahn: How much did she bet?

Chris/Ollie: Five mil.

Avery/GM: Five mil.

Bee/Polaris: Five. I thought it was three .

Zach/Zahn: No, the three was at the tables. Just,

Bee/Polaris: oh,

Zach/Zahn: that was her introduction.

Bee/Polaris: Ah, yikes. All right. Cool. , I mean, yikes for her, not for us.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Oh yeah. Imagine paying the people that killed your uncle.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Um, I'm, I'm just happy Violet hasn't seemed to have returned. Right on. So, yeah, Ollie will reply. Uh, yeah, it's truly riveting. Please contact me, EV if you want to play again. This was definitely the funnest experience of my recent existence.

Avery/GM: Oh I'm sure I will. and lapis comes over and is clapping, uh, their hands and it's just like, Avi, that was so much fun. Thank you for, for letting me join you in the booth this week. Like we should, we should do that again. We should do this again. We should do it more like, this was a lot of fun. Where, where'd Violet go? And Avi just sort of rolls her eyes and it's just like, you know, off doing military stuff, whatever. Lapis just kind of nonchalantly, like shrugs. It's just like, well, her loss.

Chris/Ollie: if I can real quick, I'm gonna like immediately, uh, send the money to the ship. So it's like, I don't know how the crypto wallets work, but I don't want them to be able to take it back. I want it to just be...

Bee/Polaris: No, take backsies.

Avery/GM: No, you, you, you can send it to like the main untraceable wallet that y'all have. That's fine. Bruce, you finish up mopping up. Docking Bay 13 and actually this docking bay had like a little monitor to watch the race. So you see that your friends have won this race. Do you actually like finish up the whole docking bay or do you just like kind of keep up appearances?

Caden/Bruce: I feel like Bruce was very enthralled in the race and has done like a half-hearted job at mopping this floor. But also very much realizes he's not getting paid for doing this, so doesn't care.

Jenine/Marty: mood

Caden/Bruce: and like puts the mop away and like rolls the car back out. And just like having seen like that his friends won and like imagines that like the Dock Bay is probably more empty now. Like most people are probably like very enthralled in the race, will just like start heading towards wherever they'll like kind of disembark and like every so often, like pick up some trash or uh, if he sees something that's like left behind, that might be valuable. Just put it in the garbage as well. It's Fine!

Bee/Polaris: Bruce is becoming a master thief.

Avery/GM: Okay. Uh, so y'all have won the race.

Chris/Ollie: also really quick, uh, Ali definitely is gonna exchange contact information with, Avi and Lapis.

Avery/GM: Oh, sure. Yeah. No, yeah, Avi uh, in fact Avi is like, yeah. So we'll stay in touch and if I find any more fun games of chance for us to play together, I will let you know.

Bee/Polaris: We could always go back to that planet that her uncle was hunting people on And that's a pretty, that's a pretty high stakes game of chance.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. It's like, oh yeah, I know a place. Yes Ollie will reply: Certainly call me anytime and I'll be there.

Avery/GM: So, To the team on the shuttle. Y'all cross the finish line and you're coming into the docking area of the shuttle and Big Fred and little Fred are there and little Fred is like handing over like a bunch of like little collectible, like figurines, like a box of 'em and is just like, I don't know how you did it, but here you go, little brother. You can have your stuff back. I won't tease you anymore.

You win. And uh, little Fred looks at you and says, Hey, uh, good racing out there. You know, if my racer could have raced though, he would've, he would've whooped ya. But, but not this time. This time. Y'all, y'all did good. And you, you helped my, my brother here. So good, good racing. And then he sort of turns to like start leaving.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah, man. Totally. Next time.

Bee/Polaris: If Polaris were there, he'd flip him off… next time.

Avery/GM: And big Fred turns to, to you and, um, oh, and actually Polaris, that's a good question. So there's no like docking bay for the spotters. The spotters are kind of just expected to like, Go back and put their fighter ship away. Do you like contact Hermes and try to like link up to, to hit your fighter back onto it? Or do you dock your fighter in a docking bay?

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I'll go and dock in Bay 12 . No kidding. I'm kidding.

Zach/Zahn: Now that it's open,

Bee/Polaris: this spot taken? No, I'm gonna go, uh, can I just like hover over where everyone else is in my fighter?

Avery/GM: Yeah, you could, you could stay in your ship for a bit. That's.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Like they're, they're standing on the victory stand like, like the Olympics to get their medals, but you're just floating up above and behind them.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah!

Avery/GM: Big Fred, turns to you, Marty and Zahn, and it's just like, y'all, y'all really know how to race. Do you wanna make this like a permanent. Thing because Wow, that was actually more exciting than the last few races have been. Assembles has kind of been wiping the floor with everybody since they took over sponsorship.

Bee/Polaris: Hmm. I wonder why.

Chris/Ollie: I wonder why

Bee/Polaris: Polaris from behind everyone is shaking his head in the cockpit. Shaking his head no, because we're kind of on the run from a violent military group.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, Marty looks a big friend and just goes, oh, well, it was a really fun experience. We're just kind of here for a stop over. But we wanted to help a friend out.

Avery/GM: Well, you certainly did that. You got me, you got me. My collection of, of figurines back from my big brother. He, he, he made me bet them one time on a race, and then he, and then I lost, and so I Had to give them up, but he, he gave them back now that I won.

Jenine/Marty: Oh.

And he's, he's, he seems like he's gonna be a lot nicer to me now.

Jenine/Marty: That's so sweet.

Chris/Ollie: Are they like anime figurines?

Avery/GM: They are exactly Anime figurines, Chris?

Chris/Ollie: Yes

Jenine/Marty: yes.

Bee/Polaris: Is there a Miku one?

Avery/GM: Sure.

Chris/Ollie: It's like literally everything. This is a big box.

Jenine/Marty: I opened my arms for a big hug. And then motion everyone else for a big hug. For a group hug.

Bee/Polaris: I fly the ship in closer.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. You like float the ship down close enough to like rub the hull on top of everyone's head.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. The nose of my ship

Jenine/Marty: Group Hug!

Avery/GM: Big Fred. Thanks you for the hug. And is, and is just like, um, well, I guess all we have to do is go to the, the winning ceremony and, and collect our, our prize. Are, are you all gonna gonna come with or do you have time for that?

Jenine/Marty: So… we're a little nervous in front of groups of people. Do do, do we have to show our faces?

Avery/GM: I don't think so. I think assembles just like sends a company representative each time. I could collect the money and then forward it to you.

Bee/Polaris: Can we just give 'em all the money? I mean, we all got a mill each.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Essentially.

Jenine/Marty: No its okay!

Zach/Zahn: Nah Man.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris makes his ship shake his head no. He’s like, Well he shakes the ship no, like right to left.

Avery/GM: Are you sure? Like that's a lot of, that's a million credits. Like, I mean, you could do a lot with that. You could open a shop, you could, you could buy a factory that makes anime figurines.

Jenine/Marty: Well, it sounds like…

Zach/Zahn: that sounds like things that you wanna. Fred.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: And now you can do them.

Bee/Polaris: big Fred's anime market!

Avery/GM: Big Fred (laughter) No big, Big Fred's real passion is Hello Kitty. So it'll just be a Hello Kitty Like Megaplex.

Jenine/Marty: Yes.

Chris/Ollie: Hell yeah.

Jenine/Marty: Here for It!

Avery/GM: Fred kind of like, he, he puts his two big pointer fingers together and it's just like, if you're really sure, then okay, I'll, um, I'll go get, uh, I'll go get my suit on and, and go get ready for the, the ceremony then. thank you. I didn't actually get all your names before.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris pulls out of pulls out of where you guys are to go meet with Hermes. and then Types and Chat: Just give him our email.

Jenine/Marty: We gotta make a team email now.

Avery/GM: But yeah, you, you give them like your ship, email address or whatever.

Jenine/Marty: Hermes at aol.

Avery/GM: Hermes, I think. I think, I think earlier I said something like hers ship ai.biz, I think is what I went with .

Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah.

Jenine/Marty: here for it!

Avery/GM: and yeah, y'all have now 5 million credits and a victory in the pendulum death race. How do y'all end up meeting up and celebrating? Do you get the heck off of this asteroid place? What, what happens?

Zach/Zahn: We're getting the heck off of this asteroid place because…

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. We don't really have time to celebrate.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Cause there's Active Republic members looking for us at the moment.

Bee/Polaris: Wait, the Republic owes us an IOU

Zach/Zahn: The Republic does, but not when it's a, uh, sibling of the, of the Winstons.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, they could just fire her.

Avery/GM: They're on leave. So they're technically not acting as representatives of the Republic. More of like private…

Chris/Ollie: Yeah they’re off duty.

Jenine/Marty: Just personal fun.

Bee/Polaris: Are they using Republic resources?

Avery/GM: Yeah. But this place is corrupt. Yo.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: that is true. that is true.

Zach/Zahn: And as a Winston, she has connections.

Bee/Polaris: That is true. Okay, so I assume we… Do we have to figure out how we get back onto Hermes without being detected?

Avery/GM: You don't, because you can just fly your ship, connect it with, um, with the other ship and then get into the, the main ship if you want. But yeah, um, you do have to figure out if you're gonna get on a different docking bay or try to like find some other way to like.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, docking bays have cameras. This is true. Can Polaris just one by one? Take one person and then bring them back over to Hermes?

Avery/GM: from the where the shuttle gets dropped off at?

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Can we take the shuttle? Actually, can we trade the 1 million for the shuttle?

Avery/GM: I think the only, the only complication would be getting Bruce on there.

Jenine/Marty: Bruce is,

Bee/Polaris: Bruce we can, I mean, we can send a message to Bruce to meet us where the shuttles go no?

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Bruce is in the hangers. We can swing by there and pick 'em up.

Bee/Polaris: Bruce is a janitor

Avery/GM: and Bruce is dressed like a janitor. Yeah. Okay.

Bee/Polaris: And also we can load all of our shit on it. Yeah.

Chris/Ollie: Oh, that's right. Bruce has the stuff.

Avery/GM: I think that might be possible. Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Sweet. Let's just take the whole cart.

Avery/GM: Just take the whole janitor cart?

Chris/Ollie: I mean, we could use one.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Free cleaning supplies. Yeah. Our ship. Our ship's probably pretty dirty.

Avery/GM: Bruce, you're sort of like loitering around a bit, you know, sort of nonchalantly making yourself still look like a janitor. When you get like a ping from Hermes that just says, chef Bruce, you should come to the shuttle departure area of the racetrack so we can get the heck out of here, as Zahn has so eloquently put it.

Bee/Polaris: I desperately need Hermes at one point to say skedaddle.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will definitely do that and like I think most people would get out of a Janitor’s way that looks like they're going towards something.

Zach/Zahn: especially one as big as Bruce.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, and definitely not follow in the same direction considering the janitor looks concerned.

Jenine/Marty: Oh yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Especially since there's been a janitor emergency too.

Caden/Bruce: I’m sure the intercoms all day have been like janitor needed in bathroom four, janitor needed in bathroom two!

Avery/GM: Yeah. So Bruce, you, you come through the, the shuttle area and someone tries to stop you at first and is just like, oh, janitor, never mind. Yeah. Get in there. Get in there. Uh, it's messy. And, uh, you, you come, you come down to see your, uh, crew mates sort of still standing there with Big Fred and um, uh, big Fred's like, uh, feel free to, to use the shuttle till the end of the day if you need it for any more races or anything. but, other than that, just leave it here when you're done and I'll get it all repaired later.And then he walks off.

Bee/Polaris: Are we stealing the shuttle?

Zach/Zahn: No, we can't do that to Fred.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: How are we getting it back? Oh, you know what, actually, uh, Zan could pilot the shuttle and then get back on Polaris's ship and his ride.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah.

Avery/GM: Sure. Um, yeah. Y'all end up doing that. Um, and you are back on your ship. You have avoided this vengeful family member.

Chris/Ollie: No, not quite. Ollie still hasn't, uh, made his escape.

Avery/GM: Oh, Ollie.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Cause he's gonna… he’s still there.

Avery/GM: I'm sorry. I, yes. Ollie. How do you make your leave? Or do you make your leave?

Chris/Ollie: yeah, he's going to, uh, you know, continue his, his polite, shatter a bit, as it tapers off, head towards the door. Gonna seem non rushed, nonchalant, and he's gonna leave close the door, and as soon as it's closed, he's gonna sprint the nearest, uh, area of open space he can reach. And just jump.

Avery/GM: you're gonna jump out into open space.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. And then request a pickup.

Bee/Polaris: Just a full on my people need me.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, just, just very pleasant taking your money. Nice to meet you. Goodbye. Click and just (huffing and puffing) jump off.

Bee/Polaris: I'd like, I'd like to think that the bit of open like area, isn’t too far away from the booth and also the booth door has a window.

Avery/GM: so, so yeah. So originally, what was the view screen? For the, for the race is actually just like a transparent piece of glass that they have it projected. So Ollie, you close the door and what they see inside is you just booking it to like this little side… this side booth, near, near their private booth. And there's like this little energy field that kind of lets you like observe the. The stars and stuff outside and, and whatnot. and you just barrel through this little energy field, um, and sort of just are now like kind of nose diving into space. You're not too far from the main asteroid, but now you're kind of just floating.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I'm gonna like, you know, , wait till I get a, uh, well, I'm gonna radio or the just Discord chat or whatever and just be like, I'm going to need a pickup in a little while. maybe when I'm a bit further from the asteroid.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will do a drive-by.

Avery/GM: Sure. Yeah. You've got Zahn Magnet onto your, onto the outside of your ship, and, you fly in close and Zahn is able to reach out and grab Ollie

Chris/Ollie: it's like, uh, Adam and God and the uh, and that painting reaching out, touching fingers.

Bee/Polaris: That's the last thing Avi sees of you before never speaking to you again.

Chris/Ollie: Hopefully never speak to us again because…

Bee/Polaris: I don't wanna kill those two. They seem cool.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Can we make 'em our besties?

Chris/Ollie: I mean, don't start no shit. Won't be no shit. Especially if you give us five Millie, that was, uh, pretty based.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Avery/GM: Yeah. The only one interesting revenge so far that it seems is, uh, violet.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Um, no one else has been fucking around, so they're not gonna find out

Jenine/Marty: Tee Hee!

Avery/GM: and you all come back into the main area of the ship, formerly known as the Minos 5 million credits Richer, and Hermes says, that was very exciting. We should do that again.

Bee/Polaris: No. Heart, smiley face. winky face.

Zach/Zahn: Oh come on. It wasn't that bad was it? Polaris? I mean, it's actually the most fun I've had in my entire life.

Chris/Ollie: that was the most fun and lucrative experience we've had. would try again.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris is like, oh, is his ship like attached to the outside of the ship?

Avery/GM: Yeah. Yeah. Cause you have the fittings so you can kind of, basically they're like, magnet it on, and then you can just little kind of float, walk your way to the airlock and come on in.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will go to like the, the door where, uh, you would enter from being on his ship and he just like puts his head against the door with like a sad face on his visor. . Cause his ship is damaged. .

Zach/Zahn: Oh. Don't worry about your ship, Polaris. We'll, fix her up make it better and more spiffier than new.

Bee/Polaris: I don't want it better. I want it the same.

Zach/Zahn: You really gonna look me in my eyes and tell me you don't want, hold on. That's general Regenerative armor.

Bee/Polaris: Yes.

Zach/Zahn: Or engine optimization?

Bee/Polaris: Yes.

Zach/Zahn: Well, you're no fun.

Avery/GM: Oh my gosh.

Bee/Polaris: He shrugs. It's the only thing I have left of my original family. And then he'll go to the pilots chair.

Chris/Ollie: No one wants to step on that, uh, landmine

Avery/GM: Hermes projects his little alien hologram body into the captain's chair.

Jenine/Marty: Yep.

Avery/GM: And is just like, where are we headed next?

(Spy music fades in and plays)

Avery/GM: So your ship is floating away from this Space Vegas. Spegas. And back on the asteroid, our camera zooms in on one of these soldiers that was accompanying Violet and they had been wearing their helmet the whole time, and they take off their helmet to reveal a dark blue tiger furry and they bring

their wrist up to their mouth and they say, this is agent Lazuli... We found them… and that's where we're gonna end it.

Caden/Bruce: Uh-oh.

(Spy music fades out, outro starts playing, fades down and plays under outro)

Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1up Podcast Network Production. Background Music provided by tabletopaudio.com and used under an attribution, non-commercial license from creative commons. Tracks include: Car Chase and Starbase Omega. Additional Audio Track provided by Savage Pro Audio. Be sure to check us out @FurthestPod on twitter and tumblr. We'll be back on February 15th with our next episode! See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!