Avery/GM: Welcome to episode 38 of Beyond the Furthest Stars. Just a quick content warning. This episode finishes up a lot of the family drama with Zahn and there's, you know, some discussions about life and death and family disappointment, parental disapproval, , and obviously some violence. So listener discretion is advised and Enjoy the episode.
(intro plays, fades down, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: The motion of the robot slumping over, , has triggered the motion sensor on the door into the Citadel and the door is open and waiting for y'all to walk in. Coming into the Citadel, Zahn, you see some faces that you have not seen in years, obviously. Sealed away in his precious citadel, away from the cares of the station, the worries, the hunger, the death.
Avery/GM: Sitting at the head research station is your father, Dr. Willem Howard, chief physicist and second in command of the Architects. Zahn, please describe Willem.
Zach/Zahn: So basically what I pictured is I named him after Willem Dafoe, so I went ahead and just like, was like, hey, he's Willem Dafoe. So he's, he's just got that like, unnaturally evil looking face.
Avery/GM: Aww.
Chris/Ollie: The Green Goblin look.
Zach/Zahn: Like, he's also got an incredibly expressive face, but he, he's so like, dead to emotion that he never really utilizes it. Willem has always been just very much a science first person. Science and architects and getting the mission completed done first over family and everything.
Zach/Zahn: To Zahn's eyes, his, like, marrying of his mom and creating him were purely for the purpose of continuing the line. To get the mission completed. Like he never felt any love from his father.
Avery/GM: Oh, okay. So like the douchiest of douchebags.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay. I am literally picturing Willem Dafoe from early 2000s Spider Man. Thank you for that.
Chris/Ollie: You know, I'm something of a scientist myself.
Avery/GM: There are two other people in this station. You do also notice that all of the research stations are Protected by some, some sort of like force field, which is meant to sort of keep contaminants out of whatever research that they're doing in these stations, you know, maintain the, , the environment, so to speak.
Avery/GM: The second person seated over here is a tall woman with reddish hair, brown eyes, she wears a lab coat, spectacles, and has her hair up in a high bun. She is studying readings of what appear to, well, you don't know what they appear to be, , cause she's too far away. But Zahn, you recognize her as Katherine Riddick, chief molecular chemist.
Avery/GM: And then the person seated closest to you As you come in the door is Terrence Bateman, a shorter man with bright blonde hair and green eyes. , he wears a similar lab coat to the others and is currently studying some sort of geologic modeling. And Zahn, you remember that Terrence was the chief geologist of the architects.
Avery/GM: And yeah, so the Citadel consists of these research stations with containment force fields around each station. As you come in, Dr. Howard turns his attention to the door, rises to his feet and says, ah, my son, you've finally come, please, please come in, come in. We have much work to get done.
Zach/Zahn: But as soon as Zahn deactivated the brain in a jar is the kind way, I'll put it. Literally to like hide any and all emotion that is now on his face, , he, he reconstructed his helmet. So it's just the visor looking back at everybody. He entered with his pistol drawn.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: And he is going to proceed to, are these like little nodes keeping the, the force field active or?
Avery/GM: No, those are literally just, that's just how the, the tiles, the tile set was.
Zach/Zahn: Got it. Then I'm going to come to this computer with no words and try and just deactivate those force fields.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you see this turret right here train on you. And Willem speaks up. And Willem says, , What do you think you're doing? You haven't even introduced your friends. I assume the rest of you have come in behind Zahn?
Bee/Polaris: Yes. , seeing the turret, how is it, How high up is it?
Avery/GM: It's like, probably like 10 feet. It's like mounted in like the corner.
Bee/Polaris: Oh wait, I'm riding Ollie with a fucking machine gun mounted on me, right?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, that's right.
Avery/GM: This is true.
Caden/Bruce: Yes, yes you are.
Bee/Polaris: Can I shoot out the turrets?
Avery/GM: You could definitely shoot one. One is def the one in the corner that's trained on Zahn is definitely in your line of sight. Yeah, go for it.
Zach/Zahn: I was just gonna say. Ollie, like, or I was going to type in the group chat while I was up to computer, , just for Ollie to like remote, take them over if he could.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I'm looking, I can't find the, , item description for my remote hacker.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, I'll wait.
Chris/Ollie: I'm looking for it right now.
Bee/Polaris: If that was typed in group chat, I'll wait. But if it's, it's trained on Zahn, so immediate knee jerk reaction is dispatch it, but I'll wait.
Avery/GM: Zahn, you're trying to deactivate these, these force fields?
Zach/Zahn: Yes.
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll an intelligence program check. And minus one because it's been a while since you've been interacting with the Terran systems in general, so.
Zach/Zahn: Gotcha. Well, I guess it's a good thing.
Bee/Polaris: Well, would those systems be similar to the ones on the Cassiopeia?
Avery/GM: That's a good point. The Cassiopeia is from a later time period though, so...
Caden/Bruce: The upgraded version of the software.
Avery/GM: Yeah. But that's a, but that is still a good point Bee. Okay, I'll take away the minus one penalty.
Zach/Zahn: I was, I was going to say it really doesn't matter because I have the, the hacker feet. So I got to roll three D six and drop the lowest, but I wrote, I rolled two fives and a four. , I also have plus one in intelligence and plus two in program. So Without the minus one, it's 13.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah. You see a menu pop up with several options. Deactivate force fields, deactivate turrets, deactivate cryostasis pods, deactivate teleporters.
Bee/Polaris: Is there a select all button?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah,
Avery/GM: sure. There's a deactivate all button.
Zach/Zahn: Check all and then uncheck cryopods and then deactivate most.
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah. Also rereading my remote link thing. Apparently, I have to be able to like sneak up to something first. I can't just like log in remotely.
Zach/Zahn: , Sad face.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, well, things are gonna be deactivated anyway.
Zach/Zahn: Yep.
Avery/GM: Everything's deactivated. Er, you know, the force fields, , you see these blue teleport pods over here deactivate and the force fields are down and Willem is still trying to talk to you to get your attention and is just like, what do you think you're doing?
Avery/GM: Why, why, why are you deactivating everything? We, we have a lot of work to do and you cannot mess with the integrity of these experiments and he's just getting more irate as like everything starts shutting down.
Zach/Zahn: As soon as the, as soon as this force field shuts down, , Zahn shoots Bateman in the face.
Avery/GM: , okay.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris has the railgun trained on his dad.
Avery/GM: Okay, roll. This is, this is going off really quick. , okay, roll, , roll your attack.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn has turned into a machine.
Avery/GM: Jesus. I thought we'd have some quippy dialogue or something.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris has the railgun trained on his dad, and if he keeps talking, Polaris is going to tell him to shut up.
Zach/Zahn: So I believe, because it's, , roll d20 plus attack bonus, right? 21 to hit.
Avery/GM: Oh yeah. I mean, it doesn't have a high AC. The shield was, was his AC. So yeah, you hit him. Go ahead and roll your damage
Zach/Zahn: for seven laser pistol damage to the face.
Avery/GM: He's down. He's still breathing, but he's down pretty much almost one shot at him. So, and, , Willem has turned or pulled out a pistol on you.
Bee/Polaris: I shoot him!
Zach/Zahn: I was about to ask if I could do the same. With a rail gun.
Avery/GM: Oh my gosh.
Bee/Polaris: So, I want to like shoot
Avery/GM: You're wanting to Wild, Wild West shoot the gun out of his hand?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I don't want to kill him, I just want to shoot off his hand.
Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll, but minus one because of the finesse that this is going to have to take.
Bee/Polaris: That is fine, I'm good at shooting. Oh, okay. Okay, that's for melee weapon though. What is it? Is it gonna be Dex?
Avery/GM: yeah, it'll still be, still be Dex.
Bee/Polaris: I hope he has a really high AC, cause I, you said minus one?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, so, , 21?
Avery/GM: Shit. , yeah, you, you, you pull this off. , you don't have to roll damage, you shoot the laser pistol out of his hand, it goes flying.
Skittering… Skittering away, and Catherine also has a pistol trained on Zahn as well. Willem Willem Willem puts his hands up and is just like, Okay. Okay. Let's all just calm down. Zahn, use your words. What's wrong?
Bee/Polaris: Shoot him. No, I'm kidding.
Zach/Zahn: Now, now Zahn's gonna approach him and he's gonna punch him in the jaw.
Avery/GM: Okay. Roll punch.
Zach/Zahn: Okay. This one I'm not pretty good at. A strength punch roll.
Bee/Polaris: Where's Bruce?
Zach/Zahn: Jesus. My, my dice is on my side today.
Avery/GM: Is Bruce just standing by the door like blocking?
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. Bruce is just standing by the door just watching this go ahead. He's the intimidation factor.
Zach/Zahn: So I have zero strength and zero punch, but I rolled an 18.
Avery/GM: Wow.
Chris/Ollie: The power of rage is just.
Zach/Zahn: Something like that.
Chris/Ollie: Just keeping us going.
Bee/Polaris: If I punch him, I might kill him.
Avery/GM: Willem's on the ground. , his jaw's a little achy, and he's bleeding, he spits out some blood on the ground.
Zach/Zahn: And Zahn is just, , this is, this is where he finally is going to speak up. He's going to, like, shakingly calmly first, and then it's going to build up.
You had no fucking right, no goddamn right to bring her back, you sick, demented son of a bitch.
Avery/GM: He spits some more blood out and he's just like, Oh, so you met Eli and she, she brought you over here. Did she? And he's like, kind of grinning.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, with the grin he gets another punch.
Avery/GM: Oh, okay. Roll the punch. No, I'm going to give it to you.
I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, good.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You hit him.
Zach/Zahn: Cause that one was a little more sloppy.
Avery/GM: That's okay. No, he's on the ground. You, you get a, you give him a good punch. Okay.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Well you're Eli. He actually does like the figure quotes has been decommissioned.
Avery/GM: He, for the first time, actually like expresses anger.
You deactivated a three year long experiment over sentimentality. And he stands up and is, or attempts to stand up, I should say.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, I'll let him stand up.
Avery/GM: And he's looking straight at your visor. Is he taller than you or same height, a little shorter?
Zach/Zahn: I want to say because of the grav boots, I'm a little taller because I got some thick, I got some dummy thick heels on, you know?
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: Or soles, I should say soles. The soles of my boots are very thick.
Avery/GM: He, he's looking up at you, and he says that little experiment was the way we were going to save this station, and you deactivated it? What were you thinking?
Zach/Zahn: Putting it out of its fucking misery is more what it Amounts to but you have no right to have done that to my mother
Avery/GM: He kind of looks away at first kind of even though he can't see your eyes He's trying to avoid your gaze that kind of a thing, you know,
Zach/Zahn: huh,
Avery/GM: and he just says Zahn you don't understand Everyone here is already dead I am trying to do the best I can.
I figured you'd be happy that she was back. You, you let her death emotionally damage you enough to leave. I figured if she came back, you would too. And it worked. And he starts smiling again.
Zach/Zahn: The way Zahn's helmet visors are, so it's like a solid d, like, rust yellow, or, yeah, yellow rust, orange helmet with like the three visors on it, horizontal visors. And they're typically like a greenish blue. Now they turn red and Zahn is going to grab the back of his. neck and like push him into this , console here and he's gonna say that , I didn't come back here for you for your shit ass experiment. I need all the data you have on the Epios
project.
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll a strength punch roll real quick and I'm gonna contest it because you're trying to push him into the computer, right?
Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: , I'm gonna use my expert to re roll one scene.
Avery/GM: Sure. You're gonna use it on this? Okay.
Zach/Zahn: I rolled a
3. So
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: 5 is probably a little better.
Avery/GM: He rolled an 11, so he, he braces himself against it, so you're not able to quite shove his face into it, but you do still get out that demand.
And he's like, is, is that what you came here for? A, a, a hundred year old defense project? Look, Zahn, if you're not here to help save humanity, then, sure, take the program and leave. And he gestures to this computer over here, and he says, everything is on that computer over there, just, if you can't understand my genius, and my brilliance, and what I am trying to do, then leave. You are no son of mine.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn shrugs, that's fine. My father died the day I left this station and he shoots him in the leg.
Avery/GM: Oh shit
Zach/Zahn: point blank BAM
Avery/GM: Yeah, I guess roll damage. I mean you're right up next to him. I don't see how you could miss
Chris/Ollie: Is
Zach/Zahn: that's
Chris/Ollie: did he indicate the computer with the shot guy
Zach/Zahn: five?
Avery/GM: Yeah. Yeah, he gestured over to this one
Zach/Zahn: He levels his pistol at Catherine. He glances over his shoulder to all he's like Holly go ahead and Do whatever you need to do with the computer over there, Ollie.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Ollie is going to make his way over to, , , whatever her name is.
Avery/GM: Catherine's aim is kind of shifting between all of you, like she's, She seems nervous like she has never actually used a gun before, so She's kind of, , Yeah, that's dangerous.
Chris/Ollie: Please do not resist.
Avery/GM: Yeah, kind of just shifting her aim.
Chris/Ollie: I have been requested to authorize this console. If you would, please remove yourself.
Avery/GM: Oh, no, this one over here.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, the one with the dead guy. Oh, I'll just mention that as I pass by her.
Avery/GM: She hears this dog say this thing to her and is just like, nods her head kind of dumbfoundedly and kind of lowers, lowers the gun like, , okay.
Bee/Polaris: Actually, if you could give that to me.
Avery/GM: huh.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie will also say, cheerily, thank you. Human blood is quite disgusting. To taste. Avoiding it is most preferable for me. And he's going to like flash his titanium, like razor sharp teeth.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Polaris, , she hands over the gun to you just as Zahn shoots Willem in the leg.
What's your damage?
Zach/Zahn: Five,
Avery/GM: five damage. Okay. Yeah, he takes that and falls to the ground and just gives a loud FUCK!
Bee/Polaris: Language.
Zach/Zahn: And then Zahn's gonna come back over to this computer and is there a way to like make the cryopods like self-destruct or at the very least like overflow or something to kill the people inside? I mean I could do it the old fashioned way but that would take ammo, you know?
Avery/GM: Jesus.
Bee/Polaris: We could always just laser blade them in their sleep so they don't feel anything.
Caden/Bruce: I mean, if they're in cryopods, aren't they not going to
feel anything anyways?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, well, I mean, like, because if you shoot them, they'll probably wake up, you know, from the shock.
Avery/GM: They'll be fine.
Bee/Polaris: No? Oh, okay.
Avery/GM: I don't know.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, okay. Sick.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, well. I don't know, laser blade, it's a burning sensation they'd suddenly feel, potentially.
Bee/Polaris: No, because remember we dispatched all the people that were sleeping, we just put a laser blade to their face.
Avery/GM: Yeah, , go ahead and roll a program, , intelligence program check.
Zach/Zahn: Oh my.
Chris/Ollie: Wait, is that me? Or is that,
Zach/Zahn: I'm assuming it was me so I could overload these.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Avery/GM: Oh, sorry. Actually, Chris, I will also need you to roll intelligence program as well.
After this check, sorry.
Zach/Zahn: 14.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You're able to find the, the source code that's running the, , cryopods from here. And you realize that it's just a simple matter of turning up
Zach/Zahn: the cryo ness of the. Cryopods.
Avery/GM: If you turn down the temperature another like 20 degrees, they will slip into eternal sleep.
Zach/Zahn: Nice. I'll go ahead and do that. And it'll be like a, like, I'm picturing like a holographic display kind of thing. And like my hand goes into this knob and I turn it down so that Howard can actively see that I'm doing
it.
Bee/Polaris: Get him.
Avery/GM: And Willems picks up and says, what are you doing? You're going to ruin everything.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn lets out that little chuckle and he's like, Good! If you hadn't noticed, Willem, everything here is fucked. You're fucked. The station's fucked. The people in it are fucked. This entire experiment, and he does the finger quotes again, has been fucked. It just needs to all end.
Avery/GM: Bruce, you here in your mind? I'm not.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, god. That's all you.
Avery/GM: I'm still very much alive.
Caden/Bruce: I thought he was saying he's not fucked.
Avery/GM: I mean, basically, yeah.
Bee/Polaris: How does he know what fuck means? Has he heard of cuss swear before?
Chris/Ollie: Being around us.
Avery/GM: , the cannibals probably have dirty sailor mouths. Yeah. . Bruce, in your mind you also hear these people, they seem ill. Should we fix them? You get an image of your mind of the three scientists,
Caden/Bruce: how would you fix them?
Avery/GM: You feel the station rumble a little bit. Mother will come.
Zach/Zahn: What the fuck?
Bee/Polaris: I fucking, I fucking knew it.
Zach/Zahn: I fucking knew it.
Caden/Bruce: Not yet.
Avery/GM: And you feel the rumbling stop.
Caden/Bruce: They listened to me, that's nice!
Avery/GM: Okay, kind one, we will wait.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, any, any sort of solution that this plant would offer us is literally just for it to consume whatever. It's not actually, like, it's not gonna break out an abacus and start calculating, see, it's trying to consume everything.
Avery/GM: A plant with an abacus is very amusing to watch.
Zach/Zahn: Yes,
I did picture that as well.
Chris/Ollie: Maybe one day.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I guess we'd teach it basic, basic mathematics,
but.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, maybe we just have to feed it
enough.
Bee/Polaris: No!
Avery/GM: Feed me!
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god!
Zach/Zahn: Feed it enough smart people.
Bee/Polaris: I'm going to seethe.
Avery/GM: Ollie, go ahead and roll your program check.
Chris/Ollie: That's a 15.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you find a bunch of data on old Terra that's probably way outdated compared to the stuff you have on Cassiopeia, but you also find the Epios program, and a little readme file in the folder. , describes this program as a, basically a shield A shield program, like a firewall, almost meant to keep out, , anything destructive towards ais.
Zach/Zahn: Ooh. We're gonna wanna make a small chip for that exclusively for Ollie.
Avery/GM: I was gonna say, you might want to copy and save this to your, , .
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Avery/GM: To your crystal. It's like a
hard counter to the, ,
to the Iaso, yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so Ollie's definitely going to download everything, multiple copies and backups.
Avery/GM: Yeah, Ollie will never be deleted.
Chris/Ollie: Never.
Bee/Polaris: The Ollie Legion will rise again.
Chris/Ollie: As soon as we get that, , space factory up and running.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, oh god.
Avery/GM: So yeah, so you've got one dying Architect one injured architect and one architect. That's just kind of scared out of her mind.
Zach/Zahn: Good. We'll leave.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I mean, mother will come after we go.
Zach/Zahn: And then the last thing on my agenda is, , which console do I need to access to? Cause the station to begin orbital decay,
Avery/GM: probably the one Willem is that he's at the head research station.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, cool.
Avery/GM: Which would double as
Zach/Zahn: well. I'm going to come over here and I'm just going to like, push them over, push them out of the way,
Avery/GM: shove him out of the way. Yeah, he was trying to like, pull himself back up, , on his. Now kneecapped leg, and you just shove him over here.
Bee/Polaris: I can cauterize that if he
wants.
Avery/GM: Jesus.
Bee/Polaris: , while, while Zahn's typing, Polaris will speak up and he'll say,
What was the purpose of this colony exactly? ,
Avery/GM: well, the, the records indicated that Terra was dying, and so we were, We were sent out here to, to save humanity, and I almost did it.
Bee/Polaris: I'm sure you did. You know what's funny? Terra still lives.
Avery/GM: What?
Bee/Polaris: Well, I guess it's a bit of a war, but Terra's fine for right now. Polaris has the safety of Catherine's laser pistol on, but he's like spinning it around by the trigger while like, just like reclining on Ollie. And, , he's just like, So, in all honesty, this colony was a bit obsolete.
Avery/GM: No, no, we We're going to be the first humans, real humans, to settle this galaxy.
Bee/Polaris: But you weren't.
Chris/Ollie: There are plenty of humans already here.
Zach/Zahn: Also, , while we don't have much of an example with us here at the moment, , there are other humans already in this galaxy. , if you'd ever left this fucking station, you'd learn that.
Bee/Polaris: There are other humans. You are not the first.
Avery/GM: Zahn, you are short sighted and foolish. and I will not let you destroy my work. And he pushes himself up and, like, tries to, like, charge at you. Go ahead and roll a physical save.
Zach/Zahn: Ooh. I actually lost that, I rolled a two.
Avery/GM: Oh shit. He, he doesn't quite like shove you to the ground, but he like bumps into you enough that as you're typing away, instead of hitting the orbital decay button, , he shoves your hand onto the self-destruct button.
Zach/Zahn: Oh shit.
Avery/GM: And there's a countdown that begins and it says, station self-destruct. 10 minutes.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, that's plenty of time. There's a hole on the level above us. We can just leave.
Zach/Zahn: I was about to say that.
Chris/Ollie: But there are probably some chill people still in the station.
Bee/Polaris: No, everyone's infected.
Chris/Ollie: Everyone?
Zach/Zahn: The only person that was quote unquote chill was Amanda and Zahn told her to get the fuck off the ship.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, she lied to us. She's super evil. Yeah, the only chill people is the fucking plant and we already know how that's going.
Zach/Zahn: huh.
Avery/GM: And Willem says none of you will leave here alive unless I continue my work.
Bee/Polaris: , I mean, we'll super leave here alive. You just doomed yourself.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is like, yeah, that'll be surprisingly easy.
And then he's gonna like kick him off.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: So Zahn is just gonna like, he's still gonna like push him down. If you want me to re roll another, , Punch attack.
Avery/GM: , go ahead and roll punch. Strength punch.
Zach/Zahn: , seven.
Avery/GM: , good enough. He has a bad leg. He has a bad leg. I have a bad leg. I know how it feels. So, , yeah, you shove him to the ground, , once again, and he kind of groans in agony.
And this time, Catherine Runs over to him and kind of like helps him like stabilize and just whispers and says, We have to get out of here, Willem.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn raises his pistol to both of them. He's like, Yeah, about that. You're not leaving.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris has his pistol trained as well. When Catherine moved, Polaris immediately moved it to her.
Zach/Zahn: , , Zahn's gonna like glance up.
Avery/GM: Catherine looks up at you and is like, You wouldn't shoot a person with glass.
Zach/Zahn: Ollie .Once you've downloaded everything or everything that you think you need, purge everything full wipe.
Chris/Ollie: Also, , can I do a quick like hack to the turrets in here to change them to our side?
Bee/Polaris: Well, they're deactivated.
Avery/GM: Yeah, they are deactivated, but you probably could with the right program rule.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah,
Zach/Zahn: that would also potentially take time.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, it wasn't really necessary. It was just I would like to turn him on, train him on him and be like, you're not in a position to negotiate.
Zach/Zahn: Now my, my, my plan is to just leave them in here and then like shoot the door control and just trap them in here.
Chris/Ollie: I mean, I, we should, is there a window here or is it just an enclosed room?
Bee/Polaris: It's a spaceship.
Avery/GM: It's an enclosed room. The only way out is through the door or through the deactivated teleporter paths. Or we can,
Bee/Polaris: , make like a Jedi and cut a hole in the wall.
Chris/Ollie: That's exactly what I was thinking. I would like to blow out a hole in the wall and we could just dip out because we've all got Vacc skins.
Bee/Polaris: I could also theoretically use the machine gun on your back to blast a hole into the wall.
Zach/Zahn: We also have two giant turrets that could do the same thing.
Avery/GM: Bruce, you're over by the door still, right?
Caden/Bruce: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, wait, there was a legion of robots on the above us
Avery/GM: , you do see that there is something flashing on the Eli robot, like a little light indicating that there is something still on there, like an outgoing message.
Caden/Bruce: Can I read what it says?
Avery/GM: No, but you could probably download it to your communicator with a little program roll an easy program roll.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will do that. Why not?
Bee/Polaris: I could send a text message to Ollie.
Avery/GM: Intelligence program, specifically.
Caden/Bruce: That's a seven.
Avery/GM: Good enough. I put it at a six. You get it sent to your communicator and you see that it is a note from Zahn's mother to Zahn.
Bee/Polaris: Ooo That's sad
Zach/Zahn: aww.
Caden/Bruce: I feel like Bruce will, like, send it to Zahn and then immediately delete it from his own device. He's not going to read that shit. It's not his place to
Chris/Ollie: just post it publicly in the chat.
Caden/Bruce: No, Bruce would never!
Zach/Zahn: The, the message pops up on Zahn's HUD and he like his brow, his brow furrows. He's like, and then he puts it in the back in the unread section to, to look at right later.
Avery/GM: Sure. You hear Terrence on the floor kind of like mumbles something.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, this guy? Who shot in the face?
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: The guy with the hole in his head.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, God. Oh, no.
Avery/GM: And, and Ollie, you hear it and can translate it and it, and it, he says, just let them go. We'll figure this out later. And he's like rolling on the ground, holding his face, basically trying to convince Willem to just like, let you go and forget this self-destruct business.
Chris/Ollie: Just trying to like, dude. I'm shot in the face here. Come on.
Bee/Polaris: Dude, I got shot in the face. Let's go. Let's go get him out of here.
Zach/Zahn: , so I take it, I take it Ollie's finished purging everything.
Avery/GM: So what's the play? , you are at eight minutes, 30 seconds.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. If that is done, I will relay that. Dead away. Completed.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna be like, shoot the, shoot the consoles as he shoots this one.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris Fires.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Ollie's just gonna like, walk away, not even looking back as you're just spraying.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will shoot the console that Catherine was on.
Avery/GM: Sure. , yeah. This room is full of sparking, sparking fried electronics.
Zach/Zahn: And Zahn's just gonna level his gun at Catherine and Willem and he's just gonna back out.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Zach/Zahn: Nice catching up. , die well. And then he's gonna Like, head right here, and then wait for everyone else to file out.
Bee/Polaris: As Ollie's passing, Polaris just looks down at Zahn's dad and says, You've gotten everything that you deserve.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie was just, A pleasure to meet you.
Zach/Zahn: And then as soon as everybody's out, , Zahn's gonna close the door and then shoot the Control panel so that it's like locked.
Avery/GM: Okay. , yeah. The door closes shut sealing inside the citadel full of
Bee/Polaris: assholes.
Avery/GM: These jackasses. Yeah. Yeah. And you walk past the dead robot mom.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn pauses above it for just a second. And then, , he starts booking it. We gotta get the fuck out of here, guys.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we gotta get the fuck out of here.
Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. Go ahead and roll, , , Dexterity Exert or Strength Exert. Oh yeah, if you're on Ollie , then Ollie can roll Strength Exert or Dexterity Exert.
Bee/Polaris: I imagine we're not gonna need this machine gun mounted on you anymore. Would it be better if I, like, cut it off and we, you know.
Chris/Ollie: I don't know. I got, I rolled double sixes, so.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, well.
Caden/Bruce: I don't think it's slowing me down.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, never mind.
Caden/Bruce: I rolled a 7.
Zach/Zahn: I rolled a 9. Or, 10, sorry.
Avery/GM: Yeah, so, Bruce, you're kind of bringing up the rear, and Ollie, you and Polaris just book it past Zahn. Zahn, you're passing your parents room, , do you grab the snow globe or are you leaving it?
Zach/Zahn: I'm gonna leave it.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: It's one of those, , the last of anything I want to remember about this place is, is now dead. So.
Avery/GM: Okay. You're back up and there are a bunch of robots sitting here as you come up. And one of them says, Citizen, you are needed in the Citadel. Please return to the Citadel. And they have guns trained on you as you come up.
Bee/Polaris: We left something upstairs. We'll be back down in a second.
Zach/Zahn: I was wondering if I could pull some kind of like. Architect elects override bullshit, but I'm trying to think of like what could possibly Zahn say.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, we should have killed your father. Then you said, the father's dead. I'm assuming control.
Zach/Zahn: Well, they have no way of contacting Howard or Willem, so I could just say that.
Avery/GM: That's what you think.
Zach/Zahn: I mean, true.
Chris/Ollie: Is there like a central Hub location we can see that they're all connected to or they just like there's no terminals or anything.
Avery/GM: mmm nnn
Bee/Polaris: They're free range
Avery/GM: No, there's no terminals. These things are free range.
Chris/Ollie: We can probably just dive into open space
Bee/Polaris: Did the robot not respond to what I said?
Chris/Ollie: Oh, yeah.
Avery/GM: No,
Bee/Polaris: I told him that we left something upstairs We'll be back down in a second.
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll a charisma Lead check?
Bee/Polaris: Oh no! I have nothing in both of those.
Avery/GM: And I'm gonna give you a plus one because you do have an affinity for trying to convince robots.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, I do!
Avery/GM: Your parental units are robots.
Bee/Polaris: Not nine, , that would be an eight. Cause my non skill in lead would cancel out the plus one.
Avery/GM: So, an eight? I'll give it to you. They lower their guns and say, Please hurry, the station is about to self-destruct and you are needed in the citadel.
Bee/Polaris: Will do. Everyone jump into open space!
Chris/Ollie: Bye!
Bee/Polaris: oh wait, our ship! Our ship!
Zach/Zahn: No, while we're floating, it's just gonna be like, , Zahn's gonna get on the communicator to Rho., cause Rho's on the, on our shuttle.
Bee/Polaris: No, Rose on the cast.
Chris/Ollie: We can
Bee/Polaris: But, but Ollie's
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, Ollie's got a remote thingy on the shuttle, right?
Chris/Ollie: We can dip out into open space, and we can cut into, like, the umbilical connecting to the ship with the, , laser sword.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, true. I have a jetpack!
Avery/GM: You do have a jetpack. I did give you a jetpack.
Bee/Polaris: You did give me a jetpack.
Avery/GM: There is also the issue of, Bruce is the only one that doesn't have some sort of, like, propellant.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn can hold Bruce.
Bee/Polaris: Just hold onto Ollie. Oh yeah, that too. Just use the momentum.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Bee/Polaris: We hold hands like friends. Fly you fools, let's go!
Avery/GM: Okay, so you're jumping into space? Okay, , who's grabbing on to Bruce?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn. Zahn has Bruce.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Polaris is gonna be flying me around.
Avery/GM: The robots all kind of cock their heads as you jump into the void. One of them turns to the other and says, One of them turns to the other and says, That is not upstairs.
I know, but we don't want to be rude.
Bee/Polaris: Aw, that's so sweet of them.
Avery/GM: And you hear in the background, six minutes till self-destruct.
Bee/Polaris: All right, let's go.
Avery/GM: So I guess I'm going to need exert strength, exert checks from Zahn and Ollie then, or no, Zahn and Polaris.
Zach/Zahn: Can it be Dex?
Chris/Ollie: This time I'm getting the free ride.
Avery/GM: Explain how you're being dexterous, and if so, yes.
Zach/Zahn: Because space is weightless, and I'm far more maneuverable
than I am strong.
Avery/GM: Yeah, but you're holding on to a big lizard boy.
Zach/Zahn: I just want that one extra plus one. Damn it.
Bee/Polaris: Also, I whispered. I don't know if you heard it, but I said, I got you, Ollie, I got you because I rolled really well.
Avery/GM: Okay. What'd you roll?
Bee/Polaris: I got a 12.
Zach/Zahn: I got a 10.
Avery/GM: Hey, all right. Yeah. Then you avoid any bad things happening.
Zach/Zahn: Like letting them go.
Avery/GM: Yeah. And you're, you're, you're floating kind of, it's weird because I said these are levels, but they're really like sections, different ships that you're, you know, bouncing between and stuff the way this space station is designed.
So you're able to float back up. Are you floating back up to your shuttle? Or are you having Rho swing the Cassiopeia by real quick?
Zach/Zahn: , what?
Bee/Polaris: Shuttle. Cause it has Ollie's drones.
Zach/Zahn: It has Ollie's drones and we don't want to potentially owe the Winston's for the loss of one of their shuttles.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Well, I mean, it's ours now, but also, , the command is actually on, or that also means that like Amanda could just get on there and like take it and leave. And we don't want that.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Full disclosure. I had some fun things planned.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, good stuff.
Chris/Ollie: Sorry to, , avoid a wall.
Avery/GM: You float past level two and you see the plants have started consuming things and you see cannibals being peeled out from, like, the wall by these, like, vines.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, god.
Avery/GM: You see some of these, these weird lizard creatures with, like, four arms and they've got, like, these, like, weird, like, , Almost like webbed fans around their neck and they're like spitting like venom and Shooting their tongues out and like grabbing people and it is just chaos on the second floor.
Zach/Zahn: Holy shit.
Bee/Polaris: It's good that we parked on the first
Avery/GM: And yeah, you're back up to the shuttle. You're just outside the little airlock.
Bee/Polaris: We get in there we get away we fly
away
Avery/GM: Okay. So yeah, you enter the airlock with laser swords Do you enter the station and then go into the airlock? How are you, how are you doing this without decompressing everything?
Chris/Ollie: Well,
Bee/Polaris: why do we not want to decompress everything
Chris/Ollie: Well if there's a way in without cutting , otherwise we don't really care about decompressing the station.
Bee/Polaris: Is there not like another door on our ship? Because I imagine we have one where we can connect it to other ships, airlocks, but like for space walks and stuff like that, is there not like a hatch or something?
Avery/GM: There could be. Yeah. Okay. We'll, we'll say that there is. But, it's just like a shuttle. So, hmm.
Caden/Bruce: Group chat, including Amanda, send message, Can you please open airlock for us? Thanks! Heart face, frog emoji, send.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, did Bruce actually do that?
Caden/Bruce: Why, I mean, why not? What's the worst she's gonna do, say no?
Avery/GM: Amanda says, first, you want me off your ship. Now you want me to help you make up your minds.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, you, you were the one that lied to us. We, we offered the passage before we knew that you were lying to us.
Avery/GM: She replies back and says, fine, I'll help you out. And you want her to get on your ship and fly and like fly to you.
Caden/Bruce: I want her. I wanted her to open the airlock so we could get in. I mean, that works too.
Avery/GM: , okay, yeah, she opens the airlock for you.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris text Rho, don't shoot.
Avery/GM: Okay, good, good idea.
Bee/Polaris: Because Polaris specifically said if a man gets on our ship and flies away, shoot.
Avery/GM: Yeah, no worries. Yeah, Rho sends back a thumbs up emoji. Amanda pulls the shuttle away slightly from the airlock and it is open to you.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. Let's get on our ship.
Avery/GM: And then you get into the airlock and she pulls the ship back in and it connects. The pressure equalizes and your shuttle awaits.
Bee/Polaris: Yay.
Okay. We get on our ship.
Chris/Ollie: Huzzah! Crisis averted.
Zach/Zahn: And as we get on, Zahn is going to be like.
Amanda, get the fuck off.
Avery/GM: You see her handcuffed to the chair.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, Polaris just cuts the handcuffs.
Avery/GM: Well shit, okay. , yeah, you push her out into the airlock.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, Polaris doesn't push her. He just cuts the handcuffs.
Avery/GM: Well, yeah,
Bee/Polaris: and just stares.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, Zahn does the same. He's like, your assistance in the resurrection of my mother does not warrant a straight up murder. I am not obligated to save you either. Get the fuck off my ship.
Avery/GM: No, Zahn, you need to understand.
Zach/Zahn: There's no understanding that needs to happen. Get the fuck off the ship.
Avery/GM: It was the only way to save people on, on, on board was just to convert them to living machines.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. I saw into programming. She wasn't living, and when she was her, for the brief three seconds, she had an existential crisis and powered down, because she couldn't
Avery/GM: Yeah, I know, I know, and I was working on figuring that out.
Zach/Zahn: It's not living. Like, that's, that's, that's the point that I'm getting at here. So, , proceed to No longer be living on my ship.
Avery/GM: Two minutes till self-destruct. She pulls out something that looks very familiar. And it is the bomb that y'all rigged up with Ollie in episode three.
Bee/Polaris: Are you kidding me, bro?
Okay, fine.
Avery/GM: She has, she's got some A cells wired together or some plasma cells wired together. She's like. Zahn I am not going to blow up on that ship.
Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond The For the Stars is a 1up podcast network production. Be sure to check out more of our shows at one-up podcasts.com. Intro and outro Music produced by Dustin Carpenter. Background music provided by tabletop audio.com. and used under an attribution, non-commercial license from Creative Commons.
Tracks used today include The Ansible and Secret Facility. We'll be back on March 15th with our next episode. See you out there, beyond the furthest stars.