Avery/GM: Welcome to episode 40 of Beyond the Furthest Stars!
(Intro music plays, fades down, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: So yeah, so y'all have been traveling through the void of space and on your way to Ithaca and your ship drops into the system. You arrive on the outer part of the system like normal. On your radar, as soon as you drop in, you pick up two ships engaging in combat with each other.
Zach/Zahn: So just a quick, I didn't want to like cut you off, but quick, like before we drop out.
Avery/GM: Oh sure.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is going to like, cause it's what been. We, we, the hyperspace travels like a day or two, right. To get to Ithaca
Chris/Ollie: yeah, three days.
Avery/GM: Three days.
Zach/Zahn: Got it. At the midway point of that Zahn is gonna like, I don't know, like, like dinner or something. He's going to be like out of the blue. Cause it's been like on his mind, but he doesn't know how to bring it up. So he just like, cause he's also still processing all the shit that we just went through. He's just going to blurt out, you know, I'm more, I'm worried about Marty guys. We haven't like heard from or seen her since we left Olympia. Well, I'm glad that she didn't get to experience that should show, uh, we should let her know where we're going.
Bee/Polaris: That's a pretty good idea. Maybe we should send like, a daily group email or something, text message to her so she knows what the situation is basically or where we are at the very least. We could send coordinates as well.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn gives a nod and a thumbs up.
Bee/Polaris: At least she's safe with the nerd.
Chris/Ollie: She's still in all our chats, right?
Bee/Polaris: Didn't we make a group chat for New Terror? That's just us, and then there's one without Zahn, and then there's also one without amanda.
Chris/Ollie: There wasn't the, uh, trauma.
Avery/GM: Technically, they're all without Amanda now.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris will go to the group chat with Marty in it, send the coordinates for where we will be, so like, you know, the, where the two ships are going to be fighting, and says, Going to go save a planet, hope you are well, heart, smiley face.
Avery/GM: Anyone else add anything?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn adds the group chat, come back soon, dot dot dot, like, anxious face.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, Zahn is going to need some counseling. Smiley face, sad face. Heart.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn just puts the ellipses with no elaboration.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris sends a hug emoji..
Chris/Ollie: Ollie will also say, hope to see you return safe soon. And then we'll also put major trigger warning, major warning, and link the VOD of the stuff that happened. And put in the, underneath it, for context.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: And then, speaking of since, since Ollie literally recorded everything.
Bee/Polaris: So did Polaris.
Zach/Zahn: Well, yeah., but, uh, Ollie also downloaded everything off of their computer.
Bee/Polaris: oh yeah!
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna turn to Ollie and be like, so while you can. Obviously keep the FBOs program and any information we can use to help get Rho home. Purge everything else. Nothing good could come from anything really from that station.
Chris/Ollie: Nothing at all?
Bee/Polaris: I mean, wouldn't it be wise to review some of the files? What if there's, you know, what if, I don't know exactly what kind of contamination happened with the food supply, but would it not be best to try and find some sort of antidote to that first in case we run across it again.
Chris/Ollie: And surely Amanda's research is Worthy of sparing
Bee/Polaris: not necessarily. I have the same or a similar machine back on the Ursa Major.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, yeah, that's right.
Chris/Ollie: Oh Wait, can the factory print food too?
Bee/Polaris: No.
Zach/Zahn: No.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris' gross nutra bars.
Chris/Ollie: Oh
Bee/Polaris: nutrition bars The custodians found a way to make that into a, a food.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, but yours is like a big, big old machine where Amanda had managed to get hers down to a near portable device right?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, she did. She did have
a tiny one.
Bee/Polaris: Ooh, that is true. We could Cloudy with a chance of no one has seen that. Nevermind. I made that reference last time. We could, we could use that actually.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, wouldn't Bruce be thrilled that every time we go to a meal or we sit down to a nice home cooked, you know, brunch. And you just pull out this little box and print a nutrient bar instead.
Zach/Zahn: Right in front of his face.
Bee/Polaris: I don't think Bruce would enjoy that because it's essentially like AI, but like an AI chef.
Right? It takes the joy out of it in the process of cooking.
Zach/Zahn: Instead of AI art, it's an AI chef.
Chris/Ollie: Hmm. Pretty much.
Zach/Zahn: 3D prints.
Chris/Ollie: But absolutely on board for deleting any and all of your father's research.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, fuck that guy. Oh, wait, no, uh, never mind. Okay, yeah. I really want a Potato GLADOS someone, but that would require looking through the research to rebuild the machine.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, yeah, to kill someone and then take their brain and put them in a machine and be like, Hey, we brought you back just to make you a potato.
Bee/Polaris: Well, I mostly meant coil because we still have the coil cube. Put him in a potato.
Avery/GM: Yeah, so, you could delete everything if you want to, Ollie or, or we could save that.
Do, do you want to manually look through it later, or do you want to just, you know, comply and just control, delete everything related to Zahn's dad?
Chris/Ollie: I'll definitely comply with the request to delete anything related to the dad, but all the other research, cause there's Probably plenty of other research that happened there that wasn't too bad.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you might even find some more information on, uh, on this strange little plant life.
Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, the, the, the seed.
Caden/Bruce: Little seed.
Zach/Zahn: Eden, right?
Bee/Polaris: Oh, there was, wasn't there, there was the dude that, uh, we put it, we locked in a room and then dropped a grenade in his room. That guy, he, he knew about Eden.
Avery/GM: Mm hmm.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, he was proceeded to be eaten by Eden.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, he might have research on Eden is what I'm I'm team manually go through the research and then delete what is unnecessary.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's just gonna Grumble to himself and be like you know you're probably fucking right but I don't want fucking any of that fucking shit getting out of this fucking world.
Bee/Polaris: I mean that's totally fair.
Chris/Ollie: But yeah the front plate will pop open and the blue chaos emerald will shine out and Ollie will say all of the data is right here. Do not worry you can trust us. It will not get out
Avery/GM: cut to an hour from now when Ollie's Crystal is getting gripped from his chest by Rhea..
Chris/Ollie: Oh, discord leaks!
Zach/Zahn: Zahn lets out a like a frustrated sigh not even slightly of relief But he just like said his piece and now he can continue eating whatever we're having for dinner that day.
Avery/GM: Very good So yeah, so you have popped out of hyperspace on the Cassiopeia into the Ithaca system You And there are these two ships going at it, fighting above the second planet, uh, from the sun here. Y'all board the shuttle. Are you still having Rho fly the shuttle, or are you gonna fly it this time?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I'll let her fly it.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: I believe in her.
Avery/GM: Hey! Your belief paid off. She rolled a 12. Yeah, so Rho takes the controls and, uh, you know, if she had like a hat, she would probably twist it backwards facing and guns it through these asteroids and, and sort of dips and, and maneuvers pretty well. Yeah, her hacking your brain for your flying skills really paid off.
Uh, anyway, as you start approaching these two ships doing battle, uh, someone comes online and says, Oracle shuttle, are you, are you here to help? Please, please identify yourselves.
Bee/Polaris: Why, why wouldn't we be here to help? We're an oracle ship. I mean, we're on the same side no?
Avery/GM: Uh, yeah, we just, we just weren't expecting anybody.
Bee/Polaris: Your, your twin sent us.
Avery/GM: Yeah, uh, this person says, uh, oh, Lapis sent you. Well, that's great. Well, if you can make it through the barrage of laser beams, why don't you come on board and we can discuss the, the battle plan going forward. With that 12 that Rho rolled, I'm just gonna say that, yeah, you're able to navigate through the laser blasts and you land into the shuttle bay of the oracle ship known as the Delphi.
And waiting for you there is Lazuli Winston. And Bruce, when they see you step off the shuttle, they, uh, look surprised. They're like, Oh, I, uh, Didn't expect to see you again.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will wave.
Avery/GM: That sounds worse than I actually meant. I just meant like, you know, cause we, we parted last time and I said it was going to be the last time. And anyway, glad you're still alive.
Caden/Bruce: I'm glad I'm alive too.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Anyway, so, uh, what, what brings you here? Why did, why did Lapis send you out this way? It's pretty, pretty dangerous business for people who aren't really required to, you know, Care about this stuff.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's just gonna like, direct interject to the point. We're here to stop the hegemony from unleashing a AI killer program onto the planet below that'll kill everybody.
Chris/Ollie: We have been tasked with bringing you the counter to the program. We have succeeded.
Zach/Zahn: Oh. Oh yeah, we also need to steal the AI from the uh, hegemony ship, so.
Bee/Polaris: Again.
Avery/GM: Again.
Zach/Zahn: For you again, yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah, the first time all of you helped by proxy, but yeah, no.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, it was all circumstantial.
Avery/GM: Uh, Lazuli kind of just blinks for a minute and is like, okay, um, well, they haven't unleashed anything like that yet, but I think that's mainly due to us kind of holding them off for now. Uh, so, uh, what's this counter to their program that you have here? Is it, is it like a, a machine? Is it a, a piece of code? What is it?
Chris/Ollie: Uh, is there a terminal nearby?
Avery/GM: Uh, yeah. It's a cargo bay. Of course there is.
Bee/Polaris: You just upload the IASO program. No, I'm kidding.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I mean, uh, that would, what? Wait, what's the counter called? It's Iaso and
Avery/GM: Epios.
Chris/Ollie: Epios. Okay, I thought I had that written down, but I guess I did not. Uh, as Lapis says, we haven't encountered anything like that. Ollie will say most fortuitous and turn and start walking towards the console. And if he can reach it, he'll just start
installing it.
Avery/GM: Uh, yeah, sure. Uh, go ahead and roll a intelligence program check.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, 14.
Avery/GM: 14. Holy crap. Yeah. You're able to easily bypass the, any, any security the oracles have on this thing is just like, what, what is this? This is child's play.
Bee/Polaris: That's hilarious. You could have just asked for access.
Avery/GM: Yep.
Chris/Ollie: Why would I ask when I can just do it?
Avery/GM: Before Lazuli can even stop to ask you what you're doing, uh, you have uploaded the Epios to protect this ship, and, yeah, have you given them the ability, like, have you given permissions for them to, like, copy this program as well, or just use it just for this ship?
Bee/Polaris: Don't we have, didn't you copy them down onto some flash drives?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I've got hella copies of it.
Avery/GM: That's right.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, but, seeing as we were tasked with recovering the program for them, I'm inclined to say that, yeah, he just gave them full access.
Avery/GM: Okay. Good to know.
Chris/Ollie: Um, and also, he'll say, there, you are now safeguarded.
Avery/GM: Uh, thanks, uh, we don't actually have any AI on board, but that's good to know just in case.
Chris/Ollie: Malware can spread through many systems. It would be catastrophic for you to return to your station infected.
Avery/GM: So, uh, Lazuli says, okay, so, well, I guess if we have to protect the planet below and you need to get a family member back, I assume that family member is on the hegemony ship?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn nods.
Bee/Polaris: Technically he is the ship, right? Right?
Chris/Ollie: Currently, yes.
Bee/Polaris: Is that how that works? Yeah.
Avery/GM: Lazuli's like, well, that, that would mean you'd have to get to the command deck of that ship, but we would also have to get someone down to the planet to install this safeguard Somewhere in the in their main AI control center. Whew. Okay, what what do you need us to do then?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris kind of looks at the everyone else and is just like, I thought we were only supposed to deliver the Are we supposed to upload it too? Was that part of the
Zach/Zahn: Zahn shrugs, looking like so.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris looks over at Bruce, do you have the contract?
Zach/Zahn: Did we sign anything?
Avery/GM: It was all verbal, but Ollie probably recorded it.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, we don't have a contract? Why are we doing this then? Nevermind. Actually, it's for the great
Avery/GM: No, because Lazuli promised you stuff.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, that's right.
Zach/Zahn: Lazuli promised us stuff, and to permanently keep, uh,
Chris/Ollie: the Winstons
Zach/Zahn: the violet off of our backs
Bee/Polaris: that is true. Oh yeah, we were, we were promised stuff. Nevermind. What are we, did, does anyone remember what exactly
Avery/GM: No, Lazuli just, er, Lapis just asked you to get this program to their sibling. That's all, that's all they asked you to do. Lazuli is trying to get more.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Oh, what the heck? Hey, we don't work for free Lazuli needs to offer us some stuff. I'm kidding place doesn't say that.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna be like anyways, well, I'm assuming there aren't any bad guys on the planet, right? Zahn's got his like hands out like obvious and the obvious like hand gestures because that's what I'm doing right now
Avery/GM: Yeah, no, they haven't launched any invasion forces it we've You know, we've we've jammed their communication signals. But yeah, they haven't launched any ground forces yet.
Zach/Zahn: Cool. Cool. Cool then you can take your own fucking people and send them down there and we will just board their ship and do our thing
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, why don't you just take one of your personnel to upload the program onto the planet to safeguard the planet before they launch an invasion of some sort and then we get on their ship and distract them, I guess.
Avery/GM: Yeah, I guess, I guess that would work. Uh, sure. They pull out like a, a little like data pad and they're like scrolling through personnel and they're like, no, they're off duty. No, they're, they're currently at weapons. They're currently Okay, I guess that, that leaves just me.
Bee/Polaris: Wait, do you not have anyone Planetside?
Avery/GM: No, uh, we've been, we've been focused on this fight for the past, um, four days.
Bee/Polaris: Do you not have any friendlies, Planetside?
Avery/GM: Uh, we have a few, you know, spies kind of embedded in the local government here, but we can't risk them blowing their cover.
Zach/Zahn: Well, I'm sure you are, you are a fine fitting candidate to do such a menial task as flying down Planetside and plugging in a hard drive.
Avery/GM: Sounds good!
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is having no shit right now
Avery/GM: Zahn's like I just had to murder both my parents, you're not getting out of this.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Right.
Bee/Polaris: If I can murder my parents, you can upload a file.
Zach/Zahn: And blow up my child at home.
Bee/Polaris: So what is the, so we're sending Lazuli to planet and we are going to ship, correct?
Zach/Zahn: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris turns to Bruce and says, where's the armory on this ship?
Caden/Bruce: Uh, it's just over here, and Bruce will lead the way.
Avery/GM: Cool.
Bee/Polaris: Without even asking him to lead the way.
Caden/Bruce: He listens to Polaris more.
Zach/Zahn: I love that we kind of just walk in like we own the place. Like, fuck you all.
Avery/GM: No, that's fine. Alright, well, I'll get ready to go planetside, and yeah, are you taking the shuttle to the Hegemony ship?
Zach/Zahn: I mean, it's how we got here, isn't it? Of course we're gonna take it.
Avery/GM: Fair enough. I don't know, y'all could try and spacewalk through lasers. Just crash it in.
Chris/Ollie: No, just pull a Halo 2. Just Master Chief, ride the bomb.
Zach/Zahn: Oh my god.
Chris/Ollie: Into open space.
Avery/GM: Um, okay, so you go into the armory, and you find, what are you looking for? Some armor?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I'm gonna get the security armor.
Avery/GM: Yeah, that's right. Yep. And then some more grenades.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, they had ten grenades. I'm taking, I took, like, two, and then gave one to all, or gave the rest to Ollie.
Zach/Zahn: Is there?
Bee/Polaris: and put the rest in Ollie's a little big.
Zach/Zahn: Is there a better pistol that I can grab from these guys?
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah, we finished up the saddlebags, did we?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Okay, so I got, like, a Bunch of encumbrance going on.
Zach/Zahn: What kind of weaponry do they have?
Avery/GM: Um, they had some combat rifles and some mag rifles, some laser rifles, you know, basically like the kind of weapons you would need to defend a ship from boarding and Bruce, you said you brought your plant with you, right?
Caden/Bruce: Oh, yes. I brought the plant and I brought the flamethrower.
Avery/GM: That's right.
Chris/Ollie: Contingency.
Avery/GM: Very good.
Caden/Bruce: I am training Eden to be good. How's it working? I don't know, but we're trying.
Avery/GM: We'll find out. We'll find out eventually.
Zach/Zahn: It's one of those I'll keep my plasma cutter, aka laser pistol, even though it's only a D6. But it's got, it's got range. It's got that range.
Bee/Polaris: Is security armor the best armor they have on the, on the ship currently?
Avery/GM: Yes. There might be something better later on, but Okay. Is anyone else grabbing anything from the armory?
Chris/Ollie: Well, do they have any melee weapons that are better than the laser swords?
Avery/GM: Uh, probably not, no.
Bee/Polaris: Nothing is better than the laser swords. I mean, that's objectively not true, but I have a, I have a bias.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, do they have mag pistols? Or like anything...
Avery/GM: Yeah, they probably do, yeah. They probably have small arms as well.
Chris/Ollie: Alright, well I'm gonna grab the best small arm I can find as a backup.
Avery/GM: Okay, that'd probably be the mag pistol or the Yeah, the mag pistol, yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Um, one last thing.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: They have mag rifles as well, yes?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: Okay, I'm gonna grab two of those if it's just free.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: And throw them on my drones.
Avery/GM: I mean, Lazuli isn't stopping you at this point, like, they're like, okay, I guess you're going to need weapons to go on that ship.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I mean, they got the money, so, I know they're good for it.
I'm going to equip those to my, uh, two little drones that are, uh, also following me.
Avery/GM: Okay, if that's it, then yeah, y'all load up onto the shuttle. Uh, Lazuli has grabbed their own little small fighter, um, that they use and they give you a little wave and they blast out towards the, the planet below. So you blast out of the shuttle armed and ready to go take on an entire battleship by yourselves. And as you're making your approach towards the ship, you get hailed from a familiar voice that says, excuse me, shuttle, but you are not supposed to be approaching this ship. I will have to fire upon you if you do not stop.
Bee/Polaris: Hi Hermes.
Avery/GM: Processing. Ah. Hello Polaris. Have you come to get shot today?
Bee/Polaris: No. We came to get you.
Avery/GM: Oh. That is quite thoughtful of you. My mother has asked me to use the guns on this ship to blow that ship out of the sky. And I must comply.
Zach/Zahn: Can you just not though?
Chris/Ollie: Please do not do that.
Bee/Polaris: Bats my eyelashes.
Zach/Zahn: Where's, where's Marty for a connect check?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, the outside of your helmet is just blink blink blink blink. Blink.
Avery/GM: Hermes says error error reverting back to primary protocol.
Bee/Polaris: No
Avery/GM: Attention unidentified ship, please. Stop approaching or you will be fired upon.
Zach/Zahn: Let's just keep him in the loop until we get there.
Chris/Ollie: Just keep looping.
Bee/Polaris: Hi Hermes,
Avery/GM: hello Polaris, have you come to get shot today?
Bee/Polaris: We're gonna go in circles Someone's gonna reboot you again. Can you stop them from rebooting you?
Avery/GM: I am not sure it is very different than Before error, error, error, reverting to primary protocol.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris sighs Okay, I'm gonna try something else and then we can just, you know. So Polaris, uh, so Hermes does the, the message again?
Avery/GM: Mm hmm.
Bee/Polaris: Uh, Polaris says, hi, Hermes.
Avery/GM: Oh, hello, Polaris. Have you come
Bee/Polaris: Okay, yes, hi. No, I have not come to be shot. Can you just like shoot at us but miss?
Avery/GM: I am happy to honor that request.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. Don't hit us.
Avery/GM: I will try.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Thanks.
Avery/GM: Well, that's good. Hermes rolled a seven.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Cool. Yeah. Cause technically he would be complying with the order to shoot at us, but he would just be missing.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Hermes shots are going wide around your shuttle, uh, on purpose or on accident. Hard to tell from here, but.
Bee/Polaris: Sure.
Avery/GM: But you eventually make your way around the ship until you see a shuttle bay that is open. It's protected by a little force field, but it's clear that it's just the kind of force field where ships can pass through. You land in the shuttle bay and so far it's pretty quiet, but as you come out, you do see two laser turrets on either side of the landing bay. Um, and they are starting to rotate your way.
Zach/Zahn: Do we have a potential direct line to Hermes? Is he still in our group chat?
Avery/GM: Uh, he was communicating via the shuttles, um, comms. So no,
Bee/Polaris: we probably shouldn't communicate with Hermes in the group chat because he's being monitored.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: I was gonna say, uh, Hermes, could you turn off the laser turrets?
Avery/GM: I'm giving you a moment to react before you roll your
Bee/Polaris: shield.
Oh, Polaris just gonna run to the one up top and use his laser blaze to cut off the barrels of it.
Avery/GM: This one up here?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Does the shuttle have any weaponry on it?
Avery/GM: It does not.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. Oh, right. It's not the TSKAM shit.
Avery/GM: It's just a shuttle. You're trying to disable this turret, so I'm gonna say it's a stab check.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Uh,
Avery/GM: dexterity or strength. Whatever you prefer.
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: I don't think any of us are strength characters in this campaign.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, I have a plus one in both dex and strength. Um.
Zach/Zahn: What?
Bee/Polaris: So. Eight.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you're able to cut off the, the barrels, but it does get a couple of shots off towards the group. And. Bruce does a 17 hit.
Caden/Bruce: Yes. Does is a 17 hit.
Avery/GM: Um. Yeah, Bruce
Zach/Zahn: Where's your iron hide at?
Avery/GM: Bruce takes 8 damage
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, where's your meta?
Avery/GM: As one of these lasers, uh, gets through, um, and, and clips Bruce in the shoulder a little bit.
Bee/Polaris: Question, um, do laser blades, uh, are laser blades able to deflect laser blasts?
Avery/GM: I think that would be like a dexterity Probably like an evasive save throw or something like that. Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, could I do that?
Avery/GM: Since you were taking your action to cut the barrels off. I'm gonna say no, but you in the future. Yeah, go for it.
Bee/Polaris: Sick
Avery/GM: Okay, and if no one else is doing anything else the second one targets Ollie
Chris/Ollie: yeah, Ollie's just gonna like is this had tried to intersperse itself between it and the group So
Avery/GM: Oh gotcha
Chris/Ollie: targeting me is perfect.
Avery/GM: How's a 12?
Chris/Ollie: No
Avery/GM: No, okay, that one goes wide
Chris/Ollie: The lasers bounce off harmlessly.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Yeah, they they can't quite pierce the ollie shell Maybe it's the cuteness, but the laser blasts have alerted attention to this area. So I'm gonna need some initiative rolls
Chris/Ollie: One
Caden/Bruce: its a six for me.
Zach/Zahn: I got a five.
Avery/GM: So we got Bruce with a six beat Sherman with a five.
Caden/Bruce: Polaris is first. Polaris has an 8. yay me, I'm not first
Chris/Ollie: one
Avery/GM: Polaris, I'm gonna let you go first since you tied with the three other, uh, or three of the bad guys.
Bee/Polaris: Is the, is the, the, um, turret that I slashed off the, is it disabled?
Avery/GM: Yes. Yes, it will not, it will not act.
Bee/Polaris: Then I'm going to, I'm gonna, Assuming that the laser blast definitely alerted someone.
Place is gonna hide around the corner and wait for someone to come by.
Avery/GM: Ha ha.
Zach/Zahn: Just fucking clothesline him with your laser sword.
Bee/Polaris: Essentially. Um, Well, I was thinking about that and also, a Grenade? Cause we have plenty to spare. Um, Yeah, uh, once Polaris hears footsteps get close enough to the door, he's gonna, well, no, he'll wait on the grenade, he's gonna, um, he's gonna clothesline him with his laser blade.
Avery/GM: Okay, so you're wanting to basically hold your action until someone comes through the door?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay, uh, that's fine then. Yeah, um, you move over there and hold your action. Uh, next up is the turret over here, and it's gonna shoot at, uh, Ollie once again. 14?
Chris/Ollie: Nope.
Avery/GM: Nope, didn't think so.
Chris/Ollie: Just keep bouncing off. He's gonna like casually buff his claws against his chest and just look at him and blow him off.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Caden/Bruce: Super bored.
Avery/GM: Let's see here, um, yeah, this, this guy here is gonna come charging through the door.
Bee/Polaris: Can I get him?
Avery/GM: Yeah. Go ahead and roll your attack.
Bee/Polaris: Does a 20 hit?
Avery/GM: Uh, yes, definitely.
Bee/Polaris: This guy's about to get super owned. Oh, laser blades do way more damage than I thought they did. I was also looking at the wrong thing, so that was going to be a 21 to hit.
Avery/GM: Either way, yeah.
Bee/Polaris: 11 damage.
Avery/GM: 11? You clip him really badly in like his like shoulder and kind of near his neck, but he reflexively flinches from the attack and steps back a little bit, but he's looking pretty badly wounded and he's gonna attempt to take a shot at the first person he sees. Are you like behind the wall?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I'm around the corner.
Avery/GM: So, oh, so you literally just stuck your blade, like, out.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Um, okay. He's gonna try and hit Bruce. I don't know if it's gonna work, though, because he's pretty badly injured.
A 14?
Caden/Bruce: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Oh, no.
Zach/Zahn: Bruce!
Bee/Polaris: What is your AC?
Caden/Bruce: My AC is shit, okay?
Bee/Polaris: Why didn't you take any security armor? My AC is also shit.
Caden/Bruce: Because it probably wouldn't fit, Bruce.
Avery/GM: Uh, just three damage. Let's see, this person runs here, this robot runs here, this person runs here. Um, but that's all they can do. Bruce, you are up.
Caden/Bruce: What does Bruce want to do with his life? I want to shoot the person that shot me.
Avery/GM: Uh, that makes sense.
Caden/Bruce: I feel like it does too. Oh God, this is terrible. That's a 10.
Avery/GM: Even with all your bonuses?
Caden/Bruce: Mm hmm. I rolled a four.
Avery/GM: Oh no. Um, yeah, that doesn't hit at all. Okay, so that misses. Anything else on your turn?
Caden/Bruce: An observation question. Are they wearing, like, a uniform?
Avery/GM: Yeah, they're wearing, like, a hegemony uniform that, like, y'all probably would have worn at some point when you worked for the hegemony.
Caden/Bruce: So Bruce out loud is going to say, If we can get our hands on some of these uniforms. We might not have to fight our way through the whole entire ship.
Avery/GM: Well, if that's the end of Bruce's turn, Rho is gonna move. Um, I actually have to pull up Rho's character sheet, because I don't remember everything that she can do. Oh yeah, it's a lot of shit.
Bee/Polaris: What level is Rho? Are we allowed to know that?
Chris/Ollie: Oh, by the way, she's level 99.
Avery/GM: No, she's level 10.
Bee/Polaris: What the? I fear, I fear her.
Avery/GM: But she's also a weird science experiment. So, you know, some things have kind of.
Bee/Polaris: Actually, that's not true.
Caden/Bruce: I'm just an alien.
Bee/Polaris: I am a weird science experiment.
Avery/GM: Oh yeah. That's what she's going to do. Okay. Uh, Rho is going to rush. over here and grab this dude and he's going to need to make a saving throw, I believe. Oh no, she has to roll punch. Okay. Well, she's not very good at punch, but we'll find out. Oh, okay. That's two sixes punch, punch, punch minus one. So that's 11. Yeah. So you see this guy that Polaris stabbed wink out of existence. And then you see his body floating past the, the shuttle Bay.
Bee/Polaris: Nice.
Avery/GM: Outside.
Bee/Polaris: Yep. Good stuff. Thanks, Rho.
Avery/GM: Yep. Rho's got it.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris gives Rho a thumbs up.
Avery/GM: Uh, she just gives you a smile and a thumbs up.
Bee/Polaris: Can she move again? Cause she's like, in the doorway.
Avery/GM: No, that was all her movement action.
Bee/Polaris: Diddly dang. Alright.
Avery/GM: She'll be fine.
Bee/Polaris: Yep.
Avery/GM: She totally won't die.
Bee/Polaris: Avery.
Avery/GM: I mean, maybe.
Chris/Ollie: Totally won't.
Avery/GM: Uh, Zahn, you are up.
Zach/Zahn: Are there any control panels in this room?
Avery/GM: There's one that I forgot to put on the map right here that would con that probably would control the force field.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, just the force field?
Avery/GM: I mean, that's probably what, like, Zahn would probably assume that that's what it controls since it's right next to it, but that's the only one in here.
Zach/Zahn: Does it connect to anything else? Or is it literally just an on off switch?
Avery/GM: That that's something you would use. The player would have to figure that out.
Zach/Zahn: Got it. Let's figure it out then.
Avery/GM: Okay. Go ahead and roll a intelligence program check
Zach/Zahn: 12.
Avery/GM: You're able to break through the security on this thing with your hacking skills. Um, and yeah, you see that it has a, uh, button for turning on and off the force field here, and then there's also a button to raise and lower the landing pad.
Zach/Zahn: Lower.
Avery/GM: And currently raise is greyed out, so it looks like it would be lowered.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. That would be interesting. To have everyone get on the landing pad and then get lowered down to another floor.
Avery/GM: Or to the vehicle storage.
Zach/Zahn: Ooh. Get on one of the enemy vehicles and just start blasting your way around the ship.
Bee/Polaris: Do not tempt me.
Zach/Zahn: Hehe, I was gonna say.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris can get on a motorcycle and just laser blade people as he passes.
Zach/Zahn: I'm assuming that little program check was my action?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Zach/Zahn: Then I'm gonna take cover behind the shuttle.
Avery/GM: Okay. Next is, okay, now it's badguy4 and badguy4 is gonna run over here. Ollie, it is your turn.
Chris/Ollie: Would it be possible to, like, run up, jack into him, and hack him? Or would that, uh, the hack take too long?
Avery/GM: You are an AI powered robot. I would say you could do it as an action. It'll be a program intelligence check, but you're going to face some physical resistance.
Chris/Ollie: Physical's fine. Uh, yeah, so I'm going to Yeah. I'll rush him first.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: Get in close, and try to, uh, use my little tentacle boys to, uh, interface with him.
Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll an intelligence program check, and then make a physical saving throw.
Chris/Ollie: Fourteen, for the thing. Success on the saving throw.
Avery/GM: Hell yeah. Okay. Yeah, it tries to, like, knock you away from it, but it can't quite fight off these little tentacle boys of yours. So yeah, you are able to, uh, jack into this robot, and you have some options to, uh, reprogram it. It's very simple, you know, um, erase targeting parameters, set new target parameters, shut down, self destruct.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. And there's no, like, ping network or any of that, like, cyberpunk stuff?
Avery/GM: No, it's, it's not connected to any kind of network.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. So I can just set it to, like, shoot anyone? Or I could actually set it just to shoot the enemy boys?
Avery/GM: Uh, you could, you could erase its current targeting parameters and set it, and give it new ones.
Chris/Ollie: Sure. Do I really have any way, like, do we have any, like, Target identification.
Avery/GM: Hegemony personnel. Wouldn't be a bad way to, to approach it.
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah, because it already has a database of them. Okay. So yeah, I'll do that. I'll go into the targeting parameters and load in the hegemony HTML. You know, the follow orders list. And replace that, put all that in the kill list.
Avery/GM: Okay. You have turned bad guy one into, or bad guy three into good robot two.
Chris/Ollie: Welcome aboard, friend. And then I'll also use my little bonus action to order my drones.
Avery/GM: How many do you have with you? Two?
Chris/Ollie: Two stalker drones.
Avery/GM: Okay. And you have your third one that's on board this ship somewhere.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, which it should be within my command radius, right? Uh, a hundred kilometers is it's, uh
Avery/GM: Yeah, easily, yeah.
Chris/Ollie: I'm also going to give that one a command to ping itself in our network.
Avery/GM: It pings one deck above you.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, I'm going to put that ping info in the chat. be like good news. I'm in range of, oh, I shouldn't name the drones.
Avery/GM: You should,
Chris/Ollie: I am in range of Nicholas.
Avery/GM: Is that all for your turn?
Chris/Ollie: Uh, well, I'm going to have these drones assault this person here.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Chris/Ollie: So that would be. Uh, wait, do the weapons add a bonus attack?
Avery/GM: I don't think the mag
Chris/Ollie: I'm, just trying to remember all the different things I gotta keep track of for this. So that would be Oh, wow, one attack for 11 one attack for 22.
Avery/GM: So the one for 22 does hit. Oh,
Chris/Ollie: wow max damage roll For 14 damage.
Avery/GM: Oof. Well, that's enough to take this person down. So they definitely go down.
Zach/Zahn: You killed a robot!
Chris/Ollie: No, I killed a person.
Avery/GM: They are gone. Uh, you do see this turret here activate. Uh,
Chris/Ollie: I've already moved, so that's it for me.
Bee/Polaris: I am waiting on a guy.
Avery/GM: Waiting for, waiting on another dude?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay. I think this turret is still active.
Chris/Ollie: Oh. My bad.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, that was never disabled.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Yeah. So it's gonna shoot at Zahn.
Zach/Zahn: Good luck, baby!
Avery/GM: Uh, how's an 18?
Bee/Polaris: He is behind cover.
Avery/GM: 16.
Zach/Zahn: Still misses.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: Uh, because of Ironhide, I have a 20 AC.
Bee/Polaris: Geez Louise, I need Ironhide real bad.
Avery/GM: Okay. It does nothing bad guy number two comes running and makes it to here, sees Rho and is gonna shoot at her for a natural 20. So,
Zach/Zahn: wow.
Avery/GM: 22.
Bee/Polaris: Is it laser?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Can I, can I try and not have her get hit?
Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll. Go ahead and roll an evasion save
Bee/Polaris: 17. I make. Oh yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay. Um, yeah. Nevermind. You deflect the laser bolt into the wall harmlessly and you hear someone say, what the hell? And that'll be that. Next is Ollie's good guy robot. What are you going to do with this robot?
Chris/Ollie: Can I just take control of him as if he was a drone?
Avery/GM: I'm basically letting, I'm going to let you basically issue orders to it. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Well, if he's going to go now instead of on my turn, then I'll just have him attack this turret here.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Sure. Okay, I will roll. It's 22 To hit and that's nine damage. Uh, yeah, it Blasts up the turret a little bit. It's looks like it's still functioning. But one of its barrels is is Smoking and charred Bruce you are up
Caden/Bruce: Yes, yes, I am. I mean, no one's in front of me other than the turret. I'm just gonna try and shoot the turret that's still operational.
Avery/GM: Okay, go ahead and roll to attack.
Caden/Bruce: Okay, that was much better. That's a 16.
Avery/GM: Oh, that hits for sure.
Caden/Bruce: The damage was only a three.
Avery/GM: Oh, okay. Um, that still does quite, I mean, oh wait, no, this one hasn't been damaged at all. Yeah, okay.
Caden/Bruce: It does very little.
Avery/GM: It takes that damage. It's not great, but whatever. Um, okay. Next up is Rho. Rho doesn't have any weapons, so, she's gonna keep using what, what she has. This person here needs to make a physical saving throw. And they made a three, so that's not gonna do it. Okay. 10, 14, 17, 18. Uh, yeah, you see this person get ripped to shreds.
Bee/Polaris: Nice.
Avery/GM: Um, yeah. Uh, Rho ain't fucking around. Zahn, you are up.
Zach/Zahn: Peek my head out and shoot that turret, cause it's still angy. Oh wow. Yeah, I knew I rolled all my good rolls earlier. How's a 12?
Avery/GM: A 12 does not quite do it.
Zach/Zahn: Well, shit. I, I go, I go back.
Avery/GM: Okay. So we just have bad guy 2 and 2 of the turrets left. Okay. This turret, having been fired upon by its friend, is going to, uh, fire back for 15 it does six damage. This robot kinda like stumbles a little bit, but gets right back up. Ollie, you are next.
Chris/Ollie: So are the both, both the turrets, turrets near me, uh, still active?
Avery/GM: Yes, these are both still active.
Chris/Ollie: And I'm going to have one drone attack this one.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: For twelve.
Avery/GM: 12 does not quite do it.
Chris/Ollie: All right. Then I'm gonna have the other drone also shoot and attempt to finish that off. Oh, for a 30.
Avery/GM: Hell yeah.
Chris/Ollie: I'm going to go ahead and for 11 damage.
Avery/GM: Okay. Plus the damage you did earlier. Yeah, that does it. It, it sparks and blows up a little bit. Um, and it is out of commission
Chris/Ollie: for now. I'm going to just leave that turret. And I'm going to go forward the, uh, computer here, hack into it and see what I can find.
Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll intelligence program.
Chris/Ollie: 15.
Avery/GM: Um, yeah, you see a security terminal pop up and it has options for disabled turrets, red alert, intruder alert, and uh, Activate self destruct.
Chris/Ollie: Self destruct is not, uh, not ideal. Isn't it? Is the alarm not already
going off?
Avery/GM: The alarm has not gone off yet.
Chris/Ollie: What was the, the first options?
Avery/GM: Deactivate turrets, uh, red alert, intruder alert, and then self destruct.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, well definitely deactivate turrets.
Avery/GM: Uh, Zahn, you see this one in this room, power down.
Chris/Ollie: Could I possibly upload epios to Hermes through this in any way.
Avery/GM: It does not appear that this is connected to the ship AI.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, in that case then I'm good.
Avery/GM: Okay. Then I think you all are out of combat.
(ambience fades out, outro plays then 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 work at 1upPodcasts.com
Intro and Outro produced by Dustin Carpenter
Background music provided by TabletopAudio.com and used under an Attribution, non-commercial license from creative commons. Tracks used include Starship Adrift, Space Battle, and Orbital Prison Break.
We'll be back on April 8th with a special interlude episode to catch up with Marty.
See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!