Flight of the Icaron: Episode 2 - Shots Fired

Bits of reinforced glass drift down from the laser marks on the ceiling as the large men wearing ill-fitting GEC service member uniforms stand with their side arms drawn. Nobody moves. Nobody gets hurt. In this moment of bullet time, as these things are happening around you, I'd like you all to make perception checks. And as we make these checks, how are you reacting in this moment? I've rolled a natural one on my perception check. Oh no. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach because so much of my family is here. And as the guns go off, I think make real in my own head on a nat one that the reason I haven't seen Sophie is she's already dead. Oh. with a 12 I think it's the split focus of danger and things kind of breaking bad and popping off happen all the time in gray space and even though Kiki screams with alarm when the first shot is fired her hand reflexively moves to where she would keep her sidearm at her hip and that moment of distraction which is why it's only a 12 is her beginning to like spin up and remember that she had to hand off her weapons when coming aboard the Icaran and all of the little things she had to give up and give away in order to walk through polite civilization here and she's now in the mixture of like something crazy is happening and I feel defanged just being in this room with that 12 i'll also say that you are able to spot that eight men have their sidearms drawn there are another four who you see are scanning the room ready in the heightened state that you are in having been in moments like this these are the guys who that if anyone thinks they can get away with taking out the obvious ones uh they're there to let you know you've made a huge mistake Fishcakes. I think that the second that the sidearms left their holsters, fishcakes had gathered the children that were around them and whispered, Situation echo. And with a 19 perception, has attempted to usher them into a hidden or somewhat safe position, if not an exit. You can go ahead and give me a check if you'd like to, I would say, moving five kids through this space effectively. They know situation echo. They know that means that there are people here who want to hurt them. They are paying attention, but I think even Fishcakes knows that the closest hiding space would be under the table from which you have been eating cheese at, to make it all the way to one of the staircases you ascended to reach this place. Doing so stealthily would be incredibly difficult. Got it. So I moved fast and I activate bad feeling. I mean, we're not in initiative order, but basically what happens is I move before initiative order is determined. So doing that, and then I'll do a stealth. 13 plus 9, 22. Stealth for getting the kids to safety of some sort. In this moment, you are able to move with incredible speed and decisiveness. attempting to wrangle all five kids, move and move them effectively toward the staircase that you came up from, using the larger human bodies around you to move through the space. Kiki, you see one of the men who has not revealed his sidearm. See these children moving and grab Teemo by the back of his neck. Lift him up, go, stop! I freeze. On the ground, now. I move slowly to do as he instructs. He throws Timo onto the ground next to you. Don't move a muscle, kid. I nod. Nobody moves. Nobody gets hurt. You see at the front of the room, still standing on the stage, Dr. Imani Cortez. Hands up. Gentlemen, please. There's no need. You see the man closest to the stage fires two shots into Imani's chest. Shut up, bitch. Anybody else want to talk? You watch Imani Cortez fall to the ground? Burn holes in her chest. Andre, you see the General Reagan manhole. Secretary of Defense for the GEC, instinctively goes for his sidearm after seeing Imani fall. He gets it out of its holster and aimed at one of the men. When two men behind him fire into his back and he falls down, lifeless. Question. The two that fired, are they two of the four non-revealed? Exactly. So now three of our four non-revealed. Yes. There's just one left. There's just one left. Where's the one? That's my fucking Huckleberry. He is across the room from you. There are nine guns drawn at this time. You see that a man steps forward, broad-shouldered, shaved head, heavyset jaw, olive-toned skin, sharp features, tattoo creeping up his neck. Everybody in black and gold is going to stand up, put their hands behind their heads, and follow me. Everyone else is going to stay here, staring at the floor. I think I haven't gotten down yet. Unless I'm the only one still standing, in which case I will drop to my knees. You spend your whole life hearing and reading about moments like this. and some part of me is going, oh, I'm not doing anything heroic. I'm getting on the floor. Oh no, I'm putting my hands on my head. Oh no. But there's another part of me that's going, how can you, I can't make myself act because what's happening is so surprising. I keep going, well, wait a minute, what's going on really? There's some part of me that's looking at my lifeless friend's body going, well, hold on, that, that can't. What, but that would mean, and just feeling the needle skip on my own mind, I just get on the ground and stare at the floor. Slowly, attendees of the party are raised to their feet, some of them needing to be lifted, and a line of most of those in attendance are led toward the exit. The vast majority of the room is lifted to their feet and escorted out by about eight of these men dressed in uniform. I'm looking out, and as they start leading black and gold away, now that I'm on the floor and something is happening, I'm looking at Imani, look where her body is, and then I go black and gold, and I look up, are Stella or Nisha walking out of the room right now? Nisha continues to remain by your side. you see that Stella is hoisted up by her collar and put in line with other members of the Global Executive Council. I go insane in my own mind and I'm in hell. Looking over you, because I think Kiki on the ground doesn't have allies, doesn't have anyone to coordinate with, other than just sort of being close enough to Timo to make sure he was okay as she got onto the ground. She's tried not to lose eyeline on the last hidden bad guy who hasn't pulled his weapon out. But if I glance over at Andre, do I see how bad a time you're... Like, is it written on your face at all? Yeah, I'm slack-jawed staring at my daughter being carted away. And I am looking around to see if there's anyone else I can see holding a gun. But I also am aware that I don't want to shift my head because when you're on your stomach, you can't easily turn your head to look the other way. And I don't know if there's someone right behind me staring at me if I try to get up or do anything. Then with that, I will start to hyperventilate a little bit to like put on a little more panic. Like, because I switched my LEDs to yellow, I'm technically wearing black and gold now. So I'm going to start panicking where I am and try to make eye contact with the guy that was mean to Timo. And she's just now muttering, like, do I get up? Do I stay down? Are they going to come get me? Just so I'm trying to pull attention to get hauled up. Your attempts to be noticed work. one of the men closest to you picks you up and goes, No. Do we bring her? I don't, I don't, where are we going? Where are you taking us? You see the man at the front goes, they said they just want council members. Yeah, I'm not that. Where, where are you taking them? I don't want to go. You see that he pushes you back to your knees and says, Thrash, Rook, you stay here. The rest of us are going to take them down. You see that the line of people is led out of the room and down the staircase. As you are able to stand for a second, you see that remaining here are Talia, Bogo, a man in a cowboy hat. Andre, a woman laying next to him, and yourself are remaining in this space along with the five children. Five kids and four guards. Mm-hmm. Okay. You see that the one who was addressed as Rook steps up and goes, I want adults over here. I want kids over here. That's to the room of us. Yes. Do I see people starting to get up? You see that Nisha, sniffling, raises herself up on her forearms and stands and begins to move across the room. I would like to make an investigation check, if I can, about exactly how many combatants are left and if there are any secret combatants. I think that Andre's already doing the math of bruisers didn't get on this ship alone, right? Gunslingers did not get on this ship alone. So his immediate thought is there are more enemies than we can see. I'd like to make an investigation check to see if I can ascertain how many enemies there are, including ones not holding guns, if there's some way I can do that. Please. Can I make a perception check to see if there's a way I can help him with giving information that I did my weird little faint to get? Of course. Okay. 14 to help? You can do your best to communicate with your eyes. if it's eyes but it's also like slowly getting up uh and making sure that my hand for whatever reason the hand that is closest that like andre can see i'll tuck my thumb try to show like four like just trying to give numbers and see if i can help point out by like where i'm looking and slowly signal if he's trying to if it looks like he's trying to do the same thing i just did give him the information I just got without having to say any of it. What did you make on your investigation check? Should I roll with advantage or no? I think you should. I think that you notice that Kiki sees you attempting to understand information about the space and is going to already indicate her Huckleberry, the man who has not drawn a sidearm, but still, I think, is of a build and a size that would communicate that he is more like the men who have taken over this space than those under their hand. Gotcha. Thanks for letting me dodge the natural one. Wow. That is going to be 18 plus 9 is 27. Andre, you begin to do the math in your head. You spent three months in this station. You know it inside and out. That kid asked about vents earlier. You could rattle off all of them in your head. Undeniably, these people had help You are sure of that The level of tech required The level of information required You've met a lot of spacers You've met plenty of people from all walks of life In your travels With your son on tranquility The university You're like the early stages of shipbuilding Before you met tubes Guys like this can't break into a station of this magnitude with this level of secrecy without somebody spilling the beans. There are for sure four combatants in this space. Everyone else here looks too scared or too caught unawares. However, you are sure that someone on this ship helped these men to do what they've done. Moving alongside Nisha with the other adults, are we being sent towards a corner or a smaller side area of, like, are we being sent against a wall, essentially? Essentially, yes. You are being moved to a, essentially a section of seating and just a hard separation. I think one side kind of closer to the canapes table and the children being asked to stay closer to where they were caught when Fish Cakes was attempting to leave them out. Fish Cakes is coming with us or with the other children? Fish Cakes is with the other children. The children aren't being asked to leave? You are not being asked to leave the space. You're just being separated from the adults. and you see that three of the guards are going with the adults and one is staying with you. Good. Looking over, I had been next to Kiki. When I noticed everything went down, she reached for a sidearm that wasn't there. I saw her looking, eyeballing her Huckleberry. I saw her look to Andre. I saw Andre look around at the other combatants. I'm gonna let them go, but before I do, I make eye contact with Kiki, who I see is still looking around, and I sort of do the same motion slowly of inclining my head and then looking upwards that I had done on the stage. The quickest glance upward in the direction. Were you signaling something? I'm not looking at a particular point in the room, but just in the idea of the subterfuge. Kiki glances up, and then you watch her blink and shake her head a little bit, realizing that was not a signal. It was signaling a similar intent. I'm going to nod at you as we are separated and make sure that you move to where there's only one guard left. And I'll just signal one. What's my Huckleberry doing? Your Huckleberry has, at this point, stopped hiding. The two guards who are leading the adults, he moves to join them. Okay. Andre as you and Nisha are walking you hear under her breath Nisha go Sophie downstairs She wasn feeling well Okay okay okay okay good I think she would know better than to. You know who these people are or no? No, I don't. There were two of them on the ship with us. They said anything, did anything on the ship with you? No. Okay. Okay. When we get up against the wall, What are the odds that the only rats are the ones that were wearing black and gold? I don't know. Are there others around? I'm going to look to get my back against the wall. How big is the crowd of people surrounding us that are squeezed in back here? Talia, Bogo, Nisha, and Kiki. I am going to look around behind me and just check for event would be a miracle, but I'll take anything. I'll take a panel. There's no solid earth here. The whole thing's artificial. The whole thing comes apart. But event would be amazing. But I'll take anything here that I can look at as a means of opening any way to get down to Sophie. Give me a luck check with advantage. Anything over a 12 will do it. That's a 16. While you are investigating, you see that one of the bad guys crosses the room, leaving the adults to stand with the kids. fish cakes you hear a man come over to the person who was addressed as Rook says what time are they getting here how long do we have to hold it down I mean they said that they would just be on the sonar so they should be here any minute all right all right all right cool cool I mean that went pretty well that went pretty well yeah yeah just stay frosty all right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and he moves back over to guard the adults. There is a vent there. Looking. Amani Cortez. I don't know where Stella is. Amani Cortez. Sophie's downstairs. I'm with Nisha. We don't know what these men are doing. My friend is dead. General is dead. I don't know where Stella is. Over and over and over again in my head and I just start in my head going one, eight, 27, 64. And I am going to slide down against the wall like I'm almost like I'm redoing the instructions to get on the floor again, to get down behind the legs of the people standing around me and begin to open the vent. All right. Kiki, give me a perception check, and Andre, give me a stealth check. Five. Five. I think you get the sense that Andre is moving. However, I think there's part of you that feels like if you were to turn around and look, it might draw unnecessary attention. For stealth, that is going to be a 16, but I'm going to add defiant. All right. That is a 19. 19 total. 19 total for stealth. These guards add a plus one to perception. They need an 18 on the die to see you. That's a four. Two more guards. A second four. No, man. Come on, man. Come on, man. Come on, man. And a nine. It's not actually okay that people do that. Do you not like that? Do you not like that? I've killed your best friend. Well, well, well. I have the table tops. Now I'm holding your daughter hostage and me rolling ever so slowly to see if you could be effective in preventing it is difficult. It's difficult for you? I didn't know that the cost of being a prospective character was total powerlessness. At times, at times, for the story to feel good, I just gotta. It's at my expense, the pathos. No! Welcome, brother. You are able to do this stealthily. Describe to me what it is Andre does. This time I will ever so slightly tap Kiki's foot with my foot, showing you that under my stealth I have slid down onto my butt on the floor and I have a small, essentially ceremonial multi-tool, like a thing that you have on your formal engineer's thing. This is like, there's no handling on this thing at all. But it is a small, single-handle power tool. It's basically a power, a multifunction power tool in what looks like an analog screwdriver, essentially. And I am going to tap your foot and make this thing make a little noise to indicate that some help covering that noise would be great and try to elicit a help action from Kiki in this moment. I would love to help. My help is weird and bad. There's rules in gray space about how long you're allowed to be by yourself. Limits before they send you back, but I don't get sent back. We just stay weird. And space is much stranger than they give it credit for. It doesn't bother me much. I want to find something, a little table where there are like canapes and like an ice gold, just a decorous table about 30 feet away on the other side of the guards watching us and clear of the kids that no one else could get to. This couldn't be pinned on us. It is hard to explain why it suddenly shattered. as I use break, a force ability. Kiki, in this moment, as you tap into this ability, you have spent countless days, months, and sometimes years in space. This, according to government regulation, is deeply unadvisable. The ways in which your body has changed and at times the technology you have needed to use to feel even somewhat comfortable in spaces, even with artificial gravity, has required a level of adaptation that for many would seem quite strange. In this moment, as you are using this ability, you are manipulating gravitons, correct? I am. Yes, gravitons, of course, being the atom-sized particles that govern and define gravity in this world. The gravity drive on the Ikaron is at all times constantly making small artificial gravitons that are then moved throughout the space to create that artificial sense of weight. But in this moment, you are able to use those powers yourself, given just the amount of time you have spent out here and the technology you've invested in, which allows you to manipulate gravitons in this way. This is what? Oh, I've changed myself, but it's all under my jumpsuit. No one sees it. and I can feel it like a metronome every time a new little artificial graviton is made. And I think it's just her heel tapping on the ground and she's trying her best to play it off like a very rich, very worried woman being anxious and then she's eventually going to just turn her shoulder so she's not even looking at the table that she's picked. and she sends all of that energy, all of that force, the weight that in our understanding of space-time weighs down the blanket of reality. She leans into the heaviness in the distance between her and the object she needs to not exist anymore and blows it up. I'm hoping that the three guards watching us are all within like five feet of it because they need to make a dexterity saving throw as this thing doesn't just explode. It shatters outward and makes a very loud noise to cover anything anyone needs to get done exactly right now. Fantastic. I'm going to roll 3d20. Everyone over 10 is a person who is standing within five feet of the table you are exploding. Sweet. 17, 16, and 6. two of the men you will watch go flying. What is the DC they need to do? 16. They both succeed. This force rockets from the table, shatters, canapes, lift into the air, and hold there, if only for a moment, floating in space. You see these two men lurch forward. Did they take damage? No, because you made the save, there's no damage. Okay, these two men lurch forward, Uh, guns immediately pointed out. I scream, so they focus on me. I'm trying to buy you time. So I'm going to leap away from you and pull focus, freaking out. Like, I also don't know what just happened. Go ahead and give me a performance check with advantage. 24. The two men caught within this blast also screech as they turn. Look at you. Look around. There is chaos for a moment. Andre. First of all, Andre is going to take the help action, but it strains his brain to the maximum to not focus on what the fuck is happening. This is like, hey man, it's like being in a high school and being like, I'm gonna sneak into the bathroom and drop a cherry bomb in the toilet. You watch the door, Carrie. And she like fucking uses mind. You're like, not like that. What the fuck? So like, okay, Jesus. So I think I am going to work as I hear, rather than like tapping her foot or something, that this table explodes. But I'm doing my little cubed numbers in my head. So we're focusing up. I'm sorry. We didn't have a chance to discuss our strategy. For a Tinkerer's Tools, that is going to be a 19. You unscrew each one of these, keeping the rhythm of the numbers in your head. You move through the four corners of this vent with ease. It is popped off and everyone is still looking at the screaming woman and the broken table. There are five of us here. There's chaos in this moment. The vent is off. Nisha is here. Nisha is counting on me to get to Sophie. I think in this moment, I am not Mission Impossible. All that my thought is, is get out. So I'm not going to like get in and close the grate behind me or anything like that or like cover my tracks. I'm going to dart in, use my climbing gloves and start to slide down the vent to the floor of Z-Hab where I know Sophie is. Andre, in. Gloves out. Comfortably. Sliding down. Fish cakes. In this moment of chaos, you see that the guard standing over the children moves away as he takes a few steps toward the kerfuffle that has appeared in this moment. You see the children all kind of screech and have all kind of crouched in a corner and are holding each other. The second that I hear the sound of breaking glass, on the floor, I crawl over to where the guard is walking away from me. I slide out a blade from a bracelet underneath my jumper and I slice his Achilles tendon. Jesus Christ, let's roll initiative. And you will be moving in a surprise round. All right, my initiative is 922. Andre, would you like to be included in the initiative or are you on a separate mission? I hear shit popping off up there. I have to get Sophie. I have to get Sophie. 100%. I genuinely feel bad about Nisha. That's the thing that I'm genuinely feeling bad about. But I also know I have a bond with Nisha, even across the fact that we are no longer husband and wife, that I know she would hate me forever and be right to if I did not focus on Sophie. Fantastic. Will you still roll initiative for me? That is a 12. Fishcakes. in this surprise round, as you move to strike at this man, go ahead and give me your attack rolls and do so with advantage. Oh, whoa, okay. 19 plus... 19 plus 5. 19 hits. Yeah, right now you're using a vibro knife, so yeah, 1d4 plus, I believe, 2 or 3d6. 2d6, so for a total of 16. 16 points of damage. Oh my God. What does it look like as you bring this man down? What begins as the cutting of a tendons is going to end up with him fully incapacitated. So I stab at his Achilles tendons. He goes, he crumples to the ground, and I slice my blade across his throat. Not necessarily even to make sure he's dead, but so that he can't scream, just in case the chaos dies down. Jesus fishcakes. Kiki, you are next in initiative, so you know. They go next after Andre. On their turn, they will be making perception checks to even see what Fishcakes has done. Right now, you control all the attention in the room. Okay. I'm actually going, if I see that they're still up and looking around, I'm going to use a bonus action to hide, but specifically the body. I'm going to try and stuff him, drag him behind the bar. Give me a hijack. 28. Jesus. What? Fishcakes, there's always been something about you that in moments of tension, it was something Bogo constantly had to deal with. If you got into a scuffle with another kid, you have a physicality about you. When you get revved up, when you get angry, when you get active, that you move incredibly quickly and with an amount of strength that has never suited your size and age. You move, strike this man twice, bringing him low and then across the net, then grab the center of his chest and slide his body underneath the bar table next to you. I say scatter. You see the children. I'm going to roll initiative for them. You see the children look to you, nod, and prepare to move. Kiki, where once there was a man, there no longer is one. Question before I decide what I want to do with this. My Huckleberry. He's no longer like trying to hide what side he's on. But has he made any, like, is he holding or brandishing his weapon? everyone has pulled their weapons out since that table exploded sure he is looking he's been focused on the adults but he is the one who is not he's the one who didn't scream he's attempting to control his breathing and understand what the hell is going on no he's the scariest not him the the most jitter so out of the two that got like pushed who was the one that walked and walked back. That's like trying to like stay frosty. You see guy, shaved head, big gold hoop earrings, like thick, heavy, like door knocker earrings, kind of a geometric tattoo up the side of his neck, a big scar underneath his right eye. Perfect. That's my target. Then I'm going to look over and kids are scattering. That guard's gone and I don't see fish cakes. Perfect. I'm going to scream again, point in the corner. And in that time, I don't think I've ever thought of it as an ability with gravitons. But I am now next to that weak link. Phase shift. As a bonus action. And then for my action, did they take every weapon off of me? I'm fine if it's yes. The children were escorted through like a side passage because of the expediency with which it needed to be on the stage What weapon would you like to have attempted to conceal I think it just would have been like a utility knife It wasn't even a thought. Like she understood, she was grumpy, but understood like, don't walk in with a weapon. But there's something about it like, that's a blade, but I don't think of it as a weapon. Just like a little three inch pry a thing, cut a thing, nasty little guy. Give me a luck check DC-7. Exactly seven on the die. It's a box cutter. It's a box cutter. You were able to get this small, like, something that was truly written off like a Swiss army knife in the same way that Andre carries tools around. A similar lenience was given to you, especially given the actual weaponry that was removed from you. Well, let's hope we survive this. I never looked back to see what Andre was doing. I hope he's still here. We're going to fight now. I slide out the blade and I'm going to plunge it into the weakling's neck. All right. I'm using the power. We'll talk about it in a second. Oh, no. I rolled bad. Does a 12 hit? A 12 does not hit. Oh, God. This is going to suck. Describe for me what happens. She is suddenly next to him. and again she reaches for where she would keep something terrible and all she's got is that stupid little utility knife that she didn't even think was a weapon and grabs it and is beginning to like lose the immediacy of the moment and like fumbles it it's not a thing that she has ever wielded like a weapon and these guys are much taller than i expected so sliding and trying to hit him in the neck i think at best she like glances off of his trap and just gives herself away as the problem arms up fully exposed like it's just one of those things where like you're caught doing a thing that didn't drop him and now literally i'm just like Belly up, blade in hand, ultra vulnerable. You move to strike. As you said, the size and length of your weapon is just not what you would normally use. You are easily deflected and fully exposed. On initiative 20, the children, moving half their movement, are going to inch toward the stairs, doing their best to stay hidden. Andre, sliding down, reaching the bottom. You see there's a second vent ahead of you to pop out onto the lower level of the Zenith Hab. There is a commotion above you. I hear the commotion. I know what I have to do. I know how to get to Sophie's quarters. As I'm sliding down, hitting the bottom, immediately I'm like, I'm a 57-year-old engineer. I am not a fucking commando. In my head, I'm like, you didn't see a vent because maybe Nisha wanted to escape. But she don't have gloves, so what's she going to do? fall you're stupid okay but then i realized okay they're not gonna have glove either and i want to get out in zhab through a vent that you could only access with the climbing gloves that i had in other words if they jumped that if these fucking goons jumped down the vent after me i want them to not be able to go the direction i went i want to find some way out that only the gloves can get you through 100 there is a vent immediately in front of you you do not take that one you bang a right and are able to move yourself up 10 feet to another vent that kind of lets you out a little bit higher there'll be like a a small leap down to the ground floor but it would not be the easiest paths of egress out of the ventilation system you found yourself in i am going to pop out that ventilation system as a, or I'm going to suddenly realize like, you don't know how many goon. And I'm going to undo the vent as fast as I can. And I'm going to use the countermeasures tech power on myself. For the next 10 minutes, I am immune to the homing rockets tech power. Me and objects I am wearing or carrying cannot be detected by tech powers that reveal my location, such as scan area or frequency scan, unless the caster makes a successful intelligence saving throw against my dc which is 15 and creatures have disadvantage on wisdom survival checks to track me great so i'm just going into my wrist pad and i'm going anything that geotags my location is offline anything that is a like like an isb or whatever or whatever is dead uh all of my stuff is encrypted and actually any message or comms from me is coming from multiple different locations on the ship at the same time. And any heat signature on me is going to get logged as a faulty reading and stored. It's later. And I'm going to hop out into the hallway and just start walking. And I'm like, my friend is dead. Imani is dead. And I'm just, my breathing is fucked up. But that just happened upstairs. Anyone not at that gala could be walking down a hallway and that wouldn't be weird. So don't run. Just walk to where Sophie is. Just walk. Go ahead and give me an investigation check. That is going to be a 27 investigation check. The rooms here have been organized in alphabetical order. You see, just beyond where you can make it to on this turn, the name Dalka S. Dalka on room 714. I walk up to room 714, shaking, shaking. and I don't know why, but I just all I can see is I'm going to open the door and something horrible will have happened. But I go up and I'm going to knock on the door, which feels insane in this moment but I'm going to knock on the door. We will get back to that on your next turn in initiative. Why are you editing away from me, my daughter? Six seconds, motherfucker. Welcome to Tensions. Kiki, you watch as the man you attempted to stab wheels his gun on you. What the fuck are you doing? From the ground, you watch as the man in the cowboy hat rushes up and barrels this guy and pushes him into the vent hole created by Andre. Greg, you watch as the guy you attempted to stab falls head first, 20 feet straight down with a sickening crack. Boom! Thank you. The other two men are going to wheel around. There are two men left. One is going to shoot at you, one is going to shoot at Bogo. They each have two attacks. Sure. What is your AC? 15 for now. Let me know. One shot will miss and one shot will hit. The one that would hit. You see the bullet slow down. And slow down and slow down. Like it's Zeno's paradox of getting halfway between the world and me. And it slows down again and again using a force ability. My new armor class is 21. Does it still hit? It does not. You watch as this beam of laser holds and shakes in the particle field in front of you and fizzles. the person who shot at you you see the countenance on their face turn to fear what are you one of the shots on bogo will hit you see uh bogo take a bolt to the abdomen as he struggles to kind of regain ground after having pushed this man into the vent uh we now return to fish cakes One of the three men is down the shaft and there are still two. Guns aimed at Kiki and Bogo. The guard who I had dispatched, did he have a weapon that he dropped? He did. All right. So I grab that. I run over and using my knife, I fully jump the man that I had noticed Kiki staring at. I jump on him using my knife to slash at his neck, and I toss the weapon to keep you. I love you. Go ahead and give me that attack roll. With sneak. Yes, you have an ally within five feet. 22. 22 hits. 15. 15 points of damage. The strange girl, who smells of fish cakes, sprints across the room, almost on all fours, low to the ground, leaps up, and rides this man to the ground, tossing you a weapon on the way. You dispatch a second person fish case. Let's go! I take him down to the ground, pull out my knife, and look up at Kiki. One to talk to. And she's just beaming by the way. Let's be clear. Delighted. Kiki, it's your turn in initiative. So Kiki's killed two. Cowboy Hat killed one. And we just have the one left. There's one left. Perfect. Oh, Gun's fun, though. I love Gun. How far away from me is the last guy? Ten feet. You toss me the sidearm. She catches it easily. And while making delighted eye contact with you as she watches you end a man's life, just points to the side at the one left. It's a conversation or you join your friends. Give me an intimidation check with advantage. Because I'm a talker. I rolled nine on both. Damn. Fifteen. You see that he drops his gun to the ground and goes, conversation, conversation. Yeah, come take a seat. Bongo, are you okay? Oh, kid, I'll be fine. I've had worse. I mean, I've had much worse. In what? In what capacity? Oh, you didn't know me before. While this is happening, ex-wife, take that gun. You see Nisha reaches out and doesn't point the gun at anyone, but grabs it. Okay. Cowboy hat, what's your deal? Bogo goes, I'm the ward for the Children of the Stars. Oh, okay. Well, thank you for that. All right. And you, sir, who is going to be so good and cooperative because you want to live through this. What's your name? Oh, quickly. I know you're scared. We will come back to this moment. Yeah. Andre, you knock on the door. Strange as it is. Don't roll. I'm so proud of you. The door doesn't open. However, your daughter's voice comes through from the other side. Hello? Hello? Sophie? Dad? Is Pop, you gotta open a door right now, okay? Okay. The door slides open. Your daughter is standing there in pajamas. I'm gonna slide into the door, close the door behind me, and wrap my arms around her so tightly that I am attempting to weld us into one unit that can projectile out of here back to Earth. Dad, what's going on? Okay, there's attack on ship from inside. Martian terrorist criminal something. Dr. Cortez shot and killed. We may have Stella right now, your mother upstairs. is very bad. You need to stay hidden. What we're going to do is this. What are we going to do? And I'm going to look at her. I'm going to say, you're really sick or you don't want to go party? No, I'm really sick. Somebody brought, one of the earlier guests brought some food up that I don't think made it, it didn't make the journey. Medicine check on my daughter. Go ahead. Natural one. bubble guts yeah she's uh she's shitting herself bro and she just doesn't want to say she's shitting herself she's trying a natural one your daughter's fucked up you know yeah she's genuinely sick though i think you maybe think it's worse than it is on a nat one i look at her i go radiation what what no you in the core no i just no what what no i just really wanted some sushi earth Sushi? Oh, okay. I'm going to look around. Does she have her sidearm in here? Go ahead and give me an investigation check. 13. She has a sidearm. It's a military facility. She was given a sidearm. There is only one clip. Looking around at 13, I'm like, you need to clean your room. What? You need to clean your room. You said there were terrorists here? Why are you yelling at me about my room? Because exactly why I said to workbench, stay clean, everything organized, because terrorists show up. Dad, stop. I'm freaking out. If I look, this is a general habitat space, and I look around and say, this is your mom's job for the life support. And I'm like, can I weld her in a bathroom in a way that terrorists can't get to her? You likely could. an incredible peek into Brennan's future. Don't wish that on me. I'll never have to weld any of my children into anything. You don't want to. I don't want to. I hope, but I hope that if I do, I do it with the, with the pluck and verve of Andre Belka. Catching my breath. Okay. The main thing is I don't want to, So I actually know that Sophie is sick, which means that she can't run. And I also know that no one's plan is to come. I'm going to sit on her bed and start to go. Plan is not to come and wipe out engineer staff a vessel. Plan is to hijack vessel. so sophie is momentarily safer in here but we got to get message out we got to get to comms we got to get to comms we got to get to comms and i'm going to look at her and i'm just going to look on any of the screens in here that i if there's anything that that she she have better tech than my risk slate in her hab very much so she can essentially direct message other parts of the station other staff anyone whose extension you would have or she would have you can reach from this room while i'm under the effects of countermeasures i'm gonna log in on a more powerful server from her hab room and fuck it i'll cast a full countermeasures again just to just to cover my trail and blast out a full bulletin across the ship, that there's been a hostile takeover of the ship, that there are criminals on board, dangerous, violent people. This is a multi-kilometer long vessel and every corner of it, it's going to be, fuck it, alarms, klaxons, the whole nine yards. The message is going out to everybody. Fantastic. We will now pivot back from this space. I have to pee so bad because I'm scared in real life. Back up at the top of the Zenith hub. I've shot him in the knee for hesitating. You're going to run out of limbs quickly, so we're going to speed this up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who the fuck are you? Rourke. No, okay. My name's Rourke. Okay, Rourke. Thank you. Rourke, why are you here and what are y'all doing? We... They gave us... Who's they? Start with they. I don't either. Hey, Rourke, do you see this very pretty dress I'm wearing? Mm-hmm. And I'm going to start undoing the sari while keeping the gun, like, still leveled at him in a very weird, like, dexterous set of actions. This is worth, let's call it a million. It's very expensive. You can have it. What? Take it with you. But I need all the information because I don't die here. So who is they? Okay. All right. Someone protectorate related. I don't know. Okay. That was Thrash and Brooke. They set it up. They said they would get us in. They said they would have uniforms for us. They said no one would ask questions. Yeah, you're right. They were right so far. Where are you taking the GEC people? Command bridge. For what purpose? I don't know. They said we just had to hold the command bridge. Until what? Until they got here. So they're coming here. Are they taking the Icaran or are they going to destroy it? I don't know. Best guess, Rorke? I don't know. Miss Davis? Oh, you can call me Kiki. Kiki I saw them loading giant cargo with this symbol and I trace it in the air with my finger Oh Go ahead and give me a lore trick Yeah That do it Oh, no, I'm stupid. 16. 16, you would know it. That is one of the nine Mars protectorates. Sure. That is their logo, a rising sun. Have I ever done business with this protectorate? On a 16, you have not. Okay. Stingy bastards. Okay, we gotta go see that cargo. The kid. Huh? The kid. What kid? I don't know, one of the kids. We were supposed to keep one of the kids. Why? I don't know. Any guesses? Do you know which kid? No, they said just keep the kids. I mean, that's a pretty good guess, right? that's pretty good yes it could be better though okay big questions rork what are you gonna do next if we get up and leave what are you gonna do sit here no you're not what you're not what i mean i shot you in the knee so our problem is are you gonna go somewhere and hide or should i knock you out so it looks like you are overpowered are you gonna get killed by your people for sort to shit in the bed in here probably if they find me okay and i'm going to push that like again 10 meters of fabric into his hands probably don't go follow your friend because he died that way you run hide if i see you ever again ever again and my eyes are everywhere rourke we're gonna have long slow painful words okay are you sure are you sure we want to let him go run around i think so it's important to understand mercy besides maybe in a moment of crisis and i'm hoping at this point our attention has moved and he's getting up and like going away i'm nodding he's slowly backing away at some point it may be in like a moment of crisis where he could like turn on us, he'll understand the mercy. Is that not working for you? Uh, I just don't know that I've ever seen it be that effective, but, uh... That's fair. I was hoping today would be different, and I shoot it. Fair. Sorry, I just figured, you know, better be safe than sorry. No, I know. I feel the same way. Dang! Alright, well, well done. Fish cakes! Is this a maternal instinct? Oh, shit! Where are your little... Where are your kids? Uh, you see that Bogo is with the five younger kids and has sat them down and is getting some water from the bartender station and making sure that they're hydrated. You also see that Nisha, who you requested hold the gun, has kind of stepped forward. I think my husband is downstairs with my daughter. Is your husband the apricot man? The fuck did he leave for? I'm assuming to find our daughter. Okay, well, I thought he would maybe help us deal with this i get why you left him good for you okay i'm gonna go wait where are you gonna go i'll just be downstairs to find your daughter yeah she's on the hap level okay but isn't your other you got two yes so i'm focusing on the one that i can help and then i'm gonna figure out what I can do for the one that I can't at this moment. Okay, can I counterpitch you? Sure. Here's five whole-ass children who do need you and you have a gun, and their primary guardian has been shot. Who's going to help my daughter? I think your ex-husband, the apricot man, is going for one, and I'm going to go for the other. you see that Talia who's here and has been covering her head stands up I can watch the kids oh sure have you handled a sidearm before yes of course look worst case scenario she can talk about her very beige house okay alright you stay you see Nisha steps forward I'm gonna go talk to Andre Okay. Should we go with him? I have a feeling that he would know a lot of the workings of this ship. Okay. Wait. The last person that went down there, and I like peek into the vent, died falling. So how the fuck did your ex-husband not die? He's, he built the ship. I'm sure he has some sort of tools or. Okay, so what are we going to do? Are we just walking? We're not going to go this way. We're going to go down the stairs. Oh, oh, great. Okay. I holstered a weapon and start walking. Andre, messages going out across the ship. You see klaxons, alarm sounds. You guys descending the stairs, alarm sounds begin to ring out. Red lights. You see that the illuminations along the floor start to flicker red in the directions of exits. Andre, you receive a ping on a back channel from tubes. But I think with your countermeasures going on, in no way can tubes directly interact with you or open a channel with you. This is me getting a normal email on my phone. Yes. Gotcha. Right. Okay, I'm going to do that. I'm going to open that up. As I'm opening that up, I'm sitting on the bed, like next to Sophie. And I am going through and I'm like, they're going to make it easy. They're going to make it easy, easy. and I'm going to try to override the ship's comm center remotely with only an engineer classification to send a message to Earth that everything bad has happened. DC 30. Oh my God. All right, I'm going to look at Sophie, and as I'm looking at Sophie, I am going to be like, bring up recent password log for me, and I'm going to attempt to essentially try to get a help action from her. I will allow her. I don't know. Does she have a potent aptitude she can throw my way? She does not. That's going to be a dirty 20. You open your slate. Enter the comms profile. Again, using your countermeasures, you are able to mask your movements. You go to use communications, long wave communication systems, through your slate to send a message to Earth. And there's just a number of requests and suggestions that you don't have the classification to be doing this on a slate. If you were in the comms room, this might go very differently, but from your personal slate, the ability to fully be sending messages from the Ikaron at this time, access, you hit access denied, attempting to enter it about four different ways. I think I am gritting my teeth and pulling at my little widow's peak of mostly salt and a little pepper hair. As I'm pulling at the widow's peak, I just am going like, well, I shut down my ability to do this four days ago because they were worried about security. And I even, in my head, I'm like, yeah, maybe an engineer in the fucking reactor core shouldn't be able to alert Earth High Command with an email. I understand why they did that. Would be really useful right now! a knock at the door. They found us! And I literally am like, oh, we're about to be killed. Sweetie, it's Nisha. It's Mom. That's right, I forgot about the flash software. And I'm going to, like, that's right, there's a security breach in the person who told me what was going on. And I'm going to open the door and go, get inside! As they see the other people who are here. Shush. Get inside, get inside! We're fine, thanks for asking. Who else know? Huh? Who else know that Sophie in here? No one? I look at Nisha just to be like, anyone in the room here, that Sophie is here? I mean, I told Stella that Sophie was sick, but I don't think... Okay, we can't stay, so we can't stay. Respectfully, nobody cares. Yeah, sorry. This is a little bit bigger than, like, your... You think maybe the guy who got out and just alerted the whole ship, that they look for him with the same last name as person with this room? Well, let's be clear. You see all of us kind of just traipsing down here, yeah? I don't think anybody else got out. Who the fuck do you think is reporting? Fish cakes. We have no idea how many enemies are on the ship. We have no idea how many are moving. We need to understand that some of the people whose job it is to protect the ship, they already have betrayed. otherwise this don't work so best i can tell the eight the other eight uh are escorting our gc people to the command bridge in order to signal and wait for reinforcements skeleton crew more coming you say eight because that's how many leave from gala yeah there's probably more yeah not many. Okay, they are on the bridge. I'm going to take out the map of the Ikaron. Yay! Andre produces in hologram in beautiful space a map of the Ikaron, a scepter-like space station floating in space, orbiting the sun, available now by the fireside. I'm sure. It just must be. It must be. We're in the Zenith habitat. Comms is actually closer than the command deck. So we are only one sector away from comms. Okay, I can't send word to Earth Command, to GSEC, but we can do from comms. So we need to go there physically in space. Will our proximity to the sun be at all a problem? You can give me a technology check. That's a 11. 11. It will not. In addition to traditional forms of communication, the Ikaron is equipped with a Z-Wave communicator, which uses graviton particles to pass messages along. Incredibly expensive, incredibly high tech. Yet, for the Ikaron, no expense was spared. Uh, no. And I think I actually am about to explain. And then I realized I don't know Kiki Davis and I don't know fish cakes. So I don't explain. I say, we're going to do it. Can I make some kind of insight check? Please. That is an 18 charisma check from me. Nope. Can't beat it with a 14. I think you see a rattled husband and father who has been put through the ringer in the last 15 to 25 minutes, desperately trying to figure out what to do and who to trust. Yeah, we don't put it by the sun if we can't talk from the sun. It's going to work. Okay. Well, I suppose I'll go along and help you. Bogo took care of me for so many years, and so before we left, I said, Bogo, you've taken care of me for so many years, and now it's my turn to take care of you. So if this will help, I'll go with you. I can be helpful. You are very helpful. Okay. We follow you. I'm going to look at Nisha, who's holding a gun. By her side. Can I see this? Of course. I am going to hold it and I'm going to quickly infuse item, which makes this an enhanced weapon. Basically, I'm going to take a fuel cell out, attach it to the side of the pistol, get a quick workaround and put a little thermoplastic core on the side of it. Oh, you remind me of. We'll talk about that later. I love shit like this. Great. Wow. Okay. We go. And I'm going to look at Nisha and Sophie and go, Sophie, you sick for real, actually. Yes, Dad. Oh, no, what's wrong? Is everything okay? Do you need anything? No, I'll be fine. I just, I want to stay dead. You see, Nisha, we will be fine, Andre. I'm going to look at her and I'm going to give my potent aptitude to die to Sophie and pass over. I have engineer's tools, but I also have tinkerer's tools. I'm going to pass the tinkerer's tools over to Sophie, unless she has some of her own. She does have. She has her own. She has equipment. So I'm going to give her a potent aptitude and I say, get in the bathroom, weld the door shut from the inside. All right, Dad. And I'm going to go in and I say, if you pop the back panel off the toilet, you can wrap around the plumbing and you can slide down like fireman pole. And I'm going to give her a kiss on the cheek. I'm going to hug Nisha and I'm going to say, all right, we go. Kiki's going to raise her hand. You have questions like we are in class. Uh, yeah, just in the event that maybe the goal from the sort of Martian faction that's here to do some sort of coup is to blow up the ship. Maybe don't, like, weld it good. Okay, I won't weld it good. I'm quite good at what I do. Okay. I can keep myself safe. Also, it seems like they were looking for a child, and I don't know. I feel like I'm probably the most famous child on this ship. Yeah, maybe it's you. Uh, but just in case, we're about the same age. Maybe stay out of sight. Wait, how old are you? 23. How old are you? 19. Damn, I don't know what a child looks like. Okay, we're gonna go. Uh, you see that as you go, Nisha steps out, grabs your hand. What about Stella? We're gonna get a message to Earth. We hear back. They give us instructions. We save Stella. We no hear back. I'm going to figure something out. Okay. You stay in bathroom. Martian going to blow up this place. Then they're going to blow it up, whether we in a bathroom, whether we in a hallway, whether we anywhere. But I know this. Martian run by businessmen. Businessmen love to steal. Yes, we do. And do I hear yes, we do? I'm going to look at you with a look of unmistakable venom and walk off down the hallway. You begin to walk down the hallway. Fishcakes, as you walk after Andre, you see the Bogo and the kids look over the railing of the Zenith hub at the top and wave down. You gonna be all right, kid? Yes, I think that I thrive under this kind of a pressure, actually. But you all stay out of sight, okay? and you guys, listen. All of you do everything that Bogo tells you to do. This is, again, cannot stress enough. Situation echo. Understood. Good, and I salute them. They salute you back. You all move down the hallway towards the lift that would take you down to comms. As you do, I need a perception check. Six. Andre, the comms, your daughter, your mission is ahead of you Five Twelve Twelve Fishcakes, you notice as you're looking up at Bogo and the kids walking off You notice glints of light passing above Catching the light as they pass over the glass dome above Would fishcakes know what those are? You would know what those are Martian ships Entering the orbit Of the Ikharon The End and World's Beyond Number. Edit and sound design by Brian Flaherty of Many Sided Media. And score by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there. Thank you.