STORY: Tueller, Alejo falls to the ground, shaking.
STORY: “Mr. Ya’Makasi,” Chandra begins. “If you’ll sit, I believe we have much to discuss.”
TUELLER: Tueller bends down and looks after Alejo.
STORY: “He’ll be fine. System update.”
STORY: Chandra smiles.
ALEJO: “Ffff,” Alejo tries to talk but can’t form the word.
STORY: “He’s gone years without one! Thank whoever brought his software back online, will you? Was it Dr. Breedlove?”
STORY: Alejo, you’re standing on the bridge with Figgan at the helm. She’s stressed. You’re two days out from the Ark, currently in line for the jump relay.
STORY: She clears her throat.
STORY: “So I want to preface this by saying I am not the tech guy.”
STORY: “We had tech guys. They’re all gone, now you’ve got the one who mostly staples things together to try to get them to turn on.”
STORY: She points to a jumble of wires under the dashboard that she has connected to your pendant.
STORY: “So the guess we’re making here is that that pulse corresponds to our distance from the other side of the beacon. Closer, it’s faster, farther away, slower. With me?”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “Got it.”
STORY: “I hooked up enough of our old systems to get measurements on how often this thing lights up, and given our trajectory for this trip to the jump relay we’ve got, more or less, a line.”
STORY: “One line that goes on infinitely into space that our destination lies somewhere along.”
STORY: “Not exactly a great data point.”
STORY: “We need to cross reference.”
ALEJO: “To?”
STORY: “Well.” She rubs her right ear and sighs again.
STORY: “I mean, the closer we are when we get our second data point the better, the more accurate it’ll be.”
STORY: “We know he operates mainly out of Sol.”
STORY: “So… I think we can find out where they went if you jump us to Sol and let me fly around for, like, an hour.”
ALEJO: “Right.” He nods. “Okay. That’s gonna be tricky, but if that’s what we need to do.”
STORY: “Yeah, I mean.”
STORY: “Are we going to get shot down as soon as we show up?”
ALEJO: “Do we have other options?”
STORY: She shrugs. “Not that I can come up with.”
TUELLER: Tueller comes in on this. “We don’t have to go to Sol first. This is just a simple parallax problem. Anywhere we go in the near Earth volume should allow us to figure it out. We’ve got the Doc’s starcharts.”
TUELLER: “If they’re even in Sol space.”
ALEJO: “Just about to call you.” He looks from Tueller to Fig. “What do you think?”
ALEJO: “Be a whole lot better not to go to Sol. If we don’t have to risk it.”
ALEJO: “But that’s pretty obvious. Obviously.”
STORY: She shrugs again. “I know it’ll work if we go to Sol. Anywhere else, I don’t know if I trust my measurements.”
STORY: “But I don’t know how many people over there are looking for you right now.”
TUELLER: “We haven’t stepped in the system for awhile. And there hasn’t been any attempts on our life in awhile. But we did stir the pot snatching up Serj, so who can say for sure.”
TUELLER: “Honestly, if we had the Doc I’d say skip Sol entirely; she’d handle the math in her head. But if we had the Doc we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks back and forth from Tueller to Fig. “Okay. We’ve gotta risk it, then. We don’t have time to miss this shot.”
TUELLER: “Everyone put on your boarding armor in case we take some fire.”
STORY: Figgan nods and punches some commands into the central console.
STORY: Millie!
STORY: When last we left you, you had an offer outstanding from Chandra to help him with the dataset he decrypted.
STORY: What was your answer to him?
MILLICENT: Is the work that he wants her to do something she has to share with him afterwards or will working on it give him the data?
STORY: She’ll certainly be able to look at the data as she works on it – this is an analysis task, but you don’t have anything that will let you save any of the data and take it with you once you leave, if you ever leave.
MILLICENT: What I mean is, by analyzing it am I sharing it with him or can I analyze it and keep my findings to myself if I so choose?
MILLICENT: Just trying to feel out this choice a bit.
STORY: The expectation is that you will share it.
MILLICENT: Sure
MILLICENT: Okay, Millie analyzes the data. I think she figures that he’s got analysts enough to look at this stuff. He can pay someone to figure it out. And this is Millie’s shot to see this stuff and to see Nikau’s note.
STORY: He puts you in an empty room with a terminal for the work, and you’re not allowed to bring anything in with you when you do. He’s icy but polite when he takes you over for the first session.
STORY: There’s a guard posted on the other side of the door for the duration.
MILLICENT: Okay
MILLICENT: Fair enough
STORY: The first thing you find when looking through these files is the note Dr. Manaaki left you.
STORY: Millie,
STORY: I’m sorry. I couldn’t live with it and I can’t fix it.
STORY: Keep looking.
STORY: Love, Nikau
MILLICENT: Millie spends a couple hours crying quietly to herself
MILLICENT: But every session thereafter she reads it before she starts work.
STORY: You probably don’t make much progress the first day, then. At the end of each of these sessions – which are six to ten hours, depending on how long you want to go – Chandra comes back, joins you in this empty room, and asks for an update.
STORY: And it’s that way for a few days.
STORY: Tueller! Alejo!
STORY: You jump to Sol and fly around for the promised hour as Figgan pores over star charts and enlists Jenny’s help doing math.
STORY: Finally, fifteen minutes past the hour she was promised, Figgan holds up a hand. “Got it.”
STORY: She smacks the full ship intercom. “They’re on Alpha Centauri b. Getting us back in line for the relay.” You can hear her smile, she’s thrilled.
ALEJO: “Never say you’re not a tech genius, wizard, Fig! Well done!” Alejo looks at Jenny. “Thank you for helping.”
STORY: “Mm.” Jenny’s still not speaking to you, Alejo.
ALEJO: “We need a plan!” Alejo is smiling as well. “T! Plannin’ time!” Alejo looks back towards him.
STORY: Tueller, are you standing near a porthole?
TUELLER: Tueller keeps sitting at the gun controls nervously watching the lidar of the volume around us.
STORY: Tueller, you glance starboard, at the ship pulling in next to you for the jump relay line – they’re probably half a kilometer out, but you recognize the ship model and the paint job. It’s your uncle’s wildcatter rig.
STORY: You have no idea whether they’ve clocked you yet. Your ship is pretty well hidden from recognition, shows up weak on scans with one of ten fake serials, and on the outside it’s pretty unremarkable, but you don’t know if he got a look at her at Akilah’s wedding.
STORY: What do you do?
TUELLER: “Ejo, I’ve got family off the starboard.”
ALEJO: Alejo stops smiling. “Shit. Are we blown?”
ALEJO: He moves towards a porthole to look.
TUELLER: “No idea. He’s the wildcatter. Padma was with him, last I saw.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks ahead to see how far out they are from the relay.
STORY: Twelfth in line, Alejo. Probably a couple hours’ wait.
TUELLER: “Musimbwa liked me, didn’t particularly give a shit about the family shit.”
TUELLER: “But he’s Ya’Makasi.”
STORY: Figgan looks up. “That mean you’re about to make him an outlaw too?”
TUELLER: “He kind of already was one?”
ALEJO: “Shit. How Ya’Makasi? I mean, can we buy him off he we need to?”
TUELLER: Tueller is silent.
TUELLER: “Sorry, thinking something through.”
TUELLER: “We can hope he doesn’t know our ship. We can hope he knows our ship but doesn’t care. Or we can hope that we can talk to him, and get him to look away. But if we hail him and it doesn’t go well, we’re blown, and this is our only way out other than a wild jump without a pilot.”
TUELLER: “I don’t think we have enough money to buy him off.”
ALEJO: “Okay. Then, unless you think you’ve got a good enough rapport to justify us reaching out, we keep our heads down and fingers crossed. Yeah?”
ALEJO: “Fig, Jenny. We need a plan B, you know, to not die. Let’s start working on a wild jump, if we absolutely need it.”
STORY: Figgan nods. Jenny looks nauseated.
TUELLER: “Now that I think about it, he sent me notes even after it all went to shit.”
TUELLER: “I think we have to get out in front of this.”
ALEJO: Alejo moves closer to him, lips tight. “Your family, your call.”
TUELLER: “I think I have to.”
STORY: Figgan’s looking at her star charts. “Fuck.”
ALEJO: “Figgan?” Alejo moves behind her now, looking over her head.
TUELLER: Tueller gives Fig a look…seeing if she’s responding to me or the charts.
STORY: She’s shaking her head. “There’s no direct to AC from here. We’d have to jump back to the Ark, fly for a week to another relay, and go from there. It’ll take us…” she counts on her fingers. “Two weeks?”
STORY: She points to the various pathways to show you, Alejo. Sol is a cul-de-sac system, it’s true.
ALEJO: Alejo looks, shaking his head. “We just can’t get a fucking break, can we?” He squeezes his eyes shut. Then, after a beat, he opens them again.
TUELLER: “Well. Maybe.”
ALEJO: “Whatcha got?”
TUELLER: “Get me a tightbeam on the Pequod, please.”
STORY: Figgan looks up at Alejo for the nod.
ALEJO: Alejo nods.
STORY: She hails them.
STORY: Millie!
STORY: You’re in your room the night after you start work on Manaaki’s deck, and the friendly guard takes his shift. Without a word, a new paperback book slides under the door gap and across the floor. It’s a romance novel.
MILLICENT: Millie sighs contentedly.
MILLICENT: The nights where she gets a book are good ones.
MILLICENT: Millie picks it up and settles into her favorite reading position.
STORY: Do you want the good news or the bad news?
MILLICENT: The bad news first
STORY: You can’t read this book.
STORY: The good news is it’s been hollowed out and has a microdrive inside.
MILLICENT: Ooooh
STORY: The kind of thing you might be able to hide on you tomorrow when you go back into the clean room.
MILLICENT: Is this room bugged, to my knowledge?
STORY: Let’s have Assessment + Interface!
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 9 + 2 = 11
STORY: Based on your knowledge of Chandra, it would be incredibly naive of him not to have this room bugged, so yes, you can assume so. You also get a Data Point on the security of this base.
MILLICENT: Cool. Millie yawns, pockets the drive and puts the book down. She turns in as she normally does.
STORY: All right! Back to the boys
TUELLER: “This is a message for Pequod Actual. Please respond. This is…well, you probably recognize my voice, but if you don’t…this is…” Tueller looks around, embarassed. “This is Cricket, Bwana. Safety and the north star to you. Can we talk in person?”
STORY: There’s an excruciatingly long pause, then: “Come on over in that shuttle, Cricket. Got a finger of the Venusian for you. Over and out.”
TUELLER: “Ejo, Jen, come with me. Sidearms only. But keep the boarding armor on.”
STORY: Jenny nods.
TUELLER: Tueller heads to the shuttle and counts on people to follow him.
ALEJO: When the line ends, Alejo looks at Tueller. “What’s your play here?”
STORY: You buzz over in the shuttle and dock, and are met at the airlock by Padma, a bemused look on her face.
ALEJO: Alejo follows.
STORY: She takes you down to the galley, a smaller one than you have on Peregrine. Musimbwa sits at the metal table, finishing what looks like a taco.
STORY: He nods up to you.
STORY: “Turning yourself in, Cricket?”
TUELLER: “God, I hope not.
TUELLER: “What’s the bounty, though? Could I retire on it?”
STORY: “Only if I shared it with you,” he smiles, standing, and pulls you into a bear hug.
TUELLER: Tueller hugs him back.
ALEJO: Alejo relaxes, only slightly, at this.
TUELLER: “Good to see you, Bwana.”
STORY: “It is terrible to see you, nephew. I’m going to have to modify our logs for this. What are you doing in this system?”
TUELLER: “Parallax, uncle. It’s a math thing.”
STORY: “Mm. You looking for something?”
TUELLER: “We…uh, are trying to get a friend and all we have is a line. We have to draw a couple of lines to see where we’re going.”
TUELLER: “Literal lines in space. Makes me wish I took a couple extra math classes.”
STORY: “Or had a better computer.”
TUELLER: “Well, that’s a whole story. Our computer…well, she…” Tueller trails off. “It’s a long story. The Doc is the brains, and I am not the brains I thought I was, uncle.”
TUELLER: “Turns out I shouldn’t even captain my own ship!”
STORY: He laughs loudly. “I could have told you that, Cricket.”
STORY: “So what do you need from me?”
TUELLER: Tueller looks around conspiratorially, “You wildcatters don’t usually use the gates, right? What’re you even doing here?”
TUELLER: “We’re looking for a short cut to AC. Or, at least a head start. You know we wouldn’t even be back in Sol if we weren’t dangerously stupid and also desperate.”
STORY: He sighs. “Short version? Politics. I hate using these fuckin things. They feel wrong.”
STORY: “But we want the work, we gotta go the way the client says.”
TUELLER: “Alien tech to toss us across the galaxy, yeah, I agree.”
TUELLER: “Who’s the client, if I can be so bold, Bwana?”
STORY: “Some Erde-Maris family. Cargo run to the Ark. Pain in my ass.”
TUELLER: “Weren’t you always bleeting on about being your own boss?” Tueller says ribbingly.
STORY: “Look, nephew, did you come here to make fun of our shit money situation?”
ALEJO: Alejo shifts his weight impatiently.
TUELLER: Tueller pours himself a finger of Venusian, and assuming he gets approval from Musimbwa, pours some for Alejo and Jenny.
STORY: He nods a yes.
TUELLER: “I did not, especially since I’m cash money in certain quarters. I apologize, uncle.”
TUELLER: Tueller is surprised at his uncle’s sudden lack of humor, and registers it.
STORY: He’s definitely tenser than usual. Things must be bad with the family business if he’s here doing a cargo run.
TUELLER: “I shall be honest with you. Chandra fucked us over, and hurt us, and we want to hurt him back.”
TUELLER: “He’s got two of our friends.”
STORY: He raises an eyebrow. “Tormod Chandra?”
ALEJO: “I want to kill him,” Alejo says, mostly to himself.
TUELLER: “That’s the one.”
STORY: He can’t help but smile. “Sounds like an adventure.”
STORY: “Wish I could help.”
TUELLER: “It has been, currently is, and will be, exactly that.”
TUELLER: “The money hasn’t been empire-building level, but I’m flying, and as you said that’s the important part.”
TUELLER: “‘Don’t buy property that you can’t escape in.’” He says in a Musimbwa parody voice.
STORY: He smiles.
STORY: Tueller, let’s have a FA + Influence on this one
TUELLER: /roll 2d6
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 6
STORY: Musimbwa shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Cricket. If I could help you, I would. This job needs doing, whether I want to do it or not.”
STORY: “Where are you going?”
TUELLER: “Alpha Centauri.”
STORY: “Too far to go the long way, too long to get there quickly.”
TUELLER: “Just a quick 4.3 light years that way, if I remember right.”
STORY: “You need to jump.”
STORY: “Not this way,” he gestures toward the jump relay.
STORY: “This way,” he thumps his fist on his chest.
TUELLER: “We took a Wild Jump once before. It didn’t go great.”
STORY: “Usually doesn’t, with novices.”
TUELLER: Tueller darkens for a moment, remembering.
TUELLER: Tueller brightens up for a moment. “Could we borrow someone for the jump? Someone who knows what she’s doing?”
STORY: He raises an eyebrow. “You looking to get back with Pad?”
STORY: “She’s over you, Cricket.”
TUELLER: “I know that’s a big ask, Bwana.”
TUELLER: “I know, Bwana. And I’m over her now. I swear. It’s a long story but it’s a definite one.”
STORY: “Mm.” He thinks about it. “Trade me one of your crew, then.”
TUELLER: “Huh. I was going to offer you a piece of my business. I got a good import-export thing going. It’s all legal, even.”
ALEJO: Alejo starts shaking his head.
STORY: He gets an idea. “Or.”
TUELLER: “It’s good money, and we’d make good partners.”
STORY: He looks over at Jenny. “You can pilot the Peregrine?”
STORY: Jenny looks at Alejo, then back at Musimbwa. “Sure.”
STORY: He nods. “We give you our cargo, you make the delivery. I’ll take the two of you to AC myself.”
STORY: “Safer.”
STORY: “And I’m not stuck flying in a straight line for a week.”
TUELLER: “Probably better going on a rockhopper anyway.”
ALEJO: Alejo takes a long, deep breath. Then he nods slowly. He stops and looks at Jenny. “Your call. You’re not talking to me let alone taking orders. So . . . your call.”
TUELLER: “We got a cargo-hold for you special, Bwana.”
TUELLER: Tueller’s kind of ignoring the Alejo Jenny thing, as he has for awhile.
STORY: Jenny looks at the three of you for a long time.
STORY: “Tueller.”
TUELLER: “We’ll bring him home.” Tueller nods.
STORY: She nods. “Fine.”
STORY: And walks away, back to the shuttle.
STORY: Musimbwa slaps his leg. “Excellent!”
TUELLER: “We’ll need your cargo, and I’ll need some things from Peregrine.”
TUELLER: “I’ve got some toys you’re going to love, nuncle.”
STORY: He nods. “Do your work. We’ll be ready to leave in an hour.”
STORY: Millie!
STORY: What do you do with the minidrive?
MILLICENT: First I sneak a couple of quick looks at it
MILLICENT: Is it legit? Like, not a transformer or a bomb or some shit?
STORY: It’s like a flash drive, if a flash drive were smaller and a disc.
STORY: Legit, as far as you can tell, yes
MILLICENT: Okay, cool
MILLICENT: I sneak it into the room with the console
MILLICENT: I write a quick separation program. I want to make sure if this is a virus that attacks computer systems that it is confined to the temporary separated portion that I’m creating.
STORY: Okay. This is going to take up a significant portion of your time for this session, so you’re going to need to have a good reason why you made less progress than expected.
MILLICENT: Okay, fair.
MILLICENT: How about this? I’ll open the note from Nikau and hunch over the console. I’ll shake my shoulders occasionally. Then I’ll get to work writing the program with the note remaining open on the monitor and the program being written beneath it, invisible to the screen.
MILLICENT: Going to have to do it from memory.
STORY: Okay! Let’s have a FA + Interface.
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: Okay, you can do it, but at a critical point you get lost on your keystrokes and have to switch windows to proceed.
MILLICENT: Okay
STORY: All right! Program written, the drive is as safe to use as you’re going to make it. What do you do?
MILLICENT: I open the drive and look at it inside the protected partition
STORY: It’s three things: a list of UN/password combinations, the files you stole from Chandra’s room, and a password protected text file.
MILLICENT: Do any of the password combos on the drive work on the password protected file?
STORY: Nope!
MILLICENT: Okay
MILLICENT: I try Noma
STORY: Braap.
MILLICENT: Nikau
STORY: Braap
MILLICENT: Okay, I shut that down and get to work and try to be extra efficient today in analysis.
STORY: All right! Give me a FA + Influence to see how good you are at covering for your slowness when Chandra comes in for his update.
STORY: I should mention he’s utterly polite and professional in these meetings. He doesn’t threaten you, or get drawn into any side conversation. He’s not emotional. He treats you like an employee and he’s looking for updates on a project, is all.
STORY: It’s colder than he previously was, but not openly hostile by any means.
STORY: More like he’s still evaluating.
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6
STORY: josh rolled 9
STORY: All right. He nods quietly with your update, takes a few notes, thanks you, and leaves.
STORY: You’re escorted back to your room.
STORY: Next day, what do you do during your research session?
MILLICENT: Next day I do some analysis and some reading of Chandra’s files.
MILLICENT: Just enough to have a full day’s work to describe later.
MILLICENT: I think that’s my plan for a while
STORY: Doing nothing with the passwords or the text file?
MILLICENT: Not yet
MILLICENT: I want to now what those files are first
STORY: Well that’s up to you! You were the one who grabbed the files and put them on your visor – what were you grabbing?
MILLICENT: I thought Ryo had a list of things to steal.
MILLICENT: He was curating the files for some reason
MILLICENT: I want to find out what they are
STORY: He was! You grabbed just his list?
MILLICENT: And anything that looked interesting
MILLICENT: Anything to do with the jump relays
STORY: He’s got nothing on the jump relays, but you do some digging around. He’s got hands in a lot of pies. There’s also data here on Ryo, quite a bit of it. You wonder if he was trying to get CYA material for himself. Certainly that would make sense.
MILLICENT: Sure
STORY: You can be careful enough with the time you spend on this that you make some headway with that, but not enough to be short on progress for your Chandra updates.
STORY: You’re still basically just collating information there, for the record.
MILLICENT: Yeah, curious on what I’m finding
STORY: Nothing yet – you’re still just getting it in order to start reading through more fully.
STORY: Late in the night at the end of your third day, another book is slid under the door to your cell.
MILLICENT: Millie checks it out
STORY: It’s intact, but inside the cover the first page has been written on. A large question mark, in black marker.
MILLICENT: Millie reads the book as normal
STORY: Any change to your strategy for the drive on day four?
MILLICENT: Millie spends the evening thinking of possible passwords
MILLICENT: Oh, Millie will examine the un/password list for patterns
STORY: Okay! Give me Assessment + Expertise, we’ll make this a dual roll for both of those ideas
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: You think you have a couple good ideas to try the next day for the password.
STORY: Because you realize that Ryo is most likely your friendly guard who has been slipping you the books. It has to be him – he’s the only one who would know you had the files on your visor, and the only one with that kind of access.
STORY: So you go into the clean room the next day with a short list of passwords related to your conversations with him.
STORY: You crack it on the third try.
MILLICENT: Oooh, what is it?
STORY: The note reads as follows:
STORY: Clever girl. Sorry for the subterfuge, and letting you take the fall. I figured he needed you alive. Glad I was right.
STORY: I’m waiting for the right time. When I make my move, if you’re still around, I’ll come for you. I owe you that. But I need to know you’re with me –
STORY: That’s where the list comes in. Using them in the right combination, you’ve got access to most of the central systems of this base. Don’t kill us, but create an opening, would you?
STORY: Your friend.
MILLICENT: Interesting!
MILLICENT: Millie thinks about this while she follows out her previous plan
STORY: Still just reading the data, not going to do anything with the passwords for now?
MILLICENT: Right
STORY: Okay!
STORY: Tueller! Alejo!
STORY: Musimbwa gets you ready for the wild jump he’s been prepping for the past hour. “How close do you want to be?”
ALEJO: “As close as we can get while staying as stealthy as we can. How’s this ship at staying under the radar?”
STORY: “Better than yours,” he smiles. “I’ll bring us in a few hundred clicks away.”
TUELLER: Tueller considers “I’ve always wanted to try an Adama Maneuver, but Ejo’s probably right here.”
ALEJO: “I like your uncle, T.”
STORY: “All right. Down to the galley, get your drinks, then strap in.”
TUELLER: “I’ll lay off the expensive stuff for this. My stomach isn’t always great on these. Sorry Bwana.”
TUELLER: Tueller heads down to the galley.
ALEJO: “My stomach’s fine. I’ll take his.” Alejo follows Tueller to the galley.
TUELLER: “He’s a presumptuous whelp isn’t he?”
STORY: You get quickly drunk, you both pass out, and when you come to, the planet is visible through the portholes. You feel nauseated, but it’s far, far easier than your previous wild jump. There seems to be some skill to this.
STORY: Musimbwa performs a quick series of checks with the crew, then comes in on the central intercom. “We’ll drop you off and wait, how long, Cricket?”
ALEJO: “As advertised. This guy is good.”
STORY: “We’re sitting ducks planetside.”
TUELLER: “I have no idea. Every six hours good nuncle?”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “If we’re not out in 12, we’re dead. Mostly likely.” He looks at Tueller. “Let’s not be dead.”
STORY: “Roger that. Good luck, child.”
TUELLER: “Thank you.” Tueller gives him a hug.
STORY: You set out in your boarding armor.
STORY: Alpha Centauri b is one of the three stars in the system, and its second planet is the ignobly named Alpha Centauri b-B.
STORY: It could potentially be terraformed someday, as it’s within the range of habitability, but no one has bothered so far. It’s a small planet, and you suspect Chandra may own the whole thing outright.
STORY: Solar winds rip across the land, so there’s no vegetation or life – just rocks. Lots of jagged, unhappy rocks.
STORY: You’re safe in your boarding armor, but you shouldn’t spend more than a few minutes outside the structure or you risk getting hit by debris or knocked down and dragged for half a kilometer.
STORY: Someone outside with no protection might last seconds.
STORY: Millie! Tell me what the base looks like from outside.
MILLICENT: The base is a brutalist beehive.
MILLICENT: It’s made of concrete covered in trapezoid viewing ports, all covered in triple tempered poly glass.
TUELLER: 
MILLICENT: It’s beautiful, in a bleak, grey sort of way
MILLICENT: It’s as pretty as any building could be, considering the conditions.
STORY: Alejo! Describe the ways in and out.
ALEJO: There’s a primary entrance, which is heavily guarded. Then there’s a loading dock, which is currently quiet. And there is a side entrance that is used by employees. Chandra probably has one other rooftop exit, that isn’t readily accessible by anyone approaching on the ground.
STORY: Tueller, how many people are in this base?
TUELLER: Huh. How many indeed? I pictured it filled with dozens of people, maybe as much as 100, but spread out in ways so they almost never seem to run into each other and no one has any idea how many there are. They keep seeing people they don’t recognize, doing things they don’t understand, and they don’t try to talk to each other because they feel its discouraged, though no one said so explicitly.
STORY: Great!
STORY: It’s a big organization, so a hundred employees on this remote base is totally plausible.
STORY: All right, where are you going?
ALEJO: We’re going to approach through the employee entrance. If Cali got Alejo’s message, that’s most likely where she’d leave a way into the base.
ALEJO: If not, we can hope to find an employee coming in or out without a lot of guard activity.
STORY: Together?
ALEJO: Yeah.
STORY: All right!
STORY: Okay! You can get in, but no one has left a way for you. You’re going to have to do the old “lure two guards around a corner, knock them out, and steal their uniforms” gag
STORY: A plan that’s significantly more complicated since you’re outside.
STORY: Let’s have a Face Adversity + Mettle to see how well this goes.
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 7 + 2 = 9
STORY: So you do Get Help, and you’ve now got two fancy new security badges.
STORY: Tueller, you’re a security guard, and Alejo, you’re an analyst!
STORY: You can make up your own names.
STORY: They were out for a smoke break. Poor guys.
TUELLER: Tueller is Heimdall Johanson.
ALEJO: Alejo adjusts his new glasses. “Ripley Been can’t see for shit.”
STORY: Where to?
TUELLER: “Where to now, op commander.”
TUELLER: “Science lab of some sort, I’d guess.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, let’s see if we can find Millie.”
STORY: Assessment + Mettle as you make your way around the base, please!
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 8 + 2 = 10
STORY: You figure out where you’re going relatively quickly, and narrow her likely location to one of three places: the brig, the science/med lab, or engineering. You also gain a Data Point around the base layout! And!
STORY: As you’re turning a corner, you catch sight of Ryo before he sees you. He’s on his way somewhere, walking quickly, a stack of folders under one arm.
ALEJO: Alejo approaches him, keeping an eye out for anyone else and for cameras. “Mr. –” He reaches out and taps Ryo on the shoulder.
ALEJO: He steps back and straightens his glasses again.
STORY: Ryo spins around, and his face immediately goes white. He glances up at the ceiling for the briefest moment before stepping back and shouting. “SECURITY!”
STORY: He bolts down the hallway away from you, continuing to shout. “Security! SECURITY!”
STORY: What do you do?
ALEJO: “Fucker.” Alejo sprints, catches him, and drops him, while covering his mouth.
TUELLER: Tueller runs after him as well.
STORY: You manage to pin him, but you hear scuffling down the hallway. Someone’s coming imminently. He struggles, staring up at the ceiling behind you again.
TUELLER: Tueller goes to take care of whoever is coming.
TUELLER: To Alejo under his breath “Cameras.”
STORY: Tueller, it’s a young security guard, a human female probably in her twenties. She rushes the hallway, a sidearm drawn, and halts as she reaches the giant in front of her.
STORY: She raises a shaking gun towards you. “On the ground!”
ALEJO: Alejo glances back at the ceiling, then gets the hint, and punches Ryo, not too gently but mostly for looks.
ALEJO: “You got a way out of here,” Alejo mutters under his breath, while subduing Ryo for the camera.
STORY: Ryo takes the punch almost gratefully.
STORY: He leans over, spitting blood on the floor, and mutters as he coughs. “Not yet.”
TUELLER: Tueller reaches out and tries to crush the gun.
STORY: Tueller, let’s have FA + Physique on that.
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 5 + 2 = 7
STORY: You can disarm her, but she’s going to fire first.
TUELLER: Okay.
STORY: You crush the barrel of the gun right after it fires a hole through your palm.
STORY: Brace for Impact please!
TUELLER: Am I wearing any armor anymore?
STORY: You’re in the security uniform, so yes, boarding armor.
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 5 + 2 = 7
STORY: Okay. It’s a clean Serious wound, one that’ll heal on its own in a week if you get a doctor to look at it. For now, that hand’s basically useless.
ALEJO: “The Doc? Where is she?” He adds. Tying up Ryo’s hands.
STORY: Ryo coughs, selling this fight. “Let me go! Let me GO!” then under his breath, “Clean room. Lockdown. I can get her when it’s time.”
ALEJO: Alejo lifts Ryo’s head, about to slam it down. “Kahn? Can he fight?”
STORY: Ryo’s eyes widen. “No. NO!”
STORY: And a voice comes in over the intercom. “That’s rather enough, I think, gentlemen.”
ALEJO: Alejo slams his head, not hard enough to actually knock him out, but hard enough to make it look like he should be unconscious.
TUELLER: “Get out of here,” Tueller says to the guard whose gun he just crushed.
TUELLER: “Your boss will take this from here.”
STORY: Ryo relaxes under you, playing that he’s knocked out.
STORY: The guard runs away.
ALEJO: Alejo jumps up and heads towards Tueller. He tosses the glasses aside.
TUELLER: Tueller focuses on managing his hand.
TUELLER: “Should have just made an appointment.”
STORY: “I trust you know the way to my office? Come pay me a visit. And please do consider all the friends of yours I’ve got here with me before you attack any more of my employees, gentlemen.”
TUELLER: “I don’t actually know the way.”
ALEJO: “You skip the threats. We’ll skip the dance.” Alejo looks at Tueller’s hand. “You okay?” He points down the hallway.
TUELLER: “For very limited definitions of the word ‘okay’, sure.”
ALEJO: “Get help went so well. I was hoping that was a better omen.”
ALEJO: Alejo starts walking towards Chandra’s office.
TUELLER: “Sign of a baited trap, really.”
STORY: There are two guards outside, but none once the doors swoosh open. Chandra sits behind a large glass desk, typing with one hand and finishing what looks like a danish with the other.
STORY: He waves you in. “Gentlemen. Thank you for coming. Sit, please.”
STORY: “You’ll forgive me a moment to finish this.” He keeps typing, eyes half on his screen.
ALEJO: Alejo pauses at the sight of him. He glares at him for a solid five seconds. He lets Chandra finish. When he does: “Why am I not snapping your neck right now?”
TUELLER: Tueller gives the room a quick once over for security.
TUELLER: He was wondering the same thing, trying to see what’s stopping him.
STORY: “Because,” he answers, still looking at his keyboard, and finishes typing. “You can’t.”
STORY: Alejo, every muscle in your body spasms. You cannot stand, you cannot control your arms, your torso writhes forward and back, twisting, tensing, releasing. You can barely breathe for all the shaking. It’s like a seizure, but you can think perfectly clearly.
STORY: Tueller, Alejo falls to the ground, shaking.
STORY: “Mr. Ya’Makasi,” Chandra begins. “If you’ll sit, I believe we have much to discuss.”
TUELLER: Tueller bends down and looks after Alejo.
STORY: “He’ll be fine. System update.”
STORY: Chandra smiles.
ALEJO: “Ffff,” Alejo tries to talk but can’t form the word.
STORY: “He’s gone years without one! Thank whoever brought his software back online, will you? Was it Dr. Breedlove?”
TUELLER: “What is stopping me, then?”
STORY: “By my count, four of your friends are currently on this base. I die, so do they.”
STORY: “So let’s talk.”
TUELLER: Tueller sits down.
TUELLER: “I think you’ve overcounted, but I take your point.”
STORY: “You’re an interesting man, Mr. Ya’Makasi. I understand you’ve traveled with Soto for a long while, now. I’m sure that fosters a certain loyalty.”
STORY: “But you’re also non grata with your family, which means no more trips home. Unless the whispers I’m hearing about you taking your family out are true, which,” he smiles, “I must admit I find rather impressive. But if that’s the case, you’re badly going to need friends.”
STORY: “I’m a very good man to count as a friend.”
STORY: “And we haven’t properly met, so you still have the chance to make me one of yours.”
TUELLER: Tueller looks around.’
ALEJO: “Ffffff,” Alejo tries again, to no avail.
TUELLER: “You haven’t done wonders to ingratiate yourself so far.”
STORY: “That’s fair. Soto and I have history. I’m afraid he’s off the table for now. But if you’d like him to remain in that state,” he gestures to the floor where Alejo lies, “and not worse, I can certainly arrange that.”
TUELLER: “I wasn’t talking about him.”
STORY: “Millie seems to have been convinced, to a degree. She’s doing some research for me as we speak.”
TUELLER: “Oh good, I was hoping I’d see her again.”
STORY: “And it looks as though Mr. Vespertine will pull through.”
TUELLER: Tueller nods, not speaking.
STORY: Chandra tents his fingers, watching you coolly.
TUELLER: Tueller looks down at Alejo on the ground.
TUELLER: And then, as smoothly as he possibly can, tries to see if he can punch Chandra through the skull
STORY: Let’s see how that goes!
STORY: Launch Assault, please and thank you
TUELLER: I’m going to use a Close Up!
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+3
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 7 + 3 = 10
STORY: The goal is to kill him?
TUELLER: Oh yes.
STORY: All right! You stand up, and quicker than anyone watching at home could guess what’s happening next you punch him so hard his head flies back and his neck snaps audibly. He collapses on the floor in a pile, dead.
TUELLER: “Okay. Now what?”