Overview

 The party is sent to investigate a mysterious phenomena at an abandoned mech factory.

Cast

Billi, Care, Dani, Honest

Mission

nNull: Investigate a factory that has begun functioning on its own and recover data from enemy researchers.

Secondary: Destroy the factory.

Rules of Engagement: The terms/ROE

Synopsis

The party tries to approach the factory stealthily and avoid engaging with the Provinces research team until they have investigated. Before they arrive, Riot appears and chastises them for trying to avoid a fight. She takes Honest to retrieve the researcher's data and leaves Billi and Care to inspect the factory.

Care and Billi enter the factory and find it encrusted in coral but running and full of coral mechs. They also encounter Dani, who was exploring the factory for her own reasons, and warns them that it is dangerous. Care goes to investigate if the factory's controls and finds that they are completely dead - something else is running the machinery. At that moment, the door to the control room is locked shut, trapping Care, and an arm of coral lashes out at Billi. The central mechanical arm of the factory is moving despite being covered in coral, and it attacks Billi and Dani, who return fire with little effect. The coral mechs also begin to move on their own and close in on the party.

Riot says that they need to shut down the research camp, and Honest uses Eternity's shrimp punch to knock down the camp's infrastructure. Riot uses this as an opportunity to begin slaughtering the scientists. Honest is upset, but does nothing to stop her. When Riot has put down any resistance, she gathers all of their data in one place in order to destroy it. Honest objects, requesting that Riot give them some of the data in exchange for their help. Riot refuses and dismisses Honest. Honest challenges Riot to a fight where their victory means free access to the data, and Riot accepts. Both exit their mechs and face off. Honest throws a punch at Riot, revealing that their mech is not alone in its sonic punch ability. Riot calmly dodges and redirects the punch upward, where its shock wave clears the cloudy sky. Honest concedes the fight, and allows Riot to destroy the data.

In the factory, things are desperate. Billi and Dani are injured, and unable to destroy the coral creature. Care manages to escape from the control room, and realizes that there is a vein of Goop just below the surface here. He crawls into the foundations to set an explosive, and he, Billi, and Dani flee the building before setting off the charge, obliterating the factory and its contents.

As the party gets ready to leave, Honest retrieves a mech for Care, remembering that he wanted one for the next mission. They pick up a disabled Aziyad and are shocked to see that the pilot is still alive. The pilot pleads with Honest to be quiet and carry them out of the war zone in the mech, promising not to try anything. Honest agrees, and returns to the party to leave. During their walk out, Care becomes eager to look at his new mech, and loudly discovers the hidden pilot. The party has the pilot exit the mech as they argue about what to do with them. Before the discussion even gets started, Billi pulls out her gun and shoots the pilot in the head. The rest of the party is horrified, but she defends the action, claiming that any other option was too big of a liability.

Downtime

Care and Billi continue to argue about the execution of the pilot. Billi is frustrated that he and the rest of the party are treating her distrustfully, and says that she just did what was best for them, and even that they should be glad that she took the responsibility on for them. Care insists that she didn't have the right to make that decision for the group. Billi suggests that he just doesn't have what it takes to do this work, and Care doesn't really fight her on it, but says that it's not the point and she knows it.

The party decides that their next mission will be a personal one. The IZC reality show Joust! is starting soon, and they apply to be contestants. The show pits mech mercenary squads against each other in a series of games, and boasts several generous prizes like base and mech upgrades, with first place winning a one of a kind Veritas co(maybe? or felicity dynamics?) mech. Not advertised but just as valuable are the possible connections - As a nNull deniable asset, they are supposedly an independent mercenary company, and as such nNull won't stop them from taking other contracts. Joust would give them a chance to be scouted by other factions and possibly have more freedom to choose their own missions. Ironically, Care's least favorite streamer, Cavalier Caspar, was the winner of last year's Joust, and can owe much of his success to the attention. They gather information about their fellow contestants and study past seasons to try and guess what the competition will look like this year and gain some advantage, but have limited success.

Ajax shows Dani Finnbennach. Ajax is intrigued by the straggler the group brought home. She seems to have perspective on the events at the factory that the others do not, and notices things they choose to ignore. After some thinking, he invites her to meet him in the caves beneath the base to show her something important. When she arrives, all she can see is a giant, glassy lake. But Ajax makes a signal, and the lake churns, and from beneath the black water the hand of a mech emerges - larger than any she's ever seen before, larger than should be possible. It is so encrusted in the structure's black coral that it looks like it should not be able to move, but it opens smoothly to let them step onto its palm. Argyle tells Dani something he hasn't told the others - that his mech is made specially for the structure, only possible here and functioning in concert with the coral instead of in conflict with it.