S01E12

Season 1, Episode 12
Minimum Attainable Threshold

Staring	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri
With	Adelaide Gaspar, KANZAKI Kazuki
And	{{{extra}}}
Introducing	Ariel, Gemini, Yomiel
Previous Episode	S01E11 – Tailwind
Next Episode	S02E01 – Beamwalking

With their efforts to ascend the SCIRE stymied by the Blues and the arcology's drone defenses, the team reverses course and heads down. They hope to find an alternative exit in the utility spaces, and bring word of what's happening inside to the world at large.

Session 1 - 2024/06/20

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Scene 1
Multiple Vehicle Collision

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Adelaide Gaspar, KANZAKI Kazuki
When	Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30)
Where	Parking, SCIRE, Level B3‌

Making their way lower in the garage, they discover the ramps between levels are pretty much impassible. People were clearly able to reach the garages during the initial hours of the shutdown, but between numerous car accidents and traffic jams very few people made it out of the SCIRE. There's clear evidence the vehicles and their passengers were fired upon while stuck in traffic. There are some places where the security partitions between floors came down on top of cars.

Treasure suggests moving laterally and heading seaward, believing there to be a way to cross from the parking garage into the transshipment hub and maybe the loading docks. Though more familiar with the layout of the upper levels, Shirayuri agrees. Even if there isn't access on this particular level, Liam should easily be able to smash his way through; the interior walls are far less robust than the armor-clad exterior walls.

They make their through the garage, dodging patrols of Medusas. They appear to be operating in small groups of three to five, hunting together like a pack of lions. The group manages to evade them, but there are no opportunities for any more than a few minutes break.

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Scene 2
Bear Necessities

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Adelaide Gaspar, KANZAKI Kazuki
When	Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30)
Where	Cargo Transhipment, SCIRE, Level B6‌

The overhead lights are off in transshipment area and don't respond to manual controls, but there is evidence the area is not entirely offline. The containers are still receiving power for their manifest display systems.

The group opens a variety of containers, looking for loot. They find plenty of material, but none of it useful — dolphin fountain statues, construction girders, jet engines, arcade game console cabinets, and so on. The only remotely useful thing is a container full of candy.

As they get deeper into the area, they identify a sickly sweet smell which Liam identifies as a dead or dying animal. They're swiftly attacked by two disease laden Awakened bears. They're able to drop them with gunfire and magic, and discover the source of the smell: human corpses the bears had been feeding on.

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Scene 3
Atrocities in Babysitting

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Adelaide Gaspar, KANZAKI Kazuki, Ariel, Yomiel
When	Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30)
Where	Training Center, SCIRE, Level B12‌

On reaching the training level, they find no activity — no Blues, no Dervishes, no Medusas. The locker rooms have mostly been swept of gear, but they do find one suit of security armor that might fit Garbo. They also find the water still functional, so Adelaide takes the opportunity to clean of the blood and soak some of her other injuries. The others avail themselves of the hot water, too.

The locker room is attached to a briefing room or training room of some sort, which opens up on what appears to be a normal house. Garbo believes it be very elaborate "shoot house", a training area for things like hostage situations. They skirt around the outside of it, eventually finding their way into the control and observation room. Most of the systems are off, but two large screens are showing views from inside the house, the field of view showing cameras in typical places you might find them in a home, like the trideo set, kitchen appliances, and bathroom mirrors.

They immediately identify two Whites in pajamas watching trideo and a normal-looking human female in the kitchen. She comes out with a tray full of snacks, and the girl almost immediately knocks it out her hands. In a rage, the little girl shouts at her. There's no audio, but the team is able to lip read well enough: "he" doesn't like popcorn, she's supposed to be a good mother not a racist bitch, and she needs to get back in the kitchen and do it right. The woman has her back to the trideo set's camera, so it's difficult to see her immedate reaction. She cleans up the mess, and when she returns to the kitchen and the refrigerator's field of view, it's clear she is terrified. She brings a new tray, with no popcorn this time and this girl does a complete 180 in personality. "Mother" goes into dining room and inside there is a guy sitting at the end of the table, he looks like he is asleep. She takes his hand just sits there. At some point someone was in the room and watching the house, they had pitched various drink and food wrappers without care.

Fräulein, Shirayuri and Garbo sit down at the computers, amidst scattered soft drink cups and food wrappers (evidence somebody has been here). Between the three of them they figure out that somebody has been observing the two whites — Arieland Yomiel. There's also a list of names and dates, starting fifteen days ago. The first five pairs are marked "Disposed of Due to Unsatisfactory Performance," the later pairs showing a smaller interval between them than the earlier groupings.

While they're working, Garbo notices Adelaide chatting with Kazuki. She seems broken, but sweet, but he doesn't buy it. It's too perfect for the role. He gets the impression that Kazuki is unnerved by her, too, but perhaps for different reasons.

Session 2 - 2024/06/27

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Scene 4
Goo Filled Gauntlet

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Adelaide Gaspar, KANZAKI Kazuki
When	Sunday, January 18, 2060 (Day 31)
Where	Holding Tanks, SCIRE, Level B13‌

The team reaches the water filtration and recycling section. They make their way without incident towards the seaward side of the facility. Unfortunately, less than 20 m (66 ft) from their destination, Fräulein gets too close to a group of Dervishes in standby mode, setting off their motion sensors. The group engages them, destroying and slowing down enough of them to make good their escape into another section of the SCIRE, though Shirayuri is caught and injured by a questionably placed lightning ball.

Session 3 - 2024/07/11

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Scene 5
Down the Hatch

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Adelaide Gaspar, Gemini, KANZAKI Kazuki
When	Sunday, January 18, 2060 (Day 31)
Where	Waste Water Release, SCIRE, Level B13‌

The group find someplace to hide long enough for Fräulein to magically heal the damage she did to Shirayuri, while the other scope out the security patrols. Treasure asks Liam to team up with him, claiming Garbo copped a feel earlier (he believes her, while also feeling it's out of character for Garbo).

In addition to multiple groups of Blues on patrol — spotting six different ones typically means there's at least eight — they see two Whites playing on top of the equipment. In fact, their presence is what draws the group's attention to the maintenance ports they believe will be appropriate to send the commlink out.

They mutually reaffirm their decision that the message getting out is the most important thing, then spring into action. The two Whites make a nuisance of themselves, distracting the group and getting in the way of area attacks (for fear of killing children). They also appear to lockout and brick the maintenance ports. During the fighting, Treasure shows her true colors, claiming a weapon lost by Shirayuri and moving on Garbo — he shoots her square between the eyes, ending the threat.

The group realizes that their initial plan won't work, and also that they're not likely to survive the reinforcements that are coming. Comparing the almost certainty of dying to the Blues against potentially drowning in the water release system, they decide to take their chances. Liam realizes that Shirayuri was never planning to leave without her brother, and is forced to knock her out and drag her along.

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Scene 6
Out to Sea

Who	Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki
When	Sunday, January 18, 2060 (Day 31) through Saturday, March 6, 2060 (Day 79)
Where	USS Nora Corleeds, Puget Sound and Fort Lewis, Seattle Metroplex, UCAS

The team survives ejection from the arcology, surfacing in Puget Sound. They're almost immediately taken aboard a UCAS Navy destroyer serving as part of the SCIRE cordon. Garbo reveals his true identity as a retired UCAS FBI agent, transforming interrogation and incarceration into a more professional debriefing.

They remain in government custody for nearly a month-and-a-half before finally being cut free. Kazuki claims to be MUSUME Takeru, Shirayuri's (or rather MUSUME Yoi's) brother, and his subtle matrix abilities convince them it's true — he is remanded to her custody. Once they're free, he transfers the money he owes them. He says there are people on the outside that can take care of them, and leaves the group to their own devices.

References

Episodes:

• Previous: S01E11 – Tailwind
• Next: S02E01 – Beamwalking