WITCH ASTEROID

Jack-Henry: Smart Ass. Asher: Cornelius IV. Christian: Grume. A wolf howls in the cold frigid night above ground; an unusual group has found themselves sat around the same dwindling fire as the true dark of night sets in among the barren trees. 100 yards back lies the yawning portal, the toothless mouth of the beastly land of Görga.  A small statured man with an ass’ face squats on his heels poking a stick into the fire, he hardly notices the massive, scarred hulking frame that's come to warm itself, and the once finery of Cornelius’ shit stained pants. Aside from the three wanderers sits a frail old man, the journey here, or perhaps his sickness has rendered him weak and dying. He sips, with great effort, from a dented tin cup, his only possession in the world. With a few quick words SmartAss has swindled the dying man out of his last meal, and downed it in front of him. The two strangers look on, Cornelius grinning at the cunning of the swindling. With his dying breath t...

Asher: Buchanan 17 / 7 of 8. Scotty: Doc Marty. Nico: Bucky Andrew. Christian: Breacher (H) / Breacher (BW). Rob: Odysseus. DAY 18 Pilgrimage through the depths of the Cloudbank Synthetic Production Facility. Buchanan 17 leads Wolfsheim 6 and the two unnamed Breachers on a sadistic romp. Smashing androids, looting corpses, laughing, shouting. Anything lurking in the darkness of zero gravity stays out of their way. Marty, Bucky, and Odi follow closely behind. Marty grabs Artifact #88 from behind the mirror where he last hid it. Eden. There's no Cherubim guarding the experimental Chosen colony anymore. The Great Gatsby death cultists raze this place. Synthetic corpses shredded. Nothing from Monarch. Quiet. It is eerily easy to reach Floor 1.  No ships docked. It appears the Acheron will arrive in 19 hours. The divers scour and loot the first floor and get some rest. Buchanan 17 steals the Golden Rat. He will never know the consequences.  DAY 19 Doc Marty has a dream. He's back...

Asher: Tootsie Thompson / Buchanan 17. Scotty: Doc Marty. Nico: Bucky Andrew. Christian: Hyde "Breacher" Finch . Rob: Odi. The bees buzz closer. Hyde sees two green lights pulsing in the distant darkness. In the hot glow of the nearby lava bath emerges two Breachers. One with eyes painted on his headset, and the other with a pair of glasses. Eyes and Glasses quickly dispatch the bees with their vibechetes. Eyes sizes Hyde up and realizes he's killed a fellow Breacher to earn the Breacher armor. Eyes invites Hyde to the party. But Eyes says he needs to gather a few more guests before the party can begin. Glasses silently records this conversation by entering it on the side of his headset. The trio move through the factory. Doc Marty decides to join them as a guest. Tootsie is taken, too. Odi tracks the group through the vents. Bucky follows, not far behind, using her thermals to stay out of the Breacher's vision and looking after Odi. Sweltering heat in the vents. Od...

Asher: Tootsie Thompson. Nico: Bucky Andrew. Christian: Hyde "1 Eye" Finch. Rob: Odi. Searching the pseudo milk tanks. Odi licks the milky condensation on the outside of the colossal tubes. The Deep has been eerily quiet for some time. Another room of the pseudo flesh farms: a swirling vat of pseudo milk as wide and long as a football field. A narrow catwalk crosses the storming vortex. Pale eels as thick as human arms thrash in the white-gray liquid. The divers cross the vat. A cold, cold room. Cylinders in the walls. Bucky identifies them as holding milk eels in cryonic tubes. Odi licks the tubes. Salty. Searching some more. The crew find abandoned weapons, old maps, mysterious tapes, a thumb drives chained to a Chunko figurine. Bone experiments. "Bone Stuff." Silas warns the divers not to enter. Two house-sized rolling spiked balls of bone block the path. Odi considers slipping in to investigate a pile of bones and an airlock across the room, but decides it's...

Asher: Rusty / Tootsie Thompson. Scotty: Doc Marty. Nico: Bucky Andrew. Christian: Kanan "Carrion" O'Tool. Rob: Odi.  DAY 17 Waking from the Labyrinth. Darkness, illuminated by flashlights. A four-way intersection ahead; lit, with four cryopods operating in the center. All empty, except one. Inside is a young boy, around 12 years old, with long uncut hair. The crew awaken him. He hops out. Cryosick. A little feral. Seems like he can't speak many words. Odi. He's hungry. Carrion has SynthSteaks. Odi starts tearing into them as the crew read the nutritional facts. Their names, among others, are written before the ingredients. These steaks are made from people? Rusty sees his name written down. He remembers his old ship badge. When he would guide his crew while they were asleep in hyperspace. Why wasn't he asleep? He realizes that he was the ship's android. Rusty loses it. He cuts his arm open. White pseudo milk spills down his wrist and elbow. He peels his...

Asher: Rusty. Scotty: Doc Marty. Nico:  Bucky Andrew.  Christian: Kanan "Carrion" O'Tool. Left alone in the scrap-covered court room. Android corpses of Cherubim looted by Red Shuilong. Lewis, dead, against the wall. Bucky Andrew, a nerdy mechanic and soldier, is assigned to the team. She also fucked with Monarch and has to complete a contract. They enter the hallway. It leads to Fortifications. A blast door, with handprint scanner. Rusty scans his hand, and the door opens. It opens to the back of a stage, facing an auditorium. Hundreds of seats, a massive theater. Dead and dying androids strewn about. Some loot their fellows for parts. Missing jaws, brains, limbs, teeth, eyes. One rises from the seats and begs for help. A red alarm blares. A turret enters from under the ground and shreds the android with machine-gun fire. The divers duck against the wall on their side of the hallway. The turret lobs a grenade. Carrion kicks it back, and they close the blast door. BOOM. ...

Asher: Rusty. Nico: Dr. Abraham Lewis. Christian: Kanan "Carrion" O'Tool. Flashbanged with searing light from the scanning equipment. The sewer main. The divers crawl through another air vent and reach a dark expansive room. Gears and machinery churning, churning. Gears along the wall. Pillars of grinding and crushing gears as far as Rusty can see with his thermals. The divers return to the sewer main, and head down a pipe instead. Hands and knees. A layer of cold gray liquid coating their skin and soaking through their clothes.  Something blocking the path ahead. Stinking of shit and ammonia. A blob, like black shaving cream. Lewis takes a sample. It's light and fluffy and smells like shit. Rusty uses his blanket to push the mass out of the way and into the edges of the pipe, making minimal contact with it and the diver's bodies. A holographic blue face phases through Rusty's blanket as he pushes ahead. "Have you seen my mom?" A child, a ghost in t...