Fire When Ready

"**Fire When Ready**" (1x17) is the seventeenth episode of Memory=Null, in which old enemies are found, current enemies are sought out, and new enemies are revealed.

## Synopsis

Tina thanks Hanna for telling her that she’s gay, then holds out her hand to Pippin as he passes over some money. It turns out that Tina had known for a while now, since she essentially raised Hanna, and that her and Pippin had a bet going for about four years. After another round of drinks are delivered, they turn their discussion to the upcoming road ahead, including Hanna’s mother. Eventually, Thicc suggests that they take the rest of the afternoon off to drink, hang out, and talk about robots - and everyone agrees. Pippin and Hannah begin sketching out a new mech on napkins, Tina starts telling mech stories, and Thicc tries to drink an entire keg, of which he manages about two-thirds before he blacks out.

He is woken up (alongside Pippin) the next morning in one of the booths by the bartender returning. They both stumble out into the station to find some food before heading to the hangar with coffee for everyone. There they find Sank and Cauldron working on the mechs. A hungover Tina and Hanna eventually stumble in as Thicc chats with Cauldron from an extended distance. Pippin suddenly has the realization that he is an emperor, and messages someone to bring an experimental hangover cure that the Lalta Chambrans had been developing. A guard eventually shows up with a case, and they all inject themselves.

With their hangovers cured, they all head over to the lab Dorian has set up for the jump gate. The lab is full of Grun workers and Lalta Chambran scientists, with Hanna’s mother directing people around. A very cold reunion ensues, during which Thicc is introduced and Tina punches Sarah, ending the reunion. Tina goes off to say hi to a grun she knows, while Hanna and Sarah both quickly go into business mode and get to work. As Thicc talks to Pippin, Thicc receives a message from Janus, asking for discrete backup at his location. While on their way, they receive another message telling them to take a seat and not to acknowledge him.

They arrive at the location (a deli) and, not seeing Janus, sit down and order. They begin to talk about family, and Tina tells Thicc how Hanna’s mother left almost immediately after she was born, leaving Hank to raise both of them by himself. Thicc comments how he wishes he could have met Hank. As they talk, three people in nice suits walk in and sit down at a nearby table - a half-Nekram and two subordinates. One is a scrawny, wiry looking Nekram; the other is a black guy with long dreads in his 50s who looks very similar to Devin. Janus enters soon after wearing a garish gold and plaid outfit, walks over to the three individuals, and sits down. The half-Nekram asks Janus what happened to the rest of his crucible. Thicc immediately begins scooting his chair towards their table, causing a very loud, metallic grating noise.

Arriving, he introduces himself as the person who saved the only surviving crew of the Monarch’s Fortune. An annoyed Tina quickly moves over to the table, and Janus introduces the three people as Admiral Konstantin Yamusa (the half-Nekram), Stinky (the scrawny one), and Pinky (the Devin lookalike). The Admiral says that he came here with his armada, but since he knows that his former colleagues could be brash, he decided to give Janus a chance to explain himself. Janus explains how the Monarch’s Fortune was destroyed by the Vox and the other two were destroyed with minimal effort since they didn’t listen to reason, and tells the Admiral to either leave or face the wrath of the Fangs of Tarot. The Admiral says that he finds this hard to believe as the Monarch’s Fortune is still active and going about its business. Thicc tries to convince the Admiral of the danger that the Monarch’s Fortune presents, but he finds the story more and more outlandish and pathetic. Janus, trying to decide how to handle this, turns to Pinky and informs him that his son has been taken by the Vox. The Admiral requests access to Devin, and says that if they show them Devin, he will take it as a step in the right direction.

Arriving, they find Devin in his cell. At the sight of his father, he immediately becomes worried and starts asking various questions. Thicc asks Pinky to ask him something that only his son would know. He does and Devin correctly answers, proving to Pinky that it is indeed his son. The spray is then released into the chamber, causing the vox inside to explode out of Devin and begin slamming up against the glass.

The Admiral, still unconvinced, proposes a deal. He says that he will give Janus some time to deal with the Vox if Janus hands over his lieutenant as collateral. Thicc interrupts and asks for the location of the Monarch’s Fortune in return, which the Admiral refuses, stating that what they get is him not destroying the entire station. Janus agrees to give them Lieutenant Amber, and they all move outside to wait and to give Pinky some time alone with what remains of his son.

Amber reports for reassignment about fifteen minutes later, and the four of them leave. Janus, who feels that things could have gone a lot better, reveals that the Admiral’s fleet has cloaking tech, and that there are probably a hundred ships surrounding the station right now that they cannot detect. Thicc asks Adus if he can see them, but he says that they have some kind of psychic dampening around them. Since it is clearly a bad idea to start a second war, they decide that the best plan is to scout out the Vox planet, defeat the Vox, and then retrieve Amber (by force if necessary). Janus also points out that it is probably not a good idea for Thicc to go around getting drunk when the Vox are after him, so Thicc promises that he will not get blackout-drunk again until they have defeated the Vox and rescued Amber if Janus agrees to go drinking with him afterwards. Janus agrees.

Later, as everyone is preparing for the scouting mission, Pippin informs Thicc that the Lalta Chambran fleet has the ability to perform a deep scan on Thicc, allowing him to find out many technical details about himself. He agrees, and he and Tina head over to the ship. After the scan is complete, Thicc takes a moment to look at it and contemplate who he is. Tina comforts him by showing him her medical scan, and pointing out that a scan can’t truly summarize a person.

With the scan finished, they head back to Adus, where Hellhound and Ninla have arrived to join the mission along with Thicc, Tina, Sank and Janus. Once preparations are finished, they set course for Actaia. During the journey, Thicc teaches Hellhound to play Uno. Three hours later, they arrive in the system. Scans reveal the planet, a derelict space station, and a derelict ship floating in space with hazard signals on. Adus identifies the ship as the Magnus Faction Frigate S3CR37.

Thicc takes a moment to view the weave. While the planet is covered in black threads, he can only see one very faint black thread aboard the station, and nothing onboard the frigate. Adus docks with the frigate and finds that the ship is still pressurized. Thicc, Hellhound, Janus and Tina suit up and board the ship. As they head for the bridge, they find signs of small localized scuffles throughout the hallways. Tina reports that there is an asteroid strike on the starboard side, though repairs were never finished, and the section is still sealed off. Janus, who has taken up the rear, says that he feels like they are being watched, though he can’t actually sense anything. On the bridge, they find the body of Captain Vash next to his chair with a gun in his hand and a bullet wound to his head. The logs reveal that the ship had been struck by an asteroid while in Sector 401. One of the crew members was quarantined after began to feel sick and black liquid started oozing out of some sores. The ship then underwent a complete power loss before reactivating and resuming course. Shortly after, they checked in with an exchange satellite, but all logs after that appear to be intentionally corrupted.

Freaked out and no longer wanting to be onboard the ship, they all head back to Adus and uncouple. Back on the bridge, Adus reports that he has detected another ship which appears to be patrolling the area. The main holographic display appears, revealing a small frigate covered in black liquid.

## Stat Guesses

Because Thicc had a deep scan performed on himself, all stats are now known and are no longer able to be guessed.