Sci-Fi Dogs: Episode 7

#### Character Appearances

This episode features the Sci-Fi Dogs, Howel, Taylor, ST-N1K, Bernard, and Leon as well as their Commander ISIC.

### FIRST HALF

#### Mission Briefing

Ship-wide, the speakers activate and the Commander's voice rings out. He announces that during a recent resistance attack on one of his factories, he was able to set a tracking device on one of the resistance ships. Their ship went to a forest planet called 'Hupis' which is believed to be unoccupied on record. He informs the dogs that their mission will be taped and streamed as evidence for their loyalty and will be used within court directly with the Fuhrer. They are to set a good impression.

#### Prologue

##### Mantis Claws and Rocket Boots

Over the past few days of inactivity Bernard Brandt has been working on a collection of new items for the crew, including himself. He approached the different crewmates asking for their input on what he should be working on during his down-time, looking for ways to upgrade them and himself. He skims his blueprints and decides to make a pair of rocket propelled boots for himself and whilst he does this, he decides to give ST-N1K a bit of manoeuvrability as well, crafting him some thrusters, comparing the two items to assure their quality. When he approaches ST-N1K to fit him with his new thrusters, he also makes him some *Mantis Claws* which he had seen a prototype of in Dr. Haydon's laboratory in Session 6, per ST-N1K's request. Bernard is entertained by N1K's overjoyed nature and the two run some experiments and calibrate the gear accordingly. Soon after Bernard departs ST-N1K and returns to his workshop, Howel appears lingering in his corridors. Bernard invites Howel in and asks what he can help him with, Howel responds with little-to-nothing and watches Bernard ambiently whilst he tinkers with inventions and different pieces of scrap in the workshop. Bernard asks Howel if he would like anything to be made and Howel politely turns him down but says he'll keep the offer in mind. Howel sits in the workshop in Bernard's company for a little while, in mostly silence, Bernard entertains himself with talking at Howel explaining his inventions.

##### Sneak Attack in Bernard's Workshop

ISIC, the Commander, requests Leon's presence on the bridge. Leon heeds the Commander's call and appears on the bridge where ISIC presents Leon with his new camouflage suit. Leon initially rejects the suit as ISIC teases saying that it is a gimp suit however after some convincing Leon accepts the gift from their Commander and gets changed into it. To test out its effectiveness, Leon decides to pull a devious practical joke on Bernard and unknowingly, Howel.

Leon activates his camouflage and makes his way to the workshop to hopefully get a surprise on Bernard and act on a little bit of mischief. Howel and Bernard are in synchronized silence and the air is filled with notes of Bernard's tinkering until Leon arrives. When Leon arrives, he sneaks up behind the engineer and grapples him, locking him under his grip. When Leon grips the engineer under his grapple, Bernard also gains the invisibility effect of his camouflage. Howel jumps up from his stationary position and unholsters his dooger, scanning the laboratory for the culprit and Bernard. Bernard struggles and makes multiple attempts to free himself from his culprit's grip but unsuccessful. Howel growls and points his gun aimlessly around the crowded workshop calling out for Bernard and trying to make sense of their situation.

An idea strikes Bernard as he fruitlessly struggles and he throws himself forward onto his stomach and ultimately ends up forcing himself out of Leon's grip. Leon lets Bernard go as he goes falling to the floor, revealing himself from the camouflage effect. Howel is confused as now he can see Bernard but they still don't have eyes on their culprit. Howel threatens to shoot however he doesn't want to shoot in the crowded workshop full of nick-nacks and thingimajigs. This is when Leon reveals himself to the pair with 50% charge left on his camouflage. Bernard is visibly steaming with annoyance as he shoos Leon from his workshop. This is when the Commander calls them to get ready to make contact for their mission. Howel and Bernard, a little disgruntled, make their way to the boarding area.

#### Arrival

##### Deployment

The dogs arrive in the boarding area and are ushered into entering a giant steel egg that has 5 seats all facing toward the centre. The dogs enter one after another and get strapped into their seats, secure as can be, and they are informed that their entry to atmosphere will be rocky and life support gear as well as vomit bags will be provided and can be found inside the egg-shaped pod. Moments after they are strapped into the pods, the Commander then deploys the egg and they begin rapidly approaching the planet's atmosphere and later the planet's surface. They crash into the surface at incredible speeds and the egg splits, somewhat awkwardly, allowing the crew to exit. Part of the egg collapses on impact with the planet's surface and a piece of the shrapnel falls onto Bernard making it difficult for him to disconnect from his seat. Leon is the first to get out from his seat and shoves the shrapnel off of Bernard, freeing him from his chair. Bernard frowns and shoots a glare at Leon before hulking himself out of his seat and then meeting with the other dogs on the ground floor. From the collapsed egg, a drone deploys and begins to hover in the air in front of the dogs. The drone shows a screen of them being recorded as well as providing a rough map of the base that was devised by arial scans. ISIC wishes the crew good luck and reminds them that their mission will be recorded to demonstrate their loyalty. They are informed that they will need to all acquire an individual kill each and kill as many of the Resistance that they can. Failure to acquire these terms may determine the outcome of their demonstration of loyalty.

##### The Advance

The dogs accept the terms, to varying levels of agreement, and begin their advance on the Resistance base. During their approach on the Resistance base they say very little and avoid talking at all. The drone follows them, humming lightly, recording their every footstep. Once they have made visual contact with the base, they remain in the tree line and begin to devise a plan. Taylor points out that he could simply call down an artillery strike with ISIC'S flare gun, but ISIC chirps into their comms, telling them that the Fuhrer would rather they take a more.. 'hands on' approach in order to prove their loyalty. Howel takes initiative and after a little back-and-forth about initial plans, the dogs agree that N1K, Howel, and Leon will take out the watchtowers that surround the base.

##### Watching the Watchmen

Leon takes the furthest tower, Howel takes the corner tower, and N1K takes the tower at the very front of the base. The three men make haste in their tasks with little resistance. Leon activates his camouflage and climbs one of the towers before executing the man in the far tower with his knife. After this, he takes the guard's walkie-talkie and watches the area down the scope of his rifle. After this, Bernard and Taylor follow Howel to the corner tower and wait at its base. Taylor remarks that Howel's gun does not have a silencer and that he should take his rifle instead, Howel agrees and takes Taylor's rifle and begins his ascent of the tower. When Howel reaches the top of the tower he takes out the guard relatively effortlessly, similarly to Leon, he also snags the guard's radio. Whilst this is happening, N1K latches his grappling hook onto the final tower and begins his ascent. The sound of the grappling hook attaching gets caught by the guard in this tower and over the comms, the guard begins to announce that he notices something suspicious. Before the guard can finish talking, ST-N1K takes him down with his mantis blades. To clear suspicion Leon then talks over the comms, confusing the men on the other side as they do not recognise him. Bernard swoops in with the save, nudging Howel to give him the other stolen radio and imitates a generic guard voice. Bernard states that he had just apprehended some trouble-making teens from off-planet messing with their radio lines. This is believed and the suspicion is lifted. Howel signals the group to rendezvous to further discuss plans at the front-side of the base, the group agrees and they meet at the front treeline surrounding the base.

##### Engineer Infiltration

Bernard suggests a plan of his own to the group. He takes inspiration from the uniform of the downed guards that all seemed to be wearing green shoulder patches to signify their allegiance with the resistance to suggest a plan of infiltration. Howel assesses the risks with the rest of the crew and they discuss the different potential outcome of their situation. Leon chimes in with offering to use his stealth gear and entering behind Bernard during his infiltration. The crew gives them the all clear and they prepare to breach.

Bernard undresses and hands his jacket to Howel and requests that he keeps it under his watch until he returns. Howel accepts and bundles his jacket under his arm. Bernard then stitches green shoulder patches into his jumpsuit and approaches the main gate. Bernard masks himself with a phony voice and cowardly personality as he tells the men at the gate that the higher-ups had sent him to maintenance on the ships that returned from the recent battle. The men tell Bernard that they had no request of any engineer and that the ship had already left the base recently. Bernard fumbles his words a little before he flumps his arms in defeat, announcing that the higher-ups never keep him up-to-date with information these days. He begins to walk away almost kicking the dirt beneath his feet before the soldiers call him back telling him that they actually have a boiler that he can look at if he's interested. Bernard lights up at the opportunity and turns on his heel, gaining entrance to the base. Behind him follows Leon with active camouflage.

Howel, Leon, and ST-N1K have already achieved their kills for the mission so they are under minor pressure however they are concerned with how they will prove the medic's innocence by granting him with a kill. Howel discusses ideas of how they will take out the bunker at the front of the base with Leon and Taylor however these ideas do not come into practice as Bernard begins to traverse the base. Little to the rest of the dogs' knowledge, Bernard proves himself as a master of infiltration. Bernard looks so normal, it is hard to peg him as a Wolfenstein soldier, let alone a spy, he is perfect to lay under the eye in plain sight. Bernard begins work on the boiler, twisting different cogs and pipes back and forth to look like he is doing something productive. While he does this, he maintains small talk with the soldiers finding out a little about their operation at the base. Howel, Taylor, and ST-N1K lay in the tree line out of enemy sight keeping their eyes on Bernard's bodycam as he works through the boiler operation. After Bernard is near completing his façade fixing of the boiler, he feigns a phone call, and says it is from his wife, and begins to walk out of the room into a nearby corridor. Bernard exclaims that his wife wants a divorce and makes out to be arguing over the phone whilst he is actually mapping out the facility going room to room showing the dogs the layout through his bodycam. The dogs in the treeline begin to add Bernard's discoveries to their pre-existing map fully developing the map whilst they awaited further instruction.

##### Knight Trouble

Bernard comes to a halt when he enters a room with two knights. It appears that he offers them maintenance but the pair seem to deny it at first. Bernard becomes worried when he realises that if they are to deal with the facility then they will have to take out these knights asap. He further attempts convincing them to accept his maintenance and tells them that he will be back to work on them after he is finished with their boiler problem. Bernard quickly whips round to the boiler room and finishes working on the boiler. Bernard wipes the sweat from his head and forces a facade of exhaustion after working on the boiler, he makes some small-talk with the guards again before saying that one of the knights asked him to perform some maintenance on them before he leaves. The guards thank him for fixing the boiler and Bernard returns to the room that the knights are currently stationed in and begins to chat with them. He finds out that the knights are called Jibi and Silent Steve. Silent Steve appears to have a failing voice modulator and cannot speak, whereas, Jibi appears to have no visual or pressing damage. Bernard quickly notes that the two knights have no weaponry and begins to get to work on Jibi, the more talkative of the two knights, coming over to run diagnostics on him. Bernard runs diagnostics on Jibi and finds that nothing is inherently wrong with his system and begins to debate ideas of how to take him out in his head for several minutes as he runs over the diagnostic data.

Bernard ultimately decides that he will use his flame finger to heat the metal plating on the back of Jibi's head to make it malleable so he can take a stab at the brain plug that connects the knight to his mechanical body. After a lot of debating and waiting, Bernard finally bites the bullet and does it to little resistance. Jibi collapses and Bernard hops out from behind him with a feigned panicked voice calling out for Silent Steve's help. Bernard tells Steve that he thinks that he lodged a stone deep into the knight's head and says that he needs additional help with removing it. Steve begins to make his way towards Jibi before Bernard bolts out of the room and locks himself in a closet in a hallway nearby, but not before seeing Silent Steve violently rip Jibi's human form from his suit, and begin dragging him away. He takes a deep breather and updates the crew on his situation.

##### Boiler Boom

Howel kneels next to N1K in the trees, Taylor covers their flank, and N1K provides them with technical support with the drone. Howel implies that he thinks that they could smoke them out due to there only being one visible exit to the base. The singular exit is a huge fire hazard that they could take to their advantage. Howel tells Leon and Bernard that he needs them to further their sweep of the building and gather more data on possible weak points with combustible content, however to no avail as the Leon is distracted and is not responding and Bernard cannot get out of his closet. Bernard suggests to the crew that he causes a gas leak, however, he would need some time and they would all need to get evacuation distance from the building. Evacuation distance is easy for Taylor, N1K, and Howel to acquire however it may take Leon and Bernard more time to make safe exit from the building without being seen as suspicious.

Bernard begins to act on his plans and makes his way to the boiler room to create the gas leak. He sets the gas leak with plausible evacuation time of 40 minutes and expresses to Leon that they must make their way out of the base now. Bernard begins to exit and he lets the boys know that he is done with fixing the boiler when the Commander chimes in that Bernard needs to get a kill personally. Bernard expresses his confusion and annoyance before snapping round before the gates close shooting one of the boys in the face point-blank with his revolver before booking it to the rendezvous line. Taylor is yet to get a kill so is egged on to meet Leon at the gate and finish off the remainging of the guards at the gate with Leon before he, like Bernard, books it to the rendezvous line. Howel casts an illusion to cloak them from the confused base and they await the results in silence. 10 minutes tick by and the place erupts in flames, the building crumbles, and flame shoots across the forest floor brushing up in a huge plume.

#### D.O.G.S Representative

##### ST-N1K AWOL

After it was decided Howel would become the representative of the Dogs, ST-N1K would get the strange urge to enter the room that the rouge Data reader was being held in. ST-N1K would question the AI in the Data reader, asking why it attacked them on their old ship. Eventually the data reader would convince ST-N1K to plug it into the ships 3D printer in order to find the answers ST-N1K sought. After some hesitation ST-N1K would agree and while placing the data reader into the 3D printer. This would then wake up Bernard who was sleeping in the workshop the printer was kept in. Bernard would question ST-N1K on what he was doing but after getting no response, would instead proceed to take the data reader from ST-N1K. This would result in a slight altercation between the two as they fought for control over the data reader. Bernard would radio into the rest of the dogs to arrive but as he did, ST-N1K would aggressively shove Bernard into a wall pinning him there. Bernard would go to punch ST-N1K with his robotic arm in retaliation but for some reason it would stop in place before hitting ST-N1K. Leon, Howel, and Taylor arrive outside of the workshop and Leon begins hammering on the door demanding entry. After no response from Bernard or ST-N1K, Howel then zaps the control panel to the workshop with lightning which causes the door to open. Howel and Leon are first to enter the room and Leon holds his gun up, eyes darting around the workshop to land to ST-N1K and Bernard. Behind Howel and Leon bursts in Taylor, gun drawn and quickly levelled at ST-N1K. Howel barks at ST-N1K and demands him to explain himself before also unholstering his dooger and approaching the pair. ST-N1K releases Bernard from his grasp. He would then explain he had no knowledge how he got here in the workshop with the data reader but it was not enough to convince Bernard to think St-N1K wasn't a traitor. Bernard would arm himself with a shotgun and with the rest of the dogs move ST-N1K to a white padded cell while they figure out what to do. During this Bernard would also wrap the data reader in tin foil to keep it inactive for the meantime.

The dogs take turns having their words with ST-N1K through the camera in the padded cell. Bernard desperately called out for ISIC but no response, he consults with Howel about his suspicions of ST-N1K being the cause of the initial blackout on their first ship as well. Bernard begins to think that ST-N1K has been compromised by the data stored in the data reader. It is unclear how long ST-N1K has been compromised, if he has been compromised at all. Howel spits in anger over comms at ST-N1K threatening him with deactivation or reprogramming for the potential damage he could have or has caused for them. ST-N1K struggles to back his own side but continues to plead his own innocence before Howel disconnects his comms from the channel. Bernard takes Taylor and Howel to the bridge where they can access the central control room and get direct contact with a terminal to speak with ISIC. Leon stands guard on the temporary holding cell and keeps the door sealed.

When Howel, Bernard and Taylor reach the bridge ISIC expresses confusion over the blackout and sudden cut of their communications systems. Bernard attempts to explain in as much detail as he can but ISIC seems to have no answer. During this ISIC also pings the team with a fax telling them that they need to send their chosen representative to the escape pods as soon as possible and keep an eye on the situation. Bernard puts his hand on Howel's shoulder and tells him 'Its time to shine kid' before sending Howel straight to the pod bay. Howel follows his orders with little question and enters one of the escape pods to then be quickly ejected and transferred to another ship. Along with guarding ST-N1K's temporary cell, the dogs and many of the crew watch the livestream of Howel's advertisement from screens around the ship.

##### PSI ENERGY TELEPORTER ADVERTISEMENT

Howel arrives on another ship and is met by a camera crew. They inform him that he will be starring in a commercial for a new experimental teleporter and this video will be streamed to potential investors and profiteers. Unbeknownst to Howel, the new teleporter utilises Psychic energy and is a very experimental PSI energy teleporter system. They have not tested this teleporter on anyone before Howel so he will be running the first initial check. Howel sticks to his guns and follows what he is told to do. Camera crew remove his mask and helmet to reveal his dashing appearance and give him instructions for how to act in the video. Within moments, Howel is on the teleporter and the camera crew begin to count down with suspense before pressing the teleporter. Giant arms come down and beam Howel with an extremely bright light before he disappears instantly.

###### Howel's Hell

Howel enters into a dazed state. Howel experiences disorientation and suffers what feels like an eternity as the plaything of abstract, towering insectoid beasts that fill his vision. He cannot see anything aside from harsh brightness and the distinct absence of light as well as the figures of the insectoids. Flat land stretches out infinitely, under an alien sun, the landscape broken up by seemingly nothing but strange black hairs reaching up from the ground and the creatures. An indiscernible weight cause by otherwordly gravity hammers him down to the ground. During his effortless, defenseless state, Howel experiences a complete absence of thought. Entire sensory overload, he cannot feel a thing, his body bloodied and bruised by the creatures that tower above him. He cannot move a muscle as his head pounds and his eyes are glazed with distraction. He's swung back and forth in a flat plane, his head smacks against the floor furthering his endless headache. Screams cry in his ears and what feels like countless whispers overtake him, surrounding him. His ears trickle with blood. One of the behemoths leans over him drivelling a vile green substance. Two of the creatures fight before one decapitates the other. The victorious creature twitches its mandibles and digs two of its huge claws into Howel's abdomen ripping his organs from his body. Howel cannot react, he cannot think, the agonizing pain is almost completely lost on him in his experience. Within moments, he's eviscerated and before a quick flash and he returns to the prototype teleporter. His body slumps over, organs spilling out, and the blood splatters all over the laboratory floor. He dimly sees a man with a medstim running towards him within his last moments of fleeting consciousness and his body begins to regrow and mutate back to how it was before he experienced the horrors. Immediately the cameras are shut off and crew are ushered away. Howel cannot make out much more as they take him to a pod to be sent back to his ship. His face is empty and his mind is racing. There is an absence of thought. He is returned to the New New Elizabeth and when he makes it back he's met by Bernard and Taylor. Bernard has a sympathetic and shocked expression on his face and he attempts to put a red and white beer can in Howel's hand and Howel limply grasps it. Bernard pats him on the back before inching away while Taylor swoops in and rushes Howel to the medbay where he sits Howel on a medical bed. Taylor pulls up medical diagnostics equipment and begins to run health diagnostics on Howel. Bernard sits on the edge of Howel's bed sipping a beer, struggling to muster the will to create small talk as a distraction. Howel is unresponsive. Taylor continues with medical scans and tests, whilst attempting to coax Howel out of shock.

###### Attack of the Invisible Thing!

As Taylor and Bernard watch over Howel in the medbay, Leon hears something approaching N1Ks cell as he stands guard. Leon draws his gun but doesnt see anything approaching. He asks whos there and a echoey, robotic female voice responds. The invisible assailant proceeds to hit the button opening N1Ks door, Leon responds by hitting the button again to close it. They repeat this a few times before Leon fires a round from his revolver at the button, hitting the invisible assailant as they go to press it. This momentarily leaves a metallic bullet impact on them before it gets covered back over. Leon uses this opportunity to fire more rounds into it while he can see its location. He radios the others of the disturbance but the assailant responds by lunging a bladed tail towards leon which he narrowly dodges, grabbing the tail and stabbing it a few times, after realising the knife was ineffective he pulls the tail to slam the attacker over his shoulder. Once it recovers it grabs leon, slamming him against a wall but leon frees himself by grabbing his rifle from his back and firing a devastating round down at his attacker. As it lets him go Bernard and Taylor arrive, Bernard firing his shotgun at the attacker before it is heard scrambling away saying “Retreat. Upgrade”