Sequence One

**Sequence One** is the first episode in *The Edensong Chronicles*. ABSQ plays a hack of *Blades in the Dark* by A Couple of Drakes called DISASTER/WING, a ttrpg about mechas in space.

## Sequence One

### **Summary**

*Our story takes place in the year 6590, on the surface of an asteroid where the biodome of Edensong was established. This outpost of humanity is plagued by an alien species known as Morians and as a way to defend themselves, Edensong created the GENE Program. Pilots are hand selected for the Giant Enfield Nanotech Enlistment program for their genetic compatibility and personal skills to pilot the mechas that defend the last vestiges of humanity.*

Our story begins in the warehouse district as we come to a small metal building with a half burnt out sign that reads “Jerry’s Diner”. Inside is Maeve, a woman with close cropped dark hair and a tattered and old army style bomber jacket. She shovels food into her mouth and is approached by a waitress, Wren, who offers her more coffee. Maeve awkwardly accepts and as Wren steps away to fetch her some creamer, Maeve is contacted over her inner ear comms by her friend Payne. Payne tells her to stop by his place to pick up her clothes to which Maeve asks if she is being kicked out. Payne assures her she isn’t but her laundry is starting to smell and Maeve apologizes for not being around as she is in a new project. Payne mockingly feigns disinterest as to her new project but Maeve says she will be by the warehouse soon.

As Wren comes back, Maeve asks for a cup of coffee to go and to be sure it is the strongest stuff they have, requesting Wren leave the grounds in the cup even. Wren looks concerned but agrees and leaves just as Maeve gets a text from STILES, an AI assistant of AJ, telling Maeve she is requested back at the training facility. Wren returns with the cup of coffee and Maeve insists the coffee really isn’t for her even as Wren looks on in concern. Maeve pays for her meal, giving more money than necessary, and asks when Wren will be off tomorrow. Wren tells her she gets off at two and Maeve awkwardly says that is a good time before running out the door with a hurried good-bye.

The view shifts to another area of Edensong, cleaner and better maintained, to the Angel Grove Cafe where a young woman with messy blond hair and mechanic’s garb sits hunched over a spread of papers and books. Amy Jo or AJ idly plays with a hand held tool as she reads over her notes and scribbles often before being interrupted by Oliver, the barista, placing her usual order on the table beside her. Oliver says he doesn’t understand even half of what is laid out on the table but AJ assures him that isn’t unusual for most people, that even AJ is trying to figure something out - the new girl in the mecha program can pilot her mecha without being inside the suit. Oliver is amazed by this and AJ agrees its interesting since the suits rely on the pilot’s biometrics to work which is why only people of a certain genome can be pilots.

Oliver says that if this girl can do this then what can AJ do? AJ says she designed and built an independent AI that was capable of creating strategies of defense in seconds but hedges that that was last year's project and becoming more and more redundant with time. Oliver says that it is still impressive and seems suitably impressed but AJ warns him not to let STILES hear him or it will go to his little AI mind as it appears AJ has created an AI with an ego. Oliver asks if AJ really named it STILES and AJ explains that it stands for Specialized Technical Intelligence/Localized Extraterrestrial Stratagems. Oliver offers that she can tell him more about it tomorrow and AJ seems surprised that he would be interested but Oliver assures her he is as he heads back to work. STILES replies on AJ’s comms that she shouldn’t talk about him like that but AJ only shushes him, warning that she could bring down the percentage of his autonomy if she wanted. STILES notes from her earlier conversation that technically AJ isn’t even supposed to be in the GENE program. AJ shushes him again and says that she is compatible and the program just wasn’t willing to put her in a mecha but now she has a suit and everything is fine. STILES ignores this and instead tells AJ that Connor wants to see her and clicks her into a seemingly ongoing call with Connor who is shouting that AJ is late. AJ scrambles for her papers and begins putting them away, moving with more speed when Connor mentions the name “Xander”.

The camera pans as it follows AJ as she runs for the GENE program facility. The view speeds forward and to the facility but moves past it to the larger military base it is a part of and inside a gym where two figures are boxing, one an older man and one younger with dark hair and while not especially buff is he a toned sort of slender. The pair continue to box before the older man, Alex, calls it quits for the day and notes that Michael is getting better. Michael accepts the compliment and is coming out of the ring when he trips over his own feet and tumbles to the ground. Michael gets up, checking his glasses, as Alex says he should probably not work Michael so hard but he knows Michael’s father has high expectations. Michael agrees but says his dad just wants what is best for him and Alex agrees, noting that there are a lot of expectations for Michael as few make it into the GENE program and even fewer become team leaders before they are even out of high school. Michael says if he can achieve even a tenth of what his father has then he will be happy but Alex thinks Michael’s father knows he has already achieved a lot more.

Michael is dismissed to hit the showers and the view comes around to an even darker and seedier place in the warehouse district where Maeve enters one of the dilapidated buildings. Maeve makes it to the warehouse a bit early and warns she will have to leave soon because of a meeting she has and Payne waves her off saying he gets that she has a new deal but he wants her back around here. Maeve asks what he means and Payne offers her 7% of a new shipment if she helps move it and the two go back and forth before landing on 9% and Maeve asks what she will be moving. Payne says he got a new shipment of something good from off of Edensong, good quality and Maeve wonders what off Edensong means but Payne reminds her that he doesn’t ask those kinds of questions in his line of work.

Payne goes on a bit about teenagers nowadays and how Edensong is doing everything they can to round people into the GENE program. Maeve says it’s crazy to think people actually want to get into robots and fight aliens in space but Payne says he would rather do it himself than wait for a day that someone in the GENE program fails and all of the people on the surface end up dead. Maeve asks if he would really want that responsibility, noting that he seems happy enough with what he is doing but Payne says it would be nice to be in on whatever secrets are out there. Maeve smiles knowingly and Payne catches it and Maeve admits she is in the program. Payne says it must have been Maeve’s foster mom that got her in and Maeve shrugs but Payne connects that this must be why Maeve started disappearing several weeks ago. Maeve says she hasn’t done anything exciting yet, just going in for training and repairs which is where she is headed next. Payne tries to say that that is still exciting but Maeve shrugs and explains she doesn’t even have to be in the suit to make it work, which Payne calls bullshit. Maeve smiles and calls for Zero and not too far away, Zero begins to take off from where he had been posted for repairs, leaving behind his detached leg. AJ spots Zero in the sky as she runs for the mechanics guild where Zero had been and asks STILES to track Zero in case they need to find him later.

The moment feels like it may have passed as Maeve and Payne stand facing each other and Maeve begins to awkwardly apologize just as there is a loud crashing sound and Zero busts through one of the walls of Payne’s warehouse. Payne watches on in amazement before insisting that repairs will be coming out of Maeve’s first cut. Payne then also tells Maeve to get it out of his warehouse before the GENE program comes looking and Maeve sends Zero to crash through a few other walls before returning to the mechanics guild so that it looks like he just glitched. Maeve tells Payne that she really has to go now for her training and the pair agree to talk about Payne’s new shipment and Maeve’s duties later as she leaves the warehouse.

The view comes back to AJ as she comes into the mechanic’s bay just as Zero crash lands back in her lab. Connor meets her there and asks what that was all about but AJ doesn’t know but asks Connor for details as she’s never seen Zero take off without Maeve before. Connor says it looked normal, engagement protocol activated just like when a pilot is inside. Connor warns AJ that Xander and his crew are starting to keep a closer eye on them and Maeve and Zero’s weirdness aren’t helping. AJ insists everything will be fine, reminding Connor that the backdoor in the security that AJ had hacked was supposed to be a secret anyway but Connor is still worried. AJ assures him she will try talking to Maeve and asks STILES where Zero went, to which STILES recounts the several warehouses that Zero crashed through before returning. AJ wonders if maybe Maeve didn’t actually call Zero and resolves to figuring it out later when she checks on his programming and asks where the others are.

Michael enters the mechanics hangar, tripping over his own feet but with a sunny hello as his falls are still only in the single digits so far today. AJ says that is good and offers to design him kneepads to absorb more of the fall since he tends to fall forward which Michael agrees might be a good idea but tells her not to worry about it. AJ also tells Michael that she upgraded his boosters so they use stronger magnets which should make him more stealthy which Michael also appreciates. At this point, AJ hears an unfortunately familiar voice call her name and turns to find her nemesis Xander. Xander suggests AJ get her mechs under control and AJ points out that he is still working under his dad’s unit in the guild and its a shame nepotism doesn’t even work for him. Xander says the next time inspection rolls around, he might have to suggest that Zero get recalled for scrap metal and AJ suggests he watch out for his own mech, oh wait, he doesn’t have one. Xander’s tone gets darker as he warns that he isn’t in the program and that AJ shouldn’t be either and he is going to figure out why but AJ simply tells him to get out of her lab.

Maeve rushes in a few moments later and AJ starts by asking if she can explain what happened to Zero. Maeve says she has no idea but AJ doesn’t entirely believe her and AJ says she will take a look at his programming, letting the lie slide. This is then followed by AJ telling Maeve that she cannot keep headbutting enemies but Maeve insists that it did work. AJ argues that the neck hinge nearly broke and the only reason Maeve has survived is because AJ is the best mechanic in the program. Michael suggests looking into a way to increase stability and Aj says she is already reworking some stabilizers. STILES comes over comms and says he will be “getting into the little one” and moves his awareness to a tiny robot with tractor belt wheels and appears from under a desk. STILES tells Maeve that they can be having mechs flying out and crashing back into the lab but AJ tells him to chill out and looks at Maeve pointedly while offering it was probably some weird malfunction. After a bit of back and forth as Maeve apologizes for the mess without admitting to any wrong doing, AJ asks why the two of them are in her lab today.

STILES pipes up from the ground that the team has an incoming call from Maxwell and everyone hopes on the comms to answer it. Maxwell tells them they need to come to meeting room 4 for a board meeting, they need to discuss something. When the team presses for details, Maxwell explains that the board thinks its time that they go on their first reconnaissance mission. Maeve asks when this job would be and Maxwell says it could be as early as tonight. AJ, having just had some shop robots put Zero back into the repair harness, insists that isn’t enough time but Maxwell says its important and asks what AJ would need to be ready. AJ asks for steel and the best welders in the building for at least 4 hours and Maxwell says it can be arranged and AJ turns to STILES and tells him to take the lead with the drafted plans she had laid out earlier as well as the new nek pistons. STILES offers to bite people if they mess up and zips off to begin directing the work.

As they walk towards the meeting rooms, Maeve asks AJ if the neck pistons mean she can still headbutt things and AJ tries to explain the mathematically best way to do that without damage. Maeve explains that usually she just thinks of cool things to do and then Zero just does it so there isn’t a lot of time to allow STILES to help coordinate it like AJ is suggesting. Michael asks if Zero can monitor these things and AJ explains that while typically she can program maneuvers and special moves into other mechs, Zero is not the same. As the team continues walking, they pass a number of other scientists, mechanics and military personnel but then they hear a voice calling out for Maeve. Maeve is instantly spooked and tries to hurry the team along but not before a tall woman in a long white coat stitched with the name Dr. Evelyn Brown.