Engine Room Rock (Leviathan)

Kika and Xe'anna, picture by Voidsmoker.

## Recurring NPCs

Oxana, computer of The Bat'leth

"Engine Room Rock" is the eighth episode of the first season of Leviathan: Distant Stars.

## Summary

Night has come on Usvedi... or at least the part of it where the intrepid crew of the Bat'leth have landed.

It is time to get the plan going, but not before Xe'anna and Hexie share a moving goodbye scene.

Hexie levitates Xe'anna on top of the shipyard's wall and flies Kika close enough to her target, a ship under construction, and high enough for her to glide to it.

Then it is time for Kika to lift engine parts from a ship under construction, and for Xe'anna to climb down, find her way to Kika and help her lift them to the Bat'leth.

All goes well and discretion is being preserved until Kika improves her vision and fights her lack of confidence in this unfamiliar engine by firing up rock music (but not too loud).

Three guards approach. Two of them are knocked down by Xe'anna, who is *unarmed but that doesn't matter because my fists should be registered as deadly weapons* and remains unharmed while the other one follows the music into the ship.

Conrad and Hexie watch the engine room where Kika is through the feed of the drone Conrad has deployed and managed to fly discreetly to the ship.

Seeing how time passes and Kika is still struggling to do her job, Conrad requests and gets her consent to help her in a way he doesn't want to divulge. A needle flies from the drone into Kika's neck, and injects her with Space Mountain Dew.

When Kika gets hit without warning by the third guard, Hexie requests a can of Space Mountain Dew from *whatever the hell your name is right now* Kenny and chugs it before following through on his earlier suggestion that she pilot the Bat'leth and let him keep monitoring and helping Kika with his drone. Xe'anna can’t help but notice the humming that means the Bat'leth has taken off too early while trying to focus on punching the last guard. *Kika is high as fuck and feeling indestructible and she's just been shot*, which means that she tries to help Xe'anna in her fight.

Hexie brings the Bat'leth on the scene. After a failed attempt at looking casual or understanding the locals' messages, Conrad takes back control and starts fending off the turrets that protect the shipyard.

Meanwhile, after Kika drops on the floor in a failed attack, Xe'anna finally knocks them down and gives Kika a patch that stanches her bleeding. Despite her need for rest, Kika resumes chewing at her task.

Hexie successfully uses thermokinesis, first to melt the barrel of one cannon, then to set fire to a crate full of explosives that immediately detonates and creates the distraction she had been seeking.

Kika, after completing three quarters of her task, breaks a wire that starts spilling an acidic liquid. The good news is that the Freedom Terrorists arrive and create further distraction, thus buying her the time she needs to succeed. She has needed only a few minutes more than her initial guesstimate, which means Xe'anna still trusts her.

The finale sees Conrad also getting vertical to take the Bat'leth up, away from the turrets that have managed to hit it once, and nosedive to lift crew and gear from the ground as soon as they are ready.

Xe'anna sees her ship plummet then go back up just a little too late to avoid scraping a ship, and Hexie near the open cargo bay, ready to do her thing.

The captain's life, as well as Kika and Theea's bright handprints and bodies' outlines in the cargo bay that make look like a kindergarten's classroom, flash in front of her eyes before she is lifted to her ship by Hexie.

With everyone alive and everything on board, the Bat'leth leaves the atmosphere of Usvedi.

## Notes

1. ↑ Slowly, due to a bad die that soon spends time in the *boo-boo box*.
2. ↑ Causing Lauren to jail the dice that rolled ones and didn't manage to land a hit. In a real, tiny cage, where their shame is in full display.
3. ↑ Actual quote.
4. ↑ Quoting the GM here.
5. ↑ That got Cheryl to notice that *Lauren got what Lauren wanted*.
6. ↑ With engineering, but obviously not with spray painting.