A Clockwork Mock Apple

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Marion Blakeslee's lab

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> Life's short and we're all dying anyway.
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> —Marion Blakeslee
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**A Clockwork Mock Apple** is a main quest activated upon completing the quest Mostly Harmless. It takes place at the Auxiliary Maintenance Bay on the Groundbreaker.

## Walkthrough

The party will be met by a Gardener Lookout (and former Rizzo employee). You can choose to attack the soldiers or talk their way through.

* Bribe him to let you through.
* Lie (100): convince him that Marion's your mother and you're here to meet her.
* Having completed Ellie's companion storyline and Persuade (45): convince him you're here regarding Marion's life insurance policy.
* Having Parvati in the party, having completed her companion storyline and Persuade (45): inform him that Parvati is Junlei's girlfriend.

If you convince him to let you pass, the initial portion of the maintenance bay (where all the Gardener's are) will be non-hostile. Once you enter Marion's residence, the machines will be hostile.

From the floor you enter Marion's residence, there will two combat drones patrolling a large corridor that can be destroyed or avoided. The doors to the left lead to another corridor with side-rooms. The doors to the right lead to independent side-rooms. The second door on the right contains a computer terminal that you can Hack (100) to initiate a Watering Cycle to disable the machines on the floor below.

There are two methods to descend:

1. The first room to the right of the large corridor (where the drones were patrollling) has a door that can be picked with a skill of 100. You can then drop down the hole in the floor.
2. At the end of the large corridor, there will be an elevator that you can take down.

Now on the floor below, there will be one way forward, through the garden and and office-space. Upon entering the office from the garden, there will be a door on the right which you can unbar (and return back to the floor above). Otherwise, Marion awaits up a ramp in her private laboratory. Before going up the ramp, there is a large locked bin (Lockpick 150) behind the whole structure.

Approaching Marion, she automatically engages you in conversation.

At one point, she addresses a member of your party:

* To Parvati: *"Your crew feel the same? Heck of a world out here for the shy types."*
* To Vicar Max: *"Ask your priest friend."*
* To Felix: *"How about you, kid, you've got "orphan" written all over that baby face of yours."*
* To Ellie: *"How about you, Byzantium?"*
* To Nyoka: *"At least the wildlife won't give you any trouble."*

And she asks why they would risk their lives to find her:

* Parvati: *"A family, or something near to it. We don't always get along or nothing, but what family does?"*
* Vicar Max: *"My reasons are my own. Suffice it to say that not all rewards are monetary."*
* Felix: *"First of all, I don't headbutt. I drop-kick. As for what I get out of it - I don't know. It's fun?"*
* Ellie: "*Money, obviously. Plus, it's fun!"*.
* Nyoka: *"I've been helping folks out of scrapes for as long as I can remember. And the Captain's one of the rare few that returns the favor."*

If you choose to fight Marion, she wields a powerful custom plasma rifle, Discharge that deals shock damage. Your party will also comment on events gone wrong.

* Parvati: *"Captain! What'd she ever do to you?!"*
* Vicar Max: *"Conversation didn't proceed to your liking, I take it?"*
* Ellie: *"Least you waited until after we got her key."*
* Felix: *"Colony's better off without her."*
* Nyoka: *"I don't know, Cap. This one had regrets, at least."*

Note that Marion cannot be pickpocketed. If you want her weapon, eliminating her will be the only option.

Towards the end of the conversation, she will hand over the HIA Passkey without hesitation. An additional access code to the office spaces can be obtained in one of two ways:

* Intimidate (65): threaten that you would inform the rest of the Groundbreaker about her presence
* Ignoring the above option, proceeding with the conversation, then Persuade (65): offer to alleviate her guilt by taking care of things on Gorgon

Leaving the conversation, Marion will helpfully mark you as friendlies to her automechanicals.

There's a small bin beside Marion in the cage that contains some Purpleberry Lunch. She has additional dialogue if you decide to take it (note that it is not marked as stealing).

* Marion Blakeslee: *"Sure, take it. I'm just drowning in dining options down here."*

Marion will also have additional dialogue options at this point which will provide additional pieces of lore.

## Behind the scenes

The name of the quest is a reference to the book and film, *A Clockwork Orange*.

## Additional Information

* Felix and several members of the Gardeners are familiar with each other. If he is in your party when you speak to the Gardener Lookout, he'll inform you the Gardener Lookout is named Jimmy and was fired by Rizzo for gross incompetance and rank odor. Other members of the Gardeners will also make reference to him when you interact with them (assuming they are not hostile).
* Matt Sprat, a sprat can be found in the bathroom on the western side of the Auxillary Maintenance Bay. He is the legal owner of the Sprat Shack on Gorgon.