Sci-Fi Dogs: Episode 5

### Character Appearances

This episode features the characters The Commander, Howel, ST. N1K, Taylor, Bernard and revolves around the D.O.G.S visiting the planet Australia.

#### Deployment

Our Commander instructs Leon to get some ice and tasks the rest of the squad to go to Australia to retrieve the illusive *Australium*. The Dogs are deployed onto the vast jungle planet. They drop to varying success, Howel and ST. N1K drop into bushes that narrowly cushion their lengthy fall and Taylor breaks through leaves in the canopy of the forest. Bernard attempts to use his metal claws to scale down the giant jungle trees that are described to be, *'Wider than houses',* Bernard's descent stops and his claws become jammed in the thick bark. There is a 100ft drop below him and he is reluctant to retract his claws and withstand the fall. Howel beckons Bernard to make the fall and ST. N1K ensures that he will be able to capture Bernard and break his fall. Bernard refuses so Howel draws his Douger and shoots at Bernard's metal hand unlodging his claws from the bark and sending him falling the rest of the way down the jungle tree. Bernard and Howel exchange heavy tension as Bernard is charged with a grumpy growl.

#### Jungle Floor Encounter

Whilst traversing the jungle floor the party is swept up by a net rope trap (excluding Howel). Howel is abruptly tackled by a figure wearing a mask. He pulls off her mask which stuns her, exposing her to the trickled light that makes its way through the canopy leaves. This reveals that she was a dirty worn human. After Howel takes off her mask, the woman gets thrown to the side and he throws a punch, which misses, as well as firing multiple aimless shots at her. She retaliates and punches Howel in the face likely breaking his nose dealing two damage. She skitters off into the brush climbing up a tree in the distance. Howel yells profanities and commands the others to break free of the net rope trap. Bernard proclaims that is what they're trying to do and struggles fruitlessly trying to cut them free from the rope with his spike hand. Bernard frees the rest of the gang and they meet Howel on the jungle floor. Taylor offers to tend to Howel's wounds however he turns him down, although Taylor is able to convince him to let him inject him with Taylor's 'Shield Serum'. The four continue to traverse the forest floor to when they all become overwhelmed by the humid climate. Bernard unbuttons his jumpsuit revealing a vest soon to be soaked by condensation and sweat. The panes of Howel's gasmask begin to steam with condensation as the heat rises and reluctantly he follows Bernard's instruction to take it off. Soon after, he removes his trenchcoat and tucks his gear into his backpack. As the crew are travelling ST. N1K analyses old log data from the previous Wolfenstein crew that had landed on Australia and develops his own regional accent inspired by the audio logs of the Wolfenstein data hoping to use it to fit in with the locals.

#### Grand Tree Village

The Dogs stumble across a mud/clay hut which appears to have been abandoned. As the Dogs investigate, the girl from earlier reappears. ST. N1K attempts to communicate with her using his accent. She says that he sounds like her brother but quickly recognises that ST. N1K is not him at all. She reveals that her name is Jessicunt which is translated by ST. N1K. Jessicunt takes the Dogs to the grand tree village. There is noticably a cave with iron bars at the front and on-top of the cave is a grand tree. Jessicunt effortlessly scales the tree and tells the Dogs to take the elevator. The Dogs perform feats of strength to haul themselves up the tree, all individually contributing their raw strength to the pully system on the primitive elevator. When the Dogs get to the top of the tree they meet the village Chief. The Chief looks like Patrick Bateman. Howel hits the Chief with the Patrick Bateman stare and the Chief obliges and returns it. The Dogs tell the Chief they are here to get Austrliaum. The Chief allows them however he says that they must do a task for Jessicunt (his daughter). The task is to feed Jessicunt's rabbit a large alien carrot (x3 the size of a regular human carrot). The Dogs take the task.

#### The Rabbit

The Dogs are taken to the cave underneath the grand tree. The iron bars are retracted and the Dogs are given entry to the cave. Jessicunt gives the Dogs three torches. Howel, Bernard, and Taylor hold the torches. Bernard throws his torch into the cave and the Dogs follow its light into the depths. After twists and turns the Dogs arrive at a large opening which appears to be the Rabbit's cave. The floor of the cave is littered with bone fragments of a multitude of different creatures, including that of the missing Wolfenstein soldiers. Bernard sees an old Wolfenstein helmet and he picks it up to inspect it further. Howel discourages him from taking the fallen soldier's uniform and Bernard scolds him about comradery before a skeletal head falls from the helmet and rolls to their feet. Bernard says that its what the soldier would've wanted and puts on the helmet, pulling a silly face at Howel and the other two Dogs. The Dogs proceed apprehensively, Taylor and Howel use their remaining torches to reveal a pedestal in the middle of the room where a white rabbit laid unblinking. As the Dogs are apprehensive about the origins of the animal remains in the room, Bernard uses his robotic arm to launch the carrot towards the white rabbit knocking it off of the pedestal and into the darkness that laid beyond it. The crew lay in silence as they await change in the environment. Nothing changes. Not a drip or sound comes from beyond the carrot in the darkness. Howel takes it upon himself to charge forwards towards the carrot to peer beyond to see if the rabbit was okay as by this point, he was hot and exhausted from their scuffles they had experienced thus far. He looks over the pedestal with his torch and where the rabbit must've fallen was a trail of fresh crimson red blood. Howel follows the trail with his eyes leading up the walls of the cave and finally, his torch illuminates the gigantic insectoid beast clinging to the ceiling and rapidly beginning to climb down to meet the Dogs. Howel yells in fear and pivots around proclaiming that they're done feeding the rabbit and have to get out of here. The Dogs agree and they begin running up to the narrow entrance of the clearing that they had entered from. Howel attempts to use cripple on the beast however due to the pain of his broken nose, he lacked concentration and ended up inflicting minor damage on himself. Bernard shoots at the beast with his shotgun missing entirely due to their haphazard attempt at escape. During their escape Howel again discourages Bernard for taking the Wolfenstein helmet and they have a minor back and forth about whether he should keep it. Howel snaps round and sends a shock of lightning into the insectoid beast however it runs along the plates of his carapace getting completely ignored. Howel huffs in defeat and glances at Bernard as Bernard pulls out the Old Lizzy. Bernard quickly charges up one shot of the Big Lizzy but again, similar to Howel, some of its properties are shown to be completely nulled by the creature's tough armoured carapace. Howel chucks Bernard his Old Lizzy to give him a second shot at doing some damage. Bernard attaches his Old Lizzy to his back sling and takes out his shotgun to procure some more pot-shots on the beast.

#### The Escape

The Dogs begin to make it to the end of the tunnel, they can see the bars of the cave's entrance and also Jessicunt standing at the reel to open the gates. It doesn't look like Jessicunt is going to open the gate and the Dogs grow weary of their survival. Finally, their backs are up against the gate and ST. N1K charges his chest laser for their last stand against the beast, knowing that their death would almost be certain if they couldn't free themselves of its presence. As ST. N1K's chest laser is about to fire, the beast drops the carrot from its mouth with a comedically cartoonish bite mark. Jessicunt laughs and the beast stops its pursuit of the Dogs. She begins to open the iron gate releasing the Dogs from the cave. The beast follows the Dogs out of the cave and Jessicunt pets it affectionately. She is amused by the Dogs' feats and how they managed to feed the rabbit and finally tells them to follow her to retrieve the Australium. The rabbit follows Jessicunt and scores the base of the tree to which golden sap pours from the score mark filling a bucket. The Dogs chime in to the Commander and ask him how much he needed. The Commander amusedly says that a bucket is more than enough and divulges that it is a delicious delicacy drink. ST. N1K fruitlessly flirts with Jessicunt attempting to get laid however Howel quickly unamusedly disengages the horny robot and drags him away before he can cause any damage to their reputation with the grand tree village. The Dogs take the bucket and make their way back to the rendezvous point to be picked up by the Commander.

As the crew make their traversal to the rendezvous point, Taylor deploys a flare to make the Commander aware of their location and Howel lags behind the group a bit. Howel feels a hand touch his shoulder and he snaps round to look at the contact point. There is a sticky note with coordinates and he sees behind him, Jessicunt, who invites him to come see her again. Howel takes the note and refrains from expressing his confusion as he and Jessicunt part ways.

#### Back to the Ship

The New New Elizabeth's exterior hull appears to be completely new to the point of unrecognition. The crew expresses their confusion as the Commander enlightens them that their ship was damaged by a band of Space Pirates. He then tells the Dogs that he has upgraded the ship adding new rooms, however, the ship is now partially under construction as he adds further upgrades. He increases the sizes of the pre-existing rooms however some rooms have no corridor access and you must enter through the vents.

The Dogs briefly discuss their points of origin after Bernard asks the group. Howel and Bernard briefly discuss the former's time in a psychic institute, where Bernard brushes it off as 'cushy'. When the group turn to Taylor and he gives a vague answer about wanting to join the military from a young age, ST-N1K blurts out that he was motivated by the death of his older brother, who was also a soldier- information that Taylor had privately divulged to him at the beginning of Episode 4. Howel quickly shuts down N1K, telling him that it "isn't his story to tell". Taylor sits awkwardly and the meeting disbands shortly after.

Bernard goes to his newly upgraded workshop and accesses his data reader. The data from the USB stick was now able to be analysed and he sees that the data was a chat bot. The chat bot seems to portray the identity of a maid and refuses to answer to Bernard as he is not its master.